Page 83 of Second Start: Family
“And this is Hall Quick,” Kenzie said. “What I’m going to tell you affects him perhaps most of all.”
Bodie regarded the other man with a steady examination that Hall returned in kind.
Slowly, Bodie said, “I don’t know how you figure into this, but my sister—”
Hall cut him off. “Is a grown woman. Who can take care of herself. Who does take care of herself. And others.”
“Which is why I’ll be at the courthouse tomorrow to answer any questions Naomi’s lawyer has.”
“No,” Hall and Bodie said together.
With false cheer, but a genuine smile lurking, Vicky said, “Let’s all sit down. Unless anyone wants a coffee and some cookies first.”
*
“Where you goin’, Dan?” It sounded like a recording of when Bobby asked their father.
“I’m just going.”
He didn’t need to read his mother’s letters and diaries to know he was right. About her. About his father.
“I wanna come,” Bobby said.
“No. I’m going alone. Go bother Molly and Liz.”
“But Dad said you—” started Lizzie.
“I don’t give a— Go away.”
He swung up on Buster and rode.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
With practiced conciseness, Eric Larkin spared her needing to give Bodie, his wife, and Cully the background of the potential scholarship for Dan, Naomi’s legal maneuver, and what happened at the courthouse yesterday.
All that left was for her to tell the rest of it…
“The boy who made the accusation — Bret — was jealous. Jealous and disturbed … His father and I … We’d been dating since shortly after Bret left my classroom. Adam asked me to marry him.”
“We might not bring that part up,” Eric murmured. “No sense giving the other side ideas. So, the father backed you and told the authorities—”
“No, he didn’t. He said for the sake of the investigation, we should have no communication. The investigators kept hammering that since my fiancé wasn’t sure, how should anyone believe me.”
Hall swore under his breath.
“He said he had his career to think of. His position in the community. Eventually he also said he had his son to think of.” She shook her head once. “It was how his son had controlled him all along. Bret was — is — emotionally disturbed. He’s also very intelligent. And he knows his father.” She made a sound. “Far better than I did.”
“Somebody I would have heard of?” Bodie asked harshly.
“Probably not. He’s a semi-public figure — the Washington area has a lot of those. Not the sort of people you’d hear about on the national news, not even the local news, but people whose names are known by the people you do hear about on the news.”
“Then why’d he worry?” Bodie asked.
“There’s a sense of potential contagion. Those people in the news don’t want to risk their dry cleaner or the guy who walks their dog being involved in scandal. They’re even edgier about the professionals who handle their legal or financial affairs. Adam handled the investments of lobbyists as well as career government people. He could have lost a lot of business.”
“So, he lost you instead.”
“I suppose you could say that.”
