“He was…helpful.” It seemed she was about to add something, but changed her mind. He’d question her later about her impression of Samuels; he had more important matters to discuss first.
“Was there anyone else your father asked you to contact?”
“No one. My father was a private person. I don’t think he would’ve gone to Colonel Samuels if there’d been any other way.”
“Did your father ever explain why he felt Colonel Samuels owed him?”
“No. He never said.”
Roy made another note.
“Did you ever personally meet Samuels?” Roy asked.
“No, but I spoke to him by telephone a number of times. He was able to get my father into the local veterans’ hospital. The sad part is that it was all for nothing…” She let the rest fade.
Roy was afraid she was about to dissolve into tears, but she managed to keep her composure.
“The thing is…”
“Yes,” Roy encouraged when she paused.
“I don’t think Colonel Samuels helped willingly. I probably shouldn’t even be saying this, but whenever Dad talked to the colonel, he was upset afterward. I remember once the nurse had to give him a sedative. I was just grateful Dad would receive the necessary medical treatment.”
This was interesting. Perhaps Samuels wasn’t everything Roy had been led to believe. Sheriff Davis felt that Samuels wasn’t involved in the murder, and Roy had confidence in his instincts, but things weren’t adding up the way they should.
“Anything else you can remember about Samuels and your father?” he asked.
“Not really…They only spoke a few times, which was probably for the best, seeing the effect he had on my father. I think-no, wait.” She stopped abruptly. “I do remember something. It was several months after Dad was released from the hospital. Colonel Samuels phoned the house late one afternoon. Dad took the call and immediately lowered his voice. I realized he didn’t want me listening in, so I made an excuse to leave the room.” She seemed to be reviewing her memories. “I went into the kitchen, but I could still hear part of the conversation.”
“What do you remember?”
“I found it all rather odd. I don’t know if this is any help, but as I remember it, Dad said to Colonel Samuels that he’d never told anyone. I’m not sure what he never told, but my father was very firm about this secret being safe with him.” She finished in a rush. “I’m just wondering if I heard him correctly,” she murmured. “I tried to forget it because it wasn’t for my ears, if you know what I mean.”
“I do.” And Roy also had a very good idea what Russell had been talking about. Apparently he hadn’t discussed the incident in Vietnam with his daughter. It wasn’t Roy’s job to enlighten her about her father’s past.
“Describe the last time you saw your father.”
“Alive, you mean?” Her voice rocked with emotion. “This is all so strange. Dad and I talked every day, and I was sure he’d tell me about any trips. He didn’t go out a lot after the accident, and when he did he always wore a hat. He said he didn’t want people staring at him, but really, it wasn’t necessary. The surgery was extremely successful. Anyway, for Dad just to leave and not mention his plans was unusual.
“I happened to stop by the house to check on him and was surprised to see he had a suitcase packed. I asked him where he was going, but all he said was that he’d made arrangements to be away for a few days. I asked again, but…”
“He still wouldn’t tell you?”
“No. Anytime I had a question he didn’t want to answer, he pretended not to hear me.”
“Can you remember what he took with him?”
“I…I didn’t see him drive off, so I don’t. He had the one suitcase. That much I know. And his coat and hat, of course. Like I said, he was self-conscious about his scars.”
“I’m sure he must have been,” Roy concurred, although as she’d said, the plastic surgeon had done a masterful job. At first glance, one would hardly have known that Russell had undergone extensive surgery.
“That’s about it.”
Roy jotted down a few more notes.
“Is there anything else?” she asked.
He did have other questions, but Roy wanted to mull over what he’d learned. “Not now. Would it be all right if I called you again sometime?”
“Of course.” There was a silence. “I find it hard to accept that anyone would want my father dead. Even now, it’s difficult to believe he isn’t here.”
“I’m sorry, Hannah, for your loss,” he said, meaning it. “Thank you for your help.”
“If you need any further information, please call.”
“I will.”
The conversation over, Roy hung up the phone and tilted back in his chair, closing his eyes.
Something was still missing here.
Chapter Fifteen
“I swear this class is going to kill me one day,” Grace muttered breathlessly as Olivia led the way into the dressing room. Grace used the towel draped around her neck to wipe the sweat off her face. “I’m thinking,” she continued, slumping down on the locker-room bench, “that we could just meet for dinner on Wednesday nights and give up this whole aerobics nightmare.”
“Come on, Grace, you love our class.”
“Wrong, I love to have finished our aerobics class. It’s the jumping up and down part that’s a drag.”
Olivia laughed out loud. It’d been the same whiny song for the last four years. Grace complained constantly about the class but Olivia was convinced that her friend actually enjoyed it. Grace just didn’t know she enjoyed it. However, she was the first to arrive each week and while she might moan through the entire routine, she always admitted she felt better afterward. Not immediately, but as soon as she managed to catch her breath.
“What’s that goofy grin about?” Grace’s narrowed eyes focused suspiciously on Olivia.
“You.” Hands on her hips, Olivia laughed again. “You crack me up.”
“I’m glad you find me so amusing.” Groaning, she raised her bent knee to the bench and untied her tennis shoe. “You’ll be sorry one day when I’m taken away in an Aid Car.”
Olivia rolled her eyes. “Would it make you feel better if I bought you a piece of coconut cream pie?”
Grace looked up. “It might. Any reason in particular?”
Olivia nodded. “I want to ask you something.”
“Sure.” Grace nodded as she untied the second shoe and kicked it off.
Her immediate willingness to listen and to help if she could was what made Grace such a good friend. There wasn’t a single thing Olivia couldn’t share with her. That was the reason this conversation would be so difficult and painful. She was afraid her oldest and dearest friend hadn’t been completely honest with her-and she was afraid she knew why.
A half hour later, they sat in the Pancake Palace with large slices of coconut cream pie and coffee.
“I hope you realize this defeats the entire purpose of going to aerobics class.” Grace lifted the fork to her mouth and savored the first bite.
“In certain circumstances, only pie will do,” Olivia said.
“Is this one of those times?”
Olivia didn’t answer her. Instead, she launched the topic that had been on her mind all week. “I got a phone call from Will a little while ago.” She studied Grace, hoping to read her reaction to Will’s name.
Sure enough, Grace instantly dropped her gaze. So it was Will she’d been involved with earlier in the year. A flash of anger, first at Will and then Grace, nearly made her lose her train of thought. Olivia squelched the urge to shake them both.
“Don’t you want to know what he wanted?” she asked, trying hard to disguise her feelings.
“Sure.”
Olivia sighed. “He wants me to have Ben Rhodes investigated.”
Shocked, Grace raised her eyes. “Ben? Whatever for?”
“He thinks Ben’s planning to swindle our mother out o
f her life savings.”
Grace’s frown revealed her disapproval. “Are you going to do it?”
Olivia hated to admit she’d caved in, but she couldn’t see any way around it. “I am. I spoke to Roy earlier in the week, although I think it’s a waste of good money.”
“Olivia!” Grace seemed horrified, which only made Olivia feel worse. “I can’t believe you actually did that.”
She regretted it now, but she’d told Will she’d hire someone to look into Ben’s background and so she had. “My brother made a good case. Ben doesn’t have any family in the area and we really don’t know much about him.” It sounded ridiculous when she said it out loud. “Will convinced me we should do this. He can be persuasive when he wants to be.” Again she watched Grace, studying her reaction.
All Grace did was shake her head as if she couldn’t believe Olivia would agree to anything so foolish. In retrospect Olivia agreed with her. She wished she’d sat on it a day or two before calling Roy, but it was too late.
“If Mom ever hears about this, she’ll be outraged,” Olivia said.
“Yes, she will,” Grace muttered.
“I told Will how much I like and trust Ben. I can’t imagine him doing anything underhanded.”
Grace lowered her eyes and sliced energetically into her pie with the side of her fork. Olivia had the impression that her friend was concentrating on the pie in an effort to conceal her reluctance to discuss Will.
Olivia looked at her carefully. “Seems to me you haven’t asked about Will in a long time,” she said in a deceptively casual voice. “Any reason?”
“Not really.” Grace’s response was devoid of emotion.
“He certainly had questions about you.”
Grace reached for her coffee, still avoiding eye contact.
“Aren’t you curious about what they were?”
“Not really.”
Olivia was tired of waiting for Grace to admit the truth. “It was my brother, wasn’t it?” She was unable to keep the anger out of her voice. She was furious with Will and sick at heart that he’d taken advantage of her best friend-not that Grace was completely innocent in any of this.
Grace didn’t answer.
“The least you can do is be honest about it, Grace. You were emotionally involved with my brother.”
Tears filled Grace’s eyes and she slowly nodded.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Olivia asked. Yet she realized that much of the hurt she felt was due to the fact that Grace hadn’t confided in her. “We’ve always shared everything.”
“I couldn’t tell you. I should have in the beginning, but I didn’t. I don’t know why-no, that’s not true. I do know. You would’ve disapproved and rightly so.”
“How did it get started?” Will had visited Cedar Cove when their mother had cancer surgery, but to the best of Olivia’s knowledge, Grace and her brother had barely spoken.
“It was all so innocent in the beginning.” Grace stared down at the table and her voice fell to a whisper. “He wrote me after Dan’s body was discovered to tell me how sorry he was. It was a lovely letter and at the bottom he put his e-mail address. I e-mailed him back to thank him. Then he e-mailed me back, and before I knew it, we were sending each other messages every day.”
“My brother is married.”
“Yes, I know that.”
Clearly, Grace had entered into this relationship with her eyes open. Olivia was well aware that Internet “relationships” were becoming increasingly common, but she was so disappointed that someone she considered sensible and honorable would get caught up in this kind of mess. She felt the same way about Will. He was her brother and she’d always assumed he was a faithful husband, but apparently that had been a false assumption. Well, he’d hear about this.
“We managed to keep our feelings for each other under control until I spent Thanksgiving with Cliff and his daughter. I couldn’t contact Will and he couldn’t reach me.”
“Will knew you were with Cliff?”
“Oh, yes. And when I returned from the East Coast, everything changed. He said he’d missed me and I’d certainly missed talking to him. Once I admitted that, Will started phoning me and before long he’d…declared his love.” She swallowed, and fresh tears glistened in her eyes. “He kept telling me his marriage was miserable and he was getting out.”
“You believed it because that was what you wanted to hear.”
Grace nodded, then inhaled sharply. “Will suggested we meet in New Orleans. He sent me the plane ticket and booked us a hotel room. I nearly did it.” She cupped her hand over her mouth as if to hold back a sob. “I nearly slept with a married man.”
Not since Dan’s disappearance had Olivia seen her friend this broken. “What happened?” she asked in a coaxing whisper.
“One night after aerobics, you casually mentioned that Will and his wife had booked a cruise. I refused to believe it. Will told me he and Georgia had split up and that he’d filed for divorce.”
This was even worse than Olivia had guessed, but she bit her tongue to keep from saying so. “Don’t you think I would’ve told you that Will was getting a divorce?”
“Yes-no, I wasn’t thinking. I was sure you didn’t want anyone to know.”
“I’d tell you.” This was a subtle reminder that Olivia held nothing back and that she’d been hurt by Grace’s silence-by her lie of omission.
“Afterward, I was so embarrassed…I wanted to tell you, but I couldn’t do it. The worst of it is that I lied to Cliff. He knew right away. He asked me if there was someone else and I told him no and feigned anger that he’d even think such a thing.”
“How did he figure it out?” Grace had lied to both of them, and Olivia wondered how Cliff had been able to see through it and she hadn’t.
Grace kept her eyes trained on the tabletop. “His ex-wife had cheated on him for years. He realized what was happening…I finally admitted I’d met someone on the Internet. I said it had been innocent-to that point-but he wouldn’t believe me. Cliff said he refused to be involved with a woman he couldn’t trust. That’s why he won’t have anything to do with me now-and the truth of it is, I don’t blame him.”
“How did you find out Will and Georgia were still together?”
“I called the house. She answered the phone.”
That must have been a shocking revelation but Olivia didn’t comment. The injured party in all of this was her sister-in-law.
Grace tried to smile. The effort was futile. “I told Will I never wanted to hear from him again and blocked his e-mail address from my computer. He tried to contact me a number of times, but I immediately deleted any and all messages. I want nothing more to do with him.”
Grace had paid a high price for her indiscretion. “I’m sorry it was my brother who did this.”
“I am, too.” Her voice was strangled and filled with selfincrimination. “But I blame myself. Even when we were in high school, I had the biggest crush on Will. Then, when he actually claimed to love me, it was like a fantasy coming true-and I let it happen. If anyone had told me I’d willingly begin a relationship with a married man, I would’ve denied it. And yet that’s exactly what I did.”
“It could have been worse.”
“Much worse,” Grace said. “If you hadn’t mentioned Georgia when you did, I would’ve met Will in New Orleans. I would’ve slept with him, too, despite everything I believe. I was head over heels in love with him. Thank God I learned the truth when I did.”
“Does Cliff know everything?”
“Not who I was involved with, just that I was.”
“You went to him, apologized?”
She nodded. “Twice. But I committed the one sin he can’t forgive. It’s over.”
Olivia wasn’t so sure. “He could change his mind, you know. Be patient. Give him time.”
“I don’t think time’s going to make any difference,” Grace confessed with heartfelt regret. “If I needed proof of that, I got it a couple of wee
ks ago.”
“How do you mean?”
“I ran into Cliff at The Lighthouse. We talked for a few minutes and then the hostess came to seat us, assuming we were together. He made it abundantly clear that he’d rather dine alone than share a meal with me. I got the message. If he ever felt anything for me, it’s dead.” Tears trailed down her cheeks as she struggled with her composure.
Olivia reached across the table to clasp her friend’s hand. She had some thinking to do-and the person to discuss her thoughts with was her husband.
Later that same night, dressed in her pajamas, Olivia sat on the queen-size bed, arms folded around her knees as she relayed the story to Jack.
“I can’t get over the fact that all along it was my own brother.” It was still a shock.
Jack frowned as if he, too, had trouble believing what she’d told him. “How’s Grace doing?”
“She’s brokenhearted. Cliff doesn’t want to see her anymore.”
Jack tossed his jacket onto the chair beside the bed.
Olivia pointed at it, silently reminding him to hang it in the closet. For a moment, Jack glanced at the jacket and then at her. Sighing, he grabbed it and found a hanger.
“What do you think?” he asked, turning from the closet.
“About Cliff?” She had to consider that for a moment. “I don’t know, but I’m sure he sincerely loved Grace at one time. He doesn’t seem like the kind of man who voluntarily turns his feelings on and off.”
“Then there’s hope.”
Jack sat down on the bed as he pulled off his shoes. With a proud grin, he lined them up neatly. Shoes were actually supposed to go in the downstairs hall closet, but Olivia didn’t comment. “Remember that Grace played a big role in getting the two of us back together,” he said.
“I know.”
Jack slid his arms around her and tugged her closer to the edge of the bed. “Do you also remember how we met up the same day at the same movie? Accidentally on purpose?”
“Oh, yeah, that.” She laughed at the memory. Their problem, in Grace’s opinion, was that they were both too stubborn for their own good.
“I think we owe Grace Sherman a favor.”