He heard the urgency in her voice and looked intently at her face. She looked as though everything was just fine, but he knew it was a façade. Her eyes proved just how anxious she was to be gone from there. He locked eyes with her and inclined his head in a way that was scarcely visible to anyone but her in an effort to show her that he understood. Max smiled to the group and said, “Well, it was nice to see all of you again.”
“Leaving so soon?” Dr. Archibald questioned.
“Unfortunately yes,” he responded.
Blake stood up and gave Irene another hug as he said, “It was so good to see you, Irene. Promise me that Max will bring you around the house sometime soon.”
She felt reassured by Blake’s presence and smiled sincerely. “I promise.”
Max took Irene by the elbow, and the two of them tried to walk casually from the room. Neither of them spoke until they were inside Max’s car and had pulled out of the ornate, wrought iron gates of the country club. It was then that Max turned to Irene. “What happened?”
“Which part?” she countered.
“Let’s just start at the beginning.”
“I don’t know if I should start with Dr. Archibald who acted like he’d never heard of my dad before or if we should begin by talking about a woman by the name of Mallory Grant. Ms. Grant claims that she and my dad were involved when he met my mother.”
“He was what?” Max questioned aghast. “How did you find out something like that?”
“I found it out from the source!” she exclaimed.
“All right, let’s just stay calm. Let me see if I’ve got this straight. You found out today from some woman . . .”
“Mallory Grant,” Irene interjected.
“You found out from Mallory Grant that she was involved with your father when he met your mom?” Irene nodded and Max continued, “What’s the big deal? Once he met your mother, he decided not to be involved with her anymore. That sort of thing happens all the time, so what?”
“You’re right. It wouldn’t be a big deal except for the part where Ms. Grant told me that my father and she had stayed ‘extremely close’ ever since. When I seemed surprised by this, she started acting strange. She must have been bothered by something because she ended up contradicting herself. She went on to tell me that after my dad met my mom, she and my father weren’t in contact much.”
Max said nothing for a moment. He just stared straight ahead, deep in thought. After a few seconds, he glanced over at her and said, “That does kind of change things doesn’t it? Why would she say one thing and then turn around and say the exact opposite?” He shook his head. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“I thought it seemed strange, but everybody seemed weird around me except for your Uncle Blake. I’m sure you didn’t know this, but after my mom died, my dad went to therapy for a little while.”
“You’re right – I didn’t know.”
“He went to a psychologist by the name of Dr. Steven Archibald.”
Max couldn’t hide his shock at the startling revelation. He looked stunned, and when he spoke, she could hear the astonishment in his voice. “Are you serious?”
“Yes, you would have never guessed would you? When Blake mentioned my parents, Dr. Archibald acted like he had never heard of them, except for what everyone else has heard about them. Do you really think he believes that I wouldn’t know about my father going to him for help?”
“He may not be certain how much you know. Besides, it really wasn’t an appropriate time to bring up how he used to be your dad’s psychologist.” Max continued, “However, it does seem kind of strange that he acted like he’d never met your father before.” He ran his hand through his hair. “We can’t be sure yet what any of this means, but it’s definitely a good place for us to start looking. Let’s try to find out all that we can about your dad’s involvement with Dr. Archibald and Ms. Grant and see if anything happens to turn up.”
“All right.” Irene leaned back in the passenger seat and let out a sigh. “What a day.”
“I’m sorry it was difficult for you. I can’t believe I didn’t have a clue that any of this was going on.”
“There was no way you could have known, Max.”
At that moment, his cell phone rang. “It’s Luke.” Max answered the phone. “Hey, Luke, I’m going to put you on speaker so that the three of us can talk.”
“What’s up guys?” Luke questioned. “Did anything interesting happen today?”
“Definitely,” Max said.
“What?” Luke asked eagerly.
“We ran into Tweed and her parents,” he responded with a grin.
“You’re kidding me! Oh man, I can’t believe I missed it,” Luke exclaimed, his voice a mixture of disappointment and acute amusement. “You guys should have let me come with you. I’ll bet Tweed was speechless.”
“Once she recognized Irene, she certainly was,” Max replied. “Actually, all of them were.”
“It’s about time something got her to shut up,” Luke declared. “You know, I would have paid good money, and plenty of it, to see dear, little Tweedy no longer chirping.”
Chapter 41
“No, I won’t listen to one more word,” Irene shouted as she placed her hands over her ears to drown out the noise. “It’s not true. Do you hear me – it’s not true!”
“Just admit it, Irene. You wouldn’t be bothered if you actually thought that I wasn’t right, but you know that I am,” Mallory Grant replied as she inched nearer.
“Please stop!” Irene pleaded as she put her hands out in an attempt to prevent her from coming any closer. Soon Irene had backed herself into a corner, and she felt as if the room was closing in around her.
“Your father loved me. Do you hear me? Even though he married your mother, it was me who he was in love with – who he’s always been in love with!” Ms. Grant looked at Irene haughtily – seeming to relish her torment.
“Please,” Irene implored, “stop telling lies about my parents. Can’t you see that it’s upsetting me?”
“They’re not lies. If they were, do you really think that you’d be having so many doubts?”
“I’m not!” Irene responded. She couldn’t take it anymore. She started to sob. She couldn’t put up any more of a fight. She slid down the wall until she sank to the floor and covered her face with her hands.
Ms. Grant stood triumphantly over her. “You know I’m right. You’ll realize that if you only think about it. After all, how well did you really know your father?”
Ms. Grant’s questioned echoed again and again in her mind. “Stop!” Irene cried. “I know my father.” At the skeptical look on Ms. Grant’s face, Irene repeated herself more forcefully, “I know him!” Why didn’t Ms. Grant believe her? Irene knew the truth – didn’t she?
Just then, Irene shot up out of bed. She was breathless, her heart was pounding frantically, and she was shaking. She let out a deep breath and collapsed back onto her pillows. It took her a few moments to realize that her disturbing conversation with Ms. Grant had only taken place in her mind.
Chapter 42
“Irene,” Max called as he let himself into her home, “you here?” He had come straight from The Post that day, where lately he’d been working even harder than usual. For the past several weeks, Max had tried to keep the news about Duncan’s murder in the paper. He hoped that by doing so it might help the police generate some new leads. So far, he’d been unlucky. Nothing new had turned up, and as a result, it was increasingly difficult with each passing day to prevent the story from becoming old news. It was early evening when Max finally arrived at Irene’s. He took off his sport coat, hung it on the coat rack, and then rolled up his shirt sleeves. “Irene?” he called again.
Max heard Irene’s voice call down to him from somewhere upstairs. “I’m in the study.”
He went upstairs to the study but stopped in the doorway when he found Ire
ne seated on the ground surrounded by stacks of paper. He wondered why she was going through them again. The two of them had gone over each stack several times in the last few days, ever since they’d seen Dr. Archibald and Mallory Grant at the country club, but so far, they hadn’t been able to find anything incriminating about either of them. Max folded his arms and leaned against the door frame. His face was puzzled. “What are you doing, Irene?”
She looked up when she heard his voice. “I just can’t believe that we can’t find anything. There’s got to be something somewhere.” Max noticed that Irene looked frazzled and restless all at the same time. She didn’t wait for any sort of response from him before she continued, “How could we have missed it? It feels like we’ve been through this stuff a million times!”
He could tell that her nerves were on edge. He thought she looked exhausted – beautiful, but exhausted. “You’re right. We haven’t found anything yet, but things like this take time. You don’t need to be worried. I mean, after all, we were at the country club only a few days ago.”
“It won’t make a difference how long we look. We’re still not going to find anything.” Irene stood up and walked over to the window. She braced her hand on the windowpane and looked out into the twilight and said achingly, “We’re wasting our time, Max.”
He walked silently across the room until he stood a few steps behind her. He knew that all the anxiety and stress were finally beginning to wear on her. He lifted his hand to touch her hair and then hesitated. He wanted to touch her, to comfort her, but he didn’t know how she’d respond. It was when he saw her brush her hand over her cheek to wipe away her tears that he knew he couldn’t stand the distance between them anymore. He reached up and gently stroked her beautiful hair. When Irene’s sobs became more intense, he took her by the shoulders and turned her around to face him. He wrapped his arms securely around her slender frame and rested his head on the top of hers. She didn’t resist his embrace, as Max feared she might, but instead clung to him for support as she cried. He realized that she had kept her emotions carefully in check since returning home but that all of the pressure had finally caught up with her.
After some time, Irene’s crying started to cease, and when she spoke, she tried to sound composed, even though she was anything but. “I’m sorry about my little meltdown,” she said apologetically. “I guess I’m just tired.”
Max loosened his hold on her just enough so that he could look at her face. “You don’t need to apologize. I’m just worried about you. You’re worn out.” He looked at her inquisitively as he said, “You don’t look so good.”
She broke into a half smile as she replied teasingly, “Oh, don’t I?”
He smiled down at her. “You know that’s not what I meant.” They laughed for a moment but became serious once again when he said, “Tell me what’s the matter.” When Irene looked at him as though he were mistaken, he continued quickly, “Don’t bother trying to convince me that nothing’s wrong. It’s obvious something is.”
She took a breath. “It’s really no big deal. I just haven’t been sleeping well.”
“Why not?” Max questioned – his concern apparent.
“It’s the house. It just doesn’t feel the same anymore. I feel like a stranger here – it’s so quiet.” He nodded his understanding. “There’s no one here anymore.”
“That’s not true. Your parents may be gone, Irene, but you’re not. You’re still here. This is your home, and it’s where you belong. Regardless of whether we figure things out or not, I know that your mom and dad would want you to be happy. They’d want you to move on.”
She bit her lower lip as the tears started to fall down her cheeks again. “I don’t know if I can until I know the truth about everything.”
He responded with assurance. “Then we’ll figure it out together. We won’t stop digging until we’ve found what we’re looking for.” Max took her face gently between his hands and wiped away her tears. “I want you to be happy again, Irene, and I won’t be satisfied until you are.”
Chapter 43
“Oh, for the love,” Luke said in exasperation as Tweed walked through the door to his office, not bothering to shut it behind her. He rolled his eyes and let out a deep sigh. “What are you doing here? Why do you always have to visit me at work?”
“It’s nice to see you too,” Tweed responded mockingly. Luke looked up and found a sour, unnatural smile stamped across her face. He could tell that she was here to find out something from him, and as a result, was trying her best to hide her displeasure with him, even though she couldn’t stand him.
His mouth spread into a slow grin. “If you’ll recall, Tweedy, I never said it was nice to see you. I asked you what you were doing here. Don’t you have somewhere else that you need to be?”
She looked down at him and responded smugly, “Is there anywhere that’s ever important enough for me to go rushing off to?”
“Oh, I don’t know.” Luke paused and tried to look as though he were seriously considering some of the possible places that she must surely need to go, if for nothing else but to grace everyone with her presence. “It seems like you’d need to go get your hair done, or go shopping, or . . . maybe visit your plastic surgeon again.” Tweed felt like she was going to explode because of his last suggestion, despite the fact that it was the truth. His smile broadened belying his innocent tone, “Those are just a few ideas, but it’s all I can come up with on the spur of the moment.”
Tweed was seething, but she managed to keep her voice sulky with the hope of manipulating him in order to find out what she so desperately wanted to know. “You know something Luke, sometimes I think that you enjoy being cruel to me!”
“I’ve never denied it.”
“Oh, just shut up. I don’t care if you like me or not because – let me assure you – the feeling’s mutual! All I came here for today is to find out what’s going on with Max.”
“What do you mean?”
“Don’t play games with me Luke. I saw Max and Irene together at the country club a few days ago, and I want to know what’s going on between them. Just tell me whether or not Max is in a relationship with her.”
“Pretty sure the answer’s yes. If you’ll recall Tweed, haven’t Max and Irene always had a ‘relationship’?”
“Stop deliberately trying to misinterpret every word that I say!” she shouted, no longer even trying to pretend to be patient with the situation. “You know perfectly well what I mean. I want to know if Max and Irene are involved romantically.”
“How should I know?”
“You’re his best friend. Do you honestly expect me to believe that you don’t know if they’re dating?”
“I don’t really care what you believe,” Luke countered. “I truthfully don’t know if they are involved romantically or not. It never occurred to me to ask, probably because it’s none of my business – and may I add – it’s none of yours either.” He paused and then grinned mischievously as he said, “But if I were Max, I sure would be pressing for one. She’s the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever seen.”
Tweed’s face started to turn red with rage. “You’re absolutely no help at all!”
He shrugged his shoulders. “Guilty.” With that, she stormed out of his office – too irate to care that several of Luke’s colleagues had gathered around his open door to listen in on their lively conversation.
Chapter 44
Sarah Jane was in the ladies room at the courthouse when she heard the high heels of another woman echoing off the tiled floor as she entered the restroom. The woman was on her cell phone and appeared to be deeply engrossed in conversation. She was too preoccupied to be aware of Sarah Jane’s presence. Sarah Jane was thinking to herself how obnoxious it was for this woman to be on her cell phone in a public restroom when suddenly the woman’s words caught her off guard. “Well, I’m sorry if you’re upset t
hat I showed up here, but it just so happens that I’m a little upset too.”
Sarah Jane listened quietly to the one side of the ambiguous conversation that she could hear. The woman’s tone became high and whining as she continued, “I had to come. I really needed to talk to Luke.” Her voice changed from a high-pitched whine to an aggravated whisper. “What’s your problem, Bryson? It’s no big deal.”
Sarah Jane held her breath when she heard the names Luke and Bryson. Who was this woman she wondered, and how did she know Luke and Bryson? Sarah Jane was almost certain that it had to be the same Bryson – Bryson Walker. After all, how many Bryson’s would be angry because this woman showed up here at the courthouse today?
The woman was silent for a moment but then launched into a stinging lecture. “You listen to me. I’ll go wherever I want, whenever I want. Do you understand?”
From the sound of things, Sarah Jane thought that the strange woman seemed like the type who was used to getting her way. The woman was silent for sometime but then let out a little sigh. She laughed naughtily, and her voice now sounded seductive. “That’s what I thought you’d say. I don’t know if I’ll see you tonight. I’ll have to think about it.”
Sarah Jane decided it was less likely to seem as though she’d been eavesdropping if she exited the bathroom stall while the woman was still in the middle of her conversation. With that reasoning, she flushed the toilet, exited the bathroom stall, and walked over to the sink to wash her hands while the woman was still on the phone. Sarah Jane found that the woman’s appearance was exactly as she had pictured just from the sound of her voice. She was a tall, blonde woman who was dressed to kill. Sarah Jane quickly came to the conclusion that she would fit just about anyone’s definition of high maintenance.
The woman looked over nervously at Sarah Jane – realizing too late that her private conversation hadn’t been so private after all – and quickly hung up the phone. Sarah Jane could tell from her anxious response that she hadn’t been aware that anyone else was in the restroom. She knew it was critical at this point to act as though she didn’t care who the woman was and like she hadn’t been paying any attention to her. Sarah Jane smiled politely in response to the staring woman and said, “Hi, how are you?”