Family Skeletons (17 page)

“Accidental?” The word, and her mother’s voice, had
a hopeful edge to it.

But there was still no subtle way to put it. “No.
Blunt instrument. Hard enough to kill.”

Without looking at Jonathan, Sunny was aware of the
pointed look he gave her. But she’d already decided her mother should be told
the truth. All of it. “And there’s more. When we were cleaning out the attic,
we found a bloody bat—”

At the look on her mother’s face, she stopped. “No,
Mom, no. It wasn’t his blood type, and neither were his fingerprints on it. But
so far that’s all anyone knows about the bat.”

Roberta gave her a quick nod. “Okay. Go on.”

“One day when Jonathan and I were on the beach,
we—I, I mean—I was hit by a stray bullet. It creased my forehead.”

“Well.” Roberta’s eyes didn’t stray. “Really. Okay.
Anything else?”

“Yes. I didn’t fall off the cliff. I was pushed.”

Roberta held her gaze for a long moment. Then she
looked at the arrangement of artificial roses on the stand near the front door.
Her throat worked as she swallowed. “It’s times like this that make me wish I
hadn’t quit smoking.” Then her eyes, again calm and steady, returned to her
daughter. “But there’s yet more, I can tell.”

Sunny drew in a breath, blew it out. “Apparently,
Franklin, was, uh...”

“A womanizer?”

“You knew?”

“Oh, yes. I knew. That was how he and I met. He and
Bev Wilkes, who was Bev Hayes at the time, were going together. And probably
would’ve been married if he hadn’t cheated on her with me.”

Then she looked away from what she saw on her
daughter’s face. “I’m sorry, Sunny. I’m not proud of that and I wish I didn’t
have to tell you. But it appears you’ll hear it eventually, and I prefer you
hear it from me.”

That’s exactly what Mavis said.

Roberta studied her glass of juice. “Your father was
very charming, very glib, and he zeroed in on a person’s vulnerabilities,
weaknesses, wants, with...with such precision it was almost uncanny. It was a
special skill he had, and he used it without conscience. He exploited everybody
he met. I loved him once, truly I did, but by the time we were divorced there
was no love left.”

Sunny winced with memory and guilt. “I was always so...full
of myself, my own hurt and anger, that I never thought much about you. You had
to have been carrying quite a load back then.”

The look of reminiscence that spread across
Roberta’s face didn’t indicate pleasant memories. “It was tough at times, but I
got through it.” She drained her glass as if it had something more bracing in
it than cranberry juice. “All the relationships will come out in a murder
investigation anyway. Now that I’ve started, perhaps I should just give it all
to you.”

Sunny studied the scalloped gold carpet. She wasn’t
comfortable hearing about the misconduct of the previous generation, and she
felt even more awkward with her mother’s candor than she had with Mavis’s. But
both women were probably correct that eventually it all would be aired and that
it would be easier coming from them first.

Roberta folded her hands in her lap and looked down
at them instead of at her guests. She spoke in a level, unemotional voice. “I
fell in love with Franklin, blindly, fully, and fast. And I continued to love
him even when I realized I was no more than a romantic interlude to him. He
married me on the rebound from Bev, who had of course married Howard Wilkes on
the rebound from Franklin. What an intricate and unhappy mess we made of our lives,
all four of us. Their marriage was no happier than ours.”

She looked at her daughter, and her expression
hardened. “But whatever we adults did with our lives, nothing excuses what he
did to you. That was unconscionable.”

Sunny looked at her hands. She’d never had the
courage to give voice to the question that sprang to mind, and because she’d
never asked, the disquiet had remained throughout the years. “Why did he do
that, try to disown me?” She sounded like the child she once had been. “Did he
really not trust you, or was it because...because of me, something about me?”

“No, Sunny. No.” Roberta’s voice sharpened, and it
seemed her daughter’s pain crossed her own face. “It was not because of you.
Get that thought right out of your mind. In fact, it was he who gave you your
nickname, honey. He said the color of your hair reminded him of a ray of
sunshine, and that your smile was as warm as the sun itself. And you should
also know this. I’m not attempting to defend him, understand, but he’d suffered
mumps in his teens and he truly thought he was sterile. He’d told me before we
married that he’d not be able to give me a child. But he’d accepted the
pregnancy, and didn’t even contest child support, not at first, and then a year
after the divorce he dropped that bombshell. I doubt if we’ll ever know why.”

“Who suggested the divorce?” Jonathan asked, voice
as straightforward as Roberta’s.

“He did,” she answered, “but I agreed immediately.
In truth, I was relieved. I’d fallen out of love by then and wanted more out of
life. There had to be more than what I shared with him.”

Her eyes again found Sunny. “When he petitioned to
cease child support on those grounds, I was floored. But then I got mad,
fighting mad, and I petitioned right back. But proving paternity wasn’t enough,
so I went all the way and got the injunction regarding Corday Cove. You
deserved that much, but at the time I admit that it was spite guiding me. Then,
as you grew up and I saw your pain, I realized I had to give up my hate, just
as I’d given up my love. It was eating me up and doing the same thing to you.
So I let go. I finally let it all go.”

Age Sunny hadn’t seen before now lined her mother’s
face. Then Roberta went on. “And you beat it, too. You turned yourself around.
I’m proud of you, Sunny. You’ve got guts and strength, more than I think you’re
aware of.”

Her mother’s quiet and simple delivery lent weight
to her words.

Roberta went on. “You’re his closest kin. Will you
claim his remains?”

Oh. Well, who else was going to do it? Sunny nodded.

“And I’ll help,” Roberta added. “Financially, and
with making arrangements. You shouldn’t have to do that by yourself.”

Again Sunny nodded. But she wasn’t yet done with the
past, and if she didn’t bring it up now, she feared she never would. And then one
day, most likely sooner than later, it’d pop up and bite them all, even more
painfully then than it would be now.

“Uh, Mom...”

“More transgressions? Okay, we need to bare it all
before we can be done with it.”

“Langley and Louise Bowers.” Sunny went for the easiest
one first. “Do you know them?”

“Not well, but I knew of them and guessed that she
was involved with Franklin for a short while before she moved away. In that
case, however, he may have unintentionally done a good deed. Louise needed
courage to break away from Langley, and Franklin may have supplied her with
that. I don’t condone infidelity, but marriage does
not
give one a
license for abuse either.” Her expression grew hard; clearly she was recalling
her daughter’s second marriage in which physical abuse had also existed.

Then, as she watched Sunny, her face slowly cleared.
“Why are you hesitating? You especially don’t like this next one. Is it Mavis?”

Sunny felt her eyes grow wide. “You knew?”

Roberta closed her eyes. “I do now.”

The older woman shook her head. She appeared more
impatient than hurt. “Oh, Mavis, you stupid, stupid fool.” She blew her breath
out in a soft sigh. “I even know when it happened. When you were in the clinic,
Sunny, Tom and Mavis were having a rough time. Tom’s parents were splitting and
it was tearing him apart. He was bound and determined to save that marriage,
and his own marriage was taking a hit because of it. And somewhere around that
time I noticed that Mavis wasn’t able to look me straight in the eye. She would
look everywhere but at me, and I, well, I worried about her.”

Sunny felt guilty again, remembering how
self-absorbed she’d been at that time. She’d been so full of her own despair
that she’d not had a thought for anyone else.

Roberta looked tired; lines became even more prominent
in her face. “I hoped I was misreading the signs, but for her sake, not mine. I
felt no sense of betrayal. In fact, that was when I realized that I really had
let it go.”

Her gaze settled on Sunny. “So she talked to you.
How about Tom? What...”

“They’re okay. She’d told him, and they’ve dealt
with it.”

“The only reason she talked to you was because her
name, and Tom’s, might be coming up now. If Franklin was murdered, they each
have an excellent motive, don’t they?” She shook her head again. “What a mess.
What a hellish mess.”

She looked at the floor, lifted her hand to briefly
massage the back of her neck, then she looked back at her guests. “Okay, enough
of the past. We’ve got plenty going on right now that needs our attention. Such
as who pushed you off the cliff and fired at you, Sunny? That’s two violent
acts too many. Are you thinking, specifically, of any of the people we’ve
talked about? Langley, Bev, Tom, Mavis...”

“Any of the above,” Jonathan said.

Her gaze flicked to him. “A man with an open mind.
It should serve you well.” Her attention returned to her daughter. “And you,
Sunny? What are you thinking?”

“The bullet was a stray, unrelated to anything else.
And one of the Bowers boys pushed me off the cliff. But not to harm me, just to
keep himself out of trouble.”

Jonathan looked at the ceiling. “Save me from...”

Sunny sent a fast frown his way. “And what are you
thinking? That whoever killed Franklin for whatever reason also wants to kill
me for the same reason? And what reason is that? What could he and I possibly
have in common other than the same name and bloodline? And in that case, you’d
also be a target.”

His gaze snapped to hers. “I don’t profess to know
the mind of a killer. But we have too many coincidences to continue to call
them coincidences.”

“Okay, then, let’s look at it your way.” Strain put
a bite in her voice, and she also heard a hint of the sarcasm that she knew he
didn’t like. “Someone killed someone with a baseball bat, and at some point
also killed Franklin with a different bat. Seven years later this person saw me
on the beach, just happened to have a rifle handy so fired off a shot, then a
couple days later found me standing conveniently on the cliff’s edge and gave
me a shove. Did this person plan all this, or does he kill on impulse and all
of us—the missing victim, Franklin, me—just happen to be in the wrong place at
the wrong time?”

Jonathan’s manner was as stony as his voice was
clipped. “The next time you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time, where is
it going to be? And who will it be who finds you there?”

Sunny held his stare. Of course there was no answer
to that, which is exactly why he’d phrased it that way.

Roberta’s attention had been darting from person to
person as if she were watching a tennis match. Now she looked at her daughter.
“Your turn.”

Sunny’s eyes flashed at her mother instead of at
Jonathan. “That’s not funny.”

“You bet it’s not. It’s your life. Now that you’re
back down here, will you stay put? Jonathan can drop you off at home, and then
he can go back to Chester and close up the house.”

“No.”

“Sunny—”

“Stop it, Jonathan. We already had this
conversation.”

“No sense arguing with her.” Roberta appeared
relaxed as she sat back and crossed her legs. “Hasn’t worked since the day she
was born. Just keep an eye on her. If we have to, we’ll hire a bodyguard.”

“No way. No bodyguard.”

“You’re right, Roberta,” Jonathan said, sitting so
straight his back didn’t touch the sofa’s fabric. “We’ll do what we have to
do.”

Sunny glared at the ceiling.

Roberta’s look turned thoughtful as she studied
Jonathan. “I bet that drives her up the wall. When you get uptight, you have a
tendency to become stuffy.”

Chapter Nineteen

“It’s beautiful,” Sunny said with feeling. She stood
next to Jonathan as he rested on his knees in front of the Victrola that now
shone like a mirror. When he leaned back on his haunches to regard his
handiwork, his eyes gleamed along with the cabinet.

“Amazing what a little bit of lemon oil and an old
t-shirt can do,” he said.

“A whole lot of lemon oil,” she corrected. “And
umpteen t-shirts.”

He chuckled. “Okay.”

“And time, patience, and elbow grease. What did Ryan
call it? A labor of love.”

He looked up at her. “I’d prefer not to talk to an
antique dealer about it. If you agree, I’d like to make a gift of it to
Roberta. That only seems right.”

“You can offer, but I think she’ll turn it down. It
seems more right to me, and probably will to her, too, that you keep it. Like I
said, it’s been a labor of love.”

She smiled, nudged his shoulder with her hip, then
nudged harder until he stopped resisting and toppled over onto his side and
then onto his back. She followed him down and covered his body with hers, as
much of it as she could stretch to. He was long. She folded her arms across his
chest and placed her chin atop her hands. Her eyes were scant inches from his.

“You don’t take no for an answer,” he observed.

“Are you telling me no?”

“No.”

Their lips met. When she raised her head, he said,
“But I can think of a softer surface than the one I’m lying on.”

“Yeah, but that softer surface is pretty far away.”
Again she lowered her mouth to his.

“You’ve got a point,” he said, when next given the
opportunity to speak, and he made a move to change their positions.

“Well, wait a minute,” Sunny said. “If it’s going to
be my back on the floor, maybe that softer surface isn’t that far away after
all.”

He flashed a quick smile, showing off bright-white
teeth any dentist would be proud of, and then jumped to his feet. He pulled her
up, tossed her over his shoulder and carted her up the stairs. Now that they
were becoming more familiar with each other, he was constantly surprising her
with some very agreeable and very sexy moves.

* * *

Late the next afternoon, Sunny stood alone in the
kitchen, staring into space while steaks sizzled under the broiler. Fat snapped
and made her jump. She turned the steaks, checked the potatoes, drained them
and got out the masher. It was a simple dinner, the kind Jonathan liked, for
their last night together.

“Five minutes,” she hollered.

How had he become so important to her so quickly?

Well, it didn’t exactly sneak up and
bite you on the butt, Sunny. You walked right into it.

It wasn’t necessarily the end of their relationship,
she reminded herself; he’d be back for the memorial service. But there’d be a
lot of other people around then, too. So, yes, this was the end of something
very, very special.

Realizing her eyes had again become unfocused, she
gave her head a couple of quick shakes, washed and dried the masher, put it
away and hollered for him again. She drained the green beans and put the lid
back on the pot to keep them warm.

Where was he?

The outside hose turned on, answering that question.
He was washing the SUV. Well, if she could hear the rush of water, couldn’t he
hear her voice?

Apparently not. She stared at the porch door. Her
eyes burned.

“Okay. Enough.” She splashed cold water on her face,
dried off with a paper towel, and then walked outside to drag Jonathan inside.

* * *

The atmosphere at breakfast was strained. Jonathan
seemed to eat in slow motion. He’d also packed slowly and had set a snail’s
pace traveling up and down the stairs.

With a loud exhale, Sunny pushed away from the table
and got to her feet.

Talk about a couple of lovelorn lovers.
We’ll just have to wait and see what the test of time and distance tells us.

Taking his empty plate and hers, she looked down at
him. “Please don’t take this wrong, but would you please hurry up and get out
of here?” When he looked up she gave him a real smile, not forced, and then she
crossed to the sink. “You’re not making this any easier,” she said, grateful
for the mild tone she’d managed. “If you’ve got to go, then go.”

She stooped to get the dishpan from the cabinet
beneath the sink, put it in place and turned the water on. “Just don’t take Cat
with you. She stays.”

At the sound of his quick, unforced laugh, she
relaxed. His chair scraped back, and then she heard his steps in the hall.
Clearly for her benefit, he made a clicking sound with his tongue and patted
his leg to call Cat. Sunny acknowledged the act with an amused nod but didn’t
look after him.

An hour later he was still upstairs. She sat outside
on the back porch stairs, hugging her knees and waiting. A slow man,
meticulous, deliberate, reserved, not at all her type, and she’d fallen for him
like a collapsed skyscraper. Cupid had a sense of humor.

He finally showed, passed her on the porch stairs,
and deposited his suitcase in the rear of the SUV. He looked up, and showed her
his back as he gave the road leading to the highway a long study. He came back,
sat down beside her, gave her a small smile and then checked the road again.
His eyes sharpened. He leaned toward her, pecked her once on the lips, rose to
his feet and was in the driver’s seat of his truck before she got past her
first blink.

“Huh?” She got to her feet, staring at him as he
drove past. Then she noticed the dust storm on the road and the sporty black
coupe that led it. Ryan’s shiny little car. The vehicles’ horns exchanged
greetings.

Sunny leaned against the house wall, folded her
arms, and watched the new arrival.

“Hi, doll.” Ryan exited the car and walked around to
the trunk. Then he stopped and gave her a longer look. He turned his head to
follow the retreating SUV, then looked back at her. “Something tells me you
weren’t expecting me.”

“Something tells me someone else was expecting you.
What is this, the changing of the guard?”

“Hmm,” he mused. “How about that. He didn’t tell
you.”

“There are two people I could cheerfully strangle
right about now,” she said conversationally. “And you’re one of them.”

He opened the trunk and withdrew his suitcase. “Got
any coffee on? I could use some. And if you’ve got the makings, I could go for
lasagna tonight. And a tossed salad with lots of tomato in it.”

She pushed away from the wall. “How did you get away
from your practice? I know there are people you’re concerned about.”

He frowned, not looking at her. Clearly he didn’t
like this part. “They’ve got my cell phone number, and I gave them this number
as well. And I want to sleep downstairs, in order to be closer to the phone.
Just in case. But nobody is, er, in a danger zone right now.”

“And if somebody does need you and you have to
return quickly?”

When he didn’t respond, she repeated the question,
voice still mild and still insistent.

He met her eyes straight on. “Marcus said he could
get a couple days off if he has to.”

She swore softly.

“It’s okay, Sunny. Don’t—”

“No, it’s not okay,” she snapped. “I’m not a child
who needs babysitting or rescuing. I made the decision to stay up here, and
that’s my right. And I resent you and Jonathan and anyone else rearranging
their lives in order to interact with mine. That’s the same thing as taking
over my life and arranging it for me. Think about it, Ryan. Am I right?”

“I think I understand why Jonathan didn’t tell you I
was coming.”

“Am...I...right?”

He gave her another straight on look. “Yes, Sunny,
sweetheart, you’re right. But I’m not going to back off and neither is he.
You’re stuck with us. Now can I have that coffee?”

She held his eyes for a long moment. Marcus was in
on it, and unless snowballs now thrived in hell, so was Roberta.

Dammit anyway, they did it. You got a
bodyguard
.

So...roll with it. What the hell else
can you do?

She showed him her back and stomped up the porch
stairs.

At the kitchen table, she worked on a grocery list
while he drank his coffee and unwound from his time behind the wheel. He’d
never liked long driving trips, and anything over twenty minutes was a long
driving trip to Ryan.

“Actually,” she admitted once she’d also unwound,
“your presence allows me some freedom. I was planning on sticking pretty close
to the house. Because, uh...well...anyway.”

He grinned, but said nothing.

She put the grocery list aside. “Why don’t we take
lunch down to the beach and go shopping later? Looks like a nice day. No need
to spend it inside if we don’t have to.”

He agreed, got up to put his empty cup in the
dishwasher, then must’ve remembered there wasn’t one because he stood in the
middle of the floor with an I-don’t-know-what-to-do look.

“Oh, for Pete’s sake. Put it in the sink.”

While he unpacked, Sunny made tuna salad sandwiches,
including one for Cat. The kitten also liked bread, pickles, and mayonnaise.
Both Cat and Jonathan had unusual eating preferences. She added two oranges,
four cookies, and two bottles of water to the tote bag.

Halfway to the beach, Ryan stopped. “Sunscreen. If I
spend five minutes down there without it, I’ll turn into an overdone
hamburger.”

He went back for suntan lotion while Sunny continued
alone. Cat hadn’t yet caught the aroma of tuna and was wandering around on her
own somewhere. The naked bluff, lacking its berry bushes, was an eyesore. Sunny
wondered if she’d ever get used to it. And the new trail was too tame. Half the
fun of a walk to the beach had been negotiating the precarious trail down the
cliff. Deputy Tim Joyce had also recognized that fact.

The sound of approaching voices surprised her. Other
than the recent police presence, she’d never met anyone else on this section of
shore. When she reached the bottom of the path the sand slowed her down.
Whoever they were, they were male and were still on the firmer, wet sand at the
tide line, not yet parallel with the cove. Once she emerged from the horseshoe,
she saw them.

She recognized Matthew Wilkes, but he wasn’t the
first to notice her. His two companions were tall, possibly six feet or more.
But they were no older than Matthew, perhaps sixteen or seventeen at the most.
Their hair and features were as similar as their height.

Toby and Langley, Jr., I presume. You’re
certainly taller than your father. Do your social graces also surpass his?

The one on the inside was slightly ahead and saw
Sunny first. When he stopped, his companions passed him then looked back, and
then followed his gaze to her.

“Oh. Hi, Sunny,” Matthew said. “We just wanted to
see where the skeleton was found.”

He seemed ill at ease, and she wondered why.

“Sunny,” said the one who had seen her first,
probably the oldest. He was the one most full of himself. “The famous Sunny
Corday herself. Except your name’s supposed to be Laurel, isn’t it?”

She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes,
exaggerating her thought processes. “Toby is the oldest, and Langley, Jr. is
the youngest. You’re Toby, right?”

“Smart, too.” He crossed behind his companions
toward her, not just taking his time but actually swaggering as he moved across
the sand. “Cute, built, and smart. Good combination.”

“Uh, Toby,” Matthew said.

“And you’ve got a mouth on you, too. You’re not shy.
What else is your mouth good for, Sunny?”

“Toby,” Matthew said. His voice had tightened. He
now appeared more commanding than tentative, but each of the others was several
inches taller and several pounds heavier.

Toby was trouble. She wasn’t sure about Junior yet,
but his brother was a born bully, and if presented with a hard choice, the
younger guy would probably side with his kin.

Ryan, I hope you’re not having trouble
finding your suntan lotion. I might get in one good swing with this lunch bag,
but that’s about it.

Matthew walked faster across the sand than Toby had
and caught his arm before he reached Sunny. “Come on, it’s time to head back.”

Toby’s eyes moved down to Matthew’s fingers on his
arm, then up to his face. “You do what you want to do. I’m gonna stick around
here for a while.”

When Matthew didn’t move, Toby raised his voice.
“Junior, you come on over here and help this do-gooder get back to town with
you.”

If Sunny had been on her own, as Toby undoubtedly
thought she was, she would’ve headed back up the trail a long time ago and
trusted that Matthew would hold Toby Bowers at bay long enough for her to get
out of sight. By not moving, she now realized she’d prolonged a difficult
situation for Matthew.