Here to Stay (43 page)

He tossed his sandwich back in the cooler. “Let’s go and find out.”

The remainder of that day and the one that followed were among the most difficult of Mandy’s life and passed in a blur. Being at her childhood home brought back so many memories. It was like slipping into the dark, shadowy horror of a nightmare.

Late the second day, Zach finished breaking apart the cement slab with the jackhammer. He helped her load the remaining chunks of concrete into the wheelbarrow and then wheeled it over to the dump pile, which had grown massive. Minutes later, when he grabbed the shovel that had been lying unused in the grass, he settled a questioning gaze on her.

“Sweetheart, it might be better if you wait in the car while I do this part.”

Probably so, but when she looked at the damp, disturbed dirt, littered now with bits of broken concrete, she couldn’t leave. If her mom was buried there, it seemed only right that one of her children should be present when her remains were exhumed. “I’m good,” she said. “Just do it, Zach.”

As he began digging, Mandy flinched every time the shovel blade rasped in the soil. When thirty minutes had passed, she started to relax, believing Zach might find nothing, and the coward in her sincerely hoped he didn’t.

“Damn.” He paused to wipe sweat from his brow with the sleeve of his shirt. “Maybe I was smoking crack. I’m not finding anything.” Bareheaded, his hair glistening in the fading sunlight, he gave her a hangdog look. “I’m sorry, Mandy. I’ve put you through sheer hell, and it may have been for nothing.”

“That’s okay,” she said as he resumed digging. “I’m relieved, actually. Maybe Dad didn’t lie, and she just left us. Or maybe he buried her somewhere else. I—”

Zach’s shovel blade struck something hard. He went still and then crouched to brush away the soil. When he’d cleared a foot-wide area and could see the surface of what he’d found, he said, “It looks like an old suitcase.”

Mandy’s legs went watery. She could remember standing in front of her mom’s empty closet that long-ago morning. She clamped her arms around her ribs, watching as Zach straightened and began taking shallow bites with the shovel. When he had completely unearthed the suitcase, she squeezed her eyes closed, knowing what he would find next. The realization nearly took her to her knees.

The remainder of the excavation seemed to take forever. Zach lifted away only bits of dirt at a time. Mandy knew why he exercised such caution. He didn’t want to disturb any evidence. Suddenly he stopped and stepped back, wiping his mouth with his shirtsleeve.

His voice shook. “Sweetheart, I think you should go sit on the front porch.”

Mandy felt as if her feet had been glued to the ground. “Why?” she asked.

A muscle ticked in his lean cheek. “There’s a faint odor coming up through the soil. I think I’ve found her.”

Her stomach lurched.

“Please,” he said. “There’s no need for you to see this.”

Mandy couldn’t move. “I want to be here. I owe her that.”

He sighed, tossed away the shovel, and crouched to brush away dirt with his gloved hands. Soon he unearthed something yellowish brown. It looked like a small piece of wood. Beside it lay a corroded ring. Mandy stared at it and then jerked as if someone had struck her. As encrusted as the piece of jewelry was, she recognized it. She’d saved her allowance to buy it for her mom’s birthday. Sharyn Pajeck had never taken it off. Mandy’s gaze went back to the small piece of wood. Only it wasn’t wood, she realized now.

It was a finger bone.

Chapter Eighteen

U
nprepared for Mandy’s reaction, Zach had to lunge after her, snatch her into his arms, and hold her back as she ran toward the grave. Never had he seen anyone so pale. Her face had gone as white as a motel room towel. Her eyes, wide and unfocused with what he recognized as shock, implored him to turn loose of her.

“You can’t, honey. If you touch anything, you might destroy evidence. You don’t want your father to get away with this, do you?”

Her response was a high-pitched wail. Her legs buckled, and she went limp in his embrace. Zach clutched her firmly against him to keep her from falling.

“Mama!”
The sobs that racked her slender body frightened Zach. They came from deep within her, sharp, tearing sounds born of grief and horror. “He
k-killed
her!” she cried. “That
m-monster
! He k-killed my m-mother!”

In that moment, Zach wished his hunch had been wrong. He’d hoped that finding Sharyn Pajeck would be healing for Mandy. How could he have been so stupid? He should never have given her the option of being here while he dug up the rotting corpse of the person she’d loved most in the world.

“She never stopped loving you and Luke,” Zach whispered when she quieted a little. “And she didn’t abandon you. Your father just lied about that to cover up what he’d done. She loved you, Mandy. With her dying breath, she loved you.”

She went up on her tiptoes and hooked both arms around Zach’s neck. He tightened his embrace, trying to absorb the spasms that still racked her slight frame. Her fingers dug into the back of his neck so hard he was sure her nails drew blood. In a tortured voice, she asked, “Oh, God, w-why didn’t I go downstairs that night? I could have helped her, Zach. Instead I hid in a closet.” She moaned and pounded a fist against his shoulder. He barely felt the blows, which were more a release of emotion than an attempt to inflict pain. “I hid in a closet!”

Zach ran his hands over her trembling back, up and down, up and down, trying to soothe her with his touch because words so often failed him. He had to give it a shot, though. Mandy needed answers—not the ones she was inventing in her guilt-ridden mind, but rational ones that would ease her pain.

“Sweetheart, it’s a miracle you
didn’t
go downstairs. He might have killed you, too. Why do you think your mother forbade you from being around him when he got like that? She knew what he was capable of.”

“But ...” She sobbed, the sounds breaking Zach’s heart. “She
needed
me.”

“She may have needed help,” Zach replied, groping frantically for the right words, “but she would never have wanted you to interfere, Mandy. She tried too hard to protect you and Luke. She knew why you didn’t come down. You did what she wanted.”

It was a moment before she could reply. “B-but he was killing her!” It was a half scream, and he heard the hysteria rising again.
Please, God, let me find the right words for once in my life
, he begged silently.

“That wasn’t your fault,” he told her firmly. “Your mother made her own choices, and your father made his. You and Luke had no say in any of it. We can only imagine what she went through or why she made the decisions she did. The only absolute is that she loved you and did the best she could at the time. She knew that what was happening wasn’t your fault.”

Mandy pressed closer against him. With a jerk of her shoulders, she said, “Mama was such a sw-sweet person. She didn’t deserve to be tr-treated that way.”

“No one does.” Zach realized he’d started swaying back and forth. As a youth, he’d held his sister, Sam, in his arms while she cried a few times, but never had she wept over something this horrible. Mandy’s anguish—oh, God, his chest hurt as if he’d swallowed a half dozen razor blades, and it was all he could do not to sob himself. She spoke of how sweet her mother had been? Mandy was the dear one, in Zach’s opinion, and he would have happily killed Tobin Pajeck for doing this to her. “I’m sorry your mom had to go through something so awful.” He searched for something more that he might say. “It wasn’t her fault, sweetheart, and it definitely wasn’t yours. Your father is the one responsible. Are you following what I’m saying?”

“I’m trying,” she said shakily. “And I know you’re right. She would n-never have blamed me. It’s just ...” Her voice trailed off.

He hugged her hard and let his lips graze the top of her head lightly, so she wouldn’t notice. “I know, honey. I know.”

When Mandy calmed down a bit more and regained some of her composure, Zach led her around the house to the front porch. Keeping one arm around her, he sat with her on the steps and grabbed his cell phone. “I need to call the cops,” he told her.

She nodded, her expression dazed, her tear-swollen eyes bleary and unfocused.

Zach made the call. It felt weird to be telling a dispatcher that he’d just exhumed the remains of a woman who’d been murdered by her husband fifteen years ago. At first the lady at the other end thought it was a prank call. She was about to disconnect when Zach gave her his full name.

“Zach Harrigan, the horse trainer?”

“Yes,” he replied. “And I’m not joking about the body. Don’t send a bunch of blue shirts. We need some detectives who know what they’re doing.”

The woman’s tone became brisk and businesslike. She asked for the address and told him she’d have someone there in five minutes. Zach was about to remind her that he didn’t want rookie cops near the crime scene, but she ended the call before he could get the words out. He frowned at his phone.

“What?” Mandy asked in a dull, muted voice.

“I’m just worried she’ll send yahoos who don’t know what the hell they’re doing.”

Mandy bent forward to rest her forehead on her knees. “I can’t believe it,” she whispered. “My father made me bury Dog only a few feet away from my mother. Was it his idea of a sick joke? His way of showing how little respect he had for her?”

“I don’t know, honey.” It was all Zach could think to say.

“My mother worked like a slave for him. He never appreciated anything she did. That’s why I’ll never get married. I know how horrible it can turn out for the woman.”

Zach said nothing. He just let her vent. His only hope was that learning the truth would eventually give her a sense of closure and set her free. Maybe in time, she would begin to realize that all marriages weren’t made in hell.

Until then, Zach’s life would be on hold. Mandy was the only woman in the world for him. He knew that for certain now. He would never feel this way about anyone else.

As promised, the police arrived in only a few minutes.
Blue shirts
. Zach didn’t want to leave Mandy alone on the porch, but he felt compelled to accompany the officers to the backyard to make sure they destroyed no evidence. The cops surprised him. They stood back from the shallow grave, perused the fleshless bones Zach had unearthed, unmistakably those of a human hand, and then cordoned off the area.

Confident that the crime scene would remain intact, Zach retraced his steps to the front of the house. Two more men in uniform had arrived and stood at the steps, questioning Mandy. One, a redhead who looked to be in his early twenties, took notes while the older officer, a stocky fellow of about forty, conducted the interrogation. One look at Mandy’s drawn expression had Zach shifting into fast gear. When he reached the porch, he sat beside her and looped an arm around her trembling shoulders.

“Go easy on her, Officer. That’s her mother out back. This has been hard for her.”

The older man acknowledged Zach’s request with a slight inclination of his head. Just then, a green sedan pulled into the driveway. Two guys in gray suits climbed out. They had
homicide
written all over them. Before they reached the steps, the coroner’s van pulled up at the curb behind Zach’s SUV and the two bubble-tops. Zach got a sick, sinking sensation in his stomach. He hadn’t envisioned all of this hoopla. It was going to turn into a media circus, and that was the last thing Mandy needed. Here came the mobile news unit of the local TV station, and he knew others would arrive shortly. A helicopter whirred overhead, zooming in low. Neighbors were starting to come out of their fancy homes, attracted by the commotion. Mandy was in no shape to field a bunch of questions, and he had a very bad feeling the police would probably grill her for hours. He almost wished he’d left this alone. Almost.

Before Zach knew it, Mandy was escorted to a police car for further questioning at the station. Zach wanted to go with her, but the redhead blocked his path.

“Sorry, sir. You can drive to the station and wait out front for her if you like, but you can’t be with her while she’s being questioned.”

“Why?” Zach couldn’t keep the edge of frustration out of his voice. “She’s hanging on by a thread. Can you imagine how shaken up she is? All this will be easier for her if I’m there.”

“Are you a relative?”

“I . . . No,” Zach admitted. “But I’m a good friend.”

“Not possible.” The young man’s blue eyes took on a determined glint. “Don’t push it, Mr. Harrigan. We have to follow procedure.”

Zach took that to mean he’d be cuffed and stuffed if he tried to get in the car. He’d been arrested a few times, and for Mandy he was willing to go through it again. But what good would that do? He’d end up cooling his heels in a cell, and she’d still have to go through the questioning alone.

“I don’t get it,” he told the cop. “It’s not as if
she
killed her mother. Why put her through all this?”

“We aren’t certain of that,” the redhead replied.

“You aren’t certain of what?” Zach snapped.

“That she’s innocent of any wrongdoing. She lived in the house at the time. Her story is that her father did it, but she wouldn’t be the first juvenile to kill a parent.”

Zach couldn’t believe his ears. What the frigging hell had this jerk been smoking? Shock coursed through him. As the redhead got into the police car, Zach stood there and stared in stunned disbelief as Mandy was driven away. His pulse started to slam. Those jackasses thought a thirteen-year-old girl had possibly killed her mother?

He swore under his breath and grabbed his cell phone. His dad answered on the second ring. Zach bypassed
hello
. “Dad, I need a lawyer, fast.”

Frank never missed a beat. “What kind of lawyer?”

“A criminal lawyer.” Zach spewed out the whole story, quickly bringing his dad up-to-date. “Those stupid cops think Mandy may have killed her mom.
Jesus, help me
. This is my fault. I’m afraid they’re going to charge her with murder. Can you believe it?”