Lover's Leap (20 page)

Zach and Cam both took a seat. Zach flipped open the cover of a spiral-bound notebook and took a pen from his pocket. Mac said, “Okay, Devin. Start at the beginning.”

Devin’s head was down, his chin resting on his chest. He mumbled a bit as he said, “It all started when we went camping last week. We ended up sharing a campsite with these guys from Oklahoma. They were older than we were. They had beer and weed that they kept offering to us. Some of the guys, well …” Devin dared a glance up at Cam. “I drank the beer, but that’s all. I swear.”

“Tell us about these guys from Oklahoma,” Zach said.

Devin’s stare dropped to the table once again. “They were just guys. Tourists. Three of them. Mark and Steve and Larry.”

“Last names?” Zach asked, making a note.

Devin shrugged. “I dunno. I don’t think they ever said.”

“So then what happened?”

Dev’s gaze flashed quickly to Mac, who nodded encouragingly. “Nothing. We went to sleep, got up in the morning and fished, then came home that afternoon. I didn’t think any more about it.”

Devin took a gulp of water from the clear plastic cup in front of him, then continued, “It’s so stupid. I heard about it at practice. One of the guys needs money for something really important. He’s pretty desperate. So that night, after everyone in camp went to sleep, he got the bright idea to steal the campers’ stash and sell it.”

Of all the stupid things to do
, Cam thought, frowning with disgust. But he’d been right about one thing—this
was
a case of a friend leading Devin into trouble.

Zach asked, “This was last week, Devin?”

“Yes.”

“And you bought that bag from your friend when?”

“I didn’t buy it!” Devin insisted, his head whipping up. “I didn’t even know about it until today. I found out just before practice. I got pissed because it’s such a dumbass idea. If he needed money that bad, he should have told us. We’d have all pitched in and given him the money. I told him that, too, but he just clammed up.”

“Why is that?” Zach asked.

“He’s proud. He said he doesn’t need charity. I told him he needed a brain. He’s too proud to let us help him out, so he’s willing to do something criminal? Stealing and selling pot? He might be book smart, but where’s his common sense?”

Book smart?
Cam stiffened subtly as Zach continued to question: “How did you end up with the pot?”

“I made him give it to me. I was going to take it home and flush it.” He shot an accusing glare toward Cam, then added, “I just didn’t have the chance.”

“Who, Devin?” Zach asked. “Which of your friends are we talking about?”

Devin flicked a troubled look toward Cam, and Cam knew what his son was about to say. “I’m not going to be a snitch.”

Zach set down his pen. “I have to know, son.”

“Why?” Turmoil swam in Devin’s eyes. “He hasn’t actually sold anything yet. Nobody was harmed. So he swiped something. Now that I think about it, maybe I misunderstood. Maybe he didn’t swipe it after all. Maybe they gave it to him, instead. Who is to say?”

“Devin,” Zach said, giving the boy a chiding look.

“He realized he made a mistake, and he tried to correct it,” Devin said. “No harm, no foul.”

Zach leaned forward. “Devin, I understand your reticence, but I need to know—”

“No, you don’t!” Devin shoved to his feet. “These are my friends, and they’ll hate me if I snitch. Besides, it’ll ruin everything. This would screw up his life and ruin his future, and I’m not going to be responsible for that. He screwed up, but I screwed up, too. Don’t you see? He’d have been better off selling the stuff than giving it to me to get rid of. I know I said I made him give it to me, but I didn’t beat him up or anything to get it! He didn’t really want to go through with selling it. That’s why he told me to begin with. He was looking for someone to tell him not to be such an idiot.”

Devin turned a teary-eyed, apologetic gaze toward Cam, then squared his shoulders. “Throw me in jail. I don’t care. I’m not gonna lag on my mate.”

Mac drawled, “Like I said, stubborn.”

It didn’t matter. Devin’s outburst had provided Cam the information he’d needed. He knew who’d had the pot that ended up in Devin’s bag, and he knew why the kid had taken it.

Speaking for the first time since he’d entered the conference room, Cam said, “Sit down, Devin.”

“Dad, I—”

“Sit down.” Addressing Zach and Mac, he said, “Could I speak with you two outside?”

The two men followed Cam out into the hall. After Zach shut the interview door behind them, Cam faced them and said, “I figured it out. I know who it is, and Devin is right. If this got out, it could prove very harmful to the kid.”

“Who is it?”

“Our pitcher. Mike Hamilton.” Cam watched both men think it through. “The ‘book smart’ remark gave it away. The kid knocked his SAT out of the ballpark.”

“His mother’s medical bills,” Zach said, referring to the breast cancer treatment Lisa Hamilton had undergone the previous year. “I know the Hamiltons are strapped for cash.”

“And my friend wangled him an invitation to a select player baseball camp in Saint Louis,” Mac agreed. “That’s why he needed money. He’d get plenty of exposure there.”

“But he can’t afford to go, and he’s too proud to ask for help.” Zach sighed, shaking his head. “The town had a fund-raiser for Lisa earlier this year, and it was painful to watch Mike Senior’s reaction to receiving ‘charity.’ I swear he’s the proudest man I’ve ever met.”

Mac asked the sheriff, “What do you want to do?”

“I don’t want to arrest anybody over this, but the situation isn’t contained, and I’m going to have to do something. Pauline won’t keep her mouth shut. I can’t have a sixteen-year-old holding out on me.” Zach looked at Cam. “He’s going to have to name Mike.”

“Not if Mike turns himself in,” Cam suggested. “Look, could you give a little time? Mike is a good kid, and I think if I explain what’s going on, he’ll solve this problem for us. I suspect Devin called it when he said Mike was looking for someone to stop him.”

Mac nodded his agreement. “He’ll turn himself in. Knowing Mike, the guilt is already eating him alive. I know people like to think that kids don’t have moral values anymore, but that’s simply not true. I have a suggestion that might work well for everyone. Zach, you could put the fear of God into the boys with a lecture. You’re good at that. They can offer to do some community service. We can present that to Pauline and ask for her discretion. It might placate her, and besides, she is friendly with Lisa Hamilton. She won’t cause that family unnecessary grief.”

“I don’t know,” Cam said bitterly. “There is a Murphy involved. If discretion means letting Devin off the hook …”

“She’s not totally unreasonable, Cam,” Zach said. “And I like your idea, Mac.” To Cam, he said, “How long do you think you’ll need?”

“I’m not exactly sure where he is. Give me an hour?”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Cam used his cellphone to call Colt Rafferty as he left the sheriff’s office. He gave his new friend and Grizzlies head coach a brief summary of the afternoon’s events and asked if Colt knew where to look for Mike Hamilton. Ten minutes later, both men walked into the Blue Spruce Sandwich Shop, where the teen was in the back washing dishes, finishing up his shift.

Mike Hamilton took one look at the solemn expressions on his baseball coaches’ faces and color washed from his complexion.

Cam spied movement in the periphery of his vision, turned to look, and groaned.
Could this day get any better?

The Boston terrorist was on the loose again.

FOURTEEN

Sarah had trouble keeping up in the chase after Mortimer, because she couldn’t stop laughing long enough to catch her breath.

It had started when Celeste arrived at the house to visit with Lori in the wake of the planned meeting with Cam. The older woman had made the mistake of hugging Lori with the door open, and the rest was history or, in Sarah’s viewpoint, hysterical.

Mortimer dashed out of the house. Lori let out a squeal and darted after him. Once outside, Mortimer stopped and waited for Lori to come almost within reaching distance. Then he took off again, Lori chased him again, squealed again. That’s when Mortimer began squealing back. His pterodactyl squeal.

The horrified look on Lori’s face upon hearing it was priceless, and that’s what started Sarah laughing. She and Celeste followed the girl and dog, enjoying the show, as her hardheaded daughter met her match.

Their path took them up and down Aspen, weaving around bushes, cutting through yards, ducking into alleyways. Celeste walked alongside Sarah, pushing the bicycle that was her most frequent summertime mode of transportation. Between bouts of giggles, Sarah told Celeste what had happened at Eagle’s Way.

Celeste clicked her tongue. “That foolish boy. What was he thinking?”

“Who knows.”

“Well, Devin has a good heart. I’m sure they’ll get everything worked out.”

“I hope so.” For all of their sakes, Sarah added silently.

She spied Cam up ahead, walking toward them. She lifted her arm to wave at him just as Mortimer took a sharp left turn on Cemetery Road and darted up the hill, Lori hard on his trail. Cam returned her wave and reached the intersection moments before Celeste and Sarah arrived. He waited, a harried look on his face. Harried but not devastated, she realized. Dev’s situation must not be too horrible.

“Tell me you have a tranquilizer gun in your bike bag,” he said to Celeste.

“Now, Cam,” Celeste said. “You can’t shoot the dog.”

“I want it for myself.”

Sarah asked, “How is Devin?”

“Stupid and stubborn, and lucky that he pulled his stunt here, where the sheriff has a brain and a heart.”

“Is he home?”

Cam shook his head. “No. I suspect Zach has him cooling his heels in a jail cell right now. I almost hope he keeps him overnight. Knuckleheaded kid.”

“He’s in jail?” Sarah asked, touching Cam’s sleeve.

“Hey, that’s fine by me if it scares some sense into him.” He looked up the hill toward where Lori and his dog had disappeared from sight. “I was in the sandwich shop and saw the dog run by with Lori on his heels. I thought I’d better deal with it. So how bad did I screw things up with Lori when I left Eagle’s Way this afternoon?”

Sarah debated her response for a moment, then finally said, “It was never going to be easy.”

His mouth twisted. “That bad, huh?”

Celeste climbed onto her bicycle. Reaching for her helmet, she said, “Perhaps you should consider the interruption a blessing. I know you both thought the neutral grounds of Eagle’s Way would be an appropriate place for Cam and Lori to meet, but I suggest this hillside might be better.”

“It’s not a hillside, Celeste. It’s a cemetery.”

“I know that.”

“You’re telling me to meet my daughter in a graveyard? You think our relationship is dead right out of the gate?”

“I think Pearl Buck said it best. ‘If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.’ Both of you, your yesterday is up that hill. Lori’s yesterday is up that hill.”

“In graves,” Sarah said.

“History,” Celeste insisted. “Both of you have blood ties to the town’s founding fathers. According to my research, Lori is the first descendent of all three men.”

“I didn’t realize that,” Cam said.

“It’s true. You may live half a world away, Cameron, but your roots are here. The boulder you tote around on your shoulders came from Murphy Mountain, and it has made you strong. You should draw from that as you open your heart to your daughter, because that’s what it will take, and doing so is never easy. This town formed you, it shaped you. Explain that to your daughter. Help her understand. Understanding leads to healing—for all of you, and for all of us.”

Celeste turned her attention to Sarah. “You have perhaps the hardest job in all of this, with two halves of your heart at odds. You, too, can find strength in your history. Strength in the place. It’s a beautiful spot, peaceful and serene. Now go. Find your daughter. Find your family. I must be getting back to Angel’s Rest. I want to take a soak in the hot springs and watch the sun go down.”

She pulled on her bicycle helmet, fastened the chin strap, and rode off. Cam watched her go, then shook his head. “That woman is an eerie combination of brilliant and daffy.”

“Not daffy,” Sarah corrected. “She just sometimes drifts off onto her own little philosophical, metaphysical cloud that’s a little too misty to grab hold of.”

“Well, I don’t want to bare my soul to Lori in a graveyard with Beelzebub on the loose,” Cam said as he started up the hill.

“That’s your choice.” Sarah held up her hands. “It’s our fault that Mortimer got loose, and we’ll worry about rounding him up. If you need to get back to Devin, I understand.”

“Devin can wait. I want to talk to her. I want to do it somewhere else. Anywhere else. Celeste and I have different visions of peaceful and serene. I don’t like the symbolism of having my first father-daughter talk at a cemetery. On top of everything else, it’s on a dead-end road.”

Sarah couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re superstitious. I didn’t know that about you.”

“I carry enough ghosts around with me as it is, thank you.” He eyed the climb with resignation in his eyes and added, “I don’t need any others hitching a ride while I’m walking around their living room.”

The road up to the hilltop meadow curved in a series of three switchbacks, which moderated the steepness of the climb. Nevertheless, Sarah felt the burn in her leg muscles by the time they walked beneath the arched iron sign that read simply
Cemetery
.

“See any sign of them?” Cam asked. “I don’t hear the dog.”

“If we walk down the center aisle, we should see Lori, if not the dog. It’s not that big.” Sarah visited the cemetery regularly to put flowers on her father’s grave. Like Celeste, she found it to be a relaxing, peaceful place.

Cam followed a couple of steps behind her, his hands shoved into his pockets, his shoulders slightly hunched. Sarah was surprised by his obvious discomfort. According to Devin, this man regularly swam among sharks. Strolling through a graveyard should be a piece of cake for him.

A minute later, she spied both Lori and the dog. Mortimer lay sprawled on his belly in front of a gravestone opposite one of the oldest and largest trees on the hill. Lori sat on an ornate stone bench placed beneath the tree’s spreading branches decades ago by a Cavanaugh family member across from the Cavanaugh family plots. Lori sat with her back toward the Cavanaughs, however, looking toward the Murphy family gravestones.
Well, shoot
.

Sarah halfway expected Cam to bolt. Instead, he released a heavy breath, then walked past her, approaching Lori and one particular grave—his mother’s. Cam stood staring down at the marker for a long moment and though she didn’t understand quite why, Sarah held her breath.

Lori surprised her by speaking first: “What was she like?”

Cam twisted his head and looked at his daughter. “The thing I remember most about her is her voice. Mom had a beautiful voice, and when she was happy, she sang. She loved Beatles tunes.”

Sarah didn’t remember Cassie Murphy singing Beatles songs, but she did recall her singing hymns in church. Lori had a beautiful voice, too. Had Sarah mentioned that to Cam? She wasn’t certain. She should. He’d like to know.

He removed his hands from his pockets, turned, and took a seat beside Lori. Leaning forward, he rested his elbows on his knees and said, “I was only eight when she died. My memories of her are limited. She made her bed every morning, then knelt beside it to say her morning prayers. She unloaded her dishwasher early in the morning—loudly. More times than not, that’s what woke me up. She loved tending to her flowerpots and reading paperback books.”

“What kind of stories?”

A faint smile hovered on his lips. “
Star Trek
books.”

Sarah crossed to the tree and leaned against its wide trunk, close enough to offer her silent support to both her daughter and her daughter’s father without intruding on their conversation.

“What about your dad?” Lori asked.

Cam’s smile disappeared. “He died after I left Eternity Springs.”

“I know.” Lori pointed toward the dates on Brian Murphy’s headstone. “I was four years old. What was he like?”

Now Cam sat up straight, his spine stiff, his expression harsh. “He was a mean SOB. He was not a good husband to my mother. He yelled at her, said horrible, ugly things. He was a drunk. The first time he beat me was the day of my mother’s funeral. The last time was the day I finally hit him back.”

Lori gave him a sidelong look. “Did he hit your mother?”

“No. Not that I ever saw. That doesn’t mean he didn’t wound her. Words can wound as much as fists, in some cases.”

“I always heard that she married him as a way to rebel against her parents. Like Mom and you.”

Sarah saw his protest form, but he bit it back and kept the conversation on his parents. Lori’s grandparents. “My mother loved him. In the beginning, she loved him, and I think he loved her, too, or else he was a liar in addition to his other sterling qualities. She had letters tucked away in her Bible, and I found them my sophomore year in high school.”

As soon as he said it, Sarah remembered. He’d told her about the letters. Finding them had left him shaken. It had bothered him to think that his father had loved his mother, then treated her so poorly.

“Maybe rebellion was part of it, but I do know my mother loved Brian Murphy when she eloped with him.”

“What changed?” Lori asked.

“I don’t know. I think it’s safe to assume that the booze didn’t help, but was that the cause? Who knows? As mean as he was to her, he grieved for her when she died.” Cam’s gaze focused on his father’s gravestone, and he slowly shook his head.

Lori stretched out her legs, crossed them at the ankles, then abruptly changed the subject. “What do you want from me?”

“Anything you are willing to give me. I’d like to get to know you, Lori. I want you in my life.”

“Why? You already have a kid. The drug dealer.”

Cam lifted his gaze skyward, then briefly explained why Devin had pot in his duffel. “He’s a good kid, and while I hate that he lost both his birth parents, I’m happy that he’s with me. But, Lori, Devin hasn’t taken your place. I have a hole in my heart where you belong. You are a piece of me that’s been missing.”

“And whose fault is that?” she snapped.

“Mine,” he fired back. “I made a huge mistake. I’m asking for the chance to rectify it.”

Now she pushed off the bench and began to pace. “Look, I’m trying to be a grown-up about this situation, but I’m not having much luck. I’m not a mistake for you to rectify.”

“That’s not what I said. The mistake was turning away from your mother when she needed me the most. I loved her, and I let her down. I let you down. I’d like the opportunity to attempt to explain why.”

“Look, it doesn’t really matter. Water under the bridge and all that.”

“Nevertheless, I’d like to tell you what I was thinking.”

“You’re not listening to me. It really doesn’t matter. See, whenever I start thinking about you, I get squishy inside. It’s an unpleasant squishy. I’ll admit that it surprises the heck out of me, because all my life, I wanted a dad. But once I saw you in Australia, I’ve figured out that the dad I want isn’t you. You’re not my dad, you’re the sperm donor.”

Oh, Lori
. Sarah’s heart went out to Cam as she watched the blow land.

“Being home in Eternity Springs, being
here
”—she pointed toward the ground with both hands—“it brings home the importance of family history. Having no history is too much history to overcome.”

At that, Cam shot Sarah a look that said
I knew it was a mistake to come up here
.

“You’re wrong, Lori. We do have history.” He pointed toward his father’s grave. “It’s right there. It’s eight years of fists to the head and boots to the ribs. Eight years of a belt. I thought I had him in me. I had just put another human being into a wheelchair, proving it. I was afraid of what I might do to your mom and to you. I was a kid. I didn’t trust myself. I honestly believed you two would be better off without me than with me.”

Lori
had
heard him. Sarah could tell by the way she momentarily went still. Sarah could also tell that while she’d heard, her daughter wasn’t yet ready to listen, so she wasn’t surprised by what Lori said next.

“Okay. Fine. Family didn’t work for you then. It doesn’t work for me now. You made a choice, now let me make mine. Just because we ran into each other halfway around the world doesn’t mean that you are now my family. I’m not trying to be mean. I’m trying to be honest. That ship has sailed—all the way to Australia.”