Righteous Obsession (47 page)

“Hi,” Colin said nodding. He could see a slight
resemblance to Father Michaels especially around his eyes and mouth.

Nora went into the kitchen to get the tea.  She
returned bearing a silver tray with a china teapot and four cups and saucers in
addition to a plate of freshly baked cookies. She poured the tea and handed the
cups around followed by the cookies.

“We’re very glad to meet you, Colin,” Luke said.
“We’re very happy you came over today.”

Amanda took a sip of her tea then set her cup on its
saucer.  “Luke, Nora, I’d like to say something, if I may?”  They nodded and
she continued, “I want to apologize to you for deliberately keeping Colin from
you all these years.  I had no right to take out my anger at Jeff on you.  I
know I can never make up for the pain I’ve caused you.”

Nora put down her tea cup and looked at Amanda.  “We
were very angry at Jeff when we heard about it.  It broke our hearts to know we
had a grandchild, our first one, and we couldn’t see him.  We even called Ted
and Eileen, but they refused to tell us anything.”

“They never told me you’d contacted them about us,”
Amanda murmured.

Colin defended his mom, “Look, I’m not in anyway
trying to make light of the pain you felt you’ve suffered.  To be fair, it was
Mom’s idea for us to come today.  In all honesty I probably wouldn’t have
thought of it myself.”

Luke and Nora looked hurt, but Luke said, “Colin, when
Jeff told us it was Dave who stabbed you, we were very shocked, but I can’t say
we were surprised.  When we talked and thought back on some of Dave’s past
behavior we realized it was indicative of the current tragedy.”

Colin knitted his brows.  “How do you mean?”

Nora continued where her husband had stopped, “Dave
was Jeff and Kathleen’s only child for six years.  They thought they were never
going to have another one so they lavished all their love on him.”

“I think when Caitlin was born; it really pulled the
rug out from under him,” Luke said.

“Dave had always been very possessive of their love,
but after Caitlin came along we began seeing certain patterns of behavior which
disturbed us greatly.”

“What kind of behavior?”

Luke frowned.  “They were visiting us one time when
Caitlin was about three months old.  I had just gotten her to sleep and was
watching television when I heard her crying loudly as if she was in pain.  I
rushed into her room and I found Dave there.  When I picked Caitlin up I saw
she had these red welts on her leg like somebody had been pinching her really
hard.  I asked Dave if he knew how she’d come by them and he denied knowing
anything about them. I had a strong feeling he was lying, but I had no proof.”

“There were other things, too,” Nora said.  “Dave used
to take Caitlin’s toys and tease her until she was in tears.”

“I used to tease Liam too,” Colin recalled.

“But your teasing was never cruel, Colin, and it
sounds like Father Michaels meant his to be cruel and hurtful towards his
sister,” Amanda remarked.

“Didn’t Jeff or his wife do or say anything to him
when they saw him being mean to Caitlin?”

“I don’t think they ever saw him, Colin.  He was
always the perfect big brother when they were present,” Luke recalled.  “I know
Jeff would have given Dave hell if he’d caught him mistreating his sister, but
Kathleen was blind to any faults he had.  Even when he was a baby she used to
brag that he’d be the first American pope.”

“Not much chance of that now,” Colin commented.

“I wish to God, Dave had talked to somebody about his
feelings!”  Luke replied fervently.  “It was a terrible shock to hear about
your stabbing, but then to find out our other grandson was the one who had done
it…”  He shook his head.  “I don’t understand why Dave didn’t talk to Jeff when
he found that file.  Up until that time they appeared to have a good
relationship.  I just don’t understand what went wrong!”

“This has been hard on us,” Nora said, reaching out to
squeeze Luke’s hand in a comforting gesture.  “We love Dave and it’s hard for
us to accept that despite the jealousy we saw him display towards Caitlin it
would drive him to do this terrible thing!”

Colin remained silent.  Having been the victim of
Father Michaels’ jealousy; it was hard for him to imagine they hadn’t been able
to see the signs.

“I can’t help, but think if we’d told Jeff and
Kathleen about Dave’s behavior towards Caitlin, maybe, this could have been
prevented.”

“I doubt they would have believed you and might have
taken offense.  What’s Mrs. Michaels like?”

Nora thought for a moment.  “I guess the best way to
describe her is to say she has only three interests in life; her children, her
religion and her home.  I’m not criticizing her for her beliefs except Kathleen
believes those are the only interests a woman should have.”

“She sure hated my guts when I bumped into her at our
concert in Minneapolis.

“You’ve met Kathleen?” Nora asked in surprise.

“Yes. Her morality group was picketing our concert in
Minneapolis. They were blocking our limousine from getting in and a group of
kids saw it and rushed them.  I got between them, trying to prevent a
full-scale riot.  A kid plowed into me and knocked me backwards into one of the
demonstrators.”

“And it was Kathleen?”

“Yes.  I remembered her when I saw that picture on the
mantle,” he pointed at the group photograph.  “I apologized to her, but I
thought she was going to whack me with her sign when suddenly she got this
funny look on her face and backed away from me as if I’d grown another head! 
Of course, that must’ve been when she realized who I was.  I expect there’s
nothing like coming face to face with your worst nightmare!”

Nora sighed.  “I’m sorry you had such a poor
introduction to our family.”

‘Family?’ Colin thought.  He didn’t even know if he
wanted anything further to do with them. He was perfectly happy with the
grandparents he already had.

Amanda noticed he’d begun to change his position
frequently.  She knew this was an indication that his wound was hurting him. 
Luke also noticed and asked, “Colin, are you in pain?”

He seemed relieved that somebody had brought the
subject up and admitted, “Yes, I’m starting to hurt some.”

“We’ve been so inconsiderate,” Nora declared. 
“Forgetting you’ve only been out of the hospital barely a week!”

“It’s not that bad,” Colin replied.  “But I do think I
need to get home and take my medication.” He was thankful he had a legitimate
excuse to leave.

His grandparents walked them outside to Amanda’s car. 
It was obvious to her they didn’t want to let go of Colin just yet.  “Come back
real soon,” both of them urged.

“It was nice meeting you,” he said politely as he got
into the car.  Colin was silent and wrapped in his own thoughts for most of the
drive home. 

Amanda glanced at him with a concerned expression on
her face.  “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.  I’m just feeling a little weird.”

“What do you think of your grandparents?”

 “They seem nice enough, but I just wasn’t comfortable
being around them and I’m not sure if I’ll ever be.”

“That’s understandable and it’s entirely yours and
Alethea’s decision whether or not you want a further relationship with them,”
Amanda answered.

“You know, I was expecting them to pressure me into
making up with Jeff and I was surprised when they didn’t.”

“I think they have enough sense to know it wouldn’t
work.”

“I got the impression they liked you better than they
do the current Mrs. Michaels.”

“They always treated me like their own daughter.  By
the way, thanks for sticking up for me.”

“What I said was the truth, Mom.  I never would have
thought of meeting them on my own.”

“You seemed disturbed by the picture of Father
Michaels’ ordination.  Were you?”

“A little,” he admitted.  “Father Michaels looked like
a completely different person than the one I saw that night in New Orleans, but
then I suppose he was.”  Colin’s side was aching in earnest by the time they
got to Hillsborough.

“Did you bring your pain medication with you?”

“Yeah.” Colin searched the
pockets of his jacket and found the vial.  “Right here.”

“Why don’t you take it and lie down for a while?”
Amanda suggested.

“I’ll just stretch out on the couch if you don’t
mind.”

As they came into the house, Liam came bounding down
the stairs.  “Hi, Colin!”

“Hi, Liam!”  Colin gave him a hug.  “How are you
doing?”

“Better, I think.”

“Great!”  Colin replied. He took out his cell phone,
took it off silent mode and checked to see if he’s missed any calls. He saw
immediately that Diana had called so he called her back.

She told him she and her mother had discussed his
parent’s invitation with Deb and she’d agreed she should leave and start new
somewhere else.  She wanted to leave as soon as possible.  Diana said she’d be
traveling with Deb since neither she nor her mother thought it wise for her to
travel alone.  “I’ll miss a couple of days of school, but it’ll be worth it to
help Deb.”

“Deb’s lucky to have a good friend like you, Diana,”
Colin complimented her.  He told her he’d check with the airlines and call her
back.  He checked and found out there were seats available on every flight.  He
went online and purchased two first-class tickets for Debbie and Diana on a
United Airlines flight that left Minneapolis in the morning and arrived in San
Francisco later in the afternoon.  He called Monique Conrad to tell her he’d
booked the plane and gave her the flight information.  He told her he and his
mom would meet their plane.  After hanging up he went in search of his mother. 
“Where’s Mom?”  He asked Liam as he came back into the room.

“She went upstairs.  Did you need something?”

“No, I just wanted to tell about tomorrow, but it can
wait until later.”

“Did your doctor tell you when you could tour again?”

“He said mid-October.  I don’t know if I’ll be ready,”
Colin admitted.

Liam made a face.  “I definitely have some mixed
feelings about it.”

“Me too,” Colin admitted.

“Do you think Father Michaels will be in jail by
then?”

“I hope so, but there’s no certainty one way or the
other.”

“I think it’s going to be hard for me if I’m worried
he might be sitting in the audience, planning God-only-knows what!”

“I hear you!” Colin replied.

Amanda reentered the room, carrying a photograph album
under one arm.  She handed it to Colin.  “This is the photo album from Jeff and
my wedding.  I thought you might like to see it.”

“Yeah, I’d like to.” He sat between his mom and Liam
and opened the album.

“Gosh!  Jeff looks like your senior picture minus your
long hair, of course,” Liam said.

Colin glanced up at his senior picture that sat on the
mantle.  “He does, doesn’t he?”

“And mom looks like she could be a high school
freshman!”

“We were just kids, too stubborn too admit we were
making the biggest mistake of our lives,” Amanda replied. “The only good thing
that my marriage to Jeff produced was you,” she added, giving Colin a hug.

His cell phone rang and it was Alethea. He excused
himself and went into his dad’s study and shut the door.  “Hi, Alethea!”

“Hi, Colin!  What did your doctor say?”

“He took out my staples and said I’m healing well.  He
wants me to have an MRI scan to see how I’m healing inside.  I have to call for
appointment later this week.”

“Did he say anything else?”

“Well, he didn’t say we couldn’t make love.  He
basically left it up to me.”

“I guess there’s no problem then.”

“None that I can see.  How was your interview?”

“It was good.  Rob Halford’s a really nice guy.  He
didn’t spend the entire interview, badmouthing his former band mates.  He has
nothing but the highest regard and respect for them.  I know you’ve never done
that to Mark Damon even though he’s never had anything nice to say about you or
Jake after you quit BodySnatchers.”

“Well, that says more about him than us.”

“That’s part of the reason I wanted to meet you,”
Alethea teased him.

“Yeah?  What was the other part?”

“You have a gorgeous ass!”

Colin laughed.  “That’s probably what they’ll carve on
my tombstone!”

“And they’ll carve on mine that I loved every inch of
it!”

“Are we still talking about my ass?”  Colin teased.

She giggled.  “Maybe, not!”

“Your plane lands at four tomorrow?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll be at the airport.  Mom and I are meeting
somebody there.”