Her phone chimed and she picked up immediately.“Yes, any news?”
“She got into Jason’s car and they took off,” said the voice on the other end. It was the PI she had hired to keep tabs on Jason and her daughter. Mark Devine was an ace at what he did. He was the one who had discovered that Rocamora had a criminal record. That he’d done time for aggravatedrobbery, and was bad news.
“Focus on Jason,” she instructed. “I want you to catch him in something illegal.”
“Of course,” said Mark, and she could hear that he was driving.
“Are you following them now?”
“Yeah, I’m right behind them. Looks like they’re driving to his place.”
She nodded thoughtfully, willing herself to stay strong and not to let her imagination run wild. Ever since leaving her mother’s home three months ago, after one of their fights, Alison had moved in with Jason, causing Isobel sleepless nights as she lay awake imagining what that horrible man was doing to her little girl. If only Mark could catch Jason in some illegal activity, and inform the police, they might be able to put him in jail again, and end this ill-fated romance. And even if he wasn’t up to his usual criminal behavior, Mark or one of his operatives had to be there to protect Alison from this extremely dangerous individual.
She’d already talked to the police, but they said there was nothing they could do, as there was no law against associating with, or getting married to, an ex-con. When she had first discovered Jason’s past, she’d been shocked, but also satisfied that Alison would see the light, and break things off with the guy. But instead Alison had told her she knew all about her boyfriend’s past, and that he was innocent. Wrongfully accused and wrongfully imprisoned! Clearly he’d gotten under her skin, and was probably laughing his ass off now, getting married to this little rich girl. So she’d decided to cut Alison off if she went through with the wedding. News that Alison hadn’t taken too well, but that couldn’t be helped.
She just had to make her daughter understand she was doing this for her own good. She was doing this because she loved her, and wanted to protect her.
A curt knock sounded at the door and when it opened Michele walked in.
“Please don’t let him out of your sight, Mark,” she said, and ended the call.
On the desk, her laptop was open, and immediately Michele’s gaze was drawn to it. “Is that it?” she asked. “Is that the manuscript?”
Isobel closed the laptop before her sister-in-law could take a look.“What do you want?” she asked, none too friendly. She didn’t have the bandwidth at the moment to deal with Michele’s nonsense on top of everything else going on.
“Please, Isobel,” said Michele, getting that pleading look in her eyes again. “Won’t you reconsider? If you go through with this crazy plan of yours we won’t have any friends left. You’ll alienate everyone.”
“The book is done, Michele,” she said. “So there’s nothing more to discuss.”
“Have you sent it to Chris yet?”
Isobel produced a curt laugh.“He’s your boyfriend, why don’t you ask him?”
“I have asked him, and he says you haven’t delivered the manuscript yet.”
“Well, there you go.” In spite of herself she felt sorry for her sister-in-law. “Look, this is all for the best, Michele. Secrets and lies are like poison. They fester and kill. Once everything is out in the open, only then can we truly heal ourselves.”
“Okay, I understand that to be true for you, but why expose other people’s secrets? Can’t you see you’re causing a great deal of pain and suffering?”
“That’s because they haven’t lived through what I have. Once they realize how freeing it is to live with the truth, they’ll thank me.” She spread her arms. “Embrace the truth, Michele. It will set you free.”
But Michele didn’t look as if she was ready to embrace anything. On the contrary. She was closer to tears than laughter. “Why are you doing this to us?” she wanted to know. “What did we ever do to you?”
“Nothing,” said Isobel truthfully. “But I have to do this. It’s important to me.”
It was all part of the healing process. Once she had exorcised these demons from her past, she could finally breathe. She could finally live. Oh, how she longed for the day her truth was finally revealed. She knew it would set her free.
“Please think about it,” said Michele.
“For the past years I’ve done nothingbut think about it,” she said quietly. “But this is how it must be, Michele. My mind is made up. Please understand that.”
The moment her sister-in-law had left, she slumped in her chair, then buried her face in her hands. Oh, how she wished Gavin was here. He would know what to do about Alison. In fact if Gavin was still here their daughter might never have hooked up with the likes of Jason Rocamora. She was only fourteen when her dad was taken from them. How their lives would have been different if he wasn’t.
CHAPTER 5
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Odelia and Chase had left for work, and Marge and Tex were enjoying a week-long tennis thing with their friends from the tennis club, and so the house was empty. Apart from myself and Dooley, that is. And I have to say, that’s exactly the way I like it. Now, before you go hurling all kinds of silly accusations my way about cats being solitary animals, or even selfish, and that the feline of the species don’t care about anyone other than themselves, I would like to state for the record that this cat, in particular,is very fond of his humans. So fond, in fact, that I’ve managed to stick around for as long as I have. But even cats as keen on his human caretakers as myself need their alone time from time to time. And so I didn’t mind that the house was empty, for it allowed me to luxuriate in the abundance of space the absence of two large humans had left on the bed.
“It’s so nice to finally have the bed all to ourselves, isn’t it, Max?” said Dooley, who wholeheartedly agrees with me on a cat’s occasional need for privacy.
“Absolute bliss,” I said as I explored the innate softness of Odelia’s pillow while Dooley submitted Chase’s pillow to the same treatment, happily kneading it.
“I don’t like these ergonomic pillows, though,” said Dooley, touching on one minor point of criticism. “They’re too hard—and they’ve got bumps in all the wrong places.”
“Chase might argue that the bumps are in all the right places,” I murmured. After all, these ergonomic pillows are designed to support the human neck, apparently a very delicate part of the human anatomy, as Chase often complains about something or even someone being a pain in the neck. More often than not this someone might be a criminal he’s been pursuing, or a member of the public making his life difficult with outrageous requests, or even a police colleague.
In other words: it’s tough to be a human sometimes, having to endure the vicissitudes of life on a daily basis. And especially tough on the human neck.
“Why doesn’t Odelia have an ergonomic pillow?” Dooley wanted to know. He’d abandoned his explorations of Chase’s pillow and retreated to the comfy duvet Odelia had been so kind to smoothen out for us before she left for work.
Tonight Chase might cavil at the presence of a few hairs on his duvet, but that couldn’t be helped. He might even sneeze and rub his face, blaming us for the tickling sensation he experienced, and telling tall tales about cat hair being the bane of his existence, and wouldn’t it be a good idea to get a dog instead. But Odelia would soon put him straight. She’d say that if you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas, and would he prefer big fat fleas to a few teeny tiny hairs?
“I guess Odelia doesn’t experience the same kind of pain in the neck her husband does,” I said, though I must confess I hadn’t given the topic a lot of thought before this moment. “Maybe being a reporter is less taxing on the neck than being a cop?”