“Ellie’s going to help you paint,” her mother told him.
“Great. After I get home from the university, we’ll tackle Annie’s old room together.”
“You can have your room tonight, Ellie,” her mother said. “But after painting, I don’t want you upstairs until the fumes are gone.”
“Who’s going to be sleeping in the garage apartment?”
“Perhaps Aunt Vivien and Aunt Cecilia,” her father suggested.
“Those steps are too steep for Vivien,” her mother said.
“She would have to go upstairs to get to the bedrooms in here,” Ellie pointed out.
“Yes, but these steps aren’t as steep. They’re much wider, and there aren’t as many of them.”
“If Aunt Cecilia hasn’t lost any weight, she won’t be able to get up these stairs either. Besides, the aunts will want to be in the house with you and Dad.”
“I imagine they would,” she agreed. “They like to be in the thick of things.”
“Why don’t I stay in the garage apartment? And the aunts can stay here in the house.”
“I don’t know about that. You’ll be all alone,” her father said.
“Dad, it’s ten feet from the house,” she exaggerated. “If I get in trouble, I’ll shout. You’ll hear me.”
Her father thought for a second. “I suppose I could get another dead bolt and put it in… just to be on the safe side.”
“It would solve another problem, William,” her mother said.
“Now, Claire, you don’t need to be bringing that up until we have time to sit and talk to Ellie.”
“Aren’t we talking now?” Ellie asked.
“A serious talk,” her father qualified.
She didn’t like the sound of that. The last time they had a serious talk, they told her she couldn’t come home for Christmas.
She turned to her mother. “Solve what other problem?” she asked suspiciously.
“Since you brought it up, you might as well go ahead and tell her,” her father said.
“Ava might be spending the night here, the night before the wedding. She doesn’t want John to see her. She said it’s bad luck.”
Ellie couldn’t resist a bit of sarcasm. “Is she wearing black? Or red for-”
“She’s wearing a white gown,” her mother said.
“That’s a stretch,” Ellie replied. “Isn’t she worried she’ll be struck by lightning when she goes into the church?”
“You stop that right now,” her mother snapped. “What happened is in the past, and we have to find a way to move on.”
Ellie didn’t respond. Her father sat down at the round table between the two women. “Go ahead and tell her the rest. Get it out in the open now.”
“Ava still wants you to be in the wedding.”
“No,” Ellie answered vehemently. “I haven’t spoken to her since the last time I was here, and that was eighteen months ago. Why in God’s name would she insist I be in the wedding? Mom, if you’ll recall, she wanted you to ask me months ago, and I told you to tell her no. I haven’t changed my mind. I only came back here because you and Dad insisted, and I will try to attend the wedding, but that’s it.” Shaking her head, she added, “I don’t know why she won’t let it drop.”
“There are terrible rumors about what happened, and Ava believes that if you are in the wedding, people will know it was all a misunderstanding.”
“Rumors? Not rumors… the truth, Mom. She can’t rewrite history.”
“She thinks she’ll be humiliated if you don’t-”
“Is that why you insisted I come home for the wedding? So Ava won’t be humiliated?”
“Of course not,” her mother said. “It’s just that people talk, and-”
“I’m not going to be in the wedding. I’m not even sure I can make myself go.”
“You don’t have to worry about finding a bridesmaid dress,” her mother continued. “They’re all wearing long black dresses, and each one is different. Any black dress will do.”
“Mother, you need to listen to me. I am not going to be in that wedding.”
Her father stopped the argument. “Come on, Ellie. We’ll go to the hardware store to get a dead bolt, and then the grocery store to get you set up in the apartment.”
“I’ll have dinner on the table in an hour and a half,” her mother said. She was shaking her head at Ellie and looking pitiful. Ellie expected her to dab at her eyes next.
“See you later, Mom,” Ellie said as she dutifully kissed her on the cheek. Then she whispered, “Guilt doesn’t work on me, Mom. I’m not going to change my mind.”
Her mother whispered back, “We’ll see.”
FOURTEEN
Max and Ben had one last meeting with Agent Hughes to go over the details of the Landry case before they headed home to Honolulu.
“Greg Roper pointed right at them,” Hughes told Max. He sounded giddy. “No one helped or guided him to their photos. Isn’t that right, Ben?”
“Yes, that’s right,” he agreed.
“So we’ve got an honest-to-God real witness,” Hughes said. “I won’t put him on the list yet. This stays with us now, all right?”
Max nodded. Hughes was getting smart. As soon as he gave the name to the prosecutor, a whole lot of people would have access to the information.
“Maybe we should get some protection for him,” Ben suggested.
“Once he’s been identified as a witness, we will,” Hughes assured.
“What about Sean Goodman? The Landrys don’t know whether he got a good look at them. Will you keep someone with him?”
“As long as he’s in the hospital,” Hughes answered. “There are too many people coming and going there, and security isn’t the tightest. Just look at what happened with that gangbanger the other night.”
“The police claim he didn’t fit the profile of a gangbanger,” Max said. “Has he been identified yet?”
Ben shook his head. “There wasn’t any identification on him, and no one at the hospital admitted to knowing him. I talked to the detectives this morning. They’re looking at all the hospital surveillance tapes, trying to see if someone dropped him off or if he had a car.”
Max was not ready to dismiss the shooting as gang related just yet. “Maybe we ought to be sure before we head to the airport.”
“Be sure of what?” Hughes asked.
“That he was a gangbanger-”
“He was,” Hughes interrupted.
“But if he wasn’t,” Max continued as though he hadn’t been interrupted. “Then I’ve got to ask…”
“Uh-oh, he’s doing the what-if’s,” Ben said.
“Yeah, I am,” Max replied. “And I’m asking, what if he wasn’t there to take out a rival gang? What if Sean Goodman was the target, and that rookie policeman stopped him before he could get to his floor?”
Ben took his cell phone from his pocket. “Let me give the detective I talked to a call. See if they’ve found anything yet.”
The conversation was brief, and when Ben ended his call, he turned to Max. “The cameras showed him getting out of his car. It was parked in the hospital’s back corner lot. Nebraska plates. When they pulled up the plates, they found it registered to a George Cogburn.”
Max looked at Hughes. “You know the name Cogburn, don’t you?”
Hughes nodded. “Yes, I do, though I haven’t heard it in a long while. When the Landrys lived in Omaha, there was a Willis Cogburn who did some dirty work for them.”
Ben went to a computer and, after typing his ID and password into the database, entered Willis Cogburn’s name. A mug shot appeared on the screen. “Willis just got out of prison,” he told them. “Looks like he could be back in action.”
“The car was registered to a George Cogburn, though,” Hughes reminded.
Ben did a search and pulled up George’s driver’s license. “Same address. He resembles Willis, too. I’d guess they’re brothers or maybe cousins.”
Max nodded. “The question now is, where’s Willis? If his brother was working for the Landrys, too, then he was at the hospital to go after witnesses. Maybe Willis doesn’t want to go back to prison, and he sent his little brother to do the job for him.”