Before Vail could bring up a fist to knock, the wooden door swung open. Her Aunt Faye was standing there, a dishrag in hand. “Well, well, well. I was beginning to wonder if you were ever going to come home.”
Vail pulled on the screen door, then gave her aunt a hug. “It’s good to be home.”
Faye squinted, looking around Vail at the dark stoop. “Where’s your luggage?”
Vail lifted her arm, revealing the day bag. “I packed light.”
“Nonsense,” she said, looking intently into Vail’s eyes. “I remember you leaving with a large suitcase.”
Vail moved into the house and tossed her bag onto the couch. “Let’s just say it’s a long story and leave it at that.”
“Did your friend drop you off? Robby, isn’t it?”
“He’s—no, another friend of mine brought me home.”
Faye leaned in closer, then turned on the living room light. She made a point of studying Vail’s face. “What on earth happened to you?”
“Me?” You don’t want to know. Trust me. She forced a phony smile. “All in a week’s work. There’s nothing I won’t do for the Bureau.”
“Uh-huh.” She turned her head away, viewed Vail from the corner of her eyes. “So what was it, really?”
“A case. It got a little rough. Good thing is the bad guy got the worst of it.”
“Your work is so dangerous, Kari. I don’t know why you do it.”
Vail wasn’t going to be baited into this discussion. She was not in the mood to discuss it. Instead, she stepped into the hallway. “Jonathan home?”
“In his room.”
Vail took another few steps to his door. Knocked. No answer. Napping? Not likely at 8:00 PM. Tried the knob—unlocked—so she walked in. Jonathan was sitting at his desk, his back to her, large black gaming headphones covering his ears and his Xbox 360 controller in his hand.
She came up behind him and tapped him on his shoulder. He twisted his neck quickly up and back—saw his mother—and set the controller down and pulled off the headset in one motion.
He rose to give her a hug but stopped an arm’s length away. “What happened to your face?”
“All in a day’s work. No big deal. Looks worse than it is.” She took him in her arms and gave him a squeeze. “How was Aunt Faye?”
“Fine.”
Vail sat on the edge of his bed. “I hope you two spent some time together. It was awfully nice of her to come out here to stay with you. Did you make her feel welcome?”
“We went out to dinner. And we caught a few movies.”
“Good, good. Did you get to know her?”
He bobbed his head. “Yeah. We talked. She’s easy to talk to.”
Vail’s brow rose. “Good. That’s good to hear. I’m glad you two connected. She hasn’t seen you in, well, a good five years. I doubt you remember her.”
“We went to some state fair with her and she took me for ice cream. That’s pretty much all I remember. She said we used to go to her house for a barbecue on the Fourth, but I don’t remember any of that.” He leaned back in his chair. “So is Robby coming by? I just unlocked a new character and I wanted to show him how I did it. He’s gonna be so fucking jealous.”
“Watch your mouth, please.” She felt hypocritical—she was admittedly free with the expletives at times, but tolerating it from her son was a different matter. Of greater concern was what she should tell Jonathan about Robby. The truth was always best. But in this case, was it? Was lying to her son the lesser of two evils? “I don’t think Robby’s coming by, sweetie. Not for a while.” There we go. Spoon it out until he stops asking questions—and maybe he’ll satisfy his curiosity before she has to go into detail.
“You two broke up?”
Vail waved a hand. “No, nothing like that. We had a great time in Napa.” Of the time we had together. Before he vanished. She rose from the bed and swept a hand across his cheek.
“Hey,” he said. “What’s up with that cop who’s following me around? It’s annoying.”
“Just a precaution, sweetie. I don’t want my work spilling over into my personal life.” Now there’s a novel idea. “Shouldn’t be too much longer.” She pointed at his Xbox. “Get back to your game. I’m going to go unpack.” Jonathan slipped on his headphones and Vail walked out.
36
Care to tell me what really happened in California?”
Vail let go of Jonathan’s doorknob and turned to see Faye standing in the hallway, hands on her hips.
She was tired and mentally drained. Now was not the best time. Still, she owed Faye some explanation. And she needed to ask her for a favor.
Vail walked back toward the living room and they sat down next to each other on the couch. Not two months ago, she and Robby were making out on this sofa, headed toward a promising future, despite a brief interruption by the Dead Eyes killer.
“How was your visit with Jonathan?”
Faye’s face brightened and broadened into a grin. “I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I rather enjoyed it. We had some good talks. About his father. He had some unanswered questions.”
Vail sighed. She had talked with Jonathan about what happened between her and Deacon but held back some of the details. She wasn’t sure what the raw truth would do to a young teen and his place in the world. Then again, it was no secret to Jonathan that his father had turned into an abusive deadbeat. And Vail explained to her son that Deacon was a different person when she had met and married him. It was a good lesson as to the depths one can sink when a perfect storm of mental imbalance, medication indifference, and the spiral of depression conspire to bring down a person to the nadir of human suffering.
“How’d he take the answers?” Faye had a background in counseling, so Vail was not surprised that she had broached the topic with her nephew.
“Very maturely, I thought. He had a healthy perspective. I think he’ll be fine. So—your trip.”
“It started out wonderful and I stuck my nose where it shouldn’t have been. I got involved in a case. And because of that . . . ” She looked down at the coffee table. The short, squat bottle of V. Sattui Madeira she had shared with Robby was still there, a memory of their night together. A reminder of the start of a meaningful relationship. If she thought there was a chance it would hold Sebastian’s fingerprints, she would’ve driven it directly to the lab.
“And because of that,” Faye prompted.
“Because of that . . . Robby went missing a few days ago.” She brought her eyes up to Faye’s. Her aunt’s mouth was open.
“What do you mean, ‘went missing’?”
Vail got a couple glasses from the adjacent kitchen, poured some Madeira, and told Faye the whole story, beginning with their arrival in Napa. Soon the alcohol was flooding her bloodstream, making her head and arms feel like dumbbells.
“Do you think Detective Bledsoe’s friend will be able to help?”
It was a question Vail had asked herself on the drive home from Clyde’s. “I sure as hell hope so.” She set her glass down on the table. “Aunt Faye, I have a favor to ask. And a proposition.”
Faye leaned forward, apparently sensing the weight of Vail’s request.
“Because of the nature of the investigation into Robby’s . . . disposition, it may be necessary for me to come and go. Where, I don’t know. But it could also entail long hours away from home.” She put two fingers to the bridge of her nose. “Point is, I have no idea what’s coming around the bend.”
“You need me to stay,” Faye said. Her demeanor was flat, neither excited by the idea nor turned off by it.