Scar Tissue Page 6

  “And everything went back to the way it was?” I asked.

  Dr. Varkin nodded. I saw Ashley off and on throughout her undergraduate years. Nothing much changed. She pushed herself beyond what her mind and body could support on a daily basis.”

  “She pushed herself or her parents did?” Griff asked.

  “In truth, they were both so entangled in Ashley, it was hard to know where one ended and the other began. One of the unhealthiest parent/child relationships I’ve seen short of abuse.”

  “You said Gwen felt Ashley needed to take better care of herself.”

  “Initially, yes, when Ashley was in the hospital. But her concern changed once she saw how involved Greg was becoming. Ashley was receiving a slew of mixed messages from her mother. Gwen was out of bed and happy again, smiling at the finish line. That alone outweighed any health issues Ashley was dealing with.”

  “The ultimate example of codependency,” I said. “Guess I’m lucky my parents didn’t give a damn.”

  “We all have our demons.”

  “And Greg?” I asked before Dr. Varkin tried to schedule me an appointment.

  “Greg wanted glory at any cost.” The doctor rubbed his fingers over the gray stubble on his chin. “You must realize that you are dealing with a very disturbed family. Their relationships toward one another are, or were, toxic. They feed each other’s illnesses.”

  “But Ashley never took drugs, prescription or otherwise that you know of?” Griff asked.

  “None that came from this office and she never mentioned taking anything to me.”

  “Do you think she would have?” I asked. “I mean, told you if she were.”

  Varkin pursed his lips and exhaled through his nose. He looked at the rug beneath his feet for a few moments weighing his answer. “No, she may not have told me. To her, that would have meant she was flawed. It would have been a secret she buried so deep I doubt anyone will ever uncover it.”

  We thanked the doctor for his time and walked to the elevator down the hall from his office. “Jesus,” I said. “I’m exhausted from listening to him describe Ashley’s lifestyle. I can’t imagine actually living it.”

  “It’s frightening how much influence parents have over how their kids turn out. Every decision from the moment they’re born impacts who they’ll become.” Griff shook his head, “If you really think about it, it could scare people right out of procreating.”

  “Natural birth control,” I said. “Not a bad idea.”

  We stopped in front of the elevators and when the doors opened, stepped inside.

  “Not everyone screws up their kids,” he said. Look at Allie. She’s awesome.”

  “No argument there. But we just bought a house. One step at a time.”

  “So, what’s our next step?” he asked. “A puppy?”

  “To figure out what happened to Ashley.”

  “You’re sidestepping.”

  “But not back peddling.”

  The doors opened. “Guess I’ll quit while I’m ahead,” he said.

  EIGHT

  The next morning Peggy called. The house inspection was scheduled for ten o’clock.

  “Guess that means we’re taking the day off,” I said pouring a second cup of coffee. “Okay if Amy joins us? She hasn’t seen the house yet.”

  “Sure, I don’t think it’ll matter if she’s there for the inspection.”

  My sister Amy is my best friend. We’re very different and I think that’s why we’re as close as we are. She’s traditional and careful, while I tend to put my head in the lion’s mouth. Amy and I raised each other because my parents had better things to do. Being two years older, Amy took on the role of the parent. I opted to be a child. We’re still connected at the hip, hearts in harmony.

  “I was thinking we’d go have a talk with Ashley’s running coach at Fensworth,” Griff said. “But I suppose it can wait one more day.”

  “He’s there now? Isn’t the semester over?”

  “The Athletic Department said sports camps run all summer. Coach Massett is on the track from nine to one. I’m going to take a shower.” He stopped in the doorway. “Join me?”

  I looked at the cup of coffee I’d just poured and then back at Griff. No contest. I got up and followed him into the bathroom. There’s nothing like having someone wash your hair. It could be my favorite part of showering together. And by the time it’s done I’m relaxed, loose and yielding. I think that’s Griff’s favorite part.

  We turned into the driveway and stopped before reaching the house.

  Hesitating beneath the overhang of trees, we admired our almost house with its farmers’ porch and red metal roof.

  “In a few weeks this will be ours,” Griff said.

  I squeezed his hand. “I love you.”

  He leaned over the stick shift and kissed me, sealing the deal.

  Pulling forward, we came to a stop beside Peggy’s car just as a pick-up truck lumbered down the driveway. The lettering on the side of the vehicle read Hughes Home Inspections.

  “This generally takes a while,” Steve Hughes explained. “Feel free to follow me around and ask questions or I’ll find you when I’m done and we can review.”

  Griff stuffed his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. “I’ll follow if you don’t mind.”

  I caught sight of Amy’s Subaru turning in at the end if the driveway. “I’ll wait for her.” I said, nodding toward the approaching car. “We’ll catch up.”

  The men started in the garage. Not high on my list of interesting places so I opened the front door and stepped into the living room. The previous owners had agreed to leave whatever we wanted with the house. We’d negotiated the worth and added it to the asking price. Still a steal, these people really wanted out. It bothered me somewhat that they were in so much of a hurry. I couldn’t shake the feeling they were running away from something.

  “Hey there,” Amy said coming through the open front door. “Can I just say, wow? Is that enough to tell you what I think of this place so far?”

  “Where’s Caleb?”

  “Day care. I dropped him for a couple hours, so I could go for a run and pick up groceries without having to buy a bunch of junky, bribe food.”

  “You’re no fun,” I said.

  “Just wait till you’re a mom, little sister.”

  “Don’t hold your breath. Follow me. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

  I gave Amy the full tour, starting in the kitchen. She ran her hand the length of the oak table and emitted the appropriate wow again. We moved to the second floor, the guest room and master bedroom. She stepped into the glassed-in shower stall, her sneakers squeaking against the tile, and looked into the forest of trees beyond. “You know that only a true psycho would hide in those woods to watch you shower, right?”

  “Really? That hadn’t occurred to me, but thanks. I’ll keep it in mind when I’m standing in here naked.”

  We stepped onto the balcony off the master bedroom and descended the stairs to the deck. Amy peered into the weight room.

  “Go ahead,” I said. Twenty minutes on the elliptical. You’re already dressed for it.”

  She shook her head, her blond ponytail swinging against the middle of her back. “Rain check. I promised Caleb I’d be back for him in two hours.” She checked her watch. “My time as a free woman is almost up.”

  “He’s four years old. He can’t tell time.”

  “Yeah, but I can and I keep my promises. I’ll be back as soon as you guys move in. In fact, you’re gonna get sick of me.”

  “Not a chance.”

  I walked her to her car.

  “How’re the neighbors?” she asked nodding toward the McKenzie’s roof that could be seen above the trees.

  “Okay, I think. He’s a cop in Portland.”

  “Griff know him?”

  “No, most of Griff’s cohorts are in the detective unit. He doesn’t know the uniforms. She’s pregnant, due in a couple of months. She seem
ed a little weird, but it’s hard to know the first time you meet someone.”

  “Never judge a woman whose hormones are holding her captive. I’m sure she’ll be fine.” Lines etched across Amy’s forehead. “McKenzie. They’re not the people….”

  “Whose kid disappeared? Yeah, they are.”

  “Jesus, you’re moving in next door?”

  “They’re not murderers. They lost their child. I feel sorry for them.”

  “I always thought he did it. I think most people did, but they never proved anything.”

  “Griff didn’t say that.”

  “Contrary to your belief, Griff doesn’t know everything.”

  “He seems like a nice guy.”

  “They all do, until…” She ran her finger across her throat. “At least you have plenty of buffer between you.” She nodded toward the tree line.

  “Get out of here. Go take care of your kid and count your blessings that you have him. Some people aren’t so lucky.”

  “I’ll bring champagne next time.” She slipped onto her front seat and started the engine.

  “And bring Caleb. Griff needs a fix,” I added.

  I watched Amy disappear down the driveway, glanced at the mini forest separating our land from McKenzie’s and went back inside. I could hear Griff and Steve in the basement talking about the furnace. Nothing I cared about so I headed for the second floor. In the master bedroom, I laid across the king size bed and watched clouds drift past the skylight. Lazy Sunday mornings with breakfast in bed would be a priority, at least until kids sabotaged the peace. Kids…the thought surprised me. Children were something I rarely considered. At thirty-three, I still had plenty of time and since men can procreate until their dying breath, Griff was in his prime at forty-five. Amy says Caleb’s her life, but when I look at the Ashley Lamberts of the world and see the destruction a parent can cause even when they don’t mean to, parenting scares the shit out of me. I’m in no rush.

  In the bathroom, I put my palms against the floor to ceiling glass wall of the shower and thought about Amy’s comment on psychos. Through the trees I could just see the McKenzie’s house. Only their rooftop was visible. I wondered what the view was like when the leaves were off the trees. At least then I’d be able to watch the psychos while they watched me. Before I could give it more thought, something moved beneath me in the yard. Rhea McKenzie stepped from the tree line. She emerged from the path I could now see from my overhead vantage point, a narrow trail snaking from one house to the other.

  I stepped out of the master bedroom onto the small balcony.

  “Hi,” she said as I descended the stairs connecting the balcony to the deck below.

  “Hi.”

  “Home inspection today?” she asked.

  I nodded, “Yeah.”

  “They’re pretty boring. Thought you might like to come over for some iced tea, while the men scrounge around with wires and pipes.”

  I laughed. She seemed nothing like the mousy woman I’d met a few days ago, her husband leading her around by the arm. I remembered what Amy had said about ravaging hormones. “I’d love to,” I said.

  I followed her through the trees back the way she’d come, on the path between the two houses.

  “Did you and…I don’t know the name of the people who lived here, but did you visit each other often? The path looks well worn.”

  “Their name was Morrow, Ellen and Mitch, and no we didn’t visit much. At first we did, but after…after a while that stopped. Except for Halsey. She and I met whenever we could.”

  “Halsey?”

  “Their daughter. She’s five.”

  “Do you have other children?” I asked before thinking. She hesitated and looked at me and then slowly shook her head. “No,” she said.

  I let it go.

  We emerged at the edge of a chain link gate that surrounded the pool. Rhea flipped up the horseshoe clip and the gate swung open. “Have a seat.” She gestured toward the patio furniture. “I’ll be right back.”

  She climbed a set of stone steps and disappeared inside the French doors.

  The back of their house was almost entirely glass. Kitchen on the right where I could see Rhea moving around and a living room to the left where I could make out a large flat screen television hanging on the wall above a fireplace and a circular black leather couch. Not bad for a beat cop.

  Rhea appeared holding a tray with two tall glasses of iced tea, lemon wedges and a plate of butter cookies.

  I reached for a glass, squeezed in lemon and took a sip. “Thanks,” I said. “I didn’t realize how warm it was getting.” I slipped onto one of the canvas loungers and kicked off my sandals.

  “Finally,” she said. “I wait all winter for the day I can open the pool and then spend every minute out here, breakfast to dinner.” She folded her pink and white cover-up over the back of the other lounge chair and took a seat stretching out long thin legs and rubbing her palm absently over her baby bulge.

  “How do you feel?” I asked nodding toward her stomach.

  “Good,” she said smiling, but her smile faded too quickly. “Most of the time.”

  She got up and walked to the edge of the pool. Bending her right knee, she swished a toe through the sparkling blue water.

  I was glad her back was to me because I couldn’t have hidden my surprise. The skin on her back was discolored with varying shades of blue and yellow, bruises, new and old. On the side of her thigh was a deep purple circle the size of a fist.

  She turned around fast like she’d suddenly remembered I was there and now privy to what had previously been hidden. She lifted her pool robe from the back of her chair, slipped into it and sat, all the time watching my face.

  When I’d worked in Family Law, bruises like Rhea’s were a routine occurrence, but it had been four years since I’d left that world. For a while I’d kept my foot in the door offering free legal aid to women in violent relationships. But when Griff and I worked a case where women I’d had contact with kept turning up dead I stopped. Bad juju.

  Rhea took a breath. “I fell,” she said.

  It was clear from her voice that even she knew her explanation sounded lame.

  I nodded. “Looks like it was a bad one.”

  “Yeah,” she said. “It was.”

  We both knew what was happening, but we’d also just met. It wasn’t time for her to divulge long kept secrets or for me to pursue them.

  “Your home is beautiful,” I said nodding toward the glassed back of the house. Mike does well as a cop.”

  “Oh,” she smiled and looked down at her hands in her lap. “He has a little help. His parents left a trust. At least I think that’s what it is. I’m not sure. He handles the finances.”

  “You’re lucky. I’m not sure my parents have ever given me more than bus fare. And that was just to get me out of the house.”

  Rhea’s laugh was throaty and sensual. She had a beautiful smile, full and strong with straight white teeth. And in that moment, I saw an entirely different woman than the one I’d met with Mike the other night.

  “You and Halsey were friends?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” She nodded. “We were good friends. I loved her company and I think she felt the same way. We planted a garden last year.” She pointed to a small square of dirt where sparse weeds and decaying leaves flourished. “I didn’t have the heart to start it again this spring once I knew they were leaving.”

  “Sounds like you’ll miss her.”

  “I will, very much even though I didn’t get to see her very often anymore. Ellen didn’t like her to come over here. In the beginning, when we’d first moved in we got together quite a lot, but after…”

  Her voice trailed off and she looked at me as though she’d lost her train of thought or maybe just didn’t want to continue. I waited to see if she was going to explain about her son’s disappearance.

  “Ellen and I were good friends and our…I mean Halsey came over a lot, but after…after a while,
I guess they made other friends. I didn’t see them much. They always seemed to have other plans. Occasionally she’d let Halsey come over, but I don’t think Mitch liked it.”

  “Why not?”

  She shrugged. “He and Mike didn’t have much in common. Ellen and I connected right away, but…I guess it takes longer for men.”

  She didn’t elaborate, and I let it go…for now. “So, that’s how the path came to be?”

  Rhea let go with her rich, warm laugh again and I found myself smiling just hearing it.

  “Yeah, Ellen and I cleared it together early on and then Halsey and I maintained it. She’d come over in the morning and we’d pack a lunch and go outside to work. We’d take a break at noontime and sit in the dirt and eat. I think she loved doing that. What kid doesn’t like to play in the dirt?”

  “What changed Ellen’s mind?”

  Rhea shrugged. “I don’t know. She just seemed to get uncomfortable.”

  I sat silently for a moment wondering if I should push her but decided against it. There was plenty of time to dig. “Maybe she was jealous of the fact that Halsey liked being with you.”

  Rhea looked into my eyes and smiled. “Yeah,” she said. “Maybe that was it.”

  “I’m sorry. Sometimes I shoot my mouth off a little more than I should. Well, make that a lot more. Comes with the job.”

  “It’s okay. Mike does the same thing. I understand. Anyway, it’s nice to have someone to talk to again.”

  Griff emerged from the same path we’d taken. “There you are. Peggy thought she’d seen you disappear into the trees.” He nodded to Rhea. “Nice to see you again.”

  “Tea?” she asked raising her glass.

  “Not this time. I think we’re ready to go, Britt. Everything looks good.”

  I stood. “Thanks for the tea.”

  “It’s the first of many, I hope,” Rhea said.

  I smiled. “Definitely.”