The Cat, the Wife and the Weapon

Twenty-Two

“Who are you talking about?” I asked Karen.

“The man who died. Finn’s biological father,” she said.

The interrogation room door opened and Tom appeared. Candace was right behind him.

“What are you doing here, Mom?” Tom said, walking toward us.

She looked up at Tom. “That man came to see me right after Hilary and Bob left my house this afternoon. I know I should have said something when I found out he’d died, but I didn’t and I should have and—”

Tom took his mother in his arms and she wept into his shoulder.

“Hey,” he said. “It’s all right. You’re here now. You can tell us, but first you have to stop crying.”

She blew into a tissue she’d been clutching and composed herself so quickly I wondered how truly tearful she’d just been. “When I found myself in my car on the way to the nearest bar I knew I was in trouble. I came here instead.”

“You need to call someone from AA, Mom?” Tom said quietly.

“No. I have to tell Candace everything I know. Please, all of you”—she glanced around at Candace, Liam and me—“you have to hear me out.”

Candace raised her eyebrows and I could read a hint of amusement in her expression. “Do I have to read you your rights, Mrs. Stewart?” Karen’s jaw sagged in surprise. “Oh, my sweet good Lord, no. This is just information you should have. Something I should have said right off the bat. I was so surprised to find out the man was dead, well—”

Candace put her arm around Karen. “Let’s go into this room right here and we can talk. There isn’t enough space to fit another person’s shadow out here.”

“Can Tom and Jillian stay with me? Please?” she pleaded.

“You need moral support?” Candace said.

“I suppose. See, whenever I go to AA, the room is full,” Karen said. “One on one is so very difficult for me. It’s not like I have a whole lot to say but maybe if I’d listened better to what the man was saying, he might not be dead right now.”

“Come on in here, then—all of you. Mr. Brennan, would you mind helping out, too?” Candace said. “Might as well make it like one of her meetings.”

“Be my pleasure,” he said.

While the rest of us took seats around the old table in the interrogation room, Liam remained standing in the corner, arms crossed.

Candace said, “What time did Mr. Gannon come to visit you?”

Karen started pulling her tissue apart. “Maybe two o’clock this afternoon? Maybe as late as two thirty?”

“Why didn’t you call me?” Tom said.

Candace stared over at Tom. “Have you decided to apply for police chief next year and need to try out your rusty interrogation techniques?” I was sitting next to him and placed a hand on his knee. I felt the tension in his body and it didn’t let up, even when he said, “I know, I know. I didn’t mean to interrupt. I’ll shut up.”

Candace looked at Karen. “Since you’d already had an unpleasant meeting with Mr. Gannon where I had to pay a visit to your house, why did you even talk to this man?”

“He was different this time, Candace. Nice, even,” Karen said. “I let him in.”

I glanced down and saw Tom’s hand balled in a fist in his lap. Was he thinking about what might have happened to his mother after she let an unstable man into her house? Or did he think Karen had something to do with Gannon’s death?

“In the hall,” Liam said in a soft voice, “you mentioned you needed to tell us what he said. Is that what has you so rattled now?”

She nodded. “I could tell the man was troubled. Maybe not quite right in the head, though not in a vicious way like before. He kept saying he was sorry. He had to make things right. I’ve been in the ‘sorry’ boat on a rocky sea myself. I asked him what he wanted to apologize for and he told me no one would let him near his son, which didn’t really answer my question.” Karen looked at the ceiling. “He said—let me get the words exactly right—‘The phone call started everything.’”

I swallowed hard and moved my hand over Tom’s cold fist.

Candace, seated on my other side, leaned toward Karen. “A phone call from who?”

“Why Finn, of course. Who else could he be talking about?” Karen said.

Candace seemed to ponder this while Liam tried to clarify by saying, “The exact words were the phone call, not Finn’s phone call?”

“He was talking about Finn before, so I simply assumed he meant Finn. Then the man just got up and left. When I learned he was dead, I guess I was afraid for my grandson. But Finn would never hurt anyone. He’s had such a difficult time. Then Hilary called looking for Finn again—right after Deputy Rodriguez brought me home from Tom’s house.”

Tom said, “What did you tell Hilary, Mom?”

Candace sighed, but she didn’t interrupt with another warning.

“I didn’t tell Hilary anything—well, except about the body poor Jillian found,” Karen said.

“You never told her where Finn is staying?” Tom said.

“No. I knew you wouldn’t want me to. Besides, she hung up so abruptly and—”

Candace said, “You honestly believe Mrs. Roth has no idea Finn is at Jillian’s house? She’d already seen him there once.”

Tom cleared his throat. “Since I’m done giving my statement, I’m out of here.” He almost made it to the door, but Liam stepped in his path.

“I’ll drive,” he said, looking Tom straight in the eye. “We were about to head to Jillian’s to talk to Finn anyway.”

“We’ll compromise. I’ll follow you,” Tom replied.

“Wait.” Candace stood. “Call Finn. We need to ask him if his mother’s been there or called the house.”

I smiled at Candace, grateful for her sounding so in control, for not racing out of here as if the world was on fire. I took my phone out of my pocket with a shaky hand and dialed my landline number—and let it ring until the answering machine picked up. “Finn? If you’re there, could you pick up?” I waited and he didn’t answer. “Listen, if you get this message, I’m on my way home now.” I disconnected and looked at Candace. “Let me check the cat cam, too. Maybe he fell asleep watching TV.” With Candace looking over my shoulder, I saw that all the rooms on my feed—the foyer, living room, kitchen and my sewing room—were empty. No Finn, no Yoshi and not a cat to be seen. Now I was more nervous than ever.

“We need to head over to your house.” Candace then looked at Karen. “But, Mrs. Stewart, would you mind returning home in case Finn calls you there?”

“I’ll do whatever you think is best,” she said.

Since both Tom and I had driven on our own to the police station—only Bob came in Rodriguez’s squad car—Tom’s work van and my minivan were right on Candace’s bumper as she and Liam sped toward my home. Could Hilary have convinced Finn to talk to her? Open the door? Even go somewhere with her? I doubted it, but in the courthouse parking lot before we’d taken off, Tom seemed to think it was possible. He’d said, “She is his mother. Kids love their mother no matter what.”

When we pulled onto my block, a dark-colored sedan was parked in the street in front of my house, a car I didn’t recognize.

Candace had pulled up beside it while Tom and I drove into my driveway. We both walked back down the drive to see who Candace and Liam were talking to in the sedan.

My stomach lurched. Hilary Roth was out of the car and conversing with them. As we joined them, I could see tears glistening on her cheeks in the moonlight.

When she saw Tom, she addressed him. “I only wanted to talk to him. I called through the door, I begged him to let me in.”

“He wouldn’t, would he?” Tom said.

She shook her head. “I went back to the car. I waited. I went back several times hoping he would just say something. Anything. See, I knew he was in there. I just knew.”

Candace said, “You kept talking through the door?”

“Yelling actually,” she said. “So he could hear. He needed to know about Rory. The man was his father, after all.”

“You didn’t yell out the juicy piece of information about his father’s murder by chance?” Tom said angrily.

“I—I did mention Rory died unexpectedly. He had to know. I thought if I told him, he’d open the door. But he didn’t.” She hung her head and sniffled.

This woman’s son ran away and she’d lost her husband all in the last week. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. But Tom was not swayed by her tears or by the fact she’d been parked here for maybe several hours hoping to talk to Finn.

He said, “You may think you’re fooling us with all this fake concern for Finn, but you’re not.” Tom looked at Candace. “Can you make her leave?”

“Why don’t we talk to Finn and see what he wants to do?” Candace said.

Tom said, “Are you kidding me?”

I took his hand and drew him away. His back was to them and I said, “You can’t protect Finn from her forever. With all of us here, what harm can it do to let her see her son?”

“Hilary being in the same room with him is harm done, as far as I’m concerned,” he whispered harshly.

But I could tell by his face he was willing to give a little.

I said, “Finn needs to see his mother’s concern.”

“Jillian, she is not concerned. All you’re seeing is what I call her beautiful facade. This woman has something else in mind, probably something to do with money. She may not love her kid, but she does love money. You’re right, though. With all of us around for support, Finn can decide whether he wants to talk to her or not.”

I turned back to Candace. “I’ll go in first. Tell him we’re here to talk to him, okay?”

We walked around back where I could disengage the security alarm.

And realized it wasn’t set.

Tom stood right behind me and knew this instantly.

“Open the door,” he said, the urgency in his voice alerting Candace.

She grabbed Tom’s arm. “Stand down, Tom. I’ve got this.” She took my keys and unlocked the door—the dead bolt wasn’t locked, just the door—and then Candace went into my house with her weapon drawn.