The Cat, the Wife and the Weapon

Twenty-Seven

Yoshi dashed through the door and jumped right into my lap. Good thing I’d managed to set the coffee down before his enthusiastic hello. He licked my face and his tail went crazy with happiness at seeing me. I wrapped my arms around the dog and held him close.

He allowed this for a few seconds and then rushed back to Finn. He did his jack-in-the-box routine until Finn held out his arms.

Clutching the dog close, Finn said, “Guess his foot is fine now. I can be on my way.”

He wouldn’t meet my gaze.

Allison said, “I put some antibiotic ointment with a tad of anesthetic on the abrasion between his toes, Finn. When it wears off, Yoshi will feel the pain in his foot again.”

Finn looked at the floor and said a quiet, “Oh.”

Allison rose. “Listen, man. I’ve been happy to help you out with Yoshi twice. Now it’s your turn to do me a favor. Sit here in my office and talk to Jillian. She’s the best friend you’ll ever have and she’ll always be straight with you.”

Allison walked over and tugged Finn by the upper arm, leading him to her ripped and worn office chair. “Sit. Yoshi knows how to obey that particular command and so should you.”

She left us then, going through the door leading to the examining room and the kennels and cat cubicle room beyond.

Still hanging on to Yoshi, Finn said, “Are you pissed off at me?”

I smiled. “Never. I’m confused, though. Why did you leave?”

“My mother came to your house while y’all were gone. She started shouting things and putting on her hysterical act. The one where she pretends I’m the only person in the world who matters to her.”

So she did do exactly what she said while waiting outside my house. “Did you ever consider she might be telling you the truth?”

Finn bit his upper lip and for the first time, even though he’d been through so much, tears filled his eyes. “No one except Tom believes me. Don’t you get it? She doesn’t care about me. Never has. A kid knows.”

I sat back and took in the pain now etching his features. This sweet kid knew better than I ever would exactly who his mother was. “I get it. I truly get it. Question is, where do we go from here?”

“If I leave,” he said with almost scary resolution, “if I get out of everyone’s way, there’ll be no more fighting, no more screaming through doors. If you think last night was the first time she ever yelled at me through a locked door… well, you’d be wrong.”

“When moms aren’t so good at being mothers, they sure know how to push our buttons,” I said. “Maybe it’s time you disconnected the switch.”

He stared at me for several seconds and I saw the resolve to run away, the defense he’d used to cope more than once, transform into something different. Was I seeing his burgeoning knowledge there might be another way to deal with harsh realities and how unfair the world can be?

“You sound like you know what you’re talking about—maybe from experience?” he said.

“You’re perceptive. I’ll tell you about my life one day. I was raised by my grandparents and it’s complicated. As for now, folks are worried about you,” I said.

“I know. Tom and Nana,” he said. “I didn’t mean to upset them. I just knew my mother would have her way. I’ll probably end up back in North Carolina with her, won’t I?”

“Why? You’re an adult now. You can make your own decisions,” I said.

Yoshi’s ears pricked and he looked toward the ceiling. He’d noticed the parrot and barked several times in succession.

Snug answered with, “What a good dog. What a good dog.”

I’m sure Snug had heard those words plenty of times around here.

Finn stared up in surprise. Guess he hadn’t been introduced to Snug. “Whoa. That bird is so dope.”

“His name is Snug,” I said.

“Snug’s a pretty bird,” the parrot replied at the mention of his name.

“This would be a cool place to come, maybe volunteer,” Finn said.

“I like your thinking. I know Tom and Karen would be so happy if you stayed in Mercy. It might involve some kind of pact about not scaring them to death by running off into the night, though.”

Finn looked contrite. “I would promise not to run—and keep my promise. I guess running away is for ten-year-olds, huh?”

“There is one problem,” I said.

“What?” Finn seemed wary again.

“You were probably at Tom’s place around the time of your biological father’s murder. The police need to talk to you about it.”

“I figured as much,” he said.

“Did you see Rory Gannon in Tom’s backyard?” I asked.

“N-no,” he answered.

For the first time, I knew Finn was lying. Knew it as sure as I knew my own name. I placed my forearms on Allison’s desk and leaned toward Finn. “You can tell me. Please, trust me. I can’t help you if you don’t tell me the truth.”

Finn released a heavy sigh. “All right, he was standing there when I went outside. Just standing like a scarecrow or something. Freaked me out.”

“What did you do?” I asked quietly. He couldn’t have harmed Gannon. I was certain he couldn’t.

“We stared at each other for what seemed like forever,” Finn replied. “Then he said, ‘I have to tell you something. It’s real important.’”

“What did he tell you?” I said.

“Nothing. I was… okay, afraid. I told him Tom needed to hear whatever it was he had to say and I was going to get him. That’s when he took off.”

“Did you tell Tom about this?” I asked.

“No. He was in such a good mood. We were having a great time and I only went out in his backyard for a minute. He has this creek running along his backyard and I wanted to see if there were fish in there.” Finn hung his head. “Did I have something to do with getting the guy killed?”

“Of course not,” I said. “Did he happen to show you anything—like your phone, maybe?”

“My phone? The one I lost?” Finn said.

“Yes. See, the police found your phone in his pocket when they searched his body. I thought maybe you’d had contact with Gannon at some point and he took your phone or—”

“Why would you think something like that? He creeped me out.” Finn was getting agitated, but I had to plow through all this before I took him to town for a meeting with Candace.

“Here’s the problem,” I said. “They looked at your call log and apparently you phoned Mr. Gannon at the halfway house where he was living before you hitched rides to Mercy.”

Finn pulled Yoshi closer and started shaking his head. “No way. I never called him. Sure, I found out where he was living. Thought about contacting him, but—”

“How did you find him?” I asked.

“Internet search,” he said. “Rory Gannon’s not a name like John Smith. Pretty easy search to get results for his name. I found newspaper archives about what he’d done to a police officer a long time ago. I’d thought about contacting him. See, once I decided I couldn’t live with Mom and Nolan anymore, I thought he might want me. But I swear, after I read what he’d done, I knew he was probably a worse choice than staying at home.”

I considered this for a few seconds and then said, “Did you delete the search about Gannon from your computer?”

“If you know anything about computers, you know you can never really delete anything completely. Why?”

I couldn’t talk around it anymore. “Nolan searched your computer. He was probably checking it regularly. Pretty much spying on you.”

“No way. The guy was a complete luddite. He wouldn’t know how to get by my password.” But after a moment of thought, I saw Finn’s expression transform from scorn to understanding. “Unless he figured it out because he knew where I got Yoshi’s name. My password was from a Mario Brothers game, and since Nolan ended up in this town he must have figured it out and discovered I e-mailed Tom saying I was thinking about coming to Mercy. No firm plans—just considering it. Maybe that pissed Nolan off.”

I nodded in agreement. “And made him head straight for Mercy when you disappeared. So the password had something to do with the Mario Brothers game? I can see how he might have figured it out.”

“Yup. So he came here and ended up dying in Tom’s car,” Finn said. “Why in Tom’s car, though?”

“Because he drove Tom’s Prius from North Carolina,” I said.

“Huh?” Finn squinted at me, completely confused.

“Candace found a text luring you to the Prius. See, Nolan had Tom’s phone. We know you were injured in the car and now we know how you got there.”

Finn said, “I might have gotten into Tom’s car willingly, huh? Pretty stupid thing to do.

“But even though I hated Nolan, I didn’t shoot him. Deputy Carson hasn’t changed her mind about that, has she? Or does she think I’m guilty of something because I ran?”

“No, she hasn’t changed her mind,” I said. “She knows you were sitting next to Nolan in the car. What we think happened is that Rory Gannon came upon the accident, or more likely caused the accident. He knocked you out and killed Nolan while you were sitting right there and unconscious. Then he took your phone and wallet. He probably didn’t even know who you were until he opened up your wallet and saw your ID.”

The color drained from Finn’s face. “My father could have killed me. Instead, he tried to frame me by putting the gun in my backpack. Did he keep trying to find me afterward to confess because he felt guilty for setting me up?”

I blinked, thinking this was quite possible. “As far as what he wanted to tell you the day he was murdered? I have no idea.”

Finn’s eyes were closed and he was shaking his head. Yoshi sensed his rising anguish and licked his face. Finally Finn said, “I still don’t understand. Why was Nolan in Tom’s car? They hated each other. Or was Tom there, too?”

“Tom was with me. See, there’s more you don’t know, mostly because Tom has been protecting you, afraid for you to hear what Nolan did to him.”

“He’s not here to protect me now, so tell me,” Finn said.

I did, including all the details about Nolan strong-arming Tom, making him drive to North Carolina. Finn’s eyes stayed wide the whole time I talked. When I finished, I said, “Let me ask you this. Did you know about a large amount of money your mother and Nolan might have wanted to get their hands on?”

Finn said, “Tom and I have a bank account together. Did Nolan beat up Tom to get the money?”

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “How much money did you and Tom have in the account he set up for you?”

“Four thousand, three hundred twenty-nine dollars after what we took out yesterday. See, I needed a new cell, so we stopped at the bank for cash. I never got a chance to buy one, though.”

Yoshi began to squirm and Finn released his hold on the dog. He jumped down and began sniffing around the office.

I said, “I’m not sure a few thousand dollars would have brought Nolan to town,” I said.

“What money are you talking about, then?” he said.

“I’m not sure,” I said. Not sure it was my place to tell him how much money Karen had saved up for him. “Let me ask you this. During the time before you ran away, could Nolan or your mother have made a call to Rory Gannon using your phone?”

“Why would they?” he asked.

Why indeed.