Leann Sweeney - The Cat, the Wife and the Weapon

“Somewhere between here and Woodcrest.” She scribbled notes on her clipboard. “Should be able to check the timing if we find the guy in the U-Haul. Must be you hit your head bad enough to get a concussion along the highway. You’re sure you don’t have a clue how it happened?”

Tom sighed heavily. “Candace, he’s told you what he knows. Give the kid a break.”

“I have one more request,” she said. “Fingerprints. Then y’all can leave.”

Tom nodded. “Knew that was coming. Let’s get it over with, then.”

“Be right back.” Candace left the room.

“That wasn’t too bad, was it?” I said.

“She didn’t keep on about my mother and Nolan, so I guess not,” he answered.

Tom said, “I hate to tell you this, but you’re gonna have to be more specific about why you left home sooner or later. Your mother was in with Chief Baca when Candace and I came back here with the gun. Hilary probably said plenty, not much of it true.”

“Do you know how long she’d been here?” I said.

“When Candace and I arrived with the gun, B.J. told me she’d been waiting around for almost an hour before she went in to talk to Chief Baca.” He turned to Finn. “Mike only has her version of why you ran, even though he was here last night and knows exactly what I think of my ex and her dead husband. My advice is to set Candace straight in as much detail as possible. But not yet. First I want to find out what cards Hilary’s already played. Mike will tell Candace and she can fill us in.”

Finn nodded solemnly.

Candace reentered the room holding what looked like a smartphone. Turned out it was a portable fingerprint scanner—a new evidence tool. No wonder she seemed happy. Candace loved anything to do with evidence. She was just finishing up with Finn’s prints when we heard a female voice, one I recognized immediately.

“Oh no.” Tom rubbed between his eyes with his thumb and index finger.

But Finn’s expression brightened. “Is that Nana Karen?”

Finn rushed from the interrogation room and the rest of us followed. He flew through the gate dividing the hall from the front office and into the arms of Karen Stewart—Tom’s mother.

From their tight embrace, I could tell Karen clearly adored this kid and he seemed to love her, too.

Tom, who was standing next to me, said, “I should have fought for custody even though I wasn’t his real dad. He deserved more moments like this.”

“Is there any other family—like his biological father?” I asked

“Good question,” Candace said as she scrolled through the fingerprints she’d just scanned in. “Has he ever been in the picture?”

Karen placed her hands on either side of Finn’s face and started asking him questions. They were in their own world. I’d never seen her smile so big.

Tom said, “The father’s name is Rory Gannon. Hilary once told me he’s mentally ill. When he was institutionalized, she divorced him, took Finn and got as far from him as her money would take her.”

“You ever meet him?” I said.

“Nope. He never paid child support. Never showed his face. A phantom. As far as I knew, she was a single mom, with a fantastic kid, who deserved better than an uninvolved ex-husband.”

Candace said, “I have to send these prints to the crime lab, but I have more questions for you, Tom.”

He sighed heavily. “About what? I want to help, but I’m tired and I know you are, too.”

“I need to know more about what went on between you and Nolan Roth.” She started to walk down the hall away from us. Over her shoulder she said, “See, I just talked to the chief. He said Mrs. Roth claimed to know nothing about Nolan making you drive to North Carolina and the dustup between you and Roth.”

“You don’t believe her, right?” Tom said.

Candace stopped and turned back. “I’d say those bruises on your face are enough evidence for me. But to satisfy the chief, who seems quite charmed by your ex-wife, by the way, I need more details with a time line, Tom. Right now, I’ve got evidence to examine. So go on, all of you. Get some rest. I know where to find you.”

She walked to the end of the hall and disappeared into the office across from Chief Baca’s.

Tom’s face had gone red with anger. “Hilary knows exactly what happened in North Carolina. I’m sure she planned the whole thing.”

I rested a hand on his arm. “Listen, you’re exhausted. Come to my house and just… relax for an hour or two.” Even as I said the words I knew he couldn’t. The man I thought I’d known so well—a man always in control, strong, kind, generous—was showing a side I’d never seen. The past had come back to throttle him and he was angry, worried and confused.

“Thanks, Jillian, but right now—”

“I understand. Please know I’m with you all the way. Anything you need, well… anything . I’ll do what I can.”

He squeezed my hand. “Right now, I need to talk to my mother. Any help you can give me with her would be much appreciated. She likes you.”

We walked hand in hand through the squeaky wooden gate and joined Finn and the woman he called Nana.

Karen Stewart, in her late sixties, wore a gray coat and her familiar black cloche hat. She was no longer coloring her dark hair. Silver and black strands escaped the hat and curled on her forehead and temples.

She addressed me, not Tom. “Look where I find my boys. In the police station, of all places. What should I do with these troublemakers, Jillian?”

“Tough question,” I said. “I’d say a meal might be in order. Can we discuss this over lunch at the diner?”

Finn’s eyes lit up.

I added, “An eighteen-year-old needs more than toast and milk—which is about all Finn’s eaten today.”

“Let’s fix that,” Tom said.

The Main Street Diner turned out to be exactly what Finn needed. He looked happy for the first time since I’d met him. The three of us watched him put away fries, three of the diner’s famous Texas chili dogs and a root beer float. Karen seemed as cheerful as he was as she nibbled on a salad and drank hot tea.

I still didn’t understand why neither she nor Tom had ever mentioned a kid they both obviously loved, but each family has their own way of dealing with problems. After I’d finished my hamburger, I decided to quit wondering and bring up the subject.

“I was so surprised to meet Finn,” I said. “You all care a lot about each other.”

“We do, but Finnian’s home situation has not always allowed us to visit with each other,” Karen said. “Especially after Mr. Roth was released from prison last year. I suspect Thomas said nothing to you previously, Jillian. He certainly wouldn’t engage me in conversation about what to do concerning Finn’s home situation.”

“This has been a little surprising,” I said.

Tom cleared his throat. “I—I felt frozen by the system, what with Finn still being a minor and all. I’d chat with him online and then put away my thoughts. See, I know what Hilary’s capable of. Maybe I was being paranoid, but I believed even mentioning him to anyone I knew might somehow get back to her and she’d find a way to completely shut me out of his life. But now that Finn is eighteen, things will be different.”

Finn said, “Nolan was just as bad as Mom. He wouldn’t let me talk to Nana Karen or Tom. I did anyway, though. He just didn’t know.”

Didn’t know until you disappeared and Nolan checked your computer, I thought. “Was Mr. Roth so upset with Tom for sending him to jail he decided to punish all of you this way?”

Finn swiped his last three French fries through a puddle of ketchup. “That’s about right.”