John Lescroart - Nothing But The Truth

The bare-bones explanation took less than a minute. It was a misunderstanding about some point of Ron Beaumont’s alibi on the morning of his wife’s death, and somehow Frannie had gotten in the middle of it.

‘But that’s terrible! She’s not under any kind of suspicion herself I hope?’

‘There’s no sign of that so far.’

Mrs Wilson read between the lines of that. ‘So how long might this continue? Until they let Frannie out of jail?’

A shrug, downplaying the drama of it. ‘Best case, it might only be a couple of days. She thinks Ron Beaumont’s gone camping or something with his kids and when he gets back and finds out what’s going on with her, he’ll come in and straighten out the whole mess.’

‘But you don’t think that?’

‘No.’

‘What do you think?’

‘I don’t know if Ron killed his wife, but my guess is he started to feel some heat from the police investigation and decided to take his kids and run.’

‘But I thought…’ She paused.

Hardy read her mind. ‘The alibi with Frannie was solid, but evidently the time of death opened another door. He thought he was going to be arrested. At least that’s my opinion.’ He leaned back into the chair’s cushion. ‘And it’s why I’ve come here to you.’

She looked him a question.

‘I realize you’re probably not allowed to give out any information about your students, but I was hoping you might be able to tell me if you know I’m wrong.’

‘How would I?’

‘Well, say, if the Beaumont kids have been in school the last couple of days, if Ron’s given some kind of excuse…’ Hardy gave her a weary smile. ‘It looks like he’s moved out of his home, probably Tuesday afternoon. I’d like to know if you’ve heard anything from him since then.’

As he expected, she was torn between his dilemma and her duties as principal. ‘Ron Beaumont is a wonderful man, Mr Hardy. He volunteered here all the time. Really. I don’t believe he’s any part of this either.’

But that wasn’t Hardy’s dilemma. He had to give it more urgency. ‘Please, Mrs Wilson. I want to be clear that I’m not asking you to tell me where he is, if you know. Also, if you’re protecting the children, OK, I understand. They must be having a rough go of it no matter what’s happening. But if you’ve heard nothing, then I think that increases the chances that Ron is on the run, either that or’ – a sudden, new possibility – ‘or something’s happened to him.’ He stopped, elbows on knees, hands spread. ‘Please,’ he repeated. ‘If I don’t find him, Frannie stays in jail.’

After an excruciating minute, Mrs Wilson stood up and crossed to her desk, where she reached over, grabbed at a folder, opened it, and withdrew a sheet of paper. Another beat of hesitation. She turned around, crossed back to Hardy, and handed him the paper.

‘I’m really not allowed to discuss any details of the children’s lives without the parents’ consent, as I know you understand.’

It was a list of about twenty names under the heading ‘Absentees’ and the day’s date. There were asterisks next to four of the names, and two of them were Beaumont. There was also the number three in parentheses, which Hardy took to mean number of days running. At the bottom of the page, an asterisk indicated that the absence was unexcused.

Mrs Wilson hadn’t heard a thing. The children were gone without a trace.

‘You don’t think something’s happened to Mr Beaumont and his children, too, do you? Maybe the person who murdered his wife…?’ A startled expression at the unthinkable that had just surfaced. ‘You don’t think it could have been him after all, do you?’

‘I sure hope not, Mrs Wilson. Let’s not think that, OK?’

Hardy was waiting by the curb outside Merryvale when the bell rang to end the school day. Vincent was in the car almost before Hardy saw him. Ginger-haired after his mother and freckly, he was the all-American ten-year-old boy. ‘Where’s Mom now? Why are you here?’

He was sure that his son didn’t mean it to sound so accusatory, so unwelcoming, but there it was. He’d better deal with it, since he had a feeling it was going to get worse after his daughter arrived. Rebecca had developed an impressive knack of late, pushing his buttons, not letting anything go.

Driving down on his way to the school, he’d decided how he’d break the news, on his precise phrasing. ‘Your mother’s down at the jail.’ This had a decidedly familiar ring in the family – since Hardy himself was often visiting clients who were behind bars, his children were accustomed to hearing the words. They wouldn’t, by themselves, produce trauma. He hoped.

And when he tried them on Vincent, they seemed to go down well enough. ‘What for?’ he asked, still calm.

Hardy went for the noble spin. ‘They wanted her to tell a secret that she’d promised not to, and now-’

‘Where’s Mom?’ Rebecca had the back door open, throwing backpack and lunch pail into the car in front of her. ‘She promised she’d be helping paint our class’s Hallowe’en booth – she promised - and it was today and-’

‘Beck, hold it! Hold it.’

‘She’s at the jail,’ Vincent piped into the silence. He appeared to be delighted with the news, and definitely happy to be the one to break it. Finally he got to tell his sister something she didn’t know.

Although for a moment it didn’t register. ‘Well, she promised me first . There were two other moms waiting and waiting and she didn’t even call and so here I am with my friends and their moms showed up, and I’m all embarrassed-’

Hardy snapped his fingers and pointed directly at her. ‘Stop it! Right now!’ His daughter glared sullenly back at him. ‘Did you hear what your brother just said?’

She turned to Vincent, easier pickings. ‘What?’ she snapped.

‘Never mind anyway.’ Power play of the fourth graders.

Hardy thought he’d better get driving so he wasn’t tempted to thrash his children right there in front of the school where everybody would see.

The Beck’s teasing, na-na-na voice. ‘I don’t care. I heard you anyway.’

‘Oh yeah? So what did I say, braceface?’

‘Vincent!’

‘You said she was in jail, stupid.’

This brought the wail. ‘Da-ad! You heard that. The Beck just called me stupid.’

‘ He called me braceface first.’

‘Tin grin!’

In the back seat, something was thrown, something connected. Vincent was screaming and swinging.

‘Hey, hey, hey!’ Hardy knew his face had gone crimson. Somehow he’d pulled over to the curb again and turned around in his seat, at the top of his voice. ‘Stop this stupid, stupid bickering and fighting. Stop it right now!’ Another finger pointed, this time at Vincent. ‘And don’t tell me I’m not supposed to say “stupid.” This is stupid! Don’t you two ever think about anything but yourselves? I said your mother’s in jail, and you’re screaming at each other about nothing , just to hear yourselves scream.’

‘You’re the one screaming.’ The Beck had self-righteous indignation down to a fine art. She was right and that was just too bad for the rest of humanity.

‘You didn’t say “ in jail ,” ’ Vincent wailed as hysteria mounted. More tears broke. ‘You said she was down at the jail, not in jail.’

So much for Plan A.

At last, Rebecca seemed to hear. ‘Mom’s in jail? What do you mean, in jail? How could Mom be in jail?’

Vincent: ‘When does she get out? What did she do? Are we ever going to see her again?’

Now they were both crying.

‘Daddy,’ Beck asked, anguish through her tears. ‘How could you let this happen?’