Brian Freeman - Goodbye to the Dead (Jonathan Stride Book 7)

That was when she’d met Al. He came home late, exhausted from his second job at the Anchor. She remembered the smile on his face when he saw the walls all white and clean. It was something new in a house that didn’t see many new things. She remembered the look in his eyes when he saw her, too. Men usually looked at her like a lion looks at food. Al’s eyes were different. He didn’t assume that she was for sale. He didn’t even notice the little pooch that said she was pregnant. He’d looked at her with a sense of wonder, as if she were the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen in his life. Cat — tired, dusty, with flecks of white paint in her hair and on her golden skin — saw that look and fell in love with him right then and there.

She was such a fool.

Al’s mother wandered into the living room from the kitchen and handed Cat a can of warm Mountain Dew. The woman fell into a corner of the sofa that was nearest the recliner. ‘Silence. Isn’t that grand? Everybody’s finally asleep.’

Cat sipped the pop and smiled nervously. ‘It’s not like that a lot, huh?’

‘No, hardly ever. Except late at night like this. Mostly, it’s jabber jabber jabber.’ She put a hand gently on the wall behind her. ‘Gotta tell you again how sweet that was of you to paint this place. Real nice.’

‘It was nothing,’ Cat said. She wasn’t looking for praise for painting the house. Right now, she wanted to forget all about it.

Al’s mother was friendly, but her eyes weren’t naive. She sized up Cat like a butcher who didn’t need a scale to know how much ground beef was in her hand. ‘Is Al the daddy?’ she asked, pointing at her bump.

‘Oh, no, he’s not.’

‘I’m glad to hear it.’

The woman took short, shallow breaths, but despite her emphysema, Cat caught an aroma of cigarette smoke on her clothes. It was hard to stay away from the things you shouldn’t touch.

‘How old are you, Cat?’ she asked.

‘Seventeen.’

‘I had Al around the same age. Believe me, I know the drill. Is the daddy still in the picture?’

‘No, he and I aren’t together,’ Cat said. She wasn’t going to tell the truth about her baby’s father and the life she’d led before. It didn’t matter. Somehow she had a feeling that Al’s mother was shrewd enough to figure her out.

‘I don’t envy you what you’ve got ahead. It’ll be tough. No point in pretending otherwise. Me, I was lucky. My man stuck with me.’

‘I want the baby,’ Cat insisted.

‘Good for you, but if you’re thinking about my boy as your meal ticket—’

‘I’m not.’

‘Hey, I don’t blame you if that’s what’s in your head.’

‘It isn’t.’

Cat didn’t know if Al’s mother believed her, or if she even believed it herself. She thought that she was in love with him, but she was scared, and scared people can convince themselves of lots of things. Al was cute. Nice. Hard-working. Respectful.

And he’d slept with Anna.

Damn it, damn it, damn it.

‘I just need to talk to him,’ Cat said.

His mother eyed her. ‘What’d Al do?’

Cat looked at her hands in her lap. ‘Nothing.’

‘Girl shows up at my house late at night and wants to talk to my boy? Come on, you might as well tell me. Otherwise, I’ll get it out of him myself.’

‘I should go,’ Cat said. ‘It was a mistake to come here.’

‘Do what you want, sweetheart.’

Cat tried to get up on her own and couldn’t. She pushed, but her body sank back into the recliner. The effort made her cry. Emotion gushed out of her like water through a broken hose. ‘He slept with my best friend!’ she wailed, feeling like a child.

Al’s mother sighed. She didn’t look surprised, but she waited for Cat to get control of herself and wipe her face before she said anything. ‘I’m sorry to hear that. I thought I raised my son better than that. You want me to talk to him?’

‘No.’

‘Well, I’ll talk to him anyway. I expect more from that boy.’

Cat sniffled. ‘I’m sorry. I should go. I don’t even know why I came here.’

‘No, you sit there and wait. Al always gets home about now. You give him hell, girl. He deserves it. And when you’re done with him, he’ll have to answer to me, too. But don’t misunderstand me, okay? I don’t approve of you and him. I’m not in favor. He can’t support you and your baby. He’s got other things to do with his life.’

Cat said nothing. She was miserable, and all she wanted to do was leave, but she heard the noise of a truck door outside. Al was home. Suddenly, Cat didn’t want to see him. It would hurt too much, because she hated him, and she loved him. Then the door opened, and there he was, looking startled to see her sitting there with his mother. He stood in the doorway, not moving, and his mother shoved herself off the sofa. She clucked her tongue at her son and then slapped him in the face.

Al rubbed his stinging cheek as his mother turned on her heels and left them alone. ‘What was that about?’ he said. ‘Why’d she do that?’

‘You know why.’

Al sat down on the sofa, looking like a deer frozen by car lights. ‘What’s going on? I’m sorry I haven’t called you. I’ve been busy.’

‘You’ve sure been busy,’ Cat said. ‘Anna told me what happened.’

Al swallowed hard and closed his eyes. He looked as if he’d begun to sweat through every pore simultaneously. ‘Oh, shit.’

‘All that talk. “It’s okay to wait, Cat. I want it to feel right for you. We don’t need to have sex.” Nothing but talk.’

‘Cat, I’m really sorry,’ he insisted. ‘It was one time, and it was a mistake. I never meant for anything to happen. I was over at the Grizzly Bear talking to Fred, and Anna’s car crapped out. So I took her home.’

‘You took her home and fucked her,’ Cat snapped.

Al took hold of his head with both hands. ‘Look, what do you want me to say? It just happened! She said, how about a drink? I figured, what the hell, one drink. Next thing I knew, we’d finished off a six-pack, and we started making out. It was stupid. You have to believe me, I don’t care about Anna. I care about you. I love you. You wanted me to say it? There, I said it.’

‘Yeah, because it means so much to me now,’ Cat snapped.

‘How can I make this right?’ Al asked.

‘You can’t. You can drive me home, and you can keep your mouth shut the whole way, and then you can go away and leave me alone. I don’t ever want to see you again. I wish I’d never met you.’

‘Cat, please—’

She pushed against the arms of the recliner, but she still couldn’t get up. Al jumped to his feet, took her hands gently, and helped her. As soon as she was standing, she pushed him away, not wanting him to touch her. His arms dropped uncomfortably to his sides, as if he had no place to put them.

‘I made a mistake,’ he repeated. ‘People make mistakes.’

‘Take me home,’ she muttered.

He yanked his keys from his pocket. She made her way to the front door, and he followed her silently. His head was hung low in shame. He felt bad, and she was glad. All she wanted to do now was hurt him. Punish him. Having Al betray her was worse than anything else, because she’d begun to count on him being there for her. He’d let her think that a boy could be with her for who she was and forget about who she’d been.

Instead, he’d proven what she always believed.

Nothing good ever lasted.

Stride studied the photograph of the opaque black pearl enrobed in twines of white gold. The ring was unmistakable. Once upon a time, Janine Snow had worn it on the third finger of her right hand. He’d seen a photograph of her from a hospital ball a decade earlier, adorned in matching black pearl jewelry and a revealing sequined burgundy cocktail dress. The night of Jay’s murder, according to Janine, this very ring had been stolen from her bedroom by the man who killed her husband.