Kathryn Shay - Tell Me No Lies

“Do they know what happened?”

“Not yet. I wanted to wait to tell them until they could see you in person.

“I’ll stay with you while he gets the girls,” Janey said.

“Oh, okay.”

Dan kissed her nose. “I’m so sorry you have to go through this, honey. I know driving is hard for you. This must be your worst nightmare.”

“I’ll be fine.” She fisted her hands in the lapels of his suit coat. “I’m sorry I’m being such a baby.”

“You’re entitled.” He stood. “Want me to help you get dressed?”

“I’ll do it.” Janey stepped closer to the bed. “Maybe you can take care of the hospital stuff.”

Dan cocked his head and looked puzzled. “Sure.” He squeezed Tessa’s shoulder, and walked out of the cubicle.

When Dan was gone, Janey sat down on the side of the bed and enfolded Tessa in her arms. “Oh, God, Janey, what did I do?”

“You did nothing. Not this time or the last.”

“Yes, yes I did.”

She could still hear the screeching tires and breaking glass. The screams and the sirens.

“Don’t associate the two accidents, honey. They’re unrelated.”

“I was driving this time.”

“I know.”

“I couldn’t live with myself if I hurt someone again.”

“The only person hurt today was you.”

Releasing her sister, Tessa lay back. When she closed her eyes, she could feel the terror creep up on her. “I can’t forget what happened fifteen years ago. This has brought it all back in Technicolor vividness.”

Before Tessa could say anything, the curtain swung back. Dan stood in the entryway.

How much had he heard?

“DOES IT HURT, MOMMY?” Molly cuddled into Tessa on their bed, and Dan watched his wife wince. Sara stood across the room in the safe circle of his arm.

“Yes, sweetie, a little bit.”

“Hey, kiddo,” Dan said to Molly, “I think your snuggling could be a little less fervent today.”

Molly glanced over at him. If it had been Sara, Dan wouldn’t have said anything and let Tessa bear the brunt of her daughter’s enthusiasm. Sara was sensitive and unsure of herself and even a gentle chiding would have made her feel bad.

But Molly was tough. Maybe too tough. “Okay, Daddy.” She drew back, and touched the purple bruises on Tessa’s face. “It looks yucky.”

“I know, Mol. But what’s most important is that nobody was hurt.”

Not today, anyway.

Dan had overheard his wife and Janey talking in the E.R. Once again, he squelched his anxiety that Tessa was keeping something from him. Something important. He’d have to deal with that sooner or later, and he would, but Tessa was at her worst right now and he wasn’t going to force the issue.

Even if secrets were abhorrent to him. Even after he’d made Tessa promise she wouldn’t lie to him, either outright or by omission, as his parents had. She was the one person he’d trusted in his life to be honest with him.

He made sure there was no concern in his voice when he said to the girls, “Are you two ready to eat yet?”

Molly catapulted off the bed. “McDonald’s!” she shouted. “They got a mad-cool slide in the playground now.”

Sara buried her face in his waist. “I don’t want to leave Mom.”

“How about if you visit alone with Mom for a few minutes, then you come with us.”

“Okay.” Letting go of him, Sara crept to the bed and perched on the side.

Molly skipped over to Dan. “Come on, Dad.”

“We’ll go keep Aunt Janey company. Sara, five minutes.”

His little girl nodded. As he left the room hand in hand with Molly, he saw Tessa wince again as Sara, albeit gently, went into her mother’s open embrace.

Janey was fixing iced tea when they came down to the kitchen. “All ready to go?” she asked Dan.

The roses sat on the table, reminding him that it had been their anniversary only a few days ago. Everything had been fine then. Now, his wife was bruised as a boxer, and he’d discovered there was something more to that accident in her past that he didn’t know about.

Molly snitched a cookie from the jar and said, “I’m goin’ outside to wait for you and slowpoke.”

“Go ahead, Mol.”

When she left, Dan watched Janey fuss with a tray filled with tea and crackers, which was all Tessa wanted to eat. Though Janey wasn’t any bigger or heavier than her sister, she always seemed sturdy and strong, whereas Tessa appeared fragile.

“Why are you staring at me like that?”

He folded his arms over his chest. “I overheard you two in the hospital when you thought you were alone.”

If he wasn’t sure before that something was going on, he was now. Janey went pale.

“Don’t bother to deny it. I heard you talking about what happened fifteen years ago. I assume it was the accident that caused Tessa to hate to drive. The one you and I discussed.”

“Dan, I—”

He held up his hand. “No, I’m not asking you to betray a confidence. As soon as she’s better, I’ll get it all out in the open myself. Now, she’s too raw.”

“All right.”

“I love your sister.” He gave her a smile because she looked so sad. “Almost as much as you do.”

Janey’s return smile was weak.

“Now take the roses upstairs, too, so Tessa can enjoy them. And send my other daughter down.”

As she walked by him holding the tray, Janey stopped and kissed his cheek.

He placed a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry. I won’t upset her now.”

“Thanks, Dan.”

When Sara joined him a few minutes later and they went out to find Molly, Dan put his cause for concern out of his mind. Since he’d become an expert at repressing negative thoughts, he was able, for the time being, to forget this one.

“SO, FRANKIE, your walkaway day’s coming up next week.”

Frankie was sitting at a table in the cafeteria with Shank, sipping hot tea that tasted awful. But he’d been to the infirmary again for this damned cold, and they told him warm liquids would help. The consistently loud din in this place hurt his ears and the bright lighting made him squint. “Yep, it is.”

“How’s it feel to be getting out?”

“Feels right, Shank.”

“I’m gonna miss you.”

“Me, too.” That was a lie. Frankie couldn’t wait to be done with this place. He couldn’t wait to see Trixie again.

“She coming to get you?”

Shank had some crazy obsession where Trixie was concerned. If they were on the outside, he’d beat the crap out of any guy for thinking about her that much. Frankie was a jealous man—and proud of it. Trixie was his, and if any other guy got near her, he’d bust the jerk’s face open.

“Is she coming for you, Frank?”

“Um, no. She can’t get off… She isn’t… I’m gonna surprise her.” His vision blurred some. He blinked hard to clear it. “She don’t know the exact date.”

But he did. He’d been counting the days. It was fifteen years ago today since the stupid accident and only a week more on his sentence. During the trial, the judge had had it in for Frankie and was jonesing to put him away. In the end, they separated Frankie from Trixie because everybody hated him. But she didn’t and that’s all that counted now. He’d see her soon.

In a line of prisoners, he left the cafeteria. A guard at the front took a group of them and veered off to the library. Since he was about to be paroled, they’d started letting him use the Internet. He got right online after the assistant read him the dumb-ass rules again; he clicked into his hometown Web site, Iverton, Ohio. The Iverton Banner was posted every day.

Same old, same old. New superintendent of schools. An issue up before the city council on paving the streets. Minor break-ins and petty larceny on the police page.