Second Chance (Hudson Valley Murder Mysteries #2)

Chapter Fourteen

T ony’s Toyota is the only car in the Continuum’s empty lot. Sean hasn’t come back, then. That’s a relief; one person at least will be spared whatever is about to happen.

“Daniel?” Tony asks the closed back door.

No response. Maybe Daniel’s asleep. Maybe something else happened in the meantime. Maybe Tony should have saved his heart-to-heart with Gianna for after they got Daniel to safety and driven faster.

He takes a steadying breath and gets to work on the bike lock with the bolt cutters.

“Shoulda gone to the shop,” he mutters to Gianna. “Gotten a damn angle grinder or something.”

“Guess you’re gonna have to start keeping power tools in Rhinebeck.” She looks over her shoulder anxiously, monitoring the road. “Hurry up, will you?”

“This isn’t exactly easy.” It comes out as more of a grunt than a sentence. Tony winces as the lock gives under his hands. “Got it.”

The door opens minutely, forcing them to shove until the gap is wide enough to pass through.

Tables and chairs piled up haphazardly right behind it shift away, likely Lily’s idea of a barricade. Given Daniel was right up by the door before, it isn’t all that effective.

“Daniel?” Tony calls into the space.

Colder inside than outside, the musty air smells of mildew and stale beer. No wonder Daniel hated watching movies here.

From a distance, Tony hears a voice.

He and Gianna wrestle the chairs and tables aside to get through. The furniture legs scrape loudly against the linoleum floors. One of the stacks of chairs wobbles dangerously when Gianna pushes it. For a moment, Tony’s half convinced it will crash to the floor and alert every last resident of Germantown what’s going on in here.

Gianna manages to steady it.

Their breathing is loud in the room.

“Come on.” Tony turns on his phone’s flashlight and searches for other doors. The bullet hole in the wall Daniel mentioned taunts Tony, right above the emergency light.

“Tony?” a voice calls from the far side of the room.

They sprint through a door and into a hallway to the main entrance. More emergency lighting dimly illuminates the space, pointing the way out.

They find Daniel waiting for them in the doorway leading to the bathrooms. His hair is a mess, flat on the sides and piled up at the top of his head in a tangle. He’s pale, washed out, with deep circles under his eyes. His chinos have a rip at the knee—the second pair he’s lost to violent crime this year, and he hates clothes shopping—and his shirt is crinkled and sweat-stained.

He’s the best thing Tony’s ever seen.

The air leaves his lungs in an instant. Tony lunges across the hall, breathless and elated and desperate. Grabbing Daniel by the front of his shirt, he pulls him in close and twists his head in time so he can kiss him without their noses bumping.

Daniel follows him easily. He cups the back of Tony’s neck in his hand, the other arm wrapping around Tony’s middle, easy and warm. Stubble covers his cheeks, unfamiliar and rough, scratching against Tony’s skin. Tony welcomes it as proof Daniel is here, real and warm in his arms.

“Hey,” Daniel whispers when they pull apart. “Hey, it’s okay. I’m okay.”

Tony shudders a little and buries his head in Daniel’s shoulder. He smells awful, of sweat and this horrible building, but somewhere underneath it, there’s his three-in-one body wash.

Behind them, Gianna clears her throat.

She’s studying the wall beside them carefully.

Tony wrenches himself away from Daniel’s grasp. “Um,” he manages. “Where’s—”

From inside the bathroom, retching answers the question before he can finish asking.

Daniel grimaces. “She’s thrown up a few times already. I’m trying to help, but she keeps panicking, and it isn’t getting better. Whatever Sean gave her, it’s not agreeing with her. She’s hyperventilating, and I think she needs real medical help. Had to take these off.” He pulls the handcuffs out of his pocket. They’re terrible quality, so cheap they might as well be plastic.

Gianna squints at them in the half-light of the hallway. “You know how to get out of handcuffs?”

Daniel demonstrates the quick-release, and Tony makes a concerted effort not to think about the pair they got the last time they went to the city.

In the bathroom, Lily vomits again, ending with a sob. At this rate, they shouldn’t only be calling the police, they should be calling an ambulance.

Tony opens his mouth to say as much, but before he can, Gianna pushes past Daniel into the restroom.

“Lily?” she calls.

The sobbing intensifies.

Tony sets his phone face down on the counter by the mirrors, the flashlight illuminating the room somewhat.

“Lily, hey.” Gianna crouches beside Lily, hunched over the toilet. “It’s me, Gianna.” Tentatively, she puts a hand on Lily’s back.

Tony can see how Lily shivers from across the room.

“Hey, it’s going to be okay,” Gianna croons. “It’s gonna be fine, okay? Take a few deep breaths.”

Lily tries. They come out shuddery and uneven.

“Follow my lead.” Gianna demonstrates a deep breath in and a long breath out, one at a time. Lily follows her, hesitantly and offbeat at first, but gaining confidence as she goes.

Beside Tony, Daniel sags against the bathroom counter.

“You think you’re gonna be sick again?” Gianna asks, managing to keep her voice soft, a simple question instead of a medical checkup.

Lily shrugs.

“Okay, how about some water. Think you can get to the sink?”

Together, Gianna and Daniel manage to get Lily standing and over to the sink.

Lily rinses out her mouth twice before she tries to drink. The water seems to help, which is the first time anyone has ever said that about Hudson Valley tap water. She’s steadier on her feet afterward. She must also be thinking more clearly because she finally grasps that Gianna and Tony are here.

“Oh no,” Lily groans. “How did you find us?”

It’s a good thing she doesn’t wait on an answer. Tony’s not up to explaining Daniel’s text message scheme a third time tonight.

“He’s going to be so pissed, oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck, I’m getting him in so much trouble…”

She must mean Sean, and she’s not wrong. She has gotten him into a lot of trouble, but there’s not much to be done about that now. Lily should have considered the consequences before she stabbed someone. She should have thought of the ramifications before she kidnapped a professor and called her boyfriend in to help.

“We can leave while he’s gone.” Tony realizes it’s the wrong offer to make as soon as Lily starts breathing much too fast. She’s going a little green around the nose again.

“Hey.” Gianna snaps her fingers in Lily’s face. “Breathe, Lily. Remember, slowly, in and out.” She demonstrates again, and Lily follows the pattern. “Come on. It’s only Sean. You can leave here.”

Lily shakes her head. “He says I can’t. He says then everyone will know I—will know—”

“About Professor Lawrence?” Gianna speaks softly, no trace of irritation or anger in her voice. It’s such a far cry from how she talks to Tony or even to Ma and Pa that it’s eerie.

“He says…he says if I talk to anyone, they’re going to know I did it.”

“Lily…” Gianna settles an arm around Lily’s shoulders, part comfort and part to keep her in place. “They’re going to find out anyway. You know that, right? Especially after everything with Professor Rosenbaum.”

“I know. It’s all my fault. I should never have come back here. I should have— If I hadn’t messed it all up last year, none of this would have happened.”

A trickle of unwanted sympathy keeps Tony from agreeing wholeheartedly. It’s true Lily is not so much a victim of circumstance as she is the perpetrator by now, but unlike Stacy, she never had a plan. She never tried to cover her tracks, to blame someone else. She’s just sick and desperate.

“I was so angry about the grade from last year, you know, and…and I went to her office. He helped me with what to say because it’s so hard not to give up and agree with whatever professors say, and he’s so much better at it. But then, I forgot everything he said, and the knife—”

“Why did you bring a knife?” Gianna asks.

It’s a valid question.

“I don’t know .” Deep worry lines, too deep for someone her age, ravage Lily’s forehead before she buries her face in her hands. If Tony asks her now why she left the knife taped to Daniel’s door, he suspects she would say the same thing. Maybe it wasn’t a threat, as he’s been assuming; maybe in her muddled mind, it was a confession.

“We’ll figure it out.” Daniel sounds firm, calm, and nowhere near as incredulous as Tony’s feeling right about now. How are they supposed to figure anything out when she can’t even remember why she did what she did?

“But I—when I— Everyone knows I’m totally nuts. I can’t—”

“Yeah, well, you’re not.” Gianna rubs Lily’s arm comfortingly, still holding her. Belatedly, it strikes Tony that maybe he should be concerned about his sister being so close to a murderer, let alone blatantly lying to one to make her feel better. “Look, you need some help. You need—”

Lily wrenches out of Gianna’s grasp. “I’m tired of needing help! Everyone looks at me like I’m…like I’m broken, or an idiot, or both . This year was supposed to be my fresh start, my second chance, and I thought if I got all my grades from last year, I could finally stop thinking about—about—”

“About Mario,” Gianna finishes.

Lily nods wordlessly, looking away.

“You know, Mario was really good at making me feel as if everything was my idea.”

Tony freezes in place, not daring to look at Gianna. He’s never heard her talk about Mario or their relationship beyond the barest of bones.

Lily, though—Lily looks up as if every word Gianna says is the lifeline she needs.

“The first time he kissed me,” Gianna continues, “he got mad right after, said it was my fault. I mean, I wanted him to, and I thought he wanted to, as well, but he acted like I tempted him or something.” Gianna shakes her head with a forced laugh. “It took me a while to work out the pattern. Too long. He’d start something and then pretend I was the one who forced his hand. Made me feel guilty about it. Made me feel like I couldn’t tell anyone because I was the one who wanted him.”

Tucking her hair behind her ears, Lily quietly says, “When I went to his office hours, he would say I should stop looking at him ‘like that,’ or he wouldn’t be responsible for his actions. He said it as if it was a joke, but I still felt bad.”

Gianna nods. “Exactly, yeah. You know, I was actually excited when I first found out I was pregnant. I thought he’d take me seriously then. I thought maybe we would really be together.”

“What did he say?”

Tony leans in closer. This is the part Gianna never told him about. First, she said he hadn’t decided yet what he wanted to do about the baby. Later, he was dead.

“He said…” For the first time, Gianna looks down, away from Lily. “He said it was my fault. I should have been more careful. I was going to get him in trouble. He wanted me to get rid of it. Of her. Of Lia.”

Tony thinks back to the parking lot at the Planned Parenthood in Hudson. He’d been waiting to hear what she wanted. She must have been going over it in her head, around and around in circles, what he wanted.

“And I mean, I understood,” Gianna barrels on. “It would have probably been the smart choice. But I couldn’t—I mean, I loved him, or I thought I did. And I already loved that kid so much. I wasn’t—I couldn’t—”

Tony wants, more than anything, to reach out, to support her. She’s not looking at him right now, though, she’s looking at Lily.

“It wasn’t fair of him to put that on you.” Lily is quiet, but her voice is steadier, less panicked than before. “She’s his kid too. Even if he didn’t want to be involved, it wasn’t just you.”

“It wasn’t just you who was interested either.” Gianna says it matter-of-factly, as if it doesn’t hurt that the man she loved was busy seducing other students at the same time. “It wasn’t your fault he was flirting with you, and it wasn’t all in your head either. I don’t think you’re broken or an idiot for falling for him. I think that’s what he wanted you to feel.”

Lily wraps her arms around herself. She’s so skinny, her black and gray striped shirt clinging tightly to her narrow frame. She must be freezing. August might be muggy and awful in the Hudson Valley, but it’s also cold at night, and the old theater is drafty and unpleasant.

“I will think you’re an idiot if you still let him ruin your life now though. He’s not making you do any of this. This is all you.”

“ Gianna ,” Daniel hisses.

Internally, Tony cheers. Finally, someone isn’t treating Lily with kid gloves. It’s risky, maybe dangerous, depending on where Lily’s hiding the rifle and how drugged-up she still is. It’s also absolutely what Lily needs to hear.

“Seriously, you’re better than this,” Gianna insists. “You made it through Mario. You made it through what he did to you. Don’t let it ruin you now.”

None of them say anything, but Gianna stares Lily down.

If Gianna does end up becoming a psychologist after all of this, Tony is never going to let her forget that what convinces Lily to give them a chance, to leave this building, isn’t any of Gianna’s well-thought-out arguments, it’s her death glare.

They get Lily and Gianna situated in the back seat of Tony’s car. Thankfully, Tony remembers to toss Gianna the roll of hefty bags in glove compartment in case Lily’s nausea returns.

The car’s not big enough for everyone to have enough leg room, but the drive is short. In the open on the parking lot, Tony feels exposed and rushed as if the minute some commuter sees them, they’ll all get arrested. He wants to get this over with as quickly as possible.

“For the record,” Tony mutters to Daniel before they get into the front of the car, “you know we could both get in trouble for this? Real trouble? With the law? This is technically aiding and abetting a criminal.” Guiltily, he thinks of the murder weapon, now in police custody. Even if this plan weren’t enough to get them all in trouble before Tony handed the knife over to Detective Taylor, it sure is now.

“The law isn’t always right.”

“Damn it, Daniel, we aren’t actually on Bones . Actions have consequences.”

Daniel doesn’t answer, but his jaw is set, so there’s nothing left to do but get in the car and leave.

Tony slides the key into the ignition, and the engine sputters.

“Come on, not now.” He tries again.

Dawn is breaking behind the empty shell of the movie theater, illuminating the door they left open, the broken bike lock on the ground.

The car still won’t start.

“Should’ve taken my car.” Gianna’s not wrong, but she’s also not helpful.

Lily shifts nervously in the back seat, looking around as if she’s waiting for someone to catch them.

Tony pops the hood and slides out of the driver’s seat. At a glance, he can’t find anything wrong, all the cables where they should be, the tank still half full. The car is just being dramatic.

If the battery isn’t dead, of course—a problem Tony has no hope of fixing, not without a donor car in the vicinity.

On the 9G, headlights sweep across the street in the predawn light. Rush hour, such as it is in this part of the world, will start soon, all the people driving from here out to their jobs in Hudson, Catskill, Poughkeepsie, and Albany. Tony doesn’t want them to be seen here, not before Lily’s ready, before she’s sober and able to talk to the police. Selfishly, it’s nothing to do with Gianna and Daniel’s priority to protect Lily. Tony really, really doesn’t want to try explaining to anyone why he put a murderer and her kidnapping victim in his car with his sister. The only explanation is that it would have made his boyfriend sad to do anything else.

He gets in the driver’s seat and tries the ignition again.

Nothing.

“Fuck.”

“What do we do?” Daniel tries to sound in control and not like he’s been made very nervous by this development. He’s probably fooling Lily, maybe Gianna, but Tony can hear the uncertainty in his voice.

It’s a great question.

There might be someone at the gas station who can help, maybe someone nice enough to let Tony start the engine using their car. It’ll take a while, though, and if this whole plan goes to shit, there will be witnesses saying Lily was making a hasty exit, accompanied by the rest of them. There will also be witnesses saying Daniel, Tony, and Gianna were aiding and abetting a murderer. Because they are.

Tony has only one other option he can think of, and it’s an even worse idea.

“I shouldn’t go with you.” Lily’s voice is high and tight and anxious.

Tony decides he’s already committed to some awful ideas tonight, and he might as well keep it going. “Stay put. Don’t move. I’ll be right back.”

They aren’t actually in a hurry. The police don’t know where they are, nor does anyone else besides Lisa and Blake. It’s more that Lily is a flight risk, and now that Daniel and Gianna have both committed to helping her— Well, Tony can’t let her get away with not experiencing a single consequence. He’s going with the worst idea he has, and they’ll all have to deal with it.

He hasn’t been running in a week, and he’s wearing the wrong shoes for it. At least he’s still in sweatpants. It takes Tony ten minutes to get to Emilio’s all the same, going as fast as he can. The pace seems to get progressively slower the longer he goes, but it’s still quick enough that he can’t second-guess this incredibly stupid idea.

Of everyone in Germantown, Emilio’s the one person who would have a reason not to help Tony jumpstart the car. Of everyone in Germantown, he’s the one person who would and could instantly call the police on them.

The part of Tony that thinks he should have called the police the second Paul got in touch with him reminds him that of everyone in Germantown, Emilio is the one who has the right to know what’s going on.

It’s a dick move, but Tony leans on the doorbell.

Emilio takes precious minutes to get to the door. He’s changed clothes, which is progress for him. “When I said anytime…”

“Not now,” Tony snaps. “I need your help. We have Daniel. We know who killed your wife. But we need to get out of here. Where’s your car?”

“Garage. What the—”

“Get your keys.”

The drive to the parking lot is tense, Tony’s knee jiggling the entire time, his breath still coming in pants from the brisk run. It’s almost fully light out.

“Park across from me,” he instructs. “Hood to hood.”

Tony tries to look relaxed and calm when he gets out the jumper cables from the trunk. He’s done this enough that it’s a quick process to connect the cables to his battery and to get Emilio’s hood open and ready. It still feels like every movement draws out for hours, Emilio’s eyes heavy on him and on the car, where Daniel’s fully visible in the passenger seat, though at least the back is shrouded in darkness and hidden by the front seat.

“Come on, come on,” Tony mutters to himself.

Finally, the engine springs to life.

He leaves it running as he disconnects the cables and closes the hood.

“Tony?” Emilio asks as Tony slides into the driver’s seat. “Tony, are you gonna—”

Tony could tell him now. He could say everything, and Emilio would absolutely call the cops instantly, and it would be a savage satisfaction to have it over with, to have someone explode in anger about all the things Tony’s keeping his temper in check about.

In the passenger seat of the Toyota, Daniel’s twisted around to watch Lily, concern etched across every inch of his face.

Once again, Tony takes a deep breath and reins in his temper.

“I’ll explain everything later.” Tony’s not surprised when Emilio’s expression darkens as Tony pulls the door shut. Emilio never gave him a phone number.

The car squeaks violently in protest as Tony throws it into reverse. He pulls away from Emilio’s car, barrels onto the 9G, and doesn’t slow down until they hit Red Hook.

No one in the car speaks.

When they pass the sign for Rhinebeck, Tony says, “I think I need to get a new car.”

In the passenger seat, Daniel bursts into laughter. “Finally.” He looks at Tony so fondly that Tony forgets for an instant Amelia Lawrence’s murderer is in the car, and they need to figure out how to get her in a place to hand her off to someone who knows what they’re doing so they’ll no longer be harboring a murderer. He forgets Amelia’s husband saw them all together, and this is far from over. He has Daniel back, safe and sound, the lines around his eyes crinkling with joy and his jawline devastatingly handsome with that hint of stubble.

Blake and Lisa beat them to Rhinebeck. It’s not surprising, given their errand probably involved less crises. They don’t have a key to Daniel’s apartment, though, so they’ve stationed themselves in Colette’s, where they waylay Tony and Daniel as soon as they hear them coming up the stairs. They’re followed immediately by Colette.

Colette, who is blindingly furious with Tony for not waking her up.

With Lily behind them, blinking in the overhead light, confused and probably still high, Tony figures he’ll have to do some damage control. He hands his key over to Gianna, and she and heads for Daniel’s apartment with Lily in tow. Tony watches them go, wondering if he can really leave Gianna alone with Lily before facing Colette.

“Someone would have had to call the cops if we didn’t make it back,” Tony tells her before she can start. “And you were—”

“You should have woken me up anyway,” Colette insists.

“Why? So you could stay up and worry?”

Meredith peers out onto the landing. She wears pajamas and glasses, looking barely awake herself. “She was doing that anyway.”

In the next instant, Meredith catches sight of Daniel and barrels out to hug him.

“Meredith.” Daniel braces against the banister so the impact doesn’t knock him down the stairs. “What are you doing here?”

“What do you mean, what am I doing here? You went missing . You’re lucky Mom and Dad aren’t here too.”

“Oh, shit, wasn’t Dad’s surgery—”

“Yes, and it went fine, and that is not the point.”

“As heartwarming as this all is,” Colette interrupts, “can we maybe take it inside so you can all explain yourselves?”

Tony exhales in silent relief. Five minutes is too long to leave Lily alone with Gianna. They pile into Daniel’s living room again, reminiscent of yesterday’s full house. Exhaustion has replaced the nervous tension they were all carrying then, but it’s like staring at a spot-the-difference painting and finding nothing but the change in lighting.

Gianna and Lily must be in the bathroom; the shower is running. Tony roots through Daniel’s dresser for a change of clothes for Lily and sets them out in front of the bathroom door.

Colette makes coffee. Tony’s starting to get sick of the stuff.

“Is there a reason you haven’t called the police?” Meredith asks when Daniel’s told her everything.

Tony glares at Daniel. Maybe if everyone says it, he’ll reconsider.

Daniel sighs. “We’re trying to get Lily to a place where she can actually…tell us what happened. I’m still not clear on some of it, and she’s not yet able to advocate for herself. We need to get her a lawyer. If the police had found us and come in, guns blazing, and she hid or, worse, shot back…”

Tony frowns. Daniel said she had a rifle, but there was no sign of it in the theater.

“She did it though,” Meredith says. “If she stabbed that professor, she should—”

“She’s a traumatized twenty-one-year-old, and she’s been taking drugs,” Blake interrupts. “She needs to be sober at the very least.”

Colette snorts. “I need to not be sober.”

“Yeah,” Blake says. “You’re not wrong. This is a mess.” He has a bag full of supplies, including bandages and an IV drip poking out the top.

When he catches Tony staring, Blake says, “Look, I bought the drip myself, okay? It’s not stolen. Stop judging me.”

Tony holds his hands up in surrender. That wasn’t what he was thinking; he was wondering if Blake knows how to lay an IV, given he’s a social worker and not a nurse, albeit an in-house social worker at a hospital. Discretion appears to be the better part of valor in this case though.

When Lily gets out of the shower, trailing behind Gianna in a sweatshirt three sizes too big for her, Blake takes over easily, making her comfortable in Daniel’s bedroom.

Blake shuts the door behind Lily and Gianna, nothing to be heard from them but the murmur of indistinct voices.

“So what’s our angle?” Colette asks. “How do we proceed?”

“Can we at least tell the police Daniel’s safe?” Meredith suggests. “They’re still out there looking for him.”

Daniel makes a weighing motion with his hands. “How do we do that without incriminating Lily?”

Colette’s mouth twists. “She killed someone, Daniel. That will incriminate her. Because it’s a crime.”

“Thank you,” Tony says.

Daniel glares at him. “Yeah, well, I’m not willing call the police until I know she won’t be—” Daniel looks away abruptly.

“She won’t be what?” Colette asks.

“She won’t be abandoned like Andrew was, or like she was last year, all right?” Daniel snaps.

Colette’s fingers go to her shoulder, looking for a braid to toy with only to find it gone. “I knew you blamed me for that.”

Daniel stares at her, incredulous. “I don’t blame you. I blame myself .”

“He was my student.”

“And you didn’t think he needed counseling. I did!”

“Yes, you were right, and I was wrong. But—”

“It’s not about right or wrong, Colette—”

The buzzer snaps through the incipient argument.

Tony answers the door on autopilot.

“Hey,” Emilio’s voice says, far away at the bottom of the stairs and, at the same time, very close. “Are you gonna tell me what’s going on?”