Chapter 41
FORTY-ONE
Sandra pulled into the driveway at Davenport Manor, spotting Eric’s car.
He’d beat her there, and she couldn’t wait to wrap her arms around him and give him a huge hug.
That, and more later on, just for being the man he was.
Today must have placed him in a tough spot more than once.
His loyalty to the brotherhood ran deep.
She reached over for her messenger bag on the passenger seat. Her mind drifted to the letter inside from April Clark. Someone from Sandra’s past. Today, she’d had enough of peering backward, even if it was through Ryan’s lens.
She locked up her vehicle and entered the house. The smell of baked potatoes and grilled meat had her inhaling deeply and her stomach growling. The burger she’d eaten hours ago was long gone.
“I’m here,” she called out and set her bag on a bench in the entry.
“Sandra, we’re so happy you made it.” Dana was the first to the front door, but Eric wasn’t far behind.
“Liv here?” she asked.
Eric nodded. “She is, and so is Avery.”
“Those two are inseparable.” As she said that, she thought of how the same thing had basically been said of Dale Kramer and Timothy Hanson. Just hopefully the girls’ closeness didn’t include harboring any dark secrets.
“Dinner is almost ready,” Dana told her. “You want me to get a drink for you?”
“I’ll get one for myself in a bit. Thanks.”
Dana walked away, never above pitching in, even when she wasn’t on the clock tonight. She didn’t even need to serve the meal. The groceries, the prep, the cooking, and the cleanup were all being covered by the catering company they’d hired.
Eric hugged and kissed Sandra. She closed her eyes while they embraced and left them that way until he pulled back. She wanted to soak in as much of him as possible.
“Quite the day,” he said.
“You could say that. Honestly, I felt for Ryan, living all those years not knowing who his father was, or the truth about his mother’s death. Speaking of Ryan, have you heard about how his interview is going? Did he request a lawyer?”
“He was waiting for a lawyer last I heard. One provided by legal aid.”
She didn’t say as much, but it was unjust how his other blood relatives had more money than they could spend in several lifetimes while Ryan struggled. There was no fairness or balance in life though. “I assume you heard about Kramer’s NDA?” She recalled Coleman had asked Moore to pass that along.
“I did, Officer Moore called to tell me, and I plan on using the knowledge if it comes down to it. What was your read on the guy?”
“I wrangled his signature out of him, remember? He’s holding something back. I think he came to the scene more to protect himself than give any help to the Hansons.”
“I get the same feeling just hearing about how close the two men were.”
“From the way you’re talking, you haven’t brought him in for questioning yet?”
“No. A guy like that, you only get one shot. I don’t want to spook him into hiding. I want to build a case against him first.”
“Which could be strengthened depending on what you find out tomorrow at the car rental.”
“Exactly.”
“Well, Officer Moore was a tremendous asset today. Do you know her well?”
“A bit. Enough to gather she has a rep for being a solid cop. Coleman even let it slip she proved herself ready for the next step in her career today. Guess she’s already passed the detective’s exam and has the necessary qualifications, so who knows…?”
Sandra could certainly see Moore as a detective.
She possessed the tenacity to cultivate some strong leads today.
“What do you say? Should we join everyone else? I don’t want to ruin our evening by talking about the case the whole night.
” She took a few steps when Olivia came toward her with Avery at her heels.
“Mom.” Olivia hugged Sandra and kissed her cheek.
“I was wondering where you were.”
“You’d know if you didn’t set up camp in the entry. Come on, and join the party.”
Sandra took Eric’s hand, and they walked toward the dining room.
The evening passed with light, upbeat conversation, and Margo was in rare form. She had a lot of energy in part because of an afternoon nap that Dana said came close to a coma.
“Don’t be crazy,” Margo had responded, along with shaking her head and smiling.
Sandra was so happy that Margo was happy. She blew out the candles on the cake they had specially made for her. The writing in icing on top said, Margo, the warrior.
Margo laughed when she saw that, and the rest of them followed along.
They ate dessert and drank tea in the library, and at eight thirty, Margo was drifting on them.
Sandra helped her mother to bed and came back down to find that Olivia and Avery were gone, and Dana was nowhere to be seen.
“The girls are in Liv’s room,” Eric told her.
She had a bedroom in Davenport Manor, just as Sandra had one. “And Dana?”
“She retired to her room. The catering crew are finishing with the cleaning up, and they’ll be leaving soon.”
“It was such an enjoyable night.” Sandra let out a deep breath.
“That it was. Thank you for including me.”
She dropped next to him on the couch and took his hands in hers. “You’re always included, Eric. Always.” It was only last month he’d met Margo and Dana, but to her it felt like he’d always been a part of her family. She trusted her instincts about people, and Eric was one of the good ones.
He swept her hair back and kissed her temple. “Ditto.”
As they sat there for a few minutes looking in each other’s eyes, she peered deeper.
He was present, living in the moment, just as he’d been all night, but his mind was working.
She’d wager his thoughts were on getting closure about the crash.
“So you go back to the auto rental company in the morning?”
“That’s the plan. And hopefully they have the hard copy on file.”
“Assuming they weren’t paid to destroy it.”
“Don’t even say that, but it’s crossed my mind. It’s just everything from the start of this…” His voice drifted off, and she saw the light dim in his eyes. “There’s something I haven’t told you, but the officer on Susan’s accident…”
“Todd Levine,” she eased in when he fell quiet.
“Yeah, well, sergeant now, but he was my training officer. He taught me everything coming up in the force, how important it was to follow the law. How we don’t bend it to make it work for us. All of it was a lie.” Eric shook his head.
Today was harder on him than she’d imagined.
Sandra considered what to say. It wasn’t forgotten that Ryan had felt the same about his life.
“I think we get ahead of ourselves sometimes. It seems easier to make a blanket assessment when it’s really only based on our feelings of hurt and betrayal in the current moment.
Often anger is there too, ego. But the journey, the lessons, the experiences were all real regardless of any awakening we might have.
If you think of it another way, Todd may have groomed you into the amazing cop you are because he was dealing with a guilty conscience over his part in Susan Crawford’s crash.
It’s not a reflection on you or your career.
And just because he did one bad thing, that doesn’t mean he’s a bad man either. We all make bad decisions.”
“He covered up a murder.”
“So a really bad decision, but you get my point?”
“Yeah, and I appreciate your take on this, Sandra. I get it too, but it’s still hard to accept. I guess that’s my fault, though, because I idolized him.”
“From my experience, no one deserves to be put on a pedestal. Whenever I’ve put someone on one, they’ve toppled at some point.”
“You’re probably right. It’s just… Levine.” He rubbed his forehead.
She took his hand in hers. “When you go in tomorrow, you should talk to him friend to friend, and see if you can get him to open up.”
A few seconds passed before he said, “I could try that, but…” A pulse tapped in his cheek. “I can hardly believe this happened. I keep telling myself it didn’t, but when I was leaving, he threatened me.”
Sandra shifted on the couch. “Threatened you with what exactly?”
“He was rather vague, but he told me that looking into the past never brings anything good.”
“That is vague but unsettling all the same.” She couldn’t find any way of sugarcoating that and respected that Eric didn’t need her to.
“Yeah.”
“Do you think he’s a threat?”
“It’s hard to say. I want to say no, but I never would have believed he’d be capable of covering up a murder either. I did get the sense he was warning me away from the Hansons more than from himself. But still…”
“I definitely think you need to talk with him again, clear the air, get to the bottom of things. How much he knew and when he became involved. He might not have realized all that was being asked of him.”
“I wish I could believe that.”
Sandra wished she could too. As she sat there, feeling for Eric’s predicament, her mind drifted back to what he’d said a moment ago about the past. About it never bringing anything good.
Agreeing to meet April Clark from her days in foster care might be a horrible idea. If only she could curb her curiosity.