7. Kane
CHAPTER 7
KANE
P ulling up outside his childhood home was like stepping into the past. For a moment, Kane couldn’t even bring himself to get out of the car.
Finally, knowing there was nothing to be gained by sitting around outside and that he would have to face this eventually, he grabbed his suitcase from the back seat and headed to the front door to let himself in. Toby waited patiently in the car. Kane had decided he didn’t want to bring his dog in right away.
He still had the key to the place. It felt strange to step up onto the porch with it in his hand — after all these years, he had never gotten rid of it — but he tried not to allow himself to dwell on the strangeness of it. He unlocked the door and let himself in.
The place had changed. Of course it had. Ten years had gone by. But even so, he found the changes startling. There was a bowl of fresh fruit on the center of the kitchen table, and someone had purchased refrigerator magnets in the shapes of puppies. Kane peered at them. They were… well, there was no other way to put it. They were cute . It was hard to imagine his father choosing something like this.
But he hadn’t spoken to his father in years. Could he really claim to know what the old man would have done?
Maybe not.
He set his suitcase down and turned on the kitchen light. Then he pulled out his phone and called Thomas Greely.
“Make it back to town okay?” Thomas asked, his tone businesslike. He didn’t give the impression of actually caring about Kane at all. It was clear that his priority was to get his job done.
Well, that was fine with Kane. He also wanted to get this done expediently and get himself out of here. “Yeah, I’m in Miller Creek,” he said. “Will we meet tomorrow morning?”
“You can come to my office. You have the address, right?”
“It’s in my email inbox.” The two of them had exchanged a few phone calls and emails since Kane had received the letter informing him of his father’s death. It had been helpful to focus on the things that needed to be done, to not have to think about the fact that he had missed his own father’s funeral. It was easier than brooding on the fact that he had sabotaged his relationship with his father and now it could never be repaired.
“Great,” Thomas said. “I’ll expect you tomorrow morning, then.”
“What time?”
“I’ll be in the office starting at nine, and I don’t have any morning appointments.”
Of course he didn’t. Kane had forgotten the pace of a small town like this. It was an uncommon day at the auto shop back home when he was able to take a walk-in — usually they were booked solid. But that wouldn’t be the way things worked in Miller Creek. It never had been before, and it wouldn’t be now.
“Okay,” he told Thomas. “I’ll be in before noon.”
“No worries.”
“Should I bring anything with me?”
“If you have any paperwork of your father’s, you can bring that along. I’m talking about things like bank statements, primarily, although anything that feels relevant to you might be a good idea to have. I have a copy of the most recent version of his will, so that’s taken care of, and I can have a second copy ready so that you can follow along on the document as I’m reading out the information.”
“Okay,” Kane said. “I’d appreciate that.”
“I know this is a difficult time,” Thomas said. “I want you to know that I make it my business to get people through this as painlessly as possible, even though…” He hesitated.
“Even though what?” Kane asked.
“I suppose it won’t come as any great shock to you to hear that you’re not… Miller Creek’s favorite son,” Thomas said. “I’m trying to be delicate about this, because I know this is a trying time for you, but I don’t see any point in pretending that this isn’t true when we both know it is.”
Kane knew there was something a bit rude about the bluntness with which he was being treated, but he found that he didn’t mind. It was better to have someone be direct about this than to have to wonder whether Thomas Greely was thinking all kinds of unpleasant things about him. At least now he knew the answer.
“It’s all right,” he said. “I don’t mind you talking about it.”
“Well, there’s no need for us to discuss it further,” Thomas said. “I just wanted you to know that I recognize that you’re going through a significant loss, and I want you to feel confident that I’m doing my best for you. You may not have a lot of friends in this town, but I’m committed to doing my job well, so you never need to worry that I’m not completely on your side — or rather, on the side of fulfilling your father’s wishes exactly as he laid them out.”
That made Kane feel uneasy. Was there something in his father’s last wishes that was going to make him feel like Thomas was working against him?
No, I’m being ridiculous. His father probably hadn’t been that generous to Kane in his will, but Kane hadn’t expected that he would, since the two of them hadn’t had a real relationship to speak of for years now. Perhaps Thomas was worried that Kane would find out he hadn’t been left anything and that he would blame Thomas for that, somehow, but Kane knew better. If his father hadn’t left him anything, it had nothing to do with Thomas and everything to do with the fact that they hadn’t had a relationship. It was Kane’s own fault. He could have come back to Miller Creek and tried to set things right
Although, he reflected rather bitterly, who knew whether his father would have accepted his attempt or not? Maybe he had been wise to stay away as long as he had. Maybe there had never been any hope of things getting back on track after the fire. Wasn’t that what Taylor had told him all those years ago? That some things couldn’t be undone?
He felt a strange urge to ask Thomas about the Chesterfield farm. In a town this size, everyone knew everyone else’s business, and there was no chance that Thomas wouldn’t be able to give him some update on how the family was doing these days. But it was too awkward a question. He couldn’t bring himself to ask it.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Kane said, and ended the phone call.
He went back out to his car, got Toby, and brought him into the house. Toby immediately began the process of sniffing out his new surroundings. Kane wondered if there was any of his scent lingering her from ten years ago. Could Toby recognize that this place had once been home?
“Better get you used to it, Tobes,” he said aloud — he’d picked up the habit, over the years, of talking to his dog. “Let’s go out into the yard, and you can check that out.”
He pulled a tennis ball out of the outside pocket of his suitcase. Toby understood right away what was up and set off at a run across the yard so that he could catch the ball when Kane threw it.
Kane lost himself in the familiar activity for several minutes — calling Toby back to him, tackling him to take the ball away, and then lobbing it across the yard and watching the dog sprint to retrieve it. One thing he would say for his father’s place — there was a lot more room to spread out here. Toby, at least, was going to enjoy their stay.
For a moment, it even occurred to him to wish that they could hang around here for a little longer. After all, this house wasn’t being used now. It would be nice to get out of Detroit — he had never had any particular attachment to that city, it was just where he had landed after his time in the military. And after all, he could find work as a mechanic almost anywhere. He had no doubt he’d be able to get work here.
If anyone would hire him, that was.
He might have thought it possible that the town would have forgotten about what he had done. But talking to Thomas had proved how untrue that would have been. If Thomas, a man he had never spoken to before this week, knew about it, then everyone knew about it. So maybe it wouldn’t be so easy to get hired as a mechanic here.
Even if he could get a job, could he stand to go through the ordeal of living here every day? Could he stand to look people in the eye and wonder what they must be thinking of him? He hadn’t just started that fire, after all — he’d also run away right afterward, and no one had heard from him for a decade. He didn’t have much to be proud of, and he had a whole lot to answer for.
No, there was no life for him here. His original plan had been the best one — he needed to get in and out as quickly as he could, and get the dust of this town off of his boots before he could drown in the crimes of his past.
These thoughts were rolling around in his mind when he heard a sharp voice. “Who the hell are you, and what are you doing in my yard?”
He turned to face the voice. A female figure was standing by the back door, and she had what looked like a baseball bat in her hands. Kane blinked — was she going to attack him with that?
And what had she meant by her yard ? A lot had changed, but surely the property lines were the same as he remembered them to be?
He held up his hands in surrender. “I think there must be some mistake,” he called out to her. “Drop the bat and we’ll talk about it.”
“I’ll keep it, thanks,” she said dryly.
Something about her tone stirred a memory. He took a step closer to her.
She lifted the bat. “No closer,” she said. “I’m not afraid to use this thing.”
“No, I’m sure you’re not…” He stared. “Taylor?”
She lowered the bat a little, clearly taken aback at being recognized. “Who are you?” she asked. “What are you doing at my house?”
Kane shook his head, trying to figure out why she kept calling it her house. He knew this house had been his father’s. There was no question of whether his father had sold the place over the years they’d spent apart, because Thomas Greely had included it in the list of assets they needed to discuss when they got together.
But Taylor Levine was no fool. She never had been. Whatever she was doing, she would have some purpose behind it.
“Let’s go inside,” he said. “We can figure this out.”
“Not until I know who you are,” she said, adjusting her grip on her bat.
He stepped forward, allowing her to see his face. “Did you miss me?” he asked her quietly.
The bat clattered to the ground and Taylor stared at him in shock.