Chapter 11
“I knew this was a bad idea,” I muttered through clenched teeth. Eric stood next to me in the kitchen, placing raw hamburger patties on a tray before he took them out to the grill.
“It’ll be fine,” he said. “You all can’t stay mad at each other forever?”
“Wanna bet?” I smiled.
Today was Matt’s birthday. It had been a rough summer for him and Tori with the new baby and his three-year-old brother running them both ragged. Tori had yet to emerge from the back bedroom. She’d taken little Henry back there to nurse almost an hour ago.
Sean was fully into his terrible threes. He was currently screaming bloody murder at the end of the dock, trying to tear off his life jacket. My sister Vangie stood over him, giving him a pretty close approximation of the Shaky Finger of Doom we all remembered from Grandma Leary.
Joe sat on the pontoon, looking out at the water. He’d spent most of the day there, brooding. Vangie wasn’t talking to him. She couldn’t forgive him for sticking up for Katy and dragging me into it, as she described it.
Emma seemed just as broody. She sat on the porch swing, her legs drawn up to her chin. Matt fished from the end of the dock, ignoring his son’s tantrum.
I scooted ahead of Eric and held the door open. He kissed me as he balanced his meat tray and headed for the no-fly zone of the grill.
“You doing okay out here?” I asked Emma. She smiled but she looked so tired. Her cheeks were hollowed out. She was skin and bones.
“Never better.” She smiled.
I sat beside her. “I’m worried about you too.”
“I know. But you shouldn’t be. Just worry about my mom.”
I raised a brow. Katy was Mom again now? I knew Emma had gone to visit her a few times, or at least tried to. Katy had put her on a no-contact list. She didn’t want Emma to worry about her. She didn’t want Emma to see her in her jail uniform anymore.
I patted Emma’s knee. “How’s your studying going?” I asked. “You know, it’s okay if you postpone. You’re not going to lose your job or anything.”
Emma was scheduled to take the bar exam in East Lansing in a few weeks. I’d give her the entire month of July off to take an online prep course and get ready.
“No,” she said. “I want to get it over with. If I fail, I can take it again.”
“You won’t fail,” I said. “You’re a good test taker. A heck of a lot better than I was.”
“Are you ready?”
I grabbed a hard cider from the cooler between us and cracked it open. “As ready as I can be.”
“Is Katy going to be in the courtroom?”
“She is. It was her choice.”
“What happens if you lose?”
I felt awkward talking about the case with her. But so far, she hadn’t asked me about anything that wasn’t part of the public court filings.
“If I lose the suppression motion tomorrow, Katy’s statement to the police comes in. The jury will hear it.”
“And her toxicology, too.”
I nodded. “And her toxicology, too.”
“Edwards and Davis are the strongest precedents,” she said. “Tierney if he wants a Michigan-specific case. She didn’t have to ask for you by name. You have a clear invocation …”
“Emma,” I stopped her. “Let’s not. You know the rules.”
She screwed her eyes shut for an instant. I don’t know if she was trying to stave off tears or anger, or what. She tilted her head, resting her cheek on her knees as she looked at me.
“She knew better. She knew she should have kept quiet with the cops.”
“And whose fault is that!” Vangie’s shout echoed off the lake. It caught the attention of two fishermen in a boat twenty yards away.
She stomped up the dock, her face purple with rage. Behind her, Joe punched the back of one of the seats. I saw his wheels turning as he decided whether to go after Vangie.
Stay down, I thought to myself. Duck and cover, man.
He didn’t. Instead, he charged up the dock right behind her. They squared off on the lawn. I wished I had helmets and those foam sticks they use on the gladiator shows. Let them physically fight it out.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about!
” Joe shouted. Eric poked his head around the corner, saw Vangie and Joe, then stepped back.
He wasn’t alone; Deputy Jeff Steuben had been assisting him with the burgers.
He and Vangie had been on and off again for the last couple of years.
That she brought him here today meant they were on a different level.
“You don’t want any of that,” Eric wisely told Jeff. He put a hand on his arm and drew him back toward the grill.
“This is never going to end.” Emma sighed.
“That woman is toxic,” Vangie erupted. “When are you going to get that through your thick skull, huh?”
“She’s facing life in prison,” Joe countered. “This isn’t just some traffic ticket. This is the rest of her life. You know she didn’t kill anybody?”
“I don’t care,” Vangie said.
“And you don’t mean that,” Joe said.
I turned to Emma, but before I could say anything, she rose from the swing and disappeared into the house. Probably for the best.
“Will you two knock it off!” Matt shouted from the dock. His voice roused my dog, Madison, who’d been stretched out in a patch of sunlight on the lawn, snoring. She let out a short yip of protest, then lay back down.
“I’m saying it doesn’t matter whether Katy killed that man or not. It shouldn’t be our problem anymore.”
“It’s not your problem,” Joe said.
“Really? Look around. Emma looks like crap because she’s not eating or sleeping. You’ve forced Cass into an impossible situation. She’s mad at you; she’s just not saying anything.”
“Whoa,” I said. “Don’t speak for me.”
“You are mad,” Vangie argued. “You’re tense as hell. You’ve been forced out of your own office. Whatever mess Katy’s in, it’s of her own making. There are other lawyers who could help her.”
“I’m done arguing about this,” Joe said.
“We are all done talking about it,” I said. “Not here. Okay? Don’t make this any harder for me than it needs to be.”
“You see?” Vangie said. “This is all your fault, Joe.”
“How do you figure that?” he said.
“You had a clean break. You were done with her. But you just had to go back to her. Mess everything all up even though she broke your heart and stabbed a knife in your back.”
Both Joe and I winced. It was a poor choice of words. Vangie knew it, but when she got like this, there was no backing her down.
Down at the end of the dock, Sean started yelling too. Only he dropped a four-letter word that startled even Joe.
“Enough,” I said. “I’m not listening to you two anymore. If you can’t fight nice, then one of you do me a favor and just kill the other. Get it over with.”
I went back into the house just in time to see Emma bolt out the front door with her keys in her hand.
“Terrific,” I said. There went my chance to make sure she ate. Vangie wasn’t wrong about that.
Eric and Jeff came in through the side door off the porch. The burgers were done. Shaking my head, I went to the fridge and pulled out the tray of trimmings I’d cut up. I set it on the counter, then grabbed the buns, ketchup, and mustard. Though I’d pretty much lost my appetite.
“How long is that going to go on?” Jeff asked.
“Hard to say,” I answered. “Joe will run out of steam first. Vangie? She could go on for days.”
Jeff gave me a sheepish smile. “She sure is a fiery one.” Oh boy. This was always my concern about their relationship. Jeff was absolutely smitten with Vangie. To the point he often couldn’t see straight. But Vangie was a truly wild horse.
I heard something crash to the ground in the back bedroom. “Go ahead and start feeding those idiots without me,” I said.
Eric, completely used to my family’s antics by now, started building his own burger, unfazed by the drama. I softly knocked on the bedroom door. When I heard no answer, I stepped in.
Tori was sitting on the bed, her right arm propped on pillows. Henry lay sleeping against her chest. Tori was crying.
“Oh, don’t worry about them,” I said. “They’ll burn out eventually.”
Tori wiped her eyes and forced a smile. “I’m sure they will. They’ve been at it for weeks. Matt’s given up trying to stop them. I don’t know what will satisfy Vangie, to tell you the truth. I think she might be secretly hoping Katy goes to prison forever.”
Her face fell as soon as she said that. “Oh, I’m sorry. Cass, I didn’t mean to put any extra pressure on you. I’m only being sarcastic. Vangie doesn’t really want that.”
I climbed onto the bed beside her and leaned over. I got a whiff of Henry’s intoxicating scent. He squirmed and farted. At least, I think it was a fart. It could go either way.
“You okay?” I asked. “You’ve been back here for three to five business days.”
She leaned her head back on the pillow. “I’m just so tired, Cass.
Matt’s doing everything he can to pitch in, but Henry’s not sleeping through the night.
I’m up about every two hours all night long.
Then Sean’s up by six. If I’m lucky, I get one ninety-minute nap out of Henry after breakfast. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I’ve been letting Sean stare at a TV screen the whole time while I either fold a load of laundry or throw some cereal down my head. ”
“Oh, honey,” I said. “I wish I could help out more. Once I get past this trial, I can come over at least one afternoon a week and take Sean off your hands.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I wasn’t fishing. And you’ve got plenty on your plate. This isn’t your responsibility.”
“We’re family, Tori,” I said. “I love these boys. And I love you.”
She burst into tears in earnest. Oh lord. I’d cut the red wire somehow.
“Here,” I said. I reached over and took Henry out of her arms. He grunted, but didn’t wake. But as he shifted, I caught a good whiff of him. It had been more than a fart.
“PU stinko,” I whispered to him. “Let’s get you cleaned up, little man.”
“Oh no.” Tori sniffed. “Please don’t wake him up. Not yet.”
I laughed. “Okay, boss. But how about this? Let me take a shift. Eric’s got lunch ready. Go eat. We’ll be fine in here for a bit.”
Her shoulders sagged with relief, but she cried even harder.
“Tori?” I said. “Is something else going on? I mean, sleep deprivation alone can …”
“No.” She sniffed. “It isn’t that. Well, of course it’s that. But … oh, Cass. I’m pregnant again.”
I stopped rocking Henry for a second. “What? How? I mean … what?”
“I know,” she said. She reached over, grabbed a tissue, and blew her nose. The strangled goose sound startled Henry. His arms and legs went rigid, but he soon settled and fell back into a snoring slumber.
“He doesn’t do that for me,” Tori said. “Settle so easily like that. It’s because you’re relaxed. He can sense my tension.”
“How far along?”
She shook her head. “Six weeks. I just found out on Friday. I swear, I haven’t even had a period yet after Henry.
But the doctor says it’s more common than people think.
That nursing isn’t a foolproof method of birth control.
That I’m just extra fertile, I guess. I haven’t even told Matty.
I don’t know how I’m going to do this without losing my mind even more.
I’m going to have three kids under four.
The two I have are practically killing me as it is. ”
“I know you don’t want to hear this. But I can’t help it. I’m happy for you. Matt will be too. Trust me. And we’ll figure out a way to get you help. I promise.”
Tori gave me a brave smile.
“Go,” I said. “Eat. Talk to adults for a while.”
As soon as I said it, Vangie and Joe’s shouting reached our ears.
“Adults?” Tori said, raising a brow. “You want to rethink that?”
God help us all, I thought. But Tori took my advice and headed out into the line of fire.
I kissed Henry again, then wrinkled my nose.
For as little as he was, the kid sure did smell bad.
I went to the window and watched my weird family.
Joe and Vangie were still at it. Jeff was staring at Vangie with lovesick eyes.
Matt reached a compromise with Sean. The boy kept his life jacket on, but stood bare-butted and peed straight into the lake.
“Run, Henry,” I whispered. “You have no idea what you’re getting into.”