Chapter 8
Wilden woke the next morning with a smile on his face.
He hopped out of bed, had a quick shower, got dressed, then went downstairs to put on coffee.
He let Dagger out the back, leaving the door slightly ajar for him to come in on his own.
He checked in on Nan to see her sitting up and yawning at the side of her bed.
She smiled up at him. “Aren’t you nice and chipper this morning?”
He chuckled. “Yeah, it’s been a good day so far.”
She rolled her eyes and looked at the clock. “For me, the day is already half over because I expect to be napping by noon. But for you? Good Lord,” she muttered, “you just got up. And I know you came in at a reasonable time last night, so you couldn’t have gotten too lucky.”
He burst out laughing because Nan was nothing if not blunt when it came to most things in life.
And most of all, it was wonderful to see her back to being herself again.
He smiled. “We had a great time. I can’t remember having such a nice evening.
Of course, beforehand was a lot of chaos for a while.
Once we got that calmed down, it was really special. ”
Dagger as if hearing the laughter, came barrelling in and up onto Nan’s bed making her laugh at his antics. She cuddled the dog while looking at Wilden.
“So, will you see her again today?”
“I hope so,” he said cheerfully. “It does make me feel a little bit better about coming home.” She stopped, about to say something, but he knew it was redundant now. “Yeah, don’t,” he said, holding up his hand. “No recriminations. We’re all good.”
“Are you sure?” she asked. “Because I don’t feel like we’re all good.”
“We are definitely all good,” he declared.
“I have no regrets. It’s all good. I still have to deal with a few other issues, plus rehabbing this bottom floor for you.
And there’s money sitting in Dad’s account.
Now that we have access to it, we should start a list of all the things that need to be fixed up around here. ”
“I still can’t believe he had money,” she muttered, disbelief in her tone. “Every month he was Johnny on the spot, taking every penny that I had, so I didn’t have any access to it,” she explained, staring out the window beside her. “I’m so glad he didn’t spend all of it.”
“Maybe he just felt he could never have enough and decided that, as long as you were getting it, he might as well keep tagging it.”
“Maybe, but why? I mean, why would he take it and not spend it?”
“I don’t know,” Wilden admitted, “but obviously he had some really major issues in life that he never dealt with. I won’t spend any more time worrying about that either. He made a lot of people miserable.”
She winced and sighed. “You know, all I ever wanted was to be a mom. And, when I had him, I thought it was the best day of my life. Finding out that everything I ever did was for naught because he ended up being somebody I would never want to subject the word to really hurts,” she admitted, with a headshake. “And yet I tried so hard.”
He walked closer, then crouched in front of her. Dagger shoving his face close to be a part of whatever he had to say.
“You did the best you could, and you need to forgive yourself for anything that didn’t go the way you thought it would. He’s the one responsible for who he turned out to be.” She looked over at him, and he nodded.
“You cannot take that on, any more than I’m prepared to take on feeling guilty for anybody else in town he may have screwed over, simply because I’m his son.
It’s his shame—not mine and not yours. There isn’t any way for us to make restitution for all he’s done.
I can only let people know that I am not him and that the trouble he caused is well and truly over.
I am sorry for all the people he hurt, but I can’t make it right, so I’m not even going to try. ”
“Do you think I should be trying?” she asked.
He shook his head. “No, you are not responsible for his actions.” Her sigh was heavy with pain, and he nodded. “I know. I understand that, for you, this is horrific and that you just want it all to go away.”
“And I get that on some level too,” she muttered, her tone miserable, but she was clearly unsure what to say.
“At the moment, we’re doing everything we can to get the most urgent things squared away here, first and foremost. Then we will see what else still needs to be done. I need to pick up his remains on Monday, and we have some other bills that need to be taken care of.”
“Do we have money for renovations?”
“With what I know to date, we do. However, I want to take some time to really check out all your finances before I answer that. I’ve paid all the bills that I am aware of, and, so far, it was enough to catch up all the bills—but there may be more that I am unaware of.
I suggest we get a cup of coffee and sit down together and make a list of the things to be done in your house.
We’ll prioritize those repairs and see how far the money will go. ”
She smiled up at him and nodded. “You have no idea how happy I am that you came home. I can’t imagine trying to face all this on my own.”
“You’re not on your own anymore,” he confirmed, “and I’m so sorry I left you that way so long.”
“None of that, boy. I mean it.”
“Yes, ma’am. Do you need a hand getting dressed?”
She waved him away. “No.” Just then a yawn caught her, and she sighed. “I’ll need a nap early today.”
“And that’s fine,” he said, “You can have two, three, even four naps. I can just bring you coffee in bed if you want, and you can stay there. I will bring a notebook with me next time.”
She smiled at him. “No.” She waved him off again. “If I start living in my bed, I’ll never leave this room.” He just smiled as she shooed him off. “Go pour the coffee. I’ll be out there in a few minutes.”
He walked out, knowing that she wanted some privacy and a chance to still be independent. Dagger followed him. Yet he also recognized her fatigue, knowing it would be hard for her to accept some of the things they would have to face.
But there wasn’t any way to protect her from it. And he had other things that he needed to work on, and he could only hope that she was strong enough to handle some of the things still to come. He also needed to see the police today.
He assumed so anyway, although, if he could get out of that, it would be lovely.
He had no idea what stories Cooper was telling them.
Harley Cooper was slimy. He must have had dirt on Jimmy—and God-only-knows who else.
And then there was his missing partner in crime, Larry Hinkle.
Cooper hadn’t given up his partner last night, so it would be interesting if they got any ideas where the man might be.
Was it just his partner they had to worry about? Or was somebody else out there causing people pain too?
Wilden wished there was a little more clarity in this whole situation, but, since there wasn’t, that’s just where he was at.
As he poured the coffee, he heard Nan wandering around in the bedroom, getting dressed.
As much as he could see that she was doing much better since he’d arrived, she carried an awful lot of pain in her heart, and he didn’t know how to make that any better for her.
It was tough to see everything she had tried so hard to build turn to dust because of her son.
Sometimes bad seeds just turned out to be bad seeds. Wilden had never really been philosophical about raising a family and how it would all turn out. But he could easily see that, for Nan, this was a hardship that was difficult to accept.
She came around the corner into the kitchen, her walker moving ahead of her, and he saw how tired she was. Dagger greeted her all over again while he watched. It hurt him to think that he was quite possibly close to losing her when he’d only just found her again.
They had lost far too much time, and he wanted to regain and to enjoy as much of that time as he possibly could. He motioned for her to sit at the table and then brought her a cup of coffee.
When she sat down, he grabbed a notepad. She looked at it and nodded. “I’m not sure on the taxes,” she began, her tone miserable. “And I think we also might be in arrears for some of the utilities still,” she noted. “Other than that, I think he may have racked up a bill at the pub.”
He frowned at her in surprise. “The pub will need checking, but the utilities are clear. Didn’t I tell you that I took care of that and the property taxes?”
She shrugged. “Yes, you did. I don’t know why they would let him run a tab at the pub, but they did.”
He frowned at that. “Okay, I’ll take a look.” He wrote everything down so he could sort through it later. “Now, what about you? Are there medications you need? How long has it been since you’ve had a checkup? Are you behind on any medical bills?”
She looked up at him, shaking her head miserably. “I don’t even know if the insurance is paid up,” she began. “So that’s one of the things you’ll have to sort out.” He nodded, knowing that one could be a bad one unless the Medicare was sorted out and working properly.
“I stopped all medications a while back.”
“Do you need to see a doctor?” he asked, feeling his temper rising.
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m fine.
” He continued to stare at her, and she flushed.
“Okay, I used to take blood pressure medication, and he wouldn’t let me get that.
But that was quite a few months ago. So now I’m wondering if I even needed it.
The drugs don’t make me feel any different.
I don’t even remember what it was like taking them.
So a part of me feels it was just more of an automatic thing that they give to all the old people. ”
He stared at her and asked, “Do you want to go to the doctor and get it sorted out?”
“No.” Then she sighed. “Look. I know that you don’t want to consider this, but I’m also getting old.”