“Let me go!” she cried. She screamed it out again, and his hand clamped over her mouth from behind as his other arm tightened around her waist. His fingers were firm against her mouth and nostrils. Her chest constricted as she struggled to breathe.
“You can go when I say you can go,” he snarled into her ear. “But I have to tell you, I’m tired of being left.”
41
People often don’t see their new dog’s true personality until weeks after adoption. If your dog had a relationship with a previous owner—especially a neglectful one—you may find him to be the product of mixed signals and unrealistic expectations. The best way to build trust is by demonstrating patience.
—“Your Rescue Dog in His New Home” tip sheet, posted on the Tiffins’ refrigerator
“Clara. You did what?”
She shot Benny a look. The kids hadn’t been asleep long enough not to be startled by raised voices. She’d waited until they were snug in bed to fill him in, so he could get the full story out of their earshot.
“Benny. This is good news. Thomas can go back to school.”
“I think we could’ve found a way to achieve that without another visit to the police station.”
She dried the last of the dinner pans and maneuvered it into the overfilled mess of a drawer beneath the oven. “It was no big deal. Detective Bryant said he was making more rounds this week any way, before shelving the case.” She forced the drawer shut with her foot. “He said I was doing him a favor.”
“All it takes is one person to see you coming or going from the station, and we’ll be getting it from all sides again!” He shook out a new kitchen trash bag with an angry snap and slammed the lid onto the can. “Your priorities are out of whack.”
“My only priority was to get my son back at school where he belongs, to get a sense of normalcy back to our lives. What is out of whack about that?”
“Do you honestly expect me to believe this didn’t have anything to do with Paul declaring his affection for Izzy on the radio? You weren’t grasping for an excuse to get back in there and guilt the detectives into giving you a status report? What do you take me for?”
She glared at him.
“Tell me you didn’t stick around long enough to ask a few extra questions after he told you they were about to stop investigating.”
When she didn’t answer, he raised his hands to an imaginary audience in the adjoining living room. “That’s not fair,” she protested. “I was there anyway—anyone would have asked. It doesn’t mean that’s why I went.”
“Clara, Kristin isn’t Liv. I don’t think it’s healthy, the way the two seem to have become entwined for you. This man is not perfect, but he’s a doctor, by all accounts a good one. He’s been a father to those kids when they might have grown up without one. I can’t see what he’d have in common with Liv’s psycho ex-boyfriend—and thank God for that. I understand why the whole thing worries you, I do. But you have to stop assuming the worst, just because of what we went through before. I am imploring you to stop bringing this other family’s problems into our own.”
She opened her mouth, then closed it.
“I understand that this is a sensitive issue for you, which is why I’ve tried not to be so blunt about it. It’s sensitive for me too. I was there, remember? But getting pulled into things inadvertently is one thing. Marching down to the police station and playing Nancy Drew is another. Not healthy. Not good for you, not good for me, not good for us.”
She stepped back, startled, as tears filled her eyes. “Benny, it had nothing to do with us. Don’t talk like that.”
“You’re making it about us. Whatever I have to say to get through to you, I’ll say!” She saw then—really saw—how serious he was. A wave of sudden sadness stopped her where she stood, and the breath went out of her lungs, leaving her empty.
“Okay,” she said desperately. “Okay. I’m sorry, Benny. I’m sorry.”
“Promise me that will be the last time you ever check in with that detective. For any reason.”
“I promise.” She meant it. There were no reasons left, anyway. That was it. “I’ll stay out of it.”
“And stop panicking poor Izzy.”
Clara took a deep breath. It was a promise that went against everything she’d come to stand for. It was a promise that could mean endangering her friend.
Then again, Izzy wouldn’t want to hear any more from her anyway. Clara had done what she could. And she had risked enough.
“I promise.”
“No matter what.”
“No matter what.”
A hard knock startled them both, and through the darkness on the other side of the sliding glass door she could see Hallie, standing with a coat pulled over flannel pajama pants, her feet clad in rubber-bottomed slippers, a frantic look on her face. She was pointing and mouthing something Clara couldn’t understand. Benny rushed to the door and flung it open. “Hallie? What—”
“It’s Paul,” she blurted out. “He’s sneaked across the street to Izzy’s, through her fence. I saw him, out my window. Her house is dark, she must be asleep, and … I’m scared for her.”
Clara froze.
Benny squinted at the girl. “You just happened to be looking out your window?”
“I didn’t just happen to be. I’ve been keeping watch.”
“Over Izzy?”
“Over Paul. Or his house, anyway.”
“Why?”
“Because someone has to!”
Clara felt a fierce urge to hug her—whether to offer comfort or gratitude, she wasn’t sure.
Benny sighed. “Hallie, you’ve promised your mom you’d stay out of this…”
“I was out of it. I didn’t even leave my bedroom. I just happen to have a good view of his house out my window. And can we talk about this later, after someone checks on Izzy?”
She looked pleadingly at Clara.
“Hallie.” Clara needed to speak carefully, even as her thoughts raced. “You have to be absolutely sure of what you saw. Maybe Izzy invited him over. Maybe they’re trying to be discreet. When grown-ups date…”
“They’re not dating. Izzy turned him down after the radio show. Randi and Rhoda came over for dinner tonight, and they told my mom everything. They said Dr. Kirkland overheard something he shouldn’t have today. They were joking about it, but I could tell it made them nervous.”
Clara looked past her, toward Hallie’s own dark house, as her growing sense of unease hovered over the unsteady ground of her tentative truce with Natalie. “Then why are you telling us and not your mom?”
“I was afraid she’d go out by herself. She’d be reluctant to call the police, after what happened with me.”
Benny was looking helplessly from one to the other. It was so obvious that Hallie was terrified, how could he not do something?
Clara’s promise from just moments before caught in her throat. The only person who had not promised to stay out of it was reaching for the leash hanging by the door and sliding his cell phone into his back pocket.
“I’ll take Pup-Pup for a walk,” he said.
Clara squeezed his hand tight, then turned back to Hallie.
“Let’s call your mom,” she said. “I’ll make us some hot chocolate.”
42
I can’t imagine my life without you in it, and I’m so glad I don’t have to. What’s the next adventure? Make a wish, and we’ll make it happen!
—Josh’s inscription in a birthday card to Izzy, five long years ago
She’d been so stupid. She’d been so wrong.
If she ever got out of this, she’d do everything differently.
She had conjured bad juju with her lie to Paul, but it hadn’t landed with her father. It had come straight for her. Straight for the source.
“Scream again, and you’ll be sorry,” he hissed into her ear, and his palm pulled away from her face. She gasped for air.
What if she hadn’t lied? Would this never have happened, or would it have happened that night, in Paul’s kitchen, when he wouldn’t take no for an answer?
“I know you’ve been going through a hard time—” she tried.
He cut her off with a bitter laugh. “That’s one way to put it.”