“Perry?”
He looks back over his shoulder, and her breath catches.
“Is there an us?” she asks.
His smile tells her everything, but the words are good, too.
“If you want there to be.”
“I do. Stay with me while I call?”
44
THE MOTHER
Darby is in the back yard taking hamburgers off the grill when Osley and Moore show up at her door. Scarlett calls for her, yelling that the police are there, and Darby has a terrible premonition that that their lives are about to change forever. Again. Her mind touches briefly on Peyton, who has dropped off the face of the earth, and draws back sharply, as if burned. She will be in therapy for years trying to understand her mixed emotions toward her son. The boy she raised, who has killed. Kidnapped. Raped. A man she no longer knows, who she can never understand, but wants to hold tight to her breast, to carry inside her again. If only she could do it all over, if only she could start fresh.
But it is too late for that.
“Want me to leave?” Park asks. He is tending the small bonfire they’ve pulled together. Hot dogs and burgers on the grill, s’mores for dessert. Not a date. Neither of them want to call it that, but they’d be lying if they didn’t acknowledge they enjoy spending time together. Though how she has gotten herself into this situation, on a definitely-not-a-date in her back yard with a married guy who she’s never slept with but whose sperm twice created life inside her, one of the resulting children the reason the police have arrived, isn’t something she wants to examine closely.
When Olivia took off for the beach, bailing on Park, on her clients, on her whole life, Darby honestly understood the impulse. She almost envied her the escape.
But at the same time, she’s happy Olivia is gone. It’s given Scarlett time to get to know her father and has given Darby a chance to get to know Park as well. To assess for herself whether he could be capable of deceit.
She’s vulnerable right now, she understands this. But she has a bizarre connection to this man, and the more he’s around, the more complicated things have gotten. She’s attracted to him, and she hates herself a bit for this. She, who has never needed anyone, is suddenly happy for a shoulder to cry on.
Park has been around more and more lately, spending almost all his free time at Darby’s and Scarlett’s sides. He hasn’t shied away from the awkwardness of the situation; instead, after Scarlett goes to sleep, he puts his arms around Darby and holds her while she cries. He encourages her to talk openly about the problems of Peyton’s childhood. He reinforces her decision to commit her—their—son. He seems to love their daughter without reservation, delighting in every word, every laugh, every moment quiet and loud.
The romance between father and daughter will end eventually, when Park finally trips up and says the wrong thing, or worse, says no to something Scarlett has her heart set on, but for now, Scarlett is coping better than Darby could have hoped. She’d been planning to get a psychologist involved, but right now, her daughter is doing okay. They agreed she doesn’t have to go back to Bromley, and Darby has filed a notice of intent to homeschool her with the Davidson County school system. Scarlett seems quite content with that option. It makes Darby feel better having her close to home now, anyway.
Interestingly, Park’s been talking about serving Olivia with papers. “We’re broken,” he confessed, late last night, as they sat together in the cool autumn darkness, finishing the bottle of wine. “I think we have been for a long time, and I just didn’t see it until she left. There’s no glue in the world that can put us back together again.”
She doesn’t want him to leave. Now, or ever.
“Please stay,” Darby finally says. “I have a bad feeling about this.”
Park nods. “Bring them out here, then. So we can keep an eye on the fire.”
Responsible Park. She knows he won’t let anything bad happen if he can help it.
Moore and Osley both look tired and rumpled, as if they’ve been up for days. They decline the offer of drinks and seats, instead preferring to stand, hands outstretched over the flames. The evening is chilly, the autumnal equinox upon them. Amazing how quickly the weather shifts in only a few weeks when fall is marching toward winter. Things die faster than they grow.
Scarlett joins them, hope mingled with fear on her face.
“Can I stay?” she asks, and before Darby can say yes or no, Osley nods.
“Stay. We’re all good.”
“We found Jillian Kemp,” Moore says, but before Darby’s next, horrible heartbeat, the cop smiles. “She’s alive.”
They detail what’s been happening—finding Kemp, her health status, her information about where Peyton took her, developing the maps, taking the chopper, the overflight throughout the farmland and hills near Waverly.
“We found the barn where he’s been living. Found all his things.”
“But Peyton?” Darby asks, voice barely a whisper.
Osley steps in. “Ms. Kemp was positive she killed him, but we found no sign of him other than a pretty extensive blood pool. She caught him in the head with a chisel. Either an animal got him, which is possible, or—”
“He’s alive,” Darby breathes. “Thank God.”
“Have you seen him?” Osley asks sharply, and she shakes her head.
“Nor heard from him. But I’m his mother. Of course I’m relieved he’s not dead.”
“So where is he?” Scarlett asks. Her eyes are filled with terror, and pain, and it kills Darby to see her upset like this.
Osley clearly recognizes the look, speaks as gently as Darby’s ever heard him. “We don’t know, honey. But if he’s out there, he’s wounded, badly. We’ve got a BOLO out for all the hospitals, but you’re a nurse, Ms. Flynn. If he’s injured as badly as we think, and he’s able, chances are he’s going to come home to you.”
Darby looks to Park. The cops don’t seem surprised to see him, which tells her they’ve been watching the house and know he’s been here before. He nods encouragingly.
“I promise I’ll call if he comes home. He needs help. I want to get him the help he needs, and I don’t just mean stitches for a wound. He needs to be in the hospital. Not jail,” she finishes, voice growing louder. “You can’t arrest him and send him to prison. Please. He needs psychological help.”
“That’s not up to us, Ms. Flynn. There’s more. We’ve been doing some pretty intense work these past few weeks, and we got confirmation tonight that his DNA has matched to three more unsolved homicides. One dates back two years. I’m afraid your son has been keeping some pretty heavy secrets from you.”
Darby feels faint. This can’t be happening. “Beverly Cooke isn’t the first?”
“No, ma’am, she wasn’t. There will be a lot more information coming out in the next few days, but we wanted you to hear it from us first.”
Darby sinks onto the couch by the fire, and Scarlett cuddles next to her.
“It’s okay, Mom. It’s not your fault.”
Moore agrees. “It isn’t something you’ve done. It’s what he’s chosen to do. Just promise me you will turn him in if he shows up, and be very careful around him. He won’t have much to lose if he knows you’re aware of the extent of his crimes.”