“Statements?” Simon asked.
Sam shook his head.
“Concerns?” Simon’s gaze locked on Mike.
He swallowed hard. “If I’ve got them, I need time to think them through. I’m a little numb,” he muttered.
Simon nodded. “Understood. Come to me if you want to talk.”
“Or to me,” his mother added, and Mike knew she meant if he wanted to discuss her relationship with Rex Bransom.
“Right now, I’m taking your mother upstairs and I’m going to find out why she thought she couldn’t tell me she’d heard from Rex,” Simon said in a tone that brooked no argument. “And I’m not taking because you had cancer for an answer.”
Sam snickered, and even Mike had to laugh. Somehow, things had gone from deadly serious to back to normal in the blink of an eye.
And Mike hadn’t been kidding. He needed time to process the entire evening before he could begin to make sense—of anything that had happened tonight.
Fifteen
After the scene at the Marsdens’, Cara wanted to go straight home and talk to Mike, but she’d promised a coworker she’d cover his shift. Since she sensed Mike needed time alone, she figured it was just as well. Besides, she had no desire to get into a discussion of when he’d leave Serendipity. It was enough that she knew the time was imminent and she could prepare herself emotionally. No long, drawn-out conversation would make the inevitable any easier.
Because it was nighttime, she was partnered with Dare, which she enjoyed. They joked around and talked about Tess and his brothers’ babies. She didn’t forget about her problems, but between work and Dare, she found a much-needed distraction.
When dispatch radioed about an unwanted intruder at 111 Elm Street, home of Judge Marshall Baine, every one of Cara’s nerves prickled in alarm.
“Ten-four. Car number seven en route,” Dare replied, hitting the siren and turning toward the judge’s house.
Cara wanted to give him a full rundown, but unless they found Rex, she didn’t want to spill Marsden family secrets.
She prayed she was wrong.
She wasn’t. They arrived to find Mrs. Blaine wearing a bathrobe, arguing with Rex on the front lawn, while the judge paced behind her, muttering to himself.
Cara shook her head and climbed out of the car. “Something wrong?” she asked Mrs. Baine.
“This man is harassing my husband.” Mrs. Baine waved a hand at Rex. “He’s ill and he can’t handle stress well, as you know.” She shot a pleading glance Cara’s way.
“Come on,” Dare said, approaching Rex. “The occupants of the house asked you to leave.”
“And I’m not leaving until I get what I came for. I need to know if he’s got something of mine. Something nobody wants to see the light of day,” Rex said, eyeing Cara warily.
She sighed. “I think you need to accept that you’ve worn out your welcome in Serendipity, Mr. Bransom. Whatever happened in the past, you’re the one stirring it up now. If you persist in continuing this, you’re going to implicate yourself in something that was buried a long time ago.”
“You know this man?” Dare asked.
“This is Rex Bransom. He’s Mike’s biological father.”
Dare blinked in surprise. “Does Mike know he’s around?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
Dare turned to the judge’s wife. “Mrs. Baine, would you like to press charges?”
She folded her arms across her chest. “My husband has given the police chief all the information he has on the past. What happens is up to him. In the meantime, if Mr. Bransom leaves now, I’ll forget this incident ever happened.”
“Nobody can find out about this!” Judge Baine suddenly yelled, turning on Rex at a full run.
“He’s attacking me!” Rex held his hands up to protect himself, but Dare stepped between the men and as gently as possible subdued the judge.