“Dad—”
He cut her off. “Just get the hell out of here. Now!”
She fled the room.
CHAPTER 38
EVERYONE HAD GONE, the food was put away and the tears had been cried. The Maxwell brothers were clustered in the backyard talking quietly over their beers. Frank Maxwell was still in the bedroom.
Sean and Michelle sat in the living room as outside the dusk slowly evolved to night.
“So he accused you of thinking he was a murderer?”
Michelle nodded slowly, obviously still trying to wrap her arms around this notion. “I guess I can’t blame him,” she said. “And once a cop always a cop. He knows the lay of the land. He’d be a suspect under the usual parameters.”
“That’s true. When a wife dies violently, it’s usually the husband.”
“I don’t think they loved each other.”
Sean put down his can of soda and stared at her. “Why?”
“They never really had anything in common, other than the five kids. Dad was always working. Mom was a
lways at home. When he retired they barely knew each other. Remember when they went on that trip to Hawaii to celebrate their anniversary? They ended up coming back early. I talked to Bill about that later. He said Dad told him they’d run out of things to talk about after one day. And they didn’t even have anything they liked to do together. They’d just grown apart.”
“They ever consider divorce?”
“I don’t know. They never mentioned it to me.”
“But you weren’t that close to your mother, were you?”
“Closer to my dad, but even that got strained over the years.”
“Why?”
“I’m not in the mood to get psychoanalyzed right now.”
“Okay, I was just asking a question.”
“Who were those people that came in right before Dad shot to the bedroom?”
“You didn’t know any of them?” said Sean.
“I don’t know any of my parents’ friends.”
“I made the rounds. Mostly they were friends of your mom’s. Played golf, cards, shopped together. Did a little charity thing.”
“Nothing out of the ordinary? It seemed like my dad didn’t want to even see them.”
“Nothing that stuck out. They seemed genuinely sorry about your mom’s death.”
They turned when they heard the door open. Frank Maxwell was past them and outside before they even rose off the couch.
Michelle made it to the front door in time to see her dad climb in his car and drive off a lot faster than he should have.
“What the hell was that about?” asked Sean, who’d joined her at the door.
Michelle just shook her head. She glanced at the hall leading to the bedroom. “Come on.”