“What happened?” Travis asked, but she shook her head.
Travis gazed down at her. He took her hand and pulled her into the unlocked house, purposely leaving Khan outside. He guided her upstairs and she willingly went.
It was crazy, she knew, spending time in bed with him, but she wanted it, needed it so badly. The touch and feel of him was so real, so tangible, that it pushed the unreal, the horror, away from the front of her mind.
Afterward, they had dinner. He’d bought steaks and champagne. She had one potato in the pantry and a few tomatoes clinging to the vines in pots on the back porch. He barbecued. She poured champagne and as the potato roasted and the steaks sizzled on the grill, they brought each other up to speed about what they’d been doing.
“I’m sworn to secrecy,” she said as she chopped onions and the puppy, let out of the pen and allowed to roam around the kitchen, explored her new surroundings.
“Who would I tell?”
She looked at him. To hell with her sick, scheming brothers. Travis was the one who cared, the father worried sick about his daughter. Quickly she told him about her father and brothers and the Stealth Torcher. He just stared at her. When she finished, he shook his head.
“So your father killed Dolores Galvez accidentally, and then gave up setting fires. The boys took up the sword, so to speak, and though they were appalled at what your father had done, they decided to take things one step further. They killed your husband, then let you go on trial for it.”
“Essentially.”
Travis turned back to the champagne. With a loud pop, the cork exploded out of the bottle and frothy champagne bubbled out. “You believe it all?” He poured them each a glass and handed one to her.
“Most of it. There are still some holes. I’m not sure my brothers were being completely honest with me.” She clinked the rim of her glass to his, then took a sip of the cool, effervescent liquid. “But why should they start now?”
“Those holes are as wide as the Grand Canyon.” He stared out the window to the night as it crept over the land. “It doesn’t fit. No matter how you push the pieces together, something’s not right.”
“They’ll talk to Paterno and maybe he can get the truth out of them.”
“But they’ve already lawyered-up.”
“Mmm.” She took another swallow of her drink before tossing the onions and tomatoes together.
“I think they’re just covering their collective asses.”
She didn’t argue. Couldn’t. She’d had the same hit.
“Something’s off.”
Shannon nodded, then surprised at her hunger, she sprinkled olive oil, basil, salt and balsamic vinegar into the bowl as Travis walked outside to fork the steaks from the grill. She ate like she’d been starved. A psychologist would probably tell her she was feeding a need, a gaping hole. It was something she couldn’t sate.
She finally pushed her plate away and later, when she and Travis lay in bed, nestled together, only a sheet over their naked bodies, a picture of Dani on the nightstand, Shannon wondered, Where the hell was their daughter?
Chapter 32
Something was wrong…so wrong…She wandered through the house, their mother’s house, searching for someone, for something.
“Neville?” she called. “Oliver?”
Where were the twins?
She heard meat sizzling, smelled bacon frying, but there was no one in the kitchen, the stove wasn’t lit.
“No bacon, Shannon! It’s Friday! Shame on you,” her mother said, but Maureen was nowhere nearby and when Shannon reached for the door to the basement, it was locked, wouldn’t budge. “You never did follow the rules, did you?” her mother was saying and the voice came from the den.
“Mom?” Shannon yelled, but when she reached the room where her father smoked cigars, it was empty, just the odor of smoke lingering, as if her father had been there seconds before, puffing on his favorite type of cigar. The cigars were there, in a glass humidor on his desk, right next to a picture of Dani.
Shannon’s heart froze.
Where was her little girl?
She heard a baby crying and headed up the stairs, her mother’s disembodied voice chasing after her. “The wages of sin is death…” But the baby was crying and there was smoke in the air.