“Eric told me that during the hearings, your mother testified that your dad was merely a social drinker. She insisted she never saw Derry drunk.”
“And you don’t believe her?” Liam asked with what struck Natalie as forced neutrality.
“I would believe it if you told me that was true.”
He glanced up sharply. Their gazes held. Natalie realized muted live music was trickling in from the bar area of the restaurant—a piano, a drummer and a saxophone.
Liam was the first to break their stare.
“I try to give my mom the benefit of the doubt, even if Deidre never has. I think my mother believed what she said in court was true.”
“Deidre doubts your mother’s opinion on the matter?” Natalie asked, referring to Liam’s eldest sister.
“Yeah,” Liam said broodingly. “That’s why Deidre never comes back to Harbor Town, or at least that’s what my brother, Marc, has insinuated. Deidre has never spoken to me about it, but I guess she holds my mom responsible for being in denial about my father’s drinking.”
Natalie sat back in the booth, stunned. “What do you think, Liam?”
He jabbed at a chunk of chicken but he didn’t eat it.
“I remember him drinking regularly when he came home from work. It mellowed him, made him more cheerful. He seemed to need it to unwind. I never even thought about it, until after the crash. I never saw him drunk, but the truth is…”
He set down his fork abruptly and looked across the table at her. “One of my dad’s closest friends at the end of a hard day was a bottle of whiskey.”
“Thank you for telling me,” she said quietly after a strained moment. He nodded and picked up his fork.
Natalie exhaled with difficulty. She could tell by the tension in his face it hadn’t been an easy admission for him to make. It might have even been the first time he’d ever admitted it out loud.
And he’d done it in front of her—a Reyes. She resisted an urge to reach across the table and place her hand on top of his in gratitude.
In compassion.
“So…” she began shakily, determined to get them back on steady ground. “We can safely say that, although your father was no stranger to drinking, his behavior on the night of the crash was unusual. He was bitter and surly that night, when he was usually the essence of charm. He typically drank socially, or at home, but you never saw him heavily intoxicated. He likely drank alone at some point that night. Well past his normal limit.”
“He wanted to get smashed,” Liam stated bluntly.
“Yeah,” Natalie whispered. “But why?”
Liam shook his head, obviously frustrated at not knowing the answer. “Most people get totaled like that when they’re upset about something—breakups, sudden deaths…stuff like that.”
“Right. Nothing like that happened in your family, though?”
“Nothing that I know of.”
“Your mother and father…were they getting along okay? Did you ever hear any fighting?” she asked hesitantly.
“No. I was only fifteen at the time, I know, but I’d say the same thing now as an adult. My mom and dad seemed to have a great marriage. They were like kids together sometimes. My mom has never really gotten over my dad’s death.”
Neither of them spoke for a moment as Natalie tried to incorporate this information into what she already knew.
“The fact that he came to Harbor Town on a Tuesday—that’s got to be relevant. He must have learned about something or found something out in Chicago and that was what upset him,” Liam said, breaking the silence.
“Something about the Langford investigation, maybe?” Natalie wondered.
Liam shook his head. “No, like I said, he knew no charges were going to be pressed in regard to the SEC’s investigation.”
“Maybe he found out some other insider secret at his company, some wrongdoing that no one knew about. And it upset him.”
Liam grimaced. “Maybe, but that doesn’t seem to fit.”