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Had he pulled that scenario out of a hat? Tony didn’t think so. He asked, “Did she introduce her lover to you?”
Matt scowled. “No! What makes you think that?”
“But I get the feeling you do know who he was.”
“No.” He set his coffee on the bench beside him and bent forward, elbows on his knees, hands yanking at his hair. “If I’d known… God. What could I have done?”
Clearly, he had felt helpless and angry, a volcano ready to blow. Was the anger directed more at his mother—or at the man tearing apart Matt’s family?
“Has Beth called you today?” Tony asked abruptly.
“Beth?” Matt turned his head enough to look at Tony. “No. Why would she?”
“She and I have been going through the boxes of your mother’s things that were packed away in the garage.”
Matt straightened, his hair now wildly disheveled. “You mean her clothes?”
“And other things.” He told Beth’s brother about the diamond jewelry and the drawing.
Both shock and revulsion in his blue eyes, Matt stuttered, “Mom…naked?”
“Yes. It’s…clearly erotic in intent.”
He shook his head, not in disbelief so much as shock, if Tony was any judge. “You think my father found it.”
“That’s one possibility.”
“Jesus. I always thought—”
“What?”
“—that he did walk in on them. Even so… Damn.” He ran a shaky hand over his face. “It’s hard to picture him…” Once again, he trailed off.
“Killing?”
“Well…on purpose.”
Tony swallowed some coffee. The head wound could conceivably have resulted from an accident of some sort. They’d wrestled and she’d fallen, striking her head on a corner of the dresser. Except the dent looked more rounded than that. A baseball bat, maybe a heavy-duty flashlight, seemed like better guesses.
“You all but accused your father of killing her, the last time we talked,” he said.
Matt hunched into himself, a little like his sister did too often. “I didn’t mean it, not really. Dad’s…well, you’ve gotten an idea what he’s like.”
Tony nodded.
“I’ve been angry at him as long as I can remember. I needed a father. Instead, it was like having a ghost drifting around the house, vaguely surprised when the living people noticed his presence. When I figured out that Mom was screwing around on him, I got even madder. At her, but mostly at him. It was his fault. Why would she stick around? And then this was going on right underneath his nose, and he either didn’t notice or pretended not to because that would ruffle his existence. I wanted him to hurt.” Rage shook his voice. “To feel something.” He swore again, and let his head fall back. “I thought I’d gotten over this crap. Ashley keeps telling me—” He applied the brakes so hard, he all but skidded, taking a wary, sidelong look at Tony.
“Telling you?” he asked mildly.
Matt let out a long sigh. “She points out that he could have been a lot worse. He didn’t use his fists, he didn’t belittle us. He’s a gentle man who connects poorly to other people.”
Ashley’s words, Tony assumed.
“We’re…about to start a family. I know I should get past this, before I become a father.”
Tony surprised himself by saying, “You have a good start. You know what he didn’t give you that you needed.”
“Uh…yeah?”
“You might make a list someday. What qualities of his do you want to own? Which ones don’t you?”
“None.” He gave his hair another tug. “Of course that’s not true. I’m a reader, like he is. I’ve chosen to work in academia. He did faithfully bring home a paycheck, and, as Beth poked me with the other day, he paid my way through college.” He frowned, possibly in thought. “I don’t see Dad cheating on Mom.”
“All positives.”
“Shit.”
Tony gave him a moment to brood, then asked, “If you never saw the man, how did you know your mother was having an affair?”
Matt described a series of small things that an adult male would have recognized sooner than he had at seventeen. Coming home unexpectedly, to have his mother pop out of her bedroom and head him off was one. She’d barred him from opening her bedroom door once, after he’d been sure he heard a man’s voice in there and became suspicious. Low-voiced phone conversations with too many smiles and giggles. Lies about where she’d been and what she’d done. A new, more youthful hairstyle, a lot heavier makeup than she’d been accustomed to wear. Hang-ups when Matt answered the phone after getting home from school earlier than usual.
