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He made a noncommittal noise before saying, “Matt holds a lot of anger. He seems to think your father wasn’t present in the ways he needed.”
Remembering the explosive conversations with her brother last weekend, Beth nodded. “The thing is, Matt was big into sports. Dad never understood the appeal. The only organized sport he played was lacrosse, so he couldn’t coach Little League teams or anything like that, not the way some of the other fathers did. It might have been different if Matt’s interests were—” She groped for an idea that might have united her brother and father, but came up short.
Tony’s eyebrows drew together. “Cars? Art? Computers?”
Beth sighed. “Dad might have gotten interested in chess, or math problems, or…or if Matt wanted to learn to speak Russian.”
“Intellectual pursuits.”
She nodded.
“What about you and Emily?”
“Emily had Mom.”
Understanding and, damn it, that compassion softened his face. “Are you saying you didn’t?”
“No, it wasn’t—Well, it was, but—”
A rumble of amusement helped untangle her. “Is it that hard to say?”
Beth scrunched her nose at him. “I loved my mother, and I’m sure she never intended to make me feel inadequate, but she did. Dad didn’t. I was more of a reader than Emily or Matt, too. More introspective, I guess.”
“More like your father.”
She had to nod. “I understand him better than they did, which I suppose is why I have more patience with him.”
“Hmm.” Tony studied her for a minute. “Any new thoughts about the drawing?”
She shook her head. “Nothing.” Which wasn’t a lie, except she was still conscious of something. It was like catching movement out of the corner of her eye, but whenever she really looked, there was nothing there.
“I talked to Matt again today,” Tony said suddenly. “Maybe an hour ago.”
“Really?” she said in surprise. “He hasn’t called me.”
“Would he?”
“Well… I’d have thought so.”
“Have you had your phone with you?”
“Yes…” Her head turned. Where was her purse? And…when had she last used her phone? “It must be in the car.” Gee, darn. She’d missed Matt’s latest furious tirade. She might delete any message from him unheard.
“Ah. Well, he’s not happy with me. I asked him some hard questions.”
She eyed him. “Like what?”
“I wondered if he might have found the drawing, back then. Confronted your mother.”
“And killed her?” she said incredulously. She’d known in one way that Tony had Matt on his radar, but she hadn’t realized how seriously he took the possibility.
“If it helps, I think it unlikely.” The ghost of a smile crinkled the skin beside his eyes. “Matt’s face is almost as expressive as yours, for one thing.”
“As mine? What are you talking about?”
“You’ll never make a good liar,” he said gently.
“Humph.” And if that wasn’t childish.
“That was a compliment, by the way.”
Wonderful to think she was completely transparent to this man. Did that mean he was well aware of all her conflicting, and way too strong, feelings about him?
Probably.
“Telling me you can read my every thought is not a compliment,” she grumbled.
“You know I can’t do that. It’s more…what you’re feeling that shows.”
“Great.”
“Beth…” He sounded unusually tentative, for a man whose confidence seemed deep-rooted.
She looked up in surprise.
“Matt said something that bothered me. He…seemed to believe you knew your mother was having an affair.”
“What? I didn’t!”
If he relaxed, it was subtly, but Beth realized she was getting better at reading him, too. Which he’d hate.
“He said you’d asked him something once that made him think you knew.”
“Asked him…” A few times since finding Mom’s body, Beth had had odd flickers of remembrance that slipped away before she could catch them. But this particular memory didn’t dodge out of sight. She stared right at it. “Wait. Oh, no. I’d forgotten…” She wanted to curl into a ball.
