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“Tristan,” Bethan whispered, grabbing on to my sleeve and lightly bouncing Bellamy as she cried, “let’s go, we should be at the hospital.”
“You go. But be careful. I’m going to go talk to someone,” I kissed her and Bellamy’s foreheads before walking back to my car.
“Should we go? Should we go too? Will he want us there?” Mr. Black called out to me, and in my bitterness, I turned and shrugged.
“Do whatever you want, Mr. Black, it’s what you people do best.”
I got into my car, slamming the door as I drove off.
I wasn’t done. I had left him alone in the hospital because one: he, in a brief moment of clarity asked for my help, and two: because I needed to see my family. No matter what happened today, he wasn’t going to leave her side…
‘Thea. Thea! No… please no. Come on—”
I shuddered at the memory in my head; his screams kept repeating, as if he was the one who was dying. Levi rarely asked me to do anything for him. So this I would do. I owed it to him.
Parking across the street, I got out of my car and noticed that the maids were all busy dragging an assortment of bags down to a waiting car.
Odile came out last, with her newborn child strapped into his car seat. Her brown hair was pulled up into a messy bun, and she was dressed in a pair of jeans with sneakers. In all the time that I had known Odile Van Allen, she never wore sneakers outside of the gym.
Leaning against her car, I folded my arms across my chest and waited for her to notice me. When she did, she looked away, pretending as though I wasn't there.
“Levi said when you left the office that day you all but swore to him that the Van Allen’s would not take this sitting down. So we waited for the other shoe to drop. We waited and waited but no shoe. Not even a statement out of any of you.”
“Go away Tristan,” she snapped, trying to put her child in the back seat.
“Then today, in court, a judge took a longer than usual time to deliberate… almost like he wanted us all to believe he was truly thinking then matter over. But come on, Judge Thomas? A good lawyer knows the law. A great lawyer knows the judge and I know Judge Thomas. We both do, he was born right here in Boston, and he used to donate to all the Van Allen charities. The man is a quick thinker and an even quicker judge. So tell me Odile, what did you offer him?”
“I did nothing! The loss of your case was by your own doing—”
“Then a man tries to murder Levi. But I know him too. Or at least I thought I did. He used to work on your father’s summerhouse as the groundskeeper. I thought I was going crazy, because the Odile I used to know wouldn’t try to commit murder.”
“Read. My. Lips. I didn’t do anything!” she shouted, at me slamming the door to her car before walking over to the driver’s side.
“I’m reading them but they’re lying to me! What about your father Odile?” I asked, and she stopped. “Since this case started, your father has been in New York, right?”
“Yes,” she composed herself
“Are you covering for him again?” I asked as I stepped between her and the driver’s door, preventing her from going anywhere.
“Excuse me—”
“I’ll skip to the end, since you seem to be in a hurry to leave town. You’re covering for him now like you covered for him when he killed your mother—”
“He did not—”
“Now how many times did he make you repeat that chant?” I asked as I walked around the car. “You told him about the affair, didn’t you? You called him while you and your mother were at the Woodstock fair, and told him. You told him that your mother was there with someone else—”
“Shut up Tristan! You have no idea what you’re talking about!”
“And when he got there, he killed her. Stabbed her... what was it? Fourteen times? That sounds like a crime of passion to me.”
“No you’re wrong—”
“Who else would you be covering for? Why keep lying for him? He tried to kill Levi today. Your father is a murderer Odile, and you are letting him go!”
“No! It wasn’t him! It was—” She froze, her eyes wide.
“Who was it then?”
