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CHAPTER 25
“Where the hell have you been? I’ve been frantic! Out of my mind with worry, Kara. Out. Of. My. Mind! And you left the hospital against the doctor’s orders? What in God’s name were you thinking?” Faiza’s voice was tight over the wireless connection. “Is this your new phone number?”
“No,” Kara said quickly. She was using Tate’s phone. She’d called her aunt on it, but, of course, Faiza hadn’t picked up. Then Kara had left a voice mail and texted and within minutes her aunt had phoned. “I’m with a friend. It’s his phone.”
Seated on the edge of Tate’s bed, she held the phone in one hand while petting Rhapsody with the other. Her shoulder and neck felt tighter today and the stitches in her forehead pulled a bit, but she’d managed to get dressed and before she went to the sheriff’s department to talk to the detectives, she’d decided to bite the bullet and call Faiza.
“Hisphone?” Faiza repeated. “What friend?”
She didn’t want to go there. “It doesn’t matter. I’ve got Rhapsody with me and I’m going in to talk to the police and get my phone back.”
“And then?”
It was so complicated. “I have to talk to the insurance company, get a rental car.”
“And what about your brother?” she said in disgust. “I heard Jonas hired an attorney, well, a new attorney, and he’s going to file a lawsuit or something.”
“A new attorney?”
“Well, his other one is dead,” Faiza pointed out. “And if you ask me, he’s involved!”
“You don’t know that.”
“He was there, wasn’t he? He’s dangerous, Kara. Always has been.”
“But a new attorney? Already? Isn’t he still in the hospital? How could he hire a new lawyer?”
“I’m not sure, but I think he has this online fan club and they had something to do with it. I saw some chatter—isn’t that what you call it?”
“Wait,you’rein the Facebook fan club?” This seemed out of character.
“To keep up with what’s going on!”
What was the old line fromThe Godfather? “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” Auntie Fai seemed to be adopting the philosophy.
She was ranting on. “If you ask me, Jonas should never have been let out of prison. That’s the problem, you know. If there wasn’t all this hype about him being released, if he was still locked up, none of this would have happened. Merritt would still be alive and you, you wouldn’t have been in that awful car crash, and that poor other driver wouldn’t be in the hospital!” She let out a shuddering sigh. “Your mother never liked him, you know.”
“Jonas?” Kara did know. She’d heard her parents arguing, even that night after Silas Dean had been over to confront Daddy and put him in, as Mama had said, “one of his moods.” Walter Robinson’s arrival where he threatened custody only made things worse. They’d argued in their bedroom, but Kara had overheard them yelling about Jonas and Donner, Mama saying Jonas was on the edge of becoming a criminal, that he was always sneaking out, thinking no one knew and doing only God knew what—either having sex with anything that moved or doing drugs or joining a gang or something. Mama told Daddy that Jonas should go to some military school to “straighten out” before he got into some real, serious trouble, while Daddy insisted that Donner always provoked Jonas, that Donner, not Jonas, was the problem. Then Daddy had spied Kara lurking in the hallway and had closed the door and by the time they’d had dinner, her parents weren’t arguing anymore. They were still angry with each other, Mama being polite but frosty, her words clipped, and Daddy being quieter and quieter as he’d had too much to drink. Again.
“Zelda told me that he was—how did she put it? ‘Not right. Out of control.’ That’s what she said, and I think she even called him a ‘maniac,’ after he attacked Donner. He was her pride and joy, you know. The apple of her eye. Walter, he wanted to take the boy from her when they split up, but Zelda, bless her heart, wouldn’t let him. Nuh-uh.”
“Walter fought Mama in court?” Kara asked.
“Oh, yeah.”
“For Donner?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“What about Marlie?”
“Oh, he wanted her, too, you bet he did, but Zelda wasn’t having any of it and with Samuel’s money, Walter didn’t have a chance at custody for those kids. He knew Marlie would insist on staying with Zelda, but he thought he could persuade Donner to go with him. Of course that wasn’t going to happen.” She let out a snort. “Don’t get me wrong, Walter’s a good man. Served his country, works hard and does well enough for himself as an electrician, even got into electronics, but compared to your father? It’s no contest.”
She let out a sigh. “They were good kids, you know. Not like Sam’s boys. Oh, the older one, the namesake, he was okay, I guess, but Jonas? Mean. From the get-go.”
Faiza had always blamed Jonas for the murders, but she didn’t dwell on it now. Instead, she abruptly changed the subject. “So are you coming home?”
Home to Faiza was the house in the West Hills, the mansion where Kara had spent the first eight years of her life, where Faiza and Roger had resided since the killings, the place from which Kara had retreated, preferring to stay with Merritt Margrove and his second wife, Helen. Kara had avoided the huge, rambling estate with its Tudor-like house and magnificent view of the city.
