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Katie chewed on the end of her pencil. “So how did they break into Octavia’s home?”
“Isaac knew someone who had once cleaned Octavia’s house and knew where she kept the extra keys. The old lady was foolish, I think.”
Katie stared out the window toward Luke’s apartment. A squirrel was racing along the gutter, then scrambled into the overhanging bows of a pine tree. Blue was barking, running along the edge of the carriage house, his nose tilted into the air, his eyes trained on his quarry. But Katie didn’t pay any attention to the squirrel’s antics or Blue’s frustrated cries. In her mind’s eye she saw her story forming, but some of the joy she’d expected to feel—the satisfaction of getting her big scoop—was missing. “I owe you, Jarrod.”
“Just take care of yourself.”
“I will. Thanks.”
“No problem.”
“You know I’ll have to talk to Ray Dean,” she ventured, ready for her brother’s temper to explode.
“Go ahead. As long as he’s behind bars.”
* * *
The next couple of days were busy. Too busy. Somehow Katie avoided Luke, though she suspected he was the one doing the avoiding. By the time she got up each morning and peeked out the window, his pickup was gone; she didn’t hear it return until after midnight. She’d talked to Ralph Sorenson a couple of times, and Josh had tentatively gotten on the phone and spoken to his grandfather. Things were still tense but working out. Eventually they would all meet.
So close and yet so far away, she thought on the second day after Josh had flown out the door, his backpack draped over one shoulder, his hair flopping as he raced up the street to meet the school bus.
She finished cleaning the kitchen, then, against the wishes of everyone in the family, drove to the jail where she planned to interview Ray Dean. She’d already written the story about his arrest and how she was involved. Her editor was impressed, but he wanted more.
Ray, seated on his cot, looked at her through the bars. She sat in a folding chair and listened as he smoked and told his side of the story in painstaking detail. In the end, it seemed, his version only backed up Isaac’s rendition. They were both crooks. But Ray, she assumed, because of his record and the fact that he’d actually done the deed, would draw a much longer sentence.
Nonetheless, she got her story.
So where was that overwhelming sense of satisfaction she’d been certain she would feel? Where was her emotional payoff? Instead of a feeling of elation, she experienced a sense of loss. The mystery was over, and, though she would probably get to work on more interesting stories in the months to come, she was still the same woman she’d always been—just with a different set of problems.
She drove home and found a bouquet of flowers on the front step. She bit her lip as she carried the roses, chrysanthemums and baby’s breath inside. Her fingers trembled, and she mentally crossed her fingers that the bouquet was from Luke.
The card was simple: “We’re proud of you. Congratulations. Mom and Dad.”
“How nice,” she said, but couldn’t ignore the overwhelming sense of disappointment that dwelled deep in her heart. Though she’d pushed Luke away, now she missed him. “Yeah, well, you’re an idiot,” she said as she mounted the stairs, started removing her earrings and, once in her bedroom, checked the clock. Josh wouldn’t be home for another couple of hours, so she just had time
to—
The phone rang shrilly. She snatched up the receiver before it had a chance to ring again. “Hello?”
“Katie Kinkaid?”
The voice was familiar. “Yes?”
“It’s Ralph Sorenson again. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, and even though we’ve talked a few times, I didn’t really tell you what I’m thinking. Mainly that I guess I owe you an apology for the first time I called, and I don’t want there to be any bad blood between us.”
“There isn’t—”
“Just hear me out,” he insisted, on a roll he didn’t want to stop. “When I first called you I was just so damned anxious to get to know Josh, you know, because of Dave’s death and all. Anyway, I made that deal with Luke, offered him money to find the boy, because I was so damned lonely.”
Her throat ached all over again, as he explained how empty his life was without Dave but that he’d decided that Katie, as Josh’s mother, knew what was best when it came to his grandson. He and his estranged wife only wanted what was best for Josh, and to that end they planned to set up a trust fund for him with the money he’d set aside for Luke.
Katie was thunderstruck. Her fingers clamped over the receiver. “But I thought Luke already got the money.”
“No way.” The old man chuckled sadly. “That boy taught me a little bit about what being a family and putting other people’s needs before your own is all about. It’s funny, really. Luke never really had a family, didn’t know much about his folks, and then his own marriage was a mistake from the get-go, what with his wife running around on him and all.”
Katie felt a tear slide down her cheek. What a fool she’d been.
“Listen, Mr. Sorenson—”
