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Her frustration had hit overload. She’d had to close all of it out of her head, at least for a few hours.
She decided to focus on dinner and some quality time with Tori. She prepared an old reliable: spaghetti. She and Tori both loved it. When Tori was a toddler, Kerri had made it almost every day.
But her little girl wasn’t a toddler anymore, and she was hurting.
Sarah Talley had tried to commit suicide. The girl had taken an overdose of her mother’s sleeping pills. Fortunately, her mother had discovered what she’d done in time to avoid the worst. Sarah would remain in the hospital for observation and a psych evaluation for the next seventy-two hours.
For Tori, this was a stunning blow. Fear, hurt, and anger were no doubt tearing her apart.
Additionally troubling was that Tori didn’t want to talk about it.
A truly frustrating and infuriating part for Kerri was that Sykes hadn’t called to let her know. She’d had to find out from Diana when she picked up Tori. At this point, Kerri was so angry with Sykes and Peterson she wasn’t sure she would ever be able to work with either one again. On top of that she was absolutely terrified by the idea that she had shared the story she’d learned from Sue Grimes with the LT, and now Sue was dead, and very possibly the student to whom she had been referring was missing. It was far too big a coincidence to be just any Walker student gone missing. It had to be the anonymous girl.
Kerri had always considered the folks in MID—in all the BPD, really—as family. The past week, today in particular, had greatly damaged that relationship.
As insane as it all was, she couldn’t bring herself to believe the LT would have passed along this information to anyone who would have hurt Sue. Not intentionally.
Yet somehow there had been a leak. Sue had been perfectly fine all these months since the incident. Then when she’d shared the story with Kerri, she’d ended up dead less than twenty-four hours later.
This could not be coincidence.
Oh, and she couldn’t forget the big reward the Walsh family was offering. Following up on the leads called in would do nothing but slow down the task force. Agent Cross would probably delegate that detail to her and Falco.
“Mom.”
Kerri shook off the disturbing thoughts, moved the pan of pasta from the stove, and poured it into a colander in the sink to drain. “Hmm?”
“Do you think it’s possible to do something awful and then forget you did it?”
Shutting off the burner beneath the sauce, Kerri turned to her daughter. “It’s not impossible. There are cases of trauma-induced amnesia. Why do you ask?” She knew why, but her daughter didn’t need to know she’d already considered the scenario.
Whatever answer Kerri had expected, the deluge of tears and sobs was not it. She hurried around the island to hold her daughter. “Please tell me; what’s happened?”
It was a foolish question considering the Myers girl’s death and now with Sarah’s suicide attempt.
Tori stared up at her mother, her face red and damp. “I can’t remember doing anything wrong, but Sarah thinks I pushed Brendal.”
“She told you this? When?” Kerri had never known Sarah Talley to be purposefully hurtful. But situations like this often brought out the worst in all involved. Like her mother, Renae, looking the other way whenever she saw Kerri.
“Alice told me what she said.” Tori dragged in a shuddering breath. “Sarah told Alice she was telling the police I did it.” Tori searched Kerri’s face. “Mom, I swear if I did this, I have no memory of it. I was standing there. We were all arguing, and then Brendal was falling.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe I would do such an awful thing.”
All the trouble seemed to lead back to Alice. “First of all, you don’t know for sure that Sarah said this. Alice may not have been telling the truth.”
Tori shook her head as if tired of fighting the battle. “Yesterday they didn’t sit with me. They kept whispering to each other and looking at me. I think she might be telling the truth. Even Alice kept saying that I should just tell the truth, as if I should know what really happened. I swear I don’t.” Her tears began again in earnest.
Kerri held her for a long while. When the sobs quieted, she drew back and made her daughter a promise. “We will figure this out.”
“Today Mrs.Leary asked me about my anger issues.” Tori shook her head. “I don’t have anger issues. Ihadanger issues when Dad first left,but I got over all that. According to Mrs.Leary some of my friends have been talking about my anger. I’ve hardly spoken to anyone at school all week. Only Sarah and Alice. I don’t understand what’s happening. It’s like my whole life is falling apart.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “I failed an algebra test. I’ve never failed a test.”
Kerri hugged her daughter again. “There will be more algebra tests. Everyone has an off day now and then.” Fear pulsed in her veins. She wanted desperately to say something profound and inspiring ... but what could she say that hadn’t already been said? The only thing she knew to do was to hold her daughter.
Tori drew back and hugged her arms around herself. “I don’t understand what’s happening to me. It’s like everything is wrong or going wrong.”
The more Tori talked, the more concerned Kerri grew. “First, I want you to try and stop worrying. I know I’ve said this already, but when things like this happen, everyone wants to find someone to blame. It’s the same in homicide investigations. No one wants a crime to go unpunished. Your friends at school are trying to make sense of what’s happened. They want someone to blame. It’s human nature.” No matter that they had talked about this before, emotions were preventing her daughter from reasoning.
Tori blinked, searched Kerri’s eyes. “I’m glad I’ve got you, Mom. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
Kerri pulled her into another desperate hug. “You’ll always have me.”
