Brown Siblings - 01 Laid Bare (37 page)

32

Lorie
ooh
ed and
aah
ed over the bread and other things Erin had brought, and Annalee studiously avoided her. It made Erin want to throw up, but there was nothing to be done about it.

The Keenans’ home was filled to the gills with people, absent, thankfully, the neighbor girl Annalee wanted to fix Ben up with. At least she’d listened on that.

Joe brought home his new girlfriend, and Liz had a date too. It was warm, the air smelled good with food and spices, and the sound of family filled the air. Erin surveyed it all with a smile, happy to belong to something so wonderful.

Todd came up behind her and wrapped her in his arms. “Hey, gorgeous. You doing all right?”

“More than all right. This is good. The best Thanksgiving I’ve had in a really long time.”

“Good. God, you make me happy.” He kissed her cheek and she snuggled back into him, watching the Wii boxing match taking place in the family room.

“Must make your dad happy to whack the crap out of Joe like that.”

“God knows I’ve wanted to more than once,” Todd murmured into her ear.

She laughed.

“Erin, your bag is ringing,” Mercy called out from the other room.

“Crap, should have turned it off,” Erin said, extricating herself from Todd’s hold and heading to her phone.

But a 213 area code on the number stopped her in her tracks. She took the phone and went out on the front porch.

“Hello?”

“Erin Brown?”

“Yes,” she answered warily.

“It’s Detective Emery.”

And just like that her legs gave out and she slumped to the deck.

“I’m sorry to bother you on Thanksgiving, but”—he sighed—“I was notified late yesterday that Charles Cabot is getting a parole hearing next month.” She shot up from where she’d been crouched. “What?” she yelled. “Parole? He had a twenty-seven-year sentence. How can he possibly get parole? He killed my daughter. Goddamnit!”

“I’m so very sorry, Erin. You know I am. If I had anything to say about it, he’d be dead. But I don’t and he’s getting a hearing. They’re going to want to hear from you. Can you come down to testify?”

Her legs went away again and she sat with a hard thump on the front steps. It rained on her, but she didn’t care.

“Listen, I know it’s a bad time. You’re probably just getting ready to eat some turkey and pumpkin pie. I wouldn’t have bothered you, but I felt you had the right to know. I’ll give you a few days. You know where I am. Give me a call by Tuesday, all right? I’m sorry, Erin. I am.

But, damn it, we need you there. We need you to stand up and tell the board what this man has done to you.”

She thanked him for telling her and hung up before putting her head on her knees and giving over to tears.

“Where’s Erin?” Todd asked Brody, who shrugged.

“Dunno. I haven’t seen her in a while. Is everything all right?”

“She was here and then she took a call.” Todd looked around but didn’t see her.

As he walked through the front entry, he glanced to the left and saw her through the windows, hunched over, sitting on the front steps in the pouring rain. Panic held him for a moment.

He turned to see Ben had just walked into the foyer. “Down the hall in the linen closet. Towels.

Hurry,” he told Ben as he moved to the door.

Todd rushed outside.

“Erin? Honey?”

She turned, and it was obvious she’d been crying. She turned her back to him, trying to wipe her eyes, but the rain simply made that task impossible.

“You’re scaring me. What is it?”

Ben came out, and they each took an arm and brought her inside to where others had gathered in the hall. Ben toweled off her hair and Todd took a hand. His heart thundered. He hadn’t seen her this upset since the day in June when he’d broken into her apartment on the anniversary of Adele’s death.

Brody pushed his way through and took her upper arms. “What is it? Tell me!”

“Cabot is getting a parole hearing,” she said, snapping from her tears. Her hands gripped the front of Brody’s sweater, her eyes bearing a haunted look that tore at Todd’s heart.

“Okay, everyone out,” Todd’s mother ordered before she pressed a tumbler into Erin’s hand.

“Drink it.”

Erin gulped it down and coughed.

“That’s the way. A little Jameson will get you warm. Go into my closet and grab a sweater,” she told Todd’s dad, who sent a look of condolence to Todd.

She bent in front of Erin. Todd had managed to get her sitting on the upholstered bench in the front hall. She began to shiver. Ben wrapped a dry towel around her.

His mother took Erin’s hands. “This is the bastard who killed Adele?” Erin paled, which Todd couldn’t believe was possible, as she’d already been paler than he’d ever seen her. She nodded and Brody sat on the floor, leaning his head against Erin’s side.

Adrian sighed and sat on her other side.

“We’ll go down there and testify. We can do that too, right?” Brody asked. “He can’t get away with this. They have to know what it’s been like since.” Todd’s mother brushed a hand over Erin’s forehead, pushing her hair back from her eyes. “Erin, sweetie, why don’t you change into some dry clothes and lie down for a while? Then you’ll wake up and eat and we’ll work out how to deal with this. Of course we’ll
all
do what we can to support you.”

Alarm gripped Todd’s gut. Erin had sort of disappeared into herself. He’d never seen her this way. He looked at Ben, who also wore a haunted face.

“Not again.” Her voice was a bare whisper. “I want to go home. I want to be alone for a while,” Erin said, her voice flat and empty.

Todd’s mother turned to him, standing. “Take her home. I’ll get you some food to take with. You call the doctor if she’s not livelier in a few hours, do you hear me?”

“
No.
Todd and Ben, stay here with your family. Brody or Adrian can take me home. Or I can go myself. I need to be
alone.
” Erin spoke, but her eyes didn’t have their usual warmth. She wasn’t even pissed that they’d all been coddling her. That in and of itself was worrying.

Todd cut his gaze to Brody, who returned his concern.

Brody stood. “Okay, Erin. Let’s go, baby.” He wrapped her in another towel and Adrian grabbed her purse. “Stay here. No use your day getting ruined. I’m just going to give her a Xanax and tuck her into bed,” he said to Todd.

“The hell,” Ben spoke from next to Todd with such vehemence Lorie looked at him askance.

Annalee approached and put her arms around Erin, kissing her cheek. “Let them give you comfort. You need it.” Erin roused a bit and more tears came.

Lorie nodded, looking slightly confused.

Renee came forward with several bags of food, DJ at her side. “What can we do?” Todd was so grateful for these people, every last one of them.

“Brody, it’s okay, I’ve got her.” Todd took over, and Brody nodded, approval in his eyes.

“Honey, let’s get you home. We’ll tuck up into bed, eat turkey and you can wear your flannel jammies.”

She nodded absently when he’d been hoping for a smile. Ben came up on Erin’s other side.

“Get her home. Call me later and let us know she’s all right,” his mother said.

“I’ll make some calls,” his father said. “We’ll make sure this bastard stays in prison.” Grateful for all the support, Todd hugged them both and took the bags of food.

Ben had deposited her in the car and traded off with Todd, rushing back to say good-bye to his family.

Brody stood at the car door, kissing her forehead. He looked up at Todd. “You call me if you need anything.
Anything
, do you understand?” Todd nodded. “Of course. I’m just going to get her home and tuck her into bed. Get some Xanax into her and go from there. We’ll get hold of her therapist too.”

“We have to go down there and testify.” Adrian grabbed his arm. “Adele was special. This man took that. He has to pay.”

Todd blinked back tears as he nodded. “I know.”

Ben came out and got into the car, moving to her immediately. Todd nodded at Erin’s brothers.

“I’ll talk to you both tomorrow.”

In the car on the way home she resisted when they tried to get her out of her wet clothes. Todd just turned the heater up and Ben held her tight. She didn’t say anything. She didn’t cry. She just rested in his arms and that alarmed him.

When they got home, she pushed away once they got inside. “I need to be by myself.”

“Tough.” Todd shook his head, frustrated. “You don’t live by yourself. We come with the deal now.”

“You don’t get every part of me.” She went upstairs and they followed.

In short, jerky movements she pulled her wet clothes off. Like an automaton, she went into the bathroom, turned on the taps to run a bath.

“Take something, damn it.” Ben held out a pill and a glass of water.

“I won’t.”

Her spine straightened and Ben felt a bit better at the sight. If they had to make her mad, so be it.

Anything was better than despondent.

“Don’t be stubborn, Erin. Just take it. You’ll feel better.” She got into the bath, and slid all the way under for so long Ben began to lean to yank her out when she surfaced.

“I’m not taking anything like that again. I can’t think straight when I take the pills. I need to think straight.”

“Do you? Right now?” Todd knelt next to the tub and squirted soap on the loofah and began to pass it over her back. “You can’t just give yourself a fucking break for one day?”

“What do you know about it?”

Ben pulled his clothes off and got in with her. She groaned in frustration.

“You boys are smart. You know what
I want to be alone
means! But you’re still
here
.”

“We’re not going anywhere. You’re hurting and we love you. Let us in.” Ben took her hand, kissing her fingers.

“And you’re right. I don’t know about it. I can’t unless you share,” Todd said.

“Some things hurt coming out.”

Ben heaved a sigh. He ached for her.

“I know they do, gorgeous. But once they’re out, they can’t poison you anymore.”

“I don’t want pills. I lived in a narcotic haze for nearly a year after Adele was killed. I’d go to the trial and relive that day over and over. Like a twisted version of
Groundhog Day
. And I’d come home, take pills, wash them down with booze and pass out. I could
not
deal. But I went every day because I wanted Charles Cabot to have to see me. The pills ate me up, the booze ate me up, the rage that my baby was murdered and left to bleed out on the street ate me up.” Her voice shook and her eyes held fire. “I’ll never do that again. I have to be aware. I have to because he can’t get out. It can’t happen.”

Todd met Ben’s eyes over her shoulder and tears shimmered there.

“Nothing will ever happen to you. We won’t allow that. You have to know that. This building is safe. We’ll escort you to work every day if we have to. He can’t touch you.” Ben needed her to understand.

She shot up, sending water sloshing over the edges of the tub. “It’s not that!” she screamed. “I don’t care about that. I wish he had killed me instead.” Todd shook his head hard. “No. Damn it, no. Don’t go down this path, Erin.”

“He can’t be out and living a life when Adele is in a coffin. I can’t bear it. She was everything.

Beautiful and loving and she did nothing wrong. She was light and love and he stole that. He dirtied it and ruined it.” Her face crumpled and Ben stood to gather her to him. “He got twenty-seven years and it’s only been four. She’ll never see another birthday and he might be getting out.”

“Let’s get you out of the water and into some pajamas. We’ll get the fire going and lie in bed.

Okay?” Ben picked her up and she clung to him. Todd wrapped her in a towel, and they headed into the bedroom, where Todd turned on the fireplace.

Erin sighed when Ben put her down. She grabbed the towel and dried off, hung it up before rustling to find panties and her pajamas. They’d been right about that one thing. She wanted the comfort of flannel and hoped it would chase away the chill that had settled back into her bones.

“I’m getting some mulled cider and making plates.” Todd looked back at her and narrowed his gaze. “You, in bed.”

“Bossy,” she muttered, but did it and felt some comfort at the scent surrounding her.
Their
scent.

Ben sat across from her. He’d put on snug black boxer briefs and she couldn’t help but feel that zing that existed between them.

“Erin, I understand and
respect
that you want to remain clear-headed here.” He paused and she knew he was being very careful with his words.

“Don’t. Just say it. I’m not made of glass.”

He smiled. “You’re fucking scaring me. Okay so, she’s gone. He took her from you and it can’t be taken back. I’m sorry, so sorry that this happened, but wishing yourself dead in her place won’t change that. The only option you have right now is to go down there and testify before the parole board.”

“Exactly.” Todd walked into the room holding a huge tray of food and a stack of plates. “My mother went a little wild.” He smiled. “Eat. Leaving the cider in the Crock-Pot downstairs was an awesome idea. Drink it. I added some Jack.”