Final Grave (36 page)

“You’re a gutsy woman, Fehr, and if you ever need a job, well, I’d find a spot for you.”

Meri Ann shuffled her feet on the soft grass, thinking of her dad and the life she’d made in Sarasota. “Thanks, but I’ve got to go back. I’ve worked too hard in the department not to fight for my job. It might mean serious penance, but I’m willing to do what I have to. And I am persistent.”

“Hell if you’re not.” Dillon tightened a wool scarf around her neck. “Sure the weather’s not a factor?”

“Could be,” Meri Ann said.

Dillon and Neles shook her hand and left.

Wheatley approached and Meri Ann moved forward to meet him.

She held out her hand and he took it. His red-rimmed eyes misted over. He didn’t say anything, just squeezed her hand. Then he turned to go.

“Please wait. I have something that belongs to you.” She retrieved the blue envelope with his letter. “I believe you loved her and that she loved you, too.”

He studied the envelope, then slid it into his breast pocket. Tears filled his eyes and he wiped them. “It was the only time in my life I willingly turned my back on responsibility, my marriage to Tina. That’s how much I loved your mother. How much she loved me.” He pulled out his handkerchief and blew his nose. “Sometimes I dream about our life in Seattle, what it would have been like. Would you have accepted me as your stepfather?”

She offered a wry smile. “Wish I’d had the chance to find out.” Again, they shook hands.

Becky stood beside her, watching him leave. “Guess he’s okay, kid. Who would’ve guessed?”

“And who would have guessed about Harold Graber?” He’d also loved her mother, in his own way. “I’ve been wrong about a lot of things.”

Becky nodded and gave Meri Ann a firm hug. “Looks like everybody’s heading out, kid. I’ll wait for you in the car.”

“Go on without me. I need some time.”

Renee was with Becky, and they crossed to the car together. Poor Renee was devastated. She’d loved a multiple murderer, never suspecting how close to death she’d been in the salon, with Jason’s macabre chamber of horrors only a floor below her.

Exhaust from the car engines wafted on the bitter November breeze. Meri Ann picked one of the roses from the spray over her mother’s casket. Smelled its fragrance, then held it to her heart. After a few minutes Mendiola, who had been standing a few feet away, joined her.

“You and Becky make up?” he asked.

“We’re working on it. Life’s too short to lose your best friend.”

He nudged her away from the grave site and they ambled along a worn path. “What the hell am I going to do without you?” he asked. “Who’s gonna give me grief?”

She felt his bulk of his muscular frame against her and took his arm. “I’m not leaving until Thursday.”

He leaned close to her ear and whispered, “You know what I mean.”

A bond existed between them, a yearning she couldn’t explain. They walked for a while and ended up in the Basque section.

“My family’s here.”

She surveyed the closely packed graves, wondering how many of his kin were buried here. She pointed to a handsome black granite headstone with a memorial in Euskera:
Jaunaren
Bakean
. She tugged on his coat sleeve, “Can you translate?”

“It means,
In
the
peace
of
God
.”

“
Jaunaren
Bakean
.
” Meri Ann experienced a lightness she hadn’t known since before that long-ago night when her mother vanished. The lyrical words reflected her sense of peace. She also felt as if she’d satisfied her father’s last lucid request: to bring her mother home.

“You feel okay?” he asked.

“I really do. I feel alive.”

“Great. Want to go see a movie, or eat or something?”

She studied him closely, his dark hair, his muscular frame. He didn’t resemble Ron at all and was very appealing because of it. When they weren’t arguing, she liked him a lot. “Do you write poetry or ever plan to?”

He appeared baffled by the question. “Sorry but that’s not me.”

She exhaled a sigh of relief and sidled up closer. “I’m glad to hear it. Sure, let’s go see a movie, or something.”