Firestone (20 page)

“
I know,” Heather said.
“I’m lucky they’re friends with me.”

Abi laughed.

“
My mother is no Anjelika
or Yvonne,” Heather said.

“
Your mother is very
normal,” Abi said. “That’s true. She’s human, like Rodney, or Andy
Mendy.”

Abi nodded.

“
Ever wonder about your
father?” Abi asked.

“
Only every day,” Heather
said. “Especially now that we have Mack
and . . .”

Heather touched her pregnant belly.

“
What does your mother say
about your father?” Abi asked.

“
He was a prince-like man
who swept her off her feet,” Heather said. “They were married in
secret. When his mother found out, she made him abandon my mom and
me.”

“
It’s a sad story.” Abi
nodded.

“
Is it true?” Heather
asked.

“
More or less,” Abi said.
“Your mother was cast out and forced to wander. This is where she
wandered to.”

“
Was my dad a fairy like
Fin?” Heather asked.

“
No,” Abi said. “You are
not fairy-kind, not even a little bit.”

“
Oh,” Heather
said.

“
Let’s get some lunch,”
Abi said.

They walked back to her car.

“
Will you tell me about my
father?” Heather asked.

“
Your mother will have to
tell you,” Abi said.

“
She won’t,” Heather said.
“She’s changed the story so many times that I don’t think she
really remembers.”

“
That’s possible,” Abi
said. “I’ll tell you what.”

“
What?” Heather
asked.

“
How ’bout we go talk to
your mother together?” Abi asked.

“
This is one of those
moments when I should say no,” Heather said. “Fairies always have
their own agenda, that’s what everybody says. I don’t know what
your agenda is, so I should say no. But . . . I want
to know. So . . . okay.”

“
Good,” Abi said. “And
don’t worry. You can trust me.”

“
Yeah sure,” Heather said.
“Will this help Blane?”

“
Blane doesn’t need help,”
Abi said. “He has you. There is no stronger magic than your
love.”

Heather gave Abi a skeptical look, and Abi
laughed.

“
Don’t worry, Heather,”
Abi said. “Your husband is going to be fine. I promise you. It will
be a challenging month for you. When it’s over, and he’s well, you
will return to your loving partnership. He will not get lost along
the way. You and he belong together. I’d guess that thirty years
from now, when all of your children are grown, you’ll still belong
together.”

Heather smiled at the idea.

“
You will make all that
happen with your love,” Abi said.

Heather rolled her eyes and pulled into the
parking lot behind Udi’s restaurant.

“
How did you know that I
love this place?” Abi asked.

“
I
loved
us here,” Heather said as an
attempt to make a joke.

“
Yes, you did.” Abi
smiled.

Heather shook her head and followed Abi into
the restaurant.

~~~~~~~~

Thursday afternoon — 1:30 p.m.

“
Hey!” Ava said as she
came into the kitchen.

Seth was sitting on a bar stool at the
kitchen bar. He was staring off into space. He held his cellphone
in his right hand. He looked like he’d just pulled the phone from
his ear.

“
You okay?” Ava asked. She
leaned down to kiss him. “You look a little . . .
peaked.”

He kissed her hard, and she giggled.

“
I guess not that peaked,”
Ava said. “What’s going on?”

“
Bob just called,” Seth
said.

“
Bob?” Ava
asked.

“
Your Bob,” Seth said.
“Blood-splatter Bob.”

“
What did he say?” Ava
asked.

“
He said that the DNA is a
match,” Seth said.

“
What?” Ava
asked.

“
Detective Ben Red Bear’s
DNA was all over Andy’s house,” Seth said. “Even in her
bed.”

Unsure of how to respond, Ava watched his
face.

“
He killed Andy,” Seth
said. “Sandy’s mother . . .
My . . .”

Seth swallowed hard. Ava hugged him to
her.

“
I don’t know what to do,”
Seth said into her chest. “Bob asked me what he should do and
I . . .”

Seth shrugged.

“
I don’t have any idea,”
Seth said. “Nothing will bring Andy back. Not to me, not to our
daughter, not to her fans, not to her awful record label that she
hated so much. She’s gone, and he . . .”

“
We’ll go and get him,”
Ava said. “We’ll make him confess.”

He pulled back and looked at her face. He
smiled at the determination he saw there.

“
No,” Seth
said.

“
Why?” Ava asked. “This
man is no better than my father. He manipulated your lifelong love
into living with him. He took advantage of her and of Sandy
and . . .”

Ava’s voice rose with anger. Seth
smiled.

“
You really are
wonderful,” Seth said. “I can’t believe you’d be so personally
angry over this.”

“
I’m furious,” Ava said.
“He can’t get away with this. He stole Andy from you and from Sandy
and . . . from me too! I would have loved to have
known her.”

“
You’re amazing.” Seth
hugged her again.

“
You have to do
something,” Ava said. “Now is not the time to be the cool cat,
Seth.”

“
He’s the key to so many
things,” Seth said. “If we act too quickly, we’ll lose
him.”

“
The key?”

“
He killed Andy,” Seth
said. His hand instinctively went to his heart, and he said, “I
know that in my soul. He was involved in what happened to Sandy —
either the distribution of videos, or setting it up, or sales,
something. I know that in my soul.”

“
Which means he’s
connected to this current rape case,” Ava said.

Seth touched his heart.

“
We have to get him,” Ava
said.

“
We have to be smart,”
Seth said. “Right now, he thinks he’s gotten away with
it.”

Seth nodded.

“
We’ve got to be smart,”
he repeated.

Thursday afternoon — 3:41 p.m.

“
Hey,” Blane said as he
walked into Tres Sierra’s office. “Do you have a
minute?”

“
Of course,” Tres said.
“Please come in.”

Tres got up to move a stack of paper from
the chair across from his desk.

“
Sorry,” Tres said. “I’m
in the middle of answering questions from the state
audit.”

“
Sorry I can’t help,”
Blane said.

“
No,” Tres said. “You’re
doing something more important. You’re going to get well so you can
raise Tink and Mack and your new son. There’s not much more
important than what you’re about to do.”

Tres nodded, and Blane smiled.

“
That’s actually what I
wanted to talk to you about,” Blane said.

“
You don’t have to worry,”
Tres said. “I did not tell Enrique you were having this
treatment.”

Blane gave Tres a vague smile.

“
My brother would just
want it for himself anyway,” Tres said.

“
I’ve been very lucky,”
Blane said. “My hope is that someday everyone can have this
treatment. That is if it works . . .”

“
It will.” Tres
smiled.

“
Actually,” Blane said. “I
wanted to talk to you about Heather.”

Tres cleared his throat.

“
I assume you still have
strong feelings for Heather,” Blane said.

“
Listen,
I . . .”

“
It’s okay,” Blane said.
“I . . .”

“
No,” Tres said. “Let me
say this.”

“
Okay.”

“
I have a deep respect for
you and Heather,” Tres said. “You’re together because you love each
other and you raise your children with that love. No matter what I
feel, I would never . . .”

“
That’s what I wanted to
talk to you about,” Blane interrupted Tres.

Tres closed his mouth and looked at
Blane.

“
This treatment is far
from foolproof,” Blane said. “It’s as likely that I’ll die or get
cancer from the treatment as it is that I’ll recover and live virus
free.”

Tres nodded.

“
I’m
wondering . . .” Blane took a deep breath for
courage. “Would you look after Heather and the kids
if . . . uh . . . something happens
to me?”

“
Yes,” Tres
said.

“
Good,” Blane said.
“Heather has the same feelings for you as you have for her. You
could be happy together if . . . Will you raise my
children as your own?”

“
When you’re well, we’ll
laugh about all of this,” Tres said.

“
But you’ll do this for
me?” Blane asked. “You’ll stand by her while I’m in the hospital
and be there if I don’t make it. Promise me.”

“
I will,” Tres
said.

Blane nodded.

“
Thanks,” Blane
said.

Blane got up and walked out of the CFO’s
office. Tres stared at the spot Blane vacated and let out a breath.
Nodding to himself, he went back to his spreadsheets. A few hours
later, he heard Blane leaving the office. He went to his office
door. Blane nodded to him and walked out of the building. Through
the window, he saw Heather pick Blane up in the parking lot. Tres
swallowed hard and nodded again.

He could do this.

~~~~~~~~

Thursday afternoon — 4:02 p.m.

“
Are you sure you want to
take care of them?” Jill asked her oldest sister, Megan, as they
came out of the nursery. “You know they . . . move
things.”

Megan laughed.

“
Wait, why did you laugh?”
Jill asked.

“
Katy did the very same
thing,” Megan said.

“
What?” Jill’s shock made
Megan laugh even harder. “What do you mean?”

“
When Katy was a baby,
things would move around. At first, it was just her mobile, you
remember that thing that she loved so much.”

“
With the zoo animals on
it?” Jill asked.

“
That one,” Megan said.
“When she was about six months old, her stuffed animals would
dance. Ryan loved to watch Katy sleep because all kinds of weird
stuff would happen. Come to think of it, that’s probably why he’s
so into the whole
Star Wars
Force thing. He used to see Katy move things
around.”

“
Why didn’t you tell me?”
Jill asked.

Jill looked so horrified that Megan hugged
her.

“
I’ve been panicked,” Jill
said against Megan’s shoulder. “I can’t take the boys to daycare
like this! They could destroy the place, and we can’t afford for me
to stay with them. If the business weren’t in trouble, I could be
home. I was supposed to be able to stay home with them, but
now . . . even the kids are working.”

“
Seems like everyone’s
money is tight right now,” Megan said.

“
Why didn’t you tell me
about Katy?” Jill asked.

“
You had so much on your
plate,” Megan said. “Trevor, work, Trevor . . . Life
was so hard, and I didn’t want you to worry.”

“
How did you get her to
stop?” Jill asked.

“
I reached out to her.”
Megan blushed. “I guess I healed her, or at least helped
her.”

“
What?” Jill
asked.

“
It’s a brain problem,”
Megan said. “She didn’t have a way to turn it off. Remember how she
wouldn’t sleep as an infant?”

“
Yes,” Jill said. “I
remember that.”

“
She needed a way to turn
it off,” Megan said. “Gosh, you know I’ve never thought about this
much, but my kids never slept as infants. I had
to . . . help them too. I wonder if all kids have
this.”

“
Honey’s baby Maggie
doesn’t,” Jill said.

“
Jackie?”

Jill winced.

“
You already helped
Jackie,” Megan said.

Jill nodded and then said, “I didn’t think
my boys . . .”

“
You never see what’s
closest to you.” Megan smiled. “What about Steve and Leslie’s
daughter?”

“
She has trouble
sleeping,” Jill said. “Or she did when she stayed here.”

“
It’s probably our
babies,” Megan said. “We’ll have to ask Mom if we did the same
thing.”

Jill nodded.

“
Listen,” Megan said. “We
took care of Katy when she was an infant. Why don’t you let me take
care of the boys?”

“
You
don’t . . . They can . . .” Jill
fumbled with words. She never realized until Megan said it that
this was exactly what she’d wanted. “I
couldn’t . . . You’re done with diapers
and . . . Uh . . . Mom was going to
pay for the Marlowe School.”