Prodigal Son (24 page)

“Did Daddy ask you to come?” she asked Bill, as she took his hand and held it.

“No. I decided to come on my own. He didn’t call me.” Bill thought that might reassure her. The two doctors left the room then, promising to be back soon, and the nurse took a discreet seat in the corner. She had seen all the events of the afternoon and was stunned when they arrested Michael.

Bill sat down next to his mother then and held her hand. He had to fight back tears of relief, hoping they had stopped his father in time, and he was grateful she was still alive and he could be with her.

They talked for a few minutes. He kissed her cheek and promised to come back soon. And then he and Peter left, and drove back to the house to wait for Lisa to come home from school. Pru was gone by then, still shaken by the search she’d seen conducted by the police the day before.

And as Peter and Bill walked into the house, Jack Nelson was sitting in his office with a devastated expression. He had lost a friend today, Bill and Lisa had almost lost their mother, and still might, and Maggie had lost her husband and didn’t know it yet. It had been a hell of a day for them all. And unraveling how it had all happened had only just begun.

After Bill and Peter left, two doctors came to see Maggie. They had come from Boston, were experienced toxicologists, and were satisfied with what was being done. The hospital administrator had asked them to come for a consultation, since this was such an unusual case. They’d never had anything like it in Ware.

The medical team that had been assigned to Maggie was working on her diligently. They were continuing to do blood tests, skin scrapings, X-rays, scans. Her fever had come down. And by later that night her breathing was better, but whenever she woke, she couldn’t imagine where Michael was. He hadn’t been there all afternoon, and he wasn’t answering her calls, which was so unlike him. But after asking for him weakly, she would go back to sleep every time.

Later that night, a doctor from poison control in Boston came in by helicopter and explained to her that she’d been poisoned, and at first Maggie didn’t understand. She was groggy, but she heard what she was told, and asked several questions. How had she been poisoned in the hospital? Had it been an accident? How could this happen? Did
Michael know? She was told that it was not an accident, but no one would give her the details, and she was too weak to pursue them.

They continued to force IV fluids through her, and she heard two doctors discussing dialysis if her kidneys showed signs of failing, which so far they hadn’t. They gave her oxygen to help her breathing. Her heart was monitored closely, and their biggest concern was her lungs. She was confused and frightened by what they had told her, and she felt sick from all the fluids, but her color was already better than it had been in several days. She lay in her bed exhausted that night, trying to absorb what had happened, but it was too overwhelming, and she finally went back to sleep.

After Bill and Peter left Maggie at the hospital, Peter pulled his truck into the driveway outside his brother’s house. And he and Bill got out, as Peter looked up at the house bleakly. He was not looking forward to seeing Lisa. This was going to be one of the hardest nights of his life, and there were worse to come. Bill wasn’t happy either. He and his sister hadn’t gotten along in years. She always blamed him for fighting with their father and told him he was a bad son. He had had almost no contact with her in two years, only his mother.

Lisa was in her room when they entered. She walked out on the landing when she heard them come in. And she looked instantly shocked when she saw her brother. She suspected immediately that her mother was dying or already dead.

“Mom?” she said with a white face, looking from her brother to her uncle. Peter was quick to reassure her.

“She’s okay, for now.” She wasn’t surprised not to see her father, since he would be at the hospital with her mother. She was only upset that she hadn’t been able to reach him on his phone all afternoon. That had been the only unusual occurrence in her day.

“Then why are you here?” she asked her brother from the landing.

“Mom’s pretty sick,” he explained. “I thought I should come home.” She nodded and came downstairs in jeans and bare feet. Her father had prepared her for a long time for this day. She knew it would be terrible, and had always known it, but in some ways she was ready. Particularly lately, her father had confided in her that her mother wasn’t doing well. She was sad but not surprised or scared.

“How is she?” Lisa asked them both when she got downstairs. She had a platter of cold chicken ready for her father when he got home. She had cooked it while she did her homework. And there was homemade potato salad in a bowl.

“We’re hoping she’s going to get better now,” Peter said quietly, as he sat down and motioned to her to sit. Bill was wandering around the room aimlessly, looking nervous. He had dreaded coming home, and now it felt as bad as he had feared. In fact, worse.

“I need to talk to you, Lisa. This isn’t going to be easy, for any of us, but there are going to be stories in the paper tomorrow. Reporters may even come here,” Peter said in a soothing tone.

“Why?” Lisa looked puzzled.

“Some bad things have happened, or at least we think so.” He took a deep breath and jumped in. He had never expected to be delivering news like this to his brother’s daughter when he came to live here, or uncovering a plot like the one his nephew had led him into. This didn’t happen except in books. But it was all too real.

“What are you talking about? Why would reporters come here? Is someone trying to do something bad to Daddy?” In her eyes, her father could only be an innocent and a victim. He had formed her to believe only the best of him. The master manipulator at work.

“No. They’re not trying to do something bad to your father.” Peter
proceeded with caution, trying to find the words that would mark his niece for the rest of her life. This was a moment none of them would ever forget. Bill looked as though he were about to crawl out of his skin. “Someone has been poisoning your mother. We’re not sure how or why, but it’s a very serious crime.” She looked instantly shocked when he said it. He was certain they knew why and how, but he didn’t want to tell her yet. He had to break this to her one step at a time. She was only sixteen.

“Were they trying to kill her?” Lisa looked shocked and panicked.

“We think so,” Peter said, as he reached out to her and touched her hand. He wanted her to have some kind of human contact before what he was about to tell her next.

“Do they know who did it?” she asked, still looking very worried, and Peter nodded. This was agony for him as well. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt a child her age, and she still was barely more than a child, no matter how well her father had trained her to stand in for her mother and act like an adult.

“Your father has been arrested,” Peter said, measuring his words. “He’s in jail. There will be an investigation, and we’ll know more in the coming days. But right now your father is the main suspect. He’s the only one who’s had that kind of access to your mother.” Except Lisa, of course, which was absurd. She had no reason to poison her mother, and would have had no idea how to do it, with the sophisticated methods Michael had used. And psychologically, Michael had set the stage for the outcome.

“Daddy?” Lisa shrieked as she leaped off the couch and made a beeline for her brother, without waiting to hear more of what Peter said. “
You
did this, didn’t you?” she accused him, pummeling her
brother’s chest with her fists and swinging wildly at his head. Bill grabbed her wrists easily and held her at arm’s length. She was a small person like their mother, and Bill was a powerful young man, but there were tears in his eyes as he held her at bay.

“No, I didn’t. Dad did. But I’ve suspected it for years.” He was honest with her. He would have told her his suspicions long before, but she was still too young. He was six years older than she was, which made a big difference at their age. “He wants to kill her, Lisa, for Grampa’s money.”

“Daddy doesn’t care about that money!” Lisa screamed at him. “He told me so when Grampa died. He said it belongs to Mom, not him.”

“Then he poisoned her for no reason, or he lied to you,” Bill said miserably, still dodging his sister’s fists as she tried to swing at him. She wanted to hurt him as badly as he was trying to hurt her father and her. “He’s really sick.”

“No, he isn’t!” she bellowed. “You hate him. You always did. You’re jealous of him because he’s ten times the man you’ll ever be. You’re nothing!” she screamed at him. “And no one will ever believe you. Everyone in Ware knows that he’s a saint, except you!” She spat the words at him as her brother shook his head.

“He tried to kill our mother. He’s been doing it for years, convincing her she’s sick, weakening her, and giving her pills. He keeps her drugged all the time, so she’s too weak to get out of bed.”

“She’s sick!” Lisa screamed.

“No, she isn’t. He wants her to think she is, and he wants us to believe it too, so when he kills her, everyone will believe she was dying for all these years.” It was a clever plot, and it had almost worked, except for Bill.

“Daddy wasn’t trying to kill her!” she continued to shout at him, and then out of breath and looking panicked, she turned to Peter. “We can’t leave Daddy in jail. I want to see him.”

“You can’t right now,” Peter said quietly, looking pained. “He has to be arraigned. He needs a lawyer. This is a very serious situation,” Peter added ominously.

“The police won’t believe it,” Lisa said, looking frantic. “They’ll let him go tomorrow. Chief Jack is his best friend!” It was all running through her head in a whirl, and for a minute Peter thought she might faint. The house of cards that was her life and the source of all her security and stability had just come tumbling down around her ears. She had a mother who had been dying for years, and still might do so at any moment, and the father she relied on for everything was in jail on suspicion of attempted murder. It was an overload of emotion and information for her.

“We’ll have to see what happens in the investigation,” Peter said somberly, but he could see where this was headed, given the toxicology reports.

“Can’t we get him out of jail?” Lisa asked, sounding desperate.

“Not right now,” Peter said reassuringly, as though there might be a chance of it later, which Peter didn’t think there was, if all their suspicions proved to be true, and they appeared to be.

Lisa turned to her brother with a look of hatred then. “I’ll never forgive you for this. You made this up to hurt Daddy.” Bill just shook his head and looked away. He knew it wouldn’t be possible to convince her of the truth. Even if their father was convicted and went to prison, she would always be convinced he was a saint. The entire town of Ware believed that too. It was hard to imagine a jury that
would convict him in this town—the evidence would have to be indisputable, beyond any doubt.

“I know this is terrible news, Lisa,” Peter said sympathetically. “It is for us too. It’s going to be hard for all of us. Especially your mom.”

“You used to hate him too,” she accused him. “You didn’t talk to him for fifteen years. You’re just like him!” she said, pointing at her brother. “You both cooked this up to get rid of him. Maybe you want the money, because I know he didn’t.”

“This isn’t about the money, Lisa,” Peter said firmly. “This is about a crime that’s been committed that almost killed your mother and still could.” But her loyalty was to her father, not to the mother who had been an invalid all her life. Her father had seen to that too, and twisted the mind of an innocent child, making her revere him unreasonably. She was her father’s adoring puppet, the little robot he had built to suit his needs and take her mother’s place the moment she died. He had impaired her relationship with her mother, by treating Maggie as a nonperson, in order to strengthen his relationship with his daughter. It was frightening to think about. He had played with his own daughter’s mind.

“My mother is going to die anyway. Daddy has kept her alive for years. She’s lucky she lived this long because of him.” They both knew there was no point in arguing with her. Her father’s hooks were planted too deeply in her. The only voice in her head was his. She was going to take it hard if he went to prison, more so than she would have if her mother died. Michael had prepared her for that, but not for this.

Peter told her then that he and Bill were going to spend the night, so she wouldn’t be alone, and she burst into tears.

“I don’t want you here!” she screamed at both of them. “I want my father. I want you to get him out of jail.” She leaped at Peter then and hit his chest too, and then she turned around and ran up the stairs and slammed the door to her room. Peter felt sick after what they’d just been through. And Bill looked no better as he let himself down on the couch with a beaten look.

“I knew it would be like this,” he said to his uncle. “He did that to her. He’s brainwashed her all her life. She doesn’t care about anyone but him. She thinks he’s innocent.”

“So did I at first,” Peter admitted. “I thought you were insane. She’ll come around, especially once your mother comes home and starts getting better. Lisa will see the truth eventually.” Peter was hopeful. She was a bright girl. And she had no other choice than to face the truth about her father.

“I don’t think she will come around,” Bill said, looking discouraged. “She always hated me, because I called him a liar to his face. He lies about everything. He’s just so good at it that he doesn’t get caught at it very often, but sometimes he does. He twists everything around, and then he gets people to believe it.” It was the portrait of a true sociopath, the kind of man who was sick enough to poison his wife and brainwash his own child for his benefit. And God only knew what he had done to the elderly people he took care of. That remained to be seen. Peter had doubts about that now too.

He felt like an intruder as he lay on the couch in his brother’s house that night. He didn’t want to sleep in Maggie and Michael’s room. He went to the lake to pick up some clean clothes, and Bill’s bag, and he was back an hour later, and stretched out on the couch. None of them had eaten dinner, and Lisa hadn’t come out of her room. Peter had knocked on her door a couple of times to make sure
she was okay, and he could hear her crying, and she told him to go away. He didn’t want her to do something desperate, in honor of her father. And Bill had gone to bed in his old room, although even being there brought back a flood of bad memories for him. Having stopped his father wasn’t entirely painless for him. Knowing he had a father who had done something so heinous had proven him right, but reminded him of the agonizing childhood he had had, at odds with his father, and always sensing that his mother was being abused in some way, and he and his sister too. Being lied to constantly had been painful for Bill.