Ruin (15 page)

"How about I explain first and then you go and see him."

He hadn't forbidden me. That was something. I nodded. "Go on."

"Mrs. Merriweather is accusing him of stealing money from her."

"What? But that's ridiculous. She doesn't have any money for starters."

"Apparently she had a small stash in a secret hiding place. She claims he found it and stole it."

"You don't believe her, do you?"

He shrugged. "Why wouldn't I?"

"Because she's lying. She has to be."

"Why do you think that?"

I gave him a withering glare. "Dad, Ben's not a thief. If he was, he could have stolen all sorts of things from her before now."

"Maybe, maybe not. She doesn't have a lot of things just lying around, making it easy for him. And maybe he couldn't find her money before. Or maybe he did, but decided to take it now. He's about to leave. He would need some cash."

I couldn't believe it. "Just because Ben has a record doesn't mean he's guilty of this. Come on, Dad. Everyone loves telling me how good you are, how much the town's glad they've got you and Mom. You're a freaking saint around here, yet you're not going to give Ben a chance? Hardly charitable."

"I'm letting you see him, aren't I?"

Oh. Right. I threw my arms around him and hugged him. Tears stung my eyes. It seemed they were never far away. "Can I go in now?"

He nodded. "Not sure he's going to be happy to see you."

"Why not?"

He sucked on his lower lip in thought. "Well, you see, he's already made up his mind to leave Winter, already said his goodbyes. It's not easy for a man to see someone after he's mentally moved on."

Great. Nice to know Ben had mentally left me behind already. I knew Dad meant to help, but he hadn't. "Can I go see him now?"

"I have to be there."

We walked together down the corridor that led to the cells. There were two, mostly for the drunks who used to sleep the rest of the night there before going home. That was long ago though, back when Winter had a pulse.

Dad stopped at the first cell and unlocked the door. Ben looked up and blinked at me.

"Kate!" He sat on the bed, his legs drawn up. He lowered them to the floor and stood. He looked like hell. His face was pale, his eyes two sunken, shadowy orbs. His hands shook until he tucked them into his pockets. He glared at Dad. "I thought we agreed you wouldn't tell her."

"I didn't," Dad said. "Her mother did."

I think we all knew that Mom had only told me at Dad's suggestion. She wouldn't have said anything if he'd asked her not to. It was strange that he'd wanted me to know. What was he hoping to achieve? Did he want me to see Ben like a criminal? Did he think that if I saw Ben in a cell it would change my mind?

"Are you all right?" I asked. God, what a lame question. Of course he wasn't all right.

"It's not so bad," he said. "A little boring maybe."

"Sorry we can't entertain you," Dad said wryly.

Ben gave a short laugh. "That's okay. It gave me a chance to think up escape plans. So far I've discarded digging my way out of here since I don't have so much as a spoon. A file hidden in a cake was looking good until Kate turned up with no cake."

I laughed, despite my misery. "I can't believe you can joke at a time like this."

He lifted one shoulder. "I've been working on that routine all morning. It's lucky you didn't bring a cake, or it would have been ruined."

I rolled my eyes. Beside me, Dad chuckled.

Then awkward silence descended. There were so many things I wanted to say to Ben, but with Dad there, I couldn't say any of them.

I sighed, as much from frustration as sorrow. "What does Mrs. M want from this?" I asked them both. "What could she possibly be hoping to achieve?"

"That's not the question you're supposed to ask," Ben said.

"What's the right question?"

"You're supposed to ask if I did it."

"I know you didn't."

My answer rocked him. He swayed backward, and I thought he'd need to sit down on the bed again. He stared at me, his mouth open. "How?" he croaked. "How can you know that?"

I went up to him. I didn't care that Dad was watching anymore. It was like he wasn't even there. It was just Ben and me. I placed my hands on either side of his face. The muscles in his jaw throbbed against my palm. I stroked his cheeks with my thumbs and held his gaze with my own.

"Because I know you, Ben Parker." I kissed him before he could respond. It was a light, feathery kiss, but it was full of all the emotion welling inside me that needed to get out. His lips shuddered against mine, and his fingers wrapped around my arms and held me tight. Like he would never let me go.
Couldn't
let me go.

Dad cleared his throat behind me, and Ben pulled away. His face was flushed, his eyes smoldering. "Sorry," he muttered.

"
That
wasn't your fault," Dad said, raising his eyebrows at me.

I rubbed my thumb over my lip where Ben's kiss lingered. I blew out a breath and tried to think. "So what happens now?"

"Unless Mrs. Merriweather withdraws her accusation, I have to investigate," Dad said.

"Have you searched his things?"

"Yes."

"And?"

"And that's why he's here. I found five hundred dollars in his bag. He couldn't account for it."

"It wasn't mine," Ben said with a shrug.

"Why didn't you just tell him it was? Jesus, didn't you learn how to lie from the real criminals while you were in prison?" I winced at my flippant joke. "Sorry."

"Don't be," he said, smiling.

"Okay, let's think about this," I said, pacing the cell. "Did you dust for prints?"

"Yes," Dad said, "and his weren't anywhere near her hiding place."

"Hmmm. He could have wiped them off, so it's not enough to release him. Did Jane see anything? Can she vouch for Ben being with her, maybe?"

"No, she can't."

"You'd make a great criminologist," Ben said.

Dad grunted. "She'd make a better cop."

I glared at him. "Concentrate, please. Let's come at this from the angle that he's innocent. Why would she frame him? Do you think Mrs. M changed her mind about him? Maybe she thought she was okay with his history when he first told her, but she decided later that it wouldn't work out, and she thought this was a way of getting him to leave."

"I already told her I was leaving," Ben said. "After you went home yesterday, I spoke to her. She didn't accuse me of the theft until this morning. Besides, I think she liked me."

"You
were
fixing her house for nothing," Dad said. "That's a good reason to like someone."

"It's not that," Ben said.

"What do you mean?"

He sighed. "I can't really tell you, but she and I...we had an understanding. That's why none of this makes sense."

"What kind of understanding?" I asked.

He shook his head. "It's not for me to tell you. She wouldn't want you to know."

"Ben!" Why was he being so stubborn? I looked to Dad, hoping he'd do his cop thing and order Ben to tell him, but he didn't.

"Kate," Ben said, "don't worry about me. I'm sure Mrs. M will come to her senses. She's just a bit confused right now. Her world has been rocked lately, and I'm sorry to say that's my fault."

"How could your conviction for your dad's murder rock
her
world? How can your presence in Winter for that matter?"

"I can't tell you her business, although believe me I really want to. I can't even tell Jane. Mrs. M swore me to secrecy."

Goddamn it. He was so infuriating, and she was worse!

"Her secret has nothing to do with this," he said. "Trust me, Kate."

"I do trust you," I said softly. But he didn't know Mrs. M like I did. She was wily and weird. I had to go speak to her. Not that I'd tell him or Dad that. Neither would want me to go.

Both would prefer Dad to do it.

The phone rang in the front office. With Dad the only one on duty, he had to answer it. He ushered me out before I got to say goodbye to Ben and locked the door. I followed him back up the corridor and waved as he picked up the phone.

"Wait," he said to me. He answered the phone and asked the caller to hold. He pressed a button and put the receiver down. "Kate, I think you should know how serious this is. Ben sounded upbeat just now, but I think he was doing that for you."

"What do you mean?"

"He doesn't want you to worry."

"Is it really bad?"

He nodded. "Ben already has a serious conviction to his name. If this charge isn't dropped, it won't look good for him."

My lip started wobbling so I bit it. "Dad, why are you telling me this? I thought you wouldn't want me to worry either."

He sighed and scratched his chin. "If I didn't think you could cope with it, I wouldn't have told you."

I kissed his cheek. "Thanks."

His finger hovered over the Hold button. "What are you going to do now?"

"I'm going to see if my friend Jane needs me. She's not very good in a crisis."

He gave me one of his wry smiles. He knew what I was up to, but he let me go. I loved him for it.

Outside, I passed Officer Lowe juggling three takeout coffee cups as he walked back to the station. We nodded greetings as I jumped in the car, then I drove out of town toward the Merriweather place. I hadn't been totally fibbing. I did want to see Jane, but I mostly wanted to speak to her crazy old Gran and find out what the hell she was doing accusing Ben of a crime he didn't commit.

Chapter 9

The house looked almost pretty, like a half unearthed gemstone. The vines choking the front porch had been removed and the freshly laid tiles looked good. Even the steps had been scrubbed clean.

I knocked and Jane answered. She gasped when she saw me and threw her arms around me. "I'm so glad you're here," she sobbed. "It's been awful."

"I know," I said, rubbing her back. "I just came from the station. Ben told me what happened. What is your Gran thinking?"

"I don't know. She's not speaking to me. I tried talking to her, but she shut the door in my face and locked it."

"She locked herself in her room?"

She nodded, wiping her eyes. "Your Dad came and arrested Ben this morning. I didn't even know why he was here until he told me. Gran had said nothing to Ben or me. She just called your Dad. What the hell is she doing, Kate?"

"I don't know. Would it help if I spoke to her?"

"You're kidding, right?"

I sighed. "Maybe it's a dumb idea, but it's worth a try. Dad said this'll be really bad for Ben on top of his other conviction. If I explain that to her..."

"You could try. Come and have a coffee first. We'll talk tactics." She seemed a little brighter, as if having a plan was better than having nothing at all except hope.

We made our way down to the kitchen where some pieces of paper were laid out on the table. They'd been torn up and put back together like a puzzle. It wasn't until I rounded the table and studied the complete picture that I realized it was a photo. I recognized it as the one of the two boys that had stood on Mrs. M's sideboard in the drawing room, nestled among all the other family pictures. It had gone missing a few days ago.

"What happened to this?" I asked.

"I found it like that in the waste basket yesterday," Jane said, filling the kettle. "I thought I could tape it back up, but it's too damaged."

"Who tore it up?"

"Gran I guess," she said with a shrug.

I don't know what made me look harder at the photo. Maybe it was the happy smiles on the boys with their similar toothless grins. Very similar. They had the same cheekbones too, high and proud. It was a black and white photo¸ but their hair was the same dark shade, and their eyes. The similarities were uncanny.

"Jane, this is your Dad here?" I said pointing to the boy on the left.

She looked over my shoulder. "Yes. The other boy is his friend."

"What was his name?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. I never asked." She tilted her head to the side then picked up the pieces with the faces. "My God. Look at that, Kate."

"I know," I said. "They could be brothers."

She stared at me. "Ben saw it. He asked Gran who the boys were."

I nodded. "Then the photo went missing. I noticed the gap the other day."

"You don't think
he
tore it up, do you?"

I took the pieces off her and studied them. The eyes were so striking, so familiar, even without color. My stomach did a somersault. "Can I borrow these?"

"Sure, but why? Are you going to ask Gran about it? I don't think she'll talk to anyone right now."

"I've got someone else in mind." I scooped up the pieces of the photo and pocketed them.

"Thanks for the coffee," I called out when I was halfway down the corridor.

"But I didn't make it!"

I climbed back in the car and drove too fast back into town. I pulled into our driveway and raced inside, hoping Mom was there. She was in the kitchen, shelling peas. She gave me a relieved smile.

"Kate, sweetheart! Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Mom, can you take a look at this?" I pulled the photo pieces out of my pocket and spilled them onto the table. I put the puzzle together then turned it around to show her. "Do you recognize these boys?"

"That's Peter Merriweather," she said, pointing to the boy on the left. "And that..." She tapped the face of the other boy and stared into the distance. "I know him. We were in the same class together at school. Oh, what was his name?"

"He wasn't another Merriweather, was he?"

"No. Peter was the last Merriweather male."

"What about Parker?"

"That's it! Stephen Parker, Heather Parker's son." She smiled. "How did you know?" Her smile faded as the name sank in. I could see the connection being made in her head, the same one I'd made up at the Merriweather house. "Oh my. Do you think he's Ben Parker's father?"

I nodded. "But look at them, Mom." I picked up the pieces with the faces and showed them to her. "Don't you think they're similar?"

She gasped, just as Jane had done. "There
is
a striking resemblance."