Pool Of Lies Part 8

"He's in court. I just wanted somebody else to know where I was, in case I get--" Then he was gone.

Through her confusion, Rae was aware of Sam's voice droning on the other conversation. "I see. I see. Have you notified Mr. and Mrs. Farris?"

She had the eerie feeling that the two calls shared a common subject matter. But Sam's brooding face showed no overt change of expression as he hung up the receiver.

"We'll have to reschedule," he said. "Something terrible has happened. Dee's son Kevin has died."

The renovation crew of one had arrived at the Golden house right on schedule. Danny had left several messages on Kevin's cell phone to let him know in advance, but he'd never returned the calls.

Then the call from Pat Keech: "Danny," Pat gagged and Danny could hear the vomit in his voice, "you got a problem. There's a dead body in the house and if you go by the stench, he's been ripening for quite a spell."

"Call nine-one-one." Common sense on his side for a change, Danny determined instantly that there was no way he was going into that house before the law got there.

"I done that first. They're on their way."

Then panic grabbed Danny's heart in a hammer lock. He was afraid to ask Pat for a description of the deceased. Logically, it would be Kevin or one of his drug buddies. But Josh had not yet made contact, and Danny still hadn't told anybody his son was missing. Head in the sand again or maybe up his a.s.s. There had always been animosity between Josh and Kevin, usually over Kevin's disrespectful treatment of Beth. But if the little t.u.r.d had harmed Josh, he would...would what? He was too late to do anything.

He made the twenty-five minute drive to Golden in forty, telling himself it was the old truck's fault. There was a Jeffco Sheriff's car in the driveway, and two deputies were talking to Pat as Danny parked. Somehow he couldn't make his legs move to get out of the truck.

Just for the h.e.l.l of it, he punched in Josh's number on his cell for the umpteen thousandth time and-there was a G.o.d! His son answered.

"Dad?"

He sounded far away, scared, but alive. Danny felt real tears on his face and joy at the prospect of Kevin rotting away, no longer a problem.

The reception sucked. He could hear Josh fading in and out. Just sounds, but his son's voice didn't need words.

Some words finally came through. "I'm with Beth."

"Where?"

Josh didn't answer. Bad reception or he didn't want to tell.

"Mr. La.s.siter?" A lean, young deputy was at Danny's window. His freckled face had some of those premature worry lines that come early to fair skinned folk.

"We need you to come inside and make an identification as soon as the crime scene people are finished."

Then he noticed the second county vehicle parked across the street. His legs moved freely now. He got out of the truck and started toward Pat, but the kid deputy blocked his way.

"Mr. Keech is going to meet us at the station to give his statement."

Pat got into his truck without looking in Danny's direction. As he turned back toward the house, Danny caught the glint of something s.h.i.+ny in his grizzled beard.

"When did you last see your stepson Kevin Cantrell? He lived here, right?" The kid was in his face, a pen and notepad at the ready.

Not recently. Danny shuffled through his recollections of Kevin, none of them pleasant. "Would you believe, not since his mother's funeral?"

"And that was when?"

"February."

"This year?"

"Yes."

Danny heard voices coming from the front of the house as the crime scene crew exited carrying plastic bags.

The second deputy, chubby and seasoned, motioned to them from the front door. As Kid Cop and Danny approached, Seasoned offered them disposable masks. Kid popped his on, but Danny waved away the offer. How bad could it be? Josh was alive. Kevin was inconsequential.

Inside, the house looked worse than he remembered when he'd let Pat in to do his estimate. Danny's eyes raced ahead of his nose as he saw what must be Kevin, except something had been eating on his face. Probably rats. The place was littered with garbage, beer cans and...Danny felt his breakfast lurch into reverse as his sense of smell kicked in with a vengeance.

"It's him," he choked out just before he puked all over Kid Cop, who stood between him and the front door.

They needed Danny's statement. Routine, said the older cop. For obvious reasons, Danny no longer thought of him as "seasoned." Any term a.s.sociated with food or eating was definitely off limits for whatever length of time it took to get the d.a.m.n smell out of his head. He wondered how smells could echo long after you leave their source.

The route to the Jefferson County complex was fresh in his mind from his recent trip to the coroner's office with Rae. Two days had pa.s.sed, but everything from that day was still pressing uncomfortably on his psyche.

Danny cleaned up as best he could in the public restroom before presenting himself at the desk and giving his name. Through a gla.s.s part.i.tion he could see Pat walking into a room with a couple of plain clothes guys.

"Have a seat, Mr. La.s.siter." A pleasant-faced woman deputy in Jeffco olive drab motioned him toward a chair. She looked like someone's mother.

Danny remembered that Dee had been someone's mother. His last memory of her had been after she'd been all prettied up for the funeral. She'd looked like a wax doll. But Kevin was death in the raw. If he didn't get some air, he was going to be sick again.

"Where are you going?" Mother Cop was on his case.

"Just out for a smoke."

She nodded as if she understood. He went out front and called Rae. Danny knew she didn't bill for these short calls, but Sandy did. The reception was almost as bad as it'd been with Josh, and he noticed that the battery was mostly dead. He'd forgotten to charge it. Then he smoked, but it didn't take the smell of death away.

As he started back into the building, a gold Lexus pulled into the parking area. Danny recognized his brother-in-law's car before he saw Nate in the driver's seat. Beside him, the woman behind a pair of Serengetis looked like Morgan, though her hair was covered by a yellow scarf.

Should he wait and hold the door to the building open for them? Attempt conversation? Morgan's body language, as she came toward him like a drill sergeant, killed that idea. Danny didn't have to see her eyes to know what was in them. He let go of the door, but not quick enough. Morgan caught it on the fly. She and Nate bore down upon him like the furies until they all stopped at Mother Cop's desk "Nice to see you're up and about, Morgan," Danny blurted. Morgan shook her head as if she were trying to rid her ear of a buzzing insect. Nate's face wore a surprised expression. Perhaps his words had been somewhat inappropriate and his smile, too bright, but he'd tried to be civil, hadn't he?

Opportunely, two plain clothes men stepped from the inner sanctum where Pat had gone and guided Danny and his in-laws toward separate interrogation rooms.

"Take a seat, Mr. La.s.siter."

Danny a.s.sumed this must be good cop. Then bad cop entered and he was a she. At least, that was Danny's first impression. They didn't introduce themselves or each other. Just got down to business.

"When did you last see your stepson Kevin Cantrell?"

"About twenty minutes ago."

The cops exchanged eye-rolls.

"I'll rephrase," said Good Cop. "When did you last see Kevin Cantrell alive?"

"At his mother's funeral. End of February."

"But he was staying in one of his mother's houses. One you'd been having work done on. You never ran into him there?" Bad Cop had a silver filling in an eye-tooth that flashed when she spoke.

"The work was supposed to begin today. Kevin had a key to the house, but I understood his residence was with his aunt and uncle."

"Where's your son, Mr. La.s.siter? Where's Josh?" It was Good Cop, but he wasn't looking so good to Danny any more.

"With Beth, my stepdaughter." Dumb-a.s.s words jumped out of his mouth again. Truth, but where would it lead? Nowhere good. Two kids missing. One kid dead. He'd never before even considered the possibility of Josh harming Kevin.

"Are you aware that your stepdaughter Beth Porter is missing?"

"Missing?" Why would the kids run? Unless, unless...Oh, Christ, this wasn't supposed to happen. Not according to his perfect plan. A plop. His head coming out of the sand?

"Mr. La.s.siter?"

The two cops stood over him. He looked up at them from the floor. The plop was him falling. Danny's lips formed words. I want to call my lawyer. No sounds came from his mouth.

"Mr. La.s.siter?"

Their faces bent near his. He tried to reach for his cell phone. His arm wouldn't cooperate.

From a sudden distance. Their voices. Fading.

"Get an ambulance!"

Danny didn't see a white light or a long tunnel. No sense of well-being. Peace and tranquility danced beyond his reach as he saw in the glow of a yellow light...his son...chestnut eyes in a thin face, like turning back the clock and looking in a mirror.

Josh's image came and went like waves on a beach, his expression troubled. Danny had no sense of his own body or where they were. Surely not in heaven.

"Dad..."

Josh's lips trembled, and Danny could see him forming words but they rolled off his brain. His son looked so tall now, bending over him. Was that a stubble of downy beard on his chin?

"Dad..."

A crinkled film separated them. Josh's image faded. Danny couldn't move. He couldn't speak, and there was so much he had to tell his son. How sorry he was for all the times he hadn't been there. Present in body, maybe, but not really there. Sorry for all the joints he'd smoked in front of him. Sorry for the lines of c.o.ke he'd done with Josh in the next room. Maybe not in the next room. He and Dee hadn't really cared at the time what they dumped on their kids. Their addictions that they'd called love only turned out to be s.e.x and drugs. He thought he'd fixed things, couldn't remember how, but now a sense of too late weighed down his chest.

"Dad, I'm sorry."

Danny felt Josh's hand on his arm. Saw tears run down his son's cheeks. With effort, he moved the words up from his heart and heard himself speak: "Josh."

Finding movement now possible, he grabbed Josh's hand and held on, afraid he'd turn into a wisp of smoke...but he didn't.

His senses returning, Danny toured the room with his eyes, took in the machines with their crisp blipping, traced the IV tube back to his own arm, let the footsteps in the hallway and hum of voices penetrate his awareness. And he kept hold of his son's hand.

It was no surprise really. Danny knew what long-term cocaine use could do to somebody's heart. It just didn't seem that it had been long-term for him. He felt Josh's hand squirming under his and realized he held his son in what could only be described as a life grip. Josh was real only so long as Danny could feel him.

"Dad, I really have to find a restroom. I've had four cups of coffee."

Danny couldn't let go. He was physically incapable of releasing Josh.

"I'll be right back." He felt his son pry open his desperate fingers. "It's that or pee my pants."

"No problem." His words came out whispered. "I'm not going anywhere."

"I didn't mean to worry you."

Josh's change of clothes seemed to indicate it was later than just a trip to the restroom. But Danny still didn't have the time-s.p.a.ce thing down pat. He was sitting up in bed now. Playing with a dish of Jell-o on a tray. He thought it was maybe a day later. Later than he'd have liked it to be-but not too late.

"Sam sent us to his sister's in South Dakota. He said we'd be safe there." Josh's guileless brown eyes implied it was a logical course of action.

"Sam Garvin sent you to South Dakota?" Danny pushed away the tray. Jello wasn't exactly his cup of tea. Nor was tea, for that matter.

"We never meant to worry you." Beth speaking. He hadn't realized she was there. It was his first sight of Beth since Dee's funeral when Morgan had whisked her away for good with a temporary custody order. Beth's face still had that pinched look she'd had at Morgan's the day after Dee's body had been found.

"Does your aunt know you're here?" Danny asked.

Beth nodded. "She knows it wasn't you."

"What...wasn't me?"

"You didn't send the drug dealer after Mom."

"It was Kevin," Josh said. "I'm sorry he's dead...but I'm not, really. Know what I mean?"

Danny recognized the conflict in his eyes...too well.

"When..." Danny began hesitantly, worried about the time line. "When did you go..."

"Dad. It was before Kevin died."

The hurt in Josh's eyes told Danny that his son had read his mind. Then, in a window of lucidity, a flashback of Kevin's body looking dead longer than the three days Josh had been gone.

Beth got up and went over to Josh's side. "They called us and told us it was okay to come back. Kevin was dead and couldn't hurt us. He and that drug dealer killed Mom. My own brother." Beth's tone was wooden and her eyes strangely dry as her glance touched Danny briefly.

Danny nodded absently. Something else gnawed at him...the last recollection...or one of them...just before he'd pa.s.sed out in the interrogation room. "If I'm not mistaken, Beth, somebody told the cops you were missing."

The kids exchanged glances, Josh replying before Beth. "Sam didn't tell Morgan. Not until after Kevin was dead."

"Huh?"

"That didn't come out right. I meant after they found out Kevin was dead."

Okay. That made sense. The kids probably didn't know how long Kevin had been dead. That was good.

"Couldn't you have let me know you were safe?"