Mind Games

“You would sit here, in my kitchen, in front of these children, and accuse me of conspiring to have my own child murdered in her bed? Have John murdered? Use this girl that way?”

“Facts, Ms. Lannigan.”

In his line of work, Musk knew temper often served as a trip wire. So he pushed.

“If you didn’t have part in it, this girl—and twelve can be an age where a girl resents her parents—gave details she could only know if she was there. She wasn’t there, so the next logical conclusion is she took out that resentment using Riggs.”

Lucy got slowly to her feet. “How dare you? How dare you speak to and about this beautiful, grieving child this way? Sit here, smiling at her when you have that blackness in your mind and heart?”

“I’m doing my job, and my job is to get full justice for John and Cora Fox.”

“They have to go, Grammie.” With his hands fisted at his sides, Rem jumped off the stool. “They have to get the hell out of here right now!”

“Yes, they do. Get out of my house, and don’t you ever come around these children again. Don’t you talk about justice when you’ve sliced a knife in these children’s hearts.”

“We can go, but if you’re sticking with dreams, we’ll come back, and we’ll talk to Riggs again, get the truth out of him. We’ll come back with Child Services.”

“You got divorced last year, and you’re still sad about it.” Her eyes trained on Musk, Thea spoke quietly. “Mostly because you don’t get to see the twins—Rogan and Logan, they’re eight—as much as before. People call you Phil, or Musk, but when your mom was mad, she called you Philip Henry Musk. You broke your arm when you were eleven. You were riding your bike too fast and hit a root coming through the sidewalk, and flew right off and broke your arm. This one.”

She rubbed a hand on her left arm, then looked at Howard.

“You’re Chuck and your wife is Lissa. Kevin’s six and Cody’s three—you have their pictures in your wallet, and you’re starting to think you and Lissa should have one more, try for a girl. You’re mad at him right now, at Detective Musk. You didn’t want to come down here. You didn’t like the way he let his stubbornness and his anger push him to handle it this way. Riggs’ll rot in prison. You can’t explain what I told the sheriff, but everything else told you there’s nothing here to … to tie us to it.”

She looked back at Musk. “I’m not mad at you for it. Grammie, Rem, don’t be so mad. He saw them after, in bed. They were holding hands.” Her voice trembled now, tears swirled with it. “He saw how they were holding hands with bloody pillows over their faces, and that went in him, it went deep. And you said to Detective Howard…”

She closed her wet eyes, and let it come. “‘We’re going to find the fucker who did this, Chuck. If it takes the rest of our lives, we’re going to find this fucker and take him down.’”

“Jesus Christ.”

“Shut up, Phil. I mean it, shut up.” Howard leaned toward Thea. “Thea, I’m going to apologize to you, to your grandmother, to your brother as sincerely as I know how. I’m sorry for what you had to see that night. I’m sorry for what and who you lost. I’m sorry we put you through this.”

“He really does want justice for them, so I’m not mad. But…”

She turned to Musk again, who sat, his face pale and stunned. “My grandmother loved our parents as much as we did. She was a mother to my dad when his never was. She’s changing her life to keep us because they asked her to, because she loves us.

“Don’t you ever, ever say bad things about my grandmother again.”

Musk started to speak, then held up a hand to stop his partner from cutting him off. “Give me a break, Chuck. I’m sorry. I’ve never had an experience of anything like this. I don’t believe—didn’t believe … I’m sorry.”

“Thea’s accepted your apologies, so we will, too. Now I’d like you to show yourselves out.”

When they rose to leave, Thea took another breath. “Detective Howard? Be careful on the blue stairs. I don’t know what it means, but be careful on the blue stairs.”

A little chilled, he nodded.

Outside, Musk rubbed his hands over his face. “I need a drink. A serious drink.”

“We’ll get one at the airport.”

At the car, Musk looked over the hood at his partner. “Something about them holding hands like that got to me, Chuck. I couldn’t let it go.”

“Let it go now, Phil. Case closed.”

In the kitchen, Lucy pressed a kiss to the top of Thea’s head. “I’m so proud of you, Thea, and you, Rem, of the way you stood up.”

“They scared me, I think. And I didn’t want them to be here. I didn’t want to talk to them, to talk about it all again. So I tried not to think, and I could see … just knew things about them. Because the more they talked, the more I got upset and tried not to think.”

She closed her eyes. “I’ve got a headache, Grammie.”