Before the Storm (45 page)

off about it and she said not to worry. That it wouldn’t happen.”

Uncle Marcus was quiet again.

“Could it happen?” I asked.

“I think your mother was just trying to keep you from

getting upset, Mags,” he said. “If she said it was a terrible day,

it sounds like she either didn’t have any luck with the neurolobefore the storm

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gist or else with the lawyer. And if that’s the case, then there’s

a really good chance Andy will end up in adult court.”

“So…” What did that mean exactly? “When would he have

a trial? He could stay home while he’s waiting for it, right?”

Andy came downstairs. I watched him walk into the family

room and turn on the TV.

“No, Mags. Look, I know your mom doesn’t want to worry

you, but here’s the deal. If he gets bound over, they’ll lock him

up right away and—”

“What do you
mean,
lock him up right away?” I whispered,

turning my back to the family room.

“I mean, after the hearing tomorrow, they’d take him back

to jail. And it’s very doubtful he could get bail, so he’d have

to stay in jail until his trial. And sometimes it can take a year

or even longer for a case to go to trial. Then if he’s found guilty,

he could end up in prison for the rest of his life.”

I couldn’t speak. This couldn’t be happening.

“So that’s why your mom’s been knocking herself out to find

the right expert and why she’s been so worried and why you

really were…you were cruel to her today, Maggie. She didn’t

need that on top of everything else.”

“I can’t believe it,” I said.

“What part of it?”

“Any of it.” I looked into the family room. I could see the

back of Andy’s head where he sat on the sofa. He had no idea

how his world might change tomorrow.
I’d
had no idea. “I’m

so sorry,” I said to Uncle Marcus. “I didn’t realize…I knew it

was serious, but I didn’t get how bad it was.”

“It’s worse. That’s what I was calling to talk to your mother

about.”

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“How could it possibly be worse?”

“Here’s how,” he said. “Those empty containers from the

landfill? One of them has Andy’s prints on it.”

I HAD TO STOP ONCE MORE ON THE DRIVE home from

Raleigh, this time because of the blinding rain. Mine wasn’t

the only car to pull over with its emergency blinkers flashing,

but I bet none of the other drivers were in the sort of

turmoil—the sort of emotional pain—I was in. I’d failed to

get the necessary help for my son, and my daughter had been

lying to me for the past year, turning into a girl I didn’t know.

I thought of all the times Ben Trippett had talked to me about

Andy’s swimming, all the while chortling to himself about the

wool he was pulling over my eyes.

And then there was that knife beneath my breastbone, the

most visceral pain of them all. My beloved Jamie had led a

double life. My best friend had deceived me. I’d been blind to

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it. Why did I always
lose
people? My parents. My aunt and

uncle. Jamie. And now even Jamie’s memory would be lost to

me. And Sara! How could she? Even Marcus had betrayed me

in the guise of protecting me—an act of nobility I could barely

fathom, given the wrath with which I’d blamed him for Jamie’s

death. Nothing was as it seemed. The only person in my life I

felt sure about was Andy, and tomorrow, he could be ripped

from my arms for being too naive, too defenseless against a

world he didn’t completely understand. I started to cry. To sob

so hard that, even as the rain let up and the other cars took

off, I stayed on the side of the road trying to get a grip on

myself.

By the time I got home, the nor’easter was in full swing. The

sky was eerily dark for so early in the evening, and the thunder

made a ripping, growling sound that reminded me of when the

church roof caved in during the fire. The slender trees in my

yard bowed toward the sound. I caught them in my headlights,

and that’s when I realized that my headlights were the only

lights near the house. The power must have gone out.

The garage door opener worked, though, and as I pulled

inside, I noticed that Maggie’s Jetta wasn’t there. I let myself

into the house, feeling even more unsettled. Something wasn’t

right.

“Maggie? Andy?”

The wind rattled the windowpanes, but even so, I could hear

the refrigerator’s loud hum. The power
was
on. I flipped the

kitchen switch and the room filled with light. An uneaten pizza

rested on a cookie sheet on the granite counter. Where were

they?

I walked through the house, calling for them, afraid the

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police might have taken Andy away again. Why, though? And

where was Maggie?

I sat on the family room sofa and dialed her cell phone, but

she didn’t answer. She was probably afraid to talk to me after

our conversation earlier. I tried Andy’s phone but, as with

Maggie’s, I was dumped to his voice mail.

“Hi! This is Andy. Leave…leave me a message when the

tone rings.” It had taken us an hour to get that message

properly recorded.

“Andy, this is Mom,” I said. “Call me right away!” I tried

Maggie’s phone again, this time leaving a message.“Where are

you and Andy? I’m home and very worried!”

Then I dialed Marcus’s cell.

“Do you know where Maggie and Andy are?” I asked when

he picked up.

“I spoke to Maggie about an hour or so ago,” he said. “She

was home with Andy. She said they were making pizza.”

“Well, I just got home and the house is dark and empty and

a whole pizza is on the counter. Her car’s not here. She was

mad at me. We had a fight on the phone.” I ran my hand over

the green fabric on the arm of the sofa, unsure how much to

say about that conversation.

“Then you don’t know about the containers?”

“What containers?”

“The ones found in the landfill.” He hesitated. “At least one

of them has Andy’s fingerprints on it, Laurel.”

“No!” I stood up.“Oh, Marcus, that’s impossible! It’s just impossible. I don’t understand what’s happening.”

“I’m coming over.”

“Could the police have picked him up?”

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“I doubt it. I think they have other things to worry about

with this storm, but I’ll call them on my way to your house

to make sure.”

“Please do.” I hung up. I tried to make a pot of coffee, but

forgot to add the grounds and ended up with a carafe full of

murky-looking water. Sobs shook my shoulders as I tried again.

I remembered the grounds this time, but the power died as the

first dark drops poured into the carafe.

Fumbling in the darkness, I found my hurricane lanterns and

flashlights. I lit the lanterns, setting them on the tables and fireplace mantel in the family room.

If the police had Andy, could Marcus somehow get him out

again? Or was this it, now that they had his prints on those containers? Would Andy be locked up tonight, then sent to jail

after the hearing tomorrow, never to get out again?

It was nine o’clock when Marcus arrived. I heard the

slamming of his pickup door and I raced to my front door,

anxious to talk to him. He literally blew into the house, the

wind lifting him off his feet.

“Damn!” he said, knocking into the small table in the foyer.

“My pickup hydroplaned half the way here.” He helped me

close the door against the wind. “We need to go out there

again,” he said. “We need to get your patio furniture in the

garage.”

I was usually a clear thinker in a storm. Tonight, though, I

could barely picture the furniture he was talking about.

“Do the police have him?” I asked.

“No. I’m worried about tomorrow, though, Laurel. I mean, I

thought maybe we had a chance till these containers turned up.”

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“I don’t understand!” I said for the hundredth time.

“Let’s get things secured outside and then figure out what to

do.”

“I don’t care about the patio furniture!” I said. “I don’t care

if the house falls down. I just want to know where my children

are!”

“You stay here, then. I’ll do it.”

I knew he was right. A nor’easter last year had sent someone’s trash can through my front window. I followed him

outside and together we managed to get the chairs and patio

table into the garage. My trash can was already gone, blown

away who knew where. I cried in the windy darkness, letting

myself break down unheard. I just managed to pull myself

together before we went into the house again.

“Let’s think,” he said, as I relit one of the lanterns that had

gone out. “How could Andy’s prints have possibly gotten on

the container?”

“Someone set him up,” I said. “That’s the only possibility.

Maybe Keith, since he was angry that…” I stopped, pressing

my hands to my temples as all that Maggie had told me rushed

back. “Marcus.” My voice cracked as I leaned against the stone

of the fireplace.“I know about Keith. Maggie told me. Is it true

about Jamie and Sara?”

He lowered himself to the sofa. “I’m sorry Maggie told you

the way she did,” he said.“I wanted to wait until a better time.”

I shook my head, sinking into the chair behind me. I had no

time to wallow, I told myself. Right now, I just needed to focus

on Andy. “We should go out and look for them,” I said.

“We wouldn’t be able to see two feet in front of my pickup.”

Again, he was right. I rubbed my arms with my hands,

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watching the hurricane lantern flicker on the mantel. “What

do you think?” I asked. “Could Keith have set Andy up?”

“But then we come back to the question of why he’d get

trapped by the fire if he set it himself.”

“Ben!” I said suddenly, getting to my feet and grabbing the

wireless phone from the coffee table.“Maggie and Andy might

be with Ben!”

“With
Ben?
Why?”

“Well, here’s the other piece of terrific news I got today,” I

said. “Dawn called to tell me that Ben and Maggie have been

seeing each other for nearly a year.”

“Seeing each other?” Marcus’s eyes grew wide. “You

mean…intimately?”

“That’s exactly what I mean. That’s why Maggie got mad at

me. I talked to her about it and I was furious. She—”

“Ben?” Marcus was incredulous. “I saw him with Dawn the

other day, all lovey-dovey. And he’s pushing thirty, for God’s

sake.”

“I know it. I’m going to strangle him.”

“I’ll beat you to it.”

I sat down again, glad to have something to do. Some action

to take.“Do you know his phone number?” I hit the talk button

on my phone, but there was no dial tone. Of course. “The

power,” I said, holding the dead phone in the air.

Marcus pulled his cell phone from his belt. “Cells are iffy

tonight,” he said, frowning at the display. “I only have one bar.”

I watched as he dialed. He listened, shaking his head.“Voice

mail,” he said to me. Into the phone, he said,“Ben, it’s Marcus.

Call me.”

I leaned back against the chair, feeling defeated. “It’s my

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fault, Marcus,” I said. “Maggie and Ben. I’ve been a terrible

mother to her. An absent mother. I made her parent Andy with

me without giving much thought to
her
needs. Jamie raised her

until he died and then I let her be. I expected her to take care

of herself.”

“She seemed really good at it.”

“How could I not have known she was seeing Ben? And for

so
long?
”

“Man!” Marcus got to his feet, pacing toward the stairs and

back again. “I’m going to flatten him!”

“Could they be over there?” I wondered. “At Ben’s?”

“Since it’s actually
Dawn’s
house, not likely.”

I massaged my forehead. A headache was starting, or maybe

I’d had it for hours and hadn’t noticed. “This thing about the

containers,” I said. “It makes no sense.” I rubbed my temples

harder. “But if Maggie had a secret life, maybe Andy did, too.”

There was no other way to explain it all. “I think about the

mothers of those kids who shoot up schools. I’m sure they

never suspected their child could do such a thing.” I dropped

my hands to the arms of the chair. “Marcus, I
knew
there was

something on his shoes,” I admitted.“I hoped it was fluid from

his lighter.You know, how he put it in his sock when we were

at the airport? With all the time and attention I gave Andy, did

I still screw up with him? Is there a side to him he’s managed

to keep hidden from me?” Just then, I felt as though everyone

in my life had deceived me.

“Don’t
you
start doubting him, all right?” Marcus stopped

pacing. “You’re the one person who can’t afford to ever doubt

him.”

“But how do you explain it?” I raised my hands in the air,

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