License to Love (37 page)

Karen sat in the recliner. “And it must have something to do
with Kenneth Webb, who’s dead. It doesn’t sound good, but I’m sure she’s just
upset and wanting to figure it out. She’s probably got a lot of memories to
sort through.”

A lifetime, Trent thought. Her childhood, their romance, her
friendship with Alicia, and whatever she knew about her birth father. He
wondered what it felt like to discover your parents had lied to you on so many
different accounts. He remembered them as warm, caring people who indulged
their only daughter’s many crazy whims. The description Karen had given didn’t
sound anything like them.

They both looked to the doorway as they heard soft steps on
the stairs. “Hey Karen, Trent.” Molly saw their coffee and headed for the
kitchen. Trent jumped up and told her to sit, he’d make it.

“Just—”

“Sugar, I know.” He knew all those little things about her,
and she knew them about him. Those memories had been locked away inside her
head but she’d still known. He came back with a hot cup and sat down next to
her on the couch, putting an arm behind her shoulders. The dark color under her
eyes said she hadn’t slept much, either.

Karen sat quietly and patiently. Trent had a harder time
waiting as he tapped on his mug. Molly sipped her coffee and said, “There’s
suddenly so much in my head I don’t know where to begin. I spent all night
sifting through memories, remembering new things, putting things in order, and
then I finally fell asleep and dreamed about it all.”

She paused, turning and looking up into Trent’s face. He saw
a look he hadn’t seen since before she had disappeared: she knew him, knew all
about him, and knew him inside and out just like he knew himself. They used to
look into each other’s eyes and communicate without a word and he felt that
again.

She continued, “I thought about you the most, and I can’t
believe how much time we spent together growing up. You were like another best
friend to me.”

“One that always had a crush on you.” He felt more like
himself now that she remembered all the times they shared, but he saw her face
darken and knew she must be thinking about the end of that summer four years
ago.

She leaned into Trent, glancing at Karen and him. “It’s
worse than I feared.”

“About your real father?” he quietly asked. Karen, though
leaning forward, remained silent.

“I didn’t know about him until he showed up in Ridge City. I
don’t know if I can tell you about it.” She shuddered and had to set her coffee
cup on the table because she kept shaking.

Hesitantly, he asked, “Can you tell me how he died?”

Pushing her eyes shut, Molly let out a breath that sounded
panicked. Trent felt awful for making her think about it, but he needed to
know. For a minute, the three of them sat still, like moving would disturb a
pond full of her memories and send them rippling away. She pulled her knees
up to her chest.

In a whisper so quiet they could barely hear her, Molly
said, “Arnold killed him.”

Arnold killed him?

“What?
” Karen asked from
across the room. Molly’s eyes opened to look at her.

At last, Molly tried, but couldn’t look at either of them
while she spoke. “I went home to get some things and see how my parents were
doing. I wanted to test the waters before Trent and I shared the big news.”

“Kenneth was there?”

“Not at first. A man came to the door while I was in my
room. I came partway down the stairs because he sounded upset, yelling to see
his daughter. I thought he was crazy and had the wrong house. I didn’t think he
meant me. Mom was at the front door, trying to keep him out and yelling for
dad. Kenneth forced his way inside the door and pulled a gun from behind his
back. I screamed, and he yelled at me to come down. Dad ran in from the
backyard right then.”

“Did he fire the gun?”

She shook her head, but didn’t speak for another minute.
“Kenneth asked if I knew him, but of course I didn’t. He went ballistic, kept
yelling that Arnold wasn’t my father. He said he wanted his family back and
that Arnold had stolen us away from him.” Molly’s voice broke and she turned
her face into Trent’s shoulder.

“It’s okay. It’s over now, all in the past.” Trent wasn’t
sure how to comfort her, but now he realized whatever happened must have been
in self-defense, and that was a relief. “Arnold maneuvered the gun away from
Kenneth?”

She shook her head, “No, Kenneth kept it, but dad had a
knife. Kenneth tried to make me and my mom leave with him. When he grabbed me
to pull me outside, Dad jumped up and stabbed him. Dad wrestled the gun out of
his hand. Blood
dripped all o
ver the floor.”
She stopped there and he understood. Looking up, he saw Karen looked awfully
upset.

“This sounds like self-defens
e. Arnold
was just trying to save his wife and daughter,” he said to both women.

“How did you get away from him?
What happened?”

“Kenneth didn’t let go of me; they
jerked back and forth. I got my arm free but I tried to help Dad. Kenneth and
Dad knocked into me while they were struggling. I
remember hitting my
head.” Her hand went up and touched the spot. “The banister, I think. Or the
stairs. It happened so fast. I don’t even know where Mom was at that point. The
ceiling turned black. Next a loud noise jarred me
as
if I’d been sle
eping. That man, Kenneth, fell down and died right
there.”

Karen had moved onto the couch with them and put a hand on
Molly’s back to let her know she was there for her.

Trent wanted to ask what they did with the body, why Molly
was willing to run like that, but decided to let her share at her own pace. He
had a lot of questions as her husband and friend, and the detective in him
wanted to get all the pieces and understand what happened too. At least their
business in California was done. They could return to Ridge City and have the
police there handle the case.

Maybe Molly saw the wheels turning, because she asked him,
“Am I in legal trouble? I’m not sure if I did anything wrong.”

“No, no you didn’t. You were a witness, and Arnold acted to
save his family and self.”

“But they didn’t go to the police.”

Yes, that was a problem. “Do you know why?”

After a moment’s thought, she said, “I remember packing,
feeling scared, but I don’t actually remember anything we said. I had this
feeling we were packing to get out of there, a trip, because we had to leave
for a while. I don’t remember thinking we wouldn’t come back. I don’t remember
the trip to Redding, either. I don’t know why we ran.”

“They must have thought they did something wrong,” Karen offered.
“I can understand if they panicked. Kenneth was dead, after all.”

Trent knew the restraining order was on record, giving even
more credibility to their story, so he couldn’t imagine what they were
thinking. Whatever the Andersons had thought, they weren’t around to explain.
He asked, “Now do you think your parents’ accident was just that, an accident?”

Molly’s head rose quickly, then her shoulders slumped.
“Kenneth couldn’t have killed my parents. At least not from this side of the
grave. So i
t must have been a m
ean twist of
fate.”

“Not having someone to blame doesn’t mean you can’t be mad,”
he said. “But now you know, and you wanted that, didn’t you?”

“I guess I did.” She picked her coffee back up. “So what
about the rest of it? What do I do?”

“We do need to report this,” Trent said. “Back in Ridge
City. The only loose end is locating the body.”

“I don’t remember seeing…”
Where or when they hid or
buried the body.
She shivered
.

“But there’s some good leads from your story.” He gently
pulled her against him, wanting to lend her his strength. “It’ll be up to the
authorities now.”

Molly placed her mug down on the coffee table without taking
a drink. Her hand lingered there as she became lost in her thoughts. “About
going back to Ridge City. I want to close this part of my life first.”

Trent tilted his head but waited for her to explain.

“I have to finish things here before I move on. I have to
get rid of all this stuff, pack what I want, put the house up for sale. That
is, if Cindy doesn’t want it back.”

“I can stay a while and help you with all this.” Trent stood
and paced. “I still have concerns about your neighbor.  I’m having his prints
ran.” He explained about the sunglasses he found on her porch.

“But so far, they haven’t found anything on him?”

“No, so it’s probably just a guy with a crush, but I’m
making sure he’s harmless.” Ironically, as he spoke, a distinct noise started
up softly in the distance. The police sirens grew louder until he couldn’t
ignore them. Trent’s cell rang. “Hello?”

“Williams. Quinn. We’re heading to your neighbor’s house.
Your feeling was right. The prints got a hit because there’s a warrant out for
his arrest. Looks like he was hiding here, just like your Andersons.”

Quinn didn’t say more, but hung up the phone as the sirens
reached Justin’s house. They stood together at the window, watching the scene
next door. He didn’t want to get in the middle of someone else’s jurisdiction
and planned to find out the details when things quieted down. As they watched
the officers go inside, he told her, “Your neighbor’s been running from a
warrant.”

Two officers dragged Atwood from the house, cuffed and
yelling. They put him inside a squad car and left. “I want to go talk to them.
See what they’ll tell me.”

“I’m coming with you,” Molly said. He gave her a look that
meant he didn’t like that idea, so she added, “It is safe now, right?”

They approached the house together, and Quinn apparently had
given the okay already because an officer
allowed
Trent inside the house.

“Come see this.” The officer led them upstairs to a bedroom
to show them a wall of pictures, some of Molly coming and going from her house,
around town, and a few taken in Ridge City over the last few weeks.

Molly crossed her arms and looked at Trent in horror.

“He won’t bother you after this, I promise.” Trent clenched
his fists, but told himself the law would take care of it. He asked the
officer, “That’s what the warrant was for, isn’t it? He’s done this before to
someone else?”

The officer nodded. “Several times. He’s not dodging this
one.”

Chills ran up his back. “Mol, let’s get out of here.” 

She nodded and turned on her heels. He followed her back to
her own house at a quick pace, where he asked, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m okay. I just want to get all this taken care of
soon so I can go home.”

Home. Their home.

“Thanks again,” Molly told Cindy over the phone before they
hung up. Glancing around the bare house, she sighed in relief. It was one of
those long, end of the journey type sighs. She had wanted her aunt to take the
house back, but Cindy wouldn’t have it. They finally compromised by agreeing to
split the profits from the sell. Cindy would take care of the furniture. She’d
originally left it in the house and then the Andersons had moved in and used
it. Molly didn’t want anything to do with it or any other reminder of how her
parents had hid things and lied to her. She wanted to remember her life with
them before Kenneth Webb found them.

It’d taken three days to wrap up the loose ends. Her possessions
were packed, at least the ones she wanted to keep: mostly just clothes and the
photo albums she found in the basement. Everything she wanted to take with her
would fit in a car.

“Ready?”

She turned and smiled at her husband. His eyes were glowing
with love for her, and she knew it was a rare and special love, the kind you
find once in a lifetime.

“Yup.” She stretched up to kiss him and fall into his
embrace. She wanted to linger there and hold him close, and could tell he
wanted that too, but at the same time she felt they both wanted to get out of
there and on with life. 

When she looked up at his face again, he wiped the tear that
was tickling its way down her cheek. She locked the door on the way out and
they were on their way.

Starting back up the freeway, this time knowing what awaited
her, Molly didn’t look back at Redding. It’d been a bit bittersweet to hug
Karen that last time, but she knew they would call often and visit each other.
In fact, why hadn’t she thought of inviting Karen up sooner? She’d love to get
them together with her friends in Ridge City.

Alicia called and Trent put her on the hands free speaker.

“Want some happy news?” she asked.

“That’d be nice.”

“Mark’s getting serious with one of the local school
teachers. Sounds like he finally had enough of Bev.”

Trent glanced over with a smile. Molly laughed. “But who’ll
Bev complain to now? Hopefully she’ll leave David alone about me.”

Alicia sighed. “We talked quite a bit about all that, and we
told Bev,
firmly
, to leave you alone and not to spread gossip like that
anymore.”

A weight lifted from her shoulders. Molly hadn’t even known
it was still bothering her. They chatted for a good half hour, and just a few
minutes after they hung up with Alicia, Mark called.

Molly had expected some heavy conversation between her and
Trent during the drive, but instead they were catching up with friends.

“Hey, buddy,” Mark greeted. “I’ve got good news and good
news.”

“That’s what we like to hear.” There was a lift to Trent’s voice
that matched the skip in her heartbeat.

“Quinn called the station and said Atwood confessed to
shooting at you. He was just trying to scare you. So they’ve got him on that
and stalking.”