Sybil at Sixteen (6 page)

“It might have made a big difference,” Meg said. “I would never have encouraged Evvie and Sam's relationship.”

“You think that would have stopped them?” Thea asked. “You, of all people, should know better.”

“Evvie isn't me,” Meg said. “And Sam isn't Nicky, and the lies Sam was telling were different from …” She was silent for a moment. “The situations are simply different,” she concluded.

“They are,” Claire said. “Sam has a lot more to lose. There are more people involved. He feels a sense of obligation to his mother, and his grandparents.”

Sybil now felt thoroughly confused. What lies had Nick told? Was he still telling them? How could a man who claimed she was just like him continue to lie to her? It was easier to believe, as Thea did, that the Sebastians had no secrets from each other. Sybil certainly had none. Her pain was their pain, like it or not.

“Then Clark should have told us,” Meg said. “Apparently he's known for years. Or Aunt Grace. We're Evvie's parents. We have every right to know. Evvie's safety is concerned.”

“Evvie's perfectly safe,” Claire said. “The FBI isn't about to start shooting at her.”

“You can't know that,” Meg said. “Suppose Sam brings his mother home with him. Suppose she decides to show up at his wedding? Suppose now that he's made contact with her, now that one of his kidneys is keeping her alive, for heaven's sake, he feels they have to see each other on some kind of regular basis. Suppose Evvie has children, and Sam's mother wants to see her grandchildren. Or her parents die, and she goes to their funerals? Any one of those things could happen, and the FBI might well know, and guns could go off and Evvie could get hurt.”

“So what are you going to do?” Claire asked. “Tell Evvie she can't marry him?”

“I wish I could,” Meg replied. “I can't tell you what a bad feeling I have about all this.”

“Nothing bad's going to happen,” Claire said. “Linda Steinmetz has no desire to be caught. She's been free for over twenty years now. And Sam's first loyalty is to Evvie. He would never put her in any danger. Look how careful he's being now. He won't even call her at home.”

“I don't like that, either,” Meg said. “Evvie's spending the whole week at work just in case he calls. We had plans for lunch today, and now she says she can't even do that. Sam's turned her life upside down. He's made her a conspirator. For all we know, she's criminally liable. She might end up in prison.”

“That won't happen,” Nick said.

“Evvie has never been the same since she met Sam,” Meg declared. “I've always blamed it on that summer at Eastgate, on all the things Aunt Grace must have told her, but now I know I was blaming Aunt Grace for nothing. It was Sam's doing. Evvie was sixteen, and suddenly she was having to lie to her family, to her friends, to all the people who ever cared about her, because she felt she had to, to protect Sam. Only it wasn't Sam she was protecting. It was his mother. And she's a murderer.”

“Sometimes you protect your mother, no matter who she is,” Nick said. “It hurts too much if you don't protect her.”

“The situations are completely different,” Meg said. “Completely. Your stepfather was a brute. Your mother was a victim. Linda Steinmetz is nobody's victim.” Meg pushed her coffee cup away from her, and drops from it spilled on the table. She didn't seem to notice.

“Everything will be fine,” Claire said, getting up and sponging the table. “Stop worrying.”

“And stop saying that!” Meg shouted. “I don't need any Pollyanna routine from you, Claire. Everything will not be fine. It may never be fine again. Can't you see that?”

Claire carried the sponge back to the sink. “I'm sorry,” she said. “I guess I have more faith in Evvie and Sam than you do.”

“How can I have any faith in her?” Meg asked. “She's been lying to me for years now.”

“I'd like to go for a walk now,” Sybil whispered. She meant to say it louder, but her voice wouldn't cooperate.

“Good idea,” Nick said. “They're predicting some more rain by noon. Let's get the walk in before then.”

“Would you like some more company?” Claire asked.

“No,” Sybil said sharply.

“Just asking,” Claire said. “Thea, do you have any plans?”

“I was going to go to the library and do some research,” Thea replied. “I have a paper due in a couple of weeks I'd like to work on.”

“Fine,” Claire said. “I'll entertain myself. I'll go shopping.”

“Then we're all set?” Nick asked. “Sybil, get your cane, and let's get out of here.”

Sybil followed Nick to the hall, and then outside. The day was already overcast. Her legs had been bad all night, between the rain and the tension. She wondered what it would do to Meg if she had to use her crutches the rest of the day. Meg would probably blame it on Linda Steinmetz. She might even have some cause.

“I've never seen Megs so upset,” Sybil said as they began their walk.

“She's terrified,” Nick replied. “And she's angry at Evvie as well. And Sam. You can tell Daisy anything, and if she loves you, she'll accept it, but if she finds out she's been lied to, she gets terribly hurt and angry.”

“Would you have lied, the way Sam did?” Sybil asked. “To protect your mother?”

“I used to lie for her all the time,” Nick said. “When she broke something, I'd say I did it. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it made things worse.” He stopped for a moment. “Don't ever feel you have to protect me,” he said. “I can handle anything that comes along.”

“I know that,” Sybil said. She did. There was nothing Nick or Claire couldn't handle if they had to. Of course, she'd always thought that was true of all of them, but she still was sure about Nick and Claire.

“I think Daisy's right, though,” Nick said. “I think the possibility for disaster is enormous. And Sam and Evvie can get caught right in the middle of it.”

“You mean they might actually get hurt?” Sybil asked.

“It could happen,” Nick said. “I'm more worried that Sam might get arrested. I doubt they'd go down hard on him, Linda Steinmetz is his mother after all, but you never can tell. And it isn't like he's here, where we could help out. Evvie wouldn't tell us where he was, although I assume she knows.”

“She wouldn't tell Claire and me, either,” Sybil said. “Not that we asked.”

“Daisy asked,” Nick said. “Along with a lot of other questions Evvie didn't answer.”

Sybil nodded. She'd been upstairs resting when Evvie had told her story the second time. The painkillers had made her drowsy. When the choice was between being awake and in pain or asleep and in pain, she frequently chose the latter.

“I'd feel better if I just knew where Sam was,” Nick said. “I have connections all over the country. If we needed to get him a lawyer fast, it would help if I already had some names prepared.”

“What would Evvie do?” Sybil asked. “If Sam got hurt or arrested?”

“I don't know,” Nick replied. “Frankly, it worries me sick to even think about it.”

“And it's not just the FBI that's after Sam's mother,” Sybil said. “Evvie said the police are still searching for her, and there's that reward, too.”

“What reward?” Nick asked.

“Evvie didn't tell you about the reward?” Sybil asked.

“Maybe she did, and I've forgotten,” Nick replied. “There was a lot I had to take in last night. And frankly, I was worried about you, too. I was distracted.”

“I'm all right,” Sybil said. “You know this kind of weather always makes me ache.”

“I know you've been through too much pain already,” Nick said. “When I was a boy, and my lies wouldn't work, and my stepfather would beat up my mother, I'd think, ‘I'll never love anybody again; it hurts too much to see them suffer.' It felt worse when he hit her than when he hit me. And then, in spite of myself, I fell in love with Daisy, and then you girls were born, and the thought of any of you in pain was a nightmare to me. I hope you never know that kind of fear. Evvie's learned it far too soon.”

“She's sick with worry about Sam,” Sybil said.

Nick nodded. “It's almost as bad as your accident,” he said. “That horrible sensation of not knowing how bad the future is going to be. Seeing someone you love in pain, and feeling so helpless to do something.”

“You help me,” Sybil said. “You help me more than anybody. There are days when I wake up and I know what's ahead and I dread it, and then I think of you, and I know I can manage. I do it for you, not to let you down, and that helps me do it for me.”

“I love you, Sybil,” Nick said. “And things will get better.”

“I know,” Sybil replied. “Just the walking helps strengthen my legs. And I'll learn to manage the pain better with time. I'm sure of it.”

“I'm sure of it, too,” Nick said. “We're great at pain management, you and I.”

“I wonder how Evvie is at it,” Sybil said. “Thea was right in a way. Evvie hasn't had much experience with really bad times.”

“You mentioned something about a reward,” Nick said.

“The bank Linda Steinmetz blew up offered one,” Sybil said. “Twenty-five thousand dollars for her capture.”

“That's a lot of money,” Nick said. “That kind of reward could only make things worse for Sam, if the wrong people found out he was with his mother.”

Sybil kept walking, but she glanced at her father. “What kind of wrong people?” she asked.

“The kind who don't care who gets hurt,” Nick replied. “Let's look at this situation objectively. As of the moment, Sam's all right. We don't even know if he's seen his mother yet. And even if he has, he's still mobile. But if he does donate a kidney, then he's going to be in the same hospital as his mother, recuperating from his surgery while she recuperates from hers, and if the wrong kinds of people find out—some clever police officer, or an orderly who makes the connection—then Sam couldn't possibly escape whatever the consequences might be.”

“Yesterday Evvie said she wished Sam's mother would get arrested before all that happened,” Sybil said. “She said she wished she'd die.”

“Evvie wants to protect Sam, just as Sam wants to protect his mother,” Nick declared. “Just as I want to protect Evvie, and Sam, too, for that matter.”

“But how can you?” Sybil asked. “We don't even know where Sam is.”

“There must be a way of finding out,” Nick said. “Of course it would have to be done immediately. And we can't tell Evvie. She could never feel she participated in any way, even if it is what she wants. She has to be blameless in her own eyes as well as Sam's.”

“She might get angry,” Sybil said.

“I don't think so,” Nick replied. “Not if we can keep Sam out of it. I think she'd be grateful.”

“Wouldn't Sam be angry, though?” Sybil asked.

“Remember how angry you'd get at me?” Nick said. “When I'd make you do your physical therapy. When I pulled you out of one rehab place and put you in another. When I forced you to walk again, because I wouldn't accept a life for you in a wheelchair.”

“There were times I hated you,” Sybil said.

“I knew you did,” Nick said. “And it killed me that you did, but it didn't matter. It was worth it. I don't care what Sam thinks of me for the rest of my life if I can protect him from a mistake that could prove disastrous to him. Disastrous to Evvie, for that matter.”

“Megs would agree,” Sybil said. “It's better to stop things now, before they get out of hand.”

“You saw her at breakfast,” Nick said. “She'd turn Linda Steinmetz in herself if she could.”

“Maybe we should discuss this with her,” Sybil said. “She might have some good ideas about how to find Sam.”

Nick shook his head. “The fewer people involved the better,” he said. “And Evvie's closer to Daisy than she is to me. Evvie'll be angry at first. She'll have to be, if only to prove to Sam that she's not at fault. But even if she realizes it was my doing, then she'll be able to focus her anger on me, and leave Daisy out of it. Sam, too. He'll cut me off for a while, but he won't hold it against Daisy. Eventually it'll all work out.”

Sybil was silent. She tried to picture her family torn into pieces, Evvie and Sam on one side, Nick on another, Meg in the middle. But the picture was too easy. It felt that way already.

“Evvie will forgive me,” Nick said. “Even if Sam doesn't. She'll understand I did it just to protect her.”

“Oh, Nicky,” Sybil said. “You don't have to make up reasons for me.”

“You're right,” Nick said. “I don't.”

Sybil knew twenty-five thousand was hardly a fortune, but Nick had turned fortunes out of a lot less. It was a stake. It would pay the bills for a while, giving him the chance to start something fresh and exciting. It would help a little bit with their debts, debts incurred through years of medical expenses caused by her accident. Nick had been a magician for so many years. Maybe this twenty-five thousand was what he needed to get his magic going again. And Sybil owed him. She owed him for all the sacrifices he had made for her. She owed him for all his love and all his time. She owed him at least twenty-five thousand more than she could ever owe Sam.
Damn sisters. They don't belong.

Sybil belonged, all right. She belonged to Nick. “What can I do?” she asked. “Evvie won't tell me where Sam is. There's no point even asking.”

“There has to be something,” Nick replied. “Some note or message left in their apartment. The name of a motel. A phone number. Even an area code. The FBI is good at their job. If I can tell them the general location, it shouldn't be too hard for them to find a woman dying of kidney disease. Sam was in a hurry, and Evvie is careless. She's bound to have left something.”