The Trophy Hunter (26 page)

“Why didn’t you say so in the first place?”
Marge looked annoyed, then lit up a cigarette she took out of a
pack from her coat pocket.

“I’ve no excuse,” replied Diana lamely.

Marge eyed her, a puzzled look on her face.
She lit up and took a long drag on her cigarette.

“I honestly thought the girl was in a safe
place. Safer than her home environment had been,” continued Diana.
“But now I have reason to believe she may have gone back to…an
abusive situation.”

“Her home?” asked Marge, a troubled look on
her thin face.

“No. I got a tip that she might be with a
Joseph Flannigan in Evergreen. Or near there. Brookvale,
maybe.”

“Brookvale?” Marge stifled a cough.

Diana suppressed the urge to snatch the
cigarette from her hand and stomp on it. “That’s the information I
have. You know anything about the area?”

Marge shook her head. “What about the baby?”
she asked.

“As far as I know, the…father’s providing
adequate care for her. If it’s not too much trouble, you might give
the guys in Custer County a heads-up.”

Marge rolled her eyes. “You ever been to
Custer County, Diana?”

“No.”

“I mean, take the sheriff’s department, it’s
small and understaffed. And I’m being kind.”

“This missing Strickland girl, she’s part of
another case,” said Diana. “That one involves a kidnapping and
rape. It’s where my involvement started. There’s an ongoing federal
investigation. At least, I think so.” Diana purposely left out the
part about the murder of Trisha’s father and the suspected incest.
No need to completely overwhelm Marge.

“Just a couple of details you forgot to tell
me?” Marge’s tone was now less friendly. A gust of wind carried her
second-hand smoke into Diana’s face. Diana tried unsuccessfully not
to cough.

“I have the name of the federal agent in
charge in a file back at the office,” said Diana, after clearing
her throat of Marge’s smoke. “I could email it to you when I get
back,” she eyed her watch, “which should be in just a few
minutes.”

“Why don’t you make the call to the feds
yourself, Diana?” Marge looked at her through narrowed eyes.

“Because I really don’t want to get caught in
the middle of this,” Diana sidestepped. If Flannigan was the heavy
after all, this would set him off big-time.

Marge seemed to consider her explanation.
“Sometimes you get a rotten apple for a client. Is that what
happened?”

“Something like that. But Marge, I don’t─and
never did─represent any of the people involved here, though I’d
really appreciate it if my name was not mentioned.”

To Diana’s relief, Marge stubbed out her
smoke and tossed the butt into a nearby receptacle. “I’ll do it,”
she said, “on the condition that you keep me in the loop if you get
any further information.”

“Thanks, Marge.” Diana squeezed the woman’s
arm, picked up her briefcase from the stone porch of the
courthouse, and then headed down the long flight of stairs that led
to the street.

Chapter 47

Diana smelled the perfume as she entered her
office suite. White Diamonds. Eleanor’s brand. Her eyes tripped
over the back of a woman sitting in one of the burgundy-upholstered
chairs in the waiting area, then latched onto Tamara’s helpless,
wide-eyed glance.

Eleanor was in mid-sentence before she
shifted at the sound of the outer door. Diana heard “…and then,
Maui. I’d hoped for Paris, but maybe…” Her mother turned in her
direction.

“Mother, what a surprise.” Understatement of
the day. No. Of the year. Diana was much too tired for
surprises.

Eleanor got up, did the hug-and-kiss-the-air
thing. Diana was too embarrassed to pull away in front of
Tamara.

“Diana, I have some news. Don’t look like
that. It’s good news.” Eleanor winked at Tamara. Apparently she’d
already been the recipient of the “good news.”

Diana shuddered at the thought.

“Can we go into your office, dear?” asked her
mother. “Later, there’s someone I want you to meet.”

Oh, jeez, I’ll bet it’s her psychiatrist.
She’s going to get him to fix me.

Eleanor marched ahead, toward Diana’s office,
like she knew where she was going.

Diana mouthed at Tamara, “She’s been in my
office?”

Tamara rolled her eyes and shrugged.

“Well?” said Diana, closing the door behind
them. She tried to paint a look of at least civility on her face.
The last thing she wanted was a family fight in front of her
secretary.

Then she noticed the expression on Eleanor’s
face: the nearest thing to joy she’d ever seen there. Eleanor waved
her left hand in Diana’s face. Her third finger bore the burden of
a huge diamond solitaire. If Diana knew carats, she’d have guessed
this was several. What sins was Daddy expiating with this gift, and
why did it put such a glint in her mother’s eye?

“I’m divorcing your father.” Eleanor spoke
the words with gusto.

Diana blinked, and noticed for the first time
that her mother’s wedding ring was gone. The big rock sat all by
itself on her mother’s perfectly-manicured hand─gloating, no doubt.
If a rock could gloat.

“You’re…excuse me, I thought you
said…divorcing Daddy?” She stumbled over the words, rocks in her
tired brain’s path.

Eleanor drew back dramatically. “I thought
you’d be pleased.”

“I…I’m speechless.” And that was no lie.
“What happened, Mother?”

“You did, Diana. Our last visit. Well, I’d
hardly call it a visit. But you really made me think.” Eleanor took
a deep breath. “I have options.”

Diana stood there nodding like a bobble head,
a stupid grin on her face. “Stock options?”

“No, of course not.” Eleanor looked lovingly
at the rock. “I’ve got Kenneth.”

“The boy-toy?”
Oops.

“Dear, he’s only five years younger.” Eleanor
whipped her wallet out of her alligator handbag and flipped it
open. “Here we are. See, he’s neither boy nor toy.”

Curiosity overcame Diana as she eagerly
grabbed her mother’s wallet and examined the picture. A
pleasant-looking man with a head of steel-gray hair stood with his
arm around her mother. He appeared about Eleanor’s height, a bit
thick through the middle─not as handsome as Daddy. But they both
looked happy.

“Well, Mom, looks like you lucked out after
all. And you actually look younger than he does.”
Jeez!
Were
these words actually coming out of her mouth?

“It wasn’t luck. I think it was fate.”
Eleanor smiled, a dreamy look in her eye. “He’s not as wealthy as
your father, but we can live comfortably.”

On whose money?

“On your settlement?” Diana blurted, the
cynic in her raising its ugly head. “I assume you got a good
one.”

Eleanor shook her head. “No,” she said in a
small voice. “I made up my mind, with Kenneth’s encouragement, of
course. Then I thought about what you’d do in my situation. How
you’d handle it. Then I told him…your daddy…to shove it. He didn’t
have a thing I wanted.”

“No, Mom,” Diana’s eyes bulged. “Not after
all those years you put up with him. You didn’t sign anything yet,
did you?”

“But I did.” Eleanor still didn’t look
worried.

“You were under duress,” countered Diana,
shifting into lawyer mode. “We can get it thrown out.”

“Diana,” Eleanor began slowly, as if speaking
to a backward child, “I do have assets of my own. Over the
years…well…I’ve accumulated a certain…amount of security.” Here she
paused and unfamiliar fire shot from her eyes. “Do you think I’m a
complete fool?”

My mom, the embezzler? Who more deserving
than Daddy?

Diana remembered Jess’s words: “None of us is
complete.”

She hugged her mother and listened as Eleanor
giggled like a school girl.

“We’ll be married as soon as the divorce is
final,” continued Eleanor. “We’re taking a little trip to Hawaii
now, to celebrate my freedom. I arranged this stopover in Denver,
so I could tell you. We want to take you to dinner tonight.”

Diana felt her last bit of energy flowing
away, bath water down the drain. “Mom, I’m happy for you. Honestly
I am. And I do want to meet Kenneth. But I’m so tired. Could it be
on your way back, instead?”

Eleanor looked disappointed. But only for a
moment. “We’ll make it a date. I’ll call you when we’re getting
ready to head back.”

“Good, Mom. It’s a good thing. I feel it.”
How tired she was really brought tears to her eyes, but Diana
batted them back. If Eleanor noticed them, she didn’t say anything.
They did the hug thing again.

And as Eleanor swept grandly from the office,
Diana noticed the absence of dead animals hanging from her mother’s
body.
She has on a cloth coat!

Diana heard voices through the office wall,
then the outer door closed. Wasn’t this what she’d hoped for
since…she couldn’t remember since when. There were so many things
she wanted to ask her mother, bitter chunks of gall that tainted
this evolving relationship. Could they really be a normal mother
and daughter? Could they shed the baggage of the past? Would she
shatter their new, fragile bond if she asked:
Why did you let
him make me do things I didn’t want to do?

Chapter 48

Lori threw her school books down on the
dining table and picked up the ringing phone without looking at the
caller ID. She went into major shock when she heard Shane’s voice.
“I saw your mom on the internet,” he said. He didn’t even ask how
she was. Or ask if she missed him. Or say he missed her.

She hadn’t spoken to him since that last day
at the cabin, when he went out to find them a place to stay. If he
really loved her, wouldn’t he have found a way to get in touch, at
least get a message to her? More than six months, and no word.
She’d seen his wife in Denver last month and the cow was pregnant
again. Some divorce.

She was about to slam down the receiver when
his voice snagged her like it always used to do. “Lori? You there?
Don’t─”

“What do you want?” She flattened her voice,
crushed all the feeling out of it.

Then his words echoed back at her: “I saw
your mom on the internet.”

“That’s not possible.” Again her finger
hovered over the
end
button. He finally calls, and it’s to
talk about her mom? Forget it. If her mom
was
out there
somewhere and didn’t call her own family? Double forget it. How
could he be so totally cruel as to make up a lie like that?

Lori pressed
end
and slammed down the
receiver. Then she grabbed it up again. But he was gone. A flood of
tears burst from her eyes as she clenched back audible sobs. No one
must hear. No one must know.

“Who was that on the phone, hon?”

Lori jumped, then wiped away at the wetness
on her face, hoping he hadn’t noticed. She hadn’t heard her dad
come in through the door from the garage. “Nobody. Just one of
those telemarketers.”

Her dad gave her a big hug. She hid her face
in his jacket so couldn’t see traces of her lie. He saw everything.
He even forgave her for not being raped. Now, on top of her other
mega-sins, she’d just lied to him, but Lori couldn’t get the words
out of her mouth. The name she’d loved now choked her and made her
want to vomit.

She’d been shopping with Trisha for baby
things in Denver when they both saw Shane’s wife in the store.
Trisha knew. Lori had never told her but it was apparent she knew
about her and Shane. “That could be you,” Trish had said. “Be glad
it’s not.” Lori got sick on the spot and had to run and find a rest
room.

Her dad let go her shoulders and gave her a
big smile. “How’s Fawn?” he asked as he crossed the room to where
the phone sat.

“She’s…great!” Lori tried to paint on a big
grin for Dad, but he saw right through her.

“Hon, telemarketers don’t make you cry.”

He headed straight for the phone without even
hanging up his jacket. She felt herself shrivel as she watched him
punch the caller ID arrow. She couldn’t actually see what he was
touching, but there wasn’t a doubt in her mind.

Though her dad had never laid an angry hand
on her, Lori began to tremble. As she watched him get whatever from
the phone screen before turning back to her, she felt like a pup
who’d just been caught peeing on the carpet.

“What did he want, hon?” Her dad’s voice was
calm, not like he was mad or anything. Even as she registered his
lack of emotion, it seemed…well…weird. Considering this was the guy
who’d done it to her. And he was married. Most likely her mom had
been right. Shane was not about to divorce his wife. If only she’d
followed her mom out the window, maybe…just maybe… She covered her
mouth with her hand and once more shoved back the scream that had
been trying to escape for six months.

“It’s okay, Lori. I’m not mad at you for
talking to him.”

She hung her head. “You should be.”

“No. He’s the one at fault. Just tell me what
he said. I promise I won’t bark at you.”

“I don’t know what he really wanted. I hung
up on him. Honestly, I did.” She looked into her dad’s eyes, this
time wanting the truth to register with him.

Together, they crossed the dining room and
went into the kitchen. Lori could see Keith coming through the back
yard gate. Soon she and her dad wouldn’t be able to talk about the
Shane thing.

“But what did he say he wanted? Was he trying
to see you again?”

Her dad was really strong. He made himself
sound calm so he wouldn’t frighten her. He must really want to
knock the crap out of Shane. But now wasn’t the time for him to end
up in jail…again.

Keith was almost at the back door. It was the
rule. He was too young to know about these things. “Shane said he
saw Mom on the internet,” she blurted, then saw her dad’s smile
curl up like a dry leaf, leaving only his bare face hanging out
with feelings popping out on it like pimples.