“I understand.” But she didn’t sound frightened enough for Mack’s liking.
“I’m going to go now,” he said, his eyes closing on his mother’s figure; so slight that she hardly made a bump in the bedspread. “I’ll call tomorrow. I love you so much, Mom.” He had just enough time to register the alarm that finally settled on Tilda’s face before the call ended.
Mack spoke before Hailey could: “Have you talked to your sister today?”
“Not yet. It’s only lunchtime in California.”
Of course. Mack felt a rush of relief: Lyndsey and family had gone to her in-laws an hour or so outside LA. They would be safe there—though did he really believe theyweren’tsafe at home in Dayton? Had Mack reached that point yet?
He saw Hailey begin to understand. “Why are you asking me about Lyndsey?”
“He threatened... the phone call mentioned my mom and your sister and—”
“And you didn’t think to tell me that? My sister’s safety didn’t seem worth mentioning? I can’t—”
“Call her,” Mack said without raising his voice. “Call her and ask her if she got a card from Sunshine Enterprises. Wait—how long have they been away?”
“I don’t remember.” Hailey pulled her phone from her pocket. Mack watched as she dialed and waited. Lyndsey didn’t pick up.
“Oh my god,” Hailey said. “How could you not—”
She stopped, and Mack turned to find Pam and Eddie in the doorway behind him. Pammy was holding her purse, and Eddie’s arms were piled high with their presents from Hailey and Mack.
“We’re going to go,” Eddie said. His tone gave Mack chills.
“What are you talking about? We haven’t eaten dinner.” But Hailey had to know what was coming; Mack certainly did.
“I didn’t think anything could make me more uncomfortable than the Thanksgiving Day I spent here in this house, but you’ve topped it, the both of you.” Eddie’s face was red with fury. “I’m sorry if we are keeping you from something more important than Christmas with your family. I don’t know what’s going on here, but we’ve had enough. Mabel, Gigi,” he called up the stairs. “Come kiss Grammie and Grandpa goodbye.”
Pammy nodded to the room, her eyes brimming with tears.
“Dad, please,” Hailey started in, and Mack was confident that she would be able to talk them into staying. Except it turned out that’s not what she wanted; she was pointing to a small silver case in the pile of stuff Eddie was holding. “Please can you leave that?”
“Not a snowball’s chance in hell,” Eddie told her, and Mack realized that this must be the gun.
“Please. It’s fine, we’re just a little edgy. We’d feel so much safer with—”
“No, Hailey,” her father said, and then he turned to Mack and dressed him down like a three-year-old: “First thing tomorrow, son, you call and get yourself a security system. Why you don’t have one in a neighborhood like this is completely beyond me.”
Eddie called out good night to the girls; he wasn’t in a mood to wait. Pammy squeezed Mack’s arm and gave Hailey the world’s briefest hug, which in Pammy Byers’s world was the equivalent, Mack knew, of slapping them both across the face.
He felt ashamed and exposed.
Especially the latter, without Eddie’s gun. Not that he had the damnedest idea of how to fire it.
44.
Hailey
Mabel and Gigi could not have cared less that there was no Christmas dinner. At about seven they sat down at the counter, gnawed unsuccessfully on a few bites of the overcooked roast beef, wolfed down some of the potatoes dauphinoise that Pammy had made earlier, and went back to the Play-Doh ice cream truck and the hideous pink-haired “Jiggly Pet” that had been the favorite presents. Hailey had already had about twenty Play-Doh ice cream cones and had found one smashed into Gigi’s bedroom carpet too—not that she had a single brain cell left with capacity to worry about bedroom carpet. She made no attempt to clean it up as she corralled the girls into bed.
Hailey and Mack stacked the dishes in the sink, and though Hailey knew they should keep looking for cameras—they had found four so far—she sank down onto the family room sofa. It felt like if she could just silence the steady buzz of fear in her head, she would know what to do.
Tomorrow had to be the police. With or without Mack. When you looked at it rationally, the decision was easy. She started with the relevant issue, which is what as a lawyer she had been trained to do, and the relevant issue here was that someone was threatening their family. That’s all there was to this, if you set aside Mack’s cashing of the checks, and Mack’s criminal activity. Giving in to blackmail did nothing but embolden the blackmailer; Hailey had seen this play out in dozens of marriages, and why should it be any different in their situation?
Mack sank down in the Eames chair opposite her. “I guess we’re not going anywhere tonight,” he said, as if he could read her mind. “We can’t very well leave the girls here alone.”
“No.” Hailey wondered if she should tell him to go ahead by himself, whether she could trust him to tell the whole story. Whether shewantedhim to tell the whole story. “We could call them, though, just to get this harassment on record. In case anything happens.”
