“Merde,” swore Liam. “This is a fucking campaign speech.”
Again, my mother said nothing, but asked Edward, “What will they do to her?”
“Short term?” Tearing his eyes from the TV, he gentled. “Keep her locked up. Jay is working on what comes next.” He pulled out his vibrating phone and studied the screen. To me, in an undertone, he said, “Good. Jay got her papers.”
That was something, at least. Federal agents would be all over the house by now. Our fear was that in tearing the place apart for every last bit of evidence to incriminate Grace, they would confiscate what she had on Carter. We were praying she kept them elsewhere. Apparently so.
“Quels papiers?”Liam asked.
“Liam,” Mom scolded. “Enough.”
“Where?” I asked Edward.
“Her safe deposit box at the bank. The Feds took her key ring, but the bank gives you two keys. She told Jay where to find the second.” When I raised a brow in question, he smiled. “Her spare set of house keys. Joyce had them.”
“Ah. Redemption,” I said but couldn’t muster a smile. The congressman had ended his news conference. A reporter took over and began recapping the case. Clips appeared of Grace being led in handcuffs from the Inn, into a cruiser, into the police station. They were followed by clips from the day we had gone to Rutland for Chris’s court appearance.
Not three weeks ago? How could that be? So much had happened, one domino falling, then another and another, each moving another step back in time. The past was the root of the rest of a life. I was coming to understand that.
“Is the coverage just because he’s a congressman?” Margaret asked.
“And because of the hacking charge,” Edward answered. “It makes for good drama.”
“Look atyouthere, Maggie!” Liam cried in excitement. When Margaret snapped out his name, his head turned, freckled face fell. “What?” he asked, seeming oblivious.
“This isn’t a game show. It’s a travesty of justice. That doesn’t call for glee on any level. Grace is Maggie’s friend. She’s a sweet woman.”
“How doyouknow?” he shot back.
Margaret was unruffled, even serene. “She came to see me this morning. It was a quick visit. She was between clients. I wish we could have talked longer. She needs someone.” Her eyes found mine. “When she left, she squeezed my hand and looked straight at me, and what I saw was raw and good.”
I hadn’t known. Grace hadn’t said, nor had Mom told me when we’d been in the car. For a time, at least, it had been just between them, which somehow gave it greater meaning. Touched, I pressed a hand to my chest, not sure if I would cry or seize up. Had my mother been looking at me, I would likely have done the former, tears being my go-to since the flood over the green velvet box.
But she was looking at the TV again, then back at Edward. “Will there be fallout for the Inn?”
He shrugged. “The computer hacking was worse.”
He was downplaying it, I knew. But the fact that he did it for my sake turned a little something inside me. Same with the sight of my mother and brother, staying with us, sounding for all the world like they were on our side rather than walking out in disgust. They were a blessing, so much so that I was suddenly overwhelmed.
Pulling my knees up, I closed my eyes against them.Breathe in, breathe out, repeat. In, out, repeat.
Edward’s hand came to rest ever so lightly on my head.It’ll be fine,that hand said, but I wasn’t so sure. The other shoe hadn’t yet fallen.
Keeping my eyes closed, I did my best to tune out the television. Those voices didn’t matter to me. The only ones that did were here in this room.
Liam’s voice came first. “Where do you think he’s taken Chris? Did he book a room here at the Inn?”
“Not under his own name,” replied Edward with a certainty that said he had checked.
Margaret spoke. “They’re at the Town Hall now, but it’s after seven. They have to eat somewhere. They have tosleepsomewhere.”
“He’ll get the hell out of Dodge,” said Liam.
“With his son in the middle of a court case?” Mom countered. “He can’t just pick up and leave the state, can he, Edward?”
I had been listening with my eyes closed, trying to best absorb the confidence in Edward’s hand. When that hand left me, I opened my eyes to see him clasp his hands at the top of his head. The motion made his shoulders look all the broader, though that certainly wasn’t why he had done it. This was his frustrated pose. He was watching the screen again.
“The rules change when a US congressman is involved,” he said.
