“Even then, you didn’t do anything about it. You never asked me about it. Why?”
He raked his hand over his head, the dark brown strands mixed with threads of silver now. “Because I didn’t want to have to arrest my friend, someone who got me through the worst time in my life.”
Her heart clenched just thinking about Gayle, his wife, who died in a car accident. “He helped you move past your grief.”
“He was the only one who’d talk to me about Gayle. I warned him, more than once, to stop hurting you. I told him if he did it again, I’d have to do something about it.”
“But he didn’t heed your empty threat. Did he? No. He just got more clever about how he'd hurt me.”
“You always seemed fine.”
She seethed inside. “Yes. I suppose I would seem fine with a death threat looming over my head while the bruises and cuts were hidden beneath my clothes. I suppose that made it easy for you to bury your head in the sand and leave me to face a monster every day!” She tried to catch her breath after shouting there at the end.
“I didn’t know it was that bad!” His outburst didn’t sway her.
“You’re lying! Desiree knew everything in middle school, which means you knew, because she would have asked you for help.”
His face said it all. He knew. He just didn’t do anything about it. His reputation was on the line. People would ask, how could he miss the abuse when he saw her nearly every day? He knew the signs.
“If you considered me a daughter, didn’t I deserve better?” She fisted her hands at her sides, wanting so badly to lash out, even knowing it would only get her in trouble. He had too much power. His position protected him. Insulated him.
This conversation was futile.
Still, she needed to try to get the truth out of him.
His shoulders slumped again. “You do deserve better. But there’s nothing I can do now. They’re gone. You’ve moved on.”
“Moved on? Seriously? You think I’ve moved on. I’ve been stuck in a loop, just surviving each day, wondering when the next shoe is going to drop. And all this time, you knew I was still being taunted by someone, hurt, and Neil wasn’t the one behind it. He didn’t kill my family.”
“I don’t know any of that.” His face lied for him. He did know. He just didn’t want to admit it. Because if he admitted it to himself, he’d have to look at someone else as the killer. And he couldn’t bring himself to do that. Not yet.
But she’d make him see beyond a shadow of a doubt and he wouldn’t be able to hide it anymore. “Youdoknow it. You’ve spent your life working here. You’ve honed your cop instincts. But it’s more than that. For months leading up to my family’s death, I was being bombarded by pleas to turn my father in, to make you do your fucking job before he fucking killed me!” She tried to rein herself in. She could feel Hawk just outside the office, watching, waiting for any sign that she needed his help.
“Lucky...” Bob’s eyes pleaded with her to understand. To not go down this road.
“Don’t Lucky me, Bob. Desiree had to have asked for your help.You, who would do anything forher.”
“I told her to leave it alone. You’d graduate soon and leave for college. You just had to get to college.”
“And leave my brother withhim?”
“He was different with Danny.”
She shook her head. “You are so delusional.Ikept him from Danny. Most of the time, but not all of it.” And it killed her every time her father put his hands on her little brother. “You were right across the street. You had to hear the shouting, my screams. You had to see my pain. Youknew!”
“I had my own pain to deal with, along with Desiree’s and reining her in from doing something stupid and self-destructive. She was out of control. You know what she was like at that time.”
“I thought I did, but I didn’t know the half of it, because you’re a good dad. You take care of her. Always. Even when she gets into trouble. You smooth it over. You make it go away. Speeding tickets. Shoplifting. Bar fights. DUI’s.” She held his gaze. “Murder.”
“No.” He shook his head emphatically and waved his finger back and forth in her face. “No.” That finger stopped and pointed straight at her. “You don’t have any proof.”
“How about drugging someone? Because I was drugged before I remember seeing Neil in the bar.”
Bob dropped his hand and swallowed hard.
Well that was telling.
“She’s the only one who had the motive and proximity to do it. Does she hate me that much?”
