He’d already said a long and heart-wrenching goodbye to Cami and to Cyrus. There was no reason it would have been her, but still his heart had expressed how much he wanted it, regardless of the likelihood.
He waited as his mom parked and got out of the car, pausing as she glanced around. She whistled as she walked toward him. “Looks like a new property.”
She lowered her hand, and that’s when he saw the bruises. One eye was red and swollen, and her cheek was black and blue. He stepped forward. “What the hell happened?”
“At ease, soldier.” She turned and sat down on the higher step. “Despite appearances, I’m fine.”
“Who did that to you, Mom?” He sat down next to her, and now that she was closer, Rex could tell the bruises were about a week old, already turning yellowish green on the edges.
“You know who did it. Saul the Meatball.” She let out a vacant chuff and leaned back against the railing.
“I’m supposed to get on the road in half an hour. My truck’s all packed. Now I have to go kill someone?”
“Nah, no reason to waste the time. I left him. Been staying in the Motel Six at the edge of town.”
“You’ve been in a motel? Why didn’t you come here?” He felt offended. He really did. His mother had taken a beating by another one of her loser boyfriends and then gone to some cheap motel rather than come to him for help? To be fair, he’d had his hands full recently, but still.
“Because I needed to think.” She looked over at him, her uninjured eye crinkling as she gave him a smile that held some sadness. “I haven’t done enough of that. Figured there was no time like the present.”
He frowned. She was confusing him. There was something very different about her, and he couldn’t yet determine if it was good or bad. “Okay. Thinking can be good. Or it can get you in trouble.”
“This was the good kind. I think. No telling just yet.” She glanced over her shoulder at the porch—spotless and sporting a coat of fresh paint—and then back at him. “This place still available?”
“An offer came in this morning, and another one is supposed to be coming this afternoon. The real estate agent is going to call.” He’d be on the road, but there was nothing more to do from here. Handling the rest remotely would work just fine. “Full asking price,” he told her. “You’ll be able to rent a place and have some money in the bank.” She’d be okay, as she always was. But Rex was glad he was leaving her with a little nest egg—whether she chose to make it last or squander it was up to her.
She met his eyes. “Would you still be willing to entertain me moving in?”
“Here?”
“Yeah, here.”
“I thought you said you didn’t want to feel like the old man was watching you.”
“Yeah well ...” She sighed. “Maybe it’s time me and the old man made peace.”
He considered her, getting the first inkling that the difference he’d spotted in her seemed to be a modicum of that peace she’d just mentioned. And that was an interesting thing, considering she’d just had her ass kicked. His own fingers stretched, wanting to curl into fists at the thought of the jackass who’d done that to his mom. “The house is yours if you want it. I’d love that.” All the work he’d done, it made him even more glad now that he knew it’d been for her. He’d planned on giving her the money from the sale anyway, but picturing her here made him happy and felt surprisingly right.
She nodded and then picked at the hole at the knee of her jeans. “I watched the news. Not just the public execution of that Barclay woman. That was crazy enough. But I saw the story about what Cami Cortlandt went through too. I knew ... all those years ago, but I was focused on you and what they tried to blame you for. I felt bitter toward her.”
“She didn’t deserve that.”
She looked up at him. She’d obviously heard the defensive tone of his voice. Her eyes softened. “I know that now. Bitterness, it destroys, doesn’t it? That’s part of what I was thinking about in that musty motel room.”
Bitterness destroys.Yes, yes it did. Bitterness and blame. It’d destroyed Glory Jacobson and then by extension her daughter, even if by a different route.
Then it’d destroyed the Cortlandt family as well. So much destruction. He thought of Josephine Kiss, too, but thoughts of her only made him smile. She was going to be all right. She was going to be just fine.
As the investigation unfolded, more was coming to light every day. Posey had been able to give the authorities AJ’s given name, a petty thief with substance abuse issues named Andrew Jones. Anton Kiss had had him taken care of once he’d come up for air a few days after he’d escaped from the Cortlandt crime scene. He was just another loose end, and Anton Kiss couldn’t afford loose ends.
Posey, however, knew where the bodies were buried, both literally and figuratively.
Authorities were planning on exhuming Jones’s body in order to extract the DNA and compare it to that taken from Cami’s sister’s body. Rex had seen the deep pain in Cami’s eyes when she heard the news, but he’d also seen the relief, and the peace that closure brought.
The police were attempting to find something substantive that would connect Felicia Barclay to the Kiss family, and more specifically the kidnapping of Cyrus, but so far, none had been forthcoming. They had Posey’s declaration, and Cami had recounted her conversation with Seraphina, but so far, no hard evidence had been found. Proof, perhaps, that Seraphina had been accurate in her belief that the woman would never face justice, at least not in this world. And so, Seraphina had taken matters into her own hands.
They’d watched her being led away from the crime scene in handcuffs, a small, serene smile on her face. And if Rex had to guess, he’d say that she’d live the rest of her life behind bars. And he’d also say it was exactly what she’d planned. And likely what she’d determined she deserved.
Both Rex and his mom had been quiet for a moment, each distracted by their own thoughts. But now, Rex’s mother looked back at the house again. “I’m going to do everything in my power to get over the bitterness I’ve been toting along with me most of my life,” she said. “I don’t expect it to be easy.”
