“Yes, but she’s stubborn, just like all of you kids.”
Xander smiled at the incredulity of his father’s statement. “You’re not including yourself in that group? The man who had a heart attack but refused to tell his kids because it was nothing? The man who’d rather sell off huge chunks of land than admit to his extremely wealthy children that he’d lost his medical insurance and needed some help with bills?”
Ken shrugged. “You all come by it honestly, I suppose.”
Xander shook his head and ate his soup. His father had no idea how much trouble he’d caused by selling that land. The unused back portion of the farm had served no purpose to him; it paid off his medical bills without causing a fuss. He couldn’t fathom why the kids were so upset. They were upset because they knew what was hidden in the far section of the property.
And now so did the whole town. They just didn’t know who it was. Over the months, the information had been slow to come and sparse when it did. Cornwall didn’t deal with many murder victims. So far the only information the police had released was that the remains had been buried for approximately fifteen to twenty years and that it was the body of a young adult male.
When they’d found out Ken had sold the land, Xander’s oldest brother, Wade, had come home to deal with the issue and buy back the land before anything could happen. Unfortunately, their parents had sold three plots and Wade had secured the wrong one. They hadn’t found that out until the body was found on another piece of the property.
Then the dead man’s sister had come to Cornwall looking for answers about her missing brother. Brody had sounded the alarm and dug up a mountain of information they could use against her if necessary. So far it hadn’t been needed. There was no information on her brother to find. Everyone had told her what they knew—Tommy had run away from his foster home a week before his eighteenth birthday and had never been seen again.
Now that Congress was out of session and the facial re-creation sketch could hit the news at any moment, it was Xander’s turn to deal with the potential fallout. An entire situation that could’ve been avoided if Ken hadn’t been so pigheaded.
Of course, if none of this had happened, Xander wouldn’t have known he had a son. Everything was a mess, but somehow he couldn’t regret that.
“What kept you out so late?” Ken asked. “Molly said you were going to that new Italian place, but they close at eleven. I heard your car roll in close to four this morning.” His bright blue eyes looked over his son, waiting for his explanation for the five-hour gap, as if he were seventeen and out past curfew again.
“I had to take my date to the hospital.”
Ken’s eyes widened in surprise, his cracker hovering halfway to his mouth. “Go that well, did it?”
“It wasn’t her,” Xander said with a smile. “Her son broke his arm and we had to meet him there.” Xander was surprised how hard it was for him to say “her son.” It hadn’t even been twenty-four hours since he uncovered the truth and yet Joey was already “his” in his own mind.
He wanted to tell Ken the truth, but it was too soon. He couldn’t tell Ken and not let him tell Molly. That would put him in a bad place with his wife. Molly was desperate for grandchildren. If she was the last one to find out that she had one—and he was ten—someone would get hurt. “You remember Rose, don’t you, Dad?”
“Your high school girl?”
“Yeah.”
Ken nodded. “Sure. I saw her at the diner a few weeks back. Is that who you went out to dinner with? Your mother didn’t know.”
“I didn’t tell her, but yes, I had dinner with Rose. I didn’t want Mom to read too much into it.”
“I forget that she has a son,” Ken added. “I’ve never even seen her with him, but they live a few towns over, I think.”
“He’s a cute kid. Broke his arm pretty bad on the trampoline.”
“That’s a shame,” Ken said, pushing aside his empty soup bowl. “That whole family has faced one stroke of bad luck after the other. First Billy’s wife got that awful cancer. Things were so hard for them after that. He nearly ran their auto shop into the ground, he was so lost without her. And then...well, it’s no wonder Billy got wrapped up in that bad stuff.”
Xander’s ears perked up. He knew his parents would know what was going on with Rose’s father. Molly knew everything that happened in this town, and whether Ken cared or not, Molly would tell him all about it. “Bad stuff?”
“I forget you guys miss out on everything going on around here. About five years ago, Billy got in with the wrong crowd. He was recruited to drive the getaway car while a couple of them robbed a bank.”