“Because it would take time to sell!” she cried. “The way everyone looked at your father, how could he bear to stay all these years?”
“Bran said Dad was too stubborn to go. He thought he’d look as if he was running away. So he just kept staring ’em down.”
Her voice got even smaller. “Have you seen him?”
“He’s dead, Mom.” It felt awkward to say, even if he didn’t know whether she’d care. “Lung cancer. Bran says he never quit smoking.”
“Of course he didn’t!” she snapped, sounding more like herself. But her tone became tentative when she asked, “Do you think if I flew up, Bran would be willing to see me?”
Taken aback he said, “I...have no idea.” Why did she even want to renew a relationship with the son she’d let go? Yeah, Bran had been a butt, but she could have put her foot down and said, “I’m your mother and you’ll spend vacations with me whether you like it or not.”
Of course, Dad could have said the same thing to Zach. Neither parent, he’d been long aware, had behaved like the adults they theoretically were. For each, the hurt of being rejected by a son must have been one too many blows. Zach had seen his brother as in league with his father and rejected them together. It was no surprise if Mom had felt the same way, or if Dad’s bitterness spread to include Zach.
What an unholy mess, he thought bleakly.
We shouldn’t have been asked to choose. We shouldn’t have been allowed to choose. Maybe he wouldn’t be as screwed up now if he hadn’t lost his father and brother.
“Will you ask him?” she begged.
He let out a breath, not seeing an alternative. “Yeah. When I see him again. I don’t know when that will be, Mom. Our...meeting didn’t end on a great note. We both remembered why we hadn’t seen each other in twenty-five years.”
That silenced her.
They ended up talking for a few more minutes, exchanging small news, the kind neither would remember five minutes from now, but it served as a decompression.
Only at the end did she say “Please” again, with the result that he reiterated a promise he knew he’d regret.
CHAPTER FIVE
THE STENCH WAS UNBELIEVABLE. Zach wasn’t two feet into the locker room at work when his eyes started to water. Jesus, it smelled like something—or somebody—had died in here and been left to decompose. No wonder the room was empty at an hour when deputies tended to hang out and trade jokes before taking on the stress of their day.
Oh, hell, he thought between one step and the next. Sure as shit, everyone else knew whose locker stunk and why.
His muscles tightened, making him battle ready even though it was a waste of adrenaline. He stopped in front of his locker, his stomach churning. He didn’t look forward to seeing what was in there.
Was anybody watching for the fun of seeing his reaction? Zach didn’t as much as turn his head. He wouldn’t give them the satisfaction. He sure as hell would be making a formal complaint, though. If Hayes and his asshole friends thought they could terrorize him with impunity, they were in for a surprise.
Making sure absolutely nothing showed on his face, he dialed his combination.
With a clang, he opened the door and gazed at the rotting obscenity lying on the bottom of the locker. It was...a rabbit. He thought. He refused to as much as gag, even at the sight of the maggots.
Instead he calmly closed the door, whirled the dial and walked directly to the patrol sergeant’s office, making no eye contact on the way. He’d be lucky if one of his molars didn’t crack.
At his knock Luis Perez called, “Come in.” The minute he saw Zach, he grimaced. “This have something to do with that god-awful stench?”
“Which everybody has just been ignoring? For how long?”
“I’m told it appeared this morning.” Perez sighed and pushed back from his desk. “We both know who this message came from, although he probably didn’t deliver it in person. But I suppose I’d better come take a look.”
“The smell is worse than the morgue during an autopsy,” Zach warned.
The middle-aged sergeant grunted. He didn’t pay any more attention to deputies who happened to be loitering than Zach did.