ChapterThirteen
Elsa drove home bleary-eyed and parked in the front driveway of the Remington House, gasping for air. When she blinked into the passenger seat, she was surprised to find a collection of brown paper bags from the grocery store.Had she stopped by on the way home?She had vague memories of wandering up and down the aisles, swimming in her sorrows and selecting various grocery items. Bags of salty snacks? Brownies? A big bottle of wine? Obviously, her psyche had craved comfort food, and it had taken her all the way there without her realizing, even producing her debit card for the transaction.
Elsa dropped the brown paper bags in the kitchen, where Nancy and Janine sat, cupping mugs of tea. Elsa began to explain what she knew, but Janine stopped her and said that Mallory had spent the past hour or so weeping to both of them until exhaustion had overwhelmed her.
“Where is she?” Elsa whispered.
“She took Zachery out to the beach,” Janine replied, nodding toward the broad window.
Sure enough, there they sat across the dunes, carving out little sandcastles from Zachery’s bright orange and green buckets. Zach wore his blue beach hat and his blue swim trunks, and he hobbled around and fell back just as easily, like a roly-poly child.
“I’ll bring them some snacks.” Elsa hurried to create a little lunch pail of chips, pretzels, and brownies, the bandages for all emotional pains.
Before she stepped onto the back porch, Nancy lifted her head to ask, “Did they bring Brodie in for questioning?”
“They did,” Elsa said, careful not to make eye contact as she felt she might burst into tears. “They couldn’t get anything out of him.”
“That’s such a surprise, isn’t it?” Janine asked. “I mean, Mallory found the ring, plain and simple. It doesn’t make sense that he wouldn’t just confess.”
“Yeah, well. Bruce is at the station, explaining his rights,” Elsa said, unable to keep her annoyance from her voice.
Janine and Nancy exchanged worried glances. After a long moment of silence, Janine finally added, “Bruce loves the legal process. He knows it backward and forward. He probably just wants to fulfill his obligation to people like Brodie. People who come from the other side of the tracks are bound to end up in situations like this. You know?”
“I don’t think you should demonize Bruce for doing this,” Nancy breathed. “If anything, it’s proof that he has a very good heart.”
“That’s not to say we don’t understand your annoyance,” Janine spoke quickly, almost interrupting her mother. As her cheeks turned pink, she whispered, “I can’t imagine what you feel about any of this, Elsa. I didn’t grow up in this house. My memories here come from the past year, no more.”
“But you understand what it’s like to have your world turned upside down,” Elsa countered, remembering the countless tabloid magazines, all with Janine’s face plastered across them: BILLIONAIRE JACK POTTER’S AFFAIR WITH WIFE’S BEST FRIEND.
Elsa pressed herself through the Atlantic winds, headed for her daughter and grandson. Before she reached them, Zachery lifted onto his wobbly knees and squealed, “Gramma!” Mallory turned to greet her with a blotchy face and slumped shoulders.
Elsa dropped to her knees and extended her arms, wrapping her daughter into herself like a burrito. Mallory shivered as Zachery padded around on the sand in front of them.
“Gosh, that took forever.”
Elsa nodded, her chin dropping against Mallory’s shoulder. “They brought Brodie in for questioning.”
“Did you see him?” Mallory hung back, her eyes in slits.
“No.” Elsa swallowed against the tightness of her throat. “But he wouldn’t talk. Wouldn’t give them anything to go on, even after an hour of questioning.”
“What?” Mallory’s eyes widened. “The ring is such obvious evidence. He’s cornered. Why wouldn’t he just confess?”
“I don’t understand the mind of a criminal,” Elsa continued. “As much as I’d like to.”
Zachery smashed his hands into the sand and lifted big chunks of it, his hands headed for his mouth. Mallory lunged for him and said, “Zach! Honey! I told you. We don’t eat the sand.”
Zachery’s face scrunched and turned tomato-red. All he wanted in the world was to eat sand. It seemed so unfair.
Elsa rummaged through the lunch pail to show Mallory and Zachery the little snacks she’d brought. With a pretzel stick in his recently scrubbed hands, Zach screeched happily, sand forgotten. Mallory laughed, a gorgeous, singsong laugh.
“I wish I could forget about things so easily,” she said. “I wish I could delete Brodie from my mind.”
Elsa wanted to say something about boyfriends and “other fish in the sea,” but this current experience was so utterly different than anything else. She didn’t want to belittle it.
“I just feel really stupid,” Mallory continued. “I feel like his prey. Like he was playing with me before he ate me alive.”
Elsa shook her head. “People can be so tricky, Mallory. Whoever this guy is, he was probably groomed to be like this by his family. The cops said that the Thomkins family isn’t exactly the most trustworthy on the island.”