Unintended Consequences - By Marti Green Page 0,27

promise we won’t take up much of your time. How’ve you folks been doing? It’s been a while since we last talked.”

Janine stood impassively at the front door, in contrast with Mickey, who rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet. “We’re good, good. Right, Janine?” Mickey said, the words tumbling quickly from his mouth, as he eyed Tommy.

“Would it be all right if we came in for a bit?” Cannon asked.

“Sure, of course, pardon my manners, Hank. It’s just that we weren’t expecting you,” Janine said and stepped aside for the two men to enter her home.

“Please, make yourself comfortable,” Janine continued as she motioned toward the couch. “Can I get you something to drink? There’s a fresh pot of coffee made.”

“Love some, Janine. Thanks. The usual way,” Cannon said.

Tommy shook his head. “None for me.”

As Janine left the living room, Tommy turned to Mickey. “Detective Cannon has told me about your daughter’s disappearance. My sympathies to you and your wife.”

Mickey nodded silently.

“Would you mind showing me the room she was taken from?

“What business is it of yours?” Mickey asked.

“Sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself. I represent a man who’s about to get the needle for murdering his daughter. When the body was discovered, there’d been some thought it might have been Stacy, and you were brought in for a possible ID. You’d said it wasn’t her. I’m just doubling back to make sure that’s the case.”

Tommy saw Mickey’s back stiffen. “Don’t you think I’d know my own daughter?”

“I think that any father would want to believe it wasn’t his daughter who’d been murdered and set on fire,” Tommy said, his voice soft. “And I think the mind can trick us into seeing what we want to see.”

“I know what I saw. I know it wasn’t Stacy.”

“What do you want from us?” Janine stood in the doorway, a cup of coffee in each hand. “Haven’t we been through enough?”

“I don’t want to cause you any suffering, Mrs. Conklin. I just thought maybe something remained in Stacy’s room that had a strand of her hair. That way we could know for sure that it wasn’t her.”

A gurgled sob came from Janine’s throat as she turned and retreated into the kitchen.

Mickey stood up. “Look, there’s nothing left in Stacy’s room. It’s our office now. We threw away anything of hers years ago. I think you’d better leave now.”

Tommy and Cannon stood and walked to the front door. “I know this is unpleasant. But if it is Stacy, wouldn’t you want her killer found? Wouldn’t you want him put away?”

“No,” Mickey said. “I just want our nightmare to be over.”

CHAPTER

10

It had been three days since Dani flew to Indiana and she already missed home. How could Jonah possibly handle being away from his family for four weeks when she’d been away from him and Doug only a few days and even now felt the tugging of an addict going through withdrawal? She forgot about the teenage urge for independence that she’d felt herself when she became a mother, the one left at home to worry about the dangers lurking in the shadows. As a child, she’d thought she was indestructible. No harm could befall her, no illness could overtake her, no risk was too great. How sad that everyone learned, as they grew up, that they were as vulnerable as the neighbor hit by a car or the grandparent who succumbed to a lingering illness or the friend’s parent who underwent chemotherapy for breast cancer and then died anyway. There were times when she longed for that dreamy ignorance, that certitude that she would live forever, that nothing could sabotage her happiness. No wonder she wished to protect Jonah from growing up too fast and learning that nothing was certain. A chance happening, be it illness, accident, a careless decision, or an extra chromosome, could change one’s life forever.

Despite her longing for home, Dani felt tingly with excitement—today they’d sit down with George Calhoun for the first time. She didn’t know what to expect. There was nothing ambiguous in Bob Wilson’s assessment of George. Yet something was missing, something unexplained that only George could answer. Whether he would provide the answer was still unknown.

She met Melanie and Tommy for breakfast in the hotel lobby. Again she poured herself a cup of coffee, picked out a plump blueberry muffin, and settled into the plastic chair at a table in the corner.

Dani finished describing her conversation with Bob Wilson and then turned