Cold feet(19)
Author: Brenda Novak

"Do you have any other siblings?"

"Just the two brothers."

"They’re both weird," Brianna volunteered, wrinkling her nose. "And Johnny stinks."

Embarrassed by Brianna’s behavior, Madison grappled for patience. "Brianna, that’s not polite. You’re talking about your own uncles. And Johnny smells like smoke. That doesn’t mean he stinks."

"He stinks to Elizabeth. And he stinks to Dad," she said smugly. "Dad says it’s a wonder Johnny hasn’t–"

"Let’s not go into what your father has to say," Madison interrupted, knowing it wouldn’t be nice. She added a pancake and a piece of bacon to Brianna’s plate, and set the food in front of her in hopes she’d soon be too busy eating to speak.

But Brianna only stared at her food. "He doesn’t like you, either," her daughter responded sullenly. "He said you couldn’t see what was right in front of your eyes. He told Leslie that no-good son of a bitch father of yours nearly ruined his life."

Madison’s jaw dropped. Brianna’s words were obviously a direct quote, but that didn’t make it any easier to hear them. "Brianna, you know better than to use that kind of language!"

"Dad says it," she said smugly.

"That doesn’t make it right. Why don’t you go to your room and see if you can remember what we talked about the last time you used a bad word."

Brianna spared her an angry glance before heading out of the kitchen, carrying Elizabeth smashed beneath one arm. She walked with her spine ramrod straight and her head held high, but it wasn’t long before Madison heard sniffles coming from the direction of her bedroom.

Torn between going to her daughter and trying to remain firm, Madison closed her eyes and shook her head. "I’m sorry, Mr. Tro–"

"It’s Caleb, remember?" he said gently.

"Caleb, I’m sorry. I’m afraid we’re dealing with some…issues here. If you’d rather, I could bring your meals over to your place in the future."

"No, that’s okay. Brianna doesn’t bother me. I’m sure she’s a great kid."

A lump swelled in Madison’s throat. "She is a great kid. She’s just a little out of her element right now. Her father remarried this past year, almost the day our divorce was final, which hasn’t helped. The woman who’s now her stepmother was already pregnant."

"That’s a lot for a child to deal with."

Madison got another plate from the cupboard. "I’m afraid she’s blaming me for all the changes, but I don’t want to be too hard on her."

"A bright girl like Brianna will figure things out."

Madison scooped two eggs onto his plate. "I hope so."

"Here." Standing, he crossed the distance between them and guided her to Brianna’s seat. "Why don’t you sit down and relax a minute? I can get my own food."

Madison would have argued, but she’d been taking care of her mother and Brianna–and Danny before that–for so long, it felt good to let someone else take charge.

Using the fork Brianna had been so fixated on twirling, she began picking at the food she’d dished up for her daughter.

Caleb set a cup of coffee near her plate. "Sounds as though your ex-husband doesn’t like your father much." Gathering his own plate, now heaped with food, he took his seat.

She put her fork aside and added some cream to her coffee. "My father’s dead."

"I’m sorry to hear that." Caleb paused, his own coffee in hand. "When did he pass away?"

For her, Ellis had died just recently–the day she’d found that box. Somehow, letting go of the man she’d believed him to be felt worse than living without his physical presence. "It’s been a year or so."

He took a sip. "That’s too bad. How old was he?"

"Fifty-eight."

"Fifty-eight’s pretty young. Did he have a heart attack?"

Normally Madison didn’t like talking about her father. But Caleb was a complete stranger, which meant he had no stake in the situation. That seemed to make a difference. "He shot himself in our backyard."

His eyebrows drew together, and his gaze briefly touched her face. "That must have been terrible for you."

"It was." She remembered Johnny calling her the day it had happened. She’d felt shock and grief, of course, but also an incendiary anger. She’d believed the police and the media had finally badgered Ellis to the point where he could tolerate no more. She’d stood in the middle of the mall, her cell phone pressed tightly to her ear, her legs shaky as Johnny told her what he’d found. And once she’d hung up she had to break the news to her mother.

"Was he going through some type of depression?" Caleb asked. His attention was on his food, but the tone of his voice invited her confidence.

Madison wondered if telling him a little might bring her some solace. "My father was Ellis Purcell," she said.

Caleb set his coffee cup down with a clink. "Not the Ellis Purcell who was implicated in the killings over by the university."

"I’m afraid that’s the one." Her father had been on the national news and in the papers so many times, it would’ve been much more surprising if Caleb hadn’t recognized his name, but it was still a little disconcerting to have him clue in so fast.

Caleb didn’t say anything for a moment, and Madison immediately regretted being so forthright. "I shouldn’t have told you," she said.

There was a hesitancy in his expression that gave her the impression he agreed with her. But his words seemed to contradict that. "Why not?" he asked, stirring more sugar into his coffee before taking another sip.

She couldn’t see his expression behind his cup. "Because I’ve spent years trying to escape the taint of it."

He put his coffee back on the table and finally looked at her. "I’m sorry," he said, the tone of his voice compassionate.

The ache that had begun deep inside her at the outset of the conversation seemed to intensify. She wanted to hang on to someone, to break away from her troubled past and be like other people. But it was impossible. Her father, or whoever had left those sickening souvenirs under the house, had seen to that. "That’s what my ex-husband was referring to when he said what he did in front of Brianna," she explained.

"I see." Caleb cleared his throat. "How old were you when the first woman went missing?"

"Fifteen. I remember my mother talking about it one night. But it was just another story on the news to me then." She chuckled humorlessly. "Little did I know how much it would affect me later…."

He started eating his pancakes. "What was your father’s reaction to the news?"