Cold feet(61)
Author: Brenda Novak

Caleb again, no doubt. With Johnny already here, it was too late to be anyone else. Except maybe Tye…

Madison wanted whoever it was to go away so she could sink into the oblivion that finally hovered so close. She needed to sleep, forget and wake with renewed perspective and resolve. But the bell rang again, accompanied by a loud knock, and she began to wonder if, by some chance, Danny had decided to bring Brianna home early.

"Johnny? Can you answer the door?" she called.

No reply. Just more snoring.

"Johnny?" Madison feared she was slurring her words. It required real effort to lift her eyelids, but picturing Brianna out in the cold got her up and moving.

She managed to find her robe. She had trouble shoving her arms into the sleeves and couldn’t tie the belt, but she didn’t care.

Another knock. Only now did Madison realize that whoever stood at her door was actually giving it more of a light rap than a pounding. If not for being a mother, she probably wouldn’t have heard it at all.

"Just a minute!" she called, and stumbled down the hall.

"Madison? It’s me." It was a female voice, a voice Madison recognized.

Sharon? Quickly unfastening the latch, Madison opened the door and drew her sister-in-law inside. Then she poked her head out to see if Tye’s wife was alone or if she’d brought the kids.

Madison couldn’t see so much as a car in the drive–and she was fairly certain the sleeping pills had nothing to do with that.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"I’m fine," Sharon replied, but it was misty and cold, and she wasn’t wearing a coat. She hugged herself, rubbing her arms, as she trailed Madison into the kitchen.

Madison gave her a curious glance. "How did you get here?"

"I drove. My car’s parked around the corner."

"Why’d you park it there?"

Sharon didn’t answer, but the adrenaline boost of finding Tye’s wife at the door helped counteract the sleeping pills. Madison smoothed down her hair, righted her robe and offered to make some tea.

Sharon accepted with a nod, and Madison put on the water.

"You’re probably wondering what I’m doing here," she said when Madison didn’t speak right away.

"I’m guessing you want to talk about Tye, but let’s get you warm before we do that–or anything else." She went to the living room to retrieve the lap blanket, which she brought to the kitchen and draped over Sharon’s shoulders. "Can I make you something to eat?"

Sharon gazed longingly at the refrigerator. "No, I’m not staying more than–"

"It’ll only take a second."

"Okay," she said, and pulled the blanket more tightly around her. "I’d like that."

Madison collected the mayonnaise, mustard, lettuce, tomato, sliced meat and Swiss cheese from the refrigerator and set about making a sandwich. "What happened?" Sharon asked, eyeing the black plastic covering the window.

Madison followed her gaze. "Oh, that. We…had a little accident earlier." She turned her attention back to what she was doing. "Where are the kids?"

"They’re–" Sharon dug at her cuticles, her expression furtive "–somewhere safe."

"Safe?" Madison glanced over her shoulder. "Why wouldn’t they be safe here?"

Sharon’s eyes met hers, but they looked haunted, worried. "I…I overheard something, Madison. Something that has me really scared."

Madison’s pulse kicked up a notch. "Of what?" She finished making the sandwich, set it on a plate and put tea bags in two mugs of hot water. After carrying it all to the table, she pulled her chair close.

"Of Tye. And Johnny."

Madison peered down the hall to make sure it was empty. "Why?"

Sharon stared miserably at her food. "You know Tye’s always had problems–a…a temper. When he gets angry, he sometimes says or does things he doesn’t mean. It stems from what happened to him when he was a kid. I’ve tried to be understanding about that. But last week, he…he just went too far."

Madison wished she’d never taken those sleeping pills. She was feeling more alert than she had a few minutes earlier, but her senses still seemed slightly dull. "In what way?"

Her sister-in-law took a bite of her sandwich. "The police came by several days ago," she said when she’d swallowed. "I heard them at the door, talking to Tye."

"What did they want?"

"To know if he’d seen Johnny."

Madison considered telling Sharon that Johnny was sleeping in Brianna’s bedroom, but she was afraid the news might make her sister-in-law hurry away before she had a chance to say what she’d come to say. And Madison was hoping she’d be able to help her. This was the first time Tye’s wife had ever reached out to her. "What did he tell them?"

"That he hadn’t." She put the sandwich down. "But he had, Madison. Johnny came by the house several times. He even stopped in the day he got out of jail."

Madison remembered her conversation with Tye that Saturday morning when she’d cooked for Caleb. I can’t believe Johnny’s out. When did they release him? He’d lied to her, too.

"Why would Tye feel he needs to lie about whether or not he’s seen Johnny?" she asked.

"I think it’s because Johnny had something to do with that woman who was murdered. What else could it be?"

Madison twisted to glance down the hall again. "Johnny wouldn’t hurt anyone," she said, lowering her voice. But she was remembering another conversation in which she’d told Caleb her father wouldn’t have killed himself unless he’d found that box and thought Tye had murdered those women. What if it had actually been Johnny?

"You don’t understand," Sharon said. "I heard them talking, just a few days after Johnny got out of prison. Tye was saying, ‘Why’d you do it, man? That’s stupid.’ And Johnny said that something inside him just snapped. When I came in the room, they exchanged a look and shut up, and later Tye wouldn’t tell me what they’d been talking about." She twisted her long, sandy-colored hair into a knot and pulled it over one shoulder. "But I knew whatever they were talking about wasn’t good. Tye gave Johnny a pile of cash, told him to buy a car and get out of town."

Madison felt a shiver go down her spine. Johnny had been desperate for a mere twenty bucks when he first came to her place, which meant the money Tye had given him had already gone up his nose. Drugs made a person do crazy things. Could Sharon’s story be true? "Is that why you left Tye?" she asked.

"No." Sharon stared at her food. "After the police talked to Tye, they wanted to talk to me."