The Perfect Couple (Last Stand #4)(76)
Author: Brenda Novak

"I’m sorry," he said. "I hope someday you can forgive me."

Apparently, he didn’t expect her to do it now. Lowering his head, he turned and got into the cab. But before he could drive off, Zoe flagged down the driver, reached into her purse and gave Franky the picture of Sam she’d used to make the flyer.

"This is for me?"

"For you and your grandmother. I–" Zoe had to clear her throat twice to speak past the emotion that threatened to choke her. "I appreciate your sacrifice."

His mouth curved in a bittersweet smile as he looked at the picture.

"She’s beautiful, isn’t she?"

"I think so." She extended her hand, and he shook it. Then the taxi drove off.

Tiffany couldn’t sit still. Watching her mother-in-law agonize over Paddy’s disappearance was absolute torture. How could Colin tolerate it?

She had no idea, but he didn’t seem to be having any trouble. Sitting at the kitchen table, he’d polished off a big piece of cake and was currently scraping the last of the frosting from his plate.

"Where could he be?" Sheryl stood between them and directed this question at Colin, a question she’d already asked at least five times. It was a shock to see her, stoic even when her daughter was diagnosed with cancer a year ago, this upset.

"He’ll show up," Colin said.

Sheryl’s puffy face made her look like a caricature of her usual self.

With her hair dyed an unlikely shade of red and teased into a stiff globe, and makeup thick enough to be reminiscent of onetime TV personality Tammy Faye Baker, she wasn’t particularly attractive in the first place. But she was a fair person and tried hard to please those she loved. "How come you’re not worried?" she asked. "He’s never done anything like this before."

"To you." Colin’s fork clinked as he put it down and pushed his plate into the center of the table. "He left my mom all the time. Once he took off for three weeks and went to Vegas. I think he was planning to divorce her, but, in the end, he didn’t go through with it."

The pucker of Sheryl’s mouth grew more pronounced as she struggled to cope with the hurt. "But we weren’t having any problems. Why would he leave me?"

"Maybe he wasn’t as fulfilled as you thought." Stretching out, Colin crossed his legs at the ankles. "Maybe he wanted his freedom. Or he met someone else. That happens more often than anyone would like to believe."

"You think he ran off with another woman?"

Tiffany winced at the tremor in Sheryl’s voice. She wanted to interrupt, put a stop to Colin’s gibes, but didn’t dare.

"You said you found his car at the pool hall," he said.

"But the bartender told me he never came in last night."

"Exactly. Doesn’t that give you some idea of what happened?"

"What?" she said helplessly.

"He met someone there." He sniffed. But that sniff wasn’t due to tears.

It was all the coke he snorted. It caused sinus problems and sometimes a bloody nose. "I’m guessing it was a lady friend. They left his car and took hers."

"No, he loved me," Sheryl said with a sob, but Tiffany could tell she was tempted to believe the scenario, simply because there was no plausible explanation. People had affairs much more often than they went missing or got murdered.

"I’m not so sure," Colin went on. "I don’t mean to rub salt in the wound, but you sort of asked for it."

Sheryl’s eyebrows drew together as she wiped her eyes. "I did?"

"You can be a real nag, Sheryl. If you want him back, you’re going to have to work on that."

Covering her face, Sheryl broke into sobs, and Tiffany’s restraint snapped. She couldn’t take any more. Wasn’t what Colin had done bad enough? Sheryl would never see Paddy again, and she’d never know why.

Did Colin have to make the situation worse by giving her reason to blame herself?

Maybe Colin didn’t like his stepmom, but Tiffany did. Sheryl was a good wife, a good mom. "That’s not it," she said.

She’d spoken quietly, but the fact that she’d spoken at all drew their attention.

Sheryl lowered her hands. "What’d you say?"

Tiffany refused to meet Colin’s penetrating gaze. She knew he’d make her pay for contradicting him, but just then she hated him almost as much as she loved him. "Whatever happened, it’s not your fault."

The hope of obtaining some relief brought Sheryl over to the couch.

"You don’t think it could be another woman?"

"Absolutely not. Paddy loved you too much. He’d never leave you because no one else could give him more," she said with conviction.

Tiffany wasn’t good at demonstrating love to other females. She’d always been shy and awkward, probably because her mother had spurned every advance. But a moment later, her step mother-in-law had sunk down next to her and was crying on her shoulder–and it wasn’t stiff or uncomfortable. It felt perfectly natural because Tiffany shared Sheryl’s grief.

She wanted Paddy to come home, too; she didn’t want him to be dead.

When she looked up, she found Colin glaring at her, but she didn’t cower as she normally did. She was glad she’d intervened. If he wanted her to lure Zoe to the cabin, he could trade her a little kindness for Sheryl.

"But what else could it be?" Sheryl’s words were muffled because she’d spoken into Tiffany’s shoulder.

"Tiffany doesn’t know," Colin said. "She doesn’t know jackshit."

"And you do?" Tiffany wasn’t sure what had made her say it. She’d gone too far already. But the relief on Sheryl’s face when she pulled back made Tiffany’s small defiance worth it. "Some stranger must’ve tricked him into…into going somewhere with him," she ventured. "You know…out to jump a dead battery or…or over to some house to check out a gun for sale.

You know how much Paddy liked to hunt. The promise of a good gun would convince him to go anywhere. Then he was probably hurt and robbed."

Sheryl quickly agreed. "That’s possible."

Colin took his own plate to the sink for a change. "Maybe that person was Glen," he said. "Has anyone checked to see where he was last night?"

The mere suggestion that Sheryl’s son might’ve hurt her husband made Sheryl blanch. "Glen would never hurt Paddy. He wouldn’t hurt anyone."

"Glen hated Paddy," Colin said. "And you know what his temper is like."

"No. Glen didn’t do anything. Paddy will come back. He’s probably lying injured somewhere, dazed. Someone will find him and help him come home."

"Right," Colin said. "Well, call us the minute he walks through the door. I have some work to catch up on before I go to the office in the morning."