Winter's Child

“Everybody’s real sorry about your mother, son.”

Cal concentrated on his shoelaces.

“Jimmy’s gonna skip school today and Miss Sandy wants you stay with them this morning.”

Cal raised stricken eyes to his father. “Dad?”

“I’m sorry, buddy, but there are things I need to see to.”

“Okay,” he said in a small voice, but then he looked at me.

Hoping that I wasn’t misinterpreting that look, I said,

“That’s awfully kind of Sandy, but I thought maybe Cal could help me this morning. We need to figure out what to take back to North Carolina with us tomorrow. Is that all right with you, Cal?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said gratefully.

C H A P T E R

33

Perhaps my name, too, will be joined to theirs.

—Ovid

The grocery store was open as Cal and I drove down the hill, so we turned in and I picked up some empty cardboard boxes and a roll of strapping tape.

“Could we go and get Bandit now, too?” he asked.

“Good idea,” I said. “He’ll be really happy to see you.

Did your dad tell you how he was the one who found us last night? That was pretty amazing.”

“He’s the smartest dog I ever knew,” Cal said complacently.

Our stop at the Radcliff house was brief. Sandy was just back from dropping Jimmy off at school and she was deliberately matter-of-fact when she spoke with Cal about how well-behaved Bandit had been. When we were leaving, though, there were tears in her eyes as she hugged him.

With the dog in the car as our buffer, it was easier to talk to each other, and once we were at the house, it became easier still.

Cal already had a room of his own at the farm and he had stayed on after the wedding to spend Christmas with us, so he knew what was there and what he wanted to take with him. By the time Dwight arrived around noon, we had filled several boxes with his books and toys and most of his clothes. We left out his Sunday suit and the leather shoes that were almost too tight. “Mother said we could probably get one more month out of them,” he said, “but I don’t know about that.”

I made sandwiches for lunch, then while they went to the funeral home, I cleaned out the refrigerator and started a load of laundry.

It was nearly two hours before they returned and Cal’s freckled face was so pinched and drained that he didn’t argue when I suggested he take a book and go lie down with Bandit for a while.

Once we were alone, Dwight told me that it had been a little rough. “He cried when he touched her face and he told her he was sorry she got killed, but I think he’s handling it pretty good, overall.”

“It was awful that Pam took him and scared the hell out of him and us, too, but in a weird way, going in and out of sleep for two days might have had one benefit,” I said. “Don’t you think it might have given his subcon-scious time to get used to the idea in a less traumatic way than if he’d been awake and scared the whole time?”

“Maybe. We stopped back by Mrs. Shay’s so she could see for herself that he’s all right.”

“How’s she doing?”

He shrugged. “It’s still all about her. She can’t deal 30 with Pam, but she wanted me to know that the family portraits and most of the antiques here in the house were just loans to Jonna, and she wants them back. Thank God for Eleanor. She got there as we were leaving. Said for us not to worry about anything. She and her daughters will come over and take care of things over the next few months, dispose of the clothes and empty out the refrigerator and cupboards. There’s no furniture here we want, is there?”

I shook my head. “You might want to sign an informal note that will allow Eleanor to act as your limited agent for now, then you and Cal can come back in the spring after he’s settled at the farm. If it turns out that there’s something he’s really attached to, we’ll find space for it down there. There are photo albums in Jonna’s room that will mean a lot to him someday, so we should take those with us tomorrow.”

He went up to check on Cal and came back to report that he was sound asleep.

“Any news about Benton?”

Dwight yawned and said, “He’s got an attorney that’s going to try to get him a first appearance today or tomorrow in the hopes of getting out on bail. Unless the guns and jewelry are found before he gets out, though, we can kiss a murder conviction good-bye. He’ll deep-six any incriminating stuff as soon as he has a chance.”

He yawned again and I said, “Why don’t you lie down a while, too? You can’t have slept much last night.”

“What about you?”

“I had the cot, remember? Besides I thought I’d go over and pick up my phone unless you brought it back?”

“Sorry, shug. Didn’t know it was there.” He yawned a third time and gave me a sheepish grin. “Well, maybe I will stretch out a few minutes till Cal wakes up.”

The Morrow house was still swarming with police when I got there, and according to Agent Lewes, there were