In Seconds

“Your sister?”

“Um, yeah.” She’d made up a fictional family who lived in Denver. She felt guilty every time Claire mentioned them: Have you talked to your parents? How are they doing? When’s your sister’s baby due?

The subject seemed to come up again and again. But she’d had to provide some history. Everyone came from somewhere. To be able to share her excitement over Peyton’s pregnancy, she’d created a sister named Macy who was recently married and expecting her first baby. She’d also made up parents who were retired schoolteachers and gone so far as to say her mother suffered from adult-onset diabetes, which was why Claire constantly asked after her health.

Was it time to tell her best friend the truth?

That was something she’d never dreamed she’d be able to do. Just considering it made her feel freer than she’d felt in four years. She could be honest again. Not only that, considering the danger, she had a moral obligation to be honest.

She just wasn’t sure how to go about breaking the news, or how Claire might react. Claire had shared her deepest, darkest secrets, had trusted Vivian completely. How would she respond when she heard that Vivian hadn’t been doing the same? That she’d pretended to be someone she wasn’t from the very beginning?

Claire would feel betrayed. Hurt. Vivian didn’t think she could cope with that right now, not in addition to the pressure and worry she was already experiencing. But she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if anything happened to Claire, and that meant she had to warn her.

“So you’re looking at some time off from the kids?” Claire waited on the porch steps. “How long will they be gone?”

“Possibly all summer.” That sounded like an eternity to Vivian but she had to accept that it could take a while to solve her problem. If she was lucky, the police would find Ink and put him back in prison before Ink ever found her, and Horse would be busted along with him. Maybe they’d take down several more Crew members, and all the ones who felt so strongly about exacting revenge would be locked up.

If she was lucky it could happen. But she’d quit counting on luck years ago…?.

Fearing The Crew might come careering around the corner at any moment and gun them both down, she beckoned Claire to the car. “Let’s go out to dinner.”

Claire didn’t move. “Right now?”

“Why not?”

“It’s only three o’clock.”

“I missed lunch.” She’d missed breakfast, too. Feeling as unsettled as she did, she couldn’t imagine stuffing food in her mouth, doubted she could keep anything down. It’d been too hard to say goodbye to her kids. But she had to get Claire out of here. “And…I have something to tell you.”

Obviously concerned by her ominous tone, Claire came to meet her. “What is it?”

“Can we talk at the Chowhound?”

She smoothed her blouse, then wiped her hands on her khaki capris. “I guess. If that’s what you want.”

“It’s what I want.” Vivian watched the street, guarding Claire until she climbed into the passenger seat. Then she got behind the wheel.

“What’s going on?” Claire was trying to work out how worried she should be, but Vivian couldn’t prepare her. She was too busy rehearsing her part of the conversation…?.

“You’ll see.”

“Is it bad?”

“Yes.”

She offered Vivian a weak smile. “Great. I love bad news.”

Vivian had already started the engine. With a quick check in the rearview mirror, she peeled out of the drive, and Claire grabbed for her seat belt. She’d been too preoccupied by Vivian’s references to impending disaster to put it on.

“Whoa! Be careful. You live next door to a cop, remember?”

How could she forget? She watched and waited for the sheriff all the time. She hadn’t realized what a habit it’d become until the past couple of days. With Rex around, she couldn’t gaze out the window or sit on the porch listening for Myles. Her fixation would be too noticeable, and that made it all the more apparent to her. “He’s at work.”

Claire seemed to understand that Vivian was gathering her thoughts. She studied her for a moment as if she could decipher the problem without words before attempting to move past her curiosity. “I bet Sheriff King’s been busy.”

“Very.” The comment was innocent enough, but Vivian’s mind immediately returned to the cabin where they’d made love. Claire would freak out if she knew. She’d been after Vivian for a long time to give the sheriff a chance. Like everyone else, she seemed to believe he could walk on water. If she wasn’t still struggling to get over David’s death of a few months earlier, Claire might’ve been interested in him herself.

“But you’ve talked to him, right?”

“Now and then.” She’d tell Claire that she was really Laurel Hodges, but she wasn’t going to mention her encounter with Myles King.

“Has he said anything about the murder?”

Now Claire was guessing at the bad news. “Not really.”

As they reached the highway, Vivian noticed a car she didn’t recognize turning down her street. She tensed —but there was an old woman in the driver’s seat. Definitely not a member of The Crew.

“You okay?” Claire asked.

“Fine.” Breathing easier the more distance she put between them and the house, she tried to calm down so she could handle the coming conversation as carefully as she needed to.

“So…the sheriff didn’t tell you anything about the murder?” Claire pressed.

“It has nothing to do with what happened to your mother, Claire.”

“You don’t know that,” she responded. “No one does.”

Apparently, hearing that Alana had been murdered by some deranged killer was better than continuing to live with the mystery of her disappearance.

It broke Vivian’s heart to see how deeply the past still affected the present. But she couldn’t blame Claire for being so determined and steadfast. From what Vivian had heard, Claire’s mother had been as devoted to her children as Ellen had been selfish.

“What does your stepfather have to say about it?” Vivian asked this as if she was merely making conversation, but she was more than a little curious.

“He thinks my mother’s disappearance might be related to Pat’s murder. I mean, he hasn’t ruled it out. Until we know who killed Pat, and if they ever had any connection to our family, no one can say.”

“Including your stepfather?”

“Right.”

If anything, Vivian thought Darryl O’Toole, Tug as he was called, might know more than he’d ever admitted. He’d been the last person to see his wife alive, and he’d certainly benefitted from her death. “Did he get that snow-removal contract he was hoping for?”

“He did.”

“Great.” Not that Tug needed the money. He’d inherited a couple of million dollars, thanks to his wife’s wealthy family. He’d bought a nursery and the bowling alley in Libby with the money, so he owned other businesses besides his snow removal company. But these days he was mostly retired and enjoying the good life, which included a luxurious home in the mountains with the woman he’d moved in with only six months after Alana went missing. “How’s Leanne?”

“Her business is growing. Have you seen her latest?”

Vivian hadn’t asked about her business. She’d asked about Leanne, but this answer was typical of Claire. Claire didn’t like to discuss her sister. From all outward appearances, they got along fine. But they were so different…?. “What’s she working on?”

Leanne made stained-glass windows and lamps and sold them to stores around Montana or on the internet. She did incredible work, had even been commissioned to do windows for several churches.