Kiss of the Bees

had felt as though he was forever relegated to second place, first behind Diana’s typewriter, and then behind Brandon Walker and Lani and a succession of ever smaller computers.

With that foundation, it wasn’t at all surprising that Davy regarded his mother’s increasing success in the world of writing with a certain ambivalence. When it came to Shadow of Death, however, ambivalence turned to active abhorrence. He resented the idea that his mother would have anything at all to do with Andrew Carlisle—with the monster who had single-handedly brought so much destruction on the Ladd family. Andrew Carlisle was the single individual who bore ultimate responsibility for the death and subsequent disgrace of David Ladd’s father, Garrison. Once released from prison, Carlisle had come back to Tucson. In a binge of vengeance, he had brutalized and raped David’s mother while Davy himself remained imprisoned and helpless behind a locked root-cellar door.

Whatever innocuous words Diana Ladd Walker may have used to tell her side of that story, the one thing they couldn’t absolve Davy of was the fact that he hadn’t helped her. After all, what kind of a son wouldn’t save his mother? Whenever David Ladd thought of those long-ago events, it was always with an abiding sense of shame and failure. He had let his mother down, had somehow forsaken her, leaving her defenseless in her hour of need. What could be more shameful than that?

For years Davy had fantasized about that day. In those imagined scenarios, he always emerged from the cellar and did battle with the evil Ohb. In those daydreams, Davy Ladd always fought Andrew Carlisle and won.

In writing Shadow of Death, Davy doubted his mother had taken his feelings on the subject into account. By reporting what happened in a factual manner—and Diana was always factual—she had no doubt held up Davy’s glaring inadequacy for all the world to see. Everyone who read the book—even Candace— would know about David Garrison Ladd’s terrible failure in the face of that awful crisis.

“I haven’t read it,” he said after a long interval.

Candace looked shocked. “You haven’t? Why not?”

David Ladd thought about that for a minute more before he answered, fearing that just talking about it might be enough to bring on another panic attack and send his heart racing out of control.

“I guess you had to be there,” he said finally. “Maybe my mother doesn’t mind reliving that day, but I do. I don’t ever want to be that scared or that powerless again.”

“But you were just a child when it happened, weren’t you?” Candace objected.

David nodded. “Six, going on seven,” he said.

“See there?” Candace continued. “You’re lucky. Most kids never have a chance to see their parents doing something heroic.”

“Heroic!” David echoed. “Are you serious? Stupid, maybe, but not heroic. She could have had help if she’d wanted to. Brandon Walker wasn’t my stepfather then, but I’m sure he offered to help her, and I’m equally sure she turned him down. The other thing she could have done was pack up and go someplace else until the cops had the guy back under lock and key.”

“Still,” Candace returned, “she did fight him, and she won. He didn’t get away with it; he went to prison. So don’t call your mother stupid, at least not to me. I think she was very brave, not only back then—when it happened—but also now, for talking about it after all these years and bringing it all out in the open.”

David didn’t want to quarrel with Candace, not in this elegant dining room populated by fashionably dressed guests and dignified waiters. “I guess we’re all entitled to our opinions,” he waffled. “You can call her brave if you want to. I still say she was stubborn.”

Candace grinned. “So you could say that you come by that honestly.”

David nodded. “I guess,” he said.

They lingered over dinner for the better part of two hours, savoring every morsel. Then they went back up to their room and made love. Afterward, Candace fell asleep while Davy lay awake, waiting to see if the dream would come again, and worrying about what he would do if that happened.

How the hell could he be engaged and about to elope, for God’s sake? He liked Candace well enough, but not that much. No way was he in love, and yet her suitcases were all packed and waiting by the door. And her father’s bribe—her father’s astonishingly generous twenty-five-thousand-dollar bribe!—was safely stashed in the side pocket of Candace Waverly’s purse.

Davy rolled over on his side. Candace stirred beside him, sighed contentedly in her sleep, and cuddled even closer. The soft curls on her head tickled his nose and made him sneeze.

All his life David Ladd had pondered the mystery of his parents’ relationship. He had never met his father. Everything he had heard about Garrison Ladd from his mother had been steeped in the dregs of Diana’s disillusion and hurt. As a teenager, David had often asked himself if it was possible that his parents had ever loved one another. If not, if they had never been in love, why had they gotten married in the first place? What had caused them to disregard their basic differences in favor of holy matrimony?

Now, lying next to Candace, he was blessed with an inkling of understanding. Perhaps Garrison and Diana had been swept along on a tide of misunderstanding and confusion neither one of them had nerve enough to stop. Perhaps they had woken up married one day without really intending to. David had read a book once called The Accidental Tourist. And now here he was about to become an accidental bridegroom.

And it would happen, too. Candace would see to it. Unless Davy himself had brains and guts enough to do something to stop it.

David Ladd had been brought up by Rita Antone, by a woman raised in a non-confrontational culture. Among the Tohono O’othham, yes is always better than no.

He wondered, as he drifted off to sleep, if someone had told Candace Waverly that little secret about him, or if she was simply operating on instinct. Probably instinct was the correct answer, he thought.

As far as he could tell, women were like that.

Mitch hadn’t thought that the girl would still be so far out of it, but she was. She lay quietly, making hardly any protest when he donned a pair of latex gloves and scrubbed her whole body with a rough, sun-baked towel—parts he had touched and some parts he hadn’t—making sure that no traces of his own fingerprints lingered anywhere on her skin.