bringing him home to us.”
How much cash
Julia said, “Mr. and Mrs. Peeples-”
They ignored her, turned up the volume of their argument.
“You’re glad he’s gone,” Judy said. “He was always an embarrassment to you.”
“How can you say that? I loved our son.”
“Past tense.”
“I
“Nonsense. You’ve always looked down on him because you think he lacks intellect. And because he’s gay.”
“I think he lacks drive, not intelligence. As for him being gay, I have no prejudice in that area. Didn’t I invite that Ben friend of his for weekends and holidays? Didn’t I show him every courtesy? Don’t I still, whenever he drops in?”
“A butler would behave more warmly than you do.”
“Please listen to me,” Julia said.
Neither of them looked her way.
“Goddamn it, Judy, what do you want from me?”
“What do I want? I want my son back!” Judy Peeples bent forward from the waist, hugging her midriff, and began to cry. “This may be our last opportunity-no matter what he’s done-to find him and bring him home.”
Tom Peeples’s lined face crumpled and he put his hand over his eyes, but he made no effort to comfort his wife.
At last Julia could step into the situation. She went over, put her arms around Judy Peeples’s bent body, and helped her into a chair.
After a moment, Tom Peeples stood, his lined face resigned, and laid a rough hand on his wife’s shoulder. “You’re right,” he said. “It’s just so hard for me to accept it.”
She looked up at him, eyes streaming.
“I’ll do anything you ask, if it’ll bring Larry back to us.”
“… Thank you, Tom.”
To Julia, Peeples added, “Please excuse our quarreling. We’re not ourselves today. Haven’t been in six months, actually.”
“No problem. You’ve been dealing with stuff I can’t even imagine. Will you show me the money now?”
“Yes. Come with me, please.”
He led her into the hallway, through an informal dining room and a kitchen that Julia would have killed for. All this money, she thought, all this land, but these people were broken. The loss of an only child, the uncertainty of what had happened to him-that made every material thing meaningless.
If Tonio vanished without a trace, she would spend her life searching-and grieving.
Peeples led her along a lighted graveled path through an oak grove.
“My wife thinks this money will lead you to some magical solution to our son’s disappearance.”
“But you don’t.”
“No. I’m not doubting your abilities, but I think if Larry disappeared voluntarily he’s hidden himself where no one can find him. Or else…”
“Yes?”
“Foul play.” Peeples’s voice was choked.
They came to a big white barn. When Peeples opened its doors, the smell took Julia aback, and she hesitated.
“You afraid of horses?” Peeples asked. “They’re all confined to their stalls. They’ll get restless when we go in, but settle down pretty quick.”
“I don’t know anything about horses,” she told him, “but the smell…”
“Well, yes, they’re stinky buggers. I’m not crazy about them myself, but my wife, she loves them. We’ve got six. She gives free riding lessons to the vineyard workers’ kids.”
Julia started liking the Peepleses a lot more.
Peeples turned on a light. At first it blinded Julia, then she started, face-to-face with a blond horse that had a white star on its forehead. It whinnied, but its brown eyes were gentle.
“This way,” Peeples said.
The tack room was to the right. It was small, with saddles on stands, its walls covered with riding apparatus, none of which Julia could identify. Until tonight she hadn’t been any closer to a horse than the ones the police rode in the city parks.
Peeples said, “I was moving some things around in here this afternoon, trying to consolidate them. There was a loose floorboard under one box that I’d never noticed before.” He went to the far side, pried up the board, and lifted out a small leather travel bag.
“One hundred thousand dollars,” he said in a hollow voice. “Small bills. I’ve counted it twice.”
He held out the bag and Julia looked into it. Rows of bills banded together. More money than she’d ever seen in one place.
Peeples looked down at her, his tanned face slack and aged beyond his fifty-some years.
“I can’t believe our son stole this money and hid it here,” he said. “But how else could he have gotten his hands on this much cash?”
“Do you have a safe?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Then let’s put it there until I figure out what to do about this.”
SATURDAY, JULY 19
JULIA RAFAEL
The late supper Judy Peeples had promised her had been good, their guest room was super-comfortable, but it was too damn quiet in the country. She could sleep through the wail of sirens and the grumbling of buses and people shouting on the city streets, but here in rural Sonoma County, where the only sound was a rooster that kept crowing all night, she tossed and turned. Weren’t roosters supposed to crow only at dawn? What was
Around three in the morning she got up and sat on the window seat looking out at the oak grove between the house and the stables. She focused on the slight movement of the branches in the breeze, and after a while she felt sleepy. The bird had finally shut up. Maybe she could-
Motion under the oak trees.
Julia tensed up. An animal? What wild kinds did they have here? Deer, raccoons, opossums. For all she knew, coyotes and mountain lions. Well, she was safe inside…
But this shape didn’t move like an animal, it moved like a human. Larry or Judy Peeples, going to check on the horses? No, she’d have seen them or heard the back door close if they’d left the house.
The dark figure kept moving. In the direction of the stables? She got up quickly, pulled on jeans, and tucked her sleep shirt into them. Went out into the hall. A night-light burned there, showing her the way to the stairs. She crept down them, guided by another light on the first floor, then felt her way back to the door off the kitchen.
The night air was warm and felt like silk against her skin. Something tickled her nostrils, and she had to stifle a
