“Kids couldn’t take the constant nagging anymore, huh? Hired themselves a lawyer and sued for parental malpractice. Gonna live at Chuck E. Cheese’s for the duration of the trial. I’ve seen this coming for a long time, Ang.”
Angie smiled and said, “Jeremy, you do brighten up a person’s day.”
“Funny,” I told her, “I was just telling Pepper the same thing.”
“The kids are visiting friends for a while. C’mon in the house, JB. We need to talk.”
“Uh-oh,” I said, as we walked up the steps of the porch. “This sounds serious.”
“It is, but I’m hoping it’s the good type of serious.”
Once she’d dumped her briefcase in the family room, we continued back to the kitchen, where I made coffee while Angie went out and said hello to Pepper. Then we sat at the island and she got to it.
“I had a long talk with Tommy last night, JB. I decided not to wait until today, so I let him sleep for a while after you brought him back, poured a lot of coffee into him, then sat him down right here in the kitchen. We went over a lot of stuff, some of it going way back.”
“Hm-mmm,” I said.
“Yeah, I know. Tommy and I have had these little talks before, and nothing’s ever changed. But this time, I told him that, one way or another, there would be a change. Either he gets help with his drinking, or he stops coming around here.”
“That must have been hard, Ang.”
“It was.”
“What made you decide to issue the ultimatum this time? Excuse me for saying it this way, but you’ve never used the kids before.”
“I know, but it’s all I have left. Simon and I talked about it, and we decided that Abby and Matt deserve better from their uncle. I told Tommy that, and I asked him if he wanted to end up like our father, spending the last years of his life going from one bender to another until he dies of liver disease.”
“If Tommy’s going to get sober, he’s going to have to do it for himself, Angie, not for the kids. As harsh as that sounds, you know it’s true.”
“Of course I do, JB, but I’m desperate, and I’m hoping the threat of not seeing the kids again will be enough to at least get him started. At some point, maybe he’ll decide to do it for himself.”
“How’d he respond?”
“At first, the usual. He denied that he has a problem, said he never hurts anyone, can’t a guy enjoy a beer or two once in a while. You know. Then I asked him about Abby’s entry in her school’s science fair last week. He had no memory of it, of course, because he was in a bar somewhere that night, even though he’d promised her he would be there. And I reminded him that he hadn’t shown up to take Matt fishing this past Saturday. I told him I was tired of my kids being disappointed all the time by their uncle, and it was gonna stop.”
I could picture Angie and Tommy sitting here, with Angie not letting her brother evade her questions. I’d seen her in action. She would have made a good prosecutor.
“So,” I said, “is he is or is he isn’t?”
Angie took a deep breath.
“I told him that Simon had done some research, and there’s a place up near Edinboro that’s got a good reputation. It’s a minimum eight-week program, and we’ll help him with the cost. He says he wants to do this, JB. He seems serious, but there’s one thing he insisted on.”
“And that is?”
“That you be the one to take him up there. He says he knows if he tries to chicken out at the last minute, you won’t let him get away with it, that you’ll make him go in and register and get started.”
“You and Simon could do that just as easily as I could.”
“I know, but Tommy said he didn’t want to embarrass himself in front of us, which, considering all the times we’ve hauled his sorry behind home from one bar or another, is kinda silly.”
“Maybe it’s a good sign that he’s at least concerned about hurting your feelings.”
“That’s what Simon said. Anyway, will you do it, Jeremy?”
“Sure,” I said. “When’s the big day?”
“This Saturday. That’s the earliest Simon could get Tommy admitted.”
“Where’s Tommy now?”
“At work, I hope. He told us that he wanted to go to work the rest of the week, said he was going to tell everyone there what he was going to do and how long he’d be gone. I had to trust him. And I think he needed me to trust him. But he did ask if he could spend the nights here, which I also took to be a good sign.”
“What time shall I be here on Saturday?”
“Why don’t you come over and have breakfast with us, around seven-thirty or so? Simon says the drive up there shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours, and they said they’d register Tommy anytime between nine and twelve.”
“I’ll be here, Ang.”
“Thanks, Jeremy. I know I don’t have to tell you how much this means to Simon and me, so . . . just, thanks.”
“Hey, Tommy’s important to me, too.”
“Seems like all I’m doing lately is asking you for favors. Anything happening yet with Rachel Pendleton?”
“I met with her earlier today, and I talked with Denny at lunch. Gonna sit down with the detective in charge of the case tonight.”
“I know it’s early, JB, but do you think Rachel’s right, I mean about the murder not being exactly what the police think?”
“I’m not sure yet, but even with the little that I know, I have to admit that something doesn’t feel right about the thing. I’ll have a better idea after I talk to this detective tonight, who, according to Denny, is a bit of a jerk.”
Angie grinned and said, “Any chance of my being
