The O’Connells Books 10 - 12

Chapter 6

Chapter Six

“Dammit, Brady, where are you? This is not funny. Call me right now!” Raymond snapped.

He’d lost count of the number of times he’d called his son, and every one had gone right to voicemail. This was the kind of panic he’d never expected to feel, even though it had always been there in the back of his mind. He paced his darkened house without a clue where to look.

After Brady ran out of Ryan’s, Raymond had been furious and terrified. His son had no clue of the dangers that lurked in wait for him all because of who his father was. He willed the front door to open. After the relief would come the moment when he could yell at his son for the worry he’d caused and for being reckless and stupid. He wanted to wrap his arms around his son and shake him.

Brady had looked at him with the kind of hate he’d never expected to see, just like Marcus, Luke, Ryan, Suzanne, Karen, and Owen. Seeing them all again, the way they’d looked at him, and knowing he was at the center of an event that had likely ruined Ryan’s wedding day, he’d been faced with all the choices he’d made.

He dragged his hand over his face, very aware that time was ticking in the silence. What would this mean for everyone he cared for? Him being there now instead of disappearing with Brady could mean the difference between life and death, and that was the kind of risk he couldn’t take.

As he stepped over to the living room window and brushed back the curtains, looking out at the quiet street, he couldn’t shake the fear that had saved him time and again, keeping him on edge and wide awake so he wouldn’t make the kind of mistake that would cost someone he loved his or her life. At the same time, he knew he was out of choices now.

He held his cell phone and scrolled through his numbers, seeing Marcus’s name. He had all his kids’ names, numbers, addresses. He knew everything about them.

He listened to the ring: once, twice…

“Yeah, who is this?” Marcus sounded as if he’d been asleep. Raymond heard a murmur in the background.

“I’m sorry to call. This is…Raymond, your father.”

There was silence. Of course, he’d be the last person Marcus expected to call him.

“Look I wouldn’t be calling you, except I can’t find Brady. He hasn’t come home. Have you seen him? Did he go back to Ryan’s? He left, and I expected him to be at home, but he wasn’t. I’ve waited. He’s not answering his phone, and I’m starting to fear the worst…”

“No, I haven’t seen him,” Marcus said. Raymond heard him say something, maybe to his pregnant wife, Charlotte. Then it sounded as if a door closed, and he sighed on the other end. Raymond pictured his son’s house, knowing how vulnerable they would be. “You’re actually calling me? Look, he didn’t come back to the house. Your timing… I still can’t believe what happened, with you putting a damper on Ryan and Jenny’s day. Then there’s Alison—but you didn’t call to talk about that. How did you get my number, anyway?”

What was he supposed to say? He looked out the window, seeing nothing but shadows, though he knew all too well that nothing good ever hid there. “I have all your numbers. It’s what I do. I also know where you live and what you all do. I know it wasn’t Osbert Berry who made that charge go away when you lifted a case of spray paint when you were seventeen, and I know your graffiti antics went beyond the high school and abandoned buildings. In four of the five burglaries in the area, the security cameras were spray-painted over. Should we talk about how I know it was you?”

There was silence on the other end, and he wondered whether Marcus would hang up. “Brady didn’t come back to Ryan’s,” he finally said. “I haven’t seen him. You know a missing person’s report can’t be filed yet, officially.”

Okay, so he didn’t want to talk about what a little s**t he used to be.

“You think I want to file a missing person’s report, and that’s why I called you?”

In the background, he heard a door closing, then creaking, as if Marcus was walking downstairs. “Isn’t it? Why’d you call, then?”

Raymond had expected anger, but Marcus sounded on edge. “A little help finding Brady,” he replied. “Put aside your feelings for me…”

“Fine, what about his friends? Have you tried them? He probably wanted some space, is all, considering the bomb you dropped. I can only imagine what he’s thinking. It’s something Luke used to do, take off for days sometimes, but he always turned up.”

What was he supposed to say to that? Although there was so much he knew about his kids, there was a lot he didn’t. Either way, Brady wasn’t Luke. “We’re still here,” Raymond said. “We didn’t leave because of Alison, because Brady has a thing for her. She’s who he hangs around with, other than Craig Lister, that jock from school, a time or two. He wouldn’t be there.”

“Well, how do you know that? Give me his number, and call—”

“You think I’d be calling you if I thought Brady was there? I’ve already been over to Craig’s house and stood out in the shadows, only to see that no one was there. Craig and his family are away on a weekend trip to a cottage they own in Idaho.”

He’d leave out the part about how he’d slipped into their house and gone through their things. The cottage was in Sun Valley, and the dad had paid cash to a banker who knew how to hide his money well. Then there was the m*******a he’d found, which, apparently, Craig’s mom had a thing for.

“Do I want to know how you know that?” Marcus said.

Raymond just shook his head even though he knew Marcus couldn’t see him, and he said nothing more on that. “Look, as I said, the only reason we’re still here is because of Brady’s feelings for Alison, because he suddenly wanted to put down roots. There’s no one else. The only thing I can think is that he’s wandering around or in trouble. I’ve walked the neighborhood, tracing every step I know he would take. I hoped maybe he’d gone back to Ryan’s. Evidently, he doesn’t want to be found, and what I can’t believe is that he’s suddenly good at hiding.”

Marcus sighed on the other end. “Tell me where you are. I’ll come over.”

He hesitated only a second before giving Marcus his address. He expected him to say something about where he lived, the proximity to Iris, but all Marcus said was “I’m on my way.” Then he hung up.

Raymond just stared out the window into the darkness again, the streetlights, the shadows, the houses across the street, the parked cars. When someone showed up, who would it be? Whoever it was wouldn’t come through the front door.

The old clock on the wall ticked, and the fridge clicked on and off. Then his phone dinged, and when he pulled it out, he saw a message from Luke: Brady’s here at Mom’s. You have a problem, though, because he said he’s not going home.

He squeezed the phone as he spotted the headlights of the sheriff’s cruiser, and he stepped out of the house, locking the door behind him. Raymond approached the car, and Marcus stepped out, wearing his sheriff’s jacket, a pair of jeans, and a ball cap.

“What’s going on?” Marcus said.

Raymond pulled open the passenger door. “We’re going to your mom’s,” he said.

Marcus shook his head, giving him an odd smile that wasn’t a smile. “No, we’re not.”

“We are, because I found Brady. Luke just texted. He’s over at your mom’s and says he’s not leaving.”

Marcus groaned and pulled open his door, taking in Raymond across the roof of the cruiser. “This just keeps getting better and better,” he finally said, tapping the car and then gesturing to him. “Fine, but hear me on this: You’re not messing with Mom. We go and get Brady, and then you’re leaving town. Are we clear?”

He could feel the bite in his words, and he glanced away for a second, saying nothing, before taking in the son whose life he hadn’t been a part of for the past eighteen years.

“So should I ask how you knew about the paint?” Marcus said, and Raymond could see that he was thrown. “Even Bert didn’t know about the spray-painted cameras.”

He wondered whether Marcus had any idea of the road he had been on, of how close he had come to finding himself labeled a career criminal, behind bars. He wondered, too, whether Bert, the old sheriff, had known who the request came from to recruit Marcus to the sheriff’s office and keep a close eye on him. Now, after having been on the wrong side of it, his son was the law.

“So how did you make the charges go away? How…?” Marcus started, then lifted his hands again. “You know what? I don’t want to know.”

Before Marcus could slip behind the wheel, Raymond said, “I’ve been watching all of you for years. I may have been unable to be here, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t do what I could from afar. You likely think you have an idea of who I am, but I guarantee you have no idea at all.”

Then he climbed in the passenger side of the cop car, taking in the equipment, the radio, and the assault rifle within easy reach. Instead of saying anything else, Marcus merely started the vehicle and pulled away.

All Raymond could think was that he’d no longer just slipped into town and stayed under the radar. Now he was front and center, making the kind of noise that would have eyes on him—and, worse, on everyone he cared about.