I tried not to let myself react to his immediate attack and instead fought to remain composed, answering with a simple, “Calm down, Shamus. Believe me, I’m just as upset about this as you are.”
“Why should I calm down, then, you bastard?! Felicity is all over the news. They’re callin’ her a murderin’ psychopath.”
“I know they are.”
“And then what do I see? You, you bastard. Just standin’ there chit-chattin’ with the police and smokin’ a cigarette. Standin’ there for the whole world to see, just like it’s another day. Just like nothing’s happened!”
Suddenly my decision to remain on the front porch instead of hiding out on the back deck away from the news cameras didn’t seem very prudent. I had probably known subconsciously that it would come back around to bite me, I just hadn’t given any thought to which set of teeth were going to be sinking into my flesh. Of course, I suppose that mystery was now solved.
My gut reaction was to snap back at him, but I forced myself to offer an explanation instead. “I think you’re misinterpreting what you saw. I had a half dozen crime scene guys tearing this place apart, and I’d just been ejected from my own house for fighting with them. I was trying to calm down before they arrested me too.”
“Cac capaill! They should have arrested you instead of my daughter!”
“No, they shouldn’t have arrested either of us.”
“Damnu ort! What did you do to her?!
The Gaelic curse wishing damnation upon me wasn’t unfamiliar. Felicity was prone to slipping into the old language whenever she was angry, just like her father was doing now. In fact, her personal list of favorite vulgarities mirrored his, so I’d heard most of them before. Of course, the imprecations usually weren’t directed at me as they were in this case.
“I didn’t do anything to her, Shamus. You know that.”
“Aye, I don’t believe it. You and your godless cult did something to my colleen. You brainwashed her and forced her to do some Satanic sacrifice or something, didn’t you!?”
He didn’t even give me a chance to respond to the ludicrous accusation before starting in again.
“ANSWER ME, YOU BASTARD! THAT’S WHAT YOU DID, ISN’T IT?!”
“Listen to me, Shamus,” I interjected sharply. “Number one, she didn’t kill anyone, much less get forced to do anything against her will. Number two, you sure as hell aren’t going to help her situation if you go around telling everyone that she did do it but only because I forced her to.”
There was a brief pause, and I hoped that I had managed to get my point across to him. When he finally spoke again, he was somewhat more reserved, though you could tell the anger was still seething behind his words, just waiting for a chance to escape.
“Why didn’t you call me? Why did I have to hear about this from the television, then?”
“I’ve been just a little busy, believe it not.” I couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of my tone. “As you noted, my wife just got arrested.”
“Well, what are you doing about this?” he demanded without actually acknowledging what I had just said.
“I’m trying to find out what’s going on myself. Our lawyer is already at the station…”
He interrupted, “Aye, is he any good, this lawyer of yours?”
“He’s a she and yes, she’s good.”
“Aye, well it doesn’t really matter. I’ll be sendin’ my own then anyway.”
“Shamus, don’t turn this into a bigger circus than it already is. If Jackie doesn’t think she can handle this, she’ll be the first one to say so. Then, if I need to, I’ll hire another attorney.”
“I’ll be sendin’ mine,” he repeated flatly.
I started to object again but decided against it. At least he seemed to have calmed a bit and was apparently trying to be constructive instead of just placing blame and swearing at me.
“Fine,” I told him. “Just tell your attorney to get in touch with Jacquelyn Hunt. She’s got the lead on this, and we don’t need any confusion causing problems.”
“I’ll tell him your girl is there, but I’ll be wanting him to take over.”
“Shamus… Dammit…Can’t you…Sheesh!” I stammered out a halting mish-mash of verbiage as I tried to beat down the desire to climb through the phone line and throttle the man. I knew he wasn’t going to listen to me, and this whole conversation was about as futile as trying to empty an ocean with a teaspoon and a paper cup, so I decided it was time for it to end. “Listen, I’m going to have to get off the line here. When you called I was just heading out the door to go down to the police station myself.”
My bid for a quick exit did nothing more than set fire to his temper once again.
“Don’t you dare!” he snapped. “You stay away from my daughter. You’ve done enough to her already!”
It had become a violent internal struggle for me to keep an even temper during this conversation. I thought I had been more than reasonable with him, even if we had been under the best of circumstances. There was no doubt, however, that the current conditions were a far cry from the best.
I simply couldn’t hold my tongue any longer, and my own anger rose to the surface, “Dammit, Shamus. She may be your daughter, but she’s also my wife!”
“If I have anything to say about it, she won’t be for much longer!”
Confusion filled my voice. “Excuse me?!”
“Don’t play stupid. I’ve figured you out. I know you’ve brainwashed my daughter and turned her against me. I’ve already talked to someone about taking care of it!”
It only took a fraction of a second for his words to sink in. “You’ve got to be fuc… Deprogramming? Is that what you’re talking about, Shamus?! Deprogramming?!”
“They call it exit counseling and thought reform therapy.”
“They call it that when it is done by an ethical, licensed therapist and the subject is willing,” I spat. “If you kidnap her and do it against her will, it’s deprogramming, pure and simple.”
“It doesn’t matter what you call it.”
“It sure as hell matters that she doesn’t need it,” I countered. “Not to mention that it’s also illegal.”
“I don’t care about that. She needs to be rescued.”
“From what? Who? Me?”
“Aye.”
“Have you lost your goddamned mind?”
“No, but apparently you’ve taken my daughter’s from her, and I’m going to get it back. And then once she’s in her right mind, she’ll be getting you out of her life, of that you can be sure.”
That was it; I’d had enough. “Listen up you son-of-a-bitch, don’t you even think about doing this!”
“Go hifrean leat! ”
“You want me to go to hell, Shamus?” I returned, quickly translating the epithet he’d just screamed at me. “Well I’ve got some happy freaking news for you, I’m pretty much already there, and you just helped with the trip. I’ve got to go. Bye.”
I could hear his voice screaming from the handset even as I slammed it back onto the base. What I picked up of the stream of Gaelic was yet another condemnation I’d heard before, and it roughly translated into him wishing “scorching and burning” upon me. Well, I sure wasn’t going to call back to break the news to him, but he definitely wasn’t the first to offer up that curse, so he could just stand in line.
I closed my eyes and sucked in a deep breath, huffing it back out angrily as I tried to settle myself. Lashing out, I slammed the heel of my fist against the underside of one of the empty bookshelves. The impact generated a hollow thud followed by a resounding crash as the shelf lifted off the adjustable pegs then slammed back down. For some reason, the wooden rectangle skewed downward and slid out onto the floor, narrowly missing my foot. The resulting clatter startled the cats and made them jump, which in turn caused them to knock a stack of books from the coffee table and onto the floor. The clamorous chain reaction sent them skittering throughout the house to their secretive hiding places. The dogs, however, took the opposite tack and both came to investigate the small crashes but more or less took it in stride.
I picked up the shelf and tried to re-install it, and that’s when I discovered that the reason it had fallen was that the impact had sheared off one of the forward adjustable pegs on the uprights. I reached up and slid it onto the empty shelf above for the time being then shook my head and turned, starting back toward the alarm keypad on the wall across the room. Before I could take the first step, however, the peal of the telephone’s ringer filled the room.