Megan’s eyes met his. “Every day.”
“That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? That’s why you lost faith. Your mother is gone, but you haven’t really let her go yet. And you haven’t forgiven God for what happened to her.” His tone changed. “So you went to law school?”
“Why not? I still wanted to help people. But for real this time, not in a mushy-squishy spiritual way. I wanted to get down in the trenches and fight. Help the wronged find justice. Stop deadbeat dads. Protect women from abusive-um, well, you know.”
Carl frowned. “Yeah, I know.”
“I made great grades in law school, and next thing I knew, I was being courted by all these big law firms-Crowe Dunlevy, McAfee Taft. They seemed very supportive of what I wanted to do. So I took my best offer and joined a big corporate firm. How could I resist?”
“Except it didn’t turn out the way you expected.”
“No, it didn’t.” She fell silent.
“Maybe you ought to quit the firm. Set up your own shop.”
Megan sighed. “That would be wonderful. But it would require tons of start-up capital, which I don’t have. And even if I did …” Her eyes drifted. “I’m not sure I could bring it off.” She looked up abruptly. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this. It isn’t why I came.”
“Don’t apologize,” he said. He shifted around in the bedsheets, as if he wanted to move but had nowhere to go. “Bonnie tell you what happened to me?”
“No. I mean, she said you used to be a cop. And that you …um…”
“Liked to drink? Except I bet that’s not how she put it.”
Megan almost smiled. “Well, no. It isn’t.” She inched forward. She couldn’t explain why, but suddenly she was interested in hearing more of his story, knowing more about what brought him where he was today. “Tell me what happened.”
Carl shrugged, looked away. “It was a while back, just a few months before the bombing, actually. Me and my partner got into some trouble. A shoot-out, Gang warfare. Near downtown. Bullets were flying. We were on our own for almost half an hour before reinforcements arrived.”
“That must’ve been a nightmare.”
He shrugged again. “We pulled through. But one of the gang members didn’t. He got shot dead.”
Megan’s hand covered her mouth. “I remember reading about that.”
“At first the reporters were our buddies. Talked about how heroic we were. The thin blue line holding back the mongrel hordes.”
“But that didn’t last.”
“Two days after the shooting, the word broke. The kid that got killed-he was only thirteen.” Carl swore under his breath. “Big for his age. And he was packing. But that didn’t change the public reaction. We’d killed a thirteen-year-old kid. And two days later, ballistics dropped the final straw.” His face seemed to tighten. “The bullet that killed the kid came from my gun.”
Megan’s lips parted. “That must’ve been horrible.”
“Needless to say, the press were no longer my buddies. They demanded an investigation. How could this happen? Where did procedures break down? And pretty soon you’re hearing words like trigger-happy. And baby-killer.”
Megan laid her hand on the rail of his bed. “And that’s when you began to drink?”
“Aw, I’d always had a drink or two on occasion. But that’s when it turned ugly. That’s when it became like the only thing I wanted to do in life was have another drink.” He pounded his pillow. “Internal Affairs did an investigation, then cleared me. One hundred percent without blame. Acting in self-defense. But it didn’t matter. The paper didn’t carry that story, natch. The big bosses decided it would be best if I laid low, took a desk job. Which I was horrible at. Well-if I’d wanted a desk job, I’da become an accountant. I kept drinking and my work was crap and eventually they put me on extended leave. Without pay.”
“And you kept on drinking.”
“Like you wouldn’t believe.” His lips were thin and pursed. “I–I don’t know how to explain it. I just stopped believing in everything I had believed before, everything I thought was right. It’s like you were saying-I just lost faith. You know what I mean?”
Megan nodded. She certainly did. “Maybe if you had more faith in yourself, you wouldn’t need the bottle.”
“Maybe so. I kept thinking that Bonnie would come around. That she’d support me. Help a little, you know?”
“And she didn’t?”
“Hell no. I came home one night, found her rolling on the kitchen floor with this creep Frank. They were going at it hot and heavy.”
“Before you were divorced?”
“Months before. Before she’d even filed. And I’ll tell you something else.” He leaned closer. “Tommy was in the house. And awake. Now that’s sick, if you ask me.”
Megan tried to recall her first conversation with Bonnie that morning. Hadn’t she said that she didn’t start with Frank until after the divorce? “That must’ve been … very disheartening.”
“That’s one way to put it, yeah.”
“But Carl-even with all that happened-why the turmoil? Why the violence?”
“Violence? What violence?”
“Bonnie told me you pummeled Frank in the face this morning.”
“Do you know what he was saying? He was taunting me, telling me how he was doing … horrible things to my boy. Said he was going inside to do it again right then.”
“So you-”
“Yes! What else could I do? Stand still and let him torture my boy?”
“He couldn’t have meant it.”
“Then why would he say it?” Carl pressed his hand against his forehead. “It was crazy. Almost like he wanted me to hit him.”
His words struck a dissonant chord inside Megan’s brain. Almost like … “I hear you took a swing at two of Bonnie’s neighbors. This morning and this afternoon.”
“They were trying to keep me from my son. I was desperate to see him. Desperate! It was Christmas, and I couldn’t just leave him there with that pervert.”
“So you snatched him.”
“Of course I did. Wouldn’t you?” He shook his head. “Never dreamed it would be so easy.”
It was easy, Megan thought silently. After that incident in the morning, surely Bonnie could’ve foreseen …
“I’ll admit, I was thinking about taking Tommy on the road. Holing up somewhere till I could get some help for myself, hire some lawyers, get custody for real.”
“But, Carl, you tried to poison Tommy!”
“What are you talking about?”
“The Chinese food. It was poisoned.”
“What?”
“And Bonnie told me you’d tried it once before.”
Carl lurched forward abruptly and grabbed Megan’s arms. “You have to listen to me. I would never hurt Tommy. Not in any way. Much less kill him.”
“You put something on his food.”
“I put soy sauce on his food! So what? I was trying to get him to eat it. I just-I just wanted us to have a happy moment together. One time when everything went the way it should. You have to believe me-sure, I was thinking about taking him away from his mother and that sick piece of work Frank. But I would never hurt Tommy. I would never do that!”
Megan looked deeply into the man’s eyes. She almost hated to admit it to herself, but she did believe him. She really did.
“I know I’ve been acting crazy,” Carl said. “Been that way all day. I don’t know why. It’s-it’s something about the holiday. All this Christmas peace-on-earth-and-goodwill-toward-man stuff. Presents. Families getting together. Except me. I don’t have anyone.” His lips pressed together. “I used to love Christmas. Tommy and me-we both loved it. Back before the split. It was a truly special day.” He laughed. “I have this ratty old Santa suit; he loved it when I dressed up in that thing. He knew it was really me, but-somehow it didn’t matter, you know? We just-” His voice wavered; he stopped till he regained control. “We just had so much fun together.”
Megan looked down quietly. “I’m sorry, Carl.”
“All day I kept dreaming that eventually this nightmare would end. Bonnie would dump Frank, I’d get straightened out-we would be one happy family again. But it didn’t happen.” His jaw clenched. “I had to face facts. I’d been kidding myself since the day we were married. All along I’d been telling myself, Don’t be so suspicious. It’s you she loves. Really it is.” He shook his head. “But it wasn’t. It never was. It was the money.”