The Homecoming Read Online Free Page A

maybe he needed to do some research—”
    “Oh sure. Research about what?”
    Kate’s answer was careful.
    “I had asked him to look into a few … family things. Maybe that’s what he’s doing right now. When he’s working he loses all track of time. It’s only been a few hours, Beth.”
    Kate wasn’t going to say anything to Beth about what the Virginia state cops had found in Dillon Walker’s office up at VMI. Beth had enough to think about. The time would come, but not yet. Beth started to cry again, choked it back.
    “But where is he, then? And why is he missing? You’ve tried his cell. No answer. Why doesn’t he call? It’s not like him, Kate. It just isn’t. I don’t understand any of this … What does Nick say? What does Reed say? Are they doing
anything
?”
    “There’s a Detective Calder up at VMI. He’s working on it right now. He’ll call us as soon as he finds Dad. Or Reed will. In the meantime, you’re staying.”
    Beth straightened up, stiffened her back.
    “No. I’m a grown woman. With two kids. I can deal with this. We can go to a hotel.”
    “And if Byron shows up at the hotel door? Which he will. What then?”
    “Kate, Nick can’t stay at home and be my bodyguard. He has a job. So does Reed. And so do you.”
    “We’ll work that out. Nick’s not the only one with a gun around this house.”
    “You have a gun?”
    “I have a Glock pistol, and I know how to use it.”
    “Is it loaded?”
    “Nick says if a gun isn’t loaded it’s a paperweight. Anyway, Nick is going over to see Byron later today. So Byron may not be as big a problem for you as he likes to think he is.”
    “Byron won’t like that. He’ll get right in Nick’s face.”
    “I hope he does. Then he can get a piece of what he’s been giving you. If he actually assaults Nick, Nick will put him in a hospital, and then he’ll arrest him for assaulting a police officer, he’ll go to jail for that, and for domestic assault on you. I have digital proof of that. Maybe he’ll even docounty time. I’d love to see him deal with the people in Twin Counties Correctional. Ex-FBI? A wife beater? They’d corner him in a storage shed and have a party. He’d be lucky if they didn’t geld him.”
    This was said in a flat voice, without inflection or a trace of melodrama.
    Beth stared at her.
    “It’s happened,” said Kate. “Just ask Nick.”
    “God. You really are angry, aren’t you?”
    “Yes, I am. And you should be too.”
    Beth sighed and leaned back into the sofa, sipping at her scotch.
    There was a silence.
    Kate drank a bit of her iced tea and studied Beth’s face, seeing the hardness go out of it and traces of her old life come flowing back in.
    “He was trying to kill you, Beth. I hope you understand that. Maybe not your body. But you. They want to suck the soul out of you. That’s what guys like Byron do.”
    Beth let out another shaky sigh, put her head back, closed her eyes. After a moment she said, “I always thought Byron had an empty place inside him and he was desperately trying to fill it and no matter how much I tried I just couldn’t help him.”
    Kate leaned over, put her hand on Beth’s arm, gently, moved in to give her a soft kiss on her bruised cheek. Then she pulled back, smiled sweetly, and said, “What utter crap.”
    The phone rang.
    “Hey, Kate, it’s Reed. You hear about Byron?”

If a Bear Falls in the Forest
    At around the same time that Kate was getting the latest on Byron Deitz from Reed Walker, Staff Sergeant Coker of the Belfair and Cullen County Sheriff’s Department was rolling northbound on Highway 311 about ten miles south of Gracie, smoking a cigarette and enjoying the way the sunlight was making the sweetgrass glow on the slopes of the hills rising up all around him.
    He was in his main ride, a black-and-tan Crown Victoria Police Interceptorwith large gold six-pointed stars on the doors and an LED light bar on the roof that was visible from Mars when it was