Cold River - Carla Neggers [90]
Meanwhile, he was in close touch with A.J. and Elijah. Jo hadn’t let up on finding out exactly what had happened in the cemetery, but she was on her way back to Washington. Elijah was being circumspect and was obviously miserable.
Devin reached out to the middle of the sparkling pool with his net. “I’m worried Hannah’s going to end up a spinster hanging judge,” he said abruptly.
Nick Martini, stretched out on a lounge chair by the pool, nearly spit out his beer, but after three days with Devin as a houseguest, Sean had come to expect such blurts from the eighteen-year-old. He’d start work tomorrow at the Cameron & Martini high-rise offices on Wilshire Boulevard, which, Sean thought, should prove interesting. Nick had turned up fifteen minutes ago in shorts and a T-shirt. He was the son of a navy submarine captain and a former submariner himself, with prematurely gray hair that suited him in a boardroom, a ballroom or the middle of a wildfire. They’d met ten years ago as young smoke jumpers and formed a partnership that had profited them both and suited their personalities.
“Careful, kid,” Nick said. “Spinster? Those are fighting words.”
“I know. I don’t care. Facts are facts.”
“Her marital status shouldn’t matter. Being a hanging judge, though…” Nick gave a cheerful shudder. “That matters. Wouldn’t want to step out of line with her.”
Devin nodded eagerly in agreement. “You’re not kidding. She likes telling Toby and me about Royall Tyler, this Vermont judge who sentenced a pirate to execution. Cyrus Dean. Ten thousand people showed up for his hanging.”
“I don’t sympathize with pirates,” Nick said.
“Not my point,” Devin said, his attention apparently focused on a tiny leaf a few yards out into the blue water of the pool. “Hannah looks mild-mannered. Kind of mousy, even. Like Donna Reed in It’s a Wonderful Life. You see that movie? Hannah makes Toby and me watch it with her every year at Christmas. She makes butter cookies.” Devin paused a moment, staring at the water. “They’re good. Her butter cookies.”
“That’s the movie with Jimmy Stewart and the town who takes him for granted after he sticks around and helps them, and then he ends up thinking he was happy?” Nick drank more of his beer. “I hate that movie.”
“Donna Reed didn’t end up a spinster because of him.”
“She’d have been better off.”
Sean grinned. “What about their kids?”
“Now you’re getting too complicated.” Nick nodded to the pool and said to Devin, “Take a swim. It’ll get your mind off hanging. You’d have to chip ice to swim in Vermont.”
Devin rallied with a smile. “That’s true.”
Nick sighed. “Quit worrying about your sister. She’s smart. She’ll be fine.”
Devin slowly dragged his net back across the water toward him. “Sean, you talk to Hannah lately?”
“Not since we left Black Falls. Why?”
“I worry about her being there alone, without both Toby and me.”
“She’s a grown woman, Devin. She can take care of herself. Worry about getting on with your own life.”
“It’s not that.” He lifted the net out of the water and shook out the contents onto the tile next to him. “If she doesn’t start doing something fun once in a while, I don’t know. I’m serious. She’s going to end up being a hanging judge or one of those prosecutors that goes for the jugular every time.”
Nick shrugged, philosophical. “Maybe that’s what she wants.”
Devin glanced at Sean. The teenager’s eyes were flat, but it wasn’t hard to see his pain. “Since we left Vermont, Bowie’s been coming by at night to work on the cellar. I called a little while ago and Beth picked up, and she told me. Hannah and Bowie aren’t seeing each other. I don’t mean that. Just—there’s just something about him.”
“Is Beth concerned?” Sean asked, his collar suddenly feeling tight.
“Yes and no.” Devin turned back to his work, his contained emotions reminiscent of his older sister. “Hannah won’t talk about the fight at O’Rourke’s. I heard these ski bums insulted her, and you got her out of there before