Page 46 of Babydoll

“I’m sorry, that was unhelpful.” I take his hand, giving it a squeeze.

“But true. He’s a master manipulator.” Jeff looks down at me, his mouth a flat line. “Lisa went back when Reece was three months old. We don’t know why. She wasn’t planning to as far as we knew. Maybe to tell him about the baby. She never told us. Just dropped Reece off at my parents and never came back.”

“She went back to him.” It isn’t a question.

“Her body was found in the lake a week later. Drowned. It was ruled a suicide. But she had too many bruises for it to be suicide. Like she’d been held down. But with detectives on the take…”

“Oh, god.” I tug him, turning him toward me to wrap my arms around him. His big body is warm and he doesn’t hesitate in returning the hug. “We’ll get them. Maybe I know something that I don’t realize will help. I’ll testify. I don’t care if I have to go into witness protection or whatever. I’ll do it.”

He kisses me and it’s soft, but urgent, and when it ends, I melt into him.

“Let’s see how this goes, okay?” he says in a whisper against my head. “But if it goes that way, and you have to testify for any reason, I’m going to disappear with you. What they did to you, extortion, kidnapping, assault, those hold heavy sentences, but we wouldn’t take any chances of them trying to get revenge.”

I swallow and look up. “Disappear? With me?”

“I’m not letting you go, babydoll.” He brushes the hair back from my forehead. “This Grizzly Daddy is for keeps.”

When he’s gone, I look at the albums. They start when Jeff and Lisa were small. There are pictures of the family building castles on the shore, of them swimming, water skiing, and the kids eating hotdogs with toothless grins. Pictures of them as teens with friends, and awkward handholding around a fire pit follow. Jeff’s parents are older in these. The last one makes me laugh. It’s an action shot of Jeff standing, well tipping, in a canoe just as it’s about to flip. He’s thin and gangly but still handsome.

This is what family is supposed to be, I think. And even though Lisa is no longer alive, she’ll never be forgotten after living a life like this. I set the album back and pick up one that’s newer. Reece’s baby album. It starts with a shot of Lisa’s belly. Underneath each picture is a spot for notes. Lisa has scribbled some words about the pregnancy. Baby is a wiggler, especially at night. Craves nachos a lot.

Next, I see the squishy newborn, who looks more like an alien than a human child, in her mother’s arms at the hospital. Underneath it says all the usual things, the date and time of her birth, her length and weight, and even the nurse and doctor who helped Lisa deliver. But underneath that, in even tinier scrawl, it says,Baby looks just like P. I squint, and the baby looks nothing like Preacher as far as I can tell, but then again the only resemblance I see is to a wrinkled alien.

I still don’t see it as I look further into the album and Reece grows into a cute baby instead of ET. The notations change from Lisa’s writing to a larger loopier kind at about the three-month mark and it hits me hard in the gut. Reece’s mother is gone.

I continue with my heart aching for both the mother that wouldn’t know her child and the child that wouldn’t know her mother. I see the little girl sprout red hair, grow teeth, and learn to toddle. Besides the few in the beginning, I see no more of Lisa. I see Jeff and his older parents with the little girl. My heart breaks, but the faces in the pictures are happy ones.

The last picture in that album is of Reece, around two, eating her favorite butterscotch pudding. Her eyes are wide and her smile gooey. It makes me laugh. She’s adorable. I decide she might be the most adorable kid I’ve ever seen as I look closer. It’s that gorgeous red hair and the blue eyes, lighter than her mom’s. Something sparks familiarity as I look for a resemblance to Preacher or even Jeff, or hell, any members of the family, but I see none. But as I glance down at the bottom of the picture to read the caption, it hits. The bag of cheese puffs by her chubby toddler leg makes the lightbulb go off. My eyes fly wide.

Red hair.

Butterscotch pudding.

Cheese puffs.

P.

She looks familiar and yet nothing like the rest of the family or her supposed father because,oh my god,she’s the spitting image of Python.

Jesus Christ! What if Lisa went back to tell Python he was the father and Preacher found out?

That’s a damn good motive for murder. Was that why Python looked so strangely at Jeff back at the house? Why he let us go? He knew who Jeff was because he was having an affair with Jeff’s sister.

I run for the prepaid burner in my purse. The only number in it is Python’s.

I call and when he answers I don’t even say hello. “You had an affair with Lisa.”

I wait and while it feels interminable, only seconds pass before he speaks.

“Yes.”

I think that’s all I’m going to get when he continues.

“It was more than an affair.”

“Did Preacher find out and kill her?”

“I can’t say any more. But everything will come out soon. And when it does, I promise you’ll be safe. For now, stay where you are.” There’s a pause. “And Lu? When this is all over, I hope you’ll help me convince Jeff and his parents to let me see my daughter.” He hangs up before I can reply.

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