Page 80 of Cold Threat

“You relax, Mom,” he said. “River and I will do the dishes.”

River stood up too. “Absolutely. You work too hard taking care of us.” Before Beth could respond, she held up her hand like a cop stopping traffic. “I know, you enjoy it. But you need to let us in on the fun.”

Beth smiled at them. “Okay, I give in. You can do the dishes. Actually, it’s not really my favorite part anyway.”

River’s light laugh made Tony smile. He loved her laugh. And he loved how much his parents clearly liked her. He wished Aimee felt the same way. He was going to have to work on that. Hopefully, something he’d said to her at breakfast had changed her mind. Thinking about Aimee brought up a question.

“So is Aimee coming over here?” he asked his mother.

“Yes, this afternoon. She’s going to stay downstairs so River won’t have to move.”

“Oh, no,” River said. “Please don’t make her do that. I’ll go downstairs.”

“I told her that you’d say that,” Beth said. “She absolutely won’t let you change her mind. It’s best to let her have her way.”

“Mom’s right,” Tony said. “My sister is the most stubborn person I’ve ever known—next to you. If you try to talk her out of something, she’ll only dig her heels in harder. I’m sureyoucan relate to that.”

“You’re very funny,” River said. “Okay, but I still feel uncomfortable making her stay in the basement.”

“Don’t,” Tony said. “She’ll be fine.”

Ray came back into the kitchen, a frown on his face.

“That was fast,” Tony said. “Did Duggan find anything?”

“He did. He’s going to email me the details, but basically, he discovered visits to the ER several times. Both for Michael and his sister.”

“While they were in foster care?” River asked.

“No. The first visits happened while the kids were living with Edward and their mother.”

“Their mother abused them too?” Tony asked.

“We don’t think so, since she went to the ER herself several times.”

“She should have left him,” Tony said, frowning. He didn’tunderstand how mothers could allow their children to be beaten—unless they feared something even worse if they were to do something about it.

“Well, she did leave him,” Ray said, his tone solemn. “She died.”

“I know you might not be able to answer this,” Tony said, “but do you have any idea if he abused his new wife? Or Angie?”

“I had the same question,” Ray said. “Asked Duggan to do some checking. No reports at all. Seems like he cleaned himself up.”

“But he never made things right with his kids, I guess,” River said.

Ray sighed. “So, they decided to settle the score.”

“What about while they were in foster care?” River asked.

“I was just getting to that. There were a couple of incidents with Stacy while she was with the Greers. Of course, there were always reasons for what happened. She fell off the slide. Slipped in the bathtub.”

“Wait a minute,” River said. “The Greers denied having Stacy.”

“We suspected they lied,” Tony said. “Obviously, they did.”

“Were the police contacted?” Tony asked.

Ray shook his head. “Seems the ER doctor who saw her knew Terrance Greer and believed what he said. He shouldn’t have. There were other children in their care that had so-calledaccidentstoo. He should have reported it. By law, he was bound to do so.”

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