Page 66 of The Fix
Oh, Dad, I love you.She was tempted to cry, but she didn’t want this second meeting to be filled with tears, because that was how the first one had been.
“I like Pops,” Cyrus said shyly but with obvious pleasure.
Her father grinned and stood. “Thanks for making an old man happy, kid. I can tell we’re gonna get along swimmingly. Speaking of which, do you know how to swim? My wife, Gigi, is out back in the pool. She’s been excited to meet you.”
“Yeah, I can swim, but I don’t have a suit.”
“Oh, we have a few extras in the pool house that will probably fit well enough. Come on in.” He opened the door wider and gave Cami a kiss on the cheek as they passed by him.
Gigi met them in the foyer, pretty in a turquoise cover-up and flip-flops. “Cami.” She smiled warmly as she always did. “It’s so nice to see you.” Cami smiled back, and then Gigi bent down like her father had and shook Cyrus’s hand.
“I told Cyrus you could probably dig up a suit that would fit him from one in the pool house,” her father said.
“Absolutely,” Gigi said as she stood. “But first, I made a batch of homemade Popsicles. Do you want to help me get them out of the freezer and taste-test them?”
“Okay!” Cyrus said. He looked at Cami, and when she gave him a nod, he followed Gigi, and they disappeared down the hall. She watched them go. Cyrus could act so grown-up sometimes, but she needed to remember that that was out of necessity, and he was really just a kid, thrilled by things all kids were thrilled by.
Cami walked with her father into the family room, where he sat down in his usual chair, and she made herself comfortable on the couch. She told him the entire story of what had transpired since she’d first taken the incoming call from the unknown number. Heseemed increasingly troubled as he listened to her, then shocked by the developments in California.
He inserted a few questions here and there, but mostly listened, and she was grateful he didn’t lecture her on some of the choices that she thought he might. Like jumping on a plane with a virtual stranger to fly across the country and face any number of known and unknown dangers. Perhaps the fact that she and Cyrus were there, in his home, looking well, kept him from criticizing her judgment.
She also went through all that she and Rex had discussed on that deck overlooking the ocean about the possible connection between the crime that took his wife and daughter, and Cyrus’s kidnapping. He expressed the same confusion and obvious doubt, but he was clearly concerned as well. “But, Cam, you’re not a hundred percent sure that’s what your mother was trying to say?”
“No. But what if, Dad? What if we missed something all those years ago? Something that could only have been clear now that that phrase was said to me, to involve me in what was happening to Cyrus? Do you remember ever hearing anything about a do-over? Did you get any strange calls during that time? Or weird messages?”
“No. Nothing. The police probed me with questions like that too. ‘Did anyone threaten you? Any odd interactions, messages, even if they seemed like nothing at the time.’ I didn’t have anything to report to them.”
“Was Mom in the habit of listening to your messages or opening your emails or anything?”
“Well, she did do some administrative work for me at home. Just basic stuff while you and Elle were at school that allowed me to be at my desk less on the weekends.”
Her heart gave a small gallop.
“So just computer work? She didn’t answer your phone?”
“My phone? No, I mean if you’re talking about my cell phone, I always had that on me when I was away from home.”
Cami chewed at her thumbnail. They’d had a landline back then, even if it was rarely used. She remembered her mom walking through the house on occasion with the portable phone at her ear. She wondered briefly about pulling phone records but doubted that could be done a decade later. Plus, how would it help if she could look through the numbers that had come into their house in the days before the murders? There would probably be all kinds of random numbers. As she recalled, the majority of calls that came through on the landline were telemarketers. It was why her mom had kept saying she was going to get rid of it and just use their cell phones.
“What about your emails?” she finally asked her dad. “Any chance you can still access those?”
“From eleven years ago? I don’t see how.”
“I don’t suppose you still have your cell phone from that time?” Maybe the call had come through on her father’s phone, and her mother had intercepted it while he was sleeping or otherwise occupied.
“No, Cam, I don’t have that anymore. It’s long gone.” His forehead lowered. “Cami, I don’t know that this is good for you. Have you considered ... well, it seems like you’ve been given a second chance with Cyrus. Whether it ends up that he remains with you or goes to another—”
“He is going to remain with me. I’m not giving him up again. And Dad, of course it doesn’t feel good to dredge up Mom’s and Elle’s deaths, but if there’s a chance of finding some answers that we didn’t have before, how can I turn away from that? Plus, if this is related to Cyrus, then he might still be in danger.”
Her father sighed and looked out the window for a moment. “You’re right. I was only thinking of you, Cami. Of your happiness. I worry that you’ve closed yourself off.”
“To what, Dad?”
“To a family. To love. I worry you think you gave that up and don’t deserve a second crack at it. Or maybe you’re afraid.”
She could see the worry lines around her father’s eyes. He was speaking from concern. He was a good man who loved her and had loved his wife and younger daughter, and he had found a way to move on. Maybe she hadn’t. Not entirely anyway. And maybe shewasclosed off in some sense. Perhaps she’d held on to the guilt of giving up her son and shied away from offering her heart to anyone again in the hope of avoiding pain. She’d had enough of that to last a lifetime, thank you very much. Or at least that had been her approach for the last decade. Rex’s face flashed in her mind. But maybe ... maybe she could rethink that.
The sounds of splashing and laughter drifted toward them from the backyard, and Cami looked in that direction. Whether she’d avoided it or not, love had shown up at her door. Or in the case of Cyrus, on her computer screen. And she needed to know why. “I’ll find some time for self-reflection later. Right now, I’m on a mission.”
