Page 39 of Crosshairs

Mrs. Robinson shrugged. “You can never tell with Wendy. At one time, she wanted to be a teacher. She even took a few classes at City College. But she’s content to take on odd jobs around the city and exercise at that gym of hers.”

Once we were in the car, I turned to Trilling and said, “Doesn’t your sister live close by?”

“Yeah, Ludingtonville. About ten minutes from here.”

“We can count that as our lunch break if you want to visit.”

He didn’t answer immediately. He was even more thoughtful than usual. Trilling turned to me and said, “You introduced me to your family. I guess I should introduce you to mine.”

CHAPTER 47

ROB TRILLING’S SISTER lived in the middle of the tiny town of Ludingtonville, in a nice two-story house that was kept in good order. A Dodge Ram 1500 pickup truck with Montana plates sat in the driveway.

Trilling casually said, “My mom and grandpa have been here visiting for a few months. They’re helping my sister with the kids because my brother-in-law is a long-haul trucker.”

He said that his mom, who was named Mona, and his grandfather, Chet, would be there watching his sister’s toddler and infant while she worked as a bookkeeper at an auto-parts store in the next town.

A woman I took to be Mona Trilling opened the door as we walked up the driveway. I don’t know why it surprised me to realize that she was only a couple of years older than me. She had black hair and wide, dark eyes. She hugged Trilling like shehadn’t seen him in years, instead of only six days ago, which he had just told me was when he last came up to visit.

Trilling’s grandfather, Chet, came to the door behind Mona. He was a distinguished-looking older man, just under six feet tall with neatly trimmed gray hair and clear, dark eyes.

Chet asked, “Who’s this, Rob?”

Trilling said, “This is my partner, Michael Bennett, Pops.”

“Partner in the Army?”

“No, Pops. I work for the police now.”

The old man smiled and nodded.

They welcomed us into the living room. I chatted with Mona Trilling about the differences between New York and Montana. She told me how happy she was that two of her kids had ended up living near each other, so she could visit both of them at the same time. I gathered that Trilling’s older brother was running the grandfather’s car dealership back in Bozeman.

I said, “It’s nice that you and your father can drive across the country together to visit your children.”

“Oh, Pops isn’t my father. He’s my former father-in-law.”

“From what I hear you take really good care of him. I just assumed he was your dad.”

“No, but we’re close. After my husband left, Pops stepped up and really helped with the kids. I don’t know how much Rob has told you, but his father was not a good man. Anyway, Pops has always been very kind to me. And I intend to stick with him through the troubles I know are coming. Right now it’s just a little memory glitch. We’ve been told it’ll get much worse and he’ll start to act erratically. That’ll be tough on Rob. He loves his grandfather.”

I just sat there silently. That hit me hard. I couldn’t imagine my grandfather, Seamus, having those issues, even though he wasalmost ten years older than Pops. I listened to the banter between Trilling and his grandfather. In short snippets, you couldn’t tell there were any problems at all. They joked with each other. The elderly man brought up incidents from years before with perfect clarity. And it all made me a little sad.

Learning that Mona looked after an ex-in-law, I started to understand my new partner a little better. Apparently everything I’d seen on the job where he cared so deeply was no act. He had learned lessons about looking after other people, and I could see exactly where he’d picked up those traits.

Trilling and his grandfather went to the rear bedrooms to check on the napping children. As soon as they were out of the room, Mona Trilling turned to me and said, “Is my boy doing all right in the big city?”

“Everything I’ve seen says he’s caught on to life in New York pretty well.”

“You have no idea how I worried about him the whole time he was deployed. When he told me he was leaving active duty, I felt such relief, I didn’t know what to do. Then he goes and joins the New York City Police Department and I start to worry all over again.”

“He’s got a good head on his shoulders. And he knows how to take care of himself. I wouldn’t worry too much.”

“Do you know if he’s dating at all? I don’t want him to be lonely. He brought a young woman by in September for a visit. They were coming back from some weeklong VA retreat in Albany. Her name was Darcy and I think she worked for the VA. She seemed like a nice young lady, but I never heard anything more about her. And Rob is so private, I hate to ask him direct questions about his dating life.”

I thought about my own daughter texting Rob Trilling to ask him out. I looked at Mona and said, “I think Rob will be okay. We’re working a lot of hours right now while we’re on one case. Like every job, we have busy times and slow times. He’ll have time to figure out what he wants to do and who he wants to date.”

That seemed to satisfy his mother. Just then, Trilling stepped from the hallway, holding an infant, while his grandfather held the hand of a toddler.

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