Had her mom received a call from him, too?
Her mother led them into the dining room, which was already set with china and crystal. Her mother believed that every day was a cause to celebrate, so they used the good stuff on a regular basis. She motioned for her and Andie to take their usual places on either side of the table, seating herself at the end. Conversation waited while they filled their plates with the casserole, salad and rolls.
It seemed like lunch with John had been a decade ago rather than six hours. She couldn’t seem to get the food in fast enough, and she stopped momentarily to see her mother watching her with a wrinkle in her brow. Cassie put her fork down. “Sorry. I guess I was hungry.”
Her mother sighed and took a sip of wine from her glass. “I saw the write-up for the contest in the paper this morning.”
The hidden message being Cassie hadn’t called her with the news first. “I didn’t get home until late, then I had an early meeting at the Belvedere Foundation this morning.”
“So what’s the house like?” Andie asked as she buttered her roll.
How to describe the disaster? “Old and out-of-date. Run down from neglect and abandonment. But there’s potential there. I think we could really make something of this place.”
“You sound like your father when he started a job.”
Cassie glanced at her mother. “That’s good, right?”
Her mother made a face as if to dismiss the words. A look of pain entered her mother’s features before she took another sip of wine. If Cassie missed her father, how much more had her mother missed him? She never talked about it, but it had to have taken a toll. Especially while being under the scrutiny of the police. None of them had any answers at the time of his disappearance, much less after almost a year.
Cassie looked down at her plate, wondering if she should bring up her father’s call. It had been short, almost nothing. Less than sixty seconds. But it had stirred something in her. Something she needed to say aloud to her family, if no one else. She took a deep breath and turned to her mother. “He called me.”
Andie gasped and put a hand to her mouth while her mother set her wine glass on the table and leaned forward. “When?”
“This afternoon.” Cassie pulled the cell phone from her pants pocket and put it on the table. “He criticized me for entering the contest. That was it, then he was gone.”
Her mother’s jaw clenched and unclenched. “You need to tell the police.”
“I know, but—”
Her mother’s expression was one of total fury. “Cassandra Jane, you need to tell them. We can’t keep something like this from them.”
“There’s not much to tell, Mom. I tried calling the number back, but it keeps ringing.” She unlocked the phone and showed the call history. Seven times she’d called. And seven times he hadn’t answered.
Her mother rose to her feet and left the dining room. Andromeda took the phone from Cassie. She ran her finger over the display, pressed the number and placed the phone to her ear.
Cassie reached out for the cell, but her sister held it away from her. “I told you, he didn’t answer any of my calls.”
After a moment, Andie nodded and handed her the phone. “He knew about the contest. That must mean he’s in the area still.”
“Or he’s keeping track of us online. It’s not like you have to be in Detroit to know what’s going on.”
“He’s watching over you at least. He’s never called me.”
The bitterness in her sister’s words mirrored the sour look on her face. She placed her napkin beside her plate, then left.
Cassie glanced around the empty room. Despite the beautiful place settings and the delicious food, ugliness had found its way to mar the family dinner. She soon found her mother and sister in the backyard, her sister leaning against the deck railing while her mother walked along the perimeter of the yard pulling at weeds. Andie put a hand on Cassie’s arm when she started down the steps to join her mother. “Let her grieve.”
“He’s not dead.”
“He’s not coming back, so he might as well be.”
Cassie shook off her sister’s hand and met her mother by the lilac bush that had been planted there when she was born. She’d always thought of it as hers because of that. Now she snapped off a fragrant bloom and held it out to her mother. “I’m sorry.”
Closing her eyes, her mother held up the flower to her nose and took a deep breath. She reached out and patted Cassie’s shoulder. “It’s your father’s fault, not yours. He’s the one who got into this mess.”
“I’ll contact the detective to let him know Daddy called me.”
“It’s the right thing to do, Cassandra.” She looked up at the house. “The lawyer thinks we may have to sell the place to pay back the missing money that your father took.”
Andie joined them. “We didn’t take the money, so why should we pay it back?”
Cassie knew that even if they got top dollar, the sale of the house wouldn’t be enough to pay back everyone in full. More than half a million dollars was missing from the company’s accounts. “When were you going to tell us this?”
Their mother shook her head. “When I knew something more definite. Why get you upset over something that might not happen? I’ve been thinking about calling a Realtor to put it on the market.”
“If you do sell the house, where will you go?” Cassie asked.
Andie glanced at her, but Cassie shook her head. “My house is still under construction.”
“It’s been that way since you bought it two years ago. When are you planning on finishing it?” her sister scolded.
As soon as she had more money. She’d started renovating it right after she’d moved in, but the funds had dried up after the first year. Now she fixed things as time and money allowed. It was livable for her, but her mother had higher standards. Like a kitchen that had walls besides studs. “Mother could stay with you at your apartment.”
“On the pull-out sofa? I don’t think so.”
“Girls, I appreciate the offers but I’ll figure something out myself.” She put a hand on first Andromeda’s cheek, then Cassandra’s. “We’ll get through this like we have everything else.”
In Cassie’s mind, they’d gotten through it by not talking about it. At all. One day, her father had been there. The next, he hadn’t been, along with the half a million according to the detective assigned to the case. She had been questioned since she was directly involved with the construction business, but it became clear she had no idea where her father was or what he had done. She didn’t believe he could do the things they blamed him for. Her father was no thief, but she didn’t have an explanation for the missing money. His disappearance only added weight to their accusations.
Cassie slapped at a mosquito that nibbled
