to make light of something that had hurt her deeply, she said, “I don’t know what happened. After the divorce Bruce told me she agreed not to bad-mouth me in front of Brianna as long as I didn’t step foot in her house. I’m allowed to pull into the driveway, but have to wait for him to come out and get her from the car.”
His hand flew out of his pocket and into the air with such force it was a wonder his pants didn’t rip. “See what he does? He told me you said you couldn’t bear to see me again, and he’s told you Miriam said...”
Couldn’t bear to see me again... His words seemed to have...emotion...attached. Something she’d have to revisit. Later.
“No, that wasn’t the end of it,” she clarified, and then continued. “The first time I brought Brianna over to see Bruce, I went in with her. This was before he was living with Miriam. I was sitting on the couch, watching Brianna play on the rug, trying to reach for a toy Bruce had bought for her. Miriam came in the front door, saw me sitting there and went off on me. Asked me was I satisfied now that I’d ruined her Bruce’s life—and who did I think I was, invading his home after I’d hurt him so badly...”
“How did you hurt him so badly?” Mason’s expression was quizzical and she saw the conversation going off track again. But she answered anyway.
“By leaving him. He couldn’t believe I actually would. Especially with Brianna still a baby. He’d trusted me to always be there and then I wasn’t.” She got it completely. Knew how badly it hurt when people destroyed your ability to trust them.
When he seemed about to follow that up with another question—one she feared would be more in depth about the reason for her divorce—she barreled ahead. “Anyway, when I saw how much Miriam hated me, I told Bruce I didn’t think it was healthy for Brianna to be around her. Instead, he talked to Miriam, and the rest you know. I don’t go in the house. She doesn’t bad-mouth me around my daughter. I can’t explain why she didn’t mention any of this to you, but my guess would be that she didn’t mention me at all. She wasn’t going to risk losing her access to her great-granddaughter.”
“She’ll want to see her.”
Yeah. “We’ll think about it.”
“No, I mean today. It’s how I got her to agree to come with me. And to stay. She gets to see Brianna.”
Hackles rising, Harper said, “You had no business promising her that.”
“I had no idea you and Miriam were on bad terms. I thought I was bringing her to family.”
“Yet you didn’t call me last night.”
“You and Brianna are that family. I believed, remember, that you were part of the agreement that I never contact you again.”
“And you brought her here anyway, and then had Lila arrange the meeting.” In spite of his agreement not to contact her. Didn’t matter that there’d been no such agreement. As far as he believed, it had existed.
“Like I said, I thought she was family to you. You’d been so fond of her, and she talks about Brianna every time I see her. I was sure you’d want her here...and that you’d tolerate me because I was the only one who could get her to agree not to go back home. Which was where she was headed when I got the call from Albina Urgent Care.”
She dropped her pencil again. “I thought you went to the house when you got back to town.” Hadn’t he said so? Or only that he always went there on his first day back?
“When I got into town early, I called, but Bruce was home, off work for a couple of days, she said, so I told her I’d see her later in the week.”
“And you got a call from urgent care?” If she could have a damned minute to get to her morning reports she’d know these things.
“Yeah. She drove herself there—broken arm and all. And planned to drive herself home. They didn’t think that was a good idea. So she had them call me. Thank God I’d finished the job early and let her know I was in town.”
“So...if you weren’t at the house, how can you be sure she wasn’t telling the truth? That she didn’t fall off the stepladder?”
“The doctor told me he noticed a pattern of abuse when he examined her. The X-rays confirmed it. There’s a bruise on her arm, with finger marks, where the break is. Same with her chin. He tried to get her to tell him whose hand had been on her, but she kept insisting she’d fallen. So when I talked to her, I didn’t ask the same question. Instead, I asked who she’d seen that day. She told me Bruce. Just like she’d said when she called. But she also said she hadn’t called him to come and get her because he’d gone to the bar, and she didn’t like him to drive any more than the block or so home when he’d been drinking.”
The “cop” bar in town. A place where members of the force could hang out and unwind. Talk about cases. Support each other. Harper remembered it well. Had spent some good times there, actually.
Feeling almost giddy with relief, she had to point out, “Just because she saw Bruce doesn’t mean he did this, Mason.” There was still bad blood between the brothers. She’d hoped they’d joined forces to save their grandmother from harm. It would take something that serious to get Bruce to admit he needed his older brother, and maybe Mason was overreacting here...
As much as Bruce had idolized his brother, he’d also figured that people thought less of him because Mason was such a standout at anything he tried. His entire life, all Bruce had heard was what people expected of him because of the things his big brother had done. Harper guessed that was why Bruce had chosen to go undercover. It was dangerous work. Hard work. And it came with a load of trust, freedom and respect from the force. It was also something Mason had never done.
“I called my brother,” Mason said next. “I didn’t tell him I had Gram with me, or that she’d been to urgent care. He thought I was calling to arrange a time for me to be at the house for dinner with Gram. I told him she hadn’t answered when I called. Asked where she was. He said at home, where she’d been all day. I suggested maybe someone was with her, and he insisted he was the only one who’d been there and that he’d been home all day.”
“Still...you have no idea who could have gone there after Bruce left.”
“According to him and to Gram, he left around 7:45. Gram checked in to urgent care at 8:01, and the bruises on her chin were already purpling.”
Her chest tightened. For a lot of reasons. Most she couldn’t stop to think about. “You know you have no proof at all. Nothing you can charge him with. Not without her testimony.”
“Yeah.”
His gaze met hers, and she knew why he’d asked to see her. What he needed. Her help in finding a way to charge his brother with elder abuse.
She just wasn’t sure she had it to give.
MASON WAS ANXIOUS to get back to Albina, to get started on finding out everything he could about his brother’s life—and to stay the hell away from Harper until he could keep himself in check. But he hung around The Lemonade Stand for another hour that morning, sitting with Gram in a family visiting room
