Seeing and Believing by Norah McClintock

Author:Norah McClintock
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lerner Publishing Group

Susan was at the house when I got back from the hospital. She was sitting on the sofa in the living room, not doing anything, which was unusual. Usually she was either reading or she had her binder open and was going over wedding details.

Today she just looked tense. I wondered why. I thought about Riel and his secret conversations and meetings with the mysterious Kate.

“Mike,” she said, standing up all of a sudden when I came into the room.

Riel appeared in the door to the kitchen. He was wearing an apron and had a wooden spoon in one hand.

“Did you see Sal?” he said.

“Yeah.”

“How is he?”

“He’s not going to be able to work for a while.”

“That’s going to be tough on his family, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

Riel was silent for a moment. Then he and Susan looked at each other. Susan seemed even tenser now. All I could think was, Uh-oh.

“What’s wrong?” I said.

“I’m afraid Susan has some bad news, Mike,” Riel said. “Well, maybe that’s overstating it. Maybe it won’t matter.”

I glanced at Susan. She shook her head.

“I’m so sorry, Mike,” she said.

Sorry? It didn’t sound good.

“Sorry about what?” I said.

Susan reached into the big purse she usually carried. It was on the floor at her feet. “About the videotape you made me,” she said, pulling out a videocassette and handing it to me. “I loaned it to Trish. She watched it. She enjoyed it, Mike. She said to thank you.” I looked at the cassette as I took it from her. It had a label on it now and a name I didn’t recognize—Jeremy. “The thing is, Mike—” She glanced at Riel.

“It got taped over,” Riel said.

“Taped over?”

“Trish’s son taped over it,” Susan said. Her voice was as shaky as her smile.

“It was an accident,” Riel said. “But, like I said, it’s probably no big deal. You were home that night. You had nothing to do with that robbery. I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”

I glanced at Susan again. I wished she looked as confident as Riel was trying to sound.

“I’m sorry, Mike,” she said again.

“It’s okay. It’s not your fault.”

Riel was still standing in the doorway to the kitchen. He studied me, as if he were trying to decide something. Then he dropped another bomb on me.

“Vin’s mother called,” he said.

I hadn’t spoken to Vin’s mother since last fall. One time I stopped in at a grocery store to pick up some things that Riel said we needed, and I had seen her across the store in another aisle. I got out of there fast. It was lame, I know. I mean, I had known her as long as I had known Vin, which was practically my whole life. I should have gone to talk to her. But I didn’t know what to say.

“Did she want to talk to me?” I said. I hoped she didn’t. I still wouldn’t know what to say.

“She wants you to call Vin.” That explained the look on Riel’s face. “She said she saw him today, and he asked her to ask you if you could call him.

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