Silent Fall by Barbara Freethy

Author:Barbara Freethy [Freethy, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Contemporary
Publisher: Onyx
Published: 2010-10-27T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Catherine couldn't believe Dylan's words. She squinted at the screen, taking a better look at the men. Ravino was a blond-haired man in his forties. He was lean, and his face was long and angular. Dylan's father's face was square, his shoulders broad like a football player's, his jaw strong and determined. Whatever they were talking about had brought tension to both of their expressions. Then Erica said something, and the men smiled. Ravino got up and followed Erica across the room. They stopped to speak to another man, who had his back to the camera, and then someone walked in front of the group, blocking them all from view.

"Damn," Dylan swore as the video went blank.

"Who was that?" Catherine asked.

"I don't know."

"Play it again."

They watched in silence as the video replayed. When they came to the last bit Dylan hit pause. "That ring looks familiar. Where have I seen that before?" He pointed to the ring on the finger of the man who now had his hand on Erica's back.

Unfortunately he couldn't see anything more than that hand, as someone in the forefront blocked the view. Dylan pressed play again, and the video shut off in exactly the same spot. Dylan played the video three more times, tapping his fingers impatiently on his desk with each run-through. Catherine could see the frustration in his face as he tried to identify other people in the video, but the only one besides Ravino whom he recognized for sure was his father.

She didn't know what it meant, but too many things pointed to Dylan's father to be ignored. The fact that she'd been drawn to the wedding photo at his grand-mother's house—even the fact that they were at his grandmother's house—seemed as if it were meant to be. But would Dylan's own father want to see his son put in jail? Given what she knew about the man—his pride, his big reputation—why would he want to risk that to hurt Dylan? Or was his dislike so intense, so strong, that he'd jeopardize it all to send Dylan to jail?

"Why does he hate you so much?" she asked. "You can't tell me you haven't wondered over the years where so much of his animosity comes from."

Dylan hesitated, then shrugged. "I came up with dozens of reasons, but who knows the truth? My father is a perfectionist, a control freak. He couldn't stand a messy room, a spilled cup, any kind of chaos, and I was the kid who always came home with dirt on my shoes and a rip in my clothes. It made him crazy, and Jake was better at following the rules than I was. My father used to say that if I weren't such a stupid fool, he wouldn't have to continually teach me a lesson."

Catherine was sorry she'd asked, seeing the pain in Dylan's eyes. She knew there was never a good reason for abuse, and most abusers justified their actions by claiming it was the victim's fault. Obviously Richard Sanders had done just that.

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