12 Addison

Even with two police cars parked along Belvedere, she'd barely slept. The morning came and went. The same old routine of Josefina arriving at six thirty sharp and making coffee and starting breakfast while Addison woke the kids. The old house seemed larger and even more empty in the daylight. Last night, Preston had slept in her bed worried that the one-armed man would return. She didn't blame him. She'd held Preston tight and lied, saying everything was okay and he'd been a hero by setting off the alarm. But in truth, the man had both scared the hell out of her and confused her. Who the hell was Peter Collinson and what did he have to do with Dean's disappearance? Mr. Hayes had shown up last night and talked with the police, but he insisted on searching for Dean today on his own while she got a rest. That's funny, even with two Klonopin, she could barely close her eyes. She sat in Dean's study, curled up on his manly leather couch that reeked of cigars and whiskey, when the phone rang and a caller ID showed Sara Caroline's school was calling. For fuck's sake, what could it be now?

"Mrs. McKellar?" a woman said. "This is Miss Perry at Hutchison. Sara Caroline is here with me in my office. I wonder if you might be able to pick her up early? There's been a small incident."

"A small incident?" Addison said, throwing her head back on Dean's leather couch and staring at the ceiling. "Is she okay?"

"Sara Caroline is fine."

"I'm so sorry," Addison said. "But can you handle this and we can talk later? At the moment, I'm juggling some very complicated personal issues."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Miss Perry said. "But your daughter assaulted a member of her lacrosse team this morning. I've had a nice chat with both girls. But we feel it's best if you could come and pick her up."

"What happened?"

"Sara Caroline says her stick slipped and she accidentally broke Bailey Carlisle's nose."

"But you have your doubts?"

"Mm-hmm."

"How bad is it?" Addison asked.

"We feel Bailey may be out for some time," she said. "There was a lot of blood. Plastic surgery has been discussed."

Forty-five minutes later, Addison was out of her silk pajamas and into her uniform of leggings and a black T-shirt and sitting in Miss Perry's office. This wasn't the first time she'd been invited into Miss Perry's office. In the spring, Sara Caroline had decided to call her geometry teacher a bitch, denying the whole thing but later admitting that she'd said it, but under her breath. "There's no freakin' way she heard me," Sara Caroline had said, pleading with her and Dean not to be grounded.

"Sara Caroline said there's been some problems at home," Miss Perry said, which Addison thought was a rude comment as it was absolutely none of her business.

Miss Perry—only the DMV and God knew her first name—was in her late fifties or early sixties but seemed to have been at Hutchison since the very founding of the school after the turn of the last century. She wore her stark white hair in a blunt bob and had the calm, irritating voice of an NPR announcer.

"We are looking at suspension," Miss Perry said.

"For how long?"

"That's up to the administration."

"Christ," Addison said, looking to Sara Caroline, sulking in her black-and-gold lacrosse uniform. "Can you just please hold off on that for a while? Like I said, I have some very complicated personal issues I'm juggling."

"And we are very sorry to hear that," she said. "Has there been a death in the family?"

Sara Caroline looked over at her, her long blond hair obscuring most of her face. Her eyes looked red and puffy from crying.

"Not yet," Addison said. "But I wouldn't be surprised."

"How terrible," Miss Perry said, fingering the white hair away from her glasses. "I don't mean to pry, but is someone ill?"

Miss Perry seemed to delight in having the upper hand this morning, probably still nursing a sore ass from the argument she'd had with Addison last year about the whole "bitch" incident. She'd just love to suspend her daughter for as long as possible, even though Bailey Carlisle probably would've gotten a nose job anyway. Half of Bailey's mother had been redone in the shop, from her overinflated lips to her massive breasts that she loved to show off in tight little sparkly tops.

Addison said nothing. She smiled.

"Sara Caroline's father is out of the country," she said. "It's added a lot of pressure in the house."

"That's bullshit, Mom," Sara Caroline said. "I heard you and Aunt Libby last night. Dad is missing. You don't know where the fuck he's gone."

"Sara Caroline."

Addison was pretty sure she saw a smile on Miss Perry's face. Why is it that people with the smallest offices and the tiniest amount of power like to complicate other people's lives? If Miss Perry could just get out and get some perspective, she would realize there was more to the world than the revolving soap opera of teenage girls at Hutchison. Real-world problems like one-armed burglars making goddamn turkey sandwiches in her unfinished kitchen late in the night. Or a husband who flew off to London only to completely go off the grid. So sorry for little Bailey Carlisle and her busted nose. But she did not have time for this.

"The headmaster will be calling later," Miss Perry said.

"That's it?" Addison said.

"I'm afraid so," Miss Perry said. "And I'm sorry to hear about your personal issues."

Addison stood up and motioned for Sara Caroline to come on. Sara Caroline, still in knee socks and cleats and wielding the offending weapon like a staff, walked with her to the door.

"I do know a number of family therapists that might help," Miss Perry said.

"That's so very kind of you, Miss Perry," Addison said. "I bet you can't wait to pass along to the staff and all the other parents that the McKellars' perfect little family has turned to dog shit."

"Everything we say here is private."

"As it should be."

"But we can't have our girls assaulting each other," she said. "Several girls said Sara Caroline used her stick as a weapon."

"It slipped," Sara Caroline said.

Addison closed her eyes and held up the flat of her hand.

"Come on," she said. "Let's go home."

As they walked through the halls and toward the front offices, Addison muttered under her breath, "Why'd you do it?"

"Bailey Carlisle is a supreme bitch," she said. "She told everyone that Dad had left us because you were dating some old Black pimp. And that you and this Black man had shown up at the Club yesterday making a big scene."

So this is how fast it all starts.

Addison walked past the school secretaries and toward the front door to the parking lot. She held the door for her daughter. "How much blood?" Addison asked.

"So much," Sara Caroline said. "What's going on, Mom?"

Out in the school parking lot, Alec Dawson was standing by Addison's Escalade.

It had been some time since she'd seen Alec. When their business partnership split, Dean had forbidden her to even talk to Alec's wife, Susan, who was now Alec's ex-wife. And even worse, he wouldn't let Sara Caroline have anything to do with Alec's daughter, Ellie, despite them being friends since preschool. The whole business breakup had been worse than any nasty divorce. Addison hadn't seen Alec since the Cotton Carnival two years ago, where they caught each other's eye across the banquet floor and Addison offered only a slight nod. She'd felt like such a bitch.

"Hello," she said.

Sara Caroline, dirty and disheveled, cut her eyes at Addison, knowing how her father felt about Alec Dawson. She and Sara Caroline stood shoulder to shoulder under a big green-and-white golf umbrella.

"Picking up Ellie," he said. "Orthodontist."

Alec had on a navy raincoat over his suit and held up a black umbrella. The rain had settled into a slight drizzle, dappling the puddles. His dark hair was wet, slicked back from his forehead. His light blue eyes seemed to go soft, something like sympathy in them, and Addison thought, Holy fucking shit, he's heard something, too.

"Mom," Sara Caroline said.

"In a minute," Addison said, pressing unlock on her key fob. Sara Caroline walked ahead and placed her stick inside the SUV. "I need to talk to Mr. Dawson."

"Mom."

"In a minute."

Sara Caroline crawled into the passenger seat and slammed the door. Alec smiled and reached out to Addison's shoulder. "I met with Mr. Hayes this morning," he said. "I told him everything I knew about Dean. I'm so very sorry for you guys, Addy. Shit. I wish I could do something, but you know I haven't talked to Dean in a really long time."

"Did you hear that I made a big scene at the Club yesterday?"

"I haven't been to the Club in years," he said. "I hate that damn place."

"What did you tell Mr. Hayes?"

"I told him about Dean embezzling from the company," he said. "I told him about the lawsuit. And I told him about all the affairs. I'm sorry, but I figured you'd want me to be straightforward and honest."

"What affairs?"

Alec laughed. Not in an asshole-ish way, but as if something was genuinely funny.

"I'm serious, Alec," she said. "Jesus. What are you saying?"

"I said I wasn't surprised that Dean had disappeared," he said. "He has girlfriends all over the place. You know that."

"Sure." Addison reached up with her free hand and grabbed a hunk of hair, trying to stifle a scream. "Fuck," she said. "Fuck, fuck, fuck."

"I'm sorry," he said. "I figured you knew."

Alec rested a hand on Addison's shoulder. He continued to stare at her with his clear blue eyes. The dark outline of a beard on his jawline. He looked as solid and steady as she was wobbly on her feet. She recalled a time back in college when she'd been trashed and he'd hoisted her over his shoulder, carried her into her apartment, and tucked her in bed. She awoke the next day in her cocktail dress, a small trash can positioned thoughtfully next to the bed.

"I didn't know," she said. "But I suspected. Where do you think he is, Alec?"

"Mr. Hayes said you told him London."

"It's been more than a week," she said. "Nothing. The kids are scared. Preston ran off a lunatic with one arm from our house last night."

"I heard."

"And today Sara Caroline broke Bailey Carlisle's nose with her lacrosse stick," she said. "Because apparently people are saying that Porter Hayes and I are a hot item because we showed up at the Club to ask that son of a bitch Jimbo Hornsby what he knew."

Alec shook his head, water beading off the top of his black umbrella. The rain picked up and slanted sideways in the lot. "I could've saved you the trouble," Alec said. "Jimbo Hornsby would eat dog shit if Dean told him to. He's been protecting his dirty deeds for years."

Addison bit her lip. She could see Sara Caroline pouting behind the windshield, occasionally looking at her mother and shaking her head.

"Dean said you were the one who stole from the company," she said. "He called you a pathological liar."

"Of course he did," Alec said. "Dean does for Dean."

Addison looked straight at Alec, who was still so comforting and familiar, a huge part of her life going all the way back to Ole Miss. He'd been a KA and she'd been a KD, and after a million frat parties and late nights off the Square, they'd become really great friends. Then they'd both ended up in Manhattan, and Alec worked at the same firm as Dean. A really cool guy you just have to meet. Dean had arrived early to a Christmas party and Alec was late...

"I think he's dead."

"Don't say that, Addy," he said. "I hate Dean's guts more than anyone. But I don't want that on my conscience."

"I'm serious," she said. "He wouldn't disappear like this. For the last two years I thought Dean got up and went to his nice office downtown. Wrong. There's no fucking office. I thought he had a nice secretary who took care of all his business. Wrong. It was some big redneck woman down in Southaven who does dirty work for Jimbo Hornsby. And now you're telling me that he's been fucking everything that moves."

Inside the Escalade, Sara Caroline had scooted over in the driver's seat and started to mash the horn. Just when Addison thought they'd developed a nice mother-daughter bond, up walks her husband's archenemy to spotlight Sara Caroline's true loyalties. A daddy's girl to the last.

"Can I call you?" she said.

"Anytime," Alec said. "I want to help."

He offered another sympathetic smile but she didn't mind it at all. She smiled back and opened the driver's door, watching Sara Caroline scoot over.

"Dad hates that man's guts."

"I know."

"I don't trust him, either."

"Maybe we should," Addison said. "You're old enough to understand exactly what's been going on."