The Perfect Liar (11 page)

Then, when she was seventeen, there was the twenty-six-year-old her father had hired to help out around the grounds and drive the hearse.

Mark Cannaby. He'd loved her, would do anything for her. But she couldn't forgive him for what happened with that hitchhiker chick. She'd only stuck with him because it upset her parents.

Mark gave her quite an education before her parents caught on and put a stop to it. They played "hide the salami" everywhere--in the yard, in the coffins, on the embalming table. It was Mark's fault she'd had to have her first abortion. When she was a couple months along, her mother had heard her on the phone, trying to find an abortion clinic close to home and had dragged her across town, where no one would know them. She'd had to claim she was a runaway without the means to pay or Norma would've thrown her out. And her relationship with Mark had stalled shortly after.

Why she'd gotten involved with him, she had no idea. At least he'd kept quiet about the hitchhiker they'd secretly kil ed and cremated.

He
should
have kept quiet. It was his fault. She never would've done it without him.

"I know of at least two guys you slept with," Tati said.

"That was it," Kalyna responded, but there'd been a number of sexual 82

conquests after Mark, including the postman. She stil laughed when she remembered him showing up at the door on any excuse, hoping she'd bring him to her room. She couldn't remember why she'd bothered with that old man in the first place. It wasn't as if she didn't have better candidates, especially once her e-mail address started circulating among the football players at the local high school. During what would've been her senior year, she met a group of boys at the cemetery down the street almost every Friday night and did them all. One time she had ten different boys taking turns with her. She'd wanted to do the whole team for homecoming, but someone spread the rumor that she had herpes and only a few showed up.

She got pregnant for the second time during those two months. She'd had no idea whose baby she carried, but she stil wished she'd told Logan it was his. Logan was the quarterback, but he never joined the group. He couldn't show up at the cemetery or someone would rat him out to his prude girlfriend, who'd barely let him kiss her, never mind get her naked.

He'd have Kalyna come to his house every few weeks, instead; he'd sneak her in through his window while his parents slept.

She liked being in his room, his bed, his space. Liked pretending
she
was his girlfriend. It made her feel as if she belonged with him, as if she was part of something good. His family was just an average middle-class American family, but he and his siblings went to public school, played sports, had lots of friends. She'd envied them and everyone associated with them.

Being pregnant and not using it to snag Logan was definitely a missed opportunity. She realized that now. But she'd been young and naive and so afraid of her mother finding out. She'd thought there'd be other opportunities, but she hadn't gotten pregnant since her second abortion.

"Anyway, the number doesn't matter," she told her sister. "Just because I've had sex with a few guys doesn't mean I wanted to have sex with this one."

Tatiana had reseated herself in the corner. "But you told me yourself that he was handsome. You said if I saw him, I'd stand in line to be with him. What was it about him you didn't like?"

Nothing. That was the problem. Luke Trussell was everything she'd ever wanted. Luke was Logan, only better. The way he'd made love to her 83

had been different than all the others. He hadn't been quick or rough or selfish. He'd treated her with respect, made her feel like he cared about her. And that was the worst cruelty of all because his gentleness made it so difficult to settle for less.

"I wasn't in the mood for sex and he forced it, okay?"

"Fine," Tati said with a sigh. "Forget I said anything. I--You're my sister, and I love you regardless. So, come on. I have to prepare a lady who came in yesterday for her funeral on Monday."

"I think I'm going to leave." Kalyna fingered the frayed hole in her blue jeans. What kind of vacation was this? Taking shit from her parents again, helping her sister work. Besides, she really wanted to see Luke again, wanted to see how her actions were affecting him.

"Leave when?" Tati asked.

"Tonight."

"No!" Her sister got up and came over to take her hands. "Not so soon, Kalyna. I'l be sad if you go. Talk to me while I work. Then we'l go out to dinner, my treat, and you can tell me what it's like in California."

"What about Mom and Dad? Wil they let you out of their sight?" The Harters were so worried she'd somehow corrupt Tatiana that they wouldn't be happy to see them go out alone.
You're nasty,
her mother had once told her.
Weird. Don't you dare put evil thoughts in your sister's head. She's a
sweet thing, got a chance of being normal.

"They can't object if we invite them," Tati said.

"I don't want to invite them." Kalyna wasn't sure how much more of her parents she could tolerate.
Do you know what a court-martial
is?...Damn it, girl, we should've turned you over to the state when we had
the chance...Oh, for crying out loud! You weren't raped! You can't rape the
wil ing, Kalyna...How many abortions have you had, anyway?

"Give them another chance," Tati coaxed. "They'l be nicer. You've driven all this way."

And she didn't have the money yet to get herself home. Maybe she'd been wrong to let her parents upset her. Norma and Dewayne had never liked her, not from the beginning, so nothing had changed. She'd come mostly to see her sister.

So she should stay for the weekend, as originally planned.

84

"Okay," she relented.

Tati smiled and clasped her in a quick embrace. "Let's go," she said, but Kalyna stayed behind long enough to slip Luke's picture back into her purse.

85

W
hen Kalyna's phone rang, she was with her sister at their favorite Mexican restaurant on Main Street, enjoying an after-dinner margarita. Her parents hadn't joined them because they'd bought some fast food when they dropped off the hearse, or so they said. Kalyna didn't believe them.

She knew they didn't want to be around her. It was a miracle they'd agreed to let Tati have dinner with her at all. Chances were they wouldn't have if Tati hadn't pulled them aside for a whispered conference.

"Don't you want to answer that?" Tatiana asked when Kalyna merely silenced the ringer.

"Not right now." Caller ID showed a Sacramento area code, and Kalyna wasn't sure she wanted to talk to anyone in California. Why deal with the backlash of leaving just when she was finally beginning to have some fun? But when the call came in again fifteen minutes later, she reconsidered. It didn't matter who found out she was gone. Her disappearance from the base wouldn't remain a secret for long. Major Ogitani had probably already been notified that she hadn't reported for work today.

She pressed the Talk button. "Hello?"

"Kalyna? It's Ava Bixby from The Last Stand."

Kalyna had suspected it had to do with the case. She didn't know very many people in Sacramento, other than a few guys she'd met at various dance places and bars.

Taking another sip of her margarita, she relaxed. There wasn't as much at stake with Ava as Ogitani. "What can I do for you, Ava?" she said.

"Who is it?" Tati wanted to know.

Kalyna covered the mouthpiece. "My caseworker at the victim's charity in California."

"Did I catch you at a bad time?" Ava asked.

"No, it's fine."

"Good, because I think we need to talk."

86

Something was up. Kalyna could tell by Ava's tone. In case this developed into a conversation she didn't want Tatiana overhearing, she started to get out of the booth. "Hang on a sec." She covered the mouthpiece again. "It's about the rape," she explained. "I'l just be a few minutes."

She felt Tati's gaze follow her as she walked through the restaurant.

It wasn't until she stepped outside and the door closed behind her that she had the privacy she needed. "I'm back." She picked a spot at the corner of the building, under the eaves, where she had a clear view of the door and the walkway from the parking lot.

"I got off the phone with your mother a little while ago," Ava announced.

A surge of anger made Kalyna grip her phone tighter. She hadn't expected this. Not from Ava. "You called my
mother?
Why?"

"To be honest, I'm a little confused."

"About what?"

"I'm getting conflicting stories, Kalyna."

Kalyna's stomach knotted painfully. "Then why didn't you come to me?"

"Because I wanted her perspective."

"Do you always investigate the victim instead of the perpetrator?"

"I investigate both. I can't look at a crime separately from the people involved--on both sides. That'd be like taking a controversial comment out of context. And a man's freedom could be at stake. We can't get this wrong."

Kalyna smashed a beetle scurrying across the concrete near her foot.

"I stil don't understand why you had to talk to my mother. If you'd asked me, I could've told you she hates me."

"So far, all I have is your account of what happened on June 6, Kalyna. What I need is another witness, some evidence, something to corroborate it. Can you help me out with that?"

"It's not just my account," Kalyna argued. "What about Luke's semen?

They swabbed my--"

"That proves you had sex," she interrupted, "not that he forced you."

"And the pictures? They prove force. You saw what he did to me."

87

"Again, we have only your word that he's the one who gave you those injuries."

"There wasn't time for anyone else to come in. You said so yourself."

"Your mother suggested another scenario."

Kalyna wrapped her free arm around her middle to control the nervous feeling in her stomach. Her mother had betrayed her once again.

From the time Kalyna had moved in she could remember her mother pulling her father aside to complain about her.
That child's not right,
Dewayne,
she'd say, and he'd click his tongue against his teeth and shake his head as if he agreed. "My mother wasn't there. How would she know what happened?"

"She raised you. She knows your history."

"You can't listen to her! Do you have any idea what it was like growing up with
her
as my mother?"

Ava's slight hesitation encouraged her.

"She kept us locked up in that morgue, day and night. If we did anything wrong, left a smidgeon of food on our plates or...or forgot to pick up a toy, she'd put us in the cooler with the dead bodies and turn off the lights."

"Do you have any proof of that?" Ava's voice was less strident.

Kalyna had managed to evoke some doubt. But how could she prove her words? She couldn't.

"No, of course not. We didn't dare tell anyone or she'd do worse."

"When you say
we,
you're talking about your twin sister?"

"Yes, Tatiana."

"Wil she corroborate these events?"

Kalyna began to chew on the ends of her hair like she used to do as a child. She wasn't completely certain of her sister anymore; maybe it hadn't been smart to drag Tati into this. "I don't know," she muttered. "She might have blocked it all out. Besides, it wasn't quite as bad for her."

"Why not?" Ava sounded doubtful again.

"My parents liked her better. They stil do."

"Do you have any other siblings?"

The heat was causing her clothes to stick to her. It was nearly nine o'clock but it didn't cool off in Arizona the way it did in California. "No. My 88

adoptive parents had fertility problems. They did have one son, but he was only two when he drowned in a neighbor's pool."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"I didn't know him. That was before my first set of American parents gave us up. But my mother never got over his death. I could never measure up to her own precious child." She added some extra bitterness to her voice for good measure but secretly smiled at how she'd tormented her mother over Robert's death. She used to get his little shoes out of the attic and place them on Norma's bed, shove his blanket between the sheets, knock his picture from the wall.

"Why didn't you go to school, Kalyna?" Ava asked.

"My mother wouldn't let me or my sister. She home-schooled us. I told you that already."

"Yes, you did. You said you followed the curriculum just enough to keep the state off your backs."

"That's true."

There was another pause, then Ava said, "Your mother told me you sometimes used to hurt yourself."

"You think that's where I got those injuries?"

"I'm wondering."

She wiped the sweat from her upper lip. It wasn't only the heat; it was nerves. She felt like she was melting. "That's ridiculous! How many people do you know who purposely cause their own injuries?"

"I don't know any," Ava conceded. "But I've heard it happens."

"With psychos, maybe. But I'm not psycho. How could my own mother say such a terrible thing?" The tears that began to fall were real.

Kalyna felt hemmed in on all sides. First her parents had let her know they weren't happy to see her. Then Tatiana had played the intermediary, making it plain that she held far more sway with them. And now this. Kalyna couldn't take much more.
Everyone
was turning against her. "She's always lied about me. She wants to make sure I have no one I can talk to who'l trust me. She enjoys hurting me, enjoys alienating me from any friends I might make."

"Kalyna, calm down," Ava said.

But Kalyna couldn't calm down. If she allowed Ava to believe she was 89

lying, Ava would feel obligated to tell Major Ogitani, and then Major Ogitani would very likely drop the case. After that, Kalyna would have no hope of ever speaking to Luke again. They'd assign her to a new flight squadron or possibly transfer her off the base. Or worse...bring her up on charges. Even if she stayed at Travis and managed to avert legal trouble, he'd go out of his way to avoid her. He'd get with another woman who was just as eager to be his lover, and she'd be left as she was before--with a craving only he could fulfil .