Dark Homecoming Read Online Free PDF

Now she had married and moved away—leaving Mom on her own to fend for herself. Sure, she had Deanne and George, but George was a pothead and Deanne was still in school.
    Once again, Nicki’s words: You can’t go on living your life for your mother.
    But Mom was only as fragile as she was because Dad had left her, and Dad had only left because Liz and her siblings had been too much to handle.
    That was the guilt that festered in Liz’s heart of hearts.
    And that was why she didn’t want to rock the boat with David. That was why she was so timid with him, so reticent about asking him hard questions or requesting he take down his first wife’s portrait right away. She wasn’t going to make a big deal about comments made by an unhinged young man. If Jamison needed to be fired, that was David’s decision. But Liz wasn’t going to speak of it again. If she did—if she proved to be too much trouble, if she didn’t do what she was supposed to do—she believed subconsciously that David would leave her, just as Daddy did all those years ago.

5
    T hat night, at Mickey’s Bar, a very dejected young man asked for a beer. The bartender complied, filling up the glass at the tap and sliding it across the bar toward the young man. He took a sip, getting foam on his upper lip.
    â€œWhy so glum, Jamison?” a female voice asked from behind him.
    Jamison turned around. “Oh, hello, Rita,” he said.
    The pretty maid from Huntington House sidled onto the next stool. “You look like you just got run over by a truck,” she said, signaling to the bartender to pour her a beer as well.
    â€œI might as well have,” Jamison replied. “I was fired.”
    â€œNo way!”
    â€œMr. Huntington fired me. Told me to get out and not come back.”
    Rita sipped her beer, daintily wiping her lips with her napkin. “That doesn’t sound like Mr. Huntington. He’s usually so nice.”
    â€œWell, he wasn’t very nice tonight.”
    â€œBut whatever did he fire you for? What reason did he give?” She smiled, batting her lashes lightly at him. “I think you’re a very hard worker, Jamison.”
    The young man scowled. “He fired me because I told the truth.”
    Rita lifted an elegantly manicured eyebrow in his direction. “The truth?”
    Jamison nodded. “I told the new Mrs. Huntington about Audra.”
    Rita was silent for a moment, seeming unable to absorb what Jamison had just said. Then a small smile tickled the ends of her mouth. “You . . . did . . . not!”
    â€œI did. I just couldn’t see that poor unsuspecting girl brought into that room and not being told about what had happened there.” Suddenly Jamison banged his fist on the bar, nearly upsetting his glass of beer. “I was raised to be a good Christian, Rita, and you just don’t withhold that kind of information from someone! That’s not being very charitable, to say the least. If anything had happened to Mrs. Huntington, and I hadn’t said anything, then I’d be partly to blame.” He looked intently over at her. “We all have to watch out for each other. That’s Christ’s teaching, right there.”
    â€œWell, I admire your convictions,” Rita said, “but telling the boss’s new wife something like that before he has the chance to tell her himself was really asking for trouble, Jamison. You have to see that.”
    â€œHe wasn’t going to tell her,” the young man insisted. “That’s just it. That’s why I had to speak up.”
    â€œHow do you know he wasn’t going to tell her?”
    Jamison’s eyes were big like saucers, full of indignation. “Mrs. Hoffman told me before they arrived that Mr. Huntington would never say a word to his wife about Audra, or about anything bad that had happened in the house since the first Mrs. Huntington died.” He slumped