Second Chance by Jonathan Valin

chair in front of him.
    "I'm glad you're here," he said.
    "I'm afraid I don't have anything to report
yet."
    He nodded stupidly. His blue eyes had lost their
piercing intensity. His speech was dulled too, as if he were heavily
tranquilized.
    "The police . . . ?"
    "I reported Ethan and Kirsten as missing
persons. That's all the police know."
    I thought that would please him, but it didn't.
    "I've given you the wrong impression," he
said, looking pained. "I do that sometimes."
    He tried to draw himself up in his chair, grimaced,
and slumped back again.
 
"I
want you to find my children. I don't care what it costs or what it
takes. I was wrong to react the way I did last night. I was thinking
of myself, of my own feelings. You know now that my first wife,
Estelle, committed suicide. The thought of having that tragedy
dredged up again and publicized . . . it unnerved me."
    "You don't have to apologize."
    "I feel that I do. I feel that I owe you an
explanation of why I withheld certain facts about Kirsten and Ethan.
It was not because I don't love them. On the contrary, I'm afraid
that I've loved them too much." The man blushed furiously, as if
his love for his children was shameful. "When you lose someone
you hold dear, when you lose that person to irrational violence, you
hold even more tightly to those who are left behind. I have done that
to my children. In trying to protect them I have smothered them. Now
I'm afraid that it's my fate to lose them too—to lose all that I
love."
    Pearson's lips trembled violently.
    "It is my failure as a father that I was trying
to conceal from you," he said with effort. "It was my
failure as a husband that made me a coward."
    I shouldn't have said anything at all. But I did. "I
think you may be shouldering too much blame."
    He shook his head. "You don't know. The children
do."
    This time I didn't answer him.
    "You have a plan of some kind?" Pearson
asked.
    "To try to find the man from the newspaper
before Ethan and Kirsty do. The police will be looking for their car.
We'll notify local hotels, hospices, and hospitals. Someone should
spot them soon."
    "Good. I've canceled my appointments for the
week. I'll be here if they decide to come home."
    "Do they have any special friends in town?"
    "I don't think so," Pearson said. "At
least I don't think Kirsty does—she's always been so shy. I haven't
seen Ethan in some years."
    Pearson stared forlornly at his desk, as if he was
struck by the pathos of what he'd just said.
    "Find them, Mr. Stoner," he said heavily.
"Bring them back. Give me the chance to make amends."
    " I'll do all I can,"
I told him.
    * * *
    After finishing with Pearson I went back down the
hall to the living room. Sacks and Cora Pearson had left, and Louise
Pearson was sitting alone by the fire. She stood up as I came through
the door.
    "Thank you again, Mr. Stoner," she said
warmly. "For everything."
    "I'm working for you. No thanks are necessary."
I
    "Thanks anyway for sticking with us, especially
after the mixed signals I gave you yesterday. I was very wrong about
Kirsty. I thought she was recovering. Maybe she would have if Ethan
hadn't shown up. He's always had a powerful effect on her, although
he's never managed to talk her into doing anything this stupid
before."
    From the disgust in her voice, it was obvious that
she had had her fill of her stepson long before Sunday night.
    "Ethan's given you trouble in the past?"
    "He's been nothing but trouble," Louise
Pearson said wearily. "He's never forgiven Phil for Estelle's
death. And he never will, in spite of Phil's efforts to bribe him
back into the family."
    "Your husband gives Ethan money?"
    "Since he was a kid. It's all that's left
between them—the blood money that Phil gives him every month."
    "Why do you call it blood money?" I asked.
    She smiled. "I meant the term loosely, though in
some way I suppose Phil is compensating Ethan for Estelle's death.
And keeping this stupid obsession alive."
    "Has Ethan ever been in