Schuyler Square Day 49 Kirk's Reaction

Kirk stared down at Ron Schuyler’s body, a sick feeling filling his gut. This was his father lying at his feet and he felt nothing. Absolutely nothing. With an effort, Kirk pulled his eyes away and focused instead on the crowd surrounding him. Everyone looked horrified but he noted that no one looked too surprised.

“Are you OK?” Mindy asked. She was still holding his hand tightly and Kirk could see the worry and concern in her eyes.

“Yeah, I’m all right,” Kirk responded.

“I wonder what happened,” Mindy murmured. “Who would have done something like this?”

“From what I’ve heard, Dear Old Dad had a list of enemies about a mile long. It’s going to hard to find someone in Schuyler Square who didn’t have a motive.” Like his mother. Oh, man, his mother. How was she going to handle this? Kirk still hadn’t figured out what kind of feelings his mom had toward Ron Schuyler. Was she still in love with him? Did she hate him? He knew she resented him. Hell, he did too. The man had never been in contact with her since she’d left Schuyler Square carrying his child. She had to resent him.

But had she resented him enough to be happy that he was dead?

“Is your mom here tonight?” Mindy asked, as if she was reading his thoughts.

“I don’t know. She was planning on coming but I haven’t seen her yet. I was late.”

“I know. I waited for you but then I decided to head over to the ball by myself. Where were you?”

Kirk didn’t answer. He wasn’t in the mood to be interrogated, not even by his live-in girlfriend. “I should find my mom.”

“You should,” Mindy agreed. “I’m going to stay around here for the story.”

His father’s murder was a news story. The sick feeling in his stomach grew stronger. “All right.”

They were interrupted by the sound of a woman speaking very loudly, almost hysterically. Kirk listened hard—was that his mother? He hoped not. Kirk knew what an intensely private woman his mother was and that she’d regret a public breakdown in the country club’s kitchen.

“What happened? Would someone please tell me what happened?”

Kirk and Mindy watched open-mouthed as Mavis Schuyler stormed into the room, her upswept hairdo flopping to one side like a drunken crow. She was missing one shoe and her dress looked torn, although Kirk wasn’t one hundred percent positive that it wasn’t supposed to look that way.

“Where’s Ron?” Mavis demanded. “Where’s my husband?”

“Oh, boy,” Mindy whispered under her breath. “This isn’t going to be pretty.”

One of the policemen grabbed Mavis by her elbows in an attempt to both stop her and steady her. “Mrs. Schuyler, something has happened to your husband.”

“I know that, you idiot!” Mavis shouted. “Someone told me he’s dead! Is that true? Let me go! I want to see Ron immediately!” She broke away from the policeman and stumbled into Kirk. He helped her stand up and for a moment he felt a flash of sincere pity for this woman. She was a victim, just as much as her husband was. Worse, she was going to have to live with the after effects of what had happened to Ron Schuyler.

Kirk experienced an odd sort of regret. No matter how much he had hated his old man—and over the past few months that hate had grown by leaps and bounds with every passing day—he hadn’t expected to feel this kind of pain when his father died. He hadn’t expected to feel like he’d lost something too.