Point Blank

Dix said, pulled her against him, Brewster between them, barking his head off, and kissed her.
    Dix pulled back almost immediately and pressed his forehead to hers. “Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to
    —Well, yes I did.”
    He pulled Brewster away from Ruth, hugged him, then set him on the floor. To his surprise, Brewster didn’t take offense. He sat looking up at them, his head cocked to one side, tail wagging. Ruth felt a bit shell-shocked. She swallowed, cleared her throat. “Ah, I’m not sorry, either. Actually, I
    —”
    “Dad!”
    “What’s that smell? Oh, Brewster got you, Ruth?”
    “Yeah, he did, Rafe. Hi, guys. What’d you make for dinner?”
    Rafe and Rob looked at each other. “Well, we were sort of waiting for you.”
    “Pizza,” Rob said. “I can put frozen pizza in the oven.”
    “You mean,” she said slowly, looking back and forth at them, “you guys let your father do all the work?”
    “Well, sometimes ladies bring us food.”
    “We do laundry and clean our rooms.”
    “He doesn’t have to cook so much, really. We’d be happy to eat pizza more often,” Rob said. Dix said, “I’m going to broil some fish and bake potatoes. Rob, Rafe, finish up your homework in the next hour.”
    “Oh yeah, sure, Dad.”
    “I don’t have any.”
    “Like I’m going to buy that one. I want you both in your rooms, studying. No TV, no earphones.”
    “Dad?”
    Dix heard a thread of something in Rafe’s voice he hadn’t heard in a long time. He wondered if the boys had seen him kiss Ruth. Better if they hadn’t; it was too soon. “What is it, Rafe?”
    Rafe shot a look at his brother, then looked down at his sneakers. “Mrs. Benson, my math teacher, was crying today. You know, she knew all three of the murdered people.”
    Dix picked up Brewster, stuffed him into his coat, zipped it halfway up, and brought both boys against him. “I know this is tough. You can bet it’s tough for Ruth and me, too. I told you straight last night—I will catch the person behind these murders, I promise you that.”
    Rafe tried to smile. “By Tuesday.” He pressed his face against his father’s shoulder. “That’s what I told Mrs. Benson. She swallowed hard and said she sure hoped so since she voted for you.”
    Dix said slowly, looking from one face to the other, “Is there anything else you want to talk about?”
    Rafe hugged his father’s waist. Rob was slower, stepped back so he could look squarely at his father. Dix saw, to his shock, that Rob looked no more than two or three inches shorter than he. When had he shot up like this? He was filling out, too, his shoulders less bony, his chest and arms thicker. “Tell me what’s wrong, Rob.”
    Ruth stood silently, knowing she probably shouldn’t be there, but that didn’t help her feet move. She held still and kept quiet.
    Rob stole a look at her. “I saw you kiss Ruth, Dad.”
    Rafe jerked back, stared at his father then at Ruth. “You kissed her? When?”
    “A minute ago,” Rob said.
    “Yeah,” Dix said, “I did. Maybe I didn’t plan it, but I did.”
    “Well, if you really didn’t mean to—” Rob said, and looked closely at his father.
    “That wasn’t exactly the truth,” Dix said. “I wanted to, although I knew I shouldn’t, but I did anyway. Either of you got a problem with that?”
    There was a moment of charged silence, then Rob whispered, “It’s Mom.”
    Dix had known this moment would come, sooner or later, when a woman finally came into his life. In the days after Christie disappeared, Dix had wandered around in a fog of pain, too busy trying to find her to try to sort things out with the boys. When his brain began to clear some weeks later, he realized the boys very much needed to talk with him about their mother. He also realized he needed them as much as they needed him. What he gave them was as much honesty as he could. In return they got into the habit of always telling him what they were feeling. At least he’d believed that was the case. As for himself, he’d let his own pain stay buried, for the boys’ sake, and they slowly adjusted, accepted what couldn’t be changed. Until now, when his kissing Ruth had finished their unspoken agreement. Dix ran his hands through his sons’ hair, love, pain, and guilt sweeping over him, nothing new in that. But now Ruth was added to the mix.
    Rob said again, “It’s Mom.”
    Dix said, “I know, Rob, I know. But your mom’s been gone for almost three years