“She’d listen to you, Mrs. T. I’ve been thinking on it.” The words came out fast now and seemed so logical to her. “Miss Laura, she hasn’t gone away with the girls for such a long time. She’s been working hard and hasn’t had a holiday. The spring vacation’s coming up for Ali and Kayla. They could go away for a while. You know how the girls love to go to Disneyland. If you put the notion in Miss Laura’s head, she’d take them. And it would give her time, and distance. She’d have a clearer eye about what she’s doing.”

“I think Laura and the girls deserve a break, but a week in Disneyland isn’t going to change her feelings for Michael, Annie.”

“She’s just caught up right now. If she had some time without him clouding her mind, she’d see that man for just what he is.”

At a loss, Susan threw up her hands, let them slap down on the arms on her chair in a show of impatience. “For God’s sake, Annie, what is he? Why do you dislike him so intensely?”

“He’s a brute is what he is. A brute and a user and probably a fortune hunter as well. He’ll hurt her in more ways than one, and I’m not having it.” She pressed her lips tight together. “I’m not.”

To clear her own temper, Susan took a long breath. “I want you to explain to me what he’s done.”

“You know very well that when he was no more than twelve he was sneaking around this house.”

“He was Josh’s friend.”

“And giving Mister Josh stolen cigarettes, daring him into all manner of foolishness.”

“Boys do foolish things at twelve. Christ, Annie, I taught my best friend how to smoke when we were fourteen. It’s stupid, but it’s children.”

“And was it a child’s foolishness that sent him to jail?”

“What’s this?” Susan’s face paled a bit. “Michael was in jail? How do you know?”

“I hear things. He was locked up for fighting. In a bar. Oh, they didn’t keep him but overnight, but they locked him up right enough. The man likes to use his fists.”

“Oh, for heaven’s sakes, I thought he’d robbed a bank or killed someone. I may not approve, but I can’t condemn a man for sleeping in a cell overnight because he punched someone in a bar. You don’t even know who started it, or why, or—”

“How can you make excuses?” Suddenly furious, Ann sprang up. “How can you? The man is with your daughter night after night. He’ll use them on her eventually. She’ll do or say something and he’ll use his fists on her the way he did on his own mother.”