Eve took out her pad and pen and began making notes. “What kind of discipline are we talking about?”

“Troy told me that Jared slapped him across the face for drinking out of a carton of milk. Knocked the carton right out of his hands and got milk all over him. Caty saw the whole thing. And gave him hell. She’s very protective of her brother. She treats him more like her child.”

Eve had felt the same way about her brother and sister when she was growing up. She still did.

“Where was Tanya?” Eve asked.

Cleve scowled. “She was off ‘acting’ somewhere when it happened. She thinks she’s a star. That’s why we split.”

She thought about Caitlin, caught between her mom and her dad and Jared, just trying to hold everything together, to create some kind of stability for herself and her brother separate from the shit happening around them. She knew exactly how Caitlin felt. In fact, just thinking about it brought back that same anxious pressure in her chest again, as if she were still trapped in that situation herself.

“Tell me more about why you broke up.” It probably wasn’t relevant but she wanted to keep him talking about the family dynamics and see if something useful to her came out.

“We’d been married about four years.” He took another sip of coffee, to fortify himself. “I was long-haul trucking because there was no work here. She was a housewife and doing plays at the community theater. The newspaper called her the ‘Meryl Streep of Merced.’ The talent pool isn’t very deep here. Before Tanya came along, a tree stump was the Meryl Streep of Merced. But it went to her head and she hated it here, not that I can blame her for that. So she took off for LA with the kids. I couldn’t fight her for custody back then. But I can now and I told her I would. That’s why she dumped Jared . . . which isn’t very Goddamn effective if you haven’t left his house, is it?”

Her question had paid off in interesting ways. His take on Tanya’s breakup contradicted Jared’s story. The truth was probably somewhere in between. It was too soon to tell if the difference was significant or not. She was more interested now in Cleve’s child custody battle with Tanya.

“What makes you think you can get custody of the kids now?”

“I’ve got a job that keeps me in town, I’m engaged, and Tanya’s an absentee parent with an abusive boyfriend who smacks my kids.”

“Did Tanya ever confirm any of the abuse?”

Cleve looked at Eve like she was a moron. “And give me ammo for the judge? Hell no. But the kids will. They hate Jared and love Emily.”

“Who is Emily?”

“My fiancée,” Cleve said. “We live together. She has two kids from a previous marriage. They are about the same age as Caty and Troy. We’ll be a real-life Brady Bunch.”