Free The Vanishing by Jana DeLeon

brothers, even though they weren’t hers. “I’m sorry, man. I had no idea.”
    “You were a kid, too. It wasn’t your job to know those things or fix them.”
    Holt knew Max was right, but it still bothered him to know that Max had been alone so much when they were boys. Their father had fidelity issues, producing three sons with three different women, all born within a two-year span. He’d been married to Holt’s mother at the time, and she’d tried to stick it out after Max was born, but when another mistress turned up pregnant, she filed for divorce.
    Unfortunately, their father hadn’t been overly interested in being a good parent, either. He spent more time making money than he did making men out of his boys, which left most of the child-rearing responsibilities to their mothers.
    Holt’s mother and Tanner’s mother had never been able to resist their father’s charm, and he bounced in and out of their houses and lives for years. If he hadn’t been murdered, Holt had no doubt he’d still be playing them against each other. Only Max’s mother had cut him off completely, and now Holt realized that had left Max with even less parenting than he and Tanner had.
    “So what does any of that have to do with Colette?” Holt asked.
    “Colette’s a career woman. She’s dedicated to her job, and it’s not the sort of job you can be less dedicated to just because you feel like it that day. She’s got to be one hundred percent all the time or not do it at all.” Max shook his head. “Don’t get me wrong—I admire and respect that. I just don’t want it for myself. I especially don’t want it for my kids.”
    “So what…you want to put women back in the fifties? I have to tell you that may get you shot.”
    “Not at all. I just don’t want a woman in my life who’s chosen a career that has to come before everything else. I’m not going to do it, and I expect my spouse not to do it, either. I quit police work for that reason. It can swallow you up.”
    Holt rose from the pylon and clapped his brother on the shoulder. “Only if you let it.” He left the dock and walked back into the cabin.
    “You were right,” Holt said as he walked inside.
    “Of course, I was right,” Alex said. “About what this time?”
    “He’s got things on his mind.” Holt recounted their conversation. “I feel guilty that I never realized…”
    “If it makes you feel any better, I’ve never thought about it, either. Looking back with a different perspective, everything he says is clear as day, but it wouldn’t have been when we were kids.”
    Holt sighed. “He’s carrying a lot of anger around over his mother, not that I blame him after hearing all that. His views on careers and parenting are totally skewed, but I don’t think he’s ready to hear that things don’t have to be that way.”
    “No. In his mind, his mother made a choice between her job and him because she couldn’t do both. You and I know she could have chosen both, but she didn’t. That’s the part he doesn’t want to come to grips with—that she chose to cut him out of her life.”
    “Who the hell would want to come to grips with that?” Holt blew out a breath. “Given all that, I can’t even imagine what he thinks about our father.”
    “You’re going to have to ask. You’ll need help from him and Tanner if you ever want to solve your dad’s murder.”
    “I know, but the time’s not right just yet. Maybe when all this business with Colette is settled, I’ll pull out the files and go over everything with him.”
    Alex nodded. “You know him best.”
    Holt stared out the kitchen window, barely able to make out Max’s silhouette in the fading sunlight. “I used to think so,” he said.
    He turned to face Alex. “There’s something he’s not telling me. I could see it racing through his mind, on the tip of his tongue, but he wouldn’t let it out.”
    “Be patient. He’s trying to find balance in his own life. Right now,