Roark

by AC Arthur

  Roark noticed Pierce had taken out a notepad and pen and was scribbling something as Sandra spoke. Tamika sat on the arm of the couch where her mother was seated. She’d had one arm wrapped around Sandra’s shoulders when her mother had first sat down, but once Sandra was settled, she’d pulled that arm away. Cade stood closest to the fireplace, his gaze intent but compassionate as he watched Sandra carefully. Roark inhaled a deep breath and prepared to hear about a time in his parents’ life that he’d never thought he needed to know.

  “Friday night, we were all ready to party.” Sandra chuckled, but the sound died in her throat as she blinked and shook her head slowly. “We were still so young, no matter how the years kept piling on our lives. We had so much growing to do.”

  She crossed one ankle over the other and took a slow breath. “Lem and I had been going together for three years by then. We’d met at freshman orientation and had been inseparable from that moment. Lem was studying business because his father wanted him to get a desk job, maybe as a supervisor or something at the Social Security Administration where he worked. Maxie, that’s what we called your mother.” She looked at Roark then and blinked a few times as if waiting for him to say something.

  He smiled. “I’ve never heard that nickname for her.”

  “You look like her a little. Right around your eyes and when you smile.” She was nodding now. “I can definitely see Maxie in you when you smile. That’s because she was such a happy spirit. She loved to dance and sing, and she could write so well. We all thought she was going to go on to become a great novelist. But then we all knew she and Gabe were gonna get married too. They were so in love you could feel it vibrating between them whenever they were in the room. I didn’t know Gabe had died so young. Not until Maxie mentioned it in that first letter she sent to me.”

  “When was that, Mrs. Rayder?” Cade asked the question, but his tone was anything but profiler-like. He was speaking in a smooth, calm tone Roark figured must work on witnesses they were trying to get to remember painful things.

  “About two years ago,” Sandra replied. “I remember because it was just before me and Lem’s thirty-ninth wedding anniversary. They’d been at our wedding, Gabe and Maxie, and so she sent us an anniversary card, but it came addressed only to me. Inside the card was a letter. That’s when she told me all about Gabe’s death and her children and how she’d led the best life. By the time that letter was finished, I knew something was wrong. But I just thought maybe Maxie was sick or something.”

  “Did you ever write her back, Mama?” Tamika asked.

  Sandra nodded. “I did. We exchanged a letter every month from that time up until the month Lem passed.”

  “Was she writing to your husband that long, as well?” This was Pierce asking, and Sandra jerked her head around to see he’d taken a seat in the chair near the window.

  “I don’t think so. At least, Lem didn’t tell me about getting any letters from her until early last year. He said she’d sent it to his job instead of to the house. I guess she could’ve been doing that all along, but Lem would’ve told me.” The way Sandra inhaled deeply, her shoulders sagging a bit more when she exhaled, answered the question Roark was sure everyone in the room was thinking.

  Would Lem have kept it a secret if Max had been writing to him longer? Sandra said she didn’t know for sure, but Roark suspected she knew it was a possibility.

  “Lem came home one day and just said he didn’t die.” She began shaking her head again and this time started to rock her legs as well. “He kept saying he didn’t die for about ten or fifteen minutes. My husband dealt with so much death on the job I just thought he was talking about somebody who’d been caught in a fire. But he wasn’t.”

  Tamika returned her hand to her mother’s shoulder.

  Sandra cleared her throat and continued. “That night long ago we all went out for Tony’s birthday, we piled into his Lincoln Mark VII. That’s when cars were big and fancy lookin’. We were heading over to the next town to this club where they served liquor to minors. Tony didn’t think he should’ve been the only one getting drunk that night. Anyway, it didn’t matter that they were serving any age, ‘cause me and Max didn’t drink anyway. Ronnie did. That girl loved to drink, and she could dance too. But she danced like those women in the clubs, not like Max did. Ronnie could do things with her hips that even me and Max couldn’t understand. And she was beautiful, all that long, pretty hair hanging down her back and those light-colored eyes. Kinda like yours.” Sandra nodded toward Cade. “Men loved Ronnie, and she loved them right back. But most times though, she loved Kaymen.”

  Everyone in the room perked up at the mention of his name.

  “Those two had that explosive-type love. Like one minute they’d be kissin’ on each other like they were about to have sex right there in front of you, and the next minute they’d be arguing so hard and loud you’d take cover because you weren’t sure when punches or furniture might start to fly.”

  “Kaymen Benedict was violent.” Pierce was probably just speaking out loud as he wrote, but Sandra immediately looked at him.

  “Kaymen was a good guy. He wasn’t an angry man. He was smart and had good sense. He was going to college to make something out of himself. But he and Ronnie, they just weren’t meant to be.

  “Everybody got drunk except me and Max, but we didn’t have our license. So Gabe drove, because he wasn’t as drunk as the others. It was late, and we’d just decided to pitch in and get a motel room. We had to use the money we had on us and not any of Gabe or Tony’s family money. Their parents would have a fit if they knew we were that far away from school and going to motels at that. But then it started raining, and the car was going so fast until it just seemed like we were flying.” Sandra pressed a hand to her chest.

  “Do you want to stop? Do you need something to drink? I can get it for you,” Tamika said.

  “Yes ma’am, if you need a break, we can definitely take one,” Cade said.

  “No. I need to get this out.” Sandra lifted her chin and took a slow breath. “The car ran off the road, and we went down into a ditch. Thank the good Lord we all managed to get out after the immediate shock. We made it up that little incline and to the road and just started walking as fast as we could. If anybody found us out there, we’d have been in a world of trouble. Underage drinking for some those of us that weren’t twenty-one, drunk driving for Gabe and the crash. Gabe told Tony to just report the car stolen when we got back to school. We were gonna walk the short distance to the motel and get that room and then in the morning call a couple of cabs to take us back to school.

  “Rain was just pouring. When it rained like that while the sun was out, my momma used to say it meant the devil was beatin’ his wife.” Sandra was back to clasping her fingers again. “It was pitch black the night of the accident, but I think the devil was born in that fire.”

  * * *

  “What happened when you got to the motel?” Pierce asked.

  “That’s when we noticed Kaymen wasn’t with us,” she said slowly. “We all thought he was there. I mean, we just kept walking through all that rain, and it was so dark and cold. Nobody was talking much after Gabe told us what we were gonna do, so we just walked. But when we realized he wasn’t there; we didn’t go back.”

  The room was silent again.

  “Tony said if Kaymen didn’t get out with us, he must’ve been dead. So we didn’t go back. None of us slept that night, either. And in the morning, we saw on the TV in the motel room that a car had exploded in a ditch and was burned to a crisp by the time the police got there.” Tears ran slowly down her face.

  “Kaymen was dead for real. That’s what we all thought, and we knew we couldn’t tell anybody, or we’d all be in trouble. There was nothing more to talk about, we just left that motel. Ronnie cried for weeks, and me and Max had to finally get her to snap out of it before she got us caught. We couldn’t get in trouble. Me, Lem, Ronnie and Max, we didn’t have the type of money Gabe
and Tony had. Their rich families would’ve gotten them good lawyers, and they probably would’ve never gone to jail. But us, I know my daddy didn’t have no money and he would’ve been so pissed at me that if he did have money, he wouldn’t have given it to me. He’d have said I need to take whatever repercussions came from what I did.”

  “Oh, Mama.” Tamika wrapped her arm around her mother’s shoulders again.

  “No, don’t feel sorry for me. We should’ve told somebody about the accident that night. That way they could’ve gone back to look for Kaymen. We never should’ve left him there to die.”

  “But he didn’t die,” Pierce said. “Because if Kaymen died, then he couldn’t have been the one who set that fire in London last week, or—”

  “Oh, it’s him.” Sandra insisted. “I looked right in his face that night at my cottage. There’s not much left of his face, burns all over, but I knew his eyes and his voice. It was a little raspy, but he still sounded like Kaymen to me. Besides that, he said he was gonna make sure I died for real, just like he did with Max…and Lem.”

  Roark sucked in a breath. He let his arms fall to his side and gritted his teeth. For weeks he’d wanted nothing more than to know who’d killed his mother, and now he knew. And he knew why.

  “Mrs. Rayder, did Maxine tell you how she knew Kaymen was still alive?” Pierce continued his questioning when everyone else remained silent.

  Cade was a professional, but he was also hearing the motive and intent of the man who’d killed his aunt. He may not have been as rocked by Sandra’s statements as Roark, but he was definitely feeling something, because it showed in the grim look on his face.

  Sandra lifted her hands to wipe the tears from her face, and Tamika stood to get her some tissue. “I didn’t believe her. I wrote back and told her there was no way he was alive, that he’d burned to death in that car. Right where we left him.” When Sandra stopped speaking this time, she closed her mouth so tightly her lips thinned and she rocked her body back and forth in the chair.

  “We left him there, and that was wrong. He was our friend, and we should’ve helped him,” she whispered after a few moments. “We should’ve called somebody to help him because he was our friend. We did that to him, to his face and his hands—we did all that. We left him there and that fire burned him, it burned straight to his heart, and now he’s after all of us. He’ll kill us all! He’s gonna come back for me and finish the job, and then I can be with my Lem. I can be with my love and I guess my friends again. We’ll all be together.” Sandra’s words had begun to slur, tears falling faster, and the way she continued to rock in that chair had Roark standing and moving closer to her. But Tamika was already there and she turned to everyone, saying, “That’s enough. I’m taking her back to bed.”

  Roark agreed Sandra needed to rest now. She needed to let everything she’d just remembered settle back into the recesses of her mind, for her sanity’s sake. “I’ll help you,” he said and went to the other side of the chair to help lift Sandra up.

  Tamika didn’t say anything at first but by the time they made it to the stairs, she stopped to look up at him. “I can handle it from here.”

  “I want to help. We can get her settled, and then I’m sure Pierce and Cade will have more to talk to us about.”

  Tamika shook her head. “No,” she said quietly. “I can’t do it right now. I need to make sure she’s alright. That’s all.”

  Roark had never before seen the look of fear and distress in her eyes. He’d never heard her voice in such a shaky tone, but he did recognize the grief that rested heavily on her shoulders even as she tried to support her mother. He could see it in the way her hand was tightly gripping her mother, pulling Sandra close to her body. Protecting her and trying desperately to hold on and keep her mother here with her. If Roark could’ve held on to his mother before Kaymen had come for her, he would’ve. There was no doubt he’d have never left Maxine’s side, held her hand, made her smile, any and everything he could’ve done to keep her here with him; he would’ve done in a heartbeat.

  For that reason, Roark took a step back and dropped his arms to his sides. “Whatever you or she needs, Tamika, I’m right here. All you have to do is say the word, and it’s done.”

  She tilted her head as if she were trying to decipher what he said or how to respond. Both of which were unlike her. Tamika always knew what she wanted to say in any given situation. “Right now, she just needs to rest,” she replied finally and then took the first step with her mother.

  Roark didn’t leave immediately. He stood watching and when Tamika turned back to look at him, he was ready to jump to do whatever she requested.

  “Thank you, Roark,” she said. “Thank you for everything.”

  That hadn’t been what he was expecting and as he walked back into the parlor, Roark was still examining the tightness that had gripped his chest at the finality he’d heard in her tone.

  “Is she gonna be okay?” Cade asked.

  The sound of his cousin’s voice immediately snapped Roark out of his thoughts about Tamika. He could admit to himself that he was grateful for that fact. “Yeah, she probably just needs to rest. Traveling from the hospital and then, well, all this, has been a lot.” Much more than even he’d anticipated. He pushed his hands into his pant pockets.

  Cade nodded. “Yeah, I can imagine.” He was standing now too, and so was Pierce.

  “I had a tech guy who’s retired from the MPD doing background checks on all the friends in that group. Just sent him a text that I need those reports ASAP,” Pierce said.

  “Good,” Cade told him. “Now that we know who it is, we need to track him, grab his ass and this’ll be over.”

  Roark wasn’t so sure about that. “What happens in the meantime? You heard what she said—he’s coming back for her.”

  “We knew that already,” Pierce said, and Roark looked at him, unable to hide is irritation.

  “You knew she was a sitting duck?”

  “It made sense, considering the profile,” Cade interjected. “His endgame will be to kill himself after he’s taken all the people he blames for betraying him. That’s why I told you to get the added security.”

  “And I did.”

  Pierce nodded. “Well, now we have enough to go to the local police with. They’ll do more to keep Sandra safe.”

  It wasn’t just Sandra Roark was worried about at the moment.

  “Look,” Cade continued. “She’s the last one of the group. He’s gotta come back to her—his psychosis won’t let her live. And when he comes, we’ll be ready for him.”

  “And she’s bait?” The words were bitter in his throat.

  “He’s already on our radar the minute we see him we’re grabbing him. He’ll never get near her,” Pierce said in a tone Roark figured normally ended all argument from a victim’s family.

  But Roark wasn’t a normal family member. “I’m not going to just sit here and wait for that bastard to show up. Reacting isn’t my thing. I’m more inclined to be prepared, to strike before I get struck.”

  “I know,” Cade said, stepping closer to Roark. “But in this case, I need you to stand down and let us do our jobs. We’ll get him, Roark. I promise you we’ll get him for you and Aunt Max. We’ll get him for all the lives he’s taken.”

  Roark stared at his cousin, feeling the sincerity of his commitment and believing with his whole being that Cade would do whatever it took to bring Kaymen Benedict down. But it wasn’t enough. Not for Roark. “Fine. Keep me posted,” he said tightly.

  Cade nodded, but he didn’t step away from Roark, nor did he stop staring at him.

  “I’m gonna head to the MPD now and give them all the information we have so far. The more eyes we have looking out for this motherfucker, the better.” Pierce moved toward Roark. “Keep the security here tight, and we’ll handle the rest.”

  It was Roark’s turn to nod at Pierce before the guy left the room.

  “Don’t do it,” Cade said the momen
t they were alone. “Whatever you’re thinking about doing, just don’t. Let us take care this, Roark. This is what we do.”

  “Well, it’s not what I do. I don’t wait for somebody to strike me or mine.”

  “I know—”

  “Yeah, you do know, because you’re the same way. Don’t stand here and tell me to allow somebody else to do the work.”

  “I’m standing here telling you that this sadistic bastard killed my aunt! He drugged her and made her watch as he burned her to death, all because he’s got an ax to grind. I’m not taking that shit lightly either, Roark. But I’m the one who’s trained to handle this, not you.”

  “I’m her son!”

  “Yes, you are! And your responsibility is to your brother and sister right now. Think about them before you go running off ready to hunt this idiot down yourself. Think about that woman up there who’s trying to be strong for her mother but couldn’t help looking to you for comfort. Think about everything you’ve got here in this house with you right now before you go putting yourself in the path of a killer.”

  Roark didn’t reply—not that Cade had stuck around for anything else he was gonna say, anyway. It didn’t matter. Roark knew what he needed to do. The second he was alone, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and made a call. “Yeah, Devlin, I’m going to need that extra package we talked about last week. Can you get it here tonight?” After a brief pause, Roark continued. “Good. Thanks.”

  Roark disconnected the call and gripped the phone tightly in his hand. He wasn’t promising Cade anything, and his cousin knew it. Devlin Bonner was a former Navy SEAL turned mercenary turned private investigator and husband to Roark’s cousin, Bailey. Together, those two made a deadly combination, but Roark hadn’t wanted Bailey involved in this. He hadn’t wanted his former Navy SEAL cousin, Trent, involved either, which was why he’d gone straight to Devlin for the security detail. And Devlin hadn’t let him down. With contacts all over the world, he’d been able to dispatch a team of elite soldiers dressed in black suits and ties to the clubhouse within three hours after Roark’s first call last week. Now, he was going to send Roark more assistance, because everything had changed. He’d never considered himself a violent man, but then again, he hadn’t been raised to cower or run from anyone. And if Kaymen Benedict was on a killing spree, Roark was gonna be there to stop him, once and for all.