by Willow Rose
Poor kid.
Liam thought about the meeting with the crazy lady earlier in the day. Thinking about her made him angry again. Where did she get off telling him something like that? Was it just to taunt him? Did she just want him in pain; was that it?
I believe someone wants to kill your son.
Why would she say something like that? Had everyone in this world gone completely mad?
Liam chuckled, then walked down the hallway and checked the alarm. His house was among the best-secured homes in the area. Even if she was right and someone tried, there was no way they could get in.
Chapter 9
I stared at my watch, heart pounding harder and harder in my chest. I still had the TV on when it struck eight-thirty. I was just staring at the screen, at the twenty-four-hour news channel, not really listening to what was being said. From what I could make out, the news anchor talked about a story of a teen being charged after driving around with his sister on the hood of the car. After that followed the story of how a university doctor from a local university allegedly had inappropriate relationships with his students and is now being investigated.
All were ordinary stories on an ordinary Wednesday night.
I exhaled and rubbed the bridge of my nose, closing my eyes and trying to calm myself.
Just for this one time, Lord, let me be wrong. Let me have misinterpreted the messages; let me just be crazy enough to read things into what I see that aren’t really there. Just for this once.
I looked at my watch again. Eight-forty-one. We were getting closer. I tried to think about something else and went to the window to look out at the city in front of me. I had taken a small bottle of white wine from the minibar and poured it into one of the glasses in the room. It didn’t taste very good. It was kind of bitter, and I grimaced after every sip, but I still drank it.
The city with its sea of lights seemed so peaceful. I couldn’t even hear sirens or anyone yelling.
Calm before the storm.
I had chosen one of the cheap hotels where a night’s stay cost only eighty-five bucks. It was called Red Roof Inn and was pretty nice for the price. I couldn’t complain. I wasn’t exactly rich like my sister, the Hollywood actress, so it was what I could afford for the time being.
Eight-forty-eight.
I bit my lip, trying to think about something pleasant instead. I pictured my children back at the house, hanging out with Matt and my mother, eating dinner. Gosh, I suddenly missed them. Things hadn’t been easy for them since their dad died two months ago. Both of the girls had struggled with getting back to daily life after the funeral. Chad had been their everything when growing up, especially since I hadn’t been around much, and he had taken care of them while I climbed the career ladder within the FBI. And now, he was gone. I was a single mom of three children. Luckily, I had Matt in my life. We had known each other since early childhood. We were dating before Chad was shot and killed. But right before it happened, Chad had asked me to get back together again, and I had almost accepted. Matt didn’t know this, and I wasn’t going to tell him. But the fact was, I had thought we’d be a family again. Just for a few seconds, I had believed we could.
And then it was taken away once more. With the snap of a finger. Just like that. My children would never have a real family again.
I cursed myself for not having been there when Matt and Elijah moved in today. I could have been if I hadn’t been so preoccupied with saving Liam Berkeley’s son. The kids all loved Matt, but still. I should have been there. Now, it was too late. The damage was done, and I still hadn’t managed to save Tim Berkeley.
I turned my head to look at the screen just as the numbers showed eight-fifty-six on the clock beneath it.
Chapter 10
He had just fallen into a deep sleep, dreaming about Anna and the life they used to have when he heard the ruckus, and it woke him up. Liam opened his eyes with a gasp and felt his heart begin to race in his chest. He shot up and looked at the clock.
It was only a little past nine.
He had only been in bed a few minutes as he always went to bed at nine because he had to get up at four-thirty. Had he been dreaming? Was it because of her that he had woken up? Or was it something else?
What’s that noise?
Liam hurried to the window and pulled the curtain aside. He glanced down into the driveway but could hardly believe what he was seeing. There were about a dozen police cars parked outside, their red and blue lights blinking and lighting up the trees in his front yard.
Liam mumbled under his breath, “What the heck is going on?”
Confused and with his heart pounding, he stared down at the police activity when he saw officers in protective clothing, body armor, helmets, and who were heavily armed run up toward the house. A chopper circled the house from the sky, lighting up the ground below.
“Tim!”
Liam ran for the door and into the hallway just as the front door was kicked in. Heart racing in his chest, Liam rushed toward his son’s room when there were rapid footsteps on the stairs, and seconds later, he was surrounded by black boots, guns pointed at him. The officers were yelling commands at him loudly while pushing him down and blocking his way so that he couldn’t get to his son.
“Hands where we can see them. Raise your hands NOW!”
Liam fell to his knees; arms lifted high above his head. His body was shaking when he felt the guns pointed at him.
“Please,” he said. “This is my house. I live here.”
“Keep your hands where we can see them!” one of them yelled. “Don’t make a single move, or we’ll shoot!”
Liam could hear the anxiousness and deep fear in the officer’s voice. He didn’t dare to do anything but what he was being told. Meanwhile, boots were moving across the floors, and he heard someone yell Clear before more boots tramped around and then stopped. A door was opened, and Liam realized it was the one leading to Tim’s room.
“Please, my son’s in there!” he yelled, but no one listened. There was so much yelling that he couldn’t be heard. Shaking in fear, Liam began to cry and scream Tim’s name, just as he heard Tim’s voice say something that he couldn’t make out, but he sounded scared and desperate.
“Please,” Liam tried. “Please.”
And that was when someone yelled the word that no one wants to hear, especially not coming from an officer’s mouth:
“Gun! He’s got a gun!”
The shot that followed might as well have hit Liam straight in the heart. It hurt just as much as if he was the one who had been shot. Liam felt himself frozen in a scream as he fell to the ground, face first, while his hands were being cuffed behind his back.
TWO WEEKS LATER
Chapter 11
Matt looked into one of his boxes, then pulled out an old snow globe that he had gotten from his dad before he died. He turned to look at Eva Rae, who was hunched over her computer in the living room.
“Where can I put this?” he asked.
She didn’t look up. He exhaled, then placed it on the shelf above the fireplace. He grabbed a wooden sculpture that he had bought on one of his surfing trips to Bali when he was younger.
“How about this one?”
It was Saturday, and they both finally had some time off. During the week, Matt was busy with his detective work, and Eva Rae was writing her next book on profiling, which she had a contract for. He wasn’t so sure that she was actually working on it and not on this new obsession of hers, though. She still hadn’t told him much about what she was doing or why she had been in Philadelphia two weeks ago. She hadn’t told him where he could put his stuff either, so now he had begun simply placing it where he could find room.
“Eva Rae?”
She finally looked up from her screen. “I’m sorry?”
He smiled. “Where can I put this? It can’t fit on a shelf. It’s too big and should stand on the floor. It would look good over here; don’t you think?”
He placed it in
the corner by the recliner. Eva Rae didn’t look like she agreed. She just smiled like she had no idea what he was talking about.
“You don’t think it looks good over here?” he asked. “Maybe it’ll be better by the fireplace?”
“It’s probably fine,” she said.
“I don’t want it to be probably fine,” Matt said. “I want us to agree on these things. If you don’t like it there, then I’ll find somewhere else for it.”
“No, it’s fine.”
His shoulders slumped as her eyes returned to the screen. Could she not spend just a few minutes on him?
“No,” he said. “Something is wrong. What is it?”
She looked up again. “It’s just…well. We don’t really have much room in the house for all this extra stuff. Do we really need to have an old wooden…thingy…in the middle of the living room?”
Matt looked at the sculpture in his hand, then nodded. “I see what’s going on. You don’t want any of my stuff in your house.”
“That’s not what I said,” Eva Rae said. “You’re twisting my words. I’m just asking how important this thing is to you. We are a lot of people living in this small house, and frankly, it’s getting a little cramped.”
“Well, it wouldn’t be if your children would pick up some of their toys,” Matt said as he put the sculpture back in the box.
“Excuse me?” Eva Rae said. “Isn’t Alex allowed to play with his toys anymore?”
“Well, you don’t’ see Elijah leaving his toys everywhere.”
“Because your kid only sits in his room, playing on his iPad. My kid likes to play with real toys,” Eva Rae said.
Matt glared at her. “And it’s your house, right? So, your son is more entitled to make a mess than Elijah and I are. I get it.”
Matt grabbed the box and lifted it, then carried it out in the garage, where he found a shelf for it. He closed it up with tape, wondering how long it would be before he’d be using his boxes again. Living with Eva Rae hadn’t exactly been the treat he had thought it would be. She barely gave him the time of day, always so busy on her computer, and he wasn’t getting any closer to having Elijah opening up to him. He was always in his room, playing on his iPad or Xbox, never saying a word to anyone.
Two weeks, Matt. It’s been two weeks. Give them time to get used to the new arrangements. It’ll get better. Eventually, it will.
Matt felt the tension building inside of him and decided he’d take a walk. It wasn’t like Eva Rae or Elijah would miss him anyway.
Chapter 12
THEN:
DeVilSQuaD666: Did you see me clear out that high school?
FanTAUstic345: You did that?
DeVilSQuaD666: Yeah. It was on the news and all. Pretty sweet. They searched for those bombs for hours, giving the kids the entire day off.
FanTAUstic345: Police are looking for the guy who called in the bomb threat. You might get in trouble.
DeVilSQuaD666: No way. They’ll never know it was me. I’m too good.
FanTAUstic345: You done this before?
DeVilSQuaD666: About 10 now.
FanTAUstic345: You do anything else?
DeVilSQuaD666: Sure. Did local TV station in CA twice. It was all over the news too. They had to evacuate during live broadcast Bahahaha.
FanTAUstic345: Cool. You do anything else?
DeVilSQuaD666: I am about to.
FanTAUstic345: Like what?
DeVilSQuaD666: Watch me clear out that comic conference next weekend. Look out for the news.
FanTAUstic345: Wizard World Comic Con in Chicago?
DeVilSQuaD666: That’s the one.
FanTAUstic345: You wouldn’t dare.
DeVilSQuaD666: Watch me.
FanTAUstic345: I sure will. I’ll be watching every second of it.
Chapter 13
I glared at the door to the garage where Matt had disappeared. I wondered if I should go out there and talk to him. I couldn’t stand seeing that look in his eyes. I didn’t mean to hurt him; I really didn’t, but it just happened.
The thing was, I was frustrated. Not with Matt, but with the case. I had watched every news clip I could find about the police raiding Liam Berkeley’s house and shooting his son, and it got to me every time. I knew this could have been avoided if only the guy would have given me a chance to explain.
Or maybe if you hadn’t given up so easily…if you had run after him as he left the restaurant.
I hid my face in my hands, then shook my head. I had to stop doing this to myself, blaming myself. It was just so darn hard not to.
I rose to my feet and walked toward the door. “Matt…I’m…”
I didn’t get to open it before, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a car driving up into my street. It wasn’t just any car, and that was why it grabbed my attention. It was a big black limo, not a car often seen in Cocoa Beach on a Saturday afternoon. It drove up and parked in front of my house.
For a second, I wondered if it was Sydney coming home. She was filming a movie in Canada these days, so we hadn’t seen her in four weeks. But she would at least have called first if I knew her right. She wasn’t big on surprises.
As someone stepped out, I realized I was right. It wasn’t Sydney. It was someone else, just as famous, if not even more so.
“Oh, no,” I mumbled.
“Who is that?” Olivia asked, coming up behind me as I was staring at the Rockstar of the Cooking World, striding up toward my front door, wearing black sunglasses and a tight white T-shirt that showed his abs.
“Isn’t that…?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“Oh, my God… What is he doing here?” Olivia asked, her voice growing shrill with excitement.
I exhaled. “My best guess is he’s coming to talk to me.”
She wrinkled her forehead. “You? Why would he come and see you? Don’t you think he’s here for Sydney?”
I gave her a look. “I know a few people in this world, too, you know.”
“Okay, sorry. I just didn’t know that you knew…him?”
“Because he’s too cool for someone like your mom?”
“Actually, I think he acts like an idiot on that show of his. But I know a lot of kids from my school who love to watch it and who idolize him. It’s not my thing, though.”
I sighed happily, thinking I had to have done something right with this child, at least. I stroked her cheek gently, wondering how I got to be so lucky when there was a rapid ra-ta-ta-da on my door.
Olivia gave me a taunting look. “You better open that.”
I grimaced, then took in a deep breath and braced myself for what awaited on the other side of the door. Him coming here after what had happened could hardly be a good thing.
Chapter 14
“Liam Berkeley?”
I bit my lip as our eyes met. His had changed drastically. He had also lost weight and seemed to be a shadow of the man I had met in Philadelphia two weeks earlier. His red-rimmed eyes looked down at me. The words seemed like they wouldn’t leave his lips. Seeing him like this made my heart ache. He spoke through gritted teeth, fighting to get it out.
“You…knew. You knew. How?”
I exhaled deeply. “Maybe we should go inside. I’ll make us some coffee. Or maybe something stronger? Wine? Whiskey?”
I stepped aside and let him into the living room, where he sat on the couch. The way he placed his hands in his lap with a resigned gesture and slumped his shoulders made him suddenly seem like an old man.
I rushed to the kitchen and put on a pot of coffee, then pulled out the bottle of whiskey that I had gotten as a birthday present from a friend whom I suspected had hoped I’d open it and he’d get to drink himself at my party.
I poured coffee in the cups and returned to Liam with glasses and cups and placed it all in front of him.
“I have some cake too if you like?” I asked.
He lifted his hand to stop me. “I don’t want anything. Except for you to sit down and
explain this to me. Because ever since…that night, I haven’t been able to understand anything that’s going on. I need you to explain it to me; I need you to make sense of all this because I can’t.”
I nodded. “First of all, I am so sorry for what happened to your son…”
Liam closed his eyes briefly. “Tim.”
“Tim, yes. I am so sorry for what happened to him. I can’t even begin to imagine…”
Liam lifted his hand to stop me again. “I don’t want to hear it. Everyone says the same things, and it makes me want to puke, to be honest. No, you can’t imagine what it is like to lose your son. And why would you want to? Nothing could be worse in this world. Why would you want to know what it feels like?”
“I think people are just trying to be nice,” I said and grabbed a cup of coffee. My hands were shaking, and I poured a little whiskey into my coffee, thinking I needed it. Sitting in front of Liam under these circumstances, I needed something to keep me strong.
“I don’t want people to be nice to me,” he said. “I want them to talk to me like I’m a normal human being and not some fragile woman who might break into pieces any second.”
“Not a fan of women, I take it?” I said and took a deep sip from my cup.
He sighed. “That’s not what I meant. What I meant to say is, I need you to treat me the way you would have before this happened. You came to me. You told me my boy was going to die. You hold the answers, and now I want to hear them because I can’t stand all these questions in my head, all these things I can’t explain. Put me out of my misery and tell me why my son had to die. Please.”
I took another deep sip before I put the cup down while gathering my strength. “All right. I’ll tell you what I know. But first, I need you to tell me exactly what happened on the night Tim was killed.”