by Janet Rebhan
The girl looked up into Nancy’s eyes, tears streaming down her cheeks, and said, “Can you help me, please? It’s my baby sister inside that house. I have to get to her so I can protect her.”
Caroline held Rachael close to her chest and moved her torso back and forth in gentle swaying motions. Thankfully, the baby had remained relatively calm, even as the back door slammed shut and the man with the shotgun barked his orders. And now she and Marge and Bennie were all crouched in the corner of the dark kitchen against the far wall next to the oak dining table while the tall DEA agent with the shotgun stood guard and spoke over a two-way radio. She heard the helicopter blades overhead whipping the heavy night air like thick cream and watched searchlights flash through windows and cross the floor in sweeping intrusions. Outside, the insistent voice belched over the loudspeaker its orders to “come out with your hands up.” Red and yellow lights beat against the wall at the other end of the kitchen where it joined the front living room. A burst of gunshots outside and a loud commotion near the front of the house were followed by the sound of shattering glass—the front picture window? The DEA agent cocked his head and pointed his shotgun in the direction of the living room. Suddenly, Vito appeared in the doorway and set his eyes immediately on Caroline’s. In that same moment, the crack came like a whip, and Caroline watched the shell casing fall, bounce, and fall again until it rolled off to the side and stopped when it hit the table’s leg. All movement slowed down. Sounds recoiled before dissipating altogether. The odor of gunpowder lingered, and she tasted metal on the roof of her mouth. For a brief moment all was silent and still. Vito became a ghostly formation of separate particles vaporizing into the air. A burst of heightened awareness that sharpened her mind and rendered her nerves calm and fluid became the sure knowingness that she and Rachael were finally and forever safe from all harm. Something was now set right for all eternity: a debt paid, slate cleaned, score settled.
Vito slammed through the front door and hit the floor. From his periphery, he saw the picture window shatter and drop into thousands of tiny pieces onto the wood surface below. Then, with the sudden momentum born solely from thinking about it, he stood and ran into the kitchen. When he saw Caroline against the wall, clutching his baby, he realized she had won. The expression on her face said it all: a look of shock changed quickly to one of placid serenity, one that became emboldened within mere seconds. As the gunshot echoed, he looked down to see it had all been for nothing. His chest was already riddled with holes. He had only assumed he’d escaped the rounds of fire from the SWAT team. He turned to see his dense physical body lying just inside the front door, facedown in his own blood. Dead already, he never felt a thing. He looked down to see his etheric body slowly pixelate into a form he no longer recognized. Then he took one last earnest look at Caroline and Rachael before his world fell silent and turned to dark.
For a moment, no one in the kitchen moved. Then Caroline turned to Bennie, who had his head bowed beneath his arms as if expecting a nuclear attack. She turned to Marge, who had her eyes on the bloody body just inside her living room. She looked at the DEA agent, who had lowered his shotgun but remained standing and staring at the wall he had just blasted a large hole into. His mouth agape, he rubbed his eyes and kept staring.
“I saw him too,” Caroline said softly.
The agent turned to look at Caroline. “You did? I mean, I was beginning to think maybe I hallucinated. Stress can do that to you. How the hell am I going to explain this?”
“Tell them it was stress. But just between you and me, and for whatever it’s worth,” Caroline said again, “I saw him too.”
CHAPTER 20
Seventeen months later
Caroline and Jake always threw the best parties, fully catered events with themed decorations. And this was a Mother’s Day to beat all others. No one had been left out, and everyone had RSVP’d in the affirmative within days of receiving their invitations.
Caroline was happier than she had been in years and coordinated her dress with her daughter’s, not wanting to match it completely. She wore a bell-sleeve sheath dress in navy crepe chiff on and had dressed Rachael in an ankle-length tulle dress with white satin bodice and navy sash.
Jake asked them to pose for a photo. “I need one for my office,” he said. “So proud of my beautiful girls.” They posed in the backyard with Cali Cat next to Caroline’s potted floribunda roses, the white ones with gold trim that aged without ever drooping. Instead, they only got an antique-like golden edge to them as they dried out slowly in an upright position. French Lace, they were called. Jake teased Caroline that she would no doubt age the same way, never sagging, only turning gold around the edges.
Rachael had grown attached to Cali Cat and often toddled around the house, hugging the large feline to her chest. Cali was a patient animal, never showing her claws, even when Rachael tried to pick her up by the neck. Caroline worked with Rachael and showed her how to grab the cat under her front legs so she wouldn’t choke her. Sometimes Rachael remembered, sometimes not. She even tried once to straddle Cali Cat like a horse. This, Caroline found particularly amusing.
After that, Cali wandered off into the neighbor’s yard and didn’t return for three days. Rachael cried every day until Cali returned. Afterward, the neighbor informed Caroline that the cat had apparently been trapped in her garage. “I think she wandered in when I was unloading my groceries. I didn’t drive anywhere for a couple of days after that, so she must have been there the whole time until I finally opened the garage again.” When Rachael saw Cali, she screamed with joy and hugged her tight. The two of them had a special connection from the very beginning.
Pauley and Sammy were the first to arrive to the celebration, introducing their respective girlfriends to Caroline and Jake for the first time. Rachael squealed and tackled her big brothers without shame, wrapping her tiny arms around their legs before reaching to be held, all ten fingers flapping in wave gestures.
“Rach,” Pauley called her. “Do the Rach reach for me.” If there was ever a doubt she belonged in the family, it had long since been dismissed as a completely foreign concept now.
The other guests arrived in small clusters. Rachael greeted them all with clapping hands and forced laughter born of sheer delight, taking great pride in being able to chortle on cue. Jena commented she would be a party girl one day. Caroline warned her friend to watch her tongue.
When Dr. Nancy Kelley arrived with her new husband, Detective Mitch Coffey, they were accompanied by their adopted daughter, Jesse, who was beside herself to see her former foster sister once again. It wasn’t the first time she’d seen Rachael since the night of the shooting, but she couldn’t see her often enough, and Mother’s Day was such a magical day for the both of them this year.
After Jesse joined Rachael outside at the swing set, Mitch explained to Jake and Caroline how they’d had an accelerated adoption time with Jesse because of her facial scar.
“The interesting thing is that if all our inner flaws were revealed on the outside,” Mitch said, “Jesse would be the most flawless person in this room.”
“May I?” Caroline asked permission before placing her hand gently on Nancy’s swollen belly. “When is the baby’s due date?”
“May 18, but she could come any day now,” Nancy said. “Funny thing is I couldn’t get pregnant until we heard we were going to be able to get Mary Anne Maynard’s sister, Leila, as a foster daughter. How weird is that? As soon as we decide we are happy with the two we have, I’m instantly pregnant.”
“Wow,” Caroline said, “that is interesting. And the baby’s a girl too. Three girls.”
“I know,” said Mitch. “All these years as a bachelor, and now I’m surrounded by females.”
Everyone laughed, and Nancy continued, “We are both so grateful to Jake for helping us out once we located Leila. We had to use a private investigator Mitch knows to find her in Detroit. But then navigating the legal system was a whole other hurdle until your h
usband pulled a few strings.”
“It was nothing really,” Jake said. I just know how the system works now, and I happen to know a lot of judges personally. No one would have even known Leila existed if Nancy hadn’t asked Mary Anne about her family in the hospital that day. And Leila’s mother is getting the help she needs so she can be reunited with her daughter again once she’s clean. As far as I’m concerned, it was all meant to be.”
“It was such a shame about Mary Anne,” Nancy said. “We all wanted so badly for her to do well. Yet clearly, Rachael and Caroline belong together. I don’t understand why she had to die so young, but I’d like to think she’s looking down on us now and smiling at how things have worked out for her baby and her little sister.”
“I feel the same way,” said Caroline. “While I think Rachael and I were meant to be together, I’m not sure why it had to happen the way it did, and I’m sorry about Mary Anne. Yet a part of me also feels that everything has happened for a reason. As a matter of fact,” she said, turning to the others standing nearby who were listening in on the conversation, “I want to thank all of you who were involved in solving this case for helping bring me together with my little soul mate and precious daughter, Rachael.” She glanced from face to face, nodding at each and every one of them. “What a team.”
“Hear, hear,” Mitch said and raised a water glass. “To soul mates.” He leaned over to kiss his new bride. “I finally found mine too.” Everyone chuckled again, with a few dabbing at tears in the corners of their eyes.
Ragna Sweeney kissed her husband on the cheek, and he blushed. Freddie and Marge stood next to them, teasing them, but then Freddie stole a kiss from Marge once they had looked away again. “I’m so very proud of you, honey,” he told her.
“I guess if this whole ordeal hadn’t come to such a dramatic ending—on live television no less—our adoption of Rachael may have been a bigger battle for us,” Jake continued. “But after reviewing everything that transpired, the judge ruled in our favor. She said it was clear Caroline and Rachael were meant to be together, and she couldn’t imagine anyone else would want to take her from us now.”
“So much for waiting lists,” Jena said, laughing. “I know I wouldn’t want to be the one to come between the two of you.” She blew a kiss at her friend Caroline, who smiled back from across the room.
“I feel like there may have been a bit of divine intervention as well,” Caroline said.
“So there was no one on the father’s side to make a claim on Rachael?” Freddy asked.
“Vito had an elderly aunt and uncle and a bachelor cousin. They all declined to get involved,” Jake said.
“We were so happy to hear you are doing well,” Caroline turned to address Fiona, who had arrived with her fiancé, Sean, along with Mitch and Nancy. “You gave us all such a scare.”
“I know, and I’m so very sorry,” Fiona said. “But I wasn’t in my right mind at the time.”
“No kidding,” Nancy said and threw her arm around her shoulder, pulling her close. “I’m so glad I found you when I did. And I’m also incredibly grateful to Sean. He has become one of the best paramedics I’ve ever worked with. Thanks to Sean and his quick thinking, you’re still here with us today.”
Fiona hugged her friend, then turned and met Sean’s eyes before looking back at the group surrounding her. “I know now what I did was not the way to deal with my pain.” She sighed, looked down and paused briefly before continuing. Sean, who sat beside her on the sofa with his arm around her shoulders, leaned forward to squeeze her fidgeting hands. Then looking back up again, she said, “I know now it’s actually far easier just to hold the pain, examine it from a bit of a distance, endure it, rather than try to escape it; that it’s only temporary, and that it passes in time. That there is help available if you just reach out for it.” She looked back at Sean and then at Nancy, keeping her eyes on her friend as she finished. “But I also know that sometimes it takes someone else to intervene. We’re all in this together, after all.”
It remained silent for a moment before Mitch raised his glass a second time. “Hear, hear,” he said softly.
“To soul groups.” Jake spoke quietly, joining Mitch in the salute. “And trusting your intuition.” he added. He locked eyes with his wife Caroline and smiled.
Ragna and Mitch shared a look as well. She recalled what he had said that day on the phone about concerned citizens. For the first time since her daughter Vivie left home, she felt like she had a new purpose in life. She raised her glass and offered her own toast. “To sticking your neck out, or your nose in, just a little.”
There was more laughter. Mitch looked back at Fiona and spoke again. “Whatever happened with Dr. Goodwin? Were you ever able to talk to him again?”
“Yes, actually,” Fiona said, “I had to as a part of my rehab. Yet when I sat across from him the second time, he had a very different attitude. We ended up meeting with Mrs. Martinez and explaining everything. She was very angry at first, but she eventually relented, especially after Dr. Goodwin offered to cover the cost of her IVF treatments. If she ends up conceiving, all will be well. But even if she doesn’t, at least she no longer thinks she miscarried. That had caused her a good deal of psychological pain.”
Ragna looked at Marge and said in a low voice, “I had no idea it was this intricate. This truly is a perfect ending to a fascinating series of events.”
“No shit, Sherlock,” Marge said. “What do you say we get a refill of this wonderful fruit punch, and I’ll fill you in on all the details?” She winked at her friend, and they made their way into the kitchen.
As they walked, Ragna said, “So where are all your foster kids today anyway?”
“Oh, after church I sent them to your house for milk and cookies.”
Ragna made a face.
“Just kidding,” Marge said. “They had a function for the young ones after the service, so I got the afternoon off.”
“And how’s Bennie?”
“Well, you know they dropped the charges to a misdemeanor, and he lost his pharmacist license. He’s out of rehab now, and he’ll be on probation another couple of years.”
“Is he back in the garage?”
“Oh no, he moved back into his house.”
“Langdon took him back?”
“Yeah, he said Bennie was a different man after rehab. So they’re going to try to make it work after all.”
Freddie and Harold stayed behind and looked at each other knowingly. After a moment, Freddie simply said, “Yup,” and nodded his head.
Harold nodded, too, sticking his chin out. “Those two,” he said. Then he looked down at his empty glass and back up again at Freddie. He tilted his head to the side in the direction of the kitchen, and they followed their wives through the doorway.
Rachael was a happy-two-year old beginning to speak in blunt sentences. Daddy go da wuk and copy hot (for hot coffee) were repeated without fail every morning. When the last of the guests had finally left that day and Caroline closed the door one last time, Rachael toddled up to her mom and crawled into her lap as she sat on the end of the sofa in the formal living room. Her soulful saucer eyes beamed pure innocence, causing Caroline’s heart to swell with love.
“Pawk, Mommy, go fo wawk in pawk,” she said.
“Oh yeah,” Jake said. “I promised her we’d take her to the park after the party. She’s been asking to feed the ducks at the pond.”
“Okay.” Caroline sighed. “Just let me change first.”
“Oh, stay dressed, please. I’d like to get more photos of you while you’re both still in your pretty dresses,” Jake said. “I’ll just get my camera.”
The day was still, and the glassy pond reflected the nearby oak trees. Jake captured the likeness of his wife and daughter at the end of a small dock where the ducks gathered to snap up stale bread visitors tossed out onto the water. Caroline would later frame the photo and place it on Jake’s desk at his law office next to his phone. Before the
sun had set that day, Jake would be reminded of the dream he’d had just a few years prior in which he took a round-eyed girl by the hand and walked through a parklike setting. She wore black patent-leather shoes and decorative socks with lacy trim. When the memory of this dream presented itself in Jake’s awareness, he wept softly and pulled his daughter closer. “What’s wrong, honey?” Caroline would say. But he wouldn’t answer. He would gently touch his wife on the side of her delicate face with the back of his hand, allowing himself to feel her smooth, soft skin, and his eyes would tell hers that absolutely nothing was wrong; that in fact, everything was finally and absolutely perfect. And that despite the momentary lapses along her life’s path, her temporary doubts, misgivings, stumbles, and errors in judgment, she could never, would never, ever, be less than to him.
Rachael shut her eyes, smiled to herself, and breathed deeply. She savored the fragrance of sage and star jasmine. She felt the warmth of the sun on her face and listened intently to the sounds of the ducks quacking and the water sloshing, the footsteps on the dock as her mother approached her, her father’s voice as he called for her to turn around and smile for the camera. For one timeless moment, she became aware: aware that she had triumphed, aware that she and Caroline had succeeded in coming together after all. When she opened her eyes, she saw Caroline’s face and recognized her immediately. Her mother had knelt to her level and kissed her gently on the forehead. Now she picked her up and held her close. Rachael wasn’t sure how long her sudden awareness would last; she suspected it would only be momentary. Quickly, she held up her right hand and touched Caroline’s face gently as she looked deeply into her eyes. Then she made the sign with her hand. The sign for I love you. The sign she had used with Caroline so many times in the last life they had spent together: thumb, forefinger, and pinky extended with the middle and ring fingers folded down. A sign no two-year-old would know to do without being taught. It was not lost on Caroline. She could read it in Caroline’s face: the sudden connection, the instantaneous recognition. Now Caroline could be absolutely certain. And now Caroline knew that she knew, too, and no doubt also knew the moment would not last. Rachael closed her eyes again and hugged Caroline’s neck tightly. She breathed in Caroline’s scent and heard her muffled sobs of joyful gratitude. And then the moment was gone. Gone but not forgotten. It would forever remain deep in her soul psyche, where she would draw from it for many years to come. And when she did, those would be the times when she would feel very much on purpose and every bit at peace.