“I’m counting on it. Now, get out of here you two. I’ll see you both later.”
They left Joseph’s room and took a quick look in on Jeremiah. Fortunately there was a nurse there taking vital signs so Geanie didn’t say anything Cindy would later have to kill her for. They told him the plan and he agreed it was a good one and that he’d see them when they were back later that night.
They left his room and approached the officer outside.
“Mark wanted someone to give us a ride back to Joseph’s,” Cindy explained.
“Just give me five minutes,” he said. He spoke into his radio and in less than five minutes another uniformed officer arrived. He escorted them outside to a patrol car where his partner was waiting.
“I’ve never been in the back of a police car,” Geanie admitted as she and Cindy climbed into the back.
The first officer chuckled. “Be grateful you’re not in handcuffs. That’s a whole different experience.”
“Can you use the siren?” Geanie asked.
“Geanie,” Cindy reproved gently.
“Sure, but we’ll wait until we’re almost there to do it.”
“Sometimes I forget that deep down inside you’re twelve,” Cindy said with a shake of her head.
“Please, I’m not either twelve. I’m seven,” Geanie said with a tired smile. “Look, I’m sorry I was so harsh on you back there.”
“Let’s just forget it. We’re both tired and more than a little stressed,” Cindy said, not wanting to rehash the gist of that fight in front of the officers.
“Okay. Deal,” Geanie said, leaning her head back against the seat.
When they hit the bottom of Joseph’s hill true to their word, the officers put on the siren. Even Cindy found herself grinning from ear to ear as they raced up the hill as though in pursuit of some suspect.
At the top the patrolmen who were stationed outside the house were laughing and shaking their heads when the car pulled to a halt and Cindy and Geanie got out.
“Couldn’t resist, could you?” one of them called.
“Why would you even want to try?” Geanie joked.
They made it into the house and Cindy realized as she climbed the stairs just how exhausted she was. She had slept fitfully at the hospital but that clearly had not been enough. As she dragged herself into her room she looked longingly at the bed. The truth was, though, they probably had just over an hour before family descended on them and they should be ready.
“I just want to sleep,” she heard Geanie groan from the doorway next door.
“I hear you,” Cindy muttered.
Still, forty-five minutes later she felt better as she headed back downstairs after having showered and changed into clean clothes. She had just reached the foyer when the front door flew open and a tall man with intense green eyes burst inside.
9
Cindy let out a little scream which appeared to startle the man even more than he had startled her. Behind her she heard running footsteps on the stairs.
“Dad!” Geanie shouted as she ran past Cindy and flung her arms around the man standing just inside the door. He hugged her back, lifting her off the ground.
When he put her down they both stepped further inside and allowed two others to come through the door. Geanie hugged first her mom then her cousin.
“How was your trip?” Geanie asked.
“Good. Plane actually landed early. I must say we were a bit surprised to get a police escort,” her father said with raised eyebrows.
“Let’s get you settled and then I’ll tell you all about it,” Geanie said. She turned to Cindy, “This is my Maid of Honor, Cindy. Cindy, my family.”
“Pleased to meet you,” Geanie’s father said while the other two bobbed their heads up and down.
Cindy smiled and helped pick up some of the luggage that was piled on the porch.
“Okay, your rooms are on the second floor,” Geanie said, leading the way up the stairs.
“It really is a big place,” her mom commented, voice neutral. Cindy couldn’t tell if the woman was impressed or not. It was hard to imagine she wouldn’t be. The house was magnificent.
“Isn’t Joseph here to greet us?” her father asked.
“He’s...indisposed at the moment, but he can’t wait to meet you,” Geanie said a bit haltingly.
Cindy bit her lip. Geanie clearly had not shared any of the most recent events with her family. She was also somewhat surprised that Joseph hadn’t met her parents before this. That seemed a bit odd to her. It wasn’t like they couldn’t have afforded to fly them out or go back to meet them. She’d have to ask Geanie about it later.
They reached the landing and instead of turning right like Cindy was used to, they turned left. They were soon in another dark wood paneled corridor that seemed a mirror image of the one on the other side.
The first door they came to Geanie opened and gave everyone a peek inside. “This is a guest office you guys can use if you need to do anything with computers, faxes, anything like that.”
“Who has a guest office?” her mom muttered.
“A week from today I do,” Geanie said brightly.
She closed the door and continued on.
“I thought we were going to be staying at your house,” her cousin piped up.
“Yes, there was a last minute change of plans. That’s part of that whole long story I have to tell you,” Geanie said.
“It’s much nicer here anyway,” Cindy said, trying to be helpful. “There’s a lot more room and everyone can have their own space, even their own bathroom.”
Geanie opened the second door. “Mom, Dad, this is the room you’ll be staying in.”
They all piled into the room and began setting down luggage. The room was decorated with beautiful Victorian antiques. It was light and airy with huge windows that looked out at the trees. Cindy secretly suspected that Joseph must have given the best guest room to his soon to be in-laws. It would have seemed like a smart move, but Geanie’s mother didn’t seem to be all that approving.
“Okay, and just across the hall we have Charlotte’s room,” Geanie said.
She exited into the hall and walked across, leading everyone into Charlotte’s room which definitely felt like something straight out of a castle. There was even a little balcony off the far wall.
“Doesn’t this room just make you feel like a princess?” Geanie gushed.
“Yes,” Charlotte said with a restrained smile.
“Tell you what? I’ll give everyone a few minutes to get settled and freshen up then we can all meet back up downstairs.”
“Sounds fine,” her dad said.
Geanie nodded and then she and Cindy beat a hasty retreat back downstairs. They made it into the kitchen and Geanie hopped up on one of the stools at the breakfast bar and slumped with a long sigh.
“Are you okay?” Cindy asked.
“That didn’t exactly go as I had planned. Originally I was going to pick them up at the airport, take them to our house, then we’d go out to dinner with Joseph.”
“So they could finally meet him.”
“That was the general idea.”
“Well, they’ll meet him tomorrow, it’s not the end of the world,” Cindy said.
Geanie just shook her head.
Cindy glanced toward the foyer just to make sure no one had followed them down. “Is everything...you know, okay with you and your folks?”
“My mother doesn’t approve of my marrying a rich guy.”
Cindy was sure for a moment she couldn’t have heard right. She struggled not to crack a smile as she said, “I thought it was all mother’s dreams that their daughters marry rich guys.”
“Well, not my mother.”
“Wow, that’s ironic.”
“Tell me about it.”
“So, seeing Joseph’s house before even meeting him is-”
“A disaster.”
“Your dad seemed a little more okay with everything.”
“I think he is, although I know he’s reserving judgment until he meets Joseph.”
“Well, that’s a good thing because Joseph is sure to win him over. Everyone likes him.”
“Except for someone out there who really, really doesn’t,” Geanie reminded her grimly.
“Well, you know, there’s no accounting for taste,” Cindy said, hoping to get Geanie to cheer up before her parents made a reappearance.
The other woman rolled her eyes, which was a start.
Mark scowled as he dropped the latest report onto the growing stack on his desk. He stood up, getting ready to leave when a hand touched his elbow.
He turned and was shocked to see Gretchen Dryer standing there, a large envelope in her hand. She had on no make-up and there were dark circles under her eyes like she hadn’t slept. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail. The few other times he’d seen her, she’d been the picture of sophistication. Now she looked more like a scared young girl.
“Miss Dryer, what can I do for you?” he asked, shocked to see her there.
“Can I sit?” she asked.
“Of course,” he said, offering her the chair next to the desk as he sat back down in his.
She licked her lips, clearly nervous. Her fingers were practically kneading the envelope she was holding, clenching and unclenching around it.
“Have you...figured out who the boy was, the one who claimed to be my brother?”
He took a deep breath. “No, I haven’t, but I’m still looking into it.”
She nodded, but didn’t seem to be terribly surprised. “My parents keep everything, you know.”
“No, I was not aware,” he said, wondering where she was going with all of this.
“There are boxes and boxes of things in the attics. Every drawing I ever made, all our old report cards, everything.”
She took a deep breath and glanced down at the envelope. “I know this is going to sound crazy, but a couple of weeks ago I had a dream. I dreamed about my brother. Not my real brother, but the one who came back to us. I dreamed we were swinging on the playset outside that my grandfather had built for us when we were little. We were just swinging, talking, and then he stopped, and he turned and looked at me, and asked for my help.”
She stopped and for a moment he didn’t think she was going to continue. He didn’t know what to say, so he just sat quietly.
“My help,” she repeated. “He said I had to find out who he really was, that it was important.”
“In the dream I asked him why it was important, but he wouldn’t say, he just kept saying ‘help me’ over and over again until I woke up crying.”
Tears began streaking down her cheeks and he quickly handed her a tissue. She wiped her eyes and seemed to pull herself back together.
“The next morning I went into the attic and I started going through all the old boxes. I told my mom I was thinking of getting into scrapbooking, so she wouldn’t ask me what I was doing. She can’t stand hearing anything about Paul maybe not being who he said he was.”
“I remember,” Mark murmured.
She pulled some papers out of the envelope. “After days of searching, I found a few things that I think are important.”
She handed two papers to Mark. Both were school essays written out in longhand. “What are these?” he asked.
“The top one was from a month before Paul was kidnapped. The bottom one was from a month after that other boy came to us.”
“The handwriting is completely different,” Mark noted, astonished.
She nodded. “Except for the name at the top. That’s the same on both. But you’ll notice that on the second one, the rest of it is nothing like the name.”
“Which implies he learned how to write your brother’s name, but he didn’t learn how to write like your brother.”
“That’s what I thought,” she said.
Next she pulled out two school pictures, one of a younger boy, another of a boy a couple years older.
“The resemblance is strong,” he admitted. “Strong enough to fool a grieving parent.”
She nodded. “Look at his teeth, though.”
Mark looked close until he saw what she was referencing. “The second picture has pointed incisors, the first does not.”
She nodded. “My parents had those teeth filed down by the dentist before Paul, or rather, fake Paul, got braces.”
Mark sucked in his breath sharply. With the picture of the fake Paul at a young age, maybe he’d have more luck scanning online databases. If he had access to some facial recognition software...
He took a deep breath. He was getting way ahead of himself.
“There’s one more thing,” she said, reaching into the envelope and pulling out a small Bible.
“This was a gift to my brother when he learned to read.”
“You told me that the imposter refused to go to church.”
“Yes, but take a look at what he did. I never saw this when I was a kid. I’m shocked that my parents didn’t say anything to him about it.”
Mark wasn’t sure what he was supposed to be looking for but he flipped through the Bible until he came to a section where pages had been clearly torn out.
“What are these pages, do you know?” he asked.
She nodded. “Absolutely. He tore out the entire book of Matthew.”
Mark stared at her, astonished. “Are you serious?”
She nodded. “The entire book is gone, and he wasn’t any too subtle about it.”
Mark continued to flip through. “There’s writing on some of these pages, in the margins.”
“Most of that would be my real brother, but I don’t know if all of it is. The handwriting should be different, though.”
“Do you mind if I hold onto these things for a while?”
“You can keep them,” she said. “My parents will never go looking for them. I’m just hoping I’ve done enough to help you find out the truth.”
“Thank you, I really appreciate this,” he said, standing up and shaking her hand.
She nodded and turned to go.
Mark sat back down in his chair after she had left and buried his head in his hands. He’d been honest with Cindy and Jeremiah. He’d had every intention of letting this go. It didn’t seem like the universe wanted him to, though.
After a minute he put everything back in the envelope and opened his right hand drawer. There, sitting on top, was the note urging him to ask him his real name.
“I will, okay,” he whispered, to no one in particular. He put the envelope on top and slid the drawer closed.
He turned his eyes to the stack of reports on his desk. “Right now, though, I have something much more urgent to deal with.”
He got up and headed to his car. His bad mood was now officially worse as he forced his mind back to the task at hand.
The stack of reports sitting back on his desk all added up to one thing. It was definitely a professional assassin out to destroy Joseph’s wedding. They weren’t talking about some low-level thug or hitman either. Whoever this was had a lot of experience and a lot of money backing them up. All of which begged the question who could afford to hire him? And, perhaps even more pressing, how come he kept failing?
Maybe the point wasn’t to kill either Geanie or Joseph but to make their lives a living hell. Still, why hire someone of this man’s obvious skills for what ultimately ended up being a monumental case of harassment? Yes, two people had died, the women in the bridal shop, but they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the more Mark uncovered the more he became convinced that the assassin hadn’t been trying to kill Geanie. He just wanted to terrorize her and he didn’t care who got killed in the process.
All of which was terrible news for everyone around Joseph and Geanie at that moment. He began to seriously rethink his decision to have the bridal party staying in the mansion with them. After all, killing the mother-of-the-bride would certainly bring the festivities to a screeching halt.
Any way he looked at it he was starting to get a very bad feeling that this wedding was going to have the ultimate party crasher.
He walked into the hospital and headed straight for Jeremiah’s room. He wanted to talk a few things over and the rabbi seemed a better choice than Joseph. He wondered fleetingly how things were going back at the mansion with Geanie’s family. He could only imagine the fear they were experiencing as they walked into this nightmare. The others were at least getting used to this kind of insanity, sad as that was.
His phone rang and he was pleased to see that it was Traci. “Hey, honey, how are you doing?” he asked.
“Okay, although it turns out morning sickness? Not such an accurate description.”
Mark furrowed his brow. “I’m sorry. I wish there was something I can do.”
“Next time you can hold my hair for me,” she said.
“In a heartbeat. That’s what love is all about.”
“I miss you,” she said.
“I miss you, too.”
“How about when you finish with all of this we go away on a real vacation, just the two of us.”
“That sounds like a wonderful plan,” he said.
“Ugh. Gotta go,” she said before unceremoniously hanging up.
Mark felt bad for her as he pocketed his phone.
He checked in with the officers outside Jeremiah and Joseph’s rooms, and they reported that all had been quiet since Cindy and Geanie had left. He pushed open the door to Jeremiah’s room, took two steps inside, and froze.
The rabbi was gone.
Jeremiah was slouching in a chair next to Joseph’s bed, chatting with him when Mark came flying in, eyes wild.
“Hi,” Jeremiah said as Mark came to a stop.
“What are you doing in here?” the detective demanded.
“Talking to Joseph.”
“How did you get in here?”
“I crawled out my window, shimmied along the ledge, and came in this one,” Jeremiah said.
“What?”
For His Name's Sake (Psalm 23 Mysteries) Page 9