Sweet Vengeance

by Fern Michaels

  Joel’s mother had died in a tragic accident when he was twelve. He didn’t like to talk about his mother, and Tessa respected that. She knew that he and his mother had been extremely close, and again, she understood and respected his feelings. A year after his mother’s death, his father remarried. Liam was born almost a year to the day after his father’s marriage to his second wife, Rachelle, a woman ten years his junior whom he’d met at the Viceroy Club in Miami, where she’d tended bar. Joel didn’t dislike her, but later, as he grew older, he came to understand that she’d married his father for his money, not for love. Getting pregnant so soon had been a great big bonus, Joel had explained, one that would pay big dividends to Rachelle for the rest of her life.

  Joel’s father, Grant, would never divorce or abandon the mother of his son, according to Joel. Grant had died three years before she and Joel married, even before she had come to work at Jamison Pharmaceuticals. Thanks to Sam McQuade, who at the time was not only Grant’s personal attorney but also the chief financial officer at the company, Grant had left Rachelle a very wealthy woman. Sam had been Joel’s right-hand man, and they’d been friends since college.

  Had it been only four days ago that life as they knew it turned into a living nightmare?

  Tessa recalled the shock she’d felt when Poppy said that Uncle Liam touched her in places he wasn’t supposed to and she really, really hated it. Then Piper, the more timid of the two girls, had said he touched her, too, and she did not like it either. She said Uncle Liam told her that if she told her parents, he would kill her and her family. Still, there seemed to be something strange about their stories, and they had both refused to give her any details when she’d asked.

  Stunned at the casual manner in which they had told their stories, floored by the revelation, Tessa was momentarily silenced by her daughters’ statements. The girls were seated at the small oak table in the kitchen while Tessa flipped pancakes. At first stunned into temporary silence, then, as though struck by a sudden bolt of lightning, her hands had begun to shake so violently that she had dropped the plate of blueberry pancakes she had just made for their breakfast.

  The vivid yellow serving platter that shattered on the black-and-white tile resembled mini shards of sunlight, broken forever. Her precious little girls would be broken forever, too, their psyches damaged. Like a kettle of steaming water, rage boiled inside Tessa, spewing forth minutes after she dropped the plate.

  “I swear I will kill that son of a bitch!” Tessa shouted as she gathered both girls in her arms.

  Even after Joel got home from his business trip on Thursday afternoon, she had avoided telling him what had happened to their girls, what his half brother had done. She didn’t know why, but something told her she should wait until her return from the mainland. Jill had assured her they would be fine at home with their father and Rosa for the weekend. Tessa took her friend’s words to heart even though Piper and Poppy had begged her not to leave. She told them she had to, that it was very important, and when she returned, she would have a surprise for them. Two days. They would be fine.

  As she drove, she tried to pinpoint a time when the girls had resorted to their five-year-old behavior. Why she hadn’t paid more attention baffled her. She was a hands-on mother, or so she thought, but she had simply decided the girls wanted to be little girls again, as they’d started to develop early, and she hated this for them, but it was beyond her to control their physical development. She would explain what was happening to their bodies once they were settled. Had this early development been the start of Liam’s molesting them? As much as she wanted to ask them what had actually happened, she chose to wait until Jill advised her to do so. They had been so averse to answering any questions about details. It was almost as if they somehow wanted to protect their uncle. No, that could not be true. Could it? Had they actually been . . . raped? Dear God! Surely there would have been a sign.

  They’d said they were touched in their private areas. Touched. As bad as that was, she prayed that’s all that worthless piece of humanity had done. While that would ruin them, for a while at least, being raped, no, she would not even go there.

  One thing at a time. First, she had to get Jill to take the girls. Then she would tell Joel, then they would go to the police station and report the crime.

  She felt a fear unlike any she had ever known. Why? Her worst fears had been realized on Wednesday, when her daughters told her about what had happened. She was returning home to whisk them away before the media got wind of what they’d had to go through. Theirs was one of the most prominent families in Lee County, not to mention the pharmaceutical community. Their daughters’ molestation would make the local news and possibly the national news.

  She drove up the driveway, saw that Joel’s car was gone, and felt a wave of relief. She knew she was stalling, putting off the inevitable, but right now all she wanted to do was wrap her girls in her arms and never let them go.

  She pulled into the garage, where Joel’s own Porsche was always kept. He only drove it when he wanted to impress a client. She shook her head, thinking what a waste. Growing up poor had made her wise with her finances, and this was not a wise purchase, but Joel was a multimillionaire, courtesy of his father’s brilliance. He could spend his money however he liked.

  The girls’ bikes were leaning against the wall. They loved to ride their bikes. Tessa couldn’t remember the last time the three of them had ridden together. Several months ago. Maybe that was when Liam began to abuse them. The tote box of toys she had planned to take to ACT, the Abuse Counseling and Treatment center, was still in the garage. She volunteered there occasionally, and many of the battered women had children who came to the center with no toys or games. Piper and Poppy had both cleaned out their closets and asked her to give their toys to kids who needed them.

  She smiled. They had good souls. Would they ever be the same again? She didn’t know, but she did know she would do everything in her power to see to it that they got the treatment needed to help them deal with the sexual abuse. God, how she hated those words. Especially in connection with her daughters.

  Inside, the house was quiet.

  “Rosa,” she called out. Rosa was probably upstairs cleaning, though maybe not since it was obvious that the downstairs had not been cleaned yet as there were coffee mugs still in the sink, along with three cereal bowls. Maybe she had started upstairs first. Shaken things up a bit. Cleaning a seven-thousand-square-foot home had to be a nightmare at times.

  “Piper? Poppy?” She headed upstairs. She peeked into the master bedroom, a bit surprised to find the bed still unmade. She looked around the room, and it appeared just as it had on Friday. Joel had probably told Rosa to leave it until Tessa returned. Shaking her head, she went to the girls’ rooms. Both doors were open. “Where are you two?” she asked, her voice slightly raised. After what they’d told her, she doubted they were hiding. They hadn’t wanted her to leave.

  She searched the bathroom that the girls shared. There were no signs they’d been there recently. She felt their toothbrushes. They were dry as a bone. A chill ran down her spine. Something wasn’t right.

  Alarmed, she started calling their names as loud as she could, but there was no answer. The pool; they were most likely swimming. Rosa always watched them even though they both were excellent swimmers.

  Relieved, she went outside to the giant screened-in pool area. She smelled something odd, like a . . . She wasn’t sure, but it was horrible. She walked around the smaller areas of the pool—the girls referred to them as the lazy river—but there was no sign of them. In the center of the screened-in area was the giant, Olympic-size pool.

  The water looked strange, the color, off. Like rust, or something. She walked closer to the pool and saw three bodies floating in the pool.

  Joel. Piper. Poppy.

  She screamed their names as she jumped into the pool. She swam to the deep end of the pool. The smell. It was indescribable.

  Horrified when sh
e realized what she was seeing, she screamed.

  And screamed.

  And screamed.

  Chapter 12

  Tessa sat up in the tub so fast she splashed water everywhere. Her heart was beating so fast it frightened her. She took a deep breath, forcing the images from her mind. Reaching for a towel, she got out of the Jacuzzi, her hands trembling.

  She had tried to save her girls when she jumped in the pool. But their heads were . . . Dear God, they were inches from decapitation. And Joel. His bloated body was banging against the pool’s skimmer.

  That was the day her nightmare had begun, and God help her, more than ten years later it had yet to end.

  Tessa no longer cared about the luxuries Darlene and Sam had provided. Quickly, she toweled off and put on her new pajamas. Would she ever be able to get the image of that day out of her mind?

  Maybe when Liam was six feet under, she could begin to heal.

  * * *

  At 7:20, a forensic van pulled into the drive, causing a total frenzy among the men and women of the press stationed outside. Tessa watched what was happening outside her house on television.

  “Has someone else been murdered?” a reporter from WBBK asked the team as they unloaded equipment.

  “Did Tessa Jamison commit suicide?” an anchor from WRAL in Orlando shouted at the men and women there to do their jobs.

  Tessa turned off the TV, trying to decide whether to be amused or disgusted.

  “You shouldn’t watch that stuff,” Sam said.

  Tessa made herself another cup of coffee and one for Sam. She liked the Keurig. She didn’t speak as she waited for the coffee to brew. When both cups were ready, she took them to the living room and put them on a side table. Sam followed her.

  “I had complete recall of the murders last night.” Tessa had never said this aloud. She was doing her best to keep her emotions under control.

  “I heard you,” Sam told her as he reached for his mug of coffee.

  “I thought I could save them.”

  He nodded.

  “I couldn’t.”

  “Tess, I think I see where you’re going with this. It wasn’t your fault. You did what any decent parent would do. You wanted to shield your children from those creeps.” He gestured, indicating the men and women of the media outside. “I would have done the same thing had I been in your shoes. Stop beating yourself up. You have suffered a loss that I’ll never begin to understand, but you have given up ten years of your life when I know and you know that you had nothing to do with their deaths. I have always believed in your innocence one hundred percent. Never for a moment did I think you were capable of doing what was done.

  “Let’s just allow Harry and his team to do their thing. Lee said that he will be here after lunch. We’ll get down and dirty then.”

  She raised her brows.

  “He will prep you, Tess. Run you through the mill. It will be physically and emotionally exhausting for you. But this is his method. And he gets results. Good results. He has never lost a case.”

  He’d taken to calling her Tess. And, she had to admit, she liked it.

  “Are you listening to me?”

  She nodded.

  “Dammit, Tess, don’t just sit there and stare at me. Say something.”

  “Last night, when I was remembering, something occurred to me.”

  “Go on,” Sam coaxed.

  “I didn’t want to look at Joel’s face even though he was on his back, close to me. But I did. I couldn’t recognize him. His face was . . . gone. I cradled the girls. Their smell was unlike anything. I have smelled a lot of chemicals in my profession, mixed many, and nothing I have ever smelled could compare to that odor. I can still smell it. I knew the technical reasons for the smell but pushed them aside.” Tessa paused. “It was simply death. The smell of their deaths haunted me. Sometimes I gag when I remember them. Sad, huh?” Tears began to roll down her face, and she didn’t try to staunch them. Somehow, they felt cleansing.

  “God, Tess, I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”

  “We’re in the pharmaceutical business. We know what death is, or rather what decomposition is. It’s different when it’s your family. It never goes away. The girls always smelled like the strawberry shampoo I used on their hair. I can’t call up that smell at all, but their death scent, that I can. It haunts me.

  “I’ve tried for years to push these thoughts aside, but I can’t anymore. And now, here they are. Digging, poking into the earth, searching for some piece of evidence to exonerate me. Change my life. For the better, and all I can think of is that fucking smell.”

  “Tess, it’s okay to have these feelings. You need to talk about them. Stop persecuting yourself. This was not your fault.”

  Sam got up and went to the kitchen, coming back with a wad of paper towels. “Here,” he said, handing them to her. When she didn’t take them, he used them to wipe her tears. His touch was gentle, caring.

  “Sam, don’t,” she said.

  “Stop it, already! You’re punishing yourself for feeling. It’s all right, Tess.”

  She shook her head. “Nothing will ever be all right again. No matter what happens.”

  A tap on the glass doors interrupted their conversation.

  It was Harry.

  Sam motioned for him to come inside.

  Harry was dripping with sweat even though the December morning wasn’t as humid as it normally was. He removed a handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed at his forehead.

  “Harry, let’s go into the kitchen. I’ll get you a cold drink. Tess?”

  They both followed Sam into the kitchen. Tessa stood next to the door that led to the garage, while Harry sat at the bar and gulped down the last of the iced tea. “Thanks.”

  “What are you even searching for?” Tessa asked Harry. “Didn’t they examine every inch of this place already?”

  “That’s what I plan to find out.” He stood up. “I’m going back to the lab for now, but my crew will continue searching. If they find anything to report, I’ll let you know.” Harry gave a halfhearted salute, then left through the glass doors in the living room.

  Tessa and Sam went into the living room and sat down in the chairs near the window. Neither Tessa nor Sam spoke for a minute.

  Sam spoke first.

  “They may not find anything, Tessa. Everything was searched before, and nothing turned up. And as of now, there are no other suspects—”

  “There’s Liam, for heaven’s sake. How in the hell can you forget him? He’s been off the map since . . . since the murders! I know he’s responsible for this. My daughters told me. He told them he would kill them and their family if they told. Liam must have known . . .”

  How would he have known that the girls told her what he’d done to them? She had told no one, no one except Jill.

  “I need to make a phone call, Sam. I’ll just be a minute,” Tessa said, then raced into the kitchen, where she could speak in private. Her heart raced at this new revelation. Why hadn’t she thought of this before?

  She sat on one of the barstools with the phone in her hand and dialed Jill’s number from memory. It was a weekday. She would be in her office.

  “Dr. Ambers’ office. This is Amanda,” replied a friendly voice.

  “I need to speak with Dr. Ambers.”

  “Are you a patient? If so, I’ll be happy to take your number and have her return your call as soon as possible.”

  “No, I’m not a patient. I used to be her best friend. Tell her it’s Tessa, and it’s an emergency.” She wasn’t her best friend anymore, but she didn’t care about that now. She needed to speak with Jill ASAP.

  “Please hold,” the pleasant voice instructed.

  She waited.

  “Tessa?” Jill Ambers sounded as if she didn’t believe it was her.

  “The one and only,” she confirmed. “I need to see you, Jill. It’s urgent. I’m sure you have heard the news. Can you come here to the house? You’ll have to go around
to the back. The media.”

  “Tessa, it’s so good to hear your voice, and hell, yes, I heard the news. It’s on every station. Of course I’ll come to see you; just name the time and place. You know, I tried to visit you . . . in prison. They told me you didn’t want to see me. Not that it matters now,” Jill said. “I’ll cancel my appointments for the rest of the day. I can be at your place within a half hour.”

  Tessa breathed a sigh of relief. She had refused Jill’s visits because they were a reminder of all the evil Poppy and Piper suffered. It wasn’t Jill’s fault, it was the memories. “Thank you, Jill. I’m sorry about the visits. I just couldn’t. It . . . hurt. Still does. But that’s in the past, and I hope you’ll forgive me.”

  “Of course. I have already. I had an idea that you were suffering. I am a forensic psychiatrist, remember?”

  “I know. I need to talk to you about that weekend,” Tessa stated, tucking her emotions away in that safe place in the back of her mind. “It’s urgent.”

  “Give me half an hour,” Jill said. “I know this probably isn’t the right time, but I need you to know how much your reaching out to me means. I have watched the news reports. Hell, I have wanted to smack a few of those plumped-up blond reporters who try to pass themselves off as intelligent. Every time they said your name, it pissed me off.”

  Tessa smiled. This was the Jill she knew. She had not changed one bit.

  “Thanks, Jill. That’s what I needed to hear. I’ll see you shortly,” Tessa said, then hung up the phone.

  She returned to the living room and saw that Sam had disappeared. Finally, a few minutes alone. She returned to the kitchen and started brewing her fourth cup of coffee. Sneaking a glimpse out the kitchen window, she saw that the number of media vans seemed to have doubled. Now, in addition to reporters from all the local news outlets, the lead anchors of three of the major networks, CNN, NBC, and CBS, stood outside the entrance, hoping to get the first scoop. It made her sick.