Sable Quinn Trilogy Boxed Set

by K. J. Dahlen

Nick frowned. "Why Boston?"

  "Because Gabriel Reardon went to law school there. It seems Melinda disappeared a few days before Gabriel graduated. His name was on the list of suspects in her disappearance."

  "Did you find out any of the details?"

  "I was lucky to find what I did. The case is forty-eight years old."

  "See if you can track her down. Maybe if she disappeared from Boston she turned up somewhere else." Nick turned to Sable and said, "I think we need to talk to Gabriel. We need to find out if he remembers why he failed to mention Melinda Carter."

  "Maybe there’s nothing to remember."

  "Yeah, maybe there’s a reason to forget what happened so long ago," Nick suggested.

  Half an hour later they pulled up to the safe house. It was like every other house on the block, a small two bedroom ranch style home. The house was dark blue with white trim. It had flower beds along the front walk. Nick checked around the neighborhood before he walked to the door. When it opened a crack, Nick could see a police officer on the other side. When he showed his badge, the door opened wide enough for them to slip inside.

  Gabriel, Emma, and Greg were sitting in the kitchen when they arrived. The empty plates on the table told Sable they were finishing a meal.

  "Would you guys like a cup of coffee?" Greg offered.

  Sable sat down in one of the chairs. "A cup of coffee would be great. We’ve been so busy I forgot to eat lunch."

  "Would you like a sandwich?" Emma asked.

  Sable smiled shaking her head. "No thank you. I’ll get something a little later."

  "Let’s go into the living room and discuss what you’ve been able to find out," Gabriel suggested. He struggled to get to his feet. Moving slowly to the living room, Emma sat down in a straight back chair while Greg flopped down on the sofa. Gabriel remained standing. Sable sat down next to Emma on the other chair and Nick stood next to Gabriel.

  Nick viewed the assembled group and dropped the bomb. "Do you remember anyone named Melinda Carter?"

  Gabriel inhaled sharply. He got a funny look on his face. All eyes turned toward him as he stumbled toward a chair and sat down. Gabriel closed his eyes for a moment. "What did you say her last name was?"

  "Carter, Melinda Carter. I take it you know the name," Nick stated. "Sam might see this as your deep dark secret, so I ask again, who is Melinda?"

  Gabriel wiped the sweat from his face. He glanced at Emma. "Melinda Carter. She disappeared from the college I went to for law school. It was feared she was murdered."

  Emma caught her breath. As she exhaled she gave her husband a nod. "Tell them everything."

  Gabriel was stunned. "You know about Melinda?"

  Emma reached out her hand to cover his. "I’ve known for almost 50 years."

  "Why didn’t you ever say anything?"

  "Does it matter now?" Emma asked him.

  "No I guess it doesn’t." Gabriel glanced down at the floor for a moment then turned to Nick. "Melinda Carter was what we used to call a "good time girl" back in the day. I met her at Harvard where I studied law. She loved to party. She was known to love any man who could show her a good time. I met her in my senior year of law school. I told myself I didn’t need that kind of distraction so I tried to steer clear of her. I had so much going on back then I really didn’t need someone like her complicating my life. Besides, I had already met the woman I wanted to marry. I wasn’t going to do anything that would put my relationship with Emma in jeopardy.

  "Anyway, I digress. The few days before finals Melinda came to my room. She was drunk. When she started removing her clothing, I told her to leave. I had to study for my finals. She tried to kiss me so I grabbed my books and I went to the library to get away from her. I was gone until the next morning. When I went back to my room, I found a mess." Gabriel twisted his hands together. "Maybe I shouldn’t have left her there alone but I didn’t want her that way."

  "What kind of mess?" Nick asked.

  "When I opened the door to my room I found the whole place was a shambles. The cushions from the sofa were on the floor, the bedding was all torn up, and there was blood everywhere. Dishes and books were all over the floor. I recall hearing glass break when I walked in the room. I stared down at my feet. I found I was standing on a broken plate. I was so stunned I couldn’t move.

  "I heard a noise down the hall so I quickly closed my door. I put my books down on the end table then sat on the chair just staring at the mess for awhile. I began cleaning my room, wiped everything down, and remade my bed. I had to take off the sheets. They were stained with blood. I put fresh sheets on the bed and swept up the broken dishes before throwing them away. I scrubbed the whole room from top to bottom. When I finished, the room sparkled. I put all the trash in my car and drove out to the bay. When I got there, I built a bonfire and burned it all." Gabriel paused, wiping his hand down his face.

  "What did you do next?" Sable asked.

  "I went to class. I had to act like nothing happened." Gabriel told her. "Every moment I sat there I waited for the dean to come to the door and ask me to come to his office. I think it was the longest day of my life."

  "What happened then?" Sable asked.

  "Nothing." Gabriel told them.

  "What do you mean nothing?" Nick frowned.

  "I mean nothing happened," he told them. "I waited for days for some news about Melinda, but I didn’t hear anything about her. Her body was never found. Everyone that knew her said she vanished. I didn’t know what to think. It was two days later I found out I graduated. I left the East coast, married Emma, and started my life as an attorney. The whereabouts of Melinda Carter were long forgotten as I started my career."

  "Is that the whole story?" Nick asked.

  Gabriel stared at him.

  "Then why would Sam think this would be enough to disgrace your life and bring down your empire?" Sable wondered out loud.

  "It may have something to do with what happened twenty five years later," Gabriel said. He rubbed his hand along his jaw then continued his story. "I was presiding over a case with a defendant named Joe Fender. He was facing twenty-five years to life for aggravated manslaughter. The prosecution was going for the maximum sentence but their case was weak. On the night before closing arguments I received an envelope with some rather disturbing pictures. They were of my dorm room back at Harvard the night I found the blood everywhere. One of the photos showed Melinda lying on my bed half undressed with blood all over her body. Someone had beaten her up. I couldn’t tell if she was alive or dead."

  "Was there anything else in the envelope?" Nick asked.

  "There was a note explaining if I didn’t dismiss the charges against Joe, the photos would find their way to every newspaper in town."

  "What did you do with the photographs and the letter?" Sable asked.

  "I threw them in the trash. I didn’t think I had anything to worry about. I certainly didn’t harm the young woman. I have no idea who did but it wasn’t me. Anyway Joe was found not guilty due to lack of any real evidence against him. He walked out of my courtroom a free man. As double jeopardy was attached to the original crime he couldn’t be tried again for what he’d done."

  "Was he guilty?" Sable asked.

  "Without a doubt," Gabriel told her. "The problem was the prosecution couldn’t prove it. They rushed into court before they were fully prepared. That cost them a conviction. My hands were tied; there was nothing I could do."

  "Did you ever find out who sent you the photos in the first place?" Sable asked.

  "I had forgotten about Melinda and everything else until now."

  "Is there anything you aren’t telling us?" Max asked.

  "I don’t think so."

  "Then why, if you can explain everything, did Micah and Sam think this would disgrace you to the point of no return?"

  "Melinda was drunk the night she disappeared and saying some off the wall things but I knew none of it was true."

  "What sort of things was she sayi
ng?"

  "Something about the fact since I got her in trouble, I would have to do the right thing and marry her. I didn’t know what she was talking about. I found out later Melinda was supposed to have been pregnant. She was claiming I was the father. I didn’t think I was but that alone could have been used as my motive to make her disappear. With any type of investigation hanging over me, I never would have been allowed to become an attorney."

  "I wonder how Micah found out about this."

  "I wonder who was behind the blackmail attempt. If it worked out once, it might have worked again and again," Nick reasoned.

  "It didn’t work out, at least not the way the blackmailer wanted it to. I had nothing to do with freeing Joe Fender."

  "But the blackmailer didn’t know that. All he saw was the end results. Fender went free and he couldn’t be recharged."

  "Something else happened around the same time frame. A few days after he walked out of my courtroom a free man, Joe Fender was found murdered. Scattered all around his body was the evidence the police couldn’t find for the trial, the gun he used in the assault as well as over a hundred thousand dollars the prosecution claimed was the reason behind the assault in the first place. He’d been shot with the same gun he used on his victim, but if I remember correctly the gun wasn’t the murder weapon. Joe Fender died as a result of a slow, tedious torture technique. He bled to death and the police determined it took a long time for him to die."

  "My god," Sable whispered in shock.

  Chapter Five

  "Were there any fingerprints found that didn’t belong to the victim?" Max asked.

  "I don’t know, you would have to check with the police for any other information on the case. It was a sensation at the time. Not too many killers took the amount of time or were so involved with killing people like that madman did," Gabriel said.

  "We’ll have Max check it out." Nick said. "I doubt that’s the entire story behind their reasoning, but maybe we’ll dig up more when we find the particulars."

  "There has to be more to the story than what we know," Sable said, clearly frustrated. "I mean Melinda could be easily explained away."

  "What is he going to do when he finds out he can’t disgrace me?" Gabriel asked.

  "This might be something we can use to push him over the edge," Nick agreed. "He may get sloppy and start making mistakes. We can use those mistakes to find him."

  "There is something more to the story," Emma offered.

  All eyes swung to where she sat. Emma took a deep breath. She began to tell her part of the saga. "About twenty years ago a young man came to our front door. He claimed he was Gabriel’s son by Melinda Carter. He said he didn’t want to make trouble, but he did want the chance to know his father and for his father to know him. He said his name was Jared Carter." Emma paused to look at her husband and saw the shocked look on his face.

  "Oh my dear I couldn’t tell you about his visit."

  "But why not?" Gabriel asked.

  Emma twisted the wedding band on her finger. "Because he didn’t have your eyes. His eyes were green so I knew he wasn’t a Reardon."

  Gabriel hung his head for a moment then glanced at his wife again. "Are you sure he wasn’t my son?"

  Emma looked away for a moment. When she turned her head back, she said, "I offered him a sample of your DNA. He took it to a lab. It wasn’t a match. He came back to tell me about it. He seemed very upset by the information. All these years his mother had told him you were his father. You can imagine what he felt when he found out it wasn’t true." Emma stared down at her hands a moment then she raised her head looking at Gabriel. "I sat the young man down and made him tell me everything his mother had told him over the years. At first he didn’t want to but I told him I needed to know. When he finished I could understand his reaction, but I also saw Melinda’s point of view."

  "What had she told him all these years?" Sable asked.

  "She told him Gabriel never promised her a wedding band, and he never knew he existed. She said Gabriel was a good man," Emma told them. "It was Jared’s idea to introduce himself, not Melinda’s. When he learned the truth, he wasn’t sure what he was going to do with the information. I told him to talk to his mother. He needed to get her side of the story."

  "Ok, that’s taken the mystery out of that little surprise. Is there anything else we should know about?" Nick asked.

  "I can’t think of anything else. I’ve done nothing I need to be ashamed of," Gabriel said.

  Sable rose and walked to the windows, glancing outside. She turned to face the others. "I have a feeling Melinda Carter wasn’t all Sam had against you."

  "What do you mean?" Nick asked.

  She stared at him. "There has to be something more to his plot. I mean, this was so easily explained away. I don’t want to downplay the drama of what happened all those years ago, but that incident alone wouldn’t be enough to 'bring down your empire.' That is what Sam promised he would do."

  "I have no idea what else there could be," Gabriel told everyone.

  "I guess we’ll have to wait and see what else Sam has up his sleeve," Sable suggested.

  "We should get back to the office; we have a lot to do before tonight," Nick said.

  Sable walked to Emma and wrapped her arms around the older woman. "Hang in there," she whispered.

  Emma patted her hands. She tried to smile but found she couldn’t. "I want all of this to go away. I’m tired of being scared all the time."

  "It will be over soon," Sable told her as she straightened.

  Twenty minutes later they were back in the office. Max glanced up from his computer screen and filled them in on what he had discovered. "Melinda Carter is still alive. She’s living in Wisconsin."

  "We knew she was still alive but not where she was living. We also know she had a son shortly after she left Boston," Nick informed him. "Her son isn’t Gabriel’s."

  Max seemed disgusted. "I spent all morning digging up this information and you have all the answers before I can tell you what I found."

  "Sorry about that." Nick grinned. "Where does she live in Wisconsin?"

  "Near Madison," Max informed him.

  "Get Brandi and Quentin over there to interview her. They are working in the area on another case. See what they can find out from her about that time in her life. Maybe there’s something Gabriel forgot to tell us."

  Sable looked through all the information Max dug up from Gabriel’s past. It was pretty much as he had described. When the phone on her desk rang, she automatically reached for the receiver. "Hello."

  "Good afternoon sister."

  Sable dropped the pages she was holding. She turned to Nick nodding. Sitting down in her chair she asked, "What do you want now?"

  "I want to know if you’ve made any progress in solving the riddle of Gabriel’s misdeed."

  "There isn’t any misdeed, as you put it."

  "Oh but you’re wrong. Our great grandfather has a great many secrets."

  "If you’re talking about Melinda Carter, you are way off base. She’s very much alive."

  Sam laughed. "I know. I’ve seen her. She’s still a very beautiful woman. I can see why he chose to screw her all those years ago."

  "That was crude."

  "Maybe, but at least I’m being honest."

  Sable took a deep breath. "What do you want?"

  "Melinda Carter isn’t the only secret the old man has, nor is she the worst. But you’ll find out the deeper you dig." Sam was vague enough on purpose. He wanted her delving into finding something that might not be there instead of chasing him. He had work to do and very little time to do it before their showdown.

  "By the way, you might want to get some rest tonight."

  Sable sat up. "Why?"

  "Because tomorrow is going to be a very busy day, I promise." Sam laughed when he ended the call.

  "Damn," Sable swore as she replaced the receiver.

  "What did he want?" Nick asked.

  "I
t seems Melinda isn’t the only secret Gabriel has. He also said tomorrow is going to be a busy day. He told me to get some rest tonight. There has to be something we’re missing. Something that’s right under our noses but we aren’t seeing."

  "Like what?" Max asked.

  "I don’t know, but the answer is right in front of us." She sat back in her chair and stared at the stack of papers in front of her. "Before we delve into this mess, I need something to eat. I’m starving."

  Nick picked up the phone and ordered sandwiches from the deli down the street then strode to her desk and grabbed some of the paperwork. Sable picked up the birth certificate Sam had sent Gabriel. Reading it again, a niggling suspicion reared its ugly head. She was looking at the name of Sam’s mother. Who was Abbey Larsen?

  "Max, did you ever run down Abbey Larsen?"

  "Not yet, why?"

  Sable stared at the birth certificate. "I don’t know. I get a strange feeling she’s part of this nightmare."

  "I’ll see what I can dig up on her. Where is she from?" Max turned on his computer to began his search.

  "The birth certificate is from a hospital in Oklahoma City."

  "Ok, I’ll start there and see what I can find."

  Nick peeked over the top of the papers in his hand asking, "What makes you think Sam’s mother is involved in any of this?"

  "I’m not sure, but I’ll bet the farm there’s more to this than even Sam knows. I have this feeling. I can’t explain it but every time I look at this birth certificate I get an odd feeling in the pit of my stomach."

  "Okay but remember one thing, Micah didn’t cope well with women. In fact he liked taking his time in killing them. If Abbey survived her encounter with Micah, she might be running for her life."

  "Maybe that’s the reason I’m wondering about her. I don’t know."

  "Bingo. I found her. Four years after her son was born Abbey Larsen died in a suspicious fire. According to the newspaper article there was an accelerant found in the debris and her four year old son disappeared. Her body was burned beyond recognition making an autopsy impossible. The man living with her was the chief suspect. The article doesn’t say his name or anything about him."