After sitting with him for a few minutes, just watching him breathe, Finn went in search of a coffee. There was a vending machine just down the corridor from Drake’s room, but one look at the brown substance the machine dumped in the bottom of his cup told him not to risk it. Instead, he went in search of the cafeteria, hoping to decrease his chance of poisoning by coffee. He was in luck. Not only was it open, but the coffee looked good so he grabbed a cup and made his way back to the room where Drake was now awake and sitting up in bed, talking to a man stood with his back to him.
“Finn.” Drake smiled widely when he saw him standing in the door to the room.
Finn wanted to hug him but couldn’t because of his injuries, so settled for a handshake instead.
“Finn, good to see you again.” Sam smiled and extended his hand.
Finn took his hand. “Thank you so much for calling. Have you found the man who did this yet?”
“Not yet. How much has your son told you?”
“Nothing. I’ve only just arrived and Drake was sleeping so we haven’t had chance to talk yet.”
Sam filled him in on everything they knew to date, which wasn’t much.
“So, Angel isn’t the one who killed those women?”
“He did kill your son’s girlfriend, of that we’re sure, but it seems that he didn’t kill the others, no. He tried to set the scene so we would think it was the same killer, but it almost backfired on him.”
“So now this crazed person is after my son? Because he can give Angel an alibi?”
“I’m sure he’s safe now. He missed his chance and his plan to try and blame the killings on Drake wouldn’t work.”
“So what are you doing to find him?”
“In all honesty, we don’t have much to go on. All we have is a first name. He seems to have been very clever and never told anyone anything about himself and never met anyone at a home address.”
“A first name?” Finn looked at Drake. “You know this guy?”
“It was Jordan.”
Finn frowned. “Jordan? The Jordan that you wanted me to call when you were staying at the hotel with me?”
“One and the same,” Drake confirmed.
“Wait a minute. You have his telephone number, Drake. Give them that.” He turned to Sam “That would help wouldn’t it?”
“It could,” Sam replied. “Depending on whether it’s a throwaway cell or not. But it would be a place to start.”
Drake was shaking his head. “I don’t have it. It was copied over to my new phone along with all the other numbers, but he tossed it out the window.”
“Let me check something.” Finn pulled his own phone out of his pocket and started checking something. “Yes! Here it is. It’s stored in my called numbers.” He held the phone out to Sam so he could see. “There you are.”
Sam made a note of the number. “Thank you, that’s great. I’ll get that straight over to our tech support and see what we can find out.”
Shaking both their hands, Sam left the room, leaving them alone.
“Thanks for coming.” Drake smiled weakly from the bed. “It was good to have someone to call.”
“You’re my son. Of course I came.” Finn sat down next to the bed. “How are you feeling?”
“Pretty rough, but a lot better than I thought I would. I really thought I was going to die.” He paused. “I take it you’re alone?”
He was trying to hide it, but Finn could see that he was disappointed. “Yes, but only because I didn’t tell her.”
“I don’t suppose it would have made any difference anyway, even if you had.”
Finn wanted to leap to Kat’s defense but he couldn’t. He couldn’t understand the way she was behaving and he wasn’t about to pretend he did or make excuses for her. “I’m sorry.” He reached out and gripped Drake’s hand. “But the only thing you need to worry about right now is getting back on your feet so we can get you out of this awful place.”
Drake nodded. “Yeah, that would be good. And this time, I’ve got no intention of ever coming back.”
Forty-Two
She’d gone from extreme happiness to feeling so sad that she didn’t know what to do with herself. It had been two weeks since Finn had told her about her son and in that time she’d barely left the house. Jamie knew something was wrong but, faced with Kat’s flat refusals to tell her what, she was growing increasingly frustrated. Daniel was suffering, too. Kat could see it in his face that he was confused, but she just didn’t seem to be able to heal the wound in her heart.
She’d spent yet another day curled up on her bed, staring out the window, and was just contemplating getting up long enough to get a cup of coffee when she heard the door slamming. Frowning, she looked at the clock that said half past one in the afternoon. Strange, no one should be home yet, she had time to think before her bedroom door was flung open and a very angry-looking Jamie stormed into the room closing the door behind her.
“Have you been there all day?” she fumed.
Kat shrugged. “I guess.”
“Didn’t you hear the phone ring?”
She had, but she’d ignored it. “Probably just people trying to sell us stuff.”
“Actually, if you’d have bothered to pick up, you would have found out that it was the school. Daniel was injured today and had to be taken to the hospital.”
Panicked, Kat sat bolt upright. “Is he okay? What happened?”
Jamie put her hands on her hips. “Oh, now you care.” Her face softened. “He’s fine. It was just a bump to the head. I went and got him and he’s downstairs playing on his Xbox.”
“You scared me!”
“Good.” Jamie sat at the bottom of the bed and looked at her. “Kat, this has got to stop. What if Daniel had been badly hurt? I don’t know what’s going on with you but it ends. Now.”
“It’s not that simple.” Tears started rolling silently down her cheeks.
“It’s exactly that simple. You made a promise to that boy and you’re letting him down. I don’t mean to sound harsh, but it’s the truth.”
Her words struck home and for the first time in days, the fog that had filled her brain started to clear. “Oh, Jamie, what’s happened to me?”
“That’s what I’m hoping you’ll tell me. Kat, I love you and I want to help you, but I can’t if you don’t tell me what’s going on.”
Jamie was right. She couldn’t go on like this, keeping it all inside. “You’d better make yourself comfortable, then. This might take a while.”
Jamie didn’t interrupt as Kat finally told her everything. She just let her talk.
“I’m so sorry, Jamie, I should have told you earlier.”
“I wish you had. I’ve been so worried about you. I can’t believe you’ve been dealing with this all by yourself all these years.” She leaned forward and wrapped Kat in her arms.
“You don’t think I’m an awful person?” Kat asked, her voice muffled against Jamie’s shoulder.
“What? No, never.” Jamie let her go. “You did what you had to do. I’m not going to judge you for that. But I do think you’re making the wrong decision now.”
“But how can I ever explain what I did? What if he hates me?” Kat voiced her deepest fear.
“That’s a chance I think you’re going to have to take.” Jamie said softly. “If you don’t, I don’t think you’ll ever forgive yourself. You’ve got the chance to have your son in your life after all these years. How many people get that?”
“I know, but I don’t know if I can bear the guilt if what I did ruined his life.” Kat started crying again.
“Well, I think you’re being incredibly selfish. This is your son we’re talking about. He deserves the chance to get to know his mother. This shouldn’t be about you.”
Her words stung but she knew she was right. “And what about Finn? How can I ever trust him again?”
“He did it for you. You two are made for each other, meant to be together. If you want to throw tha
t away no one can stop you, but that shouldn’t affect the way you treat your son.”
Kat wiped the tears from her face. “Do you think Daniel will forgive me? I can’t believe I was so wrapped up in myself that I let him down like that.”
Jamie smiled. “Don’t worry about Daniel. I told him you weren’t feeling very well so he’s none the wiser. He has been worried about you, too, though, so I think you’ve got some making up to do.”
“Since when did you get so wise?” Kat asked, smiling. “I’m supposed to be the one looking after you.”
“We’re a family. We look after each other. Now, phone Finn and get this mess sorted out. I think it’s about time you met your son, don’t you?”
Now that the decision was made, Kat could feel little butterflies of excitement in her stomach. She was finally going to see her baby boy again, something she thought she would never do. How could she ever have been so stupid as to think she could turn her back on him?
Waiting until Jamie left the room and closed the door behind her, she picked up the extension by her bed and dialed Finn’s number from memory.
It rang so many times that Kat thought he might be ignoring her, but eventually he picked up.
“Finn? It’s me. I need to talk to you.”
“It’s not a good time right now, Kat.”
“It’s important, Finn. I’m so sorry, I was so wrong. Can we talk?”
She heard him sigh down the line. “Not at the moment. I’m out of town. I’ll call you when I get back.”
“Out of town? You never mentioned you were going away.”
“You told me to get out, if you remember. I didn’t think you’d be interested in my movements.”
She deserved that. “When will you be home?”
There was a long pause on the end of the phone before he answered. “I’m in LA, Kat, with Drake. Someone tried to kill him and he’s in the hospital.”
Kat felt the room spin and she had to put her hand out on the bed to steady herself. “What are you talking about?”
Briefly, he explained the events that led to Drake being injured.
This was her chance to start putting things right. “I’ll be on the next flight.”
“You don’t need to, Kat. He’s going to be fine.”
“I don’t care. I’ve let him down far too many times. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Putting the phone down, she immediately called the airport. She was in luck—there were seats on the next flight which left in just a few hours. Jumping off the bed, she went downstairs and explained to Jamie what was happening. She readily agreed to look after Daniel and offered to drive her to the airport.
It didn’t take her long to shower and throw a few things in a suitcase and she was soon ready to leave.
I’m coming, baby. At last, I’m coming.
Forty-Three
“I’m still not happy that you kept this from me,” Captain Fletcher grumbled from the passenger seat of Sam’s car.
“I’m sorry, but I had no choice.” Sam kept his eyes on the road, his expression grim. “I knew from what Drake said that it had to be somebody close. Either in the DA’s office or in the department. Who else would have known about the alibi? I had to let everyone think that we had no idea the attack was connected to the case.”
“I understand that, Sam, but you can’t seriously have thought it had anything to do with me?”
“No, not really, but I didn’t want to take any chances.”
“I must admit, I’m shocked.”
Sam didn’t want to talk about it anymore. He needed to do what they were going to do and then he would find a way to deal with it later.
“We’re here.” Sam pulled the car over, looking in his mirror to check that the other unmarked car containing four patrol officers had also stopped.
“I want to go in first.”
The captain frowned. “I don’t think I can allow that, Sam.”
“I’m not asking, boss. This is something I have to do.”
The captain looked at him and Sam could see that he understood. “Okay. Go.”
Sam stepped out of the car and walked up the path to the house. It felt like one of the longest walks of his life and, in a way, he hoped that it would never end because he knew what was waiting for him at the end of it.
It did end, though, and he took a deep breath before knocking on the front door.
“Sam, hi. What are you doing here?”
“Can I come in, Steve?”
“Of course.” He looked at him quizzically. “Why so serious?” He stepped aside to let him in.
“We need to talk.” Sam stepped past him and walked straight into the living room where they’d spent many a long night drinking beer and putting the world to rights.
“Are you pissed that I’ve been off sick? I’m feeling a lot better now. I’ll be back in tomorrow.”
Sam turned to face him. He looked just like the same old Steve that he’d always known, except now the person stood there was a stranger.
“We know, Steve,” he told him, his voice flat.
“Know what? Sam, what is this?”
“Why did you kill them, Steve? Why did you kill all those girls?”
Sam watched as the emotions played across his face. He watched as he searched his mind for a way out and he saw the exact moment when he realized there wasn’t one.
“How did you know?” His face was hard now, uncaring.
“It had to be someone on the inside. No one else knew about the alibi. I never thought it was you, never. But then the tech team put a trace on the phone that Jordan used and they pinpointed it here, Steve. Your house.” He shook his head, still struggling to believe it. “And then other things Drake and Angel said made sense. Jordan appeared about a year ago, about the same time you went undercover, and the information he was able to provide on the other gangs, on their drug business—you’d know all that. You’re Jordan, aren’t you Steve?”
He nodded.
“I don’t understand, Steve. Why?”
He shrugged. “Money. Pure and simple. Juan paid me a lot of money for the information I was able to give him. Money I needed if I wanted to try and keep up with Mr. Orthodontist.”
“That doesn’t explain why you killed those girls, Steve. All those girls with their lives ahead of them. Why?”
“They came to me to buy drugs, all of them. Rich bitches with all their airs and graces, throwing their money around. They were Cheryl, all of them. It was the first one that did something to me. I didn’t want to sell to her, told her she had everything and not to waste it all by getting involved in drugs and you know what she told me?” he asked. “She told me that scum like me didn’t get to even think about her life. That I was there to give her what she wanted and that was all.” He shook his head. “I lost it, and afterwards, I felt better. Less angry.”
Sam felt sick listening to him. There was no justification for what he’d done, however much he felt life had wronged him. “They’re waiting outside.”
Steve nodded. “I guessed as much.”
“Do I need to handcuff you?”
“No, I won’t cause any problems. I’m glad it was you that came for me, Sam.”
Walking what had once been his closest friend out to the waiting officers should have been hard but it wasn’t. The Steve he’d known didn’t exist anymore, swallowed by his own demons.
***
“Hey, sis, how have my little girls been behaving?” Sam stood in his kitchen, looking out of the window onto the back yard.
“They’ve been great, Sam. Missing you, though.”
“Not as much as I’ve been missing them.”
“How’s Maria?”
“She’s getting better in leaps and bounds. Should be released from the hospital any day now.”
“That’s fantastic news. The girls will be so happy. So, any news on when they can come home?”
Sam smiled. He’d been doing a lot of thinking over the p
ast couple of days and had come to a decision. “About that. What are property prices like where you are?”
Forty-Four
Her heart was in her throat as she walked up the busy corridor towards his room. It was full of people rushing around going where they needed to go, and yet she was oblivious to it all, focused only on her destination. She was going to meet her son, the boy she’d last held in her arms when he was a baby, just a few days old.
As she got closer, her paced slowed and all the fear she’d felt over the past couple of weeks washed over her once again. No, not this time. Pushing it aside, she strode forward and knocked on the door.
“Hi, Kat.” Finn held the door open for her. “Come in.”
Smiling her thanks, she stepped into the room, her eyes drawn to the bed. What do I do? Her feet were glued to the floor as her eyes met his for the first time. She searched them for a clue about how he felt, something that would guide her next move. She had done wrong by him his entire life. Was there any getting past that? All these questions swirled through her mind as she stood there, not moving.
In disbelief, she watched as he opened his arms and beckoned to her. She felt an almost physical reaction then, as if the cord that existed between them that had been stretched almost to breaking point for all those years suddenly yanked her forward. With tears blurring her vision, she stepped towards the bed and into his arms.
“I don’t know what to say.” She sobbed into his chest. “I have no idea where to begin.”
“You don’t need to say anything. We’ve got all the time in the world ahead of us to talk, haven’t we?”
She nodded. “Yes, I’m never letting you go again.”
***
“Okay, come on, everybody, dinners on the table!” Kat shouted from the dining room, grinning at the sounds of laughter coming from the dining room.
The McKays Box Set - To Kill For, Blood Sport, Hard Time & Gang Land Page 52