Jason mourned the death of his older brother. They were close until recently, although much of this closeness was necessary, so that Mario could clean up his young brother’s messes. Jason grieved more deeply than he usually would, for his brother left this world while they were still angry with each other, and he felt guilt over his latest actions that seared into his very soul. Mario was still disappointed in Jason’s behaviour and his wanton rebellion while he was away overseas. He missed no opportunity to berate his brother for his mistake. He taunted him, bullied him, and took away his privileges in the business to teach him a lesson. There was no way for the remorseful Jason to make amends for his stupidity and for asserting his independence in such a destructive fashion. He couldn’t live with the shame he felt, and he couldn’t live with the way his brother looked at him, the way he spoke to him, and how he now treated him like a foolish child. Finally one day, he could stand it no more. It was not enough of a reason to do what he did to Mario, but as usual and yet again, he made a decision fuelled by his wildly beating heart, without consulting his mind.
Jason had destroyed everything important to him, and in the midst of disgust in himself and his wish to make it all go away, he drove to the home by the river where Crystal was set up to work. She was alone at that very moment and soaking in the bath, with a glass of wine in her hand, but still he marched into the room and ordered her out of the water. She was frightened out of her mind, for he had a look in his eyes she had never seen before. He looked crazed, determined, and angry! He unceremoniously threw a pair of her jeans and shirt at her and with one last look at her body, marched her out the door, into the street, and told her to leave and never show her face anywhere he could see it again. In her hand, he placed a duffel bag full of her casual clothing and a bus ticket to a city over a thousand miles away. He told her it left in two hours and to be on it or else.
Crystal accepted the freedom. She couldn’t for the life of her understand why he was letting her go. She didn’t know what she would do with her freedom, but she accepted it and almost ran to get away in case he should change his mind. Jason didn’t know why he let her go, either, only that he could no longer stand the accusing voices in his head. He needed to put as much distance between himself and his ex-wife as possible.
Chapter 25
Sienna and Elsie were kept abreast of the situation between Bonnie and Mario Sawtell, and they were at first some- what pleased and then worried, just as the madam was, at his untimely death. Bonnie was almost sure Mario’s greed would consume him and he would accept her offer of purchase. Now dead and quite unable to make any decision, her meeting with Mario had been pointless and fruitless. Sienna knew now their only hope lie in the hands of Jason Sawtell and his desire to be rid of the woman who had beguiled him and caused him to upset his brother. Just as she usually did, she also had another card up her sleeve.
All this and more was being documented day by day in Sienna’s diary, and within the lines of a particular entry, she, too, pleaded that God, who she had recently started talking to, would allow her to regain her lost sister. Crystal must be missing her, too, she thought, but she may have given up hope, for in all these years, it would probably seem to her that Sienna had never tried to make contact. All that time, while Marcus was pretending to be in contact with Bonnie and Crystal, her sister had been totally alone. Crystal couldn’t possibly know the angst and pain that flowed in her sister’s blood. Sienna hoped one day to make right every wrong that had been acted out upon her. She imagined the scenario when they would first meet, and she played over in her head the words she would say to apologize for all the lost years and for her belief in Marcus who had deceived her so long and separated them from one another.
Bonnie plucked up an extra ounce of courage and appeared again, the very next day, in the Sawtell household. She had her guard carefully up and her plan of attack firmly in her mind. It was precisely one week after Mario’s funeral. She planned to forcefully offer an open amount to Jason for Crystal’s freedom, and as an extra card up her sleeve she would promise to keep silent about what she knew of the girl he married and his latest murderous actions, which she witnessed. She would frame it in such a way that he would have no choice but to accept her generous offer, but when she tried to push him with her words he let fly with some words of his own.
“How dare you threaten me!” he exclaimed angrily. “I have just lost my brother! He’s gone and I can’t take back what I’ve done! And do you know what, Ms. Leslie? The last thing that we did was argue about that dreadful woman! She was beautiful, intoxicating, and beyond the reach of my heart. She played with me, held me at arm’s length, and turned me into a fool—a complete and utter fool!” His eyes turned stormy as he ranted. “If you must know, she’s gone,” he admitted. “I set her free just so I didn’t have to see her ever again! She’s gone forever, and I don’t even want to know where she is!” He sat down defeated and beyond consoling, his eyes wet and his body weakened by emotion. Bonnie tried to press him for details, but Jason would have none of it and demanded she leave, calling in his new bodyguard to remove her forcibly if need be.
The madam, who was very used to getting what she wanted, was there for no more than three minutes and hadn’t succeeded in rescuing Crystal. Even still she was armed with information now. She at least knew Sienna’s sister was still alive and well. In Jason Sawtell’s grief and anger, he could have very well had killed her, just as he had killed before, so Bonnie was thankful that he had spared his ex-wife’s life. Why, she would never know, for killing her would have been more his style, but for some reason his emotions held him back this time.
Reporting back to Sienna was both a joy and a source of sadness, because for now they had no idea where Crystal had gone, if she was still in the vicinity, or if they would be able to find her again, now that she had slipped through their fingers. Had Jason chosen to do so he could have made their search much easier, for he did know where Crystal was, at least which city she was in. In his desire to make her a dim memory, he couldn’t risk Bonnie finding her and bringing her back to live only twenty minutes of his home.
His hatred for her was misguided, for he was placing the blame for his decisions all on Crystal’s shoulders, but his grief needed someone to blame so she was his scapegoat. Now that she was gone his soul and his conscience felt a bit better. “See,” he said to the sky, hoping Mario would hear him, “I got rid of her! I’m sorry for losing my head over her, Mario. Please forgive me! I’m sorry for what I did to you!” With that, he sobbed. He was a man who would never usually be seen sobbing, but his guilt and pain ate away at him like a disease. Time would never ease his guilty feelings, and it was a good thing he let Sienna’s twin go, because his emotions and actions may have gotten him into even more trouble had he harmed her, as he so wanted to. Making unwise decisions was a part of his life he wished he could stop.
At the same time, Sienna had started having some very deep concerns about her sister. She felt an anxious urgency inside that could not be silenced. When she discussed it with Elsie, she agreed that she was worried as well. Bonnie and her girls were keeping a lookout for her and every blonde girl Sienna saw made her heart jump with hope, but it was never her.
It was Marcus who started all this trouble, and from time to time Sienna would look back over old entries in her journal, seeing clearly how she had grown from a young girl to a woman in record time and how Marcus had stolen so much from her life. She had, however, fallen on her feet as far as lifestyle was concerned. Just as Elsie received her wage every week, Sienna was still receiving her allowance into her account, and she was still in the wonderful home she had, for the most part anyway, grown up in. She considered it a blessing, sort of like a little pay off that she now lived off his finances, that she now had his wealth even though he was long gone. It was good—right and good!
Elsie came to Sienna one day with an idea she wondered why she hadn’t considered before, because the answer to their fragile pe
ace of mind was right in front of them. It was fairly obvious once she had seen it and it made her feel silly because right under their noses was the answer to finding Crystal— Elsie’s nephew Zach. He had the connections and the power to find anyone. Surely at some point, she had used a bank account, applied for a rental unit, or something. There would be a record of her on some computer somewhere without a doubt, and Zach and his colleagues would find it if it was there. The women in the household were excited again as they realised there was more hope than they had lately begun to feel.
Chapter 26
Jason Sawtell was arrested just two weeks later, after an anony- mous tip to the police. He had been questioned earlier, but of course, he had an alibi and was genuinely distraught over his brother’s death, so the authorities began looking elsewhere. A man such as Mario had acquired many enemies in his life- time, and there was much investigation until the details—exact date, time, and the whereabouts of the murder weapon—were received. Having found the weapon, which stupidly was one of his own collection and then lifting a section of fingerprint, which matched the accused, there was no question.
Jason’s guilt and his trauma-induced mental state caused him to sing like a canary when he was escorted into the station for questioning. He was no longer able to hide his deed. He had slipped over the edge of sanity and gave himself up in a dramatic story of torture and pain. By the time his lawyer arrived Jason had told them everything and given his official statement. By then, the best his counsel could do was to enter a plea of temporary insanity caused by the stress and strain of Mario’s constant mental tormenting of his brother. The plea was disregarded, as many of Jason’s actions were clearly premeditated, and he would have been hit by the full force of the law had he not bargained his way around it.
In his storytelling, Jason gave away more secrets than he originally intended to, and after a careful investigation of the Sawtell family business and infiltration by undercover police, it was taken apart section by section and destroyed in waves like a sandcastle on the beach. The other people employed by the brothers scattered in every direction trying to escape the impending imprisonment, but one by one, they were dragged back after Jason listed their names to receive a slightly lighter sentence.
All of his less involved employees, those who were beaten and forced into their roles, were allowed to leave without charge. Had Crystal still been there to see this, she too would be free. Many of the girls simply found employment of the same nature with other dangerous and evil employers, but for a few, this new freedom provided a way of escape and a change of life.
This was also the case for Crystal. She was free and had begun to change her own life. As much as she would have liked to find her sister and live a free life back at home, she knew she was unable to return. Jason had scared her well away from home, and she had been warned of the consequences of returning. What she didn’t know was that Jason Sawtell had been jailed for what would be the better part of the rest of his life. Had she known, she may have tried to find Sienna and her mother. Crystal didn’t know that Candice was gone and didn’t know the circumstances surrounding her sister’s lack of contact with her. The latter part she simply accepted, until she could find a way to contact Sienna, but the death of the woman who brought her into the world would come as a shock no matter how and when she found out about it. She had heard that an unknown female had been found dead in an alley back when she was about sixteen or seventeen, but she never once thought she could be her own flesh and blood. Sadly, this kind of occurrence was not unusual in the city where she previously resided, so as with the many before and the many after, the exact details were never known or revealed.
Crystal was living in a caravan park by the sea, with a stray kitten as her only friend, but joyously with a regular job four mornings a week in a diner just down the block from the park. She had no television or any little luxuries as yet, but she had bought herself some nice clothes to suit her new life. Many of her outfits were loose and flowing numbers that emulated the casual wear of her new home. The beachside town was almost hippie- like in its simplicity, and she loved it. She was beginning to feel just a little more normal these days. In some very important ways Jason Sawtell had done her some favours. Not only had he set her free a couple of months prior, but he had cleaned her up and got her the help she needed to fight her drug addiction to make her more acceptable and presentable in his high-society lifestyle. She was still completely free of substance abuse. She was tanned and healthy again, and her hair shone as it hadn’t in a long time. It had been a number of months now since a man had beaten her, and she had all but ceased waking up at night in a cold sweat after having nightmares. Every now and then, she was jumpy and afraid, but for the most part, she was starting to live again. Now that she was free, the one thing she wanted most was to learn to trust again, not to flinch when she was touched by another person, and eventually to try to find her family.
Unbeknown to Crystal, Sienna was indeed looking for her and had been trying to rescue her and make her safe right up until the time she again disappeared from the radar. Now, even though the going had become a little tougher, her sister had contacted Elsie’s nephew Zach, met with him in person, and provided photographs of her sister that she bought from the newspaper photographers.
Zach was incredibly kind to Sienna, and she noticed straight away the similarities in some of his facial features to his auntie. He was tall, about six foot two, and had dark hair and eyes and nice brown skin. She liked the way he smiled, and she noticed that when she spoke to him her heart beat a little faster than normal. It was a reaction she hadn’t felt in a wholesome way before, and it thrilled her a little to feel an attraction that was good and normal. She had no idea if he noticed her slightly flustered, nervous state, or if he felt it, too, but it was nice anyway. Later on, Elsie and Sienna giggled about the sweetness of it all, and Elsie had secretly confirmed that Zach had admitted he was amazed by how beautiful she was. Looking for her twin would be easy, because he had met Sienna and knew just how Crystal would be.
In addition to his services and the help of his colleagues, Zach had suggested she hire a private investigator to help in the search. He explained that he could make sure the authorities from all around would be alerted to her missing status, but that a private investigator would be able to devote more solid time to the search for Crystal.
Sienna took his advice and made contact with one he recommended. She met with Abe Monash as soon as he was available. He was a tall man, about the same height as Zach, with wavy blond hair, which he was trying to tame. He looked to be about forty-five or so and had a certain air of professionalism that gave Sienna a lot of confidence in him. She provided him with the portfolio of photos, just as she had with Elsie’s nephew, and he looked at them and commented on how very much like Sienna she was. He had remembered seeing her photos in the paper and had noted her due to his interest in the goings on within the Sawtell dynasty. He wasn’t exactly fond of them and had had a number of run-ins with them during his career in both police work and private investigation circles.
Sienna told Abe some of the story of Crystal’s life, so that he had some background with which to work, and he was grateful for any information which she could give. He was willing to begin work the very next day on the case, as a personal favour to Zach, who he referred to as a good kid, although Zach was actually twenty-five. It seemed to Sienna that people did this once they reached about forty, and she thought it was funny because she thought Abe, in his forties, was ancient as she was still only eighteen.
Abe starting poking around in Crystal’s life and located some of the girls she used to work with to try to get an idea where she may have gone. Meanwhile, Zach began looking for bank records and the more legal side of things, which complemented the work Abe was doing.
For about two weeks, neither of them had the success they wanted, until one of Zach’s detective friends suggested they look under her married name also. This was an idea
that was blindingly obvious once they were alerted to it, but not one they had thought of before. Now things took off in a big way. All of a sudden, a bank account was found with regular incoming and outgoing transactions, and although they were yet to hear from the bank as to the information they held on Crystal Sawtell, it was probably only days away before they would know where she was. Abe had promised that he would travel straight there to see if he could find her and do further investigation should the bank be able to help.
Three days went past with Sienna on tenterhooks and diving at the phone every time it rang. Zach rang on the morning of the fourth day with the report that Crystal’s transactions were all listed at a small beachside town called Tatum Bay, but that the bank had been given no address since quite a number of months ago. Both Zach and Abe were unworried about this. Zach’s exact words were: “How hard could it be to find someone as beautiful as Sienna and Crystal in a small town?” And Abe, who was also there at the house, agreed that Crystal would stand out like a sore thumb.
Sienna wanted to go with Abe to Tatum Bay, but he warned her that sometimes people didn’t want to be found and that he needed to go there first, unobtrusively seek her out, and then engage her in a conversation that might lead to her to showing her hand. Sienna was saddened, but she knew he was right. Abe left the next morning on the southbound plane to the city nearest Tatum Bay. From there he would hire a car to drive east to the town where Crystal was certain to be. Sienna was still in her bed early that morning, but she was too excited to sleep.
Chapter 27
Sienna considered herself very lucky in her life these days because she didn’t have to be alone. She was so happy to have Elsie, who had become sort of a mother figure to her, and she was starting to like Zach more and more. It seemed he would use any excuse to come around to the house, and Sienna was certain this was above and beyond the call of duty. Still, she liked it and wrote about him in her journal often.
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