Root of All Evil

by Hayden, Jennifer

  “Hiya, honey.”

  That voice. “It’s her,” he tossed over his shoulder to Detective Archer. “She’s the one who left the messages.” He straightened, his eyes still looking her over critically. God, she looked like a street whore. How had she managed to target him?

  “That’s what we thought,” Archer said, making a few notes in a little black book. “She’s not talking.”

  Luke thought that over and leaned down again. Her eyes were still watching him attentively. “Do I know you?”

  “No, but I know you.”

  The words pissed him off and he scowled at her. “Look, lady, don’t fuck with me here. I have just about had enough. Do you want to tell me why in the hell you’ve picked me to torture?”

  “You got a smoke?” she asked, ignoring his question.

  “I don’t smoke.” His patience began to thin.

  “That’s right. She said you…” Her voice broke off.

  “Who said I what?” he asked, frustrated.

  “Nothing. You are a handsome one. Much better looking up close.”

  Was she serious?

  “You’re a little young to be a widower, don’t you think?”

  His eyes narrowed again. “Who in the hell are you and how do you know all this information about me? Did you read it in the papers, is that it? Now you have some crazy fixation on my family?”

  “I didn’t have to read it in the paper, Mr. Garrison. I have a source.”

  “A source,” he repeated. She was crazy, he decided.

  “Sure.”

  Frustration ate at him. He was close to losing his patience. “Why won’t you just tell me who you are?”

  “Because,” she said, a sickening smile on her face. “It wouldn’t mean anything to you.”

  “Then how can you say you know me? How can you say you know my daughter?” His hand slammed against the patrol car with a smack. “What the hell’s wrong with you? She’s just a little girl! Why the hell are you messing with my family?”

  “Aren’t you forgetting someone?”

  He ran a hand through his hair before meeting her gaze again. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Don’t you miss her?”

  The words sliced down the middle of his heart. She couldn’t be talking about Kate. There was no way.

  “We’ve got to get her down to the station.” Archer suddenly appeared. “If she’s willing, you can talk to her later.”

  “Who are you talking about?” Luke asked at the last minute, as the officer in the front seat prepared to roll the back window up. The woman looked at him, a tight grin in place on her face.

  “Blue is a nice color, don’t you think?” The window slid shut as she spoke the last word. Luke was stunned into silence. His eyes snapped shut as the car backed down the driveway. He saw Kate’s face. Her eyes. Her smile. The pain was immediate and excruciating.

  “Luke?”

  He opened his eyes and turned at the sound of Sara’s voice from behind him. Her face had been wiped clean of tears, but she was clearly still upset.

  “I just wanted to tell you again how sorry I am about all this. I would never have forgiven myself if something had happened to Hallie.”

  Unable to deal with anything else at the moment, he forced himself to nod. “I know. It wasn’t your fault. Can you do me a favor and get Hal’s stuff for me? I have to go.”

  The hurt flickered through her eyes but he was too far gone to pay any mind to it. His life had gone off the deep end. All he wanted to do now was get his daughter some place safe.

  Kate stared through the trees at the ruckus that was going on in front of the daycare center. There were three or four police cars there now. There were cops milling around, nightsticks ready to strike at a moment’s notice. They were looking for her. She knew it. She’d seen them capture Karen, who’d put up a valiant fight unsuccessfully. Now they wanted her.

  She crouched lower behind a large bush and continued to look around herself. She was afraid. She didn’t know what to do or where to go now. She knew Louis was out there somewhere and she wasn’t sure who she was more scared of, the police or him.

  The police thought she was a criminal. They were going to arrest her. She was going to be arrested for trying to see her own daughter. The reality of that fact slapped her in the face and she rubbed her hands against her face, trying to stop shaking.

  Hearing a snap behind her, Kate whirled around. The vacant lot was thick with trees and bushes. It was almost like being in a forest. The space behind her was empty, yet she knew Louis was somewhere. If he wasn’t here now, he would be back. She turned back to the daycare and watched as Luke stepped outside, his daughter at his side. She was saying something to him and he bent down and picked her up, carrying her over to his Dodge Ram. Kate watched him put Hallie in her car seat and buckle her in. Then he shut the door and turned, his eyes looking straight at her. She froze. His hand reached up and he removed a pair of sunglasses from his face. Did he know she was alive? Had Karen told him the truth?

  She waited on baited breath as he stared in her direction a moment longer. Then he slipped the sunglasses over his eyes and climbed into his truck, slamming the door behind him. He hadn’t seen her. She waited for his truck to back out of the driveway and then she turned and ran for her life.

  Luke sat in his living room an hour later, still in a daze. Hallie had been picked up by Suz earlier. She had begged to go and play with her cousins and after some serious consideration he figured getting her out the line of fire was probably best for the time being. Now he was waiting for Nate to finish making coffee, his plan to eliminate caffeine from his diet temporarily on hold. He needed the kick at this point. The woman from the daycare debacle had a name now. Karen McPherson, the police told him. She had a Canadian address and some form of family or another in Oregon. She had been arrested several times for prostitution. She was a hooker.

  The idea that his wife had associated with such a person seemed ludicrous. Kate had been a teacher. She had been highly respected in her field and most of her friends were in the same business. If she had known his wife, he would have known her. She was lying. What he couldn’t figure out, was why. Why would someone claiming to be Kate’s friend torture him now, after all this time?

  “Maybe she wants money,” Nate suggested, handing his brother a cup of the coffee he’d just brewed. He had stopped by on his way home from work to hear the latest details on what was happening.

  “She’s not getting a fucking penny,” was all Luke said.

  “Kate wouldn’t have been friends with a hooker,” Nate pointed out. “She’s lying.”

  “Maybe.”

  “What do you mean, maybe?”

  “She knows stuff about Kate and I that no one but us knew. I don’t understand where she’s getting her information.”

  “We’ve been over this, Luke. It’s pretty easy to dig dirt on someone.”

  “I’m not buying it,” was all Luke said.

  “What about Hallie? You want her to stay with us for now?”

  “I don’t want her caught up in the middle of this. It’s better if she stays out of the limelight for now.” The doorbell rang, as if on cue.

  Luke cursed while Nate stood up and answered the ring. Detective Archer stood on the porch, an envelope in his hand. “I have something I think you should see.” He stepped into the foyer, uninvited, and headed over to where Luke still sat on the couch. “We had Sara Hendrickson work with our sketch artist in order to get an idea of what the second perp looks like. I’d like you to take a look and see if you recognize her.” Archer pulled out a sketch and handed it to Luke. “Keep in mind; it’s not perfect by any means. The nose could be off, or something else. Just look for familiarities—anything that jumps out at you.”

  Looking down at the sketch, Luke stiffened. He studied the round dark eyes, the tiny upturned nose—and the hair. That unevenly-cropped hair. The breath left his lungs. He cursed, standing up quickly
, and then wishing he had stayed seated when a wave of dizziness assailed him. He looked at the drawing again. She was still there looking up at him.

  “Luke?” Nate was by his side in seconds. He looked over his brother’s shoulder and after a moment he let out a vile curse.

  “I take it she looks familiar?” Archer asked, looking from one brother to the other.

  Luke’s fingers separated and the drawing slipped from his grip.

  “He knows her,” Nate said for him, though his head was shaking in denial. “This can’t be, man. It’s not possible.”

  Archer bent and picked the sketch up. “This is exactly how Ms. Hendrickson described her. She was surprisingly accurate with her details. Why, who is she?”

  Luke shook his head, as though to clear it. He felt a sense of helplessness that was nearly driving him mad. He almost couldn’t control his emotions. “That woman,” he said, in almost a whisper. “Is my wife.”

  Archer’s brow rose. “Your wife?”

  “It’s his wife,” Nate confirmed, running a hand through his hair. “I mean it looks like her but it can’t be. She’s dead.”

  Luke hunkered down on the couch again. Nate was right. It wasn’t possible. Was it?

  “Let me get this straight,” Archer said, now scribbling avidly in his black book. “The woman in this picture is your wife. Your dead wife. Is that what you’re telling me?”

  “It’s Kate,” was all Luke said. The words rattled inside his head. The drawing was of Kate. Sara had seen her. Alive.

  Archer reached for his cell phone. Before he could dial, Luke looked up at him. “I want to talk to Karen McPherson.”

  “I’m sorry, Mr. Garrison. I can’t allow that.”

  “To hell with your formalities. I need to talk to her. She knows what happened to my wife. She knows what’s going on here. This is either some kind of sick game or…” His voice trailed off and he just shook his head. It couldn’t be possible.

  “Or what?” Archer asked.

  “Or my wife is alive.” Luke eventually found the nerve to say the words out loud. He heard Nate swear and ignored him. “I know my wife. I know her face. I know everything about her. I would never mistake her for someone else.”

  “I think you might,” Nate said quietly.

  “You know it’s her, Nate. Do not deny it. I saw the look on your face.”

  “It looks like her,” Nate argued. “That doesn’t mean it is her.”

  “There’s only one way I’m going to find out,” Luke reasoned. “I need to talk to Karen McPherson.”

  “She’s a whore, Luke. Do you really think she’s going to tell you the truth? God, this is all her doing. She’s been screwing with you the whole time!”

  “It’s a chance I have to take.” Luke looked at Archer. “Get me in there.”

  “I’ll work on it. I think you should know, this picture has been turned over to the media.”

  Luke narrowed his eyes in response to this news.

  “Technically she’s a suspect, Mr. Garrison.”

  “A suspect for what?” Nate wanted to know.

  “Kidnapping. It is our opinion, that based upon the evidence we’ve gathered, the woman we have in custody and the woman in this sketch were planning to abduct your daughter.”

  Luke frowned at that.

  “What are we supposed to think, Mr. Garrison? After all, just this morning you were concerned about the same thing.”

  “She’s my wife,” was all he said, the words seeming foreign on his tongue.

  “Well we didn’t know that at the time this was released to the press. It’s standard procedure when a suspect is at large.”

  “She wouldn’t take Hallie away from me. She’d never kidnap her own daughter.”

  “You don’t know that,” Nate said, his voice quiet.

  “I do know that, Nate.”

  “You can come down to the station,” Archer said. “I’ll see if she’ll agree to talk to you. She did seem more receptive to you than she did to us.”

  “I’m going with you,” Nate said, grabbing his keys.

  Luke followed his brother, thinking the better of driving anyway. He was too screwed up to think straight right then. His head was in too many places. Besides, the short ride to the police station gave him a little time to think. He didn’t want to face the possibility that if Kate was alive, maybe she had tried to take Hallie from him, but he knew he had to. If she was alive, then she had let him think her dead all this time. That ate at him like a virus. Why would she have done this?

  “People get screwed up sometimes?” Nate said, reading Luke’s mind as he drove his car through busy Seattle traffic. “You can’t just count the possibility out.”

  “You’re asking me to believe that my wife staged her own death and left me and our daughter to die, only to come back three years later and kidnap her child back? Doesn’t that seem a little far-fetched to you?” Luke shook his head, not giving his brother a chance to answer. “I don’t believe that for a second. You weren’t in the Jeep that night. You didn’t see how she was with Hallie—with me. Everything was totally normal. She just wanted to get home.” In an awful damned hurry, a voice reminded him inside his head. He pushed it aside.

  “I don’t know what to believe, Luke. I just don’t see any other explanation for why she’d fake being dead and then turn up at Hallie’s daycare three years later.”

  Luke refused to let himself believe it. He refused to let himself believe that the woman he’d thought was the love of his life was a liar and a kidnapper.

  Five minutes later, they pulled into the police station. The place was buzzing and there were members of the press everywhere. Once they were inside and he sat face to face with Karen McPherson again, he lost what little patience he had left. He stared into those bland blue eyes, searching for some sign of familiarity, a second time. He found none. It unnerved him.

  “Yes, I’m a whore. You’re baffled that I would know your wife.”

  “I don’t give a shit what you are. Is she alive?”

  “Well, well, well, cut right to the chase, don’t you?” She inhaled a deep drag of her cigarette.

  “I’ve gone through hell the last three years. You bet I’m going to cut to the chase. Is she alive?”

  Karen studied him a moment. Her eyes ran over his face, down his chest. Then she stubbed out her cigarette and looked back up at his face. “What’s your favorite memory of her, Luke?”

  He didn’t even blink. “Every minute I spent with her was special. She was my life.”

  “Wow, she wasn’t kidding. You’re a regular Romeo. I didn’t think guys like you existed.”

  He waited for her to say more.

  “You have a beautiful daughter.”

  She was playing games, he figured out. This was all a game to her. Keep him waiting and get a laugh. His blood began to boil. “Damn it, why are you doing this to me? Why won’t you just tell me if she’s alive or not?” He stood up, slamming his fist against the table in frustration. “What the hell kind of person are you?”

  “She’s alive.”

  The words slapped him in the face with such force he nearly stumbled backward. He turned and his eyes locked with hers. Blue eyes to blue eyes, they stared at each other. Then he let out a choked moan. He couldn’t control his emotions anymore. Unable to keep standing, he dropped back into the chair. His hands folded over his face in shock. “Where?” he managed to choke out. “God, where is she?”

  “I don’t know,” Karen said, lighting another cigarette up. Her eyes had softened though. She was looking on him with pity now and he wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. “She ran away. We had a slight change in plans this morning.”

  “I don’t understand.” He leaned over the table, shaking his head. “What the hell happened here? How can she be alive?”

  “Things usually aren’t what they seem, Luke.” She leaned back in her chair. “The accident three years ago was a set up. Your wife wa
s the target. You and your daughter just happened to get in the way.”

  Luke couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Why would someone target Kate?”

  “Because her old man had money hidden somewhere and Louis was convinced that Kate knew where he’d stashed it.”

  “Fitz? Please. He didn’t have a red penny. We had to pay for his funeral.”

  “They had some money. I don’t know all the details about where it came from. But I don’t think Kate knew about it.” She shrugged. “What I’m trying to tell you here, is that your Katie Blue didn’t leave you willingly. She was taken. Louis told her you were dead. Both you and Hallie. From that point on, she gave up and didn’t fight him.”

  At that moment, Luke saw red. The anger that boiled through him was so intense he wanted to grab her by the neck and shake her. She’d been a part of it. She had taken his wife from him. She had taken Hallie’s mother away.

  “I brought her back,” she said, obviously sensing his anger.

  He stood abruptly, pacing back and forth before turning back to her. He leaned over the table, his eyes boring into hers. “If you’re lying to me right now, you’ll wish you were dead. Do you understand?” He bent closer to her. “You will not get a fucking cent out of me either. You got that? Extortion is not an option.”

  She didn’t answer, she just stared back at him solemnly.

  “I’m going to give you fair warning here. If I find out you did anything to hurt her, I’ll kill you myself.” He glared at her a moment longer, then stood up straight. He watched the color drain from her face and figured he’d gotten his point across. “Where is she?”

  “I already told you, I don’t know.”