Flash Point

by Metsy Hingle

  “Let go of me, Meredith.”

  “No, not until you listen to me.”

  Struggling to keep his temper, he spat out, “All right. Make it quick.”

  “I love him. I always have,” she said, and the tears started to flow. “And he loves me, but he doesn’t think he’s good enough for me. And…and we had a horrible fight the other night. I told him he was a coward and either he had to marry me or we were through.”

  His best friend and his little sister? The idea still took some getting used to. “What did he say?”

  “You don’t see him here on bended knee with a ring, do you?”

  “He will be when I finish with him,” Jack promised.

  “No,” she said firmly. “I mean it, Jack. I don’t want him that way.”

  Suddenly he took a hard look at his sister. She wasn’t a flighty little girl anymore, he realized. She was a woman in love. “I’m sorry, Meredith.”

  “Me, too.”

  “I can’t believe I’m saying this, because it’s going to take me some time to wrap my brain around the image of you and Alex as a couple, but maybe he’ll come around.”

  “Maybe, but I’m not going to hold my breath.” She sniffed again, then hiked up her chin. “But I appreciate you wanting to defend my honor.”

  “Anytime. You know that I’m always here for you, don’t you? That I’d cut out the heart of anyone who hurt you?”

  “I know.” She gave him a hug. “Well, my love life may suck, but at least yours is looking up. Thank God you had the good sense to ditch Alicia for Kelly.”

  “Come on, Meredith, Alicia wasn’t all that bad,” he said, but in truth he wondered why the affair had lasted as long as it did.

  “Well, she did spend a chunk of money here tonight and as long as you don’t make her my sister-in-law, I guess she’s all right.”

  “That’s my girl.”

  “Speaking of making someone my sister-in-law, what did you think of Kelly’s outfit? And before you start gushing, you should know that I expect you to thank me for it later.”

  He chuckled. “I’ll do that—as soon as I see it. I caught a glimpse of her when I got here, but then she disappeared. I was just on my way to see if she was in her apartment when I saw you come in here.”

  “But she didn’t leave—at least not before you came in here. I was keeping a close watch at the door, making sure I thanked everyone for coming tonight.”

  “You must have missed her, then. Because unless she’s hiding in one of those bathroom stalls, she’s not in the shop.”

  “Did you try my office? I saw her heading in that direction with Margee earlier.”

  Jack’s blood suddenly ran cold. He didn’t bother responding to his sister. With the sound of his own heart pounding in his ears, he flew out the door, racing toward the office and praying he wasn’t too late.

  Twenty

  Jack burst through the door into the office like a man possessed. “Kelly,” he shouted while scanning past the piles of cartons and crates.

  “Jack? What’s wrong?” Kelly asked, an anxious note in her voice as she stepped from around a corner. “Has something happened?”

  Relief rushed through him. Barely noticing the shimmering gold dress she wore, he grabbed her and hugged her tight against his chest.

  “Where’s the fire, Callaghan?” Margee asked as she stepped around the same corner.

  Everything inside Jack went cold at the reference to fire. His voice was hard, his heart even harder as he stared at her. “No fire,” he said. Not this time, he thought silently, and wondered if Margee knew about the other fire, the one in which Kelly was supposed to have died. She couldn’t have, Jack told himself. Margee would have been a kid at the time.

  “Well, that was certainly a dramatic entrance,” Margee said with a laugh. “For a minute there, I was sure either the building was on fire or Meredith was collecting the scalps of those of us who hadn’t bought anything yet.”

  “No fire. And as far as I know, Meredith hasn’t gone scalp-hunting yet,” he said, trying to calm his nerves while assessing Margee. Damn it, he wished he’d been able to fly out to San Diego earlier today to see Robert Jardine instead of being forced to take the red-eye tonight. But if he was right and Jardine was Kelly’s father, Margee was a murderer.

  “Shame on you both,” Kelly said, and took a step away. “Meredith has done a wonderful job and she’s a very sharp businesswoman.”

  “I was only teasing,” Margee offered. “The truth is I think if tonight’s any indication, give her a few years and Meredith will be able to buy and sell us all.”

  “Margee, if you don’t mind, I’d like to speak with Kelly alone.”

  “Jack,” Kelly admonished. “Margee and I were in the middle of a discussion.”

  “It’s all right. We can finish it another time.”

  “You’re sure?” Kelly asked.

  “Positive. I’ll see you both later. I’m going to go see if I can convince Meredith to give me a discount on a couple of things that I don’t need.”

  “I enjoyed the conversation,” Kelly told her.

  “Me, too.” She walked over and kissed Jack on the cheek. “See you, Callaghan. And, Kelly, if I were you, I’d keep him away from the champagne. He’s in a strange mood tonight.”

  “She’s right,” Kelly said once Margee had left. “Jack, what’s wrong?”

  He ran his hands up and down her arms again, just to ensure himself that she was really okay. “We need to talk. There are some things I need to tell you.”

  With that, he led her upstairs to the apartment, where he told her the rest of what he had learned, and his suspicion that Robert Jardine might be her father, that Margee could be her sister.

  “Margee?” she repeated. “But what about the fire? How did I get out of the house? Why didn’t I die that night?”

  “I’m guessing here, and we may never know the answer, but I’m thinking that maybe it was Evelyn who saved you that night and then she brought you to St. Ann’s where she knew you’d be safe.”

  “It makes sense,” she told him. “But why can’t I remember what happened? Not even seeing that photograph in Evelyn’s room brought anything back.”

  Sitting in the dark on the sofa in her apartment, Jack hugged her close. “You weren’t quite three years old, Kelly. Your child’s mind probably couldn’t handle the horror of what had happened. Maybe to deal with it, you shut everything out—the good and the bad.”

  “But surely if Margee were my half sister I would sense it,” she argued.

  “Maybe not. You said you couldn’t read a person’s mind, but that you sensed what they were feeling. She knows you’re psychic. It stands to reason that she would be guarded about what she’s feeling or thinking when she’s around you, wouldn’t it?”

  “I guess. But it just doesn’t feel…right.”

  “Well, we’ll know soon enough. I’m taking a red-eye flight to San Diego tonight and plan to see Robert Jardine tomorrow.” Because he wanted to chase those shadows from her eyes, he said, “In the meantime, Ms. Santos, I don’t think I got around to telling you how beautiful you look tonight.”

  “It’s the dress and makeup,” she told him, but he could see her thoughts were still on what he’d told her.

  “No, it’s not the dress. It’s you. You’re beautiful,” he told her, and wondered how he could have not realized that he loved her ten years ago.

  “Because it was the wrong time,” she answered. “We both needed to become the people we are now. I needed to learn that the person I am deserves to be loved and that I don’t need to be afraid to love.” She stroked the side of his face. “I’ve learned that I do deserve love and that I can’t be afraid of love—not if I want to be happy.”

  He cupped her hand with his own. “And did you learn anything else?” he asked, wanting, needing her to say the words.

  “I learned that I love you.”

  He kissed her then, long and slow. And when he
lifted his head, he said, “Say it again.”

  “I love you, Jack Callaghan,” she whispered. “Let me show you how much.”

  She showed him. And when he had to leave her an hour later to head for the airport, he promised himself it would be the last time they would spend a night apart. “You sure I can’t convince you to go stay at my place until I get back?”

  She pushed up on her elbows. “I told you, I’ve got my darkroom set up now and I want to develop those pictures from the party for Meredith.”

  “I don’t like the idea of you being here alone. I don’t think it’s safe.”

  “You know your sister is probably going to be over here at the crack of dawn, chomping at the bit to reorder stock and tally up sales and get ready for the official opening. I’ll be fine.”

  “I’ll be fine,” Caroline Jardine told Jack as he sat across from her and her husband in their San Diego hotel room suite. “Robert and I have no secrets from each other.”

  “It’s true,” Robert assured him. “Now, tell me what this is about. Why did you insist on seeing me?”

  “It’s about Margee.”

  “Has something happened to Margee?” Caroline asked.

  “No,” Jack said quickly.

  “What about Margee?” Robert asked.

  Seeing no delicate way to say it, Jack just spit it out. “I know she’s adopted.” Ignoring Caroline’s gasp, he continued, “What I don’t know is why you saw the need to adopt your own child?”

  “How dare you come here and make such an accusation?” Caroline Jardine huffed.

  “Believe me, Mrs. Jardine. I don’t like it any better than you do, but I have no choice.” He withdrew the copy of Margee’s original birth certificate from his coat pocket and laid it on the table between them. He nearly winced when Caroline’s face paled.

  “It’s all right, Caroline. Jack obviously knows the truth. What I don’t understand is how it concerns you,” Robert told him.

  “I’m dealing with a homicide that may be connected to another child who was left at St. Ann’s, and I need some answers. And I need those answers fast.”

  “Go ahead, ask your questions,” Robert told him.

  Jack asked his questions and they explained about the bad patch their marriage had gone through more than thirty years ago, how Caroline’s infertility had added to the strain on their relationship and Robert had had an affair. “So you adopted your own daughter?”

  “Of course we adopted her. She’s Robert’s daughter,” Caroline explained.

  “She’s our daughter,” her husband corrected, and covered his wife’s hand with his own. “You may not have given birth to her, but you’re Margee’s mother, Caroline. You have been from the moment we went to St. Ann’s and the nun put her in your arms.”

  It had been one of the most unpleasant things Jack had had to do—confronting these two people who were almost like family and demanding answers about their private lives. But he’d had to do it. He had to find out if Robert Jardine was Kelly’s father and if Margee was a killer.

  “I assure you, Jack, I strayed only once from my marriage vows. And while I regret it, I don’t regret that it gave us Margee,” Robert told him.

  “And neither do I,” Caroline added. “Do you really believe that if Robert had fathered another child that he would have walked away from her? That I would have let him walk away from her?”

  “I don’t know who this young woman’s father is, son, but I can tell you that it’s not me.”

  And he believed the man. The pair loved their one child far too much not to have welcomed another. “I’m sorry I had to put you through this,” Jack said as he stood and prepared to leave.

  Robert gave him a curt nod. “I hope you find out who the young woman’s father is. No one should be without family.”

  Robert Jardine was right. No one should be without family. And Kelly wasn’t without family. She had a grandmother—Evelyn Tompkins—and maybe it was time he went back to where it all began.

  She’d missed this, Kelly admitted as the hours slipped by over the next two days and she immersed herself in her work. She’d been too busy that first day Jack was gone with Meredith to get into the darkroom. The other woman had exhausted her with all the details that needed attending to following the boutique’s preview party. But when the blond dynamo had come knocking on the door that morning ready to start again, she’d drawn the line. Using the honest excuse that she needed to get the party pictures developed, she’d locked herself away in her apartment all day.

  What she hadn’t expected was how on edge she had been since Jack left. Nor had she been able to stop her thoughts from returning repeatedly to Sister Grace. And while it pained her to realize the nun she had loved and trusted had kept the truth from her all those years, she thought she understood why. She’d been trying to protect her, just as she had protected Lianne all those years ago from the truth about her own birth. And she’d lost her life trying to protect her, Kelly realized.

  Anger pulsed through her veins as she thought of the cold-blooded woman who’d plunged that needle into the nun. Her sister. Kelly shuddered at the knowledge. Sister or not, she would keep her promise to Sister Grace. She would see the nun’s killer brought to justice no matter what the consequences.

  If only she could remember. Recalling how she’d felt that day when she’d touched the cold slab and felt the heat of the flames, her breath grew shallow and she dropped the canisters of film she’d retrieved from her bag. The sound echoed as they rolled across the wooden floor.

  She picked up one roll and walked over to pick up the other one that had landed against the wall beneath Lianne’s picture. Stooping down, she picked up the film, and as she stood, she stared at the picture. Her mother had painted this, she thought. So why couldn’t she feel her? Sense her? She started to remove the picture from the wall to take it from its frame when the telephone rang.

  “Hi, Jack,” she said, glad to hear from him.

  He laughed. “When we’re married you’re going to save us money on caller ID,” he told her, and her heart tripped as he said the words. “Don’t go all silent on me, Kelly. You are going to marry me.”

  “Where are you?” she asked, picking up noise in the background.

  “I’m at the airport. It’s not Margee,” he told her.

  Kelly sighed with relief. “I’m glad because I liked her.” She paused. “Are you coming home now?”

  “Not yet. I’m flying into Mississippi. Leon’s picking me up at the airport and we’re going to Pass Christian to see Evelyn again.”

  “Why? Has something happened to her?” Kelly asked.

  “No. Evelyn’s okay, but I don’t have time to explain now. I’ll be back late this evening. But if I’m not back before Meredith closes up downstairs, I want you to go home with her.”

  “Jack—”

  “Please, Kelly. Don’t argue. Just go with her. Do it for me.”

  “All right,” she said finally.

  “My flight’s boarding. I’ve got to run. I love you.”

  “I love you, too,” she told him. After she hung up the phone she headed back to the darkroom, where she lost herself in the magic of those moments trapped in time.

  Kelly took the strips of film through the development process. Because the emulsion layer of silver halide crystals made the film light sensitive, she took care not to expose it to any light before moving it from the canisters to the development trays. She counted off the seconds needed to fix the latent image on the exposed film, then turned on the safe light. Using the low-intensity red glow of the safe light, she went to work. She picked up the plastic tongs to transfer the negatives to the negative holder first and then to the enlarger. Kelly wasn’t sure how long she’d been at work when she heard a tap on the door to her darkroom.

  “Kelly, it’s Meredith. You in there?”

  “Don’t open the door,” Kelly ordered.

  “All right. But it’s getting late and Jack said I’
m supposed to take you home with me.”

  Kelly grimaced. “I want to finish up these pictures. You go ahead and I’ll meet you later.”

  “I don’t know,” Meredith said. “Jack was real specific about not wanting you here by yourself. I’ll just hang around until you’re ready. Besides, I want to see the pictures. Jesus, Kelly, it’s freezing in here.”

  “Hang on a second,” she told her, and made sure she turned off the safe light and protected the film, before exiting the darkroom. One look at Meredith and it was obvious the woman was exhausted. “You look beat.”

  “I am,” Meredith informed her, and rubbed her hands up and down her arms. “Isn’t the heat working in here?”

  “It is kind of cool.” She adjusted the thermostat, but it didn’t seem to help. So she turned on the space heater she’d found in the bathroom closet. “That should help some.”

  “Why don’t we go on home and I’ll send someone out to check the heater in the morning?” Meredith suggested.

  “I really do want to finish up this last roll of film. Tell you what? Why don’t you go home, get a bite to eat and come back in a couple of hours? By then I’ll be finished and I’ll have some proofs ready for you to look at.”

  Meredith bit her lip, hesitating. “You’re sure?”

  “Positive. Go ahead.”

  Once Meredith left, Kelly returned to the darkroom, where she began studying the enlarged lighted images from the negatives that were projected on the easel. Setting the timer and f-stop to control the amount of light, she stared at the images under the lamp. She went through each negative—the ones she’d taken of Meredith, Alicia and Margee. She paused when she saw the one taken of her with Alicia. Wishing she had told the photographer to adjust the flash, she scanned the first shot in the strip of her, Meredith and Alicia. She scanned the second one he’d taken, studying the three faces. She stopped. It was easy picking Meredith out of the trio as she was in the center and her hair was down. With her and Alicia both wearing their hair up, their features were the primary focus. She shifted her gaze from one face to the other. She noted the slope of the mouths, the smiles, the noses. And were it not for her chin, she’d have been unable to tell which one was Alicia and which one was her.