In the Night (Darkness Falls Book 1)
Page 29
Two hours later, they were showered and sitting in the conference room. After several hours at the hospital and the couple spent in bed, he had assumed they would be the last ones to the debriefing, but they’d beaten them there and had to wait for about a half hour before anyone showed up.
“Sorry for keeping you waiting, Montgomery. We definitely want to tie this one up and move on,” Bob said when he came bustling in the room with a bunch of other people behind him.
“We can’t really move on until you find the other victims if that’s even possible.”
Sadness filled her at the thought of all those other women going through what she had; only, they didn’t get to have a chance to move on, because of them she intended on making the rest of her life count for something. They deserved better, and she would give them better.
After everyone found a seat, they all looked at Kara, who was lost in her thoughts until Bob cleared his throat. She jumped at the sound and then smiled uncomfortably.
“Sorry for startling you, I just said your name, and you didn’t respond.”
“Long day, I was just internalizing. Sorry about that.”
“You have the right. I just thought that we could start by you filling us in on what was discussed before I entered the scene. One of the officers said that one of the suspects whispered something about his sister before he died. Do you know where to find her? Maybe she’ll be able to shed some light on the inner workings of her brothers,” Bob said.
“I don’t think that’s going to be much help, and he was just answering my question at the time.”
“Question?” Gloria asked.
“I had said what kind of doctor would I be if I didn’t try to save him. He answered by saying, my sister.” It was her turn to clear her throat, and she paused, uncomfortable with the words forming in her mouth. Time to pull off the Band-Aid, she thought. “I’m his sister, their sister. I just found out, my mother was the one to tell me that she isn’t my mother after all.” A single tear slid down her cheek.
She was mesmerized by how white her knuckles were because she couldn’t stop staring at her hands. No one shouted out in disgust, and Caleb’s hand came up and linked fingers with hers, successfully calming her and stopping her from making fists with her hands. She had been clenching her hands so tightly that her nails, which she kept short, had dug rivets into her palms.
When she dared to look up, she saw sadness, but not disgust. Sucking in air, she told an abbreviated version of the story that had been told to her only hours ago. No need for them to know all the details; it wouldn’t change anything. She had already told Caleb everything, and he had agreed with her that the facts, in an abbreviated format, were good enough.
“Apparently, my father is prone to affairs and had twin sons with a woman who worked for him—a very young woman. She had to have falsified papers to make her old enough to work for him as I was born to her when she was seventeen, and the twins were already one, according to my mother. My father was their father, as well. They were my full siblings. Ethan and I share the same father, but not the same mother. I told him when we were at the hospital. I hope that was all right?” she asked, though she really didn’t care.
Ethan came before anyone else, except maybe Caleb, and she had also told Caleb. She had to make sure that he could still look at her the same way after finding out that her own brothers had kidnapped and raped her.
“We understand your need to tell him. This is a detail we will do our best to keep out of the press.”
“It is what it is. I can try to hide it, but I want to find out who my mother is and find her family. Maybe they’ll want to know who I am. They didn’t raise the twins, so maybe there is no other family. Anyway, my father and Constance bought off my real mother and got me in return. Sometime after that, the woman who gave birth to me was devastated by selling me and killed herself.”
Another tear slid down her cheek; she angrily swiped it away.
“They were raised by a cruel woman who molested them and beat them. Constance Vanderbilt ‘saved’ them. Suzanne Pascoe, aka Suzanne Abfall, helped lure me to my house so that Marshall Abfall and Devon Bristol could grab me. I don’t know their real names. In answer to the question I know you will have, yes, Marshall sold me my home. However, he disguised himself. He must have faked all the information he sent me, because the website, business card, it all had pictures of him with the disguise on. I would imagine that he didn’t walk around with a disguise all the time, but I don’t think even his wife knew what he really looked like. I should have had Ethan do a background check; I’m usually over-the-top cautious. But I didn’t think it was necessary, he was just selling me a home.”
“How did you get his name?” Bob asked.
“I asked my friend, Dr. Vanessa Brenner. She said one of her co-workers had a husband who was just starting out as a realtor and would appreciate the business. I think they’d hacked into my computer throughout the last ten years, they must have seen that I was researching homes here. But they couldn’t have known I would decide the task was too much with my working such long hours at the last hospital I worked for. It was in conversation that I mentioned looking for a house; she knew that I had accepted the job offer and needed one fast. I think it was just luck on his end that I contacted him.”
“Unless he became a realtor and had his wife talk up how he was starting out and needed help in front of the doctors on purpose. Depends on when he became a realtor,” Bob said.
“I don’t know, it takes a while to get the certification. Unless he just faked his credentials,” Caleb offered.
“Everything about them was fake. I would buy that his being a certified realtor was, as well. Anyway, they weren’t ready to make a move and take me, but their ‘benefactor,' otherwise known as Constance Vanderbilt, forced them to hurry up and grab me. She was behind the original abduction, and I was not supposed to have survived. She told them they could keep me as long as they wanted, as long as I never got away. She hated me so much because my father had an affair and I think she really loved him until the affair, maybe even after. But she was haunted by seeing my face day after day because I look just like my mother. It must have driven her to madness; I believe she really loved him until then. They killed Suzanne after she fulfilled her purpose. They killed Constance Vanderbilt because she had victimized them, as well, and I think they thought it would hurt me. It didn’t hurt me to the level they expected; she was never really a mother to me.”
Pinching the bridge of her nose, she sighed heavily.
“Maybe that makes me a bad person that I couldn’t feel anything but disgust when she died. There was just no love between us; there never had been. I mean, she fucking had me abducted and wanted me murdered.”
“How did Suzanne tie in? I mean, why would she help lure you to your house?”
“Her sister was their first victim. Her name was Lucy Pascoe, and they said she was their trial run. I was much more high profile so I would be harder to abduct. They knew they would have to practice. Suzanne hated me for surviving; she hated me for getting the news coverage, though the news coverage didn’t really help me out of that hellhole. I did that. Mr. Stanford did that, and he didn’t own a television. He does now, though. I don’t understand why all these people hated me. I didn’t even know Suzanne, not really.”
Caleb rubbed his thumb across her wrist over and over, soothing her.
“What are the chances she would marry her sister’s murderer?”
“It wasn’t a coincidence. Years later, Marshall orchestrated meeting Suzanne. Sold her some story about how he dumped me, and I was still heartbroken over it. I don’t know if she even loved him. She just wanted to best me somehow, as some sort of twisted tribute to her sister, I suppose. The whole thing is so twisted.”
Another tear leaked down her face.
“They told me they got a taste for young women after me. Though, apparently, they didn’t mind men or older women either, at least sexually
. However, when it came to rape, torture, and murder, it was always young women. My God, they were so twisted by the environment they grew up in, by their genetics. I don’t know. But they weren’t ever going to change. They raped and tortured their sister all out of jealousy and rage. They said that she loved me more than them. Even if she killed herself, it doesn’t mean she loved them less than she loved me. It just meant she couldn’t handle the guilt. It wasn’t like she had a choice. She was forced that hand.”
More tears, a steady stream now, were dripping down her cheeks and sliding into her hair. Kara had stopped trying to wipe them away.
“My father will tell me her name before I walk away from him forever. He may not have known that my ‘mother’ was behind this; he had to have at least suspected something wasn’t right, but he wasn’t innocent. My real mother deserves to have a visit from her daughter, even if it’s only to her grave. I’m pretty certain she would have raised me better than those two did. Then again, a pack of wolves would have done a better job.”
After they were done with all the loose ends, Kara walked hand in hand with Caleb out of the conference room. Bob stopped them, and they stood much like they had only a few days before.
“Kara, I hope I see more of you. But for better reasons. If it wasn’t for you, we might not have found Andrea’s killer. I can go to bed tonight, her parents can go to bed tonight, knowing that the monsters that killed their baby are dead.”
“You don’t need to thank me; I only wish I could have stopped them all those years ago. Maybe I should have slit Devon’s throat that day. He was sleeping, and I could have done it. Maybe Marshall wouldn’t have killed another ten women without his sidekick.”
“I doubt it. I think that you handled the bullshit hand you were dealt well. There is no room for second guessing. You got yourself out of there, because of your will to live and their mistake you lived. They learned from their mistake with you and made sure it didn’t happen again.”
“I think you’re right on that. But I’ll always wonder if I could have done more. If Devon would have died, maybe Marshall would have come for me sooner.”
“If you had killed him, what would you be now? Could you live with yourself? You couldn’t even stand by and let Marshall die; you tried to stop the blood flow. The other detectives told me that much.”
“I didn’t do it out of the kindness in my heart, though; I wanted him to die, but I wanted him to live because I hoped that he could lead us to the other bodies. I don’t know. Even though I tried to save Marshall, in the end, I killed them both today, and I will sleep better tonight for it. What does that say about me?”
“That you did what you had to do. No one will judge you for that. Devon had pulled Officer Montif’s weapon. It was an oversight on Montif’s part to let Devon get the weapon. But, he thought with that many officers in the room…well, he just didn’t think that it was something he needed to worry about.”
“Mistakes happen. Go easy on him. Those two men, my brothers, they were resourceful and unpredictable, as well as devious and cunning. A veteran officer could have easily made the same mistake as Officer Montif; he just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“He is pretty green. But he’ll need to go through some more training.”
Bob opened his arms, and Kara walked into them.
“Thank you.”
“For what?” he asked.
“For understanding. For being here. For not firing Caleb. For everything. He told me what he did back there, how he hadn’t listened to directions. Go easy on him, too. He was just protecting me.”
“I know. What we do for those we love,” he said and pulled away.
“You knew?”
“Hell, everyone knows. That boy has been wearing his emotions on his sleeves since you pulled into town. Any time one of the other officers looked at you, well, I thought it might come to blows, but he also let it slip to me at your house.” He laughed and walked out of the room.
Kara turned and looked at Caleb, her brows arched.
“Come to blows, huh? Nice of you to tell your boss before me.”
“Listen, I know you’re a beautiful woman and all, but that doesn’t mean I like to share, and I definitely don’t like all those assholes out there ogling you. As for slipping up to my captain? Maybe I should have told you first, but at the time, I didn’t even know that’s where my feelings were headed until I said them out loud to him.”
“Ogling me.” She laughed long and hard over that.
“Is that all you got out of that?”
“Who says ogle, anyway…?”
Caleb took two long strides toward her and silenced her laughter with his mouth. After a thorough tasting of her lips, he pulled back and gazed down at her.
“How about we go get Samsonite and go home?”
“You’re sure you still want to live together?”
“Nothing would make me happier. Well, maybe one thing.”
“Seriously, what has it been? A whole hour since we made love?”
“That wasn’t what I was talking about.”
“Then what were you talking about?”
He looked uncomfortable for a moment and ran his hand through his hair before kissing her until her toes tingled.
“Live with you; hell, I want to marry you. You got a problem with that?”
“None. None at all.”
Epilogue
Kara took a deep breath and let it out; Taylor smiled at her reassuringly in the mirror. It was crazy that they had only met six months ago and already they were such close friends, practically sisters. Taylor was an inspiration to Kara, and Kara only hoped she was an inspiration to her. If anyone had asked all those months ago what her future held, she would have told them that she would be the attending physician at Mercy Hospital, and that was all. She would not have predicted the future she found herself standing in at that moment.
She smoothed her hands down the ivory fabric, reveling in the intricate beadwork of the bodice, exquisite craftsmanship in each stitch. With another deep breath, she looked at herself in the full-length mirror. The woman staring back at her was not the woman she had seen in that mirror not so long ago. The woman staring back at her was more confident than she ever thought she could be.
Her hair was elaborately done, and her makeup was meticulous. It was the most beautiful she’d ever felt, and she was finally confident in her own skin. All it had taken was one man to teach her that there was good in life, the man who was about to become her husband. A few had thought they were crazy for getting married so soon, but those people didn’t really know what they’d gone through to get to this point. A light tap sounded on the door, and Taylor, who happened to be her maid of honor, squeezed her shoulder before turning to see who it was.
“It’s time,” came the voice of James Montgomery, who had in so many ways became a surrogate father to Kara. His whole family had taken her into their lives as if she had always been a part of it. “Are you ready?” he asked.
She turned and smiled at him.
“My God, Kara, you are beyond radiant. Seeing the changes over you in the last months, I will forever be proud of Caleb for making you so happy and forever grateful to you for helping us see that we were not giving our little girl the benefit of the doubt. If that boy of mine ever hurts you …” James trailed off. “Well, let’s just say, I raised him better than that.”
“I have no doubts in my mind that you did. Taylor, well, you would have gotten through to them eventually. Right?”
“I’m not so sure.” She laughed, and James beamed at the sound.
“Everyone is seated, and it’s time. Bob is outside, waiting to walk you down the aisle.”
“Last chance to back out; are you sure you want to help him walk me down the aisle?
“Honey, I had to beat a bunch of men off with a stick to get that honor. William was willing to carry your train, for Pete’s sake! I can’t wait to do you the honor.”
However, she didn’t realize that Kara was as strong as she was. She thought her an unworthy opponent. Even so, Kara had prevailed, and Ethan and she had moved on. Their father had retreated quietly in the night. She had no idea where he was, and if she had known, she wouldn’t have invited him to the wedding. Maybe someday, if he tried, they could repair things, but she doubted it.
In the end, he did tell her the name of her mother. It wasn’t difficult to track down her family. The family that her mother had run away from after becoming pregnant with the twins. Her father had given her the job after she came begging for help. She’d found someone to falsify documentation so that she was older, but Constance had still found out how old she was.
Kara’s grandparents were thrilled to meet her and horrified by what had happened to her. Since her mother, whose name was Natalie, had cut all ties with her parents, they had no idea about the children she had borne. What they did know was that Natalie was murdered and hadn’t committed suicide, like Constance had told Kara. It wasn’t a very hard assumption to make to figure out that Constance had killed Natalie.
Before Natalie died, Constance had gotten her to sign over guardianship of the twins to her. It appeared that, from there, Constance had given the twins to a woman to raise. Whether she knew that the woman was a monster remained to be seen, but Kara felt Constance did know. In Kara’s mind, her mother placed her brothers in a terrible environment so they could be conditioned and she could be their savior.