“She said she needed to get her things. I’m not sure how long she was gone, so I have no idea where her things were.”
“There’s a lot she needs to answer for, but she’s a flight risk. We need to take this slow, Gabe.”
We finished our coffee and headed back to the kitchen. Lily was clearing the table and Taylor was attempting to help. Dad stood from the table and beckoned to Taylor.
“You and I, little lady, are going horseback riding this morning, how does that sound?”
“Can Lily come too?”
“No, your daddy needs to take Lily home for a while,” he replied.
A look of disappointment crossed Taylor’s face. Lily kept her head bowed and didn’t respond.
Once Dad and Taylor had left the room, Lily quietly spoke, “I guess I’ll go grab my things.” She left the kitchen and headed for the barn.
“Mom, I need a favor. Go through that loft; see if you can find anything Sierra may have hidden in there. We should have done that before putting Lily there, but we need to find those statements. I doubt Sierra would have hidden them there but you never know,” I said.
“Of course. I’m glad you’re taking her away. I don’t like that relationship building between her and Taylor, not yet anyway. I didn’t realize Taylor had snuck out to see the foal, that’s when she bumped into Lily. I wouldn’t have allowed it, had I known.”
“What’s your gut feeling, Mrs. M?” Thomas asked.
“I’m not sure about her, Thomas, if you want the truth. She’s not that forthcoming with information, and I would have thought she’d be spilling her guts by now.”
“Maybe she doesn’t know anything other than what Sierra told her,” I said.
“It’s more than that, Gabe. I asked her about her foster parents, she was very vague,” Mom said.
I nodded my head and pulled her into a hug. “I’ll call later, okay?” I said.
Thomas and I walked to the yard; Lily exited the barn at the same time. She had her backpack but nothing more. I looked to Thomas, who was staring at me; he very gently nodded his head in understanding. Wouldn’t she have had more if she’d been to collect her things?
“Here, let me get that,” I said, reaching for her backpack.
“It’s okay, I’ve got it,” she replied with a smile.
“I’ll meet you at home,” I said to Thomas, as I closed her door and walked around to my own.
Lily didn’t speak at first; we left the ranch and were driving along the short stretch of highway before branching off for town.
“I’m causing problems, aren’t I, with your mom?” she said. She hadn’t looked at me but kept her head turned toward the window.
“I guess shooting off in the middle of the night, in my father’s truck, was a cause for alarm. Why didn’t you just wait? I could have driven you wherever you needed to go.”
“I wasn’t thinking. I couldn’t sleep, to be honest. And I didn’t want to be driving around in the day. I didn’t want to be seen. I thought I was doing the right thing, but it seems no matter what, I keep getting it wrong. I don’t know how to do this, Gabriel.”
Her voice hitched halfway through her sentence, and I started to feel like a shit for doubting her. It was a plausible enough explanation.
“I saw the look on your face, too, when you found Taylor and me in the stable. She’s all I have left of a family I only just got to know. She’s kin, Gabe, as are you. Maybe I was a little over enthusiastic about making friends with her. It won’t happen again, I’ll check with you before I say or do anything. I’ll speak with your friend, and then it’s probably best that I be on my way. Don’t worry, I’m not going to run, I’ll stick around for a couple of days, tell you all I know.”
I took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I don’t want you to just stick around for a couple of days. It’s hard for me, Lily. You look so much like her. I don’t want Taylor to think of you as a replacement. Not until this is all over and we can get on with a normal life,” I said.
She turned toward me and smiled sadly before nodding her head. Her eyes were filled with unshed tears. I reached over and squeezed her hand.
“It will be okay, Lily. We sit down with Thomas, tell him all you know, and then we can decide the best way forward. I’m grateful to you. I can’t rest, I can’t move on with my life until I know who and why. Do you understand that?”
“I do, and I wish I had more answers for you, I really do.”
I smiled at her. “You ready for this?” I said as we pulled into the driveway.
“Yes.”
I pulled in, leaving Thomas’ car to straddle the sidewalk that time.
“Put that on and pull the hood up. I don’t think my elderly neighbors need to see the ghost of my wife walking around,” I said. I added a forced chuckle as I handed her a sweatshirt I’d found on the back seat.
When I thought she was suitably camouflaged, I opened her door and ushered her to the front of house. I opened the front door, disarmed the alarm, making sure to keep my back to her before she walked in behind me.
“Kitchen’s through there,” I said, pointing down the hallway.
Without a word, she walked on through. She clutched the backpack to her chest like her life depended on it.
“Ready?” Thomas asked as he joined me.
“As I’ll ever be.”
I didn’t want to hear about my wife being abused by the people who were supposed to care for her, but I had no choice.
Lily was sitting at the kitchen table. She’d set the coffee machine to percolate. “I thought we might need it,” she said, noticing my glance toward it.
“Okay, let’s get started. Gabriel tells me that you won’t speak officially to the police, so I’m here as a friend, Lily. I will say this though. I’m obliged, off duty or not, to report a crime. It would help us keep you safe and find who killed your sister if you’d make this official.”
I noticed his use of ‘keep you safe’ and ‘sister.’ He was personalizing the conversation.
“I’m scared, Thomas. I led a quiet life before Sierra got in touch, and now I don’t know where I am or what to do.”
“I understand that, but unofficially, there is only so much Gabriel and I can do for you. I need you to start at the beginning. Tell me as much as you can remember from your days at the convent, and more importantly, was it a convent?”
“That’s the thing, I was three or four; I don’t remember much. I remember nuns and the father; I remember visiting priests, so I guess we can assume it was a convent. It wasn’t in New York City because it was rural.”
“Sierra had a faint New York accent, as in a city accent,” I said.
“Maybe that’s where she ended up, maybe she took on that accent as she grew up. I can’t help you there.”
While I poured coffee, Lily went through what she had already told me. I listened intently to see if anything was added. She was mechanical with her delivery and that niggle returned. It was too rehearsed for my liking. Something wasn’t adding up with her.
Thomas would interrupt occasionally to ask her to expand on what she’d said or ask a question.
“Did Sierra tell you how she found you?” he asked.
“Sister Anna. From what I know; she was involved in all the fostering and adoptions. She followed the children. It was Sister Anna that got in touch with Sierra. I believe it was to check that she was okay when the murders started.”
I tried my hardest not to show anything, such as confusion, on my face. That was a departure from what we already knew. Previously Lily had said, or implied, the murders had started once Sierra had begun to collect statements. That tick started in the corner of Thomas’ eye, and it comforted me to know he’d likely picked up on that as well.
“So how old is Sister Anna?”
“I don’t know, fifties maybe,” Lily said.
“You’ve met her then?”
“Only once, with Sierra. We met here.”
“When was tha
t?” I asked.
“About a month before... Sierra gave Sister Anna the envelope then, the one containing the diary entries and the photograph.”
Taylor hadn’t mentioned Lily coming to the house, only Sister Anna. I wondered if, under pressure, Lily’s story was coming apart?
“Why not the statements?” Thomas asked.
Lily shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know if they even exist on paper. I use the word statements because that what Sierra said. Perhaps she talked, they told her stories, I really don’t know. Have you checked the house?” She turned to me as she spoke.
“Of course. This house had been checked thoroughly by Thomas, and his deputies, and by me. You said you met her here, was that in this house?” I said.
She looked at me before answering.
“Here, as in town. If there are written statements, they have to be somewhere, and I think the priority should be to find them. They hold the key to all this,” she said.
She seemed more concerned with finding the statements than her sister’s killer to me.
“Can I say one thing, Thomas? I can only tell you what Sierra told me and I’m confused. So much has happened over the past months and the fear, the constant moving from place to place, some of what I remember might not be accurate.”
There again she blew my theory out the window. It was another plausible reason for her story differing. I wondered if she’d realized she’d made a mistake earlier and tried to correct it.
“That’s okay, and we understand. You’re under a lot of pressure, you’ve had a traumatic few days, you’re bound to make mistakes,” Thomas said, offering her a smile.
“Where did you live, Lily? When Sierra came to see you?” I asked.
There was the slightest but noticeable pause before she answered. “Out in Richford, about a two hour drive from here.”
“And what time of day did Sierra visit?” Thomas asked.
“I’d just finished work, earlier than usual, I think. I’d say, about three o’clock.”
Thomas scribbled on the pad he brought in with him.
“It might have been a little earlier, or a little later,” she added.
“You’re doing great, Lily, this is all really helpful,” he said, again smiling at her.
I watched her place her mug to her lips, then realize it was empty. She looked over to the coffee machine; we had already drained it.
“I’ll make some more, shall I?” she said. I nodded.
Lily rose from her chair and walked to the exact cupboard that housed the coffee beans. She reached up to her left to pull down the grinder from a shelf. She moved around my kitchen as if she belonged there, as if she’d been there before, and not just for a fleeting visit with Sierra and Sister Anna. I glanced at Thomas. Once she’d turned it on, she sat back down again.
“I’m going to have a smoke while we wait for that coffee,” I said.
“May I join you?” Lily asked. I stood and nodded at her.
We sat in the backyard and I offered her a cigarette. As I struck a match, and cupped it to keep the flame from blowing out, I leaned forward so she could light her cigarette. Her hand rested around mine. I glanced through the kitchen window to see Thomas on his cell.
“Am I helping?” she asked, as she leaned back and exhaled the smoke.
“You are, thank you. You’ve been amazing so far,” I smiled, as I brought my cigarette to my lips.
“I want to help, I want all this to end and for us to get on with our lives,” she said. She rested her head back and closed her eyes.
There were times when she looked frail, demure, and there were times, like this, when she looked hardened. It was very hard to put my finger on it, but the way she smoked her cigarette, how expertly she inhaled, blew out smoke rings, there was something masculine about it, which contradicted how she had behaved previously. Or maybe I was tired, it was all getting to be too much, and I was reading some strange shit into how the woman smoked.
“Do you know where Sister Anna is?” I asked.
“No, she sort of flitted in and out, all mysterious like,” she replied.
Another contradiction.
“Coffee’s done,” Thomas said, as he stood by the kitchen door.
I stubbed my cigarette out in a flowerpot beside the chairs we sat on. Lily did the same. We took our places around the table again.
“What can you remember about the convent?” Thomas asked. I got that he was taking her back and forth in time.
“Not much, there were dormitories. My bed was next to Sierra’s. I remember it was cold, and we’d sleep in our clothes some nights. We had chores, or the older ones did. We went to church and had schooling,” she said.
It all sounded very Annie to me. My level of suspicion went up a notch.
“Sierra told me children were beaten, abused. I think I was one of the lucky ones, as was Sierra, in that it seemed we were treated differently,” she said.
“How?” I asked.
“The father and the priests fussed over us more than the others. Sierra seemed to be able to get us extra food if we were hungry. She’d leave me for a while then come back with snacks.”
“Did she share those with the other kids?” Thomas asked.
“No, she’d sneak them under our bedcovers, and we’d wait until lights out to eat.”
“How many children were there?” he asked.
“I don’t remember, about ten, I think.”
“If I show you the photograph, can you point yourself out? Can you remember the names of any of the kids?” He slid the photograph toward her.
Lily took her time staring at a copy of the photograph. She sighed before placing a finger on one girl. “That’s me, I think.”
The child she had pointed out was blonde but bore no resemblance to the Lily sitting in my kitchen. I couldn’t dispute whether it was her or not, children change as they grow. Taylor had a completely different hair color to when she was a baby.
“Where is Sierra?” I asked.
“She’s not in the picture. I think that might have been Sister Anna.”
The youngest nun, standing slightly to one side, was the woman she’d pointed out as Sister Anna. I looked at her. It seemed a lifetime ago I’d met her in the gas station, but it was only a matter of days.
“Do you know, which ones are the other children still alive?” Thomas asked.
Lily took her time, “I think that one but I don’t know a name.” She pointed out a small boy.
Thomas circled the boy and Lily with his pencil.
“I need to rest, I’m sorry. I have a terrible headache. Can we take a break?” Lily asked.
“Of course. I’ll write all this up, and we’ll see if any of it makes sense with what we already know,” Thomas said.
“How about I show you to a bedroom, where you can rest,” I said, standing as I did.
Lily stood while reaching for the backpack she’d left between her feet. I walked up the stairs and showed her to my bedroom.
“There’s a bathroom just through that door. Come back down when you’re ready,” I said.
“Gabriel? I’m not sure you believe what I’m saying when I tell you I don’t know much.”
“It’s not that I don’t believe you, Lily. Like you, I’m trying to get my head around it all. One minute I had a wonderful marriage to a beautiful woman and the next, that was all ripped away from me.”
“I can understand that. I’ll help as much as I can. Have you had word from the sister?” she asked.
“No, and that worries me. I’ll see you downstairs when you’ve had a nap.”
I closed the bedroom door, halting any further conversation.
Thomas was in the backyard on his cell again. I sat and lit another cigarette while I waited for him to finish. He referred to his notes as he spoke. He stared at his phone for a little while, once he’d finished his call, then looked over to me. He glanced up to the windows above us.
“She’s in the front
bedroom,” I said, but kept my voice low.
“She’s lying.”
“I know. She contradicted herself a couple of times. But what gave her away for you?”
“It was all too precise. She repeated nearly word for word what she’d told you earlier, no one does that unless it’s been practiced. She’s been in this house more than once; she knew where the coffee was stored. First she said she’d only met Sister Anna the once, then it was, what did she say?” He consulted his notes.
“Flitted in and out, it was,” I said.
“I’m worried about her being in your house, Gabe,” Thomas said.
“I’m not, keep your enemies close and all that. Who knows, she might slip up big time. Do you think she really knows something or just wants some attention?”
“That’s something I can’t determine. If she was three, or four, it’s likely she can’t remember much. I get that. I’m just not convinced she’s telling us the whole truth.”
“So what do we do?” I’d lost count the amount of times I’d asked that question.
“Befriend her, keep her talking, see if she says more or slips up again,” he said.
“Is there anything she said that you can use?”
“Not officially, well, I say not officially. Whatever she says can be used to help our investigation, but if she made a formal statement, when it comes to arrests it would sure help some.”
“I’ll keep on at her about that. Did you get the impression she seemed, at one point, more interested in the statements Sierra supposedly took than finding her killer?”
“Yeah, it crossed my mind. What also niggles me is, she wouldn’t have given a statement to Sierra, and she was too young to remember any abuse. So I’d like to know why Sierra needed to contact her at all.”
“Anything on the Sister Anna cell?”
“No, not yet. I had Pete chase it up today.”
Pete was one of the deputies who had called at the house with the broken window incident. He was a young guy but very keen.
“I think it’s strange that she hasn’t replied,” I said.
“So do I. To be honest, Gabe, I wonder if someone has gotten to her. I also asked Pete to check any Jane Does within a thirty-mile radius of us; I’ll expand that if we don’t get a hit. Now, where’s your laptop?”
Gabriel: A thriller (Standalone within the Divinus Pueri series) Page 8