Peggy Holloway - Judith McCain 04 - Jupiter Returns

by Peggy Holloway

  When we got downstairs, Bettina was covered in cookie dough. It was even in her hair. The other two, Brad and Jennifer had joined them and the kitchen was a mess but they were having a high ole time.

  Both Brad and Jennifer said, “Hi Aunt Judith and Aunt Julia,” and Bettina joined in and grinned from ear to ear.

  “Bettina, how would you like to take a walk with Julia and me?” I asked.

  The other two begged to go too but Mimi told them she needed them to help frost the cookies. I cleaned Bettina off and we set off down the sidewalk.

  I called Mrs. Frazier to let her know that I would be bringing Bettina home a little later. I watched Bettina as she jumped and skipped along the sidewalk like a healthy seven year old, her fine blond hair blowing in the breeze.

  I noticed Christina smiling and I smiled back at her. I thought of Jupiter and wondered if she was watching. I thought of Jake following us and wondered why I never saw him.

  Suddenly Bettina stopped and looked at Christina. “You look just like the other lady, the one with Aunt Janice.”

  I shook my head at Christina warning her but she handled it beautifully.

  “I do?” was all she said.

  “She was nice to me but I didn’t like Aunt Janice. She was mean.”

  She didn’t say anything more but continued to jump and skip. She found a curved stick and ran it along the sidewalk. When she came to a picket fence, she dragged it along and smiled at the noise.

  It was wonderful watching her. It was the first time I had ever seen her laugh and smile and I hated to spoil it but I needed information.

  “Bettina, is Janice your real aunt?”

  She shrugged, “Mommy said she was a sterority sister so that made her my aunt.”

  “A sorority sister?” I asked.

  “Uh huh,” she said and became quiet. Then she said “I don’t want to walk anymore.”

  We headed back and I pushed it just a little and asked, “Did you know Aunt Janice before she came to stay with you?”

  “No, but mommy tolded me that I had an aunt who wanted to stay with us. Mommy didn’t act like she liked her. I don’t know why she wanted her to visit.”

  I left it at that. Christina could fill me in on the rest.

  CHAPTER 22

  Later, after everyone had gone to bed, I knocked on Christina’s door. I found her standing at the window staring outside.

  “Don’t turn on the light,” she said and I could see her tears reflected by the moon. I walked over and put my arm around her and she leaned her head on my shoulder.

  When she pulled back she laughed and said, “I was just standing here thinking about how all three of our lives would have been different if Julia and I hadn’t been adopted, if you and Julia hadn’t been kidnapped, if I hadn’t been purchased like a bag of apples, so many ifs.”

  “Ifs don’t solve any problems, nor does dwelling in the past,” I said. “I know sometimes it’s hard not to look back but we can only learn from our mistakes and move on. And I really believe you’ve learned from your mistakes, Christina.”

  “There’s something else I have to tell you that will help you solve this case,” she said. It’s about when I was in the mental hospital, where I met Jupiter.”

  I looked at her and noticed that there was a tiny spot of light on her forehead. By the time I realized what it was it was too late. There was no sound. Suddenly there was a small hole in the middle of her forehead and she crumpled to the floor. I dropped and screamed.

  I had seen Bill Wheeler, the corrupt cop in New Orleans, shot in the middle of the forehead by Jupiter and I knew she was out there and had once again killed someone I had grown to love.

  Jake ran into the bedroom and dropped to the floor. He was on his cell phone calling it in. “Are you okay, Judith?” he asked as he crawled over to look at Christina.

  “I’m okay,” I said and I was shaking so hard, and my mouth was so dry, I could hardly speak.

  The whole household except Jesse and the kids were trying to come into the room. “Get down,” Jake yelled at them and we all crawled out of the room.

  We all gathered in the front den and I looked around but didn’t see John and Tracy. “They’re out looking for Jupiter but she’s probably long gone,” Jake said.

  Just then I heard sirens and the yard soon filled with police cars, ambulances, the medical examiner, and, of course, the press.

  The two children wanted to see what was going on and Mimi had to go with Jesse to look after them. Jake joined the local law enforcers to help and to explain what had happened.

  I was called out into the hall where I was questioned and then I joined Rosa and Mark in the front den. No one spoke. We were all in a state of shock.

  I could tell that Mark was worried about Tracy. He kept pulling back the edge of the curtain just enough to peek outside. I didn’t even have enough emotional energy to try to reassure him.

  I was still mourning Ben and now just as I had found my other sister Jupiter killed her. “She must really hate me,” I was thinking when I heard John say “We lost her.”

  “Hell, we never had her to lose,” Tracy said.

  They joined us in the den and Tracy looked like she could kill someone. “We found a rifle casing at the base of that huge oak tree at the corner of the property. I turned it over to the cops out in the hall.

  “The medical examiner will get the bullet, but I doubt we’ll ever find the gun.”

  She looked like she would cry. I went over and put my arms around her and we both cried. Mark and Rosa joined us and we had a good group cry.

  Mimi came down and she looked like she was worn out. “Jesse and I had a hard time getting the kids back to sleep,” she said. “They know something is going on, especially Brad.”

  She hit the sofa arm with her fist, “Damn, Jupiter. I’m mad as hell. She kills Ben and before we finish mourning him, she kidnaps Julia, as if Julia hasn’t already been through enough, and now she kills my other granddaughter just as I’m getting to know and love her.”

  She continued to beat up the arm of the couch until she started crying. I had never seen her so distraught. We all cried some more and we looked like we had been put through the wringer.

  “Tracy, I hope when you find Jupiter you kill her. She can’t be locked up again,” Mimi said and we all nodded.

  CHAPTER 23

  The next morning at breakfast John announced that he was going to take his family to visit Trudy.

  I had first met Trudy in New Orleans when Julia was missing a couple of years ago. Trudy was a run-away and a victim of Mr. Lessiter. Mr. Lessiter had been part of the pedophile ring that had been headed up by Jupiter. Tracy and John had been part of the team to bring down Jupiter.

  I had been one of his first victims when I was sixteen years old and had gone to live with him and his wife. He had tried to rape me but I had escaped.

  Two years ago I had rescued Trudy from the Lessiter house and she had ended up living with John and Rosa for awhile. She eventually got in touch with her mama and the family and they had all moved to Houston.

  Mark had given Trudy’s mom a job at McCain Oil Company. I saw them from time to time and asked John now if I could go with them as I had a graduation gift for Trudy. She would be graduating from high school next month.

  They lived in an old house in the Montrose area. They didn’t know it but Mimi was subsidizing their rent. The house was big enough for each kid to have his or her own room.

  They had fixed it up so cute. Last time Julia had been here she had brought them some paintings she had done and Tracy had helped with the decorating.

  It was a typical Southern style house with a front porch and was painted light tan trimmed in white. They had used lots of wicker furniture on the porch and inside.

  We had called ahead and when Trudy saw us she ran out of the house squealing and threw herself into John’s arms.

  “Whoa, girl you’re getting too big for me to handle,” John sa
id laughing.

  “Oh my God, look at Jennifer,” Trudy said as she picked her up. “Y’all come on in. The rest of the kids are in school and mama is at work. I’m on half days now. Can you believe I graduate in just a little over a month?”

  We had a wonderful visit and Trudy loved her gift, a briefcase. I was quiet on the way home. John looked in the rearview mirror at me, “What’s bothering you, Judith?”

  “Jupiter didn’t know about Trudy, so she hasn’t been a threat to her. But, if Jupiter is watching she now knows about her. John, we may have just put that whole family in danger by visiting.”

  “Damn,” he said and Jennifer said, “Damn.” You have to be really careful about what you say around kids.

  “You’re right, Judith. Now we need to get someone to watch them. The way we all hugged and carried on right out there in the yard, if Jupiter is watching, she knows this is someone important to you.”

  “Damn,” Jennifer said again and it took all my willpower not to laugh. She was still saying it all the way home and when we got back Brad started saying it too.

  When Jesse heard them she said, “You kids keep saying that word and I’ll take you upstairs and wash your mouth out with soap, me.”

  “Me too,” said Jennifer.

  No one said much at supper. Mimi had notified the Limicks, Christina’s adoptive parents about her death but they said they wouldn’t be coming to the funeral.

  We all toyed with our food and no one ate much. I was worried about Mimi. She didn’t look good, her coloring was off. I talked her into going to bed after we ate and sat with her until she fell asleep.

  When I came down everyone was gathered in the den. “Come sit down, Judith,” John said. “We were trying to reason something out. Give us your input.”

  “Is Mimi okay?” Tracy asked with concern in her eyes.

  “I’m worried about her but she fell asleep which is probably what she needs. What were y’all talking about?”

  “Okay, here’s the thing,” John said, “If Jupiter has Julia then who does she think she shot last night? I mean, there were two of you framed in the window.”

  My mind started going crazy. I hadn’t even thought about this at all. “I doubt she wants to kill me, not yet anyway. She wants to torment me first by hurting everyone I love.

  “Either she thought we were fooled into believing Christina was Julia, or she sent Christina here knowing we would find her out but try to make a deal with her.”

  I could feel myself tearing up and blinked rapidly. “She waited to make sure I had grown to love Christina before she took her out. She saw us in the window from up there in that tree and saw me comforting Christina then she shot her.”

  My tears dried up as anger took over, “I’m so damned mad, if she was here right now I would kill her with my bare hands. I hate her. How much more evil will satiate her?”

  No one said anything for a few seconds then Mark spoke up, “We need to find Julia really fast. I hope and pray she is still alive. Are we at a dead end now that Christina is dead?”

  “It looks that way,” Tracy said as she got up and started pacing. “Tomorrow is the funeral. Agents will be everywhere looking out for Jupiter. I think she will want to be there to see the grief she has caused you, Judith.”

  CHAPTER 24

  There were very few people at the funeral. Besides me and my family there was Rudy, the kid who stood up for Christina when we had met him in Tulsa.

  “Her parents called and told me but said they weren’t going to the funeral,” Rudy said as tears streamed down his face. “I rode on a bus all night to get here.”

  The other person other than the family and the agents was Wade Russell, the local cop who had questioned me when I had found the body of Emily Goddard, Bettina’s mama. He sat behind us and next to Rudy and nodded at me when I turned around.

  This was the second funeral of a loved one in under a month and I didn’t know how much more I could take before I lost it. There would be another when the coroner was done with the body of Bettina’s mama.

  I kept looking around trying to see if I could spot Jupiter but didn’t see her. She would have been easy to spot with so few people in the church.

  There was a McCain family plot within the cemetery that I didn’t know about and I intended to check it out after the service. Christina was buried here because she should have been in the family all along.

  As we gathered around the grave, I noticed a group of men and women walking up the hill. They were all dressed in black suits and I figured they were here for another funeral. They gathered on the other side of the grave, across from us and I thought they must be a group of agents. What a good way to hide, in plain sight.

  The minister was a New Age minister and her words were comforting. But I was having a hard time concentrating on what she was saying and, as I was looking around, I noticed the rest of my family was doing the same thing.

  The cemetery was in the River Oaks area of Houston, one of the few places that have trees. I looked up in the trees that had new tender green spring growth. It would have been hard to see her if she was hiding behind the foliage.

  As soon as the minister said, “amen,” the group across from us walked down the hill and got into limousines.

  “That was really smart of you to hide the agents in plain view, Tracy,” I said as I put my arm around her while we headed toward our cars.

  “What are you talking about, Judith?”

  “I’m talking about the group of agents at the gravesite across from us.”

  “Those weren’t some of your colleagues?”

  It dawned on both of us at the same time. “Son-of-a-bitch,” she yelled as she punched numbers into her cell phone. She was giving orders so fast I wondered how the other agents knew what she was saying.

  Wade Russell had walked up, heard Tracy, and got out his cell phone. It seemed like only seconds passed before we heard sirens.

  Wade, John, and Tracy got into Wades squad car and sped off with the sirens going. Mimi, Mark, Rosa, and I stood watching them take off and I explained to them what had happened.

  “You mean one of them was Jupiter?” Mimi said. “I thought they were some of your psychology friends.”

  “Yeah, everyone else did too and I thought they were agents. I was telling Tracy how smart I thought it was for her to hide them in plain view, when we both realized who they were.”

  We all got in the limo and headed home. I felt like someone had beaten the hell out of me. I looked at the rest of them and they all looked like I felt. There were no piles of food waiting for us at home. Mimi had given up on her high society friends after finding Julia and me.

  I was glad we didn’t have to contend with other people. We all headed for the nursery and were greeted by Brad and Jennifer.

  “Did Aunt Julia go away?” Brad asked and I knew that he knew more than we at first thought. A couple of years ago, Tracy had to fake her own death to bring down Jupiter.

  We all thought she was dead but when Jupiter was caught and she was able to come home, Brad had said he knew she would come home.

  “She will be back,” I now answered Brad and avoided looking at the others. I hoped I was right.

  “Can Bettina come over and play with us?” He now asked.

  “I think that would be a wonderful idea,” I said. “I’ll call and see if it’s all right with Mrs. Frazier.”

  Before I left, I motioned for Mimi to walk out with me. When we got outside I turned to her, “Mimi, I’m worried about everyone close to me. They have someone watching Trudy and her family but now I’m worried about the Fraziers. I’m scared to even go pick up Bettina today.”

  “Do you want to bring them over here? We still have plenty of room. In fact, if all we were all under one roof, the FBI could use the extra manpower to look for Jupiter.

  “Let’s see, we can turn the daisy room into the nursery. Do you think Jesse would mind if we moved a cot in there for her?”

&nb
sp; I hugged her, “I knew I could count on you. And Jesse won’t mind at all. I think the kids would like to sleep on the daisy beds. We could let Jessica and Bettina sleep on the daisy beds and Brad could sleep with me.”

  Mrs. Frazier said Bettina could stay with us as long as it was all right with the court. I had become friends with Judge Tanner during the pedophile case and she agreed to allow Bettina to live with us.

  Trudy and her family moved right in without any argument. Now we were all under one roof and I hoped it would frustrate Jupiter enough to cause her to make a mistake.

  Tracy called to say that she, John, Wade and Jake had arrested the occupants of one of the limousines, three men and a woman. They were taking them in for questioning.

  With everything else going on we had forgotten about Dr. Walter Prescott, Julia’s professor until he called later that day.

  Brad had been downstairs and answered the phone and I happened to be walking by. I heard him say, “Aunt Julia left but she will be back.” He looked up at me, “Here’s Aunt Judith.”

  I took the phone, “Hello?”

  “This is Walter Prescott, Julia’s fiancé.”

  Guilt washed over me. No one had called to tell him what was going on. “Dr. Prescott, I’m so sorry I haven’t called you…”

  “Has something happened to Julia?”

  “Julia has been kidnapped. Jupiter took her. Dr. Prescott, I’m so sorry we haven’t called you…”

  “Call me Walter, please. Who is Jupiter? What do you mean she’s been kidnapped? I was just leaving to come to Houston to see her. She invited me. Can I still come? Then you can explain everything when I get there.”

  “Tell me when your flight is and I’ll have Arnold pick you up. You are welcome, of course to stay here. In fact, it would be for the best. We’re getting everyone under one roof to try and frustrate Jupiter, but I’ll tell you all about that when you get here.”

  CHAPTER 25

  Jesse asked me if she could go with Arnold to pick up Dr. Prescott from the airport. I told her I would keep an eye on the kids.