‘I hate ginger tea, Helen. I only drank it so I wouldn’t hurt Sofie’s feelings!’ After a moment, Truman said kindly, ‘I didn’t mean to snap at you, Helen. It’s been a hard day. I really don’t want ginger tea on top of everything else.’
‘Well, if you’re sure—’
At that moment Kelsey rushed into the room, which was dimmed by cellular shades. ‘We have to leave the house!’ Helen and her father looked at her with wide, startled eyes. ‘I don’t have time to explain. Just come with me!’
‘What on earth is wrong with you, honey?’ Truman asked anxiously.
‘Yes, what on earth is wrong with you, honey?’ Rick Conway stepped through the doorway of the adjoining bedroom that used to be the nursery. ‘What on earth is wrong with you, Kelsey? Or should I say sister?’ He pointed a large handgun at Kelsey, then at Helen, who dropped the silver tray she was carrying. A china teapot hit the floor, splattering hot water on her shoes. She yelped then cowered backwards. ‘Isn’t everyone glad to see me? After all, I am the master’s son. Or hasn’t he ever told you about me?’
‘Rick?’ Truman asked in bewilderment. His gray eyes narrowed and he frowned. ‘You?’ He started to rise from a white club chair. ‘You can’t be—’
‘Truman Edmund March, Jr? Well, yes I am, Father. Hard to believe you don’t recognize me, but I guess we only see what we want to see.’ Rick looked at Kelsey and Helen. ‘What a surprise, eh? I’m his son.’
‘You are not my son and your surname isn’t March,’ Truman said crushingly.
Rick’s brown gaze hardened. He raised the gun and pointed it at Truman. Helen gasped and cried, ‘No! Oh, please, no!’
‘What? Oh, I get it!’ Rick looked at Helen pityingly. ‘You’re in love with him, too, aren’t you? What a shame. Nothing good comes to women who fall in love with this man.’
‘Why are you here?’ Kelsey ground out.
Rick’s dark eyes burned in skin that looked unnaturally pale, although color blazed high on his cheekbones and sweat sheened across his forehead. His usually beautiful brown curly hair stood up in knots and spikes, as if he’d run damp hands through it several times. He held on to his gun so tightly his knuckles were white.
‘First of all, stop hovering in the doorway. Step into the room.’
Kelsey hesitated, then looked at his ferocious expression. This isn’t the time to defy him, she thought, as she entered the room. He smiled crookedly and nodded. ‘Very good. Now I’ll answer your question. I’m here, Sister, because I want to claim my birthright.’
‘She’s not your sister,’ Truman growled.
‘You’re right, Father. She’s not. She’s adopted. We don’t share the same blood – your blood. She’s nothing to me except the kid you took into your home and loved and spoiled, while you let me make it through life any damned way I could. And that’s just what I did. I made it in spite of you, Truman March!’ Rick’s gaze shot to Kelsey. ‘Stop holding that stupid candlestick. What do you plan to do? Beat me to death with it?’
‘You took my gun out of my handbag.’
‘So I did. That pitiful little Glock.’ He held up his gun. ‘This is a Desert Eagle .44 Magnum.’
‘You don’t mess around, do you? Is this a case of a big gun masking giant insecurity?’
‘You shut up!’ Rick’s eyes narrowed. ‘Sit down on the bed and stop trying to act brave, Kelsey. I know what you really are – just a rich man’s spoiled daughter trying to act tough.’
Kelsey edged toward the bed and sat beside Helen, who’d sunk down on it as soon as Rick announced he was Truman’s son. Now she seemed on the verge of sliding off the side in a faint.
‘We’re all in place, Rick. We’re all at your mercy. Happy now?’
‘Stop baiting him, Kelsey,’ Truman said evenly.
‘I only want to know why he says he’s your son.’
‘Because I am!’ Rick shouted. ‘My mother was Anna Akers. Do you even remember what she looked like, Truman?’ His gaze shifted to Kelsey. ‘When she was twenty-one, she and this fine specimen of a man had a love affair. I’m the result. Then your mother from the good, wealthy family – the family that formed March Vaden with your father – appeared on the scene and Truman kicked both of us out of his life. I was his son and he turned his back on me!’
Kelsey had put her arm around Helen, who was trembling. Suddenly Truman looked small and old in his large white chair, while Rick seemed to grow taller, stronger, and more menacing every minute. Kelsey suddenly felt some of her earlier courage deserting her. ‘Dad, what is he talking about?’ she asked. ‘Who is Anna Akers?’
‘A young woman I met at my very wild twenty-fourth birthday party. Anna was pretty and I was drunk. That night we started what I guess you’d call a fling. It lasted a week before I broke off with her. She called me countless times. She cried. She screamed. She sent me threatening letters – in those days we actually sent letters on paper. And a year after our brief affair ended, she turned up with a baby that she said was mine.’
‘But you’d met Mom by then?’
‘Just a couple of months before Anna came to see me, bringing a baby.’
‘Not a baby,’ Rick snarled. ‘Me!’
‘All right,’ Truman said tiredly. ‘You.’
Kelsey looked at her father. ‘But you were falling in love with Mom, so you hid what this woman was saying about her baby?’
‘I did at first. For less than three months. By then I knew I wanted to marry Sofie. So I told her and her father about Anna and about the baby. It was a hard thing to tell them, but especially hard to tell Sofie. I said I didn’t see how Anna could have gotten pregnant with my child. I’d always used protection, but I know accidents can happen.’
Rick said furiously, ‘So I’m to be dismissed as an accident? I’m your son, dammit!’
Truman looked at him steadily. ‘I am going to say this one more time. I am not your father. Your mother claimed I was, but I’m not.’
‘She had proof!’
‘At first she provided falsified blood-test results.’
‘Of course you’d say they were fake.’
‘I had experts look at the test results—’
‘Experts you paid to claim they were false!’
‘I didn’t pay off anyone. I asked that Anna let my doctor run blood tests – she refused. I asked that a respected doctor with loyalty to neither of us run a test – she refused again. When you were five, she turned up with DNA test results. DNA testing was fairly new then. She thought she was being smart, but once again the documents your mother presented were proved false. So I had DNA tests run.’ Rick couldn’t hide his surprise. ‘Anna always brought you to me back then and thrust you at me and told you to hug me. You’d rub your head against me. You had a lot of hair even then and you left a few strands with roots on my jacket. I had them tested against my own hair – twice. Each time, the results did not match.’
‘I’ve been with the March family for twenty-eight years and I never saw a woman come here with a little curly-haired boy.’ Helen suddenly quavered. ‘And you don’t look a thing like Mr March! I would have noticed when you came here after Lorelei’s funeral.’
‘I look like my mother. And I’d never been in this house until Lorelei’s funeral reception. When I was a little boy, my father set up meetings with my mother in his office.’
‘I didn’t set up meetings with Anna anywhere,’ Truman snapped. ‘She followed me to work because she knew she couldn’t get near the house. I hired security for the house after I married Sofie. I didn’t want Anna coming here confronting and threatening my wife!’
‘And your wife, that kind and wonderful woman everyone has heard so much about, didn’t want to see me. She didn’t want anything to do with me!’
Truman’s back stiffened and he leaned forward. ‘When you were about two years old, Sofie suggested that we adopt you! She said that even if you weren’t mine, you needed a home, a place away from your mother, who was clearly un
stable. But Anna wouldn’t just let go of you. She told me she wanted me either to divorce Sofie and marry her or for me to let you stay in her care and pay her. The amount she demanded was enormous. I knew she’d spend a bare minimum on you and spend the rest on herself. She would have retained full custody of you and would have always wanted more – more money, more attention. By the time you were three, she was making veiled threats against Sofie.’ Truman looked at Rick closely. ‘You know she was crazy, don’t you? You knew it when you were a kid. I used to see it in your eyes when she brought you along for one of her confrontations with me.’ Truman paused then asked softly, ‘How old were you before you got away from her? And how did you get away from her?’
Rick looked like he’d been punched in the abdomen. The air seemed to go out of him and he sagged slightly. Finally, he took a deep, labored breath. ‘She was bringing me to see you again,’ he said in a flat, detached voice. ‘There was a storm. She was so mad. She wouldn’t stop – she wouldn’t pull off the road even though it was raining so hard she couldn’t see. My favorite song came on the radio – “Gimme Shelter” by the Rolling Stones. I even made up a line that should have been in the song. “Death is just a breath away, a breath away.” Mick Jagger didn’t write that line, I did and it was good. I sang along with the radio so I wouldn’t be so scared, but she yelled at me and turned off my song.’ His breath came faster. ‘She turned off my song! She wouldn’t even let me have that! Then the car slid off the road. I survived the crash … she didn’t.’ His gaze sharpened. ‘I was thirteen.’
‘So that’s why she stopped harassing me so abruptly,’ Truman said faintly. ‘Are you sure she was dead after the wreck? Did you call for help?’
‘What’s it to you?’ Rick demanded. ‘That was your lucky day.’
‘So you didn’t try to get help even though you weren’t sure she was dead?’
‘Oh, she was dead, all right. She was dead.’
‘Where did you go after the wreck?’ Truman asked. ‘You were only thirteen and you didn’t come to me.’
‘Why the hell would I come to you? Would you have taken me in?’
Truman drew a deep breath. ‘Maybe.’
Rick strode toward him. ‘You hadn’t even seen me since I was a scrawny ten-year-old. You refused to see me after that!’
‘I didn’t refuse to see you. Your mother wouldn’t let me see you unless I agreed to her terms. In other words, unless I signed papers saying I’d pay her.’
‘I don’t believe you! You hated me!’
‘I didn’t hate you,’ Truman said evenly. ‘I never hated you.’
‘Easy to say now. Much safer to say now when I’m standing over you with a gun.’
Kelsey noticed that the air in the room was growing close, almost smothering. Everyone was shocked, angry and frightened, and their emotions radiated like auras. She closed her eyes, thinking of Janet. Janet had said she’d get help, and she didn’t doubt that Janet would make every effort possible to save them. She just wasn’t certain whether Janet’s efforts would be enough. They were trapped, Rick was in charge, and Kelsey knew time was running out.
‘Where did you come up with the name Rick?’ she asked, trying to keep him distracted. ‘Richard Conway. Did you just invent it?’
‘Do you think I’m a fool?’ Rick asked scathingly. ‘I knew someone named Richard Simon Conway. After my lunatic of a mother died, I made my living on the streets.’ He looked at Truman. ‘Your son made himself available to men, any time, any place! I wasn’t really streetwise at first. It was luck that I met Richard “Richie” Conway. He was fifteen although he looked older. Street life will do that to you – add years to your appearance. I realized almost as soon as I met him that he could be my savior. He’d been on his own since he was my age. His parents had never even reported him missing, much less searched for him.
‘I hung out with Richie for almost two years until he found what he thought was a real lover. The big love affair lasted about six months. Richie’s benefactor found someone prettier and more trustworthy, but by the time the guy cut him loose Richie had acquired some money, an ID card, a Social Security Card and a driver’s license. He said he’d made out fairly well in spite of being kicked out of the castle.’ Rick paused, smiling. ‘He shouldn’t have bragged, especially after deserting me. I killed him and took everything he had. One day I was Tru Akers, fifteen years old with no money and no ID, the next I was seventeen-year-old Richard Conway with two thousand bucks and all the identification I needed. Even his driver’s license photo could pass for me if you didn’t look too close. After that, I started side careers. I was a popular hustler – and robbed quite a few of my clients, and blackmailed a few prosperous ones. Finally, after years, I made enough money to buy a building and create Conway’s Tavern.’
‘Which just happened to be a couple of blocks from MG Interiors?’ Kelsey asked.
‘It didn’t just happen. As soon as I knew your daddy had bought the building for you to start your business, I bought my own.’
‘So you’d been watching me for years?’
‘Yes, Kelsey, I had,’ Rick said witheringly. ‘Why the hell wouldn’t I? Truman abandoned me and left me in the hands of that vile woman, but he adopted you. You weren’t even his natural child, but he gave you the life I should have had. You robbed me. You robbed me, you bitch!’
Kelsey could feel his rage growing. She knew he was reliving the years he’d spent with Anna Akers and the later years he’d spent on the streets selling himself to anyone who’d have him. At fifteen, he’d become a murderer. Maybe even before that. There was no proof that his mother had been dead after the wreck. Maybe he’d escaped from the car and simply left her to die. And maybe by then that was the only way he thought he could survive, Kelsey thought, a treacherous vein of compassion springing up in her. Immediately, she strangled it. She couldn’t let herself feel sorry for this man. Any conscience he might have had had died long ago. Now he was only a vicious killer.
She had to do something. If she didn’t, Rick was going to kill all three of them. She could lower her head and lunge at him, throw him off balance if not knock him down. Maybe he’d drop the gun. But what if he didn’t, and it went off? If that canon of a gun went off in the direction of her father or Helen? It won’t, she told herself as she tensed. Rick was turned at a forty-five degree angle from her. If she could charge and hit him beneath his ribcage—
As Kelsey began to tense for a lunge at Rick, her father asked coolly, ‘Why did you murder Lori, Pieter, and Eve?’ Rick turned to face Truman, his right hand holding the gun, his left arm hanging at his side. At this angle, the best Kelsey could do would be to knock his arm away. Her chance was gone.
‘Isn’t it obvious? I wanted to hurt you like you hurt me. When I got to know Vernon Nott, I realized he wasn’t any different from me except he was stupid. At first, he was only supposed to shoot Kelsey. Then that woman who works for Kelsey – Nina something – got excited that Lorelei was coming to visit, and she was certain Kelsey would bring Lorelei to Conway’s. I saw the chance to get both of them. I offered Nott ten thousand dollars for the job – half before, half after. The night Kelsey came in with Lorelei, Nott got nervous and started drinking too much. I knew he was going to botch the job. I’d always intended to kill him immediately after he shot the women, but because he was so drunk I didn’t wait for him to try to get Kelsey. Someone could have stopped him and he’d have started talking about me. So Kelsey escaped with her life that night.’ Rick smiled. ‘But it wasn’t a botched job after all – Lorelei March was dead and her sister and your whole family were traumatized. And it had only cost me five thousand dollars.’
Kelsey’s heart seemed to squeeze as Truman’s eyes closed briefly. Then he looked back at Rick. ‘And Pieter?’
‘After Lorelei was murdered, I realized it was better to inflict as much pain as possible on your family before I destroyed you. I planned to kill Vaden, but not the way I did. How could I have known he
prowled around at night and went to the barn? I’d come only to burn down the barn with your horses inside. You were so proud of those damned horses! It made me sick. But the old man tottered in to save the day. He got the stall doors open … and then I doused him with kerosene and set him on fire for his trouble.’
Kelsey’s stomach clenched as the image of her grandfather writhing in flames blinded her. She felt Helen shaking with silent sobs.
‘But it worked out for the best. After he seemed to recognize me at Lorelei’s funeral reception, he had to die,’ Rick said conversationally. ‘It really shook me up when he boomed “I remember you.” I sure as hell remembered him!’
‘You met Grandfather? When?’ Kelsey asked, hoping to buy more time while her mind worked frantically on how she could get the three of them out of what seemed like a hopeless situation.
‘I was fifteen and in bad shape.’ Rick’s gaze seemed to cloud slightly as he dredged up a memory. ‘Richie had always sort of looked after me since I was thirteen. Then he thought he’d hit a mother lode when he met his wealthy boyfriend, and he deserted me. Just left me alone with my coke habit. I ran out of money and couldn’t make enough to take care of myself. Plus I got beaten to a pulp one night. I was hurt and in withdrawal. I had to get help. I kept an eye on the March Vaden building but, although I hadn’t seen my loving father for a couple of weeks, Old Man Vaden was around. So I waited for him by the March Vaden building, in the underground garage.
‘He finally showed up and I told him I was Truman March’s son. I gave him details about his wife, his daughter, his granddaughters. You should have seen his face! He believed me. I said I was addicted to cocaine and badly off. I was skin and bones, shaking and sweating and dirty. He said he’d take care of me and to get into the car. I was too strung out to ask any questions. I just remember ending up at the office of some big-shot doctor who said he’d get me admitted into a rehab facility that afternoon. Like hell, I said, and ran. In spite of the shape I was in, neither Old Man Vaden nor the doctor could catch me.’
Just a Breath Away Page 28