Facing Evil

by C L Hart

  “Lincoln.” Abby’s tone completely changed and Sarah wasn’t sure of what to make of it.

  “What?” He threw out his hands in surrender. “I’d think that after everything we’ve been through, the truth would be easy.”

  Sarah frowned curiously as she looked from Lincoln to Abby. There was a slight slur to Lincoln’s words. But not enough to explain the malice in his tone, she thought as she recalled his consumption of beer. What is he talking about?

  Abby stared coldly at her former partner. “I’ll deal with this my way.”

  “Really?” he challenged her as she rose to her feet. “I think Sarah deserves to know the truth. I mean, after everything she has been through. Matter of fact,” he stopped in front of Abby, “I think we all deserve the goddamned truth.”

  “Lincoln, you’ve been drinking,” Abby stated.

  “Yes I have, though not half as much as you do.”

  “Lincoln, I’ll deal with this...my way,” she vowed.

  “How, Abby, like you did with me? I worked with you for how long and you told me nothing? You lied to me, just like you’ve lied to her.” Lincoln pointed at Sarah.

  “I’ve never lied to her.”

  “You never told her the truth either,” he fired back angrily.

  “Excuse me, I hate when you do this! Her is right here, and she’d like to know what the hell you two are talking about,” Sarah said as she stood up, but the two ex-detectives ignored her as they glared angrily at each other.

  Abby fought to stay in control. “Lincoln, this is my business.”

  “Abby, it stopped being just your business when all of our lives got turned upside down. He had pictures of all of us! All of us, Abby!”

  Abby’s mind was racing between what Lincoln was saying and what Sarah was hearing.

  “Lincoln, you know nothing about this.”

  “I know nothing about it because you and your uncle decided I didn’t need to know anything about it. And if you had your way, I’d still know nothing about it!”

  “About what?” Sarah cried.

  “I saw the commitment papers, Abby — with Nathan’s goddamned signature!”

  “Lincoln, shut the fuck up!” The harsh words were out before Abby realized it. All she wanted to do was to stop what was happening, to make it all stop and go away.

  “No, I want the goddamned truth, Abby, and I’m not going to shut up.” He stared into her dark eyes and saw something he had never seen before — a resemblance he couldn’t believe. “You know, you and your uncle have the same eyes. They never change, even when they’re lying right to your face.”

  “You son of a bitch,” Abby snapped and responded the only way she knew how.

  Lincoln barely saw the hand coming before her open palm connected with his cheek.

  “Abby!” Sarah said as she watched Lincoln wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth.

  “She’s trying to shut me up, but it’s not going to work.” He spat blood onto the dock. “Abby has a secret she’s been hiding, a secret that almost got you killed.”

  Abby’s face showed rage and disbelief. Her hands were shaking and adrenaline was pounding through her system as she glared at him. She had never imagined anything could make her hit her best friend, but there were now many things in her life she never could have imagined. She had to stop him, and she also knew she couldn’t.

  “Abby! Lincoln!” An authoritative voice broke the tension and they turned to see Nathan marching down the dock.

  “Lincoln, you don’t know the whole story.”

  “Then I suggest you tell us before your niece takes my head off.”

  Nathan did his best to remain calm and in control. “Lincoln, that’s enough.”

  “No, Nathan, it’s not. Sarah has a right to know, and if you aren’t going to tell her, then I will.” He turned to look at a bewildered Sarah.

  “You’re right, she does,” Nathan said with resignation, “but this was all my idea, not Abby’s.”

  Nathan’s arrival calmed the heated scene and with the intense standoff over, Abby stepped back, dropped her head and closed her eyes. It was out of her control, out of her hands, and there was nothing she could do about it.

  There was a moment of silence before Nathan spoke. “It was my idea right from the start. You saw it — my signature on those commitment papers, not hers.”

  Sarah’s frustration was mounting over the snippets of information flying about.

  “What idea and whose commitment papers? What are you guys talking about?”

  Nathan looked at his niece as she silently sat down on the bench, and he saw a vulnerability he hadn’t seen since she was a child. He walked over, crouched down in front of her and took her hand.

  She lifted her head to look into his eyes. “I couldn’t stop him...” Abby’s voice faded away.

  Sarah’s brow furrowed as she tried to make sense of what was happening. She looked to Lincoln and wondered just what Abby was trying to stop him from doing.

  “I know, sweetheart.” Nathan wanted to stop her pain, to make it all go away, just like before. “I made decisions I shouldn’t have, but I was doing what I thought was best at the time.” He was speaking now more to the group and less to his niece. “You have to understand, I wasn’t a parent. I was a young, smug lawyer, with this grandiose career in front of me. I didn’t have time for a child. I didn’t want to take the time. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I’d be starting a chain reaction that I couldn’t control.”

  “Is that what this was all about, Nathan, control? You trying to control—”

  Anger and annoyance flared up in Nathan’s eyes and he turned to Lincoln. “No, Lincoln, this isn’t about control and it isn’t about keeping secrets.” Nathan turned back to Abby. “It was about an uncle trying to do the best for his niece, doing whatever he could to keep her safe.”

  Fear and confusion pulled at Sarah as she went over to Abby. The strong, proud woman she knew seemed only a shadow of her former self, and something told her it wasn’t due to the time she’d spent in prison.

  “I don’t get it, safe from what?”

  “You have to understand — it was horrible, nothing I could ever have imagined. By the time I got here it was all over except for the smoke coming from the wreckage,” Nathan said sadly.

  “What?” Sarah was even more confused as she looked into Abby’s vacant stare. “I don’t understand. What wreckage? Abby?”

  Abby felt herself lifted back into the past. A distant memory called to her from the lake as she lifted her head to look over the still waters. She heard a child laugh, a giggle, and she glanced over to where a dock used to be. Where there was once a boat, in which were her smiling and laughing parents. “Abby, are you going to come with us?” her mother called out to her as she waved happily at her daughter.

  “Mother,” Abby said softly, calling out to a memory that plagued her dreams. “They had no idea,” she muttered to herself, but all of them heard.

  “Abby. Abby, look at me. It’s all over now.”

  She heard her uncle’s voice, though she couldn’t see him. All she could see was her parents sitting in their boat. “Come on, Abby, we’ll go for a quick spin around the lake,” her father said, motioning his daughter to join them.

  Tears sprang from Abby’s vacant eyes. “I was supposed to be in that boat. I should’ve been,” she said in a small, scared voice as the image of flames erupted in her mind. She was a child again, a young child on a hot summer’s day, watching her parents’ boat explode in a horrific fireball. “They called to me. And I stood there and watched them.”

  “Oh, my God! This is about your parents. You were there?” Sarah whispered at the agonizing discovery. Abby had told her they had died there at Gold Creek, but she didn’t know how. “You saw it happen?” Sarah asked in heartbroken disbelief. “Oh, my God, you saw it happen.”

  “Did you know that my mother was still smiling when they exploded?” she said matter-of-fact
ly as the tears spilled over. No one knew what to say as they watched this typically strong woman come apart before their eyes.

  “Abby.” Sarah went to her side, but the dark-haired woman didn’t seem to notice. Rubbing her back, Sarah forgot about her anger and confusion as she looked for answers from either of the two men. She could tell by the look on Lincoln’s face that Abby’s strange demeanor concerned him, too. “Abby?” Sarah leaned over and whispered softly into her ear.

  “I remember their faces, the concussion, the heat of the fire.”

  “Abby,” Sarah whispered again.

  The softly spoken sound of her name drew her back from her past. She looked around and then angrily brushed back the tears as she jumped to her feet. “I didn’t know what he was planning,” she said as she stood and looked out at the dark waters. “It was me he was after, that was what he wanted. He wanted to kill me. And he almost did.”

  Sarah was lost in confusion. “What? Who?”

  “Abby,” Nathan said as she turned around to face them all. With her red rimmed eyes and her pale complexion, this wasn’t the Abby they knew, though Nathan recognized the pain she was going through. “Don’t do this, Abby, it wasn’t your fault.”

  “Wasn’t it? I knew, but I didn’t tell anyone. I should have, but I didn’t — and look what happened. I didn’t know how much he hated me.” She looked to Sarah. “I don’t think he even cared that he killed them, because he wanted it to be me.”

  The redhead’s heart ached at the pain she saw in the tear-filled eyes. “Abby, I don’t understand.” Sarah started toward her. “Are you talking about your parents—”

  Abby’s upheld hand stopped her. Fighting to stay in control, Abby took several deep breaths, but she couldn’t stop the tears any more than she could have stopped him. “It was Billy. He killed them. He killed them because of me.”

  Sarah was certain the dock below her feet moved. “What?” Abby’s words started to sink in. “Billy...Billy Ward? Oh, my God!” Her hand went to her mouth. “Oh, my God,” she repeated over and over as she tried to comprehend. “Why would he do that? I don’t understand.” The questions tumbled out of Sarah’s mouth. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Her mind was spinning. “He killed your parents.”

  Abby looked over to where she had last seen her parents, to the dock that no longer existed but would forever burn in her mind. “He killed them because he hated me, because of me...” Taking a deep breath, her eyes went back to Sarah, and she finally told her the truth. “Not my parents...our parents. Billy was my brother.”

  Everything stilled at that moment. The air hung silent. The waters, tranquil as the full moon, reflecting in Sarah’s wide eyes, were suddenly covered by dark clouds. She knew her mouth was open, but she did nothing to close it. “He wa... What? He was your brother?” The information hit her like a bolt from the sky. “But how? Billy Ward was your brother?”

  “Not by blood,” Nathan said. “Adopted, Billy was adopted.”

  “But that isn’t—” Feeling her knees weaken, Sarah stumbled backward and landed flatly on the bench. Lincoln reached to assist her, but she pushed his hand away. “No, don’t...don’t touch me,” she fired at him and he pulled back his hand. “You knew.”

  “No, I didn’t. I only just found out, too,” he protested.

  Everything was overwhelming her and she felt it hard to breathe. She looked for reason in Abby’s eyes. “That...that animal...was your brother!” She tried to fathom what Abby was saying, but it made no sense to her. “That’s not possible. How could that monster be related to you...to anyone?” She wanted to cry; more than that, she wanted to scream.

  “Adopted. Sarah, you have to understand—”

  Nathan tried, but she glared at him. “Understand? I have to understand? ” Her voice was seething with anger. “No, the only thing I had to do was survive. Remember that? That’s what you all told me, and now you want me to understand! He tried to kill me, Abby’s brother...” Her mind bounced from one emotion to another. “Why? Why wouldn’t you tell me?”

  “Sarah, it wasn’t Abby idea, it was mine. She was too young to realize what the consequences would be. I’m the one who decided to send her away, to cover all of this up. We were all so young, we had no idea—”

  “She was a child then, not the woman I know now.” Sarah turned her fury toward the silent woman. “You could’ve told me.”

  “When? When could I have told you? And what would you’ve liked me to say? The man who almost killed you...” Abby’s voice faltered, “the one who beat you senseless, was my brother? The same man who murdered all those women was my adopted brother whom my uncle had committed for killing my parents?”

  Sarah looked at her accusingly. “You should’ve told me,” she whispered slowly as she rose from the bench.

  “We couldn’t,” Nathan said. “We couldn’t tell you any more than Abby could tell Lincoln when she discovered he was killing those girls.”

  “When did you know?” Lincoln prodded.

  Abby took a deep breath. She felt defeated, exhausted and spent, and she sat down, dropping her head into her hands. “After Traci Sabatini, he sent me an email telling me how disappointed he was that I couldn’t find him. I didn’t even realize it was him. He had changed his name, and of course he was no longer the child I remembered.”

  Sarah looked to Nathan and the tired old lawyer sighed. “Please, let me explain.” He glanced toward Abby, but she wasn’t looking at anyone. “My brother and his wife wanted a family, and when they seemingly couldn’t have children, they adopted William. But he wasn’t the normal happy child they had hoped for. He had some disturbing tendencies, even as a toddler. Then Annie got pregnant with Abby. The children couldn't have been more opposite. My brother and sister-in-law tried their best to treat them equally, but Billy became spiteful toward young Abby, and soon they began to fear for her safety.”

  When Nathan paused, Lincoln glanced over at Abby who had yet to look up from her hands. He didn’t know if it was because of the pain of the past or the shame of the present. Sarah was standing off to one side, listening in shocked disbelief as Nathan continued with his story.

  “I wasn’t around that much, but I talked to my brother enough to know that things were not good. Finally, the day came when he asked my legal advice about putting Billy into foster care — getting him away from Abby, away from the family. After that had been done, I thought it was over and everyone could breathe again; it wasn’t. Billy kept in contact with Abby, he—”

  “He sent me letters.” Abby didn’t lift her head, she kept her eyes down and away from those she had hurt. “He sent me threats, but I never believed him because there were times he was so nice and I missed him. Then one day, out of the blue, he showed up here, at Gold Creek. He had taken off from his foster family, for a visit he said. I should have told someone,” Abby’s voice broke, “but I didn’t and he murdered them.” She swallowed several times and they waited for her to finish. “When they took him away from here, he was laughing the whole time.”

  Nathan took up the story from there. “When I arrived, I did what I thought was best. I had him committed, away from here and away from Abby, and I thought that was the end of it. I had my hands full with an orphaned niece I had no idea what to do with.” Nathan reached down and placed a hand on Abby’s shoulder. “I gave her everything money could buy, anything I could think of that might help — the best hospitals, the best doctors and psychiatrists, but I didn’t give her the two things she needed most: my love and my time.”

  “You did what you could,” Abby said quietly.

  “I don’t understand how he got out. Shouldn’t he still have been in an institution?” Lincoln asked as he tried to make sense of everything he had heard.

  “We thought he was still hospitalized in Europe, but he was too smart for them. Fooled the doctors into thinking he was sane. Apparently, he walked right out the front doors a free man. No one thought to call me or Abby.”

  �
��Maybe if we’d known who he really was, maybe we could’ve stopped him,” Lincoln said.

  Abby lifted her tear-stained face to look at her ex-partner. “You think I haven’t thought of that every day and night since this thing started?” She glanced fearfully over at Sarah who had quietly taken a seat at the end of the bench. It was easy to see, even in the dark, the shock and pain this was causing her. Abby had no idea how to make it better.

  “He was obsessed with Abby. He felt she owed him, just for being born. He hated her for taking away his family, taking away his life, though that was his own doing, but there was a part of him that loved her, to the point of infatuation. He was sick and twisted, even as a young boy.”

  Lincoln didn’t want to hear the explanation. “But if we had known—”

  “The only difference it would have made would have been the name we called him by, nothing else,” Abby stated.

  “You should’ve told us,” Sarah finally said quietly, and all eyes turned to her. “I knew your parents had died here, although I didn’t know you had seen it happen. I understand that, but you should have told us that he was your brother.”

  Abby stood up and walked over to Sarah. She had to make this right, but how did one put right a trust so shattered? “There are a lot of things I should’ve done, things I wish I could change, but I can’t.” Abby knelt down in front of Sarah. “I’ve spent half my life blaming myself for my parents’ deaths, and a fortune on therapists so that I can say, ‘it wasn’t my fault’, and here I am again, wishing I could turn back time. I can’t. I can’t bring back my parents, I can’t bring back any of those girls, and I can’t change what he did to you.”

  Sarah stared at her in silence, her mind a kaleidoscope of memories. “And I can’t forget what he did to me. I’m sorry, I can’t...I can’t sit here and listen to this any more.”

  Sarah stood up and Abby followed her. “Sarah, please. Sarah!” Abby pleaded. “Sarah, I’m sorry.”