“To be sure. There was no turning back. I later figured out that he had stolen my keys, made an impression of them, then returned them to my dresser. I never knew. But he left the day before the attack. He’d called a cab and just disappeared. I thought he’d taken my advice and run.”
“But he hadn’t?” Steven asked.
Hugh pressed his fingers against his eyes. “Here’s where things get a bit fuzzy for me. He left in a cab and I’m not exactly sure what happened after that. I’ve pieced it together as best I can. The only thing that makes sense is that he dropped the key off to whoever he owed the money to. I didn’t hear from him until after the murders. He just showed up in our kitchen, weeping and muttering about being responsible for the Burke family’s deaths.” He rubbed a shaking hand down his wrinkled cheek. “I can’t tell you how I felt when I heard about it. I insisted that he go straight to the Gardaí, that he turn himself in. I said I’d go with him, help him confess what he’d done.” He swallowed and swiped a tear that had trickled onto his cheek. “What I’d done,” he whispered.
“What had you done?”
“I’d kept silent. I didn’t warn them, but I thought . . . I really thought he had run. I thought it was just all . . . talk. That he was just desperate, that once I told him I wouldn’t help him rob the family, he’d decide to run. And then the next thing I know . . . they’re dead and he’s weeping on my kitchen floor.” He rubbed a hand across his eyes. “I wanted to confess to the Gardaí that I was guilty. As guilty as if I’d carried a gun myself. Connor said he would go confess the next morning. When I woke the next day, he was gone.”
“Where?”
“I thought he’d run away. I thought . . .” He rubbed his head. “I thought a lot of things, but they were all wrong. My son had gone to his home. He’d committed suicide two days after the attack. At least it looked like suicide. There was no note, nothing. My wife—” He choked up and his throat worked before he could gather control to speak once again.
Steven glanced at Haley. Her blank face told him nothing of what was going on behind her green eyes. “Go on,” she said.
“My wife was inconsolable. Connor was our only child. She was worried about him because he hadn’t answered our calls and drove to Dublin to see if he was all right. He’d hung himself in his closet and she found him. She had to be sedated for weeks, and even after she was weaned from the drugs, she wasn’t right. She kept looking for him to come home.”
“To your home?”
“Yes. ’Twas like she’d put the entire thing out of her mind and he was just off somewhere working. By the time I could even get myself together to think straight, the investigation had come to a halt. The authorities blamed it on the mafia, who appeared to have a score to settle with Ian, and I . . . just . . . never told them what I knew. Instead I dedicated my life to taking care of my wife and Ian, doing my best to make up for something that can never be made up for.” He swallowed. “I saved his life, so I did,” he whispered.
Haley shifted, her hands clasped tightly in front of her. Steven wondered if it was so she wouldn’t strangle the old man. If only he’d said something . . .
“When someone later tried to kill him?” Haley asked.
“’Twas a couple of weeks after the funerals. He was at the office. He didn’t like to drive, so I chauffeured him everywhere most of the time. He said he was ready to leave and I went to get the car. When I went around to open the door for him, I caught a glimpse of someone on the roof across the street. A wink of the sun off something. Maybe it was my military training, maybe it was just paranoia after everything, but I shoved him in the car, slammed the door, and hit the ground just as the bullet plowed into the space where Ian had been standing.”
Haley stood and paced away from them, then back. She stood in front of Hugh. “You saved him and I’m glad, but that doesn’t bring them back. If you had only told my grandfather—”
Hugh shook his head. A lone tear coursed down his cheek. “I know. I think about them every day. I see them in my dreams, begging me to turn myself in, to do the right thing. I can’t live with this anymore.” He shuddered. “I’ll tell Ian as soon as he wakes.”
“If he wakes,” Haley murmured.
“True. If he wakes.” He looked at her. “Do you hate me?”
Haley bit her lip and Steven squeezed her hand. She rubbed her eyes with her free hand, then dropped it to her lap. “I think you miscalculated and that miscalculation, that lapse in judgment, had extreme consequences that you couldn’t foresee. Then again, if you’d spoken up immediately after the deaths, you may have been taken into custody and not had the opportunity to save him. Who knows?” She looked away for a long minute, then sighed. “But no,” she said softly. “I don’t hate you.”
She didn’t, she really didn’t hate him, but the anguish ran deep. Even if he hadn’t believed his son would actually do anything, if only he’d told someone what Connor had said, threatened—
But no. She knew what it was like to make a stupid decision and have it blow up in your face. And have someone, several someones, die because of it.
Christina stood at the door watching them. Haley caught her eye and shook her head. She nodded and turned her attention back to the hall while Haley kept looping the conversation with Hugh through her mind.
She wished he’d done things differently, but he hadn’t, and what happened had happened. She couldn’t change the past, but what she knew could possibly change her future. Haley sat and watched the minutes tick past. Hugh leaned his head back and dozed. The fact that she’d said she didn’t hate him seemed to free him of something.
She rose and paced, then she sat and checked her email. She requested an update about Gerald Forsythe and got nothing more than she already knew. She walked over to the desk to check in on Belinda, then paced back to the chair next to Steven and dropped into it.
“How is she?” he asked.
“She’s through surgery and is in post-op ICU. She’s in critical condition—the bullet punctured a lung and did some other damage. The fact that it happened here in the hospital with no wait time for an ambulance saved her. She’s got a good medical team and she’s fighting.”
“Her last words were for us to take care of her boys. She thought she was going to die.”
They fell silent for a moment, then Haley sighed. “She’s made some rotten mistakes, but she learned from them. She was trying to do better. Zeke told me she was doing online school. She wants to become a nurse.” She drew in a breath and ran a hand through her hair. “Have you checked on Carter James?”
“I have. My mother’s been keeping in touch with his wife and texted as we walked into the waiting room. He’s improving and his wife hasn’t left his side.”
“They set him up.”
“What?”
“Whoever carjacked him. They didn’t want him found for a while. Why?”
Steven gave a slow nod. “Because they didn’t want us to know the man in the trunk wasn’t him until it didn’t matter anymore if we knew or not.”
“He’s taunting me. He doesn’t want me to find out what really happened twenty-five years ago. He wants to guilt me into letting it go.” She rubbed her eyes. “And maybe I should.”
“No, you shouldn’t.”
“Too many innocent people have been hurt already. Carter James, Duncan—”
“You.”
She lifted a shoulder in small shrug. “I don’t want anyone else to get hurt.”
“But you sure don’t want him to get away with killing Gerald Forsythe or shooting Duncan. So what’s the alternative?”
“There isn’t one.” She closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, she focused on the far wall. “Carter James was convenient, an easy target. That’s the only reason they picked him. And they needed a rich man’s fancy car to make the dead body in the trunk look like all the other incidents. They took the keys and parked the car in a poor area.”
“Just like the other
s so they could go about with their intended agenda without raising any red flags.”
“Yeah. Targeting me,” she said. “But they didn’t have to kill someone to do that. So why Forsythe? They obviously didn’t want anyone identifying him for a while.” She pursed her lips and stood, hands on her hips. “Unless . . .”
“Unless?”
“The text said Forsythe was dead because of me.” Sorrow pierced her, but it wasn’t her fault. Mentally, she knew that. She just hated that an innocent man had gotten caught up in whatever deadly game this killer was intent on playing.
“So, what’s the connection?”
“It’s suddenly obvious and I feel rather like an idiot for not seeing it sooner.”
“What do you mean?”
“Okay, everything started going wonky when Duncan began looking for me, right?”
“Apparently.”
“Do you remember that he said he hired someone to find me here in the States, and once he got word that I was found, he told the guy not to contact me, but instead hopped a plane and took over following me?”
“Right.”
“So, who was the guy he hired?”
“You think he was Forsythe, the guy in the trunk?”
“It’s plausible, don’t you think? I mean, I get a text from some anonymous person telling me who the man is and that it’s my fault he’s dead. It’s the only possible connection I can think of.”
“They needed to kill Gerald Forsythe because he’d found you and they didn’t want him telling you.” Steven stroked a hand across his jaw. A nice firm jaw that showed strength and character.
Haley blinked at her thoughts. Now was not the time to notice anything about him, but sometimes random thoughts happened as though protecting the brain from what it didn’t want to think about.
“I think you’re probably on to something,” Steven said. “If it’s him, he left the car at the airport for Duncan.”
She straightened. “So where did he go after he left the airport?”
“And who did he go with?”
“You think there’s some security footage at the airport?” she asked. Renewed energy perked her up.
“I think we need to find out.” Steven texted Quinn and asked him to look into it. Then he looked at Haley. “Want to go find Duncan and ask him about Gerald Forsythe?”
She hesitated and glanced at the lightly snoring Irish man beside her. “You think he’ll leave or run or . . . anything?” she asked softly.
“No, but I can’t guarantee it, of course.”
“He thought it was just crazy talk. He thought his son was just desperate and wouldn’t act on his words.”
“Yes.” Steven tilted his head and studied the man who was oblivious to the conversation. “He’s lived a quarter of a century blaming himself for keeping quiet. He could have prevented their deaths and . . . he didn’t.”
“He didn’t know. At least I don’t think he did. I’m not sure if he truly didn’t know or not. He may have thought his son would steal, but . . .” She stopped, a deep sadness invading her.
“What can I do to help you?” he whispered.
She looked into his eyes and the compassion there nearly undid her. She wanted to embrace what she read there. Wished she could just let him hold her and be her shelter from it all right now. But she couldn’t. “His remorse is genuine and the regret he feels, the guilt and self-recrimination . . . it’s all there.”
“What do you think your grandfather is going to say?”
“I . . .” She shrugged. “I couldn’t even begin to guess.” She paused. “Then again maybe I can. He’ll probably feel betrayed and betrayal is a hard thing to get past.”
[21]
Steven left the waiting room and made his way back to Duncan O’Brien’s. Haley decided she’d better stay with McCort. And besides, she’d said, she didn’t want to leave and take a chance on missing the doctor when he came out to talk to the family. Namely her. So he’d left her texting someone at the teen center about the trip that had been moved up to Friday.
Steven flashed his ID to the officer still on the door, then knocked.
“Come in.”
He pushed the door open and stepped inside.
Duncan still looked pale, but his eyes were bright. “Back already?” He frowned. “Is Mr. Burke all right?”
“He hasn’t woken up yet, but I’m assuming he’s still all right.” He settled in the chair next to Duncan so the man didn’t have to strain his neck looking up at him. “I have a question for you.”
“Of course.”
“What was the name of the man you hired to find Haley?”
“Gerald Forsythe, my cousin. He’s a police officer.”
Steven blew out a low breath. “I see. When was the last time you heard from him?”
“Shortly before I arrived. We arranged for him to leave the rental car at the airport for me. I wired him the final payment and that was it. Why?”
“I’m sorry to tell you this, but he’s dead.”
Duncan blanched. “What?”
“I’m really sorry.”
“Oh, it can’t be so.” He raised a hand and covered his eyes for a brief moment. “He has a family.”
“They’ve been notified.”
“Tell me what happened.”
Steven did, then waited a few more minutes to let the man process the news. “Are you going to be all right?” he finally asked. “I want to get back to Haley.”
“I’ll be all right. I prefer to be alone right now anyway.” He cleared his throat. “Ye’ll let me know how Mr. Burke is?”
“Absolutely. And . . . again, I’m really sorry about your cousin.”
“Thank you.”
Steven left and made his way back to the waiting area, where he found Haley and McCort speaking with the doctor. Haley glanced at him and shook her head. Steven’s heart sank. Had he died? He stepped closer. “We’ll keep him comfortable, but if he has any other family, you should notify them.”
“Of course,” Haley whispered.
Hugh simply looked stunned, his face a mask of harsh regret. “It can’t be so,” he said. “There’s no hope he’ll wake up?”
“It’s possible he’ll wake up and surprise us all,” the doctor said. “As far as I can see, everything looks fine with his brain despite the tumor. The tumor itself looks very small and will need to be biopsied at some point if he wishes to do so.”
“So the tumor caused his seizure?”
“Yes, that’s what it looks like.”
Haley planted her hands on her hips. “Doctor, what’s wrong with him? Why won’t he wake up?”
He drew in a breath and spread his hands. “I’m not sure, to be honest. His vitals are good, but he’s not responding to stimuli. Let’s just watch him for a while.”
“So he’s in a coma?”
The doctor hesitated. “I’m not sure I’d call it a coma. Yet. Let’s just give him some time and see what happens. Of course, at his age—”
“Of course,” Hugh murmured. “You really think I should call the family?”
“I would, just to be on the cautious side. Like I said, at his age, you never know.”
Haley turned to Hugh. “You know who to contact, of course?”
“I do.”
“Then I’ll leave that to you.”
Steven shook his head. What had happened in the last few days? How had he become embroiled in such a mess? A mess he had no intention of letting Haley go through alone. He watched her struggle to contain her emotions and process the news.
And how had he come to care about her so much in such a short period of time?
It didn’t matter. They’d been through some intense times together. Times that had brought them closer than the average dinner-and-a-movie date would have.
While Hugh got on his phone, swiping a stray tear in the process, Steven pulled Haley to the side. “Forsythe is the man Duncan hired to track you down. They were cousins.”
“No, but it’s getting close to the time that they will.” He raked a hand over his head. “We’ll worry about that in a bit.”
“What’s next on your agenda?”
“I need to check on Zeke’s mother, then figure out a way to catch the killers before they strike again.”
Katie appeared in the doorway and Haley waved her over. She approached, her eyes roving. They settled on Hugh McCort, then bounced back to her. “How is everything?”
“Interesting. I’m ready for boring.”
Katie slid into the chair beside her. “I talked to Quinn. The bullets from the man in the trunk and the one they dug out of Carter James match.”
“I figured they would,” Haley murmured. “Has Quinn been able to talk to Carter?”
Katie shook her head. “They’re keeping him sedated for now. He has quite a bit of swelling on his brain.”
Hugh cleared his throat and Steven raised a brow at the man. He tucked his phone into his pocket. “The family is on the way.”
“Who?” Haley asked.
“Not all of them, of course, but five of them you’ll get to meet.”
Haley’s half-stunned, half-panicked expression tugged at him. Steven reached out and closed his hand around hers. He figured she was feeling a bit shell-shocked at the fact that she was going to meet her family in a few hours.
“I’m supposed to be getting on a bus to New York in a few days.” He released her hand and she sank into the chair. “What do I do? I can’t leave and I can’t not leave.”
“You don’t have to worry about that yet. Let’s give your grandfather some time to wake up.”
She gave a slow nod. “You’re right.” She stood and rubbed her palms down her jeans. “I want to see him.”
Haley’s brain spun and she paused at the door to her grandfather’s room. Members of her family were coming in from Ireland. And she would meet them all. Overwhelmed didn’t come close to describing the emotion running through her. There was also a mixture of excitement and curiosity.
Chasing Secrets Page 19