by H. P. Bayne
Yeah, a lot had changed. And there was no going back.
Even as badly as Dez wished he could.
Mara whispered to Sully, words Dez couldn’t make out from his current position. He didn’t need to hear to understand the gist of it, Sully nodding before finally releasing Mara and excusing himself to go to the bathroom. He kept his tear-streaked, emotion-fraught face down as he went, avoiding meeting his brother’s eye—a move Dez took more as embarrassment over loss of emotional control than anger toward Dez.
Dez was angry enough at himself for both of them.
“He okay?” he asked his mom.
She returned to the coffee maker, spooning out some coffee into the filter Dez had placed inside the tank.
“He will be,” she said. “He just needs to find somewhere inside himself to put this. But he’ll come through. He’s far stronger than he ever gives himself credit for.”
Dez nodded, then decided his own confession was in order. “I was angry at him for holding back on the Dad and Aiden stuff. But I’m no better. I knew about Gerhardt for a while, and I didn’t say anything to him. I wanted to protect him.”
“I guess you can understand then why he didn’t say anything to you,” Mara said. “It says something about the two of you, that you’d want to keep each other safe from the pain of these things.”
Dez dove forward before his mom got too heavy-handed with the compliments. “After he told me about Dad and Aiden and Lowell, I tossed it out at him, about Gerhardt. I feel like an absolute piece of shit over the whole thing. I let my anger control me. I did exactly what he was worried I’d do, only I took it out on him, not Lowell. It wasn’t fair, and I feel like garbage for doing that to him.”
Mara hit the coffeemaker’s on switch, then took Dez’s hands in hers. “If there’s one thing I know about Sully, it’s that he’s very forgiving, particularly with the people he loves.”
“That’s not the point. I know he forgives me. He wasn’t pissed with me to begin with. That’s the problem. It would be easier if he hated me for it. That way I’m not the only one who’s mad at me.”
For a moment, Mara didn’t say anything as she studied Dez’s face. Then her frown turned to a smile. “You are every inch your father’s son, you know that?”
“I wish. Dad was way more patient and calm than I am.”
“Not by nature,” she said. “He worked hard at it, to be that way. He had an explosive temper he had to try hard to control sometimes. In the end, giving into it is why he left us. Had he taken what he learned to his police colleagues rather than charging off to confront Lowell, he’d probably still be here. At the same time, I can’t blame him for it. Had I known all of this back then, I would likely have gone with him—and not to hold him back either. You’d be visiting both your parents in prison right now.”
“And now?” Dez asked. “How are you handling it?”
“Honestly? I haven’t figured it out yet. Part of me wants to do exactly what your dad did and confront the bastard. The other part, the rational part, knows I can’t because my family needs me. But most of me is just sad. We were happy once, weren’t we?”
Dez nodded. “Yeah. We were.”
“I have to hold onto the hope we can be again.” She squeezed Dez’s hands, watching his eyes as hers narrowed slightly with the promise of a command. “Don’t be angry at your brother for holding out on you. And don’t be angry with yourself either. We’ve made mistakes, all of us. As good people, we feel each and every one. Anger is natural, and you need to allow yourself to feel it. But direct it where it should go. Direct it at Lowell.”
Dez forced one side of his mouth up into a half-smile. “Believe me, I intend to.”
8
It took remarkably little persuasion to get Mara to pack up a few things and come with them to Dez and Eva’s. When they started to close in on Lowell, odds were he’d lash out like a trapped animal. A certain wisdom was found in the adage about safety in numbers, and Sully liked the idea of Mara, Eva, Kayleigh and Dez being in a position to have each other’s backs.
Ordinarily, he would have stayed with them. But the situation was far from ordinary, and he was more likely than the others to be targeted once everything hit the fan. He hadn’t said anything, but the moment the situation turned ugly, he planned to reveal himself to Lowell. If he could keep the killer’s attention fixed on him, it wouldn’t be honed in on anyone else.
They arrived at the house just as Kayleigh got home from school, and Sully, who had just set down Mara’s suitcase in the living room, welcomed it as she flung herself into his arms.
“You’re back!” she cried, squeezing his neck hard enough to restrict breathing as he knelt in front of her.
“Just for a bit,” Sully said. “Your dad and I need to go do some stuff. He’ll be back later though.”
“What about you?”
“Not tonight, but I’ll see you again soon, all right?”
“Promise?”
He pulled away far enough to look into her face. Her expression held an earnestness and more than a little worry. His heart sank with the knowledge he’d put it there.
He forced a smile. “Promise.”
She gave him one last big hug before turning her attention to her father, hands on hips. “Aren’t you eating before you leave? You have to eat.”
Dez raised his eyebrows, then burst out laughing. “You sound more like your mom every day, you know that, kiddo? Don’t worry. I’ll make sure to eat.”
Sully turned to Mara while Dez and Kayleigh chatted. “You going to be okay?”
“I’ll be fine. It’s you two I’m worried about. Don’t let Dez do anything stupid.”
“I won’t.” Sully debated whether to say what was on his mind. He didn’t want to worry anyone, but decided they had plenty of reason to worry and to be prepared. “You know once we start closing in on this, Lowell’s likely to lash out. We need to be ready—all of us.”
“I’m more than aware. If he comes near anyone else in my family, I’ll kill him.” She stepped closer to him, as if realizing Kayleigh might be near enough to hear. “I need to help. I can’t sit idly by while my boys are out there, endangering themselves. I need you to keep me in the loop.”
“I’ll do my best. But when things start rolling, they tend to move fast.”
“Then take me with you.”
“Mom….”
“Aiden was my son. Flynn was my husband. I have every bit as much right to be involved in this.”
“I know you do. Come right down to it, you have more right than I do. But we also need to have someone here, keeping an eye on Kayleigh while Eva’s away. If Lowell figures out what Dez and I are up to, he’ll know Kayleigh’s a weak spot. Given what he’s done in the past, I wouldn’t put it past him to think up a way to use her against us.”
It might be a stretch, but then again with someone like Lowell, who knew? Really, all Sully wanted was to keep their mom out of harm’s way. It was bad enough Dez was going into the trenches with him. He’d be damned if he was going to willingly put anyone else he cared about at risk.
Without knowing it, Kayleigh timed out her approach perfectly, tugging on Mara’s shirt. “Grandma? Can you make your stew and dumplings?”
“It’s a bit late to get started on that, sweetie.”
“It’s okay. Mom won’t be back for supper, and I don’t mind eating late.” She put on her most winning smile. “I’ll help you.”
No way Mara could refuse that offer. “Okay. But I’m not sure your mom and dad have all the ingredients.”
“Let’s look.”
With Kayleigh tugging at her hand, Mara allowed herself to be led to the kitchen.
Dez had gone off somewhere, and Sully spotted him a minute or so later, coming down the stairs with something in his hand.
“It’s a portable charger,” Dez said, placing it in Sully’s hand. “I’ve got a second one I’m charging up now, but this one’s good to go. It should be set
for something like ten charges.”
“For what?”
“Your phone, dummy. If you’re insisting on staying at Ravenwood, you’ll need a way to keep your phone charged. I don’t like the idea of you being all the way over there with no way for us to reach each other. I’m thinking if you use this one until it starts running dry, then we can switch them out. I’ll give you the other one while I recharge this one.”
Sully pocketed the device. “Okay, thanks.”
“Sure you won’t consider staying here?”
“I’m sure. It’s safer if I’m not around.”
“Safer for who? Not you, obviously.”
It seemed like a good time for a subject change. “Just so you know, Mom wants in on this.”
“No fucking way.”
“That’s what I thought you’d say.”
“If Lowell was willing to kill his own brother, he’d think nothing of going after her too. I don’t want her in his crosshairs. Not for anything.”
“I get it, but she’s got a point too. Aiden was her son, and Dad was her husband. Would you be content to sit it out if it was Eva and Kayleigh?”
Dez blew out a tension-filled breath. “Maybe we shouldn’t have told her yet.”
“She had a right to know, Dez, same as you.”
“When has that mattered to you before?” Dez asked. But this time, he combined it with a smile that told Sully he wasn’t the same level of angry. He glanced back to the kitchen where Mara and Kayleigh were rifling through the fridge, looking for the items necessary for Mara’s stew. “She is going to stay put, though, right?”
“For now, anyway,” Sully said. “I think I managed to convince her to stay here for Kayleigh’s safety.”
Dez lost a shade of colour, and Sully realized his error. “Kayleigh? God, you don’t think he’d—” It took Dez all of five seconds to think through his own answer, and for the blood to return full-force to his head with the resulting anger. “If that bastard comes anywhere near my family—”
“He won’t,” Sully said. “We won’t let him.”
“Damn right, we won’t.”
Time to divert Dez to a different track. “Have you heard from Lachlan since we dropped him off? He was trying to get that file.”
Dez shook his head and pulled his phone from his pocket. After dialling, he waited only a moment before speaking. “Hey, did you…? I thought you were going to call once you…. Okay, fine. We’re on our way.” He disconnected and turned to Sully. “Lachlan got the file and he’s digging through it now.”
“He was supposed to call once he got it.”
“You know Lachlan,” Dez said, leading the way to the door. “He forgets stuff like including people when he gets his nose down on a trail. Let’s go. Oh, and I’m thinking we should leave Pax here. The storage container’s one thing, but I doubt Lachlan would be pleased to have a dog running around that art gallery he calls a home.” Over his shoulder, he called, “See you two later. Look after Pax for a bit, okay?”
“Dez!” Mara hurried out to them. “What are you two doing?”
“Nothing much,” Sully said. “We’re going to look at a file Lachlan got his hands on. It’s to do with Gerhardt’s missing son.”
Mara’s eyes pierced Sully’s, as if searching for something. “Are you sure you should be doing that?”
“If it will find us a way to get to Gerhardt or Lowell, then, yeah, we should.”
“You know what I mean.”
Sully smiled. “I’ll be okay.”
Mara appeared skeptical, proved it by training her focus on Dez. “You look after him, you hear me? Make sure he’s okay.”
Sully sighed. “Mom, I’m—”
“I’ll watch,” Dez cut in. “Don’t worry.”
“You two look after yourselves,” Mara said as her sons beat a hasty retreat through the door. “I mean it.”
Sully, hood up, rang the bell at Lachlan’s North Bank neighbourhood house.
The door opened to a mile-wide grin.
“This is shaping up to be one hell of an interesting case, boys.”
He stood aside to let them in, then led the way into his art- and book-filled living room. The contents of a file were spread out over the coffee table next to a well-used notepad and half a mug of tea. Lachlan had pulled one end of the table up to the leather recliner he returned to now, enabling him to study the file in comfort. One side of the sofa remained within easy reach of the table’s other end, and Dez sat there, leaving Sully to take a spot on the couch next to his brother.
They weren’t alone. Justice Montague, blessedly absent after they’d left the Black Fox, had opted to make a reappearance now, hovering at Sully’s other side.
Sully decided to ignore him. Nothing he could think to do would satisfy the man anyway.
“What have we got?” Dez asked.
“It’s all in the file, but I’ll give you the quick version,” Lachlan said. “As you told me, David Gerhardt was six when he went missing from the backyard of his parents’ old house—which, for our purposes, is rather inconveniently situated in The Forks. His parents told police he had a habit of wandering off, that he was an inquisitive kid who tended to forget the rules when something caught his attention. He was supposed to stay in the yard unless he was with an adult, but sometimes he didn’t listen.
“The day he went missing—July 25, 1980—Dr. Gerhardt was at work, and his wife Eloise was at home with the kid. David was playing in the yard. Eloise had been out there, too, puttering around in the garden. Judging by the photos, they had a pretty nice little yard: a few trees, lots of shrubs and flowers, many of them big enough for a kid to hide behind. When David disappeared, Eloise checked behind all the bushes and flowers first, thinking maybe he was hiding, but nothing. Then she found the gate unlatched.”
“Had she left David alone for a while or something?” Dez asked.
“The phone was ringing, and she went to answer it, she said. According to her, just a few minutes passed. When she came back out, the kid was gone.”
Dez scratched at the stubble along his jawline. “Who was on the line? If this was an abduction, the phone call might have been a distraction to get the kid alone.”
“I thought of that. So did the investigators at the time. Call was from her sister, though. Nothing suspicious there. A thorough area search was done in the hours following, and neighbours’ yards were checked too. Nothing was found, nor did anyone see any suspicious people or vehicles nearby. Granted, it was a weekday and most of the neighbours were at work. Not many people were around to witness anything.”
“Eloise didn’t have an outside job?” Sully asked.
Lachlan shook his head. “Stay-at-home mom. Apparently, the not-so-good doctor thought it was the man’s job to bring home the bacon. He liked the idea of having a woman at home to do his cooking and cleaning, bring him his slippers and pipe or whatever it is women were supposed to do in ancient times. Sounds like a real winner, this guy. You can only imagine the fallout after David went missing. No doubt Gerhardt blamed the wife.”
“No doubt,” Dez said. “Where’d she end up?”
“No one knows.”
“Gerhardt said something about her having died.”
“Maybe she did. Seems she was the subject of a short police investigation, too, a couple of months after David’s disappearance. Gerhardt called in, saying his wife had taken some things and left a Dear John letter while he was at work. It said she was leaving him, but he suspected she actually planned to go off and kill herself. He told police she hadn’t been right after David’s disappearance, which is understandable. Police conducted a search, but there was no sign of her, nor was there any indication of foul play on Gerhardt’s part.”
“They checked?” Sully asked.
“I wouldn’t say they pulled out all the stops, exactly—and there were fewer stops, given it was 1980 with no DNA capability—but they did look into the possibility, just in case. In the end, investig
ators simply chalked it up to a woman who couldn’t handle life in that house anymore. Given she’d taken some clothes and toiletries, it was believed she’d run off on Gerhardt. And since no sign of her popped up on the grid afterward, investigators thought it likely she’d found herself a new life or a new man and started over, likely with a new name to boot.” Lachlan plucked a photo from the scattering on the table and handed it to the brothers. “She was an attractive woman.”
Sully scanned the picture, a family photo of the Gerhardts in happier days. His eyes went immediately to Gerhardt himself. He’d never seen a photo of him in his younger years, and Sully estimated his age in this picture to be near the age Sully was now. He searched the face and the form of the man, looking for similarities to himself, all the while hoping he’d find none. The fewer characteristics he shared with Gerhardt, the better.
“Sull? You with me?”
Sully snapped his gaze from the photo to Dez’s face. “What?”
“I asked you a question.”
“Sorry, I missed it.”
Dez studied his face, and Sully did his best to appear impassive. When Dez raised an eyebrow, Sully knew he’d failed. Surprisingly, he let it drop. For now, anyway.
“I asked if you’d ever seen this kid or the wife anywhere before.”
Sully returned to the photo, this time focusing on the other two people in it. Eloise Gerhardt was, as Lachlan had said, an attractive woman: honey blonde hair, perfect smile, pretty, petite figure. A little too much makeup, but given the photo had been taken in the late 1970s, that was probably to be expected. David sat on her lap, then a boy of about four years. He held a toy train in his hands and wore a beaming smile despite the fact his blond hair had been cut into one of those terrible chunky styles that were all the rage at the time.
Oddly, despite the fact Sully had never seen the boy during those sessions at Lockwood, there was something familiar in the face.
“I’ve never seen her,” he said. “But I feel like I’ve seen the boy somewhere before.”
“In Lockwood?” Lachlan asked.