by H. P. Bayne
Lachlan extended his index finger, pointing to several small bruises scattered along Aiden’s upper chest and collarbone. Then he went one better, reaching over to Sully’s lap and bringing his hands down, fingers extended, until the tips roughly lined up with the bruises.
“Seven marks,” Lachlan said. “Near as I can figure it, we’re missing one pinky and both thumbs. Given the positioning and the difference in sizes between Aiden and Lowell, I’d say the thumbs were probably in the area of the boy’s belly. As you know, Braddock, it’s much harder to leave bruises along the softer flesh of the abdomen.”
Dez did know that. He’d also known something far bigger, that Lowell had killed Aiden. But seeing it in this way, evidence of the injuries a large man had left on a tiny, defenceless body—Aiden’s body—drew an unexpected explosion of rage from Dez.
He fired from the couch, nearly tripping over Pax who had been curled on the floor at his feet. He stalked to the middle of the room before considering he had nowhere to go, nothing he could break to relieve the fury tearing him up from the inside.
“Son of bitch! That goddamned fucking son of a bitch!”
He spun, finding Sully directly behind him. “Dez—”
“Don’t! Don’t, Sully! Leave me the fuck alone!”
Dez’s breath heaved as he glared at Sully through tears borne more of anger than grief. Sully watched him for a moment. Only a moment. Then he moved in, pulling him into a hug.
Dez’s first thought was to shove him away, but he stalled as his fingers dug into the sides of Sully’s ribs. The photograph flashed back into his mind. He’d pushed Aiden away, and he’d lost him forever.
He wouldn’t make that mistake again.
Dez grabbed Sully back, an embrace hard enough to hurt. Sully didn’t say anything, just stood there with him, an anchor around which Dez’s grief and rage and torment could safely churn. As tightly as he wished he could have held onto Aiden, he now held onto Sully. Held onto him as if life itself depended on it.
Because it did. Dez’s life, his reason for living, came down to four living people. If he could, he’d gather them all up—Kayleigh, Eva, Mara and Sully—and never let go.
He had no idea how long they stood there, Dez’s arms python-tight around Sully’s midsection. By the time Dez pulled away, he was a mess of tears and snot, Sully was sucking in deep and likely much-needed breaths, Pax was back at their side as if feeling left out, and Lachlan was nowhere to be seen.
Dez took a minute to head to the main floor half-bath where he splashed water on his face and blew his nose a couple of times. He stared into the mirror, studying his blotchy, emotion-reddened face. He was still angry—hell, furious—at Lowell, but it felt as if a weight had come off. He’d made himself a caretaker as a way to make up for the care he hadn’t taken of Aiden. Rarely did he allow anyone else to do the same for him. Definitely not Sully. Sully was his responsibility, not the other way around.
As embarrassing as it was to lose control again, the fact was Sully had seen him through it. And Dez had let him. He was surprised to realize he was okay with that.
Of course, the embarrassment of Lachlan observing the whole breakdown wasn’t going away as easily.
Dez reemerged from the bathroom to find Sully and Pax waiting for him in the living room. Pax wiggled up to him, tail wagging and wet nose prodding at his hand for a pet. Dez happily obliged, kneeling to wrestle the playful dog to the ground.
“You okay?” Sully asked.
Dez looked up briefly to turn his Pax-created grin on his brother. “Yeah. I’m okay. Sorry I fell apart on you.”
“Don’t be.”
Their attention turned as Lachlan stalked back into the room.
“Sorry, boss,” Dez said, standing. “I had a moment.”
Lachlan smirked as he faced Dez. “Forget it. I’m thinking you probably have a lot of those.”
“Not that bad. Thanks for clearing out for a minute.”
“Yeah, well … I had to make a phone call.”
“To who?”
Lachlan glared a Dez a few seconds. “My brother, you giant, nosy bastard. I haven’t talked to the asshole in years and figured that was time enough. Now shut up and call your mom so we can sort out this mess about Kindra, all right?”
Dez reached his mom while she and Eva were with Paul up at the cabin.
“It’s a little rustic for my taste, but it’s a lot better than I’d anticipated,” Mara said. “Given he told us it’s off the grid, I expected dinner by candlelight and needing to heat water over an open fire—not to mention having to pee in a bucket. But Paul had it fitted with solar panels and, for when that’s not enough, a generator. He’s offered to bring us Christmas decorations and everything. I think it might actually be nice for us to use as a family. It’s so peaceful here.”
Dez hated to rain on his mom’s parade—she actually sounded surprisingly relaxed given the circumstances—but needs must.
“That sounds great, Mom, but we’ve got something we need to ask you here. Mind if I put you on speaker? I’m with Sully and Lachlan.”
Having received the go-ahead, Dez tapped the speaker button and told her about the file, and the fact Kindra had done the autopsy.
“I didn’t know that,” Mara said. The lightness had left her voice, and Dez instantly regretted having been the cause. “I don’t understand. How was she able to do it?”
“Lachlan said they were short forensic pathologists at the time, so it might have been as simple a matter as that,” Dez said. “What we were wondering, though, was about the state of her and Lowell’s relationship at the time. Were they already married?”
“No, but they’d been seeing each other. It hadn’t been long, but to my understanding, they were becoming quite serious. Lowell had brought Kindra around to meet us. I remember being so grateful for her after Aiden, because she was there, with us, all the time.”
“I remember.”
“You know, looking back on it, Lowell wasn’t around as much. In fact, other than the funeral, I didn’t see him at all that first month. Funny, the things that make sense when you look back on them with new eyes.” She paused, and Dez didn’t fill the space, suspecting Mara was in thought rather than awaiting a response from him. “You’re telling me Kindra was in on all of this? Kindra?”
Dez looked to Lachlan for an answer, but received nothing but a shrug.
“We aren’t exactly sure yet, Mom. Lachlan and I will probably have to go and talk to her to find out for sure. She likely won’t tell us the truth if she was, but Lachlan has some mad skills in the bullshit-detection department.”
Lachlan, though, seemed to have jumped on board another train of thought. He cut into the conversation before Mara could reply. “Pardon me, ma’am. Lachlan here. I’m wondering if you’re anywhere near Paul right now.”
“He’s right here.”
“Excellent. Could you put him on?”
Movement in the background suggested the phone had changed hands. A moment later, Paul’s voice came on the line.
“Paul here.”
“Hello, Paul. Lachlan. Listen, question for you. Kindra Abraham. Do you know her?”
“Of course. I’ve known her for years.”
“Would she, by chance, be a member of the Circle?”
“She is,” Paul said. “Didn’t you know that?”
Dez exchanged questioning glances with Sully and Lachlan, receiving head shakes all around.
“No, none of us knew that,” Lachlan said. “How long?”
“Years. She was already a member when I was brought in.”
“Did Lowell help to bring her on board?”
“My understanding was she was a member before Lowell was. I’m sorry. I thought you all knew given your knowledge of Lowell’s involvement. He and Kindra met through the Circle.”
8
After hanging up with Mara and Paul, Dez had to pace off the effects of receiving a blast from yet another massive bombshell.
Lachlan, not one for pacing, sat back in his easy chair, eyes half closed.
“This whole thing was a massive coverup from the start,” Dez said.
Lachlan released the lower lip he’d been squeezing. “Sure starting to look that way, isn’t it?”
Dez’s eyes snapped onto Lachlan. “What about the chief coroner? He in on it too?”
“The current chief coroner, no. He’s only been in his post twelve years. The previous one, quite possibly. Then again, it’s rarely been a medical professional in that job. The reason for having a forensic pathologist is to advise the coroner on the medical aspects of death investigations. The coroner who handled Aiden’s file would have taken his cues from Dr. Abraham.”
“So now that we know this, what do we do with it?” Sully asked.
“We don’t know one important thing,” Lachlan said. “We don’t have proof she deliberately covered anything up. We only have our suspicions.”
Dez jabbed his finger in the direction of the now-closed file. “Those finger marks—”
“Only clearly appear like finger marks when you’re looking for them. And don’t forget: Love is blind. If Kindra knew Lowell was the one watching you and Aiden when it happened, she might have consciously or unconsciously overlooked certain details that might have led to questions against him. If she did make a deliberate decision to ignore certain possibilities, it might have had to do with nothing more than her feelings for him. And remember too, no one in your family, with the possible exception of Sullivan, would have believed Lowell capable of such a horrible crime. As the person closest to him, why would Kindra have thought any different?”
“What about the fact she was in the Circle?” Sully asked. “If she was aware of Harry’s vision about the second son thing, she would have heard about Aiden being named as a threat. And she might also have been aware Lowell had been directed to kill him. That would make her a party to murder.”
“It’s also highly possible few people were brought into the loop on the actions deemed necessary to protect the Circle from the prophesy,” Lachlan said. “Think about it. As ambitious and ruthless as many people can be, most would stop well before killing a person, particularly a child. No doubt the executive council, or whatever they’re called, considered that. I’d think the killing of a young boy—two if you consider Forbes was also targeted some years before that—would be kept on a need-to-know basis. They could have left Kindra out of the equation, given her growing relationship to your family at the time. If she didn’t know, that could explain how she so easily showed her face at your house as often as she did afterward while Lowell avoided you like the plague. Or….”
When Lachlan didn’t immediately answer, Dez sent out a prodding, “Or what?”
“Or maybe she’s not the sort of person you thought she was. Maybe her staying close to all of you was a deliberate attempt to keep you off Lowell’s trail and to report back to him if anyone became suspicious or started asking questions. If she knew Lowell couldn’t face you, she might have gone over there, offering her apologies for how busy he was and filling your brain with all the non-criminal reasons he might feel too guilty to come on his own. It wouldn’t be inconceivable, of course. His brother’s young son died on his watch. If Kindra was over there as often as she was, she’d have all the time and opportunity in the world to drill that idea deep into your brains.”
“I remember that coming up a few times,” Dez said. “It actually got so we felt sorry for him. All these years, I’ve blamed myself for not being there, but I don’t remember ever blaming him. It’s weird, looking back on it. Maybe it was all Kindra. She’s always bridged the gap whenever there’s been one between us and Lowell. She tried to do it with me when I went to her for help with Pax when….” Dez trailed off, a thought forming.
This time, it was Sully stepping in to dig for an explanation. “What?”
“After you’d been grabbed by the Dules and Pax was tranqued, I took him to Kindra to look at. He growled at her, like pretty nastily. I remember telling her it was just because he was drugged or not feeling well or whatever, but now I’m not so sure anymore. Pax has something like a sixth sense for bad people. You told me once he wasn’t really a people dog, but he actually is. You and Pax just weren’t around a lot of good people when you were living in The Forks. He’s mostly easygoing now, but he still reacts when he encounters someone he doesn’t like or trust. What if he picked up on something from Kindra?”
Lachlan’s face curved into a slow, Grinch-like grin. “You up for an experiment, Braddock?”
“When you look at me like that, I’ve got to ask first. What kind of experiment?”
Lachlan ignored the question for the moment, eyes going to Sully. “Would it be all right if we were to borrow your dog for an hour or two?”
“You want to take him to see Kindra, don’t you?” Sully asked.
“If the dog got snippy with her just because he was under the influence of something, that’s one thing,” Lachlan said. “If he does it again now, maybe that gives us an answer or two.”
“I’m a little surprised at you, man,” Dez said. “You don’t even like dogs.”
“Hey, I may not like having a dog around the place, but they come in pretty damn handy sometimes,” Lachlan said. “When it comes to sniffing out an asshole, give me a dog any day.”
Dez smirked. “If it comes to sniffing assholes, I’d rather have a dog to do the dirty work too.”
Dez sent a text rather than opting to phone Kindra, uncertain whether he could keep the suspicion from showing in his voice.
She responded within two minutes, answering his question about whether she had time to talk.
For you, always.
The reply was indicative of the aunt he’d quickly come to love once she entered their lives, so much so he felt sick to his stomach over the upcoming questioning. Having left Sully behind at Lachlan’s, Dez had assured him he’d be fine with a visit to Kindra’s office.
Now he wasn’t so sure.
“She there?” Lachlan asked.
Dez handed off his phone over, allowing him to focus on driving—and sweating. He was doing a lot of the latter, despite the cold temperatures outside.
“You sure you’re up for this?” Lachlan asked. “I can talk to her myself, you know.”
“She’ll be more likely to talk to me, don’t you think?”
“Sure, I think. But if you’re going to keep perspiring like that—or worse, try to put her through a wall—I’d rather you stayed in the car.”
“No one’s going through any walls,” Dez said. He thought better of the promise, and added a caveat. “Yet. I’m reserving that part for her husband.”
Dez recognized Kindra’s car in the parking lot of the city morgue when they pulled in, and he took a few moments to steady his nerves as well as he could.
“Braddock?”
“Got it cased, man. Let’s go.”
“Hang on,” Lachlan said. “I think you need to be aware of the strategy I intend to employ here. We need to do more than spook her. We need to talk her into going to the police with what she knows.”
“How are we going to do that?”
“By convincing her of how much we know. If we present it to her as a way out for her, a way to save herself from prosecution as an aider or abettor, it might be she’ll decide playing ball for our team is in her best interests.”
“So we’re going all in, is what you’re telling me.”
Lachlan smiled, but the expression was tight, no trace of amusement or enjoyment. “Yep. That’s my plan.”
“What if it backfires?” Dez asked. “What if she chooses to go to Lowell rather than the police?”
“I don’t think she will. I think most of the people in this Circle seem to be fairly self-serving. When she sees the writing on the wall, she’ll seek to distance herself from it.”
“Not everyone’s the same. Paul’s not like the others.”
“He’s an excepti
on. Listen, Braddock, I know this is a huge step we’re about to take, and it’s not without its risks. But near as I can figure, we’ve got everything we can get, short of someone reliable to sit down and make a statement against Lowell. Sullivan’s got us what amount to recorded confessions from Gerhardt and Montague, but both require him to come forward. Once he’s in the open, all bets are off. We’ve got this one chance to hammer down a solid witness, one who can very likely point a finger at Lowell in Aiden’s death, possibly even your father’s. We can’t beat around the bush on this anymore. We need her, or we need Sullivan.”
“What about the DNA results from Thackeray? Sully says that will come back to Lowell.”
“That’s what I’m worried about. Besides the hospitals, there’s only one morgue in the city. As of now, we’ve got nothing tying Lowell to Thackeray’s death, which means we’ve got nothing to keep Kindra from making herself the forensic pathologist in charge of the autopsy. There’s too much opportunity for evidence to go missing or be destroyed or switched. Sure, she’s not supposed to unseal or handle anything outside of the presence of police, but really, who’s to stop her? I want Raynor in the room when the autopsy’s completed and evidence collected, and I want her removed from her post—prior to the body arriving at the morgue, if possible. That means either outing her as corrupt or incompetent or having her remove herself willingly. I think the second option is in everyone’s best interests.”
Dez struggled to quell the nausea building inside his gut. He knew this sort of confrontation was a possibility, of course, but sitting here now, getting ready to stare it in the face, was proving harder than anticipated.
“I don’t think I can say it,” he said.
“Hey,” Lachlan said. “With me, you don’t have to.”
Dez took one last nerve-steeling breath and led the way out of the vehicle. He opened the back door for Pax, scratching at the dog’s ears, an action that was more for himself than Pax.