Once, Drew might have felt sorry for her, but he couldn’t empathize with a criminal. Seeing her now left him dumbstruck. A part of him wanted to punch his fist at the glass and hand her a dose of the anguish he’d been carrying throughout his entire life. She angered him. She took what should have been a perfect life and warped the mind of a child forever, maiming him beneath the surface with her sickening ploys.
From the corner of his eye, he could see the sergeant and Sean inch closer, as if they’d sensed that Drew just might allow his rage to explode. Accordingly, he kept his distance from the table…from the window…from the phone.
“You’re here, Freddie.” She lifted the receiver awkwardly with her bound hands. “You’re here…”
The nausea began to pool in the pit of his stomach, and he clenched his fists together. Drew noticed traces of smugness in her smile. She thought that he actually cared enough about her to visit her in jail, so twisted was her mind.
“My name is Drew…” he said at last, his words steady. “James Andrew McKenzie. And you are a despicable…filthy…”
“Hey, Mack…” Sean stepped in. “Easy…”
“Freddie…thank you for this visit—”
When Drew stood up with a start, the chair skidded across the room. “My name…is…Drew…”
“Mack, calm yourself here….” Sean said and grabbed his shoulders. “Pick up the phone and say what you need to say. Time is ticking.”
“We’re going to have to remove you, Mr. McKenzie, if you have one more outburst,” the sergeant said as Drew finally took a seat in the chair he’d grabbed from the adjacent cubicle. Reluctantly, he picked up the phone.
He didn’t want to be this close to her, even with a wall between them. However, Drew made this decision, and he had to curtail the inferno of fury raging through his veins for just a few minutes. He had so much to say to her.
“I’m glad you’re here…Drew…” she whispered into the phone. “I hope we can all make peace with…with…what happened that day…”
“I don’t know that I’ll ever find resolve in what you both did to us, but I have moved on with my life,” Drew said. “My family—my real family—made certain of that.”
“You’ve grown up into a great young man,” she continued, ignoring his comment as if she didn’t hear him. “I know that you have quite a career on the stage now. Saw you perform. And I was hoping to get to see you again. Maybe after this is all over—”
She’d seen him perform…she’d followed him…stalked him!
Boiling now with rage, he gripped the phone so tightly that his knuckles whitened. It sickened him to think that while he escaped into one of his characters, the monster who created that mess he called life sat back, relaxing and indulging in her own twisted fantasy from the audience.
Hold it together, Mack. For Maxine’s sake. Stick it out.
“You think you’re going to get released?” Drew raised an eyebrow. He knew her bail was set high, and Louise certainly didn’t have the money—or friends or family—to cover it. “The parent of a six-year-old child caught you…doing…” He stopped. He couldn’t say it. “You’re never going to see the light of day again, and rightfully so.”
What disgusted him most, however, was the notion that her latest victim bore an eerie resemblance to himself at that age—big blue eyes and curly hair, according to Sean’s sources. Now with this revelation that she’d continued to keep track of his life, he cringed, dwelling on the fact that she’d pursued that child.
“I was changing him,” she insisted. “He’d gotten dirty, and—”
“You know, I wasn’t potty trained until after I returned home, but I still learned how to dress myself by the age of six,” Drew said, sneaking in those reminders of just how ugly their lives had been together. “I don’t think the courts are going to buy that.”
“I can’t discuss anything else. I need my attorney here…”
“He’s not gonna save you, Louise,” Drew hissed. “You can sit there and deny everything to yourself, but don't you dare sit there and lie to me,” Drew stood his ground. “By law, I no longer have a voice to stand up to you, but I can certainly tell you that our family will make sure you pay deeply for what you did to me—what you did to this poor child...”
“I have done absolutely nothing wrong, and I stand by my statements.”
“You can continue to deceive yourself, but you're going to suffer for a very long time for this,” Drew warned. “And that child will recover—you have not destroyed him. We're all going to see to it that he does.”
She sat quietly for a moment and covered the phone with her hand. She didn’t want him to hear her whimpering. Blinking wildly, a few huge tears fell down her face, but Drew didn’t buy her sorrow. She was just trying to manipulate him once again—lure him back to that point in his childhood where she provided comfort to his frightened soul.
“Drew…I was only taking care of him—just as I’d cared for Molly and for you and for—”
“Cared for us? You are out of your fucking mind!” His voice thundered again, and he could feel the sergeant and Sean closing in behind him. “You left Molly to die, and you raped me. I was a child. And you raped me. Repeatedly. And you still have not an ounce of fucking repentance.”
“I did not rape you,” she said, steadying her voice. “I want my attorney.”
“Don’t worry—the statute of limitations has run out for me, Louise,” he said. “But you’re not going to get away with it again. You are a disgusting beast. And you didn’t stop with me.”
“Stop it now…”
“I will not stop,” he thundered. “How many others did you hurt like that? How many, Louise? Did you promise them love and comfort and then just destroy their lives, too? I hope they come forward because I am convinced there aren’t just two of us who suffered for your sick and selfish needs. Who else, Louise? Who else? I want to know…”
Gingerly, if not delicately, she returned the phone to the cradle and dropped her head. However, Louise’s attempt to feign shame only fueled Drew’s wrath.
“Freddie, you’re wrong. Just wrong…” He could still hear her in spite of the fact that she’d hung up the phone.
“Did they all have curly hair and blue eyes, Louise, like your latest victim?” he demanded now. “Tell me—did you have type? Did they all look like me?”
“I never hurt you, Freddie, I protected you from him,” she cried out. “He could have killed you instead…but I never let him hurt you…”
“Now you’re really delusional,” Drew spat. “Where the fuck were you when he knocked me out that day—when he killed Molly? Off on another heroin binge?”
“I was sleeping. He’d punched me around that morning, and I—”
“He punched you around, then he decided to take it out on Molly, too!” Drew shouted now. “But you didn’t care about Molly at all. You let it happen. You probably hoped that it would end that way.”
“Mack, quiet down!” Sean gave him a shake.
“You were all my babies,” she insisted. “I loved you all equally. I still…”
“We were never your children,” Drew said. “My parents—my birth parents—raised me into the man I am today. They nurtured me. They proved to me that there was life beyond a rat-infested apartment…that beatings were not an acceptable form of affection. They protected my brother and me from deplorable people just like you and Fred Drum. They loved me…for the first time in my life…someone loved me…”
It was then that she retrieved the phone. “I…I still…I still love you, Freddie…”
Those words scraped against his ears like nails scratching over a chalkboard. At that moment, Drew felt as if he could pull down that entire station of booths just to get to Louise for the sole motivation of clamping his hands around her neck. However, he didn’t want her to die. He wanted her to suffer through the last of her days in a cell with his words playing over and over again in her mind, ticking like a time bomb as
she crept her way toward a lonely death.
“You have no idea what it’s about.” His thoughts strayed to Maxine—his precious lady who waited so patiently and bravely for him while he confronted his worst enemy. “In spite of everything you’ve done to me, I’ve actually fallen in love, too. With a beautiful woman who is so giving—so concerned for the world around her—and she loves me back with just as much intensity. That, Louise, you will never know or never have the chance to understand.”
“So…so you’ve found…you’ve fallen in love?” she asked, her disappointment resonating. “You…good for you…”
“You just make me sick,” Drew hissed and spun around in his chair so quickly that he dropped the phone to the floor, its crash sending a screeching reverberation through Louise’s ear. “I’ve had enough.”
“No, don’t leave…” Louise stood up on her trembling legs as Drew walked toward the door. “Don’t leave me, Freddie! Don’t leave me, my child!”
“I hope the next time you see the light of day, it's through the body bag that they're carrying you out of this place in,” Drew said as he turned around one last time to face her. “And I hope this haunts you every waking moment and every sleepless night until that day comes.”
As soon as Drew stepped into the waiting room, Maxine rushed to him, her arms open wide. She couldn’t hold him tight enough. She didn’t want to let him go—ever again, not even for a second.
“I did it, little one,” he whispered.
“Oh, my love…you are so courageous.” She couldn’t tell him often enough—Drew needed that reminder. “But I am so relieved. It’s not over. I know that. But you’ve had the chance to find your peace with it tonight…”
“No, it’s not over, Maxine,” he said. “There’s a child who’s still hurting because I held my tongue for too long.”
“We’re going to work on that, too, Drew,” Maxine assured him. She refused to allow him to accept that this was all his fault. However, his peace would hopefully come with time.
“And…and I need to make a phone call,” Drew added. “I need to…it’s time to talk to my parents.”
A slow smile of promise brightened Maxine’s tear-stained face. She hadn’t stopped crying since he’d walked through that door a half-hour ago. Now, he filled her thoughts with nothing but hope. Yes, he would heal. Of that, she was certain.
“You’re going to tell them?”
“It’s time, little one,” he said. “It’s not going to be easy, but they deserve to know. No more secrets.”
With a squeeze of his hand, she whispered, “I love you, Drew. I’m proud of you. And I’m here with you—right beside you—for the duration. Don’t you ever forget it.”
# # #
Meanwhile, Louise sat in that chilly visiting room for a moment, frozen in that awkward position with her wrists bound. In her hand, she continued to hold that phone, hoping that Freddie would return to her. As if on cue, the guard waited as she watched Drew and Sean leave the room, slamming that steel door with ferocity, then took her arm.
“Time to go back,” he reminded her coldly, tugging her to stand.
Louise’s thoughts remained empty as she made her slow and agonizing return down the hallway, her eyes never leaving the door to the cell block she would, at least temporarily, call home.
The taunts and the jeers echoed against her ears as she filed past the other prisoners with devious words like sick bitch, fucking pervert, and child molester stinging her consciousness. She'd heard the warnings loud and clear. Every woman in that row wanted to avenge her sins themselves. She probably didn’t have a chance of surviving the night.
As the cuffs were removed and the door to her cell closed, Louise pondered her choices. She clearly had only one single option left. The press would hound her. She'd likely never see the outside of that complex again. And finally she was forced to admit her own defeat in losing her little boy forever.
Glancing up at the bars on the tiny window, she judged her own height and the distance from the floor as her spindly fingers pulled the top sheet from the small cot.
Climbing up on the small sink was a task. One foot, then the other…then she slipped on the slickness of the surface, slamming her already sore knee against the faucet. However, she kept her cries to herself. She didn’t want to attract any attention. She simply had to try again. All of her pain—physical and otherwise—would be over soon.
Again, she lifted her leg, and the throbbing sensations from old injuries seared from her hip to her knees, down her calves to her ankles. Tears of frustration stung her eyes. However, she had to make this happen.
As she leaned closer to examine the window bars, she knew she had to find a way up there to fasten the sheet. The arthritis she suffered made every single movement a painful one. Oh, she hoped she could tie the knot tight enough! Her fingers couldn’t give out on her now.
She planned to leave no note. She didn't care what people would think or suspect of her. Now that she knew Freddie would never return, she had no reason to continue on. He was her last hope after Fred Drum was murdered. Now she had absolutely nothing to live for.
And with that, Louise Reynolds made one final attempt to climb upon that sink, tie the sheet to the window bars and then wrap it around her own neck before taking one last leap…
However, in all of an instant, the slick bottom of her prison-issued tennis shoe slipped against the glaze of the porcelain. Her fragile ankles buckled beneath her once again before she had the chance to complete her mission.
As she fell backward, her skull cracked against the cold cement floor, rendering her unconscious. Another hour would pass before the guard discovered her cold, lifeless body on the floor of her cell, just as she'd found Molly twenty-eight years ago.
Chapter Twenty-One
Maggie McKenzie dragged herself out of the elevator with her husband holding her up by his arm around her waist.
Relegating herself to the hallway while Drew attempted to collect his thoughts before his parents walked through the door, Maxine willed herself the strength to just make it through the evening. However, that attempt proved very close to failing as she opened her arms and Maggie collapsed against her, so weak and so lost in her agony.
However, Maxine stood as tall as she could and mustered a courage she never thought she possessed within her. They were all hurting—paining for the truth that Drew was so determined to set free—and this fight would be a gallant one for the entire McKenzie family.
Into Maggie’s shoes, Maxine stepped, and she conjured her own mother’s voice in her thoughts. She was merely the girlfriend. Drew loved her immeasurably, but Maggie gave birth to him, only to have him torn from her arms. For five years, she struggled with the unknown, praying that her baby boy would just come home. Once returned, Maggie knew their struggles weren’t over, but she had no idea that her sweet son harbored secrets he couldn’t even discuss with her.
Maxine knew she’d never be capable of understanding the intensity of that kind of pain until she had a child of her own, but she trudged forward and endeavored to carry the weight of their sorrows for the evening. Judy would have been proud of her daughter as she concealed her own despair for Drew. Maggie and Declan needed her support just as much as their son.
“Maggie,” Declan whispered, rubbing his hand over his wife's back. “Come on, Mags...Drew can't see you like this. And Maxine shouldn't either.”
“It's okay,” Maxine tried to soothe. In many ways, she felt that she should personally accept the brunt of Maggie's emotions. It was now her responsibility to pick up the pieces. “We'll all get through this, Maggie.”
In those words, Maxine had to believe.
“No Adam?”
“He's on his way from the Hamptons right now—he should be here soon,” Declan explained, easing Maggie away and tucking her under his arm. “How is Drew, Maxine?”
“He's…” Maxine stopped suddenly to think before she spoke. “He’s got a lot of emotions risi
ng right now, and he needs some help in sorting them all out.”
“You’ll stay with him, Maxine?” Maggie beseeched. “You won’t leave him alone?”
“I will stay with him—as long as he needs me, I will stay here,” Maxine assured her. “But you should be aware—before we go in there—that he's terribly afraid.”
“Of what, though?” Maggie asked, nearing exasperation. “Of us?”
“Drew is...he’s had moments of clarity….” Maxine paused again to consider her words. “But he's fearful that he'll lose the people he loves the most because of all this. And he's taking so much of the blame for what happened to that little boy. He's so distraught right now that I’m having some difficulty in getting through to him—in assuring him that he’s done nothing wrong.”
“You’re doing everything you can possibly do to help him, Maxine,” Declan assured her. “I hope you realize that. And he best understand it, too...”
Forcing a very sad smile, Maxine said, “I hope so, too, Declan...”
“Maxine...has he sought help at all?” he asked.
“You might want to talk to him directly about that,” she suggested.
“Did you go back with him tonight?” Declan questioned. “Did you see her?”
“I…I wasn’t permitted to go back there…” Suddenly, Maxine trembled as a single sob rocked her body. Covering her mouth with her hand, she muttered, “I'm trying...I'm trying so very hard...and I won't give up on him...I won't...”
At that moment, Maxine hated herself. She wasn’t supposed to cry that night. She should have held it in until his parents had the chance to discuss the whole mess with Drew directly. She was the arbiter—the rock of strength on which they could all lean. Now she was blaming herself, too.
In the car on the rainy ride home, Drew quietly relayed the story of his abuse to his parents while Maxine sat and held his hand. Lou had turned on the radio to try to give him some privacy, but he kept the conversation as quick and curt as he could. In fact, Maxine found him almost catatonic as he did what he felt he had to do.
WRAPPED: The Manhattan Bound Series, Book Two Page 38