by Dinah McCall
“…and then he kicked in the door and came in shooting. I’ve never been so glad to see anyone in my entire life,” she said.
“My word!” Carolyn exclaimed, eyeing Olivia with renewed interest. “And you say you’ve known him since high school?”
“Not exactly. I knew him in high school. Then we…uh…lost touch with each other until recently. He was assigned to the case of Baby Jane Doe, which, of course, led back to me.”
Carolyn smiled and put both hands on her heart.
“How romantic. Childhood sweethearts find each other again.”
Terrence smiled benevolently.
“My wife. Ever the romantic.”
“And why not, I ask? What’s wrong with happy ever after?”
“That’s been my philosophy,” Ella said, and winked at Olivia. “I think I’m going to like having her for a neighbor.”
Olivia blushed, but she was happy—happier than she’d ever been in her life.
“How about some lunch?” she asked.
Carolyn jumped up. “I’ll fix it. Just show me where everything is.”
“Follow me,” Olivia said, and when Ella would have gotten up, she pointed at her and frowned sternly. “You can come in, but you’re not going to do anything.”
“Allow me,” Terrence said, and offered Ella his arm, which she took gratefully.
They moved into the kitchen, where Ella was seated at the table despite her complaints. Olivia and Carolyn were fixing sandwiches when they heard a knock at the door.
“I’ll get it,” Terrence said.
Olivia looked up, her hands messy from the tomatoes she was slicing. “That’s probably Grampy and Anna.”
“Better make a couple more sandwiches, then,” Carolyn said.
Olivia nodded and sliced another tomato. She was rinsing off her hands when Marcus and Anna came into the kitchen. Anna was cuddling a doll in her arms, but otherwise looked healthy and fit. Her hair had been washed and fixed, and she was wearing a nice pair of beige slacks and a loose cotton blouse in a pink and beige print.
Olivia felt sad for the confusion on Anna’s face, but when she said Anna’s name, some of the confusion lifted.
“Grampy! I’m so glad to see you and thank you for bringing Anna to visit.” Then she put a hand on Anna’s arm and moved directly in front of her. “Anna…it’s so good to see you again.”
Anna blinked. She knew that voice. She looked closer at the woman in blue, then smiled, because she knew that face, too.
“Olivia? Are you my Olivia?”
Olivia put her arms around Anna’s shoulders and just held her close.
“Yes, darling. I’m your Olivia. Come and sit down here beside Ella. She’s a new friend of mine.”
Anna frowned a bit.
“Can she make meat loaf like Rose?”
“No one makes meat loaf like Rose,” Olivia said. “But Ella can play cards. She’s very good at poker.”
Ella grinned, then patted the chair beside her. She’d been briefed about the woman’s declining mental health and felt empathy. She was all too familiar with the effects of declining years.
“I like to play cards, too,” Anna said.
Ella smiled. “Then we will. What do you like to play?”
Anna frowned. “I think I like to play hearts.”
Olivia put her arm around Anna’s shoulder and tried not to look at the plastic baby doll she was clutching so tight.
“We can play after we eat. Would you like to eat with us, Anna?”
“Yes, please,” she said.
“Sandwiches are ready,” Carolyn said.
“Great!” Terrence said. “I’m starving.” Then he smiled, a little bit embarrassed. “I suppose I’m not really starving, but I am hungry.”
Everybody laughed, which lightened the mood. Even Marcus found the grace to chuckle. He put his arm around Olivia as they began seating themselves around the kitchen table and whispered in her ear, “How are you holding up?”
Olivia resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
“I’m fine, Grampy. I’ll just be so glad when all this has been settled.”
“Trey told you about finding Foster Lawrence’s sister?”
“Yes.”
“He asked me to bring some old photo albums for the woman to look at. They’re in the living room.”
Olivia nodded.
“Don’t worry about any of that now,” she said. “Let’s just eat.”
Marcus hugged her, then helped her into a chair. Carolyn busied herself carrying the last of the food to the table, then they all began to eat.
“I think we need to bless the food,” Anna said.
They all stopped.
“Yes, of course,” Marcus said quickly.
“I’ll do it,” Anna said, and laid the doll she was holding in her lap.
Nobody said a word as they all bowed their heads.
For a few moments Anna was silent. Then she leaned forward and closed her eyes.
“Thank you for the food. Thank you for the friends. Thank you for helping me find my baby, amen.”
“Amen,” Marcus echoed.
The meal began with some awkward moments, but the uneasiness soon disappeared as they began to eat. When they were done with their sandwiches, Olivia went to the pantry and got the cookies Ella had baked the day before, while Carolyn began refilling the glasses of sweet iced tea.
Marcus began praising the cookies, and Carolyn was teasing him about the cookie crumbs at the corner of his mouth, when they heard the front door open, then shut.
Carolyn stopped speaking in the middle of a word. There was a long stretch of silence, then Olivia spoke.
“It’s probably Trey.”
Marcus got up to see, just the same.
Moments later, he was back with Trey, but Trey wasn’t alone.
“Hey,” Trey said. “Looks like we’re just in time.”
Olivia got up and greeted him with a quick kiss to the cheek.
“We have some sandwiches left over in the fridge. Are you hungry?”
Trey hesitated. He hadn’t expected to bring Sheree Collier to a family reunion when he’d stopped to check on Olivia, but it was too late to do anything about it now. He turned and looked at Sheree, who was obviously uncomfortable.
“Everyone, this is Sheree Collier. Mrs. Collier, would you like something to eat?”
“No, but thank you,” she said quickly, well aware that at least some of these people were part of the family her sister had decimated.
Everyone nodded politely at Sheree, but tension was high.
Marcus’s expression was drawn, but, ever the gentleman, he offered Sheree his chair.
“Mrs. Collier, won’t you please sit? At least have a cold drink and some of these cookies. They’re delicious.”
Unaware of the underlying tension, Ella beamed.
“I made them myself,” she said.
Sheree smiled stiffly, gave each person in the room a quick glance, then sat down. She took a cookie and nibbled at it while Carolyn went to fix a glass of iced tea.
Trey turned to Marcus.
“Did you bring those pictures?” he asked.
“Yes, they’re in the living room.”
“I’ll get them,” Trey said, and hurried from the room.
When he came back, Terrence was helping Carolyn clear the table, and Sheree Collier was sipping tea and trying to look inconspicuous, but it was impossible, considering the unusual connection they all shared.
“I found my baby,” Anna said, and beamed.
Sheree glanced at the odd, heavyset woman, then at the doll she was holding, and quickly looked away. Olivia felt like crying. Her poor Anna was gone. There was nothing left but a shell of the person she’d been.
Trey laid the album down in front of Sheree, then looked up.
“I think you all know why Mrs. Collier is here, and you need to understand that she is in no way guilty for what amounts to a tragedy in her family, as well. B
ut if her presence is going to make you uncomfortable, she and I can go into the other room to look at these photos.”
“I have no problem with you staying,” Marcus said.
Terrence and Carolyn didn’t answer, only nodded, which Trey took for agreement with Marcus. Carolyn kept staring intently at Sheree Collier, as if trying to see the woman from so long ago in her face. Finally she looked up at Trey, then shook her head.
He understood that she’d been unable to identify the woman she’d seen with Michael. It had been a long shot. They still had the pictures, though, and the outcome of the DNA test.
Suddenly Sheree gasped as she looked, for the first time, straight into the eyes of the child her sister had taken, the child who had become a woman. Trey looked questioningly from the older woman to the younger.
“I’m fine,” Olivia said, catching his gaze.
Sheree looked away, opened the first album and began scanning the pages. Marcus sat down beside her and began putting names to faces.
“That’s my wife, Amelia, with our son, Michael. He was seventeen when she died. You don’t want to look at all this. Let me turn to the pages where Olivia came into our family.”
Sheree blinked back a quick blur of tears.
“Thank you,” she said softly. Her hands were trembling as she laid them in her lap.
Anna got up from her chair and started out of the room.
“Where are you going?” Marcus asked.
“To put the baby to sleep,” Anna said.
Ella got up. “I’ll go with her,” she said. “We’re unnecessary here, anyway.”
“Thank you, Ella,” Trey said.
Sheree didn’t pay any attention to their exit. She was busy scanning the pictures on the pages before her.
“Who’s that?” she asked, pointing.
“That’s Michael and his wife, Kay. That’s Olivia, but she’s all wrapped up. That’s right after she was born. They were bringing her home from the hospital.”
Sheree nodded. She stared at Michael’s face for a long time, then at Kay. Finally she pointed to Kay.
“You know…she looks enough like my sister and I did at that age to be part of our family.”
“Really?” Trey asked.
“Yes. We were all a little above average height, with dark wavy hair. Also, her face is shaped the same, and she had a turned-up nose. Odd.”
Marcus frowned but remained silent.
Sheree looked through several more pages of pictures before her expression changed as she pointed to a picture in the middle of a page.
It was of Michael and Olivia, obviously taken at Easter. She was holding a small decorated basket of colored eggs. There was a smear of chocolate on her face and another one on the front of her dress, but they were laughing and looking straight into the camera.
“Oh my God,” Sheree muttered.
Trey moved closer.
“What?”
“That little girl.”
“What about her?” Marcus asked.
“It’s the same one that Laree had at her home.”
“It can’t be,” Marcus said. “That’s Olivia before the kidnapping. She never had a nanny or a baby-sitter. She never went to day care. Kay hardly let her out of her sight.”
Sheree frowned. “I know what I saw. That’s the same little girl.”
Trey felt sick. They’d considered the possibility that both of Michael’s daughters might have resembled each other, but it had been too far-fetched to assume they would have been difficult to tell apart. Marcus’s certainty that he’d recognized the child who’d been returned to him was the cornerstone of Olivia’s entire identity.
“You’re mistaken,” Marcus argued.
“I know what I saw,” Sheree said, and looked up at Trey, who shoved a hand through his hair in frustration.
“Look, there’s no need to argue. We’ve already considered this possibility,” he said.
“What possibility?” Marcus asked.
Olivia shrank back against the wall and put her hands over her ears. She didn’t have to listen to know what was going to be said.
“That the two girls looked alike.”
Marcus paled. “That’s impossible. They had different mothers.”
“Who Sheree has already stated looked alike.” Then he added, “The little girl in that picture sure looks like your son, doesn’t she?”
“Oh yes,” Marcus said. “We noticed that from the start.”
“So why couldn’t both girls look like him?”
Marcus opened his mouth to argue, but then realization hit and he looked away, unwilling to admit the truth of it.
Trey glanced at Olivia. She looked as if she’d seen a ghost.
Sheree frowned and pointed at the picture. “Are you saying that the baby I saw isn’t her?”
“I’m suggesting the possibility. You say she is, but Marcus is equally sure that the baby in this picture could never be the one you saw with your sister for the better part of two years.”
“Dear God,” Sheree said. “How will we ever know the truth?”
“Your DNA,” Trey said. “It will be the deciding factor.”
“Let me look some more,” Sheree said. “Maybe I was mistaken. Maybe I just saw what I thought I was supposed to see.”
“By all means. We want you to be sure,” Trey said.
Sheree began going through more of the pages. It soon became apparent to her that a large gap of time had occurred before pictures were added again.
“These are all after Michael’s and Kay’s deaths, aren’t they?” she asked. Tears were pouring freely down her face now. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “So very, very sorry.”
Marcus put a hand on her arm. “You didn’t do it. You have nothing for which to apologize.”
But she just shook her head and kept turning the pages until, once again, she stopped. This time, when she pointed to a picture, she was shaking.
“Oh my God!” Sheree said.
Trey moved in for a closer look.
“Who is that?” he asked.
“Why, that’s the nanny, Anna. That picture was taken a few months after she came to work for us,” Marcus said.
Sheree gasped, then stood abruptly.
“She worked for you? That’s not possible!”
The horror on Sheree’s face was there for all to see, but it was Trey who understood first.
“Who is she, Sheree?” he asked.
“Laree. It’s Laree. Oh dear God, that’s my sister.”
Olivia moaned as she sank to the floor, then covered her head with both arms, as if shielding herself from an oncoming blow.
Marcus’s face paled instantly, then slowly turned a dark, angry red.
“I hired the woman who killed my son?”
Sheree was shaking, but there was a resolve in her voice that hadn’t been there before.
“I don’t know what she did, but that’s my sister, Laree. Please, you have to tell me where she is. I have to see her.”
“You were sitting across the table from her just a few minutes ago,” Trey said.
Sheree frowned. “I’m sorry, but—”
“She was the one holding the doll.”
Now she was the one in shock.
“It can’t be. We’re twins. I would know my own sister.”
When she started to get up, Trey stopped her.
“Stay put. This is all happening too fast.”
Olivia staggered to her feet and walked into Trey’s arms.
He held her close, afraid for her in a way he couldn’t control.
“Livvie…sweetheart…look at me.”
Olivia moaned.
He took her hands away from her face and said it again. “Look at me.”
Finally she did.
“Between us, none of this matters. Nothing changes.”
She nodded.
“Say it,” he said.
She drew a slow, shuddering breath, but it was the look in his eyes tha
t got her through it.
“None of this matters. Nothing changes.”
“Yes,” he said softly, then held her close while he took his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed a number. When he got an answer, he began to talk fast.
“Chia…I need you and Sheets to get to my house ASAP. The Baby Jane Doe case is coming together and I need some disinterested parties.”
Chia wasn’t the kind to ask a lot of questions. “Be there in fifteen,” she said.
“Make it ten.”
“Lights and sirens all the way,” she said.
Trey took a breath, then dropped the phone back in his pocket and put his arm around Olivia as he turned around.
“We’re all going to go into the living room now. We’re going to sit down, and you’re not going to mention a thing about what’s just been said. I’ll do the talking, and you’ll all just sit.” Then he pointed to Sheree. “Can you handle that?”
She was crying openly now, but she nodded.
“Marcus? I need you not to react in any way. If I’m ever going to get anything out of her, she can’t be upset.”
Marcus was shaking. The fury on his face was evident.
“She lived in my house. She put her hands on my grandchild—and I let her,” he said.
“We can’t be sure which one died,” Trey said. “Now, I don’t know about you, but I want to know the truth of this damn mess. So, are you going to be quiet?”
Finally Marcus agreed.
“Yes.”
“I’ll hold you to your word,” Trey said.
Terrence got up then and went to Marcus. For the first time since the night of their fight, he touched him.
“Marcus, we’re here for you. Let us bear some of this pain.”
When Terrence put his hand on Marcus’s back, Marcus shuddered, but he didn’t pull away. Carolyn took Marcus’s hand, and together, they went into the living room and quietly took their seats.
Ella looked up as they all came in. She was in the act of opening her mouth when Trey frowned and shook his head. A little unnerved, she stayed in the chair next to Anna, who was calmly rocking the “baby” in her lap.
Olivia followed Trey into the room. She was afraid to look at Anna, but when she got closer, found she couldn’t look away. This was the woman who’d killed her parents? The woman who’d murdered a baby? It seemed impossible, but then all she had to do was look at the shock on Sheree Collier’s face to know that the woman hadn’t lied. Not about something as horrible as this.