The Secrets We Bury

by Debra Webb

Billy, followed by half a dozen other cops—including Clarence Lincoln—rushed toward her.

  She pointed in the direction Julian had fled. “He disappeared in that direction. He’s injured.”

  Everyone but Billy took off after Julian.

  She found her voice. It felt weak and wobbly. “Woody was going to kill me. He intended to make it look as if I had killed myself.” She took a breath. “Julian killed him.”

  Billy reached for the weapon in her hand. “You okay?”

  “I think so.” But she wasn’t, not entirely. She wouldn’t be okay until she knew she had stopped Julian.

  Maybe not even then.

  Twenty-Four

  “Let’s go over this one more time.”

  Weary of Dressler’s questions, Rowan slumped her shoulders. “How many times do I need to tell you the same story?”

  She knew the answer. Until he was satisfied that she was not holding anything back. She had told this same story to Billy twice, and then Dressler had blown into his office and demanded she start over, again and again and again.

  Julian had disappeared. They’d found blood. She had definitely wounded him, but he had vanished.

  “You received the text from an unknown number and you suspected it was Julian,” Dressler prompted.

  “Yes. Woody intercepted me when I stopped at the funeral home for my weapon. He took me to the lake so he could dispose of me since Chief Brannigan and I uncovered his body parts brokering ring. He and a still unidentified partner were salvaging parts from the dead and selling them. That’s all I know at this point.”

  She had no idea how many bodies turned over to the care of DuPont Funeral Home had been abused in this manner. They had learned that he’d worked at Gardner’s even longer, so some of the stolen body parts may have come from there. What they did know was that Dr. Jared Knowles was not his partner. Detective Lincoln had confirmed his innocence.

  “Dr. Addington knew nothing of his daughter’s murder,” Dressler stated as if he still didn’t believe what Rowan had told him three times already.

  “He stated that he believed Alisha killed my sister but he has no idea what happened to her. Not that I would trust anything he told me.” She turned her hands up. “I’ve told you everything I know. Surely, we’re done.”

  She had told Dressler and Billy everything...except what Julian said about her father murdering Alisha. Rowan didn’t believe him and she refused to taint her father’s memory with the bastard’s lies. Her father would never have walked away from Raven’s body like that. Never. She also didn’t tell Dressler or Billy about the gift Julian claimed to have left her. She needed to know what he was talking about before she disclosed that detail. Not that she wanted one damned thing from him but it could be a clue about her mother or the truth about how Alisha died.

  “May I go home now?” she asked when Dressler simply sat on the other side of the interview table, staring at her.

  “It’s enough,” Billy spoke up from his position propped against the wall by the door. “If you still have questions, you can talk to her tomorrow.”

  Dressler threw up his hands. “Fine.” He glared at Rowan for a moment. “But I’m not convinced you’ve been completely forthcoming, Dr. DuPont.”

  Rowan pushed to her feet. “So charge me with something.”

  When Dressler simply shook his head, Billy escorted her out of the interview room.

  “Thank you,” she murmured.

  “I don’t like that guy anyway,” he whispered.

  Rowan almost smiled. Almost.

  The walk through the police station was oddly quiet. Everyone was out in the field searching for a man they would never find. Billy had ordered his officers to keep the news about Woody’s death quiet until he had a handle on exactly what the man had been up to.

  Outside, they loaded into his truck and headed for the funeral home. Rowan sank into the seat, exhaustion bearing down on her.

  They’d barely reached the street when he said, “Tell me the part you’re keeping from me, Ro.”

  She stared straight ahead. “I’ve repeated exactly what happened several times.”

  At the end of the first block beyond the station, Billy whipped to the curb. He turned in his seat and set his dark gaze against hers. “Don’t do this to me, Ro. We’ve known each other for a long time. We’re friends and I’ve always been here for you and I always will be, but I need to be able to count on the same from you. I know you wouldn’t keep anything from me without a good reason and I respect your feelings, but you’re not thinking straight on this one. No matter how strongly you feel about this case, I need you to trust me, Ro.”

  He was right, she couldn’t do this to him—at least not all of it. “He said he left me a gift. I’m assuming it’s at the funeral home.”

  The disappointment in Billy’s eyes pierced her. She shouldn’t have kept that from him, not even for a minute. The other—well, that was for another time... She couldn’t do that to her father. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

  He made a few calls, and by the time they arrived at the funeral home, three other official vehicles—including Dressler’s—were there. Billy unlocked the lobby door and passed the keys to Detective Lincoln, who hustled around to the rear door.

  “Stay out here,” Billy ordered her, “until I give the all clear.”

  There were a million things Rowan wanted to say to him, like the fact that there could be anything inside. “You shouldn’t be the first one in, Billy.”

  The chief of police was not the right man to go in first.

  He looked to the officer standing closest to Rowan. “Don’t let her out of your sight.”

  She wanted to be angry, but she had a feeling the energy would be wasted. She’d held out on him and now he was going to override her warning. Just like when they were kids.

  But they weren’t kids anymore and this wasn’t as simple as who could ride his or her bicycle the fastest.

  This was life and death.

  He ignored her plea and walked inside, weapon drawn.

  For fifteen minutes Rowan hardly managed a breath. She remained braced for gunfire or an explosion. Terrified of what could happen beyond those walls.

  Finally, the door opened again and Freud burst out.

  Rowan’s knees gave way and she barely caught herself. She dropped into a crouch and hugged the animal. She murmured softly to him while he sniffed and licked at her. Then she realized what Julian had meant about leaving her a gift for the second time. He’d left Freud alive in her home in Nashville when he’d murdered her father and the police officer assigned to his security detail.

  Billy walked out and handed her a plastic evidence bag. “He left you a note.”

  Hands shaking in spite of her best efforts, she accepted the bag and stared at Julian’s bold, elegant strokes on the piece of funeral home stationery.

  Holder intended to kill Freud when he was finished with you. I’ve never had any tolerance for anyone who abuses animals. :)

  Strange coming from a serial killer. Rowan passed the bag back to Billy. “We’re not going to find Julian. We’re wasting time and resources. We should leave that to Dressler.” She said this knowing the agent was striding toward her. “Woody wasn’t smart enough or ambitious enough to run a black market body parts operation on his own. He had an accomplice. We need to find his partner. That should be our focus.”

  Billy said nothing. He was still angry with her.

  Dressler stopped next to Billy and held out his hand. “I’ll take that, Chief.”

  His gaze still glued to hers, Billy handed the agent the evidence bag. “You can take the search for Addington from here, Dressler. I have my own cases to solve.”

  Rowan had never appreciated Billy’s alliance more than she did at that moment.

  While Dressler
and his team searched every inch of the funeral home, Rowan sat on a bench outside and showered Freud with attention.

  Her phone vibrated in her back pocket. They’d found it in Woody’s car. Clarence Lincoln had tossed it back to her rather than putting it into evidence. Rowan was grateful. She owed the man one.

  Rowan didn’t recognize the number but it was a local one, so she answered.

  “Rowan, this is Patty. My sister and I found a document and we thought it might be important to learning the truth about what happened to our father.”

  “What sort of document?” Rowan’s full attention shifted to the conversation.

  “It’s some sort of authorization saying that my father’s body was being donated for research. But that can’t be right. Mother would never have permitted that even if my father had told her to, and I don’t think he would have.”

  “Your mother’s signature is on the document?” Based on what Patty and Jennifer had told her, that couldn’t be right.

  “Yes, but it’s not her signature. It’s forged.”

  Rowan was familiar with the type of document to which Patty referred. “Did a representative from DuPont sign it?”

  “It has your father’s signature on it.”

  “Can you take a photo of the document and text it to me?”

  “I’ll do that right now.”

  “Thank you, Patty. I assure you we’ll have the whole story soon.” That was as much as she could share, but she had promised to keep the sisters informed and she’d needed to give them some sort of update.

  The call ended and Rowan’s phone vibrated with an incoming text. She enlarged the photo. Rowan’s heart dropped to her shoes. The signature wasn’t her father’s, but she recognized it immediately.

  * * *

  Billy parked in front of the house and Rowan stared at it, her heart breaking.

  “You sure you want to be part of this, Ro?”

  She nodded. “I have to be.”

  She and Billy climbed out of his truck and started up the walk. The man she had adored like an uncle her entire life sat on the porch, a glass of tea in his hand.

  He didn’t speak, just sipped his tea while they climbed the steps and then sat down on the porch with him. Rowan felt as if her heart was being ripped from her chest.

  She moistened her lips and managed to utter one word: “Why?”

  Herman’s mouth worked a bit before the words came out. “Well, it’s a sort of long story.”

  Billy held up a hand. “Before you start, Herman, I need to advise you of your rights.”

  Rowan felt as if she were falling into a hole, and the hum of Billy’s voice was all around her, reciting the words she knew all too well to the man she had loved her whole life.

  “When Estelle was diagnosed with cancer,” Herman said, “there was nothing they could do for her except this experimental treatment that the insurance company wouldn’t pay for.” He turned up his tea and took a swallow before meeting Rowan’s gaze. “I know you’re disappointed in me, but I would have done anything to keep her alive. Anything at all. And, God forgive me, I would do it again.” He nodded in emphasis of his words. “I found out completely by accident what Woody was up to over at Gardner’s and I made him cut me in on it. But I never let him do it at DuPont’s.” He shook his head adamantly. “Nope. I wouldn’t do that to your daddy. What he did to Mr. Phillips was behind my back. When Geneva came to me, right here at this house, I told her I’d get to the bottom of it. When I went to Woody and demanded to know what the hell he had been thinking, I had no idea what he planned to do to make the problem go away.”

  Herman fell silent for a long moment. “I wanted to kill him, but I knew if I did, I’d have no way to fund Estelle’s treatments.” He stared at his hands and the half-empty glass. “I told myself it wasn’t hurting anyone but I was wrong.” He met Rowan’s gaze again. “Now who’s going to take care of her? I wasn’t honest with you before. The truth is, the cancer is back, more aggressive than ever. And now this. I’ve told her everything. She ran me out of the house, won’t even talk to me.”

  Rowan drew in a sharp breath. It jammed in her throat for a moment, but somehow she managed to get the words out. “I will. You have my word. I will always take care of Estelle.”

  They both cried then. Rowan wanted to hug him but she couldn’t. What Herman had done was wrong. Unforgivable. On top of their grievous crimes, he had allowed Woody to come into her home and to do things to make her feel unbalanced and uncertain of herself at an already vulnerable time.

  Billy arrested him and escorted him to the cruiser that pulled to the curb in front of the house. He didn’t put Herman in cuffs and Rowan was glad he hadn’t. She didn’t want to humiliate the man no matter that he had hurt her.

  She went into the house to explain everything to Estelle but she was already gone. Judging by the empty bottle of painkillers and the empty, overturned water glass, she had decided to take her life. With the cancer back and after her husband confessed to her Rowan could only imagine how devastated the poor woman had been.

  Of course Rowan couldn’t be sure of exactly what had taken place. That was for a medical examiner to determine.

  But it was over now...for both of them.

  Twenty-Five

  Sunday, May 12

  Mother’s Day hadn’t been anything special for Rowan in a very long time. As a child, she and her father always journeyed to the cemetery and placed flowers on her mother’s grave on this day each year. The first year Rowan had cried. After that one, she felt numb. Her only thought had been, what sort of mother chose to leave her child in such a selfish, uncaring way?

  Eventually she had stopped wondering why and she’d gone on with her life. She no longer paid the slightest attention to Mother’s Day. It was just another one of those holidays that were irrelevant to her intensely focused career mind.

  Herman had told Rowan that all the way up to the last year of his life, her father had taken flowers to Norah’s grave each Mother’s Day and to Raven’s grave on her birthday. Rowan intended to carry on those traditions because her father would have wanted her to do so. It was the right thing to do, she supposed.

  This morning she had overseen the graveside service for Estelle Carter. Billy had allowed Herman to attend. Rowan would miss them both. But right now she intended to enjoy dinner with Billy and his family. Billy’s mother, Dottie, and his father, Wyatt, were amazing people. She wouldn’t allow all that had happened to spoil this day for them.

  Rowan stood on the back porch of the house where Billy had grown up. The pastures spread out for as far as the eye could see. Horses grazed on the left and a few cows on the right. Chickens chattered around the backyard. Nellie, their old bluetick hound, lay on the porch. Once in a while she swiped her tail back and forth, reminding anyone who might be watching that she was still alive. Freud lay beside Nellie. Rowan had worried he would chase the chickens but so far he only watched in avid curiosity. Still, when she went inside she would be taking Freud in with her.

  Billy had insisted she come to dinner with him and his family. They didn’t want her to be alone. They had no idea that she had been alone for a very long time, even before her father’s death.

  Her father had done all in his power to make her happy and to make up for the losses they had suffered that awful year so long ago, but he couldn’t possibly. Rowan appreciated his efforts. He had been a very special man. A smile tugged at her lips. She missed him so much. Losing him had left a gaping hole in her life.

  She would never believe Julian’s twisted story about her father. More likely he had murdered Alisha himself.

  If Julian hadn’t shown that day at the lake, it was possible Woody would have shot her. She certainly had intended to fight him every step of the way but he had been the one with the gun. Apparently Julian had been watching her. He hadn’t sent anyone else
to do the job for him. The idea that he would take such a risk still stunned her.

  Was he that convinced that he could outmaneuver law enforcement? Of course he was. Julian would be the first to admit his arrogance. A man couldn’t be as brilliant as he was without knowing as much.

  Would he still be watching?

  Rowan doubted he would be quite so obvious. Though he clearly had some bizarre obsession with Rowan, he was not a fool.

  The screen door behind her opened, and Rowan glanced over her shoulder. Billy walked out, a beer in each hand.

  “Dinner’s almost ready,” he announced as he handed her a beer.

  “Thanks.” Rowan sipped the cold beer, savored the taste and enjoyed the feel of the sweating bottle in her hand. “I needed a moment.”

  Billy leaned against the railing that encircled the porch. “You’re at home here, Ro. You don’t need to explain needing a minute alone.”

  “Your mom and dad are still as kind as ever.”

  After Norah had died, Billy’s mom had tried so hard to make Rowan feel mothered every chance she got. She’d taken her for her first manicure and several other firsts that only a woman could handle properly. Rowan would always be thankful for how Dottie had stepped in to help.

  “They love you like a daughter.” Billy smiled. “Momma always wanted a daughter.”

  Rowan studied her friend for a long moment. “You should get married, Billy, and give her one.”

  He looked away, focused on gulping down half his beer. Then he swiped his mouth and chuckled. “Well, that isn’t exactly a simple thing, Ro.”

  She propped a shoulder against the porch post next to him and stared at him in defiance. “Why not? You’re an attractive, intelligent man with a powerful position in the community. Women should be lining up to be Mrs. Billy Brannigan.”

  His gaze shifted again and another gulp of beer disappeared from his bottle.

  Rowan shook her head. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have made such a cavalier statement. I’m fully aware it’s not as simple as that. You’re more like me than I realized. We’re so focused on our work, there’s hardly time left for anything else.”