Just Evil (The Evil Secrets Trilogy)

by Vickie McKeehan

  “We were all worried that you’d be so upset you’d have a setback. But then we got there and you were…giddy as hell. I bet you’re a fun drunk.”

  “I’m a blast.”

  “I plan to put that in the data bank, use it for later, when maybe you’re pissed at me.”

  “Oh, stop it. I still can’t understand why you guys thought I’d be upset. Let’s think about this for a minute, what is the downside here? I had Alana for a mother. Hello. Then I find out the woman I’ve loved for years, the woman I’m closest to is really my mother. I just don’t see why I should be the least bit upset about that.

  “I believe Gloria when she says she didn’t willingly give me up. It sounds exactly like a scheme those two women would cook up in retaliation for some slight Alana thought she’d received. Think about it, Alana manipulates Gloria into thinking she’s befriending her, all the while planning to take away her baby. That idea took time to plan. After all, Jessica had to prepare for immediate adoption proceedings the minute Gloria gave birth, even if it was with phony, forged documentation. Then before Gloria knows what’s happening, maybe she starts to ask too many questions, kicks up too much of a fuss while she’s still in the hospital, and boom before she knows what’s happening she’s on the other side of the country locked up in some mental ward. You know Jake, Gloria’s lucky they let her out of that hospital at all. What a punishment though, taking me away from her. No wonder, Alana treated me like a dog. To her, I probably was no more than that.

  “If I’m upset with anyone, I guess it would have to be my father. He just lets Alana have me. I mean, he knew the truth. He knew I wasn’t Alana’s and yet, when he found out about the adoption, he didn’t go to the judge, petition the court, and say ‘hey, this is my daughter, my kid, I’m the father Alana’s just the adoptive mother. I want custody.’ No, I have to face facts, he didn’t want me. For a man traveling around the world doing exactly what he wanted to do, he couldn’t have a kid tagging along. I’d be too much trouble. I’d have been in the way. You know, it makes me realize Baylee’s father did a decent job all those years, except of course when he drank. But I mean at least he kept her, tried to be a father to her.”

  “You’re a helluva woman, Kit. I thought for sure, you’d be pissed. But here you are logically going through it in your head, sorting it all out. That’s why I love you.”

  She rolled back over the bed into his arms, nuzzled his chest, and said. “Mmmm, I love you, Jake Boston. How could I possibly be in anything but a blissful state right now? I’m not pissed, just hurt, disappointed. Life’s too short to be mad at Gloria for something she had no control over. How can I blame her when at least she came back into my life at the age of twelve? And frankly, Jake, as long as I know Gloria’s my mother, I never have to think about Alana in that role, ever again. Right now, here today with you, I’m a happy camper.”

  Later, waking from a nap, she found Jake’s body pressed up against her back with his arms locked around her. It felt like heaven. Still basking from the afterglow of their lovemaking, she could easily stay wrapped up in him like this and just bake in the knowledge he was hers. Her mind drifted lazily into dreams of marriage and kids. With the knowledge that Gloria was her mother and not Alana, she could actually look forward to the future, the dreams she’d had about having a family, having children of her own, might now become a reality. It seemed to her that the future somehow held brighter possibilities.

  The phone ringing somewhere in the cabin put a slight ding in her bliss. But even as Jake moved to answer it, even as she heard him say something about Reese’s office, she knew the phone call was about her. She rolled over in bed to study Jake’s body language for any sign of what the call was about. She saw him tense up, saw him run a hand through his hair, then after several more minutes, heard him end the call by saying, “We’ll be there.”

  After hanging up, he crawled back in bed, and put his arms around her. “That was Reese. He wanted us to know two things. St. John wants his interview. Reese set it up in his office in the morning at ten.” As soon as he looked at her face, he wanted to take away the fear he saw there. As his hands moved up to stroke her hair, he reassured her, “Baby, just go back to sleep, don’t worry about it now.”

  But how could she not worry. Just when she began to think about the future, had a reason to plan ahead, the past reared its ugly head again, sending her back to a time she so wanted to forget. When she came out of her funk, she asked, “What was the other thing?”

  “The private investigator found Will Forrester.”

  After spending an uneasy night and morning fearing the worst, the interview with St. John lasted under thirty minutes and brought with it her first ray of hope the police might go in another direction. During St. John’s attempt to get her to say something incriminating, Reese dropped a bombshell of sorts when he presented St. John with a copy of the coroner’s findings. The M.E. was convinced the stab wounds on Alana’s body came from an angle suggesting the killer had been right-handed.

  “Read the report,” Reese had demanded when St. John protested. “My client’s left-handed. This should be a no-brainer for you. Kit did not kill Alana.”

  But St. John had taken the report and huffed, “It’s a theory, nothing more.”

  “He’s the same guy who theorized the time of death. You need to pursue other suspects on this one, Max, and stop harassing my client.”

  St. John had stormed out of the office.

  Later, Reese had explained the interview had been little more than a scare tactic, a power trip that made sure Kit knew she was still a suspect.

  Even though the meeting had taken everything out of her, she insisted on stopping at the vet hospital to sit with Pepper for a while. The dog was coming along well enough, but would still need to stay under the watchful eye of the vet in the ICU.

  As she laid her head near Pepper and began to talk to him softly, it broke her heart to see her dog so banged up. “Will he make a full recovery?” Kit asked Dr. Phillips, the veterinarian who had operated on Pepper.

  “He should, although he might have a slight limp in his hind leg, the one that snapped at the joint. But the good news is there’s no post-surgery bleeding, or signs of infection.”

  “When can I take him home?”

  “Give it another few days.”

  “I have a lot of stairs in my house. I’m thinking perhaps he should go stay at Gloria’s until he’s able to maneuver around.”

  Dr. Phillips agreed, “Stairs won’t do. We don’t want him tearing the stitches. But when he’s better he’ll need to have some kind of rehabilitation. I understand you’ve been in the hospital yourself.”

  “Yes, but I’m getting along okay.”

  Jake rolled his eyes. “She’s out and about way too early. But she’s determined to push the envelope.”

  The vet smiled. “It’ll take both of you some time to recover. Neither of you should try to do too much too soon.”

  “See, even the vet agrees with me,” Jake said smugly as they reluctantly left Pepper in the capable hands of the staff in ICU.

  But Kit was ready for a fight when Jake offered to drop her off at Gloria’s on the way to the public library while he went through the newspaper archives without her. “Do you intend to have someone baby sit me for the rest of my life?”

  “If that’s what it takes to keep you safe.”

  “That’s ridiculous. I’ll be going back to work in a few days. Do you intend to bring your laptop to the Book & Bean and run your company from the coffee shop?”

  “Who’s being ridiculous now?” But as the idea sunk in, he thought it had merit. “And going back to work in a few days is out of the question.”

  “Says who? I have to earn a living, Jake. I won’t live life with a babysitter. You can’t be with me every second of every day. And I won’t let Collin or any other Boyd dictate how I live my life. I’ve no intentions of letting them have that kind of power over me. They’ve bullied me my
whole life. I’m done with letting them.”

  “Hard-headed woman,” he muttered, before offering a suggestion. “At least ask Gloria for some help. She could take some of the baking off your hands.”

  “Now that is a good idea. I’ll call her.”

  He clasped her hand. “I just don’t want you hurt again.”

  How could she fight that kind of heartfelt sentiment? She let out a frustrated breath. “Just so you know, if you’re headed to the library, you aren’t going without me.”

  CHAPTER 26

  They had been at it for hours, looking through slides of newspaper articles, archives on microfiche, until both of them suffered from blurry vision, and so far they hadn’t found a single mention of any unsolved murders that fit the timeframe after August 10, 1969. There had been murders back then all over L.A. county, lots of them, but none that matched what they were looking for. Now that she’d had some time to think about it, Kit wondered if the whole idea was just a little too far-fetched.

  “Maybe we should turn this over to a professional who knows what they’re doing, drop it in their lap, like one of those investigators who specialize in cold case files. Isn’t that what they’re called?”

  “Jordan Donovan is damn good, but he’s concentrating his efforts right now on Alana’s murder. His plate’s too full to go chasing a half-baked idea like this.”

  “Gee, thanks.”

  “You know what I mean. This is a reach even for us.” Then he saw the forlorn look on her face, and added, “But it won’t hurt to eliminate the possibility. Then we can go on to other ideas, other theories.”

  “Such as?”

  “For one, it occurs to me that maybe county tax records from back then might yield a name. We look up the Sundown Ranch on the tax rolls see if we can come up with an owner’s name that way.”

  Kit gaped at him. “God, I love you. You’re brilliant. How do we do that?”

  “We can look up the county tax records online. I just don’t know how far back they go. It might take a trip into the office where we search the old-fashioned way through stacks of old records one at a time.” He saw the incredulous look on her face and concluded, “Well, it beats nothing.”

  “No, I’m impressed. It tells me you’re putting a lot of thought into this. If I haven’t said so, I just want to say thanks. You’ve been in my corner from the beginning on this, willing to believe in what I saw in the dream, and I just want to say…oh wait, go back one frame. Look at this, Jake.” She pointed to the screen where the headline read:

  Elderly Couple Found Slain In Hollywood Hills

  Dated August 17, 1969

  The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department confirmed the identities of the elderly, Hollywood Hills couple who were found brutally slain in their Sundown Ranch house on Friday morning August 15. Authorities believe Pete Parker, 69, and his wife, Mary, 67, died from gunshot wounds or multiple stab wounds. Sheriff’s deputies are investigating the murders of the couple as a double homicide. Local attorney, Jessica Boyd, discovered the bodies of the couple in their bedroom when she went to check on them after they failed to show up at her law office for a morning appointment.

  When interviewed for this article Jessica Boyd wanted everyone to know, “They were always so reliable. It was out of character for them to run late or to not keep their appointment. With all these recent murders in the news, when they didn’t show, I immediately became concerned. Their deaths are such a shame, too. They were such a sweet old couple.”

  Upon arrival, sheriff’s deputies found a gruesome murder scene that included graffiti written on the walls in the victim’s blood. There were no signs of forced entry.

  Autopsies of the couple have been scheduled for Monday by the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office.

  Pete Parker gained notoriety in the ’30’s and ’40’s as a former cowboy film star, starring in such westerns as Hills of Wyoming and Mountain Siege. After their only son, Noah Parker, an Army Ranger, was reported missing in action in Vietnam in May of this year, it was determined the couple had no other living relatives. The Parkers made history two years ago when they were awarded a fifteen million dollar settlement against McKetrick Construction, the largest settlement of its kind at the time. Funeral arrangements are pending.

  “Wow, Pete and Mary Parker,” a dejected Kit said as she rubbed the back of her neck, and slumped in a defeated posture in the uncomfortable metal chair she’d been sitting in for the last several hours. “I thought I’d feel better knowing who they were, but I don’t.” Instead of feeling elated at the discovery, all of a sudden, she felt sick to her stomach. “Pete Parker was a former actor, a cowboy star. I bet that explains the gold cowboys, Jake. I wonder if my father knew him.”

  “What if the son, this Noah Parker wasn’t dead at all, but was alive and eventually found out who killed his parents, decided it was time for payback?”

  “But why would it take him so long. It’s been over forty years.”

  Jake frowned. “Good point. But if he thought Alana and Jessica killed his parents for the money that would explain a lot. And if we found this article, maybe he did too. Isn’t it convenient that Jessica not only found the bodies that morning, but she even managed to work into the interview about the other murders. Looks like your dream was right on the money, Kit.”

  And that was an understatement, he thought. He didn’t know quite how he felt about what they’d just unearthed on their own because of Kit’s dream. As he hit the PRINT button to make a copy of the article to take with them, he rested his hand on Kit’s shoulder, and considered the woman.

  He had to admit he hadn’t really expected to find anything about a murdered couple on a ranch, yet here they were sitting in the library reading about their deaths, and the deaths were just as Kit and Gloria had described from their dreams. The whole thing was more than a little spooky. He looked into the green eyes of the woman he loved, and wondered silently if she might have some sort of psychic ability. He’d known Gloria had always claimed to be intuitive. She’d been right on target about Claire. Despite his affection for her, he’d always thought Gloria was a tad odd, but now it seemed he owed her an apology.

  And Gloria was Kit’s mother. Had Kit inherited some of the same intuitive tendencies from her mother, her real mother?

  Back on the boat, he was still thinking about Kit’s uncanny dream and how it had led them to identify the Parkers when he logged onto the Internet to try and find more information about them.

  He hit pay dirt in a database containing L.A. County court records. It seems in 1966 Sumner and Jessica Boyd filed only one lawsuit that year on behalf of the Parkers, who owned a six-thousand-acre cattle spread in the Hollywood Hills, known as the Sundown Ranch.

  Parker believed McKetrick Construction was responsible for dumping toxic waste on his ranch, killing his cattle and polluting his land. It had taken a year for the case to go to court, then in the middle of the trial, before the case had gone to the jury, the construction company had abruptly settled for $15 million dollars to be paid out to the couple over a three year time period, starting in 1967 and ending in 1969. The final payment had been delivered in August 1969.

  Just in time for their murder. The same timeframe agreed with those copies of checks he’d found in Alana’s attic, the ones totaling half a million dollars paid out over the same amount of time. Could those checks be payment of some kind, maybe Alana’s share of the winnings?

  When Kit hobbled up behind him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, he brought her around to sit on his lap, nuzzled her neck. Cuddling was new to him. Funny, how it seemed so natural now. Without letting her go, he deftly tapped keys on his laptop, switched to another web browser, brought up a secure site designated for Vietnam veterans and typed in the name Noah Parker.

  “Found anything?” Kit asked as she nibbled his ear, not really interested in what he was searching for, but doing her best to get his attention.

  While he waited for a result to
pop up, he told her what he’d found out about the Parkers and what he hoped to find out about their son using the only bit of information the newspaper article had provided.

  After several seconds, the web site rendered the date Noah Parker entered the Army, his pay grade, rank, serial number, date of birth, and marital status. To make sure he had the right man, he added a caveat. He asked for the city where he’d been inducted into the Army. When he got Los Angeles, he asked for the date this particular soldier went MIA. The date came up May 1969, matching the date mentioned in the article.

  Jake sat up straighter when he caught sight of the line with the date Noah Parker had been found alive. He shifted Kit on his lap, typed in a command looking for a discharge date. When he came up empty, he planted a wet kiss on Kit’s mouth and declared, “Looks like Noah Parker may have survived Vietnam. And he was attached to a sniper unit during the war.”

  “And that’s significant because…”

  “Who else would have the training and the greatest reason to avenge the murder of his parents?”

  “Oh. We should let the others know what we found out.”

  That evening, everyone gathered around Gloria’s dining room table for lasagna. They were a noisy bunch even with their mouths full. And no one enjoyed it more than Gloria. She listened as Jake and Kit good-naturedly bickered over when she should head back to work. She got a kick out of watching Dylan interact with Baylee and Sarah, curious to know when the baby could start eating solid food. She noticed Reese seemed to be a little lost without Quinn who hadn’t been able to get out of her shift at the hospital.