by Debra Webb
Sadie stared at the decades-old black-and-white photo of the infamous couple. “How could they do this? What kind of monsters are these people?”
The agony churning inside him twisted more deeply. “I can’t answer that question, Sadie.”
“How could no one have suspected what they were doing?” Her head moved side to side. “Those poor little girls. There’s no telling what they endured before they were murdered.”
Lyle understood that she was referring to all the victims, and the Barker daughters in particular. He held his breath and waited for her next question.
“I can’t see how Gus would be connected to these people.” Her gaze leveled on Lyle. “What is it that you’re keeping from me?” She searched his eyes. “I knew there was something. You’re not a very good liar.”
He opted to take that as a compliment. “A few days ago my agency received a letter from Rafe Barker.” Lyle closed out his emotions. He couldn’t do this otherwise. He explained the contents of the letter, summing it up with, “He swears his daughters are alive and that he fears Clare intends them harm.”
Sadie frowned, her confusion visible. “How does that connect her to Gus? He…” The bewilderment cleared and disbelief took its place. “You’re looking for the daughters.”
Lyle nodded, unable to speak.
“You think…” The article she’d looked at last slipped from her grasp and floated to the floor. “That’s impossible. I have baby pictures. They’re all over the place at Gus’s house. Me and my mother. Me and Gus. The three of us.” Anger lit in her eyes. “You’ve known me my whole life. You know this is not just a mistake. It’s crazy.”
Lyle braced his hands on his knees and held on. He wanted to hold her and make her understand how sorry he was to have to do this. “Barker gave us a name. Janet Tolliver.”
Sadie shook her head adamantly. “I don’t know anyone by that name.”
“I know,” he said gently. “She was murdered the day before I arrived here. But she left something to help us find the truth.” He withdrew the album and offered it to her. “This is the connection.”
Hands trembling, Sadie took the album and settled it on her lap. She stared at the first page that displayed Sarah Barker’s birth certificate. She turned to the next page. She gasped, one hand going to her chest.
Lyle couldn’t suppress the crash of emotions. The best he could hope to do was conceal the outward display of the turmoil whipping inside him. His best effort wouldn’t chase away the burn in his eyes.
Sadie’s life would never be the same.
* * *
THE LITTLE GIRL IN the photos could be her twin. Some part of Sadie knew that wasn’t the case. Hot tears spilled down her cheeks and perched on her trembling lips. How could this be? She moved from page to page, photo to photo. Someone had taken pictures of her all through the years. Who had been close enough to take such intimate family shots?
Sadie swiped her face with both hands, then closed the album. She took a breath for courage and turned to the man waiting quietly on the other end of the sofa. “You should have told me this the moment I opened the door and found you on my porch.” With each word, the rage built deep in her soul. How could he, of all people, hide this from her for one minute, much less a day?
“The risk to you was too great,” he offered softly. “I couldn’t take the chance that you would refuse to cooperate given how you might react to this information.”
He spoke so damned softly she wanted to slap him. There was nothing soft about any of this! “What risk? I still don’t get that part.” The whole story was insane. Her mother and father were Gus and Arlene Gilmore. This was a mistake!
“Rafe Barker is convinced his wife intends to do what he allowed the police to believe he had done twenty-two years ago just to have her final revenge against him. He thinks she knew from the beginning that he could not have murdered his daughters. His theory is that she realized he tipped off the authorities all those years ago, and he claims he did, and that she has worked relentlessly to get free just to settle that score.”
No way this involved Sadie. None of this sounded or felt familiar. “It’s a terrible tragedy, no question. But the names, these photos, they don’t stir any memories.” She tried to show Lyle with her eyes what he might not get from her words. “Don’t you think I would feel something if there was any truth to this cracked story?”
“You were just two years old, Sadie. You might not remember anything even when prompted by evidence like this.” He gestured to the album. “I’m not an expert on matters like this. The one thing I know with complete certainty is that you’ll need help with this. Counselors.” He shrugged. “I don’t know. But we have to get through this threat to your safety first, then there are tests you can have that will confirm what I’m saying to you.”
Sadie tossed the album aside as if it were poison and might absorb into her skin. “You mean threats like the message some nimrod left in blood on my door?” Cox insisted the words weren’t written in blood, but Sadie knew better. He’d promised to have it analyzed, but she didn’t need a test to prove what she recognized any more than she needed a test to establish that she was Gus Gilmore’s daughter. Whether it came from roadkill or a human, the message was written in blood. Lyle agreed with her, not that she had needed his endorsement, either.
“The message on the door tells me she’s found you. And somehow she’s keeping an eye on you despite being under surveillance by the best the Colby Agency has to offer. Obviously she has someone working for her, in view of the fact she hasn’t left her apartment since we started surveillance.”
“I want to talk to her. Right now.” Sadie fought back the fear her own words ignited. Her body shook from it. “I want her to say that nonsense to my face.”
Lyle held up both hands. “No way. We can only speculate that she left that message. If it’s unrelated, we don’t want to hand her your identity or your location.”
Sadie got up. The talking was over. It was time to take action. “Who else would know to leave a message like that?” That option wasn’t even plausible. Other than Lyle and his employer, who would have access to this pack of lies?
Lyle stood, looked her dead in the eye and said, “Gus.”
That was the one prospect she hadn’t considered, and it took the wind right out of her sails. “That doesn’t make sense. Why would he do that? He definitely knows I’m his daughter.”
“He’s bound to have some idea why I’m here. He tossed out the Colby Agency name as you recall. He’s a powerful man. He may have decided to use the situation to his advantage in this war you two have going on.”
The idea that her own daddy would have sent one of his hoodlums to do this fired her up all over again for completely different reasons. She had to calm down and think rationally. What if this crazy tale was real? She pushed away the idea. “On the other hand, if he wants to take this place away from me, I guess he could just say that I’m not really his daughter—if any of this is so, which it absolutely is not.”
“He legally adopted you. That makes you his daughter in the eyes of the law.”
Wait, wait, wait. “How do you know that?” How in the blazes did he know all this stuff about her and she didn’t? Because it wasn’t real. She refused to believe that her entire life was one huge lie.
“It was done legally, but carefully hidden through private channels.”
“And you found it?”
“My agency did.” He plowed his fingers through his hair. “As far as the law is concerned, you’re as much a Gilmore as Gus. If—” Lyle emphasized the if “—he’s behind any part of this, it’s because he wants to provoke the kind of reaction that would give him what he needs to overturn your grandmother’s will.”
“What kind of reaction?”
“You threatening to shoot anyone who crosses you. If you were considered unstable, any of the judges he knows would gladly appoint him a conservatorship.”
Sadie shook
her head. As often as she’d wanted to kill him, she would never really kill him. He was her father, for what that was worth. She would never do him physical harm. And she’d never shot anyone else. Half the time that old shotgun of hers wasn’t even loaded. That uneasy feeling nudged her a little harder when she considered how many of Gus’s friends considered her a little wild and crazy.
“I’m not unstable.” She just had a bad temper when it came to protecting the animals.
“You’d end up in the institution of his choosing and he’d take over this place.” A frown marred Lyle’s face. “Do you have reason to believe he wants your grandmother’s will overturned badly enough to go to extreme measures?”
Sadie had to think about that one. That she’d stood on his property with her shotgun aimed at him filled her head. If he was trying to make it look as if she’d gone over the edge, Lyle was right. That incident probably hadn’t helped her reputation. “He’s made the statement on several occasions that my grandmother had no right to do this. This land was supposed to go to him first.”
The whole concept made her furious. As angry as she was, that didn’t come close to blotting out the pain of the other. She didn’t want to feel it. She didn’t want to know it. “I need to talk to him.” If there was any truth to this, he would confess if confronted with evidence. Or she’d hold him at gunpoint until he did. No, Lyle was right. That would be a mistake. If Gus wanted her out of the way that badly, she had to watch her step.
Would he really go that far?
She struggled to clear her mind. “Gus can straighten this out.” Lifting her chin in defiance of the emotions warring inside her, she decided on a course of action. “I’ll bet he can explain all of this. He’ll make you see that this is a mistake.” Gus would explain everything. Lyle would see.
Lyle moved closer, placed his hand on her arm as if to comfort her. She drew back. Couldn’t bear to feel him. She wanted it to be because she was angry and felt betrayed by him all over again. That wasn’t exactly what she felt. The truth was she didn’t trust herself. If she let him touch her, she might just collapse into his strong arms. It would be so easy, but she couldn’t do that. Strength and determination were needed here. Her whole life was on the line and she had to figure out how to deal with this…this movie-of-the-week drama. Sensory overload was already an issue. Did she scream? Cry? Run away?
Calm down. She had to calm down. And think.
“If Gus doesn’t know why I’m here,” Lyle explained in that low, quiet tone that made her want to shake him, “he doesn’t need to know. There are already too many complications cropping up. Any additional trouble could create a chain reaction. We don’t need Gus’s money and power delving into this right now. And we damned sure don’t want the media getting involved. We have to keep this low profile for you and for the others.”
The others. Sadie hadn’t considered the others. The Barkers had three children. This had to be a mistake.
Pounding at the front door shattered her efforts to pull it together and concentrate. Before her brain had strung together a reasonable reaction, her feet were taking her toward the sound. Maybe the sheriff had come back with those test results? Not likely. He’d left only about half an hour ago. Damn, she’d lost all perception of time and certainly all grasp on reason.
Before she could open the door Lyle cut in front of her, opened the door with one hand while resting the other on the butt of the weapon tucked into his waistband.
Gus Gilmore loomed in the doorway. “What the hell is going on over here? I got a call from Sheriff Cox. Said I’d better get over here and see this for myself.”
Sadie slipped around Lyle before he could step in her path. “Why don’t you tell me?” Lyle cut her a look, and his words of warning about the others echoed in her mind. Oh, God. How did she do this?
Gus stared at the door and shook his head. “How on God’s green earth would I know?” He nodded toward Lyle. “Why don’t you ask him? All the trouble started after he got here.”
He had a point with that statement. Confusion zoomed around in her head, making her hesitate. Things around here had been a little weirder than usual since Lyle showed up at her door. But he had nothing to do with Dare Devil or her grandmother’s will or this awful story that couldn’t possibly be right. What would he have to gain? Had he told her who the agency’s client was? Gus had made a big deal out of that. Wait, yes. Rafe Barker. Her stomach roiled at even the thought of the man.
Sadie wanted to cry. To fall to her knees and beg her daddy to fix this nightmare. To make Lyle believe her. But there were other lives at stake. She stiffened her spine and grabbed on to her composure with both hands. “This is between you and me, old man.” Her voice still sounded a little shaky. Not nearly as shaky as her emotions just now. She glared beyond Gus to the two henchmen who had accompanied him. “Did you do this, Billy Sizemore?”
He sniggered. “Damn, girl, I spent the best part of the morning escorting you around. How the hell could I have done anything over here?”
Sadie blinked, refused to be flustered by the lug-headed bully, even if he was right. That didn’t mean one of his pals hadn’t done it for him. “What about you?” she demanded of the man at his side, Chip Radley. “Where were you this morning?”
“Taking care of business for me,” Gus answered for him.
Her attention shifted back to her father. He was livid. She knew that face. Her throat felt dry and tight. Gus Gilmore wasn’t her father, if Lyle had his story right. The pictures and the newspaper article swam before her eyes. Some awful killer was her daddy. She shuddered, hugged herself to hold her body still. “What kind of business?” She had a right to know, seeing as Gus Gilmore was the prime suspect, in her mind, where this whole mess, Dare Devil and all, was concerned. By God, she had a right to know his business under the circumstances, even if he didn’t understand that fact.
“As soon as you told me what happened with Dare Devil, I sent Radley out to check on some folks low-down enough to do such a thing.”
It took every lick of self-control Sadie could rummage up not to demand what he’d learned. But that would be the same as admitting she didn’t really believe he was the one responsible. Maybe he wasn’t. What did she know? She didn’t even know who she was. “You mean, besides you?”
A glimmer of emotion, so faint she wondered if she had imagined it, flickered in his eyes. “I have a few leads to follow up on.” He turned away from her and said to his men, “Clean up this mess before anyone else sees it.” He muttered something about sacrilege.
“No.” Sadie’s announcement had him turning back to her. “I’ll clean it up myself. I don’t need anything from you.”
Gus held her gaze for an eternity, something sad and disappointed in his. That was nothing new. He’d been disappointed in her for most of her life. Maybe now she had a clue as to why.
She didn’t move until they had driven away. Her knees went weak, making her sway.
“Whoa.” Lyle caught her and pulled her against him. “I think maybe you need to take it easy for a bit. I’ll clean this up.”
Weakness, she hated it! Sadie pulled away from him, squared her shoulders. She was not weak. Whatever happened, she could handle it. “I’m perfectly fine.”
“Neither of us has had much sleep,” he argued gently. “Let me do this for you, Sadie.”
“Just go away, Lyle.” She set her hands on her hips and exhaled the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding until now. “I need to do this. If I’m still, I’ll just obsess on that photo album.”
He backed off. “I understand. I’ll take care of the horses and feed the mutts.”
Damn. She had lost all track of time. Swallowing her pride, she said the right thing for once. “Thank you.”
She watched him as he walked to the barn. The way he moved had always made her burn for him. There was a sleek fluidity to the way he walked. His strength had made her feel safe and cared for. Something her father had turned off
when she’d needed him most. Mercy, she couldn’t hang on to a thread of thought. Her mind was all over the place.
Sadie dragged her weary body back to the living room and collapsed on the sofa. She stared at the photos on the pages of the open album. Her as an infant. The man and woman with her and the other two little girls were strangers to her. Maybe the baby wasn’t even her. Sadie closed her eyes. Yes, it was her. There were several photos of her as a baby in the Gilmore family album. Just none with Gus and Arlene until she was two or so. Now she knew the reason why.
She felt like a stranger in the living room—parlor, as her grandmother had called it—that she’d loved as a kid. All the trinkets. Little statues and framed photos, the graceful old oil paintings. It all seemed suddenly foreign to her. Had her grandmother known about this? Of course, she had. You don’t come home with a two-year-old and announce you’ve just had a baby.
The ache swelled so big and so fast inside her that Sadie couldn’t breathe. How could this be? All that she had thought she’d known…all that she’d trusted was a lie.
Sadie propped her elbows on her knees, put her face in her hands and did something she hadn’t done since Lyle left her all those years ago.
She cried.
* * *
THE HORSES WERE HAPPY to see him. Lyle managed a smile. He’d missed being around the animals. He shook his head. Somehow, he had to manage a visit with his folks. He’d let far too much time pass already. Work was always his excuse. But with what was happening to Sadie, he suddenly felt the need to hug his mother and even his father. A handshake just wouldn’t be enough.
It took all his willpower not to go back to the house and hug her. She’d fight him like a wildcat, but he knew that was what she needed. The stubborn woman just refused to admit it. He took his time feeding the horses. Gave them all a quick rubdown and their freedom into the pasture. He folded the blankets they’d left in the stalls and hung them over the railing. Sadie kept the place so clean there was little to do in the way of mucking out the stalls, but he did it more or less to put off going back to the house too soon. Maybe she needed some time alone to think. He couldn’t blame her. He’d sure needed a minute when he’d first heard this incredible story.