The Witness Series Bundle

by Rebecca Forster

  "Insults won't help. I did what I could."

  "And I did not come here to speak with you. In fact, I am surprised to find you here at all. It seems odd that you kept up with Ms. Bates considering."

  "I didn't keep up with her. We are tied by circumstance. It was a fluke that I saw you on the news tonight. I had plans, but I came here instead. I thought I could help."

  "You can't." The reverend cut him off. "You never could."

  Though there was no room for Daniel to maneuver, he tried anyway. He clasped his hands and bounced his fist up and down as if that would help him find the right words to say. Archer almost stepped in but changed his mind. There was a blush of anger creeping up the back of Young's neck and a pale disdain on Wilson's face. One would have thought these two would be compatriots. Daniel was trying hard to be.

  "Isaiah, do you know why God has not healed you?" Daniel asked.

  "No. Do you?" Isaiah's brow rose but his surprise was mocking. Daniel, the buffoon, pushed on seemingly unaware that he was being played.

  "Those resentments you hold toward Ms. Bates have poisoned your life. Not only would God not want this, Janey wouldn't."

  "You don't know anything about my Janey's mind. You were incompetent ten years ago, and you are irrelevant now."

  "What happened in that courtroom had nothing to do with competency. You know that as well as I do."

  "Really?" Isaiah baited the shrink.

  "Yes, really." Daniel's voice lowered, ready for the debate. "Both of us had issues with Josie Bates. And both of us find ourselves here. I am on that list of Xavier's and so are you. Did you know that?"

  "Actually, yes. This gentleman brought the news."

  "And do you know why Xavier considers me a threat?" Daniel posed the question but didn't wait for an answer. "Because I saw inside his head, and because I knew that he was a sane, calculating, and vicious man. But Bates? What reason did he have to hate her? None, and she was still taken on a perfectly beautiful afternoon, drugged and whisked away without so much as a hair left behind to prove he did it. We are facing true evil, Isaiah. Evil that does not differentiate between us. You always thought you were above it all. You weren't. You aren't. I promise you that. In fact, I guarantee it."

  "Your pronouncements were always so absolute, Daniel. Black and white. Dr. Young's opinion above everyone else. I admired that surety at one time." Wilson shrugged to indicate his dismissal. "Now it is just unfounded arrogance. You are like a braying donkey, Daniel."

  Archer's interest went to the Reverend. He had not been shown the list with the pictures next to each name, so the analogy was worth noting. Seeing the two men locked in their tug of war gave Archer notice that there was more to learn.

  "I'm not the fool. What you did here tonight will make things worse for everyone concerned. I guarantee that, too."

  "You thought you could guarantee a conviction, Daniel." Without breaking eye contact with Daniel, Isaiah called out to Archer. "Did you know that the good Doctor here is a fraud, sir?"

  "That's stiff." Archer moved toward the two men. The bad blood between them ran almost as deep as the hatred they both had for Josie.

  "Not really. It was your Ms. Bates who exposed him." Isaiah looked away from Daniel to Archer. "Look at the transcript of his testimony. He probably hates her just as much as the rest of us."

  "Don't try to change the subject, Isaiah. My problem with Josie Bates was public. I suffered it, and I moved on. I have a thriving practice. I'm brought into this because Xavier Hernandez is a shark, trolling until he finds prey. He found Erika Gardener and Josie Bates. Maybe I'm next. Maybe you are."

  "I will pray for Ms. Gardener, but for Ms. Bates there can only be one outcome."

  "That sounds like a threat, to me," Archer said. "And with stunts like you pulled tonight, you've all but given permission for Hernandez to do whatever he wants to Josie. At least Young is being proactive. At least he's got some real balls."

  Daniel turned slowly and looked at Archer. He blinked as if coming out of a deep sleep, but Isaiah and Archer didn't notice. It was between him and the preacher now.

  "Unlike a courtroom, Archer, here truth is what is important. And the truth is that Josie Bates lied about my daughter. "

  "I haven't read the transcripts. I don't know what was said, but I know Josie. Whatever she did, it was done to represent her client to the best of her abilities. That was her job."

  "And, my job as a father, and a believer in God's justice, is to represent my faith and my daughter. I have lived all these years waiting for that woman to get what she deserves. I hope she dies. I hope Josie Bates stands at the gates of heaven, and St. Peter turns her away with my Janey looking on."

  Isaiah Wilson put his hand in his pocket, but before he could make another move, Archer was across the room. The big man towered over Wilson as he put one hand on the couch arm and another on the cushion. He got in the craggy face of the pricey preacher. There was a smell that came off the man; a smell like mothballs or an old woman's house, or rotting leaves or food left in a hot place too long. It made Archer gag, but he didn't turn away.

  "Maybe you got tired of waiting for God to do his business, I-say-ah. Maybe you took Josie and Erika and put them somewhere because book sales are down, or because you just wanted some attention, or because you wanted to be the one that did them in. I don't know why you'd want to hurt the Gardener woman, but the way you talk about Josie sounds like a confession to me. So where are they? What have you done with them?"

  Isaiah held Archer's gaze for a split second, but before he could answer a movement in the doorway distracted him. Archer backed off and all three men looked at Hannah who was leaning against the unfinished archway that led to the dining room. That exhausted, beautiful, tortured young girl's fingers frantically tapped the bare two-by-four, her lips moved, and she had eyes only for Isaiah.

  "Why is he still here?"

  "I was just leaving, Hannah." Isaiah rose. The right leg of his slacks was pasted to his knee with the dried blood. He made no attempt to free it. "I have what I came for."

  "Exactly what was it you got?" Archer demanded.

  "I made people remember why Ms. Bates finds herself in this position. It is because of what she did to my Janey."

  Isaiah Wilson pulled together his lips. He walked slowly toward Hannah. For a second it seemed that he was going to touch her, instead he confided in her.

  "She killed my daughter a second time, Hannah," the preacher said quietly. "That woman pointed the finger at my Janey and called her a harlot. She condemned my daughter to hell, and she elevated that man who killed her to an unwitting victim of her lust. She said my daughter deserved her death; I say Josie Bates deserves the same."

  Before Archer could step up and take out the guy's other knee, before Daniel could reach into his psychologist's bag of tricks, Hannah spoke.

  "You're going to hell for wishing that. And you know what, your daughter is turning her back on you in that heaven you think you deserve."

  In the silence, all anyone heard was Max's nails clicking as he came to rest beside Hannah. Deliberately, she reached for the dog, hunkered beside him and buried her face in his fur as if to say she preferred the comfort of a dumb animal to the company of the God Isaiah Wilson represented.

  "I'll leave this for you, Hannah. Perhaps, after you read it, you will understand."

  Isaiah Wilson put the papers he had taken from his coat and left them on the hall table. Archer followed Wilson out the door. As he did, he took the papers with him. The only way Hannah would ever read what went on in that courtroom was over his dead body.

  CHAPTER 34

  Hannah sat with her knees together, her elbows crooked, her face cradled in her upturned palms. Her index fingers tapped and tapped, paused and tapped. The sleeves of her jacket had fallen away from her wrists and pooled at her elbows. As Hannah watched herself attacking Isaiah Wilson on television, Daniel Young watched her.


  She was used to men looking at her, but not the way Daniel Young did. It was as if he was trying to decide what to do with her. The fact that he was still in the house annoyed her. Or, maybe she was just aggravated that Archer insisted that Daniel sit with her like a nanny while he regrouped. She had looked out the window twice to see him sitting on the low wall. Both times he was talking into his phone. She knew one of the calls would be to Faye, because what happened was probably going to get child protective service's panties in a knot. Archer wouldn't be able to keep Hannah out of custody; they were going to need a lawyer. She figured the other call would be to Liz Driscoll to see if there was anything new on her end. But now it was just her and Daniel Young, and she wished she were alone. At the very least, Hannah wished she hadn't sent Max out to be with Archer.

  "What?" Hannah demanded without bothering to look Daniel's way.

  "I beg your pardon?" Daniel answered.

  "You're staring at my arms."

  "No," he answered. "I was just thinking."

  "Bet you're thinking it would be cool to cure me." Hannah sat back, not liking this tall man in the well-pressed clothes.

  "I don't recall saying I thought you were sick."

  "That's rich," Hannah snorted. Her eyes were still glued to the television. The news anchors were laughing, and there was a picture of a duck in the corner of the screen. At least it wasn't a picture of her.

  "I am curious about you and her, that's all."

  "What do you want to know?" Hannah's eyes flickered his way. "I'll tell you, and then you can go home."

  Daniel laughed, lazy and long before his voice just sort of blew away. He shook his head like a parent who had heard it all. His patients must hate it when he did that.

  "I'm not some gossipy neighbor, Hannah."

  "And you're not a friend. You're just someone Archer is supposed to be protecting."

  He laughed again. "No, I don't need protecting. I know things about Xavier Hernandez that. . ."

  He never finished his thought. Hannah stood up so abruptly that he was stunned into silence. She turned her back and started to walk away.

  "I was speaking to you, Miss."

  Hannah looked over her shoulder. It was her turn to laugh, but she didn't. She just smiled slightly.

  "Wow. That was weird."

  "And what you did was rude," he suggested in that ever-so-patient way of his. Hannah tilted her head. She narrowed her eyes. Something had crept into his voice that made her think twice about getting in his face.

  "Okay. Sorry," she said. "Do you want something to drink?"

  "No. Thank you."

  "Then you can go if you want. I'm good."

  "I'll wait until Archer comes back in."

  "Suit yourself, but I don't need a babysitter."

  "Then do you mind if I look around?"

  Hannah pulled up short again. He might as well have asked her to drop her drawers. This was Josie's place and even Hannah didn't take liberties yet.

  "Why?"

  "Maybe something will jump out at me." Daniel stood up and wandered toward her. "You live here so you might not see certain things. I'm trained to notice, to read into clues that people leave subconsciously."

  "Cool. Like a pile of rocks that will point us to Josie?" Hannah widened her eyes, mocking him. "You must have been a Boy Scout."

  "You never know. Sometimes you don't see what's right in front of your eyes. That's the funny thing about human nature, you see what you want to." Daniel was neither insulted nor deterred by Hannah's defenses. "Wouldn't you be sorry if there was something that you missed? Wouldn't you hate to live with that knowledge the rest of your life? What if there was one small thing you didn't see that might have saved Josie?"

  "I thought you didn't like her," Hannah said warily.

  "It's not about her, it's about me," he said as he held Hannah's gaze. Then he smiled broadly. "It's all about me, Hannah."

  He came closer. He touched a lamp. Hannah didn't want him to do that. Not without touching it more than once. One more step and his shin was against the coffee table.

  Hannah's eyes swept over Daniel as she tried to figure out what made her wary of him. He seemed to be growing in stature, taking up more room than he should and Hannah backed up a bit. Yet it wasn't his physical presence that bothered her, it was something else. Then she figured it out. There was something under Daniel Young's skin that he was refusing to scratch.

  If it had been her, she couldn't resist touching, probing, and exploring the boundaries of whatever it was that caused her anxiety. She wanted to understand everything: the bad and the good. This guy was too eager for something and Hannah didn't want to know what it was.

  "Yeah, whatever," she said abruptly.

  Hannah turned on her heel and went into the kitchen, cupped the curved rim of the counter with the heels of her hands, let her fingers tap the cool granite top, and scanned the walk-street before looking out toward the ocean.

  Wherever Josie was, Hannah hoped she could see the ocean. It was with that peaceful, wishful thought that the house erupted with a noise that seemed to come straight from hell.

  A Rental House, San Fernando Valley

  The girl sat on one of the dilapidated lounge chairs strewn around the backyard of the house she shared with her boyfriend and his friends. She smoked a joint and tried to relax. She didn't have to be at work until eight, so she had all day to catch up on her sleep. But she couldn't relax, and she couldn't sleep because every time she closed her eyes she thought about that place in the woods.

  Her boyfriend told her she was tripping. Her boyfriend laughed at her. Finally, her boyfriend told her to forget about it. Last thing they needed was any trouble with the law. Still, she argued, it was only a phone call to some guy. Her boyfriend got mad, called her a couple of names and then wanted to screw around. She didn't like that one bit, so out she went to the yard where she stayed all night. Now it was another evening and he had gone off to his part-time job and she was supposed to be doing laundry. Instead she was watching the sun make its way across the sky. She was stoned and lazy and the thought that he was probably right about all that shit drifted in and out of her mind like the smoke to her lungs. She raised the joint to her lips, inhaled, and held it.

  Yeah, he was right.

  She should forget about it.

  She was working on it.

  Josie Bates' House, Hermosa Beach

  Hannah dashed through the house toward the sounds of Max's barking and snarling, only to stop in the doorway of Josie's bedroom and cling to the jamb. Archer stood with his legs splayed and his back bent over so he could hold on to Max who was straining to get at Josie's closet.

  "What the hell are you doing?" Archer growled.

  Hannah pushed off, wanting to see what Archer was seeing. Knowing you didn't run headlong into trouble, she made a wide circle and stood behind him. What she saw was Daniel Young cowering in Josie's closet, half buried in her clothes, clutching a shoe like a club.

  "Get that animal away from me!" Daniel's scream made Max bare his teeth and snap all the more. Spittle flew from the dog's mouth, and Daniel turned his head away. His escape was blocked on all fronts. Young's arms flailed over his head, his knees were pulled into his chest as if he could save himself by getting small. He screamed again. "Put that animal away."

  Archer hollered back: "I should let him go."

  "Archer," Hannah said quietly.

  She touched him. Touched him again and again on the arm that quivered with tension of holding the big dog. A second later, he handed the growling dog off to Hannah.

  "Put him in the kitchen."

  The tone of his voice left no room for discussion, so Hannah took Max and spoke gently to him as she led him out of the room. She would have been gone in another second, but Daniel Young defended himself at her expense.

  "She gave me permission. It's her fault."

  Hannah whipped her h
ead back. The old dog, sensing a change in attitude, strained toward Daniel once more.

  "I never did, Archer," Hannah insisted. "I didn't tell him he could come in here."

  "Go on, Hannah," Archer said, making it clear he didn't put much stock in Daniel's objection. He grabbed for Daniel. "And you. Get out of there."

  Before Archer could touch him, Daniel stood up, pushed aside the clothes, and dropped the shoe in an attempt to regain his dignity.

  "I'm sorry I upset you," he said as he eased his way around Archer. "I thought I might find something you and Hannah overlooked. Something that might lead us to understand what convinced Ms. Bates to meet with Hernandez."

  "Do you think we wouldn't have noticed something out of place?" Archer demanded.

  "No, but you might not think that something you see everyday could hold a clue. No one is completely open about their lives, Archer."

  "Josie is," He grumbled and went to the bed and sat down. He was tired. Physically and emotionally exhausted. The last thing he wanted was for his mind to be muddled. Young was slick and he muddled minds for a living.

  "No, Archer, Josie isn't any more honest than any other person. I'm not saying she has lied to you, I'm saying there are things that are personal to her. I was just going to look through the book at her bedside when that dog came at me." Daniel swiped at his slacks but inclined his head toward the nightstand. "Do you know what she's reading?"

  Archer shook his head.

  "Just because you don't know doesn't mean she has lied to you about something. It only means the subject hasn't come up in conversation. But it might mean something to me. Xavier was a voyeur. Did you know that? He loved to watch women. He would go into houses and take things from them. They probably never knew their things were gone they were so inconsequential."

  "Why didn't you tell me that before?" Archer asked, peeved that this kind of information was withheld.

  "We've been busy, and as I recall you preferred me to speak only when spoken to." Daniel sat on the opposite side of the mattress. "In forty-eight hours you've assaulted me and dismissed me. You're angry with me for talking to the press. I would at least have expected a thank you for helping Hannah when Isaiah came, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on that one." He laughed a little. "I must say meeting you has been a challenge, Archer. I didn't expect you at all, but I do understand. Now I need you to understand me."