by LS Sygnet
Johnny’s arm curled around my waist. “Thank you, sir, but –”
“Yes, you’re not exactly inviting me into your lives with open arms. I’d imagine that would be difficult to explain on a good day. As I was telling Helen, I’ve been watching CNN’s international coverage of Darkwater Bay tonight. Do you really think it’s wise to have my daughter at a crime scene in her condition?”
“Dad, I called because we need to finish our conversation about Lyle Henderson.”
“And I already told you Helen, I know very little about the man, except that he was a lunatic. I surmise that dementia has not improved his disposition.”
Johnny chuckled. “He’s not demented, sir.”
“Call me Wendell. As I recall, you had no such difficulty the last time we met, commander.”
“Dad, when I visited you at Attica, the guard told me –”
“Which guard?”
Fingers gouged into my temples. “Tipton? Tilden?”
“Timmons,” Dad said. “What about him? He was a rather decent fellow to me over the years, Helen. I’d hate to learn at this late date that he managed to deceive me.”
“He said that I was the third member of law enforcement to visit you.”
Wendell fell silent.
“Dad?”
“You know that Johnny came, Helen.”
“Yes, and I was there, even though they believed I was Thomas Peterson.”
“That’s correct.”
“Then who was the third cop that visited you?”
Silence returned.
“Dad, this is no time for you to –”
“It was the FBI Helen, the real FBI. They came because this character who was harassing you had contact with a guard who wasn’t quite so good to me over the years and kept people informed when I had visitors.”
“Seleeby,” Johnny growled. “That’s how David knew I visited Wendell when we spoke last December.”
“No, that wasn’t his name,” Wendell said. “Older gentleman, tried for distinguished looking, but clearly wasn’t to the bureau’s standard of fitness, darker hair –”
Johnny’s gaze locked with mine. “Shorter than you, Wendell?”
“Good gracious, no,” he chuckled. “The man had a good inch or so on me. Said his name was Noah something. I can’t recall really, and I never spoke a word to him, simply called for Mike Lucero to take me back to my cell. Now he got a piece of my mind, the son of a bitch.”
“Dad, you’re sure –”
“I’m not losing my faculties, Helen. I’m certain. He came to see me approximately one month after Johnny’s visit. Honestly, I figured that the FBI would show up much sooner after… well, after their case against Mr. Marcos became so solid. I fully expected someone to blabber about Johnny’s visit before he hit the parking lot.”
“This Lucero character,” Johnny said.
“Yes. Mike quite resented the fact that I was kept in segregation throughout my stay in upstate New York. It infuriated him when the moratorium on the death penalty was put into place. Johnny, I’m not sure if you’re aware, but my sentence –”
“Helen told me,” Johnny said. “I can’t believe that the prosecutor’s office ignored the overwhelming evidence that pointed to Marie Henderson as the mastermind behind that armored car robbery ring, Wendell. Your fingerprints weren’t anywhere to be found on the spoils of the last heist, and she was driving the vehicle.”
“Well, it would’ve left a stain on the Eriksson name that would’ve been difficult for Helen to overcome. It’s one thing to have a father in prison. It’s another entirely to have one who beat the rap, so to speak. I knew the risks of going along with Marie’s lunacy, but I had little choice in the matter, not if I wanted Helen to continue to be safe and happy.”
“They threatened me?”
Wendell chuckled. “Only once seriously. It was the last thing she ever did.”
“Daddy…” I snatched up the phone and disengaged the speaker. “What did she say? How did she threaten me? I thought that she tried to kill you that night.”
“Oh she did. Only it wasn’t a threat, it was an attempt on me when she realized that I wasn’t going to play along with her little side venture anymore. She threatened you, Helen. And then she swerved toward the guardrail.”
“How did she threaten me?”
“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “There was no way I was going to allow her to harm you, or anything she could’ve ever done that would’ve come close to endangering your life.”
Anger boiled into the periphery of my vision. “Don’t tell me it doesn’t matter, Dad! It seems to me that it matters a great deal. Or have you forgotten that someone thought they were going to sell me as recently as a few weeks ago, and told me that it wouldn’t be the first time I’d been sold. Hasn’t it occurred to you that I was the mechanism put in place to keep you in line?”
Wendell fell silent.
“I love you, Daddy, and I’d have done anything to protect you. I risked my freedom, my marriage, my life to undo a wrong that was done long ago, one I should’ve never allowed to happen. Can you for one second tell me that you love me even a speck more than I love you?”
“No, of course not, darling. I’m not saying that at all,” he said.
“Then how did she threaten me?”
“It’s not what you’re thinking, Helen. Marie…she simply felt that my lack of cooperation should be punished by telling you the truth about me. She thought – mistakenly, I might add – that if you knew all of my sins, that our relationship would be permanently severed. She had no idea that I would willingly cut all ties to you to protect you from what we had become.”
I needed to see him – or more aptly, my human lie detector husband needed to see him. “Are you telling me the truth, Dad? Or has this whole thing been more lies –”
“I have never lied to you!”
“No?” Bitterness crept into my voice. “You told me all along about your little illegal business on the side, away from the NYPD?”
“That’s different, and you damn well know it. I wasn’t out indiscriminately breaking the law, Sprout. And when you asked me weeks ago, I told you the truth. I’m not proud that there were times that I took money for what I did, but it was never more than required to get the job done and cover my tracks. Everything I did was to protect you, to make the world a safer place for you and for scores of children who didn’t have parents who gave a damn either way if their children were safe.”
“How many like Thomas Peterson, Dad?”
“What?”
“How many did you remove to a better life like you did Thomas Peterson? Did you sell him?”
I heard his swiftly indrawn breath. “I’m not sure I like what you seem to be accusing here, Helen.”
Moisture dotted the fringe of lower lashes. “Daddy, you have to tell me the truth. Did you have anything to do with my abduction as an infant, with the abduction and slavery of –”
“Stop right there,” Wendell demanded. “You know as well as I do the fate of children sold into slavery, Helen. That you could think for even one second that I would be part of something so vile…”
We breathed heavily into each other’s ears for several drawn out moments. “I’m sorry,” I finally broke the silence. “I had to ask. I had to be…”
“Certain?”
“I was always certain. I guess I just needed to hear you deny it, Daddy. I knew about some of the kids you helped. I couldn’t believe that you’d ever be part of this.”
“Honey, I know. I’m sorry that you’re in a position where you felt you needed to ask. I wish I’d been a better father, one who never disappointed you, who guided you to a different way of life than the one you’ve had.”
“No. No. I wouldn’t have wanted anyone else, Daddy. I love you so much.”
“I’ve never lied to you, Helen, and I’m not lying now. Have I broken the law? Yes. Did I deserve to be in prison for the rest of my life? Of course I d
id, but not for the reason I was convicted. That crime was Marie’s. It was simply more expedient to take the blame than to see you suffer more than you already were when the whole thing came to light.”
“I believe you.”
“Now I expect some honest answers from you.”
I swallowed hard. “All right. If I know the answers –”
“You know them. Tell me if this Sanderfield gentleman was really behind your abduction, Helen. It’s imperative that I know the truth.”
“We’re not sure, Dad. The evidence seems to indicate that he was involved.”
“And Lyle was his step-father? He married the Sanderfield widow after Suzy died?”
“Yes.”
“That’s what I thought. Now, was Lyle part of this?”
My lips rolled inward. Johnny pried the phone from my fingers and reengaged the speaker function. “Wendell?”
“Yes, Johnny.”
“What did you want to know about Sanderfield?”
My eyes widened. I made a slicing motion over my throat. Johnny ignored it and stared intently at the cell phone.
“I asked if you’re sure that Lyle is part of this human trafficking business.”
“I’m sure,” he said grimly. “But as Helen and I have discussed many times over the past year, knowing something and proving it are two different things.”
“What makes you suspect him? This is important, Johnny.”
Damn right it was. It was important that Johnny keep his mouth shut. Of course, he didn’t.
“Helen’s biological mother recognized a photograph from Helen’s baby book, Wendell. She couldn’t understand how the woman who abducted her infant the night she was born could look so much younger a year after Helen was taken than she did the night that it happened.”
“Marie abducted Helen?”
“We think it was Lyle’s wife Suzy.”
“Nonsense,” Wendell said. “Marie looked nothing like Suzy.”
My eyes widened. “But Marie wasn’t pregnant when she stole that baby from Saint Mary’s Hospital, Dad.”
“It doesn’t surprise me one little bit, Helen.”
“It doesn’t?”
“Good heavens no. Lyle was much closer to Marie than he was to his wife. In fact, I always suspected… well, never mind what I suspected. If Marie looked older the night you were abducted, you can be certain of two things. Number one, it was intentional. Number two, the reason she wasn’t pregnant was probably because the child was already born and either didn’t survive or wasn’t going to be given to me.”
“So they stole me to keep your real child away from you?”
“Helen,” Wendell said , “get this through your head now. As far as I’m concerned, the only real child I have is you. Nothing will change that.”
“We still need to prove that Lyle is involved in this,” Johnny said. “Just because it appears that Marie Henderson stole an infant in Darkwater Bay doesn’t put him in the firestorm of a human trafficking ring.”
“You leave Lyle Henderson to me,” Wendell said.
“Dad –”
“I’ll be in touch.” Wendell disconnected the call before we had the chance to argue with him.
Chapter 3
Crevan slouched on the sofa. Devlin paced in front of the fireplace. Johnny stared into an untouched glass of Glenlivet. None of them spoke.
“Are we just going to –”
Devlin silenced me with a glare. He was angry. No doubt about it.
Johnny swirled the whiskey again, held the crystal to his lips and drained it in one smooth swallow.
“You’re certain you believed him?” Crevan broke the silence and looked at me.
“Of course I –”
“Helped him escape from Attica,” Devlin growled. “Lied to us, let us run around wasting valuable time chasing someone who wasn’t even missing or in danger.”
“She’s still in danger, Dev,” Johnny said.
I noticed the twinkle that hadn’t quite died out in his eyes. Perverse bastard was really enjoying the fact that Devlin Mackenzie no longer worshipped me with utter adoration. Ah, but at least his insane jealousy was cured once and for all.
“Devlin –”
He held up one hand to me again. “I don’t want to hear it, Helen. Crevan and Johnny explained your backward thinking on the matter to me already. I don’t agree with it.”
“So you think that an innocent man should die paying for a crime he didn’t commit?”
Gotta love my brother. He certainly has this family loyalty thing down pat.
“Think about it, Devlin,” Crevan urged our friend. “There was no other option for a legal appeal. Hell, you were the one that questioned the veracity of the state’s evidence against Wendell in the first place.”
“That was when I thought he was dead, when I had no doubt that he’d been duped by his in laws, and couldn’t possibly be part of a human trafficking ring himself.”
“He wasn’t,” Johnny said quietly. He rose and put his empty glass on the coffee table. “I’ve talked to him, Devlin, numerous times, now. The guy… well, I’ve got my theories as to why he was conned by his wife and her family, and let’s just say they had nothing to do with his complicity in their crimes.”
“What does that mean?” Devlin’s stare impaled Johnny with its intensity. “Why would they swap out one kid for another? And I don’t buy that this is all about using Helen to control Wendell’s behavior.”
“Because nobody has ever been blackmailed in the past, right?” Crevan snorted. “My ex-wife tried to bleed me for every dime she could by threatening to out my sexuality on the job if I didn’t give in to her demands. Hardy and Weber were being blackmailed to keep Darkwater Bay a law enforcement cesspool, probably by Danny Datello.”
I snapped my fingers. “Or maybe not.”
Three pairs of eyes turned to me.
“What?” This from my husband.
“Think about it. We’ve been over this a million times, I swear. Johnny, didn’t we have a conversation that because of Danny’s ties to the Marcos crime family that he made an ideal patsy for everything that went wrong in this city?”
“Yeah, but he was at Donald Weber’s press conference in December, Doc. He wasn’t too happy with what he heard either.”
“No, but who knows how he would’ve reacted to the news if I hadn’t goaded him.”
Johnny grinned. “Well, to be fair, he was irate after he saw you kiss me, and seemed pretty bland before that.”
“I’m sure a lot of people were curious about what Don had to say, particularly since Jerry Lowe’s arrest. We know for certain that Danny was responsible for the deaths of two men – David Ireland and Salvatore Masconi. While I am still disgusted by Ireland’s murder, I do understand the motivation behind Masconi’s. Danny thought he was protecting young girls, righting a wrong done by the criminal justice system when Masconi slipped through the cracks.”
Devlin cursed. “It’s exactly that kind of vigilantism that’s the problem, Helen. People cannot simply take the law into their own hands because they disagree with due process!”
I gnawed the tender patch of flesh on the inside of my cheek. He was right. Masconi might’ve been a felon, might’ve been a sexual predator in the statutory sense, but he wasn’t a rapist per se, nor was he a murderer. Yet Danny Datello had him killed.
We thought.
Johnny read my mind. “Dev, we’re not sure what happened to Masconi. We are sure that David Ireland was murdered by Mitch Southerby. Of course, he’s recanted his old confession now, but it’s moot after what he did to me and planned to do to Helen. None of that is the point at the moment. We’re still trying to figure out if Sanderfield was in on all of this, or if he was a pawn.”
“Then why aren’t we talking to Lyle Henderson?” I asked. “Shouldn’t he be the one answering questions now?”
“No!” three voices chimed in immediately.
“I’m not making a request, H
elen. Stay away from Lyle Henderson. The last thing we need is you confronting the man before we’ve got any evidence,” Johnny said.
“And if he is behind all of this, no way in hell should you go anywhere near him,” Devlin concurred. “Or have you forgotten that my old partner claimed you were already bought and paid for by some bastard? For all we know, Henderson was the buyer.”
“So what? I sit here knitting baby booties?”
Johnny chuckled. “No, you aim all of that incredible focus and insight on finding Wendell.”
“He’s not answering the phone, Johnny. For all we know, he had the same idea you did about using a toss away to make contact with me in the first place.”
“I need to talk to him again,” Johnny said. “There’s still the matter of identifying this FBI agent that went to see him.”
“Not Seleeby,” Crevan added. “You’re certain he said the guy was taller than –”
“We didn’t think it was Seleeby who saw him,” Johnny interrupted. “Wendell said the guy was older and had dark hair. My thought, considering that it was FBI, was that it was Helen’s friend David Levine. You weren’t there when we talked in December. He was pretty appalled to learn that I’d gone to New York and visited Wendell.”
I shook my head. “He would’ve told me if he’d talked to Wendell personally. Dad mentioned a guard, Mike Lucero. We should focus on talking to him, or getting the record from Attica regarding who my father’s visitors were. We already know the identity of two of them.”
Dev pinned me with another disappointed stare again. “Johnny and Thomas Peterson,” he said. “Really, Helen, what were you thinking? Impersonating an FBI agent –”
“Is a felony, yes, I’m well aware. Christ, if I thought you’d act like such a little girl about all of this, I’d have never let them tell you the truth,” I muttered.
“A little girl?” he bristled. “Listen here. I’ll have you know that just because I think we have a duty to uphold the law and not just break it whenever doing things the right way is a little inconvenient, that does not make me a little girl!”
“Oh for God’s sake, Dev. Are you trying to tell me you’ve never cut a corner anywhere in your career?” Crevan sighed. “It’s not like she killed Thomas Peterson so she could impersonate him. She was scared shitless. Let’s not forget who was supposed to have her back the night she was abducted, whose former partner it was that snatched her, chained her in the cargo hold of The Celeste and planned to sell her.”