Julian kept going, pushing through the forest. Allie sounded closer and closer, and in the next minute, he saw her shadow outlined in front of a pine tree.
Allie was standing there, screaming her fool head off.
Julian couldn’t wait to shut her up for good.
CHAPTER 97
Larry Rucci
Larry stalked the killer, heading for him with the rock. He heard Allie start shouting again.
He turned his head toward the sound. She was telling him to run. He realized what she was doing. She was revealing her position. She was letting the killer know where she was. She was sacrificing herself for him.
Larry’s throat swelled with emotion. She was willing to give up her life for him. She was answering the question he’d asked himself since they got married. She loved him as much as he loved her.
Larry moved faster. He had to get to her before the killer did. Allie was his wife until death did them part.
Larry was hell-bent on making sure that didn’t happen.
CHAPTER 98
Allie Garvey
Allie spotted movement to her left. She turned. She saw the flash of a white shirt between the pine needles. Julian.
Her mouth went dry as dust. Her heart thundered. Adrenaline surged in her system. All of her senses focused like never before. The pain in her wrist receded.
Larry had gone silent. She couldn’t think about him now. Julian was breaking the last few branches between them. She trembled. She told herself not to panic. She stood her ground.
She tightened her fingers around the stake and let her good arm fall. She didn’t want Julian to know she had a weapon. She had to draw him in and make her move. He wouldn’t expect her to attack. Her best shot would be her first one. She braced herself.
She could hear Julian grunting with exertion. He moved a branch. She glimpsed a flash of his face. He was almost upon her. His white shirt stood out like a target. She waited for him to get as close as possible.
“You bitch,” Julian spat out, breaking the last branch between them with a hammer.
Allie lunged forward with the spike and aimed for his chest. Julian jumped aside but was hemmed in by a tree. The spike went into his lower right side.
Julian yelled. Allie drove the stake into him with all her might. Julian dropped the hammer. He grabbed the stake and wrenched it out of his body.
Allie felt for the hammer on the forest floor and grabbed it. Julian kicked her, connecting with her broken wrist. She screamed.
Julian reached down, but she swung the hammer up at his face. It hit him in the cheekbone. He staggered sideways, howling.
Allie scrambled to her feet, holding on to the hammer.
Julian leapt onto her in a rage. He shoved her backward to the ground. His hands went around her throat. He squeezed her neck, strangling her.
She hit him with the hammer but he didn’t stop. She hit him again and again. It still wasn’t enough. She was too close and couldn’t get a powerful enough swing. She kneed him in the groin, but he didn’t stop. She couldn’t breathe.
She heard gagging sounds and realized it was her. She began to panic. She was losing consciousness. She kneed him and kicked him, but he kept squeezing.
She dropped the hammer, her good hand going reflexively to her neck. She tried to peel his fingers off but couldn’t. She was getting weaker. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t keep kicking him.
Julian squeezed harder, relentless.
She tried to hit him, but it didn’t help. She poked her fingers in his eyes, but he shook her off. Her hand fell uselessly back.
Allie choked. Julian grimaced with lethal effort, his face inches from hers.
She was out of air.
CHAPTER 99
Allie Garvey
Get off my wife!” Larry shouted, striking Julian on the head with a rock, from behind. Stunned, Julian released Allie’s neck.
Allie gasped and coughed for air, her chest heaving. Larry grabbed Julian from behind and yanked him off of her. Julian spun around to Larry, punching him in the face.
Larry staggered but punched back, hitting Julian in the jaw. Allie coughed and wheezed for air. She spotted something in the back of Julian’s shirt. His flashlight. Julian pulled it from his waistband and raised it to hit Larry.
“No!” Allie screamed, recovering. She lunged forward, grabbed Julian’s arm, and hung on it, while Larry started punching Julian. Julian doubled over, dropping the flashlight.
Larry swooped down, grabbed the flashlight, and swung it at Julian’s knee like a baseball bat. Bones broke loudly, and Julian howled in agony. Larry hit him under the chin with a powerful uppercut. Julian collapsed to the ground. His chest was moving, so he was breathing.
“Honey, are you okay?” Larry rushed to Allie, taking her in his arms, and she burst into tears, enveloped in the safety of his embrace.
“Is it over?” Allie heard herself ask through her tears, needing reassurance.
“Yes, unless you want me to kill him.” Larry held her closer, and Allie looked up, trying to tell if he was kidding. Her husband’s grim smile curved in the moonlight, and she felt a rush of love for him.
“You saved me.”
“And you saved me.”
“Does this mean you’re taking me back?”
“Was there any doubt?” Larry held her gently. “Okay, maybe there was. But I love you, and you really do love me.”
“I really do.” Allie nestled against him.
“Also did you see me in action? Wow.”
Allie knew he was trying to make her laugh. She’d missed him, so much. She’d missed his great heart. Maybe she had some of the Rucci luck, too. “So what do we do now? My phone’s in the car.”
“We go back and call the police. We’re in Lacey Township. Ocean County has jurisdiction.”
“What about Julian?”
“Is that his name? Who is he? And why the hell was he trying to kill you?”
“I’ll tell you later, okay?” Allie shuddered, wiping away tears.
“Is he your secret boyfriend from high school? Did you beat him for class president?”
“No.” Allie smiled through her tears.
“We leave him here. His knee’s broken. He’s not going anywhere fast, even if he comes to. We’re not far from the road. Let’s go, sweetheart.” Larry put his arm around Allie, supporting her, and they hobbled out of the woods together, holding fast to each other.
CHAPTER 100
Allie Garvey
The next few hours were a blur of activity that transformed the still, dark woods into a beehive of uniformed authorities and official vehicles with idling engines and flashing light bars. Allie and Larry had called 911, which reached the Ocean County Sheriff’s Department and referred them to the Lacey Township Police Department, who’d located them on GPS. Black-and-white Lacey Township cruisers had rushed over, followed by boxy gray ambulances. Uniformed police and EMTs escorted Allie and Larry to separate ambulances, where their vital signs were monitored. A cadre of police and paramedics raced into the woods with a litter for Julian.
Police set up klieg lights and sawhorses, cordoning off the area. CSI vans arrived, followed by a young African-American prosecutor from the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office. Her name was Missy Willis, and she met with Allie and Larry, then agreed to take their complete statements at the hospital, prioritizing their medical care. Allie’s ambulance was about to leave when police and EMTs emerged from the woods carrying the litter that held Julian, strapped down and in custody. He’d regained consciousness, but he looked away when he passed Allie.
Allie watched with grim satisfaction. He had tried to kill her and Larry. He had killed Sasha and probably loaded the gun. She hoped he spent his life in jail. The paramedic returned to her side, eased her down on the gurney, and closed the ambulance doors. They lurched off, out of the woods.
They were taken to the Emergency Department at Southern Ocean County Hospital in Manahawkin, New
Jersey, where they were examined in adjoining rooms. Larry finished quickly, since he had only a bruise and swelling on his cheekbone, superficial scratches on his face and arms, and a butterfly bandage covering a cut on his chin. He called his own parents and Allie’s father, told them briefly what happened, and said that he’d update them later, but that they didn’t have to come to the hospital.
He kept Allie company while she was examined, waited while she was taken for X-rays and a CAT scan, and returned to the Emergency Department, having determined that her wrist was broken. Reddish bruises covered her throat, and it hurt to swallow, but the doctor told her the pain would go away in a few days. She had minor bruises and superficial cuts, and she was given a cast, a sling, and some Advil.
Allie felt relieved that it was over, but she braced herself to make her statement to the authorities. It would be the first time Larry would hear the secret she’d kept from him for so long. She felt ashamed for what she’d done, especially since it had almost gotten him killed tonight. But she wanted to tell the story and she wanted the truth to come out, no matter what happened to her, them, or anything. She’d heard that cameras and reporters were already outside.
Allie’s concern was Larry. She could only hope he would understand once they’d talked it over, at home. She knew it would take work and time to rebuild their marriage, but she’d do whatever it took. They’d start over, and she sensed they could be better than before, since she was finally shedding the burden of the secret.
When the time came, Allie sat on the end of the examining table, and Larry sat next to her in a chair opposite Assistant Prosecutor Missy Willis, Detective Bill Mento, and a uniformed police officer, who had already interviewed Larry separately. Missy wore no makeup, and she had large, thoughtful eyes behind hip, oversized glasses. She looked professional even dressed in a Rutgers sweatshirt, skinny jeans, and red Toms shoes, since she’d been called in from home. She balanced a laptop on her thighs, smiling at Allie expectantly.
“So, Allie, please tell us, in your own words, what happened tonight.”
Allie took a deep breath, glancing at Larry, who took her hand with an encouraging smile. There was so much to tell. She didn’t know what of it was appropriate for the police, but she wanted to come clean. She decided to begin at the beginning.
“If you really want to understand what happened, I have to start twenty years ago.”
CHAPTER 101
Larry Rucci
Driving home from Manahawkin, Larry tried to process what he’d heard. Allie had insisted on driving her car, and he was following her in his, staying behind to make sure she was okay. She’d sworn that she was able to drive, rejecting his idea that they stay in a hotel nearby, to decompress. He knew she had to be exhausted, but she’d wanted to go home. So had he.
He followed her car at a safe distance, keeping a careful eye on her. It was dark, and the air was hot and humid, now that they weren’t in the Pine Barrens anymore. There wasn’t much traffic on the Jersey Turnpike at this hour, and he was relieved, for Allie’s sake. Tractor-trailers made her nervous when they sped up behind her, and she generally drove just under the speed limit, which made everybody who followed her nuts, except him. He’d always liked that about her, that she was cautious. He could only imagine how she was feeling now, having kept such an awful secret for so long.
Larry swallowed hard, keeping his eyes on her silhouette, in the car. He was especially worried she might fall asleep at the wheel, since giving her statement to the police had drained her. She had cried more than a few times, even when they said goodbye to Missy and the others, who had escorted them through the media waiting outside the hospital.
Larry knew it would get worse before the story finally went away. He doubted it would hurt him at work, but there would be questions to answer. There might be repercussions for Allie in her job. They were both ready to take what came, and the story would lose steam over time. What really mattered was Allie, going forward. Marriage counseling aside, she would need therapy. She had things to deal with that she’d been suppressing for too long.
Now that he knew the truth, so much about Allie made sense to him. Her secrecy, her mulling over the past, her ruminations about her sister, Jill, and high school. Her sleepless nights, her stomach problems. Larry realized he’d constructed narratives to explain her behavior, but they’d all been wrong. He’d based them on assumptions because he hadn’t known the life event, or its memory that had shaped her personality—or warped it. He sensed the birth control pills were a part of the same puzzle.
Larry exhaled, mulling it over as he drove. They would sort it out, with insanely expensive counseling. He was so happy to have her alive and for them to be going home together. Now that she was leveling with herself, and him, things could be even better than they had ever been. It could be the marriage he’d always wanted, and the family, too. He believed the truth really did set you free, and he was going to find out. His heart lifted, with hope.
Allie accelerated slightly, and Larry smiled, feeling better. It had been the scariest night of his life, but he was a lawyer, and there was nothing he liked better than the right result. He and Allie had put Julian Browne behind bars. If the asshole didn’t plead out, he and Allie would happily testify against him. Julian could get as much as ten years for their attempted murder, and Pennsylvania would have jurisdiction to try him for Sasha’s murder and New York for David’s. There would be no legal consequences to his loading the gun the night they played Russian Roulette, which Allie already knew, having evidently consulted a lawyer. Larry wished she had consulted him, but he knew why she hadn’t. She’d been afraid he wouldn’t love her anymore. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Larry kept an eye on his wife, exhaling. He was no psychiatrist, but he knew it had to have been traumatic for Allie to have lived through seeing Kyle kill himself. And he understood why she blamed herself. He would’ve felt responsible, too. He hadn’t really appreciated until tonight the shades of gray on the spectrum between innocence and guilt, but he would never think about it the same again. So much of the law was parsing degrees of culpability, but all of those academic distinctions were lost on the human heart.
He breathed deeply. It would be morning in no time, and he would wake up in bed, next to Allie. He would get his clothes from the hotel tomorrow. He would tell her about Lacy someday, of course, but not tonight.
The arch of the bridge to Pennsylvania soared ahead in the darkness, next to the YOU’VE GOT A FRIEND IN PENNSYLVANIA billboard, the state’s slogan for tourism. Larry smiled to himself.
He watched her car rising into the sky over the beautiful span of the bridge, with him right behind her, the two of them going home.
CHAPTER 102
Allie Garvey
Allie rested her head on Larry’s chest, lying on her left side. Her head buzzed. Her right wrist ached, and her throat hurt, too. She couldn’t sleep. Larry was still awake, too, but they were all talked out, having gone over what had happened, traded thoughts, and shed more than a few tears.
The bedroom was still and quiet, and the sun was beginning to rise, sending a pale gray shaft through the part in the curtains. She heard the hydraulic screech of the trash truck, a faraway siren, and a dog barking. The morning sounds of the city. Finally, it felt like home.
Allie’s mind was in overdrive, but the one thought that kept coming to her consciousness was Kyle’s mother. “Honey, I have a question for you,” she whispered.
“Not tonight, dear. I have a headache.” Larry chuckled at his own joke.
“No, really. It’s serious.”
“Like tonight hasn’t been?” Larry chuckled again. “I look forward to talking about the weather. And how about those Eagles?”
“Honey, this is really serious.” Allie swallowed hard, and her throat stung. “I’ve been thinking about Kyle’s mother.”
“Okay. I’m all ears.” Larry’s tone quieted.
“I’ve been thinking about he
r for a long time, and now that this is all out in the open, I want to go to her and explain. I want to tell her. What do you think?”
“Whoa, really?”
“Yes.” Allie felt it resonate within her chest. She knew it was the right thing to do. “I know her address. She lives near Brandywine Hunt.”
“How would you do it? Would you call first, or what?”
“I guess so, but I want to tell her in person. I think it’s important she hear it face-to-face.”
“Why do you want to tell her?”
“Because it’s the truth, and she deserves to know it. I want to set things right, the best I can. Besides, it’s going to come out in the newspapers, sooner or later. I don’t want her to find out that way. She absolutely deserves better, and I’m the only one to do it.”
Larry sighed, and Allie felt his chest go up and down.
“What?”
“I know you mean well, but slow down, babe. You don’t know how she’ll take that information. If she were my mother, she’d tear you a new one.”
Allie swallowed hard again. She knew it was true. “I know. I expect that, completely. I’ll listen to her and whatever she has to say to me.”
“It will be very hard for her, and you.”
“I know that, but if I don’t tell her, I’ll feel like I’m keeping a secret from her. It’s too big to keep to myself anymore.”
“Like a material omission?”
“Exactly,” Allie answered, nodding. She didn’t always understand Larry’s legalisms, but this one she understood completely, because she’d lived it. “I’m trying to come clean, and I can’t leave her out of this equation. Kyle was her son. She deserves to know the truth about him, more than anyone. She’s his mother.”
Someone Knows Page 32