Cloaked in Blood (32 page)

“Why would you think that?”

Tilly snorted.  “He bragged about that
step-son of his to anyone who would listen.  He was close with
Nate.  Well, a lot of us were, but Nate always got special
attention if you know what I mean.”

“I’m afraid I don’t.”

“He ran errands for Lyle.  He never
would tell me what they were, but I know Lyle kept that boy well
compensated.  He just bought a new truck last month.”

“And you don’t think he could afford it on
his salary?”

“Helen, dear, this place charges a fortune
to its residents, but they don’t pay the caregivers enough money to
buy Cadillacs, certainly not brand new ones.”

Dear God.  Had Nate been run down by
his own vehicle?  I needed to see Bay View Division’s
investigative report from the hit and run last night.

“You still didn’t tell me why this week has
been so interesting, Tilly.”  I suspected I knew what her
answer would be.  She didn’t disappoint me.

“Please.  The only two people I knew
were close to Lyle, and they’re dead within a few days of each
other, not to mention both died within a half a block of each
other.  You can’t tell me that’s a coincidence.  If I
were Lyle, I’d be beating down your door, my dear.  I’d want
the police camped out on my doorstep making sure I was safe and not
the next person on a very unlucky list.”

The hairs on the back of my neck rose. 
Instinct told me that if Maya had fingerprints to run on the John
Doe across the street, she’d learn that his name was Koehler. 
Still, another eye witness, and nobody could name this elusive dark
haired man.

“Tilly, do you have family in town?”

“Certainly.  Why do you ask?”

“I think it would be safer if you went to
stay with them for a few days, at least until you see on the news
that Senator Sanderfield and Nate’s murders have been solved.”

Her eyes widened.  “Oh dear me! 
You don’t suppose that man I saw was involved, do you? 
Gracious!  I could be the star witness at his trial!”

Chapter 31

Crevan was waiting at Henderson’s door when
I left Tilly’s apartment.  I waited until she called her
grandson and asked him to come pick her up before I left.

“Did he answer the door yet?”

“I think Johnny hallucinated, Helen.  I
haven’t heard a peep from inside this place.  I did hear every
word from inside the old lady’s apartment though.  She’s right
about these walls.  Seven toilet’s flushing, someone snoring
rather loudly, and I believe somebody up here likes Late Night with
Jimmy Fallon more than you’d expect from this advertising
demographic.”

I chuckled.  “Well, maybe Johnny is
jumpy.  It was still a worthwhile trip.  Or do you
disagree?”

“I don’t,” Crevan said.  “That’s not
going to mitigate my insubordination.”

“I’m not his employee, and he doesn’t have
the right to order you to interfere in my life.”

“Helen,” Crevan sighed, “do you have any
idea what a fine line you’re treading here?  He’s tired of
your lies, of the constant fight to keep you – and his unborn
children – safe.  He thinks you don’t trust him at all.”

“Well, he’s walking just as thin a wire with
me,” I said.  “I should’ve known better than to believe this
would work, Crevan.  He’s overbearing, a control freak,
everything I despised about him when I met him has only gotten
worse.  Am I supposed to ignore his lies, his broken
promises?”

“I can hear you, you know,” Tilly called
through the closed door.

Crevan gripped my arm and steered me toward
the elevator.  “I assume you’re not going to accuse me of
manhandling you when privacy is so important right now.”

“Agreed.”

“I suppose the salient question is, are you
going to tell Johnny what we did tonight?”

I scuffed the toe of my shoe against the
plush carpet outside the elevator.  “I suppose I don’t have a
choice.  If I don’t tell him, you will.”

Crevan shook his head.  “No.  Do I
hope you’ll tell him?  Yes, for more than the obvious reason
that he needs to know we’ve probably got the last name of this
assassin and an eyewitness unrelated to the apparently far reaching
operation that somebody is mopping up.  You realize that Tilly
probably saw the man behind the curtain tonight.”

“Maybe,” I said.  “He probably wouldn’t
be so careless to come see Lyle here, Crevan.”

“Or perhaps his desperation is
showing.  This man across the street was going to kill Lyle
Henderson tonight.  Can we at least agree on that much?”

I stepped into the elevator.  “Again, I
agree.”  My hands balled into fists.  “I know he needs to
know, Crevan, but it was just a few hours ago that he promised me
that he’d stop being so dictatorial.  He wouldn’t even listen
to me tonight.  He snarled at my best friend –”

“You wouldn’t even speak to Maya a few weeks
ago,” Crevan reminded me.

“Because Johnny bullied her into telling him
what I was really doing!”

Crevan sighed.  “I give up.  I
can’t talk sense into either one of you.  Helen, you lie to
everyone.  Is Johnny controlling?  Yeah, but most of the
time, his heart’s in the right place.  If you two can’t start
communicating, you’re doomed.  Is that really what you
want?”

I wasn’t sure anymore.  Of course, the
heart thought it knew, but the brain was still full of doubt and
excuses, mitigating circumstances if you will.  It was so easy
a couple of days ago, to make the decision, the choice of my
husband over my father.  Now I wasn’t certain of anything
again.  Of either one of them, if I were honest with
myself.

Crevan gestured when the elevator doors
opened.  “Let me get you home before he realizes that blood
was thicker than water tonight.  I really don’t want to have
to go to work for my boyfriend.  I’ve never been much of a
bartender.”

I halted him, hugged him close and
whispered, “I love you, my brother.  And I hate the bastard
that did this to us.  If he had a heart, my father would’ve
raised both of us.”

“Isn’t it about time I met this vaunted hero
who turned you into the only woman I really respect?” Crevan
said.

“Take me home,” I smiled.  “You’re
right.  It’s time.”

Dad was still at the house when Crevan
pulled up to the front door.  I called to warn him that we
were on our way, that Crevan knew everything, even that Danny was
alive and well and hiding out in our house.

“He’ll bolt if he knows.”

“So tell him I’m giving you a head’s up so
he can make himself scarce while the three of us talk.”

“He’ll probably panic if he learns Crevan
knows I’m alive,” Dad spoke barely above a whisper. 

“Tell him to wait upstairs.  I’ll
explain everything to him later.  I think he trusts me enough
to accept that much, Dad.”

We walked through the courtyard.  All
was quiet.  The lights I’d left on when Johnny and I went to
Hennessey Island were extinguished.  At least those visible
from the front of the house.  But Dad was still here.  I
knew it the moment I opened the front door.  He was in the
kitchen cooking.

I grinned.  “Grilled cheese and tomato
soup!”

“Excuse me?”

“Dad.  He always used to make that for
us when either one of us had a rough day.  I can’t believe I
forgot about the comfort food thing.”

Crevan eyed me critically.  “You look
like you forgot about the food thing in general most of the
time.”

“Shut up.  I’ve gained ten pounds in
two months.  I eat constantly.”

Crevan followed me into the kitchen.  I
didn’t miss the fact that his step faltered, the gait slowed. 
I reached behind myself with one hand.  His fingers clasped
mine tightly.

“Daddy, I think it’s time that the two of
you –”

“My God,” Dad said.

Crevan twisted his hand free and extended it
to my father.  “Sir, I’m Crevan Conall.”

“Wendell Eriksson,” Dad said.  “Call me
Wendell.”

He stared at us for a little too long.

“Grilled cheese is gonna burn if you don’t
pay attention,” I said.  I yanked the fridge open.  “You
want a beer, Crevan?  I think Johnny has some Heineken in
here.”

“Yeah, that’s great,” he said, but his eyes
hadn’t quite left my father either.

“You bear a remarkable resemblance,” Dad
finally said.  “I can’t fathom how anyone in this city
could’ve seen the two of you together and not realized who Helen
really was.”

“It wasn’t quite as obvious before she cut
off all her hair,” Crevan said.  “But I knew
immediately.  Our… my parents did too.  At least my
mother admitted as much.  My father, well, he hasn’t spoken to
me for months.”

“Helen told me,” Dad said.  He flipped
the grilled cheese on the griddle and stirred the lightly seasoned
soup.  “I’m sorry you had that happen, son.  No parent
should ever reject a child for any reason.  My daughter
could’ve grown up to be a cannibalistic serial killer and I
wouldn’t have abandoned her.”

It opened an uncomfortable dialogue I wish
Crevan hadn’t started.  “Would you, sir?  What if Melissa
Sherman is in fact your daughter?  What if she’s involved in
the very criminal enterprise that intended to sell Helen into
slavery?  Will you defend her and abandon Helen?”

I cringed.

Dad shocked both of us by laughing.  “I
don’t care, in this instance, what the science says, Crevan. 
Helen is my daughter.  I raised her.  I taught her to
walk, to read, to defend herself.  She is my heart and my soul
and my only reason for never losing hope.  Biology can’t
change that.”

“So in a couple of days, when Maya gets the
rushed results back and we know the truth, you’re not going to
suddenly feel some obligation to try to fix your biological
child?”

“Crevan,” I said.

“It’s all right, Sprout.  He didn’t
grow up with a father who cherished him simply because he
exists.  You see, Crevan, I have a bond with my daughter that
no test result will ever break.  But, and I should’ve
confessed this right away, I’m not so sure that these test results
are going to tell you what you think.”

“Daddy, what are you saying?”

“Simply that the conversation we shared
about Marie, how I had to drag her to the doctor to find out why
she was growing so obese, made me consider more strongly an old
suspicion that I harbored until the day I held you in my arms.”

“That she wasn’t carrying your child at all.
We talked about this already.”

Dad nodded.  “But what I didn’t say was
that I always found her relationship with Lyle Henderson to be more
than a little unsettling.”

I cringed.  “You think he was having
sex with his wife’s daughter?”

“Suzy was eleven years older than he was,
Helen.”

“Yeah,” I scoffed, “and he was 20 years
older than Mom.  You’re suggesting that the guy who probably
changed her diapers and kissed her scraped knees when she fell off
her tricycle had sex with her,
impregnated
her as an
adult?  That’s just… disgusting.  I thought he was this
ultra religious fundamentalist.”

“Who probably sold other little girls into
other disgusting situations,” Crevan said grimly.  “Helen,
don’t doubt your father.  I suspect he knows far more about
all of this than maybe even he’s aware.”

“It isn’t lack of awareness,” Dad
admitted.  “Denial is a very powerful tool.”

“I’m curious how you really ended up married
to her,” Crevan said.  “I know what Helen told me, but I find
that hard to believe.  Who gets married for convenience?”

I burst out laughing.  “Really
Crevan? 
You
have trouble understanding that?  You
married a woman, and you’re gay.”

We both suddenly turned to stare at my
father.

“Oh stop it,” he chuckled.  “I’m not,
but if you must know, I did rather enjoy having the appearance of
that perfect life.  Remember what I told you once,
Helen?  Find the American dream, embrace it, live it like you
really believe it?”

“So she was your philosophy in action?”

He grinned.  “Yeah, and look how that
turned out.  Not very well for any of us.  Look at our
lives, kids.  I married a psychopath who tried to kill me and
probably was having an affair with her step-father.  You
married a money launderer for the mob.  And you, married a
woman when you weren’t even sexually attracted to her.  Fine
examples of the American dream, all three of us.  Well, not
anymore for me.  If it’s not what I really want, something
that makes me happy, I want no part of it.”

“Me too,” Crevan chuckled.  “I’ll keep
Alex, thank you very much.”

“And what about you, Sprout?  Are you
finally ready to settle into this magnificent romance with your
doting husband?”

It was an excellent question.  Niggling
fear made me wonder if I’d simply settled for somebody else’s idea
of the dream all over again.  And wouldn’t it be just my luck
to fail spectacularly a second time?

Chapter 32

I went to bed at two in the morning when it
became apparent to me that Johnny wasn’t coming home any time
soon.  It felt like I was asleep the moment my head touched
the pillow.  All thoughts of the disturbing conversation with
Dad and Crevan earlier fled.  I was too exhausted to worry
about little old Tilly and what she saw or the fact that Johnny was
probably out working with David Levine trying to determine the
identity of the murder victim wielding a high powered rifle with
Lyle Henderson in his sights.

The hand that clamped violently over my
mouth woke me from a deep sleep with such a jarring effect, I
simply reacted without wondering who it was, what the hell they
were doing, or why the disturbance took place.  Since my first
abduction, I’ve taken to sleeping with a loaded Raven .22 caliber
pistol under a pillow.  My arms grabbed the body hovering
above me, dragged it off balance and flipped it onto the bed beside
me.  A second later, the gun was in my hand as I kicked the
blankets away and pinned the hips of my intruder to the bed. 
I pressed the barrel into the soft underbelly of his chin.