Cloaked in Blood (39 page)

Maya’s voice dipped low.  “Have you
talked to Johnny this morning?”

“Yes.”

“Thank God,” she breathed.  “Billy’s
still at the morgue.  I’m on my way out to the island again
with Hector.  Call him and ask about the DNA.  It’s still
a little early, Helen, but he can check it for you.  Mind you,
this isn’t going to be verified by peer review or any such thing
yet.  It’ll be his eyeballs alone.”

“I’ll take anything at this point. 
Thanks Maya, and don’t worry about Johnny’s threats.  He’d
never fire you for talking to me.”

I hung up.

“You let her believe that Johnny told you
everything, didn’t you?” Crevan asked.

“She asked if I talked to him.  I said
yes.  It’s not like I didn’t know he lied to me, Crevan, and
she didn’t say a single word about Henderson specifically, only
that she’s on her way back out to the island.”

“I gotta know how you figure all this shit
out,” Datello breathed. 

“You’re not so far behind where my mind is
headed, Danny.  We were, after all, raised by criminals. 
Thinking like them isn’t such a stretch, is it?”  I glanced at
Crevan.  “At least it isn’t when they don’t pretend to be
something they’re not.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
Crevan demanded.

Datello paled.  He knew what I meant,
where all of this was going.  I understood as well, that my
brother was taught denial stronger than probably anyone I’ve ever
known.  “It means it’s time to change our clothes and get out
of everyone’s sight for the next few hours, Crevan.  It’s up
to you.  Are you in or out?  Make up your mind.  We
don’t have a lot of time to waste.”

He didn’t hesitate, which surprised
me.  Maybe my brother had less heart and more backbone than I
thought after all. 

“I’m in.  Point me to the sweat
suits.”

I grinned.  “They’re in a box on the
shelf in Johnny’s closet.  Both of you, go.  I’ve got one
more call to make.”

Billy Withers answered on the first
ring.  “Hiya, Helen.  Are you calling for your DNA
results?”

I sucked in a calming breath.  “Please
tell me you have something to report this morning, Billy.”

“As a matter of fact,” he chuckled, “I was
just getting ready to send Maya a text and let her know that we’ve
got the comparison here.  You understand that until she
verifies what I’m looking at –”

“Billy, I trust you.  Just tell me what
you got.”

“It’s not a match,” he said.  “John Doe
is not related to the sample from Melissa Sherman, but the mtDNA
from that envelope was a match.  Looks like you found mommy,
but not daddy just yet.”

“Do me a favor, Billy.  A very quiet
favor.  When Maya gets her latest victim out to the morgue,
run one of his samples against Melissa Sherman’s.”

“Seriously?  You think Henderson is a
biological –?”

“I don’t know.  But I’d love to find
out.”

Chapter 39

Johnny paced inside the private visitation
room inside Bay County Correctional Facility with proficient
impatience.  David leaned against the wall, arms crossed over
his chest.

“How bad is it?”

“Helen?” Johnny glanced David’s way for the
barest moment.

“Yeah, since I’m pretty aware of how bad the
rest of this is.”

Johnny shook his head, felt like slamming
his fist against the wall until both were reduced to pulp. 
“She’s mad at me.  Not hiding it particularly well, which
isn’t the greatest sign in the world.”

“You know, this will come to an end,
Johnny.  And when that time comes, you’re going to have to
make a decision.”

“I know,” he admitted.  “Do you think
it isn’t eating me up inside?  Christ.”

“It’s not too late to fix what’s
broken.  It’s never too late for that, my friend.  Helen
would’ve never married you if she didn’t love you.”

“She’s pregnant and terrified.  That
has nothing to do with love.”

David sighed but didn’t offer the rest of
his opinion.  He simply waited for this jail officer, Saul
Becker, to return with Melissa Sherman.  He understood
Johnny’s impatience.  This conversation might well result in
the identity of the unknown conspirator.

He hoped. 

Orion was hanging by a thread as things
were.

The door pushed open and Billings pushed an
unwilling detainee into the room.  “Says she don’t wanna talk
to you ‘til her lawyer gets here from Montgomery.”

“We’re not here to question her,” Johnny
said.  “This is an official notification.”

Saul frowned.  Sherman cowered into his
chest.

“‘Bout her father?  She already got
notified by her parish priest about that a couple of hours
ago.”

“My
father
?” Sherman echoed. 
“He wasn’t my father, you fool!  He was my –” she clamped her
lips together tightly.

“He was your what?” Johnny growled. 
“Your partner in crime?”

“I want my lawyer!  Officer, I demand
that you return me to my cell until Mr. Marcel arrives.”

Saul looked from the fuming Orion to serene
Levine for direction.  David merely nodded and waited until
they left the room.

“Even though this wasn’t the reception we
anticipated, it still helps us, Johnny.  We know that someone
else, someone posing as a priest, showed up this morning and
delivered our news to Mrs. Sherman.  If not the killer, then
who else could it possibly be?”

“Really?” Johnny spat.  “You’re really
asking me that?  Our so-called clandestine investigation has
been leaking like a sieve since day one.  For all we know,
Helen could’ve sent Crevan in here to share the news.”

“Helen doesn’t know that Henderson is
dead.”

Johnny snorted.  “Doesn’t she? 
She’s always three steps ahead of everybody and you know it. 
She thinks like that bastard who raised…”

“What is it?”

Orion’s eyelids fluttered shut.  He
pinched the bridge of his nose and cursed expansively.

“I take it there’s more to this story that I
don’t know.”

“Son of a bitch.”  Could he betray
Helen?  Should he tell Levine all of it, how he’d met Wendell
not only out of concern for Helen, but for help in getting Seleeby
off her back once and for all?  Maybe Levine needed to know
what they were really battling against here, that they knew Datello
was alive because he got to Helen through her very much alive
father – who happened to be posing as a priest somewhere. 

Did Johnny doubt for one second the identity
of the priest who delivered the news of Henderson’s death to
Melissa?  No, not even a little.  He wondered if it was
at Helen’s direction, but that was about the sum total of what he
didn’t already know.

Wendell Eriksson might well be the last
conspirator. 
He
was connected to Lyle Henderson, had
been for years. 
He
might well be Melissa Sherman’s
real father. 
He
might’ve been behind Helen’s abduction
all along.

Johnny groaned and rested his head against
the cinderblock wall.  He began pounding it lightly against
the surface, muttering, “No, no, no, no, no.”

“Johnny, whatever you tell me, it’s strictly
confidential, completely off the record.”

Something welled in his chest. 
Pain.  Fear.  Agony in the battle between doing what he
knew was right and what he wanted to happen.  “David, this
isn’t my story to tell.”

“If it keeps her safe, it most certainly
is.”

Johnny slowly turned around.  “No,
keeping Helen safe is her responsibility.  She won’t let
anyone else assume what belongs to her alone.  I get that
now.  You can ask her for the truth.  I’m not sure you’ll
ever get it.  I’m not sure I’ve ever heard it.  But you
can ask.”

“Then I’d suggest we find her and let me
have that opportunity.”

Johnny made a sweeping gesture toward the
door.  “After you.  She’s at the house with Crevan. 
That is, unless she’s off closing this case without us.”

David grinned.  “Well, that would be
the predictable thing about her, wouldn’t it?”

Fog rolled into the city on cue with the
sun’s dip below the western horizon.  Crevan, Danny and I sat
huddled together in the only seat of the beat-up Chevy pickup I had
hidden away in another storage facility.

“Dare I ask how many more emergency stashes
you have all over town?” Crevan asked.

“No, but that wouldn’t stop you from asking
anyway.  What can I say, Crevan?  Dad taught me to always
be prepared for any contingency, to be ready to walk away from
everything at the drop of a hat.  This is how it works in our
world.  We do what has to be done, and then we move on.”

“There’s probably a want out on all three of
us by now,” Crevan sipped his coffee and tugged the collar of his
jacket a little higher around the rim of his jaw.  “Maybe I’d
feel better if I knew why we’re hiding out like this.”

“We’re hiding out because I want to know
what’s going to happen at Bay County Correctional,” I said. 
“And from here, I have a perfect view through the binoculars.”

“Who do you think you’re gonna see?” Crevan
asked.  He pressed his set of long distance eyewear to his
eyes.  “We’ve been out here all day, sweating our asses off,
and now freezing in the damp cold.  It’s damn near too foggy
to see anything anyway.”

“Nonsense,” Datello said.  “We saw
Orion and Levine leave hours ago, looking none too happy. 
Maybe they’ll be back.”

“They won’t,” I said.  “She already
knew that Lyle Henderson was dead before Johnny had the chance to
use that information to his advantage.”

“How would she know?  You think
somebody already came and threatened her?” Crevan asked.

“No, I know she knows because I’m pretty
sure that my father already told her.”

“Wendell?  How would he… Jesus,
Helen.  Don’t tell me that you think your dad killed
Henderson.”

“Oh Crevan,” I chuckled.  “Of course
Daddy didn’t kill Lyle.  He might think I don’t really need
the answers in all of this, but he needs them as much as I
do.  That’s why he was spying on Lyle.”

“Do you think he’s the one who killed
Koehler?” Danny wondered.

“If he did, he’d never cop to it, nor would
any evidence ever be found.  I can see him going to confront
Lyle, and probably finding his body.”

“Just how the hell do you see that?”
Crevan’s exasperation filled the cab of the truck.  “For God’s
sake, Helen.  He’s been in prison for nearly 20 years, and you
allegedly had no idea what he was really doing before his
arrest.”

“Do you know your father?” Datello
asked.

“Of course I do.”

“Even though you’ve probably had very little
to do with him since you got out from under his homophobic thumb
when you were probably about the same age as Helen was when Wendell
was arrested?”

“Of course.  It’s no secret how he’d
react to just about anything.  I witnessed enough of his
tantrums and rages growing up to know exactly how he’d –” 
Crevan clamped his mouth shut for a moment.  “Fine.  I
see your point.  You know how your dad thinks.”

“But whoever facilitated my abduction when I
was a newborn doesn’t know Dad.  He doesn’t know me
either.  Oh, he might’ve been watching me for the majority of
at least my professional career, but he doesn’t know me,
Crevan.  I’d lay odds that he cannot conceive of the lengths
to which I’d go, or the depths I’d stoop to catch someone.”

“But I think Danny and I get it,
Helen.  And if you already know who this guy is, then why
aren’t we out confronting him, arresting him?”

“Proof, dear brother.  My gut isn’t
admissible in a court of law.  I need to see him approach
Sherman.  And you can bet the family fortune, he’s going to do
it.”

As he spoke, my heart began thundering
wildly in my chest.  It sounded like a fist banging on a door
in my head.  Datello and I glanced at each other when the
Lincoln pulled into the parking lot of the county jail.

“Don’t look now,” Danny said. 
“Somebody’s got a visitor.”

Crevan pressed the binoculars to his face
and cursed.

“Jesus, Helen.  You can’t possibly
believe – he’s got every reason to be here!”

“And why is that?  Because he knows
Lyle, has known him for years?”

“Yes!” Crevan said.

“And so how would he ever know that there’s
a connection between Melissa Sherman and Lyle Henderson?  They
didn’t advertise it.  If I hadn’t had her DNA compared to my
mother’s, we’d have never learned who she really is.  We know
without a doubt that she isn’t my father’s child, and he suspected
it when he found out Marie was pregnant.”

“Helen –”

“As unbelievable as this might seem, it’s
the proof I’ve been looking for all along, Crevan.  I’m
sorry.  You know it as well as I do.”

“I know nothing of the sort!  He could
be here to see any number of people.”

“Detective Conall, you need to stop making
excuses for what’s right in front of your eyes,” Danny said. 
“Do you think I wanted to believe that my uncle murdered my father,
that he ended the life of the man his own sister loved with all her
heart?  Of course not.”

Crevan turned to me with an anguished
expression flooding his eyes.  “But how could he be part of
something like this, Helen?  How?”

“He said it to me once before, how little he
values women.  Honey, think about what you know, what you’ve
seen, how he treated –”

“Stop,” he said.  “I can’t listen to
this.”

I nodded.  “I was afraid this would
happen if I even hinted at confronting you with the truth. 
You can’t be part of what has to happen next.”

“Don’t think you’re cutting me out
now!  I’m not going to let you simply go confront him and
probably kill him if you don’t get the answers you want to
hear!”