Cloaked in Blood (43 page)

“I should’ve listened to you,” Crevan
said.

“Now you realize it,” I grinned.  “Next
time, don’t make the same mistake.”

“We can’t bury this, Helen,” Crevan
said.  “It’s wrong.  I killed my father.  I wanted
to kill him.”

“Shh.  Don’t ever say that again. 
Do you hear me?  The four of us are the only ones who know
what really happened here tonight.  I’ll never tell. 
Daddy won’t either.  Johnny may not like what happened, but he
loves you.  He loves me.  He knows that justice was
served, even if it was kinder than Aidan deserved.  Let it
go.  File the report and go home to Alex and live a happy
life.”

“She’s right, Crevan.  It’s over. 
It’s finally over, once and for all,” Johnny said.  He jerked
his head toward the door.  “Trust me.  I’ve got
this.  Now get Wendell out of here before we end up with blood
on the floor that we can’t explain.”

I wrapped one arm around Dad and helped him
out the back door.  We were careful not to touch
anything. 

“Where’s your car?”

He nodded toward the back of the
garage.  “You’ll have to find something to brush over the tire
imprints after we get into the alley.  I’d hate to make this
harder for your husband to explain.”

“You don’t think people will believe
him?”

“Oh, they will.  Nobody questions that
man, or at least that’s been my impression.  It concerns me
that the FBI is still out here nosing into this, Helen.  Are
you aware that Johnny has been with David Levine all day?”

“I’m not surprised.  But Daddy, he’ll
explain all of that later.  I know he will.”

“Good,” Dad paused in our retreat and kissed
the side of my head.  “I’m glad you’ve finally figured that
out now.  You know I can’t stay here, Sprout, but I had to
know I was leaving you in capable hands.”

I eased him into the front seat of the
car.  “Don’t say that.  I meant what I said.  I want
you here with me.  I want my sons to know that they come from
good people, Daddy.”

“There’s a small broom in the trunk of the
car.  Get it out before you back out of here so you can brush
the evidence we were here away.”

“Not until you promise me!  I won’t
lose you a third time, Dad.”

“You’re not losing me.  My face,
perhaps, but know that nothing will keep me away from you forever,
my dear little Sprout.  But it’s all moot if we don’t get out
of here before Johnny has to call in the cavalry.”

Johnny surveyed the damage for a good five
minutes before he looked at Crevan.  “Well, you’ve got shock
down pat.  That works to our advantage.”

“You can’t do this, John,” he said. 
“The truth always comes out in the end.  I won’t take you down
with me.”

“Neither one of us is going down for this or
anything else,” Johnny said grimly.  “There’s only one other
person who knows something bad happened here tonight, and I do
believe that my wife has another man so smitten with whatever it is
about her that makes doing very bad things seem right, that he’s
the least of our worries.”

“Where is Datello?”

“I already told all of you.  He’s back
in Beach Cliffs, or on his way at the very least.  Crevan, I
need you to listen to me.  I’ve got to call this in, and I
want you to know exactly what I need you to say.  You called
me.  You told me that you and Helen put all the pieces
together, that you deduced Aidan was the missing conspirator that
we were looking for.  It’ll make complete sense to Levine,
since we reached the same conclusion.  He was with me when I
got the call from Danny.  He’ll believe it was you. 
We’ll tell him that when I got here, Helen agreed to go home and
let us confront him.  I took the back of the house, you took
the front.  Aidan came home while you were unlocking the front
door.  He met you inside.  He came at you when you told
him he was under arrest.  You fought for the gun, it went off
when he tried to take it from you, and he died.”

“Johnny –”

“I couldn’t get to you in time.  This
place is a fucking mausoleum.  I could hear you, but couldn’t
find my way from the back of the house in time.  When I got
here, it was at the moment that the gun went off.  I saw him
try to overpower you.  This was an accident.  We’ll sic
the bureau on Aidan’s finances, and it won’t take long at all to
show the truth of where his money really came from.”

Johnny paused and peered intently at
Crevan.  “She needs you, Crevan.  Helen needs you. 
She’s gonna lose Wendell again.  We both know he won’t stay
here, can’t stay here.  It’s too risky, and he’d never put her
in danger that way.  She needs her family now more than
ever.  That’s you and me, brother.  It’s you and
me.  Are you in?”

Crevan nodded, albeit reluctantly. 
“Make the call.”

Johnny whipped out his cell phone.

A second later, and, “Levine.”

“It’s Johnny.  Where are you?”

“At the county jail.  Melissa Sherman
tried to hang herself.”

“Jesus,” Johnny said.  “Tried?”

“We cut her down in time.  What
happened in Bay View?”

“It was Crevan who called me, David. 
He and Helen put everything together this morning.  They’d
been out surveilling Aidan Conall all day.  When they saw him
go to the jail, Crevan figured what he was up to.  That’s when
he called me.  I met him in Bay View.  We planned to
confront his father.”

“Planned to?  Oh God, don’t tell
me.”

“Hold on,” Johnny said.  “You need to
hear all of this.”

He related the tale he’d rehearsed with
Crevan.

“Thank God Helen had the sense to listen
this time,” David breathed.  “Have you called your Crime Scene
Division yet?”

“I wanted to tell you what happened out here
first,” Johnny said.  His voice dipped low.  “Crevan’s
pretty shook up over this.  It wasn’t easy to realize that his
father has been behind this thing all along.  Lots of guilt,
you know?  For not seeing it from the very beginning.”

“Christ,” David said.  “Is he all
right?”

“He’ll be fine.  In the meantime, we’re
going to need a subpoena for financial records.”

“No, we’ll just need permission from Aidan’s
next of kin.  I don’t suppose his wife would be very kindly
disposed however, would she.”

“I’ll let her know what happened just as
soon as I get Ken Forsythe and his team out here to process the
scene.  I’m gonna get Devlin Mackenzie over here too. 
Somebody needs to get Crevan home.”

“I’m so sorry, Johnny.  I wish this
hadn’t ended this way.”

“Well it did, and it is the end of it,
David.”

“There’s always that.  I’ll be up there
as soon as I can.  Maybe later I can talk to Helen about her
suspicions of my behavior of late.”

“Eventually,” Johnny agreed.  “She’s
gonna want to be with Crevan right now, I’m sure.  I’ll call
you as soon as she’s ready.  You’ve got my word.”

Johnny called CSD and gave the address.

“Helen’s not going to like this,” Crevan
said quietly.

Johnny snorted.  “Don’t be
obtuse.  This sort of thing is exactly her specialty. 
Plausible deniability.  She’s an expert, trust me.”

“I meant about Levine.  She really
doesn’t trust him anymore, Johnny.”

“Yeah, and I know why.  I also know the
truth.  You didn’t think I’d keep him abreast of anything that
happened tonight if I didn’t believe he’s looking out for her, did
you?”

“Are you sure we’re doing the right
thing?  What if Helen wakes up one day and realizes she hates
me for killing him?  What if Alex takes one look at me and
knows what I did?  I can’t live like this, Johnny.  These
kinds of secrets ruin people’s lives.”

“From the mouths of less capable liars,
yeah, they do,” Johnny said, “but in this instance, we’re going to
let it go, Crevan.  We’re going to accept this gift and thank
God that Aidan won’t have the chance to buy off a jury with the
recitation of his good deeds.  Instead, we’ll bury him under
the mound of evidence Levine and his people are going to
uncover.  Leave it alone now.”

Within minutes, it was too late to turn
back.  The Conall residence was crawling with crime scene
techs, and the overwhelming support rained down on Crevan for a
double tragedy – first that his gun was the one that took his
father’s life, and lastly, that Aidan Conall was the unimaginable
bastard who thought he could sell human beings in Darkwater
Bay.

Chapter 44

It took weeks for the brouhaha to die down
over what happened to Aidan Conall.  I doubt that anyone was
more amazed than I was that the public bought Johnny’s story. 
People – especially poorer ones, and Catholics in particular –
whispered their lack of surprise that he turned out to be such a
vile creature.

David’s forensic team quickly learned that
when Crevan and I were born, the Conall family was living on little
more than strained credit and a very old family name that carried a
lot of money-backed clout.

Apparently, Aidan was desperate not to be
the Conall that moved to the poor house. 

Hadn’t we said all along that greed was the
basis of most crimes?  I suppose our biological father
would’ve spouted some nonsense about the love of money being the
root of all evil.

And maybe in his case, he’d have been
right.

Crevan went into hiding.  Of course, I
still have keys to the penthouse, so he couldn’t keep me
away.  I think that between Alex and me, his guilt is easing
faster than it would if we’d let him wallow in it alone.

As for Kathleen?  Well, she wanted
nothing to do with Aidan’s money after she learned how he got
it.  She’s still living in Johnny’s house in Downey, and
Crevan told me that she’s volunteering at the Sixth Avenue
Shelter.  There’s irony for you.

Two days after the shooting, I woke up and
found a note from Dad.  He was well enough to travel and
thought it best that he lay low for the foreseeable future.  I
suspected he was off getting a new face that would allow him
reentry into Darkwater Bay before my children are born.  He
keeps his promises, at least the ones he makes to me.

While the FBI was too busy helping Johnny
prove that Crevan didn’t fight with an innocent man for possession
of his gun, I had Celeste and Sofia Datello over for lunch.  I
still get a little teary-eyed thinking about the joy that filled my
home when she was finally reunited with her husband. 

After that meeting, Danny called Agent Joel
Soule and told him that he was terrified that all the murders in
Darkwater Bay were attempts on his family’s life, that he’d been
hiding out because he couldn’t bear never seeing his wife
again.

Soule agreed that it would be all right for
him to come home as soon as Marcos was behind bars. 

Johnny says that the feds are ready to start
the trial, thanks to Datello’s eagerness to put the ugliest chapter
in
his
life behind him. 

I wanted to go to Dunhaven and chat with
Jerry Lowe again, but this time, when Johnny put his foot down, I
didn’t resent it quite so much.  Jujitsu is a fading memory
for me now.  I look like I could pop these babies out
tomorrow, but I’ve got another trimester to go.

And today, on my thirty-ninth birthday,
Johnny said he has a surprise for me.  I doubt it’ll be such a
shock for me though.  Getting Crevan out of the penthouse,
dragging the friends I resisted having in the first place over to
our house doesn’t seem very surprising.  At least not
anymore.

If anybody had told me where life would take
me a year ago, when this nightmare really started for me, I’d have
laughed in their faces.  Yet here I am.  Married. 
Pregnant.  With a brother.  Close friends who I no longer
shut out of my life.  Happy.  The only thing that could
make life better was if Daddy could be here with me every day.

The chime at the front gate jerked me out of
my moment of gratitude.  I struggled off the sofa in the
family room and made my way to the control panel.  “Can I help
you?”

“Special Agent David Levine here to see my
favorite former profiler.”

My hand froze over the release for the
gate.

He rang again. 

“Just a minute.”  One hand clasped to
my chest.  Was this Johnny’s surprise?  Lingering doubts
about David persisted.  Johnny didn’t push, never even talked
about David’s involvement in that last day or two of the case.

I don’t know how much time passed, but the
chime sounded again.

My hand trembled.  I forced my fingers
to uncurl, to push the button and open the gate.  Panic
swelled in my chest, slowed the thudding heart that seemed to
barely pump the icy sludge through my veins.  Was this
it?  Would he stand at my front door and read me my
rights?

It was what I deserved after all. 
Forgiveness means nothing without expiation.  My judgment was
walking toward the front door.

“Helen,” he said, brow etched with
concern.  “Are you still angry with me?  Didn’t Johnny
tell you what really happened?”

Ha!  Didn’t Johnny tell
him
what
really happened?  No, of course he didn’t.  My husband
isn’t through cloaking my sins.  Apparently that’s something
he’s gotten rather good at – cloaking the sins of the Conall
twins.  Nobody but Crevan and I realized that the cloak was
drenched in blood.

“Honey, I’ve wanted to talk to you for weeks
now.  First Johnny said you needed time to come to terms with
what happened between Aidan and Crevan.  Then I was swamped
with evidence that Aidan really was… well, what we all suspected he
was.  It’s been weeks, Helen, and you have no idea how many
people we’ve found who were victims of what these vile men
did.”

Well, at least there was that.

“But that isn’t why I came here today. 
I’m here because I miss my friend, and I think it’s high time that
the two of us had a completely honest conversation.”