“Karate kid,” Jeannine said, jumping forward and catching Gary directly in the chest with the kick.
He flew backwards into the table and lay sprawled on the floor.
Jeannine picked up a broom handle and carried it across the room and shoved it against Gary’s throat. “What did you do to my body?” she asked.
“I buried it,” he said. “Using Beverly’s name. I buried you in a grave at Resurrection Cemetery.”
“Where’s my baby,” she asked, pushing the handle further down.
He gagged. “I don’t know,” he gasped. “I told Child Services to take her. Told them I couldn’t deal with her. Told them I wasn’t the father.”
Bradley tore down the residential street and pulled up to the front door of Gary’s house. He pulled the “jaws of life” tool out of the back seat of his car and made his way to the door. With a quick check, he found the door locked. And with a quick swing of his tool, the door was hanging open.
The house was quiet and felt deserted, but he needed to check every room, just in case. He hurried down the front hall, looking into each room he passed. Not only was there no one in the rooms, each of the rooms had an unlived feel. Like someone put furniture in there for show, but never used the rooms.
After a thorough search, he knew there was no one on the first floor. He ran to the staircase and took the stairs three at a time. The first door he opened was a guest room that had the same unused look as the room downstairs.
He hurried to the next door. Opening it, he inhaled sharply. It was a nursery, painted in pink and white. There was a crib in the corner with a pink satin comforter, crib bumper and even one small pillow. It was the same set he and Jeannine had purchased for their baby, but, he recalled absently they had two small pillows.
The next room was the master bedroom. Bradley entered the large room and hurried over to the walk in closet. He opened the door and was shocked by his discovery. The entire wall was covered with the bits and pieces of photos of Jeannine that had been stolen from his home during the breakin. He had made a collage of her, along with newspaper articles about her disappearance.
Bradley was about to leave the closet when he notice something on the other wall. He shoved aside the hung clothing and revealed the beginnings of another collage. This one featured Mary. There were photos that were taken of her in the master bedroom of Bradley’s house, as well as candid shots of her outside the house.
A cold chill ran down his spine. He had to find her as soon as possible.
He ran down the stairs and back through the kitchen to the basement door. He hurried down the stairs, oblivious to any danger he might be facing. He only wanted to find Mary.
Stopping at the bottom of the stairs, he scanned the room. It was nearly empty. All he saw was a furnace, water heater and some shelves with old paint cans. He moved closer to the shelving. Something wasn’t right there.
He looked at the floor and saw the gray concrete paint had scrape marks on it, but there was nothing around that could make the marks. Then he realized the house lines in the basement didn’t match up with the rest of the house. He walked to the edge of the shelf and pushed. It moved forward. Pushing against it harder, it slid forward and revealed a steel door. Surprised to find it unlocked, he pushed it open and moved inside.
Pulling a flashlight from his belt, he slowly scanned the dark room. In one corner were a small table and a folding chair. In another corner, he could see a white door.
He moved into the room, focusing on the door in the corner. As he came closer, he saw it was the door to a freezer, but he’d seen enough cases where doors like these were used to camouflage a real doorway. Pulling it open, he peered inside.
The light from the freezer shone brightly into the dark room and it took Bradley’s eyes a moment to adjust. And then he saw her.
All of his worst nightmares came true as he stared at what must have been Jeannine’s frozen mutilated body. He turned away from the freezer and took several deep breaths, trying to halt his gag reflex. Then he forced himself to turned back and examine the body.
He bent down on the floor and tried to distance himself from the horror that was screaming inside his mind. He could see her legs had been removed from her torso, so she could fit upright in the freezer. They must be stored on the upper shelf, he thought.
He stood up to catalog the items on the shelf and found the little white box. His heart dropped. With shaking hands he slowly lifted the lid. The tiny frozen embryo lay wrapped in plastic, huddled on a pink satin pillow. He clutched the box to his chest, fell to his knees and cried.
The blaring tone of his cell phone echoed in the room. Bradley pulled it from his pocket. “Yes,” he answered, his voice rough with emotion.
“It’s Sean. I wanted you to know that Copper buried Jeannine in a cemetery in Chicago,” he said. “I’m working on exhumation orders.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, he brought her into Cook County, she died there,” he said.
Bradley looked more closely at the body in the freezer and realized it was Beverly Copper, Gary’s first wife.
“But, Bradley, we don’t know where the baby is.”
He sealed up the little box and placed it back in the freezer. “I think I do,” he said, wiping away his tears. He could mourn for his daughter later. Now he had to find Mary.
“Listen, Gary isn’t here at his house,” he continued. “The only other place he could be is at his office in downtown Sycamore. I’m headed there now.”
“Okay, I ‘m only a few minutes out, I’ll meet you there,” Sean said.
Chapter Forty-three
Jeannine gasped. “My baby is alive?”
Gary took that moment to grab the broom handle and pull it from her hands. He whipped it around and rammed it into her legs. Jeannine stumbled backwards and Gary pounced.
He lifted his hand to punch her, but she feinted to the side and he missed her. She lifted her leg and caught him in the gut with her knee. Then she elbowed him in the neck and rolled out from beneath him.
She scrambled across the floor, and then jumped up, putting the couch between them.
He picked up the broom handle and walked towards her. “I never meant to hurt you,” he said.
“You killed me, you son-of-a-bitch,” Jeannine said.
“I didn’t kill you,” he said, stopping on the other side of the couch. “It was the hospital, they made the mistake. I didn’t.”
“You told them I was your wife,” she replied. “They didn’t have my medical records; they didn’t know I was allergic to that drug. When you lied to them about who I was, you killed me.”
He slapped the broomstick against his hand. “You women are all alike,” he said, “Always blaming me. Beverly blamed me because the women I worked on wanted me. It wasn’t my fault.”
“They wanted you?” Jeannine asked.
“She found the videos I took,” he said. “I tried to tell her they liked it. They wanted me. They were drugged because they didn’t want to feel guilty.”
Jeannine shook her head. “You are one sick creep,” she said. “No wonder Beverly left you.”
He shook his head and chuckled. “Oh, she didn’t leave me,” he said. “She’s still at home waiting for me. Just like you are going to wait for me.”
“Like hell she is,” Bradley yelled from the open doorway, before he lunged at Gary.
Bradley punched him in the jaw and knocked him backwards. Then he grabbed him by the collar and rammed his head into the concrete wall. “You killed my wife,” he screamed, knocking his head against the wall again.
“You killed my child,” he screamed, knocking him again.
“You will never, ever, do that to anyone else,” he said, knocking him against the wall once more.
“Bradley stop,” Jeannine yelled. “You’re going to kill him.”
“Good,” Bradley growled through clenched teeth. “He doesn’t deserve to live.”
“Bradley, stop.” Jeannine grabbed onto his arm and tried to pull him away.
Suddenly a strong pair of arms moved Jeannine to the side and pulled Bradley off the unconscious, badly battered man. “Alden, control yourself,” Sean said. “This isn’t the way and you know it.”
Bradley stepped back and took a shuddering gasp when he looked at Gary’s bloody face.
“I wanted to kill him,” he said, his voice a combination of disbelief and regret.
“Yeah, I get that,” Sean said. “But you didn’t and that’s what matters.”
Bradley met Sean’s gaze and nodded. “Thanks.”
“I’ll wait here for the paramedics,” Sean said. “Why don’t you take Mary upstairs to the waiting room?”
Bradley turned around. “Mary, are you all right?” he asked.
“I am, now that you’re here,” she said.
He scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the small waiting room at the top of the stairs. He placed her on her feet and cradled her head in his hands.
“Bradley, you need to know something before you kiss me,” she whispered
He lowered his face. “Anything we need to discuss can wait.”
“Bradley, I’m not Mary, I’m Jeannine.”
Bradley froze and lifted his head. “No, you’re Mary,” he said. “I was married to Jeannine, I know the difference.”
Jeannine laughed. “No, I mean that I’m inside Mary’s body,” she said. “It was the only way to save her, because Gary had drugged her.”
Bradley shook his head. “You’re serious? Jeannine?”
She smiled at him. “Takes a while to get through that thick skull of yours, but you finally do catch on.”
“You saved Mary?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she said with a smile. “I really like her. So, don’t do anything stupid and mess it up.”
He chuckled. “Well, I’ve tried pretty much every stupid thing I can think of. I hope I can start being smarter soon.”
She laid her head on his chest. “I really do love you, you know,” she said.
He hugged her close and kissed her hair. “And I love you.”
She looked up at him, her eyes bright with tears. “I don’t think Mary would mind,” she said, as she wrapped her arms around him and kissed him for one last time.
She stepped out of Mary’s body and Mary collapsed into Bradley’s arms. He looked out and saw Jeannine’s ghost standing in front of them. “I get to go home now, Bradley,” she said. “Promise me…”
“Anything,” he said, cradling Mary’s body in his arms.
“Find my body and put me in a proper grave. And find our baby.”
Bradley thought about the tiny body in the freezer across town. Jeannine didn’t need to know what happened to their baby. She needed to rest in peace. “I will, Jeannine, I promise.”
“Good-bye Bradley,” she said, as she faded away. “Take good care of Mary.”
“Good-bye Jeannine,” he whispered to the empty room.
“Bradley,” Mary murmured in his arms. “Is Jeannine…”
“She’s gone,” Bradley choked. “Jeannine’s gone and my baby is dead.”
Mary shook her head, trying to clear the fog in her brain. “No, your baby is alive,” she whispered. “I heard her cry when she was born.”
“You heard her…?” Bradley asked, but Mary was already unconscious.
Chapter Forty-four
Bradley sat vigil at Mary’s bedside in the hospital in Freeport. He knew she didn’t like hospitals and wanted to be sure that he was there when she finally woke up.
Dr. Louise Thorne had examined her when she came in and said that until the drug wore off, they wouldn’t know if any other injuries had occurred. That was two days ago and everyone, including Dr. Thorne, was getting a little worried.
He looked around the room and had to smile. This place had more stuff in it than the gift shop. There were a half a dozen bouquets of flowers from red roses to yellow daisies. There were boxes of chocolates, dozens of cards, a goldfish in a goblet from the Brennan boys and several plates of cookies and baked goods from Rosie.
He got up and picked up a cookie from one of the plates and bit into it.
“Filching cookies from an invalid,” Mike said. “That’s pretty low.”
“She’s not an invalid, she just hasn’t woken up yet,” Bradley said. “And Rosie said Mary could share.”
Mike glided over to Mary. “Did you ever wonder if that fairy tale thing worked?” he asked. “You lean over and kiss her and she opens her eyes.”
“Well, I could run it past Dr. Thorne and see what she thinks,” Bradley said.
“Skeptic,” Mike countered.
“Hey, I’ve been meaning to talk to you,” Bradley said. “About that issue we had before I went into Sycamore.”
“Yeah, did you make a decision?”
Bradley nodded. “I called Jack and told him that I was going to have to follow up on the case,” he said, watching Mike’s expression fall. “But given my case load and the fact the insurance companies paid for all of the damages to the farmers. And since there was no viable forensic evidence; the investigation was going to have to be tabled for about eighteen months.”