Kingsley Baby Trilogy: The Hero's Son\The Brother's Wife\The Long-Lost Heir (65 page)

David felt a surge of adrenaline. He thought he knew exactly whose prints Packer had found. Jeremy Willows’s. “Don’t keep me in suspense, Sergeant.”

“Are you sure you’re ready for this?”

Something in his tone made David’s heart thud against his chest.

“The prints belonged to Edward Kingsley. Can you believe that? His were still on file from when he was governor. It was a perfect match.”

“Oh, my God,” David said. Except for Iris, Bradlee was home alone with Edward. “Meet me at the Kingsley estate. Get over there as fast as you can.”

* * *

B
RADLEE STARED AT
I
RIS
Kingsley in the nursery doorway. Her face was as white as Bradlee’s felt. Iris put a hand to her heart, looking as if she was about to collapse.

Bradlee hurried over to her. “Are you all right?”

“My dear, you frightened me half to death. I wasn’t expecting anyone to come up here.”

“Isn’t David here?”

“No, why?”

Bradlee’s own heartbeat was almost back to normal, but she could see that Iris was still trembling. “I’m really sorry I frightened you, but David—or someone—left me a note asking me to meet him up here.”

Iris’s dark blue gaze met Bradlee’s. Something that looked very much like fear flashed across her face. “That’s very strange. David left the house some time ago. I saw him drive away myself.”

Bradlee’s voice sharpened. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, of course. His car is very distinctive.”

Iris turned and walked back into the nursery. “Why do you suppose someone would send you a note pretending to be David?”

Bradlee lingered in the doorway. “To lure me up here, I’m afraid.”

Iris turned. “But there’s no one up here but me, and I’ve been here for some time. Perhaps I spoiled someone’s plans.”

“Let’s hope so,” Bradlee said. She glanced around the room. The blinds had been raised, and sunlight flooded into the room. It didn’t look at all menacing today, but still, she wasn’t about to get careless. “Perhaps we should go. It might not be safe up here.”

For the first time, Bradlee saw a tea service had been placed on a table near the French doors. Iris sat down behind the table and lifted her teacup. “I’m not going anywhere until I finish my tea,” she said calmly. She met Bradlee’s gaze again and smiled. “I know what you’re thinking. I’m a senile old woman, but there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for all this.”

“There is?” Bradlee wasn’t sure which “all this” Iris was referring to. The note? Or Iris having tea in an abandoned nursery?

“Every so often I come here and have tea with my grandsons. Oh, I know Andrew is dead, and Adam was missing and presumed dead for years, but this has always kept me close to both of them. Here in this room, my memories have always kept them alive for me, so I come here and sip my tea and let myself remember the happy days. I adored those boys. More than anything.”

In the sunlight, a tear shimmered on Iris’s cheek. “You must think me perfectly insane,” she whispered.

Bradlee walked over to her. “Not at all. I can see how this room would keep drawing you back. It does me, too.” She looked around, her gaze resting on the lone little bed. Adam’s bed. Iris had kept this room just as it was, waiting for his return.

There was another cup on the tray, and Iris poured Bradlee some tea. “If anyone understands how I feel, it’s you, my dear. You were always so close to Adam. You were as devastated as I was when he disappeared.”

She handed the cup to Bradlee and stood. Walking over to the French doors, she opened them and stepped out onto the balcony.

Bradlee said quickly, “I don’t think it’s a good idea to be out there. The railing hasn’t been mended yet.”

“I won’t get close to the edge,” Iris promised. She turned to stare at Bradlee in the doorway. “I used to sit out here for hours at a time with Adam and Andrew. I would read to them while they played at my feet. Those were the happiest days of my life. Then their mother got sick, and everything started to go wrong. Especially for Edward.” A tear trickled down her cheek. “My son is…not well, I’m afraid. He hasn’t been for years.”

As she spoke, Iris seemed to grow physically weaker and she put a hand on the railing to steady herself. Alarmed, Bradlee stepped out onto the balcony and grabbed Iris’s arm. “The railing is still broken. Don’t lean against it. You need to come back inside.”

Iris took a step away from the railing. “I’m all right,” she said. “Please. Just let me finish my tea out here and then I promise I’ll come back inside.”

“All right,” Bradlee agreed reluctantly. “But stay away from the edge.”

Iris lifted her cup to her lips and sipped delicately. “It’s Earl Grey. I brewed it myself—one of the few things I can still do. Do you like it?”

Bradlee took a tentative sip. “It’s very good.”

Iris sighed. “You’re humoring me, of course. So many people do that with me these days. The price of getting old and dying slowly, I’m afraid.”

“No, I mean it,” Bradlee said. “It’s really good.” She took another sip, and Iris smiled.

“I’ve always liked you, Bradlee. If the circumstances were different, I wouldn’t have minded seeing you and Adam together.”

Circumstances?
What was she talking about? Bradlee wondered. And why was she staring at her so curiously. “Is something wrong?”

Iris cocked her head slightly. “I was just about to ask you the same thing. Are you feeling all right?”

“Yes, I’m fine—” It hit her all at once. A great wave of dizziness rolled over Bradlee, and she gasped, stumbling backward. The teacup and saucer fell from her hands and shattered. Iris was hardly more than a blur to Bradlee.

She put out her hands beseechingly. “Help me—”

“I can’t do that, Bradlee. I’m sorry, but if you’d stayed away, I wouldn’t have to do this. But it’s only a matter of time before you remember who you saw in the nursery that night, and I can’t let that happen. I have a destiny to fulfill, you know. A place in history that I can’t allow you to take away from me.”

As she looked at Iris’s face, hovering slightly above her, something suddenly became clear. Iris bending over Adam’s crib… Iris putting a cloth over his face.
He can’t breathe!
she’d wanted to scream at Iris, but she’d been too frightened. She had watched as Iris moved across the room to the French doors, opened them, and waved to someone waiting in the shadows below. Then Iris had come back into the room. Slowly she’d crossed the room to Bradlee’s bed. Bradlee had squeezed her eyes closed, but it was too late. Iris had seen that she was awake, and before Bradlee could utter a sound, Iris had shoved a pillow over her face and held it fast.

Can’t breathe!

“You tried…to kill me,” Bradlee gasped. “Smother…me.”

“I’d knew you’d seen me,” Iris said. “I had to frighten you enough to make sure you wouldn’t talk. Or if you did, that your story would sound so fantastic, no one would believe you. And it worked. You were so traumatized you didn’t utter a word for days. Then when you did speak, you rambled on about shadows. When your mother decided to take you to see a psychiatrist, I made sure to give her Dr. Scott’s name. She owed me a favor, you see. She was one of the many underprivileged kids I’d sponsored through college—in her case, medical school. She wouldn’t have dared refuse me.”

“Why?” Bradlee whispered. Her head spun out of control. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could remain on her feet. She had to get away from the railing. If she fell against it—

Iris moved between her and the French doors, blocking Bradlee’s only means of escape. “Edward was losing,” Iris said. “And Kingsleys never lose. Our family has always been a force in politics. I didn’t want that to end. Not because of some stupid weakness Edward had for that woman.”

Bradlee stumbled against the railing, felt it move beneath her weight.

“So I made a deal with Raymond Colter. He would kidnap Adam and then after the ransom money was paid, he would return my grandson unharmed. But it didn’t work out that way. Adam wasn’t returned to me, and I’ve had to live with that all these years. I couldn’t even search for him, couldn’t mount any kind of investigation, because Colter set it up to look like Adam was dead. And once that happened, my hands were tied. I could do nothing without giving myself away.”

Bradlee could feel her knees buckling. “Please…help…me….” Iris reached out a hand toward her…and gave her a shove.

For an eternity, Bradlee wavered at the edge of the balcony, trying to regain her balance, but it was no use. She crashed backward into the railing, and for a split second, the remaining wood held. Then the railing splintered with a loud crack, and Bradlee fell through the opening.

* * *

D
AVID CAME AROUND
the corner of the house in time to see Bradlee hanging from the edge of the balcony. Her feet dangled precariously in midair, and for a split second, his heart completely stopped. He didn’t waste time trying the rear entrance. The front door had been locked and bolted, as had the French doors to the library and study.

He used the trellis, the same way his kidnapper had gained entrance to the house thirty-
two years ago and the same way Bradlee had escaped two nights ago. Thorns tore at his arms and hands, but David never felt the pain. His entire focus was on Bradlee, on reaching her before she fell.

When he was within five or six feet of her, he said her name softly, so as not to alarm her. “Hold on,” he said. “I’m coming.”

She didn’t say anything, and David was glad she was conserving her energy. Her hold on the edge of the balcony was precarious at best. Within seconds, David had reached the balcony and climbed over the broken railing. He knelt and grabbed Bradlee’s arms.

“Let go,” he said. “I’ll pull you up.”

He wasn’t even sure she heard him. With a tiny cry of terror, her fingers slid loose and for a moment, he thought she was going to slip from his grasp. He tightened his grip, and heaved her upward, until she was sprawled on the balcony beside him.

“It’s okay. You’re safe.” He held her to him, not wanting to let her go. Not wanting to think how close he’d come to losing her.

“Iris—” she whispered.

“What about her?”

She looked dazed, but her eyes seemed to focus on something behind him. David turned and saw that his grandmother was standing just inside the nursery, holding a gun on them.

“Adam,” she admonished. “I didn’t want it to be this way. You weren’t supposed to come back so soon. I could have had everything taken care of if you’d gone to see Raymond like you were supposed to.”

David’s heart slammed against his chest. It was all clear now. Iris had tried to kill Bradlee, and she’d paid Raymond Colter to kidnap him all those years ago.

The secret was finally out.

“I know what you must be thinking,” she said sadly. “Why you, and not Andrew? I’m sorry you had to be the one. I loved you, Adam, more than you could ever know. But Andrew…Andrew was my heart. I couldn’t let him go.”

“I understand,” David said softly. “Just put the gun down and let’s talk about this.”

Her hand was trembling, but David knew she still had enough strength to pull the trigger. And the gun was now aimed at Bradlee.

Iris’s eyes grew steely with resolve. “Move away from her, Adam. Please. With her out of the way, no one will ever know. Now that you’re home, we can be a real family again. I can give you everything. Power beyond your wildest dreams. Just move away from her, Adam. Please.”

“You’ll have to kill me first,” David said.

“And me,” said another voice from inside the nursery.

Iris spun away from the French doors, but she didn’t lower the gun. Edward moved into the room so that she could see him.

“Mother, you did this?” he said in a hoarse whisper. “You took my son from me? You took my life from me? How could you?”

“I did it
for
you,” Iris said. “Your obsession with that woman nearly ruined everything. If it wasn’t for me, you never would have been elected governor.”

“I wanted to pull out of the race when Adam was kidnapped,” he said numbly. “But you talked me out of it. You said some good should come from such a terrible tragedy, and then when the body was recovered, when we thought Adam was dead, you said if I quit, my son would have died in vain. So I ran and I won, but I couldn’t live with myself. I couldn’t forgive myself for profiting from my own son’s death. All those years you let me think him dead. You watched me destroy myself out of grief and guilt, when all along it was
you.
”

“Edward, please. Think of our good name. The Kingsley reputation—”

Edward walked slowly toward her. “That’s exactly what I
am
thinking about. How far you were willing to go to keep your precious power. But it’s over now, Mother. It’s all over.”

“No! I won’t let it be. There’s still time—”

“What are you going to do?” Edward demanded. “Shoot us all? That would be a little hard for even a Kingsley to talk her way out of. It’s over, Mother. Drop the gun.”

For a moment, Iris seemed to waver, and then slowly the gun lowered to her side and slipped from her fingers to the floor. She walked out of the nursery without looking back.

David helped Bradlee to her feet. The effects of the drug were starting to wear off—or maybe the terror of the near fall had helped clear her head. She leaned into David as they walked into the nursery.

Edward stood watching them. His gaze fell on David and he shook his head. “I’ve come into this room every night for over thirty years and prayed that wherever you were, you somehow knew I loved you. I would have moved heaven and earth to find you. I never knew what she did, but I should have.
Somehow
I should have known. I don’t know how I can ever make it up to you. How you can ever forgive me?”

“You just saved my life,” David said hoarsely. “I don’t know what more a son could ask of his father.”

Tears streaming down his face, Edward put his arms around David and held him as if he were three years old again.

* * *

I
RIS
K
INGSLEY’S FUNERAL
took place three days later at Saint Mary’s, an elegant old cathedral in downtown Memphis where she and her husband had been married, and where her twin grandsons had been christened. Dignitaries from all over the country turned out en masse to mourn the passing of a political legend.