Lucky Thirteen (27 page)

“My family wouldn’t let me know if something had happened,” Audrey said bitterly.

“Well, come on. You won’t find out here.”

♣♣♣

Ray sat on the end of the table in one of the prison interrogation rooms as Raif
quasi-sat on the narrow ledge and stared out a small slit of a window reinforced with wire and watched blue-black clouds rush past a determined sun.

Audrey van Zandt ente
red the room warily.
What could a cop want with me after thirty-one years?

When she entered, both men stood respectfully
.

In dismay, Audrey exclaimed, “You look just like Jesse, except your eyes
! You have my eyes. I would’ve known you anywhere. How did you find me? Oh, my God! It’s your birthday.”

Although a little worn by time, Audrey van Zandt was still attractive
. She did have the same big blue eyes her sons had and wore her blonde hair pulled slicked back in a ponytail. She was slim, and despite her circumstances, carried herself well to stand five and a half feet tall, except when stressed, at which time she slouched. She slumped immediately upon seeing two men who could have been ghosts to her. Her eyes brimmed with tears. “Better yet—
why
did you find me?”

“We needed to meet our mother,” Raif answered compassionately.

“Please sit down,” Ray requested.

Audrey sat down tentatively
. The brothers sat across from her. Ray explained a little. “I’m Raiford Reynolds, but everybody calls me Ray. I’m a detective. I used my position to track you down because I didn’t know my brother existed at the time. He was having a little trouble, and a lot of people began to think it was me.”

“Oh,” said Audrey, hands clasped tightly in front of her
. “They didn’t keep you together.”

“No, but we’ve found each other now, and all the trouble is over.”

Raif said, “Believe it or not, I’m Raiford Gautier, but I’m called Raif.”

“That’s bizarre,” said Audrey.

Ray and Raif agreed together, “Yes, a little.”

“Audrey, will you
please tell us what happened?” Ray asked. “From what you said when you came in, can I assume you meant Jesse Gatlin, one of the boys you shot?”

“Yes, Jesse Gatlin
. I don’t like to talk about it, but I’ve been going to the sexual trauma resolution group. You would be surprised how many of us in here were sexually abused in some way.”

“No, I wouldn’t,” said Ray
. “I’ve seen a lot.”

“Of course you have
. As a cop I mean.”

“Yes
.” Ray nodded.

Raif asked, “Please tell us?
”

“All right,” she agreed
. “I guess you deserve the truth. None of it was your fault, but at thirteen, having you was more than I could handle. Can you understand why I left you for someone else to love?”

“Yes, ma’am, and we’ve both been loved very much
. You did the right thing for us, but we’d still like to know what happened,” Raif assured tenderly.

Audrey nodded and r
elaxed a bit before two men who she sensed were worthy of knowing the truth about their beginning and her ending. “I had the biggest crush on Jesse. I’m glad to see that at least Jesse was your father because at first I really liked him, and I thought he liked me. My dad had forbidden me to see him. He told me that a nineteen-year-old man had only one thing on his mind when he hung out with a girl my age. I should’ve listened, but I thought I was in love, and the fraternity guys were having a summer bash on campus. Jesse invited my friend, Julia, and me to come. We lied, so our parents thought we were spending the night with each other.”

A shake of her head accompanied,
“Oh, I know we shouldn’t have been drinking, but we were impressionable kids. We thought we were big, partying with the frat rats. That is, until they started passing us around.”

Audrey tightened her clasped hands
. “I tried to fight them, but I was too drunk to stand. But I wasn’t drunk enough to forget how much it hurt, physically and emotionally, the way they laughed at my protests. I couldn’t tell anybody what happened. After all, I was somewhere I wasn’t supposed to be. I guess it was really my own fault.”

Ray shook his head
. “There is never a legitimate excuse for rape.”

S
omeone did a good job as parents with these two men.
She smiled slightly as she thought.

“He’s right,” said Raif
. “Please finish your story.”

“A week later, Julia slit her wrists,” Audrey went on
. “Then, I found out I was pregnant. My folks threw me out and haven’t spoken to me since. I was an embarrassment to them. My father’s political career was over all because of me. I wandered around the various shelters until I went into labor two months early. After I had you, nothing else mattered except making them pay. They killed Julia, just as sure as if they pulled the blade across her wrists; and me, too, I suppose. I felt dead inside. In my mind, I was exacting justice that never would’ve happened.”

“Audrey, what are you doing sitting in prison?” asked Ray.

“Where else should I be?”

“Free is where you should be
. Why didn’t you tell your lawyer all of this? He could’ve argued diminished capacity. You were only thirteen. Even if you
had
consented, that still would have been statutory rape. We’re living proof that something happened.”

“I killed six men
. I broke into my own home and stole my father’s shotgun. I knew what I was doing.”

“Still, you don’t belong here
. If I can get you out, will you let me help?”

“Where would I go
? Nobody wants me.” Tears she had never shed dripped silently down Audrey’s cheeks.

“That’s not completely true,” said Raif
. “Why don’t you give your boys a chance to know you?”

Wiping tears away with the backs of her hands
the woman barely whispered, “Do you really mean that?”

“Yes,” the twins answered in unison.

Audrey was quiet for a time before she answered, “All right. Try. But if you can’t, you know where to find me.” Her trembling voice carried years of isolation and sadness. “A visit now and then would be nice.”

♣♣♣

Ray and Raif had a quiet birthday dinner with Chris
. She brought Ray season tickets to the next football season of the Saints because she knew Ray was a die-hard fan and was always waiting for that miracle year. To Raif, she presented a golden retriever puppy, which he promptly named Sunbeam for all the light flooding his life.

Ray went home alone while Chris and Raif spent time with the puppy. The two of them discussed the search Chris had begun for her daughter. Raif encouraged her to find the child and set up a meeting. After meeting his mother, he told Chris, “I’m certain now that’s it’s the right thing for you. If nothing else, you’ll get closure.”

“Okay.” She nodded as she scratched the puppy’s ears. “I have a lead and should know something soon.”

“Let me know what you find out.” He kissed her tenderly. “I love Sunbeam. Thanks for my companion.”

The next day found Raif poring over new blue prints and Ray driving to Baton Rouge to meet with the state attorney general. Ray had a new purpose: He was determined to get Audrey van Zandt out of prison.

30

Unsolicited Advice

C
hri
s
stayed in Eau Bouease until after she celebrated Ray and Raif’s first birthday together with them. She checked her dwindling bank account since she had used all paid leave and knew she had to get back to work, but the last few weeks had been the best of her life. She had spent Christmas with her favorite twins and their family. It meant a great deal to her because it was the first Christmas she had actually felt wanted since her mother’s death, though she knew in her heart how much her father loved her. The highlight of the holidays had been the New Year’s kiss she received from Raif. Afterward, he had merely held her in the moonlight without words.

Chris also had a mission
to close the hollow place in her heart. The weeks between Latrice’s escape and the New Year, she had spent looking for the child she had given up for adoption. The day after the birthday celebration, she showed up at Raif’s office with a file. “I think I found her,” she announced. “I got this early this morning.”

“Your daughter?”
Raif stopped his drawing. “Really?”

“Yes
. It appears she was adopted by Damian and Chelsea Kersh. They named her Lindsay. They live in upstate New York. It seems she’s been well provided for and loved.” She laid the file on the drawing board. “She’s an honor student, plays tennis, and sings in both the full choir and the Madrigals. The only drawback I have is that she has been raised Jewish.” She held up her hand, indicating for Raif to halt his comment as his mouth opened. “Not that I have anything against Jewish people, but I’m Christian. I can’t help but want her to be Christian, too.”

“Well,
ma chère”—Raif took Chris’s hand—“what are you going to do now?”

“Nothing
. Pray.” Chris sighed. “She’s happy. I don’t want to complicate her life.”

“You sure?”

“No, but it’s best for her.”

“All right, if that’s what you
really
want. Are we still on for dinner tonight before you fly out of my life?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I’ll pick you up at seven. Wear something slinky. I have reservations at a really swanky place.”

♣♣♣

Raif tapped lightly on the door to Chris’s hotel suite. She opened the door quickly. “Wow!” she gasped. “You look as if you
stepped from the pages of
GQ
. You wore the Armani.” The navy blue double-breasted pin stripe with a starched white button-down shirt and a red silk tie was elegant.

He
gulped at his own little surprise. Chris was decked in the definitive little black dress: satin, strapless, fitted, stopping at mid-thigh. High-heeled Roman sandals accentuated her muscular calves, and an onyx choker punctuated her long slender neck. Her short, dark blonde hair lay in perfect layers. Over her shoulder he saw a set table, complete with candles.

Raif nodded as his eyes roved over every inch of her body
. His dimples deepened in appreciation. “I’m flexible. Dining in is good.”

Chris slid her hands up his arms as she whispered, “It gives us time together.”

Raif shook his head. “Not enough.” He pulled Chris to him and kissed her as he had only fantasized before. He maneuvered her to her bed. Dinner was the last thing on either of their minds.

♣♣♣

Raif woke as the sun streaked the sky
. He reached over only to find an empty bed. He sat up and called, “Chris?”

Looking down, he saw a piece of paper in the shape of a heart with lip prints on it
. A simple message read:

“
Chris’s heart. You hold it in your hands
.”

“Damn it!” muttered Raif as he realized Chris had left for the New Orleans airport without waking him
. He dressed as quickly as possible. Knowing there was no way he could catch the FBI agent before she boarded her plane back to D.C., he did the next best thing. He tossed his jacket and tie into the back seat of his Nissan and broke every traffic law racing to his brother’s office.

Raif burst into Ray’s office since the detective had returned to work after his ordeal
. Uncharacteristically, Raif rudely demanded, “I need your help! Get off the damned phone!”

“I’ll call you back
. My brother’s here.” Ray hung up the phone. “This had better be more important than speaking with the governor about Audrey.”

♣♣♣

Chris checked her bags
. Since she had a couple of hours before her flight, she decided to grab breakfast when her stomach rumbled.
Seeing as how dinner was never touched last night, I’m starving.
As she sat down to hot beignets and coffee, her cell phone rang. Thinking happily that it was Raif, she did not look at the number.

“Hello.”

“Hi,” a young voice said. “You don’t know me, but I think I’m your daughter.”

Chris almost choked and literally spewed coffee across the table
. “Lindsay?”

“You
do
know me.”

“No, not exactly.”

“Well, no matter. I’m Lindsay Kersh. I think you’re my biological mother. I’ve been looking for you since October when my folks were killed in a car crash.”

Chris’s heart raced
. “Killed? I didn’t know. I didn’t get that information.” She pressed her chest with her hand. “I’ve been looking for you, too. I only discovered where you were a couple of days ago.”

“Well, I would call that irony
.” Chris jerked her chin back and inhaled sharply at Lindsay’s tone of voice.

The girl went on
. “Now, I’m sure you had good reason to give me up for adoption, and the Kershes were good parents; so, I’m not mad or seeking revenge or anything like that. I’m sixteen and can be declared an emancipated minor. That’s just it. I’m sixteen. I need a mother. I was hoping I could meet you. Maybe we could get to know each other.”

“I would love that, more than you know.”
She squeezed her eyes shut to stop tears.

“Good
.” The boarding call for a flight could be heard in the background. “Where are you?”

Almost unable to breathe, Chris said, “Right now I’m making the second biggest mistake of my life. The first was giving you away.” She checked the board for the status of her flight. “Now, I’m sitting in the airport in New Orleans waiting for the flight to take me to D.C. and away from the best man I’ve ever known.”

“Why?”

“It’s my job. I’m FBI. I have to get back to Quantico.”

“Why
?”

Sassy and impertinent.

“Can’t you be a cop wherever this man is?”

“Well, I guess, I could, but…”

“Hey, I’m just a teenager, but what
? Which is more important—the job or the man? I can get a flight to New Orleans just as easily as Washington, D.C. You decide, and I’ll book a flight. I’ll call you and let you know when to pick me up. It makes no difference to me.”

Chris turned her phone to look at it, trying to picture the girl who talked with such brazenness.
“You seem a little bossy, young lady,” she said, putting the phone back to her ear.

“Yeah, I know
. My parents always said I must have gotten that from my biological parents, maybe you.”

“Good
heavens! If we get together, I think we’ll have to set some rules.”

“Fine with me. So, which is it—The Big Easy or the Big Sleazy?”

“You’ve helped me make my decision.”
I don’t think I can handle you alone.

♣♣♣

“What do you need, big brother
?” Ray hung up the phone and eyed Raif curiously. “I’ve never seen you so disturbed or demanding.”

Breathle
ssly, Raif poured out his needs. “I need you to keep Chris’s plane from taking off. I need time to get to New Orleans. I have to stop her leaving. I can’t let her go. I love her, and I was a fool not to tell her. What can you do?”

“Slow down, Raif
.” Ray held his hand up in a signal to tell his brother to halt. “Have you ever heard of a telephone? Why don’t you just call her?”

“You don’t tell a woman for the first time that you love her over the telephone
. I’m old-fashioned. I have to look into her eyes. Please, Ray, help me.”

“Hmm
.” Ray scratched his chin. “Well, I could call the airport and have her held as a possible terrorist.”

“I don’t want her hurt!”

“Still, that’s one sure way of keeping her detained.” He gave a short laugh. “Then, we can head out with sirens blaring all the way. I can do 100, 120, all the way there. It’ll give me a good reason to really let the GT out and see what she’ll truly do.” He shifted imaginary gears in the air.

“Do it
.” Although he had not had a migraine since high school Raif closed his eyes briefly and rubbed his forehead. He did not see the smirk on Ray’s face. Nor, did he see Ray press the receiver button after dialing his own house phone. He only listened to a one-sided conversation.

“This is Detective Raiford Reynolds of the Eau Bouease Police Department…Yes, I need you to detain one Christine Milovich…She’s booked on flight
”—Ray looked at Raif questioningly.

“Delta 1201.”

“She’s booked on Delta flight 1201…She’s posing as an FBI agent. She’s a suspected terrorist…Yes, she’s armed, and you should consider her
very
dangerous…Don’t harm her. We need to question her…I’m leaving immediately…Thanks so much for your help.” Ray hung up the receiver.

“Well?” demanded Raif
. He thrust his hands out.

Shaking his head deci
sively, Ray said, “I can assure you Chris is
not
on that flight to D.C.”

“No, she’s not,” came a
feminine voice from the doorway. “But all you had to do was ask.”

“Chris!” shouted Raif as he spun around
. “How long have you been there?”

“Several minutes
. Long enough to hear that you would let people think I was a terrorist. Long enough to hear you say, ‘I love her.’ Try saying it to my face.”

“I love you
.” Raif pulled Chris to him. “Don’t leave. Don’t ever leave. Stay here. Marry me.”

Chris giggled
.
The shield over Raif’s heart just evaporated.
“Not the most romantic proposal, but, yes,” she responded. “I love you, too. I already emailed my resignation.” She had a pleased smile on her face, as she rested both hands against his chest. “Ray, I hope you still have a place for another detective. You
are
lead detective now.”

“As my first official act, I’ll make one just for my sister-in-law.”

“There’s more.” Chris took a steadying breath and patted her lover’s chest with both her hands. “Raif, I hope you can handle a ready-made family. My daughter will be arriving day after tomorrow.”

“Whoa
!” He stepped back, eyes wide. “It works for me.” His dimples stretch to their limit. “Is this a permanent move?”

“Yes. The Kershes were killed in October, the same day I first met you.”

“Why do I sense you’re hedging?”

Chris sighed. “Lindsay sounds a little headstrong. I might need your help with her.”

“I’ll do anything I can, but I refuse to wait forever to get married.” He stepped back and lifted her chin. “How fast can you put this together?”

“How does February 13
th
sound?”

“Perfect
.” He pointed at his brother. “Ray, you’ll be my best man.”

“You know it.”

Chris said, “You know who’ll be my maid of honor, Ray. Can you handle that?”

“Jus
t don’t invite LaFontaine.”

“Nope
. Just family and close friends.”

♣♣♣

Raif and Chris met Lindsay at the airport
two days later. She had obviously come prepared to stay. Dragging two large wheeled bags and a backpack strapped over her shoulders, she looked around to find the woman who had given her life.

Raif tapped Chris’s shoulder as he pointed out a girl in ragged jeans, a Widespread Panic t-shirt, and dangling peace-sign earrings. “I’d have known her anywhere
. She looks just like you.” There could be no denying she was Chris’s daughter. She looked like her mother. She had the same soft brown eyes and dark blonde hair that she wore long and straight parted on the side. At sixteen, she was only an inch shorter than her mother.

Chris waved. A smile broke across the girl’s face as she saw the man she had talked about with her mother had come to meet her as well.
Good sign. They want me here. And, damn! How could you want to leave that piece of eye candy, Chris?