A Haunted Twist of Fate (28 page)

“I guess we’re going to have to cut my shirts,” Colt
said.

“No need for that. A t-shirt will slip over that
cast easily.” She asked where he kept his t-shirts. He pointed to a dresser
drawer. When she grabbed one, he slipped his left arm with the cast in the
sleeve first. She then held the neck open while he stuck his head through. “That
technique should work with your button-up shirts, too,” she said.

“Only if you help.” He dared to slide the fingers of
his good hand around her waist.

She stepped away from his touch and went into the
master bathroom to squeeze toothpaste onto his brush.

“I can put toothpaste on my toothbrush,” he
grumbled, seeing she was going to be a hard nut to crack.

“I’m sure you can. You can probably do everything on
your own.” She handed him the paste and brush and left the room.

He sighed, knowing he’d ticked her off again. When
he stepped into the living room, she was on her cell phone.

“I’m calling my godfather again,” she whispered,
with her hand over the mouthpiece. “I haven’t heard back, which isn’t like him.
Any time I’ve ever called in the past, he’s always gotten right back to me. I
hope he’s not sick and Karen’s not telling me.”

Colt sat in the chair across from Shay. She put the
phone on speaker. A female voice came on the line.

“Good morning. Lee Stansbury’s office.”

“Good morning, Karen. This is Shay Brennan calling
again.”

“Oh. Hello, Shay.” Karen’s voice immediately went
flat.

“Lee hasn’t returned my call yet. Is he in?”

“Uh. Let me check.”

“Something’s not right,” Shay whispered. “Karen has
never sounded so distant and impolite.” Karen returned to the line in a few
seconds to say Lee was unavailable.

It was obvious by the turn of her mouth that Shay’s
patience had run thin. “Please interrupt him and tell him no excuses this time.
I need to speak to him
now
.”

Lee must have understood the seriousness of her
demand to talk to him, because he came on the line within moments.

“Hello, Shay. How are you, dear? It’s been a while.”

When she switched the phone off speaker and
hesitated before answering, Colt got the hint and exited the room.

“I’m well, Lee.” There was no point in chit-chat.
Now that she’d finally reached him, she felt an urgent need to discuss Alicia
Averill and her parents. “I’ve called twice,” she pointed out. “Did you receive
my messages?”

“Yes. I apologize for not returning your calls. I’ve
been in court.”

Karen hadn’t mentioned that before and Shay didn’t
believe it. “No matter,” she said, letting it go and moving on to the reason
for the call. “I’m in South Dakota, and I’ve met a man by the name of Frank
Averill. Does that name mean anything to you?”

“Averill? No. Should it?”

“Yes. My parents paid for the funeral and headstone
of Frank Averill’s daughter, Alicia, in Chicago, in 1977. I’m sure you were
aware of that.”  She could practically hear the shoe drop on the other end of
the line. “There’s no use denying it,” she continued, sensing she’d struck a
nerve. “My parents didn’t make a move, financial or otherwise, without you
knowing about it.”

She could feel the anger rising in her like a kettle
set to boil. Lee was hiding something. She felt it in her bones.

“Averill,” he mulled. “Seems I do recall the name,
now that you’ve refreshed my memory.”

“Let me refresh it even more. I’ve learned that my
parents paid for many funerals throughout the years, which was something I was
totally unaware of until recently. Do you have any idea why they’d hide that
from me?”

“I don’t know, Shay. Parents don’t always tell their
children everything.”

“True, but they didn’t start that practice until
1977. Alicia Averill was the first. What I don’t understand is, why her? Alicia
had parents. There was no reason for strangers to have buried her. Why did my
parents think they had the right to take it upon themselves to bury someone
else’s child without their permission? Without them even knowing what was going
on?”

Colt obviously heard her raised voice and sensed her
agitation, because he reentered the room and mouthed the words, “Stay calm.”

She nodded and took a deep breath before going on. “Lee,
I need to know how my parents knew Alicia Averill. I don’t want lies. I have to
know the truth.”

A long silence followed. Shay could hear him
breathing, so she knew he was still there.

“I have a right to know,” she prodded. Remembering
Colt’s suggestion from the other day about using the sympathy card, she added,
“You’re my godfather. You’ve always been there for me when I needed you. I need
you now. My parents are gone. You’re the only one I can turn to. This is very
important. You have to tell me what you know.”

“How did you run across Frank Averill?” he finally asked.

“That doesn’t matter. The fact is, I did meet him,
and somehow he and I are connected. My folks are gone. Chief McGinty is dead. You’re
probably the only person who knows the truth.”

“McGinty? How do you know about him?” Lee’s voice
cracked.

Shay ignored his question. “How did my parents know
Alicia Averill?” she repeated.

Lee sighed. “Alex and Grace are gone. There’s no
good that can come from opening up a can of old worms.
Why
do you want
to know about Alicia Averill?”

Shay gritted her answer through pursed lips while
pumping her fist in frustration. “Because I look just like her, Lee. We could
be sisters. My parents buried her the same year I was born. That’s more than
chance. I’m a grown woman, and I deserve to know what was going on back then.”

After another long pause, he said, “I have to go,
Shay. I’ll call you back soon.”

“No! Don’t hang up!”

The phone went dead, and she flipped her cell phone
shut and threw it on the floor. She could have spat nails, she was so angry.

“The jerk hung up on you?” Colt asked.

“Yes. He was so close to telling me! What kind of
secret could hold so much power over him all these years later?”

“I don’t know. What were his last words before he
hung up?”

“He said he’d call me back soon.”

“Okay. That’s hopeful. Maybe he just needs a little
time to get his thoughts together, or to check his facts before he goes off
half-cocked.”

Tears stung the backs of her eyes. “Do you really
think so?”

“What I think doesn’t matter much. I’m sure the guy
will call back when he’s ready.”

“I don’t know if I have the patience to wait. What
if it takes him another day or two?”

“Then you wait a day or two,” Colt said. “Good
things come to those who wait. Or so I’ve heard.”

Only yesterday she’d asked him for patience. Their
gazes locked. He was absolutely right. She’d sit tight and wait.

Forty-Five

“I want to go to my office,” Colt said, jerking his
truck keys off the foyer table.

“You don’t think you’re driving, do you?” Shay
leaped up from the sofa.

He acted like he hadn’t heard her and moved to the
door.

“Did the doctor say you could?”

“Dammit,” he complained. “He
did
suggest I
stay out from behind the wheel since my truck is a stick. But I don’t want to
be chauffeured wherever I need to go. And I can’t sit around here. I’ll go stir
crazy.”

“It’s only for three weeks. Besides, if it’s not
against the law, I’m pretty sure you’ll get behind the wheel way before that. Why
do you have to go to the office today? Your appointments have been rescheduled.
You should rest some more.”

“I’m tired of resting. I need to get out of this
house.”

She sensed he needed to get away from her, too, but
that wasn’t happening. He could wreck his truck with his arm in the cast. “I’ll
drive you,” she said, grabbing her purse from the kitchen.

Mumbling under his breath, Colt acquiesced and
locked the door behind them and then stomped down the steps toward Shay’s car.

When they entered his office in short time, Norma
was working at her desk for a change. They greeted each other, and she was
inspecting Colt’s arm cast when Shay’s cell phone rang.

“Excuse me.” Shay stepped away from the
conversation. “Hello.”

“Shay, this is Lee.”

She felt her eyes widen. “Lee!”

“I want to apologize for hanging up so quickly this
morning.”

Tingles raced across her nape and down her back. “It’s
all right. I appreciate your calling back so fast. You must know how anxious I
am to hear what you have to say. You
do
have something to tell me, don’t
you?”

“Yes. I do.” After a moment’s vacillation he said,
“There’s something you need to read. Do you have a computer? I can scan this
and email it to you, or if you have access to a fax machine, I can send it that
way.”

She looked at Colt, who must have heard her mention
Lee’s name. He stared at her and listened to her end of the dialogue. “Hold on,
Lee.” She put her hand over the mouthpiece. “Do you have a fax machine?”

Norma wrote the number on a slip of paper and handed
it to her. Shay read it off to Lee.

“I’ll fax this right now,” he said. “After you read
it, feel free to call me back if you have any questions. I’ll keep my line
open, and I’ll tell you anything more you want to know.”

Her heart beat fast. “What exactly is it you’re
faxing me?”

“It’s a letter written by your mother.”

When the piercing screech of the fax machine
sounded, Norma excused herself, saying she had some errands to run.

“I can leave, too, if you want privacy,” Colt said.

“No. I’d like you to stay. You’re invested in
learning the truth, too. I wouldn’t have contacted Lee if it weren’t for you.”

“Okay.” He wheeled out the chair from behind his
desk and took a seat. Shay stood over the fax machine watching the pages slip
out. Her hands trembled when she picked them up.

“I’m not sure I want to read this after all,” she
admitted, recognizing the familiar slanted handwriting that had been her
mother’s. She felt her lip quivering as she glanced at Colt.

“Do you want to know the truth, no matter how
difficult it may be to hear?”

“Yes.”

“Then go ahead. Read the letter. I’m here for moral
support.”

Shay sat in the chair in front of Colt’s desk, took
a deep breath, and read the letter out loud.

First, I want to say that I have written
this letter without the knowledge of my husband, Alex Brennan, and delivered it
into the trustworthy hands of our longtime friend and attorney, Lee Stansbury,
for safekeeping. I have never once gone against Alex in all the years we’ve
been married, but I do so now, because I am dying, and I feel an urgent need to
cleanse my soul for the sins I have committed. I cannot go to my grave without
exposing the secret Alex and I, as well as others, have kept for over thirty
years.

“Oh, my gosh.” Shay frowned. What does this mean?”

“Read on,” Colt prodded.

Shay continued.

When I’ve spoken to my husband on this
subject many times before, he has maintained that it is best for “the past to
remain in the past.” But I cannot do so any longer. I will not rest in peace
until I have unburdened myself by telling the truth. Therefore, I have given
the only copy of this letter to Lee and sworn him to secrecy. He has agreed to
hold the letter until I have gone and Alex has also passed away. At that time,
if the need should arise and Lee sees fit to share this information with our
daughter, Shay, or any member of Alicia Averill’s immediate family, I have
given him permission to do so.

Shay glanced at Colt, to which he nodded for her to
go on.

To Mr. and Mrs. Averill. I ask
forgiveness from you, the two people whose lives were forever altered because
of the actions we took and the lies we told.

And to my daughter, Shay. If you’re
reading this letter, please know that your father and I have loved you with
every breath we had, loved you more than life itself. You’ve made us proud and
given us such joy. Please forgive us. We did what we did because of you.

Let me get on with it. My life and
Alex’s changed forever on the day we met Alicia Averill. We became acquainted
with her through a friend of ours who worked at a local shelter. Alicia was a
young, pregnant girl from South Dakota, who had apparently run away from home
with an older man. He brought her to Chicago and promptly abandoned her, as is
the case in so many similar situations. Alicia needed a job and a place to
stay. My friend at the shelter thought of Alex and me because we had just lost
our longtime housekeeper who married and moved out of state with her new
husband.