Sins of the Father (10 page)

Tony had said it himself at lunch yesterday.
There were very few old timers left on the force who would remember
what Martha looked like. He was a beat cop at the time, probably a
rookie. Had he even seen a photograph or a sketch of the suspect?
He must’ve. Tony said she wasn’t attractive, the kind of woman
who’d have to steal a baby rather than make one with a man.

My attention fixed on that baby book. Why
would Marie steal me in the first place? I didn’t get it at the
time, but it was obvious to me now. Dad didn’t want kids. He was
angry that Marie got pregnant.

Had she ever really been pregnant? Why
pretend? It wasn’t as though she had ever shown an ounce of
nurturing toward me when I was a child. In fact, she was always
distant. It was Dad who loved me, who doted, who raised me
entirely. By the time I was ten years old, he and I both called her
Marie
. That she never objected came as no surprise now. She
wasn’t my mother. Why insist on a respectful moniker?

What on earth could’ve motivated her to
steal me from parents who ostensibly wanted children but also had
the means to raise them? Aidan Conall was filthy rich. We would’ve
wanted for nothing.

Nothing but unconditional love.

I couldn’t regret the life that Wendell gave
me. Even the morality that had been skewed by him was preferable to
the abject hate that Aidan embraced with such vigor.

All I had were questions, never any answers.
Did answers still exist somewhere? Anywhere? Had they been right
under my nose all along, but I had no reason to look for them?
Until now. Did Dad know that Marie pulled a scam when I was born?
Was he part of it? Were the stories he told about my birth little
more than a beautiful fiction to placate a child’s curiosity?

Footfalls sounded on the staircase. I
slammed the book shut and buried it in the box where I found
it.

“Helen?”

Johnny poked his head around the corner.

I sniffled and wrapped my arms around my
knees and hugged them to my chest.

“Honey, what’s wrong?” He dropped to his
knees beside me, helpless and helpful at the same time.

I said the first words that popped into my
head. “We are
not
hiring a nanny to raise our children.”

His arms folded around me, lips scattered
gossamer kisses over my hair. “Baby,” he murmured, “is that what’s
got you tied up in knots? We can call this room whatever we want
to. It doesn’t mean that we have to use it for its intended purpose
when the floor plan was designed.”

“Why would people want to do that, Johnny?
Why would they want their children raised by strangers?” Another
thought flitted through my brain. Had the goodness Crevan possessed
been instilled by a nanny hired by his high-class father because
that was how things were done in his social stratosphere? I
shuddered.

“I don’t know, honey, but you’re right.
We’re going to raise our children together, without some stranger
doing all the work. Ah, Helen. I love you so much, but I don’t
understand where these ideas are coming from. What did I ever say
to make you think –?”

“It wasn’t you,” I whispered. “Oh, Johnny, I
know you’re going to be the best father in the world.”

“And you’re going to be the best mother.
Helen, please stop thinking that you’re going to be like Marie.
It’s not possible. Do you think I could love a woman with a cold
heart like she had?”

I sobbed softly and tucked my chin to my
chest.

“Baby, you are nothing like her.”

“How do you know that? She was long since
dead when you met me.”

“But I did meet your father. You are his
daughter in every way imaginable. You would do anything to protect
our children, just like he did everything to protect you.”

Had he? Was there some dark secret about
Aidan Conall that made Dad feel compelled to save me from him? It
wouldn’t explain why he left Crevan behind. Surely he warranted the
same treatment I did. In the cases where I suspected that Dad
intervened, he had never discriminated between boys and girls. My
father, no matter what biology would call him, was exactly what
Johnny said. He protected the innocent.

Johnny dried my tears with nothing more than
his thumbs. “Hey, whatever this is, it’ll be all right. If I have
to brick this room off to make you feel better, I’ll do it.”

Thank God for my mood swings. The erratic
behavior was more than effective in muting Johnny’s ability to see
straight through me.

I nodded and wrapped my arms around his
neck.

“You want me to do it?”

“No,” I shook my head. “Just don’t get fed
up with these bizarre ideas that pop into my head. I need you to be
the sane one, Johnny. You keep me grounded.”

His grin spread across my neck. “Finally,
you admit it.”

My fist tapped his shoulder. “Don’t be a
smart ass.”

“Are you ready to come downstairs and see
David now?”

I sniffled again, wiped the clear drizzle I
left on Johnny’s neck. “Give me a minute to splash some water on my
face. I’ll be right down.”

“Promise you won’t start freaking out over
this room if I leave you up here.”

“I’ll use the bathroom downstairs. I don’t
have any linens up here anyway.”

He waited for me outside the bathroom,
though I’m not sure why. Maybe he was afraid some other insane mood
swing would overcome me if he left me alone for too long. I
silently admonished myself to get a grip. I’d never have the
freedom to find the answers to questions that plagued me if Johnny
feared I’d have an emotional breakdown every time something
unexpected happened.

Of course, he would understand it, if I
could only confide in him. Somehow, even though he knew the truth
behind my biggest lies, I could not bring myself to say the words
that would implicate my father in another crime. One that had no
statute of limitations. Then again, what could they really do to
Wendell? He was already serving life without the possibility of
parole.

Johnny met me at the bathroom door.
“Ready?”

“Ready. Sorry. Embarrassed. Confused.”

Johnny chuckled. “Hormones. Hopefully it’ll
get better soon.”

“Because suddenly my body won’t be flooded
with a double dose of them?”

“I was thinking that your equilibrium might
reset to the new levels,” Johnny grinned. “If not, I guess it will
be about 30 more weeks of this.”

“God, you’re going to divorce me for being
an insane pain in the ass.”

“This is a mere hiccup compared to what
we’ve been through already,” Johnny said. “We’ll be fine, Helen.
Let’s get downstairs before David comes looking for both of
us.”

“I told him I’m pregnant, Johnny, before he
came out here the last time.”

“He mentioned it.”

“Did you tell him about our latest
bombshell?”

Johnny shook his head and grinned. “And
deprive you of the look on his face? No way, sweetheart.”

“How much did you tell him about why we
wanted the FBI out here again?”

“As little as possible. I thought your case
would sound far more compelling if you explained it to him. If
you’re not feeling up to going through all of that again, I’ll tell
him of course.”

“No, I’ll do it. We may as well get this
over with before the next crazy idea pops into my head.”

“It’s not crazy.”

“I meant about that nanny suite.”

Johnny grinned. “You’re not crazy. Hormonal?
Absolutely.”

“Let’s hope my theory on Sanderfield isn’t
just raging hormones out of control.”

“We’ll get David’s opinion. I suspect he’ll
see the logic in your theory just like I did.”

My personal torment drifted a little further
away with each step down the stairs. Until I got my first glimpse
of David. The concern in his eyes proved my undoing.

When he hugged me, waves of tears crashed
against the crumbling fortress that used to protect me from these
ridiculous emotional outbursts.

“I’m having twins,” I sobbed onto his
shoulder.

David laughed and said, “Well now, that
explains everything.”

Chapter 9

David chewed on the tip of his thumbnail
while I quietly explained my theory on Terrell Sanderfield. Of
course, it involved a confession that I had withheld information
after I was rescued from
The Celeste
. I suspected that his
silence was more judgment on my behavior in that regard than
anything else.

Johnny dropped a quart of soft-serve
strawberry ice cream in front of me when I finished explaining
everything to David.

“Eat,” he said softly.

The man knows me. What can I say? When all
else fails, strawberry ice cream heals a multitude of hurts. I
swirled a dab on the spoon and licked it away.

“Helen, it bothers me that you kept this
from us in the very beginning,” David finally spoke. “We could’ve
been digging into this man’s actions for two weeks.”

“I thought I was being paranoid. I mean,
isn’t that a possibility?”

He shook his head, mouth curled downward
while one eyebrow lifted. “How many times do I have to tell you
that I want to hear all of your theories, Helen, not just the ones
you feel you can support with adequate evidence?”

“See?” Johnny nudged me with his
shoulder.

“It’s not like I’ve been operating at even
fifty percent lately,” I mumbled around the spoon. “Pregnant brain.
Isn’t that what they called it, Johnny? I’ve suddenly become
stupid.” My eyes welled with tears. “Doubly stupid.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” David said. “You’re
not stupid on your worst day. For heaven’s sake, Helen. Stupid for
you is still above average for the rest of the world.”

“All I have is suspicion. I don’t have the
first clue how to go about proving any of this. Hell, Sanderfield
has been crucifying Joe and Johnny, OSI as a whole because they had
the audacity to suspect that some of his campaign contributions
were less than kosher.”

“Which is why you needed to take his advice
and get us involved,” David said. “We don’t give a damn if
Sanderfield likes us or not. We’ll dig through his life like
archeologists who finally found Atlantis. And he can whine and
bitch about it all he likes. We simply don’t care.”

“You think the campaign finance issue is the
best tactic to dig into the rest of it? If he’s really the guy that
Gillette believed would protect him, there’s got to be evidence
somewhere,” Johnny said.

“You don’t achieve that level of hubris
unless one of two scenarios exist. Either Gillette was cocky and
stupid, which I doubt, since he nearly got away with selling Helen
into slavery, or the corruption in this human trafficking ring goes
far deeper than we ever imagined. We’ve been dissecting the
evidence thoroughly for the past two weeks. Nobody at Quantico
believes that three or four people ran this operation.”

“You don’t?”

“No, Helen. I agree with your assessment of
Sherman. His involvement was probably based on perversion and easy
access. The forensic accountants have been over his books with a
fine-toothed comb. Yes, there were a number of questionable
infusions of huge amounts of money. I don’t doubt he was part of
it. The ringleader? No way. It’s like what you said about Jerry
Lowe. Sherman was too fixated on what he got out of the bargain
personally to be cold enough to run the show.”

“Plus, Sherman had foreign connections in
areas of the world where slavery isn’t the taboo it ought to be,” I
said. “He brought something valuable to the operation, but his
involvement wouldn’t have remained necessary after the connections
were made.”

“Exactly. Now, since we haven’t even taken a
peek at Senator Sanderfield, God only knows what we’ll find,” David
said. “You’re certain about Gillette’s insinuation?”

I nodded. “I can’t imagine who else he
could’ve been talking about, David. Sanderfield is the only
powerful and vocal opponent of OSI. What do you think of my theory
that they simply used Danny Datello as a built-in patsy?”

“It almost makes too much sense. Christ,
it’s so obvious it’s clear why the notion didn’t occur to anyone
until you suggested it. The Marcos family is so dirty, nobody would
bat an eyelash at the suggestion they were involved in human
trafficking. Of course, there is no evidence that Datello’s hands
were clean. His ship, Helen. His employees, his docks.”

“Which leads everyone to point the finger at
him as the mastermind. But David, you didn’t see him when I
questioned him about his daughter’s abduction. He was literally
heartsick.”

“Maybe because he realized that his partners
were turning the business against him,” Johnny suggested.

“I can’t see that,” I said. “Datello seemed
like he had two driving forces behind his criminal activities. One,
he wanted to punish his uncle for the murder of his father. Two, he
wanted to protect the family that mattered to him – Celeste and
their daughter. Sure he committed a murder to conceal what he tried
to do to Sully Marcos, but even before he was married, Danny knew
that Sully wouldn’t hesitate to kill him and anybody important to
him if he ever found out who betrayed him.”

“She’s right, Johnny. The U.S. Attorney has
ruled out Danny’s involvement in Sully’s operations. In fact, the
only link they found was when Danny saw to it that Rick Hamilton
went to work laundering money for the family. Even that is somewhat
questionable.”

Johnny’s silence and absence of eye contact
with David mirrored mine.

I dragged my gaze toward David.
“Questionable in what way?”

“Datello and your ex-husband shared a close
bond, Helen. It seems that the ninth or tenth look at Rick’s
records indicate he may have been feeding information about Sully’s
activities to Danny.”