Sins of the Father (13 page)

“And I’m telling you, it’s not good enough,”
she hissed. Her voice grew muffled. “Sorry. Billy just poked his
head in here to see what’s taking me so long. I can’t talk much
longer, but you need to know that this is becoming unbearable for
me, Helen. If you don’t tell him the truth, I’ve got to.”

“Two more days, and it’ll all be over,” I
said. “Please, Maya. Tomorrow is gonna be huge for me. I need just
a little more time.”

“He doesn’t have more time! This is killing
him, Helen. I doubt the man has slept for a single second since you
left. You’ve got to tell him what happened. Please!”

“I’ll… I’ll think about it. That’s the best
I can offer. Give me one more day, Maya. I’ll tell him everything
then.”

“He might not have one more day.”

She was being dramatic, and I knew it.
Unfortunately, my heart leapt to life again, and Johnny has always
been my Achilles’ heel. “Tell him that you know how much I love
him, that I’m doing everything humanly possible to get back to
him.”

“How about I tell him that you escaped your
abductors Monday and ran off to close this thing on your own? How
about that, huh? Do you think that would ease his mind a little
bit?”

“It would drive him nuts, and you know it.
This is exactly why I can’t tell him what I’m really doing, Maya.
You don’t know him the way I do. If he figures out what’s really
going on, he’ll find me and stop me.”

“You make this sound like you’re doing
something you shouldn’t be doing, Helen. Are you? Is this thing,
whatever it is you need two more days to accomplish, is it
illegal?”

Just a little bit. I sighed. “I’m not going
to kill anybody if that’s what you’re asking.” Not really kill them
anyway.

“I’m telling him the truth. Either you agree
to call him right now, or I’m marching out there and telling him
that I’ve been in contact with you the whole time, and that while
you might still be in danger, you’re not chained up somewhere!”

“
Might
still be in danger?”

“Fine, but you know what I meant. You’re at
least safer off the grid than you were here.”

“Exactly. And if Johnny drags me back onto
their radar, what do you think will happen? How long do you think
it’ll be before somebody else comes after me?”

“He can
protect
you!”

“Bang up job he’s done so far.”

“That’s not fair,” she protested strongly.
“Helen, that man has done more –”

“I know. I’m sorry. This is really
important, and you’re basically blackmailing me and asking me to
put what I’m doing in jeopardy.”

“I disagree. I’ve seen you and Johnny work
through problems together, Helen. You’re stronger as a team than
you are individually. I’d think you of all people would realize
that.”

“Oh yeah, that worked out great the last
time we worked a case together instead of individually. How many
more victims died last January before we finally figured out what
was really going on?”

“You know where I stand on this. What’s it
gonna be? Are you telling him or am I?”

“Can I have an hour to think about it?”

“If you’re not on the phone with him in ten
minutes, I’m telling him the truth.”

“I have to go.”

“When will I hear from you again?” she
asked.

I snorted softly. “Whenever I have the
chance to call. Though if you get your way and I tell Johnny,
calling you becomes pretty pointless.”

“Helen, I’m not asking you to tell him what
you’re really doing. Just give the man some peace of mind and let
him know you’re not in any immediate danger. I’ll still do
everything I can to help you and give you the two days you seem to
think you need to wrap this up.”

“Then you’ll hear from me in two days.”

“If you don’t call –”

“Yeah, yeah,” I said. “You’ll tell him the
whole story. I get it, Maya.” I clicked off the call before she had
the chance to argue another ridiculous point. It was moot anyway,
and she was bargaining for a phone call that wasn’t coming.

If calling Johnny would keep Maya’s mouth
shut for even another day, it would be worth it. She was right
about one thing. I didn’t have to explain what I was doing to give
him a little peace of mind. If I’d thought about that in the first
place, maybe I wouldn’t have an all-out manhunt underway because I
disappeared.

It was a lose-lose proposition. Either way,
Johnny wouldn’t accept that I was on the run. At least he wouldn’t
accept it until I was out of his reach completely.

Ten minutes. Time to decide. I ran one
finger over they keys on the cell phone. He couldn’t trace the
number on the pre-paid phone. And no matter what he said, there was
no way I would divulge my location or what I was really doing. Not
even Maya really knew my true agenda.

I dialed the number. My thumb hovered over
send
. I pressed the button.

One ring, and: “Orion.”

Silence.

“Hello? I can’t hear you. Is anyone…”

Finger snapping ensued while my voice
clogged with emotion. Johnny didn’t sound right.

“Helen? Helen, is that you?”

“You need to stop looking for me, Johnny.
I’m not in any danger right now.”

“Oh my God. Baby, where are you?”

“I’m… I’m unharmed, that’s all you need to
know. Johnny, you need to focus on getting Sanderfield. It won’t be
safe for me to come back until I know he’s behind bars and this
thing is shut down for good.”

“Come home. I’ll keep you safe, I promise.
Helen, you’re in far more danger out there alone. Tell me where you
are. I’ll be there so fast you –”

“No, Johnny. No. We’re doing this my way. I
can’t be there. Not until I know that Sanderfield is in
custody.”

“Honey, I’ve got people working on it. We’ll
get Sanderfield. We’ll get all of them. I can’t focus on anything
knowing that you’re out there alone.”

I sucked in a shuddering breath. “This is
for the best, Johnny. Please know how much I love you. Believe that
I can keep myself safe.”

“Don’t hang up! Helen, I need you here with
me. This is killing me. You should’ve come to me instead of running
away. Don’t you know I’d do anything to protect you?”

Tears sluiced down my cheeks. “I know you’d
try, but Johnny, this is something that I have to do alone.”

“You don’t. You’re not alone anymore.
Remember? No more secrets. Honey, please.”

“I’m hanging up now.”

“Helen, if you love me, you won’t. If you
love me, you’ll let me protect you.”

“That’s not fair,” I said.

“It is fair. We took vows. It’s us now,
sweetheart. Can’t you see that?” Johnny sniffled, his voice hoarse
as he continued. “I love you with all of my heart. Don’t shut me
out now.”

“If you really do love me that much, do as I
ask, Johnny. Get Sanderfield before he ruins someone else’s
life.”

I disconnected and crushed the phone under
the heel of my boot.

Calling Johnny was a stupid thing to do,
even if it did buy me a little more time before Maya decided to
confess the rest of her complicity in my disappearance. I had no
doubt that she would divulge my secret, but maybe not until it was
too late to stop me from doing what had to be done.

Screw daylight. I wasn’t willing to risk a
moment of my precious borrowed time. If my phone call fueled
Johnny’s determination to find me, he’d accomplish his goal.

I scooped the shattered fragments of the
phone off the floor and dumped them into the trash, shut off the
coffee maker and retreated to the bathroom for my next disguise.
Within the hour, a taxi was speeding toward the rental car haven of
Dulles International Airport.

Ted Fields entered the business and used a
two-month old credit card for the first time.

“All right, Mr. Fields. You can drop the
vehicle off at any Enterprise counter coast to coast, and the fleet
you selected is parked along the west fence. Keys are all in the
vehicles. Have a good trip.”

I smiled faintly and uttered an obligatory
thank you. I slung the bag over my shoulder and made my way to the
row of large SUV’s parked along the fence. Perhaps it was
subconscious that I was drawn to the Expedition. It could’ve been
homesickness. I pushed the thoughts out of my mind.

Darkwater Bay had done me one favor, and
that was the only thing I allowed myself to remember. I patted the
bag slung over my shoulder. “Thank you Jerry Lowe.”

I started the Expedition and drove out of
the lot. This was it. The beginning of the end. How it all played
out from this point forward was out of my hands. I thought about my
father, about his lessons when I was a child growing up. Did he
know the truth, that I wasn’t really his flesh and blood child? If
he did, he never showed it.

I was convinced that no child was loved and
cherished more than I was. There was no certainty in my heart that
the lessons I learned were the ones he intended. Maybe Dad wanted
me to be his opposite, not the little girl who followed in his
homicidal footsteps.

One lesson in particular was one of the
earliest I could remember. I must’ve been four or five years old.
Dad came home from his tour of duty, weary and reeking of smoke.
Not the tobacco kind, either. I remembered wrinkling my nose after
I crawled into his lap. To this day, I can smell it. Heavy, laced
with oil or gasoline.

He kissed the side of my head. “Daddy’s
tired, Sprout.”

I laid my head against his chest. “I love
you, Daddy. Did you have a bad night?”

“I had a good night, believe it or not.
Sprout, do you know what second chances are?”

I shook my head. “Tell me a story,
Daddy.”

“Which one would you like to hear?” His
tired smile and weary eyes shone with love, even though I’m sure
now the last thing he wanted to do was regale me with the story of
Princess Aurora being awakened from 100 years sleep by her
prince.

“Tell me the story of second chances.”

He grinned, I suppose now that because as an
adult, I was beginning to realize what a precocious child I was. It
made me wonder if my babies would have that particular trait. Would
they climb into my lap and ask for stories like I had?

Johnny’s face pierced my thoughts. Better
question. Shouldn’t our children have the opportunity to climb into
his
lap for special memories to be born?

I squinted, resisted the tears and refocused
on my memory.

“The story of second chances,” Dad said. He
stared up at the ceiling, like the words were etched up there. “I
don’t know, Sprout. It’s kind of a sad story.”

“I like sad stories, Daddy!”

The truth of the matter was that I liked
spending time on Dad’s knee. He could’ve read me
The Shining
and I’d have cherished every word, remembered the timbre of his
voice in each exquisite and terrifying phrase.

“Well, this is a story of a very sad little
boy, with a life that no child should ever have to endure. Do you
even know what a second chance is, Sprout?”

I shook my head. “I already said no,
Daddy!”

“Hmm, I suppose you did. Well, let’s start
with that, shall we? A second chance is like… when you’re playing,
and you accidentally break one of your toys. If you had a second
chance, it would mean that something in time changed so that you
had the opportunity to play more carefully and not break that toy.
Does that make sense?”

“Nobody can change time,” I shook my head
vehemently. “Is this a fairytale?”

“Well, say for instance that you got a
better toy, like the one you broke, only it is much more special to
you.”

“So getting the new toy is my second
chance?”

“That’s it exactly, Sprout. And how do you
suppose you’d use that second chance?”

“I would be very careful not to make the
same mistake and break the new toy.”

His lips pressed into my hair. “Such a good,
smart little girl. I am so lucky to be your Daddy. Did you know
that?”

I tilted my head to the side; I said, “Me
too, Daddy. You’re the best one in the whole wide world. Did the
sad little boy have a daddy like you?”

Shadows flitted through his eyes. “I’m
afraid he didn’t, honey. The little boy who got the second chance
had a very bad man for his father.”

“Did he break the law?”

“Sometimes,” Dad nodded. “I suppose he did,
sweetheart.”

“Did you put the bad daddy in jail?”

“No,” he whispered, cleared his throat,
gazed into my eyes with a sort of wonder. “I didn’t put him in
jail, but I gave his little boy the chance to be something better
than his dad ever was.”

“What did the bad man do to make his little
boy so sad?”

“He hit him. Was cruel to him. That daddy
drank all the time, Sprout.”

“Did he drink milk?”

“No, honey, he drank whiskey. It’s a bad
kind of alcohol. You’ve seen me drink wine with dinner sometimes,
right?”

I nodded. “You even let me have a taste on
your pinky one time.”

Dad smiled. “Well, a glass of wine isn’t
bad, but it is still alcohol, and some people drink even a good
kind of alcohol in a bad way. They drink too much.”

My mother ambled through the room. I’d seen
her with a deep crystal glass filled with dark brown fluid a lot,
especially when Dad wasn’t home.

“You must always remember that hard liquor
is for hard women. It isn’t for ladies, sweetheart.”

“I thought it was the daddy who drank too
much.”

“Well, he did, and we must never be with
people who dull their minds with too much of anything.”

“What happened to the sad little boy?”

“He was tired of being hurt, I suppose. This
poor child was so desperate for even a tiny bit of happiness, that
I think he would’ve done anything to find it. He might’ve done
something very bad if I hadn’t stopped him, Sprout.”

“And that was his second chance?”