Stolen Innocents (The Shadow Series Book 2) (30 page)

“Pfft! That’s funny!” said Tiffany as she cackled loudly.

“This is entirely your fault!” screamed Angie as she ran towards Tiffany with fury.

As Angie took Tiffany to the ground, Joe went inside of his parents’ house and slammed the door shut.
These people are nuts,
Joe thought. That night a yellow taxi cab came and took Angie away for two weeks and she didn’t return until just before prom. Bernard Kendricks never stepped foot on Caribou Road again after Roger O’Mara threatened to kill him on the spot if he did. The O’Mara’s didn’t tell anyone where Angie had gone, but Joe had a pretty good idea. Just a few days after Angie had left, Joe was in the front yard going through the mail. The mailman had given the Piedmontes a piece of Roger O’Mara’s mail by accident. Joe thought nothing of it at first, until he read the envelope. It had come from the St. Mary Psychiatric Crisis Center for Women in Harrisburg, and it was addressed to Roger O’Mara in care of Angela O’Mara. When Angie returned, she refused to talk about Bernard Kendricks with anyone.

***

“How did I miss this?” asked Jenna who was actually friends with Angie at the time.

“Her father told me that she was sick at home.”

“I guess to save face?”

“I don’t understand why they would send her to a mental institution, though…” said Joe, still confused.

“Angie had problems,” admitted Jenna. “She probably still does.”

Joe looked at Jenna as the gears in her head turned.

“Oh, my God,” said Jenna as her hands dropped from the steering wheel. “It’s been in front of me this entire time.”

***

June 20, 2000

27 Caribou Road

Elkhart, PA

4 P.M.

Misty-Lee slammed the front door shut as she walked in the house with a tired look on her face. Life was hard without Courtney around. She missed her sister and friend, and it was hard moving on in life without her companion by her side. Though there was a fourteen years age difference between them, they were as close as twins. She didn’t feel the same connection, the same closeness with Angie, Ally or Trixie.  She felt a bit lost without her.

Misty-Lee climbed the stairs to her room so that she could get changed. She was still wearing her work clothes from her part-time job at the grocery store and she was desperate to change into something more comfortable.

Gwen O’Mara yelled up the stairs to Misty-Lee, “Misty-Lee, is that you?”

“Yeah, Mom!”

“Can you check on Angie? I haven’t heard from her all day…”

Misty-Lee climbed the steps to the third floor to check on her sister. She walked down the long hallway to her bedroom, but it was empty. Confused, Misty-Lee walked back down the hallway. As she passed Tiffany’s bedroom she heard a noise. It was the sound of a music box playing from inside Tiffany’s long unoccupied room. Goosebumps formed on Misty-Lee’s skin as she listened closely to the sound. Misty-Lee pushed open the old door to Tiffany’s room as the hinges squeaked loudly. Much to Misty-Lee’s surprise, there was someone standing in the middle of Tiffany’s room.

“What are you doing in here?” Misty-Lee asked Angie, sounding offended. Angie stood at Tiffany’s bureau listening to her sister’s long-forgotten music box. She watched the ballerina twirl round and round as
Swan Lake
played from the box. The sound was ghostly and unforgettable. 

“It’s so terrible, what is happening,” said Angie in a chilling voice.

Misty-Lee watched her sister somberly. Misty thought that Angie really seemed to be upset over the tragedy that had struck their family once again. It almost seemed like a dark cloud was hanging over their family tree, or the water in which it gained its nutrients was tainted with disease.

“I know…” Misty-Lee agreed, “I’m afraid to go outside.”

Angie remained silent continuing to listen to the hauntingly beautiful melody that the music box was playing.

“We never come in here…” commented Misty-Lee.

“How come?”

“Because losing her and you at the same time… It was very traumatic for everyone.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to leave… I was scared.”

“I probably would have done the same thing. I was still pretty young at the time.”

Angie turned around to look at her sister. Misty-Lee did have some depth to her. She wondered if the shallow exterior was a façade to cover something else up. Angie thought it might be to hide her own pain and self-consciousness. Misty-Lee smiled a half smile at her sister as she tried to bury her pain.

“Come downstairs, Mom is asking for you. There is going to be a vigil tonight for Courtney, and she wants us all to attend.”

Chapter              22

June 20, 2000

Elkhart, PA

4:00 P.M.

“I’ll be back at 8 to pick you up,” Cole said to Tristan out of his driver’s side window as she walked towards the entrance of Monte’s Café.

“Okay, thanks… Have fun with your buddy…,” Tristan said as she winked at Cole with a sly smile on her face.

Cole would be biding his time this afternoon at Morrow Manor and Tristan knew Jack would be more than happy to put Cole to work. At least it was only four hours and not eight.

“Oh, yeah… I can’t wait to clean out stables and detail his car,” Cole said facetiously as he pulled off and headed down Mountain Road towards Cavegat Pass.

***

“Yo, Tony! Is my pizza done yet?!” Salvatore Piedmonte yelled over the counter of Monte’s Café becoming irate.

“Hold yer horses!” Tony Piedmonte yelled from the kitchen.

Joe’s father Sal was waiting impatiently at the counter for his eldest grandson to bring him his pizza that he had ordered only ten minutes ago.

“Y’know, in my day I had pizza’s done in ten minutes flat!”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah… In the snow, barefoot and you walked five miles to deliver it, too! Didn’t ya?!”

“Now that you mention it…”

“Yer pizza’s coming out now.”

Tony, who was Joe’s sister Candace’s son, was helping out with the restaurant in Joe’s absence. Tony was a high energy guy who loved to be in the kitchen, but his personality could be felt all the way in the dining room. He was loud and boisterous and always had a joke for whoever was willing to listen. He could make a pretty mean pizza, too. Tristan was thrilled to see Tony. He was always so much fun to work with.

“Hey cuz!” Tony yelled at Tristan. Tony insisted that Cole and Tristan would marry someday and he was adamant upon calling Tristan “cuz” prematurely.

“Hey Tony! How’s it going?” Tristan asked.

“It’s going… Busy as hell in here today. Do me a favor. Take this pie over to table four. The grumpy old guy is hungry.”

Tristan laughed, “Be nice to your Grandpa.”

Tristan took the pizza over to Cole’s grandfather who was sitting at table number four. Sal greeted her with a smile.

“Hey cutie! Join me for a slice.”

“I wish I could, Monte. This place is packed today!”

“Tell my grandson to speed it up!”

Tristan laughed at Cole’s spunky grandfather as she went to wait on the next table.

***

“What the hell is going on up here?” asked Liam as he and Adam barged through the front door of Morrow Manor.

Frank gave his nephews a death glare from the doorway of the dining room. The two officers walked straight past him into the dining room as they tried to understand what the issue was. Bridgette sat at the sprawling dining room table across from Jack who had a desperately worried look on his face. He was trying to convince her to stay home from work due to her traumatic experience this morning on the porch.

“No, Jack! I’d like to see anyone try to pull anything on me. They’ll be dead before they could try.”

“And what about Tristan and Natalie?” Jack asked in worry. Bridgette glared at Jack.

“Oh, here we go again! Tristan knows how to defend herself for the umpteenth time!”

“That doesn’t mean that Frank and I don’t worry!” Jack explained.

“I’m worried too, Jack, but it doesn’t mean that we jump to conclusions. I refuse to live scared. We prepare. We take precautions, but we go about our lives. You and Joe have poor Cole chauffeuring Tristan and Natalie everywhere. I will be at the hospital working. All I have to say is God help anyone who tries to go after DiNolfo. Seriously. Let them try. We’re not damsels in distress.”

“We know, wild woman!” said Frank with a perturbed look on his face. “But you need to listen and listen good!”

“I’m listening.”

“Cole is picking Natalie up at 11 P.M. tonight. You get done at 11. Wait in the lobby for him. Do not wait out on the corner.”

“Oh, Francis…”

“I’m dead serious, Bridgette!” Frank barked with a serious look on his face.

“Fine. I will wait for Cole in the lobby.”

“Liam and Adam are here.”

“Tell them to come in.”

***

Cole walked into the dining room of Morrow Manor where he found Jack, Frank, Liam, Adam and Bridgette huddled together around the dining room table. Their conversation had heated up since Adam and Liam’s arrival and now they were trying to figure out how to handle the latest turn of events.

“What’s going on?” Cole asked as he laid his car keys down on the table.

Jack sighed deeply and said, “Take a seat.”

Cole became nervous at Jack’s request but did as he was told.

“This was left on the porch this morning,” Jack said as he passed the box to Cole.

“Don’t touch it,” warned Liam as he lifted the jewelry box out of the cardboard box with a pair of rubber gloves sheathing his fingerprints from the surface. He displayed it on the table for Cole to see. Cole eyed the box precariously.

“Who sent it?”

“We don’t know. But it was hand delivered. The intruder ran off before I could catch him,” explained Frank.

A troubled look grew in Cole’s eyes.

“Ready?” asked Liam as he pressed the release with his gloved index finger. Cole nodded. The lid of the jewelry box lifted gently and revealed a stack of photographs inside.

Liam pulled the photos out of the box and explained each photograph to Cole. He slowed as he got to the picture of Natalie.

“Now these photographs are a bit different. They all have today’s date on the back of them, which leads us to believe that the killer is planning an attack.”

Cole looked at the picture with a murderous glare.

“I’ll kill ‘em. Whoever it is, if they hurt my sister…”

“Hold tight, kid… It gets worse,” warned Adam.

Liam showed Cole the picture of Jenna, and Cole’s anger intensified even further. Finally, in a gentle movement, Liam put the picture of Tristan and Bridgette on the table in front of Cole. His eyes took in the photo and he seemed fixated on Tristan’s face. Jack watched Cole very carefully. The quiet, mild mannered boy had quickly come into his own as a man. In Jack’s opinion, there are few times when you could read the contents of a man’s heart more easily than when his significant other was in danger. The contents of Cole’s heart were splayed out for all to see. Cole’s face seethed with anger. His eyes had a dangerous quality to them as all of the warmth quickly vanished.