Taken (31 page)

“We understand that Dominic disappeared off a boat or something?”

“That was very troubling.” Father Serrano played with his fountain pen, twirling it in his fingers.

Silence followed his words. Kayla hoped he’d say
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more, but he remained silent. “My grandmother said that Johnny was very religious,” she continued. “She told me that he went to Mass every Sunday, and that she found that contradictory part of his personality very attractive. I assume he went to church here.”

Father Serrano nodded. “Yes, he did. Johnny never forgot his faith, and I suspect that he came often to ask for forgiveness of his sins. Is that all?”

“Not quite,” Kayla said quickly. “I’m trying to find other people who knew Johnny, who could tell me more about his life. I’ve spoken to people from Nate’s family and Dominic’s family, but no one seems to know anything about Frankie. Do you know if any of his relatives are still alive?”

Father Serrano set his pen down on the desk.

“Frankie’s parents died years ago. He was an only child.

But he lived just around the corner. He spent a lot of time with one of the neighbor girls, Helen Perrini. She still lives in the neighborhood. She’s married now. Her last name is Matthews. They have grandchildren who go to our school. I don’t feel that it’s appropriate for me to give out her number, but I can have her call you if she’d like to talk to you about Frankie.”

“That would be great,” Kayla said. She pulled a business card out of her purse. “Here are my numbers. She can call me on either one, and if you could let her know that it’s really important, I’d appreciate it.”

“I will,” he said as he slowly got to his feet.

“There’s something I’m curious about, Father,” Nick said, speaking for the first time. “It’s been more than fifty years since Johnny went to school here, and I suspect you were not a priest at that time. Yet you seem to remember him and the others so well. Why is that?”

The older man smiled. “I don’t remember Johnny be-272

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cause he was a parishioner. I remember him because he was my brother.”

Kayla sucked in a sharp air of disbelief. “What?”

“My half brother. Johnny’s mother married my father.

I was one of the two children she had with her second family. Johnny was a great deal older than me, almost seventeen years. But he used to take me out, buy me food, let me spend time with him and his friends.”

“I can’t believe it,” Kayla said. “I guess that you and I are related. I’m related to all of Johnny’s family. I didn’t even think about that.”

“Your grandmother,” he said. “Her name is Charlotte?”

“Is that a lucky guess?” Kayla asked, suspecting it wasn’t.

“I met her a few times. I could see that Johnny was in-fatuated with her. I wonder if he knew that he had a child.”

“My grandmother says he did know that she was pregnant.”

The priest slowly nodded. “I see.”

She was glad he did, because she sure didn’t. “Is there anything else you can tell me, Father?”

He hesitated. “Be careful.”

Her nerves began to tingle. “That’s an odd thing to say.

Can you tell me why?”

“I’m afraid I can’t. I have another appointment. It was very nice to meet you. Please come back another time.

We can chat more.”

“Thank you, I think I will.”

Kayla followed Nick out of the rectory. They stopped on the front steps to regroup. “What do you think of that bombshell?” she asked. “Johnny’s half brother is a priest here at the same church?”

Nick shrugged. “I can see why it’s interesting to you
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that Johnny had a half brother, but I’m not sure how it plays out with everything else. He has other siblings, too.”

“I just wasn’t expecting to run into one here.”

“What we really need to do is concentrate on Frankie.

One of his friends or relatives has that last watch.”

“Maybe this woman that Father Serrano knows will have a lead. But we’d better give J.T. her name so he can make sure nothing happens to her in the meantime.”

“Good point.”

As they walked down to the car, Kayla asked the most troubling question. “Why do you think Father Serrano told me to be careful?”

Nick met her gaze. “One reason comes to mind. If I escaped from prison and needed someone to protect my secret, I can’t think of a better person than a half brother who is a priest, can you?”

A shiver ran down her spine. “Maybe my grandfather is alive. Maybe he’s going after the coins. But wouldn’t he know where they are? Wouldn’t he have been able to get them before now?”

“I’ve been thinking about the fact that they all had watches and Evan apparently is collecting them. That fact would imply that the watches have to be together in order for something to emerge. We know two of the phrases:

‘of Heaven Await’ and ‘Until the Day.’ ”

“Which don’t seem to tell us anything. We must need the other two phrases. Or maybe we just need the key in each watch. Why would they go to such elaborate lengths? From all accounts the men were best friends, blood brothers, family.”

“They were also greedy thieves who might not have trusted one another when it came to their loot.”

“They stashed the money somewhere in the time
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between when they left the mint and were arrested.” She thought for a moment. “Maybe that’s something else we should investigate, the old robbery. There must be records somewhere.”

“Good point. We should follow up on that.” Nick paused as he got a call on his phone. “Hello? Jen? What’s wrong? I can’t understand you.” He waited. “How long ago? Damn. You should have called me right away.”

Kayla felt a knot develop in her stomach at the anger in Nick’s voice. Something had happened. Something bad.

“Shit! Hell, yes, I’m coming over there.” He hung up the phone, his face tight with rage.

“What’s wrong?”

“Evan stopped by Jenny’s shop earlier today. And she just called me now. I can’t believe she didn’t tell me right away.” He hit the side of the car with his fist.

“Nick, you have to calm down. You don’t know the whole story yet.”

“Evan has some kind of crazy hold over my sister.

That’s the story. And I don’t understand it. After everything she’s been through, how can she still have a soft spot for the guy?”

Because Evan was probably still working Jenny, Kayla suspected. And he could certainly be charming when he wanted to be.

“I’m going to get him out of her system if I have to shake him out of her,” Nick proclaimed.

“If she’s still hung up on him after twelve years, I think you’re going to need a better plan than that.”

17

Jenny was standing at the cash register in her salon when they barged in fifteen minutes later. She was a slender woman about five feet, four inches tall, with dark, wavy brown hair like her brother and hazel eyes. Her pale face turned even whiter when she saw Nick. She finished accepting payment from a customer and put up a hand in warning. She sent one of the other stylists a quick look.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes. Family business.” Taking Nick by the arm, she said, “Across the street. I’m not going to do this here.”

She led them to a small park. “What happened to you?

You’re all banged-up.”

“I’ll tell you later. First, you talk.”

“Okay. I —” She stopped abruptly, her gaze turning to Kayla. “I’m sorry. Who are you?”

“Kayla Sheridan. I can leave you two alone if you want.”

“You’re not going anywhere,” Nick said sharply. “I can’t be worrying where you are,” he added, softening his tone a bit.

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“You’re the one who married Evan?” Jenny questioned.

“Yes, that’s me,” she said.

“You two can bond later,” Nick interrupted. “Tell me what Evan said, Jenny. What was he doing here? Were you lying to me when you said you didn’t know anything before?”

“Do you want to give me a chance to answer?” Jenny demanded.

“I’m not stopping you,” he replied.

“I saw Evan a few months ago. It was a chance meeting, I thought. We ran into each other in the mall. We had a brief conversation. What I was doing, what he was doing.”

“What he was doing? As if you could believe a word he said,” Nick interjected.

“Please, Nick, if you want me to talk, then listen.”

“Fine, go on.”

“I admit that I was rattled after seeing him. And then he called me on my cell phone on my birthday. I was shocked that he’d gotten the number. I told him to leave me alone, that we couldn’t be friends. I thought that was it until the presents came. I knew they were from Evan even though he didn’t sign the cards. But he didn’t come by, so I didn’t do anything about it. However, after you came to the shop the other day to see me, Evan called again. And later he came to my apartment.”

“Are you serious?” Nick asked in shock. “And you never thought to pick up the phone and call me, knowing that he’d robbed me?”

“I know I should have told you,” Jenny replied. “I picked up the phone a half dozen times, but Evan said he would tell you something that I didn’t want you to know.

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So I kept quiet. I’m not proud of myself, but I can’t take it back.”

Nick gave Jenny a long, searching look. “He was blackmailing you? You know you can tell me anything.

There’s nothing he could say about you that would change how I feel.”

Jenny looked down at the ground, shifting her stance from one leg to the other.

Nick glanced over at Kayla, a plea in his eyes, but she didn’t know how to help him. This was between the two of them. She almost felt as if she shouldn’t be listening, but she knew Nick wanted her here, maybe even needed her here, so she was staying. And Jenny would have to deal with it.

“Just say it, Jen,” Nick ordered. “It can’t be that bad.”

Jenny glanced over at Kayla, then back at her brother.

“There was something you never knew about my relationship with Evan. I was pregnant that night I got stabbed. Fortunately, the knife missed the uterus, so it didn’t hurt the baby, and it appeared that even though I’d lost some blood and suffered a shock, the baby would survive.”

Nick started shaking his head in confusion and bewilderment. “You didn’t have a baby. I would have known if you’d had a baby.”

“I went back to Monterey when I got out of the hospital, remember? I asked you not to come home. I said I didn’t want to see you. I didn’t want you to know I was pregnant.”

“What about Mom, Dee? They must have known. The neighbors. Our friends? How is it possible that I didn’t know?”

“I didn’t show for a long time, Nick. I was skinny. I
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wore baggy clothes. I didn’t tell anyone. Mom and Dee figured it out, but I begged them not to tell you. I thought you’d want me to give up the baby or get an abortion, because Evan was the father, and you hated him.”

“But I loved you,” Nick said.

“You hated Evan more. You thought he betrayed you, took advantage of your friendship. I know you’ll never admit that you had a friendship with him, but you did. He took you in. And you liked him. Until you realized —”

“That he was using me and you,” Nick finished.

“Maybe. But sometimes I think it was more about what he did to you than what he did to me,” Jenny said.

“That’s not true.”

“Anyway, it didn’t matter in the end. I lost the baby when I was seven months pregnant. It stopped moving.

They did an emergency C-section and the baby was . . .”

Jenny closed her eyes, biting down on her lip, then finished, “The baby was dead. She had the cord wrapped around her neck.”

“God, Jen.” Nick put out a hand to her, but she stepped away, folding her arms in front of her chest, as if she needed the barrier between them.

Kayla saw the pain in Nick’s expression and wanted to put her arms around him, but she couldn’t move. She had to let them finish this out.

“I’m sorry,” Nick added. “I’m sorry you went through that. I’m sorry you didn’t think you could confide in me.

Whatever I did, Jen, I was just trying to protect you.”

“It wasn’t your job to protect me, Nick. I was an adult, just two years younger than you. I had a right to make my own mistakes and love the people I wanted to love. I still have that right.”

“Are you saying you love Evan?”

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“No.” Jenny immediately shook her head. “I didn’t mean that.”

“Maybe you did. Maybe it was a slip of the tongue.”

“I’m done with Evan, but I will admit that there was something strong between us once, something I can’t deny. It doesn’t mean I want to go back or try to re-create our relationship. I don’t. I am older and wiser. I know Evan is a thief. I understand that he works on the wrong side of the law a lot of the time. So don’t look at me like I’m an idiot.”

Nick dug his hands in his pockets, rocking back on his heels as he took a moment to think. “Did Evan know about the baby?”

“Yes. I told him,” Jenny replied. “I wrote to him when he was in jail. I told him that she died.” Her eyes grew misty, and she rubbed them with the back of her hand.

“Sometimes when I go to the cemetery there are flowers there, and I think to myself that Evan must have come by.

Because no one else, besides Mom and Dee, knows about the baby.”

“All these years the three of you kept it a secret from me. Every Christmas, every Thanksgiving, no one said a word. God, what else didn’t you tell me?”

Kayla felt her heart breaking at the pain in Nick’s voice, and she could see that Jenny was hurting, too. She wished she could push them into each other’s arms, so they could take back what they’d lost. But Nick had moved farther away, and Jenny stood alone, unmoving, almost as if she were a statue.

No one spoke for a long minute. Kayla couldn’t take the silence. It certainly wasn’t getting them anywhere.

“Jenny,” she said.

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