Cloaked in Blood (18 page)

“Shit,” Johnny hissed.  “They’re gonna
kill Jerry Lowe, aren’t they?”

I looked at Dad.  What I saw was not
the face of a man who necessarily disapproved of Lowe’s death.

Chapter 17

Johnny whipped out his cell phone and rushed
off without a single word to me about where he was going or who he
called.  He didn’t need to explain it.  I already
knew.  Crevan would meet him at Dunhaven.  And while they
might not get any answers out of Jerry Lowe, they’d certainly be in
a position to get him into protective custody so that he didn’t
mysteriously die.

“What the devil is going on, Helen?” Dad
asked.

“Lowe could hold the answer we’ve been
chasing all this time.”

“I believe that was quite obvious.  Do
you really believe this madman is willing to divulge any
information to law enforcement?  He could’ve ended this all
before it started when you arrested him last spring.”

“Your father’s right, Helen.  Lowe
won’t talk.  You know it, don’t you?”

I tapped one finger against my lips. 
“He won’t talk to Johnny.”

“I don’t want you going anywhere near that
man, Sprout.  On that much, Johnny and I are in complete
agreement.”

“Wait a minute.  What makes you think
Jerry Lowe would talk to you?  Didn’t he already prove that he
won’t when you arrested him?” Danny asked.

“He wants Helen to play the game,” Dad said
with a knowing, yet disapproving gleam in his eyes.  “That’s
why he wanted you out here, isn’t it Helen?”

“I’m not sure he
did
want me
here.  Sending Varden and Kelly after me –”

“He sent the sleaziest private investigators
in Darkwater proper after you?” Datello looked as alarmed as he
sounded.  “They’re not nice people, Helen.”

“I think he wanted to make sure I’d be
scared enough from an abduction attempt in Washington to make sure
I took George’s job offer here.”

“No,” Danny said.  “Those two make
people disappear.  If they came after you, it wasn’t to scare
you into coming here or anywhere else, Helen.  Are you sure
that Lowe sent them after you?”

“They were arrested for breaking into my
hotel room and stealing my computer,” I said.  “Of course they
never implicated the man who hired them, but David Levine saw that
man.  He matched Lowe’s description.  They were also seen
at Central Division the night that my office and Rodney Martin’s
were vandalized.”

Datello bounced off the sofa and started
pacing.  “They were trying to kill you.  Who stopped
them?  No wait.  It was Orion, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah… but how could you possibly know
that?”

“Something Gwen told me before she
died.  She said she received a threatening letter and that
there were fingerprints that belonged to Varden on the
envelope.  I offered to send her and Vinnie away.  She
refused, said she had it under control.”

“Johnny was watching them.  That’s how
he prevented my abduction in Washington.”

“Did he know who you were?” Datello
asked.

“Not until I showed up at Gwen Foster’s
house after she was murdered.”

“Oh Christ,” Datello hissed.  “This
could’ve all been prevented.”

“It’s not your fault any more than it is
Johnny’s,” I said.  “Even if the two of you could’ve buried
the hatchet years ago, Lowe targeted Gwen because she reminded him
of his first victim so much, just like Brighton Bennett did, and
probably two or three dozen other girls.  Danny, he was never
going to stop raping women that reminded him of Frank and Dennis’
sister.  The only thing that would’ve made him stop was his
arrest.”

I turned to my father. “Daddy, I really need
to talk to Jerry Lowe again.”

“No, Helen.  You’re not playing into
this man’s psychotic delusions.”

“You don’t understand.  He has all the
answers.  I know this man.  He had information on
everybody.  Some of it he used to bend people to his will, the
rest, I suspect he locked up in his head and saved them for later
use.”

“What makes you think you can pry the truth
out of him?  I’m not disparaging your skills, Helen, because
Lord knows, I’ve learned over the past several weeks exactly how
talented you are.  But this man likes the game too much to
fall for the usual tricks.”

“Which is exactly why he needs a massive
dose of the truth.”

“Helen, you can’t tip your hand to Lowe,”
Danny said.  “What if he’s part of this slavery thing? 
He’ll spill his guts to his partners.  You’ll lose your
tactical advantage.”

Lowe would always assume he had the upper
hand with me.  Still, Datello made a valid point.  Just
like the last time I spoke to him, he gave Riley Storm a head’s up
so he knew what was coming.  Storm was cooperative until I
asked about Southerby’s remains.  He knew the man wasn’t dead,
yet he led me to believe Datello was the boss who couldn’t be
named.  They all did, even Painless Carl, one of Johnny’s
torturers.

“I need to get all these bastards into one
room,” I muttered.

“Helen, you’ll do no such thing.”

I glanced up at Dad.  “How can you
possibly know who I’m talking about?”

“Because I know you.  You think that
all of this is related somehow.  I suspect that Marcos and
Southerby merely wanted to prevent the federal authorities from
getting their hands on the information Danny and Mr. Ireland
held.  As for this psychopath Jerry Lowe, he is an
opportunist.  Not unlike Mr. Varden and Mr. Kelly, he won’t
tell you anything helpful.  He loves the game too much.”

I thought about Dad’s natural abilities as a
profiler, how he pegged Johnny the moment he laid eyes on him, how
something happened to convince him to help Danny Datello even
knowing that I blamed him for the misfortune that was my marriage
to Rick Hamilton.  Yet he hadn’t met these other people.

“How can you be sure Uncle Sully isn’t
behind all of it, Wendell?” Danny asked.  “Hell, the man was
supplying components to terrorists.”

Dad’s eyes glittered.  “Yes, well that
comes as no surprise.  There were rumors back before my
incarceration that he had some sort of nefarious plans for his
waste management facility.  It’s simply fortunate that a
natural disaster brought attention to his operation there, that
Franchetta hid the weapon that probably killed your cousin there as
well.”

“But Agent Soule said Franchetta recanted
that story.”

“I’m sure he’s experiencing more than pangs
of doubt about turning on his master.  His story will probably
change ten times between now and the trial.  This is why it’s
imperative that we keep you safe.  Regardless of any
consequences for your cousin’s death, be it by suicide or murder,
he
will
answer for a number of other crimes, thanks to your
testimony.”

Datello nodded.  “I hadn’t thought
about it that way.”

“And you know as well as I do, Danny. 
If Sully thought Rick embezzled money from him, nothing would
convince him that he was wrong.  Franchetta probably did pull
the trigger.  I would like to know who or what has compelled
him to protect my daughter all of a sudden.”

“Forget it, Dad.  There’s no way you
could get into a federal holding facility to question him,” I
said. 

“Yet according to your mentor, someone has
gotten to him and encouraged him to implicate you in Rick’s
death.”

“It
was
suicide.”

Datello fell silent.

“Danny, whether you want to accept it or
not, Rick put that gun to his head the moment he told you he wanted
into Sully’s operation.  It was suicide.  You know
that.  You avoided the family business because you’re better
than that.  You wanted more from life than the cold existence
Sully led.”

Regret mingled with reluctance.  “I
suppose if I were in a similar situation, I might prefer to pull
the trigger rather than have to wait for one of Uncle Sully’s men
to do the job for me.”

Minuscule relief began to leech into my
cells – until the chime that signaled an arrival at the gate
sounded. 

My eyes widened.

“Expecting company?”

“No, Dad, I’m certainly not.”

“Where do you want us?”

I pointed to the stairs.  “Keep going
up until you get to the top floor.  I’ve got a gun safe in the
closet.  You know the combination, Daddy.”

“I do?”

I nodded.  “If you think about it,
there’s only one number we’d both know by heart.” 

Dad grinned and gestured to Datello, who was
already on his feet ready to run for cover. 

“Be prepared for anything, Dad.  I’m
trusting you to have my back.”

“For God’s sake, Helen.  If it’s
someone that shouldn’t be here, don’t open the gate.”

Chapter 18

Johnny met Crevan in the lobby at
Dunhaven. 

“I can’t believe we’re back to Jerry Lowe,”
Crevan said.  “He’s not exactly someone I ever wanted to sit
across the table from ever again, Johnny.”

“He said something to you the day Helen
arrested him,” Johnny said.  “I never gave it a second thought
until Helen and I were comparing notes this afternoon.  It
concerns me in light of other things we know now.”

“Is this where you tell me what you know
about Wendell?”

“Yeah, but after we see Lowe.  I’ve got
Chris conferencing with Judge Hathaway right now about getting him
into protective custody.”

“Is that really necessary?  We vetted
the new administrator here, Johnny.  Lowe’s being kept
essentially in isolation on the locked ward out here. 
Nobody’s going to get to him.”

“Just the same, at the very least, I want
our people guarding that wing.  Helen’s right, Crevan. 
Lowe knows something.  He hinted at it during that interview
after she arrested him.”

Crevan shuddered.  “The man gave me
chills that day, Johnny.  The way he looked at me, and then at
Helen, I wondered if he didn’t suspect the truth about her even
then.”

Johnny froze.  “You think he knew she
was your missing sister?”

“He wasn’t very old when it happened. 
How could he possibly know about that?”

“Never underestimate the enemy,” Johnny
said.  He depressed the buzzer at the receptionist’s
window.

“Can I help you?”

Johnny held his badge up to the
window.  “We need to speak to the hospital administrator
immediately.  It’s official state police business.”

The woman nodded and disappeared
immediately.

“You recognized Helen right away, Crevan,”
Johnny said.  “If I hadn’t been so smitten with her, it might
not have taken me so long to see the resemblance.”

“When did you notice?”

“January,” Johnny said.  “When my
memory wasn’t quite back yet.  She was comforting you after
Belle’s murder, and I thought,
my God, they look enough alike to
be related.
  But then, I was under the impression that
your twin was a brother and not a sister.  And I still didn’t
make the connection even after Charlie Haverston gave me the file
about the first infant abduction from Saint Mary’s Hospital because
we’d just learned that Helen was pregnant that day and we were both
a little distracted.  Why didn’t you confide in me?”

“We’re adults, Johnny.  From what I
knew about Helen, she worshipped her father, even though she wanted
us to believe he was dead.  I envied that relationship she had
with him.  How could I destroy it by telling her the truth,
that she came from a worse gene pool than she imagined?  You
know it plagued her, probably since Wendell’s arrest.  She
wondered if she was destined to be like her parents.”

Johnny sighed.  “I know,” he
said.  “Come to find out, her biological parents aren’t any
better than Wendell and Marie were.  Forgive me, Crevan, but
I’ve never much cared for either one of them.”

“Mom is…”

“Spineless,” Johnny said coldly.  “But
I get it.  She’s guilty of bad taste in men.”

“She does love us, and I think that Helen’s
arrival here gave her the courage to stand up to Dad.”

The entrance doors to the hospital buzzed a
moment before they swung open.  The new administrator, Kayla
Young beckoned with one hand.  “Please come in,
gentlemen.  I presume that you’re here about our most
notorious patient.”

Johnny took the lead and followed her down
the hallway that had been remodeled since his last untimely visit
to Dunhaven.  The putrid green walls were now soothing creams
and gold-tones.  He and Crevan followed Young into her
office.

“We have concerns about Jerry Lowe’s
safety.”

“You know that Commander Darnell has been
incredibly helpful with the criminal background checks on all of
our employees, myself included.  Access to Mr. Lowe is
strictly limited to his attorney, his physicians, and clergy. 
Under the laws governing involuntary commitment, we don’t have the
right to limit access to those people.”

“I understand,” Johnny said.  “But at
the same time, I’d like to place officers from OSI in Jerry’s
locked ward for extra security.”

“Has something happened that I should be
aware of?  We have over a hundred patients at Dunhaven
currently, commander.  I have a professional obligation to
make sure they’re all in the safest environment possible.”

“It’s come to my attention today that there
are people at large in this city who might have reason to kill
Jerry,” he said.  “This isn’t merely suspicion, Mrs.
Young.  It’s a very credible threat from people who had a
vested interest in Jerry Lowe remaining in power in Darkwater Bay’s
police department.  He knows things, and whether he’s willing
to divulge those secrets or not, he’s still in a great deal of
danger.  These folks won’t want to take the risk that his
treatment is successful and he realizes that he can do the right
thing and tell the police what he knows.”