Curtis (23 page)

“Not yet, sweetheart. The police…” She
wiped at tears that flooded her face. “The police have to make sure that they
gather all the evidence. They said that they should be finished soon.”

There was a look shared between her and
Curtis and she could almost hear them speaking. She couldn’t hear what they
were saying, but knew that a great deal of information had passed between them
before Annamarie walked away. Curtis stepped in front of her.

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

No
, she wanted to scream at him.
Hell
no.
She looked at him as he continued.

“I can go and look to make sure it’s him
for you.”

“I have to be sure.” She trusted him,
but she also needed to make one hundred percent sure for herself. “What if
he…what if you make a mistake? He might be still out there.”

Curtis nodded and pulled her into his
arms. “I understand. I had to be sure when my dad died as well. It was hard not
knowing for sure.”

They stood like that, in each other’s
arms, for another hour. Neither of them spoke to each other, but Curtis would
answer questions if someone came up to them. She simply let the world go on
around her. Her daddy was gone.

When the call came that she could go
inside, she hesitated. She looked at Curtis when he stopped with her. He didn’t
ask her again, though a part of her wished he would. When she took a step back,
he nodded once and went to the doorway. Kasey was suddenly there with her.

“He’ll do what’s right. He loves you too
much not to.”

Kylie nodded.

“When my mother passed away the Hunters
were so great. My world had ended when she did. Curtis and the rest of them
were so supportive then.” She grinned at her. “Not so much Royce. He was a
royal pain in the ass, but I still love him.”

“You and Royce didn’t always love each
other?” Kylie let her distract her. “I thought the two of you had been in love
since birth.”

Kasey laughed. “Hardly. He was an
overbearing, irritating asshole. Come to think of it, he still is. There are
days when I want to wring his neck. Other days, I want to crawl up into his
heart and stay there.”

“You already are there, love.” Royce
reached out and pulled Kasey into his arms. “And I heard you describe me as a
pain in your ass. You do know that you’re no picnic either.”

The both laughed, as did Kylie. She was
still smiling when Curtis came out with a gurney. There was a bag on it, closed
and strapped down. She started to step toward it and him when Royce pulled her
back.

Curtis came to her then and simply held
her. “He’s been gone for a few days. The coroner thinks he had a heart attack. He’d
been hurt too and had lost a good deal of blood.” He pulled her back and looked
into her face. “It was Jon. I swear to you, Kylie, it was your dad.”

The tears came then. Hard and hot. She
couldn’t have stopped them even if she had tried. She felt herself being lifted
up and moved, but didn’t care. When she was closed up in the back of the SUV
that she’d been brought over in she curled up in the seat and cried harder. Her
daddy was gone. The door on the other side opened and she knew it was Curtis. He
started the engine and they were moving before she could ask him where they
were going. She looked up at the house that he stopped in front of. Curtis
began speaking before she could say anything.

“He was lying on the cold floor when I
walked in. There was food in front of him that had been there for a while as
well. His body…I think his hip was broken, as was his arm. That’s where the
blood had come from, his arm.” He blew his nose twice before continuing and she
realized he’d been crying too. “They left that man there to die. He’d wet
himself. They didn’t even have the good manners to help him to the toilet.”

“Daddy would have hated people knowing
that he’d done that. He had so much pride in himself.”

Curtis nodded.

“Do you think he suffered much?”

He looked at her then out the window
again. “I don’t know, honey. But I have to tell you something. I don’t know if
you’ll believe me or not, but I’m going to tell you anyway. He was smiling.”

She sat up in the chair and looked at
him. When she said his name, he looked at her. “What do you mean smiling? You
think he was happy he was dying?” Curtis was shaking his head before she
finished. “Then what?”

“I think he was happy because...” He
looked right at her this time and she could see that he was very serious. “He
looked like he was happy because he saw something or someone he loved.”

Kylie looked out the window, trying to
figure that out. Someone he loved? She was all he had. Then it occurred to her.
She looked at Curtis. “My mother. She was there with him. You think that, don’t
you?” He nodded. “You think that my mom came to…to collect him when he passed
over and he was happy to see her.”

“Yes, I do.”

Kylie looked out the window again. Rain
was coming down softly on the windshield and the wipers were moving just as
gently. Her mother. Her daddy had always told her when his time came he was
going to be happy to see his Olivia. He had told her for years that she would
be there to take him to heaven and he’d go with her willingly.

“I won’t lie to you, Kylie. Not ever and
not about something as important to you as this. Your father looked happy.” He
reached into his coat pocket and held his hand out to her. “They gave me this
so that I could give it to you.”

Kylie held out her hand and felt the
cold chain tumble into her palm. She knew what it was as soon as she curled her
fingers around it. Opening her fingers, she looked at the locket and chain her
father had worn around his neck her entire life.

Opening it, she heard the tinny sound of
the chimes and listened to them for a minute as she looked at the pictures of
her parents on their wedding day. Both of them so very happy-looking and so
full of hope. She ran her fingers over their likeness before closing it back
up. It was a beautiful piece. One she’d seen her mother wear when Kylie was
just a child. The work on it, the hearts that encircled, reminded her of her
parents so much. She leaned her head on the back of the seat and looked at
Curtis.

“It was my mom’s. Daddy wore it all the
time after she died. He told me once that it was his lifeline to her. That so
long as he wore it, she’d be near him. He said that the only time he was ever
going to remove it was when she came to get him.” She slipped it over her head
and looked down at it. “I believe you. My mom came to get him and to end his
suffering. I can…I can move on knowing that he’s in a much better place and he’s
with her. Daddy loved my mom very much.”

Curtis nodded. “And I love you. Very
much.”

~~~

The house was empty now of police and
medics. They’d uncovered five bodies so far in the yard and the land beyond the
pool. The house was now filled with Hunters. His family and the Federal agent
that had gotten them this far, Charles Mann. He looked over at the camera crew
that was recording this so that if anything found in the safe was used in a
court of law, they had proof of where it had originated from. Curtis looked at
Jesse when he cleared his throat.

“We can’t see what’s in the sucker if
you don’t open it. You do have the combinations still, right?”

Curtis nodded. “Well, what the heck are
you waiting for?”

“I don’t know.” He didn’t either. “What
if there’s nothing inside? What if this whole thing was something she concocted
to get what she wanted?”

Michelle LaMancusa had been freed from
protective custody. It was at her request. And since she’d been so helpful in
getting them where they were now, in front of a safe that hadn’t been opened in
nearly thirty years, they gave her what she wanted.

“She has her life back now. She’s signed
over all rights to the house and its contents to you. There isn’t anything in
this house she said she wanted.” Jesse leaned down on his knees. “Open the safe
so we can all go home. If it’s empty, then so what? If it has half of what she
claims is in it then McKnight is going away for a very long time.”

McKnight was still in jail and awaiting
a trial. They, the Feds, had tried their best to get him to talk, but all he
did was smile and nod at them. He’d told them that he’d had no idea that Jon
Washington was inside the home of LaMancusa and that he’d thought the man
unstable. That was the reason he’d shot him that day, so that he wouldn’t harm
Curtis.

Neither Curtis nor anyone else believed
him. But without something, he was going to spend only five years in prison and
then be out again. And it could all very well be right here, all the
information that they needed to put him away for a very long time if what
Michelle had told them was true. He pulled out the small piece of paper and
turned the dial to the first number.

There were eight numbers. All of them
had to be hit precisely or the safe wouldn’t open. Michelle had told him and
Kylie that the numbers lined up perfectly for “Michelle.” Each number was a
letter of the alphabet that spelled out her name. He turned to the first number
thirteen. He’d had to stop once to wipe the sweat off his hands and the second
time to try and remember how to make sure the numbers were correct. The sound
of the final number falling into place was loud in the room.

He was supposed to step back and let the
professionals open the safe. He simply couldn’t do it. Curtis needed to see
that all this hadn’t been for nothing. When he put his hand on the handle, he
half expected someone to tackle him out of the way. When no one did, he turned
it downward and pulled hard.

At first, there was nothing he could
see. The thing was huge anyway and set back in a large breakaway wall. Someone
had gone to a great deal of trouble to put the safe where no one would see it
and they hadn’t bothered with much in the way of lighting. A light was suddenly
shining over his shoulder and into the darkened space. He never turned to thank
whoever it was because what was in there caught his full attention.

“Mother of God.” His brother Royce, he’d
know that voice anywhere. “He could have lived like a god with all of that.”

There were stacks of money along the
right side of the wall. Since the exterior was nearly six feet, Curtis figured
that the interior was about four and a half. And the money was from the bottom
to the top. Reaching in slowly, he was stopped when someone shoved a pair of
latex gloves at him. The word “fingerprints” made him pull them on.

The top most stack was of hundreds.
Curtis knew that each bank bundle would hold one hundred of the money it bound.
So this stack of hundreds was ten thousand dollars. Pulling them out one at a
time, he counted fifty of them. It was confirmed by the man behind him. The
next fifty stacks of fifty dollar bills. He expected ones to be next, but was
surprised by the picture of Grover Cleveland. There were nearly two hundred
stacks of these, one hundred and ninety-eight to be precise.

But that wasn’t all that was inside the
safe. There were five large metal boxes in there as well. There were no locks
on them, probably because they were locked in the safe. Curtis didn’t open them,
but handed them back to the man collecting them. The notebooks, six of them, was
what he wanted.

The oldest one was dated nearly fifty
years ago. He only skimmed over it and handed it back. The next two, he did the
same. As he looked over the next one, he saw names he’d read about. Men who
were reputed to be in the mob. Men and women who had been killed and had
killed. It wasn’t until the last two that he saw a name he’d been looking for.

“He’s in here. McKnight. He’s right
here.” He handed the fifth volume to Mann and continued to look at the last
one. “And here. He’s all over this one.”

Mann took the book with latex-covered
hands. He smiled when he’d only read a few pages and Curtis knew that it had
what he’d wanted. At least, he figured, enough to hold the man for a lot longer
than they had first feared.

Mann pulled out his cell and walked away,
talking into it as Curtis looked at his brothers. “I guess it’s over.”

“Not quite.” Jesse smiled. “I’ve been
doing a bit of my own work. I’m sure you won’t mind, but I wanted to make sure
that you were covered, as well as Kylie. I’ve made a few deals. Deals that I
hope you share with the company.”

Curtis frowned at him. “What have you
been up to?”

When Curtis left the house he was still
reeling. His brother had been a very busy boy. And now he had to go and tell
Kylie. He just hoped that she was as understanding…half as understanding as he’d
been. Christ, he hoped she was.

She was in the kitchen when he came into
the house. The decorators had been there, he could see. Several cabinets had
yet to be placed, but their new refrigerator was installed, as well as the
windows. Kylie was sitting in the breakfast nook reading something. He watched
her for several minutes before she looked up.

“Hi. I was just reading over our first
article from the paper. It’s pretty good. I only found three mistakes so far.”

He nodded at her and went to sit beside
her.