Silent Scream (41 page)

“Did you ever tell anyone what happened?”

“No. I tried, a couple of times. I tried to tell my dad that summer, but I couldn’t stand to see how disgusted he’d be with
me. Dad was already hurt by my brother Max who was playing pro ball by then. Max had a new set of friends and hadn’t been
home in a while. He was living the high life and my folks were brokenhearted.”

He sighed. “I couldn’t even tell my priest. I went away to college that semester and failed miserably. I couldn’t sleep. I
kept seeing them, dead. I was losing my mind. I had to talk to someone, so I scraped my money together and bought a plane
ticket to see my brother Max in LA. We’d always been so close and… I trusted Max not to hate me.”

Her heart cracked. “What did he say?”

“I never told him. When I got to his place there was a real party going on. I saw all the booze and women, and I guess I snapped.
I was thinking about the party that night, how stupid I’d been. I threw all Max’s booze bottles out the window, told his guests
to go home. Max thought I’d come to save him, make him go back home. I think he needed someone to set him straight and by
accident, it was me. Max came home, reconciled with our dad, then that same night there was an accident. My dad died and Max
was paralyzed. My mom was just devastated and Max couldn’t walk. He needed help with his physical therapy. He needed me.”

“Like Megan had needed you.”

“Yeah. So I threw myself into helping Max and some days there were blocks of hours I didn’t think about Megan. Everyone thought
I was so noble. I was just trying to stay sane. I was just trying to make the pictures in my mind go away.”

“Like Lincoln. That’s what you understood. You pitied him.”

He drew a breath. “I keep thinking, ‘there but for the grace of God go I.’”

“It’s not the same at all,” she murmured. “But I can see how you drew the parallel. Somehow Lincoln knew you understood. Maybe
you were his first real human connection in a long time.” Olivia laid her cheek against his arm. “That’s a helluva secret
to have carried around for eighteen years.”

“Isn’t it, though?” he said wearily.

“But
you
didn’t kill Megan and her family. Her mother was the adult and she stayed with a dangerous man. Why didn’t Megan go to the
police? Why did she come to you?”

“I guess in her mind, we were still friends. She probably still had a crush on me. I never shunned her and we’d sometimes
talk in the hall, between classes. Like I said, I felt sorry for her. Looking back, I can see how isolated she’d become. How
she walked around with her head down. I thought she was just sad because she wasn’t popular.”

“You were a teenager, David.”

“I know, but still.” He drew another breath and she realized there was more. “I went home after seeing her all… broken. I
kept trying to remember what she’d said, wondering why she’d come to
me
. Then I remembered she’d rushed up to me between classes the day
before the party, asked if I’d found the note she put in my literature book. I was busy so I said, ‘Sure.’ She asked if I’d
do it. I had no idea what she was talking about and said, ‘Sure,’ without even stopping. I found the note the day she died.”

“What did it say?”

He pushed himself to his feet wearily to take his wallet from the pants he’d thrown over the chair and pulled out a worn,
creased sheet of paper. Unfolding it with care, he silently handed it to her.

Olivia found it hard not to wince as she read the words of a girl who believed her old friend was still her best friend. “Her
mother wouldn’t leave him and Megan didn’t know who else to trust,” she murmured. “She asked you to pick her up the next night.”

“That would have been the night of the party. She was taking her little brother and they were going to run. She just needed
a ride to the bus station. I could have saved them if I had cracked the book to find her letter.”

She sighed. “Okay, you might have saved them. Then again, you might have shown up with your car and the stepdad might have
shot you all. The truth is, there were resources for Megan and her mother. Her mother was the adult. She should have called
the police. It was a tragedy, David, but you didn’t cause it.”

He refolded the letter, put it back in his wallet, then looked down at her, agony in his eyes. “I still see their faces.”

“Because you’ve got a soul. If you didn’t, it wouldn’t matter. You didn’t know how critical the situation was. If you had,
you would have acted.”

He swallowed hard. “How do you know?”

“Because you didn’t ‘become’ the man you are now
overnight. Those values were in you, or you wouldn’t have tortured yourself over this for eighteen years. David, you’ve helped
so many. You turned a tragedy into a spirit of service. How long will you make that selfish boy pay?”

“I don’t know. But that’s why I worried about what I’d done that night with you.”

“You worried that you forced me? David, you didn’t force Megan, even then. When she said stop, you did. You weren’t civil
about it, but you stopped. Didn’t you?”

He nodded. “Yes, I guess I did. But…”

“How many families did you help Dana save in her shelter?”

“Dozens, I suppose.”

“You support the work of the shelters all over town, so more families continue to be saved. Megan was a victim, but so many
won’t be. That has to be enough,” she said, “because it never
can
be enough. There will always be wrongs in the world. We can’t right them all. We just have to do the best we can.”

He sat back down on the edge of the bed. “I know that.”

“But it’s still hard. It’s hard to see people in pain and not fix it. Thank you for telling me about Megan. I know it wasn’t
easy.”

“Does it change anything?” he asked tightly.

“You mean about what I think of you? Yes and no. You’re a good person. That hasn’t changed. But about what happened between
us?” She shrugged. “You said another woman’s name when you were with me, then you moved here and it was like you didn’t know
I was alive. I wanted to hate you. Some part of me did.”

He didn’t look at her. “Do you still?”

“Hate you? No. I understand now what you were afraid you’d done. But I can’t ignore the fact that you loved Dana at one time.
That she was still in your mind when you were with me. I think putting that out of my mind is going to take time.”

“And heart,” he murmured. “And trust.”

“Yes. You’re going to have to give me time to trust you. And I still don’t understand why you wasted two and half years of
our lives. Why didn’t you just
ask
me?”

“I was afraid of what you’d say,” he confessed quietly. “I didn’t want to think I could be a monster. Again.”

Her heart squeezed. “You know, the night you had too much champagne you told me that you hated weddings because everyone else
had someone and you were alone. I wondered how a man who looked like you could be lonely.”

His jaw tightened. “It’s just a face, Olivia. I did nothing to earn it.”

She brushed her fingers against his cheek. “It’s a very nice face. But more important is the man beneath. You’re a good man,
David. Honorable and kind. You make the world a better place.”

He looked over his shoulder, his eyes glittering. “I needed you to think so.”

His eyes held hers. She couldn’t look away if she’d wanted to. “I do.”

“I still want you,” he whispered, “more than I want to breathe.”

Her pulse quickened. “Who needs to breathe?” Before she could blink, his mouth was on hers, ravenous and greedy, his hands
setting fire to her skin wherever
he touched. He tumbled her to the pillows and followed her down. Then she couldn’t breathe and didn’t care.

Wednesday, September 22, 12:25 a.m.

He snugged the knot of his tie, his cop costume complete. Neckties were uncomfortable. Never got how his old man could wear
them around the house.

He climbed from the back of his van to the front and drove to a street that paralleled the school’s rear parking lot. The
lot was their evacuation spot, conveniently included on the school’s Web page to give the parents a fuzzy feeling about their
kids’ safety.

It’s showtime
. Voice scrambler in one hand, cell phone in the other, he called the school’s main switchboard, his message memorized.

Wednesday, September 22, 12:35 a.m.

Olivia was almost asleep when a phone rang. “It’s yours,” she mumbled. “Mine plays Looney Tunes.”

David leaned over her and fumbled for his cell. “Hunter.” He abruptly jumped out of bed and, shoving the phone between his
shoulder and ear, pulled on his boxers. “What happened?” He grabbed his pants, then his hands went still. “I’m on my way.”

“What’s wrong?” she asked. “I thought you didn’t have to report till eight.”

“Callback situation. Reinforcements needed on a residence fire out of control.”

“Why didn’t they just call supporting firehouses?”

“They did. This is really bad and we have some men down. The fire spread to the next house and a propane tank blew. Took out
part of the block.” He finished getting dressed then leaned down and pressed a hard kiss to her mouth. “Go back to sleep.
I may not be back for a while.” He hesitated at the door. “Olivia…”

She knew what he wanted to say, but knew as well as he did that it was way too soon for words they’d both take very seriously.
“I’ll be fine. You be careful.”

“Always. I’ll call you in the morning if I’m not back.”

She switched off the light and slid back down under the blanket. Then on an impulse, switched pillows. She could smell him
and it made her sigh. She’d nearly dozed off when her cell phone blasted the Looney Tunes theme. Loudly. “Sutherland.”

“It’s Kane. You need to get to the deaf school. Now.”

She swung out of bed, wincing. Her muscles had been sorely taxed. “Why?”

“Bomb threat.”

Adrenaline cleared her brain and she dropped her dress over her head. “When?”

“Ten minutes ago. They’re evacuating the school now. The bomb squad and the fire department are already there.”

Her mind racing, she shoved her feet in the ridiculous heels. “Where are you?”

“Just leaving my house. I’ll be there in fifteen with my lights. Where are you?”

“David’s cabin. I’ll meet you as fast as I can get there.” She grabbed her keys from her purse and headed to her car where
she’d left her overnight bag, still
talking to him. “Kane, why would someone bomb the school?” she asked, afraid she already knew.

“One, they’re fucking nuts. Two, they have a beef with someone at the school. Three, someone wants the population evacuated
from the dorms.”

“
Kenny
. We talked to twenty-one kids. Only Kenny lived in the dorms.”

“I know. I already told dispatch to have the first responders find him and watch him. I gave them Kenny’s description, just
in case there’s confusion on the site.”

“How did they know about him?” She had her bag and was running back to the cabin. “He’s our link to a potential eyewitness,
but who told them we talked to him?”

“Could have been anyone at the school. I don’t guess twenty kids kept it a secret.”

“Oh God.” The sick feeling was slinking down her spine. “Kane, I never actually talked to Val. I left her voice mails, but
she never did anything but text.”

“Shit. Get dressed and meet me here. I’ll get a unit to check on the interpreter.”

Wednesday, September 22, 12:45 a.m.

It was controlled chaos, he thought. He stood in the trees beyond the back lot of the school, watching the children pour out
of the dormitories, all in pajamas. There were more than he’d thought there’d be, ranging in age from five to eighteen, all
scared.

They wore shoes, or at least carried them in their hands. His gaze moved to the oldest group of boys and watched for a pair
of blue Converse high-tops.

The kids signed busily as the dorm staff herded them to their specified safe area. He was beginning to think he’d never find
Kenny, when he saw him. Sandy blond, five-ten, wearing blue high-tops. Standing off to the side, looking miserable.

He took his notepad and scrawled two separate messages, then swaggered over to the boy as he’d seen countless cops swagger
in and out of his shop over the years. He tapped him on the shoulder, ignoring the students and staff behind him.

Kenny read the note.
Kenny Lathem, the detectives want to speak with you again.

For a moment, he thought the kid would run. But Kenny steeled his spine and nodded stiffly. He started to walk, Kenny in front
of him.

“Wait.” It was one of the dorm staff who stood shivering in the wind. “Where are you taking him?” The young man’s speech was
slightly slurred, but understandable.

Keeping his head down, he handed the note to the staff person, then took it back after the staff read it and nodded. He wore
black gloves and had left no fingerprints, but there was no reason to hand evidence over to the cops. His hat covered enough
of his face that if he kept his head down, no one would be able to clearly describe him.

And if they did, then so what? He looked like everybody. He had one of those faces that just blended in. Add to that the face
putty he’d used to build up his cheekbones, chin, and nose, and he was unrecognizable.

He jerked his head, motioning Kenny to come. They rounded the building, out of sight. Then he drew his gun and watched the
boy’s eyes widen in fear. Stepping
closer, he pressed the barrel of the gun to Kenny’s gut and handed the kid the second note.

If you scream, I will kill you. Turn around and walk. Slowly. If you run, I will kill you. Then I will kill every member of
your family. Nod if you understand.

Kenny’s nod was tiny, but perceptible.

He patted the kid’s pocket, found Kenny’s phone, then shoved the phone in his own pocket and the gun into Kenny’s kidney.
They began to walk. He could see his van parked just beyond the trees.

Almost there. Almost home free. They were at the van and he slid the side door open and shoved the kid in. Then he heard it.
The snap of a twig behind him.
Fuck
.