Silent Scream (14 page)

Feeling tears burning his own eyes, he patted Yolanda on the shoulder and lightly squeezed for reassurance.  “You’re right.  It never should have happened.”

Brushing away the tears, Yolanda said, “Look at me.  I’m even acting like her mother.”  She stepped toward the kitchen and then turned back to Gabriel, puzzled at the way he stood so still.  “I’m going to make some coffee.  Would you like some?”

Gabriel blinked and nodded.  “Yeah, coffee sounds good.”  He sat at the kitchen table, stretching out his long legs.  “Maddie is lucky to have a friend like you.”

Yolanda pulled the coffee from the pantry shelf and sidled to the coffee maker.  “She lives a pretty lonely life—not  enough room for many people, she’s always said.”  She measured the coffee and dumped it into the machine.

“It’s not really important how many friends a person has so long as they’re the right ones.”  He studied her hands, which were constantly moving, and  knew that  if they stilled, she might just break down.  “Like you.”

Her fingers worked even faster, grabbing mugs, scraping dinner dishes, and  loading the dishwasher as Gabriel silently watched, wondering what he was going to say to Maddie as someone softly knocked on the door, and Yolanda started toward it.

Recognizing Sam’s signal, Gabriel stood.  “I’ll get it.  It’s Sam.”

Nodding, she turned back to the task of loading dishes.  Gabriel strode down the hall and opened the door, allowing Sam  inside.

As his brother entered, he thrust a duffle bag at Gabriel and pointed to the blue sedan parked in the drive.  “Who’s here?”

Trying to avoid an argument, Gabriel said, “A friend of Maddie’s.”  He led the way to the kitchen and sat at the table.  “What did you find out?”

Sam joined him at the table and propped one leg across the other thigh.  “He’s not quite as clean as a whistle.”  Sam pulled off his hat and set it on his knee.

“What do you mean?”

“A few months back, there were some charges filed by his wife.”

Frowning, Gabriel shook his head in disgust.  “Let me guess.  Assault charges.  The son-of-a-bitch beat her, didn’t he?”

“Bingo.”

“So what happened?”

“The charges were swept under a rug, and the wife fled one day.  She has since divorced him.  But that’s not the only thing that bothers me.”  Sam reached into his pocket and pulled out a picture he laid on the table.  The 3x5 shot featured a woman with long, dark hair and blue eyes that appeared so familiar he knew he’d never forget them.

As Gabriel leaned over to examine it more closely, a puzzled frown creased his forehead.  “Why do you have a picture of Maddie?”

“That’s not Maddie.”  Sam picked up the picture and offered it to him.  “That’s Kim Morrell—or Kim Gaskins, as she has returned to her maiden name.”

Gabriel skimmed his finger across the photo.  “Except for the beauty mark on her left cheek and having a slightly rounder face, she’s a dead ringer for Maddie—and that’s probably part of the reason he assaulted her.  Where is Kim?”

“In Virginia, living with her father, a CIA agent.”

“So that’s what made him back off.”  Gabriel set the photo on the table.  “Are you going to talk to her?”

“You bet.”  Sam shoved the picture back in his coat pocket.  “When I get finished with the good Mr. Dan Morrell, he’s going to find himself stuck so far in prison he’ll think twice about messing with anybody when he gets out.”

“Would you like a cup of coffee?” Yolanda asked as she set a steaming mug in front of Gabriel.

Nodding, Sam said, “Yeah,  that would be great.”  He stood and peeled off his khaki jacket.  A moment later, he draped it on the back of the chair.  “How’s Maddie holding up?” he asked as Yolanda set a full mug in front of him.

“This isn’t decaf,” Yolanda warned, returning to the coffee maker for her cup.

“She’s terrified there won’t be enough evidence to hold him.”  Gabriel traced the outline of his mug handle with his forefinger.  “And frankly, I don’t blame her.”

Sam took a sip and set the mug back on the table.  “Leave Morrell to me.  When I get done with him, his cell mates are going to think it’s Christmas having a former cop inside with them.”

“I didn’t get far with her,” a voice said from the doorway, and the three of them turned to face Tammy.  “She’s fallen asleep.”

Sam’s eyes widened, and his back stiffened.  “Shit,” he whispered loud enough so only Gabriel heard.  He shot a baleful glance at his brother and shook his head, mouthing the words, “You’re so dead.”  His fingers cinched the hat.

“Sam?”  Tammy stepped toward him, holding her clipboard across her chest.  Her long, blonde bangs slipped into her eyes, and she brushed them back.  “Is that you?”  A light pink colored her cheeks.

“Yeah,” he finally managed, grabbing his hat and rising.  “It’s me.”

She looked from Gabriel to Sam, frowning in confusion.  “What are you doing here?”

“Trying to nail the SOB who left Maddie in pieces,” he responded, raking his fingers in through his hair before he set his hat on his head.  “I think I’m going to step outside and get some air.”  He strode toward the doorway, his shoulders and back forming a rigid wall.  He shoved his hands in his pockets and exited.

Watching him go, Tammy felt a heated flush color her cheeks, and she wordlessly followed him outside.

“Do I detect a bit of unfinished business?” Yolanda asked, sitting at the table beside Gabriel.

“Quite possibly,” he replied, leaning back in the chair.

“I take it they’ve met before?”  Yolanda dumped some cream in her coffee and stirred it with her spoon.  She took a tentative sip.

“That’s an understatement.  I think it would be more accurate to say they were engaged.”  He drummed his fingers on the table. 
Not that it much matters
, he thought. 
Sam’s got a wall a mile high built up around his heart.  He won’t let her inside.

“Why did the two of them split up?” she asked, tracing the rim of her mug.

“My sister died, and a lot of things came apart.” Gabriel forced his tone to an even level he didn’t feel.

Yolanda lightly patted his hand.  “I am sorry.”

“Yeah, well, that makes Sam, you, me, and everybody else except the son of a bitch who killed her,” he half-growled.

“And what about you?”  Yolanda emptied a packet of artificial sweetened in her coffee and stirred it again.

“I wasn’t engaged to Tammy,” he said, stretching his legs out as he stared uncomfortably at the floor.  He crossed one foot over the other.

Blushing, Yolanda said, “I didn’t mean her, specifically, I meant anyone.”

“The closest I’ve ever come to getting a wife is getting a dog, and I’m probably fortunate in that because I know a whole lot more about dogs than women.”  He lifted his mug to his mouth and took a sip, wondering just what was going on outside.

A moment, later he didn’t have to wonder as Sam strode into the kitchen and growled at him, “You may be my little brother, but so help me God, if you pull a stunt like that again without warning me, I’ll tear your head off.”  His dark eyes blazed with fury.

Gabriel stood, rising to meet his brother’s anger.  “She’s a crisis intervention counselor, the one assigned to Maddie’s case. So why I am to blame?” he demanded, settling his hands on his hips as he returned his brother’s glare.

“Excuse me,” Yolanda said and slipped out of the room with her mug.

“You could have at least warned me,” he snapped, yanking a chair out and sitting down.  “I could’ve been out the door before she ever arrived if I’d known what I was getting myself into.”

“Still can’t face her?” Gabriel said, shaking his head as he paced around the kitchen.

“I can do anything I goddamn well want, and I don’t want to deal with her.”

“Just what did she do wrong?”  Gabriel whirled to face Sam.  “What did she do that you couldn’t forgive?  Love you?  Trust you?  Oh, I know.  She made you feel when you didn’t want to.”

“Shut up!” Sam seethed, heading toward the door.

Gabriel ran to it and pressed his body against it before Sam could open it. 

“Get out of my way,” Sam snarled. 

“I’m about to, don’t worry.  But before I do, I just want to remind you that no matter how much you try to bury yourself in anger and denial, it’s not going to change the fact you still hurt.  I know it and so does Tammy.  In fact, you’re the only one who doesn’t know it.  You loved her once, before you knew what it felt like to lose Jessie.  Then you just shut down and threw her out—and I think you must love her still.”

Sam jerked open the door, pitching Gabriel forward.  Gabriel picked himself up off the floor.  “Guess I knew that was coming.”  He leaned from one side to the other, trying to stretch out the tension in his body from his sudden impact on the floor, and sauntered back to his chair, where he sipped coffee.

From the corner of his eye, Gabriel saw movement in the doorway.   “Back so soon, big brother?”

“Not exactly,” a female voice replied.

Gabriel turned toward the doorway as Tammy stepped into the room and sat at the table.  “It’s amazing how some things never change.”

“My brother, for instance?”  He took another sip from his cup.

“Yeah.”  Propping her elbows on the table, she leaned forward and rested her face in her hands.  “He acts like I came here just to make him mad.  All I’m doing is standing there, breathing, trying to do my job, which is to help Maddie, not frustrate him.”

“This isn’t about you.”  Gabriel stood and walked to the cabinets, where he pulled down a mug and filled it with coffee.  Carrying it to Tammy, he sat back in his chair.  “This is about keeping up his defenses, and you just happened to get in the way.”

Brushing the hair from her face, she peered at him with bright blue eyes, confusion etching lines in her forehead.  “I don’t understand.  Is it because he still thinks I’m trying to get inside his head?”

Gabriel patted her on the shoulder.  “No.  It’s because with most people he doesn’t have to worry about feeling things.  With them, he can keep his distance; you don’t work that way.”

“I didn’t say anything personal to him.”

“You didn’t have to.”  He felt the tense muscles at her shoulder and gently rubbed them.  “For one thing, this whole damned situation reminds him of Jessie.  For another, if there’s one thing losing Jessie taught him, it’s that you don’t let people get close enough so loving them can hurt you.”  He pointed to her cup.  “Do you want some cream?”

For a moment, she looked into space, and then she looked at her mug.  “No, I like it black.”  She watched him dump sugar in his and stir it.  “Jessie didn’t hurt him, Gabriel.  They were closer than it seemed possible, even for twins.”

“That’s not what I meant.”  An image of Sam laughing with Jessie popped into his head as they sat together at a local skating rink over a birthday cake, blowing out candles. Then the image of the crime scene photos taken at Jessie’s murder danced into his head and he winced, realizing he was still stirring the dissolved sugar. 

“What did you mean?” she asked, bringing her own mug to her lips.

“He loved Jessie.  They did everything together when they were kids.  When she died, it left this gaping hole in his heart that no amount of anything is ever going to fill.”  He pulled the spoon from his coffee and set it on a napkin.

“What does that have to do with me?”

Gabriel peered at her face, her light blue eyes, and the honey hair that spilled into her face.  Her light features had perfectly contrasted with Sam’s darker ones, and he wished, not for the first time, the lightness inside of her could have counteracted his brother’s darkness.  “It’s easy to love someone who is alive, Tammy.  You’ll see them tomorrow.  You can call them on the phone.  But think about loving someone you’ll never see again.  It hurts in a way nobody can ever prepare you for.  You dream about all the ways you might have failed that person.  All the things you’ll miss about them.  You think about what their last hours must have been like, and something breaks inside of you.  Sam has been through this once.  I don’t think he’s willing to let himself love again because he knows everyone dies.”

“Oh that’s great.  He’s prejudiced against me because I have a pulse.”  She reached into her pocket and pulled out her pager.  Squinting at the number, she said, “I think that will wait.  At least for a few minutes.”

Gabriel peered at his cup.  “Do you think Maddie will press charges?

Tammy shrugged.  “It’s hard to tell.  She’s obviously strong, considering that her career choice probably puts her in conflict with male doctors, but this is something else.  It’s not going to be easy to put herself in the unwanted limelight of a trial.  And we won’t even talk about the crap defense attorneys pull.”  As Gabriel walked to the window and peered out into the evening sky, staring at the snow drifting slowly, silently down, merging with the already covered landscape, he leaned over the sink and lowered his head, staring out into space.

From the other room, a panicked scream broke the tentative silence.  Gabriel scambled through the doorway, heading toward the living room with Tammy on his heels.  As he burst into the room, he saw that Yolanda was already there, sitting beside Maddie, cradling her in her arms as Maddie cried and clung to her.

As he watched the doctor fall apart, the color drained from his features.  His back stiffened, and his lips parted as though he wanted to say something—anything—but silence prevailed.  His fingers curled into fists, and his jaw clenched as he slowly backed out of the room, heading back into the kitchen.

Tammy looked from Maddie to Gabriel and back again before she slowly trailed after Gabriel, finding him back in the kitchen, pouring himself a new cup of coffee.  “How are you holding up since you’re stuck in the middle of this?” Tammy asked

  “I’m fine,” he said all too quickly, pouring sugar into his mug.

“You’re full of shit,” she said, noting the slight tremble of his fingers as he grabbed a spoon and started to stir.

Pulling the spoon out, he peered at her.  “Nice bedside manner you’ve got there.”

“I could say the same about your imitation of your brother’s coping mechanism, couldn’t I?” she countered, walking over to him.