Since You've Been Gone (45 page)

“Why, Frank?” she asked, barely above a whisper.

“Do you know who Todd's father is?”

Rebecca swallowed. “Not you. Please tell me it isn't you.”

He shook his head. “No, my dear. I have strayed from your mother—what sane man except Patrick Ryan wouldn't?—but I had better sense than to choose Molly. No, Todd's father is Doug.”

Rebecca stared at him. “I don't believe you.”

“Would I lie to you at a time like this? Molly was infatuated with Doug for years. And in college, at a party, when Doug fell off the wagon after rehab and Molly had too much to drink, they went to bed. Later she felt awful about it because of Lynn. She also knew he didn't love her.” He paused. “Doug didn't remember sleeping with her and she didn't tell him. Even I didn't know when we shipped her off to New Orleans to be with you. But then Suzanne and I came down for the birth and when Molly was anesthetized before her Caesarian, she babbled the truth to me.” He shook his head as if amused. “Later she didn't even remember telling me. But I told Doug. He panicked. He's so in love with Lynn, you know. I promised to keep the secret.”

“Don't tell me it was out of consideration for him.”

“It was self-defense. I was always afraid Doug might decide to tell Lynn the truth about what happened to Jonnie. But after Todd's birth, I had more leverage over him. Lynn would have left him if she'd known.”

“So all your secrets were safe. Then why the abduction of Todd? Certainly not for money.”

“Because as each year passed, Doug became more eaten up with guilt. I think he was headed for a breakdown. He told me he was going to the police. He was going to tell them he'd abducted Jonnie, turned him loose, and Jonnie had died in a fall. ‘I won't involve you, Dad,' he promised. ‘I won't say a word about you being at the cabin and killing Jonnie.' Ha! The stupid weakling. They would have broken him in an hour. So I threatened to hurt Todd. He didn't believe me. He didn't think I would do anything to my own grandchild.” He sighed. “I'm telling you this so you'll understand everything before I kill you. I'm sorry, but I have to now.”

“And how are you going to explain my and Doug's deaths?”

“The story will be that you found Todd, Doug found you, he was trying to slit your throat, and in an unsuccessful attempt to stop him, I had to shoot him. And I'm using
Doug's
knife on you. He brought it along to use on me.”

Rebecca closed her eyes against the sun. “So you took Todd to show Doug that you'd really do it. But he could have told the police that you'd threatened Todd once and they would have protected the boy from you.”

“Even Doug realized that if he went to the police with that ridiculous story, no one would believe him, not with his background compared to mine. No one would believe I'd killed Jonnie, either. I also made him see that if he confessed, he'd be arrested for kidnapping and manslaughter, and I'd eventually find and kill Todd.”

Rebecca thought of Doug's frantic air all week. Maybe he'd come to love the child that was his own. He'd known his father had taken the child, but he hadn't known where. No wonder he'd been so stiff with Frank the night of his homecoming from the hospital. He'd had to act normal around the man who'd kidnapped his son—a man who was also capable of murder.

“Your heart attack,” Rebecca said abruptly. “If you'd died, no one would ever have known where Todd was.”

Frank laughed. “I didn't have a heart attack. Certainly you've heard of poppers.”

“Amyl nitrate?”

“Yes. A drug used for heart problems. And I'm told for auto-erotic purposes. It simulates a heart attack. I slept in the guest room that night and used a popper. I needed a night away from home and I needed an alibi.”

“So you could kill Matilda Vinson, who saw you in the alley beside the library after you tried to kill Sonia.”

“Exactly. I asked for a roommate. A damned zombie is what the man was except for a strong heart. Perfect. I simply hooked my heart monitoring equipment to him. The nurses never noticed a thing out at their station.”

“Sonia. You tried to kill her because she knew Jean Wright
was
home near the time of Todd's kidnapping. My mother told me you were having an affair. I thought it was with Mrs. Ellis, but it was with Jean, wasn't it?”

“Yes. Nice body, but no imagination. At least I thought no imagination. When she went off to look after her old lady the night of Todd's abduction, I stayed in her house. It was the perfect opportunity with Molly working late. But I couldn't get clear out here to the cabin in that awful storm, so I stashed Todd in the Klein building. Anyway, Jean had become a pest, badgering me to leave Suzanne. Then she started threatening to tell the police that I'd been in her house the night of the kidnapping. She saw immediately that was a mistake.”

“Oh God, Frank, you didn't kill her, too?”

“Didn't get the chance. Before I could do anything, she wisely left town—but not before confiding in her idiot sister, Wendy. The girl was seeing Larry Cochran. She told him. He decided to try to blackmail me. That was a mistake.”

“And the ransom note was a ruse.”

“I didn't use it earlier because I didn't want to take a chance on having the FBI involved. But when you told me
you thought this kidnapping had nothing to do with ransom, you threw a little scare in me, dear. I had to make it look as if it
was
about ransom. So I left you and Clay prowling the park like amateur sleuths while I got rid of Larry, my blackmailer. He was the last danger to me because when Todd got sick, I knew I had to let him be found. I never meant for him to die-—he was my ace-in-the-hole over Doug. I came out here today to get Todd. I was going to leave him in some conspicuous place where he'd quickly be found. I'd make it look as if Larry took him.

“But you and that cursed dog found the hiding place.” He sighed. “You know, I've always cared for you. Your beauty. Your intelligence. I didn't used to believe in your ESP. That's why I didn't fear you when I took Todd. After all, look how you failed with Jonnie.”

Rebecca winced. “I tried with Jonnie. I don't know why I drew a blank.”

“I think perhaps you were too close to him. I often thought it was as if you two had one mind. Todd is different. You love him, but not like you did your brother. Over the last week, I became a bit wary of you, tried to scare you off: the CD of ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale,' my rendition of Jonnie's bracelet, Matilda in the mausoleum. But you're stubborn. Too stubborn, and I'm afraid my soft spot for you has become a sore spot. You're a thorn in my side. You have to go, dear. And such a shame. You're so young and beautiful.”

Frank held the knife to her throat but did nothing. She saw the faint trembling of his hand. “If you're going to do it, do it fast,” Rebecca said tonelessly. AH the fear, all the fight, had drained out of her as she thought of the lives this man had taken—especially when she pictured Jonnie, so sick, being bludgeoned to death by him. “I won't struggle if you just promise one thing.”

“And what is that?”

“Don't hurt Todd.”

“Very well, my dear. My last promise to you.”

Rebecca turned her head. Frank pressed the knife against
her skin and she felt hot blood running over her collarbone …

A shot rang out. Then another. Another. The top of Frank's head disappeared in a red spray against the blue sky. The blood misted down onto her face, hot and hideous. He dropped the knife and fell backward.

Rebecca fainted.

“Todd? Todd?” Rebecca mumbled.

A woman with smiling brown eyes leaned over Rebecca. “You're in the hospital. You're fine. And it looks like Todd will be, too.” She looked up. “Here's Dr. Bellamy now.”

And there he was, his gray-blue eyes serious, his hand taking hers. “We're going to have to give you yearly rates in this place. Of course we're higher during tourist season.”

“You're a laugh riot,” she managed in a rough voice. “What happened?”

“First of all, Todd's appendix was on the verge of rupturing, but we got to him just in time. Another few hours and it might have been all over.”

“He'll be all right?”

“Pretty sure of it.”

“Thank God. And Sean?”

Clay looked surprised. “You were worried about Sean?”

“At the pond. He didn't come. Is he …”

“He was standing guard over Todd and got shut in the cabin. You should see the claw marks on the inside of that door. Anyway, I took him home with me. He's nervous, but Gypsy is doing her best to soothe him.”

“Thank you for not taking him to a kennel.”

“He doesn't look like a kennel lover. And just between you and me, I think there might be sparks flying between your boy and my girl.”

“How romantic.” Rebecca smiled. “You were at Whispering Willows? How did you know to come?”

“It was actually Bill and me. Bill had stopped by to see your mother. She was in horrible shape. He called the emergency squad. They brought her in, I was on duty, and one look at those pupils told me she'd been drugged.”

“Drugged! Is she all right?”

“Yes. Bill and Betty—Betty climbed in his patrol car and wouldn't get out—swore your mother drank but didn't take pills. Then Suzanne started babbling about Frank giving her wine the night before. It seems Skeeter Dobbs's wine was drugged and Bill made a connection. Betty said you and Frank were out at the nursery. She also said she'd gotten a call from Doug asking where his father was. She'd told him and then he said, ‘He's a murderer and I'm going to put an end to him.' Betty was nearly hysterical.”

“Frank must have drugged Mother so he could get out for most of the night and kill Larry. Doug must have figured out his father murdered Larry.”

“Well, we weren't sure about all that. We just thought Doug was out to kill Frank, and that maybe Frank was dangerous, too, and you were alone at the nursery with both of them. This time I was the one who forced my way into the patrol car with Bill.” He closed his eyes. “We got there just in time.”

Rebecca ran her hand down the side of his face. “A doctor who's there when you need him. Now I believe in miracles.”

And then she slept.

The next week Rebecca drove her mother to the rehabilitation center. Suzanne tried to act lighthearted, but Rebecca saw the sadness in her eyes. “It's only three months, Mother,” she said. “I know that seems like a long time—”

“No, it doesn't. I need the time, Rebecca. Not just to get off alcohol. To think about my life. To think about all the mistakes I've made.”

“No, not the mistakes. Please not the mistakes. Think about the good things. Think about Daddy, and Jonnie, and Rusty. Think about how much you loved—love—them, and how lucky you were to have them.”

Suzanne smiled. “I noticed you left yourself off that list.”

“Well, I don't know how lucky you've been to have had me. I've caused my share of trouble.”

“You've been a wonderful daughter, Rebecca.” She grinned. “Stubborn as a mule, but wonderful. I was just too stupid to realize it. But I'd like to give you something as a symbol of our starting over.”

She held out a small green box. Rebecca pulled the car to the side of the road and opened the box. The emerald ring she'd tried on in the jewelry store twinkled in the sunlight. “Oh, Mother, it's beautiful! But how did you know?”

“A little bird in the hospital told me. Or rather, a tall gorgeous blond doctor I'd like to have as a son-in-law.”

“A son-in-law?”

Suzanne shrugged. “Remember how happy your father and I were and think it over. Clay reminds me a lot of Patrick.”

Suzanne refused to let Rebecca walk her into the rehab center. “Too depressing,” she said. “Let's just say goodbye here.”

“Mother, when you get out, I want you to think about moving to New Orleans,” Rebecca said sincerely. “You'd love it. There's so much to do, so much to see.”

“I've lived in Sinclair all my life, Rebecca. And there's Molly and Todd and Bill.”

“Molly and Todd and Bill will probably be a family in a few months. We'll come back for the wedding. But Sinclair … Mother, I know Daddy and Jonnie are here physically, but—”

“They're dead. I have to face that. But my daughter isn't.” Suddenly Suzanne hugged Rebecca. “I'll give moving serious thought. Tve always wanted to live in the French Quarter.”

“The French Quarter! Mother, that might be—”

“Too much fun? I'm ready for a little fun in my life. There's been damned little of it the last few years.” She started toward the rehab center doors, then turned and waved. “See you soon, dear. And remember that I love you. I always have.”

Four days later, Rebecca returned from Columbus, where she had seen Esther successfully through her surgery. She was tired after the ordeal and dreading the return trip to New Orleans. Part of her didn't want to go, but she knew she must. Her life in Sinclair had ended eight years ago. As she'd begun packing, Clay had called. “How about an evening tryst?”

“Not at Dormaine's, I hope.” Rebecca laughed.

“No. I was thinking of that beautiful gazebo in your backyard. I've heard all the stars will be out tonight.”

“All of them? Sounds nice.”

“I'll be there in an hour with wine and music. Oh, and may I bring Gypsy?”

“Sean will be delighted. Will she expect a corsage?”

“Nothing fancy. Tell him not to spend all his allowance. See you soon.”

In a fit of depression after dropping her mother off at the rehab center, Rebecca had fallen back on the age-old
cure of shopping. After Clay's call, she impulsively ran upstairs and after a quick shower and spray of Chanel No. 5, donned a newly acquired filmy mint green slip dress, matching strappy sandals, and her mother's single large pearl on a glistening gold chain. Then she carried twelve fat candles out to the gazebo and lighted them.