Skeleton Key (29 page)

***

It was Logan’s eighteenth birthday party. Clay and Tanner had arrived early. Logan gave Clay a firm handshake with steady eye contact. Clay had been a steady presence at his home ever since the meeting at the police department, just like he’d promised.

Logan had opened up first to Lydia Frauss and then to his mother and Clay. His father had punched him hard in the face, knocking him to the floor. When Logan cried and told his father that he was going to tell his mother, Adrian had threatened to kill Erika and abandon Logan if he said a word. Logan had flipped open his jackknife and had palmed it in his hand with the blade sticking between his fingers. When his father attempted to strike him again simply because he was crying, Logan punched back, hitting him in the chest. Then he ran back to his seat on the train. He had no idea what had happened to his father. He had lived in fear for seven years that his father would return and hurt him again, or worse yet, hurt his mother. He cried at the gravesite when his father’s body was recovered partly out of relief that Adrian would never return and partly out of grief that he would never experience his father’s love.

Being rid of the constant fear, and freeing himself to tell the truth had made a remarkable difference in Logan. He was a different kid, and now he was eighteen years old and an adult. He fist-bumped Tanner and explained that at his game the day before, he had started and scored fourteen points. Durand had lost to Lakeville, but the game was close.

The Gomezes also came to the party and so did Logan’s woodshop teacher, Mr. Jorgenson. “Everyone gather around. It’s time for cake and ice cream,” Erika announced. They sang “Happy Birthday,” and after his mother made him make a wish, Logan blew out the candles.

“
Let’s open presents!” Anna squealed. “She had a present in her hands and was bursting with excitement to have Logan open it.

Mr. Jorgenson spoke up. “If you don’t mind, I’d like you to open my gift first. I have to get going. Indoor soccer with my daughter.”

Logan took a neatly wrapped package, shook it, shrugged his shoulders, and then opened it slowly. It was a complete wood carving knife set. “I was planning on giving you this for your graduation, but I think it’s best if you got it now. I’ve never seen anyone as talented as you, Logan. With this set, you’ll do amazing things.”

Logan stood, approached his favorite teacher, and literally gave him a hug. “Thank you, Mr. Jorgenson. This means a lot to me.”

As Mr. Jorgenson said his goodbyes, Anna cried out, “Mine next!” Stacy told her to be patient. Logan next opened a card from Clay and Tanner. It was four tickets for the Detroit Tigers home opener. “Yes!” Logan shouted. “Thank you. This is something I’ve always wanted to do.” Then he smiled, looked at Clay, and said, “I wonder who I’ll take?”

Clay laughed. “Whoever you want.” Logan’s smile was contagious, just like his mother’s.

He opened his gift from Erika next. Tanner helped her pick it out. It was a pair of Jordan XVII’s, a pair of basketball shoes that would make every Durand teammate envious. “Oh, man. These are the best! Thank you, Mom.”

“
I love you, Logan.”

“
Love you too,” he said with not a hint of embarrassment. He meant it and openly shared it.

Finally, Anna was permitted to share her gift. Erika put her arm around Clay’s waist in anticipation of what was coming next. Anna ran to Logan and skidded to her knees on the floor right in front of where Logan was sitting. “This is from me!” Anna announced excitedly.

“
Thank you. I can’t wait to see what it is, Anna.” He tore open the neatly wrapped package. It was a picture frame with a picture of Anna.

“
Read the card,” she said.

Logan opened it up. He started reading out loud. “Happy Birthday, Logan. Put this picture somewhere that you can see it every day. Love, your sister, Anna Gomez.”

Logan paused as what he read slowly sank in. He looked at Anna, who was smiling the biggest dimpled smile imaginable. Then he looked at his mother, who was crying and shaking her head up and down to let Logan know that, yes, it was true. Finally, he looked at Stacy Gomez, who was also crying and nodding affirmation. Then Anna spoke up again. “Momma said that even though our dad isn’t here today, he would want you to know that he gave you a gift this year anyway. He gave you a sister.”

The enormity of what Anna said sunk in and Logan also started crying. “Come here, you nut.” He gave his sister the first of many, many hugs to come. “You’re the best birthday present I ever got. I love you, Anna. I’m gonna be the best brother in the world. You just wait and see.”

“
You already are, Logan.”

***

Clay was sitting in a chair in Erika’s office while she was on the phone. A knock sounded on her door, so Clay opened it and leaned forward, looking both ways down the hallway, but there was no one there.

“
I’m down here, you moron. Jeesch, Clay!”

Clay started laughing. When he looked down, he said, “You’re not going to jump me again, are you?” He said it with a sincere smile of friendship on his face. “Just toying with ya, Jasper. I saw you down there. What’s up?”

“
Everything’s
up compared to me, Dipstick. I’ve come to see, Erika, if you don’t mind.” He was smiling too.

Erika had her back to the men, a hand covering her free ear. She was starting to hang up the phone as she spun in her chair. When she saw Jasper, she screamed, and the phone jumped from her hand, landing four feet away in the wastebasket.

“
You really have a way with women, Jasper,” Clay continued to joke. He retrieved the phone from the wastebasket.

“
I’m so sorry,” said Erika.

“
It’s me that needs to apologize. That’s one of the reasons I’m here. Maybe someday we’ll be friends and you won’t scream when you see me.” Jasper smiled, and Erika returned his smile with her thousand-watt specialty. She could really light up a room. She walked to the front of her desk and Jasper extended his hand. “Would you accept my apology for being such a rotten person over the years?”

Erika put a knee on the floor and faced him at eye-level. “I’ve been afraid of you for years and years. I guess I made a bad first impression a long time ago, didn’t I? I accept your apology, Jasper, if you’ll accept mine, and then we can be friends.” Then instead of shaking his hand, she gave him one of her signature hugs. Jasper held on extra-long. Who could blame the guy for enjoying hug perfection?

When he managed to compose himself, he said, “Deal! Now do you mind if I sit down?” He literally jumped into the chair that Clay had been using. His feet were dangling off the floor as he pulled some papers out of a file folder. “Erika, when I talked with Clay about a week ago, I felt ashamed. I’ve lived a long time as a selfish, bitter man. And then Clay came along, forgave me, and did something nice for me that I didn’t deserve. I’ve been ashamed of myself ever since.”

“
The moment Clay told me about your talk, I forgave you too, Jasper. Unconditionally. If you will just trust that you’re forgiven, you can forgive yourself, and we can have a friendship that we both appreciate. I don’t need or want anything else from you.”

Jasper smiled. It was a smile that confirmed in his mind that Erika was the person that Clay had said she was. “Your ex-husband was a creep. Don’t know if I’ve ever met a more unlikable person. Except me, at times. He liked me, I think, because I was just as self-centered as he was. We put together a will and a living trust. Because of the contract with Morty, you got half ownership of the Depot, no matter what, unless he could divorce you or convince Morty to write up a new contract. And unless he could get you to sign a different insurance policy, which he never did before he disappeared, you were the beneficiary of his life insurance. I made those things part of the trust for tax purposes. What no one knew was that Adrian had lots of money stashed away for himself. We wrote his will, and in it, he gave it all to me. He said if he died, he wanted to make sure that you and Logan didn’t get any of it.”

“
Why would he do that?” Clay wanted to know.

“
Said he hated his wife’s spirituality. All her prayers. Going to church. Raising Logan to be kind-hearted and sensitive. Said he cheated on her and used and hurt people—many of them her friends—and she didn’t have the guts to stand up to him. Instead she prayed for him. He didn’t love her, and he cared less for Logan. In our last meeting, ironically just a short time before the train wreck, he outlined for me that he had more than a million dollars that I could have if he ever passed away. Said that helping me after he passed away was the one good deed he would do. When his body was never discovered after the wreck, he was never declared dead, so I never got his money. That made me bitter too.”

Clay began to feel that familiar coolness permeating the room again. He felt certain that Adrian was witnessing the conversation. He bit his tongue in an effort to not say something nasty about Adrian. He was also amazed at Erika’s composure as she sat listening, not interrupting.

“
Well, I’ve learned a lot of things the past few days. Erika, the Depot is worth 5.3 million dollars in the latest appraisal. Andi Nickel told me that she calculates that from Marshall’s share of the Depot’s sale, he will owe you in excess of another million dollars. I know you have a two million dollar life insurance policy to collect as well. In the process of tracking down your money, I also learned some things about Adrian. I now know he blackmailed his partner, cheated on you, abused his son, ran friends out of business, committed at least one known rape, and ignored his illegitimate daughter. I can name other things, but you get the point. He was a rotten man. He seemed to think by giving me some sort of inheritance, he would make up for all his dirty deeds. Well, I can’t be party to that, so I’m taking the inheritance and giving it away.”

“
What!! You can’t do that
!” Adrian yelled. “
Giving you my inheritance is my one good deed! It’s my ticket out of this miserable, lonely existence.
”

“
Forgive me for saying this, Erika. But you don’t need his money. However, there
is
someone who does. I’m going to give the money to Stacy Gomez and to Anna. That way, Adrian will provide for them just like he managed to provide for you.”

“
Nooooo! You can’t do that! I don’t care about them! I gave that to you! You’ll be rich, and I can move on!
” Adrian began to have a temper tantrum. Pictures started flying through the air. Things started flying from Erika’s desk. Jasper’s eyes got huge as he curled up in a ball on his chair, arms covering his head. Erika backed herself into a corner of the office beside a file cabinet, and Clay ran to her side to protect her from the articles that were flying around the office.

“
The office is haunted, Jasper. Let’s get out of here!” Clay shouted. He ushered Erika out, then returned and literally scooped the unmoving, terrified Jasper up in his arms and carried him from the room. Several articles smashed into Clay, but he managed the retreat without serious injury.

“
You’ll still my protector, Clay,” Erika said in relief.

“
Looks like you’re mine too,” Jasper said with big, fearful eyes. “But you’ve also managed to save me from myself.”

It was a very warm but overcast spring day. Tanner had picked Clay up at the airport and brought him home to find Erika and Logan waiting on the front porch. A smile lit up Clay’s face as he saw the woman in which he was deeply in love. After his baseball team’s return from Alabama, Clay was excited to be home and to see his girlfriend and her son. Clay and Erika hugged and gave each other a short but satisfying kiss. Then Clay gave Logan a handshake, which also turned into a hug.

Logan and Tanner began to play catch as Clay and Erika settled into a two-seated swing on the porch to watch and talk. A lot had happened in nearly five months. After Adrian’s temper tantrum in the Depot, Erika never went back. Marshall Mortonson ran the Depot until it was sold, and eventually was tried for embezzlement, tax evasion, and money laundering. In a civil suit, headed by Andi Nickel, Morty paid Erika over a million dollars, and with fines, interest, penalties, and back taxes owed, he owed the IRS more than a million more. Then between attorney’s fees, realtor fees, and taxes owed for the sale of his business, Morty was left with $25,000. While serving his sentence, he was tried and convicted for a class 5 felony and put in jail for two and a half years for moving, hiding, and abandoning a dead body, and was fined $25,000. When Morty would eventually be released from prison, he would be bankrupt.

Dan Duncan was tried and convicted for his attempted murder of Clay, malicious destruction of property, grand theft auto, and second-degree murder of Joseph Carrollton. He would be in prison for a long, long time.

Roberto Gomez was never tried. The prosecutor determined that there wasn’t nearly enough evidence for a conviction, but Chief Hopper was convinced of his guilt, and he let Robbie know how fortunate he was.