Treading Water (41 page)

Strangely comforted to hear that, Andi held
Kate close to her for a moment longer. “You got the job.”

Kate’s eyes lit up. “I did?”

“
You’re going to knock ’em
dead, Kate, here and anywhere you go. I have no doubt. Someday when
you’re rich and famous, remember who gave you your first
job.”

“
I’ll never forget,” Kate
said softly. “I’ll never forget any of it.”

“
I won’t, either.” For
however long it had lasted, they’d been a family, and neither of
them would ever forget it.

“
You can start on Sunday at
two. Wear whatever you’re comfortable in.”

Kate hugged her again. “Thank you so much,
Andi. Walk you back inside?”

“
I think I’ll stay out here
for a few more minutes.” Andi looked out over the vivid blue waters
of the bay where a few sailors enjoyed one of the first warm spring
days. “I’ll see you soon.”

After Kate walked away, Andi reclined on the
grass and let the sun warm her face. The babies moved relentlessly,
reminding her that life went on even when it seemed the world had
ended.

Chapter 30

Clare’s heart beat fast, so fast she
couldn’t catch her breath. He grabbed her, and she shrieked.

The car was hurtling at her, offering
relief, blessed relief.

Big, blond, handsome, vicious. He was going
to hurt her. Then she was on the floor. He was on top of her,
tearing at her clothes.

Clare screamed when he forced his way inside
her, but there was no one there to hear her. It went on forever, or
so it seemed. The red-hot pain tearing through her took her breath
away. Then he was done. Somehow, though, he managed to do it again,
but this time she blacked out when his crushing weight stole the
air from her lungs.

The car came at her—a blue
sedan, the driver hunched over the wheel.
Take me away
.
Make it all go away
.

The monster dragged her to
her feet, ordered her to get dressed. Her clothes were torn, but
she put them on anyway. He made her drive him back to his car.
Before he got out, he grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled her
so close his spit hit her face. “If you tell
anyone
, I’ll kill one of your kids.
You won’t know when, and it won’t matter to me which one, but I’ll
do it. Breathe a word of this to anyone and one of your girls is
dead, you got me?”

Mute with shock and fear, Clare nodded.

“
Try to get me locked up,”
the monster continued, his once handsome face now twisted and ugly,
“I’ll get someone to do it. Don’t fuck with me.”

Clare nodded again, desperate to be rid of
him.

He released her abruptly and was gone.

The car came at her faster
this time.
Not in front of the
girls
.
Don’t do
this to them. I’m so tired. I can’t move. He can’t hurt them if I’m
dead. Take me. Take me away
.
Make it all go away
. She
saw Jack’s handsome, smiling face, and then blackness—beautiful,
peaceful nothingness.

Clare woke up screaming and crying.

Nurses came running into her room.

“
Clare, honey, what is it?”
one of them asked, brushing the hair off her sweat-soaked
forehead.

On the verge of hysteria, Clare fought for
every breath.

“
I’ll get the doctor,” the
other nurse said. “She’ll give you something to settle
you.”

“
No!
” Clare shrieked. “I want to remember.” She’d had the dream
before. The car was new, but she remembered dreaming about the
attack for months afterward. She’d been haunted by it but had
suffered even the nightmare in silence to protect her
children.

“
What do you remember,
Clare?” the doctor asked.

Clare forced herself to take a deep breath
in an attempt to calm down but couldn’t stop the shaking of her
hands or the hard, relentless beating of her heart. “I want Jack,”
she whispered. “Will you please call my husband?”

Jack ran through the dark hospital parking
lot. His first thought when the phone rang in the middle of the
night was that Andi had gone into labor early.

The nurses were waiting for him when he
reached Clare’s floor in the rehabilitation facility.

“
What happened?”

“
She had a nightmare and
woke up screaming and crying. She’s asking for you.”

He ran past the nurse’s station to Clare’s
room. She wept quietly while one of the nurses held her hand and
tried to comfort her. When Jack stepped in, the nurse got up and
left the room.

“
Clare, honey, what’s
wrong?” he asked, taking the hand the nurse had been
holding.

“
I remember,” she
whispered. “The car… I did it on purpose.”

“
No. You wouldn’t have done
that to the girls.”

“
I should’ve told you
then.” She shook her head as fresh tears spilled down her cheeks.
“Maybe none of this would’ve happened if I had.”

Confused, he said, “Told me what,
honey?”

“
I was raped. By a client
in an empty house I was showing him.”

Stunned, Jack stared at her.

“
I didn’t tell you or
anyone because he told me he’d kill one of the girls if I did. I
believed him.” She choked on a sob. “His name was Sam Turner, and
all the girls in my office were jealous because he was so handsome,
and I got to work with him.”

Jack moved onto the bed and put his arms
around her. “I would’ve killed him, Clare. Before he could’ve
harmed anyone else in my family.” He struggled to contain the rage
that threatened to consume him. “I would’ve killed him.”

“
I wanted so badly to tell
you,” she whispered against his chest. It was the first time she’d
let him hold her in all the weeks since she’d come back to them.
“But all I could think about day after day was what I’d do without
one of my girls. One day I’d imagine Maggie was gone. The next day
it would be Jill and then Kate. The way he said it, I know he
would’ve done it.”

“
I never would’ve let that
happen.”

“
I was so afraid, Jack.
That day, in the parking lot when the car was coming at me, all I
saw was a way out.”

“
Clare…” He gasped, stunned
by her admission. “But the girls, they were standing right there.
How could you do that to them?”

“
I thought of them. I
thought of you. But I couldn’t make myself move. I just knew if I
were gone, they’d be safe. They’d all be safe.”

“
Had you been thinking
about that?” He chose his words carefully. “About taking your own
life?”

“
It never crossed my mind
until that car was coming at me.”

“
I don’t know what to do
for you. What do you want me to do?”

“
Call the police, Jack. I
want to report a rape.”

“
Are you sure?”

She nodded. Her tears were gone, and in
their place was anger and determination.

Jack asked for Sergeant Curtis, the officer
who’d investigated the accident, and he arrived thirty minutes
later.

“
Good to see you, Jack.”
Curtis shook his hand. “I was delighted to hear about your wife’s
recovery.”

Jack introduced him to Clare, and she told
him her story, gave a description of the man, and the approximate
address of the house where the attack had occurred. She said her
office kept logs of agents’ appointments, and they’d have the exact
address and be able to confirm the dates she’d worked with Sam
Turner.

“
I’ll be honest with you,
Clare,” the officer said. “I believe you. I believe your story. I
want you to know that.” He paused before adding, “But there’s no
physical evidence to tie him to the crime.” Curtis had cringed when
she said she threw away the clothes she’d been wearing. “The crime
scene itself was long ago compromised.
If
—and that’s a very big
if
—we’re ever able to
bring this case to trial, it’d be your word against his. An
entirely circumstantial case.”

Jack stared at him,
incredulous. “So you’re saying this guy can rape my wife, terrorize
her by threatening the lives of our children, and he could
get
away
with
it?”

“
We’ll do our very best for
you,” Curtis said. “I’ll have his name run through all the
databases, and I hope we’ll find he’s in the system somewhere. If
we can nail him, Clare, we’ll do it.”

“
Thank you, Sergeant,”
Clare said as she clutched Jack’s hand.

“
I want your guarantee that
my daughters will be safe,” Jack said, mentioning that Jill was at
Brown. “If he finds out we told the police—”

“
We’ll have people
everywhere they are. I’ll contact the Brown University police, too.
Nothing will happen to them,” Curtis assured them as he got up to
leave. He promised to keep them informed.

After he left, Clare’s psychiatrist, Dr.
Baker, came in to talk to her. Clare told her story yet again, and
when she was finished, she had only one question for the
doctor.

“
Did I try to commit
suicide?” she asked in a small voice.

“
I think it might’ve been
more of a post-traumatic stress reaction.”

Clare was relieved to hear that.

“
We’ll need to spend a lot
of time talking about this,” Dr. Baker said. “But right now, you
need rest more than anything. I’ll be back in later to check on
you.”

When they were alone, Jack said, “I need to
talk to the girls so they’ll know why the police are around.”

“
I should tell them
myself,” Clare said.

“
I’ll take care of it. I
don’t want you to worry about anything.”

“
Thank you for coming when
they called you. I appreciate it.”

Jack sat back down on the bed and took her
hand. “Of course I came. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for
you.”

“
I haven’t been very nice
to you, and I’m sorry for that.” She reached up to caress his face.
“Jamie was in the other day. Did you know that?”

Surprised by the loving gesture, Jack shook
his head. Jamie hadn’t told him.

“
We had a long talk. He
said a lot of what everyone else has said, but he also told me how
worried you were that people would think you’d forgotten about me
if you pursued a relationship with Andi. It helps to know you
thought of me.”

“
I never stopped thinking
of you.”

“
But you had a life with
her,” Clare said sadly. “You’re in love with her. I don’t know
where I fit into that.”

“
We don’t need to talk
about it now. You’ve had a tough night. Why don’t you try to get
some sleep while I go talk to the girls about the police?” He
pulled the covers up around her and leaned down to kiss her. “I’ll
be back.”

“
She was
raped
?” When his legs
seemed to fail him, Jamie dropped into a chair.

Jack had stopped by Frannie and Jamie’s
house on his way back from seeing Jill in Providence. The girls had
been stunned to hear what’d happened to their mother. He’d glossed
over some of the details to keep them from being terrified. As much
as it pained him, he’d had to tell them they’d been threatened so
they would be vigilant and ask for help if they needed it. Maggie
was still afraid the bad man would make good on his threats, but
after Jack pointed out the police car in the driveway, she felt
better.

“
Why didn’t Clare say
anything?” Frannie asked, shocked by the news.

“
He threatened the girls.”
Jack told them about Turner’s threat.

“
Son of a
bitch
,” Jamie swore under his
breath.

Jack relayed what Sergeant Curtis said about
the lack of evidence and how they should be prepared for Turner to
possibly get away with what he’d done to Clare.

“
No way,” Frannie said.
“There’s no way we can let that happen. All the pain and grief… He
can’t get away with it.”

“
I just keep asking myself,
where was I when this was happening to her?” Jack asked. “What was
I doing?”

“
Quinn could tell you if
you wanted to know that badly,” Jamie replied warily.

“
You might be better off
not knowing,” Frannie said.

Jack ran his hands through his hair, pacing
the room as the rage he’d kept under control all morning came to a
boil. “I never thought I’d be capable of killing someone, but if
you put him in this room right now—”

“
I’d help you,” Jamie
said.

Sergeant Curtis was in Clare’s room when
Jack arrived the next morning.

“
Did you find him?” Jack
asked as he sat next to Clare and took her hand.

“
He’s in prison in
California. Apparently, he did almost the same thing again. He was
convicted of raping a Realtor in San Diego about a year after he
attacked you. The case is eerily similar to what you described
yesterday, Clare.”

“
At least he’s locked up,”
Jack said, relieved.

“
He’s serving a life
sentence with no chance of parole for aggravated assault and
first-degree sexual assault.” Curtis explained that with
convictions in two prior felonies in California, Turner had been
put away for life under the state’s three strikes law. He’d been on
parole and running from the law when he raped Clare.