Silent Storm

by Amanda Stevens

  “Thanks for the warning,” Marly murmured as she drew back the door and stepped inside

  The house was dark and claustrophobic. Or maybe that was just her own frame of mind, Marly thought as she stopped for a moment to gather her nerve. “Chief Navarro?”

  “Back here,” he called out.

  Marly followed his voice to the bathroom. The moment she glanced inside, she recoiled in horror. The water had drained from the bathtub leaving Crystal Bishop slumped against the porcelain. Her eyes were open and her hands were lying, palms up, on her thighs so that Marly saw at once the deadly gashes across her wrists.

  Most of the blood had gone down the drain with the water, but there was enough still to make Marly’s stomach lurch.

  Navarro knelt on the floor beside the tub. He glanced over his shoulder when he heard Marly gasp. “You ever see anything like this?”

  Marly thought he was talking about Crystal’s slashed wrists at first, but then her gaze lifted and she saw the writing on the mirror. It was on the walls and ceiling, too. She stared at it for a moment, unable to decipher the frantic scribbling. Then it came to her in a flash.

  It was a message.

  For her.

  The same two desperate words were repeated over and over. Gloomy Sunday…Gloomy Sunday… Gloomy Sunday…

  MARLY LEFT CRYSTAL BISHOP’S HOUSE and drove straight to Sam’s. She wasn’t even sure why. Maybe she just needed to see him, touch base with him, reaffirm her conviction that he couldn’t have had anything to do with the deaths.

  Or maybe it was because she could no longer deny that the words scrawled across Crystal Bishop’s bathroom were a message for her.

  “…whether you want to admit it or not, you may be the only one who can stop it.”

  Deacon’s words came back to haunt her now as she pulled up in front of Sam’s house. His Jeep wasn’t in the driveway, but Marly supposed he could have parked in the garage. Deacon’s truck was missing, too. She had no idea where he might be.

  Marly sat for a moment, staring up at the white façade. This is where it had all started, she thought. With her grandmother’s death. And maybe this was where Marly could find a way to end it.

  She got out of the car and walked up to the porch. It had started to rain again, just as it had been raining that day fifteen years ago, and as Marly climbed the steps, she had the strangest sensation of déjà vu.

  Her brother kept a spare key underneath a flowerpot on the front porch, but Marly didn’t need to use it because the door was ajar. As she pulled back the screen and stepped inside her grandmother’s house, it was like stepping back in time.

  “Grandma, you home? It’s me, Marlene. I came over to see if you’re okay. Mama was worried when you weren’t in church this morning. Grandma?”

  Marly hesitated in the foyer. “Sam? You in here?”

  The house was quiet. Unnaturally quiet. The same kind of silence Marly had noticed the day before in Gracie Abbott’s home, and before that, at Ricky Morales’s. A breathless, waiting stillness.

  And then she heard the music.

  Her blood froze as her gaze traveled up the stairs, and in that moment, Marly knew. She knew what she would find at the top. The killer was waiting for her in her grandmother’s bedroom. Where it had all begun.

  “Grandma?”

  “Sam?”

  There was still no answer, just the mournful wail of trumpets and the singer’s achingly beautiful voice blending with the rain.

  Slowly Marly climbed the stairs, glancing over her shoulder halfway up to make sure she wasn’t leaving muddy footprints.

  The door to her grandmother’s bedroom was open, and as Marly stepped across the threshold, her gaze lifted. For a split second, she expected to see her grandmother…someone…hanging from the beam.

  Instead her grandmother stood at the window.

  Marly’s heart beat so hard she could barely catch her breath. She couldn’t possibly see…what she was seeing. Her grandmother was dead. Dead and buried and even a soul as hateful as Isabel Jessop’s couldn’t come back.

  And yet…there she stood.

  She had her back to the room, but Marly instantly recognized the lilac dress. Why wouldn’t she? She’d seen that dress in her nightmares for years. And her grandmother’s hair was just the way she remembered it, too. Drawn back and neatly done up in a French twist. As she turned her head slightly, Marly even saw the sparkle of those diamond earbobs…

  Marly clutched the door frame as her knees threatened to buckle. But after that first moment of terror, she saw her mistake. The person at the window was taller, thinner, younger than her grandmother…

  And then she turned.

  “I knew you’d come.”

  That soft, familiar voice floated across the room and wrapped around Marly’s throat like a noose. She had to struggle for breath. “Mama?” Her voice was little more than a gasping whisper.

  “You found her, didn’t you?”

  “Who?” Marly managed.

  “Crystal.”

  A fresh wave of fear rolled over Marly. “How did you—”

  “I’m the one who called the police. I knew when you saw…you’d know. You’d figure it out. You’d find a way to stop it.” She gave Marly a loving, tender smile. “My daughter, the cop.”

  “Mama, why?”

  But her mother didn’t answer. She was staring down at something she held in her hand. When she lifted it to the light, Marly saw that it was a gun. One of her father’s pistols.

  “Mama?”

  She looked up in shock. “It’s not for you, Marly. It was never meant for you. Or Sam. I would never hurt either one of you. But I wanted you to know.” Her gaze rose to the ceiling beam where Marly had found her grandmother’s body hanging fifteen years ago. “She was the first, you know.”

  Marly had to resist the urge to claw at her throat. She still felt as if she were suffocating. Drowning. “The first what?”

  “The odd thing is, I never really meant for it to happen. I didn’t even know…what I could do. It came as such a shock, Marly, you have no idea. That my own father could do that to me. Subject me to those terrible experiments. Turned me into someone…something…I didn’t even recognize. They kept us in cages at that terrible place. We were nothing more than lab rats to them. They took away our free will. Destroyed our lives. We were just children.”

  Marly’s heart was beating so hard she could hardly bear it. Her own mother had been subjected to the experiments Deacon had told her about. She tried to remember what else he’d told her.

  “I didn’t find out about the children until much later, but from everything I’ve learned since, even the youngest were put through rigorous training and brainwashing techniques until they became adept at whatever special ability they showed an aptitude for. Then their memories were erased. The objective was to send them back home or back out into society until such time as they were needed.”

  “Believe it or not, I was once a very strong person.” Her mother smiled wistfully. “Willful, my father used to call me. Maybe that’s why he did it.”

  Marly closed her eyes briefly. “Tell me about Grandma.”

  Andrea’s smile disappeared. “She asked me to come over that morning before church. Demanded that I come over. When I got here, she was in rare form. Ranting and raving about the way I’d raised my children. You and Sam were a disgrace to the Jessop name, she said. Then she accused you of stealing her diamond earrings. She was wearing them at the time, for God’s sake. When I pointed that out to her, she just got meaner. She wouldn’t shut up.” Andrea paused to get her breath. “As I stood there listening to her, all I could think about was how much I hated her. How much I wanted her dead. I started fantasizing about how it would happen. She would take a belt from her closet, climb up on a chair, and hang herself in her own bedroom. The next thing I knew, she’d done exactly that.”

  Her gaze lifted again to the ceiling beam. “I was horrified by what I’d done. Terrified
by what I knew I could do. The guilt became almost unbearable.”

  “Is that why you tried to kill yourself?”

  She nodded. “But I couldn’t go through with it. I couldn’t leave you and Sam in Wesley’s care. He was just like her.”

  “Is that why you stayed with him all these years?”

  “That. And because he offered me protection. He knew what I’d been through. He promised he wouldn’t let anything like that ever happen to me again.”

  “What about Joshua? What did he offer you.”

  Her mother’s eyes glinted. “He offered me freedom. He made me happy. For the first time in my life, someone actually made me feel loved.”

  But it’s an illusion, Marly wanted to cry. A lie. Can’t you see that?

  “The others…they wanted to take that away from me,” her mother was saying. “I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t go back…to the way it was before, trapped in that loveless marriage, living with that cold, cruel man…”

  A man very much like Joshua. That was the ultimate irony, Marly supposed. “What did you do?”

  “What I’d been trained to do. Programmed to do. In my desperation, it all came back to me. So easily it was terrifying at first. But Gracie Abbott reminded me so much of Isabel. Always berating me and pointing out all my mistakes in front of Joshua. Always trying to make me look bad in his eyes. She was a jealous, bitter old woman.”

  “So you made her take her own life.”

  “It was painless. She didn’t suffer.”

  God, Marly thought in horror. Were they really having this conversation? Was this woman standing before her truly her mother?

  “What about Amber?”

  “She had the one thing I could never have again. Youth. Joshua told me that my age didn’t matter, but I knew if she kept throwing herself at him, it would someday. How could it not? How could he not start to compare us?”

  “And David?”

  “He was a mistake,” her mother said with deep regret. “He got in the way. He was at the wrong place at the wrong time. He was my only mistake.”

  Marly drew a shaky breath. “You killed Crystal because she was having an affair with Joshua.”

  “The affair was over, but she wouldn’t leave him alone. She wouldn’t give us a chance.”

  “That’s what he told you?”

  “And then Ricky Morales started making all those terrible threats against Joshua…”

  “Oh, Mama.”

  “It’s who I am, Marly. It’s what they made me. But it has to end now. I wanted you to know so that you would understand.” She lifted the gun. “I think you should leave now.”

  And suddenly Marly did understand. Everything. This was her mother’s deathbed confession. “No,” she whispered and started toward Andrea.

  “Stay back,” she warned. “I don’t want to do this in front of you, but I will if I have to. It has to end, Marly. This is the only way.”

  The gun was at her mother’s temple. Marly took another step toward her, but when Andrea’s finger tightened on the trigger, she halted.

  Marly didn’t know what to do. She’d never felt so powerless in her life. She couldn’t watch, and yet she didn’t dare turn away. There had to be a way to stop her mother from doing this terrible thing. Even after everything Marly had found out today, she didn’t want her mother to die. Not like this.

  “Mama, please…”

  Her mother’s eyes widened in shock. She seemed to struggle for a moment with some terrible internal conflict, and then, almost in slow motion, her hand lowered to her side and the gun dropped to the floor. She bowed her head in defeat.

  Only then was Marly aware that someone had come up behind her. She knew who it was before she turned.

  Chapter Sixteen

  One month later…

  The tiny courtyard at River Oaks Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, was a quiet, restful spot and usually deserted in the late afternoons when Marly came to see her mother. Which was surprising, considering how lush and beautiful the place was, with its waterfalls and ferns and wild orchids. But then, Marly could understand why visitors might not want to linger too long at a psychiatric hospital, no matter how gorgeous the scenery.

  For her, the courtyard was a good place to think. A good place to reflect on the past month and on her life in general. She’d come to terms with what her mother had done, and had even begun a fragile peace with her father. But there were other aspects of her life that still remained in turmoil. There were hidden parts of herself that Marly was only now daring to uncover.

  Deacon had been right. She had erected a lot of walls, and those walls did not come down easily, no matter how much she might wish for them to.

  The wrought-iron gate creaked open, and Marly turned when someone called her name. “How did you know I was here?” she asked in surprise.

  “One of the nurses saw you come out here.” Sam sat down on the bench beside her. “Have you already been in to see her?”

  Marly nodded. “It doesn’t get any easier, does it?”

  “No. But at least she’s finally getting the help she’s needed for a long, long time.”

  Marly drew a breath. “She’s never going to leave this place, is she, Sam?”

  “Probably not. She did some awful things, Marly. Ruined countless lives. It wouldn’t be right for her to go free.”

  “I know.” There was no way her mother could ever be prosecuted for what she’d done. A woman who could kill with her mind? No jury in the world would ever believe such a fantastic story.

  The only alternative had been River Oaks. Deacon had suggested this particular hospital because one of the doctors on staff was an expert in dealing with the victims of Montauk.

  Deacon had saved her mother’s life that day, and then he’d just walked away. Marly hadn’t heard from him since. And that was probably for the best. Or at least, she spent a lot of time trying to convince herself that it was.

  “I ran into Navarro this morning,” Sam was saying. “He told me you’d handed in your resignation. Why, Marly?”

  She shrugged. “Because it’s time to move on. Besides, I’m not cut out to be a cop, Sam. I’m not sure what I am cut out for. I haven’t exactly found my niche, but maybe it’s time I try a little harder to find it.”

  “Meaning?”

  “There’s a great big world out there. I think it’s time I get out of Mission Creek and see some of it.”

  “You’re not running away are you?”

  “No. In fact, I think I’ve finally stopped running.” She turned to stare up at him. “What about you?”

  “I think I have found my niche,” he said. “I love teaching. I have a home, some friends. It’s not a perfect life, but it is a good one.”

  “And Dad? Are you ever going to be able to have a relationship with him?”

  “Probably not. I know he didn’t do those things to our mother, but he knew about them. He used her past to control her, to make her need him. And in case you’ve forgotten, he wasn’t exactly a model father to us.”

  “I know that,” Marly agreed. “But he is our father.”

  Sam merely shrugged.

  After a moment, Marly took his hand. “I’ve always had a sense that you’ve been hiding something all these years. You knew about Mama, didn’t you?”

  “I suspected. I’d heard some things in the service. Rumors about secret experiments. Black ops teams that were associated with the Montauk Project back in Vietnam. I started doing some research. Putting a few things together. By the time I had it all figured out, though, it was too late to stop her.”

  “We were all too late.” Marly squeezed his hand. “Can I ask you something?”

  He turned to stare down at her. There was still something in his eyes, that stark loneliness that would always tear at Marly’s heart.

  “If you had another secret, something you wanted to talk about, you know you can come to me, don’t you? You can tell me anything.”

  H
e smiled. “I’ll keep that in mind. Right now, I’m not sure either one of us is ready for a heart-to-heart. We need some time to heal.”

  “I guess you’re right.”

  He rose. “It’s time for me to head back. You coming?”

  “In a little while.”

  He turned to leave, then paused. “Promise you won’t leave town without saying goodbye?”

  “I promise.”

  “Good. I’m holding you to that.”

  After he left, Marly rested her head against the back of the bench and closed her eyes. She’d almost dozed off in the late afternoon sunshine when she heard the gate open again. Thinking it was Sam, she called out drowsily, “Forget something?”

  “Yes, as a matter of fact.”

  At the sound of Deacon’s voice, Marly’s eyes flew open and she spun. For a moment, she couldn’t utter a word. Then she sputtered, “Wh-what are you doing here?”

  “Looking for you.” He crossed the narrow space between them and sat down beside her on the bench.

  Marly’s heart was beating so hard she could hardly breathe, let alone think. “Looking for me? Why?”

  “Because I didn’t like the way we left things, Marly. I think we’ve got a lot of unresolved issues between us.”

  “Such as?” she managed.

  “Such as the fact that I haven’t been able to eat or sleep since I left Mission Creek that day. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you for a single minute. You’ve got some kind of hold over me, and I want to know what it is.”

  The accusation took Marly completely by surprise. “I have a hold over you? You’ve got that backward, don’t you? I’m not the one who can control thoughts and manipulate emotions. That night in my bedroom—”

  “Didn’t happen the way you think it did. I wasn’t inside your head that night, Marly. I didn’t manipulate anything, except…well.” His smile sent a shiver straight up Marly’s backbone.

  “Then why did you let me think that you had?”

  “Because I thought it was better that way. I thought you were right. I’d leave town and we’d forget all about each other. But it didn’t work that way. At least not for me. There’s something between us, Marly. Something…important.”