Daddy’s Best Friend

by Crowne, K. C.

  “I love you, Elle.”

  Hearing those words caused my heart to race. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get used to hearing them.

  “I love you too, Jeremiah. So very much.”

  Ooo000ooo

  “Alright, well, if you need anything, I can come home at lunch and—”

  “Go to work, Elle,” Jeremiah said, a baby in each arm. “I’ll be fine.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I’ve been alone for most of the last two months,” he said with a smirk. “I think I got it.”

  I knew Jeremiah could handle it, but I wanted to stay with them. But work called; the paper wouldn’t publish itself. I still had to finalize the proof and send it out for printing and needed to do it all that day if we wanted to the paper to run on time.

  I kissed Jeremiah, then kissed the foreheads of the cutest babies in the world.

  “Have a good day,” I said to Jeremiah. “If you hear anything about the case or your trial, let me know, please?”

  “Of course,” Jeremiah said, grinning at me. “Now go. And don’t forget to turn the paperwork in to City Hall.”

  On top of everything else, I was running for mayor. Jeremiah would step down and support me once everything was in order. I had to get that done while continuing to work and see what I could find out to help him. He’d asked me to step back from the case, and I had - a little. I wasn’t going to give up entirely. I just didn’t have any new leads, no new information. The Holts weren’t going to speak to me. Lauren was avoiding my calls. She had realized her mistake and had shut her mouth. I knew I wouldn’t get anything else from her.

  I had to hope for a break, something or someone to come forward with some information.

  The trial date was set; we had several weeks to go. They’d torn apart everything of Jeremiah’s and had found nothing. Even his gun was in storage, where it was supposed to be, showing no signs of being used recently. But of course, he had a nice collection of shotguns, and they argued it was possible he had another that was no longer in his possession. Until they found the exact gun that was used in the murder, Jeremiah was still the prime suspect.

  I headed out the door and hopped into my car. There was another concern on my mind. I dialed Josie’s number and put her on Bluetooth as I drove.

  “What’s up? Pretty early for you to be calling,” she said.

  “Yeah, so, I know it’s probably too early to be freaking out, but my period is late.”

  “It’s way too early to take a test, Elle.”

  “I know, and it’s still early enough that it will probably come, but I needed to talk to someone about it. I can’t believe I was so stupid.”

  “You’re not on the pill?”

  “Well…no, not anymore. I didn’t see a point since I wasn’t sleeping with anyone, and things just sort of happened with Jeremiah. It happened so fast that it didn’t even hit me until last night. Like, how could I be so stupid?”

  “Relax. First thing, let’s get you on some birth control or use some condoms since there’s a decent chance you’re not pregnant still. How late are you?”

  “Only a day,” I said, nibbling my lip. “If even that.”

  “You’ve been later than that before, girl.”

  “But I was also not having unprotected sex at the time.”

  “Yeah, I get it. But it’s too early to freak out. It’s way too soon for you to know anything.”

  I was just being paranoid. I’d been stupid, but I could still fix this. My period would come, and I’d be careful from here on out. “Okay, yes, I knew you’d talk some sense into me. Thank you. It’s just—Jeremiah has his hands full as it is. I can’t imagine him having a third baby on top of it all.”

  “Yeah, but you’re not pregnant. Keep thinking good thoughts, Elle.”

  What if those good thoughts included actually being pregnant? No, it’s not right, I scolded myself. I wanted a baby of my own one day, but now would be the worst possible time for that. One day, Elle. One day. Not now.

  I hung up with Josie as I drove into town. I pulled into the Liberty Leader parking lot, and I was the first car there as usual. I walked into the building, flipped on all the lights, and went into my office. The first thing I did was check with all my sources, see if there was any news that needed to be added into this week’s paper before it went to print. I opened my email and scrolled through.

  An email from a John Doe caught my eye. The subject read You should see this.

  I clicked on it, and it led to a video clip. The video was grainy with no sound. It appeared to be a security camera in the back alley behind several businesses in downtown Liberty. I zoomed in to see who was in the video.

  Brody Pearson, the son of the local developer caught in the scandal, was seen clearly. His smarmy face was hard to miss. He looked right at the camera a few times, albeit unknowingly.

  It looked like a business transaction, but why in a back alley?

  The person with Brody was hard to make out at first because he or she wasn’t in the frame. But then a woman stepped into frame and took a suitcase from Brody.

  “Elizabeth, you old bat,” I gasped. “I didn’t know you had it in you.”

  No one else appeared, just Elizabeth Holt and Brody making some sort of exchange in in secret, in the dark. I had never looked too much into Elizabeth. She had always registered as a non-entity to me, someone who happened to marry into the mess. I blamed George for everything, ignoring the wife behind the scenes. It hit me how sexist it was to assume Elizabeth was just an innocent bystander in George’s crimes. I dismissed her because she was a woman and because she was just so good at acting the part of a ditzy housewife.

  Well, she registered on my radar now.

  The video ended when the two of them disappeared off the screen. I sent the video to Teddy immediately in case my anonymous source hadn’t done so already. Then I went straight into my database, typing in Elizabeth Holt’s name.

  Her photo popped up, along with the usual information. Her date of birth. Her marriages. She had divorced before marrying George. Two kids, yes, I knew that. Maiden name was Elizabeth Ann Dierks.

  Dierks.

  Huh. That’s not a common name, I thought.

  I leaned back in my chair, feeling like the wind had been knocked out of me.

  L. Dierks was the mother of Jeremiah’s daughters. Or so he said.

  What the hell?

  Jeremiah

  “You’re home early.” Elle popped into the house without so much as a knock. I’d given her a key that morning. “I told you I had this under control—”

  Elle’s face ended my conversation. Something was wrong.

  “Who is L. Dierks?” she asked, crossing her arms in front of her.

  I tried my best to fight off the frustration. “I told you, she’s Amelia and Grace’s mother. I paid her because she needed financial support during the pregnancy.”

  Elle chewed on her cheek and glared at me.

  I had a sleeping Amelia in my arms. Grace had already fallen asleep in the pack and play. I didn’t want our conversation to wake them up, and from the way Elle was looking at me, it was about to get heated very fast.

  “Let me put them in the nursery.”

  Elle didn’t protest. “I’ll be in the kitchen. We need to talk.”

  I put the girls to bed, shutting the door behind me. The kitchen was far enough away from the nursery, so hopefully any shouting wouldn’t wake them.

  When I found Elle in the kitchen, she had a beer and was sitting at the table.

  “So tell me again, L. Dierks. She’s the mother of the girls, but she was in a situation where she needed money, huh?”

  I took a seat across from her. “Yes, I told you all that.”

  “So L. Dierks isn’t Lauren Dierks Holt?”

  My heart skipped a beat. “Why do you ask?”

  “Because I found out today that Elizabeth Holt’s maiden name is Dierks, and that’s not a very common name. Now eit
her this is a huge coincidence, you’ve somehow managed to find one of Elizabeth’s long-lost relatives and gotten her pregnant, or the L stands for Lauren - or even worse, Lizzie, which is short for Elizabeth. Which is it, Jeremiah?”

  I opened my mouth to answer her, but I really wasn’t sure what to say. I had to protect the girls.

  “Because the Holts aren’t hurting for money, so even if it was Lauren, why would you need to pay her all that cash?”

  “I can’t answer that.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I can’t, Elle.” From the look on her face, that wasn’t good enough. And I didn’t blame her. “Do you still think I’m innocent?” I asked her. “Do you still trust me?”

  “I think you’re innocent, yes, but I hate to admit, this recent revelation is making me wonder. If you’d just talk to me, I’m sure there’s a logical explanation, but unless I hear one - what else am I supposed to assume, Jeremiah?”

  I flinched. “I can’t talk about it, Elle. You’re the press and—”

  As soon as I said those words, I’d known they were a mistake. Her face was a mixture of fury and pain. I pushed up from the chair and walked across the room to the sink. I stared out the window, trying to focus on anything but what was happening now.

  “You trust me with your girls, even allowing me to raise them if you go to prison. But you can’t trust me with this? You can’t trust me to put you and the girls above my job?” Her voice was thick with disgust and hurt. And I couldn’t blame her for that.

  She didn’t understand. The girls' lives were at stake here. If I told her and it somehow got out, it would be a disaster. But it was Elle. I could trust her.

  I turned around, “Elle…”

  But she was gone.

  I heard the front door slam. I’d waited too long; she must have taken my silence for an answer.

  Maybe it’s for the best, I thought. Still, knowing that I’d hurt her, that she didn’t believe I trusted her, killed me. I slammed my fists down on the counter, thankful the girls were across the house, safe in their rooms.

  This is why I doubted being a father to them. Everything I touch turns to shit.

  My phone vibrated in my pocket, and part of me hoped it was Elle. But I knew she wouldn’t be calling me this soon.

  “Hey, Sam. Please tell me you’re calling with good news.”

  “On the contrary. There’s been a break in the case, but it’s not good for you, Jeremiah.”

  I gripped the counter and closed my eyes. Great. Could it get any worse? How could there be a break that tied me to crimes I didn’t commit?

  “Go on.”

  Sam sighed. “A video surfaced that showed Elizabeth Holt accepting money from Brody Pearson. They’ve managed to link the Holts to the case.”

  “That should be good news for me, so what am I missing?”

  “The Feds linked the transfers in your account to Lauren Holt.”

  Dammit.

  Sam continued. “And while the initial witness who saw Lauren’s car in front of James’ house was deemed unreliable, the Feds pulled up some security camera footage from the neighborhood that showed Lauren’s car driving through the night before James disappeared. So now it looks like you may have paid the Holts to kill James Fitzhenry, though none of that makes sense either. They’re still trying to piece it all together, but I’m afraid the final outcome won’t look good for you.”

  “It wasn’t Lauren. It couldn’t be.”

  “I wouldn’t worry so much about Lauren Holt, Jeremiah. You need to worry about saving your own ass at this point. You need to tell me everything so I can help you.”

  “I’ll call you back.”

  “What?”

  “I need to make a phone call, then I’ll call you back.”

  Sam was quiet for a few moments, likely exasperated by me at this point. Not that I blamed him. I was getting pretty tired of all the secrets too.

  I had info to share with him, info I didn’t think would be relevant. But apparently it was. And it would hopefully not only save my ass, but someone else’s too. But at what cost, I wondered?

  “Fine,” Sam said.

  “It might be tomorrow, but I promise to tell you everything I can.”

  I hung up and dialed another number straight away.

  “Lauren, we need to talk. Now.”

  Ooo000ooo

  “I knew that night had been a mistake.” Lauren Holt wouldn’t sit down. She paced my living room, her eyes jerking wildly around as she nibbled at her otherwise perfect manicure.

  “Normally I’d agree with you, but it gave me my daughters.” The girls were asleep in the nursery. Lauren had only agreed to come over if she didn’t have to see them. I told her I couldn’t promise they wouldn’t wake up, but that I’d keep them in their nursery as long as she was there.

  Lauren pursed her lips and stared out the window in my kitchen, the same one I looked out hours earlier. It was late, there was no way to see anything out of it, but I don’t think it mattered to Lauren.

  She turned to me. “We have to come clean. We have to tell them everything, so I can prove I wasn’t in Liberty. I didn’t have access to my car that night.”

  “But if we tell them everything, your family will know about the girls.”

  Lauren flinched as if I’d hit her. “I know, but I can’t go to prison. I simply can’t.”

  “Trust me, I can’t afford to go to prison either. I have daughters to raise.” I refrained from calling them “our daughters” because they weren’t. They were mine.

  Lauren had birthed them, but she was not their mother. She didn’t want to be.

  “We need to figure out the next steps. Before we come out about all of this, we need to get everything in place. Your parents cannot come after my girls.”

  Lauren didn’t say anything. She continued staring off into the black expanse.

  “This is why I hid from them. I did my part. I did everything I could to protect them.” Her voice cracked, and for a second, it sounded like she actually cared about the girls.

  I knew, deep down, Lauren only cared about herself. She was looking out for number one. Children would ruin her dreams of a political career.

  “We should have been more careful about the money exchanges,” she complained.

  “I know that now, but who could have predicted all of this?”

  Lauren turned around on her heels. She was an attractive woman, which is why I fell into bed with her a year prior. That and having had too much to drink at the bar. I never asked her the reason she’d slept with me that night. I was just stupid and lonely. But Lauren Holt had an on-again, off-again boyfriend at the time. She didn’t need me.

  “I could have,” Lauren said slowly.

  “What do you mean?”

  “My father and brother, they…” She closed her eyes as she continued to speak. “They put me up to it. It was supposed to be a scandal in and of itself. You were sleeping with the enemy’s daughter. That and they asked me to get some of your DNA. I didn’t know why at the time, but now I suspect—”

  “You’re the reason my DNA was found in James’ house and car?” My fists were balled up at my sides. I’d never hit a woman, but damn, I wished she were her brother or father in that moment.

  “I had no idea they were going to frame you for murder!”

  “What did you think they wanted my damn DNA for Lauren?”

  “I don’t know. I just wanted my father to be proud of me.” Her eyes popped open and there were tears in them. I wasn’t sure if they were real or crocodile tears, but the words behind them sounded sincere enough. “He promised me that if we won this election, he’d help further my career. And I’d do anything to make it on my own, Jeremiah. Anything.”

  “Even frame an innocent man?”

  She didn’t say anything. She couldn’t look at me either.

  For months, I’d sent her money. Not because she was poor – she was far from it. But because her own father w
ould suspect something if she touched any of the funds he had access to. And he had access to all her money because Lauren hadn’t done much on her own. She was born a Holt and that was all the work she had to do to get rich.

  I sent her money to keep up with doctor’s appointments, to stay in Tahiti, to sip virgin cocktails to her heart’s delight. And for what? For her to frame me for fucking murder.

  No, Jeremiah. You did all that for your girls. And you have them. They were worth it.

  “Well you’re going to do the right thing now, Lauren. You’re going to tell the cops everything.”

  Lauren didn’t answer me. She stared at me, and I wasn’t sure if I could trust her.

  Problem was, she was the only one who could save my ass.

  Elle

  “You need to talk to him,” Josie said, sitting across from me at Smothered in Love diner.

  We were grabbing breakfast before I went to the courthouse for Jeremiah’s trial. Before I knew it, several weeks had passed. I had been so hurt by him insinuating that I couldn’t be trusted, I’d avoided his calls and texts. But I needed to be there for the trial. I needed to know what was going on for the sake of Amelia and Grace. I couldn’t avoid him for much longer.

  “I was so stupid,” I said, staring down at my pancakes. My stomach turned just thinking about eating. Damned morning sickness. “I should handle this on my own.”

  “And what are you going to do? Keep the baby a secret from him?”

  She was right. I couldn’t hide it forever. He’d find out eventually. Even if he was behind bars, he’d find out during one of the visits with the girls. I was still their guardian, after all. And the idea of having three babies to care for filled me with fear. It was like a weight was pressing down on me. I’d taken a pregnancy test that morning, which was positive. I was only about three or four weeks along. Even though I couldn’t feel the baby inside me, I knew it was there.

  And as much as I wanted it, I was scared out of my mind.