Sweet Vengeance

by Fern Michaels

  When they were out of the room, another door opened, and Tessa was taken aback when she saw Rachelle. Where once Rachelle would have been considered gorgeous, with her slim build, but curvaceous in all the right places, long dark hair, and turquoise-colored eyes, she did not look at all like the woman Tessa remembered. Her hair was cut very short, striped with gray, her unique-colored eyes were bloodshot, and she had gained at least fifty pounds. No, Rachelle was not the stunner Tessa recalled from the past. If anything, she looked like an aging older woman who hadn’t quite kept herself together.

  “Tessa,” she said in her heavy Southern accent. “I’m sorry, honey. I hate meeting like this, but . . . well, we both want answers.”

  Never in a million years had Tessa expected Rachelle to be so . . . kind. She had planned to launch a tirade the moment she laid eyes on her, but now, she was so taken aback, not only by her physical appearance but her kind words, and they were so sincere. Either that, or she was the best damned actress alive.

  And it was this final thought that gave Tessa the courage she needed to speak. “I have been rotting in a prison cell waiting for answers. I have been plotting what I will do to your low-life, piece-of-garbage son if I was ever fortunate enough to have the opportunity. It looks like maybe the Florida Supreme Court has finally given me the opportunity.”

  Her heart was beating fast, and she felt a bit of the nausea she had experienced earlier, but she didn’t care. She had fantasized about this moment, and no matter how Rachelle appeared, she was not going to let it pass without saying what she truly believed.

  Rachelle just sat there, nodding, tears rolling down her face.

  “Don’t you have anything to say? An excuse? Your poor little son has been missing all these years. That is utter bullshit, and we both know it. Don’t we?” Tessa said, her voice rising as the verbal blasts poured out of her.

  “Lee, you need to have your client calm down,” Michael Chen said, finally speaking.

  Tessa hadn’t paid him any attention once she had set her gaze on Rachelle. Now, however, she looked at him and saw that he was pretty much the same greaseball he had been more than ten years ago, during her trial. If he’d aged, it only showed in the graying hair, or at least what little hair he had. He was still fat, and she would swear that she smelled the same sour-onion miasma from all those years ago as he stood by her table at the trial.

  “I think my client has the right to speak her mind. This isn’t a trial, Michael. Just us. Sit down, and let’s allow Tessa and Rachelle to talk to one another before we get formal.” Lee put extra emphasis on the word talk.

  Before taking a seat, Michael Chen helped himself to a number of pastries from the platter on the table and a large mug of coffee. No wonder he’s so overweight, Tessa thought. He’d piled enough pastries on his plate for at least five people. He disgusted her. She hadn’t liked him at trial, and she didn’t see that changing now, regardless of how agreeable he might be. Still, since whether or not she had to go through another trial might well depend upon his decision, she was in no position to come out and say anything that might antagonize him. She would try as best she could to be polite to this man, whom she despised and for whom she had no respect whatsoever.

  “We’re all civilized people, here, right, Mrs. Jamison? Mrs. Jamison?” Michael Chen looked at Rachelle, then Tessa.

  Tessa felt dirty just being in the same room with the pig, but it’s something she had to tolerate if she wanted justice for herself and the opportunity to get justice for her family. She wanted to tell him that she had lived with uncivilized women for almost a fifth of her life but knew it wouldn’t win any brownie points, so she kept her thoughts to herself.

  “Some of us are,” Sam answered.

  Tessa wanted to give him a huge smile, or a thumbs-up sign, anything to let Sam know she was grateful for those four little words.

  “Well, well, Mr. McQuade, you are quite the aggressor this morning, aren’t you? I thought we were here to . . . chat. To examine that new evidence you’re all so excited about. Personally, I’m not one hundred percent sure it will matter, but I am the district attorney, and it is my duty to the citizens of Lee County to see that justice is served, no matter what my personal opinion is.”

  Michael Chen took a huge bite from one of his pastries, crumbs from which fell on his dingy white shirt, which looked as if it hadn’t been washed since it came out of the package.

  “Let’s not start arguing. We’re all here for a reason. Rachelle, if you wouldn’t mind, as soon as Darlene sets up, I’m going to ask you a few questions, and Tessa as well, just for the record. Are you both okay with that?”

  Tessa turned around and saw Darlene for the first time. The woman was petite, with pure white hair worn in a fashionable pageboy and dark eyes. She looked as professional as a woman could. She was wearing black slacks with a frilly red blouse and matching red flats and just enough makeup to enhance her features. Classy was the word that came to mind. She and Jill were on the same page, fashion-wise. Tessa smiled at her, and Darlene smiled back. “That dress looks lovely on you, Miss Tessa.”

  “Thank you, Darlene. I can’t tell you how grateful I am for all that you have done for me.”

  “Ladies,” Lee interrupted. “There will be time to get to know one another later. Sorry, Darlene.”

  “No need to apologize, Mr. Lee. I am here to work, but I do think that floral print looks quite lovely on Miss Tessa. Now that I have seen her wearing it, I just wanted to tell her how lovely she is. Right, Mr. Sam?” She winked at Tessa.

  “Darlene, I know what you’re doing, but let’s get business out of the way first,” Lee said, but he could not avoid grinning from ear to ear. They were all grinning, except for Michael Chen, who continued to smack his lips together and let crumbs dribble from his three chins to the small Mount Everest that passed as his stomach.

  “Right, Darlene. You did a fantastic job. You and Tess can talk later,” Sam agreed.

  “Of course,” Darlene said. She had her stenographic machine set up by then and sat beside Lee, indicating she was ready to get started. During all this, Rachelle hadn’t said a word.

  “Rachelle, state your full name for the record,” Lee began.

  Rachelle did as instructed, with Tessa following suit. Once the basic identity questions were out of the way, Lee began in earnest.

  “Rachelle, tell me the last time you saw your son, Liam Jamison,” Lee asked.

  “I saw Liam around the end of April of two thousand and eleven.,” she answered, but her voice quivered as if she were about to burst into tears.

  Tessa wasn’t sure she bought this sob story, but she listened, and she watched. She knew firsthand how a grieving mother behaved.

  “Where did you see him in April?” Lee asked.

  “He came to my house in Miami. We spent the day together.” She stopped then. “Had I known that was the last time I’d see him . . . I would have told him how much I loved him, and that his father had loved him as much. But we had lunch and chitchatted, pretty much like we always did when he was in town.”

  “What do you mean by in town?”

  “He lived in San Maribel. He wanted to be close to Joel. He idolized his older brother, wanted to be just like him. He used to tell me this when he was little, but frankly, I prayed he would never grow up to act like his older brother.”

  “You bitch,” Tessa shouted.

  “Tessa! Enough,” Lee said in a stern voice she had never heard him employ before.

  “Don’t chastise her, Lee. The man was her husband, the father of her little girls. I understand how she must feel. But she didn’t know Joel the way I did. The way Liam did. And she did not know Grant, the boy’s father. He died before she ever met Joel.”

  Rachelle seemed . . . well, motherly, Tessa thought. She was an excellent actress; she would give her credit for that.

  “Tessa, you need to refrain from commenting on Rachelle’s testimony. This will most likely be on the recor
d if we go to trial, so let’s try to be as civil as we can,” Lee said to her, his voice softening a bit.

  “Sorry,” was all she said. She had embarrassed herself, but she couldn’t just sit here and let Rachelle bad-mouth Joel. She knew he wasn’t perfect, but it was tough to hear about his faults from someone else.

  “That last day you saw Liam, how did he seem to you? Worried? Anxious? Anything unusual about his behavior?” Lee resumed his questions.

  Rachelle sighed. “He was troubled by something. I knew it, and asked him about it, but he said he was going to take care of it himself. I know that sounds horrible, given what happened, but it’s what he said to me. I tried to get him to talk to me, thinking that whatever had been troubling him, I could help him with. He just said it would . . . I think he said, and this isn’t exactly word for word, but he said something about ‘changing the family dynamic.’ ”

  The room was quiet; no one said anything.

  Lee leaned on an elbow, cupping his chin in his hand. Michael Chen suddenly seemed more interested in Rachelle’s words than the last pastry on his plate. “You never told this to me,” he said to Rachelle.

  “You didn’t ask me about that visit, Mr. Chen,” Rachelle reminded him. “Neither did the police. We mostly discussed Tessa and her past. Remember?”

  Tessa was seething but kept her feelings and thoughts to herself.

  “I don’t recall us just discussing Mrs. Jamison’s past. There were many other topics, and, of course, we have your testimony from the trial,” Chen said.

  “We’re not going to get anything resolved if you’re going to argue like kids on a playground. Rachelle, I have a few more questions, then Mr. Chen may ask whatever he needs to,” Lee said to them.

  “Back to that last day when Liam came to your house for lunch. When you said he seemed troubled, and that possibly whatever was troubling him might change the family dynamic, do you think he was referring to Joel and his family?” Lee asked.

  Tessa observed Darlene’s fingers as they moved at breakneck speed across the strange-looking stenographic machine.

  “Yes,” Rachelle said, her voice firm with conviction.

  “Was he upset with Joel? The girls? Tessa?” Lee questioned.

  “He didn’t say. Just that he was troubled. He left later that evening, and I assume he went straight to his condo in San Maribel. That is the last time I saw my son. I am a mother. I would know if Liam committed this heinous act. Liam was a ladies’ man, I know that, but I know for a fact that my son did not have a mean bone in his body. He loved his family, his nieces. He told me many times how cool he thought it was that Joel had twins. Once he asked me if I thought he would have twins when and if, he added, that I do recall, because we both laughed, if he ever married. I told him there was the possibility because twins ran in Grant’s family. I believe his grandfather was a twin. Identical. Yes, I am sure Grant told me that at some point.”

  More silence.

  “Tessa, did Joel ever mention that his . . . it would be his great-grandfather, was a twin?”

  “No,” she said. “When we found out I was expecting twins and that they were identical, I asked him, but he said there must be twins somewhere in his family because we were expecting them. I would remember if he said his great-grandfather was an identical twin.” Tessa turned to Rachelle. “Did Joel know this?”

  “I’m sure he did,” Rachelle replied. “At one point, Joel became very involved in genealogy. He’d even mentioned to Grant that the company should gear some of their funds toward a genetics program.”

  “Tessa, you’re sure Joel never told you this? Any of it, the genealogy, his interest in the subject?” Lee questioned.

  “I would have remembered. I had identical twins, so it was a topic he and I discussed quite often, as you can imagine. He never even hinted that his great-grandfather was a twin, let alone an identical twin.”

  Tessa was beginning to wonder if she had really known her husband at all.

  Chapter 26

  Sam looked at Tessa, and she smiled even though she wanted to run out of the room and scream until she could no longer talk. To run as fast as she could and go as far away as humanly possible. Hundreds of images assaulted her, and she could not stop them from overwhelming her.

  “Do you need a minute, Tess?” Sam asked. “You don’t look too hot right now.”

  That comment brought her front and center to the present. “Thanks, I’m okay.” She wasn’t and she knew that Sam knew it, but she had to get through this because, she realized, she did not want to go back to prison. No matter how much she told herself that it didn’t matter where she lived, now it did. Now she had a reason to go on. A reason that could bring her happiness if she allowed it, and right then and there, she knew that she would, and she would do whatever was necessary to stay out of prison. Legally. She could no more hunt Liam down and kill him than she could sit in this room now and slaughter Rachelle and Michael Chen. The thought was so far off that, for a second, she wondered if she had lost her mind, albeit, temporarily. Hunting down Liam Jamison like he was an animal would not bring back her daughters. Or Joel. And if Joel was alive, she would tell him that she thought he was a horrible husband and that he should have spent more time with Poppy and Piper. All these were just what-ifs, hypotheticals that would not amount to a hill of beans.

  Though she needed much more than a minute, she kept that to herself. “No, I’m okay.” Right.

  “I can’t believe Joel didn’t tell you this,” Rachelle said, her eyes filling up with tears.

  She sounded truly surprised. Tessa was beginning to have a hard time believing that the woman was acting. She seemed to be genuinely sad. Grief-stricken, in fact.

  “While I can’t recall the exact time when Grant told me, I do know that he did. There wasn’t much that Grant didn’t talk about. He was a talker, and I enjoyed his stories. I encouraged him to write them down, but he never had time. He knew quite a bit about his family, and Lois’s family, too, what there was of it anyway. Poor woman.”

  “Who is Lois?” Tessa asked, not caring that she was interrupting Rachelle’s story.

  All eyes turned to her. She began to feel like a pinned butterfly on a board. “What?” she asked. She hated this, wished she had never agreed to meet Rachelle here in this office, where there was no place to run and hide. She should’ve made them come to the house; at least there, she could run and hide.

  “Darlene, we’re finished here. You can stop. Michael, are you good with this?” Lee asked. “It seems pretty obvious that Tessa knows nothing, as you can see. I think Joel blindsided her.”

  “I do see where you’re headed, and for once, we’re on the same page. As soon as you have hard evidence, DNA, I’ll go to Judge Crider,” Chen said.

  Darlene closed her machine and folded it into a small case. “Am I dismissed?” she asked sweetly.

  “Shit, Darlene, you can do whatever you want,” Lee said.

  Tessa was surprised at his use of profanity in this setting. “Will someone tell me what I’m missing here because I am completely clueless,” she asked the room in general. “What is going on?”

  “Let me,” Rachelle said. “Tessa, Lois was Joel’s mother.”

  Tessa nodded; she knew he had a mother. Of course he had a mother. Everyone has a mother. It’s where we all come from. “He never told me her name. He would get upset when I asked about her, so I stopped asking.”

  “Of course he would be upset. When Lois died, Joel was at home with her. I think he was twelve. Grant said . . . never mind.” Rachelle stopped.

  “Please, Rachelle. We’re way past keeping secrets from one another. What were you going to say?” Tessa pushed. “I need to hear whatever it is.”

  “No one was ever charged in her death, but Grant always suspected that Joel knew more about his mother’s death than he told him.”

  “What?” Saying that she was stunned would not even begin to describe what she was feeling. “What are you trying
to say, Rachelle?”

  “I guess it doesn’t really matter at this point since all of them are gone. I believe Liam is dead, too. He would never have run away, and if he had, he would find a way to contact me. He was my life. I know you all think he’s still out there somewhere, but he isn’t. Liam had many faults, but he was a good son and would never put me through this . . . hell that I have been through since he disappeared.

  “Died. I suppose I should say it aloud. Makes it more real to me. I knew he’d never come back to me the day I found out about the girls. I hoped I was wrong, but a mother knows these things. Doesn’t like to admit them, but it’s been so very long ago. I just pray he’s in heaven with his father and those precious girls.”

  It was obvious to Tessa that Rachelle hadn’t mentioned Joel in the heavenly sense.

  “Tess, Joel’s mother fell down a staircase when he was twelve. There were suspicions back then, but they have never been confirmed.” Sam stood behind her chair and placed his hands on her shoulders, squeezing them in a reassuring way.

  “This is all so unbelievable. I don’t know, I didn’t know how his mother died. Joel told me that she had died in a tragic accident; I’m sure those were his words. I guess I just assumed she had died in a car accident or . . . I don’t know what I thought. He never wanted to talk about her. Or about his father.”

  “Lee, call me when you have something concrete about this and after this Rosa woman takes and passes the polygraph test. Obviously, if the girls and the adult male were still alive on Saturday, Mrs. Jamison, Tessa, could not have killed them on Friday. I feel like wringing the coroner’s neck for this. Anyway, I’ll keep my word and go to Crider. I’ll let you all solve the family mystery. For now.”

  Michael Chen hefted his bulk from the chair, leaned across Lee’s desk, shook his hand, then came up behind Tessa’s chair where Sam stood, and shook his hand, too. Tessa smelled that rotten-onion odor emanating from his body. She wanted to throw up but took several deep breaths as soon as he stepped away.