Familiar Pieces: A Riveting Kidnapping Mystery (A North and Martin Abduction Mystery Book 6)

by James Hunt

  “Yeah, okay. Thanks,” Mullocks said and hung up. “That was the hospital. Kerry’s out of surgery, but she’s still in critical condition. The blade pierced a section of her liver. The doctors think it’s small enough that it could grow back, but they won’t know for a while. The biggest risk right now is internal bleeding.”

  Jim couldn’t believe all of this was happening. He gripped his chair for support because he felt his legs going weak.

  “I was about to head over there if you want a ride,” Mullocks said.

  Jim nodded. “Yeah.”

  The ride was quiet, with Jim reflecting on the day, the case, and how all of this seemed to revolve around one man.

  “He’s still out there,” Jim said.

  “The Broker?” Mullocks asked.

  “He’s just going to keep doing this, over and over again,” Jim replied.

  “We’ll get him, Jim,” Mullocks said. “One way or another, a break will come our way. Guys like that, arrogant as they might be, they always make a mistake. Not everything he does is air-tight. We just have to find the leak.”

  “How can you be so certain?” Jim asked.

  “Because I’ve been at this far longer than you have,” Mullocks answered. “I’ve seen good guys go down and bad guys live. I’ve watched bad cops get away and good cops take the fall. And vice versa for both scenarios. All we can do is our job. A case comes our way and we do everything within our power to solve it. It’s that simple.” She glanced over at him. “We got the kid, Jim. It could have been a lot worse.”

  “Yes,” Jim said. “It could have.”

  When they arrived at the hospital, Brian was there with the kids, and the man was barely holding it together.

  “It’s maddening,” Brian said, pacing and wringing his hands together. “No one knows what’s going on, and the doctors keep saying we have to wait to see what happens.” He rubbed his forehead, his hand trembling.

  “Some of the best doctors in the world work here,” Mullocks said. “I’m sure as soon as they know something more, they’ll let you know. But I know that doesn’t make the waiting any easier.”

  Jim wasn’t sure what to say, so he chose not to say anything. But when Brian looked at him, his gaze lingering, Jim was compelled to speak.

  “She saved that boy’s life today,” Jim said. “She didn’t hesitate.”

  Brian nodded. “I know she’d been struggling. I just wish… I wish it didn’t have to be like this, you know?”

  Mullocks reached for Brian’s hand. “Why don’t I take the kids to get some dinner? I’ll bring you back something?”

  “That’d be great. Thanks,” Brian answered.

  Jim and Brian watched as Mullocks led the kids down the hallway, holding each of their hands. Jim hadn’t spent a lot of time around Brian, but the two were still on amicable terms. But he didn’t know what to talk about.

  “I just keep thinking a doctor is going to come walking toward me, and he’s just going to have this look on his face and—” Brian covered his mouth, stifling a sob, and he quickly regained his composure. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay, really,” Jim said.

  Brian sat down and rubbed his palms along his thighs. Unsure of what else to do, Jim sat down next to him.

  “Kerry told me about that thing with your biological mother,” Brian said.

  “Oh,” Jim said.

  “Shit, was I not supposed to know?” Brian asked. “Sorry, I just talk when I’m nervous.”

  “It’s fine,” Jim said.

  “Have you spoken with her yet?” Brian asked.

  “No,” Jim answered.

  Brian nodded. “I imagine it would be hard. Not knowing her, wondering about who she was, I bet you have a lot of questions for her.”

  Jim slowly rubbed his own palms together. “Kerry was really pushing me to go.”

  “Yeah, she told me that, too,” Brian said, and then he nudged Jim with his elbow. “She said you were being stubborn.”

  Jim scoffed. “Yeah. I tend to do that.” He leaned back and felt himself relax a little.

  “Look,” Brian said. “It might not be my place, but after everything our family has been through over the past year, I can tell you that you can’t take any day for granted. Because life can change in the blink of an eye. I mean, Kerry and I have always known the risks for her job, but because we recognize the dangers, it helps us appreciate the moment.” His eyes watered, and he wiped his nose. “And I would give everything for more moments with my wife and more moments for my children to have with their mother. At any age, you know?”

  When Brian started to cry, Jim grabbed the man’s shoulder. Neither said anything, but the gesture on both sides was clear as day.

  Jim stood and shook Brian’s hand. “I guess it’s time for me to stop wasting moments, too.”

  “Good luck,” Brian said.

  “You too.” Jim glanced down the hallway one last time where Kerry’s room was located. He knew it was a strange time to finally go visit his mother, but a part of him believed that maybe if he be strong enough to face his biological mother, then maybe Kerry would be strong enough to survive her injuries.

  21

  Once Jim had his car, it was a thirty-minute drive to Kelly Rawlins’s house from the hospital. Jim didn’t bother calling beforehand to see if she was home. The spontaneous trip was meant to distract Jim from having to wait around the hospital with Brian, waiting for the news on whether or not Kerry was going to be okay.

  The prospect of losing her was more painful than Jim could handle at the moment, and it put the fear of meeting his biological mother into perspective.

  Plus, Jim knew Kerry wanted him to meet his mother. And he hoped that in doing that now, he was helping to buy some goodwill in the universe to save Kerry’s life.

  Jim pulled up out front of Kelly Rawlins’s house and parked on the street. It was a modest home and oddly plain from what Jim could tell. He wasn’t exactly sure what he expected to find, but he was still surprised to see something so… normal.

  But a normal life, a normal family, that was one of several different scenarios Jim had explored with himself over the years. He imagined his mother having the family she always wanted instead of the bastard son he had been.

  Jim’s phone buzzed, and he quickly checked, wondering if it was an update on Kerry, but instead, he found another text from the Broker.

  Good work. Can’t wait to play again

  Jim grimaced. He hated how the Broker referred to all of this as a game. They were dealing with innocent lives, and this monster likened it to playing a video game.

  Nothing would please Jim more than to stop the Broker. It was all he had been able to obsess about for the past three months. But he remembered what Mullocks had said about catching the Broker.

  The man was arrogant, and he would make a mistake. He would eventually reveal himself and that was when Jim and the others would be ready to capitalize on the moment. And while Jim’s patience was thinning, he knew he needed to stay the course.

  Jim pocketed his phone and looked back up toward the house. A light was on in the living room, and a white sedan was parked out front. Jim assumed Kelly was home, so it was now or never.

  Butterflies filled Jim’s stomach on the walk toward the house. He had pictured this moment a thousand times in his head, but now that it was about to happen, he had no idea how the events would unfold.

  Jim’s hand trembled when he knocked on the door, and he flexed his hand to try to steady it. He had never been this nervous before, and the few seconds he waited for Kelly to answer the door were the longest of his life.

  But when Kelly Rawlins opened the door and looked at Jim, he experienced something he never imagined. It was a feeling of recognition. The pair of eyes that Jim was staring at was a direct reflection of his own. The rich chocolate-brown eyes were inherited from his mother.

  Kelly stood there for a moment, slack-jawed, and neither of them spoke a word. Deep
down, they already knew who they were looking at.

  “Mrs. Rawlins,” Jim said, breaking the silence and feeling foolish for being so formal. “My name is Jim North. I’m your son.”

  Kelly Rawlins exhaled as if she had been holding her breath, and she leaned against the doorway for support. She was in her early fifties, and her brown hair was graying, giving her hair a layered texture of grays and browns. She had wrinkles and age blemishes on her face, but just looking at her, Jim could tell she had been very beautiful in her youth. She had a slender build but looked strong.

  “I don’t know if you remember or not—”

  “I remember,” Kelly answered, her voice cracking. “This is… a surprise.”

  Jim glanced past her into the home but didn’t see anyone else. “Is now a bad time?”

  “No,” Kelly shook her head, and then she stepped aside. “Please, come inside.”

  The interior of the house was warm and welcoming. Pictures of Kelly’s family were all over the walls. She had married, had children, and from the imagery Jim saw around the house, she had lived a good life.

  A good life without her firstborn.

  Kelly remained timid, and she clasped her hands, rubbing them nervously, the same way Jim did. “Why don’t you sit down, and I’ll get us something to drink. Do you like tea?”

  “Yes,” Jim answered, though he would have said yes to anything.

  “Okay,” Kelly said, and then she paused again but smiled when she looked at Jim. The first smile she’d shown since he arrived. The first smile Jim had ever received from his biological mother. “Please, sit.”

  Jim sat on one of the two sofas in the living room. He looked around and caught his reflection in a mirror, and it was only then that he realized that he was smiling, too. From what he could tell, this was going well, better than he could have expected.

  Jim waited patiently in the living room, and when Kelly returned with two glasses of iced tea, he stood to accept his.

  “Um, cheers,” Kelly said, and they clanked their glasses together and then sat down.

  Jim sipped the tea and then nodded. “It’s good, thank you.”

  Kelly set down her glass and studied Jim for a little bit longer. “Wow, I mean, look at you. You’re a man. Handsome, you look healthy.” She smiled more brightly, the shock of the situation starting to wear off. “I can’t believe you’re here.”

  Jim blushed, and he set down his glass on the table as well. “I can’t believe I’m here, either.”

  Kelly kept fidgeting with her hands. “I’m sure you have… so many questions. I have some myself, but… what can I answer for you?”

  Of the million questions Jim wanted to blurt out at that moment, there was one that superseded them all. “Why did you give me up?” Jim asked, his mouth going dry.

  The question hung in the air, floating around as if it didn’t know where to go. Kelly bowed her head, nodding.

  “I suppose that’s the only one that matters,” Kelly said, and then she cleared her throat. “By now, we both know who your father was.”

  Jim tensed.

  “I saw what happened between you two on the news,” Kelly said. “I never really knew who he was. He raped me like he had done all the other women. But when I saw his picture on the news, I knew it was him. It was like reliving that night again when he pinned me down—” She shut her eyes and looked away.

  Jim had been so angry with his mother about his abandonment that he never had taken the time to wonder if she had been hurting just as much.

  “I’m sorry,” Kelly faced forward again, wiping her eyes as she regained her composure. “When I found out I was pregnant, I was only nineteen. Nineteen and I didn’t have any family, at least none who would help me, and I was broke, living on a friend’s couch, and I didn’t know what else to do.” She stared at the floor. “I did think about aborting you, but when I went to the clinic, I just… I couldn’t do it.” She took a breath. “But I also knew I couldn’t take care of you, so after you were born, I put you up for a blind adoption. It’s where the parents—”

  “I know what it is,” Jim said, his tone sharper than he intended. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay,” Kelly said. “Honestly, I’m glad you’re a little angry. You should be. I’ve always wondered what happened to you, who you would be, and, when I saw you on the news after your first big case as a detective, I was so proud.” Her eyes watered, and she smiled brightly. “I can’t imagine what you had to overcome in your life, but I couldn’t picture a better life than the one you have.”

  Jim found it strange to be here, talking about all of this with this woman who was his biological mother. In many ways, it actually felt very natural for them to speak with one another. It was like they were picking up on a conversation that had started years ago and now they were able to finish.

  “My life isn’t very good right now,” Jim said. “I’ve buried myself in my work, and things aren’t good with my girlfriend, who I love, but can’t muster the words or ability to justify those feelings, and my partner at the department is in critical condition after the case we just closed.”

  “Jim, I’m so sorry,” Kelly said. “Is there anything I can do?”

  Jim looked at Kelly and realized how much he had longed to hear those words. At night, when he was in foster care, he would wonder what it would be like to be tucked in by his mother or have her read him a bedtime story. Just the simple, normal things children expected from their parents.

  And hearing those words now, with such earnestness from Kelly, Jim felt himself start to breakdown. But he forced himself to keep his composure. “That’s very kind, but I’ll be able to work it out,” Jim said.

  “I imagine you’ve gotten used to doing things on your own,” Kelly said. “Jim, I’m so sorry I left you. Really.”

  “Did you ever look for me?” Jim asked, sounding like a child.

  Kelly hesitated, but then she answered, “No.”

  “Why?” Jim asked.

  “At first, it was because I was ashamed,” Kelly said. “And then it was because I was scared. Scared about what you might think of me, about how you might react. And even when I saw you after all of these years, I figured you had your own life. And I didn’t want to step into it and mess everything up. Because I knew it was only based off of my selfish desire to beg your forgiveness.” She stood and joined Jim on his couch. “And I’m going to do that now, be selfish, and ask you to forgive me.”

  Jim was a little shocked at the request. But staring into his mother’s eyes, seeing the pain she held, he couldn’t say no.

  “It’s okay,” Jim said. “I forgive you.”

  Kelly cried as she pulled Jim to her in a hug. The pair held one another for a long time, and Jim realized this was the first hug he had received from his biological mother. It was a significant memory for both of them, and Jim allowed himself to revel in the moment.

  Kelly eventually released Jim and then wiped her eyes. “Sorry about that.”

  “It’s fine, really,” Jim said. “It was nice.”

  Kelly smiled. “It was nice.” She gently placed her palms against his cheeks, a loving look in her eye. “You’ve turned into a good man, Jim.”

  “Well, you can thank my foster mother for that,” Jim said.

  Kelly lowered her hands. “I think I will.”

  The mother and son spoke for another hour, Kelly asking more questions than Jim, both of them answering as quickly as they could. The rest of the conversation was fairly lighthearted. Neither Jim nor Kelly wanted to get into the darker side of their past just yet. Instead, Jim told Kelly about his work, his partnership with Kerry, which had been amazing, along with his dating Jen.

  “It sounds like you love her very much,” Kelly said.

  “I do,” Jim said. “It’s just… we’ve hit a rough patch lately, and by rough patch, I mean I’ve been distant.”

  “You probably get that from me,” Kelly said. “I’ve always had a hard tim
e letting people in. My default position has always been to revert to work.”

  “I do the same thing,” Jim said.

  “It’s just easier, you know?” Kelly said. “With work, there are rules, there is an objective, there is a clear path of where you need to go to get the job done.” She softened a little bit. “But relationships aren’t like that. They don’t take logical turns, and it’s emotional, and draining, and stressful….” She shrugged. “But the relationships we have with people are what give life meaning. No one can be alone, Jim. No one. We all need people, and it took me a long time to figure that out. Don’t be like me and wait that long, okay?”

  “I won’t,” Jim answered, and then he gestured to the pictures that covered the walls. “I want to have what you have someday.”

  “You will,” Kelly said. “And, I need to introduce you to the rest of my family!”

  “Are you sure?” Jim asked. “I don’t want to cause trouble.”

  “Listen to me,” Kelly said, holding Jim’s hand. “I let you go once, but I’m not going to let that happen again. It’s time that you meet my family, your half-siblings.” She smiled and then returned to the kitchen. “I just need to find my phone, and we’ll exchange numbers, set up a time for you to come over and we can do a big party.”

  Jim stood, too excited to sit down. “That’d be great.” He walked over to the wall with the most recent pictures and saw a family portrait. From the looks of it, Kelly had three other children, two girls and one boy. The kids were about four or five years younger than Jim, putting them somewhere in college. The son looked like he was the oldest.

  “Found it,” Kelly said, walking out toward him. “Now, what’s your number—Jim, what’s wrong? You’re white as a sheet.”

  Jim wasn’t looking at Kelly. He was looking at the phone in her hands. There was no way it was a coincidence. Jim had been a detective long enough to realize that such occurrences were a rarity.

  The phone in Kelly’s hand was the same brand, color, complete with protective case, that the Broker gave to the children he helped abduct.