by K. J. Dahlen
Sable nodded slightly.
“Oh my god…” Summer whispered as she fainted.
Sable watched as the woman that gave her life slid to the floor. The officers that escorted her in rushed to pick her up and moved her to the sofa along the wall. Nick moved toward Sable and watched as Summer Quinn came around. She sat up and raised her head to stare at Sable.
“Is it really you?” Summer finally asked.
Sable tilted her head and frowned. “What do you mean?”
Summer stood and walked closer. “I can’t believe my eyes. I thought you were dead all this time.”
Sable’s frown deepened. “I don’t understand. Why would you think I was dead?”
Summer closed her eyes briefly. When she opened them again, she moved over to the nearest chair and sat down. Inhaling a long deep breath she began her story.
“When I was eighteen I fell in love with a boy. Back then I was living in a small hick town in Texas. He was a little older than me and there was something about him that was just a little dangerous. He was so different from anyone else I knew and I thought I loved him. That fall all I wanted was to be with him.
“Then one day he was gone. He left without saying goodbye and I was heartbroken. About a month or so after that I found out I was pregnant. My father threw me out so I went to stay with my cousin. My baby girl was born that next summer.
“I didn’t see your father again for almost three years. At first he was really mad when he found out about you, but then the longer he stayed with us the more I thought he cared about you. One day I was gathering up dirty clothes to wash and I found his diary. I knew I shouldn’t have touched it, but I was curious and the more I read the more freaked out I became. He wasn’t the man I thought he was.
“He caught me reading it and when he asked me if I could live with his secret, I told him no. There was no way I could live with a killer, and I told him to leave and never to come back. He just got quiet and began packing his things. I remember him looking at me with this weird look in his eyes. He came toward me and I saw him raise his hand like he was going to hit me and then everything went blank. I don’t remember what happened next but when I woke up, both you and he were gone.”
“What do you mean both he and I were gone?” Sable asked.
Summer looked at Sable and said, “I woke up with a huge bruise on my forehead and an empty house. He had taken you and vanished. I was frantic but I couldn’t say anything. He called me the next night and told me that if I called the police, he would kill you and I would never find your body and then he would come back and kill me.”
“Did you ever look for me?” Sable had to ask.
Summer shrugged. “I figured if I didn’t make any trouble, he would eventually bring you back to me.”
“But he never did. Instead he just left me wandering the streets of Chicago when I was barely four years old,” Sable told her mother.
Summer groaned and raised her hands to her mouth in agony. “I thought you would be safe with him, or I would have called the cops when he left with you. What happened then?”
“I was placed in the foster system and finally adopted by Gene and Grace Quinn.”
“Gene is my cousin. I wasn’t aware he’d ever married.” Summer told them. “Oh my lord, I wish I had known that …” Summer shook her head. “Do you think they knew who you were?”
Sable shrugged. “I don’t know but I doubt it would have made a difference to them. They always told me it didn’t matter where I came from only that I ended up with them.”
Summer nodded. “That was Gene. He got so mad at my Dad when he threw me out for being unmarried and pregnant that I don’t think they ever spoke again after that.”
Summer looked at her daughter and asked, “How are Gene and Grace anyway? I haven’t spoken to them in years.”
“They’re dead. If I’m not mistaken the man that fathered me murdered them in an effort to find me.”
Chapter Seven
Summer groaned and looked at Sable. “I am so sorry for everything that happened to you.”
Sable turned on her mother. “Don’t feel sorry for me. Be angry or be pissed off at him but don’t you dare feel sorry for me. Gene and Grace gave me the best life I could ask for. They loved me for me, not because I was your daughter or his but because I was their daughter.”
“Excuse me, but you have information about Sable’s father that we need to catch him. Can we ask you some questions?” Nick interrupted.
Summer frowned. “He’s here in Chicago?”
Sable nodded. “I’ve already told you he murdered Gene and Grace.”
“We need you to tell us everything that you know about him,” Nick said.
“I don’t know how much help that’s going to be. He told me his name was Micah Reardon, but he used different names everywhere he went,” Summer told them. “That was the main reason I didn’t put his name on Sabella’s birth certificate. I wasn’t sure just who he really was.”
“Well that shoots that idea down the drain doesn’t it?” Brandi grumbled.
“Damn.” Nick swore. “We’re running out of time and options.”
“What about his diary?” Sable suggested, looking over at Summer “Was there anything in his diary that would help us find him?”
Summer shook her head slightly. “I really don’t remember that much about what he wrote. It was so long ago that I read it and once I realized what it was, I didn’t want to remember what he’d wrote. It was horrible.”
“Please try to remember something, anything would help us,” Max urged.
Summer thought for a moment and then shook her head. “I can’t remember anything.”
“What does he look like? Can you remember that?” Sable asked.
Summer looked over at her daughter and remarked, “You have his eyes. They were his best feature. I remember that cobalt blue color looked so good with his long dark hair. They always had such a far away look in them. He used to talk about traveling all around the country looking for adventure.”
Brandi snapped her fingers. “Do you think you could pick him out of a photograph? We have some missing person’s pictures.”
Summer shrugged. “Maybe, but it’s been awhile since I’ve seen him.”
Brandi began going through the missing person’s files she’d collected and spreading the photos out on the table in front of Summer. Summer looked over the pictures and discarded them one after another. She paused a moment over one picture and nodded. “This is the man I knew as Micah Reardon.” She tapped her finger on one of the photos.
Nick snatched up the file and flipped to the report. He smiled and looked up at the group. “His real name is Micah Reardon, son of Greg and Jill Reardon, grandson of retired Judge Gabriel Reardon of Chicago.”
“Micah wasn’t alone that fall. He was traveling with another guy and there were times when they would disappear for days. Micah always came back after awhile but I didn’t see too much of the other guy. He gave me the creeps.” Summer shivered.
Sable frowned. “What do you remember of this other guy?”
Summer thought for a moment. “I remember he was older than Micah and they had this secret or something between them but, I was so into Micah I tried not to notice him too much.”
“Do you remember his name?” Nick asked.
Summer shook her head. “I tried real hard not to be around him. There was something about him that I just didn’t like.” She shrugged. “I’m sorry I can’t be of more help.”
“Would you remember what Micah’s handwriting was like?” Brandi asked.
Summer shrugged again. Brandi handed her the first envelope Sable had gotten and Summer took a moment to look at it before she said, “I don’t think that’s it. It’s very close but not quite what I remember.”
Sable handed her the picture that came in the night before. Summer glanced at her quickly and then turned the picture over to look at the handwriting on the back. She nodded. “That’
s Micah’s writing.”
Nick frowned and compared the two samples. At first he had thought they were the same, but after Summer’s comment he noticed the slight difference. He looked over at Max and said, “Get Alec from Questionable Documents over here. I need a comparison of the pages done.”
Max reached for the phone while Sable picked up the items and looked at the handwriting. They both looked the same to her untrained eye. She looked over at Nick and asked, “So is Oscar really Micah or someone else altogether?”
“I don’t know yet,” he told her. “We have to wait until Alec gets here to find out if we’re dealing with one suspect or two different suspects.”
Nick looked at Summer. “What else can you tell us about Micah?”
Summer shrugged. “It’s been a long time since I even thought about Micah. After he left and took my little girl, I tried to put him out of my mind. That was the only way I could cope with her being gone. I moved to Cleveland, changed my name to Hope, and tried to get on with my life.”
“That’s not what I asked. I asked what else you could remember about Micah,” Nick reminded her.
Summer glared at him. “I was trying to explain why I wouldn’t want to remember the man.”
“We aren’t looking for excuses. We’re looking for a way to track a serial killer. A serial killer I might add that seems to have targeted the child you gave birth to,” Nick growled.
Summer frowned and turned to look at Sable. “He’s come back after you?”
“So it would seem,” Sable nodded.
Summer looked upset. “It can’t be Micah. Micah wouldn’t harm his own blood. He promised me all those years ago that if I didn’t tell anyone about him, you would be safe.”
“Did it ever occur to you that if Micah could kill he could also lie?” Sable asked her mother.
Summer didn’t hear her question. Her thoughts were lost in the past as she tried to remember more detail of the fall. “I think Micah said his friend’s name was Richard. I don’t recall hearing a last name but I’m pretty sure Richard was the guy’s name. This guy was big on tattoos. He had a broken heart tattooed on his chest with his mother’s name on the inside. On anyone else the tattoo would have made a statement but on him it looked grotesque. Micah had a couple of tattoos as well but they were small ones.”
“What else can you tell us about Micah or Richard?” Nick asked.
“I remember that Richard could shut Micah up with just a look. Micah would start to tell me things about their travels and Richard would just glare at him. Micah would stop talking and get this faraway look in his eyes. I could tell that he didn’t like Richard at times, and I think he was afraid of him too.”
“Maybe Richard was afraid Micah might give away their dirty little secret,” Brandi said.
“Anything is possible,” Nick nodded. Looking back at Summer he asked, “Did Micah ever say when or how he and Richard got together?”
Summer shook her head. “No. All he would say was that they came together because they had so much in common.”
“Yeah, they shared a common goal anyway,” Max commented
“The real question is were they fifty-fifty partners or was one the teacher and the other the student? If we could figure that out, we might have a chance of finding out who Richard is,” Nick told them
“We might even be able to determine which one is Oscar and how to stop him.” Sable added.
“Richard seemed to be the one in charge. I mean that’s the way it seemed to me. He was always ordering Micah around,” Summer injected. “I told Micah he should stand up for himself more around Richard, but he would shake his head and say that that’s the way it was and he wasn’t going to change it, at least not yet.”
“Ok, if Richard was the teacher then Micah was just the student. Did the student outlearn the teacher, I wonder?” Nick suggested.
“Or did the teacher outgrow the student?” Quentin commented.
“This is so confusing,” Summer told them. “Do you guys even know what you’re saying?”
“We’re trying to determine which one is our killer,” Sable told her.
“Would you remember what Micah’s voice sounds like?” Brandi asked.
Summer shrugged. “I don’t know, why?”
“We have a voice recording of Oscar,” Brandi reminded them.
Nick nodded and went to pick up the recorder. Bringing it over to the desk he hit the play button and Sable’s conversation with Oscar filled the room. Summer listened carefully, but at the end of the conversation she had to shake her head.
“I just can’t be sure. It sounds like Richard but I can’t be sure,” she finally said.
The phone on Sable’s desk rang and Sable jumped. She’d been so intent on listening to the conversation again she’d forgotten everything else.
“Hello.”
“What happened to my messenger?” Oscar’s voice came across the line.
“You’re what?” Sable asked.
“You know who I’m talking about, the little man I asked to deliver another letter to you last night. I waited and waited for him to return but he never did. What did you do with him?”
“What makes you think we did anything with him?” Sable told him. “What makes you think he was even here? We didn’t find any new letter.”
“Don’t lie to me Sabella. I watched him go in the building, and I don’t think he would have double crossed me. Did he give you any useful information?” Oscar chuckled.
“Actually he didn’t say much at all.” Sable admitted.
“Then where is the little snitch?”
“He’s safe from you,” Sable told him.
“But are you?” Oscar asked.
“For now I am,” Sable commented. “I have an old friend here that would like to say hello.” Sable handed the phone to Summer.
“Hello? Who is this?” Summer asked. She heard nothing on the other end. She glanced up at Sable and handed the phone back to her.
“What’s the matter Oscar? Don’t you recognize her voice? She’s going to give us all the information we need to find you,” Sable taunted.
“Nice try Sabella. Yeah, I recognize that nasally whine. There’s only one thing.” Oscar’s voice was smooth.
“And just what would that be?”
“That woman isn’t who you think she is,” Oscar told her.
“What do you mean?”
“Summer Quinn died a long time ago. I made sure of that. I couldn’t leave any potential witnesses behind. That’s not the way I work. That woman is Summer’s cousin Hope, and she doesn’t know who the hell I am.” The phone line went dead and Sable was stunned.
“Who are you lady?” She asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Are you Summer or Hope Quinn?” Sable asked.
“I don’t understand,” Summer told her.
“Oscar claims that you aren’t Summer, but her cousin Hope and that you don’t know him at all.” Sable took a deep breath and continued. “He also claims to have killed Summer a long time ago.”
“My name is Hope Summer Quinn. Your mother, Summer, was my cousin,” Hope admitted.
“Why did you lie?” Sable slumped in her chair.
“I’ve been looking for Summer all this time. We were closer than sisters and I never knew what happened to her,” Hope told them. “I watched Summer fall in love with Micah that fall and I knew Micah wasn’t good for her. When Summer told me what she found out about Micah, I warned her to get away from him but she couldn’t. She was going to have his baby and she loved him. When he disappeared, I thought he was gone for good, and then one day he showed up again. She wanted him to love you so much that he would change his ways and stay with the both of you. But he didn’t. Then one day all three of you were gone. All that was left was a blood stain on the floor of the apartment Summer was living in.”
Hope took a deep breath and continued. “We looked for the two of you for months, but it was like you just disappea
red from the face of the earth. We couldn’t find any trace of you anywhere.”
“That doesn’t explain why you lied about who you were.” Nick reminded her.
Hope looked at Nick and then looked back at Sable. “I was hoping that if you were still alive then Summer would be too. The hardest part of all of this has been never knowing what happened to her and you.”
“Was everything you told us today nothing more than a lie?” Sable wanted to know.
Hope shook her head. “Everything I told you was the truth. Except who I really was.”
“I don’t know if I can believe anything you’ve told us.” Sable stood and walked from room.
Chapter Eight
Sable went to the lounge to try and calm down. She was so tired yet she knew even as she laid on one of the couches she wouldn’t be able to sleep. There were too many thoughts running around her head. When tears started to fall, she didn’t do anything to stop them. She cried for Grace and Gene’s senseless deaths. She cried for Elisa and she even cried for the woman that gave her birth. So much had happened the last few days she didn’t know what to think anymore.
The door opened softly and Sable closed her eyes. She really didn’t want to talk to anyone at the moment. She felt someone sit down next to her and she cracked her eyes open just enough to identify Nick.
“Are you alright?” he asked softly.
“I’m just freaking wonderful,” Sable told him keeping her eyes closed. “It’s not every day a girl finds herself the target of a serial killer, finds outs the serial killer murdered her parents, has her best friend beaten up, and then comes to find out that that same serial killer could be her own father. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention the bastard killed her birth mother too? How do you top a day like that?”
Nick chuckled. “That would be a hard day to top.” He paused for a moment. “I’m sorry Hope didn’t turn out to be your real mother.”
Sable shot him a smile filled with tenderness. “Grace Quinn was my real mother, even if she didn’t give me life. She gave me more than that. She gave me herself and for that I’ll always love her.” Sable opened her eyes and looked at Nick. “I can’t say that about Summer. I don’t even remember what she looks like.”
