by K. J. Dahlen
Sable frowned and looked at Nick. “Why do you say that?”
“Do you remember what was written on the door of my bedroom? “He knows who I am and what I want.” When Micah left our house over twenty years ago, my father swore he would never give him the time of day again. He accused Micah of being nothing more than a hood. He even went so far as to say that Micah would never amount to anything. That’s why when he said that he had given the boy money, I flipped out.”
Greg paused and ran his fingers through his hair. “I couldn’t believe it. After all he had done to Micah and then to turn around and give him money, well it didn’t make sense to me at first. So I asked my father what changed his mind about Micah, and he told me Micah had met a young man named Richard and they had a lot in common. Is it Micah or Richard who was blackmailing him.”
“So your father’s known about Micah and Richard all along?” Sable stated.
Greg nodded. “I didn’t know what to say. I punched my father and left. I was so mad. When I had the chance to cool off, I came back. I fully expected to see him sitting in that room waiting. When he wasn’t there, I sat down and waited for him to return. I never thought it would be like this though.” Greg nodded at his father lying in the street.
“Do you have any idea where your father went after he left here?” Nick asked.
Greg felt sure of himself. “I imagine he went home.” He pursed his lips together. “My father is not the kindest man I know, but he always felt safe in his own home.”
Nick looked at Max and Max nodded. Max reached inside his pocket for his cell phone and got a crew out to the Reardon place to look for whatever they could find.
They all watched as Gabriel Reardon was picked up and loaded into the ambulance. When the streets were quiet again, Greg looked at his mother. “Can I take her to the hospital? She’ll want to be with him.”
Nick nodded. “We’ll get you there and I’ll ask an officer to stay with you. Until we catch Richard or Micah or whoever this maniac is, I don’t want either of you to be without police protection.”
A few hours later a phone call came in. As Nick listened his face was set in stone. When he hung up the phone, he turned to Sable and told her, “Gabriel Reardon slipped into a coma, and the doctors don’t think he’ll recover from a few minutes ago. He didn’t regain consciousness so we have no more to go on than we had before. Damn it, why can’t we catch a break on this case?”
At that moment Max walked in with a police officer and said, “We may have gotten a break. When the police checked out the Reardon home, they found signs of a struggle. It looks like Gabriel was beaten in his home.”
“Sir, we also found this.” The officer handed Nick an evidence bag with something in it. Nick held up the bag as he looked at the item inside. It was a child’s bracelet with the letter S on the front. Nick looked at Sable and handed her the bag. “Have you seen this before?” he asked.
Sable took the bag and nodded. “This matches the necklace that was in the box Hope or Maggie gave me this morning.” She looked at the officer and asked, “Where did you find it?”
“It was lying on the floor amongst pieces of broken pottery. Apparently it was hidden in a vase on the mantle along with a couple of letters in the Judge’s study,” The officer told her.
The reality of what the officer just said wasn’t lost on Sable. Had Gabriel Reardon known of her existence before today? Had Micah kept in touch more than the Judge told them about? Too bad Gabriel wasn’t around to answer those questions. “Where are the letters?” Sable asked.
The officer handed her two letters. After she read them she handed them to Nick. One letter was from Micah shortly after he disappeared. He expressed his displeasure at finding out from a stranger he had a brother. It was full of rage and disappointment, mostly directed at Gabriel. It was the second letter that concerned Sable. It must have been written shortly after she had been born. Micah wrote Gabriel to tell him about the daughter he had and how he named her Sabella after Gabriel’s own mother. The letter continued to say that Micah wouldn’t be back and he hoped Gabriel regretted the fact there was someone out there he may never meet with ties to his family. Now Gabriel would know what Richard had lived with all his life. Micah said it would be a punishment fitting the crime Gabriel had fostered on Richard, but that Gabriel should be a man and just accept it because he would never meet Sabella.
Sable walked to the window and looked out over the city. The sun was just coming up and the streets were quiet, at least for a little while. She had to think for awhile. She was finding out more than she ever wanted to about the family she never knew she had. Gabriel had known about her almost from the day she’d been born. She couldn’t give herself the time to digest that fact, not yet. She still had to stop Richard.
Nick finished reading the letters and stared at Sable. He knew how hard it would be for her to accept the facts, but he knew they didn’t have time to get into it at the moment. By beating Gabriel almost to death, Richard had upped the stakes. They had to find him quickly.
Nick walked over to Sable and placed his hands on her shoulders. He felt her stiffen under his touch.
Before he could say anything she commented, “Its daylight, maybe we should go back to the Pier and have another look around.”
Nick glanced over at the others. They all had the same expression on their faces. Sable was closing her heart off to the people around her. Nick hoped it was just her coping mechanism, but he knew that only time would tell.
Chapter Thirteen
A short time later they arrived at the Pier. As before, Sable turned to look at the water treatment plant. She felt the key to unlock her past was inside that building. She walked a few steps toward the plant.
“Sable, where are you going? The Pier is this way.” Nick reminded her.
Sable turned to look at him. “I know, but I have no memories of the Pier itself. That’s where I was found, nothing more.” She turned back to the treatment plant and pointed to it. “I remember that building in my dreams but something is wrong. It’s like the angle I’m seeing now is twisted or turned or something.”
Nick looked at the others and shrugged. “Ok, let’s start over there and work our way back.”
A short time later they found themselves in Olive Park. The park was closed and had been abandoned by the city. The paths were filled with weeds and the whole place was nothing more than an empty lot, but the group paid little attention to it.
They were all watching Sable as she gazed at the treatment plant. Sable moved around the park. She was beginning to remember something hidden in her mind. Something to do with the tower on the end of the building but what was it?
“Are you alright?” Brandi finally asked after standing in the same spot for twenty minutes.
Sable looked at her and shook her head. “I can remember that tower but there’s still something wrong. Maybe it’s the angle I was looking at or maybe there’s something missing now that was there twenty years ago. I just don’t know.”
The rest of the group had fanned out and were looking for whatever they could find. Suddenly Quentin shouted and everyone joined him. He looked up at Sable and pulled back some weeds to uncover an angel statue. “Is this the angel statue that Mrs. Rutledge was taking about?”
Hidden in the patch of overgrown weeds was a small angel statue. Its wings were gathered around a child sleeping in the grass. It was exactly like the statue Sable had kept in her room as a child.
“Yes, that’s the statue,” Sable said softly, feeling her hear leap in her chest. She was remembering now. She looked around the park. It had fallen into disrepair and everything had changed over time, but the memories that haunted Sable for so long were becoming clear again.
“I remember looking out of something and being able to see this statue.” She told them.
“Looking out of what?” Nick asked as he looked around. There didn’t seem to be anything to his eye that you could look out of in the area.
Sable felt an icy terror she didn't understand shimmy down her spine. “I don’t know what it was, only that it felt like stone and it was cold and dark. I wasn’t alone in there either. It was very cramped and I could barely move. The opening wasn’t very big and it was close to the ground.” Sable looked down at her intertwined hands. “I remember digging with my fingers until they hurt so much I couldn’t even move them.” So lost in thought’s of the past Sable missed the look the others shared on her behalf.
“What else do you remember?” Nick asked her gently. The more information they had the more likely they would be able to find the hiding spot she was looking for.
“I remember being scared. I screamed at him not to leave me there. He dropped me into a hole in the ground and I was screaming at him not to leave me. I cried when he put a cover over the top and I watched as he walked away,” Sable told them.
“Who put you down there?” Nick asked.
Sable looked up at him and through her tears she shook her head. “I don’t remember. The man in my dreams didn’t have a face.”
“What else can you remember?” Nick asked.
“After he walked away I cried for hours. It was getting dark and I was cold. I tried to sleep but the cold woke me up a little while later. I stood up and tried to look out the hole but it was too dark. I couldn’t see anything. I tried to get more comfortable but there was something in the hole with me. I tried to see it but I couldn’t.”
Sable stood up and took a few steps away from them. “The next time I opened my eyes it was light outside and I could see again. I remember looking at the tower but I didn’t know where I was. Then I looked over here and saw the angel. I tried screaming but no one could hear me. I looked around where I was but all I could see were rocks.” Sable hesitated then continued with her story. “I tried to see what was in the hole with me. I wiggled around a little and when I looked, all I
could see was a face frozen in horror and a pair of blue eyes staring back at me and I screamed and screamed but no one heard.” Sable wrapped her arms around herself and went on. “I knew I had to escape from that horrible place or I would die there. I dug and clawed at the stones around me. It took forever but I finally managed to loosen them. When the hole I created was big enough for me to slip through, I climbed out. I remember hiding in the bushes for the longest time. I guess I was waiting for him to come back.”
Sable looked at the angel statue again. “I remember crawling over here and hiding with the angel. It was the only thing that protected me I think.”
“Did the man that put you in the hole ever come back?” Brandi asked. She’d been horrified by Sable’s story.
Sable shook her head. “No I don’t think so. I stayed with the angel for a couple of days but I didn’t hear or see anyone come through here. I did hear voices coming from the Pier and I must have followed them. I remember being scared to leave the park but I was tired and hungry.”
Nick nodded. “Yes we all know what happened then.” He looked around the park. “What we have to do now is find the hole you were dumped in. Okay, let’s spread out and look for something just above ground level.”
They all took a different route and began kicking and pulling back brush looking for some underground stone feature. Sable couldn’t keep her eyes off the tower and the angel. She knew they had something to do with the hole she’d been in so long ago.
She was pulling back some longer brush when she happened to glance down. Dread filled her soul and she screamed. Her darkest fears returned and she couldn’t stop screaming as she found what they had all been looking for.
She stumbled away from the stone structure. In her haste she stumbled and fell to the ground. Looking into the very hole she had gazed out of all those years ago she was shocked to find a pair of green eyes looking back at her. She screamed again and the others came running. Her hand was shaking as she pointed at the stone structure and waited while Nick and Max pushed the lid off.
She saw Nick reaching inside and a moment or so later he pulled a woman out of the hole. It was Maggie Host. She was gagged and tied up but she was alive. It had been her green eyes that Sable found herself looking at after she tripped.
Sable could feel her heart pounding in her chest. Taking deep breathes she forced herself to calm down.
Brandi knelt beside Sable and placed her arm around her shoulders. “Are you alright?” she asked.
Sable swiped at her tears. “I think so. Is she?” Sable nodded at Maggie.
Nick glanced back at Sable and nodded. “I think she’ll be fine. She’s in shock right now but at least she’s alive.” He looked up at Quentin. “Call an ambulance.”
Quentin nodded and within minutes help had arrived. After the ambulance left, Nick and the others had another look inside the hole.
Sable didn't want to see whatever was left inside so she stood back out of the way. She watched as Nick shot pictures. When he was finished, he walked over to her. “I think you know what’s in there, don’t you?”
Sable nodded. “There’s another body in there, isn’t there?”
“Yes there is. We have to wait for the forensic team to show up to get him out.” Nick hesitated and then had to ask, “Do you know whose body it is?”
Sable shook her head. “All I can remember is the color of his eyes. They were cobalt blue.”
“Then we still don’t know who we are dealing with. Is that body Richard’s or Micah’s?” Nick asked
“What about Maggie? Did she see anything before they took her away?”
Nick shook his head. “No, but the EMT’s didn’t think she was all that bad off. We should be able to talk to her this afternoon. Oscar let her live and that mistake might cost him his freedom.”
Sable wasn’t so sure Oscar wanted his freedom. He had another reason for coming back after all these years. What that reason was nobody but he knew. Sable had the idea that freedom wasn’t an option for Oscar whoever he was.
“What is that?” Sable asked as she pointed to the stone structure she’d been trapped in.
“It’s a dry well. Part of the water treatment plant that’s been closed off for years even before you were placed in it,” Nick told her.
A few minutes later the forensic team showed up. Nick left Quentin to watch the evidence and he took Sable and Brandi back to the office.
Alec, from the questionable documents lab was waiting for them when they got there. He handed Nick the report on the letters they found at the Reardon house. Nick read the report and frowned. Looking at Alec he asked, “What does this mean?”
“The two letters were written by two different people, just like the diary pages,” Alec explained. “Although they are very similar in the shaping and writing, they are different enough to have come from two different writers.”
“So we still don’t know who Oscar really is. Is he Richard or Micah?” Sable asked. “At this point I don’t think I really care. I’m tired of him whoever he is.”
Nick looked at her and could see the strain on her face. The last few days had been bad for all of them but Sable the most. She had been forced to relive a nightmare of abuse and intolerable treatment at the hands of someone that was supposed to love and cherish her. How she survived it was a mystery. But she had survived it, and Nick knew she would survive this too. He hoped she would reach down deep into her soul and pull the strength she needed to see this through to the end. He had seen that kind of strength in her before.
“What are you thinking?” Nick finally asked her. When she turned to look at him, Nick could see a new resolve in her face. He nodded his approval.
“I’m going to call him out,” she told them.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Brandi asked. “If you remember correctly, we tried that once and it didn’t work out so well.”
“No,” Sable shook her head. “Last time we tried to get him to change the game. This time it’s just going to be him and me.”
“What do you m
ean just him and you?” Nick asked.
Sable inhaled a deep breath and tried to explain what she was feeling. “All this time I’ve been scared to death of the shadows from my past. A nameless, faceless creature has been haunting me all my life. My child’s brain found the memories of that time too horrible to remember so it shut out those memories but I faced my fears today. I didn’t turn away from them and I found a big piece of my past. As ugly as it is, it’s still a piece of my past that I didn’t have before.” Sable paused and tried to think how to phrase the rest of her spiel. She knew they wouldn’t understand what she was about to say but she had to say it anyway.
“Whether Oscar is really Richard or Micah, it doesn’t matter anymore. Whoever he is, he’s going down. I have to take back what he stole from me all those years ago.”
“Don’t you worry we’ll get him,” Nick said.
Sable shook her head. “No, Nick you don’t understand. I have to be the one to stop this man. Me, alone, not we as a group. I don’t think Richard would want it any other way.”
Nick shook his head, “No, I won’t allow that.”
“You can’t go up against him alone,” Brandi protested.
Sable held up her hand to quiet them. “I know all the protests, believe me, but he’s not after any of you. He’s after me. Well he can bring it on because I’m mad now. He thinks I'm cowering in my boots but he's wrong about that.”
“I’m glad you’re back but if you think for one minute that you’re facing this maniac alone, you’d better rethink. I will not allow that to happen,” Nick said.
The phone rang on Sable’s desk and she knew who was calling before she picked up the phone.
“Sabella, you’re finally there. Where have you been?” Oscar asked.
“We found Maggie and guess what, she’s still alive.” Sable told him.
Oscar paused before he asked, “How the hell did you find her?”
“We went back to the beginning, or should I say my beginning. We retraced the steps I took all those years ago.”
