The Wells Brothers: Luke

by Angela Verdenius

  “She knows,” Anna spat.

  Mikki shook her head. “I don’t.”

  “You had the journal, you know the truth!”

  “Anna-”

  “You knew my grandfather murdered my grandmother! You knew and you were going to tell everyone!”

  They were all startled. Well, Luke amended, everyone but Aaron and Ryan, who simply watched Anna calmly. Even Dog looked startled, a littler whine coming from him. He stroked Dog’s head reassuringly.

  “So your grandfather murdered your grandmother,” Aaron drawled. “Why?”

  Anna flounced back against the chair, or tried to, it was difficult to do when she was cuffed.

  “Tell me.” A thread of steel underlined his tone. “Let’s see if what you say matches what Mikki knows.”

  Mikki glanced up at Luke, and he gave her a rub on her back, trusting his brother’s instincts. She subsided, leaning against his leg. Elspeth stayed silent.

  “I know she’s buried in the suicide’s grave,” Aaron stated.

  Mikki tensed, Luke managing to hide his surprise. Aaron knew? How the hell did he know?

  Anna glared at Aaron.

  “He murdered her and buried her there.”

  “He murdered her because she cheated on him!”

  Aaron nodded. “Yes, she did.”

  Anna’s shoulders slumped, her head tipping forward as she stared at the table.

  The room was quiet, everyone waiting. There had to be more to it than this, Luke thought. “Tell us.” He caught everyone’s attention with the unaccustomed hardness with which he spoke. “Tell us the version you say is true.”

  “There is only one truth.” Lips pressed tightly together, she glared at him, but there was no doubting the sheen of tears in her eyes. He’d have felt sorry for her expect that she’d threatened Mikki. That he wouldn’t tolerate from anyone, so he simply met Anna’s eyes unflinchingly.

  Aaron just calmly watched Anna, but Luke could feel Mikki’s tension, see the curiosity on Elspeth’s face. Expression bland, Ryan stood behind Anna.

  Her gaze dropped, her face unexpectedly crumpling as she battled her emotions. There was a subtle change in her, some of the tension seeping away, a tear trickling down her cheek. Then, finally, she looked around at them. “It wasn’t supposed to go like this.” She was still angry, but it was a defeated anger.

  Aaron nodded slightly.

  “I was supposed to find the journal, take it before you,” she looked at Mikki, “found out. But I was too late.”

  “Your family,” Aaron said quietly. “Your story, right?”

  She nodded.

  “Tell me.”

  “Mikki knows.”

  “I want your story.”

  Anna’s lips tightened.

  “Tell me.” His voice dropped, soothed, compelling, inviting confidence.

  Luke had had that same voice used on him in his wayward youth when he’d done something particularly boneheaded and tried to keep it quiet, so he knew just how Anna would feel - like Aaron was on her side and would help her.

  She spoke slowly, as though each word was squeezed out under duress, and perhaps it was. “My grandmother had an affair with Wilford Willock. My grandfather found out and he murdered her and buried her in the suicide’s grave, where no one would think to look. It was a fitting end for an adulteress, he said later. To everyone else, including my father, she’d simply vanished. They searched the woods, put out flyers, but nothing turned up. No one thought to search the mansion grounds, and that was what my grandfather banked on, that no one would suspect the high and mighty Willocks. Not the war hero, Wilford bloody Willock.”

  Aaron shook his head sympathetically. “That was a horrible thing he done. It must have been hard for you to keep this secret all these years. How did you find out?”

  Anna frowned slightly. “Just before my grandfather died, he told my father what he’d done, as a form of confession, I suppose. He wanted Dad to know his mother hadn’t just vanished into thin air, he wanted him to know what really happened.” Her lips twisted with an inner pain. “I found out from Dad one night when he got drunk. He was looking at old photos, and he started crying. It was our secret, you see. He’d kept it from the rest of the family, not wanting to sully our name, and now it was up to me to keep the secret.” She sighed suddenly. “My sister and brother never knew, my cousins. They led their lives, lived happily, even moved away, but I stayed to make sure the secret was never discovered.”

  “It could have come out any number of ways,” Elspeth said softly. “What made you think you could stop it?”

  Anna looked at her as though she had some marbles missing. “I had to try. I was stuck in this town, keeping our secret, watching for any rumour to appear so I could squash it before it started.” Her gaze switched to Mikki, hardened. “Then you came along and found the journal, and next thing you’re asking questions about a secret lover.”

  “It was you watching Luke and Mikki in the graveyard,” Aaron stated.

  “I was hoping to find out where Mikki kept the journal, to take it before she discovered anything incriminating in it.”

  “You found out it was still in the mansion somewhere.”

  “Yes. I knew about the passageway into the mansion because my grandmother told my grandfather about it before he killed her. She and Willock used it for their affair, to meet each other. The original Willock family who built the mansion were big on an escape route in case of trouble.” Her laugh was derogatory. “Guess you could say they were pioneers of the Doomsday believers.”

  Luke couldn’t help but think of Aaron’s ‘prepare for the worst’ saying, and he briefly wondered if his brother had an emergency escape somewhere in his own home. He glanced at him, but nothing in his brother’s calm façade revealed anything. Wouldn’t surprise him if Aaron did have an escape route, definitely something to ask him later.

  “After today, I knew I had to find the journal fast, so I used the passageway to get into the house,” Anna continued. “I didn’t have to go far, it was right on the newel post. So I took it.”

  “Why’d you take Mikki?” Luke rubbed Mikki’s shoulder, needing to feel her after his shock and fear when he’d discovered her missing.

  Anna sucked in a harsh breath. “That wasn’t in the plan. I heard voices, I hurried for the door but then I knocked into something in the dark and dropped the journal. I barely made it through the door and closed it before you two,” she jerked her head at Luke and Mikki, “came into the room.”

  “Why’d you take Mikki?” he repeated.

  At first he didn’t think Anna would answer, her gaze sliding down to the table, but then she muttered sullenly, “She opened the door. I acted on instinct. She still didn’t know who I was, but I couldn’t risk her rousing everyone in the mansion, I had no choice but to take her.”

  Mikki shifted slightly, Luke glancing down to check she was okay. Her shaking had stopped awhile ago, now she was focussed on Anna, her expression a mix of sympathy and curiosity.

  Reassured that she was okay, he returned his attention to Anna.

  “I was going to lock the trap door after me, leave her in the tunnel. She’d have found her way out by going back to the mansion, but I’d be gone by then.” Anna shook her head. “But you couldn’t stay down, could you? And you bit my bloody leg!”

  “Yeah, well you threw a knife at me and tried to crush my hand.” Mikki looked a little sheepish. “Hope you had your shots.”

  Red rose in Anna’s cheeks, her eyes narrowing, but Ryan’s position behind her chair prevented her from moving. It didn’t prevent her from cursing. “This is all your fault, you interfering bitch!”

  “Watch your mouth,” Luke growled.

  Aaron didn’t flinch. “How is it Mikki’s fault?”

  “She found out and she was going to tell everyone!”

  “I swear, I didn’t know,” Mikki replied. “Why would you think I knew?”

  “You found Wilford’s jour
nal, you figured it out.”

  “I didn’t-”

  “You did!” There was desperate despair in Anna’s voice. “Wally told me!”

  Mikki was bewildered. “How did he know?”

  “You told him in the supermarket!”

  Mikki blinked, then her face cleared. “I only said that to get a reaction from Ryan.”

  Everyone looked at her.

  “What?” She shrugged guiltily. “It was a joke. He doesn’t - you know - show much, so I kind of said what I did to stir him up. Didn’t work,” she added, as Ryan just looked at her.

  There was silence in the big kitchen for several seconds. In the distance came the sound of sirens, but Anna didn’t seem to notice. Her face was white, almost bloodless, as she stared at Mikki. “You lied? I don’t believe it!”

  “I’m sorry, Anna, I didn’t have a clue who the secret lover was until you told us just now.”

  “You know.” Anna’s gaze switched to Aaron almost desperately. “You told me you knew.”

  Aaron regarded her calmly.

  “You knew she was in the suicide’s grave, you said so!”

  “When you got up, you looked at the grave and flinched. It wasn’t hard to guess once you started telling us the story.”

  Realising she’d been duped into telling the truth, Anna tried to lunge upwards, only to have Ryan keep her in place against the heavy table by the simple process of leaning against the chair.

  It was a little freaky to watch Anna go ape-shit, swearing and screaming at Aaron, “I’ll deny everything! Nothing I said means anything! I’ll deny it all!”

  Aaron simply unhooked a tiny microphone from his shirt, detached it from a wire running previously unnoticed beneath his shirt, and laid it on the table. A quick pull from somewhere behind him and he set a tiny recorder beside the microphone.

  Luke just shook his head in amazement. His brother had recorded the whole confession.

  Shaking with fury, eyes wide with despair, Anna looked from Aaron to Mikki. “I didn’t do anything wrong. You can’t pin anything on me.”

  “That’s for the police to decide,” Aaron replied easily. “There is the case of breaking and entering, stealing something not belonging to you, then abducting Mikki while threatening her with a knife.”

  Anna’s expression was a little wild. “I wasn’t going to kill her, I swear! I was just trying to keep my promise to Dad, to protect my family name! When this comes out, it’ll ruin us!”

  “It was a long time ago, dear,” Elspeth said sympathetically.

  “You don’t know! How could you? We were here before the Willocks ever came, we’re the oldest family in town, we have a position here.”

  And yet, Luke thought, no one mentioned them, the museum focussed mostly on the Willock mansion and family, their wealth, their prestige. Only a little was mentioned of the other families. It would seem Anna’s were no longer the wealthy, important family they had been once. Or maybe they’d only been the wealthy family until the far wealthier Willock’s had arrived. Fortunes came and went depending on so many circumstances.

  “I’m trapped here, you see,” Anna said almost piteously. “Trapped here to protect our name while the rest of the family go about their lives.”

  They all looked at her, the beautiful blonde woman who really believed she carried the weight of her family’s name on her shoulders. Perhaps she did, when the story got out there would be a minor scandal, maybe some newspaper reports, but it would die down. There was always more bad news to rise up and overtake yesterdays news. But it was a small town, it wouldn’t be forgotten by the original inhabitants.

  “You can leave,” Mikki suggested quietly. “You said you were trapped here. In a way, this frees you.”

  Anna looked at her like she’d lost her mind. “You don’t understand. How could you? This is my town, my home. I have to stay here.”

  “There’s no secret to protect now.”

  Anna didn’t respond, clamping her mouth shut, looking away.

  When it became obvious that she wasn’t going to talk anymore, Luke got to his feet, taking Mikki with him. Reaching down, he slid his hand beneath Elspeth’s elbow and urged her up. “I think we’ll wait outside.”

  Aaron nodded. Ryan stood silent, body braced against the chair, hands resting easily on the back of it as he stood guard.

  Luke ushered both women out, closing the kitchen door behind him. “Let’s go and wait for the cops on the veranda,” he said. “I, for one, could do with some fresh air.”

  On the veranda they sat on the top step, Luke between them, his arms around both their shoulders. Mikki leaned her head on his shoulder with a sigh, Elspeth resting her chin in her hand and her elbow on one drawn up knee.

  “This is unbelievable,” Elspeth muttered. “Wilford’s lover was murdered by her own husband, and his son and granddaughter kept it a secret all this time.”

  “Until me.” Mikki sighed.

  Luke pressed a kiss to her temple. “It’s no one’s fault, Red. Anna’s a bit loopy, just listen to her.”

  “Maybe the strain of keeping the secret has been too much.”

  “You think?”

  Mikki tipped her face up to his, her expression a little sad. “If I hadn’t tried to stir Ryan up-”

  “No,” Luke said firmly. “None of that. What happened was a tragedy, but it didn’t have to come to this, either. Jesus, Red, she threw a knife at you.” He pressed another kiss to her temple. “She could have decided to kill you.”

  “She held it to my throat,” Mikki said reflectively. “But man, she was a poor thrower.”

  He shuddered, and this time it was she who hugged him comfortingly.

  “Thank God you were okay.” Leaning across Luke, Elspeth kissed her cheek.

  As they watched blue and red flashing lights come up the main road, the strobing cutting through the heavy foliage of the bushes, Mikki mused, “Anna must have managed to hit Ryan.”

  “Hmmm?” Luke leaned his cheek on her head.

  “He had a bit of a split lip.”

  “Oh.” Luke grinned a little sheepishly. “Yeah.”

  Elspeth gave him an incredulous look. “Luke!”

  “What?” Mikki demanded.

  “Luke hit Ryan.”

  It was Mikki’s turn to look incredulously at him. “Why?”

  Luke shrugged. “We were searching the place for you when I noticed the open door in the wall. I was ready to charge into it but Ryan tried to stop me, said he had to go first in case of danger, but hell, Red, I wasn’t going to just sit and wait to get to you. He grabbed me, I hit him.”

  “And then,” Elspeth said with relish, “Luke ran into the tunnel to your rescue. Aaron ran after him, and Ryan ran outside to see if he could spot you. In hindsight, it was all very dashing and brave of them, running to your rescue without knowing how many had taken you, or what they’d face.”

  Luke scowled. “Nothing dashing about it, Elspeth. I’d go down to hell and face the Devil himself if I had to, to find my woman.”

  Elspeth sighed. “How romantic.”

  “Getting my arse singed in the flames isn’t romantic, but I’d do it for Red.” He paused. “For you, too.”

  The sirens of two cop cars blared loudly, the lights flashing colour across Elspeth’s face as they tore up the driveway. She smiled. “But I bet you’d be greeting me a whole lot differently.”

  He smiled. “You’re her aunt. She’s my woman. I’d come for you both, but yeah, I probably wouldn’t do to you what I plan to do to Mikki.”

  Mikki blushed, but Elspeth just laughed. Then she stood up as the cop cars came to a halt before the steps, going down to meet them, gracious as ever but all business.

  “Luke?”

  He looked down at Mikki, brushed his thumb across her cheek. “Yeah, Red?”

  “Thank you.”

  The words were simple, but he could see the emotion in her eyes. “You’re very welcome, Red. Always and forever.” He brushed
his lips across hers. “Never doubt that I’ll always come for you, no matter who I have to get through.”

  As the cops came up the steps, he stood, bringing her up with him to face a night that wasn’t over yet.

  But he kept her tucked into his side, right where she belonged.

  Epilogue

  The roar of race cars filled the air, dust filtering through the halo of the high-wattage lights on the tall poles that shone brilliantly over the race track.

  At the snack shed, Luke put his order in to the server and paid, waited while Jason did the same. Then they waited, standing to one side.

  “Hear tell,” Jason commented, “that some local yobbo met you at the mansion and asked for a job.”

  “Yep.”

  “Hear tell that he had a run-in with your fist.”

  “Yep.” Luke felt immensely satisfied. “Twice.”

  “Apparently, before he could report a certain landscaper to the law, Aaron had a quiet word with him.”

  “Yep.” Whistling tunelessly, Luke stuck his hands in his pockets.

  “Turns out the yobbo has a past he doesn’t want made public.”

  “Aaron reckons everyone has a past.”

  “He’s paranoid.”

  “In the yobbo’s case, correct.”

  “So you got your revenge on the bastard that dumped Duchess on the side of the road.” Jason frowned. “Good job.”

  “Aaron had Ryan do a scout around, he saw the car, got the details, and did some digging around. Apparently the bastard has been suspected of getting rid of strays around his place. Duchess, it appeared, was one of them.” Luke scowled. “Bastard got what he deserved.”

  “Did you tell Mikki?”

  “Yep.” Luke’s scowl turned into a grin. “She rewarded me most satisfactorily.”

  “Did she reward Aaron and Ryan?”

  “Not the way she did me. They got a cake, I got…” Luke waggled his eyebrows.

  “Let’s not go there.”

  The server called out to them and they collected their food.

  Bag of hot food in one hand, the Coke and Diet Coke in his other hand, Luke walked back towards where their cars were parked overlooking the local speedway, Jason beside him with his own food and two takeaway mugs of hot coffee.