by Mary Burton
Brenda’s frown deepened as if Kate twisted a knife in her side. “All she did for him and still he was a faithless man. He had his whores and he refused to come see Momma.”
“He couldn’t help himself,” Kate hissed. “He couldn’t help himself.”
“Brenda, you did the killing this time,” Rachel said.
A wide proud grin spread across her face. “I did.”
“You knew KC worked Annie’s case?”
“I did. He likes to talk. Sweet man. All I had to do was ask a question here or there and then listen.”
A sigh shuddered through Kate. “I thought if she took care of Dixie, Pastor Gary would understand that he was on a dangerous path. When it comes to the flesh, he is weak and he never understands how much he can lose if the world figures out his weakness. The public forgives much but not a beloved pastor cheating in such a depraved way.”
“But he didn’t learn, did he?” Rachel asked.
Kate shook her head. “I love him. I wanted to teach him a lesson for his own sake.”
In the distance by the church, Rachel saw the lights of the cop cars flashing. They were so close, but time was draining away. “You framed Jeb.”
Kate glanced past Rachel to the lights of the cop cars. She could end this all now but as if giving her last confession said, “It was easy to do. I saw him staring at Annie. He was the perfect criminal.”
“And you took her body to the woods?”
Kate stared at Rachel a long moment. “No, I did not. I didn’t take her body away.”
“What do you mean? If you didn’t take the body, then who?”
Kate shook her head. “I don’t know. I always thought it might have been Gary. He’d been obsessed with seeing the baby. After I killed her, I ran. Later when my thoughts cooled I came back to make sure she was dead and the baby was all right. Lord, I couldn’t believe I’d left that baby alone. The cops were there but there was no body.”
Rachel studied Kate’s face closely. “Did you ask Gary about Annie’s body?”
“No. No. I thought about it a million times but I came to see he must have hid her to protect me. He never said the words but I could see it in his eyes.”
Rachel’s heart ached for Annie who’d gotten caught up in a hell greater than she’d ever imagined. “You must have loved Gary very much.”
“I still love him,” Kate said. “I will love him until I draw my last breath.”
Rachel sensed Brenda’s growing tension. Kate did not know Gary was dead. “So you didn’t kill him?”
Brenda hissed in a breath. “Shut up!”
Kate’s head tilted. “Why would I kill him?”
“He’s dead,” Georgia said. “Shot in the chest. He’s lying in the chapel.”
Kate’s gaze shifted to Brenda. Hurt, betrayal, and anger combined. “You killed Gary?”
For the first time, Brenda’s confidence wavered. “I didn’t want to kill him. I wanted to talk to him. I wanted to know that he loved me, too.”
Kate looked at her daughter as if seeing her for the first time. “Of course he loved you.”
“Not like I needed him to. Not like a father loves a child.” Brenda pointed her gun at Georgia. “Not like he would have loved her.”
“He’s her own flesh and blood!” Kate shouted.
“But I loved and served him all my life. I’d have done anything for him.”
“Blood is thicker than water!” Kate wailed, tears glistening in her eyes. “She’d never have killed Gary!”
“No!”
Kate swiped away a tear. “God, how could you?”
Tears welled in Brenda’s eyes. She shook her head as if she fought back all the anger and hurt surging in her. She jabbed the gun into Georgia’s back, her gaze carrying the pain of a life lived in the shadows. “It’s her turn to die.”
Nikki had followed the sounds in the woods, the sound of women fighting. One step at a time, she’d cut through the woods. Closer. Closer. The sounds grew louder until she reached the edge of a clearing where she saw the four women. Her head pounded with a fierce pain. She pressed her hands to her ears and prayed for the pain to leave. She breathed deeply to calm her racing heart.
All this talk, talk, talk. She didn’t understand what they were saying but the words made her head hurt. She didn’t like them. She didn’t like any of them. And she wanted them to shut up so she could get back to Rudy.
The cops were searching the church but there was no sign of Rachel and Georgia. Deke’s impatience grew and he found his gaze drawn to the woods behind the chapel. The church owned an enormous amount of land and it would take hours to search. He stepped outside. “Where the hell are you, Rachel?”
He dug his phone from his pocket and dialed dispatch. Once he identified himself he said, “I have a cell number I want you to locate. Owner is Rachel Wainwright.” He rattled off the number and prayed she was close.
“You’re not going to kill her!” Kate said. “I want more time with her.”
“Why do you want more time with her?” Brenda shouted. “I’m your daughter. She is that whore’s daughter.”
“She’s Gary’s flesh and blood!” Kate shouted.
Through the thicket of the woods, Rachel saw the flash of lights. The cops had made it to the edge of the woods. Closer and closer.
“You killed my mother!” Georgia shouted.
Kate looked at Georgia. “I didn’t want to. I wanted her to listen and to leave town. And I told you when I calmed, I came back to the house to get you. I knew you were in your crib alone and I came back to rescue you. I’d have raised you like my own. I’d have been a good mother to you.”
Georgia stood silent, stunned.
It was Brenda that wailed, “I’m your daughter. Why not love me! I’ve done everything that you’ve ever asked. I can’t help the fact that I’m not Gary’s flesh and blood.”
Kate shook her head. “I thought Brenda was Gary’s when I carried her. We were kids ourselves when we were together. I was married, but Gary was the most beautiful boy in town. We had one night, but I hoped. But after she was born, I saw that she wasn’t his, but my husband’s. It broke my heart to know I didn’t have Gary’s child to suckle. That’s why I wanted you, Georgia. I thought you’d fill the hole in my heart.”
Rachel listened to it all, twisting her wrist while the women were distracted. The cuff was loose enough to work her hand free but tight enough that it tore her flesh as she did. Georgia, realizing what she was doing, shifted to hide Rachel’s hand.
Cringing, Rachel jerked her hand free.
“I should have been enough!” Brenda shouted.
Brenda glared at Georgia. She raised the gun. “I hate you!”
Kate leaned forward in her chair. “Brenda, no!”
“Why should I listen to you? You don’t love me. You are like Gary. I’m nothing but a convenient servant.”
A woman’s howl shot out from the woods distracting Brenda who had leveled her gun on Georgia. Rachel threw her body toward Brenda throwing the brunt of her weight into the woman. The shot fired wild. Brenda punched Rachel’s gut and broke free long enough to right herself.
Brenda stood over Rachel, her gun trained and ready to fire. “I’m going to enjoy this.”
A ghostly wail echoed again from the woods. They all froze seconds later when a tall thin woman emerged from the edge of the woods. Gray hair framed a narrow face, badly contorted. Hatred burned in the gaze now nailed to Brenda.
The woman screamed and ran toward Brenda. She threw her body into Brenda and the two fell hard against the earth. Brenda dropped her gun. The banshee woman balled up her fist and struck Brenda hard in the face. Brenda coughed, spit blood, and crawled toward the gun.
Rachel cradled her broken arm and crawled toward the gun, but a winded Brenda rose and scooped it up. Brenda leveled the gun on Georgia.
“Don’t!” Rachel shouted, dread and loss washing over her as Brenda pulled back the trigger.
Th
e ghostly woman rose and lunged toward the gun. The gun went off and the woman clutched her chest. Blood bloomed. She fell to her knees and then facedown into the dirt.
Kate’s pale face dimmed as she stared at the woman. “Annie?”
Rachel stopped, her gaze narrowing on the figure who looked more specter than human.
Georgia, in shock, stared at the woman, this last bit of news overwhelming her.
Brenda stared at Annie. “I thought you killed her.”
“I did,” Kate whispered.
Rachel scooped a handful of dirt and lunged toward Brenda, tossing the dirt in her face. The woman’s shock distracted her just enough for Rachel to smack her squarely in the face. In panic and confusion, Brenda pulled the trigger and fired her gun. Rachel grabbed hold of Brenda’s hand and wrestled the gun free.
Georgia blinked and moved to Annie and rolled her on her back. Brenda’s bullet had caught her squarely in the chest.
Nikki/Annie looked up at Georgia, her eyes panicked and lost. “Where’s Rudy? He takes care of me.”
Georgia smoothed her hand over her hair, knowing the injury was fatal. Her expression pained and panicked, she smoothed trembling fingertips over thin gray hair.
“He’s coming,” Georgia said. “He’s coming.”
Kate pulled a gun from her blankets and leveled it on Rachel as Deke burst through the line of woods. He instantly assessed the scene. His gaze zeroed in on the threat: Kate’s gun.
“Drop the weapon!” he shouted, his voice cutting through the air.
Kate didn’t respond.
Deke fired. The bullet struck Kate in the chest, and she fell back, dead.
“Momma!” Brenda wailed.
He quickly cuffed Brenda as more uniformed officers burst through the woods. He looked to Rachel, who cradled her arm, and then Georgia. “Georgia, are you all right?”
Georgia wept. “This is Annie.”
“What?” Deke asked.
Georgia stroked the woman’s hair. “That’s what Kate called her.”
Rachel hugged her injured arm, wishing she did not want Deke to hold her. She understood Georgia needed her brother and, in this moment, she was alone.
Deke looked at the dead woman, his anger clear and cutting. As uniformed officers burst into the clearing he said, “Get Georgia away from here.”
Georgia tensed. “I can’t leave her like this.”
Rachel moved to Georgia and said softly, “She’s gone. She’s gone.”
Georgia glanced up at her with red-rimmed eyes all but jumping off her pale face. Deke wrapped a strong arm around Georgia and helped her stand. As they moved away from the bodies, more uniformed officers gathered. A screaming Brenda was hauled away and EMTs summoned.
Deke wanted to pull Rachel in his arms but he’d never seen Georgia so weak and rattled. A uniformed officer approached Rachel. He couldn’t hear what was said but watched as the officer guided Rachel away.
He’d made a connection with her. He’d imagined with Rachel the future might be different. But the job had tugged at the fragile connection until it frayed. In the past, he’d have let the threads unravel but the thought of it now made him hollow and aching. “Georgia.”
Tears welled in her eyes as she raised her chin. “Go to her. I’m fine.”
“You aren’t.”
She closed her eyes, hesitated and then looked at him. “I can survive a few minutes alone. Go.”
Deke touched Georgia’s face and then turned and jogged to Rachel as the EMTs readied to raise her stretcher into the ambulance. He cupped her face, staring into dark eyes already dulled by painkillers. “Rachel.”
“Deke.”
He leaned forward and kissed her on the lips. “You’re going to be all right.”
Rachel squared her shoulders but the act of bravado cost her pain. “I’m always all right. Bouncing back is what I do.” The loneliness coating the words tore at him. She’d lived apart and alone too long.
“I’ll be there for you.”
Her head tilted as she searched his gaze. “You said being there is not your thing.”
He traced her jaw with the calloused edge of his thumb. “Not this time. This time it is my thing.”
Epilogue
Six weeks later
A special day should be filled with bright sunshine. It should be warm and the birds should have been singing. It’s how Rachel had always imagined the day when her brother would have been released from prison.
But that day had never come and this day was gray and cold as the granite walls of the prison. Rachel sat in the car, watching the rain droplets slide down the windowpane.
Rachel shifted in her seat as her shoulder throbbed. It had been four weeks since her surgery and her arm still ached on cold and damp days. The doctors had said it could take a few more weeks before she was up and running and they’d advised her against the trip. But she’d refused all advice and concerns.
She peered from the dark SUV, staring at the gates of the prison. She could have gone inside but Kirk Jones had asked if he could go in and get his father, Jeb. Happily, she’d agreed.
Seconds ticked, as she watched the gates and when she thought they’d never move, they opened and Kirk Jones walked out with his ailing father at his side. Jeb could barely walk these days and required a wheelchair but he’d insisted on walking out of prison.
The old man raised his face to the gray sky and closed his eyes. There wasn’t much sun to be had today but Jeb lapped it up as if starved. Kirk opened the car door of the Jones garage truck. Jeb looked past the car to Rachel, raised a trembling hand to her and smiled. She smiled, raised her own hand and watched Jeb get into the passenger seat.
KC had been devastated by Brenda’s lies. And when Deke had talked to him, he’d admitted he’d met her in the prison. When Brenda had made a move on him, he’d been so damn flattered he’d not questioned her or the affair. Weeks before the vigil, he had complained to Brenda about Rachel’s DNA request. He’d also admitted to Deke that he’d shared with Rudy case information on Annie Dawson’s case.
Rudy had been arrested after Annie’s identity had been confirmed and he’d confessed that he had found Annie soon after Kate had beaten her so badly. He’d not called the cops but had taken her back to his bar and nursed her. He admitted that he’d always loved her and had wanted her for himself.
Annie had never really recovered from her head injury. Her memories had been destroyed and her thoughts never able to focus again. But Rudy had resolved to take care of her. For weeks he’d kept her in the second floor of his bar, tending her as cops and patrons flooded the downstairs bar.
When KC came into Rudy’s all those years ago, unburdening himself with the details of the Dawson case, he’d never realized Rudy had known all along where Annie could be found. As the weeks passed Annie started to improve some. She would never be the same but now was a little harder to handle. With cops refusing to let go of the case, he’d feared it was a matter of time before Annie was found. Rudy realized he needed a body to get the police to stop searching. He’d found the body of a dead prostitute who resembled Annie in height and stature. He’d beaten the body postmortem, removed the head and hands and left it in the woods dressed in Annie’s bloodied clothes and necklace. When he was sure the remains could not be identified, he’d called in the tip.
Kate had believed Gary had guessed her terrible secret and that he had taken Annie’s body and hidden it to protect her. When the remains had been found, she’d feared for him so she’d hidden the tire iron in Jeb’s car, found Max and given him the tip. The discovery of the body and the tire iron had ensured Jeb’s conviction.
Rachel’s thoughts skittered to Luke, whose nagging voice had been silent for weeks. Maybe he was at peace now? Maybe she could live a more normal life.
Let me go. I am free.
Tears glistened in her eyes. “I hope so.”
“Hope what?” Deke asked as he came around the car.
She swip
ed away a tear. “Just talking to myself.”
Deke leaned against the car on her good side, so close his shoulder brushed hers. For a moment the two just stood close, absorbing each other’s energy. “You must be proud.”
Rachel rarely celebrated victories. There’d just never seemed to be enough time for accolades. But not this time. This time, she would celebrate. “Sometimes, life tosses out a real special moment. As rare as a blue moon, they do happen.”
Deke faced her, wedging her body between his body and the car. “Only on blue moons?”
The heat of his body warmed her. “It’s not like I said never.”
He traced her jaw with his finger. “Blue moons come every two or three years. I’m thinking we can do better than that.”
They’d been seeing each other for weeks. No promises of forever. No lifetime plans. Just fun and a gradual peeling away of all their protective layers. It would take time. But it seemed there was no real rush. “Maybe a little bit more often than that.”
Deke laughed and skimmed his hand up over her hip and cupped her waist. “I’m thinking there could be many great moments.”
She cocked a brow. “Sounds a bit like a commitment. I thought we weren’t doing that.”
Smiling, he kissed her. “Don’t look so rattled, Wainwright.”
Rachel wrapped her good arm around his neck. It felt so good to hold him close. “You can’t rattle me, Detective.”
“Ah, that’s what I like about you, Rachel. Always a challenge.”
