Echo of Danger

by Marta Perry

  “What are you doing here? Are you spying on Deidre?”

  Billy’s face crunched as if he was trying to hold back tears. “I followed him. He’s in there. In there with her. You have to help.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  SHE MUST BE WRONG. That was all Deidre could think as she stared at the judge. He was so dignified, so distinguished, so essentially self-disciplined that it was impossible to envision him embarking on a sordid affair right in his own backyard.

  But if not, how did she explain Dixie’s possession of the necklace?

  In any event, she couldn’t let him know what she was thinking. The album still lay open to the photos from the bar association dinner, but he couldn’t have any idea what that meant to her.

  “You startled me.” Astonishing that her voice sounded so ordinary. “I wasn’t expecting you to stop by. I’m afraid Kevin is already in bed.”

  He moved toward her with what seemed to be his usual assurance. But was it her imagination that some tiny fissures showed in his facade?

  “Yes, I realized he’d be asleep. I want to talk to you.”

  “Please, sit down.” She gestured toward the sofa, trying to convince herself that there was nothing odd about this visit.

  The judge ignored the suggestion, stopping at the edge of the living room area rug as if he didn’t want to come any closer to her. “Are you still determined to take Kevin to the child psychologist?”

  Deidre blinked. Whatever she’d expected, it wasn’t that.

  “I don’t like the idea, either.” She rubbed her hands along her arms, suddenly chilled. “But I’m sure he’s an experienced professional who won’t do anything to upset Kevin. We can’t go on the way we are, letting him endure terrifying nightmares every night.” She hesitated. “I wish I could feel I had your support.” It was a plea for support. For understanding.

  “Never.” His voice was so harsh it startled her. “It would be better for Kevin if he never remembered what happened that night. As for your friend—” his face twisted on the words “—she was nothing but a tramp. She never should have come back to Echo Falls. It’s time to forget her.”

  Deidre’s emotions flared, her control faltering. “How can you say that? Dixie was a decent, honest person and a good friend.”

  “I told Frank he should exercise more control over you, but he wouldn’t listen. If I’d had my way, she’d have been sent back where she came from the instant she showed her face here.” His face flushed and his hands clutched into fists.

  “Why?” She was so angry that the words spilled out. “Because you had an affair with her? Because you gave her Sylvia’s diamond pendant?”

  “Never!” He was almost shouting. “Your precious friend was a blackmailer. I would never have had a relationship with a woman like that. Never.”

  Deidre’s breath caught in her throat. She suddenly stood at the edge of a precipice, and she had to back away quickly. But what could Dixie have known about the judge that would warrant blackmail? And how far had he been willing to go to protect that secret?

  She clutched at her vanishing self-control. “Please, stop. We’re both saying things we’ll regret. You should leave now, and we’ll forget this conversation ever happened.”

  “I can’t do that.” His eyes were like ice. How much did it cost him to keep that facade in place? “I can’t leave until I have your promise to give up this plan of yours. I won’t let you put Kevin in danger by forcing him to remember what happened to Dixie.”

  He took a step toward her. Her body recognized danger even before her mind did.

  A cry ruptured the air. Deidre whirled toward the sound.

  Kevin stood on the stairs in his superhero pajamas, the way he must have the night Dixie died. He pointed a shaking finger toward his grandfather.

  “Dixie said he took her to the cabin.” Kev’s voice was high with fear, his eyes dark and unseeing. “Dixie said he hurt her. She said she’d tell. And he hit her.”

  Deidre ran toward her son, her heart pounding. If he took a step he might fall. Even as the thought formed, Kevin stumbled.

  She threw herself forward, grabbing him. Her arms went around him, shielding him as she fell on the stairs.

  Get up, run, go upstairs, away from him...

  But even as she turned, trying to get her feet under her, Deidre knew it was too late. The judge stood over them, holding the heavy brass lamp like a club.

  “No! You can’t do this—not to Kevin!” The cry came from her heart. Not Kevin—not his own grandchild.

  “It’s too late.” His voice sounded normal, but his eyes were the eyes of a stranger. “Once I took care of Dixie I should have been safe, but then that ex-husband of hers came. Ready to take up blackmailing me. I’d have never been free. I had to act.” He looked faintly regretful. “And now you.”

  “I don’t understand.” Her mind sought frantically for any way to delay the inevitable. “What did Dixie know? How could she be a threat?”

  That distracted him for an instant. “What the boy said. She had no right refusing me. I could have sent her to a juvenile facility. I’d have helped her.”

  Helped her. Revulsion seized her. Dixie had only been thirteen when she left town. Was he saying what she thought...that he’d molested a child?

  The revulsion must have shown in her face. He seemed to harden, swinging the lamp up, ready to strike.

  “You can’t! Not to your own grandchild!” Shuddering, she kept her body between her son and this madman.

  Something crashed in the back of the house, distracting him for an instant. Billy stumbled in, white-faced, even as the front door burst open and Jason barreled toward them.

  They weren’t close enough. Was he mad enough to strike in front of witnesses?

  “Not Kevin. You can’t!” she cried again.

  For an instant that lasted a lifetime, the lamp was poised above them. Then, slowly, he lowered it, letting it drop onto the stairs.

  “No. You’re right. I can’t.” He turned, walking steadily toward the door.

  Jason moved as if to stop him, but he turned at a cry from Kevin, his face working. He rushed to them. “Is he hurt? I’ll call for help...”

  Deidre smoothed the hair away from Kevin’s face. “Kev, does anything hurt? Tell Mommy.”

  Kev’s eyes lost their unfocused look. His lips trembled. “Mommy? Jase?”

  “Are you hurt, sweetheart?”

  Kevin shook his head. Tears started to spill over. He threw one arm around her neck and reached for Jason with the other.

  Jason put his arm protectively around both of them. “It’s okay now. Nothing’s going to happen to you.”

  “We’re safe,” she murmured, her heart filling with thankfulness.

  Jason stiffened. As if reminded, he shot a glance toward the door. It stood open, and the judge was gone. “I should have stopped him.”

  Deidre clasped his hand. “We needed you. And maybe it’s better this way,” she said. “He knows it’s over now. I don’t think he’ll go far.”

  Jason hesitated, but then he pressed his face against hers. “There’s only one way out for him now.”

  * * *

  IT FELT LIKE the middle of the night, but a glance at the clock told Jason it was only just after eleven. They were sitting around the kitchen table, having tacitly decided that the living room was no place to be just now.

  Deidre wrapped her hands around a mug of steaming mint tea, although he hadn’t seen her drink any of it. Judith hovered over him with the coffeepot, but he shook his head. He’d had enough caffeine to keep him awake for three or four days as it was.

  Judith had arrived in response to the flashing lights and sirens at her friend’s house. Her husband had apparently insisted on walking her over, but he’d re
tired to the back porch as if to give them more privacy.

  Jase couldn’t seem to take his eyes off Deidre for more than a few seconds at a time. He’d come so close to losing her that it didn’t bear thinking about.

  As if she felt his gaze, Deidre glanced at him, managing a slight smile, before her eyes returned to dwell on her son.

  Kevin actually seemed far better than Jase would have thought possible. He had a cup of cocoa in front of him, but he didn’t seem to be paying much attention to it. He was watching Billy, who’d pulled a penknife and a small stick from one of his numerous pockets and was busy shaping it into a snake.

  Did the boy realize that his grandfather had intended to kill him? Or did he think it was all part of a nightmare?

  Deidre was worried, obviously. He was, as well, but he suspected the five-year-old was more resilient than either of them.

  There was a babble of sound at the front door, and then Sylvia Morris erupted into the room. She’d dressed since he saw her, but that was about all he could say. Her hair stood out as if she’d combed it with her fingers, and her face still bore the traces of tears.

  She heaved a sigh when she saw them. “You’re safe. Thank the Lord you’re safe.”

  Sylvia seemed ready to burst into tears again, and Deidre got up quickly and went to her. Obviously she didn’t want an outburst in front of Kevin, who watched them with a bright, interested gaze.

  Jase moved over next to the boy and directed his attention to the figure Billy was carving. “You think Billy could teach us how to do that?”

  Kevin considered for a moment, and then shook his head. “Mommy says everyone has a gift. That’s Billy’s.”

  “Good thinking.” He ruffled the boy’s silky hair. “You’re a pretty smart kid.”

  Kevin grinned and leaned against his arm as he switched his attention back to the deft movements of the knife.

  It felt ridiculously good to have Kevin leaning against him, relying on him. He’d thought he’d lost the boy altogether, but he’d begun to have confidence they were going to be in each other’s lives, no matter what.

  The young patrolman the chief had left at the front door had followed Sylvia inside. At the moment he looked relieved that Deidre had taken over responsibility for Sylvia, talking to her quietly, arm around her.

  Jase jerked his head, and the Jacobson kid came over to him. “Did you go get her?” Jase asked.

  He shook his head. “She just turned up.” He grinned. “She said her garage was locked, so she backed her car right through the door to get here.”

  “I wouldn’t have credited it.” Jase suppressed a smile of his own at the idea of the usually immaculate woman crashing through a garage.

  “Broke a taillight and left some dents in the trunk,” the patrolman said. He sobered. “But there’s some damage to the front of the car that I think the chief will be interested in. Might be the hit-and-run vehicle we’ve been looking for.”

  Jase wasn’t surprised. “That’s why he had the car locked up in the garage. Supposedly no one had driven it for months.”

  “Seems hard to believe. About the judge, I mean.” The young man didn’t seem able to assimilate the toppling of a pillar of society. “How could he think he’d get away with it?”

  “Maybe he’d been in power so long he thought he could do anything.” That was as close as he could come to an explanation. And it just might be the truth. How had he never seen how destructive the judge’s need to control was? But no one else had, either, except possibly Sylvia. And Billy.

  He glanced at Billy. Out there in the dark, stammering to get the words out, Billy had poured out the story. How he’d followed Dixie to the cabin that long-ago day, hopelessly devoted to her and not able to tell her so. He’d seen Judge Morris arrive. He’d heard the sounds and cries from the cabin, had guessed what was happening, but had been too afraid to go and help his friend.

  Bitter tears had poured down his face as he confessed his weakness. He’d been afraid... All these years, he’d been afraid. But he couldn’t let the judge hurt Kevin and Deidre. He couldn’t.

  Would he have done anything if Jason hadn’t arrived when he did? Jason wasn’t sure. Anyway, he had been in time. He’d sent Billy around to the back to create a distraction while he attempted to break in the front. A cold chill went through him at the thought of how close they’d come to not being on time. If he hadn’t...

  The front door opened, and everyone in the room looked up except for Billy and Kevin. Chief Carmichaels came in, glancing from one to another.

  “Did you find him?” Jason stood, voicing the thought that was on all their minds.

  “We did. Down along the river by the interstate bridge,” he said heavily.

  Jason asked the question with a look, and Carmichaels shook his head mutely before crossing to Sylvia and speaking to her in a low voice.

  So it was over. Judge Morris had taken the only way out that was left for him. Jason couldn’t manage to feel anything but relief that he was gone.

  Unfortunately, the rest of them were still here. They’d have to bear that brunt of the unpleasantness that followed. Everyone in town would know what had happened, and why. The judge’s reputation was splintered to dust, but how much would the rest of them suffer? Deidre had gone to put her arms around her mother-in-law, but her gaze met his over the woman’s bent head.

  A lot can be said with just a look. This one said that they were in this together. For now, that was enough.

  * * *

  DEIDRE WAS STILL heavy-lidded at three the next afternoon, but she clung to the thought that a few more nights would see the return of her ability to sleep. At least Kevin hadn’t had a nightmare after she’d finally gotten him to sleep. Maybe the reality had been bad enough that he hadn’t needed to dream about it.

  She’d still keep the appointment with the child psychologist, of course, and follow any schedule he thought necessary for continuing visits. So much that had once been completely unthinkable had occurred in Kevin’s young life, too much to let her take anything for granted.

  She stood at the sink, looking out the window at Kevin and Benjamin chasing each other around the swing set. She’d been reluctant to leave them alone outside, but as Judith had sensibly reminded her, she would only make Kevin anxious if he felt she couldn’t trust them.

  “Can’t let him out of your sight?” Jason spoke from the doorway. Judith stood behind him, having obviously just let him in.

  “Something like that.” Deidre felt oddly shy, as if they’d gone so far in their relationship over the past twenty-four hours that she needed to find a new balance.

  “I’ll go outside with the boys.” Judith, smiling, glanced from her to Jason, rather obviously determined to leave them alone together.

  When the door had closed behind her, Jason came to stand behind Deidre, looking over her shoulder at the children. “I was thinking that it might be a good idea to get Kevin a dog.”

  She blinked. “A dog? Why?”

  Glancing up, she found he was watching her with a smile lurking in his eyes.

  “Seems fitting—a boy and his dog. Part of a typical American childhood.”

  “We did always have dogs when I was growing up. Two Border collies—Daddy called them Ruff and Ready.” She wrinkled her forehead. “Corny, I know, but as a kid I thought it was really clever.”

  “It’ll be a good distraction for him.” Jason put his arms warily around her waist, as if half expecting a withdrawal. “Something to love and talk to.”

  She nodded, pleased that his first thought had been for her son. “Good. We’ll start looking for a puppy.”

  He seemed to relax at her response, coupling them together as he did. He drew her closer, so that she felt his strength.

  “Sylvia stayed here the rest of the night,
” she said. “She just went home a short time ago.”

  “How is she?” He didn’t seem surprised that she hadn’t wanted to go back to that chilly mansion alone.

  Deidre considered. “She’s better than I’d have expected. She insists on taking over the funeral arrangements and dealing with all the things that have to be done. It’ll be as quiet as possible, of course.”

  “Carmichaels is obviously relieved that he was spared arresting the judge. The story is out, but at least you won’t have to go through a trial.”

  She nodded. “We’re in for some rough times, but I think Sylvia will get through it. She said that once it’s over, she’ll go for whatever treatment the doctors think best.”

  “I understand she’s been in rehab in the past, but maybe this time it will be different.”

  She didn’t blame him if he was skeptical, but with everything out in the open now, Sylvia might have a better chance of making it. “I think it might. She told me that she was determined to get well so she could be the grandmother Kevin deserved. She felt she failed Frank, but she’s not going to fail her grandson.”

  Jason gave her a questioning look. “You still want her to be part of Kevin’s life?”

  “Of course. What happened wasn’t her fault. The judge fooled everyone.” She felt a frown beginning and tried to will it away. “I just wish...”

  “What?” He studied her face, as if wanting to read her thoughts.

  “What he said...about Frank thinking I’d been unfaithful. I just don’t see how that could have been true. Wouldn’t I have known?” The question needled her, refusing to be willed away no matter how she tried.

  Jase was frowning, too, and she suspected he wished he’d never told her that. “He brought it up when he was pushing me to continue investigating. I wouldn’t have taken it seriously, if he hadn’t shown me the anonymous letter. But you can’t blame yourself for what Frank might have imagined.”

  “Letter?” She caught at the word. “You didn’t mention anything about a letter before.” If someone had written an anonymous letter, the rumors must have been widespread. How had she not known?