“Tristan?” asked Jack.
The nurse encouraged them to talk to Tristan, “She knows you’re here. Talk to her.”
Jack stood by Tristan’s bedside as Cole took the seat on the opposite side. Angus meanwhile continued to talk to the nurse in the hallway. Cole grabbed Tristan’s cold hand, and begged, “Please wake up…”
“Honey, its Dad. We need you to wake.”
Tristan’s chest rose and fell softly. She didn’t respond. Jack and Cole sat quietly for a moment. Suddenly, Tristan’s hand flinched a tiny bit in his own hand. His eyes immediately looked at her face.
“I think she’s waking up,” said Jack.
“I know what will wake her up…” said Cole slyly.
Cole continued, “Geez… Tristan… I can’t take my eyes off of you for a minute.”
Jack looked at Cole as if he was insane.
“What are you doing?”
“Just play along…”
“I told you that you needed me to protect you…”
Tristan’s other hand began to flinch now.
“So stubborn. You’re always saying how you can handle yourself. How you’re fine,” mentioned Jack. It was a long shot, but he hoped he could get a rise out of her.
“You’re a stubborn mule, just like your father and grandfather…” quipped Cole as Jack shot him a dirty look.
Suddenly, a gasp escaped Tristan’s mouth. Jack and Cole looked at her face with excited anxiety. As her eyelids slowly opened, Tristan complained, “I am not.”
“Oh, my God! You’re awake!” yelled Jack as he hugged her.
“Can’t a girl sleep? And Hey! I can handle myself just fine!”
Cole and Jack could do nothing but laugh and breathe sighs of relief. She had them so worried. Jack ran out into the hall to grab the nurse. Tristan glanced over at Cole with a sleepy smile.
“I thought I lost you again…” said Cole sadly as he kissed Tristan on the cheek.
“I think you should know by now that I’m not going anywhere.”
***
“I need to make a phone call,” remarked Adam as he and DiNolfo walked down Mountain Road to the station.
“Now?”
“Yes. It’s urgent. We got a call earlier today from a detective in Seattle. Angie’s husband turned up dead.”
“I saw the file.”
“I just need to let him know that we got her. Then I think we should go to the O’Mara’s house.”
“I need the box first.”
As Adam and Jenna walked into the station, they were immediately agitated by the sheer amount of noise that was sounding from the holding cells in the back of the building.
“Hello????!” Jesse Trafford shouted.
“Is anybody here?!” yelled Hunter McCord.
“What the hell is their problem?” DiNolfo asked Officer Conklin.
“They’ve been yelling just about all damn night. At this point, I’m ignoring them.”
Adam rolled his eyes as he went back to deal with the raucous.
“What’s the problem, boys?” snapped Adam at the two noisiest prisoners.
“Did anybody get my van back?”
“Nope.”
“Well, where the hell is it? Did you at least arrest the person who stole it?!”
“Nope.”
“What the hell?!” Hunter screamed looking like a madman. He punched a wall in anger.
“Hate to break it to you, but where you’re going, you won’t need it…”
“What?!!!” Hunter screamed red faced and belligerent.
“I told you… He’s a complete lunatic. He’s hopped up on something.”
“Damn, dude… Lay off the white stuff.”
“Come on, Adam. We gotta go.”
Adam followed after DiNolfo, but not before grabbing a file folder that was lying on top of his desk.
Chapter 30
June 21, 2000
27 Caribou Road,
Elkhart, PA
6:18 A.M.
The sun rose red and violent over Elkhart as Adam and Jenna arrived at 27 Caribou Road. Adam walked up the garden path that led to the front door while Jenna followed behind with a cardboard box in her hands. With three firm and steady knocks, Adam announced his presence at the O’Mara residence.
***
Roger O’Mara woke with a start. There was someone banging loudly on the front door. He looked at his wrist watch.
Only 6:18… Who would be knocking this early?
Roger pulled on his robe in a hurry as he rushed downstairs to answer the door. As the door swung open, he was alarmed to see the two officers standing on his front steps.
“What’s happened?!” Roger asked with great alarm.
“Roger, may we come in? We need to discuss something with you.” asked Adam professionally.
Roger immediately opened the door for the officers and let them in. Adam could tell he was nervous. Roger’s hands were shaking.
“Is Mrs. O’Mara awake?” asked Jenna as she tried to maintain a calm tone of voice.
“I will get her.”
Roger ran upstairs and bolted into the bedroom that he shared with Gwen. He shook his wife gently.
“Gwen, you have to wake up. The police are downstairs.”
“What?! What’s happened?”
“I don’t know. They want to talk to both of us.”
“Oh, my God. I’m coming.”
Gwen pulled on her yellow silk bathrobe, slipped her feet into a pair of slippers and skidding down the front staircase.
“Jenna, what’s happened?!” asked Gwen in a nervous voice.
“I think we ought to sit down,” suggested Jenna.
Roger and Gwen O’Mara sat down on the couch as Adam and Jenna sat next to them like bookends.
“I’m afraid we are the bearer of more bad news,” said Adam gently.
Roger and Gwen both caught their breath.
“Angie is dead,” said Jenna bluntly.
Roger’s face turned a terrible shade of red.
“What?! How?! When are you going to catch this bastard?!” Roger demanded to know.
It took considerable effort for Jenna not to grimace at Roger’s comment.
“Angie was killed by police fire,” explained Adam.
This was true. Cole’s shot had rendered Angie brain dead, but DiNolfo’s shot to the chest was the one that took her life.
“Police fire… Why?! What is the meaning of this?!” Roger continued to scream.
“Who shot my daughter?!” Gwen demanded to know.
“Angela O’Mara opened fire on three police officers last night and struck one. She confessed to the murders of Tiffany O’Mara, Courtney O’Mara, April Dearing and Jeremy Macklon. She kidnapped Natalie Piedmonte last night and stole Hunter McCord’s van. When Angie fired on Sergeant DiNolfo, she fired back in self-defense.”
Gwen could feel her sanity loosening from her grip.
Did she just say what I think she said…?
“Wait what?!” Roger demanded. “She confessed… There is no way…”
“I don’t understand…” said Gwen in a state of shock.
“She loved her sisters… She was upset when they died!” insisted Roger.
Gwen sobbed hysterically as she spiraled out of control.
“Half of my daughters are dead!”
Roger put his arm around his wife to try to calm her.
“I have something to show you,” said Jenna as she put the cardboard box on the coffee table. She gently pulled the jewelry box out of its container.
“Do you recognize this?”
“Yes! How did you get it?!” Gwen asked angrily.
“I’m asking the questions,” said Jenna bluntly.
“This was my grandmother’s jewelry box. Belinda Elizabeth Kendricks. She left it to Bernard in her will because he had a fascination with it. They also shared the same initials.”
“Open the box.”
Gwen did as she was told and
removed a stack of photographs from inside.
“Flip over the first photograph and tell me whose handwriting that is.”
“Angela’s…”
Gwen flipped over picture after picture. As the realization set in her eyes, “This is the day they died!”
“Or were supposed to die. If you notice my photograph has yesterday’s date. This box was delivered to the Morrow Manor yesterday afternoon.”
The room was spinning around Gwen and Roger’s heads. They couldn’t make heads or tails of any of this. They were blindsided. How could it be that their most level-headed child was capable of such violence?
“I need to ask. What was your daughter’s relationship with Bernard Kendricks?” asked Adam with a serious look on his face.
Roger sighed. It all came down to Bernard in his mind. Bernard had turned her into the monster she became. Bernard awoke the sleeping dragon that resided in Angie’s soul. In Roger’s mind, if it wasn’t for Bernard, he’d have all of his daughters here today.
“They were cousins,” said Gwen plainly.
“And lovers,” added Jenna.
“We don’t discuss it!” yelled Gwen.
Roger sighed. It was time to let the truth be known. It had lay buried far too long.
“We need to tell them, Gwen.”
“I won’t allow it.”
“May I remind you, Mrs. O’Mara, that this is a murder investigation…” said Adam sternly.
Roger scratched his head as he prepared to allow the truth slip off his tongue.
“Bernard Kendricks molested our daughter when she was thirteen years old.”
Roger had to catch his breath. The truth tasted strange coming from his mouth. Foreign. He had hidden it for so long.
Roger continued, “I nearly went to jail. I beat the living hell out of him for what he did to her. She was never the same. In fact, she didn’t seem to understand that what he was doing was wrong. ”
Jenna wrote what Roger said on a legal pad verbatim. Adam noticed that Gwen was no longer crying. Her eyes had glazed over, and she looked like she felt dead inside. The vibrancy that once overwhelmed Gwen’s beautiful face was replaced by a cold vacancy.
“She continued to see him behind our backs. She changed as a person, becoming cold and disrespectful. We felt like we didn’t know her anymore. Then Courtney happened.”
“I’m sorry?” asked Jenna with a perplexed voice.
“Angela and Bernard begot a child together.”
Adam’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head. Tommy’s ex-girlfriend was Bernard Kendricks and Angela O’Mara’s daughter.
“So you’re saying that Courtney was Angie’s daughter…” said Jenna skeptically.
“Yes. She barely showed. She had Courtney in August of 1979. She was incapable of taking care of herself, let alone a child, so we raised her as our own. We never told anyone. Not even Courtney.”
Jenna’s mind was blown. She hadn’t befriended Angie until senior year. She never once suspected that Courtney was not Mrs. O’Mara’s daughter.
“After that, we thought that Angie had parted ways with Bernard. We thought she learned her lesson. She started going out with Hunter, and we thought for sure that Bernard was out of her life for good. We were wrong. She was still seeing him in secret. We wouldn’t have known anything had our next door neighbor not said something to Tiffany.”
“Joe…” Jenna confirmed.
“Yes. When Angie found out Tiffany had told us, she was furious. She attacked her sister on the front lawn. She gave her a black eye, a bloody nose, and ripped out tufts of her hair. She said Tiffany was just jealous. I knew better, though. As soon as Tiffany found out she ran into the house in tears. Tiffany was afraid for her sister. I, of course, forbid that she ever see Bernard Kendricks again.”
“Did she listen?”
“She didn’t have a choice. I grounded her. She was only allowed out for prom. The night Tiffany died. I always thought it was him. I thought he was responsible for Tiffany’s death. After all, she did keep him from seeing Angie by telling us. I never thought it possible that it was Angie seeking revenge on her sister.”
“What reason would she have to kill Courtney?”
“She was a reminder. A reminder of everything that Bernard and Angela went through. The sick beginning and the failed end. That’s my theory.”
“Would you mind explaining something to me?” asked Adam with a dark tone to his voice.
“If you knew that Bernard Kendricks was a child molester, why did you not put up more of a fight that he was teaching at a local school? I understand that you couldn’t press charges because it was mostly heresy, but don’t you think it was your responsibility to alert the school?”
Roger looked at Adam firmly. He knew where Adam was coming from. He knew what had happened to his younger sister and that Bernard Kendricks was wholly responsible.
“I did try. The school responded that they do criminal background checks on all of their teachers and somehow Bernard had no record.”
“Sometimes the system works, but in this case, it failed us,” explained DiNolfo.
“Can you please tell us where Angie is?” pleaded Gwen with a dark mood coming forth.
“Angela O’Mara is inside of the Wilhamette mines.”
“Can we see her?”
“No, not yet. We have a crew digging out rubble. The mine caved in, and she is underneath the debris. Once we get her to the Medical Examiner’s office, someone will call you to identify her.”
Gwen’s resolve failed her. She broke down and as Roger tried to console her, she beat her hands against his chest. She looked ravenous, like a wild beast.
“Gwen, calm down… Please, calm down…” Roger pleaded.
Gwen responded in an indecipherable scream.
“I have another question…” Adam proceeded.
“Give her a minute” DiNolfo warned.
“I can answer your questions,” Roger admitted.
“A detective from Seattle sent over some information to us. Jeremy Macklon, Angie’s husband, was also murdered. It is believed that he was killed at the apartment that they shared after he came back to pick up some of his belongings the night before she returned to Elkhart.”
Roger gasped. This was incomprehensible. The most mild-mannered and seemingly level headed of his children was a mass-murderer.
“The detective faxed us over some of the information he found. There were many pill containers tossed about the apartment and medical records scattered across the bed. Do you happen to know what Angela’s diagnosis was?”
“She wouldn’t tell us, and the doctors refused to discuss it. They said that under the mental health scope, she was considered an adult.”
“All that they would tell us is that she had to take her medication. I forget what it was called…”
“According to the records sent over to us, Angela Macklon was a sociopath. She was diagnosed with Anti-social personality disorder. Apparently she had been seeing a psychologist, but in recent weeks, stopped taking her pills. The detective said he found stock piles of pills in the kitchen.”
Roger couldn’t speak. Jenna and Adam watched as the life faded from his eyes. They had raised a monster. They allowed her to come back to live in their house, while she slaughtered innocent women, including her own daughter. Roger felt disgusted and repulsed by the very thought that Angie was his daughter – his own flesh and blood.
“We will give you two space. Please call us if you have any additional information or questions. I am truly sorry for your loss. I have a responsibility to protect the innocent civilians of this town,” offered DiNolfo and she stood up from the couch. Roger shook her hand but Gwen wouldn’t even look at her.
“Take care…” said Adam.
A moment later they were gone.
Chapter 31
June 22, 2000
Grier Mountain Medical Center
101 Mountain Road,
Elkhart, PA
Stolen Innocents (The Shadow Series Book 2) Page 30
