by Debra Webb
He waited until she had reached the door. It opened and Victoria Colby-Camp waited in the entry hall for her. Olivia didn’t look back. Watching Russ drive away was more than she could handle right now. She entered the house that held the secrets of her nightmares.
Olivia had not met Victoria, but she had seen her face in the news and Russ had told her how courageous and strong Victoria was. That she was willing to be here for this meeting, at such great risk to herself, spoke volumes.
“Olivia, I’m so pleased to finally meet you. Your sisters are waiting in the parlor.”
Olivia fixed a smile in place. “Thank you.” Her heart was racing and her hands were shaking so she clasped them behind her back as she followed the head of the Colby Agency into the parlor room on the left.
Laney and Sadie stood in the center of the room, both looking about as nervous as she did. Laney was taller with hair the color of Olivia’s only much longer. Her eyes were the same rich brown. Sadie was more petite, tiny almost. Her hair was a lighter blond, like Clare’s had once been, and she had the green eyes of their mother. Both her sisters wore their usual cowgirl duds, boots included. They were beautiful. Pride tightened her chest.
Olivia wondered what they thought of her. She felt a little overdressed in her skirt and blouse. She’d had to buy something to wear today. Maybe she should have bought jeans. But this was who she was, no need to try and conceal that. They were all three grown women now with different ways and thoughts on life. They were strangers, really. An ache twisted in her heart. No matter what happened today, Olivia hoped this was the first step toward changing that sad reality.
“Olivia Westfield,” Victoria announced, “this is Laney Seagers and Sadie Gilmore. Your sisters.”
Olivia tried to smile but her trembling lips wouldn’t hold the expression. “Hello. I’m glad we’re finally together again.”
Her sisters stared at her without speaking or smiling or anything at all. Olivia’s heart rammed harder and harder against her chest. The urge to apologize for not protecting them came out of nowhere and had her eyes burning like fire.
Suddenly the two were surrounding her, hugging her and kissing her cheeks. Olivia couldn’t help herself. She cried like a baby. The tears and hugs went on and on until they were all three emotionally exhausted. And then they simply stood there in a circle, holding hands and staring at each other.
“You always took care of us,” Laney said. She pressed her lips together for a moment to regain her composure. “Since I learned the truth about us, I’ve dreamed about you several times. You were the one we clung to when we were scared.”
Sadie nodded. “I’ve had dreams like that, too.” Her voice wavered. “You would hold me and whisper to me. I didn’t know it was you until I heard your voice just now. I was so stunned I couldn’t move for a second there.” She broke the chain for a moment and swiped her eyes. “I can’t believe I have two beautiful sisters!”
The hugging resumed. The tears had never stopped. Olivia glanced at Victoria, who was dabbing at her eyes, as well. When Victoria’s gaze bumped into hers, Olivia mouthed the words thank you. Victoria smiled and gave her a nod.
“We only have a few minutes,” Victoria said eventually, “before Clare is supposed to arrive. We are as prepared for the unexpected as we can be and that will have to do. Are there any questions?”
Olivia looked to her sisters. “Have any of you remembered anything about the terrible things that happened here?”
“I remember the crying and screaming,” Sadie said with a visible shiver. “Not very much else.”
Laney nodded. “Me, too. I remember the screaming and being afraid. And the darkness of our hiding place.”
“The closet,” Olivia confirmed with a shiver of her own. “We always hid in our bedroom closet.” She summoned her courage. Victoria’s sudden intake of breath startled her but Olivia ignored the distraction. She had to get this said before she lost her nerve. “There was another blonde woman here near the end. I think it was Clare’s sister, Janet. In one of my nightmares, I find her in bed with Rafe. So I think there was more going on here than the police realized.” She held her breath, hoping either Laney or Sadie could confirm what she believed.
“There was a great deal more going on than anyone knew.”
Olivia whirled to face the voice. Clare Barker stood in the doorway leading from the entry hall to the parlor. She wore a pink dress, apparently her signature color. Her hair was mostly gray and much shorter than in the photos from the album Russ had given Olivia. She looked old and weary and…defeated. Emotions Olivia couldn’t begin to label crowded in on her.
This was her mother.
“Have you come alone, Clare, as you promised?” Victoria asked.
Laney and Sadie moved up to stand beside Olivia. The compulsion to usher them behind her was instinctive. But they were grown women now. Olivia squared her shoulders. They stood together, equally strong and brave.
Victoria stood a few feet away, positioned between Clare and them. She waited for an answer to her question. Her posture as well as her expression unyielding.
“I’m alone. He dropped me off.” Tears streamed down Clare’s cheeks. “But that doesn’t mean we’re safe. He has something planned.” She shook her head. “I don’t know what but I know for sure we’re all supposed to die.”
Sadie gasped and reached for Olivia’s hand. Olivia felt for Laney’s. “What can we do?” Olivia asked.
“He forced me to make the call to you,” Clare said to Victoria. “He insisted that we meet here, so I fear it has something to do with the house.”
Victoria touched her ear. “Evacuate now,” she ordered.
No wonder her breath had caught a minute ago. She was wearing some sort of communication device. She must have gotten the warning that Clare was coming inside. Olivia struggled to pay attention to Victoria’s words and actions but she couldn’t stop staring at her mother.
To Olivia and the others, Victoria said, “We’re moving out of here now.”
Clare’s expression morphed to one of terror. “I don’t know what he’ll do if we try to leave the house.”
Suddenly the room was filled with four more bodies. All men, none Olivia recognized. Russ had told her backup was hidden in the house.
“The woods behind the house are clear,” one of the men said. “We can go out the back.” He looked at each one of them in turn. “Stay low. If you hear gunfire, hit the ground.”
“Could there be a bomb?” Olivia asked, suddenly remembering her car exploding in the parking lot of that restaurant. Terror ignited in her veins.
“We brought the dogs through,” another of the men said. “They detected no explosives in the house.”
The first man who’d spoken touched his ear. “Copy that.” He looked to Victoria. “Weeden has been contained. We can evacuate the house without worry now.”
Clare was shaking her head. “Something’s wrong. He wouldn’t go down that easily unless he had a backup plan.” She gave her head another resolute shake. “He must have someone helping him. He swore we’d never leave here alive.”
Dear God. Olivia held on to her sisters’ hands. What did they do now?
* * *
RUSS EXHALED A BIG BURST of relief when Weeden was restrained and in the back of the police cruiser. He, Joel Hayden and Lyle McCaleb had staked out the road west of the Barker house, while three of Whitt’s men had watched the east end that led back to town. They had given Russ a heads-up when Weeden and Clare passed en route to the old Barker place. According to the scout hidden in the woods closest to the highway, Weeden had let Clare out and driven on. Straight into their trap.
Russ had an uneasy feeling that taking him down had been too easy. His gut was in all kinds of knots.
“We’ve got remote detonators in the car!” Hayden shouted from the sedan Weeden had arrived in. “Five in all!”
Fear burst in Russ’s chest. He charged forward, yanked the rear door of the cr
uiser open and dragged Weeden out. He shoved him against the car and jammed the barrel of his weapon into the soft underside of the bastard’s chin. “Where are the bombs?” Behind him, Russ could hear McCaleb informing Simon and Victoria back at the house.
Weeden laughed. His bloody T-shirt and wild, bulging eyes gave him the look of something out of a horror flick. “You’re too late.”
“There were no bombs found in the house,” Russ argued, fury roaring in his brain. He jammed the muzzle harder into the man’s throat. “Where are they?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Weeden sneered. “They’re going off and you can’t stop them.”
“We have the remote detonators,” Hayden countered sharply, moving in closer. “They’re not doing a damned thing without being detonated.”
“There are backup detonators on timers,” Weeden said with a laugh. “Another minute max and all those devices buried around the house will go boom!” He laughed again. “You can’t do a damned thing because you’re here with me!”
* * *
“HEAD INTO THE WOODS,” the man Olivia had learned was Simon Ruhl shouted. “The bombs are buried around the house. We need distance and cover.”
Heart and legs pumping, Olivia and her sisters ran for the woods. Hot tears stung her cheeks. What if they didn’t make it?
They breached the edge of the woods. Victoria and Clare were right behind them.
“Oh, God.”
Olivia stopped and turned around. Victoria was rushing back out into the open. Olivia’s heart seemed to stall. Clare wasn’t behind them. She’d fallen to the ground halfway between the house and the woods.
“Victoria! Stop!” Simon rushed past Olivia.
Olivia started after them. To help. She had to help. The men in the woods, cops and Colby investigators, were shouting for her and her sisters to come on. To hurry!
For a moment Olivia was frozen watching Victoria risk her life to save the woman who had been charged with multiple murders more than two decades ago. Another man, this one older and hobbling badly, burst from the tree line on the right. Two others rushed after him.
“We should…” Sadie’s voice trailed off.
Her sister’s voice snapped Olivia out of the trance. She grabbed her sisters by the hands. “We have to go deeper into the woods.”
As they rushed forward, men with guns crowded around them, ushering them into the thickening protection of the trees.
The first blast shook the ground.
“Get down!” one of the men shouted.
They all went flat on the ground, between bushes and saplings, amid the leaves.
Another blast and another… They just kept coming.
Olivia prayed Clare, Victoria and the others were unharmed. Please don’t let anyone die today.
Finally the violent explosions stopped.
Olivia dared to move up onto her knees. Her ears rung with the silence. Was anyone hurt? Sadie and Laney scrambled over to where she kneeled.
“Are you okay?” Laney asked.
Olivia nodded. “You?” She looked from Laney to Sadie and back. Both nodded.
The officers and investigators who had been in the woods with them started to move toward the clearing where the house was…if it was still there. One of them stopped long enough to say, “You ladies stay put until we assess the situation.”
Olivia got to her feet, her legs rubbery. She dusted off her skirt and wished she had her cell phone so she could make sure Russ was okay. If the bombs were here and Weeden was contained, surely Russ was safe. She tried to see beyond the trees. Clare had fallen and Victoria had rushed to help her. The man named Simon and another man who’d been limping had gone back out there. She hoped they were all okay.
“What’s this?”
Sadie was kneeling near one of the stones Olivia and Russ had uncovered. Olivia knelt beside her and touched the angel inscribed there. “The families or someone marked all the sites where remains were found.”
Laney joined them. “Oh, my God. I knew that from one of the old newspaper clippings I read but it didn’t seem real.”
“It was real all right.” She gathered her courage once more. “And it’s time we knew the whole truth.”
With her sisters following her, Olivia walked out of those woods. Her heart skipped a couple of beats when she saw that Clare and Victoria, as well as the others, were safe.
But the house…it had collapsed in on itself. It lay there, broken and splintered, and incapable of harboring any more secrets.
8:15 p.m.
NO ONE HAD BEEN INJURED in the blasts. Clare had fallen because she had been weak from the beating Tony Weeden had given her. He’d avoided hitting her in the face. Instead, he’d pummeled her body and banged the back of her head against the floor.
Olivia felt sorry for her. Though she didn’t know all the facts, the poor woman had suffered a great deal at the hands of her sister, her husband and then her son.
Laney and Sadie paced the hospital waiting room. Olivia had done that for a while but she was exhausted and her feet were killing her. She considered her high heels and then the boots that her sisters wore. Maybe there was something to be said for Western wear. If invited, she might just spend a few days in the country with one or both and try the cowgirl lifestyle.
She smiled. With her sisters. They were finally together.
Victoria and her husband, Lucas, the man with the cast on his leg, waited with them. Simon Ruhl, Russ and the other members of the Colby team were still at the Granger Police Department where Weeden was confessing his sins. Simon kept Victoria apprised of the developments.
Olivia wished she had been able to stay with Russ, but she’d needed to be here…to hear what Clare would tell them. And to support her sisters. Whatever happened after this, Olivia intended to explore these feelings she had for Russ. Warmth flowed through her, chasing away the awful chills those moments in the woods had generated.
They were all safe. The worst was over.
She hoped.
Tony Weeden had admitted to working with Rafe. Tony had finagled the job at the prison just so he could be close to Rafe. He and Rafe had something in common—they both hated Clare and worshipped Janet on some twisted level. When Rafe learned that Clare’s conviction would be overturned, he used Tony’s hatred to devise a plan to make her pay the ultimate price.
Rafe had given Tony all sorts of ideas on things to do in order to make Clare look guilty. Like the fire at the apartment complex in Copperas Cove where she’d gone straight from prison. The burning down of Sadie’s home and the ugly message that had been left on her door. He’d scared Clare into thinking that the Colby Agency was trying to prove she belonged back in prison and was attempting to keep her daughters from her. He had convinced her that he was the only person who could save her and that Rafe had orchestrated the fire at Sadie’s and the one at the complex. He’d convinced Clare that he had saved her.
Weeden had wanted to paint her as totally insane and as a murderer. When first interrogated, he’d insisted that it was all Clare’s idea but he’d made one glaring mistake. The ex-con he’d hired to do all the explosives work and the fires, including the one at Keisha Landers’s home, wasn’t about to leave Granger without payment for the final job so he’d waited at the Boxcar Motel for Weeden to settle with him. In a small community like Granger, every stranger was noticed. With the police on high alert for today’s meeting between Clare and her daughters, the stranger at the motel had gotten noticed. All sorts of evidence had been found in his car. He’d given up Weeden before the first question was thrown at him. He’d reminded the cops how he was careful that no one got hurt in any of the fires or the explosions. Of course, the lack of casualties at his final foray at the old Barker house was sheer luck.
Having been employed by the prison system, Weeden had known all sorts of unsavory characters. Those still inside and some out on parole.
Murdering Janet, however, hadn’t been a part of Rafe’s plan. Weeden
killing her had been the result of an emotional scene between two twisted individuals gone completely out of control. She’d feared he might attempt revenge as soon as she learned he was playing the part of go-between for her and Rafe. Truth was, according to Tony, she was jealous of his new standing with Rafe. That was the reason she’d given the photo albums to her neighbor. The locations of Rafe’s daughters had given her a certain power that she hadn’t wanted to relinquish to Weeden. She’d had a sizable savings stashed in her home and had planned to disappear if things went south where she and Weeden were concerned. And she’d worried that Clare might decide to seek revenge. Janet’s one mistake was that she’d trusted Rafe completely until the bitter end. She’d told him about her little nest egg. Weeden had killed her and taken the money. It had provided the funds for his explosives and arson expert as well as the car he’d purchased after the shootout last weekend.
Weeden and Rafe had their revenge against Clare all planned out. Both had wanted her to know she was the reason her daughters had died this day. They were supposed to have died twenty-two years ago as punishment for her tipping off the police. Rafe had discovered that Clare had told the minister of her church everything about what she suspected he and Janet were up to. The minister had made the anonymous tip and he had kept Clare’s secret all these years. As Clare’s minister he could not divulge the secrets she had shared with him in that capacity.
When Rafe learned what she had done, he tied her up in a closet and had Janet take their daughters away from the house. Janet was supposed to kill the girls and dispose of their bodies. She’d had no qualms about doing the job but she had known the girls would be worth something. So she’d used a lawyer to sell them in private adoptions. She hadn’t told Rafe until she learned Clare was going to be released. That was when a new plan had been set in motion. Destroy them all in one fell swoop. He’d hoped to capitalize on the Colby Agency’s reputation for compassion and integrity. And that their need to seek out and protect the girls would lead Weeden right to all three.
Janet’s greed had put her on Rafe’s bad side. The way she had abused Weeden had turned his fear of her as a child to sheer hatred as an adult. He had told the police that she was actually the one to chop off his arm when the Weedens informed her that he’d tried to run away. Janet had reveled in telling him that he was lucky she hadn’t chopped him to bits the way she had hers and Clare’s parents. He’d vowed to himself that she would one day pay, as would Clare for leaving him with her rotten sister.
