by Tara Thomas
He was trying to bargain. That was cute. It wouldn’t work, but he wouldn’t let on to that just yet. “What tip would be so important, it took precedence over telling me about Bea’s movements?”
“I think I know where Jade is.”
The Gentleman stood speechless. He tightened his grip on the phone.
“Tell me,” he finally managed to croak out.
* * *
Bea laid her head on Knox’s shoulder as the car pulled up to Benedict House. “Part of me wishes we could have stayed in Washington. Being home is a constant reminder that someone out there wants me gone.”
Knox squeezed her knee as the car came to a stop. “No matter what, we’re in this together and you don’t have to face anything by yourself.”
He pulled their luggage out and they started walking up to the house. There wasn’t a sense of coming home when she looked at Benedict House. It was a nice enough place to stay and she didn’t mind, but she wouldn’t want to live there permanently.
They had discussed where they would live once they told everyone they were married and she officially ran for office. At the moment, though, it felt like there were a million things in the way of finding their own space. And she wasn’t stupid, Benedict House had top-of-the-line security and she wasn’t about to let go of that.
Everyone must have gone into the offices today because the house was silent as they entered. Just as well, she wasn’t in the mood to be very sociable. She mentally ran through what she needed to do while they ate lunch: call Alyssa to follow up on the case, try to find Jade, and get back to work on Mr. Brock’s files.
The doorbell rang, disturbing the silence. Knox moved to get up, but Lena told him to sit down.
“Finish eating,” she said. “There’s not anything at that door more important than you eating a good lunch. I’ll get the door.”
“Thank you,” he said with a smile, and sat back down.
Lena disappeared down the hall and though Bea could hear voices from the foyer, she couldn’t make out what they were. When Alyssa entered the kitchen seconds later, she assumed the policewoman had stopped by to talk to tell her there’d been a break in the case.
But as soon as she saw Alyssa’s face, she knew it had to be much more.
“It’s Jade, isn’t it?” she asked.
Alyssa shook her head. “No. I’m sorry. There’s no good way to tell you this.”
Knox stood up and moved to stand behind her, placing his hands on her shoulders. Dread filled Bea’s belly.
“The fire crew found human remains in your father’s house,” Alyssa said calmly.
Bea wrinkled her forehead. “I don’t understand. Was it one of the assailants?”
“The body was burned too badly for visual identification. We had to use dental records to identify the body.”
“Oh.” That made sense. She still didn’t fully understand what Alyssa was trying to say.
“When was the last time you spoke to your father?” Alyssa asked.
“The day before the church retreat. I’ve tried to call him a few times, but …
The truth hit her then. Why he hadn’t called or answered his phone. And most important, why Alyssa was there.
There was a horrible ringing in her ears and Alyssa might have said something else, but Bea couldn’t hear what it was. Knox squeezed her shoulders. There was a high-pitched wail and she wondered what it was and why nobody was stopping it.
Knox lifted her up and sat down with her in his lap and she realized the noise was coming from her. Even then, it took a few minutes for her to stop.
“Oh, my God,” she said. “That’s why he hasn’t called. They killed him, didn’t they?”
She looked up to find that her outburst had drawn the rest of the family to the kitchen. They all stood around like they didn’t know what to do or what to make of her.
“I’m sorry,” Alyssa spoke softer than before. “The dental records were a match.”
She’d thought all those awful mean things about him not calling and it wasn’t because he was an ass or hated her, it was because he was dead.
God, she was the world’s worst daughter. But she knew the real grief was coming from what they would never share now that he was gone.
“Was he killed before…” She closed her eyes. She couldn’t say it. Couldn’t think or entertain the possibility that he’d been alive somewhere in the house while she and Knox were there.
“Don’t,” Knox whispered in her hair, obviously picking up on her thought process. “Don’t think like that. Don’t do that to yourself.”
But she had to know. She looked over to Alyssa with pleading eyes. Alyssa would tell her, she had to tell her.
Alyssa shook her head. “We don’t know.”
Bea took a deep breath, blinking through the tears that once again threatened to fall. “We never got along. Never. I used to say that we were so different, there was no conceivable way we were related. That doesn’t mean I wanted him dead.”
“Of course you didn’t,” Knox said. “No one thinks that.”
But as the reality sunk in and her tears began to fall in earnest, she couldn’t help but feel that if she were a better daughter, he’d still be alive.
* * *
Tom was expecting the call. “Sir?”
The Gentleman wasted no time. “Why was a body found at the Jacobs’s house?”
“The revered came home unexpectedly to pick up a few things he needed for his weekend trip and saw us making preparations for the fire. I took care of him.”
“How?”
“Made him send a message to the church members going on the trip, saying he had to deal with an emergency out of state and they would have to reschedule the conference. Then I shot him and hid his body in the basement.”
The Gentleman didn’t say anything for a long moment. “Good thinking on your feet.”
Tom felt his body relax. “Thank you.”
* * *
Two days later, she eyed a pile of mail on Knox’s dresser that had been gathering there since they got back from DC. She didn’t want to deal with that at the moment. Probably it was all Knox’s mail anyway; she doubted anyone would send her mail at Benedict House.
Knox walked into the bedroom. “A lady from your dad’s church just called to talk with you about your dad’s service. I told her you’d call back this afternoon.”
“Thank you.”
Knox picked up the mail. “What do you have to do as far as a service for your dad, anyway?”
“I’ll get together with some of the ladies from the church. If he wasn’t who he was, I’d just do something small, you know? Family only, private service.” She sighed. “But I can’t do that. Well, I could, but I’m not.”
Knox frowned at a letter and put it to the side, while continuing to go through the reminder of the stack. “That doesn’t mean you have to make it a huge production. You can have a simple service.”
“That’s my plan. And I want to delegate as much as possible. Some of those ladies would jump at the chance to organize his service.”
Knox smiled. “You could always say you were too distraught to plan anything.”
“Right. Like they’d believe that.”
He finished going through the mail, setting it all aside and picking up the one envelope he’d separated out earlier. From where she sat, she could see it had been addressed by hand.
“I don’t even want to know if that’s what I think it is.” She shivered, remembering the letter she’d received at the office by courier. But even as she said it, she knew it probably wasn’t. Why would they have sent something to Knox when they’d always sent things to her?
Knox pulled out a piece of paper and Bea didn’t say anything as he looked over the single page. He dropped onto the bed. “What the fuck is this? Someone’s idea of a joke? Because I’m not laughing.”
It didn’t sound like it was a threat, but whatever it was, he was certainly pissed.
“What is it?” she asked.
He shoved the paper at her. “A sick joke.”
At first glance it looked like a normal birth certificate. She didn’t see what caused Knox’s reaction until she looked closer. The name was listed as Baby Girl Benedict. The mother was listed as Jane Doe, but it was the father who caught her eye.
“Is this your dad?” she asked, not wanting to believe it, but unable to see another option.
“Supposedly. It has to be a fake. There’s no way Dad had an affair and got some woman pregnant. The very thought is preposterous.”
Bea ran her finger over the paper. “Raised seal. Those are incredibly difficult to counterfeit. Don’t you think you should at least entertain the possibility that it could be real?”
He scrubbed his fingers through his hair. “Yeah, I suppose anything’s possible.”
“Maybe we should show it to Keaton and Kipling. They might remember things. Kipling’s older. Maybe he heard your parents arguing or heard rumors of an affair or something.”
He thought for a few minutes before finally saying, “Okay. You’re right. We’ll talk to them when they get home.”
They finished unpacking and then they each went about doing his or her own thing. Knox made a few phone calls and Bea touched base with the church. The remains of her father had been released and the ladies of the church had taken over planning the service. By the time she finished talking with them, she heard Keaton, Tilly, and Kipling return for lunch.
She went to meet Knox in the downstairs office. He looked up from his computer and silently took the birth certificate and joined her.
“Hey, guys, you’re home.” Keaton was just sitting down with Tilly at his side. “I wasn’t expecting you until later tonight.”
“We decided since we were up we might as well head home,” Bea said. She looked over to Knox, who still looked angry.
“Something going on?” Kipling asked, obviously picking up on his younger brother’s mood.
Knox took a deep breath. “I was going to wait until after we ate, but let’s go and get it out of the way. When we got home there was a birth certificate mailed to me. It looks to be that of a girl born to a Jane Doe and Dad.”
This was obviously news Kipling had never heard, as indicated by the shock written all over his face when Knox gave him the paperwork.
Keaton, on the other hand, coughed around the bite he’d taken. “You have the birth certificate?”
“What you mean the birth certificate?” Knox asked.
“I’m talking about the birth certificate of the supposed child that Dad had with his mistress,” Keaton said.
“You know about her?” Knox asked.
“How did you hear about her?” Kipling said at the same time.
“We should’ve told you,” Tilly whispered in a voice loud enough that everyone could hear.
Bea was struck silent. Not only did Keaton know, apparently Tilly did as well. She glanced over at Knox. He was just as shocked as she was.
“Tell me what you know,” Knox said.
“Early in the summer, when Elise was here, she tried to blackmail me into marrying her.” Keaton took Tilly’s hand. “She said she had evidence that pointed to Dad having a mistress who got pregnant. According to her, he wanted her to have an abortion, but she refused and ran off. When the girl was four, the mistress resurfaced. According to Elise, she wanted money. When Dad refused to give, she threatened him.”
Keaton paused. “Here’s the part that explains why I didn’t bring it up to you. When he found out the little girl was alive, he arranged for both the mistress and the girl to die in a car accident.”
No one said anything for several long seconds, until Kipling broke the silence.
“Horse shit,” he said. “There’s no way Dad would have killed anyone.”
“I know,” Keaton said. “I thought the same thing and figured if Elise made up that stuff about Dad killing off people, she probably made up the daughter, too. But now you say you have a birth certificate?”
“Why all the sad faces,” Lena said, coming into the dining room with a huge salad.
Lena!
Bea looked at Knox, who nodded and then cleared his throat to get Kipling’s attention. Kipling caught his raised eyebrow and gave a curt nod.
“Lena,” Kipling said. “Will you have a seat for a few minutes?”
Lena placed the salad in the middle of the table. “I have to go get the bread and if this is about me retiring, I already told you it’s not happening.”
“It’s not that,” Kipling assured her. “Though I do wish you’d take a vacation.”
“And just what would I do on vacation? Sit around? No thank you. I’m very happy right here.”
“We actually wanted to talk to you about Dad,” Knox said.
“Oh.” Lena hadn’t been expecting that and dropped into a nearby chair. “Well, I’ll do my best to help in any way I can.”
“There’s not a delicate way to ask this,” Kipling said. “So forgive me for being blunt. Are you aware of my father having a mistress?”
Lena’s face turned pink and she clamped her lips tightly.
“Lena?” Knox asked.
“I don’t want to speak ill of the dead,” Lena said. “It’s not right.”
“Holy shit!” Keaton said. “He did. Did Mom know?”
Kipling glared at his youngest brother and slid the birth certificate in front of her. “We’re trying to see if this could possibly be real.”
Lena took her glasses out of her front shirt pocket and picked up the paper. She read it with a frown on her face and when she finished, she put the birth certificate down, folded her glasses, and put them back in her pocket. No one said anything.
Lena finally took a deep breath. “No matter what, your daddy was a good man. He loved you boys and your mama and don’t let anyone tell you any different. He was a good, good man, but he wasn’t perfect. He had his issues, just like we all do. And his biggest issue was that he loved women. All kinds of women. Didn’t matter. And he wasn’t always as discreet as he thought he was.”
Kipling sank back into his seat, next to Keaton, who had been shocked into silence. Bea reached out and took Knox’s hand. Hearing about his father’s infidelity couldn’t be easy. He ran thumb across her skin and gave her hand a squeeze. She closed her eyes for a moment and said a silent prayer that she and Knox never came to such a point in their marriage.
“Your mama knew how and who he was,” Lena continued, her eyes open, but clearly she was looking back in time. “Every time he’d say he was going to change and he was sorry and every time he go right back doing the same thing. Your mama was a saint, she’d always forgive him and welcome him back with open arms. I used to think she was plum crazy, but she loved him too much. You ask me, that was her issue, not knowing how to put her foot down to that man.”
Lena tapped the birth certificate. “So, no, it doesn’t surprise me that one of his affairs led to a pregnancy. The real shock is, why hasn’t she been nosing around trying to get money? I recall one time, one of his women called Mrs. Helen up and asked for hush money. Your mama said words I didn’t know she knew and to this day, I haven’t heard some of them again.” She tilted her head. “I don’t understand at all why either this woman or this child hasn’t rung the doorbell, looking for a handout.”
Keaton cleared his throat. “Elise knew about this mistress and her child. She suggested Dad had them both killed.” Under his breath, he added, “That would certainly explain why we haven’t heard from either one of them.”
“That crazy girl said your daddy had them killed?” Lena looked at Keaton as if he’d grown another head. “That’s just her crazy talking. Your daddy was many things and not all of them were good, but the one thing he was not was a killer. If those two died, it wasn’t by his hand.”
“Do we know for a fact that they’re dead?” Kipling asked.
Knox picked up the birth certificate. “Hell, I haven’t
got used to knowing I had a sister and now you’re going to tell me she’s dead.”
“That’s one of the reasons I didn’t bring it up,” Keaton said. “One, I wasn’t sure she existed. Two, why bring it up if she’s dead?”
Kipling leaned forward. “Because you don’t keep secrets like that from your family. You knew we had a sister and didn’t bother telling anyone. And you,” he said, pointing at Knox, “you went off and got married and didn’t tell anyone. Are there any other secrets anyone would like to get off their chest today?”
Knox was still examining the birth certificate. “I wonder if Mom knew he had a daughter with another woman?”
“Mrs. Helen knew just about everything that happened in this house.” Lena wiped her eyes. “I imagine she knew.”
“If she knew everything that went on in the house,” Knox said. “Then she knew about the mistress and the baby. She would have also have known if he killed them and no matter how in love she was, I don’t see her standing by and letting someone die.”
“Mrs. Helen would have put a stop to any plan where someone died,” Lena said. “I remember now that I think about it, they used to have the worst fights. Not very often, because Mrs. Helen would take a lot. I don’t mean your daddy was hitting her. I mean it took a lot to get her going, but once she did? Hang on tight.”
“I remember them arguing,” Kipling said. “It wasn’t very often and I think they tried to hide it. Or at least not to do it in front of us.”
“I don’t remember it at all.” Keaton frowned.
Bea had opened her mouth to ask Knox if he remembered anything, when her phone rang. She didn’t recognize the number, she decided to answer on the off chance it was Jade.
“Hello,” she said, but no one answered. She’d almost disconnected she heard a sound that made her body freeze.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
That damn watch.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
Then came the voice she remembered in her nightmares.
“Bea, Bea, Bea,” he said in a mock scolding tone of voice. “What am I going to do with you and your inability to listen and follow directions. You know, some men are turned on by stubborn women. I’m not one of them. I like to break them.”
