Coulson's Secret

by McIntyre, Anna J

  “I’m really tired,” Kim explained as she gathered up the ledgers with Nick silently by her side. “My reason for bringing the diaries over here was to help Adam, and it seems the chief is taking a second look into Angela’s story, which is a good thing. As for everything else, I really don’t feel up to discussing it right now.”

  Kim and Nick started walking to the door when Harrison called out, “Young woman, there is no reason to put this off. You are a Coulson and there are things to discuss with your family.”

  Kim paused a moment and turned to face Harrison. “No disrespect intended, sir, but this is not my family. I’m not a Coulson. Biologically, yes—but considering the circumstances of my birth, I do not intend to make any claims or demands on any of you. I hold none of you responsible for the actions of Harrison. You can tell Shelly that she has nothing to worry about. I won’t make any claims on her husband’s estate.”

  Kim and Nick made it as far as the truck parked in front of Coulson House when Adam came rushing outside, ignoring the rain and shouting for Kim to stop so he could talk to her. Slightly out of breath from running, he placed his hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes. Nick stood a few feet away, silent but attentive.

  “Thank you for bringing those diaries, Kimmy. I’m not sure if they will help me, but I can only imagine how difficult that must have been on you.” They stood in the cold rain getting drenched.

  “I hope it helps.” She made no move to embrace him or to pull away.

  “I think you should stay and talk to the family. You are a Coulson, Kimmy. Harrison was a son of a bitch, but don’t walk away from what’s good about the family.”

  “I’m okay, Adam. Don’t worry about me. I really need to go now.” Kim moved away from Adam and stood closer to Nick. Adam dropped his hands to his sides and looked at the tall man.

  “You aren’t her brother.” Adam noted, just now realizing Nick and Kim were not related.

  “No.” Nick placed his arm protectively around Kim’s shoulder and gently ushered her to the passenger side of the truck as he opened the door for her. “I’m not her brother. I never thought I was.”

  The ride from Coulson House to Carol’s was quiet. Absorbed in her own thoughts, Kim silently stared blankly at the windshield; its wipers moved from side to side in a steady rhythm. After they pulled into the driveway, Nick turned off the engine. When he started to open the door, Kim reached over and touched his arm, stopping him.

  “Nick, I want you to know how much I’ve appreciated everything you’ve done. Your support has really meant a lot to me.”

  “I want to be there for you. We still need to find out who killed your mother.”

  “Yeah, I know.” Kim turned her head so that she was looking out the front windshield again and was no longer looking at Nick. She folded her hands in her lap, not attempting to open the door.

  “I really didn’t expect to feel what I felt after they read my mother’s diaries.”

  “I don’t understand.” Nick frowned. Rain continued to pelt the top of the truck.

  “The word that comes to mind is disconnected,” Kim explained. “When I walked into that house, I thought of them as my friends. Well, most of them. I don’t really know Mr. Coulson or the chief. But, Alex and Garret, even Kate. Not so much Russell, but sort of. And of course Adam, who really isn’t a Coulson.

  “But afterwards, it reminded me of one of those strange movie scenes where the camera zooms out dramatically, leaving one person alone on the end of the camera range, no longer part of the picture. They are nothing to me. What brief history we had was effectively wiped out by Harrison’s treatment of my mother.

  “I told them I don’t hold them responsible for Harrison’s actions, but I don’t know if that is true. A part of me does hold them responsible. And while intellectually I understand that isn’t fair, it’s how I feel.

  “Nick, I really need to be alone tonight.” Kim turned and looked at him.

  “Are you sure?” Nick asked, getting a sick feeling that Kim wasn’t just pushing the Coulsons away but him too.

  “Yes, I hope you understand.” Kim leaned over and placed a chaste kiss on Nick’s cheek. Without saying another word, she got out of the vehicle. Holding her purse and the two books, she ran to the front door in the rain after slamming the truck door behind her.

  Nick sat quietly in the truck watching as Kim unlocked her door and disappeared into the house. A few seconds later, she turned off the porch light, covering the front of the house in darkness. He continued to sit there for a few minutes but eventually turned on the engine, backed out of the driveway, and headed home to Clement Falls.

  Chapter 27

  “They want us to come down to the police station,” Joe Carter told his daughter as he hung up the phone. Angela sat at the kitchen table drinking orange juice and nibbling on a piece of dry toast.

  “Why?” Angela asked. “We’ve told them everything we have to tell.”

  “I warned you it wouldn’t stop with one or two interviews. You’re forgetting we’re dealing with the Coulson family.”

  “Adam is not a Coulson. Anyway, you’d think old Harrison Coulson would be ready to hang Adam himself for what he supposedly did to his son.”

  “I thought you loved Adam?” Joe stared at his daughter, wondering what had become of his little girl.

  “That was before he cheated on me. No one treats me that way.” Angela took a bite of the toast and chewed angrily.

  “We need to take your car. I had a flat tire last night coming home and didn’t change it because of the rain. I don’t want to keep Peterson waiting. It wouldn’t look good.” Joe grabbed his jacket off the back of a kitchen chair.

  “But I don’t want to take my car, Daddy. Can’t you just fix the tire first?” Angela whined.

  “No, I can’t. Get your shoes on and grab a coat. I want to get this over with,” Joe snapped.

  Angela considered her options a moment and then told herself she was overreacting. Reluctantly, she retrieved her shoes, purse, and coat and headed to the garage.

  Thirty minutes later, Joe Carter found himself sitting alone in an interrogation room at police headquarters. He was not pleased that Peterson had put Angela in a separate room and wondered what was going on. Joe shifted nervously in his chair and waited for Peterson.

  “What the hell is going on?” Joe snapped at the police chief when he finally walked through the doorway. “I’ve been in here for almost thirty minutes. Where’s Angela?”

  “Sorry, Joe. Something unexpected came up. Angela is waiting in another room. I wanted to talk to you alone.” Peterson took the chair across the table from Joe so the two men faced each other. “Last night I was at Coulson House. It was an interesting evening. Kim Myers was there.”

  Joe listened quietly, not saying anything.

  “She found some diaries belonging to her mother.” Peterson noticed Joe tensed at the mention of the diaries.

  “We know, Joe. We know about Harrison and about what he did to Carol. We also know you helped cover it up.”

  Joe closed his eyes for a moment as if trying to regain his composure.

  “Sam, you know how it is being the police chief in this town,” Joe tried to explain. “It began with your grandpa watching out for the Coulson’s interests. Look at you here now. If this were any other case, it would be another officer in the interrogation room with me, not the police chief.”

  “But to cover up multiple rapes?” Sam asked.

  “I tried to help those women. I knew Harrison would never see a day in jail even if I didn’t step in. But I made sure the women were taken care of. Carol Myers never had to pay a dime for her home. I made sure he even covered the taxes.”

  “But those women are dead now. Both Carol and Emily. How does that help them?” Sam asked.

  “I didn’t kill them. I heard about Emily’s death last night on my way home. I was in Clement Falls all day yesterday. You can check it out.”

  �
��Yes,” Sam replied in a low and steady voice, “I know that already. But did you kill Harrison and Carol?”

  Joe just sat there a moment, considering what he was being asked, and then as if something cracked inside him, he bowed his head and began to sob, covering his face with his hands. He just shook his head as if saying no and then stopped crying and looked up into Sam’s face.

  “No, I did not kill Carol Myers. I can’t do this anymore. I want this over with. Harrison Coulson killed Carol.” Joe took a deep breath, wiped his face with the back of his hand, and steadied himself, trying to focus.

  “Are you saying, old man Coulson killed Carol and Harrison?” Sam asked.

  “No, no… Harrison Junior killed Carol. Carol came to Harrison. Apparently, she was going to tell Kim who her father really was. I’m not sure what Carol wanted from Harrison, but they were alone in his office. All I know is that Harrison shot her. I was home when he called me and told me I needed to get to his office immediately because there was a problem. I wasn’t sure why he was calling me, but he seemed frantic.

  “When I got to his office, he was alone and Carol was on the floor. I immediately checked her vitals, but she was dead. Harrison was standing over us, rambling on how she was going to ruin everything, how she was trying to destroy his reputation. He told me she had no business spreading the lie that Kim was his daughter.

  “I knew Kim was his biological daughter, but I didn’t argue with him. He was out of his mind. He kept telling me I had to get rid of the body. I told him I couldn’t do that. I wasn’t going to be party to a murder. I suppose I should have played along, but I wasn’t thinking straight at the time.

  “I spotted the gun sitting on the desk about the same time that Harrison realized I was not going to help him cover up his mess. We both reached for the gun, and in the struggle, Harrison was shot. I didn’t mean to kill him. It was an accident. I panicked and took the gun and left. It was a stupid thing to do, and I should have simply called to explain to the police what happened.

  “When Kim got to town and started talking about going through her mother’s stuff looking for a connection between Harrison and Carol, I panicked again. I had no idea what type of paper trail there was that connected me to them.”

  “You were the one who broke into Carol’s house?” Sam asked.

  “Yes. I grabbed what papers I could find. When I got home, I looked through everything, but there was nothing. Apparently I missed the diaries.”

  “They were in the attic,” the chief explained.

  Joe shrugged as if he no longer cared about overlooking the incriminating evidence. “I am just glad this is over,” he told Sam.

  “I wouldn’t exactly call this over. While I don’t know what charges the DA will decide to pursue regarding Harrison’s shooting and the cover up, there is the matter of Angela’s attempt to frame Adam.”

  “I understand. It was wrong, but Angela is a troubled girl.”

  “There is also the matter of Emily.”

  “I already told you, I wasn’t in town when Emily was killed.”

  “And I believe you. Unfortunately, the car you drove to the police station today appears to be the same one captured by the surveillance camera in the parking lot. It also has a nasty front dent. Your daughter ran down Emily; it’s all on film.”

  Chapter 28

  The rain finally stopped sometime during the night. When Kim woke the next morning, the sun was shining brightly in the window. Jake sat on the windowsill, looking outside, his tail swishing back and forth. Kim sat up in the bed and combed her fingers absently through her hair.

  She thought of Nick and experienced a momentary pang of regret for sending him away last night. When she gave it a second thought, she realized it was probably the best thing, considering she would be leaving Coulson soon and couldn’t see a future for Nick and her. Her life was complicated enough, she told herself.

  Kim dressed casually, wearing sweat pants and a T-shirt, and pulled her hair back into a high ponytail. She looked like a teenager as opposed to a woman in her early thirties. She spent the morning doing laundry and straightening the house.

  When she had gone to bed the night before, she’d unplugged Carol’s landline. Her cell phone started ringing around 10:00 a.m. She only took one call; it was from Nick. She didn’t want him to worry about her, which was why she didn’t ignore the call. But she told him she didn’t feel like talking and would be turning off her cell phone, which she did the moment she hung up.

  Instead of turning on the television or radio, she rummaged through Carol’s selection of music and popped a CD in the player. She listened to the music as she did her chores, keeping the outside world out for as long as possible.

  Her seclusion ended when she heard someone ring the doorbell. Glancing out the window before opening the door she saw Chief Peterson standing on the front porch. She turned off the music before answering the door.

  “Chief,” Kim greeted.

  “I tried calling you,” he started to explain.

  Kim interrupted and told him she’d unplugged the phone.

  “I wanted to tell you personally. We know who killed your mother and Harrison.”

  “Who?” Kim stood in the doorway, her right hand on the edge of the door.

  “It’s a bit complicated. Can I come in?”

  “What about Adam?” She asked, not yet inviting him in the house.

  “All charges have been dropped against Adam,” he explained.

  Kim opened the door wider, holding it while the chief walked into the front entry. She closed the door and showed him into the living room. They both sat down, Kim on the rocking chair, the chief on the couch, facing each other.

  “Senator Coulson killed your mother.”

  The police chief’s words stunned Kim, yet she said nothing.

  “Apparently, she went to him, telling him she was going to tell you the truth. He panicked and shot her. He then called Carter, expecting him to help cover it up. Carter told him he wasn’t going to cover up a murder. There was a struggle, and Joe accidently shot Harrison. I believe he is telling the truth.”

  “Why didn’t he simply call the police? Why frame Adam?”

  “I think he panicked when he took the murder weapon and didn’t tell anyone. By the way, he admitted to breaking into your house and taking some papers. He was already in so deep, he didn’t want you to discover the connection between Harrison and your mother.

  “As for Angela, she found the gun under her father’s bed. At first, she had no idea it was the murder weapon, but she wanted to implicate Adam to punish him for breaking up with her. She figured the gun belonged to her father and that Adam would get in trouble for stealing it.

  “She obviously didn’t think it through. When she learned it was the murder weapon, she understood her father was somehow involved, and she wanted to protect him. She’s the one who killed Emily Mitchell.”

  “My God! Why would she kill Emily?”

  “Apparently, her father told her Emily called him. He was angry with Angela for turning in the gun because that got Emily on his back. Emily knew the truth about Harrison and how Joe had covered up his past crimes. In her twisted way, Angela was trying to make it up to her father by killing Emily.”

  “That girl is sick,” Kim muttered. “What’s going to happen to her?”

  “She’s in custody. I have a feeling the defense will claim she was not mentally balanced, which may be the truth.”

  “I appreciate you coming over to tell me in person.”

  “What are you going to do now?” He couldn’t help but feel sorry for the young woman, who seemed so alone.

  “I’ll be selling the house. I’ve been going back and forth, one minute thinking I will keep it and the next deciding to list it. But I no longer want it, considering that Harrison bought it. I really want nothing attached to the man.”

  “I understand. So, are you leaving soon?” he asked, standing up, preparing to leave.


  Kim stood up with him and walked him to the door. “Well, now that we know what happened to Mom, there really is no reason to hang around. If Angela or Joe goes on trial for their part in all this, I won’t come back for the trial. I can’t imagine I’ll be subpoenaed by the prosecution or defense. When I leave here, I won’t be looking back. I do have one request, I’d like to get Mom’s files and other papers back—the things Carter took from this house.”

  “I wish I could help you there, Kim, but according to Carter, after looking through the papers, he shredded everything and disposed of them.”

  “Well, that was nice of him,” Kim said sarcastically.

  A few minutes later, Kim stood alone in the open doorway and watched Chief Peterson pull out of the driveway. She looked up and noticed the sky was getting dark again. The morning started out sunny, yet now it looked as if it was going to rain. Walking back into the house, she shut the door behind her. She needed to call Nick.

  Franklin closed the notebook he was looking at and glanced up at his son, who stood gazing out the window.

  “It’s starting to snow,” Nick commented, still looking outside.

  “I guess that means you won’t be driving down to Coulson today.” Franklin studied his son, wondering what was going on between him and Kim.

  “I wasn’t planning on it, anyway. Kim made it clear this morning she needed a little space.” Nick turned from the window, walked to a chair, and sat down facing his father.

  “You’ve been spending quite a bit of time with Carol’s daughter. Is there anything new with the investigation? I understand that boy Kim used to date was arrested. Does she think he is guilty?”

  Nick thought a moment before answering. He hadn’t told his father about Carol’s diaries or that Harrison was Kim’s father. “Kim is convinced he’s innocent. Some things have come up that have cast doubt on Adam’s fiancée. She’s the one who turned in the murder weapon and told police she found it under Adam’s bed.”