Chapter 38
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Piper clung to the strap of her purse while she sat at the small table in the interview room. Running her hand back and forth over the denim fabric soothed her. She wished Trouble were here, or Gracie. Their presence was comforting, calming.
Bowie had reassured her Detective Sherman was on top of everything that happened in the hospital parking lot. They knew she hadn’t bought drugs or hired anyone to deliver them to her car. But why would Detective Lester do something so stupid? It would have been more realistic had he placed Acepromazine or Xylazine in her car. She had more contact with those medications than those used by humans.
The door opened and Lester sauntered in. She couldn’t control the immediate rush of fear and loathing that threw her heart and breathing into panic mode. She couldn’t run from him here. She was trapped behind the table, and even if she attempted to leave, he could force her to stay.
She twisted the purse handle tight around her hand.
“Dr. Bertinelli,” he greeted her. He pulled the chair opposite her out and sat down. “I just want to ask you a few questions, then we’ll be done here.”
Piper nodded.
For a long moment he seemed to think through what he wanted to say. When he finally looked up, she tensed. “Did David Henderlight rape you?”
The unanticipated question hit her with the force of an open-palmed slap. Quick tears filled her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. She lunged to her feet and staggered, her vision narrowing to a dark tunnel and she nearly fell. She grabbed at the edge of the table to steady herself until her vision cleared.
How had he found out? He’d use this against her. He’d find a way to hurt her with it. “I’m not talking to you.” If he told Zach… If he told her family… She had to keep him from telling anyone.
“I’m not letting you hurt me anymore. If you tell anyone…anyone… I’ll-I’ll sue you and this department.” Her voice shook. “I have the right to my privacy.” She choked back a sob. “I have rights.”
“Jesus!” He shoved free of his seat and took two long paces away from her. He gripped his head between his hands and twisted about to pace the narrow space. When he dropped his hands, he seemed to have trouble swallowing.
“Did you receive any medical attention?”
She sidled around the table, her throat burning. “I’m not giving you this. You’ve taken all you’re going to take from me.” She shrank away from him when he came close. “Get away from me. Don’t you touch me!” She hated the tearful sound of panicked pain in her voice, but was helpless to prevent it.
“Okay. Okay.” Lester held his hands out in a placating gesture he’d never used with her before. “Take it easy.”
He moved back, giving her some breathing room. She leaned her shoulder against the wall to steady herself and turned her face away from him. She would not let him do this to her. She would not give him the satisfaction of seeing her fall to pieces. Tremors shook her and she drew several breaths.
If she looked at him again, she’d lose it. She wanted to scratch his eyes out. She wanted to hit him and hit him and hit him, until she hadn’t the strength left to raise her hands. But she couldn’t. He’d have just cause to arrest her and she’d go to jail. She stared at the floor and choked back the rage. “You’ve tried every way you could to destroy me. But I’m not going to let you. If you’re going to charge me, do it. But I’m not talking to you anymore. I want my lawyer.”
The door opened and Detective Sherman stepped into the room, his attention shifting from her to Lester and back again. “Dr. Bertinelli’s mother is here, Detective Lester. She has something with her I think you need to see. I think you need to come too, Dr. Bertinelli.”
Piper charged toward the open door and freedom.
She forced herself to maintain a moderate pace when the urge to run from the two of policemen was so strong her leg muscles twitched.
The main office seemed too bright, too open after the claustrophobic closeness of the interview room. Several desks and chairs, arranged two to a group, were spaced in random order. Four detectives sat behind their desks, one doing paperwork, another talking on the phone, while two more seemed to be conversing with each other. One standing off to the side observed everything.
Zach and Bowie stood together tall, broad-shouldered, arms crossed, an island of safety in the midst of the threatening chaos. Piper squeezed in between them. Zach placed an arm around her and held her against his side. He scanned her face and his features hardened, his wide, generous mouth flattening into a grim, thin line. His focus shifted to Detective Lester when he and Sherman reached the group. His body went taut, his eyes taking on a flinty, intent look, similar to the one Gracie got when Tony came near. It was a promise of violence barely held in check.
As much as she wanted to see the man lying beaten at her feet, it wasn’t right for Zach to pay the cost for such an action. She placed a hand against his broad chest to distract him. “I’m okay.” She said the words to sooth him, and felt a hand squeeze her shoulder in silent support. It was Bowie’s.
Her mother sat in a chair next to one of the desks. Benito, Armando, and Lorenzo stood behind her. At her feet sat a backpack, gray with grime.
Piper’s attention settled on the bag. The money had to be in it. But where had it been hidden? And who in her family had taken it? The fresh wave of betrayal built inside her. Someone in her family had purposely allowed Detective Lester to prey on her, and for what? For what?
“Go ahead, Mrs. Bertinelli,” Detective Sherman laid a hand on her mother’s shoulder.
Her beautiful, youthful mother looked as though she had aged ten years since the last time she saw her. Her hair, usually immaculately arranged, hung around her face.
“Seven years ago,” she said, “all was right in our world. Our children were grown, leading their own lives, independent, happy. Our baby, Francesca, was in college, working toward her dream. Luca and I were settling into our empty nest, just the two of us. Though it was never truly empty. Our children came by nearly every day. When I look back on those days, I sometimes think they were too good, too idyllic.”
“Then Piper came home from college for a weekend. She hid in her room upstairs, barely eating, upset, so upset. She had broken things off with David, and he was stalking her. Her roommates kept calling to check on her several times a day.”
“Please don’t say it. Please.” Piper turned her face against Zach’s shirt, gripping the knit fabric. His arm tightened around her.
“She’d turned her cell phone off, so he was calling the house phone constantly. If he saw her car in the apartment complex parking lot, he pounded on her door and harassed her, so she asked to use my car to attend classes because he wouldn’t recognize it.”
“The day he came to the house, I threatened to call the police on him myself if he didn’t leave Piper alone. He and Mando almost came to blows, and would have if Benito and Lorenzo had not pulled Armando off of him.”
She shuddered. “It was after Piper left for class that I found the backpack. I was moving the car into the garage and saw the reflection of it in the back window. I thought maybe it was Piper’s and she’d forgotten it in the rush to get to class. It didn’t feel like books, so I opened it.”
Carlotta focused on the floor, her expression distant. “I called my husband to come home from the restaurant, and we sat in the kitchen for the longest time, talking about why David might have left the money. We knew where he’d gotten it. We knew he was stalking our child and had done something horrible to hurt her.”
Pain flickered across her face and a single tear tracked down her cheek. “She had such an open heart, always wanting to heal injured creatures and people. Always eager to help us at the restaurant and at home.” She raised her eyes to focus on Piper. And she hiccupped, as though catching back a sob, while a flood of tears rolled down her cheeks. “And then she was so wounded, pulling into herself, and she wouldn’t speak about the break
up at all. But she was scared.”
Piper gripped Zach’s shirt harder. She couldn’t think about that time. The hopelessness. The feeling of floating in a numb vacuum when at home, and abject terror when she was away from its security. Her mind dull and sluggish. Going to class and hearing nothing of the lecture. She’d taped them and spoon-fed the information to herself so she could keep up with the work. And later, when the grief for her father was eating her alive, she’d wanted to die.
Pain rose in her, a burning claw, and tears poured down her face.
Detective Sherman stepped forward to offer Carlotta some tissue and she blotted her eyes. Bowie did the same for Piper.
“Luca, my husband, took the bag. He said he would turn it into the police, but there was something he had to do first. We had many policemen who came by the restaurant with their families and in groups. He was friendly with some of them. I think he called one of them and told him what was happening. David was stopped for being under the influence, arrested and put in jail while a warrant was issued to search the car.”
She looked up at Detective Sherman. “I don’t know why Luca didn’t turn the money in then. We never spoke of it. We were just holding our breath, waiting to see if David was going to get out and start harassing Piper again. Then Acosta came into our restaurant a few days later and shot Luca. And our lives just—stopped.”
Two of the other detectives wandered over and stood on the periphery of the group.
“He never told me where the money was hidden. I looked everywhere for it. The police searched for it. And after a while I began to think perhaps he had donated it to the church or to a women’s shelter. I knew he hadn’t spent it or put it in the bank. He wouldn’t have touched it because of what it represented.”
She focused on Detective Lester. “Then you started coming around, hounding my daughter, accusing her of taking the money. Treating her like a criminal. Threatening to arrest her if she found the money, or even if she didn’t. And she went further into herself, hiding away her hurt, and burying herself in her studies. She was like a shadow moving through her life.”
Her voice rose open pain in its pitch, her eyes alight with rage. “Could you not see it? Could you not see how frail, how broken she was? Could you not have a moment of pity?”
Lester opened his mouth as though to speak, then closed it and looked away. His features looked pasty, his expression slack.
Benito’s movement as he wiped his eyes with his shirt cuff, momentarily drew Piper’s attention. She remembered the hug he’d given her at the restaurant. His silence at the dinner table at her mother’s. His insistence that she couldn’t allow Lester to harass the others. Had he found the money before then and remained silent?
Armando and Lorenzo would not meet her eyes.
“Piper took a job at an animal shelter caring for the animals after the semester ended. I went to see her there. I wanted her to come home. I was afraid for her.” Her attention shifted Armando, Lorenzo and Benito. “She wasn’t the Piper she had been. She’d lost so much weight she looked frail. And Lester was still harassing her. She left for San Francisco a few days later. And I thought at least that far away she would be safe from being tormented. But I was wrong.”
She sent Lester another stony-eyed, accusing glare.
“Ten days ago, the freezer went out at the restaurant, and we had to call a repairman. He found the backpack, and Benito brought it to me. It was on top of the freezer unit, hidden in the ceiling panels. Acosta killed the only person who knew where it was and could give it to him.” Carlotta dragged in a breath and seemed to drag her composure in around her with it.
After a few moments, she straightened, blotted her eyes again, and blew her nose. With a sigh, she rose to her feet and reached for the handle of the backpack. She walked deliberately to Lester and dropped it at his feet. Tears streamed down her face again. “The pain you’ve caused my daughter and our family is something we will never forget or forgive. It has forever changed us all.”
She paused before Piper. “Please forgive us, Francesca. Forgive me.”
Piper cleared her throat but still her voice came out a hoarse whisper. “Why didn’t you tell them Daddy had the bag, mamma?”
“I kept thinking I’d find it and turn it in. By the time I accepted that I wasn’t going to find it, that it was out of reach, you were already gone away from us.”
“You could have told them.” She nodded to her brothers. Every moment of pain she’d experienced at their hands rose up to rip at her.
“The longer you remain silent about something, the harder it is to speak of it. You just want to forget it’s there. By the time you came back…I was afraid they’d blame me, like they did you.”
She understood, but the weight of her mother’s betrayal, the one person she had believed would protect her, threatened to crush her.
Detective Sherman touched Carlotta’s arm. “I’ll need you to give us a written statement and sign a chain of custody voucher documenting how the backpack came to be in your possession.”
She nodded. It was she who looked frail now as she allowed him to direct her to an empty desk.
The man who’d stood back and observed everything approached Lester first. His words were just a whisper but the tone could have cut steel. Lester bent and picked up the backpack and disappeared with it into an office.
The man approached Piper, all hard edges and steel gray coloring. His suit was charcoal, his hair dull silver, and even his eyes gave the impression of metal. “Dr. Bertinelli?”
“Yes?”
“My name is Frank Terrance. I’m the Captain of this homicide unit. Would you and Ensign O’Connor mind if I had a private word with you?”
Emotionally exhausted, Piper shrugged when Zach looked down at her. How much worse could it get?
Twenty minutes later, when they walked out of the police station, it was to find Bowie waiting for them in the parking lot. Zach opened the passenger door and saw her seated before slipping into the back seat.
“So how much ass-kissing did the captain do?” Bowie asked when everyone was belted in.
Zach spoke from the back seat, but there was no satisfaction in his tone. “Major.”
Chapter 39
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“Are we going to tell your parents what happened last night?” Kathleen asked.
Cal wove through traffic and turned northwest to get out of town. “It will just upset them and detract from our other news. The cop said we probably wouldn’t have to show up for court. His lawyer will probably plead it out.”
“I’m not sure they should. I think he intended to kill us both, whether or not we gave him our money and jewelry.”
“You can’t guess what was in the kid’s head. But he has escalated from shoplifting to armed robbery in a short time. He has a drug problem.”
“How did you find that out?”
“One of the police officers was forthcoming. They suspect him of a couple of other robberies in the area. If they can link him to them, he’ll do time.”
Kathleen focused on her engagement ring. “It’s a real shame. He’s so young.”
“Maybe this will serve as a wake-up call for him.” Callahan turning back to the road. “I thought you handled yourself fantastically last night, Kathleen. You kept it together like a pro.”
She thought about it for a moment. “I didn’t feel together. Every time he pointed the gun at you…” She pressed her hand to her chest. “I was just paralyzed. I couldn’t think.”
“But you stayed calm, Kathleen. You didn’t scream or cry or make a fuss. You kept your head. You did well.”
He could see when the tension drained from her body. She’d nearly gotten sick afterward, but she had still maintained her composure. He just hoped this one episode didn’t trigger more episodes of anxiety. He worried about her being alone in San Diego. Zach was shipping out soon, and because of her PTSD, she hadn’t made any close friends. But she was fighting back from it.
<
br /> “I wish you could stay, Kathleen. I don’t know how long it’s going to be before we get things settled about the company.”
She remained silent for a moment. “I know you’re having a hard time deciding what to do. You’d be your own boss, and you could take on hand-picked projects that excite you, big and small. But on the other hand you’d be running a company, making a payroll, and paying health and liability insurance for your workers. And you’d be working with your brother. Even though I noticed things seem to be better between you, you’ll need to discuss how having two bosses will impact the company.
“The most important thing is you have to make sure it can be your dream, Cal. I know what your father wants, but you’re the one who will have to take up the torch and do the work. If it can’t be your dream, truly isn’t your dream, then walk away. If it’s what you want, though, I’ll look for a job here. My boss will give me a good recommendation, and I can come here to interview.”
He was relieved she was so willing to relocate. Now if he could just make up his own mind. “And what about Zach?”
She fell silent for a long moment. “It will be hard to leave him. We’ve gotten close again since I moved out. But he’s getting ready to ship out for six months, maybe longer. He wouldn’t expect me to put my life on hold for him. He knows how I feel about you, and he’ll want me to be happy. It helps that he likes you. And I can call him every week and check on him.”
“He can fly out to see us, and we can fly out to see him whenever he’s on CONUS again. Besides, he’s got a new girlfriend and seems very involved with her. Maybe too involved. I’m going to check her out and find out what’s going on as soon as I’m back in San Diego.”
“He’s a grown man, Kathleen. He may not appreciate you vetting his girlfriend.”
“He didn’t hesitate to vet you.”
Her indignant expression amused him. Cal laughed. “That’s a brother thing. And boyfriends expect that.”
“His girlfriend better get ready to accept it as well.”
Breaking Out (Military Romantic Suspense) (SEAL Team Heartbreakers Book 6) Page 35
