The Devil's Orchard

by Ali Vali

  “Who was she back then?”

  “What?” Colin asked, stringing out the word.

  “Colin, don’t make me pull your spleen out through your nose. Who was she back then?”

  “When your Da knew her she was Bridget Cleary. She was a looker, and she’s aged well. I’ve tried to show her she could have another chance at love, but she never budged after Fiona was born.”

  Cain had to stop and think, and it was getting to her that she had to ask so many questions about a woman she should’ve known all about. “Did she ever get in touch with Da after she got there, that you know of?”

  “He never asked, and I didn’t ask when she changed her name. Considering what she does for me, I don’t give a shit what name she goes by. All I know is that she stays home, makes the IRS think I’m an altar boy, and hides the rest so good that only I know where it is. All Judice really cares about is Fiona, and when I asked about using the kid’s new position to help us out, she came down on me so hard my balls are still blue. Fiona’s got a great head on her shoulders, but she decided on the police thing when she was about twelve, and nothing could change her mind.”

  “Thanks, Colin. Don’t forget to send in your response to the wedding invitation you got.”

  “You should’ve asked the girl a long time ago, like before she decided to give you three kids.”

  Emma laughed again as she hung up. “He sounds interesting, and after that talk I think I need to order more alcohol. Go on and don’t be late.” She pointed to the door. “Take Muriel with you so she can pay attention if you get mad and lose track.”

  “I think we’ve gotten to that point in our relationship where we share a brain.” Muriel left them alone for a moment, and Cain took advantage by kissing Emma softly at first, but then with more intensity. “I won’t be long.”

  “Where’s she staying?” Emma asked.

  “We’ll find out before we get there.”

  “Who’d you leave behind?”

  “No one. Judice will call before the night is done. She gives me the vibe that she’d offer me anything to keep me away from Fiona. Once I talk to her she’ll give me even more than that.”

  In the middle of their next kiss the phone on the desk rang, and she let it until she was done with Emma. “Cain, Judice O’Brannigan is on one for you,” Muriel said.

  “I could work on the psycho hotline, couldn’t I?”

  “I think you mean psychic hotline, honey.” Emma handed her the receiver.

  “Ask our friends outside and see which one they agree with.” She smiled and pressed the extension button. “Take a cab to my address,” she said, and provided it. “If you want it to go well, leave Fiona not only behind but in the dark. I’ll give you fifteen minutes.”

  “Do you want me to go upstairs?” Emma asked.

  This wasn’t going to be anything like Juan’s death, but Cain wanted to shield Emma anyway. She didn’t know what Judice was going to say, but her gut said she wasn’t going to like it. “You can stay if you want, but if you’re tired, head on up.”

  “I want to stay.”

  “I don’t know why, but I want you to.”

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Emma and Cain sat together and waited. Strangely, the dream Cain had when they’d been at the cabin came back to her, and she put her hand over the son her parents had promised. She wanted to take the time to enjoy this baby since she didn’t know if Emma wanted any more kids.

  “After the summer’s over, I’d like for Merrick to go back to work if she wants to,” she said, and Emma nodded. “I think she’s ready to team up with maybe Dino or Shaun to go out with you.”

  “She’ll kiss the ground you walk on if you give her back her job, but she deserves it. I can’t believe the progress she’s made, but then she’s always been strong.”

  “That’s why I want her with you and the baby. She loves you too much to let anything happen to either of you.”

  They talked about nothing important after that, just to fill the time until Judice arrived. Muriel showed her in a few minutes later, and Judice stood by the door with her hand on her chest again. She’d wisely worn the necklace, so Cain stood and stepped closer to her. Judice didn’t say anything when she raised her hand and worked her fingers under the gold chain.

  With one quick tug the necklace came apart and she held up the ring that dangled from the bottom up for Judice to see. “What do you want me to call you?” she asked as she turned and rejoined Emma. “Is it Judice or Bridget?”

  “I haven’t heard that name in years, so please, it’s Judice. That was my grandmother’s name and I picked it to remind me of her.”

  “Sweet, but this isn’t a friendly visit where we’ll get to know each other. First, I want to know why you stole this.” She held up her father’s ring again. It was definitely his, since the saying and the name marked it as the Casey heirloom. “Then I want to know what kind of game you and Fiona have going. What’s the mother of a police detective doing keeping the books for Colin Mead and Sal Maggio?”

  “I didn’t steal anything, and my life is none of your business.” Judice changed from weak to sounding defiant. “I told you at the restaurant that neither of us is a threat to you.”

  “You’re telling me that my father gave you this? This was something he loved so much he wore a replica until he was killed. You’re going to come into my home and tell me he waited his whole life for his turn to wear it, and he gave to you?” Her voice rose with each word, and she’d never wanted to slap someone so much in her life.

  “He betrayed me, so he owed it to me.”

  “I’m going to give you one more chance. Tell me why you have this. Why was it so important to you that you had a copy made for Fiona? I’ve looked all my life, and the only one I’ve ever found that resembles it is the one on my son’s finger.”

  “You’re just like him, a bull in a china shop that smashes everything good in their lives. I loved him and he threw me away when that bitch came into his life and acted like pure snow.”

  Emma’s hold was easy to break, and Cain moved too fast for Judice to get away from her. She raised her hand and Judice dropped to her knees. “My parents are dead. I don’t know who raised you, but in my family you don’t speak about the dead that way to their last surviving child, since I take it the bitch you’re referring to is my mother. Disrespect her again and you won’t leave the same way you walked in, and Fiona won’t be able to help you.”

  “I wanted him to love me that way, and I gave up plenty to be with him and do everything he wanted. When he was done he threw me away, so I took something he treasured as well as all the money I could find in the house.” Judice didn’t get up and Cain made no move to help her. “I ran where he couldn’t find me and stayed there.”

  Cain removed the ring from the chain, put it in her pocket, and dropped the broken jewelry in front of Judice. “Get out of my house.”

  Judice appeared relieved, as if she’d passed some test and there’d never be another one. “I have your word that you’ll leave Fiona alone.” She stood and smoothed her dress down.

  “I’m an animal.” Cain sat behind her desk. “I’m going to act like animals act. The one thing that’s not in a beast’s nature is to give their word, but I’m going to tell you what I am going to do. Before you get back in the cab outside, I’m going to call Colin and tell him Fiona is not only after me, but she’s going to use him and Sal to get to me. She’s going to receive every medal the police can pin on her for getting her mother to give them both up, and with that information it’s only a matter of time before I’m next to them in a cell with no windows.”

  “You can’t do that,” Judice said as she put her hands on the edge of her desk as if she couldn’t hold up her weight.

  “I can and I’m going to, gladly. I’m not usually so cruel, but when people come in here and feed me some story that’s nothing but bull, it’s like daring me to try my best to destroy them. There’s that and the fact
Fiona’s been nothing but an annoyance since her arrival.”

  “Fiona’s dedicated and she’s trying to impress her bosses. Once she’s settled you’ll never see her again, so I’m begging you to leave her be.”

  “I doubt that, now that I’ve talked to you. Her hatred of me might not be all about me, but simply because my name is Casey. Perhaps that’s something she learned growing up, so she’s so dedicated to make mama proud of her. Whatever it is, my advice is to run and think about whatever you’re hiding when you find a rock to live under. Colin might cut you some slack, but Sal will hack you into little pieces when he finds you. And he will find you, even if you hide in a hut in the middle of the Amazon jungle.”

  “You didn’t know I existed until tonight. Leave me alone and I’ll go back to California and you can pretend you never met me.”

  “You do exist, Bridget Cleary, and I won’t forget you now. I gave you a chance to explain yourself, but not explaining yourself was your choice.” She opened her book and searched for Colin’s number. “If you really knew my father well, then you’ve got a clue as to how Caseys handle threats. I’m the heir the bull sired, and he raised me in the same china shop you described.”

  “I took the ring from him as a reminder. Dalton was good to me, and to my family, but your mother did turn his head from the first day he saw her.” When Judice started talking, Cain put the phone down and listened. “He was working for his father already and had gotten my father some stuff to do around the warehouse. My father was a drinker and not a very nice man when he hit the bottle, but Dalton was the deterrent that kept his hands off my mother and me. It took him only one time to see the bruise on my mother’s cheek to explain some things to my father in terms only Dalton could deliver. That he cared that much made me love him more.”

  Emma got up and came to sit on the arm of her chair, so Cain waved Judice into a visitor’s chair. “He never mentioned you. All the others he did, but not you.”

  “The last time we were together, he took that damn ring off and touched me like he couldn’t wait to love me. He hadn’t been that passionate in a long while, but then I figured out that he was thinking about someone else. The pretty girl with the light-green dress with lace around the collar we’d seen walking from St. Louis Cathedral that afternoon. At least that’s what I accused him of.”

  “That part of the story he did tell me.” The first time he’d seen her mum was one of her father’s favorite memories.

  “I’d been late that day, so I only noticed her because his eyes were glued to her, and he was hooked. It wasn’t long after that he was a fixture at the Baxter Sunday dinners, and from what I hear he took it slow until he’d swept Therese off her feet. He’d never taken that kind of time with me.”

  “So the ring was a trophy to appease your jealousy?” she asked, and Judice nodded. Something was missing, though. It was like something she was trying to remember and it was right at the tip of her recollection, but she couldn’t get to it.

  “I wanted to be what Therese was in his life, but he didn’t see me that way. My father started hitting us again when Dalton left, and he told me over and over all that I was to Dalton Casey was a whore. He used me and then tossed me aside when more suitable wife material came along.” Judice wiped her tears and gazed at Cain as if to read every emotion that crossed her face.

  “I’m sorry my father-in-law treated you that way, but I’m curious about something,” Emma said. “Why would you have to move across the country and change your name only because your boyfriend broke up with you and married someone else?”

  “We’ll get to that, lass, but I have a better question. If you hated him for picking my mum over you, why make Fiona a copy of the ring?” Judice’s eyes widened and she moved to the edge of her seat. “The motto on the outside is something the Caseys have believed for generations. ‘Mine but for a moment.’ It makes sense for you and how your relationship with Da ended. But it doesn’t explain why Fiona wears it.” Saying it out loud made the pieces fall into place so easily she imagined hearing them click tightly together. The realization must’ve shown on her face because Judice paled, and her own stomach felt like it had dropped to her knees.

  “Oh, God,” she said as she slowly stood up.

  “Wait,” Judice said, and jumped her feet. “Let me explain.”

  “It’s too late for explanations.”

  “What?” Emma held her by her belt, and it was the only familiar and comforting thing that was real. The truth Judice had hidden for so long had untethered her from the foundation of who she was.

  “Why would a woman move across the country, change her name, and live a solitary life with a child that she had a ring made for? A ring that summed up a man’s whole family in a circle of gold and one short phrase.”

  Judice started to cry and shake her head. “I wanted more for Fiona than she’d have here. If he found out he’d have taken her from me, and that wasn’t his right. You didn’t know him back then. Dalton was strong, but he was something to fear too. And your mother, she’d never give Fiona the life I could because she would’ve never accepted her. She was mine.”

  Cain pounded on the desk and took a deep breath to keep from throwing up. “Shut up,” she said loudly. “My father was nothing like that, and if what you’re saying is true, you stole more than a goddamn ring from him.”

  “Your father slept with me and then told me to not come around anymore. After he got dressed he offered me money to make sure I’d be okay. I liked to drink, smoke, and have fun back then, but I wasn’t anyone’s whore. All the things he loved about me one minute were what he hated the second he saw someone he could walk down the aisle.” Judice was still crying, but she was spitting the story at her like bullets from a machine gun. “When I found out about Fiona, I ran as fast and as far as I could, and once I set up in California I started working the bar at the first pub I could find. Colin was the only one I told my real name, and he could give a shit why I wanted to change it.”

  “He knew?”

  “Colin was like your father. He wanted to bed me and show me a good time. Fiona was a baby and he had his own family to worry about, so he never asked questions and I never told him that part. Dalton’s name was good enough for him to trust me with the job he gave me, and I worked my ass off to give Fiona a decent and good life.”

  “So you’re telling me that Fiona is my father’s child?”

  “Yes.” Judice said it, and Cain hit the desk again. “But give me this secret, I’m begging you. Fiona wears the ring because she’s admired mine all her life, and I don’t wear it for the reasons you think. It has nothing to do with Dalton, Therese, or the Casey family as a whole. I wear it as a reminder that Fiona is mine, but if she ever knows the truth, it’ll only be for a moment.” Judice held up the broken gold chain. “The life I’ve built, the things I’ve given her, and the love I have for her can snap in a second, and I’ll never be able to repair any of it. I ran as far as I could, but Agent Shelby dragged Fiona here after her parents were murdered, and she hates you. I tried to shield her from your family and she’s found you anyway.”

  “Why not tell her?”

  “Because she’s mine, and she’s no Casey. Your father was only a sliver of why she exists, but I’m her mother and the one who’s fought for her from the day she was born. I was blessed that she doesn’t look like him, and her spirit is pure. She’ll never be a part of this life. She’s better than that. You can wax over your Da’s true nature, but I know the truth of who he was. He was a butcher who played the part of a nice guy when he was at home, but he’s burning in hell for all those people he killed on a whim.” The slap sounded hard and loud, and Emma appeared ready to deliver another one. It was the only reason Cain didn’t get up and do it herself. This woman had to have become suicidal after such a solitary life.

  “O’Brannigan is something you made up. What kind of heritage is that?”

  “Fiona O’Brannigan was my grandmother who lived out her
days on a farm in Ireland. She was strong, honest, and had plenty of history, only none of it had to do with booze or killing. That’s what I wanted for Fiona, and she’s made me proud.”

  “Get out of my house,” Emma said when Cain dropped back in her chair, exhausted physically and mentally. “And remember this before you do. If you ever talk about my family again I’ll be the one to kill you. There was no honor in what you did. Believe me, I tried running with a child for what I thought were the right reasons, and it turned out to be disastrous. Nothing built on a lie survives the light of day.”

  “You’re like Therese, a good Casey wife with a good set of blinders.”

  “I can see why Dalton tossed you aside,” Emma said.

  “He wanted a virgin who didn’t ask a lot of questions.”

  “The ice is thinning under your feet,” Cain warned Judice. She’d had her fill of disrespect for one night.

  “He wanted a partner who’d help him through life. That’s what Cain and I have, and we’re teaching our children to look for that when their time comes. You, though, were raised by drunks who obviously knew nothing about love, so that’s the legacy you passed to your child. You hid away and stole from her the family that would’ve given her not only love, but a sense of who she really is.” Emma pointed at Judice when she started to say something. “I know, we’re killers with no morals. Look at Fiona for who she really is, and be honest with yourself. You’ve raised a petty loner who has no regard for anyone but her own self-importance.”

  “You don’t pull any punches.”

  “Not when it comes to the safety and happiness of my family. Now get out.” Emma buzzed for Katlin or Lou.

  “What about Fiona?” Judice asked from the door.

  “I don’t know,” Cain said. “She’s no more welcome here than you are, but knowing what I do now won’t save her if she tries to harm my family.” Cain turned her chair around. “Go back to wherever you came from and stay out of my sight, and be careful not to talk about my parents the way you did tonight to anyone else. You do, and Fiona will know my true nature after she finds herself alone in this world.” As much as she prided herself on the load she could carry, she couldn’t listen to another word out of this woman’s mouth.