by M. G. Morgan
“So this friend of yours, what is he going to do?”
“He has contacts that we need, if we can get him to talk to some of them then maybe we won’t be so helpless. What we need is leverage.”
I nodded forcing myself to suck in deep soothing breaths. Of course it wasn’t particularly soothing, not when my mind wanted so desperately to flip over into hysteria.
“I was going through some of Henry’s old files, searching for anything that I could connect him to these people but so far I haven’t found anything.”
“Show me,” I said, I wasn’t simply going to hang around and wait for this Craig guy to show up and maybe help us with his contacts. I needed something to take my mind off David and what they were doing to him. And if I could help the situation in the meantime then it was a win all round.
“You don’t need to do this, Carrie, I have my men combing through it.”
“It’ll be fine, it’ll help to keep my mind busy…”
Aaron smiled sadly at me, “I know you want to rush in and save him, but you need to trust David too. He might be a pigheaded fool sometimes but he would never deliberately do something that might take him away from you and Jenson for good. He loves you both too much to do that.”
“I know he loves us…” I cut myself off, the conversation was angling into dangerous territory and the last thing I wanted to do was break down and appear like a blubbering mess.
I needed to remain strong, David needed that and if he could stay strong in the face of such terrifying circumstances then so could I.
“Just show me where I can make myself useful.”
“If you’re going to start going through Henry’s files then you need to understand that some of the things you’ll find there are in reference to you…”
My mouth dropped open and I felt my heart skip a beat. It shouldn’t have surprised me and yet it had. The last thing I’d considered was that the records Henry kept would hold any mention of me.
But of course it made perfect sense. He’d hated me, hated me enough that he’d wanted me dead rather than let his son disgrace himself by being seen with someone like me.
He’d tried to have me killed… It was only logical that he would have kept a record of his transgressions.
“You don’t need to do it, Carrie, like I said, I have my men on it anyway and they’ll find something if there’s anything there to be found.”
“No, it’s fine. I guess I just never thought about it before, I didn’t think that he had put much thought into me or getting rid of me, I guess I was wrong.” I smiled and shrugged, doing my best impression of someone who had brushed the past off as though it was nothing more than an inconvenience.
And in a way maybe that’s all it was. After all, Henry had failed miserably with his attempt on my life and David and I were happier than we’d ever been.
But I couldn’t help but feel a pang of anger. Henry was dead and we’d honestly believed that his death had rid us of any trouble he might try and throw our direction. The last thing I’d thought possible was that his death might bring up more issues than it had solved.
Aaron studied my face for a second longer before nodding. Either he knew I was covering up my true feelings about what he had revealed or he was choosing not to delve into it too deeply, trusting that I knew my own mind.
If it had been David standing in front of me I knew I wouldn’t have stood a chance in hell of keeping anything from him. He could read me like a book and knew instantly when I was hurt.
But Aaron wasn’t David and he never would be and I was normally never bothered by the differences I knew existed in the brothers. But now I knew there was a chance I might never get David back…
Seeing how alike and yet how different they both were hurt more than I cared to admit.
Chapter 3
Staring at the piles of paper files heaped in boxes around the room I groaned inwardly. Simply skimming through the files was going to take a gargantuan effort but not even knowing what we were looking for meant skimming wasn’t even an option.
“Was Henry not a fan of digitising his records?” I asked, pressing my fingers against my temples as my head started to ache.
“Some of the records made it onto the computer but these are the older records. We’ve already gone through the computer ones and came up empty. He wasn’t a fool, Henry was the type of man who understood if you could bury your indiscretions in enough paper there wasn’t a soul alive willing to dig through it all.”
Aaron’s words made me smile, it sounded exactly like the type of thought process his father would have. But it was fundamentally a flawed belief.
“I thought you said you had men working on it?”
“This is only a small section of the files. I was saving these for myself, some of the information contained within are of a more sensitive nature and well I trust my men but I’ve found it’s better not to tempt fate.” Aaron smiled again but this time his expression was far from friendly.
Whatever he had found contained in the boxes was enough to make him doubt his own. These were the men he trusted to keep Heather and his children safe, his most prized treasures.
The men were good enough for a job of that magnitude but yet he still didn’t trust them enough to allow them a glimpse of what lay in the mess spread around the room.
“But you trust me?” I asked, studying his face to gauge his reaction.
For all I knew these weren’t the only boxes he had held back. Perhaps there were more and he was keeping them from me, afraid of what I might do with the information I might glean out of them.
“You love David, I know that anything you read here will stay with you because you would never do anything to jeopardise him.”
There was nothing in Aaron’s face to suggest he was lying, nothing that said he was holding back from me. But then Aaron was much harder to read, he’d perfected the blank stare, the one normally used by anyone in law enforcement.
Where he had developed the skill was beyond me and I certainly wasn’t about to ask him now.
“It’s that bad?” I said, moving towards the boxes, my fingers skimming across the dusty surface of the first box I came into contact with.
“I’m not proud of my father’s behaviour. I’d always known he wasn’t the type of man I wanted to be but until he died I can honestly say that I had no idea about the depths of his despicable nature.”
I didn’t have an answer for what Aaron had just revealed to me but I did have the sudden urge to turn tail and run from the room. I couldn’t do it, not when I might find something in one of the many boxes that would help me get David back safely.
Aaron opened his mouth to speak but I shook my head. I didn’t need him to offer me another way out, if he kept asking me I was bound to let my cowardice get the better of me.
But David didn’t have that luxury and I wasn’t going to let him down.
“I know what you’re going to say but don’t. I need to do this, Aaron, and I’ll be fine. If I find something I’ll let you know.”
“You’re an adult so I’m not about to keep on questioning you but when we get David back and he wants to know why I didn’t try and stop you from doing this, you can explain to him whose idea it was.” He grinned at me but the edges of his smile were tinged with sadness.
He was trying to keep my spirits up and for that I could have hugged him but Aaron wasn’t the type of guy that would take too kindly to having someone other than his wife wrap their arms around him.
“I’ll tell him…” I said, swallowing past the lump forming in the back of my throat.
Aaron turned and moved out of the room, leaving me alone with Henry’s boxes.
Where was I supposed to even begin? There was just so much to tackle and the more I stared at the overflowing boxes the more I felt my hope slipping away.
Closing my eyes I pressed my hand to my non-existent bump. David would do everything in his power to return to us and I needed to hold up my e
nd of the bargain and return the favour.
Chapter 4
The words swam in front of my eyes and the dust I’d disturbed while dragging the files out of their boxes tickled the back of my throat but that wasn’t what bothered me the most.
Aaron hadn’t lied when he’d said his father had stooped to some despicable lows.
From what I could figure out in the few folders I’d gone through, Rachel hadn’t been his first mistress.
And those who had believed they could blackmail him once he was done with them, had disappeared without a trace. The newspaper clippings with their pictures and their families pleas for a safe return was a level of detail I could have done without knowing.
I’d known Henry was capable of murder, the attempt he’d made on my life had told me that but I would never have imagined him capable of so much heartache and pain.
How he could have done these things and for no one to suspect him of it…
How could Aaron and David not have known?
Flipping the file in front of me shut, I grabbed the next one from the heap.
Its edges were curled and dark with age and as I lifted it open the musty smell from the pages assaulted my senses.
My eyes scanned the lines of handwriting on the first page and the name Taylor S. Banks jumped out at me. It wasn’t the first time I’d spotted the name and I struggled to remember why it sounded so familiar.
I let my eyes wander down the page, taking in the odd amounts of money and the abbreviated comments. I flipped the page and stared at the writing addressed to no-one in particular in what I could only assume was Henry’s handwriting.
It looked a lot like David’s but the flourishes were far too pronounced to be his.
If you’re reading this, then you know the truth, I would have destroyed the records if I’d succeeded against them.
I’m not sorry for the way I’ve lived my life. But I do have one regret, Taylor S. Banks. The day I allowed him to gain a foothold in my life was the day I lost control of my future and by default yours.
Patricia may have lied to me but I know without a doubt that Erica, or rather Melissa is mine and Gertrude always wanted a little girl.
I need you to know that I’ve done what I could to extract our family from his hold but I will never let them touch a hair on Erica’s head, no matter the cost. I would rather see her cold in her grave before I would ever let that bastard near her.
And if I fail I expect you both to do what you must to ensure they never take what they believe is theirs to claim.
Remember, death is not the worst punishment they can inflict, do not fear it.
It wasn’t signed and yet I knew without a doubt that it was from Henry to Aaron and David.
Picking the file up, three cream coloured pieces of paper fluttered to the table top and I stared at the two birth certificates before my eyes took in the writing on the death certificate. My heart began to hammer as my brain tried to make sense of what I was looking at.
My chest ached as I pushed up onto my feet, my legs felt as though they’d been made from jelly but I carried the file to the door and out into the hall.
The words swam in my head, I certainly wasn’t a fan of Henry and yet I could feel his passion, such pain and regret, I hadn’t honestly believed he was capable of it.
His note of confession suddenly caused so many of the other things I’d discovered to fall into place and it made me sick to the stomach. If it was true, then it was all far more devastating then we could have ever imagined.
“Aaron, I’ve found something,” I said, calling out to him as I stumbled in through the door to his office.
He stood in the centre of the room deep in conversation with another man. He glanced up as soon as I pushed open the door but whatever he saw in my face hardened his expression.
He reached out and took the file from my cold clammy hands but I could still feel the grimy texture of the paper against my palms.
I didn’t need to watch his face as he read the note, I knew what his reaction would be.
“I don’t understand, what does any of this mean?” He said, his voice sounding more like a lost child’s than the grown man I knew him to be.
“Henry wasn’t a fan of monogamy, his first mistress Patricia Cornish was a secretary in his down town office. She fell pregnant and that wasn’t something Henry was prepared to deal with, he already had you and David. I’m not sure where he found out about this Taylor S. Banks or even who he is but he’s mentioned quite extensively in the records. He paid them a large sum of money and then Patricia went missing…”
“He had her murdered?”
“It doesn’t say that in so many words but Henry kept the newspaper clipping from when the police found her body nine months later. The police believe she’d given birth shortly before she died…”
Aaron shook his head, “none of that makes sense. Why would he wait until she’d given birth?”
“I don’t know but there’s more…” I trailed off and held out the three certificates.
He snatched them out of my hands without a word and I watched the last of his colour drain from his face.
“None of this makes any sense, you need to show me where you found this. There’s a mistake, there has to be a mistake…”
If I hadn’t read the information with my own eyes I would have agreed with him. But I knew every word of what I’d told him was the truth and no amount of wishing it was different would change it.
“Aaron, you’re holding the birth and death certificates in your hands, you know I’m not making any of this up. We need to talk to someone who was there and the only one left is Gertrude.”
“My mother wouldn’t have gone along with something like this, she was heartbroken when she found out about Rachel, why would it have bothered her if this was what he’d been doing for the entirety of their marriage.”
I shrugged and dipped my head, “ I don’t know but there’s one way we can find out…”
“How can I do that to her?”
“How can you not? She’s been lying to you both all these years, letting you believe that the Melissa you grew up with was your sister, when your real sister died when she was three days old.
“This is a clue, Henry says it himself in the letter and if that’s true, then this is the first lead we’ve got on who took David, we can’t just throw it away because you don’t want to dredge up the past for your mother…”
I knew I sounded cold and cruel but I really didn’t care. I couldn’t imagine the pain Gertrude must have gone through, I couldn’t imagine the fragile state her mind must have been in when it all happened but I couldn’t allow that to cloud my judgement now. Not when we had the first real lead that might give us the people who had taken David.
“I’ll talk to her,” Aaron said, pushing his hand back through his short hair.
“I’m coming with you,” I started to speak but Aaron cut across me before I could finish my sentence.
“This will run smoother if I talk to Gertrude alone, she’s not exactly your biggest fan.” Aaron’s smile was apologetic but it was unnecessary. I already knew how Gertrude felt about me.
She’d never approved of David’s choice when he’d chosen me, I wasn’t the waif like media darling she’d had in mind for her son. But we’d managed to come to a truce of sorts and I couldn’t help but feel admiration for her continued attempts to build bridges with her two sons.
“I’m coming with you, Aaron, there will be no argument and no questions on the subject. You can do all of the talking if you want but I need to be there, I need to know what we’re dealing with.”
Aaron studied my expression for a moment but I held my nerve and squared my shoulders. David needed me and I wasn’t going to be run off at the first obstacle.
“Fine, but I’ll do the talking.”
I didn’t answer him, there was no need. As long as he was willing to let me go with him to question Gertrude then I was happy, for now at le
ast…
Chapter 5
With each second that ticked by I felt my anxiety levels triple. David was gone for more hours than I cared to count and every time I tried to imagine him returning safely to me, my mind refused to conjure it.
“Mother, I know you don’t want to talk about it but it’s important.” Aaron cajoled, but I knew he was rapidly beginning to lose his patience.
As it was I wasn’t sure how he’d managed to keep it for as long as he had. The moment Gertrude had refused to even discuss the issue of Melissa I’d felt my own patience disappear in the breath I’d exhaled.
“I don’t care, Aaron, it’s all in the past, my therapist said I shouldn’t keep dwelling on the past, that it’s nothing more than a trigger for my drinking.”
“Gertrude, it’s David, your son. Do you really want to be the reason he turns up dead? That because you were too weak to tell us what happened, they kill him?” The edge in my voice was practically unrecognisable to my own ears but I didn’t have time to focus on it.
I wanted answers and I knew without a doubt that Gertrude had them. Without them, David would continue to suffer at the hands of the lunatics who had him.
“Don’t you dare try and lay this at my door, if you hadn’t…”
I cut her off with a shake of my head and a bitter giggle escaped me.
“Really? You’re going to try and blame me for this one too? This is Henry’s doing, I know I’m not supposed to speak ill of the dead but if we’re honest the man was a callous bastard.
“You might have loved him but I know somewhere deep down inside that even you knew just how cruel he was. He had Patricia killed that much I’m certain of.”
“You’re wrong, it wasn’t Henry.”
“Mother, you cannot keep protecting him. He wouldn’t have done the same for you if the shoe was on the other foot.”
