Closing Books

by Grace, Trisha

  “If you allow it, I’ll make sure that from this day forth, every day of your life will be lived happily ever after.” Getting down on one knee, he opened the small black box he had been holding. “Eve, will you marry me?”

  She couldn’t stop the tears from rushing down her cheeks. Neither could she keep herself from smiling.

  Right now, with him, she did feel like a princess in one of those fairy tales. “Yes. Of course I’ll marry you.”

  Dan’s smile was as wide as hers. He slipped the ring onto her finger and stood. Gently, he wiped the tears from her face. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too.” Then, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him; her own prince charming, the beginning of her own fairy tale.

  The sun had risen for hours before Evelyn and Dan got to the mansion. Evelyn ran in ahead of Dan, but was surprised to see Kate missing from the entourage in the kitchen.

  “Congrats!” Ryan and Joseph exclaimed.

  “Thanks.” She grinned, then glanced over at Tyler.

  “She just woke up. She’s in our room,” Tyler said without her asking.

  Turning around, she rushed out of the kitchen and up the stairs. She burst into Kate’s room without even knocking.

  Kate smiled and sat up straight on the bed. “Let me see your ring!”

  Evelyn hopped onto the bed, settling beside Kate. “Why are you still in bed? Not feeling well?”

  “Just feeling lazy. Ty told me to rest for a while longer. It looks great on your hand! Do you like it? Ty helped.”

  “Yes, I heard. And, I love it. You should see what Dan did to the house!” She pulled out her cell phone from the back pocket and showed her all the pictures.

  “Wow, he did that in one night? Ty’s description didn’t do it justice.” Kate took the phone from her hand and examined the pictures. “He put in a lot of work on this; do you know how heavy the tree was? It took all of them to move it.”

  “I never thought I’d get married. I never thought I’d be so happy. Oh Kate, you made a great decision to move in here.”

  “Aww…I’ve never thought about things that way. But yeah, and who was telling me that it was a horrible idea?”

  “I was wrong, so wrong. Thank God, you never listen to me.”

  “Hey!” Kate elbowed Evelyn softly before tossing back her phone.

  “I was thinking—”

  A few soft raps on the door cut Evelyn’s sentence and they both turned toward the door as it opened.

  Tyler stepped in and, after a quick glance at Kate, his eyes moved onto her. “Detective Allen is here. He’s hoping he can speak to you for a few minutes.”

  “Ty…”

  “It’s okay.” Evelyn gave Kate a pat on her leg. “Don’t worry, I’m fine. I know all of you think I shouldn’t be, and I know I shouldn’t be, but I really am.”

  She meant every word she said.

  The whole episode should have scared her beyond all imagination. Even though she’d somehow found the courage to keep her wits together while she was in the cage, she should have broken down after that. Her nightmare should be plaguing her every night. She should be waking up in the middle of the night, quivering with fresh fear sparked off by the whole event.

  Instead, she found it easy to forget about David Morgan.

  The only memories she held from the kidnap was the reinforcement that she wasn’t alone anymore. She not only had Kate, she had friends who knew about her past and still defended her. Above all else, she knew that no matter what happened, Dan would be there for her.

  She gave Kate a quick hug and left her with Tyler while she went out of the room.

  Evelyn grinned as she saw Dan leaning against the wall. “Why didn’t you come in?”

  Dan laughed softly and led her down the stairs. “While he’s willing to extend the courtesy toward you because of Kate, he won’t be that kind toward the rest of us.”

  She looked up at him, wondering what Dan was talking about.

  “He’s an extremely private person. No one goes into his room. If we wanted something in his room, he’d get it. He’s weird like that.” Halfway down the stairs, Dan paused and took her hands. “You all right with this? We can just tell him that you don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

  “Don’t worry. I want to help him put them away. If it’s going to take a thousand interviews, then that’s what I’ll do.”

  Dan squeezed her hand and lifted it up to his lips. “Sometimes I forget how amazing you are. But promise me, any time during any of these interviews, if you get upset or if you just need some fresh air, let me know.”

  “I promise.”

  They headed down the stairs and saw Detective Allen speaking to Mr. Sawyer.

  Ben and Tyler had handed over all of their own and Lydia’s findings to the police. Mr. Sawyer had convinced Detective Allen that everything was legal, and they wouldn’t have a problem using the information they’d found. He even found some precedents on evidence provided by civilians being admitted for court trials.

  When she had decided to help Lydia on the case, Mr. Sawyer began keeping tabs on everything they were doing to make sure that they wouldn’t end up getting into trouble with the law.

  She remembered Mr. Sawyer talking to Ben at length, asking in detail how he obtained the information and so forth. She’d thought Mr. Sawyer was merely being curious, but in fact, while they dove head first into the case, Mr. Sawyer had made sure that their backs were covered.

  “Hi, Detective.”

  “Hi, sorry to disturb you. I was actually here to update Mr. Hayes about the case, but since you’re here, I thought…”

  “Don’t worry about it. What can I do for you?”

  They moved over and settled on the couch.

  “Let me give you the good news first. The DA is sure that we have everything we need to put David Morgan away.”

  “But?” Evelyn asked. Whenever someone wanted to give the ‘good news’ first, there was bound to be a ‘but’ behind.

  Detective Allen took a sip of his coffee and sighed. “We can’t find anything to link any of the cases to Richard Morgan. We went through the house and the office, but couldn’t find anything on him.”

  “David Morgan admitted it when we were in the truck.”

  “We only have his word. Besides, he’s keeping his mouth shut now.”

  Her hand twirled the phone she was holding as she thought back on everything that David Morgan had said. She was sure Richard Morgan was behind it all. There must be a way to prove it. “The camera in the truck was being transmitted somewhere. He was watching. Whenever David Morgan got too chatty, Richard Morgan would call.”

  “It was streamed to a computer in David Morgan’s office. The security camera was switched off. We can’t prove that Richard Morgan was in the office.”

  “Then how did he see us? He kept calling just moments before I heard Melissa screaming. He must have seen Dan and Melissa going into the building.”

  “Circumstantial at best,” Mr. Sawyer said.

  “Look at the old cases. David Morgan said something about his father screwing things up. That was why Kate’s father could take them to court. He didn’t say exactly what Richard Morgan screwed up on, but whatever it was, it must be something damning.”

  “That case revolved around one witness, Suzanne Harrison. She was the one woman who got away. When Mr. Mitchell died, Suzanne Harrison backed out, and the case went cold. I tried looking her up, but she simply insisted that she didn’t want anything to do with it and slammed the door in my face.”

  “Then why was only David Morgan charged?”

  “The evidence wasn’t strong enough. I think Kate’s father was trying to deal with David Morgan first, then see if he could turn David against his father,” Mr. Sawyer said.

  Detective Allen nodded and said, “It seems that way. According to the statement, David Morgan tortured her. She was kept in a room without windows, so she didn’t know how long she was he
ld captive. It was only after she escaped that she realized it’d been over a week.”

  “How did she get out?” Dan asked. “They were all strapped to the chair.”

  “She couldn’t remember. She was pretty doped up. All she remembered was Richard Morgan strangling her and she passed out. He must have thought she was dead, but she woke up a while later and caught him off guard, then ran out to the road.”

  “That sounds pretty damning to me!”

  “Problem was, she was heavy on drugs. She couldn’t get the details of her escape right. It would be easy to refute her claims.”

  There must be a way. After all that they had done, both of them should get punished. “What if David Morgan confessed?”

  “If I’m on the defense, I’ll say I know nothing about it, and he’s just pushing the blame so that he can escape the death sentence. All you need is for the old man to shed a few tears or choke up when he’s speaking. No jury will send a frail old man away or issue a death sentence unless they see something concrete.”

  Evelyn saw Detective Allen’s head bobbing up and down. That must have been the same dilemma Kate’s father had faced before the trial.

  “The frail old man took couple of shots at me,” Dan said.

  “He claimed that he saw you through the security system and thought you were breaking in.”

  “And Melissa? He had the gun pointed at her.”

  “He said he was about to put the gun down when he saw that it was his daughter-in-law, but then he saw you.”

  “Seriously? And you let him go because of that?” Evelyn shook her head, irate at the justice system.

  “No, we let him go because there isn’t enough evidence to hold him. And now, he’s hiding behind a legion of lawyers.”

  “I may be able to help.”

  Everyone looked up as Joseph hurried over with his iPad and that day’s newspaper.

  “Remember the unusual bruise I mentioned on the neck? Look at what Richard Morgan is wearing.” Joseph pointed to the picture that took up nearly half a page.

  It was a close up of Richard Morgan, using his hand to shield his face from the camera. His palm was facing out, and the ring was smack in the middle of the picture.

  “It matches! The moment I saw the picture, I knew this must be it. See the unusual wave of the ring? The thickness, the pattern; it all matches!” He placed his iPad, which displayed a zoomed-in version of the bruise, alongside the newspaper.

  Everyone’s head hovered over the pictures, but Evelyn couldn’t give any comments. The bruises just seemed like every other bruise, and Joseph must have seen the confusion on everyone’s face.

  “Look,” he said, pointing to a particular point in the bruise, showing the darker lines amidst the light purple bruises. He traced the darker lines, then moved to the ring, tracing the same pattern on the ring. “Do you see it?”

  “I think so…”

  Detective Allen got to his feet. “Does the ME have these photos?”

  “It’s all in the files that Lydia found.”

  “Good.” He took the papers from Joseph. “Don’t mind if I take this?”

  “Go ahead.”

  “Will that be enough?” Evelyn asked Mr. Sawyer as Detective Allen went hurrying out.

  He considered for a moment before answering. “They’ll have to prove that he was wearing it during all those years. But he’s been to many social events. Finding pictures of him shouldn’t be difficult. They’ll also have to prove that it’s a one of a kind ring, that only he has it; otherwise, it’s enough for reasonable doubt.”

  Evelyn smiled. She had a good feeling about this.

  It was clear that David Morgan’s suit was tailor-made. Even the walking stick that Richard Morgan was holding appeared to be custom-made. The handle had a clear monogram with the letters RM.

  They tailored their suits, have monograms on the things they own. Surely Richard Morgan wouldn’t settle for a ring that anyone else could buy in a store.

  Chapter Twenty Seven

  The front page news had been dominated by news about the Morgans. With the logs that Tyler and Ben found, Detective Allen managed to dig in further to find a link to human trafficking; the supply for David Morgan’s sadistic fetish.

  Though both the Morgans were hiding behind their lawyers, the evidence that the police had was quickly mounting against them.

  Using the new lead given by Joseph, the medical examiner got inspired and started looking through the old crime photos. Besides proving that the ring was custom-made, the walking stick, which had been a constant companion of Richard Morgan, made an undeniable imprint across the right temple of Suzanne Harrison’s face.

  That evidence backed up Suzanne’s theory. With the Morgans safely behind bars, and some persuasion from Lydia, Suzanne Harrison agreed to take the stand again.

  Everything was leading to a happy ending in this case; even Melissa got a million-dollar book deal to write about her life with David Morgan, exposing everything about the father and son.

  Evelyn had also been offered quite a huge sum for interviews and book deals, but she wasn’t interested. She wasn’t keened on dwelling on what had happened anymore. All she wanted was to focus on her wedding; a small wedding ceremony held by the beach.

  Before they dove right into their plans, Dan and Evelyn took a trip to visit Dan’s parents.

  She found herself feeling more anxious about seeing them than being caged up by David Morgan. Even before this meeting, she’d already chalked up quite a number of demerit points.

  It started when she took Kate’s side while Joanne created waves of trouble with Kate, and even though Joanne had made up with them, she couldn’t say the same for Dan’s mother.

  She was sure that to Dan’s mother, she was the one who bullied her precious daughter, then fed her daughter all sort of nonsense to send her halfway across the world.

  Dan couldn’t stop thanking Evelyn for getting through to Joanne’s head. He had thought that Joanne would waste her life away in front of the mirror, and couldn’t be happier that she had found something else to pursue.

  Though it was probably wrong to think so, Evelyn was glad that Dan’s parents had decided to neglect him. The lack of smothering from his mother had turned him into the responsible, self-sustained man that he was.

  “You sure you want to do this? I can return another time and let them know about the wedding, and depending on their reactions, we’ll decide our next move.”

  “We’re not playing chess, Dan. I’m fine. I know your mom won’t be pleased to see me, but I can handle it.”

  She didn’t know then how wrong she was.

  Ten seconds of being in his parents’ house had her wondering what she had gotten herself into.

  The already small, thin-lipped smile that Dan’s mother had the courtesy of displaying vanished in an instant and the shouting began.

  “What the hell were you thinking? She’s the woman who took my baby away from me! She sent her all the way to Paris so that the Kate girl could get together with your friend! You should be helping your sister and not hook up with the slut!”

  Evelyn rubbed her fingers against the tip of her nose, hoping that her hand would conceal the smile on her face.

  For heaven’s sake, Kate and Tyler were already married, and they were starting their own family. There was nothing her baby could have done to change any of that.

  “Don’t talk about her that way. I brought her here as a matter of courtesy,” Dan said, pulling Evelyn behind him.

  “Courtesy? You never think about my feelings! How did you expect me to react when you bring home the woman who put crazy thoughts into my baby?”

  Evelyn suppressed the urge to roll her eyes each time Dan’s mother referred to Joanne as her baby. Joanne was merely a few years younger than she was, which makes Joanne way too old to be called a baby.

  When Dan had told her that his mom was dramatic, she’d believed him, but his mom had managed to exceed beyond all
expectations. She bit on her lips to stop the bubble of laughter from escaping her mouth. Perhaps Dan’s mother had watched too many soap operas for her own good.

  Then, she heard Dan’s low, steady voice. He wasn’t shouting, but the calmness in his voice was so much louder than the hysteria that his mother was throwing his way.

  “I said to stop speaking about her that way.”

  Evelyn smiled as she watched Dan speak to his mother. He stood up to her, not allowing his mother to put Evelyn down, but his words contained no anger. He spoke in his calm voice, speaking his mind without getting drawn into his mother’s drama.

  His unflustered, unruffled manner captured all of her attention.

  Dan’s mother went on and on as though she didn’t hear a single word that Dan had said.

  “We’re not staying. I’m not letting her listen to you rant.” Turning away from his mother, Dan placed his arm over Evelyn’s shoulder and pressed her close against him.

  Dan said to his father, who had been standing quietly behind his mother, “I love her. I love her more than anything in the world. And if you can think reasonably, you’ll know what she did for Anne was better than what you guys could’ve ever done for her. We’re getting married. You’re both invited, but I won’t lose any sleep over your missing attendance.”

  He didn’t linger for another second. Once he’d said what he wanted, they were out of the door and back in the car.

  “Eve?” His finger skimmed down her jaws.

  She closed her eyes and enjoyed the gentle warmth from his finger.

  “You all right? I’m so sorry about my parents.”

  “You need to stop asking me that.”

  She opened her eyes to see Dan gazing back at her, frowning slightly.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Since the whole thing with David Morgan, all of you wouldn’t stop asking if I’m all right. I am.” Then she grinned mischievously at him. “You were really hot in there. The way you spoke to your mom.” She sighed softly and leaned toward him. “You were so strong, so calm, so—”