Carolyn Arnold - McKinley 05 - Family is Murder

by Carolyn Arnold

  Elisha kept pulling on her arm, but Sara’s legs were turning to mush. The adrenaline was wearing off. They were buckling beneath her.

  “Please, we have to—” Sara felt so weak, nausea came in waves.

  “Move.” Elisha yanked on Sara’s arm, but there was no more fighting it.

  Sara’s tossing stomach couldn’t hold it any longer.

  Elisha let go of her and stepped back a few feet.

  The pain was blinding now. Flashes of white seared across her vision but she knew it was time to act.

  Elisha was standing there with the bag of money held in both hands. Her gun was in her satchel.

  Sara stayed hunched over but moved closer to Elisha. Even though her breathing had slowed from the pain and she couldn’t see straight, she had to trust her instinct. She closed her eyes, briefly, praying for the strength to see this through.

  With one more labored breath, she turned and tackled Elisha, bear-hugging around her waist and pulling her to the ground. The money bag fell out of Elisha’s hands.

  Spasms of pain ricocheted through Sara and made her gasp for air.

  It was all that Elisha needed. She flipped Sara over onto her back and straddled above her. She reached into her satchel.

  “Sara!”

  Sean? Had she heard him or was she imagining it?

  She rolled her head to the side and she saw him coming toward them.

  Instantly she looked back at Elisha. Her hand was almost out of her purse. She would be armed when it withdrew.

  Sara punched Elisha in the nose.

  The wail she let out would haunt Sara’s nightmares, but it had Elisha pulling her hand out of the purse, unarmed. She stumbled off Sara, cradling her nose.

  “Sean.” What Sara intended as a scream came out as a mere whisper. It hurt to breathe.

  “Sara?” Sean dropped to the ground beside her, caressing hair back from her forehead and leaning over to kiss it.

  “Oh.” She moaned instinctively, in response to the pressure of him against her torso.

  “Sorry, baby.”

  Looking up at him was like seeing an apparition. Every day she spent with him, she knew their love was special, that he was special, but in this moment, it was cemented even further.

  She heard officers moving in and the resultant yelling that took place between them and Elisha. When she recognized the click of cuffs and the reading off of the Miranda Rights, she raised her hand to touch Sean’s face.

  “At least, I didn’t crash the Mercedes.” She smiled, a flash of pain transforming it into a wince, but she reclaimed the expression.

  Sean smiled at her and it warmed her insides. “Even if it had been, cars can be replaced. Angels can’t be.”

  The Promise

  JIMMY SIGHED IN RELIEF WHEN he saw Sean and Sara coming toward him. Sean was carrying Sara and his heart sank. Was she all right?

  Officers trailed steps behind, escorting a handcuffed McBride to a cell she belonged in. If he had any say, the woman would never see the light of day. Her boyfriend, Brent Anderson, still needed to convince Jimmy he had no involvement.

  The McKinleys smiled when they saw him, and it made him appreciate their forgiving nature. Maybe they had understood his boundaries and why they had to be in place. He no longer did.

  “Good job, rookies.” Jimmy smiled at them.

  “Good job? Rookies?” Sara said as Sean set her down. She winced when her legs touched the ground and leaned against Sean for support.

  Paramedics ran over to her with a stretcher and tended to her injuries.

  They went to roll her toward the ambulance, but she held up her arm and struggled to sit up. “Did you find my mother?”

  Jimmy glanced at Sean. The moment of truth was soon approaching, but he couldn’t do it this way, not now, not directly to Sara.

  Jimmy smiled. “Leslie is fine. We have her.”

  “Oh, thank you.” Sara laid back down and the medical staff swept her away.

  “Wait for me.” Sean called out to them, but he didn’t make a move to follow. His body faced toward Jimmy, but he glanced to where they took his wife. “No one dies today.”

  Jimmy’s focus was not so much on the words, but on Sean’s look. He recognized it—it represented feelings he used to have for Clara, which at this point felt like another lifetime ago. Sean needed to be with Sara.

  “Thank you, Jimmy, for coming through.” Sean took a few steps.

  “Sean?” There was something he needed to tell him and it had him wishing he wasn’t the delivery person.

  “Yeah, what is it?” Sean’s attention was still on Sara.

  He didn’t say anything until Sean’s eyes came back to his.

  “What is it, Jimmy?”

  “A couple things,” Jimmy wet his lips. “One, if either of you need me again for anything, don’t hesitate.”

  “Are you sure about that?”

  “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”

  Sean nodded.

  Seconds went by.

  “You said a couple things?” Sean pried, the arch of his question almost implying impatience and Jimmy supposed he couldn’t blame him.

  “We found Leslie Summers.”

  “Yes, you said that. What is it, Jimmy?” The hurry to leave gone, Sean’s energy simply communicated curiosity.

  “I heard from a guy named Adam. He sounds like a kid. Said he knows you and that you told him to call me.” Jimmy paused, but Sean didn’t say anything. Jimmy couldn’t put it off any longer. “He sent me Sara’s birth record and there’s something you need to know.” As he filled Sean in, he watched his face fall with each piece of news. When he was finished, Sean took a deep breath.

  “Don’t worry about it. I’ll tell her.” Sean patted Jimmy’s shoulder and set off in a jog toward the ambulance.

  On The Mend

  “You know it’s not too late to take off on a vacation. The jet could be readied quickly.” Sean smiled.

  “Sean.” Sara squeezed his hand. “What about our party?”

  Sara was in a hospital bed, being treated for injuries sustained during the accident. It turned out none of her ribs had been broken, but a few were bruised. They had joked around about it being her turn to be battered and roughed up.

  “Yes, we’ll have our party. In fact, it’s going to be the best one ever,” Sean said.

  “We still need a maid.”

  “Actually, I’ve taken care of that. Somewhat anyway.”

  Her eyes locked on his. “You did?”

  He laughed. She was unconvinced. “I am quite capable you know.”

  “Who did you get?” she asked.

  “Does that really matter?”

  “Yes.” She shifted on the bed, wincing with each movement. Even with medication she had told him her body continued to ache.

  “Jimmy.”

  “Jimmy? Really?”

  “Well, he’s not going to be our maid,” Sean conceded, “but he’s going to do all he can to get the party arrangements finalized and organized.”

  “Jimmy?”

  “You’re starting to sound like a parrot, darling.”

  She smiled and batted the air, releasing his hand for a second. He reached for it the moment her hand lowered.

  The aura around her went serious. “Where is my mom?”

  “Leslie Summers or Jeannie?”

  Her eyes narrowed a trace. “My birth mother, Sean.”

  He encased her hand in both of his. As he watched the light dance in her eyes, the flecks of green and gold shining as hidden gems in the deep brown, he knew he’d have to tell her what Jimmy had told him. He preferred to do it when the time was right, but that moment had long come and gone.

  “She’s okay, right? Jimmy said—”

  “She’s fine, darling.”

  “What is it?”

  There could be no more putting it off. She had to know.

  “Leslie Summers isn’t your birth mother.”

&
nbsp; “What do you mean? Is this why Adam wanted me to see my birth record?”

  “Well, it wasn’t so much your birth record as something else you need to know.” He’d deliver the news as delicately as he could. “Leslie Abbott died in a car accident about six months after giving birth to you.”

  He noticed tears fill Sara’s eyes but she said nothing.

  “Her older sister, Elizabeth, was driving. She was only a couple years older. There was a raccoon on the road and she swerved to miss it. Leslie was killed on scene. The woman we met as Leslie is actually Elizabeth Summers, the surname belonging to her late husband.”

  Sara sobbed quietly. “So she took Leslie’s first name, but her real surname? Why tell me she was my mother? Why not just say she was my mother’s sister? Why put me through this?”

  “Because Elizabeth is unstable. She’s been in and out of mental institutions most of her life. She thinks that she is Leslie sometimes. It doesn’t help that she was never able to have kids. When she told us she did, when we first met her, her mind believed her to be Leslie.”

  Sara gasped and covered her mouth.

  He could only imagine what she was thinking, so close, yet so far away.

  “And why tell us she was a doctor?”

  “Tough to say, but it’s probably because she had been around a lot of them in her life.”

  She blinked and tears fell down her cheeks. “Why did my mother give me up for adoption?”

  “What Elizabeth told you was the truth. Leslie got pregnant with you when she was fifteen. Their parents were very staunch in their faith and having a pregnant unwed daughter was frowned upon.”

  Sara picked at the end of the sheet with her free hand.

  “Elizabeth said that—”

  “So, you’ve been talking to her?”

  He nodded and continued. “She said her sister was dying a little each day, knowing that you were out there and she couldn’t get you back.”

  “That picture she gave me of the pregnant woman, was that my mother?”

  Sean nodded. “It matches the one Adam sent over of Leslie Abbott.”

  Sara bit on her lip. “Can I see Elizabeth?”

  “You can, but she’s being treated, darling. She needs time to heal too.”

  “I understand. You—”

  “Yes, of course. I set her up in a good home. We can visit her there when you’re up to it. I’m also working to have it so she can come to the reception.”

  “Thank you, Sean.”

  “Don’t even mention it.”

  Her eyes took on a distant gaze.

  “What are you thinking about?”

  She looked at him. “Remember how I told you that I don’t want kids?”

  “Yes.”

  She wiped the last of the tears away. “Don’t worry. I still don’t want them.”

  The full breath came to him. He smiled at her.

  “This is partially why I don’t want kids, you know? I have such a sordid past, but I’ve found it’s not necessary to have blood relatives to make you feel whole and complete. Somewhere in the last couple of days I’ve really figured that out.”

  He didn’t say anything, expecting her detour to come back around to her original reasoning.

  “I don’t want kids because…what if I mess them up?”

  “You are not even capable of that.”

  She laughed. “Flattery will get you everywhere.”

  “Everywhere?” He bobbed his brows, making her giggle.

  Her hand shot to her abdomen.

  “The real reason? I didn’t think I was emotionally stable enough. Maybe that sounds crazy, and I’m sorry if it scares you. It’s just, for most of my life, I haven’t known who my birth mother was, not even a name. I never searched because I told myself it didn’t matter. But the question haunted me throughout my life. I also felt as if I would be betraying Mom and Dad by looking into it. They may be my adoptive parents but they might as well be blood.” She paused, watching him and he was sure it was to assess that he was taking it all in. “When we found each other, I knew, again, that I belonged in this world. There was no question, but with our last case I saw the bond between mother and daughter. I started to wonder about my birth mother again.”

  “Then Elizabeth came along.”

  “Yes, and all my prior mentality kicked in. This told me I belonged—even though I already knew I did.” She squeezed his hand.

  “But you still don’t want kids?”

  She smirked as she shook her head.

  He dramatically wiped his brow.

  “You just don’t want any because they’d look like me, or be crazy like me?” she asked.

  “First of all, you’re far from crazy and second, you’re the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen.”

  “Like I said about flattery—”

  His mouth was on hers before she could finish.

  A Royal Affair

  Sara came down the staircase, dressed in a flowing wedding gown. As she descended, their guests went silent. Sean stood at the base of the stairs, dressed in a fitted tux. He smiled when she looked at him and her heart palpitated.

  This was perfect.

  Those she loved the most in the world were there today—in their home. What a house warming gift. She scanned the crowd as she took each step. Everyone was dressed formally, suits and gowns filled the main area of their house.

  When her gaze went back to Sean as she took the last step to the main level, tears of happiness beaded in her eyes.

  Their guests clapped and whispered as Sean hugged her tightly.

  “Just a little softer,” she whispered in his ear. Her ribs were still tender.

  “Sorry, darling.” He eased up the pressure.

  “Kiss her! Kiss her!”

  Their guests had turned into a lynch mob with their own agenda. She was pleased that it suited hers flawlessly. She kissed him as if no one else were in the room.

  Breathless, they parted and smiled at their guests.

  Jimmy, dressed in a tux, handed Sean a microphone.

  Sean nodded his thanks. “Sara and I want to thank all of you for being here today. We love each and every one of you.”

  Sara glanced at Jimmy and smiled. She reached out and put her hand on his shoulder.

  As Sean continued with his speech, Sara’s happiness was at a high.

  Sean passed the mic to her and she accepted it.

  “I want to thank all of you for believing in us, for believing in dreams, but most of all I want to thank you for giving me a place where my heart belongs, where I find comfort and peace.” She pressed her lips and curved them into a smile to suppress the tears. There had been enough crying lately. Besides, she was the most at peace than she had ever been.

  Their guests clapped and stopped when Jimmy said, “The couple is going to have the first dance.”

  The band started playing Here and Now, a song made popular by Luther Vandross in the late nineteen-eighties. It was a song that had always touched Sara, so when it came to selecting a singer they had to sound near identical. As she listened to their choice, she was pleased.

  Sean held out his hand to her and her heart fluttered. She didn’t imagine that reaction would ever stop. As he led her around the designated dance floor, she knew she’d never have to worry about belonging again—she was where she was meant to be.

  She held Sean tight, inhaling his smell, his cologne. He was her home—not the four walls that surrounded her.

  “I love you,” she said.

  “And I love you, Mrs. McKinley,” he spoke into her ear, the heat of his breath on her earlobe.

  She savored the closeness with her husband and closed her eyes as they swayed to their song.

  Sean had wanted to dip her at the end—they had discussed it before—but with her bruised ribs they had to pass.

  At the end of the song, he took her face in his hands and kissed her.

  The crowd clapped again.

  “Now, the
rest of us can join in,” Jimmy announced.

  The band went back to playing a crooner-type song, similar to the ones they’d played when the guests arrived. It was either made popular by Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin. Right now, her conviction on that wavered. Her mind was on other matters.

  Waiting staff weaved through the room now, serving champagne and assorted hors d’oeuvres.

  Sara scanned her guests and saw Adam Laverty. “If you would excuse me, darling.” She slipped out of Sean’s reach.

  Adam was sipping on champagne, but lowered the glass when she stopped in front of him. “Mrs. McK—Sara.”

  “Thank you for everything.”

  “I’m sorry that it didn’t work out the way you thought it would.”

  She smiled at him. “That’s life, Adam. It doesn’t always turn out the way you wanted or expected, but it always turns out as it should. Thank you again.” She kissed him on the cheek.

  When she pulled back, his cheeks were a flaming red.

  “Oh, one more thing,” Sara began, “please, don’t be nervous around us anymore. You’re an extension of the family.” She gave him another quick smile before she left him.

  She glanced back to see him gulping the champagne.

  When she turned around, she came face to face with Elizabeth Summers.

  “Sorry to scare you,” Elizabeth said.

  “Oh, no,” Sara took Elizabeth’s hands in hers, “I’m glad you could make it today.”

  As promised, Sean had worked things out with the medical facility so that she could get to the party for a couple hours.

  Elizabeth smiled. There was a portion of her eyes that had lost the spark of life.

  Sara recognized it as part of her grieving process, but also knew that Elizabeth was back on medication to help with the delusions. There was still a long road ahead for her.

  “You brought me closer to her, Elizabeth, and I thank you for that. I want to spend time getting to know you,” Sara said.

  “I’d love that.”

  “But you have to take care of yourself right now. Heal.”