by LS Sygnet
“You’re talking about when you found out Marie was pregnant with me.”
“Yes,” he said. “You see, she led me to believe that even if she wanted children, which she claimed she did not, that they weren’t possible. We’d been married a few years, not particularly the happiest of my life, when suddenly your mother inexplicably began to gain weight.”
“She was pregnant with me.”
“Yes, though she didn’t gain like a pregnant woman. She gained like a bulimic who suddenly began binging without a purge. There is no kind way to describe it. The mother you remember was svelte by comparison to what happened over about a five to six month period when she was pregnant with you.
“I thought something was wrong with her. Perhaps a thyroid condition. It was unacceptable to me that without cause, she would suddenly gain almost a hundred pounds. I dragged her kicking and screaming to my personal physician. Even then, I didn’t trust her.”
“And you learned she was pregnant.”
Dad nodded. “I’m ashamed of how I reacted, Helen, and I’d rather not get into the specifics.”
“And I need to know all of it.”
“Explain why any of this matters now, Sprout. I don’t understand.”
“I’ll tell you when you finish. How did you react?”
He cleared his throat and stared at the table. “I believe I requested that the doctor terminate the pregnancy immediately. He explained that wasn’t possible, as Marie was nearing her third trimester.
“Frankly, I wanted to kill her. Instead, I kicked her out of the house.”
My heart rate accelerated. “Where did she go?”
He snorted. “To her parent’s home in Poughkeepsie of course. She knew that even if I had a change of heart I would never come for her there.”
“You did, though, did you?”
“No,” he said. “I was free again, and thought that I had a new lease on life. She’d call periodically and try to elicit some kind of sympathy from me, and frankly, I didn’t care. But…”
“Yeah,” I said softly.
“I started thinking about you, though I didn’t think of you in terms of who you are, darling. You were sort of this abstract concept to me. I thought about your mother and what a… well, pardon me for being blunt, but she was a very fucked up individual. I didn’t love her, Helen, and I’m ashamed to say that. I had almost no desire to be married, but she was somewhat attractive and took care of the home so I didn’t have to split my focus between there and work. It was comfortable and convenient, some might even say it was expected that a man my age marry. I had zero desire to be a father.”
“Yet you have a soft spot for children. Thomas Peterson.”
“I can’t believe you remembered that name, Helen.”
“What happened next?”
“I worried about Marie’s screwed up family having any sort of influence on my child. It ate at me. To the point that I finally told Marie that I thought she should consider moving back home. We had a bit of back and forth, then a whole lot of silence. Out of the blue, she called the sergeant at my precinct looking for me.”
“Because she was in labor?”
“Not exactly. That was part of the story that I embellished for your benefit. I thought it made me look more heroic and less the cad if I was working some important case and couldn’t get to the hospital until after you were born.”
“So… when she called?”
“You were already born. She was just letting me know where you were.”
“She traveled all the way from Poughkeepsie to the city to deliver me?”
Dad snorted softly. “That boneheaded stepfather of hers refused to take her to the hospital. She delivered you at home, and the next morning, he drove her down to the city for medical care.”
My heart slammed into my ribs. “Dad, are you sure that’s how it happened?”
“Of course I am. I knew she wasn’t in the hospital for several days before you were born. Sarge had an alert at all the city hospitals. If she checked in to deliver a baby, we were getting a call.”
“But because she showed up after I was born, you never got the call until she was ready to make it.”
“That’s right.”
“So you went to the hospital.”
He nodded. “They put you in my arms, and that was it. You were the most beautiful baby I’d ever seen. And when I saw that little tuft of russet fuzz on top of your head, I couldn’t help but see nothing of Marie and everything that was good from my family.”
“You have red highlights in your hair.” Sadly, I knew that it was merely coincidence.
“Marie told me your name.”
“She gave it to me? I thought –”
“No,” Dad chuckled. “Absolutely not. I told her I’d break her neck if she named you Cailín.”
“I remember this. You named me after Grandma Eriksson.”
“That’s right. She pitched a fit of course, but I told the hospital that under no circumstances were they to file your birth certificate until I approved it. So there you were. Helen Eriksson. My beautiful baby girl.”
“Daddy, this is going to sound like a strange question. When you told Johnny what to do to fix my little… problem, were you trying to get me out of Darkwater Bay?”
His face hardened to stone. “Helen, don’t tell me your still living out there!”
“Was it because my mother came from Darkwater Bay?”
“No,” he growled. “She was born in New York, just like you were. Her son of a bitch stepfather, now he’s a different story.”
My heart sank lower than ever. “I think this is something I really need to hear.”
Chapter 14
My dad isn’t a stupid man. I knew that asking for information about Marie’s family would send red flags flying all over the place.
“I think the less you know about Lyle, the better. And that’s all I’m going to say about that.”
“Do you know what time Marie checked into the hospital the day I was born?”
“Sometime that morning. Helen, where are you going with all of these questions?”
“What time did she call you?”
“Around noon, I think. This was almost 40 years ago. Why are such minor details important –?”
My mind tuned him out. I was taken from Saint Mary’s so soon after birth that neither one of my parents had the opportunity to hold me. If Marie, or whoever stole me, zipped immediately out of the city, they could’ve been on the ground in New York City by early to mid-morning. Show up at the hospital. Claim home birth. Call Wendell. It fit. I’d have been such a new newborn that nobody at the hospital could’ve conceived that I’d been snatched from the west coast and flown across the country.
“Helen, have you heard a word I said?”
Didn’t matter. I sucked in a deep breath. “This is going to be very difficult for you to hear, Daddy, and I’m not even sure how to… find the words.”
“Just say it, honey. There’s nothing you could ever say that would make me love you less.”
“No, but it might make you hate Marie more. I know that would pretty much mirror what I’m feeling right now.”
“It is well deserved, I can assure you.”
Words began tumbling from my lips. When Dad recoiled at urgent confessions of recent events that resulted in my DNA being collected from beneath a dead man’s fingernails, I reached over the table and gripped his hands. I plunged forward. Abducted twin, a girl, Darkwater Bay, born eleven minutes after midnight on June second almost 39 years ago, a nurse under the alias Martha Henderson, child never recovered. Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. Celeste Datello, my speedy retrieval of her missing infant, the dead Filipina girl on the beach, human trafficking, our routine search for other abducted infants, the old case from Saint Mary’s.
Andy Gillette, my abduction, the assertion that this was not the first time I’d been sold, and the name, Martha Henderson dropped as casually as God bless you after
a stout sneeze. I explained what I suspected, how I’d met the man who was biologically my father and despised him on sight, the cigar stub that Maya tested, the results of the mitochondrial DNA that proved definitively that Crevan Conall and I did in fact share a mother.
“Daddy, I love you with all my heart. Tell me you knew nothing about this. Tell me that Marie was every bit as wretched and hateful as I know she was, and I’ll believe you. You are my father, and you always will be. I don’t care what the science says this time.”
He gently pulled one hand free and wiped the tears from his face. “Thank God she’s dead already. I’d have killed her if I knew what she did.”
“You didn’t know. You didn’t…” Was the feeling of overwhelming relief wrong?
“This family, the Conalls, are they good people?”
I shrugged. “Compared to you? No. They’re awful, wretched people who have basically disowned their only child because he’s gay.”
“Christ,” Dad said. “Well, at least she managed to take one who had a better life. Until she screwed that up too.”
“Daddy, did she try to kill you that night?”
“She did,” he said. “Though my quick reflexes turned the tables on her.”
“What do you mean?”
“She would’ve hit the guardrail on my side had I not grabbed the steering wheel and made sure she was the one who bore the brunt of the impact. I was not stupid, Sprout. I knew that the accident would put an end to Marie’s scheme to steal every red cent she could get her hands on regardless of whether or not she succeeded in killing me.”
“Marie didn’t realize that?”
“No. Not the brightest criminal on the face of the earth.”
“Dad, why did you go along with her in all of that?”
He cleared his throat. “There were other things that I participated in, and she was aware of enough to use that information as leverage.”
I nodded. He didn’t need to say anything more. My father, the honorable hit man. “Did you take money for the people you killed, Daddy?”
He hung his head. “Sometimes, Sprout. Sometimes.”
“Were they all bad people?”
Our eyes met.
“Very bad. The worst.”
“Is that why you sent Johnny to one of Sully Marcos’s businesses?”
The corners of his mouth twitched. “You miss nothing.”
“He loves me, Dad.”
“Orion? Yes, that was pretty obvious. And how do you feel about him?”
My hand slid down the front of my suit. “I married him.”
“Oh honey –”
“I’m pregnant, Daddy.” More tears fell, mine and his. “We’re having twins.”
“Sweetheart, it sounds like you have a wonderful life now. What on earth are you doing here? If you needed answers, you could’ve just come to me. There was no reason for this elaborate ruse.”
“But there is,” I said softly. “I left my life, Daddy. I left it for you.”
“Helen –”
“No, I cannot leave you here. I should’ve prevented this travesty from happening in the first place. We could’ve beat this charge if I’d used your money to hire the best attorneys money could buy. It’s now or never, Dad. I’m about eleven weeks pregnant. Showing already. Now or never.”
“Then you should’ve chosen never. I knew there were risks to what I did, that with them came dire consequences. I’ve accepted my life, Helen. I can’t be part of something that puts your freedom at risk. I doubt Johnny would go along with that either.”
“He has no idea what I’m doing. And if he had the slightest idea, he’d stop me, Dad. Or at least try to.”
“So he has a good head on his shoulders after all.”
“Please let me get you out of here.”
“Helen, look around you. This isn’t some Podunk county jail out in Nowhere, Nebraska. This is Attica Correctional Facility, one of the most storied prisons in the history of the United States. I can’t just waltz out the door because you think I don’t belong here. My window for an appeal has passed, a very long time ago.”
“I know.”
“Honey, life without parole means that my only way out is dead.”
I nodded. “That’s what I figured. So Dad, you need to trust me.”
“Indeed. I wasn’t aware that was ever a fact in question.”
“I’m getting you out of here, and yes, I’m going to kill you to do it.”
Shock registered. “Helen!”
“Not… keep your voice down. They think I’m a man. I don’t mean I want to literally kill you. Just… you know, make you look dead enough to get you out of here.”
“I’m sure you’ve got some ridiculously brilliant plan, but I’m telling you right now. It won’t work. In the first place, even if I looked like I was dying, it would land me in the infirmary.”
“This facility, like a lot of other prisons, can provide the basics, even continuing care for chronic illnesses, theoretically at least. They don’t have an ICU capable facility. Trust me. You look sick enough, and they’ll send you out.”
“Life without parole. Why would they give a damn if I die in here? It’s sort of the plan.”
“They can’t let you die from a treatable condition. Trust me, Dad. There are people who monitor this kind of stuff. If someone has to go out, EMS is summoned. You’re transferred to a jail ward in a hospital, or have security posted at your door if no such ward exists. I saw it all the time in my residency.”
“You’re serious. Helen, this is insane. What if they send one of the prison officers with me?”
“Doubtful. As sick as you’re going to appear, they’re not going to worry about more than four point restraints.”
“Which presents a problem as well. It might be easier to get me out of a hospital –”
“You’re not going to the hospital, and you’re not going to really be sick.”
“So, we’re planning to hijack an ambulance? Helen, this is truly crazy.”
I filled him in on the rest of the plan. “Ronnie and his brother in law are already putting the faux ambulance together. The brother in law is a paramedic. Ronnie trusts him.”
“That’s too many witnesses involved.”
“Believe me, Ronnie owes me a huge favor, Dad. He owes me his life. He’ll do this, and absolutely, family means something to him. He wouldn’t bring someone in that he didn’t trust implicitly. Plus the brother in law will know exactly what the prison officers expect from a transfer. It can work.”
“And if it doesn’t?”
“What are they gonna do, add more years to your life sentence?”
“I was thinking about the consequences for my pregnant daughter. I don’t want my grandchildren born behind bars. You shouldn’t want that either. If I went along with this at all, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have to worry about surviving if we get caught. You husband would kill me. Hell, he’d probably make it look like the two of you were trying to stop my escape just to protect you.”
“So you have nothing to worry about.”
“I have everything to worry about. It’s one thing to accept consequences for myself, Helen. There’s no way I’d knowingly put you in danger. This qualifies for the category of out of the question.”
“I’ve got a plan. Everything is arranged. I’ve got your passport, the jet to get us out of the U.S., tickets to Europe, the ambulance, the medication, it’s all worked out, Dad.”
“Okay, if I were to go along with this, and we’re talking about a very big if, exactly what kind of chemicals would you be pumping into me?”
“The initial crisis will be caused by an anticholinergic agent. It’ll make you dry, hot, fast heartbeat, but best of all, it’ll stump the hell out of them. That’s what gets you to the infirmary. They’ll have to start an IV, because with the high temperature without sweat, they’re gonna think that something happened and you’re dehydrated.”
“Okay, and I’m assuming t
hat the IV fluids won’t correct my problem.”
“Maybe, maybe not. That’s not what’s important. Do you think you could have sixty seconds alone with the port on your IV?”
“I could probably have an hour alone with it. The prison infirmary isn’t exactly a hotbed of overstaffing. What am I going to be doing with the IV port?”
“Succinylcholine.”
Dad frowned. “I actually know what that is, Helen. You’re talking about using a drug that’ll paralyze my muscles and prevent me from breathing.”
“Exactly. They’ll at minimum put in an airway and do rescue breathing so you don’t actually arrest, but they can’t put you on a ventilator, which is what you’re going to need.”
“I’m supposed to like this idea?”
“Dad, they’ll ship you out of here freaked out and faster than you can bat an eye. The best part?”
“Let me guess. If I die, I don’t ever have to come back.”
“Succinylcholine has a very short half life. It’s gonna be completely worn off before the ambulance gets you to the airstrip.”
“What if your ambulance doesn’t get here before the drug wears off?”
“They’ll arrive in two to three minutes of the call.”
“And if the nurse on duty in the infirmary waits too long to call them?”
“She won’t. Dad, people in health care can’t wait to turf a serious problem to the adrenalin junkies. They’re not equipped to handle this sort of thing here. She’ll see you, panic, pop in an airway and call for emergency services. We’re talking a max of five minutes from the time you inject the drug until you’re out of the facility.”
“This 9-1-1 call, won’t they be alarmed when they show up to get me and I’m already gone?”
“Not a chance,” I grinned. “Ronnie’s taking care of that too. There’s going to be an mishap involving the real ambulance, he’s thinking something mechanical. They’ll have to call someone else out.”
“And that’s when you perform the old switcheroo. Hoping of course that nobody’s the wiser until it’s too late.”
“With lights flashing, they can get to the airstrip in ten minutes. Fifteen tops.”
