Cloaked in Blood

by LS Sygnet

  “Shut up, you piece of shit,” Crevan snarled.

  Aidan’s left hand balled into a fist.

  “Don’t touch him, Aidan. Not unless you want to learn in the next second whether or not there really is a heaven or hell,” I said. To Crevan, “Honey, put the gun down. You don’t want to do this. Death really is too kind for him.”

  “Maybe it is,” Crevan said thickly, “but at the moment, the idea of letting him live after knowing what a liar, what a hypocrite he really is makes me sick. Sick, Father. Do you hear me? You make me physically ill!”

  The narrowed eyes widened just a fraction. “Is that a fact? I should think your own behavior would make you physically ill, Crevan. Sleeping with that man, touching him in ways God never intended. What a disappointment you are. You want to kill me? Go ahead. I’m certain you’d find prison quite to your liking.”

  The hand holding the Glock wavered.

  Aidan’s grin was nasty. “You see what I’ve had to put up with for all these years, doctor? He doesn’t have the guts to do anything he puts his mind to. Now where his libido is concerned –”

  “You really should stop talking now,” I said. I stepped closer to Crevan and put my hand over his wrist, pushed the gun down to his side.

  “Disappointing indeed. I’d heard such magnificently bloody rumors about you, Dr. Eriksson. Was I misinformed?”

  I slid my left hand behind my back and removed the gun I’d taken from Johnny’s nightstand. “Certainly not, Aidan. But why are you being so formal all of a sudden? Or do you really dislike the name my real father gave me?”

  “I thought perhaps you didn’t have one of those dear, that the demons from hell merely dropped you on some poor unfortunate soul’s doorstep.”

  “Crevan, get out your handcuffs,” I said. “We’re arresting this son of a bitch, and once and for all, you can put the nightmare of your childhood behind you.”

  “Arrest me?” Aidan chuckled smugly. “Whatever for, dear? I’m a pillar of my community.”

  “You’re a murdering son of a bitch, and if it takes me the rest of my life to prove it, I will gladly do so.”

  “Careful what you wish for, son,” Aidan said. “Now be a good boy and run along, and maybe Father won’t cut you out of his will for this transgression. I would like to have a word in private with the good doctor.”

  Another distinctive sound echoed, this one behind Aidan. His smug expression bled into the white creases on his face.

  “And I would prefer that you leave Helen alone, once and for all,” Wendell said. He stepped close behind Aidan and jammed the .50 caliber Desert Eagle, silencer still attached, into the soft depression behind the man’s right ear.

  “No, don’t kill him,” I half pled, half warned. “I don’t want him dead. He needs to be exposed for what he is.”

  “Yes,” Wendell said. “I couldn’t agree with you more, but you see, Sprout, I know something you don’t know about this man. He’d rather die, and therefore will say or do anything to provoke Crevan into pulling the trigger. If you’d be so kind as to disarm your brother now, I’d appreciate it.”

  Crevan’s gun lifted swiftly. “This is one time, I’m more than happy to let him provoke me, Wendell.”

  “Wendell? My, now, this is getting more interesting by the moment. I thought you were dead. Don’t tell me that the demon spawn liberated you from prison.”

  “Stop calling her that!” Crevan shouted. Spittle flew from his lips. “If you hated children so much, why not sell both of us, Dad? Why keep me? Or is that the truth? You loved her enough to give her away. You hated me so you kept me to torture for the rest of your life.”

  Aidan had the temerity to laugh. “It just keeps getting better and better, son. Here’s a conundrum for you. You don’t pull the trigger, and your sister goes to prison – along with her father. Do you think I won’t tell the police that I was accosted by two dangerous murderers in my own home? I will. She’ll give birth to her child behind bars. And while a jury might be empaneled to judge me, who do you think they’ll believe – the man who has done so much for this city, or the murdering bitch from the east coast who sprung her serial killer father from prison so he could help her murder me?”

  It was Dad’s turn to laugh. “You’re a fool. You think I don’t know where to shoot just to scramble your brains enough so you can’t talk? Helen’s FBI buddy will go through this place and not leave a stick of furniture or a speck of dust undisturbed until they can prove that you’re the scourge upon Darkwater Bay. Meanwhile, you’ll be crapping your pants and drooling in prison, unable to tell a soul that I’m alive or that Helen did anything but save her brother’s life.”

  “Save his life? I’m not threatening anyone’s life here,” Aidan said. “Unlike you on that rooftop, eh Wendell? I saw what that cannon of yours will do to a man. I won’t have a head left if you pull the trigger.”

  “Not from this one,” Wendell jabbed another into the small of Aidan’s back, “but this .22? It’s my gun of choice you know. The damn thing shatters and doesn’t leave enough for ballistics. And it’s a revolver. No casing left behind. The children suspected your crimes, came to confront you and simply found you wounded on the floor of your den.”

  “Do it, Wendell,” Crevan pled. “It solves everyone’s problems.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous! Daddy, you’re not a murderer.”

  “The assassin truly was self defense, Sprout. But…”

  “But nothing,” Crevan coaxed. “I don’t care how many people you’ve killed, as long as he’s one of them!”

  “What makes you think I wouldn’t gladly go back to prison if it saves Helen’s future, Aidan?” Wendell said. “It’s all I’ve ever wanted for her. As for how I got out? Well, my daughter had nothing to do with that. There isn’t one shred of evidence that she did. And if Crevan here arrests me tonight, it’s your word against mine. When the truth comes out, when I testify to what you told me about selling your own daughter, probably hundreds of other innocents, who do you think folks will believe? Decorated police detectives, the father who was so concerned that he faked his own death to protect his daughter from men who wanted to sell her into slavery, or the man with the mountain of evidence against him that will surely be revealed?

  “Admit it,” Dad said. “You wouldn’t have killed Lyle Henderson yourself if you weren’t desperate to keep all of this hidden. I saw you leave that apartment, Aidan. Do you really think that the medical examiner won’t find your skin cells under his fingernails?”

  “Daddy, is that true?”

  He nodded. “I was across the street when his assassin failed. I planned to confront Lyle, tell him that his partner was trying to tie up all loose ends, including him, when lo and behold, who backed out of the apartment and took the time to wipe his prints off the doorknob, but this upstanding gentleman right here. Did you kill Melissa when you were at the jail tonight too, Aidan, or did you simply suggest to her that suicide was a better option than life in prison?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I have no idea who Melissa Sherman is, and I’ve never been to a jail in my life.”

  “Yet,” Dad said. “Helen, the cuffs now, if you please.”

  “I’ll be out before the three of you can run for cover,” Aidan scoffed. “Two murderers and a queer. I like my chances.”

  Crevan stepped close, pressed the gun over Aidan’s heart and pulled the trigger. “Not anymore, Dad. Not anymore.”

  Chapter 43

  The exit wound nicked Dad’s left shoulder. He pushed me away. “I’m fine, Sprout. Get his gun. We’ve got to… oh Christ. There won’t be residue on his hands. We’ve got to find something that will hold an imbedded bullet and fire that gun from Aidan’s hand before we run like hell out of this place.”

  Crevan dropped the gun to the floor. “That won’t be necessary, Wendell. I’ll confess.”

  “Like hell you will!” Johnny appeared behind us, winded from running.

 
I threw myself into Johnny’s arms.

  “Are you all right?”

  I nodded. “Johnny, Crevan didn’t know what he was doing. Aidan wouldn’t stop –”

  “Shh,” he murmured. “The less I know the better.”

  “But –”

  “For God’s sake, Helen, would you listen to the man for once? He’s trying to turn a tragic mistake into something plausible.” Dad gripped his shoulder and grimaced. “I need to get out of here, Johnny. Can I trust that you’ll keep Helen safe now?”

  “‘Til death do us part,” he said.

  “Daddy, you can’t drive this way.”

  “Take him home, Helen. Danny’s there waiting for us. Crevan and I will clean up this mess. You weren’t here. You know nothing. Are we clear?”

  I nodded. “But what’re you going to tell everyone?”

  “We came to arrest him. Crevan went in the front, I took the back. Aidan saw him, knew why he was here. They fought for the gun, it went off, and Aidan was killed. Simple.”

  “Crevan?” I turned to my brother, now trembling with the aftershock of what he’d done. I tugged him close to me. “Listen to Johnny. Don’t let Aidan win. Don’t let this ruin your life. I love you, do you hear me? I want my sons to know their uncle as much as I want their grandfather to be part of their lives.”

  “I should’ve listened to you,” Crevan said.

  “Now you realize it,” I grinned. “Next time, don’t make the same mistake.”

  “We can’t bury this, Helen,” Crevan said. “It’s wrong. I killed my father. I wanted to kill him.”

  “Shh. Don’t ever say that again. Do you hear me? The four of us are the only ones who know what really happened here tonight. I’ll never tell. Daddy won’t either. Johnny may not like what happened, but he loves you. He loves me. He knows that justice was served, even if it was kinder than Aidan deserved. Let it go. File the report and go home to Alex and live a happy life.”

  “She’s right, Crevan. It’s over. It’s finally over, once and for all,” Johnny said. He jerked his head toward the door. “Trust me. I’ve got this. Now get Wendell out of here before we end up with blood on the floor that we can’t explain.”

  I wrapped one arm around Dad and helped him out the back door. We were careful not to touch anything.

  “Where’s your car?”

  He nodded toward the back of the garage. “You’ll have to find something to brush over the tire imprints after we get into the alley. I’d hate to make this harder for your husband to explain.”

  “You don’t think people will believe him?”

  “Oh, they will. Nobody questions that man, or at least that’s been my impression. It concerns me that the FBI is still out here nosing into this, Helen. Are you aware that Johnny has been with David Levine all day?”

  “I’m not surprised. But Daddy, he’ll explain all of that later. I know he will.”

  “Good,” Dad paused in our retreat and kissed the side of my head. “I’m glad you’ve finally figured that out now. You know I can’t stay here, Sprout, but I had to know I was leaving you in capable hands.”

  I eased him into the front seat of the car. “Don’t say that. I meant what I said. I want you here with me. I want my sons to know that they come from good people, Daddy.”

  “There’s a small broom in the trunk of the car. Get it out before you back out of here so you can brush the evidence we were here away.”

  “Not until you promise me! I won’t lose you a third time, Dad.”

  “You’re not losing me. My face, perhaps, but know that nothing will keep me away from you forever, my dear little Sprout. But it’s all moot if we don’t get out of here before Johnny has to call in the cavalry.”

  Johnny surveyed the damage for a good five minutes before he looked at Crevan. “Well, you’ve got shock down pat. That works to our advantage.”

  “You can’t do this, John,” he said. “The truth always comes out in the end. I won’t take you down with me.”

  “Neither one of us is going down for this or anything else,” Johnny said grimly. “There’s only one other person who knows something bad happened here tonight, and I do believe that my wife has another man so smitten with whatever it is about her that makes doing very bad things seem right, that he’s the least of our worries.”

  “Where is Datello?”

  “I already told all of you. He’s back in Beach Cliffs, or on his way at the very least. Crevan, I need you to listen to me. I’ve got to call this in, and I want you to know exactly what I need you to say. You called me. You told me that you and Helen put all the pieces together, that you deduced Aidan was the missing conspirator that we were looking for. It’ll make complete sense to Levine, since we reached the same conclusion. He was with me when I got the call from Danny. He’ll believe it was you. We’ll tell him that when I got here, Helen agreed to go home and let us confront him. I took the back of the house, you took the front. Aidan came home while you were unlocking the front door. He met you inside. He came at you when you told him he was under arrest. You fought for the gun, it went off when he tried to take it from you, and he died.”

  “Johnny –”

  “I couldn’t get to you in time. This place is a fucking mausoleum. I could hear you, but couldn’t find my way from the back of the house in time. When I got here, it was at the moment that the gun went off. I saw him try to overpower you. This was an accident. We’ll sic the bureau on Aidan’s finances, and it won’t take long at all to show the truth of where his money really came from.”

  Johnny paused and peered intently at Crevan. “She needs you, Crevan. Helen needs you. She’s gonna lose Wendell again. We both know he won’t stay here, can’t stay here. It’s too risky, and he’d never put her in danger that way. She needs her family now more than ever. That’s you and me, brother. It’s you and me. Are you in?”

  Crevan nodded, albeit reluctantly. “Make the call.”

  Johnny whipped out his cell phone.

  A second later, and, “Levine.”

  “It’s Johnny. Where are you?”

  “At the county jail. Melissa Sherman tried to hang herself.”

  “Jesus,” Johnny said. “Tried?”

  “We cut her down in time. What happened in Bay View?”

  “It was Crevan who called me, David. He and Helen put everything together this morning. They’d been out surveilling Aidan Conall all day. When they saw him go to the jail, Crevan figured what he was up to. That’s when he called me. I met him in Bay View. We planned to confront his father.”

  “Planned to? Oh God, don’t tell me.”

  “Hold on,” Johnny said. “You need to hear all of this.”

  He related the tale he’d rehearsed with Crevan.

  “Thank God Helen had the sense to listen this time,” David breathed. “Have you called your Crime Scene Division yet?”

  “I wanted to tell you what happened out here first,” Johnny said. His voice dipped low. “Crevan’s pretty shook up over this. It wasn’t easy to realize that his father has been behind this thing all along. Lots of guilt, you know? For not seeing it from the very beginning.”

  “Christ,” David said. “Is he all right?”

  “He’ll be fine. In the meantime, we’re going to need a subpoena for financial records.”

  “No, we’ll just need permission from Aidan’s next of kin. I don’t suppose his wife would be very kindly disposed however, would she.”

  “I’ll let her know what happened just as soon as I get Ken Forsythe and his team out here to process the scene. I’m gonna get Devlin Mackenzie over here too. Somebody needs to get Crevan home.”

  “I’m so sorry, Johnny. I wish this hadn’t ended this way.”

  “Well it did, and it is the end of it, David.”

  “There’s always that. I’ll be up there as soon as I can. Maybe later I can talk to Helen about her suspicions of my behavior of late.”

  “Eventually,” Johnny agreed. “She’s
gonna want to be with Crevan right now, I’m sure. I’ll call you as soon as she’s ready. You’ve got my word.”

  Johnny called CSD and gave the address.

  “Helen’s not going to like this,” Crevan said quietly.

  Johnny snorted. “Don’t be obtuse. This sort of thing is exactly her specialty. Plausible deniability. She’s an expert, trust me.”

  “I meant about Levine. She really doesn’t trust him anymore, Johnny.”

  “Yeah, and I know why. I also know the truth. You didn’t think I’d keep him abreast of anything that happened tonight if I didn’t believe he’s looking out for her, did you?”

  “Are you sure we’re doing the right thing? What if Helen wakes up one day and realizes she hates me for killing him? What if Alex takes one look at me and knows what I did? I can’t live like this, Johnny. These kinds of secrets ruin people’s lives.”

  “From the mouths of less capable liars, yeah, they do,” Johnny said, “but in this instance, we’re going to let it go, Crevan. We’re going to accept this gift and thank God that Aidan won’t have the chance to buy off a jury with the recitation of his good deeds. Instead, we’ll bury him under the mound of evidence Levine and his people are going to uncover. Leave it alone now.”

  Within minutes, it was too late to turn back. The Conall residence was crawling with crime scene techs, and the overwhelming support rained down on Crevan for a double tragedy – first that his gun was the one that took his father’s life, and lastly, that Aidan Conall was the unimaginable bastard who thought he could sell human beings in Darkwater Bay.

  Chapter 44

  It took weeks for the brouhaha to die down over what happened to Aidan Conall. I doubt that anyone was more amazed than I was that the public bought Johnny’s story. People – especially poorer ones, and Catholics in particular – whispered their lack of surprise that he turned out to be such a vile creature.

  David’s forensic team quickly learned that when Crevan and I were born, the Conall family was living on little more than strained credit and a very old family name that carried a lot of money-backed clout.