Requiem for Innocence
Page 27
Drayco reached the top of the stairs and hesitated. He’d never been on this level and didn’t know which room was hers. The smoke was much thicker now, making his eyes water. Not having any time to waste, he ducked into the nearest room. Empty. He lurched farther along the hallway, so close to the flames, the heat was an oven against his skin.
The second room he tried seemed empty except for the curtain of smoke, but then he heard a moaning sound. He looked toward the open window and spied the prone figure below it. Scooping her up in his arms, he flew down the stairs, holding his breath to avoid inhaling more fumes.
The open door was like a gateway to another world as he passed from the hellish smoke and fire to blue skies and puffy white clouds in one step. He gently laid Vesta Mae on the grass next to Virginia, far from the inferno. He checked her pulse and respiration and was relieved when she opened her eyes.
Vesta Mae was wearing the gold locket which she instinctively reached up to touch. She looked over at Virginia beside her and smiled before closing her eyes.
Barry asked, “Did you see Winthrop?”
“No. Are you sure he went inside?”
“Pretty damn sure. Maybe he went out the back door.”
Sirens drew near, followed moments later by the fire trucks. The firemen uncoiled the hoses, as one of them came over and asked, “Anyone else in there?”
Barry and Drayco looked at each other and didn’t say anything at first. Drayco could tell what Barry was thinking, that if Gatewood was still in the house, it was a fitting end.
Drayco replied to the fireman, “There was one other person in there. The owner, Winthrop Gatewood.”
The fireman surveyed the house with a doubtful frown. Part of the roof collapsed, causing a chain reaction that brought down one of the columns and blocked the front door. The fireman rushed toward his colleagues as they tried to extinguish the flames and make it safe to enter. But it wouldn’t matter. The house that patriarch Gibson Gatewood had built, his legacy, and his son, disappeared in less time than it took Beth Sterling to die.
Thursday 23 July
The heat wave that dogged the mid-Atlantic for weeks broke with a passing cool front that triggered some spectacular storms. The much-needed rain had a hard time soaking into the hardened soil at first, triggering flooding in some areas. But the earth adapts. The water drained off, leaving the plants with a renewed vibrancy, and the air filled with the normal soothing breezes off the ocean.
Reece held both of Lucy’s hands across the table. Maida kept checking on Lucy, patting her on the shoulder and clucking soothingly as she made sure Lucy’s cup of strong black coffee was filled. Lucy hadn’t smiled much in the past couple of days. Today, she exchanged a joke or two with Maida.
Vesta Mae wasn’t well enough to see Virginia yet, but her doctors said she’d make a full physical recovery. What her emotional and mental state would resemble after she left the hospital remained to be seen. But Vesta Mae had lived with the truth for years. To Lucy, the wounds were fresh, the sudden knowledge of two sons she’d never known lost to her forever, and of a daughter who wasn’t her biological offspring.
Things seemed simpler to Virginia. She matter-of-factly stated that Lucy was her “soul mother” and Vesta Mae her “physical mother.” She herself decided she would continue to live with Lucy but spend time with Vesta Mae.
Lucy and Virginia’s financial future was brighter, between Beth’s Will and Vesta Mae’s family wealth. Neither Lucy nor Virginia was thinking about that now. They put the best face on the matter they could, but their pain was evident, and no money could spend it away.
Beth’s Will did mean Virginia and Barry were co-owners of Beth’s property, including the burned-out shack in the boonies. Drayco paid a visit to the makeshift graveyard with Nelia to show her the layout he reconstructed from his memory of the ledger. They asked Lucy to come along and see where Jeremy was buried, but she begged off. Something for another day.
Drayco toyed with asking Darcie to go along instead of Nelia but wasn’t sure it was a good idea. Despite his conflicted feelings, he’d caved and met Darcie at her home again the previous evening. And then he invited her to visit him at his townhome in D.C. His judgment continued to be off when it came to that woman.
Nelia stood next to Drayco in the Lazy Crab’s kitchen. She’d dropped by to fill them in on the fate of Faris Usher. “Thank heavens most criminals aren’t Rhodes Scholars,” she said. “After Usher started the fire, he took off in Gatewood’s car heading for his brother’s house. But his brother wouldn’t take him in when he found out Usher was running from the law. The brother contacted the police, and we nabbed Faris in short order.”
Drayco got a pleasing image in his head of Usher in a tiny cell in his prison jumpsuit and sandals, going through nicotine withdrawal. No more fancy Cuban cigars.
Drayco asked, “Been singing a confessional aria, has he?”
“Despite his right to an attorney, yes. I told you he wasn’t the brightest bulb. It’s not as if he’s remorseful or proud. He has a remote detachment from it all. He said they decided to set the fire to kill Virginia so there was no chance of her collecting the trust fund in a few years. And to collect insurance money on the house.”
“Whose idea was it to kill Arnold and Beth with the car accidents?”
“Usher told Sheriff Sailor it was his idea. But Gatewood ultimately called the shots. You and the sheriff were right about Arnold’s strangulation death—pure copycat, something they decided to do after the botched car accident.”
“The sheriff was rooting for Quintier to be our killer.”
“Quintier keeps on dodging us. And by us, I mean law enforcement types of all stripes.”
“His time will come. And I’d like to be there when it does.”
Maida motioned for Nelia to come over and join them at the table for coffee. Drayco stood observing the garden from the kitchen window where a lone figure sat very still.
He walked outside and stood next to Virginia, who was staring off into the distance. Drayco scanned her face, but no telltale streaks lined her face. She continued to stare toward the trees at the edge of the garden.
She didn’t acknowledge his presence at first. Finally, she said, “Do you think I’ll ever be able to do justice to birds? Like those two grackles over there. And the blue heron I saw the other day. I think I could paint them sitting still, but how do you capture something as magic as flying?”
He smiled. “I’ll bet Leonardo threw away a lot of sketches before he got his flying machine drawing just right. Not to mention his paintings.”
They remained there in silence for some time, as she continued to sit and watch the birds, and he stood quietly beside, watching her. When she spoke, she turned to him, eyes brimming with tears she tried to hold at bay.
“Why did he do it? Why would my father do something like that?”
Drayco knelt on the ground so their eyes were on the same level. “Winthrop Gatewood was a complicated man. He had many faults, and no one should excuse what he did. But when it mattered, when he was the one faced with hurting you, and not Faris Usher doing his dirty work, he couldn’t go through with it. Something in him, some bit of humanity, maybe a piece of a father’s heart came through in the end and saved your life by carrying you out of that house.”
Had he also heard his wife’s screams? And that was why he ducked back inside? Drayco would love to know the answer to that, to give Vesta Mae some closure, too.
Virginia looked at Drayco with the first signs of a tiny smile. She picked up a portfolio she had on her lap. “I finished the painting I’m going to enter in the competition. Would you like to see it?”
“Absolutely.”
She unzipped the case and pulled out a canvas with the portrait of a young girl, about Virginia’s age. The likeness to Drayco’s sister was remarkable for such a young artist. Virginia captured the haunted look in his sister’s eyes and the mysterious smile of someone enjoying a private wo
rld where no one else could go.
“Do you like it?” Virginia asked.
What could he say to such a question, filled with consideration for him when her own life had been turned upside down. “I love it,” he replied.
That was all that needed to be said. Virginia zipped the portfolio closed and continued her study of the birds. Drayco looked toward the house and saw Nelia watching them. They exchanged glances, and she lifted her coffee cup in salute. The women of Cape Unity were strong. Like the ocean near its shores—deep and resilient.
Thank You for Reading
I hope you enjoyed Requiem for Innocence, the second book in the Scott Drayco series. There will be more adventures ahead in the upcoming third installment, Dies Irae, in which Drayco reunites with his estranged FBI partner, “Sarg” Sargosian, to protect Sargosian’s daughter from a possible serial killer who leaves musical puzzles as a calling card.
Now that you have finished this book, won’t you please consider writing a review in your favorite online bookstore and/or Goodreads?
I’d also love to hear your feedback via my website at bvlawson.com, and if you sign up for my newsletter, you’ll receive a FREE Scott Drayco novelette!
Check out the other novels in the Scott Drayco mystery series:
Played to Death
Requiem for Innocence
Dies Irae
Elegy in Scarlet
Acknowledgments
Many thanks to the lovely folks on the Eastern Shore of Virginia who helped inspire some of the sights and scenes in this book. Note that both Cape Unity and Prince of Wales County are purely fictional and an amalgam of various towns and counties on the Delmarva Peninsula.
Special thanks to Charles, Lela, Sylvia, Ben, and Carlos for their amazing editing expertise, insights, and assistance.
Most of all, I give my undying gratitude—to infinity plus ten—to my amazing family for their encouragement, especially my astoundingly patient husband Charles, who is my supporter-in-chief.
About BV Lawson
Author and journalist BV Lawson's award-winning stories, poems and articles have appeared in dozens of national and regional publications and anthologies. A four-time Derringer Award finalist and 2012 winner for her short fiction, BV was also honored by the American Independent Writers and Maryland Writers Association for her Scott Drayco series. BV currently lives in Virginia with her husband and enjoys flying above the Chesapeake Bay in a little Cessna. Visit her website at bvlawson.com. No ticket required. Sign up for her newsletter and receive a FREE Scott Drayco novelette!
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