FIRST ONE DOWN: A Paul Sutton Novel (23 page)

"Why do you think I'm here, Olivia?" Sutton asked.

She tilted her head, like a dog does when it hears a high-pitched sound, "You're here because of Nate Warner."

"Nate Warner?" Sutton asked.

"Detective, please don't treat me like I'm stupid. You got a question, ask me, and if you don't have any questions, then leave," Olivia said, looking Sutton directly in the eyes. As she studied his face, she was taken with his pale blue eyes and recognized a kindness behind them that she doubted many people noticed. A warm fatherly like energy radiated from him and even through his tough exterior, she could feel it.

"Fair enough, Ms. Foster, how do you know Nate Warner?"

"That's a complicated question, perhaps you should ask another," Olivia said, clearly unafraid to take charge.

"Okay, do you know Kali Hanson?" Sutton asked, playing the game Olivia was asking him to play. Her gaze moved away from his eyes, and fixed on the floor as soon as Kali's name left his mouth. He could tell the question hit a nerve, and he intended to continue hitting it until he found out what part of the web Olivia was stuck in.

"Yes, I used to work with her," Olivia said, still looking at the floor.

"At the facility? San Diego Orthopaedic Specialists?" Sutton asked.

"Yes, but I'm sure you already know that."

"I do. Can you tell me what your relationship was with Ms. Hanson?" Sutton asked.

"A work relationship," Olivia said.

"Were you friends?" Sutton asked, gearing up to rapid fire some questions at her until he had her where he wanted her.

"Yes," Olivia said.

"So, you had a relationship beyond being co-workers?"

"No."

"Olivia, you just said you were friends. Yes, you were friends, or no, you were not. Which is it?" He asked, his tone becoming caustic.

"Yes, we were friends, but not outside of work," Olivia said, looking up at him, her eyes pleading for leniency.

"Were you jealous of Ms. Hanson?" Sutton asked.

"No!" she shouted. Rising from the ottoman, she walked into the small kitchen area and poured herself a glass of water. From the kitchen area, she looked at Sutton, as if daring him to ask another question.

"Is there a reason that question upset you, Ms. Foster?" Sutton asked, calmly.

"No."

"Did you have any intentions of hurting Ms. Hanson?"

"What? Why are you asking me these questions? Did something happen to Kali?" Olivia asked.

"Do you think something happened to Kali?" Sutton asked, thrown off track by her question. He usually knew what was coming when he was in control of an interview. He didn't expect that, at all.

"I don't know," Olivia said.

"But you think something may have happened to her? You think she was in danger?" Sutton asked.

"I don't know."

"I think you do, Ms. Foster, tell me why you think Kali may have been in danger," Sutton said.

"I think she trusted people she shouldn't have trusted," Olivia said, turning away and walking back into the kitchen area.

"People? By people you are referring to Nate Warner?" Sutton asked.

"Yes."

"And?" Sutton asked.

"Other people."

"Olivia, please come back in here and sit down," Sutton said, knowing he needed to back off some and assuage her emotions.

Looking at him, she put her bottom lip out and blew air straight up, blowing a few stray ringlets away from her eyes, as she made her way back to the ottoman.

"Thank you. I can tell that you are upset; you obviously care a great deal for Kali Hanson, would that be an accurate assumption on my part?" He asked, as gently as possible, trying to keep her from shutting down.

"Yes," she said.

"And you don't think she should have placed her trust in Nate Warner?" Sutton asked.

"No, I don't think she should have trusted Nate or Meg," she said, looking him in the eyes again.

"Meg? You are referring to Megan James?"

"Yes."

"Do you know Megan James?" Sutton asked.

"Yes."

"You know Megan through Kali Hanson?" Sutton asked.

"Not exactly," Olivia said, returning her gaze to the floor.

"Exactly how did you come to know Megan James?" Sutton asked.

"We are...we're related," she said.

"Related, ma'am?" Sutton asked, completely taken aback. He hadn't found any connection between Olivia Foster and Megan James when he searched Olivia's background.

"Yes," she said, her voice growing softer.

"I'm sorry, Olivia, I was not aware that you had familial connections in San Diego."

"Well detective, I do," Olivia said with a defensive tone.

"How are you related to Megan James?" Sutton asked.

"She's my sister."

"Your sister?" Sutton asked, completely confused, his mind racing, trying to think faster than all the new facts he was being fed.

"Yes, my sister, does that surprise you detective?" Olivia asked.

"Yes ma'am, I was under the impression that Megan James was an only child."

"She isn't." Olivia said, her voice cracking as tears filled her big, blue eyes.

"You are her biological sister?" Sutton asked.

"We have the same father, so yes, I am her biological sister."

Sutton sank back into the couch, ran his hand through his hair, and fought hard at resisting the urge to pace the floor of the small apartment.

"Have you had a relationship with Mr. James since birth?" Sutton asked.

"No, I have never had a relationship with my father."

"I apologize for my ignorance, Ms. Foster, but I'm having a hard time following the trail here. Your last name isn't James, you don't have a relationship with the father you have in common with Megan James, and you don't believe Kali Hanson should have trusted Megan James. Do you have a good relationship with Megan?" Sutton asked.

Olivia crossed her arms over her chest, took a deep breath in, looked up at the ceiling, and then back at Sutton, "Detective, you want to know the story, you can't connect the dots, and you want me to fill you in, right?

So, here goes - Mr. James cheated on his wife, with my mother, and when my mother told him of her pregnancy, he offered her money to keep it quiet. My mother was in a bad financial position at that time in her life, so she gladly accepted. I had a good life, detective. My mother was amazing, she did her best, she loved me, and I wanted for nothing as a child. I lost my mother to cancer when I was in college, and during the process of settling my mother's affairs, I found correspondence between my mother and Mr. James. After reading that correspondence, I put two and two together. I tried to put it behind me, let it go. It was made clear in the letters Mr. James sent my mother that he wanted nothing to do with me. But there came a time that I just had to know. I had to know why he hated me so much, but I needed to find out. I contacted him by phone and he agreed to meet with me. I was thrilled, but the day we met, he arrived with an attorney and the bastard offered me money to go away. When I said no he threatened me, he threatened my life detective.

By the time I reached out to Mr. James, I had already done research on not only him, but also his company, and his family - the family that he actually claims. I learned that I had a sister, Meg. I began to research Meg and, in doing so, I learned that she resided in San Diego, and worked as a horse trainer for our father's business. I thought if I moved to San Diego and figured out a way to get close to Meg, that I could make her like me, that we could become friends, and if we became friends I thought eventually our father would have to accept me, that he would be forced to allow me to be a part of the James family.

I moved to San Diego, and I started working for Dr. Tessa Drake. During an event that we hosted for rehabilitation specialists, Tessa Drake and I met Kali Hanson who was, at the time, entertaining the idea of moving on to a better career opportunity. Tessa loved Kali's background and wanted to extend her an offer. Tessa had me research Kali Hanson prior to drafting the employment offer, and in doing so, what do you think I stumbled upon, detective?"

Sutton could barely form a coherent word, lost in the story he was being told, and dumbfounded by the complexity of it all, "Megan James. You found out that Kali and Megan were close," he said.

"Yes, I found out that Kali Hanson and Meg were best friends. Tessa extended the offer, Kali came to work at the facility, and I was ecstatic believing I finally had my way in. I befriended Kali, met Meg, and within a few months, I went to Meg directly and told her everything. And what do you think happened next, detective?" Olivia asked.

"I have no idea, but I have a gut feeling it didn't go as you had hoped," Sutton said.

"No, detective, it didn't go as I had hoped it would. Megan James told me to never contact her again, that she didn't accept that I was her sister, and that if I pursued a relationship with her, or our father, she would make my life 'a living hell'. So I left her alone."

Olivia stopped talking, her body twitching as she heaved silent sobs inside, holding it in as best she could. The pain radiating off of her body was palpable.

"I'm sorry you had to go through-"

"Don't be sorry, detective, I'm not a charity case, and I don't need your pity. The deeper I looked into the James', the uglier they became in my eyes. I feel fortunate that things worked out the way they did, fortunate that I didn't end up in the middle of that cluster-frick of a family. I knew eventually they would bury themselves in the holes they were digging. So, I sat back and watched them self destruct from the inside out, and I would be a liar if I said it didn't feel good to watch each of them suffer in their own ways. I enjoyed it. Immensely. And then, I was given another gift. I was given the opportunity to take away the only thing that Meg really loved, the only ally she had. Her best friend. And this is where your Nate Warner comes into play," she paused again, took several sips of water and studied the utter shock displayed on Sutton's face,

"Nate Warner visited the facility, frequently, to see Kali. I got a bad vibe off him the first time I met him. He's evil and I felt it. His energy literally made me nauseous. I figured it was because he was a liar and womanizer, in the worst way. One afternoon Meg had come to the facility to bring Kali lunch, and when she was on her way out of the facility, Nate was on his way in. It was crystal clear to me that there was something between the two. I saw my opportunity to hurt Meg, just like she had hurt me. I knew if I could prove to Kali that Meg and Nate were having an affair, she would cut them both out of her life. I couldn't believe my good fortune. Ironic, isn't it?

I hired a private investigator, and he confirmed what I already knew. I decided to watch them both squirm a bit before I presented the facts to Kali. My own brand of evil, funny how that happens to us, evil, I mean. I don't think most of us intend to become what we despise, but sometimes we become just that. They both had it coming and I wanted to catch them in the act, so I followed Meg one night..."

Olivia stopped talking once again. This time her sobs were more intense. She suddenly jumped up, ran to the kitchen leaned over and began to vomit violently into the ceramic sink. Sutton went to her, and placed his hands on her shoulders. In the span of just two days, he had witnessed two different women broken by two different types of heartache, fall apart before his eyes.

"Olivia, we can stop talking for a while. Come, sit on the couch," Sutton said, as he led her by the hand to the couch. She fell into the couch, and balled up in the fetal position. Sutton sat on the very edge of the couch and stroked her dark, curly hair admiring the lengths she had gone to in an effort to hide from her past, or her truth, he didn't know. But, she had definitely run away from something. He wanted to know the whole story, he needed to know, but he couldn't bear to let Olivia push herself any harder until she regained some sort of emotional stability. Her heaving and sobbing subsided, and Sutton watched her drift off to sleep. He decided to sit there for a while, let her rest, and figure out how in the hell all of this tied into Laura Carmichael's murder.

The relentless pounding in her head was the first sensation she was aware of, followed by the poignant smell of alfalfa and something cold restraining her wrists. There was a warm stream of liquid running down her cheek. Tears, she thought. Her mind was so fuzzy. She shook her head, clumsily, as if trying to shake it into reality. Groggy, she felt groggy. Had she taken sleeping pills the night before, she wondered. Trying to open her eyes, nothing changed. It was so dark, the light - I need to reach the light, she thought. And then she heard his voice.

"You're safe Kali," his voice soft, quiet. "I have you now, you are where you belong."

Mind racing, she tried to speak, but no words came. Her mouth was unable to open, and the dark, so dark it was suffocating.

"Settle down, baby. Why are you struggling? Do you know who I am?" He asked, as a low, ruthless laugh escaped his mouth, "Of course you know who I am. Don't try to answer, Kali, your mouth is taped shut, and I don't want you to hurt those beautiful lips. Once you calm down, and accept your current position, I will remove the tape. I want you to think about that for a few minutes, okay?" Nate asked, knowing it was a rhetorical question. He bent down, over her and rubbed the top of her head. She flinched and began squirming again. The ether seemed to have affected her in an adverse way. She was shivering uncontrollably, there were droplets of sweat forming on her forehead, and she felt clammy to the touch. He continued to rub the top of her head in an attempt to soothe her enough to calm her down and end her squirming. He wanted so badly to remove the duct tape from her mouth but he needed her still first. Reaching around the back of her head, he untied the blindfold he had put over her eyes earlier. As soon as the blindfold fell away, she blinked several times and he watched her dark eyes slowly grow large, like saucers, darting back and forth, between him and her surroundings. He wondered if she knew where she was. The flicker of recognition in her eyes told him that she did.