Sins of the Father (35 page)

Crevan nodded. “She looks like our mother.
Not as much now, but when Mom was young,
they
could’ve
passed as twins. When I found Helen’s date of birth, I knew. What I
didn’t know was if she was aware that she had been… adopted, I
guess.”

“So you started dropping hints about our
birthdate,” I said. “You wanted to see how I’d react, if I knew I
was a twin, if I’d put it together too.”

“Did you?” Crevan leaned forward and peered
at me intently.

“No,” Johnny said. “She didn’t realize the
truth until Dev’s old partner dropped the name Martha Henderson
while she was on
The Celeste
.”

“Is that why Johnny found you in New York,
Helen? Were you there looking for answers?”

Before I had the chance to lie, or worse,
tell the truth, Johnny answered for me.

“She was. And if I hadn’t found her, her
next stop would’ve been Attica to confront Wendell.”

“He didn’t know any of this, Crevan,” I
said. “She lied to Dad. He believed I was his.”

“And you’re sure?” Crevan asked, though it
sounded more like disbelief than seeking confirmation.

I looked at Johnny.

“He had no idea, Crevan. You don’t know
this, but while you, Tony and Helen were working that case in
Downey with the dead homeless men, I was doing some investigating
of my own. I was worried about Helen. I went to Attica.”

“You
talked
to her father?”

Johnny nodded. “Granted, it was a single
conversation and it had nothing to do with that aspect of Helen’s
life, but one thing was crystal clear to me at the end. Wendell
Eriksson loved Helen. He had no idea that she wasn’t biologically
his.”

“Parents love and bond with adopted children
–”

“No, Crevan,” I said. “My entire life, Dad
told me stories about how much I was like him, how I even had my
grandmother’s hair. He believed I was his. He didn’t even want
children. He told me a story about Marie when I was very young. He
was angry because she suddenly got fat and there was no explanation
for it. He took her to his doctor and found out that she was
pregnant with me. At least we both thought it was me. He was so
angry that he kicked Marie out. He was done with her. She moved
into her mother and step-father’s home. Dad said they talked a few
times.

“You should know that like me, my father
found religious dogma irrelevant in life. That was what prompted
him to insist that Marie come back home. She was carrying his child
after all, and he couldn’t stand the thought of Marie ruining…
well, me, with all of that nonsense that Lyle espoused.”

“Your grandfather was religious, a minister,
right?” Crevan asked.

“With beliefs that are very much in line
with those of your parent’s church,” I said. “He wouldn’t have
allowed that to be crammed down my throat, Crevan. So when I was
born, it wasn’t in New York City. Marie was still in Poughkeepsie
with her parents.”

“And what happened?” Crevan asked.

“Dad’s sergeant put an alert out to the city
hospitals that if Marie Eriksson checked in to deliver a baby, that
Dad’s precinct would get a call. Only she told Dad that Lyle
wouldn’t take her to the hospital, that I was born at home and that
Lyle drove her down to the city the next morning for care.”

“And that was when your dad got the call?”
Dev asked.

“No, Devlin. Her father wasn’t notified,
because Marie didn’t check in as a woman in labor. She called
Wendell around what, noon, Doc?”

I nodded. “I have the first picture he had
of me in my baby book upstairs,” I said. “He believed I was his
daughter, Crevan. In fact, he was the only parent I had. Marie
wasn’t much of a mother. Dad raised me alone.”

“So she left him? But I thought she was part
of the armored car thing.”

“It was her armored car thing,” Johnny said.
“And no, she didn’t leave Wendell. But she had picked up enough of
Wendell’s own version of justice to use it to blackmail him into
helping her rob all those armored cars.”

Devlin frowned. “Is that why you have money,
Helen?”

“No,” I said. “My father came from a wealthy
family, an inheritance which he wisely placed in a trust. My mother
probably would’ve siphoned all of it off if she could’ve. Marie, as
far as I could tell, sunk most of what she stole into her personal
interests.”

“And what were those exactly?” Crevan
asked.

“Her father’s church,” the words ground
between my teeth like broken glass. “Basically, it’s how she
supported her parents. God knows, the church couldn’t have
supported Lyle in the manner in which he was accustomed.”

“Or, he was getting piles of money from
his
role in the human trafficking ring,” Devlin postulated.
“Did Marie grow up in a poor family? And has anybody bothered to
ask what happened to Wendell’s baby? You said he took her to his
doctor and learned that she was pregnant. If that baby wasn’t you,
what happened to it?”

It was a thought I hadn’t entertained too
deeply. I suppose in some strange way, even the notion that Dad’s
real child was floating around out there somewhere and might
possibly replace me was unthinkable.

“It could’ve been stillborn for all we
know,” Johnny said. “There are a finite number of people with those
answers, and I’m afraid they’re all dead with the exception of Lyle
Henderson.”

Crevan grunted. “He’s not likely to
cooperate or tell the truth, particularly if he’s in bed with
Sanderfield and they’re both up to their eyeballs in human
trafficking.”

I shook my head. “Sanderfield probably has
knowledge of it, but he’s too smart to be directly involved,
particularly with his political aspirations. He wants to be
governor. God only knows what he’s got his sights set on after
that.”

“Now we
don’t
think Sanderfield is
part of this?” Devlin asked.

“Yes and no. Gillette was pretty convinced
that someone with power would make sure that Johnny couldn’t stop
them from carrying on with business as usual. If you think about
it, even if Sanderfield loses the election, he still managed to get
OSI shut down. In that sense, Andy Gillette was right.”

I refocused my attention on Crevan.
“Regardless of who did what, I’m still not satisfied with why you
kept this from me, Crevan.”

“I suppose I didn’t really say, did I? Then
again, neither have you. You weren’t rushing to tell Johnny, let
alone me.”

“I didn’t have any proof.”

“But when you got it, you disappeared.”
Crevan’s eyebrows suddenly knit together tightly. “Abduction my
ass. You left intentionally, didn’t you, Helen? You wanted to slip
under the radar and find out how this thing happened.”

Smart one, that brother of mine.

It was Johnny’s turn to curse a blue
streak.

“Helen?” Devlin’s concern ratcheted up
several notches.

“Fine. I wasn’t abducted, but Martha
Henderson wasn’t the only clue that Andy Gillette dropped either,”
I huffed. “I’m still in danger, regardless of whether or not
someone has actually made another attempt to abduct me!”

“Right,” Crevan drawled.

“Crevan, it’s the truth. Gillette told Helen
that this most recent attempt wasn’t the first time she’d been
sold. When she begged for mercy on behalf of our children, he,”
Johnny paused and ground his teeth, “the son of a bitch flat out
said that a pregnancy only increased her value on the market.”

“Jesus,” Devlin chuffed his disgust out in
one burst.

“He also indicated that the deal was already
done,” I said. “I was sold. My abduction was merely a matter of
delivering the merchandise. So somewhere out there, a pervert is
pretty damn frustrated that he never got what he paid for.”

Crevan sobered. “Which in turn means that
whoever is still out there, whoever was part of this and wasn’t
apprehended, could still be after you.”

Johnny nodded. He dropped down beside me on
the sofa and wound his arm around me. “They’ll have to come through
me first.”

“And me,” Devlin said.

Crevan grinned. “Me too. I’m not about to
let someone take my sister away from me again.”

“That’s very sweet, all of you, but it still
lets
you
off the hook, Crevan. I’m not gonna quit until you
tell me why you didn’t say something long ago. If nothing else, you
should’ve divulged what you knew about my abduction when the
Datello baby was taken.”

He shrugged. “I suspected that if you dug
the way I thought you would, that you’d figure it out.”

“And how much time was wasted because –”

“Helen, not that I’m agreeing with Crevan,
but you weren’t exactly approachable during that investigation,”
Devlin reminded me. “I seem to recall an incident where you scared
the wits out of Tony Briscoe.”

I grunted. “That doesn’t excuse the fact
that we wasted a ton of time because someone had facts that he
wasn’t willing to share. Hell, if I’d known the truth about what
happened to me, I might’ve been a little more guarded in the first
place.”

“I don’t know how that’s possible,” Crevan
said. “From where I sit, you’re pretty damn guarded on your best
day.”

“Knock it off, Crevan. If you’ve got
something you’d like to tell me, just say it. I don’t appreciate
all of this passive aggressive sniping.”

“You took my DNA without my knowledge,” he
said. “One, I know I don’t like that. Two, don’t get self righteous
because I kept a secret from you when you’ve been
nothing
but secretive since you arrived in Darkwater Bay. Three, I’m not
even sure I want to know
how
you got my DNA for
comparison.”

“It was the cigar you smoked after Johnny
told everyone that I’m pregnant,” I said. “And I didn’t tell you
because I’ve been agonizing over how to convince you that this is
true. Christ, since we met you’ve been steeped in denial, Crevan.
You denied being gay. You denied that your father lied to you about
a stillborn brother.”

He squirmed a bit. “Fair enough. I publicly
denied both of those things. Pretty obvious why on the first count,
and I think it explains why I wasn’t willing to challenge anything
my dad –
our
dad – told me.”

Johnny beat me to the punch. “Probably not a
good idea to refer to Aidan as her father, Crevan. Doc hasn’t said
as much, but I don’t think I’m speaking out of turn in saying that
I doubt that’s the kind of relationship she ever wants with
him.”

Amen to that.

Chapter 33

“Lyle Henderson is the key to all of this,”
I said. “Give me five minutes alone with him, and I guarantee,
he’ll sing like a canary.”

Johnny chuckled. “No. That’s completely out
of the question, Helen.”

Dev and Crevan looked at me like I’d lost my
mind.

“What, you think he doesn’t keep tabs on me?
These morons have been watching my every move since I got to
Darkwater Bay. Hell, for all he knows, I could’ve shown up out here
to get
them
. Maybe it’s a lie that I left the bureau at
all.”

“And everything else you did was just what,
incidental to your real goal?”

I rolled my eyes at Devlin. “No, everything
else was incidental to getting Datello. Lowe was the first card to
fall in their little scheme to keep this lucrative slave trade
going. Once that happened, it was merely a matter of time before
the police became effective and they felt pressure from law
enforcement.” I turned to Johnny. “You and David said it at dinner
last week. Sanderfield claims that OSI was largely ineffective
until I showed up in Darkwater Bay. I did in a couple of months
what you hadn’t been able to accomplish in two years.”

“Thanks, sweetheart.”

“You know what I mean.
I
know I
didn’t do it alone, but when Sanderfield made his nasty little
insinuation that sounded like a dig at OSI, that wasn’t what it
really was at all.”

“He tipped his hand. You were the turning
point, the factor that changed their sweet little set up,” Devlin
said.

“Yeah,” I nodded. “Johnny, if you hadn’t
blown your cover when I got shot, I doubt that Datello would’ve
jumped on the Sanderfield bandwagon.”

“Then you think he had nothing to do with
the human trafficking business?” he asked.

“I’d bet my life on it. It’s like we said
the other day. Datello was a convenient plan B. He was insurance in
case anything was ever exposed. Destiny Gerard’s confession before
she committed suicide proved that. She tried to pin the whole thing
on Danny.”

“So we’re convinced that Wendell Eriksson
was innocent,” Crevan frowned.

“Of this? Yes,” Johnny said.

“But how –?”

“Crevan, I said he didn’t have any part of
it,” Johnny repeated.

“You’ve suspected his guilt all along.” I
shook my head and peeled myself out of the corner of the sofa where
Johnny kept me partially restrained with proximity alone. “Crevan,
you have to tell me the truth. Have you been trying to build a case
against my father since you figured out who I really am?”

“I wouldn’t say I was building a case per
se. He was already in prison for life. What more were the
authorities going to do to him, even if he was part of this? It
means nothing now that he’s dead.”

I towered over Crevan and glared. He rose
and met my challenge without flinching.

“Let him rest in peace, Crevan. I said he’s
not involved and that’s all there is to it. Do you hear me?” My
voice was soft, but the threat was unmistakable.

“And what if in the course of this
investigation, we find out that he was part of it, Helen? Are you
just going to turn a blind eye again and pretend that he’s this
paragon of virtue despite even more facts that he wasn’t?”

Johnny had my left wrist in a tight grip
before the open palm could crack against Crevan’s cheek. “Helen, we
have to go where the leads take us. And Crevan, I’m as confident as
she is that they will not lead us to what Wendell did in his
criminal career. Let’s not forget that he was out of the loop for
nearly twenty years. He couldn’t have been part of what was going
on in Darkwater Bay during that time.”