Sins of the Father (5 page)

“I thought I was standing on his arm. Funny
how my perceptions of all that were so skewed.” Another thought
occurred to me. “You have my DNA on file now?”

“It’s not being entered into the system if
that’s what your worried about.”

“Can I trust you to keep my confidence,
Maya? I mean, no matter what, would you keep a secret if I asked
you to?”

“We’re not talking something illegal are
we?”

“No, of course not. I freely admit that I
killed Gillette. I don’t feel the slightest bit of remorse for it
either. I had a justification defense had the DA’s office filed
charges. No, this is something personal, something I haven’t been
able to share with anyone. I think the reasons are rather obvious.
At least they are to me.”

“Tell me,” Maya urged. “Is it about what
happened to you?”

“It’s about that human trafficking case,” I
said. “I doubt it would be of any use to the prosecution since it
happened so long ago. Even though there is no federal statute of
limitations for kidnapping, I doubt that many, if any of the
conspirators involved in the case are still living. The one that
might be is already incarcerated for life.”

“Helen, what are you saying? Did Andy
Gillette tell you something?”

I nodded. “It’s very sensitive. Johnny swore
me to secrecy.”

“Oh my God. What is it?”

I sucked in a deep breath. “When Sofia
Datello was abducted from Saint Mary’s, we asked the administrator
about the hospital’s history. He informed us that two other infants
were taken from the hospital in its fifty or sixty year history.
One happened while Jerry Lowe was chief of detectives, the other
happened almost 40 years ago.”

“And it’s the old case that you somehow
learned was part of what Gillette and his crew were involved in?
Helen, that makes no sense. Gillette was forty-seven years old at
the time of his death. He was a child forty years ago.”

“I realize that. But he knew things about
that case.” I readjusted my perch on the edge of the planter and
turned toward her. “The police were never able to uncover the true
identity of the woman who kidnapped that infant,” I said. “All they
knew was that her name was an alias and that she and the baby
disappeared without a trace.”

“All right. How does that necessitate the
secrecy you’ve implied?”

“Because we know the family who lost their
child. It was a twin, Maya.”

She stared blankly.

“The child was born on June second, shortly
after midnight. The first child was born one minute before midnight
on June first.”

“Okay. Is that significant?”

“The family name was Conall.”

“Oh dear lord. Crevan?”

I nodded. “Johnny talked to Aidan about it,
or tried to at least. He wasn’t particularly cooperative. Perhaps
denial is a family trait.” I gnawed on my lower lip.

“What else aren’t you telling me?”

“Aidan and his wife finally told Crevan that
he was a twin when he was college age. I have this theory that
Aidan lied to Crevan about it because he suspected his son was a
homosexual and wanted to hold something over his head to suppress
the natural inclinations he saw emerging in his son.”

“What did he tell Crevan?”

“That the child was stillborn, that it was a
brother.”

“Wait a minute. He didn’t tell him that the
boy was abducted?”

“No,” I said softly, “and even if he had
told the truth about the abduction, in the context that he told the
story, it would’ve still been a lie.”

“I don’t follow.”

“The infant wasn’t a son, Maya. It was a
daughter that was abducted. I’m not sure if you’re aware of the
statistics involved in human trafficking, but the ratio of female
to male is glaring. The preference is more than three to one for
females.”

Maya’s eyes narrowed. “Wait a minute. Your
birthday is June second.”

My voice faded away to a raspy whisper. “I
was born eleven minutes past midnight.”

“Oh my God, Helen. You think you’re the
abducted infant from Saint Mary’s?”

“I knew that Crevan and I were separated by
mere minutes. I learned that several months ago and didn’t think a
thing of it. We thought his twin was not only stillborn, but
male.”

“Then what happened?”

“Andy Gillette said some things to me while
I was chained to the wall of that cargo bay. He flat out told me
that the sale he was facilitating wasn’t the first time I’d been
sold. He said that my notion of freedom was nothing but an
illusion, that someone has always owned me.”

“Jesus Christ and General Jackson. Did it
occur to you that he was lying? Messing with your head?”

“Of course it did, Maya. Until he uttered a
name.”

“Dear God. He knew the alias of the woman
who abducted Crevan’s sister, didn’t he?”

“Yes,” I said softly. “Martha
Henderson.”

“Why haven’t you told Crevan any of this?
Why haven’t you told
Johnny
?”

“I’m not sure how I feel about it. And I
can’t shake the feeling that perhaps Gillette was just screwing
with my head. But I need to know the truth about who I am, Maya. I
need to know if Crevan is my brother, if my whole life has been
nothing but a lie. I need to know if my father was part of
this.”

“He’s the possible conspirator that’s still
living,” she said flatly.

“And I know my father,” I said. “I could
never just show up for a visit and confront him and expect that
he’d tell me the truth. What if I’m wrong? What if he’s just as
ignorant about this as I’ve been?”

“Hold on a second. We don’t even know for a
fact that this is true. Helen, I know you don’t want to tell
Johnny, but you have to. It needs to be investigated fully.”

“I know,” I said, “but he’s already been
through so much because meeting me absolutely ruined his life. And
what if I’m wrong? What if Gillette lied? We know he was keeping
tabs on our investigation. He might’ve known that we got the case
files on the other abducted infants from Saint Mary’s. At worst, he
could’ve realized what we would’ve done as a matter of course in
the Datello investigation.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

I drew in a shuddering breath. “Because you
have my DNA. I need your help – quietly, Maya. If it turns out that
Gillette lied, nobody gets hurt. No one but you and me will ever
know what he said to me.”

“You want me to analyze Crevan’s DNA and
compare it to yours.”

“Yes,” I said. I reached into my purse and
retrieved a plastic bag containing a half smoked cigar. “After
Johnny announced my pregnancy yesterday, he passed out cigars. This
one was Crevan’s. Do you think you can get enough DNA to compare it
to mine?”

She took the bag from my hand and stuffed it
into her purse. “It’ll take a few days for a complete DNA analysis.
We can get a mitochondrial sample much quicker. It will
definitively show if your maternal traits are the same.”

“And you’ll promise me right now that no
matter what the results show, this is something that is between the
two of us only? You can’t tell Forsythe. And no matter what
happens, you can’t tell Johnny or Crevan or anyone else, especially
if Gillette was telling the truth.”

“Helen, I don’t understand why you’d want to
conceal it if it’s true. Don’t the Conalls have the right to know
that their daughter is living right here, under their noses, that
she’s safe and happy and has had a good life?”

“I need to know if my father was part of
this, Maya. Until I can prove his guilt or innocence, I can’t tell
anyone else what I’m doing.”

“Of course,” she gripped my hand in hers and
squeezed. “But Helen, it would be so much simpler if you let the
people who love you help you get to the bottom of how this
happened, especially if what we suspect turns out to be the
truth.”

“Then you think it’s possible that Crevan is
my twin brother?”

Maya nodded. “I’d must’ve been blind not to
see the resemblance before now. My God. You look like siblings,
Helen. Why didn’t I notice this the first time I saw you
together?”

“Because we often can’t see things that are
right in front of us. Especially when we think we already know the
truth.”

“Screw shopping,” Maya said. “Let’s head
over to the lab and get the test started.”

“I need to hear you say it, Maya.”

She rolled her eyes. “Fine. I promise that
I’ll take this secret with me to the grave. I don’t agree with you,
but I’ll respect the confidence.”

“No matter what happens?”

“As long as you keep me in the loop with
regard to what you’re doing, I won’t tell anyone what you shared
with me.”

“Or the test results.”

“Fine,” Maya sighed. “The whole thing is our
secret. What I won’t promise is to stop nagging you to confide in
your husband. He loves you, Helen. If anyone in the world is
capable of keeping your secrets, it’s Johnny Orion.”

True enough, but I am a creature of habit,
more than anything else.

Chapter 5

Tony Briscoe’s jowls were tight when he
lumbered through the door of the diner across the street from
Downey Division. We had made yet another tentative truce when he
showed up at the house yesterday. Seeing him now made my hackles
rise and reminded me of every single reason I had to dislike and
distrust him.

I masked it behind a warm smile.

He relaxed marginally before sliding into
the booth across from me. His eyes widened at the heaping plate of
food in front of me.

“Sorry,” I said, dragging a French fry
through a lake of ketchup. “Eating for two these days, and when the
mood to graze strikes, there’s not a whole lot I can do to control
it.”

The black cloud around him evaporated in the
shimmer of a bright smile. “That’s just fantastic news, Eriksson. I
know how delighted Johnny was when he shared it yesterday. Despite
my misgivings, you’ve made him a very happy man.”

I wagged one finger at him. “It’s not
Eriksson anymore.”

His eyes widened. “But Johnny said you
hadn’t taken his name when he finally got the ring on your
finger.”

“I stopped at the Social Security office on
my way over here,” I said. “It’s officially Helen Eriksson Orion
now. Johnny doesn’t know yet. I thought I’d surprise him when I get
home from lunch.”

His eyes fixed on a small crack in the
Formica tabletop for a moment. Our waitress approached before he
had the chance to explain why he was suddenly reluctant to speak.
In all the months that I’d known Tony Briscoe, I had never once
seen him filter his thoughts before an outrageous blurt of Briscoe
gospel.

“Hey, Tony. The usual?”

“That’d be fine Maxine. Thanks.”

I waited for the waitress to scurry off to
the kitchen before posing the open ended question. “What?”

“Well, I guess it ain’t no secret that I had
some serious doubts about you after Johnny got hurt. Despite your
recent actions, I’m man enough to admit I was probably wrong,
Helen. I’m sorry for how I suspected you of bein’ something less
than law-abiding.”

Probably
wrong. It was so Tony
Briscoe. He was a master of the uncommitted apology. I forced a
grin. “Well, I was probably wrong to grab you by the throat the way
I did that night on the bay shore,” I returned one in similar form.
“What you said pissed me off, Tony. I’ve never investigated a case
with more vigor based on the ethnicity of the victim.”

“I know that. Tempers was runnin’ hot that
night. I get it. I just hope you realize that you’re a hell of a
lot stronger than you give yourself credit for.”

“And I was hormonal more than I realized
that night too.”

Tony blinked rapidly. “I don’t follow.”

“I’m pregnant, Tony. Almost three months
along, now. I didn’t know at the time that I was reacting a little
more extremely than usual based on the hormonal pendulum swinging
back and forth inside me.”

“Oh. Never thought about that. Hell, now it
really does make sense. My first wife was a raging –” he stopped
and censored himself again. “Well, let’s just say I thought she’d
lost her mind when she was pregnant with our daughter.”

“Maybe on some level I knew, or at least
suspected that I was pregnant,” I said. “Maybe that’s what made the
Datello baby’s abduction hit me so hard.” My hand smoothed over a
still flat belly. “Instincts can be very strong, Tony.”

“Makes sense,” he said. Never one to beat
around the bush, Tony segued into something else. “Don’t tell me
this is why you wanted to have lunch with me,” he said. “I know you
better than that. What’s the real agenda?”

“I’m worried about Crevan.”

Briscoe grunted. “He ain’t doin’ so bad from
what I hear.”

“I thought if you could bury the hatchet
with someone you accused of being no better than the murderers
you’ve arrested, you might be amenable to making things right with
a man who was very close to you for a long time, Tony.”

“Close to me, bah. In all that time, he
never thought to mention that he was livin’ a double life. What’s
that tell you about him, what he really thought of me and our
partnership?”

“You were more than partners and you know
it. Hell, you were on his side the whole time, Tony. You knew what
a dick his father was. You knew that Belle was nothing but bad
news. You know what I think?”

“I’m sure it don’t matter to you if I care
to know, so you may as well spit it out.”

“I think that you don’t give a damn if
Crevan is gay, straight or becomes a celibate priest. What’s in
your craw is that you found out about it at the same time everybody
else did.”

The waitress returned with Tony’s lunch and
asked me how my meal was. I ordered another strawberry shake, which
elicited a chuckle from Briscoe.