Burning Proof (26 page)

THE RIFLE CLATTERED TO THE GROUND
and Barone tilted forward, screaming. He fell out of the chair. Abby kept her gun trained on him, ready to shoot again if he tried to reclaim the rifle. But he didn’t. He simply writhed and bled a lot. Luke was there in a flash, kicking the rifle away. Sirens were closer, but Abby could tell by the bright-red blood she’d hit an artery. She’d aimed for his shoulder, a part exposed and free of the vest, and had hit where she wanted. Obviously the bullet had done a lot of damage.

“He’s a mess.” Luke knelt next to him.

Abby approached them, gun pointed away. “We have to find Callie.”

“He’ll bleed to death.”

“I won’t let him die.”

They both turned as Molly limped toward them, grimacing in pain, sweatshirt off. She got on her good knee, casted leg out to the side next to Gil, and made a pressure bandage with her sweatshirt. He writhed around but was obviously growing weaker.

“I’ve got this,” Molly said, face confidently set. “Find Callie.”

Abby looked at Luke and he stood. Together they jogged into
the garage. Behind them the first emergency vehicles pulled up. They heard Molly yelling to them that Barone needed immediate attention.

With the sounds of emergency vehicle traffic behind them, Abby called for Callie and strained to hear if there was any response. In spite of the noise of diesel engines as fire trucks pulled up, Abby heard banging.

“Over here.” She pointed to the van and Luke tried to open the side door.

“It’s locked. I need to find the key to get it open.” He glanced at the scene around Barone and knew asking him for the keys was not an option. He moved around to the front of the van and peered in the window. “I can’t see anything.” He tried the front door, and it too was locked.

He looked around and grabbed a bat leaning against the wall. Abby stepped back as he smashed the window. In another second he had the side door sliding open.

Abby was aware that several officers had joined them in the garage as Luke jumped inside, moved the bike, and tenderly picked up the bound girl. Abby watched as his large, strong hands gently removed the duct tape from the weeping girl, telling her it was all going to be okay now.

“Callie!” Molly called out. Abby saw that the paramedics had taken over with Barone, and Molly came toward them, supported by a firefighter.

Luke lifted Callie out of the van and set her on shaky legs, and the girls embraced. The officers turned questioning looks their way, and Abby explained what had happened as the firefighter stepped forward to check Callie’s injuries.

Molly wiped her eyes and looked at Abby. “You were right
yesterday. I know that now.” She hugged Abby. “Thank you for not letting the bad guy win.”

“Thank God, Molly. Thank God. He is our help in every situation.” Abby wiped the girl’s tears.

Molly nodded. Callie called for Molly and she went to her sister.

“Amen to that,” Luke said as Abby stepped back to where he stood. His warm gaze soothed her and he held out his hand. “Great shot. I knew you’d have my back. Faye will be thrilled by our success today.”

His brilliant smile cut Abby two ways. She wanted his excitement and happiness directed her way but realized she was too late; he was already captivated by someone else.

Abby was still processing the events of the morning when her phone rang.

“Abby, where are you?” It was Bill, and his voice sounded uncharacteristically tense.

“I’m in Tehachapi with Luke and Woody. Why? What’s the matter?”

She and Luke were sitting in an office at the police station, eating sandwiches. They’d spent hours at the scene as the local cops went through Barone’s residence. Besides the body in the driveway, there was a second body in the backyard, identified as Barone’s partner, Bart Meechum. But the man in the driveway had no ID. His face had taken the brunt of a blast that had been tentatively identified as a bomb, a booby trap rigged to explode at the front door. Who he was, why he was there, and why Barone killed him were mysteries.

Luke and Abby had been excused to get something to eat and were waiting for a debriefing by the detectives in charge.

“Something has come up,” Bill said. “A family doing an excavation in their backyard
 
—they were going to put in a pool. They dug up a skeleton.”

“Yeah?” Wary now, Abby frowned. “What does that have to do with me?”

Luke reached over and placed his hand over hers, apparently reading her angst.

“Body had been wrapped in plastic and the clothing was still intact, and in the back pocket was a wallet with ID and credit cards. The ID . . . Well, Abby, the ID belongs to your father, Buck Morgan.”

“What?” Abby’s body went numb. She felt a roaring in her ears as her pulse raced.

Luke tightened his grip on her hand, but she barely noticed. She saw him staring, concern in his eyes. He mouthed something
 
—it might have been “What’s wrong?”
 
—but she couldn’t hear the words.

“We’ll need DNA to be certain,” Bill was saying, “but this might be your dad.”

WHEN ABBY DISCONNECTED
the phone call with Bill, she turned to Luke and told him what her partner had said. Luke couldn’t find his voice for a minute.

“I think it would be important to find out who owned that house twenty-seven years ago,” he said finally, worried about Abby and what this could mean to the investigation that affected them both. The information had rocked her world; he could tell that by the expression on her face.

“Bill said they were looking into it,” Abby said, her voice not even sounding like Abby.

“It’s okay if you want to leave, to go home and be briefed on what’s up with this news,” Woody said. He’d arrived just after lunch, having missed all the action at Barone’s house because he was out with the dog rescue agency. “Maybe I should even drive you.”

Abby looked away and said nothing for a moment.

Luke knew this information was a 9.9 on the Richter scale, but he had no idea how to help Abby deal with it.

“I can fill the local cops in on anything they might be missing,” he said.

After a minute she sighed and turned back to them. She was herself again. The news had unsteadied her but not knocked her down.

“I’ll wait. I want to speak to Molly once more before I head home. That’s the most important thing right now, not me. Bill will call when he has more information.”

Luke relaxed. She was fine. This wasn’t affecting her like an earthquake. He’d been so wrong about reading her lately. Was that a good thing or a bad thing?

“I need to apologize again for keeping the information about Lucy Harper from you. It’s obvious to me that you have peace where that investigation is concerned. Knowing about her would never have thrown you for a loop. I’m embarrassed I ever thought it would.”

“I’m not fragile. Part of me understands a little bit why Woody would have tried to protect me, but not you. I thought you knew me better than that. You should have trusted me with the information when you first got it.”

Swimming in guilt, Luke started to say something but she stopped him.

“You just reminded me
 
—I never read what you gave me. I never had a chance to look at what was in the envelope.”

“That’s right.” Luke looked around. “Where is it?”

“Still in the car.” She stood and left Woody and Luke in the office.

“You didn’t read it?” Woody asked.

Luke shook his head. “It’s for her, not for me.”

“Sorry about reading that situation wrong; we should have told her.”

“Don’t blame yourself. I could have just as easily argued harder. Water under the bridge now.” He tried to swallow the regret he felt but knew it would be a long while before he forgave himself. He prayed that whatever was inside would be good news for Abby.

Abby returned to the room. She sat down and tore the envelope open. Luke held his breath.

“It’s a letter from my dad.” She frowned. “‘To whom it may concern.’” After a second she looked up, amazement on her face.

Kelsey was almost home when her phone buzzed, startling her. When she saw that it wasn’t the
chief
, she relaxed. She was in the back of a cab, having dumped the rental car in a rough section of LA and hailed a taxi to take her home. Quinn had rented the car; there was nothing in it to connect to her, and she had no interest in explaining the broken window. She’d taken his bag of C-4 with her but wasn’t certain what she’d do with it. The phone call was from an old PD friend, and she answered it.

“There’s something up at Gavin’s old house.”

“What?”

“You know, the place he had on Granada. The people who live there now dug up the patio to put in a pool
 
—”

Kelsey went numb and barely heard the rest of the sentence.

“Anyway
 
—” he was still talking
 
—“turn on the TV. You’ll see the pictures from the helicopter circling above.”

She thanked him for the information and disconnected as the taxi pulled up in front of her town house.

Her friend had been wrong on one count. The house on Granada had not been Gavin’s; it had been hers. He’d lived there with her when they were engaged. But what had just been dug up in the backyard was the reason she had him move out, the reason they’d eventually cancelled the wedding. She’d lived there only another year before selling. She’d lost track of how many times it had changed hands since then.

It was only a matter of time before a connection to her was made.

She opened the front door, stepped inside, and closed it, leaning back against the solid wood as fatigue crushed her like a hammer. Kelsey couldn’t think; she couldn’t plan. It was the proverbial rock and hard place. Her life was over if she turned on her employer, but would her employer help her if suspicion crouched on Kelsey’s doorstep?

After what seemed an eternity, Kelsey mustered the strength to take the bag of C-4 to the garage. There she unlocked the large gun safe. There was only one gun in the safe; the rest of the shelves were home to a paper trail. Some of what she had here might save her from some trouble, but a lot of it would damn her in more ways than one.

A question plagued her, something she couldn’t answer at the moment: what was she going to do with all of it?

IN SPITE OF KNOWING
that there was a big mystery waiting for her in Long Beach, and that Ethan was back and wanted to talk, Abby spent another night in Tehachapi. Things at Barone’s house hadn’t been completely wrapped up the day before, and she, Luke, and Woody weren’t released to go back to their hotel until after midnight anyway. Abby wanted to speak with Molly. So after breakfast and one more meeting with the local cops, their part was finished for the time being and Abby got her chance to reconnect with the girl.

“I’m okay,” Molly said. She was back on her rolling walker and upbeat in spite of the dark circles under her eyes. Abby guessed she hadn’t gotten much sleep after the disturbing day they’d spent sorting out Barone and all that he’d done. “I hated you for a while. I told my mom you were nothing but a big bully.”

Abby couldn’t suppress a chuckle. “I imagine that’s exactly what I was the day we met.”

“I needed it. Everyone but you treated me like I was breakable. It took almost losing my sister to realize that the last thing
I wanted to be was fragile. And I also saw that by staying stuck where I was, I was letting him win. He still had me in the trunk of his car.”

Abby could tell by her face that she was being honest, that she’d finally won a resounding victory over what had happened all those years ago. Abby knew what a good feeling it was to be in that place.

“I’m so glad to hear it. And how is Callie?”

“She’s okay. He didn’t do anything to her
 
—I mean, he choked her and tied her up, and that was bad, but he didn’t do anything else. I’ll make sure she stays okay. And she can’t believe how that guy totally fooled everyone in town. How is he doing?”

“Last I heard
 
—thanks to you
 
—he’ll live to stand trial. He lost a lot of blood, but he’ll live.”

“I heard him, you know, heard him yelling. Even with the gun firing, I understood what he was saying. I heard him screaming that he was the top of the food chain.”

“You did? I couldn’t understand a word. So you knew then that he was your bad guy.”

Molly nodded. “Yeah, and I’ll confess that while I was holding my sweatshirt against his wounds, pressing to stop the bleeding, I wanted him to live so that he would know what it’s like in a trunk. I think being locked in a jail cell will be just like that.”

“He’ll receive justice for what he did, even more than for what he did to you. He killed at least two people, maybe more.” Abby paused, wondering if Molly was ready for the rest of the news that the police search of Barone’s house had brought. She decided that the girl was okay all the way around. “By the way, the police found a lot of interesting things in Barone’s house.
One item was a shoe box that contained three IDs and some jewelry. This is preliminary, but it appears as if the stuff belongs to three girls who went missing around the same time you were attacked.” Abby watched Molly process this new information.

“You mean there were girls who didn’t get away?”

“It looks that way, though it will be difficult to prove in court. Officers are working hard to prove what they can.”

Molly bit her bottom lip and looked down for a minute. When she looked up again, she said, “So the families of the missing girls will have a little bit of closure?”

Abby nodded. “As much as is possible if Barone doesn’t want to talk.”

“I hope I have the chance to help some of them, if I can.”

“That’s a wonderful thought. You might be a big help.”

Molly smiled. “Thank you for everything, especially Callie.” She wrapped Abby in a hug.

“Seeing you on a firm foundation is thanks enough.”

Abby left Tehachapi with a light heart. Helping Molly was satisfying on many levels, and she hoped to be able to help others like her. Molly’s smile and new, confident demeanor resonated with her for a long time. While Abby loved catching killers, putting people in jail so they couldn’t victimize anyone else, she realized that seeing life pour back into a tortured soul was as, if not more, satisfying.
After all,
she thought,
I know what it’s like to emerge from a tunnel of darkness to find my footing on the other side. Helping people like me, like Molly, feels like a journey worth taking, a vision worth having.

We’re survivors.

Luke and Woody had left town already, about half an hour before she did. The dog rescue people had found Woody a female Lab, half-starved, wandering in the desert, probably dumped by some idiot, Woody said. He had to wait for her to pass a medical exam and then be spayed, but he was looking forward to driving back out in a couple of weeks or so to pick her up.

Abby’s phone rang, and she saw it was Ethan, again. He’d called yesterday, but she’d not been able to answer or return the call. She picked the phone up but realized that she didn’t want to talk to Ethan at the moment. Feeling guilty, she nonetheless put the phone down and let the call go to voice mail.

I’ll call him after I get to Long Beach, when I know more about the buried body they discovered. I’d rather have the whole story to tell him. . . . Yes, that’s best,
she told herself as she let her thoughts return to the find in Long Beach.

Abby planned to meet Luke and Woody at the house on Granada where the remains with her father’s ID had been unearthed. Because of the contents of the letter Luke had gotten from Lucy Harper’s daughter, Abby was 99.9 percent certain they were her father’s remains.

“What does it say?”
Luke had asked.

“It’s from my dad.”
Abby took a deep breath; the letter had shaken her but had not knocked her off-balance.
“He gave it to Lucy with instructions that she take it to the police if anything happened to him. It’s dated two days after the fire.”

“She didn’t do as he asked.”

Abby shook her head.
“I guess not. She was probably frightened. She had kids and no particular loyalty to my father.”
She looked into Luke’s eyes, then to Woody. Both of her friends were obviously concerned.
“I’m okay. He confirms a bit of what
Sanders said. Gavin was the shooter. He killed my mom and my dad killed Piper Shea. My dad agonized over running off and leaving your uncle and me. What he hoped to do was prove he’d acted in self-defense and be reunited with me. And he says he was certain she would have ordered Gavin to kill me on the spot if he hadn’t fled.”

“She?”

“Yep. Alyssa Rollins was there giving all the orders.”

Abby had considered that Alyssa was involved, but assumed her involvement included her husband, Lowell Rollins. But her father made it clear that he didn’t believe Lowell was involved at all, that it was only Alyssa who was behind the threats that eventually led to the shooting. The day after the fire Buck had tried to reach Lowell but failed. His next thought was to appeal to Kelsey Cox. He was going to turn himself in, but he didn’t know where Abby was and he wanted to be certain what he did would not jeopardize her.

That’s why, after he left the letter with Lucy Harper, he went to the house on Granada
 
—Kelsey Cox’s house, the place that ended up being his tomb.

Abby was on her way there. She wanted to see her father’s temporary grave and pray about what move to make next.

The letter would never be considered proof enough to even approach Alyssa Rollins, much less formally accuse her, but maybe it would be good enough to pressure Kelsey into revealing what she knew.

At least that was what Abby hoped.