Garden of Sorrow (Book 4 of Psychic Visions, a paranormal romantic suspense) (37 page)

A shudder rippled down John's back. "Yes. I'd hoped to find Charles here so we could go to her at the hospital together." He motioned to Charles. "Let's go, son."

Charles sneered at him and stayed seated. "Like you care."

Deliberately staying between the two men, Kevin gave John the update he'd gotten a few minutes ago. "I'm sorry. We need to clear up a few things first." He motioned to another empty chair. "Please take a seat."

John sat down slowly, his outrage slowly replaced by grief. "How could you think I don't care? Is that why you've hated me all these years? Do you really believe I killed your sister? I loved her, Charles, just as I've loved you all these years." The expression on John's pale face wilted further.

Kevin studied John's features then scanned his mind. There was no sign of deception. John appeared genuinely devastated by the accusations and the news of his wife.

"Like hell. You were always jealous of the bond between Daisy and me." Charles slouched back against his chair, turning away from his father.

"Listen carefully." John leaned forward earnestly, trying to make his son understand. "I didn't kill Daisy. She was the light of
my
life!"

Kevin straightened. Maybe now they could find the truth. The evil root. "Do you have any idea who did?" Kevin asked his friend.

John, shamefaced, turned to look at Kevin. "Sandra was supposed to be looking after her. She'd been drinking heavily those days. She'd have blackouts and wouldn't know what she'd been doing, sometimes hours would be unaccounted for. Or so she said. On top of that we couldn't get Sandra's medications straight. I got home from work that day, too late to save my little girl from her neglect." He hung his head in pain.

"I know what you're thinking. But there was no proof. And she didn't do it on purpose. She wasn't herself. Wasn't responsible for her actions. Please try to understand – I was devastated." He swallowed hard. "Sandra said she didn't see Marie's fall that broke her neck, that she had turned her back for a second. That it was an accident… At the time, I couldn't think straight and…" He stopped, tears hanging in the corners of his reddened eyes. "And punishing her wouldn't have helped. There's no way to know the truth of what happened that day. And no amount of blame would have brought my Marie back."

Shocked silence hung heavily over the table.

"She's harmless when she isn't drinking and she's even better when her medications are under control." He glanced between Kevin and Charles, blatantly pleading for understanding. "And I know it's no excuse, but between Glen's care, my business, a teenage son, and Sandra…I just couldn't deal with it all." He locked his fingers together, staring down at them. "So I took the easy way out."

Charles sat forward. "What?" Shock and horror shone from his young face. "No! You're lying! No," he said, shaking his head frantically. "You have to be lying!"

"Why?" prodded Kevin, needing to push Charles as far as possible.

"It's just not possible." Charles stood up, gripping the edge of the table in a white-knuckled grip. "It just can't be how it happened."

"Because then everything you've done since your sister's death was done for the wrong reasons?" suggested Kevin matter-of-factly.

"Exactly," murmured Charles, lost in his own world. He glared at the father he'd spent a lifetime hating. "You have to be wrong. Daisy was being abused. I saw the bruises, heard her cry at night. I knew it. It had to have been you. You never took care of her. And you let that bitch keep neglecting her."

John shook his head frantically. "Don't call your mother that. Still, I can't hide your mother's problems anymore. It wasn't abuse. It was neglect. Sure she might have hit her once in a while, but never badly. It was always the booze talking."

Kevin hated the denial on John's face. How often had he heard the same thing from other families? Too often.

When Charles stood, face to face with his father, shame, even acceptance covered John's features. There was a sense of waiting for judgment to be passed…

Suddenly, John realized what Kevin had said. "What do you mean, he did things for the wrong reasons? I don't understand." He turned to his son, and asked, "Do you mean those threatening notes? You expected me to say I killed Marie? But I can't confess to something I didn't do."

"It doesn't matter right now." Kevin bypassed John's question, wanting more of his own answered first. "What precipitated your move to this place, so long ago, John?"

He shuddered. "That was a horrible time. The police investigated Daisy's death and finally determined it was accidental." He stopped speaking, visibly holding back tears. "Even with that ruling it seemed like the public persecuted us. So I moved everyone here. And after losing Daisy I wanted to be closer to my brother."

"I spoke to the police years ago. Tried to get them to take another look at you. But they weren't interested," Charles said.

Kevin sensed there was more to the story. "And Daisy?"

"It was so hard to leave her behind, but we needed a fresh start. And Glen needed us too. I felt I could be of more use to the living." John slid a surreptitious glance his son's way. Charles glared at him, obviously not quite ready to give up all of his long-held beliefs.

Kevin thought about that. It wasn't uncommon to leave an area for a fresh start. Moving a loved one from cemetery to cemetery was much more difficult. After a moment, he continued. "But that's not everything, is it? The problem goes back further, doesn't it?"

John looked at him in confusion. "I don't understand."

"Tell me about your brother's accident."

"What's to say? He ran his car off the road years ago. He was in his early thirties at the time and has been in a coma ever since. He had an affair with Sandra, you know. Wanted to take her away, but she stayed with me. Though I disliked what he tried to do with my marriage, I haven't managed to pull the plug. Instead, I funneled tens of thousands of dollars for his care, hoping he might one day recover."

"More half truths!" Charles interrupted, his fingers drumming the tabletop. "You inherited all the family businesses, his house, his cars, in fact his whole fortune. What did you have before his accident? Nothing – that's what." He turned his back on his father. "Accident, my ass."

Kevin watched their interaction with interest.

John held out his hands. "No, that's not true. What have I done to make you want to crucify me like this?"

Sarcastically, Charles answered, "Nothing apparently, except let my sister be abused at the hands of a raving drunk."

There was no doubting Charles's sincerity. This man truly believed the worst about his father and wanted to see him hang. As Kevin turned to study John's face, an odd black shadow caught in his peripheral vision. There was another presence hanging around John.
Shit!
It had to be Glen, trying to control the scene.
And damn it
. This was a little out of Kevin's league. Where the hell was Stefan when you needed him?

Right here!

"Thank you!" whispered Kevin under his breath.

Get rid of the other cop.

Kevin called the other policeman over for a moment of private conversation. Quickly, the other man left. Kevin's actions received strange looks from both father and son.

"I have something a little odd to discuss with both of you." Kevin sat down, motioning for Charles to retake his seat, opposite. "There are very weird psychic occurrences going on here that you both may or may not be aware of."

John stared at Kevin in astonishment.

Charles's face changed, becoming almost a mockery of his former features and he grinned malevolently. Obvious signs of possession – for those who knew what to look for – became more apparent by the second. As he spoke, there was no longer any doubt. The voice was hard, raspy and mature…well beyond Charles's normal voice.

"Finally, you're going to give me an opportunity to speak.
Hallelujah."
The macabre laughter both fascinated and horrified Kevin. John's face twisted in confused horror as he stared at his son. He obviously didn't understand.

"What's the matter, brother? Don't you recognize me?" Charles's face seemed to even elongate, shaping itself into a travesty of the more mature man.

"What? Charles, what's wrong?"

The laughter seared John. This time, even Kevin winced at the sound.

"You still don't understand, do you? You simpleton. I'm Glen, right now…inside Charles. Using your precious, weak son for my own purposes. He barely exists in here any longer. But this isn't about him. It's about you. Have you enjoyed my life, brother? The life you stole from me."

John went from disbelief to shock. "This…isn't possible. Is it?" Fearfully, he looked from his son to Kevin. "Kevin, please tell me this isn't happening."

"Sorry, it's happening all right." Kevin didn't dare take his eyes off the malevolent manifestation in front of him. He'd never seen anything like it before.

And hopefully, you won't ever again,
murmured Stefan.

Kevin had forgotten Stefan's presence, faced with this new development. He wasn't sure what either of them could do at this point, except watch the scene play itself out.

"Are you really Glen?" John spoke faintly, obviously not believing what he'd witnessed so far.

"Of course. You never would pull that damn plug, would you?" Bitterness rolled as easily as the laughter had. "For years, I lay there, helpless, while you enjoyed my wealth, my hard work, my favorite whisky. God, I hated you, until I learned how to do this. Just look at what I've accomplished." Again, the disembodied laughter chilled the air. "There's no way you'd have attained even a fraction of my success."

Kevin watched the awareness on John's face change from incredulity to shocked certainty.

John hastened to explain. "Dear God, I always hoped you'd wake up to enjoy a normal life."

"Sure you did. That's why you sold my car collection and disbanded my businesses. What kind of life would I have now? Do you even have
any
of my money left?"

John started to explain. "Well, I have some, but with the economy and your care… A lot of it is gone."

"Like hell. You gambled it in high-risk investments and lost most of it."

John tried to protest, but to no avail.

"You should be a fucking millionaire many times over by now." Charles – rather Glen – grinned. "Now it's too late. You're going to spend the rest of your life a prisoner, just like you forced me to be!" His voice gained in volume, until in the end, he was almost shouting at his hapless brother.

"For what? Why should I be punished?" John threw up his hands. "I loved you. I spent hours at your bedside. I couldn't bear to let you go."

"For trying to kill me, you jealous, greedy, worthless son of a bitch."

"No, you can't know about that!" John whispered.

Kevin could only stare. Would the shocks never end? He'd never seen a family so full of pain, betrayal and murderous intent.

"I know." Bitterness oozed from Glen. "You ran me off the road, hoping to kill me. When that failed to complete the deed, you felt guilty and refused to let me go. Bastard. Do you have any idea what you sentenced me to? To hear and understand everything, but to have no way to communicate? No. You don't."

"You learned to do this." John gestured at his son. "For revenge?" It was clearly all too much for John to take in. He leaned forward, hiding his face in his hands. His shoulders sagged against the weight of the evidence facing him. "Dear God, what have I done?"

"That's a good question. Just what did you do?" Kevin queried forcefully.

"He's right. I was so jealous," John admitted, guilt and pain dominating in his face. "He had well…everything. Both of our parents doted on him. Even Marie may have been his… " John stopped at the snort erupting from Charles's mouth.

"It's true. Everyone loved you, Glen," he snapped. Then, just as suddenly, all the air seemed to whoosh out, to deflate him and he sagged forward. "I didn't mean to hurt you. We were both heading home from a dinner out. A rarity for us. But you'd bragged the whole time of all you had. Including Sandra. On the way home, you were in your fancy car ahead of me." He looked sorrowfully at the other two men. "What can I say? I gave in to a fit of jealous madness and ran him off the road." If possible, John sank even further. "I'm so sorry, Glen."

"A little too late, brother." Glen snickered.

Enough was enough.

"John, let's get you downtown for a statement."

John, beaten, nodded. "What about Glen? We don't even know all he's done."

"That's something we may never know." And it bothered Kevin terribly. How could he stop someone like Glen?

John must have had the same thought. He pulled out his cell phone and automatically dialed a number. "Yes, this is John Prescott. I need you to fulfill the requirements on the signed request form you've been holding for me. Yes, that's the one. Thank you. No, I won't be in to say good-bye."

"What? You think you can pull the plug now, you asshole! I need a little more time, first. Damn you." Charles raced out of the room, the surprise move giving him a head start.

Kevin raced after him, the officers and John at his heels, but Charles ran into his father's study, and opened the drawer on the right hand side. He scrambled to pull out the loaded gun as John walked in behind Kevin.

"Charles, don't do this! Things are bad enough. Put the gun down. Please, we'll get you some help. Please!"

Charles laughed. This time it
almost
sounded like Charles. "You idiot. Do you really think Glen can take over my mind without my permission? We've been working on this for years. I like what we do when we're together. I didn't at the beginning, but I grew to like the sense of power and control I felt when he was with me."

Kevin knew things had gone south in a big hurry. He had no idea how to stop what was going to happen next. But his muscles tensed, awaiting an opportunity.

"You know Glen doted on Marie when she was born." Charles shrugged indifferently. "Her death came so close to his new awareness and abilities that at first, he didn't understand what had happened. She'd come to him in confusion over her own death. It didn't take him long to figure out a way to keep her with him, at least temporarily, while he worked on a long term solution. Once he figured that out, there was no stopping him." Charles nodded mockingly to Kevin, then continued to explain.