Just Evil (43 page)

By the end of the third hour, the mistrust Reese had felt
earlier for Kit had dissipated into sheer respect. She’d not only answered his
questions in straightforward fashion, but she’d alleviated any remaining doubt
he might have had that she had murdered her mother. It was apparent there’d
been no typical Beverly Hills upbringing for Kit Griffin but rather a chilling
real-life horror she’d finally escaped at the age of sixteen.

When it was done, Jake planted a kiss on a tired and drowsy
Kit. “You did great, honey. Now get some sleep.”

“Will you be back in the morning?”

“I’ll be back in ten minutes. I’m not going anywhere.”

“Jake, you can’t spend another night sleeping in a chair.
You have to get some rest.”

“How about if we argue about this when I get back? I’ll walk
Reese and Baylee to the elevator and be right back. We can fight about it
then.”

“We don’t fight.”

“I know. Now go to sleep.” He kissed her again and walked
out of the room with Reese and Baylee.

When they got outside in the hallway, it was Baylee who
cross-examined Reese. “What are her chances? I mean, how do you think she came
across? It’s the first time in about four years that she’s actually talked
about it and certainly never like that in one sitting from beginning to end.
How do you think she did?”

“She did fine. She might need a little work on relaxing. But
given the subject material, I know it must be difficult for her to talk about
it.”

Baylee looked mortified. “The woman’s on drugs, Reese. If
you don’t think she’s relaxed enough now, what are her chances when she talks
to St. John minus the IV drip? You know, when St. John finds out about Kit’s
childhood, it’ll only help build his case.”

Baylee shook her head. “Every instinct I have tells me we’re
going about this all wrong. We have to search Alana’s past. As mean as she was,
she had to have pissed off any number of people over the years. We should be
concentrating on Alana.”

Reese assured her, “And we will. For starters, that stuff we
found yesterday in the attic—like the porn—can be used in our favor. If it
comes to that, I won’t think twice about putting this particular woman’s past
on trial.”

“Porn?” Baylee eyed Jake, suspiciously. “You asked about
adult parties; you didn’t say anything about porn. You found honest-to-God porn
in Alana’s attic? What else did you find we might be able to use?”

Jake ran his fingers through his hair and ticked off the
list of things in the safe.

“You found Kit’s birth certificate?” Baylee asked.

Just then, Quinn walked up on her break. Not even a third of
the way into her long shift, she had more energy than all of them combined and
proved it by shooting them rapid fire questions. “How’d it go after I left? Did
she tell you all of it? How’s she feeling? I better go check on her. How’d she
do anyway?”

“Okay,” was all a deflated Baylee had to say and the look on
her face told Quinn something was wrong.

“What happened?” Quinn shot Reese a dubious glare. “Don’t tell
me she couldn’t talk about it?”

“Oh, she talked about it. I don’t know about these guys, but
I’m sick to my stomach from having to listen to it all over again. I thought
after all these years, it wouldn’t still have this effect on me, but I was
wrong. Right now, I’d like to put my fist through the wall because Reese says
that if she’s honest about all of it, we’re likely handing St. John a reason to
charge her. And get this, they found porn in Alana’s attic. Now that doesn’t
surprise me in the least. But why would Kit’s birth certificate be locked away
in a safe?”

“What?” All at once Quinn grabbed Baylee’s arm. “Oh my God,
Baylee, you said her parents were never married, right? You don’t suppose that
one day Alana felt a tiny maternal quiver and actually went out and adopted a
child, do you? You know, like the real Mommie Dearest? Weren’t Joan Crawford’s
kids adopted?”

Baylee went white. “Come to think of it, that would explain
a lot. Now that you bring it up, I remember when Kit applied to college there was
some issue with her birth certificate. Alana said she couldn’t locate the real
deal and Kit thought it was just a stall tactic to make it more difficult for
her to get into school. The birth certificate issue held up Kit’s paperwork and
she almost had to sit out the first semester. But at the eleventh hour, Alana
sent it over by special messenger. Remember? Kit must still have a copy
somewhere at home; if not, the registrar’s office would.”

In two seconds Jake had his cell phone out and was talking
to Dylan. “Could you bring over Kit’s birth certificate from the mobile safe?
Good. See you in twenty.” 

A half hour later, stunned into silence, a shocked Jake,
Baylee, and Quinn sat around a table in the hospital cafeteria with Dylan and
Reese taking turns examining Kit’s birth certificate, as if they might somehow
be able to change what they’d found.

As Kit’s friends, Baylee and Quinn felt obligated to say
something, anything. But as they stared in disbelief at the name on the line
next to Mother, speech eluded both of them. When Quinn’s pager went off and
broke the silence, she stood up and tried to speak, but her voice quivered as
if on the verge of tears. “I guess it’s too much to hope that there’s another
Gloria Chambers. What in God’s name is this going to do to Kit when she finds
out?”

Reese summed up what everyone was thinking. “So the aunt
isn’t really the aunt but the mother?”

With tears forming in her eyes, Quinn turned on Reese. “Oh,
you’re brilliant, aren’t you, ace? Nothing gets past you. Where’d you get that
law degree from anyway, The Internet School of Law?”

Dylan cracked up.

“Shut up, Dylan.” Reese muttered.

“Hey, I didn’t say it. But Quinn’s pretty funny.”

When she realized how rude she’d been, Quinn quickly
apologized. “I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve that. I’m not usually so insulting,
but…I’m upset. How could Gloria do it, just give away her baby to a monster
like Alana?”

Jake shook his head. “All these years you think you know
someone. Gloria doesn’t seem the type that would relinquish her child to a
psycho like Alana, move three thousand miles away, and just abandon her to that
kind of environment. But Gloria had to know what Alana was like. They were
sisters. And she told me the other day that every time she’d talked to Kit over
the phone she sounded sad. Well, in that kind of situation, yeah, I’d say the
kid was sad. And what did Gloria ever do about it? Nothing. Just like John
Griffin did nothing.” John Griffin’s name had been listed in the space under
Father. At least Kit hadn’t been lied to about that, thought Jake. But at the
moment, he was livid. Like Quinn, he wondered what the knowledge would do to
Kit. How much more could she take?

Even though Quinn knew she had to get back to work, she was
reluctant to go. She swore when her pager went off for the second time. But
before she left, she had to know, “Who’s going to tell her?”

Hoping it wouldn’t be her job, she wasn’t about to
volunteer, but Baylee had a point to make. “You know, she trusted Gloria. There
was a time when she was small that she thought her Aunt Gloria was her fairy
godmother. I suspect when she finds this out, this is going to break her
heart.”

Jake looked around the table. Every eye turned on him. “Now
wait a minute, why me? If it’s all the same to you, I think Gloria should be
the one to step up to the plate and tell her. What about you, Baylee?”

“Good idea, but who confronts Gloria?”

“Oh, I don’t have a problem confronting Gloria. In fact,
I’ll relish the moment. Who wants to go with me?”

While everyone else looked away, Baylee was the only one to
maintain eye contact.

As the only mother here, she knew firsthand about holding
her own child for the first time.

“I can’t wait to see her face when we confront her.”

Baylee stood on the path connecting Gloria’s house and the
guest cottage, waiting for Jake to get out of his car. She’d made arrangements
for Tanya to stay with Sarah long enough for her and Jake to meet with Gloria.

For fifteen minutes, over the phone, they’d discussed
strategy, only to decide the situation required a simple and direct approach.
Surprise was on their side since they’d decided not to call Gloria and tip
their hand. There was no small talk between Jake and Baylee, only steely eyed
determination as they made their way up to the front door.

Jake rang the doorbell and the moment the door opened Gloria
acted as if she knew something was up. As she led them into her living room,
Jake noticed the condition of the place and understood immediately Auslo and
Taft had finally gotten around to searching Gloria’s house. From the looks of
the damage it had been recent.

“When did this happen, Gloria?”

“When I got back from the hospital last night the house was
like this. Someone turned every plant in the house over, broke things,
sentimental things that belonged to Morty. It’s taken me all morning just to
put the kitchen right again. Would either of you like a cup of tea?”

“We didn’t come for tea, Gloria. But thanks.”

Gloria started toward the kitchen anyway, until Jake
commanded, “Sit down, Gloria. Please. No one wants tea or coffee; we came here
to talk to you. It’s important we have your full attention.”

She recognized the tone to his voice, his body language, his
demeanor. He was angry with her.

Trembling now, almost in tears, she nervously sat down.
“What’s this about? Has something happened to Kit?”

Gloria watched Jake pull out a piece of paper from his
pocket, unfold it, and hand it off to her. When she saw that he wanted her to
read what was on the paper, she grabbed her glasses from the end table,
adjusted them on her nose, and turned white after only a few seconds.

“God. No. No. No. Where did you get this? Has Kit seen this?
Oh no, Kit.”

Mortified, she started sobbing uncontrollably.

Unmoved by her tears, Jake scoffed, “Obviously, you didn’t
think anyone would ever see this. You want to tell us about it, Gloria?”

In between sobs, she tried to explain. “You must think I’m
such a terrible person, but I’m not. It isn’t what you think. I never gave Kit
up. It was Alana. Alana took her away from me when she was born. After I gave
birth, she had me admitted to a psychiatric ward three thousand miles away in
Maine. She and Jessica saw to it that I was locked up in a mental hospital for
almost eighteen months after Kit was born.”

She waved the birth certificate toward Jake and Baylee and
hurriedly went on, “I kept the hospital release form with the date on it so
that she’ll know. She’ll know I’m telling the truth. She’ll have to believe me.
The day she was born, Jessica filed papers in court for Alana to adopt her,
said I was an unfit mother, that I was crazy. Jessica made certain it was all
legal. They took her away from me in the hospital. I never got to hold her…my
baby daughter. I never got to name my own child.

“That first day, I waited for the nurses to bring her to me.
I asked every nurse that came through the door about my baby. But nobody would
tell me anything. I began to suspect that maybe something was wrong with her
and they didn’t want me to see her. At some point, they must have drugged me
because days later I woke up three thousand miles away in Bar Harbor, Maine, at
a private psychiatric hospital called Sierra Manor, where I stayed until they
let me out eighteen months later.

“You have to believe me. I have the paper to prove I was
there.” Wild sobs poured out of Gloria making her a little incoherent.

Jake and Baylee watched as she suddenly started talking as
if Kit were in the room, rocking back and forth, trying to explain everything
all over again. “I never got to be your mother. Alana and Jessica stole you
from me. I wanted so much to be your mother but they took you away. It’s
haunted me. It’s haunted me for years. I was locked up, don’t you see, three
thousand miles away.”

Baylee and Jake exchanged exasperated looks. It was Baylee
who said, “I suppose it’s possible. We all know what a cruel streak Alana had.
But why? Why did she take your baby from you, Gloria? She had the maternal
instincts of a viper. No, scratch that, she had zero maternal instincts. Why
would she want a baby?”

Through tears, Gloria sobbed. “She wanted to get back at me.
She and John dated off and on for years. It was never serious between them.
They’d always end up at each other’s throats. John liked me though. We started
seeing each other. One thing led to another, and we had an affair that lasted
about a year. When Alana found out she went nuts. The idea that John preferred
me over her was unthinkable. Alana and I argued over John. And when I got
pregnant, from the moment she found out about it, she was horrible to me. Then
a couple of months later, out of the blue she came to see me, offered me a
place to stay, said I could move in with her until the birth. She and Jessica
must have plotted it all out for months, planned every detail. I was so stupid
to believe she’d had a change of heart.

“That night I went into labor, she and Jessica drove me to
the hospital. I had no idea what they planned to do. I swear I didn’t know. If
I’d known I would have gone somewhere, anywhere, left L.A., but I didn’t know
they intended to steal my baby. You believe me don’t you, Baylee?”

Because she’d known the woman for years, Baylee tried to
give Gloria the benefit of the doubt. “It sounds like something Alana would do.
But Gloria the adoption had to be illegal unless you signed something
relinquishing the baby.”

The look that crossed Gloria’s face had Baylee’s stomach
dropping.

“They said I did, the people at the psychiatric hospital
told me every time I brought up the subject of my baby. I’d tell them what
happened and they’d look at me sympathetically and calmly explain that I’d
given up my baby for adoption and that I was simply having regrets. The doctors
and nurses would tell me that I’d signed adoption papers giving my baby away.
But I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t have done that.”