A.K.A. Page 27
“What are you talking about?”
“I wanted it over. I was tired and beyond disgusted with myself. I begged Terrance to take care of Thomas. His sickness was getting worse, out of control. He said he would talk to him. Can you believe that? Talk to him! Thomas was beyond talking. He was probably beyond help.”
“His sickness?”
“Thomas was hearing voices.”
“And Terrance refused to get him help. Why?”
“Because Terrance refused to acknowledge that Thomas was sick. His flesh and blood had to be as perfect as he thinks he is.”
“You cared for Thomas, despite who he was.”
He nods. “I know that sounds terrible, but he was blood. Our family, the Evans, has a history of mental illness. Terrance’s mother, Judy, was bipolar. She dropped him off at our house one day and never came back.”
“How many women, Hodges?”
“Dozens.”
“Jesus. Why were they all blondes? Was it because of Mary? Did something happen between them?”
“Mary never abused him,” he says with a bite.
“I wasn’t suggesting she did. Thomas was a sociopath, and according to you, hearing voices. Even a minor event could have triggered a psychotic connection.”
“His mother was also a blonde.”
“His mother?”
“Thomas was adopted.”
“Adopted?”
“He was Terrance’s son from a woman he was involved with before he and Mary married. She was a drug addict, and Thomas was abused. He never got over it, and I think every woman he harmed or killed became his mother.”
“And Mary?”
“Did she tell you her marriage to Terrance was her second?”
“No. We never got into family history.”
“She had a son. His name was Kendal.” He pauses for a brief smile. “Kendal was a special young man. His heart was pure gold just like his mother’s. Thomas wasn’t an easy kid to like, let alone love, but Kendal loved him unconditionally. He was the only friend Thomas had, and Thomas adored his older brother.”
“What happened to him?”
“A hunting accident. Terrance, Thomas, and Kendal went hunting in the woods behind the Caldwell estate. Thomas dropped his gun, and it accidently went off and hit Kendal in the back.”
“But that’s not what really happened?”
“No. Years later Thomas confessed to me. He said his dad had shot Kendal and made him go along with the story. Terrance told him Mary and Kendal were plotting to return him to his mother, and he wasn’t going to let them, so he had to be killed.”
“And Thomas believed him?”
“He never believed Kendal was part of it, but he believed Mary was.”
“Terrance manipulated Thomas?”
“Yes, for years. He manipulated everyone.”
“How? How did he gain so much influence?”
“Mary and her family’s connections helped him gain some influence. But her connections weren’t good enough for him. He wanted the kind of connections he could not only use but also control.”
“The kind of control one gets through blackmail.”
“Yes. He uses all kinds of methods, but the most successful is hidden cameras at various Caldwell hotels. He sets his victims up by putting them in compromising positions.”
“And gets it all on tape.”
“Terrance can ruin marriages and careers with one phone call, one package in the mail, or one e-mail.”
“Was Thomas apart of it?”
“He knew about it, but he wasn’t a part of it.”
“And you?”
“I helped on occasion, but it was Max, his driver who does most of the dirty work. My job was to clean up Thomas’s messes.”
“You were the cleaner.”
“Yes.”
“So what did you call Tara? A big mess?”
“Tara was an innocent.”
“All of them were innocent.”
He nods.
“How did it happen? How did they meet? How did Tara get messed up with Thomas?”
“She didn’t.”
“Not following.”
“It’s a long story.”
“Well then, you better not waste any more time.”
He runs a shaking hand over his sweaty brow.
“Please, Hodges. I need to know this.”
“The senator called, told me Thomas had made another mess.”
“Go on.”
“He told me her name was Kelly Watkins and gave me the address. I went there and…” His eyes glass over, and he looks away.
“Hodges, please.”
He nods and continues. “It was a terrible scene. The baby…”
“I understand.”
“After I got over the shock of it all, I went around the room making sure Thomas hadn’t left any evidence, and then I called my cleaning crew.”
“Go on.”
“While I was waiting, I took pictures of the scene.”
“Why did you take pictures, Hodges? Did Terrence make you?”
“No. Terrance didn’t know about the photos.”
“You did it on your own?”
He nods.
“You just said you cared for Thomas. If that were true, why would you collect evidence that if got into the wrong hands, could help put him away?”
“I loved him enough to clean up his messes. But…”
“What?”
“I’d cleaned up Thomas’s messes for years, but in the last few, it was different.”
“Different?”
“More bloody, more violent, more chaotic. It was clear his mental state was deteriorating. That’s when I began to think about turning him in to the authorities.”
“So you started taking pictures, collecting evidence.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you turn him in?”
“I knew that even if I had evidence, Terrance would somehow get the charges dropped. Then he would figure out it was me and probably have me killed. It would have been for nothing and Thomas would continue to rape and murder.”
“In other words, you were a coward.”
He looks down at his hands. “Yes, I was. But it’s never that simple, Ms. Steel.”
“Nothing ever is.”
He nods.
“You were taking pictures…”
“While taking photos, I heard sirens.”
“So you fled?”
“Yes, I had no choice.”
“So that’s how the police got involved.”
“Yes. Someone must have seen something or suspected something and called them. Terrance was furious, told me to find out who was in charge of her case and pay him or her off, or do whatever I had to do to fix things.”
“You paid off Lopez?”
“Yes.”
“Then what?”
“The idiot Lopez messed up. He was supposed to take care of the body before it went to the morgue. He obviously couldn’t claim the body, so I had to. I went to the morgue and they gave me a hard time; they refused to release it to me. Terrance was furious so he made—”
“Thomas go and claim he was her fiancé.”
“Yes. After he claimed the body, he called me from the mortuary, said he needed my help. When I got there, he was falling apart, crying even.”
“I don’t understand. You told me they didn’t know each other.”
“They didn’t. Thomas was crying because he didn’t remember Kelly Watkins, at all.”
“What do you mean?”
“He didn’t remember meeting her. He didn’t remember killing her. He didn’t remember anything about her. He thought the demons must have taken over.”
“He was losing it.”
“That’s what I thought. I called Terrance and begged him, once again, to get him help. He said all he needed was a few days of vacation and sent him to the Caribbean.”
“How did you discover Kelly Watkins was Tara Green?�
�
“Terrance sent me back to the scene. He wanted to make sure Lopez had done his job.”
I nod for him to continue.
“I told the hotel manager I was a PI and Kelly Watkins’s uncle and my sister, Kelly’s mom, wanted me to look over the scene.”
“So you looked around.”
“Yes. I didn’t find anything in the room; Lopez had done his job. But when I was leaving, a maid approached me. She told me one of the other maids overheard my conversation with the manager.”
“Overheard that you were Kelly’s uncle.”
“Yes. She said Kelly was very kind and left her a fifty-dollar tip every day.”
“That sounds like Tara.”
“She said after the police were finished with the room, she was sent to clean it. While she was in the room the toilet kept running as if it was stuck. So she removed the lid and found a plastic bag taped under it.”
“Why didn’t she give it to the police?”
“She said she was undocumented.”
“Tara’s ID was in the bag.”
“Yes, driver’s license and passport. I did some digging and found out she was your half-sister.”
“Then you sent me the photos and the letter.”
“Yes,” he says and looks back down at his hands. “I researched you and your cases. Most all of your cases involved women and children. I knew it wasn’t a coincidence, you chose those cases. I didn’t know why, but I knew in my gut that you’d find a way to take care of Thomas. My plan would have worked if Terrance had let it go. But he just couldn’t. He was a mess. I’d never seen him like that before. He insisted I hire a PI. I did, and he got nowhere, I made sure of it. Then he went out on his own and hired Costa.”
“You were the one who fired him. Paid Peter off.”
“Yes. I told him we’d found the woman he was looking for. And his services were no longer needed.”
“But Terrence found out.”
He nods. “He was angry that I’d gone behind his back. I told him I did it for his own good. That I was concerned for his well-being.”
“But he didn’t believe you.”
“He believed I was concerned, but he lied to me when he said he’d let it go. He had Max break into Peter’s office. He found notes with your name and address.”
“Why did you give Peter the photo.”
“The first PI I hired and then fired sent the photo directly to Terrance. Terrance told Peter about the photo when he called to hire him.”
“It was too late. The damage was already done.”
“Yes.”
“Do you know how Tara and Thomas hooked up? Was she working on a story?”
“Never in my wildest imaginings would I have ever dreamt of how interwoven our lives had become. It was Mary who helped me connect all the dots.”
“How?”
“She told me that Tara had come to see her.”
“Yes. She told me.”
“I need to back up a little. Give you some more family history.”
I sigh heavily and sit back in my chair. “Okay.”
“It began with Mary’s father.”
“Go on.”
“Her father disliked Terrance, and Terrance hated him.”
“Why?”
“Because Papa Caldwell knew a rat when he saw one. He knew Terrance only married Mary for money and position.”
“Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?”
He frowns.
“Sorry. Please continue.”
“Papa Caldwell wanted to make sure Terrance would never own the company his father had built from nothing. So before he died, he put Caldwell International into a trust.”
“Seriously?”
He nods.
“That must have pissed Terrance off.”
“It pushed him over the edge. He said he would make Mary pay for what her father did, and he has.”
“Kendal.”
“That was just the beginning.”
“Go on.”
“After Kendal was killed, Mary lost it. She was overcome with grief.”
“Is that why she…”
“Yes. That’s why Mary asked her old friend, Joe, if he’d put in an application to volunteer his time here. Even though your circumstances weren’t the same, Mary understood what you were going through.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“Mary’s heart is pure gold.”
“So it seems.”
“Mary’s best friend, Cecil, was very concerned about Mary’s mental state. She knew someone who owned a home in France, and begged Mary to go and stay for a while, get away from a home haunted by Kendal’s ghost.”
“Did she?”
“Yes. When she was in France, she met a man and fell in love. They wanted to get married, so Mary asked Terrance for a divorce, and he refused.”
“Why?”
He lifts his thin brow.
“Okay. Dumb question.”
“After months of fighting, Terrance finally relented. He would sign the papers if she agreed to do so in person. She flew back to meet with him and…”
“What?”
“Then her lover and their son flew from France in a corporate jet, and…”
My head began to spin as pieces of a puzzle shifted and then fit into place one by one. “Mr. Ferro and his son were…”
He nods. “Yes, Mary fell in love with him, and they had a son.”
“She was the mother of the little boy. The one I’ve dreamt and thought about for years.”
“Mary told me you felt guilty and angry. I’m sorry for that.”
“My God. First Kendal then… I can’t even imagine, Hodges. How did she go on? How did she cope with so much loss?”
“Terrance helped by suddenly becoming a doting and caring husband for a while. It made me sick to watch how he manipulated her.”
“You love Mary.”
“I… I did and maybe a small part of me still does.” He pauses for several beats then continues. “After the accident, she made herself busy. She joined clubs and committees, volunteered for various organizations. She acted as if everything was great, but I worried about her and so did Cecil. Cecil never liked Terrance and she didn’t trust him.”
“She thought Terrance might harm Mary?”
“Cecil had learned to never underestimate Terrance.”
“A lesson I learned to late.”
“Mary was so blinded by her nature and her grief, she couldn’t see the man she was married to in the same light that others could.”
“What did Cecil do?”
“She called a family meeting and they found a way to make sure Mary was never alone.”
“How?”
“Cecil’s son James was an RN, but he didn’t like being one. So they somehow got her driver to retire early then—”
“James asked Mary for the job.”
“Yes. They have become very close.”
“How does Tara fit into this?”
“Thomas didn’t remember killing Tara because he didn’t.”
“What?”
“When Mary flew home to meet with Terrance, I was sent to pick her up. I arrived early and was standing in front of the hanger smoking when I overhead a conversation. A mechanic who worked on the Caldwell jet was in his office talking on the phone. He was telling whoever was on the other end that the money would be wired to his account. I didn’t think anything of it at the time and forgot about it. But then a few days later, Terrance had me wire some money into a New York account.”
“Sorry. I’m not following.”
“Terrance never intended to divorce Mary.”
“What are you saying?”
“Terrance paid a mechanic in New York—”
“To sabotage the Ferro Corporate jet.”
He nods.
“Oh my God. Terrence killed my mother. He killed… He murdered a little boy.”
He nods. “I’m so sorry, Morgan.”
No
words are spoken for several minutes. I was lost in the ‘whys’ of it all. Hodges… I didn’t know.
Hodges wipes a tear off his cheek.
“Hodges?”
He looks at me.
“How does Tara fit into this?”
“I need to back up.”
“Okay.”
“Tara somehow discovered the name of the man who sabotaged the Ferro jet. He had retired and was living in Miami.”
“She found him? They met?”
“Yes. And after she left, he called Terrance and told him some reporter, a Kelly Watkins, was snooping around and asking him questions about the Ferro jet and what specifically he’d worked on that night.”
“Oh my God. Are you saying Terrance had Tara killed?”
“I thought he’d sent Max to kill her, but the scene—”
“Was personal.”
He nods. “I think Terrance killed her.”
“So you lied when you said Thomas cut the baby out when…”
“I’m sorry about that, Morgan. I exaggerated a little. I thought, if the images didn’t prompt you to act, my words would.”
All I can do is shake my head.
“I’m so sorry,” he repeats.
“Did Terrance know Kelly Watkins was Tara Green?”
“No. He thought she was a reporter or investigator hired by the Ferros. Aden’s parents had sent several investigators over the years, but none of them had gotten that close to the truth.”
“You sent me to kill the wrong man.”
“I didn’t know, Morgan. I didn’t know until Mary mentioned that she’d spoken with a woman named Tara. Then I put it all together and sent Mary her first envelope.”
“And then her game began.”
He nods.
“This is all so…”
“Surreal.”
“Yes, that’s one word for it. What about Drake? Did you know about him? Did you know about the game he and Terrance played?”
“No. I didn’t know anything about him or their scheme to set you up.”
“Why didn’t Terrance tell you about Drake?”
“I interfered with the investigation. I guess he thought that I might do so again.”
“Mary said we’re all connected, Tara, me…”
“Do you believe in fate?”
NEVER SACRIFICE YOUR QUEEN
We are told if we’re smart and work hard, we’ll succeed in life, we’ll rise above the crowd. I’m smart, my IQ above average. I also worked long, hard hours as an ADA. But being smart and working hard in the law business, and in most business, isn’t the ticket to success. It’s how you learn to identify the game, and then how you play it once you do.