Broken (18 page)

Half way into the movie, Courtney whispered to Larkin, "Momma, we need to go home."

"Why?"

Running her words together as if saying it fast would make it easier, she said, "Christopher was sneaking out to meet Kim at a beach party." Courtney cringed, waiting for the wrath of her mother's redheaded temper.

"What?" Larkin shrieked in the middle of the theater. "You little devils! I should've listened to my intuition." She grabbed Courtney's wrist. "Let's go."

Amid numerous shushing sounds from other moviegoers, Larkin told the police officers sitting on either end of the group of women what was happening. They radioed the house and prepared to leave. However, the police cruiser would not start.

Larkin commanded, "Get another car and get there as soon as you can. We're going home."

The ladies loaded and headed home over loud protests.

"Hold up!" one of the officers yelled, jumping in front of the car. Larkin swerved around him and he radioed for backup.

A few miles on the highway brought flashing blue lights behind Larkin. Sheena looked over her shoulder. "Don't stop," she said.

"It's a cop. He can help us," argued Larkin. "It's probably backup for the one I almost ran over."

"It's a state trooper," said Sheena. She looked more closely. "It's a
Louisiana
state trooper! What's he doing
here
?"

"Maybe Ray added his own security without telling us."

"I don't think so." Sheena shook her head. "Don't stop! As a matter of fact, punch it!" Her breath hung in the suddenly frosty air.

"Why?" Larkin noted the cold.

"I don't know. Just trust me. Trust my intuition."

Before Sheena finished her statement, Larkin pressed the accelerator in the car Ray had powered to the maximum. She left the trooper in the dust.

When Larkin swung into her in-laws' driveway, there were already half a dozen patrol cars there. Simultaneously, Larkin's phone rang.

"Ray!" she shouted into the phone. "Christopher sneaked out!"

"I know, Angel. I'm on my way. He's safe. He's in the house, and he might have a solid lead for us."

19

Cowardice

L
arki
n
slammed the front door and threw her purse onto the entry hall table before she screamed, "Christopher Lance Reynolds!"

Although Christopher was nearly a foot taller than his mother, he shrank in the wake of her fury. He looked at her with her big doe-like eyes and said, "Momma, take it easy."

"Don't you 'Momma' me! How could you put yourself at risk like this?" Larkin stopped her tirade as she noticed the other two children present. "What is going on?" she demanded.

Christopher said calmly, "I think I'll wait for Daddy to get here."

"How did Ray know you had sneaked out? Did the officers call him?"

"No ma'am." Christopher shook his head. "I did."

Larkin looked at the other two teenagers. "Kim?"

"Hello, Dr. Reynolds."

"Kyle?"

The person who seemed to be in the most distress in the entire room looked at Larkin. She thought,
Lord! The boy looks just like Robert
. He did not speak, but sat on the fireplace hearth and dropped his eyes back to the floor.

Larkin demanded, "How are the two of you mixed up in this?"

"
We
are not," said Kimberly, "except that Christopher sneaked out to meet me. Don't be too mad at him. It's hard being under such scrutiny. I still remember how hard it was having so much security around before Dad died. Kyle, well, I guess he would rather talk to Chief Reynolds."

Larkin got closer to Kyle. She took in the boy's appearance and could not help but notice his tattoo. "No," she breathed as she knelt beside him and lifted his chin. "Please, tell me it wasn't you."

Kyle tried to turn away from Larkin, but she held his chin firmly. "Look at me," she said softly.

Kyle choked, "I can't. It was me. I did it."

The two-and-a-half-hour wait for Ray seemed more like a year. Nobody spoke unless it was in muffled tones, and no one dared address Kyle directly. He sat still as a statue, barely blinking. Dorothy Reynolds made coffee for the lot after Larkin put Cherie to bed. Kyle mechanically accepted the cup, but never sipped it.

Ray entered his parents' house commandingly. "Out!" he ordered. "Everybody, out! Kyle, where's your mother?"

Kyle panicked. "Please, don't call my mother. Arrest me. Shoot me. Anything. Just don't make me face my mother."

"Sorry, Kyle. You're a minor. You won't say a word without your mother's presence. Call her." Ray handed Kyle his phone.

Kyle dialed his mother. Deanna Blackwell answered sleepily. "Ray? What's happened now? How can I help you?"

Shakily, Kyle said, "Mom, it's Kyle. I need you to come to Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds's house in Biloxi."

"Kyle, are you with Ray's family?"

"Sort of. Here, talk to Chief Reynolds." Kyle handed the phone to Ray.

"Deanna, you need to come," Ray said. "Kyle's in a lot of trouble. I won't talk to him without you."

"What has he done now?"

"Deanna, this is better said in person."

"I'll be there in half an hour."

Deanna Blackwell looked tired as she came into the room where her son and her late husband's old friend sat. Saul Blackwell accompanied his wife and carried Tate asleep on his shoulder.

"Okay," Deanna said in great irritation. "Let's get to it."

Ray stood. "Deanna, sit down."

"It's that bad, is it?"

"Please," insisted Ray. He stepped to the foot of the stairs and called, "Larkin, I need you."

Larkin came down the stairs. "What do you need?"

"Put Tate somewhere to sleep. This is gonna take a little while." He looked back at Deanna. "You should know Kim is upstairs with Courtney."

Deanna looked confused. "She was spending the night at a slumber party."

Ray grunted, "She was meeting Christopher and now she is asleep in the room with Courtney, but Kim is not the issue right now."

Larkin took Tate from Saul. He sat down beside his wife whose knuckles were turning white from the grip she had on the arm of the sofa.

Ray turned to Kyle. "Kyle, New Orleans is out of my jurisdiction. The only thing I can do is take you back there. However, by now, you realize you're mixed up in something far worse than one attack on one woman. Kyle, I can't help you if you aren't
totally
honest with me."

"Why would you want to help me? I'm a horrible person. I'm as evil as this wicked two-headed serpent." Kyle hit himself in the chest.

"No, you're not. You're a lost boy who happens to be the son of an old friend of mine. You're
my
godson."

Kyle laughed a hollow laugh. "Mr. Reynolds, you have no idea what my father actually thought of you."

"Yes, I do, Kyle. I know. We can talk about that later. We need to deal with your legal problem first. Tell me about Lloyd."

"Okay." The boy heaved a heavy sigh. "I guess I've been driving Mom crazy for a couple of years now. I started getting in trouble at school, fights and stuff."

Ray turned to Deanna. "Why didn't you call me?"

She sighed. "I wanted my family to work it out. Saul wanted to be a father to the twins."

"I understand, and you were completely correct. Kyle, why didn't
you
call me?"

The boy shrugged.

Ray huffed. "Tell me your story."

"Then, I started hanging out with older guys. To get into their little gang, I had to get this ugly haircut and a ghastly tattoo. Although most of them had the ugliest bald eagle I've ever seen, I couldn't think of one worse than Dad's, so I got a duplicate. Then, they took me to New Orleans where we met up with this older man. He was as skin-headed as all of us. He wore a state trooper's uniform and said his name was Lloyd. He paid us to rough up and…" Kyle stopped.

"Go on, Kyle. Just say it and get it over with," encouraged Ray.

Kyle breathed deeply. "Rape the lady that owned Timeless Tattoos. He took me to the side and told me if I really wanted to be in, I had to kill her. I couldn't do it. I couldn't kill her. I guess I'm not a killer." He sighed. "And she was so beautiful. How could anybody kill something so lovely? All I could do was stare at her. And I heard this voice telling me to stop."

"Kyle," asked Deanna in tears, "are you saying you beat and raped that woman?"

Kyle groaned, "Yes."

"Oh, my God! Ray, what do we do?" Deanna asked in distress.

Ray looked at Kyle. "Kyle, what do we do?"

"Put me in jail. But that's not all about Lloyd. He was here tonight, and he found me with some other guys that are a part of this group. He paid us to find Christopher and beat him up. He didn't want him dead, just hurt."

"Why didn't you do it?" asked Ray.

"When we found him, he was kissing my sister. I would never hurt somebody that Kim likes. I love my sister."

"Of course, you do," Ray said. "You're twins. That's a very special bond."

"Christopher said you think this Lloyd guy is the one who killed Detective Gautier and the other cops and that he might be Latrice Descartes's son. I swear I didn't know anything like that, Mr. Reynolds."

"I believe that, Kyle. I think he deliberately sought you out, too. The only way he could get even with Robert was to corrupt you."

Kyle snorted.

Ray asked, "Is there something else, Kyle?"

"I can't tell you this in front of my mother. I just can't. Dad hurt her enough when he was alive."

"Kyle," Deanna said, "I knew everything about your father."

"I doubt it," Kyle said.

"Me too," agreed Ray.

"Can it be any worse than his being a philandering son-of-a-bitch?" asked Deanna.

"Yes," Kyle and Ray said together.

"Then, you had better tell me now."

Kyle hesitantly said, "New Orleans wasn't the first time I interacted with Lloyd. He was younger, and he had hair; but it was the same state trooper. He used to guard Dad.

"I caught Dad having sex once, Mom. It was in his Baton Rouge office when I got dropped off after baseball practice. Practice got called off because a storm came up. I was a lot earlier than I was supposed to be."

"Dear, God! You could only have been ten at the most," cried Deanna, holding both sides of her head with its now short dark hair. "Of course, some of his bodyguards would've had to have known about his sexual exploits. How could he? Which one was she, the one who was killed with him?"

Kyle looked at Ray for some sign of encouragement and received a slight nod. As if holding his breath Kyle said, "Mom, it wasn't a she. It was Lloyd."

"No," said Deanna. "A whoremonger, yes, but no. Ray?"

"The boy's right. I didn't know who he was involved with, but that letter you gave me at the wake"—Ray puffed out a long breath—"it makes sense. This guy planned to ruin Robert politically. That's where it would hurt him the most, but Mia put a kink in that plan."

Deanna asked while grinding her teeth, "Did either of them do anything to you, Kyle?"

Kyle laughed sarcastically. "Other than threaten me and swear me to secrecy? If Dad had ever even hugged me, it might have shown he cared. He did confess to me that he had only ever loved one person in his whole life."

"And who was that?"

Kyle shook his head. "I can't. I just can't."

"Well, you had damned well better!" Deanna's voice rose.

Kyle shook his head again.

"Me," Ray said barely above a whisper.

Deanna looked flabbergasted. "Ray, you and Robert?"

"No." He held up his hand in a stop motion.

"No, Mom," said Kyle. "It was definitely
unrequited
love." The bitterness in his voice was not lost on the adults.

"Oh, God, Kyle, what do we do? Saul?"

"I'm not a criminal attorney, honey, but I can find one."

Kyle seemed to ignore his stepfather. "Mr. Reynolds, Christopher said you would help me. Please, tell me what to do. You're my godfather. You said at Dad's wake if I ever needed you…"

"All right," he cut the boy off. "First, you stop disrespecting Saul. He's trying to help you
right now
." Ray glared at Kyle.

"Yes, sir."

"You turn yourself in and tell the New Orleans police exactly what you told me. Can you give a description of this Lloyd to a sketch artist?"

"Yes, sir."

"Do that. Kyle, do you swear that Neely Rivers was the only attack you were involved in?"

"Yes, sir. Why?"

"All the other women died, Kyle"

"I swear to God I didn't kill anybody!" Kyle looked toward his stepfather. "I swear," he repeated. Saul nodded at the boy.

Ray continued, "All right. Kyle, you were fifteen when this happened, right?"

"Yes, sir, barely."

"Technically, you were, and are, a juvenile, but the crime was very heinous. If you help catch a cop killer, I'm sure your sentence can be lightened. However, a lot will depend on what Neely wants done to you. Kyle, Neely just married my brother. You'll have to face her."