Face Value (25 page)

“Don’t ever
forget that.”

Derek came up
behind them, slapping Tucker on the back. “You got a minute,
buddy?”

“You guys go
ahead,” Lauren said, stepping out of Tucker’s arms. “I want to
check on the food.”

***

Tucker had
grown to like and respect Lauren’s uncle since he’d worked so hard
to uncover Rob’s past, but that didn’t mean he didn’t get a little
uneasy when Derek cornered him. Tucker had been on the wrong side
of the law too many times not to feel a bit of apprehension when
the police chief said he wanted to have a private conversation.

After closing
the door to his study, Tucker faced Derek. “What’s this all
about?”

Derek gestured
to two leather armchairs. “Why don’t we have a seat?”

The last thing
Tucker wanted was to sit calmly, but he didn’t want to give Derek
the impression he had anything to be nervous about, so he complied.
“Does this have something to do with Rob’s case?”

“No, this is
about you.” Derek smiled. “I can’t tell you how happy I am that my
niece found you. I’ve never seen her like this.”

Tucker released
a shaky breath. “This is about Lauren?” He could talk about her all
day long.

“Not exactly.”
Derek sat back, regarding Tucker carefully. “You know how much she
loves you, right?”

“Where are you
going with this, Derek?”

Derek sighed.
“She told me some things about your past. I hope you won’t feel she
betrayed your confidence. She just told me because she thought I
could help you put this to rest.”

“She told you
about my sister’s death?” Tucker didn’t feel betrayed, but he was
stunned. When Lauren said she would do anything for him, she’d
obviously meant it.

“Yeah.” He
braced a cowboy boot on his knee. “She told me about the things
your stepfather did to your sister and that you suspected he was
responsible for her death.”

Tucker resisted
the urge to jump up and pace. He didn’t want to sit there and
discuss his messed up childhood. It was bad enough talking to
Lauren about it.

“Why didn’t you
tell Lauren your stepfather was a cop?”

“I didn’t think
it made a difference.”

“It made all
the difference,” Derek said quietly. “That’s why you didn’t tell
anyone what was happening, am I right? You thought no one would
believe a troubled kid over a career cop?”

“Still, I
should have tried.” Tucker didn’t think he could let go of his
guilt surrounding his sister’s death. If he had spoken out, maybe
he could have pleaded with someone to listen and gotten her out of
that house before it was too late.

“You must have
feared for your own life after your sister disappeared,” Derek
said.

He looked Derek
in the eye. He’d never admitted it to anyone, but he was tired of
hiding from the truth. “Honestly? There was days when I prayed he
would kill me. I didn’t want to live anymore, knowing what happened
to my sister. I’d see her face in my nightmares, screaming, crying,
begging for me to help her, and I’d just stand there, my feet
rooted to the ground. I couldn’t move.”

Derek leaned
forward, his hands laced. “I’ve been doing this job a long time,
Tucker. I’ve heard it all. There’s nothing you can’t tell me.”

Tucker felt he
could confide in Derek because of his vocation. He dealt with
depraved people like Tucker’s stepfather every day. Derek
understood what drove people to commit unspeakable crimes. “I
imagined where he might have taken her. I pictured the dank forest,
the bed of wet leaves. I knew it would be far away from
civilization where no one could hear her scream.”

“You’re
probably right,” Derek said. “He was a professional. He knew how
and where to hide her body so no one would find it.”

Once the
floodgates opened, Tucker couldn’t suppress the gory images. “I
imagined what he did to her, how he tortured her…” His hands curled
into fists. “I’ve jumped in my truck so many times, Derek. I even
got so far as their house once. I wanted to beat him to death. I
wanted to make him beg for mercy, the way he made my sister beg for
her life.”

“Why didn’t you
follow through?” Derek asked.

“I thought
about my kids. It was bad enough I’d been apart from them for
eighteen months. I couldn’t do that to them again.”

“Why didn’t you
tell the truth about what happened to your ex-wife?”

Derek rolled
his eyes. “Lauren really did tell you everything, didn’t she?”

“She wanted me
to understand why she loves you so much.” Derek smiled. “I was
concerned at first. Lauren wanted me to know you were the best man
she’d ever met and she knew for a fact that you’d die before you
ever let anyone hurt her.”

“She’s right
about that.”

“I know. You
proved that the night she was attacked.”

Tucker got
angry and frustrated all over again. “I should get back out there,”
he said, hooking a thumb over his shoulder. “Amanda’s probably back
with the cake.”

“We’re not
finished here.” Derek gave Tucker a look that brooked no argument.
“I went to see your stepfather.”

“You did?” Now
he had Tucker’s attention.

“Yeah. I found
him in a hospital bed.”

That was a
surprise to Tucker, but he felt no remorse. “Really?”

“There’s no
statute of limitations on murder.” Derek clenched his hand into a
tight fist, the only outward sign that anything he’d heard appalled
him. “I wanted to re-open the case. If he was responsible, I was
determined to make him pay.”

It meant
everything to Tucker that Derek had taken his word at face value.
“What happened?”

“He’s dying.
Brain tumor. Only a few weeks to live.”

He’d looked
weak and sickly at the funeral, but Tucker assumed the years of
abusing his body were catching up with him. “Huh, so I guess that
means he never has to answer for what he did.”

“Not
necessarily,” Derek said. “I think I can get him to talk. We spent
a long time talking about our time on the beat. He told me he has a
lot of regrets. I think if I go back again, I can get him to tell
me what happened to your sister.”

Tucker sucked
in a breath. He wanted to know, but he was also terrified.

“Think about
it, Tucker. You could have a funeral, lay her remains to rest. At
least you would know he had to answer for what he did, and I really
believe guys like him get what they deserve when they meet their
maker.”

“You think so,
huh?” Tucker wasn’t so sure.

“I couldn’t do
the job I do unless I believed that. So, what do you say? It’s up
to you. Do I go back to see him?”

A knock on the
door prevented Tucker from responding.

Lauren poked
her head in the door. “Amanda’s back with the cake. Are y’all
coming out?”

Tucker extended
his hand, and Lauren crossed the room to take it. He brought her
hand to his lips, needing her support to make a seemingly
impossible decision.

She perched on
the arm of Tucker’s chair, her eyes flicking from Derek to Tucker
and back again. “What’s going on?”

“My stepfather
is dying,” Tucker said quietly. “He only has a few weeks to
live.”

A look of panic
flitted across Lauren’s face, and Tucker knew she was questioning
her decision to tell her uncle his story without asking permission
first. He was secretly glad she hadn’t asked. He may have told her
to let it go because he didn’t have the courage to face the truth.
Uncovering the truth was a real possibility, and he couldn’t let it
go without at least attempting to find his sister’s remains.

“Oh, um…”
Lauren squeezed Tucker’s hand. “Does that mean you’ll never
know-”

“Derek thinks
he can get the old man to confess.”

“I think he’d
be glad to ease his guilty conscience,” Derek said.

Tucker scowled.
“That bastard doesn’t have a conscience.”

“You may be
right.” Derek stood. “But I’d like to at least try, with your
permission, Tucker.”

Tucker released
Lauren’s hand and got to his feet. He shook Derek’s hand. “Whatever
it takes. If there’s anything I can do…”

“I’ll let you
know how it goes.” Derek cupped Tucker’s shoulder. “Just know I’ll
do whatever I can. This isn’t just another case to me. This is
personal. You’re family now, Tucker.”

Tucker watched
him leave, wrestling with the emotion clamoring to the surface.
He’d never had much support in his life, and for Derek to step up
to try to help him right a wrong that had haunted him his whole
life meant more than the chief would ever know.

Lauren slipped
into his arms, resting her cheek against his beating heart without
saying a word.

He tightened
his arms around her, knowing he could face whatever happened as
long as she was by his side. “Thank you.”

“You’re not mad
at me for talking to Derek about your past?”

“No.” He smiled
and kissed the tip of her nose. “You obviously knew better than I
did. If you hadn’t spoken to Derek when you did, it would have been
too late. He would have been dead, and we would have missed out on
the opportunity to find out the truth.”

“Derek’s the
best. If anyone can find out what happened to your sister, he
can.”

Tucker held her
a long time. No words could describe what it meant to him that she
understood how much he needed closure. He couldn’t move forward and
build a life with her until he laid his past to rest, and the only
way he could do that was to find a beautiful, tranquil spot to lay
his sister’s remains to rest.

He knew just
the spot. A meadow bordered the neighboring property. The
wildflowers in the spring time looked like an artist’s canvas, and
the natural beauty always took his breath away. Sarah deserved to
have in death what she’d never experienced in life: peace, beauty,
and an abundance of love. He could visit her there, talk to her,
apologize for his mistakes, beg her forgiveness, share his life
with her, and most importantly, tell her how much he missed his big
sister and that he would never stop missing or loving her.

As soon as Tucker
walked into the hospital room, he felt the walls closing in on him.
The oppressive stench of death hung in the air. Tucker just wanted
to escape, but he couldn’t. Not yet. He had business to attend to,
and he would face his demons… for his sister’s sake.

Sam struggled
to open his eyes, but they drifted closed.

Tucker prayed
he wasn’t too late. Sam didn’t look capable of uttering a word.
Tucker stood at the end of the bed, torn between hatred and
frustration. He’d given so many years to hating the man, but he
knew it hadn’t been without a price. The rage inside of him had
been eating him alive, and if Lauren hadn’t come into his life, it
may have eventually killed him.

“Derek said you
wanted to see me.” Those were the first words he’d uttered to the
man since he ran away from home at eighteen. Even at his mother’s
funeral, they’d kept a safe distance from one another because
Tucker feared what he might do to him if he got too close.

“I did.” He
raised his frail arm a fraction of an inch off the bed, pointing
toward a chair. “Sit.”

Tucker clenched
his teeth. The last thing he wanted was to take orders from Sam,
but he’d come there on a mission and he wasn’t leaving until he’d
seen it through. “Talk,” Tucker said after claiming the appointed
seat.

“Sorry.”

That’s all he
could say? One word was supposed to erase the years of fear and
torment, the anger he’d planted in Tucker, the sister he’d taken
from him, the mother he’d manipulated and brainwashed…

“I did it.”

Tucker closed
his eyes and bowed his head. He had his confirmation. His worst
fears were realized, but the truth also set him free in a way he’d
never expected. The man responsible for taking Sarah’s life was
finally ready to take responsibility. “Where is she?”

Sam turned his
head, his eyes darting toward the bedside table. “In that drawer.”
He struggled to take a breath. “There’s a map.”

Tucker reached
into the drawer and extracted the map. He surveyed the highlighted
spot and squinted to read the scrawled notes. He knew exactly where
she was. Heaving a huge sigh of relief, he felt compelled to ask,
“Why?” He bit his trembling lip. “How could you do those things to
an innocent little girl?”

“Power.”

If Sam wasn’t
lying in his death bed, Tucker would have been tempted to put him
there. “Power? You needed power over a little girl?”

“That’s how my
old man did it.”

Tucker
swallowed the bile burning the back of his throat. “Your father
abused you?” When he said nothing, Tucker asked, “Sexually?
Physically?” When Sam closed his eyes, Tucker had his answer.
Nothing would ever excuse what he had done to Sarah, but at least
Tucker understood why he was so damaged.

He stood up. “I
have to go.” Both men knew there were no words left to say.

***

There was a
huge knot in Lauren’s stomach as she waited for Tucker to come
home. She had set the whole thing in motion. What if she’d made a
mistake? What if the old man refused to give Tucker answers and he
came home enraged and blamed her for ruining his life?

Would she lose
him all over again?

She heard his
truck pull up and clenched her hands at her sides, praying for the
ending they’d all been hoping for.

Tucker barely
looked at her when he walked in. She followed him to the kitchen,
and the knot in her stomach twisted even tighter when she saw him
reach into the fridge and grab one of the beers left over from the
party. Tucker didn’t drink. He’d always told her he lost control
when he drank alcohol. What did that mean?

He popped the
top off the bottle, brought it to his lips, and took a deep swallow
before sinking down in a chair at the massive cherry table in the
center of the room. He crooked his finger at her finally,
whispering, “Come here.”