Too Far Gone

76

“Sit here. I’ll get you some water,” Alexa said.

“It’s impossible,” Casey insisted. “I don’t believe it. Fugate lied in her diary.”

“I’m absolutely sure she didn’t,” Alexa told her.

“How can you be one hundred percent sure it’s true?”

“I’m sure DNA will confirm it. According to Fugate’s diary, your uncle spent a great deal of money to buy silence. Decell was first on the crime scene, and he freed you from Sibby. Fugate’s diary says that Decell knew about Sibby being your mother, but not how he found out. Sibby could have told Decell that night or maybe he saw Dr. LePointe there. That secret explains his connection to your uncle, more than the fact that she attacked him when he interceded.”

“Me? I’m…?” Casey was totally stunned. “My uncle and that woman? Unko is my father? My birth mother is a schizophrenic psychopath?”

Alexa nodded.

“She killed my parents. Was she going to kill me?”

“I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think so.”

“She was here to, what, take me back? Motherly instincts?”

“It’s possible, I suppose.”

“It’s totally preposterous! Four years after I was born she just decided I was here and came here and murdered my parents. Don’t you see, if it’s true she knew I was here, then Dorothy Fugate must have been the one who told her.”

“You may be right. That was twenty-six years ago, though, and I doubt we’ll ever know.” Again Alexa thought about those missing pages.

“After the murders, Sibby was committed to River Run, where your uncle was practicing. He and Fugate made sure Sibby never said a word about what had happened. The two of them conspired to keep her in a mental fog. Just in case she came out, your uncle performed a prefrontal lobotomy on her, which was not recorded. The doctors at Charity confirmed that by the scars.”

“Where’s the Fugate diary? I want to see it for myself.”

“I have it in a safe place. I intend to use it to build a case against your uncle. I just wanted you to know what’s in it before it becomes public knowledge.”

“Where’s Sibby now?”

“She’s hospitalized for observation at Charity.”

“What will happen to her?”

“She’ll be going back to River Run, or someplace like it, I imagine. I don’t know how dangerous she is now. They’ll have to evaluate her and make that decision.”

“I can’t believe my mother is…that woman. And you think Grace knew it?”

Alexa nodded.

“How?”

“This is the man she called Doc.” Alexa took out the picture of Doc standing with Grace and handed it to Casey. “He had a connection to Fugate and another inmate at River Run, who helped them kidnap Gary and kill Dorothy. Grace had a copy of the diary at her house.”

“I’ve seen him before. Wait. He’s that orderly at River Run. Just a minute. Is he the man I shot?”

“He may be a relative of Fugate’s. She mentioned her nephew in the diary, but not by name. I think he targeted Grace and somehow enlisted her help.”

“Grace was so alone that it probably wasn’t hard. He probably seduced her, poor thing. What’s his name?”

“Doc is the only name we have. That’s what I heard Leland Ticholet call him.”

“Grace is -was my closest friend. She was loyal.”

“Maybe you were her friend, but it appears she wasn’t yours. I’m sorry to have to tell you all this.”

“You were suspicious all along.” Casey shook her head. “You said I shouldn’t tell her anything you told me…” She put her head in her hands, ran her fingers through her hair. “My grandmother told me never to trust anybody. She said those closest to me would be the most envious of what I had. She didn’t care for Grace, but allowed us to be friends because Grace was socially acceptable. My grandmother wasn’t much fond of anybody.” Slowly, Casey tucked her hair behind her ears. “Maybe you’re wrong. Maybe Grace was framed and that man I shot killed her so we wouldn’t know. It’s possible, right?”

“The man you shot got away. I think he gave Grace the money they’d need to get away until they could cash the bonds. We found a plane ticket to Paris in her name and another to Spain, in her false name. Her suitcases were packed. Grace had dyed her hair and had colored contacts to alter her appearance. This was well planned.”

“Grace always was organized.”

“I think Grace and Doc sent out photocopies of the diary to the media. That’s why they’re calling you.”

“Why would she do such a thing? This is all going to be made public? All of it? Why? And if this Doc had the diary, why did they bother to kidnap Gary?”

“I’m not sure, but I think that may have been Grace’s idea, maybe a requirement for helping Doc. She had lots of pictures of you in the apartment.”

“We’ve been friends for nearly twenty-five years. I have pictures of her in my house and studio.”

“She had boxes filled with them. Covering the walls, in drawers. She was obsessed with you.”

“You mean like stalker obsessed?”

Alexa nodded.

“Is it possible that Unko or Fugate told Sibby about my parents? So that she’d harm them? How awful!”

“The diary didn’t say so.”

“It wouldn’t necessarily, would it? Who in their right mind would write that down? That they’d deliberately sent a madwoman into the home of two innocent people, to butcher them? Unko would never have had any control if my father had lived. Alexa, my family history is filled with the person in control being ousted by the person next in line. The strongest warrior in waiting defeats the king, and takes over. Alexa, it’s true! I know that’s what happened. Unko deliberately used her to murder my parents!”

“I’m sorry you had to hear all of this from me. Sorry you had to hear it at all.”

“You’re most sorry because it’s true,” Casey said, smiling for the first time since Alexa had mentioned the notebook. “You are a wonderful, kind person, Alexa Keen. We’re alike, you and me. Orphans. It’s true. Don’t you see?”

Casey embraced Alexa. “You are the savior of the lost. If there’s anything I can ever do for you, it’s yours.”

Alexa left the West house. She ignored the shouted questions of the members of the fourth estate, gathering like hungry crows.