The Witness

Chapter Eleven

“THEY’LL BE HERE, AMY,” Luke reassured softly. He had made the two pages a short time ago and thought the first of the sisters was no more than ten minutes out.

She turned from watching the moonlight shimmering across the frosted ground. “I know.”

He had expected the nerves and the uncertainty. He hadn’t expected the sadness. It seemed to press in on her like an enfolding blanket. Amy wasn’t ready for her sisters’ arrival, and he didn’t know what to say to help her.

The music clicked over to something softly romantic, and he nodded toward the food. “You ought to eat something or have a drink. I know it’s hard to wait, so let me be a bit of a distraction.”

She smiled at him, and it was the full smile he remembered from years before. “Trust me, Luke; you don’t need help to be a distraction. It was very nice tonight, stepping out of the car and seeing you waiting for me. I appreciate all the arrangements.”

“Caroline helped me out.” He saw her lifted eyebrow. “Former army, former cop, a very good friend when you need someone to trust. I’m doing my best to convince her to unretire.”

“Bad shooting?” she asked softly, anticipating the cause.

“One of the worst the department ever had.”

“I’d like to meet her.”

“You will. She’s around here somewhere; she simply excels at being discreet.”

Amy smiled. “I wonder what she’d say if she knew reality. I’m trying to trust you, Luke. It’s just not that easy anymore to trust anyone. Without that-” she shrugged-“it kind of precludes about anything else, even the friendship we’ve been skirting around since we first met.”

He served himself a plate and nodded for her to join him. “Eat something or those aspirins you’ve been popping are going to just make the headache worse.” She joined him, and he considered her thoughtfully a moment. “Do you still trust God?”

She looked over, startled.

“I understand entirely the doubts that surface when you look at someone and can’t totally be sure if what you are seeing is the real story. You ran into a lot of people with a dark, dangerous side. But is it trust that is the problem, or is it discernment of who is safe and who is not?”

“Good question. I’ve never really thought about it in those terms.” She stuck toothpicks into a couple meatballs and two of the sweet pickles. “‘God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases.’” She shrugged. “That was the only verse in the psalms that made the most sense over the years. He let me get hurt, and maybe I was naive, but that didn’t fit what I thought was the expectation about being a Christian. Not the kind of deep, damaging hurt I took after I spent a lot of time praying about dating Greg. I never really even sensed a back-off check in my spirit about the relationship. Maybe I was deaf, but I didn’t get the warning I thought I would for what was coming. I assumed there would be protection or at least an end to the harm in a reasonable time, that God would keep me safe. Eight years and a dead cop later-that kind of changes things.”

“God is against you? or unconcerned about what happens?”

“That’s probably where my head was at the first few years. I was in too much panic and stress to be anything more than horrified that even prayers for safety didn’t seem to be getting answered.” She walked over toward the couch and sank down into it to enjoy the warmth from the fire. “Maybe time changes things, but I’m past the worst of that reaction now, I think. I know the evil is not past yet. But this is earth, not heaven. And the reality on earth is it’s the good days that are the exception in this life, not the bad. Once that settled in, it changed my perspective and made this easier to face.”

She turned to face him as he settled into the chair to her right. “Now… God hasn’t changed. He’s still loving, righteous, and in charge. And evil and free will still exist. God could change this, but it doesn’t necessarily mean He will. I still pray He’ll end the dilemma I am in, but I gave up expecting it to happen tomorrow. Everyone gets their own unique mess to try to survive in life, and mine came when I was in my thirties.”

“You have survived it, Amy. It hasn’t knocked you into pieces and left you unable to function, unable to cope. And even in all this-God hasn’t forgotten you. He cares about your days, every one of them.”

“I know. I’ve grown up quite a bit, I think. There were many days I wondered if I could take even one more hour of it, let alone another month. I don’t like to run, Luke. I don’t like to be afraid. But part of me has started to cope with the fact I’m doing both. That’s been by God’s grace. Accepting where I’m limited and figuring out there will be some way through the latest wrinkle. Someone wants me dead; that’s the stark reality that leads every other one. The hatred is too strong now for it to ever disappear, not even after the money and last ledger are turned in.”

She looked toward the window and the night. “I worry about what this will do to Marie and Tracey when they know the truth. Sometimes it’s a whole lot easier to live with what you think is the truth than to have to face what is the truth.”

“As bad as the truth will be, you’ll still be comforting them just to let them know you aren’t dead.”

“And when they spend the next weeks and months worrying every day about my safety?” Amy shook her head. “It’s like asking them to drink poison, not enough to be lethal, just enough to haunt their days. When I have to go silent, when I have to run-what then? They live afraid for me, frantic to know where I went and if I’m okay. When I run I can’t have them coming after me.”

“When you run, they become the easier targets. That’s reality too. Protection that encompasses only you won’t help them, and protection that encompasses only them won’t help you-not really. You need to come in from the cold and let this be managed properly.”

She turned her head to look at him, and while he knew she was accepting his argument, it didn’t mean she was agreeing with it or accepting the implications of that. She wasn’t ready to cross that line and face what it would mean to totally trust someone else for her safety, and he could understand that fine line. “You’ll have to trust me as a simple leap of faith. Just like you’ve chosen to keep trusting God. I’m not infallible, but I’ll promise you my best. There’s no other way for you to cross that threshold to trust me but to just risk it.”

He saw lights cross the windows and so did she. She rose, and he took her plate for her. “You want to do this alone or with some company?”

“Stay… please.”

He rested a comforting hand on her shoulder. “They love you. Remember that.”

“This isn’t the way home,” Marie realized as Connor turned off the interstate. “Where are we going?” She looked over toward him.

He turned his head to briefly smile at her before looking back at the road. “There’s been a stop added to the evening that I think you might enjoy. We’re almost there.”

“What?”

He reached over and squeezed her hand. “Trust me. It’s in the category of being nice.”

“Daniel set something up?”

Connor shook his head. “You’re welcome to turn on the mirror light and check your makeup if you like. You look gorgeous, but you can fuss a few minutes anyway.”

“Now I’m really wondering.” She picked up her purse.

He turned again, and in the night it looked like an expensive area of homes, vast expanses of land stretching between gated entrances; the home that must be back on the private roads so far back as to not be visible from this road.

She brushed out her hair and touched up her lipstick. Someone Connor wanted her to meet? Surely his parents didn’t live out this way; surely he’d warn her before a meeting like that. Meeting just anyone when it was after nine o’clock didn’t seem likely. Was there a place back here he knew about? Cops did know a lot about the area. Something he wanted her to see? The moon was bright in the sky, and it was a nice evening to walk if you bundled up well.

He was driving toward the home ahead, this road leading back to an imposing gate set into what looked like a massive wall of stones. “Connor, I don’t like surprises,” she whispered, worried now as he pulled up and lowered his window. The fact he knew the security code to punch in put her even more on edge.

“Relax, honey. An hour from now you’ll be hugging the breath out of me, I suspect,” he teased, but his hand was gentle as he reached over to take hers again.

The gates opened.

He followed the drive, and a massive home appeared, three stories, huge windows. Lights were on and she could see smoke lazily rising in the still night air from two chimneys; the home was occupied. Connor circled the home and parked before a four-door garage.

A possible client for the gallery? If they can afford the house, they can afford some very nice artwork. Marie settled with that thought, for that might make sense, given how Connor was treating this stop.

He came around to open her door, and she let him take her hand. He locked the car behind them and nodded toward the breezeway patio doors. “Let’s go inside.”

The breezeway had marble floors. Already clued in to the wealth in this home, it was still a startling realization. Another set of glass doors automatically opened for them, and they stepped from the wide breezeway into a great room with soaring ceiling, comfortable couches, and a grand piano tucked into the corner. The room overlooked part of the backyard, and it was as landscaped as she had suspected, soft lights illuminating walkways.

“Go on through to the more formal living room,” Connor suggested, nodding to the wide arched doorway into the adjoining room. She could hear music.

She didn’t ask the questions begging to be asked. She walked through the arched doorway and into the loveliest room she’d seen in years, fires casting off warmth, the expanse of windows suggesting more of the spacious yard waited outside, the smell of cinnamon and the rich smell of honey hinting of something in the kitchen off to her right. And her attention finally focused on the people-startled surprise at the sight of the police chief here and then the lady with him.

“Hello, Marie.”

The whispered words in the voice she had never forgotten… Marie froze; the pounding of her heart sounded so loud in her own ears, an awareness of such incredible shock running through her, that her mind wasn’t sure how to move her limbs. She was aware, too, of Connor being the one gripping her arm so tightly she couldn’t stumble even if her legs gave way. He had her safe and he had her here-here where Amanda stood, where Amanda was alive.

“Mandy-” She took one tentative step toward Amanda as she put all of it together-the stress in her sister’s face, the hair colored to deal with early gray, and the steady gaze perfectly matching the gaze she’d loved for so many years she could still see it in her dreams. Her sister, alive and well.

Marie began to smile as she rushed across the room. “Welcome home.” She felt Amanda’s arms close around her as she wrapped her own around the too-tall and too-thin frame and felt like heaven opened to smile at her, so great was the joy that welled up inside and turned her heart toward hope and joy.

All those years of prayers and the answer was so joyously better than anything she had ever hoped. “God brought you back. He brought you back.”

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for everything,” Mandy whispered.

“I wouldn’t have stopped looking; I never should have stopped looking. They told me you were dead; they convinced me you were dead.” The horror of having given up the search made the grief squeeze like a vise around Marie’s heart, the pain of so many lost years incredibly intense.

“Sam had to help me convince you of that, honey; there was no other choice. You had to stop searching, for both you and Tracey’s sake,” Mandy whispered.

Marie eased back enough to touch her sister’s face, knowing there was no way to understand that.

“I’ll be able to explain some of it. I’m just so sorry you had to grieve for me as gone. Don’t blame Sam. I didn’t give him any options.”

She wanted answers, wanted to cry why, but instead smiled through her tears. She wouldn’t take the pain out toward Mandy, who had been her older sister and protector and confidante all her life. The reasons would be there and have left Mandy no choice; a lifetime together made Marie sure of that. “You’re found now. You can’t know how good this moment is or how much I’ve hoped.”

“Better than a birthday surprise?”

Marie laughed, released from the tension by their shared memories. “Better.”

“I owe you a few years’ worth of birthday parties and Christmas presents and sloppily made breakfasts in bed and giggling girl talk.”

“Yeah.” Marie hugged her sister hard, afraid this moment would vanish on her, the tears breaking past her ability to control them. She tried to stop the sobs, and Mandy held on.

“I know, Marie. I know,” Mandy whispered.

“Sorry.” Marie fought back the tears and forced a smile. Mandy had the Kleenex pack already in her hand and shared. Marie could see her sister struggling to control her own emotions. She’d been afraid of this moment, Marie realized, surprised, Mandy afraid of the reception she would get when she appeared. “Explain it all later, Sis. For now I plan to celebrate and maybe tease you about coloring your hair. You never could stand the thought of that.”

“Early gray runs in the family.”

“Tell me about it,” Marie agreed, softly laughing. She looked beyond Mandy’s shoulder to where the chief of police stood near the fireplace, watching them, watching Amanda. “Thank you. However you managed this.”

He smiled back. “You’re welcome, Marie.”

“Tracey’s coming?”

“She’ll be here with Marsh anytime.”

Marie looked back at her sister. “When she shows, you’ll be flooded with happy tears again and probably a joyfully screamed greeting.”

“Oh, I hope so. She hasn’t changed.”

“No. Just grown up.” She reached up to touch Mandy’s face, trying to understand the changes in her sister, the years of stress showing where there should have just been years of joy had life turned out differently, and her emotions faltered. How much history had gone wrong for her sister to age her before her time, to make those beautiful blue eyes so clouded with stress. “I’m glad you’re home. I missed you, Mandy.” She wiped her sister’s tears. “Come on; sit down. Talk to me.” She settled beside her sister on the long couch.

“It’s going to take a while, I’m afraid.”

“I’m not planning to go anywhere,” Marie replied, smiling. She looked across at Connor. “You knew.”

“A few days now,” he softly replied.

A few days-before the turtle, before the call to ask for a date, before Sunday night and the help with the paintings and the casual talk about family and history. Her heart swelled over what he had done in the last few days for her and her family, and there wasn’t going to be words to say thanks. She smiled. “I’ll have to remember how well you can keep a secret.”

“I’m getting drinks. What are you interested in having? Coffee? Hot chocolate? Something cold?” he offered, smiling back.

“Tea would be fine.”

“What about you, Amy? Need a refill?”

“Coffee, thanks.”

Lights passed across the windows, and Marie felt Mandy tense. She gripped her sister’s hand.

“Marsh and Tracey,” Connor confirmed, looking out the window.

“Do you think she’s going to be mad?” Mandy whispered.

“A little. But a lot more overjoyed,” Marie promised.

They heard Tracey laughing with Marsh about something, and she came through the archway into the living room, slipping off her coat. Marie saw the first moment it hit, the way Tracey froze, and then she was running, jacket not off yet.

“Mandy!”

Marie leaned back with a laugh as Tracey about squashed her sister in a hug, her coat trailing behind her. “You’re real; you’re thin; I’m so envious; you’re coloring your hair-oh man, that means I’m going to be doing it soon too. What happened? Where have you been? Why didn’t you call me? Oh, you look good.”

Mandy wrapped her arms around Tracey and just smiled. “I missed you too.”

Tracey impatiently pushed aside the coat and sank onto the couch on the other side of Mandy. “Marsh, you should have warned me. I about had a heart attack.”

“Hmm, I could have.” He came around behind the couch and took the coat out of her way, then leaned over and kissed her. “You like surprises.”

Marie laughed at the way Mandy was checking out Marsh. “He’s a cop too, Connor’s partner,” she whispered.

“And I love him most of the time he’s not winding me up this way,” Tracey added, pushing Marsh aside and turning back to her sister. “But we’ll talk about him later. What happened? Start at the very, very beginning and don’t leave out a comma.”

Marie saw the stress Mandy was under reappear and squeezed her hand. “You want that coffee first?”

“I think I’d better.”

Marie got up. “What do you want to drink, Tracey?”

“A soda is fine.”

Connor had poured the coffee and the iced tea. He opened a soda for Tracey as Marie joined him to take the tray. She looked at him, at the steady gaze he gave her in return, at the quiet way he was watching the reunion, and she knew then something of what was coming. She was starting to think again and to put together the pieces. The most striking of which that the cops had felt this reunion needed to be held on a gated estate with rock walls well after dark.

“Thanks.” She refused to let her smile change as she took the drinks back to her sisters. “Don’t feel like you have to hurry with the answers, Mandy. I know they aren’t going to be easy, and we’ve got all night. But why don’t you start with what happened the night Greg was shot?”

Mandy smiled in thanks at the quiet opening and sipped her coffee before she moved to settle into the chair across from her sisters so she could face them both, and then she nodded. “Do you two remember where I used to live, the apartment block?”

Marie nodded.

“Greg lived north, more uptown, but we had a favorite restaurant that we went to on Friday nights down near my place,” Mandy began, and Marie reached over to take Tracey’s hand. One or both of them were going to end up crying before this was over-Marie just knew it. From the corner of her eye she saw Connor follow Marsh and the chief into the next room.

“We were talking about where we would live after we were married, laughing over our clashing styles for colors and carpet and my dislike of having a housekeeper. It was late when we finally paid the bill and walked back to the car. Greg drove me home.” Mandy stopped her narrative, and Marie just waited.

“Did you see the shooter?” Tracey asked quietly.

“I think it’s best if I not answer that,” Mandy replied finally. “One of the bullets that hit Greg came through him and struck me in the side.”

Marie closed her eyes. God, don’t let this go where I know it’s going. She’s not really back, is she?

They talked about New York. They talked about the missing years. Marie listened to Mandy and to Tracey and couldn’t find words to ease the ache in her own heart. So many years lost and gone forever.

“They want money; they can have the money,” Tracey said, insistent, bitter, her anger growing.

“It’s not going to be that simple, Tracey. Oh, how I wish it could be,” Mandy replied. “Listen to the guys and stay within the protection they provide. Please don’t take chances.”

“You’re not coming home.”

“I can’t, Tracey. The world thinks I’m dead, and it has to stay that way. For all our sakes.”

“When will we see you again?” Marie whispered.

“I don’t know,” Mandy said quietly in return. “Tonight is already a huge risk.”

“The cops can’t do anything?” Tracey pushed.

“They’ve been working to make it better for a long time, and it is getting better. But it’s more dangerous now than ever before as they try to bring it to an end. I don’t want you two being dragged into my troubles.”

“You should have called us; you should have let us help you. We’re family,” Tracey insisted, pacing away from the couch.

“I did what I thought was best.”

“Like you are now, disappearing again? You’re my sister; I want you in my life. You could have at least picked up the phone and called me once in a while.”

Marie watched Mandy take the charge and saw the flicker of emotion cross her face before it went still. “There’s more. Isn’t there, Mandy? There’s more than what you’ve told us.”

She hesitated but finally nodded. “They killed a cop who had knowledge of where I was at. They beat him to death in his own home just to find out what he knew.”

Tracey paled.

“I can’t be in your life again, not until I can do it safely. I can’t. My worst nightmare is that they go after the two of you to get to me.”

Marie leaned forward. “We’re not going to increase that burden on you, Mandy. We’ll listen to the guys, and we’ll follow their advice. You do not have to worry about us,” she promised, knowing she’d push Tracey toward that somehow. “What do they have in mind to keep you safe? Is everything that can be done being done?”

“Yes.”

“There must be some way we can safely see you and talk with you,” Tracey persisted. “I don’t care if we have to book a flight to Alaska and meet you in an igloo somewhere. It matters that we be able to see you again. The money ought to be able to buy us the means to do at least that much.”

“The reporters around the new money make it risky for a while. When it calms down more-”

“Let the reporters-”

“Tracey!” Marie cut her off. She had been the one Marie thought would best be able to adapt, and she was absorbed in the anger of it, the unfairness of it, and the bitter hurt.

“Sorry,” Tracey muttered, walking back over to the windows.

“I understand the anger and the pain of this,” Mandy offered softly. “It’s not what I want either. But caution is how I’ve learned to live, and that doesn’t change easily.”

Tracey turned, her arms folded across her chest. “So we see you a year from now, another night when the guys don’t take us home, but instead take us to some out-of-the-way place where you are?”

“Maybe.”

“You’re my sister! I want my family back. Why don’t we buy a secure house like this one and a small army of guys to secure the grounds and travel with us so we can be a family again? If the threat is that severe, then let’s attack the problem, not just try to hide from it.”

Marie found the thought appealing. “Could you consider that, Mandy? Coming home to somewhere very safe? I know you’re worried about us, but there have to be options better than your disappearing again. Please, there have to be better options than that.”

“I don’t want to be burying one or both of you,” Mandy cried, lifting her hands to cover her face for a moment and fighting for her composure, then tucking her hands back around her waist. “You have to understand Richard Wise. He wants money and he wants me dead. Anyone around me just becomes targets, and I can’t live with that. I don’t want to be gone and lonely like the last eight years, but I can’t live with the fact my presence puts your lives at risk. Don’t ask me for that.”

“Then find something in the middle that works. Use the new money to find somewhere safe to stay and then let us come visit. It can’t be that impossible to arrange for us to safely get to where you are. It can’t be, Mandy. We’re family and we’re not going away this time. We’re not letting you disappear.”

Marie didn’t want to be the one mediating between Mandy and Tracey. She wanted to be the one curled up in a chair crying over everything she’d heard and the pain Mandy had lived through in the last years and the tragedy of all those years on the run. But something had to give or she was going to watch her sisters tear each other apart. The emotions were too broken, the pain too deep, on both sides. She ached for Mandy while she understood and felt the same as Tracey.

“Talk to the chief, Mandy. You trust him? You must or he wouldn’t have been able to set this up. Talk to the chief and see what he can work out. If the risk is too great, we’ll stay away, we won’t search to try and find you, and we’ll let you go back into the shadows again. But if there is a way-please, you owe it to Tracey and me to try it and see. We need you in our lives. We love you so much, and our lives have been hollow with that void of your being gone. Don’t ask us to endure that again if there is any way to avoid it.”

Mandy gave in abruptly, a nod of consent, but clearly afraid. “I’ll talk with the chief. But it’s all I can promise, Marie. I can’t put you two in danger even if that means I have to break your hearts.”

Marie offered a broken smile and reached over to squeeze Mandy’s hand. “I know, Sis.” The dilemma Mandy was in was unsolvable, and Marie understood, even as it cut, why Mandy had stayed away so very long. “It’s a plan then. We’ll see what the guys say is possible.” Marie looked around. Connor, Marsh, and the chief had not returned, but they had to be somewhere nearby.

Tracey came back over from the window and nudged Mandy to slide over on the chair more so she could sit on the armrest. “I’m getting engaged whenever Marsh finally gets around to asking, and I want you here to share that,” she offered, trying hard to stop the pain they were both in and to explain the anger.

Mandy hugged her. “I love you. I desperately want to be here for that. Don’t ever think I don’t want to be here. It’s just got to be safe; it’s the only thing left I’ve got to give you.”

Tracey cried and Mandy held on to her. Marie knew it was going to break Mandy’s heart to walk away tonight, but she’d do it because she thought it had to be done. Somehow this had to turn out right again. They were family and it had to turn out right.

Tracey eased back. “I need a mop for my face.”

Mandy laughed. “I think I do too.” She rubbed at her own wet face.

Marie reached up and slid free the fine chain and pendant she wore. “I’ve got something you might want to have back. This is yours, I think.” She had given Mandy the locket before she entered the army, and Mandy had taken it with her everywhere she traveled and even worn it into combat. The locket had been a connection to home.

Marie slid the chain and locket back around her sister’s neck and carefully latched the clasp. “I knew you never took it off, so it did its job. Sam used it to convince me you were really gone. I gave up looking after that. It’s good to have it back where it belongs.”

“I’m sorry, so sorry I had to do that.”

“I understand now why you did.”

Mandy hugged her hard. “Thank you, Marie.”

“We’re sharing the money with you equally-you do know that, Mandy, don’t you? No half sister and other protests getting shoved toward us. We’re a family, and it’s going to be handled the way it should have been all along.”

“You don’t have to do that, please. I’ve lived with the reality that money has been the source of so many problems in my life that I honestly don’t want it.”

“It’s not open for debate. Let it sit in trust for your kids if you like, but we’ll be telling Daniel our decision tomorrow.”

“No. For now, for lots of reasons, just let it be. To the world at large I’m dead, and it’s easier to stay that way for now. I’ll let you help with what I need and gratefully accept that, but we’ll talk about anything else only after this situation is ended.”

“It can sit for now, but know it’s going to be there. I’m not going to wade through the dilemma of how to be wealthy without also watching you figure it out too.”

Mandy smiled. “Tell me about college, Tracey. And about Marsh,” she said, trying to shift the conversation.

Tracey moved to settle back into the couch cushions, not wanting to follow the change of conversation, but at Marie’s soft look in warning, she picked up the topics. “School is school. I’d rather talk about Marsh,” she offered lightly. “We met over at the college when he came to take a refresher course in criminal law. I overheard him registering and decided it was worth auditing the class.”

“You did?” Marie asked, surprised, having not heard that before. “I thought you said you met him in class, that it was an elective that fit your schedule.”

“So maybe it was a bit more than that…,” Tracey conceded.

Mandy laughed. “You never were one to hesitate when you thought a guy was interesting. How long before he invited you out?”

Tracey rolled her eyes. “Forever. I ended up taking Criminal Law II the next semester just to wear him down. He was nice and all and would buy me coffee at the breaks, but forget a date. He thought I was a nice college kid and half his age.”

Mandy was having a hard time subduing her laughter. “Ten years between you?”

“Nine, but he’s the only one counting.”

“I gather you got past that eventually.”

“He’s not such a bad guy once he admits he likes you,” Tracey replied, smiling.

Marie refilled her drink as she listened to Mandy and Tracey, and a smile lightened her mood. They were going to be fine. Somehow, they were going to be fine.

Two hours ago, God, I didn’t know she was still alive. There aren’t words for this joy. There aren’t even emotions deep enough to touch it. Mandy is alive. I can’t say an adequate thanks. For the rest of it-I’m afraid we’re in a situation that will take a miracle to resolve. She has to be safe.

“Tell her about your recent ski trip, Tracey,” Marie suggested, folding herself back into the cushions of the couch. She didn’t want this night to ever end.