CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
Worth
Ford pounded in the entry door shouting, “Mother?”
“Ford!” Auggie shouted from upstairs and skipped down the staircase toward him. He was beaming at her; apparently so glad that she was back to normal. She hugged him and lifted him right off his feet in pleasure. “Glad to be home?”
“You bet! You know, there were a couple of guys who couldn’t go home for Christmas. Their families lived too far away and couldn’t afford it.”
“Oh, no, really? Could you invite them here? We’d be glad to have them.”
“I don’t think so, Mother. It’s too late. You’d need written permission from their parents and everything.”
“Oh, that’s so sad. Next time, maybe we can plan ahead. I’m so happy you’re here, though. We have so much planned to do!”
“Hello, son,” I said and Ford looked up to me and extended his hand.
“Hello, Father.”
I was a bit taken aback by the cool formality, but wrote it off to the military discipline he was subjected to. I decided to overlook it.
Auggie was peeling off his jacket and telling him to put his things away. “Come down to the kitchen then and help me bake some cookies, will you? I just can’t seem to tell if they taste okay. I need a professional tester.”
He nodded enthusiastically and ran up the stairs to his room. Auggie’s personal effects had already been moved back into our bedroom and he noted that as he passed by our open door. I saw him pause and sort of nod with approval. He came back down and asked, “Mother? Are you home for good?”
“Home for good.” She smiled and handed him a fresh cookie. “You think there are too many chocolate chips in that one? Shall I cut back a bit?”
“No, no, Mother, it’s perfect. In fact, you could even up it a bit and I wouldn’t complain!” His face was so full of joy. I felt complete.
“When you two are done in the kitchen, we have a little tree-picking to do. I thought we’d use one of our own this year. There’s quite a few beyond the track and naturally we had to wait for you to come home to select just the right one,” I said. This seemed to meet with his approval because he hurriedly asked Auggie how many cookies they were baking.
“Just enough for right now, I think,” she said. “We can bake a few more batches before Christmas, though. I thought you might like to take some over to Grandma and Grandpa’s.”
“Aren’t they coming for Christmas?” he asked.
“Oh, yes,” I answered. “They’ll be here. They’re looking forward to seeing you home again,” I added, hoping I wasn’t prejudicing his eventual decision about staying at school or moving home again.
There wasn’t much snow on the ground, and we made the most of it. We bundled up and decided to walk down to the track. We would pick a tree and tag it for one of the hands to cut and bring up to the house.
Ford was like a live wire, skipping around and pointing out birds’ nests and things you couldn’t see when there were leaves on the trees. Auggie was delighted; her face shining and her cheeks red from the cold. We tramped back into the woods and Ford picked out a pine that was, for the most part, straight. He used his scarf to mark it and we headed back, going by the barns on the way so he could say hello to his horse and the hands who were working.
There’s nothing like the scents inside a working horse barn. It was far warmer than the outdoors and even the smell of manure was familiar and comforting. It steamed in piles along the perimeter and mixed with the odors of liniment and leather. The horses’ nostrils steamed a bit and they were glad of the sugar cubes and petting. We were all in a holiday mood. The only sad part was that Auggie had demanded that Carlos’ stall never be re-assigned and so where he once stood, now only a plaque with his name and his abandoned bridle served to remember him by. Auggie stood at it for a few minutes, as though trying to absorb his individual scent and to let the memories of all the times they had shared together fill her consciousness. We let her have her moments before we dragged her back out into the cold sunlight. Ford was waiting, a snowball in hand and he caught her squarely in the back.
This naturally triggered a family snowball fight and since the snow was sparse, it took more effort to make a ball than was feasible. We gave up quickly and went indoors. Auggie and Ford went up into the attic to get the tree decorations and I helped the men get the tree into the house and into the stand when they arrived.
Auggie made us a special family dinner that night, preparing a huge tray of lasagna with French bread and salad. We let Ford chatter on about school and all the people he knew. We exchanged a few looks over his head, knowing that his decision could go either way when it came time to make it.
We topped off dinner with strawberry shortcake and then took hot cocoa into the family room to decorate the tree. The tallest and only person not afraid to climb a ladder, I was elected to begin stringing the lights and to put the star on top. Ford and Auggie entered into a heated, although friendly, discussion about the ornaments and where they should go. They were two of a kind and I had to factor that in, as well, regarding his ultimate decision.
The hour grew late and Ford went upstairs to bathe and go to bed. He scampered down and gave Auggie one last kiss before he climbed into bed. I got a hug this time and reasoned that it was probably far more seemly, considering I was his father.
Auggie and I switched to wine and sat before the fire. We talked of our own Christmas celebrations as children. We compared notes and it seemed that as long as we believed in Santa Claus, things had been idyllic — or at least so they seemed. Once we knew Santa was imaginary, the pretense was dropped and there were no celebrations or seasonal traditions. On Christmas morning, we each received a gift certificate to some store or another and life had gone on as usual. Auggie said her dad wanted to do more, but her mother had always objected, saying that she had been unruly and belligerent through the year and that sort of behavior should not be rewarded.
How many times have I wished that Auggie’s mother had actually married my father and left the rest of the world alone? Then, I reasoned, there would have been no Auggie or me, and that put the question to rest.
Auggie and I made sweet, gentle love that night. There was no pressure of knowing that one of us would be leaving afterwards. There was only the acceptance of one another, complete with faults, and the overwhelming sense of family. For us, lovemaking was the ultimate way to be close to one another.
The next morning, I suggested to Ford that we had some shopping that needed to be done. We were off to town before Auggie had a chance to object — I think she was looking forward to shopping with him too. But I felt I needed some dedicated time with him. I think she understood because she was smiling contentedly as we left.
We chose one of the large department stores and bought Margaret and Walter a compact but powerful home entertainment system. Ford commented that his Grandfather always seemed to have the volume turned up awfully high, so we bought a system that supported individual headphones with adjustable volume. Ford asked for some spending money and an hour alone to buy his mother and me a gift. I gave him money and settled down in the store café for a cup of coffee and to read the newspaper while he was gone.
“Merry Christmas, Bro.” The voice. The words. The condescending tone sent chills down my back. I looked up at the man standing before me and if it weren’t for the emerald green eyes, dancing with wickedness, I wouldn’t have known him.
I was speechless.
“Surprised?” he asked, chuckling in that evil tone I remembered. “Thought you might be,” he said, pulling out a chair at the other side of my table and taking a seat.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, all the while knowing it was the most pathetic question I could possibly ask.
“I think what you mean, is why am I alive?” A toothpick hung from his mouth, but his full beard almost completely hid it. “How’s my sweet-bodied little sister?” he snarled and it took every fiber of my body not to lunge at him. I had to remain cool. There was too much at stake. Ford would be back at any moment and I had to have this creature gone. “Pretty good act — rising from the dead not once, but twice, wouldn’t you say?”
I wanted to pick up the fork and gouge his eyes out. Those were the eyes of my Auggie and of our son. He didn’t deserve to have them.
“What do you want?” I barked tersely.
“Same thing I always wanted. What was owed to me.”
“How are you alive?”
“Funny how that works,” he said. “I’ve come to learn a great deal about switching people. Seems they’re not as identifiable as you might think. I got switched once and I figured out how to do it again.”
“And Jessie?”
“Her? Oh, yeah, she’s dead for sure. She was my cover.”
“But how did you fool the coroner?” I asked, even at the same time denying that I didn’t want to know, but somehow needed to know.
“You forget, Bro. They don’t have any prints on me. All that went into the hole with the other kid down the road at the family plot. I’m what you might call… untraceable.” He chuckled and winked at me, repositioning the toothpick.
I spotted Ford coming down the escalator. “Leave. Now! Meet me at my office tomorrow at three o’clock.”
He just sat and looked at me. I reached into my pocket and threw a wad of bills at him. “Now leave! We’ll settle this tomorrow!”
He looked over his shoulder where my eyes had gone. “Little tike comin’, is he?”
“Leave!”
“Okay, okay, don’t get your dick all bent up,” he snarled, holding his hands out as if to calm me down. “Tomorrow at three. I guess you know better than to stand me up.”
I stood and hurried to meet Ford at the base of the escalator, but could feel Linc’s eyes burning a hole in my back. I hated this. It meant that Linc knew what Ford looked like. The danger was like electricity in the air. I ushered Ford in the opposite direction with some excuse about looking at jewelry for Auggie. By the time I sneaked a look behind me, Linc had disappeared.
I was beside myself and even Ford noticed. He asked me some question and I had no idea how I answered. What was I going to do? What were my options? Somehow, I managed to find the car and Ford and I drove back to the farm. He disappeared to wrap his gifts and Auggie dragged me by the hand into my study.
“What’s wrong?” she asked immediately upon shutting the door.
“Never mind, just trust me.”
“No. We are a couple, you and I, and we’re well past that childish behavior. You’re obviously shaken and you’re going to tell me what’s wrong. Now!”
“Sit down.” She grew alarmed and stared at my face as she felt for a chair nearby and sat. I sat at my desk, my hand on the letter opener, turning it over and over, wishing it were a dagger.
“Ford was upstairs in the mall, doing some personal shopping and I was having coffee on the lower floor. A man approached me. Someone we both know, but you would never expect to see again.”
She was perplexed and not silly enough to begin naming names. “Who?”
“Our brother.”
She froze, holding her breath and then began to laugh. “Oh, very funny, Worth. No, really, who was it?”
I didn’t say a word and she realized I wasn’t joking.
“Linc!” she breathed the word out like it was covered with acid. “But how?”
I stabbed the letter opener into the cover of a nearby book and stood to look out the window at the snow that had begun to fall. “He set it up. He used Jessie to make things look legitimate, but it was some other poor slob in the car with her. Linc doesn’t have any fingerprints on record. All he did was plant a driver’s license on the guy and that was what they went by.”
“Oh, my God! Did he see Ford?” she cried out.
I nodded and her face fell into her hands. I went to her and wrapped my arms around her. “Auggie, we’ll get through this, together. I swear we will. I’m not sure yet what I’m going to do, but this is the last time that demon will rise from the dead, I swear.”
“Father?” I heard Ford looking for me and called back.
“We’ll be out in a minute.” I didn’t want him to overhear our conversation and yet this had to be discussed.
“Worth, this is serious danger. The man is supposed to be dead. Yet no one knows but you and now me, that he isn’t. There’s no way to track him; no way to make him accountable. Even if you went to the police, they’d laugh at you. You have no proof.”
“Don’t you think I know all that?” I shouted and then was instantly contrite. “I’m sorry, honey. I’m just torn up inside and that was frustration talking.”
“Worth, you and I cannot afford to be bickering. I get that you’re upset, we both are. But creatures like that get their strength from breaking people down. We can’t let him do that to us. We can’t!”
“I know, I know. You’ve got to let me think about this. This is way outside my league.”
“What did he say he wanted?”
“Something about getting his rightful inheritance — the same thing he always wanted. But now there’s no syndicate looking for him. They think he’s dead.”
“Who can we call? Who would know? Bill?”
“Auggie, I don’t know! Let me think. You go out and see what Ford wants. Help him put the packages under the tree and then get him to baking cookies or reading a book or something. I need to make some calls and I don’t want him overhearing me. Act calm, as though nothing is wrong. Can you do that?”
“Yes, but I’m not sure for how long. Come out as soon as you can, will you?”
I nodded.
Auggie opened the study door and I turned toward the window again. I heard her high, hysterical scream and then a thump. I ran to my door and saw Auggie, unconscious on the floor of the foyer. The front door was standing open. I stepped around her long enough to see two sets of prints. One set belonged to a small person — obviously Ford. The other set was a pair of large men’s boots. I didn’t need to imagine who they belonged to. I ran out into the front yard, screaming Ford’s name but the snowy night was silent. There were only footprints leading to the drive and then tracks away from the house. Linc had taken Ford!
I flew to Auggie and picked her up, taking her to the living room sofa as I pulled out my cell phone and called Bill. “Get here, NOW!” I screamed into the phone. I disconnected and called Walter. “You have to come immediately. It’s an emergency. Bring Mother.” My next call was to Brandon Knotts. “We’re in trouble. Auggie needs you now! The estate.” I made one more call. “Earl, Worth here. I need your help. Come to the estate, will you?”
I found a dish cloth and wet it with cold water and wiped Auggie’s face. Her eyes flew open and the terror took only a second to light her eyes. She screamed and began to jump up to run out the door. I held her in place. I had to protect her. “Auggie, listen to me. You must listen to me. He won’t hurt Ford. Ford is his only means of getting what he wants. He’s only of any good if he’s alive and healthy. He won’t hurt him. Now… I’ve made some calls and there are people on the way. I can’t call the police; not until we’ve determined that’s our only route. I want you to promise me you’ll sit right here and not move. I have to go out to the front of the estate and fend off everyone from driving in. I want pure tracks, only Linc’s vehicle and the footsteps outside the door. I have to stop them before they come, do you understand?”
Her eyes were filled with terror. It reminded me of the way Carlos had looked just before I pulled the trigger. I wanted to take the fear from her, but it was eating me at the same time. “Auggie, please, darling, stay here and don’t move. I will be right back and bring help with me.”
I grabbed my jacket and bolted out the patio door and through the front yard, careful not to intersect with any of the prints or tracks that were visible in the fresh snow. The first to arrive was Bill and he understood the situation within seconds. He’d brought with him a carload of other retired detectives, all of whom were loyal to him and wouldn’t call the police until he gave the word. They were deployed to protect the fresh snow and I traced my steps back to the house. I found Auggie, still sitting on the sofa, quaking.
“She’s in shock, get her warm and some brandy!” Bill shouted at me and then went back outside to help. I did as was told and held her against me, although I was shaking myself. I had never felt more helpless in my entire life. I’d told Auggie what I’d said to calm her, but I didn’t believe my own words. Linc was insane. I knew from all my training that when a person was no longer sane, they were no longer accountable for their actions, however unconscionable they might be. Names like Jeffrey Dahmer sprang to mind and I wanted to vomit.
I tried to think. How long was it between Ford calling to me and when Auggie left my office? I noted the time on the clock, but time lost its accountability when the mind was in trauma. I reasoned that Ford had been on his way to my office when Linc had probably burst in and grabbed him. Likely, Ford saw the man and his resemblance to me and that was why he called out. He probably thought it was me, in costume, as a prank. We’d not locked the door or activated the security yet because we weren’t ready for bed. Linc had simply opened the door and taken the most valuable thing in our lives. Our son.