Endowed with Death, page 28
“For that to happen, they would have to admit that the family was not perfect. And what are the chances they would lock him up for his part in the abuse as well? That had to be why he stayed quiet.”
“That, or he really didn’t care.”
Zachary reached across the table to touch Kenzie’s hand. A quick flutter of a touch to show that he cared about her and what she was feeling after having dealt with the psychopaths.
“What do you want to do tonight? It’s Sunday, which is usually your rest day, but you’ll have to get up and return to work in the morning. So these last few hours…”
“I don’t know. Shower, eat, and relax.” Kenzie looked at the clock on the wall. “Did you want to chat with Lorne and Pat, since we weren’t able to get back down there this weekend?”
“Yeah. But they’ll understand if you’re busy with something else. If you need to nap or just want to veg out watching TV… it’s been a tough day for you.”
“Yeah. Well, after this,” she took another bite of chocolate ice cream, “I’m going to shower. If you want to call after that, I’ll see how I feel. I might eat while we chat, or just take some time to myself and not think about all of this. I’ll just see.”
Zachary nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”
54
Kenzie picked at leftovers from the fridge while Zachary started the video chat with Lorne Peterson and Pat Parker. She wanted more ice cream. Or pizza. Or something equally bad for her. But she was trying to eat a salad and some vegetables left over from other meals. She was feeling virtuous about not having ordered in. But she wasn’t actually happy with what she was eating.
Zachary was telling the two men the general shape of their week and how things had gone since they’d had to leave the Sunday brunch so abruptly. The big case that Kenzie had been working on, though Loren and Pat did not want too many details about Kenzie’s cases. Zachary had a PBJ sandwich on the plate beside his computer, which certainly looked better than salad.
“Tell them about your case,” Kenzie told Zachary. “It sounded pretty exciting.”
Zachary looked at her, brows drawn down in a frown. “What?”
“Your surveillance,” Kenzie prodded. “That sounded really interesting.”
He took another second to realize that she was teasing and grinned. “Oh yeah, sitting around in my car for hours on end, hoping to catch some glimpse of someone lifting a child or doing gardening or one of the things that she said she couldn’t do due to the accident. That’s very exciting.”
“And did you?” Pat asked.
“Did I what?”
“Catch her doing something she wasn’t supposed to be able to do?”
“No.”
They all laughed at his dour tone.
“Sometimes, our jobs suck,” Zachary told Kenzie.
“Yeah, sometimes they really do. Lorne, I was wondering… when you and your wife were fostering, how many kids did you have?”
She looked around the corner of Zachary’s screen to see his face for a moment.
“Oh, usually two or three at a time.”
“But how many did you have in total? Do you know?”
“Oh, no. I lost track. It’s possible that Lilith would know. She was the record keeper and administrator, not me. I just tried to keep things going smoothly. Provide whatever assistance I could give when I wasn’t at work.”
Kenzie nodded.
“Why do you ask?” Lorne asked. “You’re not looking into foster care, are you?”
“No.” Kenzie had to admit that the thought did cross her mind occasionally, knowing that many people found it fulfilling, and it was an important service to the community. But she also knew how difficult it would be. Zachary had been highly traumatized when he had gone into foster care and had been so high needs that he had never had a family who could take care of him for long. She knew it would mean giving up much of their time with each other. And if she ended up with a child like Terri-Lyn, with no conscience to speak of, she knew she couldn’t handle that. “No, no. I was just thinking about this case. If either the victim or his killer had gone into foster care… maybe there would have been a chance for them. When I think of the number of kids that you helped… I’m very proud of you.”
Lorne Peterson’s face turned very pink. “Well, thank you, Kenzie. It wasn’t really my doing. It was really Lilith who was in charge of the whole thing. But I did what I could.”
“And I know that you did a good job, or Zachary wouldn’t still be in touch with you. I know you were a good foster dad even if he was only in your home for a couple of weeks because of the way he has kept in touch with you for all of these years.”
Zachary nodded his agreement. Lorne wiped sweat from his face, looking embarrassed and proud at the same time. Pat gave him a quick hug around the shoulders. “He’s one special guy,” he agreed.
“If you ever wanted to talk about foster care, feel free to ask,” Lorne said. “I’ve been out of the loop for a long time, so things have changed, but the basics are still the same, and I know people who are still ‘in the business,’ so to speak.”
“Okay, thanks,” Kenzie agreed. “It’s not something I’m planning on.”
He nodded and didn’t push it. Zachary gave Kenzie a sideways look. He would just have to trust her that it wasn’t something she was asking about because she wanted to start fostering children. She wasn’t even sure she wanted to have children of her own. Her parents would be delighted if she decided to provide them with some grandbabies, but providing grandchildren or even having someone to carry on the family name were not good reasons for having children. If she chose to have children, it would be because she wanted them. Being pushed into it, or encouraged to have children for the wrong reason, as Terri-Lyn had been, couldn’t happen. There was nothing wrong with them just enjoying Zachary’s nieces and nephews and the children of friends.
Dr. Wiltshire had been in over the weekend and had reviewed Kenzie’s postmortem results and the attendant exhibits, so the official medical examiner’s reports were issued hard on the heels of the news that both Cash Wade and his wife Terri-Lyn had been arrested in connection with the abuse of Michael Wade, his death, and Sylvia Arnold’s death.
That was a lot for the media to handle, and it seemed like everywhere Kenzie went, she saw headlines and news reports on the deaths. She saw her autopsy reports summarized in five-word sound bites that were usually inaccurate and definitely overhyped. The cause of death itself, asphyxiation, was not as sexy as a drug overdose or shooting, so they had to find other ways to grab people’s interest, usually by getting things completely backward, at least in the headline.
With the autopsies complete, the bodies could be released. Cash Wade was already out on bail, so Kenzie left a message for him about Michael’s body being available for pickup by his funeral home. She wasn’t sure who to contact about Sylvia Arnold’s body. Despite the fact that Sylvia had been so devoted to Cash, Kenzie suspected that he would not be managing her transportation and funeral arrangements. She looked through Sylvia’s phone, which had been reviewed by the police detectives, and was not needed for the prosecutions of Terri-Lyn or Cash.
Baker had told her there were three children and that Sylvia didn’t keep in very close touch with them by phone. But their numbers were in the contact list, so Kenzie grabbed the number for Caden, the child she seemed to be in touch with the most often, and called him up. She explained about needing someone to claim Sylvia’s remains. It always felt awkward to her to call up total strangers and to try to get them to pick up their deceased loved ones’ remains. In many cases, the family members had been estranged for a long time and didn’t know how to handle her call.
Caden spoke to her briefly and seemed like a nice, polite young man. He had heard the news of his mother’s death and seen the headlines about Cash Wade and his wife and all the publicity swirling around them.
“Can I come there to talk to you?” he asked Kenzie. “I just… this is hard to do over the phone.”
“Sure, of course,” Kenzie assured him. “And your siblings, if they want to come in. But you don’t have to if you don’t want to. You can communicate with your funeral home and I’ll deal with them. As long as the proper paperwork is signed, I don’t actually need you to come in person. A lot of people don’t.”
“I’d just like to come in and do it face to face.”
Kenzie agreed. She gave Caden her contact information and the hours she would be there and hoped she wouldn’t be in autopsy when he came by. She had a couple that she needed to attend to. She needed to take care not to get behind while Dr. Wiltshire was out of commission. If she got behind, catching up again would not be easy.
By the time Caden came in, she had forgotten all about him and was immersed in her work. She looked up, smiling, when she heard footsteps coming toward her. For a moment, she was startled, thinking he was Cash Wade, but there was only a passing resemblance. He introduced himself and shook her hand. Sylvia had raised him well.
“If we could sit down together somewhere,” Caden suggested, “you could show me everything I need to do to get this done.”
Kenzie pulled out a form for him. “It’s actually very simple. If you’ll fill this out—”
He looked at the form, shaking his head. Kenzie stopped, frowning. There was no way to do an end run around the paperwork. If he wanted his mother’s remains released, he would have to complete everything.
“Could we sit down?” Caden repeated.
Kenzie nodded and escorted him into the boardroom, where they sat down at the table and she again showed him the form. “It’s not a lot of work, just this one form, and then I can get the ball rolling. Do you know the funeral home you want to use?”
“Yeah. I think so. But I need a hand with this, if you don’t mind.”
“Uh, sure. I’m happy to help.” Kenzie slid the paper in front of him, right side up, and pointed out the sections. “This is your mother’s information up here, her name and birth date—”
“I’m dyslexic,” he told her. “It would be a lot easier if you could tell me what you need and write it down for me. Otherwise, it will take me a really long time to fill this out, and it will probably be all wrong and you’d need to do it over again afterward.”
“Oh! Of course.” Kenzie relaxed once she understood the problem. “My partner is dyslexic too. I know he loathes forms. Everything so densely written, and then he has trouble writing as well, so he always takes twice as long as he thinks he should to fill it out so that it is legible.”
“I’d be happy with twice as long,” Caden laughed. “Maybe ten times as long. It’s not that I can’t, but it will be much easier to get it right the first time if we just go through it together.”
“Sure.”
She read the questions to him, explained them when necessary, and then wrote down the information he dictated back to her. He had most of the dates and information in his head, which Kenzie thought was pretty impressive. Most family members she dealt with did not know their parent’s information by heart. But with the difficulty Caden had looking information up and writing it down, he compensated by memorizing what he needed to know. He was charming and polite, and Kenzie enjoyed the short interchange as she filled in his answers.
“There. That’s got it. You just need to sign at the bottom.” She made an X by the signature box and turned it around for him. Caden held the pen awkwardly in a left-handed grip and twisted his body to write in a position that was almost upside down to scribble his illegible signature diagonally across the box.
“Great,” Kenzie approved. The form didn’t need to be machine read. The signature didn’t have to fit neatly inside the box. “That should do it, then. I’ll let the funeral home know that we have all the paperwork and they can pick up her remains at any time.”
“Thanks for helping me out with that.” He gave her a warm smile. “I always dread filling out forms. And do you have… any personal effects?”
“We can just send those along with the remains, if you want.”
“No, I wanted to get them today, if possible.”
“Yeah. We can do that. Give me a minute and I’ll bring them to you.”
There wasn’t much for him to collect. Kenzie grabbed the bag labeled with Sylvia’s name and returned to the boardroom to hand it to him. He looked through it, frowning.
“No wallet or purse?”
“No. The police haven’t found them. It’s a pretty large property, it would be easy to drop them or hide them in the woods somewhere and they would be very difficult to find. Or toss them in the septic tank or some abandoned building. I’m sorry.”
He shrugged. “It’s okay. Not your fault.” He pulled out Sylvia’s phone and apparently knew her passcode. He tapped through the apps, pulling up the photos app to thumb through the most recent pictures. He shook his head. “Should have known it would all be Cash and Michael.” He grimaced. “Her other family.”
“She seemed to be very devoted to them,” Kenzie agreed. “It’s rare to see such strong employer-employee bonds. But I understand she knew Mr. Wade from the time he was a little boy.”
“Yes. Knew him way before any of us were ever thought of,” Caden agreed. “We grew up on the property, knowing Cash and the household staff. It just seemed natural to us that she would live with him and that he would be such a big part of her life. That was all we had ever known. But when we got old enough to go out into the world on our own… it was a bit of a shock to realize that the rest of the world didn’t have that kind of long-term, close relationship between employers and employees.”
Kenzie chuckled. “I guess that would be a bit of a shock when that’s how you grew up.”
“He wasn’t just her employer. He was her everything. She was so excited when Michael was born. Another Wade baby.”
“From everything I have heard, she was a really good caregiver to him too. He had colic and… there were a number of issues. But she took good care of him. She was very patient and loving.”
He nodded, swiping through some more pictures on the phone. “Yeah, she was a good mom, too. We always felt like the household was our extended family. Everyone knew who we were, would help us, give us a cookie, whatever.”
“That’s nice. How did your dad feel about it? It must have been strange for him to live there. Or was he part of the staff as well?”
Caden lowered the phone. “We never knew who our dad was. Or who they were. It was just Mom.”
“Oh.” Kenzie studied him for a moment, wondering if there was more, then pushed the questions away. It was none of her business.
Her job was done. Her time with Sylvia Arnold had come to an end.
55
The message was from an unknown caller. A blocked number, burner phone, or even an ancient payphone still in service. Kenzie tapped it, figuring it would probably be a cop.
“She wasn’t a saint, you know.” Terri-Lyn’s voice was sharp and bitter. “Everyone in the media is acting like Sylvia was this wonderful person who was the perfect mother and nanny. But you didn’t live with her. You didn’t see what was really going on.”
There was a long period of silence, and Kenzie thought the message was going to cut off there. She’d heard that Terri-Lyn, too, was out on bail. It was amazing how much easier it was for a rich person to get out on bail than a poor one. Even a confessed murderer like Terri-Lyn.
“You should have listened to me, MacKenzie,” Terri-Lynn carried on. “You should have listened to your mother and helped me instead of railroading me like you did. One day, you’re going to be sorry you did that.”
Kenzie’s finger hovered over the red End Call button, but she could see from the time code that the message wasn’t yet over.
“I did the only thing I could. I was driven to it. Instead of people being sorry for what I had to go through, they’re calling me a monster. A murderer. Worse.” She sniffled and gulped, crying for herself. “You would have done the same thing. You don’t know what they were like, Sylvia and Cash. Don’t spend any time feeling sorry for them. One day it will all come out, and you’ll be sorry you didn’t stand by me. You just wait and see.”
There was another period of silence, and this time the message cut off.
Kenzie sat staring at the phone. A knot of anxiety twisted in her stomach.
She knew that she had done everything properly, had dug as deeply as she could, and searched out all of the evidence that both bodies had to offer. As she had told Zachary, she hadn’t wanted it to be Terri-Lyn.
It was out of her hands and up to the police and prosecutor to put the case together.
Wherever Terri-Lyn went and whatever term she had to serve, it wasn’t Kenzie’s fault.
And no amount of time would bring Michael back.
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PREVIEW OF SHATTERED TO DEATH
PREVIEW CHAPTER 1
Kenzie was just dropping off to sleep when her phone rang, making both her and Zachary jump.
