Paul dropped his pistol and Madelaine followed suit with her rifle. Mayor Daigle waved his pistol at them, motioning them back toward the house. “It didn’t have to be this way,” he said. “If only you hadn’t started to remember. But I just can’t take the chance. Not when I’m so close to everything I wanted.”
“You can’t kill us all without bringing down an investigation,” Paul said.
“Sure I can. You see, Kathy and Ginny here couldn’t take the memories haunting them anymore, so they came to the house to get ‘closure.’ That’s popular these days. But instead, being here drove them over the edge, and when you and Madelaine showed up looking for them, they killed you and then themselves, but not before setting fire to the house one last time.”
“Why?” Ginny asked. “Why did you kill those girls?”
Mayor Daigle shook his head. “Because they knew too much and the job was over. Now, I want all of you to turn slowly and walk back into the kitchen. I’ll make this quick, as I have a speaking engagement tonight.”
The bushes behind the mayor rustled and Sheriff Blackwell stepped out, a shotgun trained on the mayor’s head. “I’m sorry, Joe, but I can’t let you do that.”
Mayor Daigle sighed. “You don’t want to do this, or you’re going down with me.”
“I deserve to,” Sheriff Blackwell said. “I should have turned you in back then.”
Instead of replying, Mayor Daigle spun around and knocked Sheriff Blackwell’s shotgun with one hand while firing his pistol with the other. Paul and Madelaine lunged for their guns at the same time as Mayor Daigle grabbed Ginny and pushed his pistol into her temple.
Mayor Daigle glanced over at the prone body of Sheriff Blackwell and laughed. “Let’s try this again, shall we? You two, drop your weapons and get into that house before any more heroes show up.”
Ginny looked at her mother’s tear-streaked face, at Kathy, who looked on the verge of collapse, and then at Paul. There were so many things she wished she had time to say. So many things she wished she would have said before. To hell with the future. She should have told him how she felt when she had the chance, regardless of how it might have turned out. At least he would have known.
He stared at her now with stark fear in his eyes, and she knew he was preparing for the worst. Once they were inside, it would be over. No more chances to right the past. No more chances to tell him how she felt. And for Ginny, that wasn’t good enough. She was already dead, so taking one last chance wasn’t really taking a chance at all.
She looked straight at him and winked. His eyes widened slightly just as she slumped to the ground as if unconscious. The instant deadweight caught Mayor Daigle by surprise, and he dropped her as she collapsed. Without a second of hesitation, Paul dove for his pistol and fired a single killing shot through Mayor Daigle’s head before the man could even register what was happening.
Paul dropped to the ground and gathered Ginny in his arms. “I thought I’d lost you,” he murmured. “You took such a risk…”
“I had to.” She pushed back a bit so that she could look at him. “It was the only way to get another chance. I had to tell you I loved you.”
“Oh, Ginny,” Paul said and lowered his lips to hers in a gentle kiss. “I felt guilty for all the upheaval I brought into your life. I know you’d already set things in motion before I arrived, but I couldn’t help feeling responsible. But now that it’s over I have to tell you that I love you, Ginny, and I’m going to keep telling you until you’re tired of hearing it.”
“I’ll never get tired,” Ginny said.
They rose from the ground and Madelaine rushed to hug both of them. Paul extended his hand to Kathy, who joined them.
A groan sounded nearby and they immediately broke apart, Madelaine and Paul readying their weapons.
“Sheriff Blackwell,” Madelaine said and hurried over to where the sheriff was holding his hand against his side, blood seeping through his fingers.
Ginny pulled off her light jacket and handed it to Madelaine, who pressed it into the sheriff’s side, trying to stop the blood loss. “Don’t bother,” he gasped. “It’s too late for me, but I have to tell you I’m sorry.”
“What was happening at the school that the mayor covered up?” Paul asked.
“Child pornography. He had cameras set up in all the girls’ rooms and the shower areas. He and that woman were selling the tapes overseas for a huge profit.”
“How did you find out?”
“I caught him loading cardboard boxes into his car at the school after the fire. He was real skittish and never answered me when I asked what he was hauling away. I followed him to a warehouse in New Orleans and as he was carrying the boxes inside, I sneaked to his car and saw the box of tapes. I took one with me and watched.”
Ginny felt the blood wash from her face. “Oh, no. They were being abused.”
Sheriff Blackwell shook his head. “I never saw anything like that on the tape, but there was no mistaking what those tapes were meant to be. I suppose given enough time, the abuse would have started.”
“I always felt like someone was watching me,” Kathy said. “No wonder.”
“Why didn’t you turn him in?” Madelaine asked. “I know you, Thomas. You would never condone something like this.”
“He took money,” Paul said. “Mayor Daigle bought your silence.”
Sheriff Blackwell looked directly at them, his eyes filled with shame. “I swear, I didn’t know anything about the tapes until after the fire, and until I overheard Daigle confess today, I didn’t know for certain that they’d locked those girls in to die. I’d caught the occult overtones and thought maybe it was a ritual gone wrong. I guess that’s what we were all supposed to think.
“You have to understand,” Sheriff Blackwell said. “Those girls were already dead, but my Meg wasn’t.”
Madelaine gasped. “You took money from Daigle for Meg’s cancer treatments. The ones that insurance wouldn’t pay for.”
Sheriff Blackwell nodded. “She was in so much pain. I made him promise me that he’d never bother Ginny or Kathy. I’ve watched closely all these years, and he kept his promise.”
“Until now,” Paul said, “but you covered for him again by pretending you thought Ginny had imagined her attack. You knew it was him.”
“I thought I could convince him to leave it alone. I thought he’d believe that they weren’t remembering.”
“Do you know where the girls came from?”
“Daigle said some were wards of the state with no family to speak of. The headmistress gave couples false identities and paid them to foster the kids and turn them over to her. Others they bought from desperate, poor bayou families, probably promising that their babies would have a good life with a wealthy family.”
“Who was the headmistress and what happened to her?” Ginny asked.
“I don’t know how Daigle met her, but she’s dead. It looked like a random carjacking, but I’ve always wondered.” He put his hand up to his mouth and coughed, and when he lowered it, Ginny could see it was covered with blood.
“The tape is locked in my safe,” Sheriff Blackwell said. “Take it and expose all of this. It’s long overdue.” He looked at Ginny and Kathy. “I’m sorry I never stood up for you when it mattered. I hope one day you can forgive me.” He coughed again and his body locked, almost as if in seizure, then everything relaxed and he collapsed on the ground.
Paul felt his neck and shook his head. “He’s dead.”
Madelaine looked down at him and sighed. “He always said he would have done anything to save Meg. I guess he did. It must have eaten him up all these years.” She put one arm around Ginny and Kathy and squeezed. “But it all ends here, today.”
Ginny smiled and reached out to take Paul’s hand. “And a new life begins.”
Epilogue
Six months later.
Ginny stuffed the last of the boxes in the back of her car and pushed the hatchback down until it barely clicked in place. She turned to face her mother, who stood with her outside the café, her eyes brimming with unshed tears.
“Are you sure this is what you want?” Madelaine asked.
Ginny smiled. “Look at you. You’ve pushed me for years to expand my horizons and then when I do, you’re all tentative and sentimental.” She gave her mother a hug. “I want to be with Paul. The past six months have been incredible. I want a whole lifetime of that, and I know I can have it with him.”
“I know you will. I’m just used to seeing you every day, and now everything is different. You’ll be attending college and making jewelry for all those stores in New Orleans, and you’ll be spending the rest of your time with the man you love.”
A tear rolled out of Madelaine’s eye and down her cheek. She brushed it away with her hand and said, “I don’t think I have to say how happy I am for you. You’re a wonderful woman, Ginny, and the best daughter a mother could ever have.”
“And you’re the best mother.”
“Did Paul…was he ever able to find out anything…”
“No. I still don’t have any idea where I came from, but I don’t care. I’ve asked him to stop looking. I want to put the past behind me and focus on the future.”
“And Kathy?”
“Is doing great. In fact, she called last night to say they’re expecting their first baby.”
Madelaine’s face lit up. “Oh, that’s wonderful to hear.”
Paul stepped out of the café with a bag of pies that Madelaine had given him earlier. He placed the pies in the backseat of the car and walked over to give Madelaine a hug. “Don’t worry about missing her,” he said. “We’ll be back to visit soon. After all, Ginny has a wedding to plan.”
“Me?” Ginny pretended to slug him in the arm. “You are fifty percent responsible for all planning.”
Paul wrapped his arms around her and kissed her gently and slowly. “Then I think we should elope. Tonight. And preferably to one of those places that doesn’t require clothes.”
Madelaine laughed. “Go on, you two. Get out of here.”
Paul released Ginny and gave Madelaine a hug. “The café looks great, by the way. The new colors are really nice.”
Ginny grinned. “And it only took Saul three weeks to finish the painting. A new record.”
“Hey,” Paul said, “did you ever find out where he went that day that we all went to the school?”
Madelaine shook her head. “Yeah. Someone came by and told him there was two-for-one steaks at the butcher. Apparently he bought enough for a small country. Probably got it stashed in that penthouse basement of his.”
Ginny looked over at Paul. “Did you ever find out who gives him the money? I mean, I know he wasn’t the bad guy and there was no reason to check into it, but I was just curious.”
Paul smiled. “So was I, so I looked into it some more. Turns out our friend Mr. Pritchard won a lottery sixteen years ago. Apparently, he was afraid of being hit up for money from his lazy relatives, so he set the whole thing up with a trust to make annual payments by cashier’s check.”
“Unbelievable,” Madelaine said. “Who would have ever believed that so many secrets could be contained in such a small place?”
Paul looked at Ginny. “Are you ready?” The question was so simple, but Ginny knew all the implications behind it.
She placed her hand in his and smiled. “You know it.”
* * * * *
ISBN: 9781459220973
Copyright © 2012 by Jana DeLeon
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