She’d been disbelieving and relieved to the point of physical weakness when she’d learned that Kehoe wasn’t going to drag this tragedy out further into a trial. It still seemed impossible to believe, that the trauma he’d caused Alan, Lynn, and Alice herself, was finally going to come to an end. The news had especially been welcome because several days after she’d arrived at Maggie’s, Agent Clayton told her that Sissy and two of her uncles—Tim and Christopher—were in FBI custody. She was going to have to testify at Sissy’s trial, a fact that never ceased to get Alice’s heart beating into anxious overtime.
She had no news of Al or her other uncles, but Alice knew there were warrants out for their arrests. There was a good possibility that insufficient evidence would allow them to go free but the future was highly uncertain when it came to the Reeds. She’d cried herself silently to sleep for two nights in a row after finding out about their arrests, unsettled enough by the news. But more than that, she’d been grieving the loss of the only person who might understand her ambivalence and misery when it came to the idea of the Reeds going to prison because of her: Dylan.
As for Kehoe, Alice understood from Special Agent Clayton that he was a broken man. After he’d recovered enough to be interrogated by the FBI, the first thing—and for a while, the only thing—he confessed to was betraying Lynn Durand years ago. Strangely enough, he confessed to killing her as well, although it came out later in interrogation that what he’d told investigators is what he’d told Alice. He’d goaded Lynn into suicide with the news that Addie was definitely dead.
Apparently, Kehoe was capable of guilt, and it had caught up to him in the end. Alice had to agree with Kehoe’s confession: He might as well have thrown Lynn over that bluff, by taunting her until she jumped. She had also received the news from Clayton that Kehoe had been put on suicide watch after he’d attempted to hang himself in his cell. Alice wasn’t necessarily surprised, given the things he’d said to her that night.
Kehoe had been obsessed with Lynn, consumed by the idea of making her as miserable as he was without her in his life. When he’d been caught, his remorse, grief, and guilt crashed into him. All he seemed to be able to do was confess his sins toward Lynn Durand over and over. It’d taken the agents time and patience to eventually get him emotionally steady enough to admit to his crimes against Addie.
Against Alice.
Maybe it was possible for a man like Kehoe to repent. Kehoe certainly seemed consumed by guilt. Alice didn’t pretend to know the answers. She was only thankful that something had urged Sebastian Kehoe to confess and end this nightmare after nearly twenty-five years.
“And yes, I’m positive Dylan knows about the genetic testing results,” Alice told Maggie presently, pulling herself out of her thoughts.
“How come?”
“Because I know Dylan,” she said, thumping a bag of potatoes on the counter. “And because that press conference next week in Morgantown was organized by him after I gave Charlie Towsen the results. Everything is coming to a head now that Kehoe has made his plea, and his sentencing is scheduled.”
“You’ll be going to that, right?” Maggie asked softly.
Alice nodded. She was expected to testify about Kehoe’s attack; she would have to face him in a courtroom. Her input would help the judge make his decision on Kehoe’s punishment. Not just the technical details, either. The judge would want to know what the kidnapping and attack had meant to her emotionally, the impact of Kehoe’s crime on her entire life . . . what Sebastian Kehoe had taken from her . . .
. . . What he had cost her.
When this had all been explained to her, Alice took on the task of tallying that price somberly.
It did something to a person, being asked to put an actual weight on one man’s actions. What would her life be like if Sebastian Kehoe hadn’t plotted against her and the Durands in cold blood twenty years ago?
While soul-searching those answers in solitude, Alice had realized there were losses and costs she’d never suspected. It’d hurt realizing that, but it’d cleansed her somehow, too. It’d started her true healing and built the beginnings of a solid bridge between the child she’d been and the woman she was now . . . between Addie and Alice.
“Dylan will be testifying, too. And Thad. It’s happening the Monday after the press conference,” she told Maggie.
“And Dylan planned this press conference?”
“Yeah. Towsen told me all about it. The FBI will be making a brief statement, the U.S. Attorney’s office will take questions about Kehoe and sentencing, Dylan will speak, as well, on behalf of Durand . . .” She tipped a pound of sugar onto a cabinet shelf. “And I will.”
“You’re actually going?” Maggie asked in a hushed tone.
Alice placed both her hands on the edge of the counter, her back still to Maggie.
“I don’t really see that I have much of a choice anymore,” she said. “See . . . despite the fact that you and Dylan both think I’m just burying my head in the sand lately—”
“I didn’t mean that,” Maggie said earnestly. “I don’t think Dylan thinks that either, to be honest.”
“I have been thinking a lot about what I’m going to do with my life,” Alice continued shakily.