The phone was on speaker, and Lucy motioned for everyone to quiet down.
“No, Danielle. I found the picture of me and Justin playing in the park. I was playing in the sand and didn’t feel well. I didn’t remember until today that Justin called me Lulu. I blocked it out because I miss him so much.”
“I need more than a photo. How do I know it’s really you and you’re not just lying to me like everyone else?”
Lucy considered what she wanted. What would she know that the average person wouldn’t know?
“You know it’s really me, Danielle. I was born two weeks before my nephew. Nelia was twenty-two when she had Justin, she got pregnant in college—just like you. She married Justin’s father—just like you married Matthew’s father. And Andrew had an affair just like Richard had an affair. I don’t know how to prove to you I am who I am.”
“Justin broke his arm. Which arm did he break and how?”
Bile rose in Lucy’s throat. Justin broke his arm nearly a year before he was killed. She was there, at the park, and she’d told him not to climb so high. Coming down he’d slipped and fell more than twenty feet. It was a clean break, healed quickly, but he had a cast for several weeks.
“His left arm. He fell out of a tree.” She closed her eyes. She wouldn’t have remembered if she and Max hadn’t gone back to the park last week. “He was buried next to that tree.”
“It is you.”
“Yes. I’m now an FBI agent and I really need to talk to you. Please, Danielle, let the family go and I’ll come in and we’ll talk. As long as you need to talk, I’ll listen.” She didn’t want to listen to the woman—she didn’t want to hear her justify why she killed Justin and all the other boys. She didn’t want to hear her justify why the Fieldstones needed to die.
“No.”
“They’re not going to let me come in unless you let the family leave. Can they leave, Danielle? Is anyone hurt?”
“You can have the two FBI agents. They’re in the garage. But Tony and Nina are going to suffer for what they have done to their family.”
“Wait—Danielle, we need to talk.”
“Fine, come here and talk, but they’re still going to die. You know they have to. You of all people know that they need to be punished!”
Lucy? Of all people? That made no sense. Was Danielle thinking of someone else when she thought of Lucy? Or was she truly having a psychotic break?
“We’re going to come in and retrieve the FBI agents,” Lucy said, “then I’m going to come inside.”
“No guns.”
“I’ll leave my weapon out here. Is Kevin okay?”
“He’s sleeping. He’s so peaceful. So perfect.”
Sleeping? No, it wasn’t even seven. Had she already drugged him?
Nelson was already in the process of retrieving the two agents from the garage. Lucy prayed this wasn’t a trap, but a minute later, they all came out. The agents had been duct-taped together. Danielle couldn’t have overpowered them—she must have used Kevin’s safety as a threat and forced Tony Fieldstone to do it.
A parent will do anything to protect their child.
And when they can’t protect them? Like Danielle? Is this what happened? A twisted vengeance to punish everyone else because she couldn’t punish the man who killed her son?
“I’m going in,” Lucy said. She handed her gun to Ken.
He looked worried. “This is suicide.”
“No, she said Kevin is sleeping. She drugged him, I’m certain of it. She’s waiting either for him to die, or for herself to build the courage to suffocate him. Get an ambulance here, tell them which drugs she’s used in the past, we need an antidote and paramedic—a doctor if they can get out here. I can’t let him die, and you can’t either. You know it.”
She prayed Kevin wasn’t already dead.
“Wire,” Ken said. Another agent who worked with Nelson handed Ken a communications piece. “Pull up your shirt.
Lucy did, burying any embarrassment she had over the request. Ken taped on the thin wire, then handed her the mic. “I’ll let you attach this to your bra. It’s very sensitive, but small, she shouldn’t be able to see it. It’s wireless with a range of five hundred feet, so as long as you’re in the house, we should be able to hear everything.”
Lucy attached it and pulled down her shirt. Ken handed her a small earpiece. “You need to be able to hear us. Take your hair down, she won’t be able to see it.”
Lucy did what Ken said, and started up the front walk of the Fieldstone house.
“Can you hear me?” Lucy said quietly.
“Loud and clear. Don’t get killed, Kincaid.”
She didn’t plan on dying today.
*
Nina Fieldstone opened the door. She had a bruise on her face and dried blood on her mouth, but she was alive.
Nina closed the door as soon as Lucy walked in and locked it. Her hands were shaking and her eyes were wide and wild.
Lucy looked around. She didn’t see anyone else. “Go,” she told Nina. “Get out.”
“She’ll kill Tony. She told me to come down here and let you in but she’ll kill Tony.”
“She’s upstairs?”
“Kevin’s room. She was here all along!”
“Nina!” a female shouted from upstairs. “I’m counting.”
“Please,” Nina whispered, tears in her eyes. “I don’t know what to do—Kevin won’t wake up. I-I—”
“Follow my lead,” Lucy said.
Lucy told Nina to stay behind her. Lucy went upstairs. One door was closed. She pointed and Nina nodded.
Lucy knocked once on the door then slowly opened it.
The first person she saw was Tony Fieldstone. His entire body sagged in the desk chair in the corner of the room, wrists and ankles duct-taped. His head was bleeding from the scalp—likely pistol-whipped. Conscious, but clearly injured. His mouth had been duct-taped as well.
Lucy stepped over the threshold. Danielle sat on Kevin’s bed. She had a gun in hand; her hands were steady as she pointed the gun at Lucy.
Kevin lay under his blankets, but Lucy could see his face. He wasn’t sleeping; he was unconscious. If she used the same drugs as before, they could kill him, depending on the dosage.
But the good news was that Danielle was looking at his face. She was more than a little conflicted about killing him, and Lucy had to capitalize on that doubt.
“Let Kevin go,” Lucy said. “Let Nina carry him out.”
“No,” Danielle said. “We just need to wait a few more minutes. Then they’ll finally understand how selfish they are.” Danielle looked at Lucy for several seconds. “It really is you. You grew up very pretty.”
“I understand why you’re doing this, Danielle, and I’m here to tell you that you have no idea of the repercussions of your actions. I understand that Tony and Nina have failed as parents in your eyes. They betrayed their marriage vows. They put their needs and their careers before their son. Selfish, right?”
“You do understand.” She seemed surprised.
“You are so narrow in your focus that you have no idea the pain you cause to innocent people. To people like me.”