Beneath Blackwater River Leslie Wolfe (me reader txt) 📖

woman replied, smiling sheepishly. “I almost forgot.” Dropping the duffel bag on the passenger seat of her car, she returned with a small paper bag that rattled with every move she made. She took out two large pill bottles, one orange, one blue. She picked up the blue bottle. “This one is sleeping pills, temazepam. Give these twice a day when you return. You have six months’ worth in here.” She put that back, then showed Bill the orange one filled with two-color capsules. “This one’s a special concoction, valium with a touch of ketamine. It will keep her sedated, and will wipe her memory if you give it daily. Then give it less often and she won’t know who she is unless you tell her. That’s when you rebuild who she is. You got six months of this one too, only be careful and don’t abuse it. She could die.”

The woman spoke to him as if he were some kind of idiot.

Holding Rose with one arm, Bill shoved the pill bottles in his pocket, shooting a quick glance at the pilot, hoping he hadn’t witnessed the drugs changing hands. He seemed immersed in reading something off a small clipboard, occasionally jotting notes on it.

As he turned to leave, moonlight reflected something at the girl’s neck. “What’s this?” he asked. He supported Rose’s body with one arm, and probed for the small object with two fingers. It was a strange-looking, lacquered, wood medallion on a silver chain around the girl’s neck. “What’s this doing here?” he reacted, thinking he’d throw the locket away as soon as they landed on the East Coast.

The nanny shot the small, shiny object a glance. “Her mother made that for her. She screams like a scalded banshee without it. I figured you should have it, maybe let her keep it for a while, until she forgets all about her past. There’s a picture of her parents inside, you know. Don’t let her see that.”

“Yeah, whatever,” he replied. He’d have to change that photo with one of Evangeline as soon as he got to the house he’d leased in Florida. The object might prove useful after all.

From the plane’s steps, he waited until the woman drove off the tarmac and left the airport. After climbing on board, he strapped Rose into a seat. He rushed back to the tarmac once more, to pay off the frustrated airport employee and make his day, then went into the cockpit.

“We can take off now,” Bill told the pilot. The man smiled and acknowledged with a quick nod.

“Any changes in the flight plan?” the pilot asked, flipping switches and revving the engines.

“No. We’re going to Jacksonville; I’m taking my daughters to the Mayo Clinic.”

“Yes, sir.” The pilot started to taxi toward the runway, the moonlit asphalt glimmering in front of the plane. “We should be on the ground in Florida in about six hours.”

Bill went back into the cabin and took a seat across from Rose, fastening his seatbelt. He leaned his head against the wall, feeling the welcome chill of the plastic against his heated temple.

Alyssa was dead, and there was nothing he could do about that. He’d done everything humanly possible to save her life over the past few months, and all had been in vain. The gods were angry with him and had taken away his daughter.

But he had another one, and there was no reason why the world should know about what transpired that night, the only thing he could’ve done to keep the family name going forward and the estate in the right hands. Otherwise, that little bastard, Dylan, would soon stake his claim and he could never settle for that.

He closed his eyes and dozed off just as the plane entered the runway, getting ready to take off.

Outside, hiding in the shadows by the airport building, a woman watched as the plane accelerated and lifted off, disappearing into the night. She followed the moonlit fuselage flanked by flickering strobes until she couldn’t see it anymore. Then she wiped a tear and disappeared, unseen, walking calmly, with her head up high, while her long, blond hair blew into the strong breeze.

49Mother and Son

Carole closed the door with shaking hands she quickly hid behind her back. The blood had drained from her face, leaving her skin a sickly shade of grayish pale. Standing in the middle of the lobby, she looked at Bill, her gaze merciless and mortally wounded at the same time.

“What are these people talking about?” Carole asked, her voice a trembling whisper.

A lopsided smile stretched Bill’s mouth, while a glint of amusement colored his eyes. “The statute of limitations has run its course, Mother. There’s nothing they can do.” He shifted his eyes from Carole to Kay while his smile widened, full of pride. “So, yeah, I kidnapped Rose Harrelson, and there’s nothing you can do about it. There, I said it.” He punctuated his words with a hand gesture, then started pacing the large lobby calmly, with a measured, steady gait.

There was no sign of deception on Bill’s face, nor of fear. The man was an enigma, his motivations worth exploring. But had he killed his daughter?

Carole reached him in two angry steps and grabbed his sleeve, stopping him in his tracks. “You took the housekeeper’s daughter and brought her to my doorstep?” Carole’s voice had climbed to a high, screeching pitch, her words shattered by her panting.

Bill stared at her intently, closing the distance between their faces until their eyes were mere inches apart. “She was my daughter,” he seethed with searing anger. “Mine!”

It was as if Carole had turned to stone. She’d stopped breathing, taking in Bill’s words, and choking on them, as if unable to understand their meaning. “How could you?” she whispered, the disgust on her face palpable, raw. “How could I have not seen it?” She turned away from Bill, veering her gaze as if the sight of him made her sick. “That sweet little girl died of