“And you weren’t going to tell me about it?”
“I . . . I didn’t know how to,” Alice said, frustrated because she felt guilty for not being forthcoming with Maggie. She felt like she had this huge, enormous thing inside her, and she wanted to get it out. Problem was, she didn’t know how to expel it properly. She was like an overdue mother desperate for relief, bursting and helpless in the face of nature.
“Wait. Are you saying what I think you’re saying? Did you get the test results?” Maggie asked tensely.
“I got them,” Alice said, studying the tile floor. She’d gotten the call from the genetics lab two days ago.
“And?”
She met Maggie’s gaze hesitantly.
“As it turns out . . . I’m a miracle after all.”
Just saying it caused shivers to rush down her arms. Her awed reaction hadn’t lessened any since she’d first given the news to both Special Agent Clayton and Charlie Towsen.
“You’re Alan and Lynn Durand’s biological daughter.”
“It would seem so,” she said, shrugging disbelievingly.
“Wow. Does Dylan know?” Maggie asked cautiously after a pause.
Alice swallowed. “I would think he does.”
“But you don’t know for sure?”
“I told Charlie Towsen the news and e-mailed a copy of the lab report. Dylan is Charlie’s boss. I’m sure Towsen told him.” She inhaled and straightened, starting to unload groceries again because she knew what Maggie was going to say next and she needed a distraction.
“Dylan hasn’t called?” Maggie asked, sounding a little confused.
“No,” she replied briskly, putting a loaf of bread in the bin and slamming the door down too hard. “But I asked him only to call me in case of an emergency.”
Besides which, he’s probably so furious at me that he’s avoiding contact at all costs.
“He doesn’t consider the fact that you’re definitely Alan and Lynn’s child major enough news? Or Kehoe pleading guilty not only to the kidnapping, but to giving the order to have you murdered twenty years ago, or attempting to kill you recently? That doesn’t qualify as serious enough information for him to call?”
“You know that Clayton told me all about that before the story broke on the news,” Alice said, moving mechanically and averting her gaze from Maggie’s. Both Clayton and Towsen had actually been great about keeping in contact and filling her in on all the minutia of unfolding events.
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.