No Second Chance

“Lydia, we planned for this.”

“You’re not going to die.”

Heshy closed his eyes. His breathing was labored.

“The world will think you were a monster,” she said.

“I only care what you think. Promise me, Lydia.”

“You’re going to be fine.”

“Promise me.”

Lydia shook her head. The tears were flowing freely now. “I can’t do it.”

“You can.” Heshy managed a final smile. “You’re a great actress, remember?”

“I love you,” she said.

But his eyes were closed. Lydia kept sobbing. She kept pleading with him not to leave her. The sirens came closer. Verne stepped back. The police arrived. When they came inside, they stood around her in a circle. Lydia suddenly lifted her head off Heshy’s chest.

“Thank God,” she said to them—and the tears started rolling again. “My nightmare is finally over.”

Rachel was rushed to the hospital. I wanted to follow, but the police had other ideas. I spoke to Zia. I asked her to look in on Rachel for me.

The police questioned us for hours. They questioned Verne, Katarina, and me separately and then together. I think they believed us. Lenny was there. Regan and Tickner showed up, but it took some time. They’d been going through Bacard’s files per Lenny’s phone call.

Regan took the lead with me. “Long day, huh, Marc?”

I sat across from him. “Do I look in the mood for chitchat, Detective?”

“The woman goes by the name Lydia Davis. Her real name is Larissa Dane.”

I made a face. “Why does that name sound familiar?”

“She was a child actor.”

“Trixie,” I said, remembering. “OnFamily Laughs .”

“Yep, that’s her. Or at least, that’s what she says. Anyway, she claims this guy—we only know him as Heshy—kept her locked up and abused her. She said he forced her to do things. Your friend Verne thinks it’s all a scam. But that’s not important right now. She claims that she doesn’t know anything about your daughter.”

“How can that be?”

“She says they were just hired hands. That Bacard came to Heshy with this scheme about asking for ransom for a kid they hadn’t kidnapped. Heshy loved the idea. Lot of money—and since they didn’t really have the kid, there was almost no risk.”

“She says they had nothing to do with the shooting at my house?”

“That’s right.”

I looked at Lenny. He saw the problem too. “But they had my gun. The one they used on Katarina’s brother.”

“Yeah, we know. She claims that Bacard gave it to Heshy. To set you up. Heshy shot Pavel and planted the gun so you and Rachel would take the fall.”

“How did they get Tara’s hair for the ransom drop? How did they get her clothes?”

“According to Ms. Dane, Bacard provided them.”

I shook my head. “So Bacard was the one who kidnapped Tara?”

“She claims not to know.”

“How about my sister? How did she get involved?”

“Again she claims it was Bacard. He gave them Stacy’s name as a fall guy. Heshy gave Stacy the money and told her to cash it at a bank. Then he killed her.”

I looked over at Tickner, then back at Regan. “It doesn’t add up.”

“We’re still working on it.”

Lenny said, “I have a question. Why did they come back after a year and a half and try it again?”

“Ms. Dane claims not to know for sure, but she suspects it was simple greed. She says Bacard called and asked if Heshy would want to make another million. He said yes. Going through Bacard’s records, he was clearly in financial trouble. We think she’s right. Bacard simply decided to take another bite of the apple.”

I rubbed my face. My ribs began to ache. “Did you find Bacard’s adoption records?”

Regan glanced at Tickner. “Not yet.”

“How can that be?”

“Look, we just got on this. We’ll find them. We’re going to check every adoption he’s ever made, especially anything involving a female eighteen months ago. If Bacard had Tara adopted, we’ll find out.”

I shook my head again.

“What is it, Marc?”

“That doesn’t make any sense. The guy has a decent thing going with this adoption scam. Why shoot me and Monica and up the ante to kidnapping and murder?”

“We don’t know,” Regan said. “I think we can all agree that there’s more to the story. But the truth is, the most likely scenario right now is that your sister and an accomplice shot you and Monica and took the baby. She then brought it to Bacard.”

I closed my eyes and replayed it in my head. Could Stacy have really done that? Could she have broken into my house and shot me? I still couldn’t make myself believe. And then I thought of something.

Why hadn’t I heard the window break?

More than that, before I was shot, why hadn’t I heardanything ? A window break, a doorbell, heck, a door opening. Why hadn’t I heard any of that? The answer, according to Regan, had been that I was blocking. But now I saw that wasn’t it.

“The granola bar,” I said.

“Pardon me?”

I turned to him. “Your theory is that I’m forgetting something, right? Stacy and her accomplice either broke the window or, I don’t know, rang the doorbell. I would have heard either one of those. But I didn’t. I remember eating my granola bar and then going down.”

“Right.”

“But see, I was pretty specific. I had the granola bar in my hand. When you found me, it was on the floor. How much had been eaten?”

“Maybe a bite or two,” Tickner said.

“Then your amnesia theory is wrong. I was standing over the sink eating the granola bar. I remember that. When you found me, that’s what I was doing. There is no time unaccounted for. And if it was my sister, why would she strip Monica, for Chrissake . . . ?” I stopped.

Lenny said, “Marc?”

Did you love her?

I stared straight ahead.

You know who shot you, don’t you, Marc?

Dina Levinsky. I thought about her bizarre visits to the house she’d grown up in. I thought about the two guns—one being mine. I thought about the CD-ROM hidden in the basement, in the spot Dina had told me about. I thought about those pictures taken in front of the hospital. I thought about what Edgar said about Monica seeing a psychiatrist.