All He Has Left(7)
His wife’s death still didn’t feel real to him—even a year later. There was a lingering numbness there. Probably because he never really gave himself much of a chance to work through the emotional pain. First, he went back to coaching way too soon and was subsequently fired after embarrassing himself in front of hundreds of fans. Then the custody battle put him through the emotional wringer. But Jake felt like he had been making slow progress over the past couple of months. He’d hoped this weekend would be a big step forward for both him and Piper in many ways.
After exchanging texts with Piper, Jake knew she’d spent the past hour after her birthday party had ended over at her favorite cousin’s house. Caitlin had been his daughter’s primary babysitter for most of her life. She was the daughter of Sarah’s oldest brother, Carl. Even with a ten-year age gap between them, the two girls had a special bond. Caitlin was a newly working professional after graduating from Stanford a few months ago. She had just moved into a fabulous modern two-story white house only a couple of blocks north of Lake Austin near downtown—something she could never afford on her own. Lars Kingston had purchased it for her as a college graduation gift.
When Jake had graduated from Sam Houston State, he’d had to move back into his old bedroom at his father’s house. It took six months of collecting paychecks from his first low-paying coaching gig before he finally got himself into an efficiency apartment. Caitlin had moved straight into a multimillion-dollar neighborhood. Not that Jake held that against his niece. This was just normal for her family. He actually respected that Caitlin had not chosen the easy path of going directly to work for her grandfather, like most others in her family. She had studied criminal justice in college and was carving out her own unique path within the field of law enforcement.
Jake pulled his Jeep to the curb outside the house. A sporty black Audi was parked in the side driveway. Piper had texted him a photo of Caitlin’s car earlier and said she wanted one just like it when she got her license in a few years. She added a huge smiley-face emoji. In their brief text exchanges throughout the afternoon, Piper had used a lot of happy emojis. It made his heart feel good. Jake had given her a brand-new phone this morning for her birthday—something she’d been begging for. The gift seemed to have opened a positive communication line between them. At least for one day. He hoped it would last.
Getting out of his car, he took a quick glance up and down the picturesque street, which was lined with similarly exquisite houses. He noticed a woman out walking her dog to his left. Two teenagers on motorized scooters farther down. A tow truck parked on the street a half block to his right. Zipping up his black windbreaker, Jake followed the walking path to the front porch of the house. Right before he was about to knock on the door, a sudden loud bang! from inside jarred him and sent a chill straight up his spine.
What the hell was that? A gunshot? Then Jake thought he heard a female shriek from somewhere inside the house, and panic punched him in the gut.
Jake pounded hard on the front door.
“Hey, it’s Uncle Jake! Is everything OK?”
No response. Jake cursed, glanced through a small window right next to the front door, but he couldn’t see anyone in the foyer of the house. He reached down for the door handle but found it locked.
He again pounded on the door. “Caitlin! Piper!”
Still no one came to answer. His heart was racing. He hurried over to his left in front of a window on the opposite end of the porch. The lights were on in the living room, but he couldn’t make out anyone inside the house. Another scream. His adrenaline hit another level. Without even thinking twice, Jake reared back and punched his jacket-covered elbow right through the glass window. It shattered. He quickly cleared glass shards away as best he could without cutting himself and then managed to climb through the opening over the top of a white sofa. He scrambled toward the back of the house, the source of the commotion.
Spinning around a corner, Jake spotted his niece lying on her back on the hardwood floor in the kitchen, clutching her stomach with both hands and gasping for air. It looked like her hands were covered in blood. He could see dark liquid collecting beneath Caitlin. Jake dropped to his knees next to his niece, feeling more and more panic grip him. Blood was flowing out of her stomach, so he instinctively put his own hands on top of hers to try to somehow stop it. It wasn’t working. Blood was everywhere.
“Caitlin? What happened?”
“P-p-p-iper,” she said, coughing up more blood.
“She did this to you?” Jake said, horrified.
“N-n-no. He . . . he did it.”
“Who? Is he here?”
“She knows, Uncle Jake. What happened wasn’t an accident.”
“What . . . Who knows?”
Caitlin began coughing up more blood. “Piper knows the truth.”
“Where is she?”
“Help her, Uncle Jake! Please!”
Jake reached his trembling hand into his pocket to find his phone. He had to call 911. He had to get paramedics here for Caitlin. She was in awful condition. But then he heard another scream come from right outside the house. One he’d recognize anywhere. Pressing off the floor, Jake raced for a back kitchen door that led out to the side driveway. He flung it open, spilled outside, frantically searching everywhere. He didn’t see anything in a small backyard to his left, so he sprinted forward around to the front of the house again.