What Have You Done(13)
“Yeah. The kid’s out of surgery. Gonna be a touchy forty-eight hours, but the doctors are optimistic. They think he’s gonna make it.”
“That’s great news.”
“Cutter came out of surgery about a half hour after you left. He was transported to a secured wing where four uniforms are standing with him. He should be able to be transferred to lockup in a few days.”
Sean nodded and looked around the empty floor.
“You okay?” Don asked.
“Yeah.”
“Shook up about Kerri?”
“Yeah.” Sean leaned in toward his partner. “Look, I gotta ask you a favor, but I know you won’t like it because it goes against procedure, and to be honest, it could end your career if anyone ever found out.”
Don perked up. “This I gotta hear,” he said. “Go ahead.”
“I need you to go to her apartment tonight, before Heckle and Keenan have a chance to get in there. Remove anything that has Liam attached to it. Notes, pictures… anything. I gotta get my firearm discharge report in, or I’d go myself. There’s just not enough time. Heckle and Keenan will finish up with their prelim memo tonight, and then it’s off to the victim’s apartment, so we have to move ASAP. We gotta keep Liam’s involvement with Kerri quiet until we find out what happened.”
“You’re keeping his affair with her quiet?”
“For now.”
“You think that’s a smart idea?”
“I just need a few days to figure this out. If Liam confesses to his affair, they’ll look to build a case against him. Once that happens, it’s over. I need to give Heckle and Keenan time to investigate.”
“You and I knew her too,” Don replied. “Does that put us in the same pickle?”
“It could.”
“You don’t think Liam had anything to do with it, do you?”
“No way. Not a chance.”
“Right, so why not come clean now so it doesn’t come back to bite him—or us—if they find out later? I’ve known that boy almost all of his adult life. Practically raised him alongside you. Inside and outside of this department. I can’t see him being involved. Makes no sense not to let Heckle and Keenan know up front.”
“I will. But for now we need to keep it quiet. I’d rather face the consequences of not telling them up front instead of telling them everything and have Liam become their prime suspect. I just need to understand what went on before I can decide the next steps. Can you do that? Keep it quiet for a few days?”
“You know I can. I got you. Career ender or not.”
“And Kerri’s apartment?”
“I’ll go tonight.”
“No traces of anything involving my brother.”
“I understand. I’ll take care of it.”
The shift change was over. The room began to fill, and the background noise of a busy homicide division was born once again.
9
It was Sean who had saved him. When they had first entered the house, their mother had hit Sean over the head with the Louisville Slugger their father had bought him after he made his first Little League All Stars Team. That single blow had knocked him unconscious. Her plan was to drown Liam first and then his older brother; then she would place each of her children on one of the mattresses, wrap their tiny fingers around the stems of the paper flowers, take an entire bottle of sleeping pills, and lie on the third. One happy family going home to see their father.
But the blow with the bat hadn’t been severe enough. Sean had come to and snuck into the bathroom. He had hit his mother across the back of her skull with that same Slugger, using what he called his perfected Mike Schmidt swing. As she lay motionless and bleeding on the bathroom floor, Sean had jumped into the tub, pulled Liam out, and dragged him through the house and onto the front porch, screaming for help the entire time. Neighbors had poured from their homes. Jacob Stevens, a high school kid from across the street who spent his summers as a lifeguard in Wildwood, had given Liam CPR and brought him back before the ambulance arrived. Jacob had got him breathing again, but Sean had saved his life.
The dock was just north of Penn’s Landing, almost under the Ben Franklin Bridge. Between the rain and the darkness, Liam couldn’t see much more than the wooden pier ahead, illuminated only by streetlamps above. The stores that lined one side of the small marina had disappeared with the night. Sean’s thirty-foot Bayliner rocked gently in slip 28, its interior lights glowing through the windows. Its captain was already aboard.
His mother had survived. She had been arrested and taken to a mental institution, where she ended up killing herself on the second anniversary of their father’s death by drinking rat poison a hired exterminator had accidentally left behind in her bathroom a few days earlier. All she had wanted was to be with the man she loved so dearly. She finally got her wish with a most painful and agonizing death.
The small waves slapping the pier sounded like cannons exploding as Liam inched his way closer to the boat. He walked carefully, always staying in the center of the platform, feeling it sway even though he knew that was impossible. His breath grew short and quick as it always did. His hands began to sweat, even in the rain.
He’d never been out on the boat but often found enough courage to climb aboard and have a few beers with his brother at the slip. The usual joke would entail Sean lowering the motor into the water and starting it, threatening to take it out onto the Delaware River to help Liam overcome his debilitating fear their mother had forever instilled in him. The idling motor would send Liam into a panic that was all too real. Sean seemed to enjoy watching him squirm as he revved the throttle and made as if he were about to untie the moorings. But Liam knew his brother would never really take off in the boat. When all was said and done, he and Sean shared a bond that was stronger than anything he’d ever known. Sean was there to look out for him and protect him. No way that boat would ever leave the slip. He knew that, yet logic would never overtake the panic.