Twisted Shadows Read online

  She’d also been drilled to keep the door locked, even at home, and their house was the first in the area to have a security system. She’d been warned repeatedly never to talk to a stranger, and to tell either parent if anyone tried to approach her. Her father had told her to run like hell if anyone did.

  And their cabin.

  She’d hadn’t ever been allowed to take friends there, or even speak of it. “Our secret place,” her father had said. “Our Shangri-la.” The image had been pure magic for her, and she’d never said anything, not even to Terri. Now the secret took on other dimensions.

  Now she knew why her mother was always so cautious, why they didn’t tell anyone about their lake cabin.

  “Why did you call your sister?” Sam asked.

  “It’s been more than three decades since I… left Boston,” her mother said. “David had been with Special Forces. He’d had other jobs with the government. He knew how to get lost, how to create new identities. He told me never to contact anyone I ever knew. But when he died, I wanted to see my sister again. I wrote her last month. I visited her three weeks ago. So much time. I can’t believe…”

  “The weekend trip with friends?” Sam had been mildly surprised that her mother had left three weekends ago. To visit Mends, she’d said. But it had been the first time her mother had left Steamboat without David or on anything but short business trips to buy art.

  Tears spilled over and ran down her mother’s cheeks.

  Not just one, but many. They were quiet tears, the kind that held anguish. “I truly thought we were safe.”

  Another shock ran through Sam. Someone had lain in wait for more than thirty years to find Mother. And her.

  Her mother’s eyes pleaded with her to understand. “Don’t go,” she whispered. “We can leave tonight. We can go to Mexico or—”

  “Run away?” Sam said. “What about the gallery? Our homes? Friends?”

  “You don’t understand, Samantha.”

  “No,” Sam agreed. “I don’t. I only know I have a twin brother and a life that’s been a lie.”

  “We thought it best.”

  “You and David thought it best,” Sam said. “How did you meet him?”

  She watched her mother swallow. “I… hired him. I had escaped with you but I knew Paul or his family would come after us. My sister knew someone who had just retired from the military. We fell in love.”

  Sam had no doubt they had. She remembered how they looked at each other. They’d been in love until the day David Carroll died.

  How lonely her mother must have been, to conquer fear and contact her sister.

  Sam felt the hot rush of guilt. Perhaps if she had been more attentive, had recognized that her mother had not adjusted to David’s death as well as she’d thought…

  “Tell me more about Paul Merritta,” Sam said.

  “I’ve tried not to think about him for the past thirty-four years.”

  “And… my brother? Have you thought about him?”

  “All the time.” Her mother uttered the three words so quietly, in such an unnaturally tense voice, that Sam could only guess at the pain her mother hid behind her struggle for calm.

  “Then how could you have left him?”

  “It was the only way I could save you.” She had said the words before, but Sam had barely grasped them. It was almost a litany—a painful, frequently repeated litany.

  She stiffened. “At his expense?”

  Her mother knotted her hands together until the knuckles were white. “I could save only one.” The litany again. Sam could imagine the justification being said over and over again, but never quite believed.

  Sam was struck with pity that reached through her anger. Her mother had always seemed so controlled, so self-contained, but now Sam knew it was a facade hiding a devastating secret. “Maybe Nicholas didn’t need saving,” she said gently. “He has your genes as well as his… our… father’s.” The “our” was chilling. What kind of nightmare had her mother lived through to drive her to such a choice? “When did you marry Daddy?” she asked, needing time to regroup.

  “You were a year old. We moved out here. David changed all our names. We bought this business.”

  Sam felt she should have known—somehow—that she had not belonged to David, at least in the biological sense. Yet they’d shared many of the same physical characteristics. They’d both been tall, had a certain angular body, the same interest in the outdoors and sports. They were both fairly laid back, while her mother had been more high- strung, a perfectionist.

  “David wanted me to tell you,” her mother said. “He thought they would come after you some day.” She paused. “Please, no matter what you think of my decision, don’t go to Boston.”

  “Paul Merritta has nothing against me,” Sam said. She thought of the implied threat against her mother from her two recent visitors. She couldn’t mention it. Not now. “They said he’d been searching for me all these years. What about you and Daddy? Did you try to find out about Nicholas? Or did Daddy know anything about him?”

  “He knew,” her mother said softly. Her hands separated and fingers of one hand touched the bracelet on the other arm.

  Sam felt a tug on her heart. Secrets. So many secrets. “I want to meet my brother. And find out why Paul Merritta wants to meet me.” She hesitated. “And if he’s dying, it might be my only chance to…” To do what? She didn’t know.

  “I’ll go with you.”

  Sam heard fear in her voice. “No,” Sam said. “It’s something I have to do alone. But I want you to go to the cabin. No one knows about that.”

  “The gallery—”

  “Helen and Terri can look after it. Terri has another three weeks before she reports back to school.”

  “I won’t run and hide now. Not without you.”

  “Why?” Sam said. “Why did you run then?”

  “There were reasons. Believe that, Samantha. Reasons I can’t discuss now. Not yet.”

  Her mother’s tight lips told Sam nothing she could do would force any more answers.

  Her mother tried once more. “Don’t go, Samantha. Stay here among friends. People who love you. And…”

  “And?” Sam asked as her mother hesitated.

  “Nothing,” her mother said.

  But there was something, and Sam knew it. Her mother had never been a good liar. Or perhaps she had been, after all. Maybe it was the small lies that were difficult.

  “Do you think he would harm me?”

  He. They were talking about he. Paul Merritta. Boston attorney. Reputed mob boss. Father.

  “He’s capable of anything,” her mother said quietly.

  “If he meant either of us harm, he could have done it. He knows where we are, where you are. Perhaps if I talk to him, you won’t worry about him ever again.”

  “It doesn’t work that way with the Merrittas,” her mother said. Then she stood. “I’ll fix some tea.” Tea had always been her answer to any problem. But this one was much too huge for tea.

  Sam followed. “Will you go to the cabin while I’m gone?” she said. “I don’t want anyone trying to use you to get to me.” Sam thought that possibility might convince her mother more than any argument for her mother’s own safety.

  “I won’t hide while you walk into that—”

  Sam broke in. “They made it clear they aren’t going away. I wouldn’t be safer here than in Boston, and I’m not going to hide the rest of my life.”

  As soon as the words left her mouth, she realized what she had said. Her mother’s face seemed to collapse.

  “I’m sorry, baby. I never meant you to be touched by this. Never.”

  It was the first time in many years since her mother had called her that. Sam opened her arms and her mother moved into them. Her mother stepped away first.

  “You’re right. Once he makes up his mind…” Then her head snapped back up. “We can go to the cabin together.”

  “What about the gallery? Our homes?
He’s found you now. He can find you—us—again. But perhaps I can just meet him and that will be the end of it.”

  Indecision was written all over her mother’s face.

  “Was your name really Tracy?” Sam asked, trying to break the tension. “That was the name on the birth certificates.”

  Her mother bit her lip.

  “And your maiden name is Edwards?”

  “It’s been a long time since I’ve heard that, but yes.”

  “You mentioned a sister. Is any more of your family still alive? Or were you really an orphan?” She could not keep a wry note from her voice.

  “There’s only Susan,” Patsy Carroll said. “She’s eight years older than I am. When our mother died, she was more mother than sister.”

  “And you haven’t seen her in all these years?”

  “Not until three weeks ago.”

  Some of Sam’s anger faded. How much had her mother given up to make her safe? She felt as if she were walking on quicksand, that her reality had been nothing but an elaborate facade, like those western towns in old movies. Cardboard fronts with nothing behind them.

  Her mother’s reply did not answer all that Sam wanted to know, but her mother looked so tired Sam didn’t have the heart to continue what had turned into an interrogation. Later. Maybe later. But she would eventually get answers.

  “Will you go to the cabin?” she asked again. The cabin, she knew, was in the name of an obscure company. She’d never known why her father—David—had purchased it that way. She did know the tax bills went to the address of a local attorney who paid the expenses. She’d thought it one of her father’s whims, a part of his need for privacy.

  “How much did Daddy know?” she asked suddenly.

  “Everything,” her mother said with a catch in the word. She stared at Sam for a long moment. “When do you plan to go?” It was a surrender. A weary, resigned surrender.

  “In two days. It will take that long to finish a few things at the gallery.”

  “I’ll call Helen and ask her to fill in at the gallery then,” her mother said. “I’ll take Sarsy with me.”

  “I want you to go tomorrow,” Sam said.

  Her mother nodded. Sam had won. But there was no sense of victory. All the pleasure over the success of her business trip had drained from her mother’s face. She looked ten years older than when she’d walked in.

  She looked defeated.

  “Maybe we should call the police,” Sam said, throwing out another alternative.

  Her mother’s face paled to chalky white. “No!” Sam stared at her. So much had been unreal until now. But the fear on her mother’s face was real enough.

  “It would destroy us,” her mother finally said. “It would destroy Wonders. And if the family…” She stopped. “Not unless it’s absolutely necessary,” she said.

  Sam swallowed hard at the way her mother said “the family,” as if she weren’t speaking of relatives but of something far more sinister. Sam wished she was sure she was doing the right thing.

  But she had a twin she didn’t know, a biological father who was dying and wanted to see her. Even without the threat, she would go. She had no choice.

  five

  “I’m going with you,” Terri announced.

  “No,” Sam said. “This is something I have to do alone.”

  “I’ve never been to Boston,” Terri said, ignoring her friend. “And I’ve always wanted to go, but there was never anyone to go with.” She paused. “You said you planned to stay in a hotel, not with… them. At least you’ll have a friend nearby.”

  Sam had debated telling Terri what had happened. Although outwardly gregarious, inside Sam was a private person, always holding her thoughts and fears, even ambitions, close. If she were to fail, she did not want anyone to know it. If she were to succeed, well, that too was occasion for private celebration.

  But Terri knew her better than anyone.

  After they’d shared their twice-weekly run, they went to their favorite restaurant for breakfast. Once seated, Sam found it disturbingly easy to talk about it, the core of the emotional volcano spewing out. They had always trusted each other completely. She knew none of what she revealed would go further. Not unless something happened to her.

  Still, she told only part of the tale, that her mother had been married before, that Sam had been contacted by her biological father in Boston, that her mother feared him. Sam also said she might—or might not—have a brother. She was going to Boston to meet the latter.

  She said nothing about the Merrittas—or crime—but she gave Terri a CD with an account of the past few days as she knew them, along with the news stories she’d pulled from the Internet. “Keep it safe,” she said.

  “Now you’re scaring me,” Terri said.

  Sam smiled. “You know I can be melodramatic. Too many movies.”

  Terri didn’t smile back. “If you need anything…”

  “Just keep that in a safe place,” Sam replied.

  Terri shook her head. “I always wondered why your mother was so much more protective than the other mothers. Of course, mine knew my brothers would look out for me.”

  “I always envied you so,” Sam said. “Three brothers.”

  “Except none of them really looked after me. I was their ‘burden.’”

  “I don’t think so. They just wanted you to think that. I’m told that’s the way brothers think.” Sam heard the longing in her own voice.

  Terri picked up the photo of Nick Merritt. “He’s good-looking. He has your dark coloring.”

  “Or I have his. He’s the oldest.”

  “I should go with you,” Terri persisted. “You’re my only boss at the moment, and we’re caught up with the paperwork.”

  The offer was enticing. But the burglary was still too much in Sam’s mind. So was the subtle threat against her mother. She didn’t want to put anyone else in danger.

  “This has upset my mother, and she’s going to take a few days off and visit friends. I really need your help at Wonders.” It was the one argument she thought would work. Terri was a natural-born caretaker. She believed everyone, trusted everyone and would give a stranger her right arm if so requested. It often frustrated Sam, but she also appreciated it.

  “You don’t think your mother might be in danger?”

  “No, but I want her out of town. I’m sure she hasn’t told anyone what has happened.” She hesitated, then added, “That’s one reason I told you. Someone needed to know.” She gave her friend a quick grin. “And you have Jake.” Jake was a captain with the sheriff’s department, and he’d been asking Terri out.

  “I don’t have Jake.”

  “But you like him.”

  “Yep, but I don’t love him and I don’t think he loves me. He’s still trying to get over Shirley. We both feel snakebit, thanks to our ex-significant others.”

  Sam knew that feeling. She had been waiting for her knight for the last fifteen years and had been disappointed several times. She was beginning to believe that knights were out of fashion, a long-lost relic in today’s hectic society.

  And if she was honest, she wasn’t looking that hard. If someone came along—someone who wanted a partner as well as a wife—she would be happy. If not, she wasn’t going to settle for anything less.

  “Hellooo,” Terri said, passing her hand in front of Sam’s face.

  Sam shook off thoughts of what might be in favor of more immediate concerns. “I really don’t think anyone will hurt Mom now. After all, he—they—must know where she lives now, and no one has tried to hurt her.” She was trying to convince herself. “But still I would feel better if someone was nearby for her to call.”

  “Anyone but your mother…” Terri shook her head.

  “I know. I’m still trying to rearrange thoughts, impressions, in my head.” Sam agreed. “But my mother’s afraid, and she’s not easily scared.”

  “Maybe she’s just terrified of losing you to him.”

  “S
he could never lose me.”

  “She might not know that,” Terri said.

  “I tried to tell her.”

  Terri’s gaze met hers directly. “Any hint of danger, come home.”

  “I plan to,” Sam said.

  “I know you. You like to take chances.”

  “Only when I know the odds are on my side,” Sam replied. “I’m smart enough to know a mountain and a bad guy aren’t the same thing.”

  Terri did not look reassured.

  “I’ll keep in touch,” Sam promised.

  “I’ll call the cavalry if you don’t.”

  Sam left her and returned to her house. It was eight in the morning. She suspected the visitors would be waiting for her.

  They were sitting in a car in her driveway.

  “Not a good thing to do,” she told the one named Tommy. “Our police department checks suspicious-looking vehicles with suspicious-looking people in them.”

  “We knew you would set things straight,” Tommy said with a hint of a smile.

  “I wouldn’t bet on it.”

  Tommy ignored that. “You coming?”

  “Not now. Friday. And I’ll pay my own way,” she said.

  He didn’t argue. “What flight? I’ll pick you up at the airport.”

  “No. I’ll be staying at a hotel. I’ll get myself to… Mr. Merritta’s house Saturday.”

  “Mr. Merritta won’t like that.”

  “Those are the terms. If you don’t like them, I will still go and make my own arrangements to see my… see Nicholas.”

  “What about your mother?”

  “My mother has nothing to do with this. Leave her alone, or I will never see any of them. If I hear that anything, anything at all, has happened to her, I’ll tell the police exactly where to look.”

  “Your mother is safe enough. Now.”

  Sam’s truculence broke under the implied threat. “I mean it,” she whispered.

  “She lied to you, didn’t she? She made Mr. Merritta’s life hell. He’s always wanted his little girl.”

  “I’m not his little girl. I’m no one’s little girl,” she said.

  The man shrugged. “I’ll write down the address.”