Andrea Kane - The Girl Who Disappeared Twice

“You’d better be right. And your information had better be good.”

“I am and it is. What does the task force know?”

“Everything about Linda Turner. First of all, they drew the same conclusion we did. But they needed grounds to descend on Sunny Gardens. So they got them. Since Linda was clearly trying to keep her condition a secret, the task force got a list of doctors she’d worked with when she was employed by the hospital. In no time, they found the private practice of the semiretired doctor who was treating her. The pharmacy she used was two blocks away from his office.”

“Who gave them what they needed-the doctor or the pharmacist?”

“Both. All her medical records were confidential, but Peg spoke to one pharmacist who recognized Linda, and who said they hadn’t been supplying her with prescription meds for over a month. The pharmacist’s impression was that Linda was moving to an on-site facility. When the task force took that information to the doctor, and impressed upon him the urgency of the situation, the doctor confirmed that he’d recommended Sunny Gardens to Linda. Between that, and the fact that Claudia Mitchell was murdered right after interviewing at that facility…”

“The task force got the warrants they needed. So they were on their way to Sunny Gardens when I called.”

“Oh, yeah. They were furious about waiting. Peg put her neck on the line for you, amid lots of dissent. So, like I said, you’d better have some hard, solid evidence to give them.”

“And, like I said, I do.” Casey paused outside the front door. “Thank you, Patrick. I know how hard this was for you, not only because of how badly you want to solve the Felicity Akerman case, but because you strayed a hair from the straight and narrow.”

His jaw tightened. “I did it for one reason-I think you’re good enough to crack this without being bogged down by bullshit. That doesn’t mean I approve of your methods. It means I’m desperate enough to tolerate them.”

“Let’s get inside.” Marc had come up behind them, along with Ryan, who was carrying his laptop and the shocking video- if Peg chose to see it.

The whole group went inside, converging in the media room, where most of the task force, including Hutch and Grace, along with Claire, the Willises, and Vera and Sidney Akerman were waiting.

Hope practically raced forward, grabbing Casey’s arm with sheer desperation. “Did you find Linda? Was she at that place Sunny Gardens?”

“Yes.” Casey studied Hope intently, saw the genuine emotion in her eyes. Not that any confirmation was necessary. Still, she was relieved to get it.

“Did you talk to her? Did she tell you where Krissy was?”

Casey turned to Peg. In the process, she spotted Hutch, and tried to ignore the blazing fury in his eyes.

“Linda Turner has a new name and a surprising accomplice. Don’t ask me how I know. Just accept it as a hot tip. The sooner you can act on this, the better.”

“Go on,” Peg said curtly.

“She was admitted under the name Lorna Werner. You would have found that out the minute you showed her picture at the front desk. You also would have found out that talking to her is useless. She drifts in and out of reality, and she didn’t kidnap Krissy, although she certainly inspired it. If she has an inkling where Krissy is-which I doubt-she’d never be able to give us a coherent description, much less directions to where Krissy’s being kept. Only her accomplice can.”

“Is this accomplice mob related?” Sidney asked.

“No. Your mob ties had nothing to do with your granddaughter’s abduction.”

“So you know who Linda’s accomplice is,” Peg concluded.

“Yes.” Casey was both frank and blunt. “I can tell you, which would be hearsay. Or I can show you, and say we found this evidence outside the gates of Sunny Gardens, where a good Samaritan must have dropped it. Your choice.”

Peg glared at her. “Show me.”

Ryan produced a flash drive containing the data he’d copied off Gecko. He walked over to one of the FBI computers. “May I?”

“Go ahead.”

He inserted the USB drive and punched in a few commands on the keyboard.

A minute later, the video recording came up. First, Linda. Then, the familiar voice. Finally, the appearance.

A simultaneous gasp filled the room as Linda and her accomplice launched into their visit, which included some probing questions from her accomplice, obviously fishing to see if Linda had been approached by law enforcement, leading to genuine relief when she realized that she hadn’t.

“Hope?” Edward turned to her, white shock on his face. “What the hell-”

“It’s not your wife, Mr. Willis,” Casey interrupted. “We watched this video many times and with great care. Her body language, her choice of words, her delivery-they’re all completely different. That woman is impersonating Hope. But she isn’t Hope. She’s Felicity.”

“Oh my God.” Vera’s legs buckled under her, and Patrick Lynch caught her before she dropped to the floor. “Oh my God,” she whispered again, staring blankly at the monitor as Patrick eased her into a chair. He himself was stark-white. “Felicity is…alive?”

“Yes.” Casey nodded. “She’s been with Linda all these years. Once we realized that, all the pieces fell into place. Why it was so easy for the kidnapper to masquerade as Hope. Why I never saw anyone but Hope come and go at the ransom drop. How the kidnapper got in here to steal Hope’s pendant and Krissy’s toy-and to knock Ashley out when she surprised her.”

“Felicity must have used Krissy’s keys,” Edward surmised, obviously shaken to the core. “They were in her backpack, along with our alarm code and Krissy’s cell phone. All our numbers are programmed into that phone. That’s how she managed to call Ashley’s cell in order to bypass the phone taps and get to Hope for the ransom money.”

“Money she was probably planning to use to raise Krissy,” Casey continued. “It’s also why the gardener was so convinced he saw Hope enter the house when Ashley was checking the mail. And why Claudia Mitchell had an unexpected and fatal experience at Sunny Gardens. She must have freaked out when she spotted the woman she thought had fired her. She was filled with pent-up anger-after having to apply for a job that was beneath her, and dealing with a boyfriend who was being held by the police. I’m sure she blamed Hope for the whole fiasco. My guess? She went over to confront her, only to realize it wasn’t Hope after all. Talk about ammunition. We all thought it was a mob hit. But it wasn’t. It was a desperate act committed by a desperate woman.”

Reflectively, Don added, “The mob did everything they could to get us off their backs. How ironic. The one thing they weren’t guilty of was the very thing that might have gotten them caught.”

“So Felicity ran Claudia Mitchell off the road?” Hope asked, her voice quavering with shock and pain. “My sister is a murderer?”

Casey took Hope’s hand. “She’s not stable, Hope. She probably shattered completely when she thought Claudia was going to undo everything she’d done. Krissy means everything to her. She’s transferred all the love she felt for Linda to Krissy. She’s frantic to hold on to her. It’s the only way she can hold on to herself.”

“But she doesn’t even know Krissy,” Edward protested.

“It doesn’t matter.” It was Hutch who spoke up now. “Casey’s right. Linda Turner was Felicity’s mother for thirty-two years. She kept Felicity isolated from the world. Linda became Felicity’s lifeline. When Linda’s illness made it impossible for her to continue living on her own, Felicity panicked. She was losing her mother. The only way she could survive was to repeat the cycle. It gave her a sense of completion.”