John Locke - Lethal Experiment

My new living quarters were complete, but because the construction crew was still on site, it would be weeks before I could move in. The two weeks I planned to spend training Alison were still in the future. My dinner with Callie and Eva had been postponed twice due to Eva’s tireless rehearsal and performance schedules, but I had a firm commitment from them for Sunday night.

Finding myself with three days of free time, I decided to meet Dr. Nadine Crouch in Jacksonville, Florida. For five thousand dollars and a beach vacation, Nadine agreed to help prepare my daughter Kimberly for the news that I was alive.

I could have contacted Kimberly sooner, of course, but I wanted to wait until I was certain I wouldn’t have a relapse. Now I’d killed a dying man and two terrorists without incident, so I figured to be okay from this point on. Since I’d missed a big part of Kimberly’s life, I planned to make up for it, starting now. But first I had to pave the way. I couldn’t just walk up to her with this new face and say, “Hey, Kim, it’s me, your dead Daddy!”

Kimberly had inherited my entire estate—or to be more precise, the entire estate identified in my will and supporting documents. Naturally I had secret stashes of money tucked away in case I needed to fake my own death.

Lou Kelly had spoken to Kimberly a few times over the years, but my funeral was their first face-to-face meeting. Since then, he’d called every month to see how she was doing. It was Lou who presented my “Last Will and Testament” to the attorneys settling the estate, so it seemed natural to have Lou phone Kimberly about this. He taped the exchange and emailed it to me in an audio file.

“I want you to meet someone,” Lou said. “Her name is Dr. Nadine Crouch. She was your father’s therapist.”

“There must be some mistake, Mr. Kelly,” Kimberly said. “There’s no way my father would ever see a therapist.”

“She only saw your dad a few times that last year. But she has some information you’ll want to hear.”

She went silent a moment, then sighed. “I’m not so sure I want to hear it, Mr. Kelly.”

“Kimberly, you’re just going to have to trust me on this.”

“You obviously know what it is,” she said. “Just tell me now.”

“Nadine’s going to be in Jacksonville this week anyway. Plus, the type of news she’s got for you—well, let’s just say she’s better trained to deliver it.”

Kimberly agreed to meet Nadine in the lobby of the hotel where Nadine was staying. Kimberly showed up, the two exchanged pleasantries. After a while Nadine said, “It’s a beautiful day. Can we walk on the beach while we talk?”

I’d never been to Jacksonville Beach, but I was mildly surprised to find it as nice as it was. Located on a barrier island east of the city, Jax Beach had plenty of sand, decent but not overwhelming surf, and was relatively un-crowded. Nadine, Kimberly and I walked north along the beach, though I remained fifty yards back. If you saw the big guy in the Penn State ball cap, sunglasses and earbuds, that was me. The earbuds allowed me to listen to their conversation.

Nadine said, “Your father and I spoke about you many times.”

Kimberly said, “Can we just skip to the part where you tell me he’s alive?”

“Excuse me?”

“My father. Donovan Creed. He’s alive. You know it and I know it. So where is he and why hasn’t he contacted me before this?”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Kimberly knew ?

Nadine was speechless as well. Kimberly started looking around the beach. It took her all of five seconds to spot me. “What a ridiculous disguise,” she said, laughing. She and I ran toward each other like actors in the worst forties movie ever made. When we got close, she leapt up in the air and I caught her in my arms. I spun her in circles as I’d done when she was four, and she hugged me like a long-lost teddy bear she’d rediscovered.

I placed her gently back on her feet and looked at her. She was older, more mature, but she was still Kimberly. She slapped my face.

“I can’t believe you’d do this to me!” she said. “You don’t trust me enough to call or send a message? What the hell kind of father are you?”

“The kind who was in a coma for more than three years,” Nadine said, catching up to us, out of breath.

Kimberly looked into my eyes. “I believe it.”

“You do?” I said.

“Yes. If you’d been conscious, you wouldn’t have chosen that face!”

I laughed. “It’s so great to see you!”

“You too,” she said. “But you’ve got a lot of explaining to do.”

“I’ll tell you everything. But first, you’ve got to tell me how you knew I was alive.”

She reached into my pants pocket and pulled out my silver dollar, the one my grandfather gave me all those years ago. “This was not among the personal effects they gave me.”

I grinned proudly. Nadine said, “Well, you are certainly your father’s daughter.” To me she said, “Just so we’re clear, I still get to keep the money, and the vacation.”

“You’re the most mercenary shrink I’ve ever known,” I said.

“It’s always nice to be number one,” she said.

I gave her a hug.

“Unacceptable,” she said, pulling away.

“Thanks for trying to help,” I said. “I think I can take it from here. Have a great vacation.”

“I plan to.” She headed back toward her hotel.

The next three days were the best Kimberly and I ever spent together. Hours into the reunion, when the subject of Kathleen and Addie came up, I told her everything and she said, “If Kathleen made you that happy you need to tell her you’re alive. More importantly, she deserves the right to choose what makes her happy.”

“I’m afraid she might choose me out of guilt.”

“And that bothers you because?”

“Tom’s a good man, much better husband material than me.”

“How can you say that?”

“I checked him out.”

She shook her head. “Can you really know so little about women?”

“I can, and you know it.”

“Dad, listen to me,” she said, assuming the role of parent, a role that suited her better than me. “You need to tell her four things: you’re alive, what happened, why it happened, and how you feel.”

Sure, I could tell Kathleen those things, but I felt she’d have a better chance at happiness with a steady, normal guy like Tom. Addie was also a major part of the equation. Addie had lost her first family, then, three years ago, she’d lost me. Then Tom came into her life, and I had no doubt that she loved him and accepted him as a father figure. If I came back into Kathleen’s life Addie would be forced to lose either me or Tom. The poor kid had been through enough, she didn’t deserve to lose a third father figure. To further complicate things, I still wasn’t certain that life in the suburbs would suit me. Last but not least, if Kathleen chose me, she’d always wonder if I was the right choice. If she rejected me, she’d always wonder if Tom was the right choice. It wasn’t fair to put her in that situation.

But I did love Kathleen, and wished things had turned out differently.

“Dad?” Kimberly said, bringing me back to the present. “Will you tell her the four things?”

I sighed. “It’s not that simple.”

“Is it simpler than losing her?”

Chapter 61

Eva LeSage was a doll.

Maybe five feet tall, she weighed about the same as my left arm. Her face and everything else about her was delicate to the point of seeming fragile. She had almond, cat-like eyes, frosted hair, and a young girl’s voice that still retained the slightest hint of a Russian accent. Looking at her up close, it was hard to find any similarity between her and Tara Siegel, other than height and general facial resemblance. If Darwin had truly intended to cover Tara’s death with Eva’s body, our people would have had an uphill battle convincing anyone they were even related. All I could think was that Eva must have changed dramatically over the past few years, and no one told Darwin.