Chapter 27

K ate stood in front of the room of horrors, shaking her head, when her phone rang.

"We got him," Rodney crowed. "Darrian was already at the boarding area for the plane."

"As long as you got him, that is awesome. Bring him on down to the station. We need to have a little talk with this asshole."

"Where are you?"

"I'm heading over to speak with wife number two, after seeing this little chamber of horrors."

"Is it really all about sex abuse?"

"It was for somebody anyway. I'm not sure who though. Could be both Albert and Darrian as abusers of both Alison and Rosemary. Regardless it'll still be about money too," she noted.

"Christ, those guys are sick."

"I'll see you at the station." When he ended the call, she got back into her vehicle, tired beyond belief, and drove to see the cousin. As Kate walked up to the front door, Rosemary opened the door, her shoulders slumped.

"What do you want?" she muttered.

"First off, Doug is in the hospital. Darrian shot him."

The woman's jaw dropped.

"Doug's injured but should be okay. Darrian has been picked up, trying to leave the country, and is now on his way to my station, so I can interview him before jailing him."

At that, she burst into tears. "Please tell me that you're not lying."

"I'm not lying. I'm telling the truth as I know it."

"He's really been picked up?"

"Yes, he won't hurt you or Doug again."

Rosemary started to sob. "It wasn't him, as much as it was Albert Feldspar," she murmured. "I mean, it was Darrian for a while, but I just wasn't enough to be of interest. But Albert?… It just got ugly."

"Is that why you married Daisy's husband?"

She nodded. "Darrian told me that Jet wasn't married, but I knew he was," she whispered. "I was just trying to get away."

"How old are you?"

"I'm thirty. I married Jet when I was what? Seventeen?"

"Just to escape Albert?"

"Yes, and I couldn't have cared less who it was, but, as it turned out, Jet was a good man to me."

She nodded. "I'll need a statement from you too."

"Yeah, I understand, but I need you to wait so I can get a babysitter arranged."

"That's fine."

Rosemary quickly arranged with a neighbor to come over. While getting into the car with Kate, Rosemary asked, "Does Daisy hate us?"

"I think she feels betrayed at the utmost level, but she's also old and dying and very sad. She doesn't know who to blame, more or less."

Rosemary nodded. "When I realized Jet had died and knew he really was married, I felt so guilty, like I was the bad person," she shared, "and it just brought everything back."

"Do you know what happened ten years ago at the Feldspar house?"

She nodded.

"I need that statement from you too, and then I need to go see Doug," Kate murmured.

"He's alive, right? He's a good guy, but he's just so messed up."

"I know," Kate agreed. "We weren't exactly sure who was involved in this mess, but Doug is probably in the clear."

"No probably about it," Rosemary declared, "he is."

"Did you also know he's adopted?"

She stared at her in shock. "No, I didn't know that at all."

"He's Darrian's biological son."

Rosemary slapped her hand over her mouth in horror. "Who's the mother?"

"His aunt is his biological mother."

"Oh my God. Jesus Christ." She said, staring at Kate in horror.

"What is your biological connection to them?"

She shook her head. "None that I know of. I was adopted too. I wound up living with the Feldspars for quite a few years because my birth parents were killed in a car accident."

"The good news is," Kate noted, "you should be no blood relative to Doug then."

Rosemary looked over at Kate, and a slow smile started in her gaze. "How did you know?"

"Because he's very protective of you, and you're very protective of him," Kate explained. "Maybe now you both can get past all this bullshit and heal and maybe have a real life, full of love and fun and happiness. "

"Only if you put Darrian away."

"That's why I need your statement, about the sexual abuse at the very minimum."

Rosemary started to sob.

Kate added, "We found the secret room."

"Oh, God, that room. The first time I woke up in there… I had been drugged and was inside that room. I can remember everything when I woke up… my hands secured with handcuffs on the wall," she whispered, and then she started to cry, completely past the point of being able to talk.

Kate nodded. "It was also happening to Alison, Albert's own daughter, wasn't it?"

"Yes, both of us, yet we never said a word to each other. And then that night that Albert and Mandy were supposed to go out, but Albert came home early, without Mandy. Alison was there. Albert went to take her into the secret room, but she fought and fought and fought. It got ugly, very ugly, and honestly I don't even know who shot who," Rosemary admitted. "The next thing I know… everybody's supposedly dead. I left the house, screaming. I felt terrible forever afterward because Alison died that night. I was outside hiding in the trees, just so Albert wouldn't find me. But I could hear them. God, I could hear them."

Kate listened, knowing some of it was being filled in by poor memories, and some of it was being filled in by images and sounds seared into Rosemary's mind. Yet the bottom line was that they were finally getting to the bottom of it. "And Darrian? When did he show up?"

"He showed up immediately because he was already there," she declared. "I don't even know if Doug knew that, but Darrian had been in the backyard on the phone at the time, though I don't know for how long. "

"Did you hear the gunshots?"

"Not really, no," she replied, shaking her head. "I was crying in the backyard because of Albert coming home early. It got so ugly, and I took off," she murmured.

"They told the cops that an intruder broke in."

"No, I'm pretty sure the intruder was either Darrian or Alison fighting back." Rosemary looked at Kate hopefully. "Maybe that all escalated when Mandy Feldspar came home looking for Albert. I don't know.… Yet I would be totally okay if Alison fought back," Rosemary whispered. "We had a shitty life there."

"I get that," Kate agreed, "but I highly suspect Darrian was the shooter."

"I always wondered, since he was just a little too conveniently there. Yet we were so shocked and so upset that we didn't know who, what, or anything. And then it wasn't that long before the cops handling the case were killed too. That was terrible, and we didn't know what happened, yet we were scared that we did know. It seemed anybody who was involved could be killed. So everything just went away. Nobody had answers, and we didn't ask for any or offer any. As long as you didn't open that door, the boogeyman can't come in, right?"

"That's exactly what the problem is," Kate muttered. "I'm pretty sure it's the boogeyman you both knew."

Rosemary sobbed, wiping her eyes. "I'll make a statement."

"Good, and what will that statement say?"

"That Darrian sexually abused me for years, both Albert and Darrian did. That night of the murders, Albert Feldspar went after Alison, and her mom was gone somewhere. I think Mandy came home, maybe suspicious because her husband came home at an odd time. I don't know," Rosemary said. "It's just bits and pieces I figured out over the years. Mandy probably found out what Albert was doing."

"So, who shot who then?"

"I don't know," she whispered. "I really don't know."

But Kate was pretty darn sure she knew. She headed down to the station and got Lilliana to take the statement from Rosemary. As she walked into the interview room, Darrian sat there in his expensive suit, cleaning imaginary lint off his sleeve.

Sitting down, she smiled and pressed Record and began, "Everything is about to come crashing down on you. I am not sorry for you at all."

He stiffened, glared at her, and stated, "My lawyer is on the way."

"Good," she said. "You'll definitely need him. We have first degree murder, four counts. Plus, we have the sexual assault of two minors, which abuse continued for years. Let's see now. What else? We also have fraud and illegal adoptions and what we'll call kidnapping for now." She flipped through the pages of notes she had written down.

"What the hell?" He stared at her in shock. "What are you talking about?"

"Did you really not think anybody would ever find out about all that? We have proof that Doug is your biological son and that Alison is buried in the backyard of the Feldspar property and that you shot Doug's biological mother in the face and, when she didn't die outright, you drugged her for a decade."

The color drained from his face.

Kate continued. "I presume that the only reason you buried Alison in the backyard was so you could continue to control the trust fund." Darrian opened his jaw, then closed it, and she nodded. "Yeah, we've got it all, including statements from Doug and Rosemary, how the only reason Rosemary married Jet Mahoney was to get away from you and Albert."

He flushed bright red now.

"Right?" Kate asked but didn't expect an answer. "Why did you kill Albert and Mandy Feldspar? I would like to think that you killed them out of some altruistic ideal, but I highly suspect you had a more sinister motive."

"He was abusing that poor girl," he stated stiffly, "I would have done anything to protect her."

"That poor girl?" she repeated, looking at him "What do you mean, that poor girl ? Alison, the same poor girl who you were abusing? You were abusing both Alison and Rosemary, weren't you?" He flushed. "Wow, are you and Albert brothers?" His eyes widened, and she nodded. "That even makes more sense now, and that's why you spent so much time over there. That's how come you were as busy with him as you were. Did Albert even know?"

Darrian shook his head. "He didn't know. We were adopted at birth by separate families. We found each other quite a bit later."

"So, you're both just the same kind of people? You both liked to abuse young girls."

"That's not fair. I absolutely loved that little girl."

"Your niece, Rosemary, or Albert's daughter, Alison?"

"Yes, I loved them both," he stated. "However, I think a certain part of my brother started to hate Rosemary because he felt as if he couldn't ever cut his ties to her, and he constantly wanted her."

"And what about Alison? "

"Her too. It was a pretty-ugly scenario there for a while."

"And Doug?"

"He didn't know about any of it. I suppose you'll tell him now."

"Oh, he already knows about Alison being abused by Albert. However, Doug doesn't know about you abusing Rosemary and Alison, or the fact that you killed Alison."

"I didn't kill her," he said in a monotone. "Her father was doing a hell of a good job of that. By the time his wife got home, screaming and yelling at him, Alison was already dying on the floor in front of them both. Mandy ran to get the gun from the safe and came back down to shoot her husband. When I took it from her it went off accidentally, and there was nothing I could do. Mandy died right in front of me. Then I turned, and, using her hand, pulled the trigger and killed Albert, the piece of shit that he was."

"You mean that piece of shit who was your brother?"

"Yeah, the one who was so busy damaging these girls so much that he actually killed one."

"Whereas, you just loved them."

He looked at her and nodded. "Yes, I wasn't going to abuse them any longer," he shared, staring off in the distance. "I don't expect you to understand."

"I don't," Kate declared. "It's hard for me to believe that you had sex with these young girls and were ever planning on stopping it."

"I was planning on stopping it," he said softly, "but it was really hard to do."

"So, you never quite succeeded."

"I let Rosemary get married off, didn't I? That was her way of getting out of it, and I respected that and let her go. Didn't she get out and get married? "

"So, if that is true, which woman is comatose in the facility?"

He flushed. "Don't bother making it sound as if it's Alison because we know that it's not." He nodded. "Alison had her own trust funds from her grandmother. It was a huge amount of money, but it was left without a will because she died so young. Her father, Albert, being the idiot that he was, hadn't set it up to go to anybody other than himself, and I couldn't take the chance of losing it. So, considering that his sister and, therefore, my sister, is unconscious in that hospital bed, it just seemed to be a prudent idea to keep the money flowing until I could move it all."

"And did you?"

"Oh, yes, I sure did." He shrugged. "Honestly, the family is beyond wealthy, a stupid amount of money, and why should they have it all?"

"And the incest continued, as you obviously had sex with your own sister, who later gave birth to Doug?" Kate felt the bile rising in her throat.

"I don't suppose you will keep that from Doug either?" he asked, maybe feeling some shame at this point.

Kate shook her head in disbelief. "What baffles me is how you don't question all this abhorrent selfish behavior—until you are found out. Disgusting." His only response was to remain silent. "So, of course, with you in their lives, your own son and niece and sister remain desperately in need of financial, medical, and emotional help, yet not getting the benefit of what is rightly theirs."

"They aren't desperately in need ," Darrian argued. "Yet you'll make sure I don't get anything now, right?"

"You'll be in prison. You will never get free. You won't see the light of day again from your cell," she stated, with a nod in his direction. "So I don't really think that your lack of money will be a problem."

He glared at her. "You don't understand."

"But you'll tell me, won't you?"

"Why should I?" he asked, crossing his arms.

But she sensed the wariness in him. "Because you're done, and you're tired. I don't know if you've got a disease or something, but when you ran to the airport to get out of the country, you couldn't quite do it, could you? You came back and shot Doug, and I think that finished something inside you."

He stared at her, that tic in his jaw working away.

That tic must be a genetic thing . "You really cared about Doug. He's your own blood. You knew that, right?"

He nodded slowly. "I did know. Is he dead?"

"No, and hopefully he'll survive."

He closed his eyes and nodded. "Thank God for that."

"So was it all just about the money?"

"No," he replied rather forcefully. "It was about love and money.… I know it may sound stupid to you," he began, with a shrug, "but we were two rich old men, having whatever we wanted. Only when I realized what Albert was doing to his own daughter did I also realize how perverted and how wrong my own addiction was." He swore under his breath. "Yet there was no way to fix what I'd already done."

"Did you abuse Rosemary after she married Jet?"

He shook his head. "No, I even got her into therapy, but it won't ever be enough to make up for what I did, for what Albert did. I know that."

"No, it sure won't," Kate agreed. "That one night alone had a hell of a lot going on there."

"Maybe, but shooting Mandy was an accident. Shooting my brother? That was deliberate.… He had killed his own daughter," Darrian shared, with a sad sigh. "Then of course, today I shot my own son." He looked off in the distance. "I don't know what's wrong with me. I don't know what's wrong with any of us." He dropped his head. "Somewhere along the line, all that money, all that ability to have and to do whatever we wanted, it corrupts you."

With that, Kate stood, sick to her stomach. "You'll have the rest of your life to contemplate it."

And she turned and walked out.

*

"I don't understand why I had to come in," Amie snapped, glaring at Kate resentfully. "You could have told me over the phone."

"We're waiting for the DA as to whether he wants to press Obstruction of Justice charges against you for trying to make your husband's suicide look like murder."

Amie's gaze widened, and she looked at Rodney for sympathy, but he wasn't having any of it. He shook his head at her. "The District Attorney will make that call."

Amie glared at him. "So I can leave now?"

"No," Kate stated cheerfully. She placed a copy of the email and the documents she'd received from the Manila police department in front of Amie.

"What's this?" Amie asked.

"A written confession from a murder-for-hire killer out of Manila."

She paled, her skin flashing white, before it flushed in a deep and dark ugly red. She didn't look at the paperwork but instead glared into Kate's eyes. "You hate me so much that you would dig that deep? "

"I didn't have to," Kate said serenely. "This killer friend of yours was caught in reference to a different case, but, while he was ratting out the rest of those he knew on other cases, he ratted you out too. He grew up with you, and, when you were desperate to get rid of your husband, he dropped the price to something you could afford, as he was happy to help you out, for old time's sake."

She sucked in her breath and forgot to breathe.

Kate wondered if she would have to call in help, until Amie's breath finally gusted out.

"I didn't kill him."

"Correct," Kate agreed. "You paid your childhood friend to do the job for you. And, of course, Manila wants you back to serve time over there. Apparently you're still a citizen, and the murder was committed in their city. They are not happy."

"I can't go back," she cried out. "I'll never get a fair trial. You don't know what it's like over there. Everyone is a criminal. The place is a fucking nightmare."

Rodney stood and added, "Sounds as if you'll fit right in."

"Wait. There must be something I can do to not go back," she cried out in a panic. "Surely there's something? Anything?"

Rodney eyed Kate. Kate glanced at Rodney, then back at Amie. "With all this uncovered, now there are questions regarding your first husband's death. If you're in jail here, you can't be extradited."

It took Aimie seconds to make that decision, and she nodded. "I killed him. I made it look like a suicide. I didn't know I wouldn't get the life insurance. Which is how I knew I couldn't let my last husband go out the same way, or I would get nothing," she snapped bitterly. "It's all wrong. All of it."

"It so is," Kate agreed smoothly, as she slid a pad of paper across the table, along with a pen. "A full confession on murdering your first husband now."

Amie's face pinched, but then she picked up her pen and started writing. When done, she was escorted away.

Rodney looked at Kate. "Will you tell her that Manila can ask for her to be deported after she's served her time here?"

Kate gave him a fat smile. "Absolutely… not ."