LOVE'S LEGACY
BOOK IV
By
T. L. DAVISON
A Club Lighthouse Publishing E-Book
ISBN 978-0-9782581-4-6
All rights reserved
Copyright © 2005 by T. L. Davison
This book may not be reproduced in whole or in
part without written permission.
For information contact:
Club Lighthouse Publishing
Email editor@clublighthousepublishing.com
A Romance/Nostalgia Edition
EXCERPT
KENN
MICHAEL GLANCED into the rear-view mirror as he turned off The Queensway at
Windermere, on his way to Mark's place. A
light blue Ford was tailing him, causing his hackles to rise
– cops. Kenn Michael didn't like cops at all. Not because he was doing anything wrong, but
since he had a record for drug possession, he had been periodically harassed by
the police. This time gut instinct
alerted him it was going to be more than just a routine hassling. These guys were detectives in plain clothes. Just as he approached
"Mr.
Harrison," the dark-haired burly, plain clothed cop addressed Kenn
Michael, showing his badge first. "We have reason to believe you are in
possession of an illegal substance, and we have a warrant here to search your
car. Would you like to get out please?"
"I
don't fuckin' believe you guys, yer
know that! I've been clean fer the last six years,
and yet yer still fuckin' houndin' me." Kenn Michael swore as he got out of the car.
"Go 'head, be m'guest. And yer
better find something. Because God knows, yer going
to have one helluva lawsuit on yer
hands fer this if yer
don't. I've got a lot of people who can attest to my character and my stand
against drugs in the last six years. I had a record..."
"You
have a record," the detective corrected gruffly. "Now stand against
the car with your hands up on the hood," he ordered, as he started to
frisk Kenn Michael, while his partner who had joined him, looking through the
car. People slowed down to stare as they went by. Upon finding nothing in the
car, the other cop took the keys and went to open the trunk.
"Well,
well, what have we here?" A malicious smile curved his lips, as he picked
up what looked like a half-pound bag of white powder. Kenn Michael blanched. He
felt his head reeling.
Jesus
H. Christ, this has gotta be some kind of bloody
nightmare. He thought, incredulous, as the
cop opened the bag, stuck a finger in and tasted it, before confirming to his
partner that they had hit pay dirt, it was indeed heroin.
The
reading of his rights, the chill of cold metal handcuffs slapped on to his
wrists; the ride down to the police station; the gruelling interrogation
(because the amount of heroin found was way above average for mere personal
use, and it was the police's belief that Kenn Michael intended to traffic the
stuff), all seemed to move in slow motion for him, like in a nightmare from
which he thought he was going to wake up.
* * *
FROM
ACROSS THE STREET in a beaten up grey Honda, Oscar Larson watched as the detective
place a shocked and dazed Kenn Michael Harrison, in the back seat of the
unmarked car and drive away. Like the police, he too had been following Kenn
Michael's red Ferrari from a safe distance, anticipating what had just
occurred. Oscar pulled into the nearby
gas station, and got out to use the pay phone.
* * *
AT THE
BRANDON house the phone rang. Eagerly
anticipating the call, James grabbed the phone in his study on the first ring,
unaware Claire had also picked it up at the same time when it rang.
"The
job's bin done," was all the gruff voice on the other end said as James
answered.
"Good.
The money will be deposited into your account tomorrow morning." James hung up the phone and with a complacent
smile. He decided to take a drive,
confident that things were going his way.
* * *
IN HER
BEDROOM Claire hung up the phone, and returned to packing what she needed for
her four weeks stay in
"Where
are you going?" She asked casually.
"That
was Sol Bernstein on the phone. He got a
couple of the boys together at his place. We're going to sit around and have a few beers
and catch the Jays' game on T.V. Don't wait up for me,
sweetheart. You need your rest for those
upcoming concerts. If it's too late and I've had too much to drink, I'll stay
at the condo tonight." He kissed
her on the cheek and left. "I'll
see you before you leave tomorrow."
"You
bloody liar doc'. You're up to
something, and I'll bet my next royalty cheque, that it's no good," Claire
muttered once he was out of earshot, quite relieved he had left. It didn't
matter he would be spending the night with Ginny. James had claimed she was
paying him rent for the place. Did he really expect her to believe, Ginny would
let him sleep undisturbed in the guest room? "Right, Jamie darling, and pigs really do
fly."
Claire
resumed her packing, wishing she could take Jeffrey along, so that Colin and
his wife could see him, but James had absolutely forbidden it. He still didn't trust her, any more than she
trusted him.
About
"Jen,
sorry to lay this on you love, but Kenn Michael's in
trouble."
"What
kind of trouble, Mark?" Claire
asked anxiously, feeling a leaden weight suddenly drop in her stomach.
"He's
been arrested and charged for drug possession."
"What?
You can't be serious!"
"Yes, Jen. Bail was set
at fifty thousand."
"Where
are you?"
"I'm
leaving the station with him shortly. We're
going back to his place."
"I'll
be there in about an hour." Claire hung up the phone, grabbed her handbag making
sure she had her car keys. She didn't even bother taking the time to change
from the jeans and red cotton blouse she was wearing. Stepping over to her
closet, she selected a pair of sneakers from her wide array of shoes,
carelessly kicking aside the slippers she had been wearing. She quickly slipped
them on, begrudging even the time she had to take to tie the laces, after which
she dashed to the nursery to see if Jeff was already asleep. If he wasn't she
would take him with her, but he was and Claire didn't want to wake him, so she
rang Rita in the guest house and asked if she would come over and stay with
Jeff while she was gone. After resting for a day from her last tour, Claire had
given the nanny two days off, since she was home. Rita reluctantly agreed to
come.
"I'm
truly sorry about this Rita, but my husband's not here right now and an
emergency has come up. I will see that
you're compensated for your trouble," Claire pleaded with the woman.
Thirty-five
minutes later she arrived at Kenn Michael's place, thinking it must have been
her lucky night. She had zoomed along
the Q.E.W twenty miles over the speed limit, without getting stopped.
"All
right guys, you want to tell me what happened?" She demanded of the sombre faced man, one
woman, and one furious little man in Kenn Michael's living room, as soon as she
walked through the door.
"I've
been fuckin' framed that's what!" Kenn Michael spat out bitterly, his face dark
with fury as he paced, a lit cigarette in one shaking hand. "They found nearly half pound o' bloody'
heroin in my trunk!"
"Oh my God, no." Claire remembered the phone
call she had overheard earlier. "No
it can't be!"
"Well,
it fuckin' is!" he continued to rant. "D'yer know how long I can get sent up the goddamn river fer this? Not to mention
my professional reputation!"
"No,
that's not what I was referring to. There was a phone call I overheard this
evening. Somebody rang James and all he
said was, 'the job's been done.' and James told this person that money would be
deposited in that person's account tomorrow morning."
Kenn
Michael stopped, staring at her, his amber eyes still blazing. "What? What did this character sound like?"
"Coarse, grating. He made
my flesh crawl." Claire shuddered as
she thought about that voice on the phone. Kenn Michael's eyes narrowed. "I smell a fuckin'
rat here....."
"Come
on man, watch your language, you're talking to a lady," Mark Hammond
scolded him.
"The
lady's used to me, an' I'm sure she understands that I'm goddamned pissed off
right now!" Kenn Michael snapped.
"Kenny's
right, Jenny," Carolyn interposed for the first time. "I've known James for a long time and I
know just what he's capable of. Maybe
this is not the time to bring it up, but you might as well know James has every
reason to hate Kenny and me." The twisted expression of hatred on her face
made her appear gargoyle-like in the softly lit room.
"Carrie
I don't think you should bring that up," Kenn Michael suggested.
"No,
please let her continue," Claire instructed.
"Long
before he met you, James and I had an affair. I became pregnant but he didn't want me to
have the baby. He was also my doctor at
the time, and one day when I was over at his place he drugged me. When I woke
up I found out the bastard had performed an abortion on me, right there in his
apartment. He murdered his own
child!" Carloyn
cried. That's not all. He botched the
job, and now I can never have children!"
Claire
drew a deep breath and swallowed hard to maintain control. She knew James could be cruel, but this was
unforgivable. "Since then he's been
paying me to keep quiet about the whole thing." Carolyn continued
bitterly, her dark eyes murky with burning hatred coupled with pain, and Claire
felt sad for her. Thanks to James, this poor woman who so adored children,
could never have her own.
"I'm
so sorry, Carolyn. But why did you accept the blackmail money? Why didn't you report him? Abortions are illegal in this Province unless
there's a medical reason for one, as I've been lead to believe."
"Have
you ever been in so in love with a man, that no matter what he does to you, you
still hold on to hope that maybe one day he would change and love you back?
Also, there was another reason that made it impossible for me to go to the
cops.
"There
was a time when I was really mixed up with drugs myself. I had just moved in with Kenn Michael, but he
didn't know what was going on because he was hardly ever around. He had just
become Mark's business partner, so he was very busy. I knew I was in trouble, but I thought I could
kick the habit on my own, if I stayed away from my old friends. I had started
seeing James, and I really thought things were going to work out for us. So I got clean for a while, but one of my old
friends found me and before I knew it, we got back into the same old scene. By then I was having trouble with James, and
in the state of mind I was in, it was easy to slip back into the old habits.
"One
day there was a party when Kenny wasn't home, and one of my friends OD'ed on heroin. My other so-called friends disappeared
leaving me alone with the body. Kenny
happened to come home early. I would
swear the man had the devil's own sense of timing, but James showed up to see
me. He was very understanding and
helpful. He agreed to help Kenny dump
the body somewhere that night."
"Princess,
I couldn't go to the cops because of my record. I was too afraid they'd think I
supplied the drugs, and I was just beginning a new life as Mark's business
partner," Kenn Michael interposed.
"You
knew about this?" Claire turned to Mark who shook his head.
"I
understood Bear's position, and his fears. And though I was disturbed when he told me
what had happened, I had to agree with him that it was the best course of
action they could have taken, given the circumstances," Mark admitted.
"What
happened to the body? Was it ever
found?" Claire asked.
"Yes.
We called it in anonymously from a
payphone. The police dismissed it for
what it was, An OD. No investigation was
conducted, and I thought that was the end of the issue. We were home free," Carolyn continued.
"Then James found out I was pregnant and wanted me to abort the baby. He threatened to talk to a couple police
friends of his, about a certain drugged up body he had helped Kenn Michael
dump. Only he would make sure he wasn't
implicated. Get the picture?"
Claire
shook her head. "Oh yes." The conversation she had overheard between
Kenn Michael and James on the day of the party, flashed through her brain. Suddenly it all fell into place. The blackmail threat, James'
certain responsibility, and James claiming in return that he could destroy Kenn
Michael.
Carolyn
continued with her story. "Your
husband was strange and paradoxical man Jenny, because after he did the
abortion on me, he turned around and started giving me money. The threat of implicating Kenny in the body
fiasco would have been enough to keep me quiet. Then he started seeing Ginny."
"Maybe
he was just trying to salve his conscience for killing his own child,"
Claire said sadly. She was past bitterness.
These people had become her friends, and Claire felt badly for the way James
had used them. For some reason, he was still trying to destroy Kenn Michael. God, when was it all going to end?
"Talking
about Ginny," Kenn Michael interposed. "She gave me a package fer yer, yesterday luv'. I was going to
give it t'yer tomorrow night on the plane. But since yer are
here, yer might as well have it now." He went
into his bedroom and returned with a bulky brown manila envelope, which he gave
to Claire. "Gin also asked me t'warn yer that whatever yer do, don't let James see that package."
"All right. Kenn did you ring the sponsors in
"No,
I can't, but yer are still going, luv'.
Mark is taking yer."
"But,
Bear, we can't just go and leave you to face this trial by yourself,"
Claire protested.
"Don't
worry 'bout me, Jenny. I'm a big boy. Besides, the show must go on," he
continued inexorably.
"Very
well, but I'm cutting the tour short to three concerts; the ones in
"No, yer don't," Kenn Michael argued.
"Sorry,
Kenn Michael, you can't persuade me otherwise. I'm sure the sponsors would
understand. A no show would be tacky,
not to mention disappointing. However, a
shortened run due to a family emergency shouldn't ruffle as many feathers. We can always reschedule for a couple months
later, or as long as it takes for this matter to be
straightened out."
"Jenny..."
Kenn Michael started to protest, but
Claire cut him off.
"Bear,
don't argue with me. We'll get you out
of this somehow. This is a time when you
need all the people who love and care about you, around."
"Jenny,
I could go to jail fer a long time...."
"Kenn
Michael, shut up with that kind of negative talk. I know you and where you
stand on the drug issue, so does Mark and just about everybody else at DHD.
Then there was that incident in
"It's
not that easy Jen, but there's another way yer could
help me."
"Name
it."
"If
you heard that voice again in person, would you be able to identify it as the
same voice you heard on the phone?" By now, he had calmed down.
"I
couldn't forget it," Claire shuddered.
"All
right, when yer get back, I'll let you help me do
some sleuthin'. Before I forget Jenny, could yer come with me? There's something I've to tell yer in private. Excuse
us fer a couple minutes guys," he said to Mark
and Carolyn then led Claire into his bedroom. "I think yer
better sit down, fer what I'm going to tell yer," he advised her.
"I
doubt I can be shocked any more tonight, Kenn Michael. Spit it out."
"Jenny,
Lance Stevens is alive..."
"I
beg your pardon, but is this your idea of a joke...?" Claire gasped, stunned and disbelieving.
"Do I
look like I'm laughing darlin'? I didn't want yer to have a bloody heart attack if yer
went back home and heard about it, as yer were bound
to. He's running SEI. His wife was
killed recently in a car accident in
Claire put
her hand her chest, as her heart started to thump dangerously fast. "Ohmygod, I've
got to sit down." She sank down onto Kenn Michael's bed.
"Jenny,
there's something else."
"What?"
"He's
partially crippled. It must have
happened in the plane crash."
"How
long have you known Bear?" Claire
asked in a small, strangled voice. By
sheer will she managed to keep the tears from falling. She picked up a pillow from his bed and hugged
it close to her, for something to hold on to.
"Since
before we went to
"Why
didn't you tell me?"
"I
was going to tell yer when we arrived in
"Kenn
Michael, you believed all along, about all of us?" She looked at him, not knowing what to feel. The news of Lance still being alive – it
didn't matter that he might be crippled or partially so, as Kenn Michael said –
had thrown her.
"Shhh, don't say anything. I've a heck of a time accepting
the whole business m'self. We know who we are, so
let's just leave it at that and take one day at a time, let things run their
natural course, huh? Go now, Jenny. And
I'll see yer next week Friday, if yer
are so hell bent on cutting the gig short."
In the
living room on her way out Mark gave her their flight information.
"See
you tomorrow, Jen. Good night," both he and Carolyn said in unison. Kenn
Michael didn't come back out.
"Good
night guys."
CHAPTER 61
ON THE RED
EYE to
Claire stared
out the window into the darkness. She was returning to
The
romantic side of her likened the situation to a scene out of Jane Eyre. Except
that her Mr. Rochester would probably want nothing to do with her, if he knew
the circumstances of her marriage to Dr. James Brandon.
As she
continued to stare blankly into the blackness outside her window, a montage of
all the happy moments she and Lance had shared started to play in her head. The
very first time they danced together was to the song The First Time Ever I
saw Your Face. How appropriate it had been for them; the picnics, Monte
Carlo, Maxim's in Paris, Christmas at Liana's, all the events of her life since
then, leading up to the present. At the end of it all, Claire felt a sense of
release from the pain she had held inside, flood her being. Her face was wet
with the tears she paid no attention to, as she reflected upon her life so far.
What was going to happen now? She reached into her handbag and took out a
travel size packet of tissues to wipe her face. Her thoughts veered and
centered on Kenn Michael, the man for whom she also felt a very deep love, as
she did for Lance. She felt right down to her very bones, that James was
responsible for Kenn Michael's arrest.
Suddenly
remembering the package Kenn Michael had given her, she reached down at her feet
for her carry on bag where she had packed it. Claire took out the envelope, and
opened it under the dim light in the overhead carry on baggage compartment.
"Huh?"
Her eyes almost popped out of their sockets when she saw the pictures of a
naked
Dear
Mrs. Brandon,
I am
sending these articles to you. I'm sure they will answer questions that
probably have been plaguing you since you married James. Admittedly, I was
insanely jealous when he married you, after I had been his steady lover for
years.
However,
when he returned to me two months after your marriage, I thought I'd won a
victory over you by getting him back. But as I began to rethink the situation,
I realized what an asshole he really was. I am a woman with a conscience, and I
began to think about how I would feel if I had been in your place. However, I
chose to hold on to him with the intention of eventually showing him up for the
lowlife he really is. This was what I meant when I approached you at the party,
and told you of my intention.
Since
old habits die hard, he started sleeping around with jailbaits again, and it's
only a matter of time before one of them gets smart and charges him with
statutory rape. I didn't get a chance to tell you this at the party, but I
think you are a decent young woman who didn't deserve to end up with the likes
of James Brandon.
The
articles I've enclosed here were those he used to blackmail your sister into
breaking up your engagement to the man you were going to marry. I was at his
place the day this package arrived and James could hardly wait to get me out of
his apartment. However, having secretly made a key, I was able to sneak back in
when he was at work and get a better look at the pictures. I didn't know who the
woman was in the pictures, but when I listened to the tape, I connected the
name Devereaux to you. I took a chance and called
Helena Devereaux, and found out she was indeed your
sister. She wasn't the most pleasant person in the world to deal with, but when
I explained why I was calling her she agreed to meet with me. I won't go into
details how I got her to do so, but she told me the whole sordid story. As I
mentioned before, James used these pictures and tape to blackmail her into
helping him break up your relationship with your fiancé, so he could in turn,
trap you into being with him. I think you can figure out the rest for yourself.
G.H.
Claire
clenched her teeth and fist to keep from screaming out her rage and disgust
towards her husband. She drew a couple
deep breaths to calm down and steady herself, as she formulated a plan. One thing she definitely knew after reading
Ginny's letter, was that she couldn't remain married to James Brandon, and she
wasn't going to give up her son.
* * *
EARLY THE NEXT morning
after his wife's departure, Dr. James Brandon also boarded a British Airways
flight to