“I don’t give a fuck about his rights,” Ben growled. “I want to know about the pictures with my kids!”
Robert’s eyes widened. “No, no. I would never hurt children. I just wanted pictures of the house I used to live in. I knew whatever Tommy did with the money, he was trying to be such a wiseass. Always thought he was so smart when he was just a stupid man. And he kept taunting me over and over. I just knew he’d hidden the money at my house.”
Steven ordered. “Take him in, book him.”
Robert jerked his head toward Ben. “No, let me tell him. I would never hurt children. I would never hurt anyone.”
“So, why dig holes in the yard?” Steven asked.
“When I got the first message, taunting me about home, I knew it had to be mine. Tommy never stayed in a place long enough to call it home. But he didn’t have a key. I came by one day after I got out, seeing there was a family that lived here. There was nowhere in the house for Tommy to have hidden it, so I didn’t need to try to disturb anyone. It would just be like him to dig a hole and bury it.” Robert shook his head and snorted. “He was so stupid.”
“So, you lifted the sod in sections and jammed something in the ground trying to search?” Ben asked. Receiving a nod, he continued, “You made holes all through the yard where children were playing. It never dawned on you that someone could get hurt?”
Robert shook his head, a hound-dog expression on his face. “No, I never thought about that. I didn’t want to hurt anyone.” He jerked his gaze from Ben’s over to Steven’s. “I never wanted to hurt anyone. I just wanted what was mine.”
“Yours?” Ben jerked his head back. “You helped rob a bank. The place you worked. That money was never yours.”
“They owed me! All those years. Never a promotion. Just day after day with the money flowing through my hands. Tommy said it would be easy, but he had no idea how to plan anything. But then he hid it before telling me where and then got caught. All that trouble. All that time. And I had nothing. It was mine!”
“So he kept sending taunting messages.”
Robert’s face fell again, and he nodded slowly. “Fire… there was no fireplace. And then with the false face message, I remembered when I had the stove worked on years ago, a repairman talked about a fireplace in the kitchen that had been covered up like so many in these old houses. Tommy must have gotten into my house the day of the robbery, stuffed the money there, and then he figured it was safe.”
“And then he got caught and you had nothing.”
Shoulders slumped, all the adrenaline seemed to have fled Robert, and Steven told the officers to take him to the precinct. Turning to Ben, Steven said, “I’ll get your statement tomorrow… well, later this morning since it’s already tomorrow.”
Nodding, Ben stood in the yard, fists on his hips, staring at the man being led away. Steven looked over his shoulder and chuckled. “And Ben? Thanks for not going total SEAL on him. At least we’ve got him in one piece.”
Ben lifted his chin in response but knew if a man could be arrested for his thoughts, he would be in cuffs for attempted murder. The back of his neck prickled, and he turned to see Violet, now covered in a robe with slippers on her feet, walking toward him, stopping at the fence. He vaulted over the chain-link, wanting… no, needing to be close. He let out a long sigh as she slid her hand around his waist.
Looking down, he saw the conflict in her eyes. “You hear?”
Nodding, she sucked in her lips for a moment. “Yeah.”
“You okay?”
“No, not really.” She peered up into his face, her anguish evident in her eyes and the tension radiating off her body. “He was in my house. What if we’d been there?”
That thought had brought fire to his gut since he’d first seen Robert on the camera in her house. The shakiness in her voice brought his mind back to her, and he wrapped his arms tighter, bringing her to his front where he held her steady. Forcing his words to calm, he said, “He didn’t have a weapon. My guess is he would have run off.” He had no idea if Robert would have done so or become so desperate that he would have tried to silence them but didn’t want Violet to think about that.
“Okay,” she nodded against his chest. After a moment, she mumbled, “At least he’s caught.”
“He won’t be back, babe.”
Her head nodded in jerks. “And he wasn’t after the kids.”
“No, he wasn’t. He just wanted the money he thought he deserved.”
They clung to each other for another moment before she peered up at him again. “You called them your kids.”
He had but didn’t know how she felt about it. The claiming word had slipped out when talking to Robert. He hadn’t given it forethought, but at that moment he was raging about someone threatening his family. Staring down into her eyes, he couldn’t read her emotions but figured it was time to lay it out for her. “In my heart, they are my kids, just like you’re mine.”
“The us you talk about.”
Nodding, he breathed a sigh of relief that she seemed to understand. “Yeah… the us that’s not just here and now but forever.”
Her face crumpled as tears slid from her eyes and her arms tightened about his waist. Resting his chin on her head, he held her close as comfort and love swirled around them.
Suddenly, she startled. “Shit!”
His gaze followed her line of sight, and he saw his grandmother standing at the sliding glass door and Charlie and Lily standing next to her, their faces white and eyes wide. He immediately moved her to his side, still tucked next to him, and started forward toward them. Time to make sure the whole family knew they were all together… and safe.
24
Three Months Later
Ben drove down the residential street in the north of Hope City, the houses as well as their residents now becoming more familiar. Trees lined the sidewalks in front of the homes and neatly mowed lawns and flower gardens filled the yards. Passing the Fiske house, he waved to Carter as he watered his grass, Colleen prancing in the water, laughing as she was sprayed.
Turning onto another street, he pulled into the driveway of a two-story, red brick house set back from the road. Tall oak and maple trees dotted the front yard, each encircled with a ring of flowers at the base. Flowering shrubs bordered the front porch and side of the house. The driveway led to a three-car garage, enough for their two vehicles and room for a workshop for him.
Parking in the garage, he alighted from his SUV and walked through the door that led to the backyard, following the sounds of children’s laughter. A huge swing set, slide, rope climb, and playhouse combination sat to one side under the shade of another large tree. Charlie was climbing up the rope ladder toward the playhouse fort while Lily pushed on a swing, leaning her head back in laughter.
They were having a blast. Healthy, happy, smiling. And their laughter sparked something deep inside every time he heard it. Reveling in the comfort of knowing they were cared for and loved, they had no lingering effects from the night Robert Blaine had broken into their home.
As soon as he and Violet had entered the house that night, they’d swooped the scared children into their arms and held them close. Babciu had been wrapped into their embrace as well. The noises from the yard and the illumination from the outside lights had penetrated Charlie’s and Lily’s bedrooms, waking them both. They’d run downstairs, finding his grandmother coming out of her bedroom as well. They’d watched as the police moved around Ben and their mom and placed handcuffs on a man standing between two officers.