Safeguarding Kelly(46)
Author: Zoe Dawson

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

 

 

 

 

 

On the drive over to the complex, Kiko quieted down as the fever caught up to her, but Kelly’s heart was racing. Now she understood why her daughter had been so cranky. She’d been holding all that in about wanting Jason to be her dad. As a small child, she had no outlet for her frustration, and it’d turned into a tantrum.

 

She glanced back at her listless daughter and sighed. She lifted her head, her eyes glassy but so happy. She smiled.

 

“How are you doing?” Kelly asked.

 

“I’m hot. Thirsty.”

 

Kelly grabbed Kiko’s water bottle out of her purse. She’d had the presence of mind to fill it before they left. Kiko took it, popped open the lid, and drank.

 

She wasn’t going to think about the cat she let out of the bag. Jason would be thrilled that Kiko knew he was her father. The mundane act of driving grounded her, and she needed it. Her mind was going a mile a minute. She would need to give him a call to let him know. She didn’t want him to be blindsided. He would be back tomorrow, and they would make their plans.

 

But right now, she was heavily concerned about her child. She was either having a relapse or something else was the matter. Kiko’s health was all that she could think about now.

 

Once they reached the complex, Kelly got Kiko out of her car seat and they walked to Dr. Moore’s office. Once inside, the receptionist checked her in and they took a seat in the waiting room.

 

After about fifteen minutes of waiting, the nurse showed them back to one of the exam rooms. With instructions to remove Kiko’s shirt, the nurse took her vitals, her brows spiking at the temperature. “We’re a little hot today,” she said in that cheery way nurses had.

 

Kiko gave her one of those bland looks and said, “Are you hot, too.”

 

The nurse chuckled and turned to Kelly. “Dr. Moore will be right with you.”

 

Then it hit her. Serena’s boyfriend had just been arrested as the serial killer. Before Kelly could think of how she should act around Serena, she came into the exam room.

 

“Good morning,” she said to Kelly, then turned to focus on Kiko. “I hear we have a repeat performer here,” she said with more cheer than Kelly would expect from someone who had just found out her boyfriend was a brutal killer. She stared at Serena as she examined Kiko, trying to rationalize away the nagging feeling that something just wasn’t right.

 

Serena was just putting on a good face for her patients. That was all. She wasn’t an investigator. She was a medical examiner.

 

She shrugged off the unsettled feeling as Serena put the stethoscope to Kiko’s chest to listen to her heart, then asked her to breathe in and out.

 

She removed the tips from her ears and wrapped the stethoscope around her neck.

 

“Okay, get her dressed and we’ll meet in my office.”

 

Kelly nodded and said, “Okay. Thanks for seeing her on such short notice.”

 

Serena waved her hand. “No problem. I’ll see you in a minute.”

 

Kelly got her daughter dressed and Kiko settled on the couch in Serena’s office with a book.

 

Still unsettled by Serena’s behavior, Kelly took the chair across from Serena's desk. The picture of her brother was turned enough that she could see his smile.

 

An explosion went off in her head, recognizing that smile. She reached for her purse and fumbled for her phone. She pulled up the photo of Allen Smith. Her movements suddenly urgent, she jerked to her feet and grabbed up the picture frame to get a better look. She had to be wrong. She put the two pictures side-by-side to compare them and gasped.

 

Oh, God!

 

Her whole body was paralyzed by shock as her stomach dropped away with a sickening rush. The resemblance was uncanny. The full force of reality hit her in the face like a battering ram, the blood draining down to her shoes.

 

“Kelly?”

 

She tucked her phone back into her purse, hiding the photo of Allen Smith. Setting the frame down where she had found it, her heartbeat suddenly thick and heavy, she turned, her pulse accelerating wildly.

 

Serena stood by the corner of the couch watching her with a puzzled expression. Way too close to Kiko. “Yes?”

 

“You must have been thinking of something else. I called your name a couple of times.” Her eyes flicked to Serena’s brother’s photo. “You seem very interested in my brother’s picture.”

 

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t hear you. And, yes, I am interested in your brother. I have a sister, so I’m always curious about what it’s like,” she improvised, her heart beating like a wild thing in her chest. She made herself relax her clenched fists, then asked the question she needed an answer to. “I don’t think you ever told me his name.”

 

She moved away from Kiko, giving Kelly’s chest some breathing room, and settled behind her desk. She picked up the photo, and it was as if a veil had been brushed aside. The muscles in her jaw clenched, her expression compressing into hard lines. Anger darkened her eyes.

 

When she said his name, her voice had a slight edge to it. “Kevin Anthony Moore.”

 

“That’s a strong name. Were you two close?”

 

Serena never looked at her, her gaze intent on Kevin’s photo, but it was as if she wasn’t looking at Kevin but was gone somehow. “Very.”

 

“Tell me about you and Kevin.”

 

Her gaze still intense, she gave a small shrug, but it did nothing to loosen the tenseness in her shoulders. “We were placed in a foster home when I was nine and Kevin was eleven. It was okay, but after losing everything, you grow up knowing you don’t really belong. That feeling carries over into everything. Except for Kevin.” She smiled but it never touched her eyes, her voice husky with sorrow. “He was always there for me, fighting my battles, protecting me. He was my big brother. We stuck pretty much together. He was so strong and confident. I went into medicine, and he went into the Marines. I guess he wanted to belong…and for a while…he did.”

 

Feeling sorry for Serena was a natural reaction, regardless of that fact that she had been traumatized as a child and the loss of her brother must have sent her over the edge. But the reality was, if she was a killer, Kelly couldn’t cut her any slack. No matter how awful, horrible, or unbearably sad her story was. “I was wondering where your brother is stationed.”