A few days later, Jess joined Bette, who sat watching Anna on the Land of the Dragons playground. The family resemblance was unmistakable. Both were clearly from Betsy Martin’s gene pool. In Anna, Jess saw some hint of Richard too. How could a wonderful child have emerged from two such damaged parents?
The woman Jess had seen outside Betsy’s house the night of the shooting was there, too. Maria Gaspar’s youngest daughter and Anna were friends. Both girls were on the playground.
“She looks happy, doesn’t she?” Bette asked, with a wistful tone. Anna was in counseling and taking medication which the psychologist hoped would help her to work through the traumas she’d endured at her parents’ hands.
To reassure her, Jess said, “Don’t worry so much. She’s young. With luck and love, she won’t remember most of it.”
A tear rolled down Bette’s cheek. Her lips quivered. “She won’t have much to remember about her mother.”
Jess closed her eyes against tears of her own. She had risked her life so that Anna might thrive. Now, all she could do was hope. “It’s up to you to keep Betsy alive for her.”
“We’ll help, too, Bette,” Maria said, giving Bette’s shoulders a hug and meeting Jess’s gaze over Bette’s bowed head. “Carlos has been like a father to Anna for a while now, anyway.”
Jess nodded her agreement to this imperfect arrangement. Together, they watched Anna climb the rope ladders and slide down the dragon’s tail, laughing when she landed on her butt in the sand.
“Betsy was so smitten. And he loved her, too.” Bette stopped, bewildered. “What went wrong?”
Jess rubbed her sore arm to stop its pulsing. Like Richard’s effect on Anna, Jess’s wound would hurt for a long time and leave a permanent scar. Jess needed no reminder of the hole in her heart where Peter lived, but welcomed the pain and would welcome the scar, too. She’d narrowly escaped Richard twice. She never intended to forget that, or to make the same mistake again.
She rejected sweetening the truth. To defeat Richard forever, Bette must do her part. “Betsy knew he was dangerous before she married him. She ignored her instincts and deceived herself. I’ll help you, but the best thing you can do for Betsy now is to make sure Anna doesn’t repeat that pattern.”
And I’ll be watching.
THE END
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Fatal Enemy
Mystery / ThrillerJess Kimball's Impossible Mission: Protect Crime Victims Relentless victims' rights advocate Jess Kimball and Jack Reacher both deliver justice when the legal system fails. Reacher waits until trouble finds him and then he does whatever it takes. Bu...
