Daddy's Little Killer

Chapter 31

Chapter 31 

 

Harlan Hartley was the embodiment of askance when he stalked back into the kitchen. "I don't know what the hell this is all about, but I think I've said all I have to say."

Charlie started to rise. I gripped his arm and tugged him back down.

"Mr. Hartley, I am not leaving this house until someone gives me some straight answers."

"I already did that. I can't help it that they weren't the ones you wanted."

"But I haven't asked the important questions yet. For instance, what happened to Gwen's baby?"

The swarthy seemed to wither in front of us into a state of cachexia. For a moment, it looked as if he might miss the chair he left scooted out from the table. "Why in the name of all that's holy would you say such a thing?"

"The body doesn't lie, Mr. Hartley. Did you think for one second that Gwen died at the age of 34 and no one considered performing an autopsy?" 

Given Charlie's hesitation to interview Vinnie alone, I was confident that none of the details of Gwen's violent death had been shared. It was probably cruel to inform Hartley in such a frank manner, but answers were no longer optional. If I had to reduce the man to a sack of weeping bones, so be it.

"You... cut her open?"

"I know she had a baby. I know that the child was born at or close to full term. We have irrefutable proof of this. She either had this child in a foreign country or was tended by a doctor who didn't follow the standards of practice in this country. Is that what happened, Mr. Hartley? Did an incompetent doctor like Riley Storm deliver Gwen's child?"

"Stop saying that!"

"I won't. What was she, fifteen years old? Maybe sixteen when she got pregnant? Did Frank send her away to give birth so no one would know and the Bennett family would be spared the shame of a bastard child? I know Frank was religious enough to send Gwen to Catholic school, Vinnie too. Gwen upheld the family-"

"Don't you call him that! He is not a bastard. It's no more his fault how he came into this world than it is any other child's!" Hartley's voice boomed through the kitchen, probably a lot farther truth be told. Apparently he wasn't concerned who heard him. Vinnie was too gorked out to understand he had a secret cousin out there in the world somewhere. 

I didn't care about the Bennett family secrets. 

"Was she raped?"

Harlan Hartley's hands shook. He gripped his face tightly, shoulders shaking. "How in the world can you know this? We never... there isn't a soul alive other than me now who knows these things."

"The body doesn't lie, Harlan. Tell me what happened to Gwen. What did Frank do to protect her?"

Silence was punctuated with the irregular keening of a man desperate to get his emotions back under control. Finally he spoke.

"After the deed was done, there wasn't a whole hell of a lot that could be done to protect our Gwennie."

"How old was she? Fifteen? Did the attack happen in early spring?"

His hands slowly dropped from wet cheeks. "How can you know this?"

"Because he's done it before, and has continued to do this time and again. What I find incredible is that this man attacked the Bennett family not once but twice."

This time, Harlan didn't hide his tears or try to suppress the brokenhearted sobs that wracked his body. "Brighton. Oh my God. Brighton too."

"Mr. Hartley, what did Gwen tell her father about the rape? Why didn't Frank report it to the police? Why was Gwen forced to bear the shame of what happened to her in silence without any hope of justice?"