Chapter 23

"Remember everyone, Melville and Fitzgerald's thoughts came to me disjointed, out of sequence, personalized, and interspersed with extraneous, mundane or unimportant ramblings. I'll try to present what I learned in a more coherent fashion. Some of what I'll tell you will be assumptions needed to fill in gaping holes, areas neither man thought about. The assumptions are logical, but they aren't fact and could be in error."

I paused and said to my father, "When I make an assumption, I'll try to announce that it's an assumption, but no guarantees. Okay?"

He nodded. I glanced toward my lover. When I'd informed him Melville was behind his father's death, I tried desperately to hold him close to me, but his anger and pain disallowed my comforting arms. He pushed me away and leapt to his feet.

"I'll kill him! I'll kill him!" Jason kept muttering as he threw on his clothes.

I jumped up, slipped into a robe and tried to reason with him. Nothing I could say or do calmed him. When I realized he was determined to leave the safe house immediately and go after Melville, I called on Jerome and Nora to restrain him. Dad and Sara rushed into the room, and I had to explain why Jason was so distraught.

Sara reacted, too, but unlike Jason, she didn't lose her capacity to reason, just the opposite. She turned all cold inside, which actually frightened me more than Jason's unbridled anger and compulsion for revenge.

Sara did what I couldn't, though. She placed a hand each side of Jason's face and gazed into his tear-filled eyes.

"We'll have our revenge, little brother. We'll see him dead or locked up for the rest of his sorry life. He'll pay for his crimes. I promise you, one way or the other, he'll pay. Do you hear me?"

Too emotional to speak, Jason nodded.

"Good. We understand each other. Neither of us will rest until that hateful excuse for a human is dead or behind bars. Agreed?"

"Yes," Jason croaked, his voice cracking.

"We have some secret weapons, Jason. Let's use them and love them. Hate without love destroys. We'll hate Gary Melville, and we'll love David and Katy."

"Little Donna, too," Jason said. "We'll love Donna, too."

"Especially my little girl."

"Let me up," Jason said to Jerome and Nora.

They glanced toward me. I nodded, and our tenders helped Jason to his feet. I moved back into his arms, and he wrapped them around me.

"Leave us," Jason said, the words an order but his tone of voice made them a request. When we were alone, we held each other in silence. I felt the tension leave Jason's body. The extreme anger and hatred consuming him moments before started to lessen their hold on him, and finally I felt his love.

"Thank you," he said. "You saved my life, Katy. At first I could think of nothing except my need to kill the man who took my father's life. I was blind to everything else. Between you and Sara, you made me realize I need to stay calm and approach what needs to be done with a clear mind. I love you, sweetheart, and thank you."

He hugged me tightly and gave me a kiss full of love. I relaxed. My lover would be all right now. Reason had returned from its blind flight when revenge consumed his mind. The need for revenge remained, but with reason attached, the need became manageable.

I looked over our merry band: Jerome, a slightly straight-laced warrior with a large, kind heart; Nora, an interesting lethal package full of mischief and joy; Sara a woman who felt more than the rest of us, and fortunately let love lead the way for her; Jason, my lover, my college boy and a strong, gentle, romantic man; Dad the best father a girl ever had, a careful man and a leader, so smart he could be and was a renaissance man, and most of all, my best friend.

It was a good group - talented with different capabilities. Our small platoon could and would go up against an army and come out victorious on the other side. I had their complete attention. They waited for me to tell them what I'd learned that afternoon.

"Sara, Melville murdered your father out of spite and for the money," I said. "From what I could gather, when your parents visited to see the baby, your father boasted about the legacies he'd set up for his wife and children. He also let Melville know in no uncertain terms that the legacies were set up as sole and separate personal property, and that Melville was to keep his mitts off your money. Your father's attitude enraged Melville, and at that moment the Destroyer decided, contrary to your father's wishes, that the money would be his to do with as he wished. At the same time, he also decided he didn't want to wait for your father to die by natural causes before he confiscated the money. He wanted that money, and he wanted it immediately, not years in the uncertain future, so he conceived an elaborate plot to achieve his purpose."

"Are you saying that Melville thought about all this during his luncheon?" Dad asked with a touch of incredulity.

"Yes and no. This information came to me either through his thoughts or through his emotions, although I admit I also made some assumptions to fill in some blanks. For example, when he thought about how he'd caused Sara and Jason's father's death, I felt his spite; he didn't call himself spiteful, but it seemed to me the spite I felt was a remnant of his original motive along with his desire for the money. I'm saying greed and spite were his motives. I could be wrong."

"She's not wrong," Sara said through tight lips.

"I also felt his rage regarding Sara's father's attitude; Melville certainly didn't refer to himself as full of rage, but the emotion covered me like a blanket. The words, 'conceived an elaborate plot to achieve his purpose, ' are the result of an assumption, but it's a swag, not a wag."

"Swag? Wag?" Sara queried.

"Sophisticated-wild-ass guess as opposed to a wild-ass guess."

Her dimples deepened and the room became brighter. "Oh. Go on."

"I call the plot elaborate because he had to control a number of elements to make it happen and come out the other side Scott free. One, he had to control Sara. Two, to control Sara, he had to control the psychiatrist controlling Sara. Three, he had to control the assassins. Four, to control the assassins, he had to control the Satanic coven who controls them, ergo, an elaborate plot. Melville's need for control was another key to the assumption, but subsequent thoughts and emotions both Melville and Fitzgerald offered me during the luncheon back up the assumption."

Dad said, "Katy, you're spending too much time defending your position. Let's do this. Tell us the whole story as you see it without worrying about assumptions and swags and wags. Then we'll go into question and answer mode, and you can apply your statements to thoughts, emotions or assumptions at that time."

I breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Dad. Where was I? Yes. Sara, to his mind he had mental control over you at the time of your parent's visit, but you kept surprising him, and that isn't an assumption. The time you got your back up because the nanny of the moment wouldn't let you see your baby shocked him. That was shortly after your parents left after their visit. Correct?"

"I think so, but by then Fitzgerald had me taking so many pills I was out of it most of the time."

"That was planned, too. When Melville did research to select a psychiatrist after your first panic attack, he selected Fitzgerald because your husband discovered he was a Satanist - an assumption, by the way. Melville's research into the religion piqued his curiosity. To his mind, controlling an individual through their religious beliefs was the strongest control he could achieve, and because Melville is essentially evil, what better religion to control than one dedicated to evil? A swag. Just after your parent's visit, Melville joined the ultra-secret coven where Fitzgerald practiced his religion, a fact I garnered from Fitzgerald's thoughts. A short time later, Melville became the head of the coven. His predecessor died under suspicious circumstances, and Melville achieved control in unprecedented time because he was more ruthless than any other member. These facts came from Fitzgerald's thoughts, too, and the psychiatrist believes Melville murdered his predecessor to gain control. No proof exists, of course. One other member capable of becoming the coven's leader also disappeared shortly after the previous head of the coven died mysteriously. Melville used brute force and fear to gain control of the coven - not an assumption, Melville's own thought.

"By the way, Sara. You were correct. Melville practices a form of Satanism, but he doesn't believe in Satan. He thinks the members of the coven are a bunch of stupid fools. He's an atheist - an assumption, but logical from other thoughts he sent my way. He doesn't fear Satan like Fitzgerald. Melville uses members of his coven to achieve personal goals unrelated to the religion, and he is feared almost as much as the horned evil one they worship, at least as far as Fitzgerald is concerned."

"Are you saying the assassins are members of the coven?" Jason asked. His thoughts told me he wanted specifics, names if possible, of the men who killed his father.

"I'm not sure. I know the leader of the assassination squad - Melville refers to them as the security team - is a Satanist. His name is Peter Stone. Whether the entire group belongs to the coven is open to question."

"How many are there?" Jerome asked.

"I don't know, Jerome."

"Go on, Katy," Dad said.

"Right. After your father's death, Sara, he needed to dispose of you, and he elected to use your depressed mental state and addiction to accomplish that end. He almost succeeded twice when you tried to commit suicide when he filed for divorce, and again when you made another attempt after the restraining order was issued to keep you away from your daughter. He wanted you dead, but he wanted you dead by your own hand so the authorities wouldn't dig into your death looking for extraneous motives, like a missing million dollars. Then Jason arrived and fired Fitzgerald, which effectively shut down that approach. Melville had set up another so-called accidental death before the one on the freeway you and I avoided, but his plot was foiled when you were readmitted to the hospital after my first visit to Denver.

"Incidentally, Sara, after the separation and divorce, Melville made sure you had a place to live and all your money needs were satisfied so he could show the authorities how he'd gone out of his way to help you, even paying for your psychiatric and health care. He's a real piece of work."

I leaned back exhausted.

"Are you finished, Katy?" Dad asked.

"No, there's more." I dreaded my next announcement almost as much as I dreaded telling Jason that Melville murdered his father.

With a sigh, I said, "We jerked little Donna from the Destroyers grasp in the nick of time. Some members of the coven were grumbling about Melville's leadership. They'd figured out that he was using the group to satisfy many of his own desires, so to solidify his control, Melville scheduled a ceremony, a ritual sacrifice to their evil God."

I turned to Sara and, with heartfelt compassion, said, "He planned to sacrifice Donna, Sara. His own daughter! He planned to torture, rape and kill her to ensure his control over the coven!"

Sara gasped audibly. She wrapped her arms around herself and started to rock her body back and forth like an autistic child. Tears gathered and overflowed, and she shared her anguish with me.

I will not let that uptight, self-righteous asshole , she thought, starting her affirmation, and suddenly all her fear went away like a puff of smoke dissipating into the air. Determined resolve took fear's place. She made me proud.

"Jail is too good for him," Jason hissed. "He has to die... slowly... painfully, and at my hand." His muscles were strained, fists clenched, and his face was flushed.

I shook my head and took his hand in mine. "Uh-uh, lover. Careful. Don't become what you despise."

"But..."

"She's right, little brother," Sara said and took his other hand.

"He's not completely wrong, either," my normally gentle father said with steel in his expression, mirroring his thoughts. "Melville must die, but by his own hand, or at the instigation of one or more of his sick assassins or other Satanists. We'll let the authorities deal with them, each and everyone of them, but Melville must die."

Dad's announcement affected Jason's attitude immensely. "Yes! Even better. How?"

"By using his weaknesses against him," Dad stated without an iota of doubt. He turned to me. "Is that all, Katy?"

"Yes, except for Melville's plans for the ex-nurses and -nannies. How did Rosemary Rogers and Marsha Sackett react to our warning, Jerome?"

"Mrs. Rogers took the threat in stride and surprisingly accepted our offer. She quickly made arrangements to leave the baby with her mother, and she and her husband are taking advantage of the free mini-vacation you suggested. You also had Marsha pegged, Katy. She's determined to step forward and correct what she calls a serious lapse in moral fortitude, but she refused to hide out for a few days for a number of reasons. She's only been working at the hospital for two weeks and can't afford to miss any time not only because she might lose her job but also because she needs the money. I told her we'd compensate her for any lost income... ?

Jerome glanced at Dad, worried he might have overstepped his authority, but with a smile and a nod, Dad let Jerome know Jerome his decision was appropriate.

"... but she told me she couldn't and wouldn't accept money to do what she should have done six months ago." Jerome sighed and added, "I'm worried about her."

Dad glanced at his wristwatch. "Her deposition is scheduled in an hour. Pick her up, take her to the deposition, and stay with her until you think she's safe."

"What about... ?"

"Now, Jerome," Dad said. "We don't want any blood on our hands because we failed to remember how ruthless Melville can be. He's killed at least twice before, and the one remaining man who could have opposed his potential leadership of the coven disappeared. Call Ms. Sackett and let her know you're on the way to meet her. Go now. Keep in touch via cell phone."

Jerome nodded and hurried away.

After another grueling hour in question and answer mode, I felt completely wrung out. My merry band put me through the proverbial wringer, and Dad was the worst of the bunch. He was unrelenting, but when I'd answered all the questions anyone could think of, he rose to his feet, fixed a drink and handed it to me.

"Underage, or not, you need to relax, cupcake, and a little scotch whiskey is one of the best remedies for stress there is."

I grinned and sipped, then sputtered. "Argh! Nasty!"

Everyone laughed, including me, just what we all needed.

"I'd forgotten scotch is an acquired taste," Dad said, slightly embarrassed, and reached to retrieve the tumbler from me.

"Uh-uh. I'll acquire the taste," I said with determination. If my father enjoyed scotch, I reasoned it had to have some redeeming quality.

He shrugged; I sipped. I also grimaced, but I decided the second taste wasn't anywhere near as offensive as the first. I recalled something else I'd recently learned to enjoy - the texture of Jason's semen. I winked at my lover. I'd told him about my effort to learn how to enjoy semen's texture. Would he make the connection?

Yep. He blushed, and then his boyish grin turned me into a puddle.

"Scotch all around," Sara said. "We all need to acquire a taste for the nasty stuff."

Dad looked confused and gave Sara a strange look. She'd been drinking scotch with him, so he was confused.

"I've been trying, honey, and I'm getting there, but I gotta tell you scotch is nasty at first," Sara said with a smile that brightened the room.

Nora's cell phone rang. She answered the call, listened for a minute and turned to Dad. "It's Jerome. The first transcript compiled from the listening devices placed in Melville's house is ready. Do you want it delivered here by courier or have Jerome pick it up?"