Nothing Ordinary, M J Marlow [ebook and pdf reader .TXT] 📗

cleared of this false charge.” She hugged him and felt him stiffen. “Are you angry at me, Jeffrey?” She looked up at him and saw him looking at her child. “Why would my baby make you behave like this?” she asked softly. Jeffrey turned to look at her and she knew. “You can’t blame yourself for what happened to me, Jeffrey. Don’t let this change the way things are between us.” “How can it not change things, Streudel?” he asked her bluntly. “I promised my brother I would take care of you and that bastard got to you twice!” He saw her tears. “You may not blame me for that, but I am at fault.” He kissed her and then went to the door. “I need to go, Streudel.” Annie watched him go and felt as if he were abandoning her. How could he leave it like that between them? Was he saying goodbye forever? She could not bear the idea that he would not be there for her. She put it out of her mind for now and looked down at her son, letting the sight of her handsome son remind her of who she belonged with. “How sweet,” Gillian’s cold voice sounded from the door. Annie looked up to see the woman standing there watching her. “You are a perfect model for a Madonna portrait, Anneke.” She closed the door and came towards her on unsteady feet. “I wonder how much your baby will love you when he learns it’s your fault my brother is dead.” “How can you say such a thing, Gillian,” Annie choked. “I was the victim in that situation…” “And someone used that as their motive for murder,” Gillian broke in. She pulled something out of her pocket and held it up for Annie to read. She saw her go white and nodded. “This man wanted you for himself and he set it up so that Walter would be arrested and on that road where he could be shot.” She yanked Annie close and her eyes were filled with rage as she shook her. “You know who it is, Anneke! Tell me who murdered my brother!” “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Gillian,” Annie protested. Gillian slapped her across the face. “How could I know?” “Don’t play the innocent with me, Annie,” Gillian hissed. “You set him up, didn’t you? You and your secret lover!” “You’re insane!” Annie exclaimed. “Your brother imprisoned and abused me, Gillian…” “Liar!” Gillian screamed and slammed Annie up against the wall. “I’m going to find out the truth, you little bitch, and when I do you are going to prison where you belong!” She held up the letter. “This is going to the authorities and they are going to have some very interesting questions for you!” “Annie?” Taylor asked as he came running into the room. “Are you all right?” “There’s an authority for you, Gillian,” Annie sobbed as she turned away from the woman. “Give him the letter you say my ‘lover’ sent to your brother.” Gillian handed the letter to Taylor and he read it. He looked at the two women and he understood what was going on. He didn’t like what this letter was insinuating but he didn’t believe it for a moment. He put it in his pocket. “I’ll call Major Camden,” Taylor said stiffly. “He’ll want to see this and hear how it came to be in your possession, Doctor Guthrie.” “I’ll be at my motel,” Gillian nodded. She swept out of the room and smiled as Annie burst into tears. Annie looked at Taylor as if trying to gauge his thoughts. Did he actually believe what that letter was saying about her? She could see people who didn’t know her taking it at face value, but this man had been close to her before she’d been forced to become Guthrie’s ‘wife’. “It looks bad,” Taylor told her honestly, “but anyone who knows you wouldn’t believe this for a moment.” He could see her wanting to believe him but not certain she should. “I could lose this letter, Annie…” “No,” Annie broke in, shaking her head. “Not if it could lead to the identity of the murderer, Charles.” She sank down on the rocking chair. “I only wish I knew who it could be. I have a suspicion.” Taylor nodded and sat down on the bench by the door. “Gregory McCarthy,” she told him; “the man who broke into the apartment.” He hated seeing that lost look on her face again. “Why can’t this nightmare end?” 17 Major Camden looked at her pale face and hated what was being done to this young woman. But he could not ignore the letter that Gillian had found and they both knew it. He listened to her refute every claim in the letter as calmly as she could, but he could see that it was wearing her down. He could just hear what the prison psychiatrist would say about her when he talked to her next. “How could I have a lover, Major?” Annie asked him, her eyes large with distress. “My uncle and Guthrie kept me locked up like a prisoner. I only saw the outdoors if someone was at my side.” “I hate to ask you these questions, Mrs. Owens,” Camden told her honestly, “but you understand why I have to?” “Someone shot my kidnapper,” Annie nodded, “claiming his love for me as his motivation.” She looked at him. “If I knew who this man was, I would tell you, Major.” She told him who she suspected and why. When she was done, her head was aching and she felt dizzy. “I need to eat something, please.” “I’ll have an officer bring you something,” Camden replied. He went to the door and knocked on it. The door opened and an officer was there. “Get Mrs. Owens something to eat, Captain Petrie.” The door closed and he turned back to see her in tears. “I wouldn’t put you through this if it weren’t necessary.” “I want the man caught as much as you do, Major,” Annie whimpered. She looked up as the door opened and Petrie brought in a sandwich and a can of soda. “Thank you, Lieutenant Petrie.” “No problem, kid,” Petrie nodded. He shot Camden a dark look and left. “I take it interrogating me was not a popular decision?” Annie smiled briefly. “I’m sorry, Major. I don’t like causing trouble for people.” She took a few bites from her sandwich and turned green. “Bathroom,” she gasped and Camden knocked on the door. A female officer took her to the bathroom. “Someone is playing that girl,” the psychiatrist said when he went to the other room. “She is completely in the dark.” She saw Annie come back. “She just had a baby, didn’t she?” “Three days ago,” Camden told the woman. “The stress she’s under is not good for her.” He looked at her pointedly. “So we’re in agreement?” “Whoever shot Guthrie is insane and obviously obsessed with this girl,” the woman nodded. “Mrs. Owens can not be held responsible for the actions of a mad man. I’d make certain you have people keeping an eye on her from now on. He might make an attempt to get to her.” Camden nodded and saw the woman writing her report with this information clearly stated. He went into the next room and told Annie he would drive her home. She was cleared of any duplicity in the murder of Guthrie, he informed her. He caught her as she passed out and drove her to the hospital. “You should never have had to go through all that drama, Annie,” General Owens said as he sat next to her bed later and stroked her hand. “You get some rest now, child. I’ll be back later to check on you.” “Thank you, Father,” Annie said, her voice heavy with pain and weariness. She let go then and the sedative took over. “Don’t take your eyes off of her,” Owens told the officers outside the room. “There’s a lunatic out there who thinks Annie is his woman and he is going to come for her. That is a certainty. The doctor and nurses are the only people allowed in there besides myself and my son.” He stood outside the room and watched his angel sleeping. She looked so pale there on the bed and so lost. He had destroyed the man who had done that to her. He would help her see that he had no choice when they were together. For now, he would wait and bide his time. The JAG officer had seen through the letter the Guthrie bitch had forged and he was glad of it. As if he would write a letter warning his prey that he was coming. As if he would tar his beloved angel in such a vile manner. The Guthrie woman would learn of his displeasure at her actions soon. 18 Gillian was getting ready to leave the motel for an apartment she had found in town. She was staying until the murder investigation was concluded to insure that the murderer did not get away. She was convinced that Jeffrey was guilty and she was not going to let him get away with murdering her brother. There was a knock on the door and she assumed it was the taxi she had called. She opened the door to see a man in a ski mask standing there. He slugged her across the jaw and she blacked out. “You lied about my angel,” the man said as he dumped her on the bed. “That was wrong of you, Gillian,” he said coldly. He straddled her as she tried to get up and slapped her across the face. “Be a good girl and stay where I put you.” “What do you want from me?” Gillian asked him, trying to still the fear in her heart. “You have lied, Gillian,” the man said calmly, “and you must be punished for that.” He pulled out a knife and grabbed her tongue. “Should I cut out your tongue?” He saw the terror spring to life in her eyes and he smiled. “Not so high and mighty now, are you, Gillian?” He ran the dull side of the knife along her jaw line. “My angel would forgive you, she might even feel sorry for you, but I am not an angel.” He pulled a pair of handcuffs out of his coat pocket and fastened her the overhead lamp embedded in the wall. Then he gagged her and bound her ankles together. Gillian watched as he went to the phone and made a call. “Annie, darling,” he said in a singsong voice. “I have the bitch who tried to frame you as my guest. I would punish her as my gift to you.” He smiled as he heard her thoughts on this. “I knew you would be forgiving, my angel. But she must pay for her slander.” He was nodding as Annie talked to him. He loved the sound of her voice, like golden bells on a summer wind. “If you come to me, my angel, I will let her go.” He was beaming then. “I will be waiting for you at the Royal Inn on Route 30, Room 117. Don’t tell anyone, beloved, or this woman will die.” He hung up and looked at Gillian. “You heard how my angel forgives you, woman. But I do not!” He ripped her blouse open and carved the word ‘Liar’ onto her abdomen with his knife as Gillian screamed in pain. He drew a very shallow line across her throat and then put the knife away. The terror in her eyes was like a drug to him and he drank it in eagerly. He raped her then to make certain she understood that he was in charge and she would only live if he wished it so. “If you