When Dru returned to the house late that night, she had surprise waiting for her. The moment she walked in, Cade handed her the key he had picked up from Merry. In the second moment, Dru saw Merry.
“Merry! What are you doing here?” Dru exclaimed.
“I wanted to see you! Your baby is darling!”
Dru grinned and said, “Don’t you have classes? How did you get out of them?”
“I’m only staying for two days. I only have one class tomorrow, and none the next day, and I can find someone who will fill me in on what was covered. I had to see you when Cade arrived.”
They hugged and started talking, hurriedly filling each other in on what they had missed over the past few months. Ivey came in and announced it was supper time.
“You held dinner for us?” Dru asked.
“It was a good excuse to have snacks all afternoon,” Ivey laughed.
Before Dru went into the dining room, she went upstairs to see Chloe, whom she found sleeping. Satisfied that Chloe was okay, she went downstairs to join everyone.
The conversation at dinner was lively, and they all had a wonderful time. After dinner, Merry, Dru, and Ivey went upstairs to talk in Dru’s room. It was past ten when Ivey announced she was tired and wanted to go to sleep. Merry said the same, and left with Ivey. They were sharing the room downstairs.
Dru went into the nursery and fed Chloe, and then put her to sleep.
Dru stared at her for a moment, amazed that this was her child. This
was her child, not someone else’s.
She heard footsteps behind her and turned around.
“Good trip?” Drake asked her.
“We had a lot accomplished. He went to Lafayette to get the box and I stayed behind and visited with old friends.”
“So I was told. They’re waiting for you downstairs.”
“For what?”
“To open the safe. Cade gave you the key.”
“They want it now? I was going to do that tomorrow.”
“Yes, they want it now. They have been patiently waiting for this information for several weeks, now. I’m surprised they didn’t hound you the minute you arrived.”
“I guess we better go downstairs, then,” Dru said as she fished the key out of her pocket.
They walked down the hall and down the stairs. A few of the agents were waiting in the library for them, or, more specifically, the key.
Dru sat down in the empty chair in front of the safe that was meant for her. She carefully put the key in, spun the combination, and the safe door popped open. The Bible was at the bottom of the stack, and she cautiously took everything above it out and set them on a table beside her.
This is my life that I am sifting through right now, Dru realized. I’m just putting my life on display for everyone here!
A hand rested on her shoulder. It was Drake, Dru knew.
She surveyed the growing pile beside her before she reached for the Bible. The familiar things did not seem so important anymore. It was a significant symbol. Nearly none of the things she used to value as important were the same as the ones now.
She glanced over the pictures, the cheap plastic flower, the porcelain figures, the mementos of all that was past.
That’s all it is. It is the past. Now is time to think about the future, Dru thought.
Dru grabbed the leather-covered Bible. She sifted through the pages quickly, at first, aware of all the people staring on at her. She saw nothing. There were some messy scribbles written in certain places, but there were not any papers. She sifted through the papers again, slowly this time.
“I don’t understand,” Dru whispered.
The cover. It would have to be the cover. Father never used anything leather. The thought came out of nowhere; it just popped into her mind. Nevertheless, Dru followed it and pulled the cover off the old Bible.
Once the cover was off, she set the Bible aside. Dru found a small seam on the backside of the leather cover.
“Scissors?” She asked to everyone in general.
Moments later someone handed her scissors. She cut some cloth
away and found a small stack of stationary paper. The top piece of
paper was folded and her name was written on it.
She unfolded it and read the first part:
Dru, when you find this there should be several other papers with it. You need to immediately give these papers to the authorities. They will know what to do with them.
Some time ago, I found my partner, Mark Burke, has been involved in a drug scandal for several years. These papers were at one time a part of my journal, and explain in detail what I have found. Do not show this to anyone, not even your mother. I have suspicions about her involvement in this affair.
Dru stopped reading and read that section aloud, to the group. When she finished reading that section, she handed the papers to Agent Wathal.
“Help me carry this stuff upstairs, Drake,” Dru said softly as she put the stuff back inside the safe.
She went ahead of him and left him to bring the safe up to her room. Moments after she entered her room and tiredly sat on the edge of the bed, Drake came in and set the safe on the dresser.
He did not say anything to her, did not even look at her. Before he left the room, Dru spoke. “Drake,” she said in a floundering voice, “come back in fifteen minutes.”
He nodded, and left the room, shutting the door behind him.
Dru turned the cameras off and quickly changed into the pajamas that Christine had bought for her. Christine had bought her entire wardrobe; none of it was rightfully Dru’s own stuff.
Dru turned the cameras back on so they would not use that annoyingly
loud buzzer on her. She grabbed her father’s letter, pushed the pillows
on the bed into an upright position, and leaned against them. She
turned on the overhead light and continued reading where she had left off
earlier.
I know this must be hard for you to be hearing, and am sure you are skeptical. But this is a very real and serious matter. I tried to contact the authorities from my little office in the village, but Mark found out somehow. Until then, he did not know I knew. He considered me rather absent-minded. I would not have known anything if his computer in Britstown had not broken down. I offered to fix it for him and came upon some rather startling information. All of this is explained in the papers you are to give to the proper authorities (the DEA if possible). If you would like to know more about it, please ask them. I do hope they will tell you, considering the help you will have given them.
I would not have involved you, but Mark is going to act soon. You are the only person I could think of, and if you, too, are involved, then there is not a reason for me to live any longer. I love you very much, Dru, and it is hurtful to think I may never see you again.
If you cannot reach the proper authorities, a man named Drake Burke will do this for you. He is Mark’s son, but it is entirely trustworthy. I am aware that you may have already met him under the alias of Drake Kincaid. His father believes he is still on the other side, and does not know Drake and I am in this together. I promise to you that you can trust Drake. He is a very stalwart young man.
If you are ever in need of help, there is a friend of mine in New York that may be able to give you some help. She is a lady I went through training with, but decided she was not the right person to be a missionary after the fact. Her name is Abigail Shoszski, and she has been notified that you may be calling.
I hope I can explain this to you soon in fuller detail. With love always, Robert Keieva.
Dru let the letter drop beside her and fell back against the pillows. “If only I saw this six months ago,” she said to herself blandly.
A soft knock on the door pulled Dru out of her wallowing emotions.
“Come in.”
Drake entered and shut the door behind him firmly, but not so loud as to attract attention. He switched the cameras off and walked toward her.
“I thought you had already read the letter,” he started the conversation.
Dru shook her head. “I never realized it was there.”
Drake sat down beside her on the bed, carefully measuring the distance between them. Above all else, he did not want to scare her.
“Did you ever meet him?” Dru asked. “My father?”
“Yes, on two occasions. Last October, I flew out to South Africa specifically to meet with him. My father never knew.”
“And all this time, you were always..." Dru stopped, realizing how wrong she had been about so many things; that was not the only thing she realized, though. “Why?”
“You’re asking why? Because if I had not done that, then my father and your mother would have realized I wasn’t on their side, and that would have resulted in a lot of deaths. Yes, I was wrong for obeying that order, and, yes, I feel guilty for putting you through all that pain. No, I don’t regret doing it. I saved my family’s life, Dru, and maybe yours as well.”
“One question, just one question: how did you know what was in that letter?”
“I helped your father write it. He asked me what you would want to know, so I called Ivey and relayed the information. He wrote it when I returned to that little village in November. He didn’t want me carrying that information, because he was afraid they would figure out I had it. He had all sorts of stuff mailed to you, and I don’t know where the half of it went, but you still received the letter, I knew.”
Dru let her eyes fall shut. Everything was washing over her once again. All of the pain, surprise, anger, confusion, and hurt were coming at her at one time.
“I should be living the normal college life of a nineteen-year-old. I should be worrying about writing a paper and about what to wear to a party. I shouldn’t have to wonder why my mother is trying to kill me and how to raise a baby,” Dru mourned. “I shouldn’t have to deal with any of this.”
“But you are, Dru. If there is one thing I have learned in this whole scam, it is that you have to take what is dealt to you and make the most of it. We can only control our lives so much, and then Someone else has to take over the rest. That’s something your father told me.”
“It sounds like something he would say,” Dru mused. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this before?”
“Would you have believed me?” Drake asked her, looking straight
into her eyes.
Dru awoke the next morning in a foreboding mood. It had not worn off after a shower, so she went downstairs after seeing Chloe still asleep.
After eating a small breakfast, Dru went upstairs to see Chloe and feed her. She was thinking about the previous night when Merry walked into the nursery.
“Hey, how are you doing?” Merry greeted Dru.
“Good. I’m tired, but I’ve always been tired lately.”
“So am I. It must be something in the air.”
Dru agreed with Merry.
“Where were you last night?”
“What do you mean? I was sleeping here all night,” Dru stated.
“I came back to ask you something a few minutes after Ivey and I went downstairs, and you weren’t in your room.”
“I was downstairs with some of the agents,” Dru answered. “What did you want to ask me?”
“I can’t remember, but I know it wasn’t important. Have you had breakfast? I’m going down to have some now.”
“I had some about an hour ago. Hold up and I’ll come down with you, though.”
Dru, Merry, and the wide-awake Chloe went downstairs and joined everyone else at the breakfast table.
After breakfast, Dru, Merry, and Ivey went outside and admired the view from the cliff. Chloe,oblivious to the surrounding beauty, cooed.
“I couldn’t see it when I arrived yesterday,” Ivey commented.
“It should be illegal for people not to see this kind of view at least once in their life,” Dru said.
“Well, then, we’re taken care of for the rest of our lives,” Ivey laughed.
“It was prettier yesterday morning,” Dru told them. “The sun was rising and I could see it through the valley right there. It’s cloudy today.”
”Actually,” came Christine’s voice from behind them, “you had a rare treat yesterday. It is almost always cloudy this time of year, even more so in the morning.”
“It’s beautiful either way, Merry said.
Later that day, as Dru and Ivey helped Lydia prepare lunch, Dru mentioned an idea. “Why don’t we have lunch on the patio?”
“I think that would be okay,” Lydia said, not deciding anything at that moment.
In the library, Drake and Merry were talking. They had never known each other before. Drake was always gone whenever Merry was at the house in Lafayette, so they had never met.
Ivey would not give Drake her advice anymore, so he was taking the risk of explaining the situation to Merry. Merry was one of Dru’s good friends, so Drake figured she would know what Dru would do and her feelings about certain matters.
“If only I had known,” Merry squeaked, flustered. “Why the heck did you?“
“Please,” Drake cut her short, “I don’t want to get into that. We’d be here all week.”
“And you want her to marry you now, after what you did to her!”
“I love her.”
“If I know Dru, that doesn’t matter.”
“She said she would think about it.”
Merry stared at Drake dumbfounded. “I think the stress finally went to her head.”
“I don’t think so. She was very sane when she agreed.”
“But what good is that for you if she doesn’t love you?”
Drake said slowly, “I’m counting on the fact that she will learn to love me.”
“You have to be fair to her, Drake. You’re right, the stress didn’t go to her head; it was the pressure. She probably doesn’t see any other choice but to marry you.”
“She has other choices. She’s made them aware to me quite often, in fact.”
“Yes, she had choices. Everyone always has choices. It’s the severity of the choices that matter. You aren’t doing her any good by convincing her to marry you, and I’m surprised no one has yet had the guts to tell you.”
Drake started to say something, but Merry stopped him by saying, “Unless she does in fact love you, you’re about to ruin her life.”
Dru popped her head through the door. “Time for lunch,” she announced.
Dru led them to the patio outside. There was a buffet set up with the makings for sub sandwiches, along with salad and potato chips. Below, on the grass, was the table for them to sit.
“I convinced them that we should eat outside today,” Dru needlessly informed them.
The three began making their sandwiches and within five minutes the table was full with people. Dru was sitting at the end of the table with Chloe’s bassinet at her side; every now and then cooing sounds could be heard from Chloe.
Ivey, who was seated at the other end of the table, suddenly stood. “I’m not feeling very well,” she said quickly. “I think I’m going to go rest inside for a little while. Dru, do you mind if I take Chloe with me?”
Dru, perplexed at Ivey’s sudden upheaval, agreed. Ivey picked Chloe up carefully and hurried into the house.
Dru took another bite of her sandwich. She did not know why Ivey was acting so strangely. She’s probably just not feeling well. She has been through a lot lately, Dru told herself, though that did not explain Chloe. Dru pushed the thought aside and continued eating.
The loud conversation covered up any warning they may have had of the coming onslaught. No one heard the vague crash from the other side of the house, as did no one hear the first scream.
They all heard the second scream. Christine’s clear voice rang out clear and free, floating through the open door and reverberating through the thin air. That was all the warning they had.
Cade stood up and moved to the door; before he reached it a man came out with a gun pointed at the rest of them. Within seconds there were more than ten other men surrounding the eleven people still outside.
“Miss Bassey,” a voice emerged from the house. Mark stepped onto the patio and continued, “I do believe you would like to come with us now.”
Drake’s arm reached out and pulled Dru to him. Dru heard the muffled swear he uttered and nudged him.
For nearly a minute, a minute that felt like forever, there was not
any movement; the air seemed to stop blowing and leaves stop rustling,
the sound of breath was even indecipherable. Then, a flurry of activity
abounded, beginning with the startling gunshot.
Mark Burke fell over on his side and Christine kicked the man beside
him. She took careful aim and shot him also, then raised the gun
to her next victim. Before she shot him, another bullet flew and
she, too, curled. The number of gunshots after that increased to
a boisterous roar.
Drake clasped Dru firmly and began running, in no particular direction, but trying to get away from the noise and confusion and bullets.
A sharp, piercing pain attacked Dru in two places at the same time,
and she knew she’d been hit.
Two hours later, Dru awoke in a familiar bed. Her vision was blurred, and she saw only splashes of dismal color.
“Oh, God, you’re okay, Dru.”
“Drake,” Dru voiced.
“How do you feel?” Drake asked her.
“I can’t see anything,” she said softly. Her voice had a sort of whispery, throaty quality to it. “Where are you?”
He took her hand in his.
“Where’s Chloe?” Dru asked him.
“I don’t know, not right now. But she’s okay, I promise. She was with Ivey, in one of those rooms you never saw.”
“Ivey saw?”
“She wanted you to come in and make sure she was feeling well or fuss with Chloe or something, but there wasn’t any time.”
She wished she could see him. Dru groaned. It was a soft, muffled sound, but it echoed deep within herself.
“How do you feel, Dru, really?”
“I hurt,” she answered simply. In those two words, however, she could not hide the pain she was feeling. The second word was drawn out and wobbled.
“I’m so sorry, Dru. I never wanted any of this to happen!” Drake’s voice was full of anguish.
She stopped suppressing the pain she felt with every breath she took and every heartbeat that coursed through her veins. In every moment, a new throbbing wave would touch every part of her body; in each increasing second, she felt more lightheaded.
“Where is Ivey, and Cade? And Merry and Christine and?the rest of them?” Dru asked Drake. “Don’t lie. I want to know.”
“Ivey is fine, she’s with Meredith right now. Merry was shot in the leg.”
“The others?” Now, every word Dru spoke was in a high-pitched voice, as they were getting harder and harder to utter. Every sound had the breathy, feathery quality and they were all trembling and sounding very emotional.
“I-I’m sorry, Dru. Christine died on the spot, and Cade?“ Drake stopped and took a deep breath, struggling with his composure.
Dru knew he was dead. She could feel it, on the inside, where it counts. She could feel something leaving her, almost as if a flood being unleashed.
“Cade died about ten minutes ago. I was there when it happened. He was fine, it was just a shot in his shoulder, and then he was gone. He asked me to tell you something. You are to watch Chloe grow up into a beautiful woman.”
“He can tell me himself in a little while. I’m dying, too, aren’t I?”
The absence of his voice was the only confirmation she needed.
“When Chloe gets older, tell her I love her very much. Tell her that I tried the best I could?“
“Shh, Dru. You’re stressing. I’m going to get someone. You’re bleeding a lot again.”
Dru heard movement, and wished she could see what was happening. A woman came in with Drake. Dru felt cold, rubbery, hands touching her every now and then. She also heard the hushed whispers a few seconds later.
Dru sent a silent plea up to heaven. Please, God. I know I haven’t known you long, but there’s only one thing I need, now. Please, please, don’t let Chloe have to deal with any of this mess. And let her grow up in a place of love and peace.
Drake came back to her and held her hand again.
“Please, Drake, paper and pen,” Dru said in the same feathery voice. “And find someone to witness it.”
Though Drake didn’t know what she was talking about, he complied.
“Write this on the paper,” Dru ordered. “Custody of Chloe Bassey to Drake Burke. All money and other worldly goods to be held by him until Chloe is of age to receive them.”
It took Dru quite a while to say that, so long that Drake could write faster than she was talking.
“Let me sign it,” she said, the words with long spaces in between them.
Drake placed the pen in her hand and positioned her hand on the paper. Dru put her signature on the paper and her hand dropped.
Her vision cleared, just for a moment, but long enough to see a few things. She saw Drake hand the paper and pen to a person standing behind him, and the person also signed the paper. It was hospital stationary.
She also saw Drake. His eyes were full with tears yet held back, while a few ran down the side of his face, leaving a path on the grimy skin. His arm was bloody; Dru knew it was her own blood. There was a long cut down the side of his neck, and it was scabby and unclean. But his expression was so full of anguish and agony, she barely noticed the rest.
“I see you,” she whispered.
“Dru?”
“I’m still here.” She saw the blanket she was covered with was stained with blood around her chest area. The hospital room blurred again.
“It hurts so bad.”
“Hang on, Dru. You’ve gotta make it. Think about Chloe. If you can’t do it for me, do it for her. Pull through it!”
“You were on my side the whole time. I was mean to you.”
“It doesn’t matter, I should have told you. We’ll talk about it later.”
“Take good care of Chloe,” Dru labored. The space between each word was growing and each word becoming softer. The blurry vision had changed to blackness, to nothing.
“I’m tired Drake, so tired.” A single tear escaped her unseeing eye.
“I love you, Dru,” she barely heard him say.
Dru pushed aside the pain for the last time and labored to say, “Just realized…I…love you…too…”
.
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