Chapter 90

I

“Jere Donovan.”

“Jere,” the receptionist said, “there’s a woman on hold who wishes to speak with you. She wouldn’t give me a name at first, then mentioned the articles you were doing about that Second Occupation group. She finally gave her name as Skylar Sullivan.”

Jeremiah thought about it for a moment, then said, “What kind of information does this Ms. Sullivan have, did she say?”

“She wouldn’t tell me, only that she wished to speak with you.”

“Put her through, Carla,” Jeremiah said.

He repeated his greeting when the call came through. The woman on the other end seemed nervous.

“My name is Skylar Sullivan,” she said quickly, as if she thought Jeremiah would hang up, “and I have information about the inner workings of the American Republic Movement that you might not be aware of.”

“What kind of information, Ms. Sullivan?”

“I know what really happened to Kyla Scardino.”

Jeremiah sat up in his chair. Kyla Scardino was allegedly the body that was found in Lawrence Carr’s house over the summer.

“What happened to her?” he asked.

“I’d rather tell you in person, Mr. Donovan.”

Jeremiah scratched his chin where there was a two day growth of beard. He wondered what this woman could possibly know. Did she witness Scardino’s demise?

“Are you in Chicago, Ms. Sullivan?” he asked.

“I’m in Illinois, but I’m not quite to Chicago yet. I’m driving in from the south,” Skylar Sullivan said.

“How soon will you be here, because I’d like to find out if your information is something I can use,” Jeremiah said.

“If I don’t stop I can be there in the morning,” Skylar said; “But I have my four year old with me, and she’s sound asleep in the back seat. I think I’ll have to stop soon. I’m shooting for Monday afternoon in that case.”

“Call me when you get into town, Ms. Sullivan,” said Jeremiah; “You’re not driving now, are you?”

“No, I’m parked at a rest stop.”

“Take my private number down, and call as soon as you get settled somewhere,” Jeremiah said, then gave Skylar his private secure phone number. “Do not lose that number, Ms. Sullivan. That is to my personal secure phone, and I don’t need anyone knowing it that doesn’t need to.”

“I once was trusted with information like that, Mr. Donovan,” Skylar said, “so I know to be discrete.”

“I didn’t imply you weren’t, Ms. Sullivan,” Jeremiah said; “It’s for my personal peace of mind.”

“I’ll call you as soon as I get into town,” Skylar said. “The information I have might be what you’re looking for to end A.R.M. I know you, your brother and sister are known as The Triad.”

“You worked for them?”

“Briefly.”

I wonder what she knows, and is her name really Skylar Sullivan, Jeremiah thought; I’ll have to do some digging before this woman gets here on Monday.

“I look forward to speaking with you on Monday, then,” he said.

“Not as much as I am,” Skylar said, then closed out the call.

Jeremiah just sat and looked at his phone. She must have something if she’s being bold like that. I certainly hope so, he thought; But I’ll still run that name in my search engines and see if I get a hit.

Jeremiah would learn more about “Skylar Sullivan” than even he thought possible.

===

Kyla closed her phone with shaky hands. Could it be that Jere Donovan would really help her?

She looked back at Justina sleeping in her car seat. I’m so sorry, Tina, Kyla thought; I didn’t want you to get all mixed up in this. But I want you to be safe, and I want to find the bastards who killed your daddy and make them pay.

There was a motel up ahead. Kyla drove there, checked in, and got Justina settled in bed.

“Mama, are we in Chicago yet?” the four year old asked.

“Not quite, baby,” Kyla said; “Let’s get some sleep and try to be there by tomorrow afternoon. I spoke with the man we’re going to see when we get there. He’s looking forward to hearing what I have to say, and maybe he can help us.”

“I hope so, too, Mama, because I miss my friends and I miss my school,” Justina said.

Kyla sighed, then said, “I know, baby girl. I know...”

===

II

Kelly was up early that morning, standing at the window staring off into nothingness.

I don’t want to leave Grandfather alone, she thought; Krysta can take better care of him than I can, though. He’d insist I leave and “tend to your studies and don’t worry about me.”

She had to make a decision today whether she was going back Monday or not. If not, Miri would leave without her. Miri wasn’t too keen on that idea.

Kelly had been alternately standing and sitting by the window since she awakened from sleep two hours before. It was nearly seven-thirty, and she knew her grandfather and Krysta would have been awake for about an hour. Eric liked to do his work in the mornings when it was quiet and cool. He often told Kelly growing up that he did his best work shortly after rising.

Krysta would often be right there with him, fixing breakfast or reading the online papers. Occasionally, she slept in until about eight-thirty, but no longer than that unless she wasn’t feeling well.

“Kel, you’ve been standing over there forever,” Miri said sleepily from the spare bed in Kelly’s bedroom. “Something bothering you?”

“Yeah, but I want to try and work it out on my own first,” Kelly replied.

“It’s about what happened here the other day with Kathryn, isn’t it?” asked Miri.

“Partly, yes,” Kelly said.

Miri knew those moods that Kelly got into when she was troubled by something. Often, Kelly wanted to work them out herself before asking for help.

“Go back to sleep if you want, Mir,” Kelly said now. “I may crawl back into bed here in a while.”

Miri said nothing. She snuggled deeper into the insanely warm comforter Krysta had let her use when she and Kelly arrived the previous Thursday. As she drifted off to sleep again, she thought that she needed to talk to her mother about what happened here when she got home.

She may have been asleep for all of about a minute when Kelly started yelling, “Mir, Mir, it’s Kathryn!”

“Whaaa...?” Miri said, half asleep.

*

“I hope it’s not too early,” Kathryn fretted when Christian turned off onto the private road that led to Eric Hope’s lake house. “Kelly and Miri are supposed to be on vacation.”

“If it is, then we’ll come back at a later time,” Christian said; “The girls were called out of school Friday, and I might call them out Monday just to recover from all this we’ve been through.”

The three DeWitt girls slept in the back seat of the family’s luxury multi-purpose utility vehicle.

As they drove onto the property, they saw the house up ahead. “It looks awfully quiet, Christian,” Kathryn said. She looked at her watch, and saw that it was nearly eight. She knew her father would be up, but not necessarily Krysta, Kelly and Miri.

“Kathryn, I thought I saw some movement in the curtains in that window near the end of the house,” Christian said now. “I think we’re being watched.”

“We didn’t call first,” Kathryn said. “My father always wanted people to call and tell them if they planned to stop by.”

“This was a kind of last minute thing, Kathryn,” said Christian, taking her hand; “I think your father will forgive you this once.”

I hope so, thought Kathryn.

*

“What is all this noise you’re making in here, Kelly Clare?” asked Eric as he knocked on Kelly’s bedroom door. He saw that Miri was not only awake, but dressed. “You woke up Miri, too?”

“Grandfather!” Kelly said excitedly; “Kathryn’s here!”

“What are you talking about, girl?”

“Go look out the window!” Kelly said; “That’s Christian’s car, isn’t it?”

Eric went to the living room and looked out the window in time to see his daughter get out of the passenger’s side of the vehicle.  

“Well, I’ll be damned,” he said softly. Then to Krysta, who was in the kitchen, “Krysta, Kathryn’s here.”

“She is?”

“Yes, and it looks like her whole family is with her,” Eric said.

“Maybe I should pop some biscuits in the oven then,” Krysta said as she got the frozen biscuits out of the freezer and arranged a dozen on a baking sheet to put in the already hot oven.

“How come you’re so calm, Krysta?” Kelly asked as she and Miri came into the living room.

“I’m just tired, Kelly,” Krysta said. “I’m glad Kathryn came to visit us. I hope she’s doing okay after everything she went through.”

Eric was out the door and waiting on the porch as Kathryn, Christian and the girls approached.

“What a surprise!” Eric said; “So I take it you have a clean bill of health, Kathryn Marie.”

Instead of answering, Kathryn ran to her father and gave him a hug, which he readily returned. She was sobbing; Eric wasn’t too far behind, but managed to hold it back a little.

Standing at the foot of the steps, Helene and Erin were crying, too. Lili just looked at their father and asked, “Why is everyone crying, Daddy?”

Christian just looked at his six year old and said, “Someday, Lilibet, you’ll understand.”

===

III

Jeremiah started doing his research on Skylar Sullivan almost the moment his call with her ended.

At first, what he found was that “Skylar Sullivan” was a common name, and it took some time to figure out if any of these other people with the same name was the woman he spoke with.

He threw out men  named Skylar Sullivan right away. Of the women bearing that name, none looked all that promising. Jeremiah decided to take a break and clear his head. Usually, that meant coffee and the cigarettes he promised everyone from Jasmine to Julia to Aaliyah he’d try to quit. Jeremiah realized that with everything that went on in his daily life, and especially with working at the Times-Tribune, he almost had to have a cigarette to calm down. He knew they weren’t good for him, and he did make honest attempts to quit. He didn’t smoke at home, for example, but everyone at home knew he was smoking at work. Usually, it was Aaliyah who chastised him about his “stinky clothes”. Jasmine would just shake her head. Her Jere was stubborn, and she learned that early on in their relationship. Smoking was a habit he picked up in college and was never really free of it.

As he stood outside and took the last puffs of the one he allowed himself on each break, his mind went back to Skylar Sullivan. Who was she, and what could she know about Kyla Scardino’s death.

The names sound a lot alike, Jeremiah thought; I wonder if there’s a connection there. “Maybe I’m spelling Skylar wrong,” he muttered to himself. “Maybe I’ll try different spellings. How do you spell ‘Skylar’ anyway?”

He tamped out the cigarette and headed back to his office. He knew just where to look.

UnusualBabyNames.com.

===

Kyla hadn’t slept so soundly since before Lincoln Marsh up and disappeared the previous spring. By the time Justina was bugging her to get up, it was 10am. Check out was at noon.

“Mama, I’m hungry,” the little girl said.

“Okay, baby, I’m going to get dressed and get us something to eat,” Kyla said. “Do you want to stay here another night, or try and get to Chicago today?”

“I just wanna go home, Mama,” Justina said, “but if we can’t go home yet, then we can drive, right?”

“Yes, Tina, we can do that,” Kyla said; “Then we can find a place to stay there until we can talk to the man we came all this way to see.”

“Okay, Mama, but I’m still hungry,” said Justina.

Kyla laughed and said, “Okay, okay, Tina... let me get ready to go. I’m proud of you that you dressed yourself today.”

“I’ve been doing it for a while, Mama, you just haven’t seen me!” Justina said gleefully.

After getting dressed and packing their few belongings, Kyla checked out of the motel, got Justina and herself in the car, and headed to Chicago.

What they didn’t know is that they were being followed.

By someone looking for Kyla to give her some very important news.

===

IV

After Miri agreed to take the DeWitt girls into town for some shopping, Kathryn sat Kelly, Eric, and Krysta down with her and Christian and told them that after being evaluated, that it appeared that Chastity was permanently suppressed.

“That’s wonderful news, Kathryn!” Eric said; “I’m sorry it took such a traumatic event to make that happen.”

“That’s just it, Dad,” Kathryn said; “That traumatic event needed to happen in order for Chastity to go away forever.”

“So she’s never coming back?” Kelly asked.

“Never,” said Kathryn. “I still have to go to counseling so I can fully come to terms with all the damage Chastity did to my life, but I never have to worry about her taking over again. The doctor who examined me tried twice to talk to Chastity, and I didn’t feel the things that I’d feel when I suspected she was trying to come forward.”

“It’s great news, Kathryn; it really is,” Krysta said before excusing herself to use the bathroom.

“I can’t wait to get home and start my new Chastity-free life!” Kathryn said, her happiness apparent to all in the room.

“Kathryn has an art showing December 4th,” Christian said; “She really has incredible artistic talent, and after showing some of her drawings to people in the know, she now has three sponsors. They’re putting on the show in Syracuse at the Modern Art Lab.”

“We’ll have to go out and see that, don’t we, Kelly Clare?” Eric asked.

“Of course!” Kelly said; “But if it’s December 4th, I can’t be there because I’ll still be at school studying for finals.”

“It runs for a month, Kelly,” Kathryn said; “December 4th is just the opening date.”

“Then, of course I’ll be there!”

Kelly saw her mother smile, and it warmed her heart.

===

After he got the numerous spellings for “Skylar” sorted out, Jeremiah plugged each spelling in his search engine with the surname Sullivan, and was still coming up with nothing.

The last one on the list was spelled S-K-Y-L-A-R, and Jeremiah noticed that “Kyla” was part of the spelling. This might have possibilities, he thought.

So he repeated his search with that spelling and hit paydirt.

The article that initially caught Jeremiah’s eye was this:

“(3-3-2033)...still have no motive for the apparent disappearance of Benjamin Sullivan, 34, of Brooklyn. Sullivan’s wife, Skylar, told authorities that neither she nor her husband had any enemies, and that he wouldn’t just leave her and their 20-month old daughter. His car was found abandoned near Central Park, and his ID, keys, and tablet computer were still in the vehicle...”

Hmm, Jeremiah thought, her husband inexplicably disappears and she and her daughter fall off the face of the earth. A follow up article stated:

“(5-1-2033)...the remains of a man were dredged out of the East River on Sunday have been tentatively identified as those of Benjamin Sullivan, 34, of Brooklyn. When police went to the man’s residence to give the news to his wife, Skylar Sullivan, they were told that “Mrs. Sullivan and her daughter moved out last week without any notice whatsoever.” Police suspect foul play in the sudden disappearance of the 28 year old private secretary and her 22-month old daughter, Justina.”

But it was this article that Jeremiah finally figured out what was going on:

“(11-30-2034)...The American Republic Movement, an anti-government group based in Collinsville, New York, announced the hiring of Kyla D. Scardino as their Public Information Rep...”

Photos were part of all three articles, and Skylar Sullivan looked like she could be Kyla Scardino’s twin. Jeremiah decided to play a hunch.

He plugged in the name “Skylar Scardino Sullivan” and got a copy of a birth announcement from July of 2031:

“To Skylar Scardino Sullivan, 26; and husband, Benjamin Francis Sullivan, 32, a baby girl at Community Hospital, Brooklyn...”

“Holy shit!” Jeremiah exclaimed under his breath; “Holy fucking shit! Kyla Scardino isn’t dead!”

And she was coming to see him sometime the next day, Monday.

Okay, Jere, calm the fuck down, he said to himself over and over. Once he was calm, he knew what he had to do.

He got on the phone and called Nik. When his brother answered, Jeremiah said, “Nik I don’t care what you’re doing- I don’t care if you’re fucking your wife or taking a piss, but you have to get down to the T-T Building in the next hour!”

When Nik recovered from practically being shouted at, he asked, “What the fuck for, Jere? It’s seven in the fucking morning on Sunday!”

“Nik,” said Jeremiah; “I think I’ve found a ghost, and she’s coming to see me tomorrow with inside information about A.R.M.!”

“She?” asked Nik.

“Just get down here, brother. I have some shit you need to see!”

He could hear Nik sighing on the other end of the line. Nik then said,

“I’ll be there in an hour, but you fuckin’ owe me, okay?”

===