As the flame slowly worked its devouring way from one rage to the next, Alexander walked to the door. As he reached it and pushed it open, he turned, faced Ken and said, “It is nice, isn’t it?”

“What are you talking about, you sick, twisted freak?”

“Your twin boys, together again. It’s nice, in its own sick, twisted way.”

The door slammed shut.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Derek understood that his presence anywhere near the vicinity of Hilburn would not be welcomed by the state police or by the NYPD who were certain to have been informed of his “freelancing” involvement. Captain Smith was probably too busy to be tracking his cell phone but not too busy to pass along his name and picture to the NYPD detectives.

When his Google Maps indicated that he was within a mile of Hilburn, Derek pulled in the nearest strip mall, parked his car, grabbed his backpack and started off towards Hilburn on foot. A quick glance at the time suggested that he find a way to kill some time so he could use the cover of darkness to conceal his entrance into Hilburn, which he was certain was being watched by at least several pairs of eyes.

As he spotted a Thai restaurant in the strip mall, he decided that consuming some spicy duck would be as good a way as any to spend a few hours. As he walked in the door, his cell phone rang.

“Derek Cole,” he said.

“It’s Janet O’Connell. I can’t get in touch with either my husband or my son. I need you to find them and make sure they are alright.”

“Janet,” Derek said, “if I’m right about my suspicions, I’m within a mile of them right now.”

“I’m getting on a plane in thirty minutes to fly home. Please, call me the second you see them and let me know everything.”

“I will.”

“And Derek?” Janet added. “Please don’t hurt Alexander. He’s my son, too.”

Janet paused after ending her call with Derek. As she glanced at the boarding pass she had printed out and was holding her hands, she wondered if what she was planning would cause problems. She was told, after all, to stay put, to not talk with anyone, and to wait. Her husband was always very good at giving clear directions.

Janet and Ken met shortly after she had graduated from college. She, the daughter of a self-made millionaire, and he, a struggling entrepreneur with a drive and passion that both attracted and concerned her. She never doubted that Ken would be wildly successful. He wouldn’t have accepted anything less. And with Janet’s father providing a generous amount of startup capital, she knew it would only be a matter of time before her husband would be even more successful that her father.

It took only three years for Ken’s business ideas, hard work, and determination to pay off. He started with a used car lot and then expanded to own seven lots spread across the Chicago area. Within 18 months, she was standing next to her husband, cutting the ribbon to open the first O’Connell Jeep Chrysler Dodge dealership. Within two years, there were two more ribbon-cutting ceremonies, a move out of an apartment that had grown too middle class and into a palatial home and the decision to start a family.

“I’m not interested in a big family,” her husband told her. “One son should be enough. If you produce a daughter first, we keep going but, no matter what, we stop at three kids.”

She agreed once she realized that having four or five kids like she had wished for didn’t make sense.

“A family of five or more creates problems,” Ken insisted. “We stop at no more than three kids, two if I get my son.”

Ken always had solid reasons behind his ideas. She learned to trust him, and after their third year of marriage, her belly expanded with twins, she decided that questioning his directions served no purpose. Her mother did the same in her marriage, and things worked out well for her. She began to understand that her decision to marry Ken assumed a willing acceptance of the role she needed to play.

Over the 26 years of their marriage, Janet learned to keep her ideas to herself. While there were times when she questioned her husband’s decisions, she knew that he was much smarter than she was and had an ability to make things work out for the best. An ability she didn’t see in herself.

She certainly didn’t like many things about her relationship. The nights her husband wouldn’t come home and offered no excuse as to why. The private conversations he would have with business associates, lawyers, accountants and people that Janet felt a particular unease about having in her home. She hated when he told her to “mind her business and mind her place” when she began to offer a suggestion.

In the back of her mind, she knew he was unfaithful and was leading a life very distant from the life she and he were living. Distant and different. But saying anything would risk so much. And who was she to tell him, a man who had given her so much, that she didn’t like how she was being treated? She had a beautiful home, wanted for nothing, and had an enviable position in her community of friends and acquaintances.

But the uneasy stirring in her soul never became silent. At night, as she slept alone, she forced herself to ignore her feelings and to push down her anger. Despite her efforts, the feelings returned each morning and stayed with her through each of her days. She expected that one day, some day, Ken would go too far and then, only then would she make her voice heard.

But was this the day to make herself heard? Ken and Thomas were nowhere to be found. He had told her the day he dropped her off at the airport in Chicago that he’d probably be difficult to get a hold of and that Thomas would out of cell range most of the time. The fact that Derek Cole, a complete stranger, suggested that her husband may be involved in something criminal didn’t surprise her. She couldn’t accept, however, that her son, Thomas, would have involved himself in any of his father’s activities.

She sat down on the edge of her bed in the resort, looking out over the resort’s grounds. She shook her head, trying to clear her mind of the racing and conflicting thoughts.

“I’m being such a fool,” she said. “Ken always has a plan, and his plans always work out in the end.”

She glanced at the boarding pass in her hand and began to chuckle.

“What exactly could I do anyway?” she said as she crumpled the boarding pass and tossed it on the ground. “It’s simply too nice of a day to spend on a plane.”