Leon pursed his lips as he glared at her. “She lived long enough to tell me your name.”
“She probably thought it was me but that night Siobhan tricked me and had one of her men standing guard over me. She put on a wig so it would hide her red hair and she wore a dress of mine.” Anna clasped her hands together as she looked upset.
John looked at Calderone and gave a nod to him.
“Let’s take this inside. Someone may be watching the house,” Calderone suggested.
Leon wrapped his arm around Evelyn and John walked up behind Anna. They all went into the living room.
John walked Anna over to a chair beside the fireplace.
When she sat down, Anna looked over at Leon and Evelyn. Leon hadn’t let her go from the moment he saw her. Anna smiled faintly at the sight of the two of them.
Then Calderone sat down opposite of Anna and drew her attention back to him. “How the hell do you know Siobhan McCrary?”
Anna shook her head. “Her father had a fling with my mother and I was the result.” She shrugged. “Old Jacko McCrary couldn’t keep it in his pants and he never told my mother he was already married. To him, she was nothing more than a hit and never miss, after the deed was done.”
“What happened after you were born?” Calderone asked.
“He never told his wife, Trisha about me or my mother that’s for sure. Apparently, I wasn’t his only mistake but she had warned him before he met my mom that if he screwed her over one more time, he wouldn’t be a man anymore. I think I was seven when they found him in a dirty alley missing an important part of his anatomy. He died from blood loss. Everyone knew what happened but she was never arrested because she had warned him and she was becoming a big deal on the streets of Boston. There was never any evidence she did the deed but everyone knew she threatened him. My mother wanted us to leave Boston but Siobhan’s mother wouldn’t let either of us go. Her mother made our lives a living hell after that. My mom often came home from work all bruised and battered. Then one night when I was twelve, she didn’t come home at all. Trisha McCrary came to get me and dragged me to her house. I fought her until she told me my mom would never come home again.” Anna wrung her hands. “She told me two days later that her body was found in the bay. The police determined she had fallen off a pier and drowned. When Trisha told them she would keep me as part of her family, they were satisfied.”
“What is the point here?” Leon wanted to know.
“It was Siobhan that killed your wife that night, not me,” she informed him. “If you think Siobhan is tough, you should have met her mother.” Shaking her head she told them, “I wasn’t sorry to hear Siobhan was finally dead. All I could feel was freedom.”
“How do I know you’re telling me the truth?” Leon gritted his teeth.
“Why would I have a reason to murder your wife?” Anna asked simply.
“What purpose did Siobhan have to kill my wife?” Leon shot back just a swiftly.
“She wanted an alliance with you to form one huge crime ring in the city. With you, you would bring the family and with her, she would bring in the Irish mob. Her Irish mob… not the west side one. She would freeze them out and run them out of town. Together, the two of you would rule this city. Only you wouldn’t rule this city together for long. Please remember this was before she met Richard. She would have murdered you in your sleep and the Family would have been pushed out of Boston altogether.”
“And she thought by killing my wife I would fall for her?” Leon sounded skeptical.
“She thought you wouldn’t be able to resist her,” Anna told him.
“What about my son?” Leon asked. “Or would he have met with an accident as well?”
Anna hung her head. “He would have been next and when you were all upset at losing your wife and your son, she would have ended your pain probably with a bullet to your head in a suicide claim.”
Leon sat there for a moment and thought about her words. Everything she said made a weird kind of sense to him. He’d gotten to know Siobhan enough to realize Anna’s words could be the truth. Finally, after all these years, he finally knew why and who really killed his wife.
Leon looked over at Evelyn and found her looking back at him with hope in her eyes. “I know she’s telling you the truth,” she whispered. “Anna is as much a victim here as you and I are. She’s had to live her life as Siobhan’s servant.”
“I don’t know what to believe anymore. I’ve hated her for the last thirty five years and I’m not sure I can quite forgive her yet,” Leon told her.
“But you have to at least entertain the idea that she’s telling the truth?” Evelyn asked.
“I can do that,” Leon agreed. “As long as nothing else happens to endanger our lives. There’s always someone out there that would dare to seek to take the work of others and try to take their place. And I have a feeling that despite the fact that Siobhan is dead there are others out there lurking.”
“Yes, there will be someone else to take her place and we’ll find out who that person is soon enough,” Calderone stated.
Leon looked over at Evelyn. “I heard you gave me a daughter. Is that true?”
Evelyn nodded. “Yes, it’s true. I couldn’t tell Siobhan for so long but I finally had to tell her. I thought for a moment she would kill us both but she didn’t.”
Leon looked incensed. “No but she could control you while holding the baby’s life over your head.”
Evelyn nodded then hung her head. “And she did.”
“Do you have any idea where our daughter is?” Leon wanted to know.
Evelyn shook her head. “I haven’t seen her in years. I’m praying she’s safe but I don’t know where she might be.”
“I think I might have an idea,” Anna spoke up.
Leon and Calderone both turned their heads around to glare at her.
“How would you know where she is?” Leon asked.
“I have met with her from time to time,” Anna admitted. “Mostly, she asks about her mother, she’s concerned that Siobhan will end up killing her after all this time. No one knows we meet and that safeguards us both.”
“When was the last time you saw her?” Calderone asked.
“We only meet twice a year,” Anna explained. “Once on May 17th and again, on Christmas Day. Which is supposed to happen at midnight tonight in fact.”
Evelyn gasped and she grasped Leon’s arm in a tight hold. “Those dates are the dates I was kidnapped and the day she was born.”
Anna nodded. “Every Christmas, I would take her the card you always made for her. I know you always thought Siobhan found them and destroyed them but she never knew about those cards. Those were between you and your daughter and I didn’t want Siobhan’s poison to touch that.”
“Did Meena ever say anything when she got them?” Evelyn asked.
Anna smiled. “She would look at me with so much love in her eyes for you and pray for your safety and tell me she had hope that one day you would be free again. Free to walk in the sunshine and the rain and that someday, you would find her father again. Free to take with both hands whatever life has to offer.” She shook her head. “I couldn’t tell you about it. I was so afraid someone in that house might hear us. Siobhan had all the rooms bugged, I know she did. Well, In May, when I saw her, she said to tell you she was finally living her dream. When I asked her about that she told me you would know what she was talking about.”
Evelyn smiled as she clapped her hands together. “I know where she is!”
“Where?” Leon looked stunned.
“She’s working at a dog shelter or someplace that has dogs? When she was little, she wanted a dog so badly. But she was never allowed to have one. One year for Christmas that was all she wanted but…” She shook her head. “Siobhan brought her one and then she broke the poor puppy’s neck in front of Meena. Meena’s heart was shattered and all Siobhan did was turn around and drop the puppy on the floor.”
“That sounds so like something Siobhan would do.” Anna sighed. “She was just plain mean all the way around. She wouldn’t care about breaking a child’s heart.”
Tears rolled down Evelyn’s cheeks. “She finally found her passion. She’s been crazy about animals since she was just a little girl. When Siobhan allowed us to have a TV, she would watch shows about animals all day. She loved the gentle beauty of horses, but it was always dogs she loved the most.” She swiped the tears away from her cheek. “She wanted to train service dogs the most. Someone for a child to feel less fear in a situation like she grew up in. She always said there was too much abuse in the world and this would be her way of showing kids they didn’t have to be alone.”
Calderone and Leon looked at one another.
Calderone spoke now, “My woman also trains dogs for both service and protection. Maybe she would know somewhere to start looking. Would you mind if I asked her to help us find her?”
Evelyn nodded. “Oh, that would be wonderful! I know you might have a problem with her but I would appreciate any help you could give us.”
“I don’t have any problem with finding her. I’ve waited a lifetime to finally have a sister or a brother and now, I have a sister.” Calderone smiled. “I can’t wait to finally meet her.”
“I can’t wait to meet her as well,” Leon spoke up. “I missed so much of her life the way it is. I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life getting to know her.” Shaking his head he said, “I’m only sorry I missed so many years between her birth and now.”
Evelyn laid her hand on his arm. “She’s missed you as well. Sometimes in the dark, we’d be laying there in bed and she would ask me about you. I would tell her over and over again about our time together. She knows about Calderone and she knows about you. She always said she couldn’t wait to meet you two one day.” She shook her head. “I never thought this day would come.”
“What caused her to leave Siobhan’s house?” Leon asked.
“I’m afraid that was my fault,” Anna told him. “For the first time in my life, I tried to stand up to Siobhan and it was Meena that paid the price. I loved that girl like she was my own and I couldn’t stand that Siobhan was so damn mean to her. Meena talked back to her and I stood up to protect her from Siobhan’s wrath. Siobhan just flipped out and dragged the girl out by her hair. She tossed Meena out and that was that. Siobhan then told both of us that if Meena ever came back, her men had orders to shoot her on sight. For her own sake, she had to stay away. It broke Evelyn and Meena’s hearts.” She rubbed her arms as she remembered that time. “I had some friends on the streets and I asked them to find her and take care of her. I didn’t know what else to do. I did the best I could to protect her on the streets. I’m so sorry.”
Leon just stared at her for the longest time. “I don’t know that I believe everything you’ve been telling me but I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. Do not make me regret my decision. Where do you usually meet my daughter?”
“At a little church on the far east side of the city. St. Dominic’s. We meet thee after midnight mass when the church is quiet.”
“My men will be stationed around the church and her mother and I will join you,” Leon assured her.
“I’m going too Dad,” Calderone told him. “I want to be there when our family is united for the first time in thirty years.”
“Then I suggest we all get a little rest then a meal and get ready,” Leon suggested.” It’s only five hours till midnight now.
“May I make a phone call, so I can be sure she’s coming?” Anna asked. “My friend will get a message to her.”
Leon shook his head. “I don’t think so. I’d hate to be surprised by an ambush from the Irish gang still around.”
Anna looked pained and hung her head. When she lifted it again, she had tears in her eyes. “I am not Siobhan. I never have been and never will be. I can understand why you don’t trust me. Everyone who could tell you the truth is dead, all but me. I wish there was a way to prove to you my words are the truth, but I can’t.”
“Squeeze his hand,” Evelyn suggested to her. Looking over at Leon, she said, “She’s right handed, so anything she does she does with her right hand correct?”
At Leon’s nod, she looked over at Anna and said again, “Squeeze his hand with your right hand.”
Anna frowned as she reached out her right hand. When Leon put his hand in hers, Anna squeezed it as hard as she could.
Leon barley felt it and frowned.
“Leon,” Evelyn tried to explain, “She told me a long time ago when she was still a child, Siobhan got mad at her and crushed her hand. She never received medical attention so her right hand cannot grip anything. She couldn’t grip a knife to kill anyone. And…I know this woman. I’ve been with her for a long time. She couldn’t kill anyone let alone your wife. She was the only one of the whole bunch of them at the house over the years that I trusted with Meena when she was growing up. Hasn’t she suffered enough growing up with that witch?”
Leon stared into her eyes for the longest time before he told her, “I’m sorry Evelyn. I just found you again and I won’t put both our lives on the line by trusting the wrong person. I can’t. I’ve waited too long for this moment.”
Anna nodded. “He’s right you know. He can’t trust me yet, maybe he’ll never trust me, but at least he’s honest about it. Siobhan was a horrible person. I know that firsthand, so I don’t really blame him. You know I would never do anything to hurt you or Meena and for now, that will have to be enough.”
