Double Trouble: Twenty Seven; the fall-out
 by Cariad
 
 

Double Trouble
~Twenty Seven~
“Juliet, you look pale,” Noah said. “Are you all right?”

At that moment, Julia was fighting a queasy sensation in her stomach. Nagging at the back of her mind, she thought Holly was in distress. She pushed that thought away. Hollis must not be in that much distress, she thought, because the thought went away—unlike that morning when Aidan had her in the stairway. It was more like the background agitation from when Holly was fighting the banned book at Weymouth-Hampsted. “I’m fine!” Julia said brightly, dunking a gingerbread man’s head in her cup of cocoa.

“You know what I DON’T miss about mom not being here?” Kay asked.

“What?” Jessica replied.

“The stupid tomato-soup cake!”

Noah laughed. Julia noticed he laughed easily, always finding the humor in things. “Is mom still making those odious things?” Noah asked.

“All the time,” Kay groaned.

“I bet we’ll have one tomorrow,” Jessica said.

Both Noah and Kay groaned. “I don’t know how dad likes those things!” Kay said with a lip raised in disgust.

“And the worst part about it,” Jessica confided to Julia, “is that no one has the heart to tell Mom that they don’t like her Tomato Soup Cakes.”

“I wonder when Dad’s getting back,” Kay said. “Or is Ethan too good to spend Christmas with us.”

Julia coughed. “He’s probably at Mother’s house. Ethan, I mean.”

Kay rolled her eyes. “Great, that means dad will be with the home-wrecker.” Kay’s eyes widened as she realized what she said. “Oh, I’m sorry Julie!” she amended hastily.

Julia looked down into her half-full cup of cocoa. “My mother isn’t the best person in the world,” she confessed quietly, “but if it wasn’t for Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald’s life-long quest to get Ethan come hell or high water, I don’t think any of this would have come out.”

“But your mom would still have been after our dad,” Jessica countered.

Noah inserted himself between his sisters and Julia. “Come on now, it’s not Julie’s fault for what her parents did. Remember that Dad chose Mom and Mom forgave him. It was Mom that left us for David. What Dad did was even before he ever knew Mom!”

“I guess,” Jessica conceded.
 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Holly sat on the rocks where she and Reese watched the stars, the ocean lapping against them far below. With Jules busy with Noah and her mother busy with Noah’s father, and her father causing all the turmoil, she had no one else to turn to except the solitude of the beach and her own tumultuous thoughts. Could her father have killed his own sister? Holly and Julia both knew their father’s faults, but of all the disgusting habits and personality traits of their father, murder was not one of them. She would not put murder past her Grandfather Crane nor her brother, but her father? Julian Crane was a teddy bear underneath it all. Could the same hands which gingerly held each of his children—real and implied—and named them as they were born kill his own flesh and blood with those same hands?
Whatever evidence Rebecca had to frame her father must be very convincing, and was that why Rebecca strutted around the Mansion giving dictates and orders heedless of the consequences? Is that why she had no compunction carrying on an affair with Julian’s son? Holly shuddered at the thought. It was bad enough Rebecca seduced and slept with Julian, but Rebecca sleeping with Aidan gave Holly the creeps.

The knowledge of Rebecca’s blackmail further resolved Holly’s determination to get rid of the bitch. But what did her father mean as far as ‘taking care’ of Rebecca? Could he kill her? And the more frightening thought was could that then be his second murder? And if he killed those two women, whom else could he have killed?

“Come on Hollis,” she said aloud, “quit that circle of thinking. He’s Father. He wouldn’t kill anyone.”

But when her mind turned from her father, it turned to her mother—and Sam Bennett—Noah’s father—sharing a passionate kiss. If the knowledge that her father was being blackmailed for the murder of her sister unsettled Holly, the knowledge that her mother had no intention of reconciliation with her father sent her over the edge—forcing her to give up her delusions of a happy family once Rebecca and Theresa were out of the way.

“What a way to spend Christmas Eve,” Holly muttered. “Freezing your butt off on some ice-covered rocks, all alone. If you’re going to think, you might as well do it someplace warm.”

She stood up, the wind from the ocean lifting her hair. She turned to her left and saw the familiar arrogant stride of Jonathan Hotchkiss. He waved. “I’ve been looking for you!” he called.

“I don’t want to deal with you now,” Holly said under her breath. She turned, pretending not to see him.

Her heel slipped on the ice.
 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She screamed, spilling the dregs of her hot chocolate. “Hollis,” Julia whispered, “Oh My God, Hollis!”
“Are you all right?” Noah asked, looking into her unseeing eyes.

“Something happened to Hollis.” Julia breathed. “You have to take me to Holly,” she said, tugging on Noah’s sleeve.

“Where is she?” Noah asked.

Kay and Jessica looked at each other in amazement.

“I don’t know!” Julia cried. “Someplace she would have gone to think. Someplace solitary with a good view.” Julia stood up, pacing frantically, running her fingers through her hair. “If we were still in school, I’d know just where to go—her favorite spot below a covered bridge.” She took a step. “Rocks. She always likes rocks. Rocks and water. Where are you, Hollis?”

Noah grabbed his keys. “There’s that outcrop just down the beach from the Seascape.”

“Seascape,” Julia muttered. “That’s where Reese went when she blistered her feet. When they were watching the stars. She’s got to be there, Noah. Please tell me she’s there.”

“I don’t know!” Noah said, enfolding her in his arms. “Kay, if you hear anything on the scanner, give me a call on my cell phone.”

“Sure,” Kay said slowly.

Jessica took a napkin to the oozing liquid spilled onto the coffee table.
 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ivy and Sam pulled up in his police cruiser; having located the distinctive Crane license plates on the car Holly drove. Pilar warned them that Holly left in a very agitated state, which alarmed both their parental instincts. Sam desperately wanted a chance to explain why he was kissing her mother.
Ivy’s face turned white as she saw Jonathan Hotchkiss frantically trying to undo the buttons on his designer coat.

Worried fingers fumbled and became useless. “She fell in!” he yelled as he saw the man in uniform.

Sam immediately unlaced his boots, stripped off his coat and dove into the chilly December water.
 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Julia drummed her fingers as Noah turned into the beach parking lot. “Oh God,” she whispered. “A police car.”
Noah killed the engine. “That’s Dad’s car,” he said quickly.

They both jumped out of Noah’s beat-up Jetta, running down to the beach. Ivy had her arms around Jonathan Hotchkiss and both were looking frantically in the water. Julia rushed up, grabbing her mother’s hand, peering over the edge as Sam Bennett’s head surfaced holding Holly’s blue-lipped face.

She screamed.

Noah was right there whispering calmly in her ear. “It will be ok now. Dad will get her out alive. He was a lifeguard.”

“I know,” Ivy said quietly.

They picked their way down the rocks to a flat portion of the beach where Sam was dragging a stumbling and shivering Holly from the water.

“There are blankets in the trunk of my police car,” Sam said, catching his breath.

Jonathan ran to get them, happy that there was something he could do.

“Dad, I’ve called 911, they’re sending an Ambulance over,” Noah said, grabbing Holly’s other arm and supporting her.

“Good,” Sam said. “Now we need to get out of these wet clothes. Is there anything we can change into?”

“I’ve got my hockey gear in my trunk. It might smell a bit, but it’s dry.”

“That’s good for me, but is there anything we can do for Holly?”

Jonathan returned with a pair of blankets, one of which he swooped around Holly and began frantically chafing her to warm her up some. Her eyes were glazed and her teeth chattered horribly, but she was breathing.

A short time later, Sam was wearing Noah’s hockey underclothes, a blanket around his shoulders. Holly was bundled in Noah’s jersey with Jonathan’s coat tied about her waist. Noah’s hockey-socks kept her legs covered, and she was bundled in her blanket, held by her sister her mother and Jonathan. Noah kept his father company while the ambulance arrived.

Julia watched Holly disappear into the open doors of the ambulance, her mother following. Her mind reeling, she turned to Noah and said, “You never told me you played hockey.”
 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the time Julia got into the hospital, Holly had already been admitted to a room. “We’re keeping her here overnight for observation,” the doctor was telling Ivy as Julia walked past. She slipped into Holly’s room where her sister was lying peaceably, breathing normally.
“I didn’t think Christmas could get any worse,” Holly whispered. “I was wrong.”

Julia laughed feebly.

“Rebecca is blackmailing Father,” Holly said. Julia nodded. “Mother was kissing Chief Bennett,” Holly continued.

Julia brushed Holly’s hair from her forehead. “It’ll be ok now,” she whispered. “I’m here.”

Holly smiled weakly. “I slipped,” she confessed.

“I figured.”

“I just thought to let you know that I didn’t TRY to kill myself.”

Julia breathed a sigh of relief. Holly was feeling well enough to joke a bit. “You should stay away from slippery high places.”

“I should. Man, I’m tired now.”

Julia squeezed her hand. “I think you just want out of teaching Theresa to eat.”

“That’s a task worth drowning yourself over,” Holly said with a smile. She shut her eyes.

Jonathan Hotchkiss knocked lightly and slid in the room. “Is she asleep?” he whispered. Julia nodded. “Good,” Jonathan said. “I wouldn’t want to bother her more.”

“Then you admit that she wants nothing to do with you?”

Jonathan gave a half smile. “I wouldn’t want to catch her defenseless.”

“Just because she’s tired doesn’t mean her mind isn’t functioning.”

Jonathan smiled. “No, I don’t think her mind would ever stop thinking up new insulting names to call me. She’s probably thinking up a few right now. I tried to save her,” he confessed. “But I don’t know the first thing about a water rescue.”

“I guess that means she can forget any names that concern a carrion-eating shark.”

“That was good.”

Julia batted her eyes playfully.

Holly smiled in her sleep.

“Take care of her,” Jonathan said as he stood.

Julia followed him to the door. Jonathan met Sam Bennett just outside in the hallway. “Whatever my Mother, Julian or Alistair Crane may say,” Jonathan admitted, holding his hand out to the police chief, “you are a true hero, and I’m very grateful you were there when you were.”

“Why are you shaking his hand, Jonathan?” Julian Crane’s voice called as nurses and hospital staff scurried out of his way. “My daughter almost died, and you’re making nice with the locals?”

Sam stiffened. Ivy stepped out from behind him. “Come now, Julian,” she spat. “Sam was the one who pulled her out of the water.”

Julian stopped in his tracks and raked Sam Bennett with his eyes.