Double Trouble 47; A prisoner gets released...
 by Cariad
 

Double Trouble
~Forty Seven~
Julia checked her makeup while in the ride back to the Mansion, dabbing some cover-up under her eyes when the limousine rolled to a stop. She leaned up through the window to the driver. “What’s going on?” she asked.

“I’m not sure, Miss Julia,” he replied, “but the police are directing traffic and have a whole area cordoned off. We’ll have to take another route.”

“That’s fine, take your time.” She leaned back in the window and sat. Finding the remote control, she turned on the television in the back of the limousine. In an odd sense of déjà vu, the regular programming had been interrupted for breaking news. She saw the limousine waiting in a long line of cars in the background. An apartment duplex had been blocked off.

“Another body has been found, dead for several days,” the reporter intoned, “killed in the same manner as the other two victims. The murderer/rapist is still at large. The Harmony PD is collaborating with other area law enforcement organizations to hunt down and bring the murderer to justice.”

Julia slumped back into the seat and gave a large sigh.
 

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

Ivy Crane sat behind the large desk, looking every inch like a professional businesswoman. Jonathan stood by her side like a statue, his eyes cold and unfeeling. Holly sat near Gwen while on the loveseat across from them, Aidan and Theresa sat together.
“It has come to my attention,” Ivy declared, “that there has been another murder. This one is several days old, though. Julian is being released and the police should be here to question all of your whereabouts on some of the nights in question.”

“This is disgusting, Mother!” Aidan shouted, standing up. “How can they suspect us. We’re Cranes! No Crane would stoop to common murder!” Aidan glared directly at Jonathan, his insinuation clear.

“Sit down, Aidan,” Gwen said quietly. “We all know by now your opinion of my brother.”

“Don’t you think your show of grief has gone on a little long, Gwen?” Aidan sneered.

“She was my mother!” Gwen retorted hotly.

Aidan shifted his gaze to Jonathan once again.

“I don’t need to justify my actions to you,” Jonathan replied simply.

Holly bit the inside of her lip. Since she had left the atrium, Jonathan had hardly looked at her—not that she minded of course—but it was rather irritating that he would not behave in a consistent manner.

The door to the study opened, and Julian entered, straightening his cuffs, walking halfway into the room before noticing the people waiting. “Ivy, what are you doing here?” he demanded. “Couldn’t wait for an opportunity to get your claws back into my wallet?”

Ivy tossed her hair back. “I came here to be with my daughters… and my son,” she added as an afterthought, “in this time of crisis. And you forget, Julian, I have my own money, and will have more of yours once the new divorce agreement is settled.”

Julian glanced around the room, counting heads. “Where’s Julia?” he asked.

“She went visiting some people at the hospital,” Ivy said smoothly, with a secret look at Holly. “For PR, of course,” she added.

Holly nearly ruined the statement by laughing. Ivy was well aware of Julia’s intentions at the hospital.

“Of course,” Julian echoed. “How did things fly in my absence?” he asked Jonathan. Aidan growled in his throat and stormed out of the room.

“Smoothly enough,” Jonathan said. “There were no real business crises for Crane Industries.”

“Good,” Julian replied absently. He focused his gaze on Ivy and flicked a wrist towards the others. “I have some private business to attend to with my wife,” he said coldly.

Holly grabbed Theresa in case the second Mrs. Crane was confused, and exited along with everyone save Julian and Ivy. She shut the door quietly and walked a few paces down the side of the wall to what she and Julia had termed “the sweet spot.” A fluke in the architecture, or a mistake in the insulation of the walls, had left a place in the wall of the study where one could listen perfectly to the conversation inside, provided they stay near the end with the desk. The twins had learned early on that if they wanted to know the true state of things in the Crane household, they had to eavesdrop on their father’s meetings in the study.

Holly put her ear to the wall.

“What are you doing?” Theresa hissed.

Holly put a finger to her lips. “I’m listening,” she replied in a whisper.

Theresa’s eyes widened, but she also crammed close and put an ear to the wall.

“Whatever, Ivy,” Julian was saying, “whatever you want as far as the divorce. I just hope this blasted murder thing gets over soon so we can get divorced and I can marry Theresa.”

“Eavesdropping?” Jonathan observed from behind Holly and Theresa.

Holly looked at Theresa’s frightened, trembling face before looking up to Jonathan and Gwen. “Of course,” she replied blithely, and waved them down to join in the conspiracy.

“Poor Julian,” Ivy drawled. “Why do you want to marry Theresa so badly?” she purred. “What makes that lying slut worth it?”

“She is carrying my child.”

“I seem to remember another young woman, at the time, whom you impregnated and you did not marry her.”

“What are you talking about?” Julian laughed.

“You remember the photographs and the bird statue, of course?”

“You wouldn’t!”

“Of course not, Julian, there’s little point now. But I do wonder, why is Theresa that important? You abandoned THIS woman carrying your child… You don’t love her do you?” Ivy laughed.

“God no!” Julian replied, not hiding the disgust in his voice. “She was a drunken mistake. But that child was conceived within wedlock, which is more than I can say of your firstborn child, my sweet.”

Holly looked from Theresa’s eyes, filing with tears, to Gwen’s smug visage.

“Touché,” Ivy replied. “But if we were never divorced, that child also was not born within wedlock.”

“We thought so at the time,” Julian muttered. “That brat is going to be a replacement for Ethan. He’s going to be raised to be the Crane heir!”

“Ha.” Ivy said flatly. “Alistair won’t tolerate it. He’d rather see the fortune pass to a Hotchkiss than to have it pass to the half-breed son of the hired help!”

Theresa pushed away from the wall and ran towards the stairs, her whole body shaking with her weeping. Holly shared a look with Gwen, the older woman shrugging her shoulders.

“Sometimes,” Gwen observed, “I really pity that child.” She shook her head. “It’ll pass.”

The front door opened and closed as frantic footsteps found the three conspirators by the study wall. “Oh my God,” Julia said, her face pale. “There was another murder. The limo got stuck in traffic right in front of the house. There were police everywhere!”

Holly grabbed her sister’s flailing hands. “We know. They called the house and Mama just told us. We’re going to be questioned by the police.”

“Oh my God,” Julia said once more. “I can’t take this.” Holly and Julia found their way to a couch and sat together. Jonathan and Gwen joined them, forgetting the conversation in the study. “Here I am,” Julia continued, “coming back from the second-best kiss I’ve ever had, knowing that Daddy would forbid me to see him and his dad’s forbidden him already to even glance in this general direction, and then there’s this corpse being dragged out. And the news is on and I can see my own limo there on TV and it was all too surreal. And the chicklet had been dead for days, they said…”

“Father’s home,” Holly said, interrupting Julia.

“Daddy?” Julia asked, her mind changing gears.

“He was wondering where you were.”

“At the hospital, of course,” Julia replied.

“You had the second-best kiss in your life at the hospital?” Gwen asked, obviously confused.

“Yes,” Julia continued, “we were visiting this old woman… Adele. I didn’t get her last name, but she had to nap and we went out into the lounge, and…” Julia’s cheeks turned crimson at the memory. Once again, she felt Noah’s lips on her own, the gentle way he had consumed her, his hands pressing her to him.

Jonathan laughed and snapped his fingers. “Back to Earth, Julie,” he said.

Julia shook her head, clearing out the memory.

“If I didn’t know better,” Gwen observed, “I’d say little Julie was in love.”

“I’m not…” Julia protested lamely. “It’s just not right!” she declared. “I mean people are being killed. I mean your mother…” Julia’s voice trailed off.

Gwen squeezed Julia’s shoulder. “It’s ok, Julie,” she said quietly. “It’s a good reminder that life goes on.” Gwen wiped tears from her own eyes.
 

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Julia bounded into Holly’s bedroom before Holly completely fell asleep. “I forgot to tell you something!” Julia burst.
“What?” Holly said with a bemused sleepy smile.

“Well before Noah came…”

“Noah?” Holly sat straight up. “Noah, you met Noah Bennett at the Hospital? Go Jules!”

Julia blushed again, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. “That’s beside the point,” she said, brushing off the comment. Would her face heat every time his name was mentioned? That would be quite annoying.

“I don’t think so, you teased me about Reese,” Holly said, only a trace of bitterness marred his name. “At least we know Noah wants you back.”

“He does?” Julia asked. “I mean, of course he does, he wouldn’t have kissed me like that if he didn’t, but how did you know?”

Holly gave a feline smile. “He told me the day we decorated Rebecca’s room,” she said laughing.

In a second, they both caught themselves in their happiness. “It’s weird,” Julia said, “after all the mean stuff we did to her, she’s gone. After all the times we wished she was dead, she finally is, but it’s really weird not having her here to torture.”

“I know. Everything’s been weird since…” Holly’s voice trailed off. “He asked how he could make me happy, Jules,” Holly wept. “He told me a bunch of things today that I’m only beginning to grasp all of, and then he said he wanted to make me happy. And after all of that, how do I tell him that I’d be happier if he wasn’t there?”

Julia bit the inside of her lip. “I guess we’re talking about Johnny now.”

“No, dimwit,” Holly said with sarcasm and tears, “it was Aidan.”

Julia put her arms around her sister. “What did he tell you? We could always work out problems together.”

“That’s the thing!” Holly said on a sigh. “It’s a secret. He told me all this stuff and basically swore me to secrecy.”

“You can’t even tell me?”

Holly shook her head. “No one. And I don’t like it one bit, Jules. He’s putting up walls between us, and I don’t want to loose you.”

The twins held onto each other, for the first time realizing that they could be separated for good, and eventually they would have to be. They would grow up, and their lives would tear them apart. And they were terrified.

“Julia, I’m scared,” came a whispered voice from the adjoining door. The twins slowly let go of each other and looked at Theresa.

“What about?” Julia said, wiping her cheeks with the back of her hands while Holly frantically did the same.

Theresa slowly entered Holly’s room. “I heard a voice,” she told the twins quietly. “It was just a whisper, but it said ‘I’m coming for you Theresa.’ Do you think it could be…” she asked in a very small voice. “I don’t want to be alone tonight.”

The twins looked at each other and at Theresa.

“Oh, all right,” Holly said finally, “we’ll order up some popcorn from the kitchen and watch happy sappy romantic movies until we all fall asleep.”
 
 
 

Chapter 48
Chapter 46
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