Chapter 29
Shirley went in search of Danny as soon as Reuben had left the house. She could do no more for Keith until he was ready to accept her help, but Danny was another story. She found him laying on his bed in his room with headphones on and a comic book open in front of him. She watched him for several minutes unnoticed. He didn't once turn the page of his comic which meant he was lost in thought rather than reading.
She walked over to the stereo and turned the sound all the way down. Danny's head snapped to the side and he was about to lay into whoever had the gall to interrupt him. When he realized it was his mom, he sat up quickly and removed the headphones.
"Hi, Mom. Did I miss you calling me?" Danny asked quickly.
"No, honey. I didn't try calling you." She sat down next to him on his bed.
"Then what is it?" Danny asked before a thought occurred to him. "Nothing happened to Keith, did it?"
"No, nothing has happened to Keith." Shirley assured him and then decided to dive right in. "You know, you couldn't have prevented any of this."
"I know that mom." Danny assured her without really meaning it.
"No, I don't think you do. You're blaming yourself for not telling everyone about 'Juliet' sooner." When it appeared that he was going to deny it, Shirley put her arm around him and continued. "It wouldn't have mattered who knew about her."
"How can you say that?" Danny's question was asked in a most pathetic voice.
"Because I know it's true. Danny, remember that the police found out about Olivia long before she ever tried to take Keith. The FBI was even on the case the second time she took him. If they couldn't stop her, how could you have?" Shirley pointed out.
"By not letting her take me and Laurie at the market." Danny pointed out.
"Danny, an agent was watching you that day and she still got to you. Olivia was more clever than anyone gave her credit for being. She fooled so many people. Her aunt, the police, her brother, the FBI, me…..I imagine I could go on for quite some time." Shirley gave him another squeeze.
"Mom, you don't blame yourself, do you?" Danny watched a look of guilt flash across her face. "If you say that I can't blame myself how can you take the blame?"
"Logically I know you're right. It's just that every mother feels a need to protect her children and when she fails at that…." Shirley stopped not quite knowing how to put it into words.
"Mom, Olivia is sick. Everyone knows that. She processes information differently from us and that's why none of us could figure her out. There is nothing you could have done to protect Keith from her." Danny was repeating the often used explanation for why Olivia had been able to accomplish what she had. He didn't at first realize that in trying to stop his mom from taking the blame, he was giving a great argument as to why he couldn't be blamed either.
Shirley watched the discovery cross Danny's face and she smiled at him knowing that as bright as he was, he would make the connection she needed him to. Within seconds, she watched his look of dawning turn to a sheepish smile. "And, that's why I can't blame myself either."
"You are so smart." Shirley kissed the side of his head.
"Not as smart as you, but I'm working on it." Danny said and gave his mom a fierce hug.
"You also know that Keith doesn't blame you." Shirley felt she needed to cover one last issue.
"I'm not so sure about that." Danny frowned once again.
"Danny, Keith is shutting everyone out right now for reasons none of us can understand, but I'm sure before too long he'll tell you himself that you actually helped to solve this whole mystery." Shirley smiled at his questioning look. "By keeping all of Olivia's letters and coming up with the plan to flush her out of hiding, you really did do quite a lot to help."
"Yeah, I guess I did!" Danny said his pride and sense of well-being fully restored.
Shirley left his room knowing that one of her sons was well on his way to getting back to normal. One down, one to go. Now she just had to worry about Keith.
xoxo
Reuben felt a moment's panic, but then noticed the patio curtains blowing in the breeze. He set down the two cases and headed that way. He looked outside and found Keith sleeping on one of his lounge chairs. He smiled at the picture; smiled, that is, until he noticed his bottle of bourbon sitting on the ground next to Keith's chair. The bottle had been full because Reuben wasn't much of a drinker. He'd received it from an old army buddy at their last reunion. He noticed that the bottle was still three quarters full, but Keith had obviously taken a few pulls on the bottle hoping to block out his pain.
Things were pretty serious if the kid was turning to the bottle.
Reuben grabbed the bottle, put the cap back on and returned it to his liquor cabinet before returning to the balcony. "Keith!" He shook Keith's shoulder at the same time he spoke his name firmly. Keith groaned slightly and then his eyes slowly began to blink open.
"Oh, hey Reuben." Keith said with a slight smile and then a look of guilt quickly replaced the look of welcome. He watched Keith's eyes move to the ground next to the chair expecting to find the bottle of bourbon and finding nothing. Reuben saw his eyes move around the balcony almost in panic.
"It's alright. I put it away." Reuben told him and sat down in a chair facing Keith.
"Oh." Keith said and sat up a little straighter in the chair.
"So, is it that bad that you've started drinking?" Reuben asked almost gently.
"I didn't….." Keith faltered to a close.
"You didn't drink much? Yes, I know. I put the bottle away, remember?" Reuben reminded him.
"Right." Keith couldn't meet his eyes.
"Keith, talk to me. I promise not to judge you. I promise not to stop you or make comments." Reuben assured him.
"Will you promise not to hate me?" Keith asked quietly.
Reuben raised his eyebrows at that question. Why would Keith expect him to hate him? Nothing the kid did would be able to make that happen – or at least he didn't think there was anything. He noticed Keith peeking at him from under his lashes waiting for his answer as if it really mattered. Which it obviously did.
"I promise not to hate you, Keith." Reuben tensed as he finally realized he may hear things that were worse than he'd suspected. They had to be if Keith even thought that Reuben could end up hating him.
Keith's eyes finally met Reuben's as he judged the sincerity of the answer. After a couple of minutes in which Reuben had to fight the urge to squirm under the scrutiny, Keith finally looked into the near distance and started talking.
xoxo
Reuben waited impatiently by the door. Keith had said he was almost ready and then they could leave for the hearing.
It had been a couple days since Keith had moved back in with him. Days of few words after the first day when Keith had told him everything that had happened while he'd been held hostage by Olivia. It had been easy for Reuben to keep his promise to not hate him. What had been hard was not letting his hate for Olivia show through. Even harder still for him to hide his sympathy, but he'd done it because he'd known it was the last thing Keith had wanted. So, he'd withheld it.
Finally, Keith walked out of the bathroom tightening his tie. The need for a suit had required another trip to the Partridge abode because Shirley had been certain that Keith would come home before the hearing. She'd been wrong. Keith was still firmly ensconced in Reuben's office. Not that he minded having him there. Keith was a good tenant. Quiet – beyond what was normal for a teenager not to mention a teenage musician.
"Ready?" Reuben asked.
"No." Keith admitted with a weak smile. "But I guess that doesn't really matter. We'd better go or we'll be late."
Reuben nodded his agreement and they headed out the door. Keith kept his head down, but didn't bother with a disguise. It no longer mattered if people knew he was there. In fact, Keith hadn't tried to keep his presence a secret this time. He'd been in the common room to use the piano several times over the last couple of days and had never once tried sneaking around. No one had tried to approach him for which he was extremely grateful. Trish, who might have been the only one who would have felt comfortable talking to him, was away on a vacation visiting her family back east. Keith had been glad for the almost solitary existence he'd been allowed.
Keith had played hooky from his classes with his professors' blessings until the circus of this hearing was completed. Once it was over, they expected him back in classes. Another thing for which Keith was extremely glad. He'd always had to deal with being the celebrity while attending school, but that had been easy enough to handle. Then, people were only tentative when they were too nervous to talk to him or to ask him for an autograph. Now, people weren't even trying to approach him. They simply watched him walk by and then talked about him as he'd passed. They didn't even wait until he was out of earshot to talk about him. Keith had done his best to ignore it, but it had been getting harder and harder.
The walk to the car was as silent as the drive to the courthouse. Reuben glanced at Keith several times and thought he had a green tint to his skin. A tint that got darker when he parked the car and Keith looked up to see the hoard of reporters staking out the entrance to the courthouse.
"Mr. Kincaid!" Reuben glanced up to see Agent Smith approaching the car. "We've got the back way cleared for you to get in. You won't have the run the gauntlet up front."
Reuben looked over at Keith to see a look of obvious relief pass over his features. They got out and quickly followed the agent hoping to make it in before being spotted. Reuben had just pulled the door open to let Keith enter in front of him when they heard a yell of "there he is" coming from the front of the building. Keith ducked his head even further and darted quickly into the building. The door was closed and locked behind them.
"This way." Agent Smith directed them to a private room just off to the side of the courtroom where the hearing would be held. They entered the room to find Shirley, Laurie, a fully recovered Johnny Burnhardt, Ron and Nic Landry, Mr. & Mrs. D'Angelo and Anne's Aunt Francesca already present. Everyone in the room turned to look at them as soon as they entered.
Keith pulled up short as his eyes scanned the room's occupants and quickly turned to Agent Smith. "Where's the nearest restroom?" He asked and headed right back out the door.
Shirley walked up to Reuben as she watched her son's back retreating from the room. "Reuben, how is he?"
"About as good as can be expected." Reuben had turned to watch him leave too.
"What does that mean? Exactly." Shirley asked her worry evident in every line of her body.
"He's nervous and, I think, close to getting sick." Reuben admitted.
"I was afraid of that. Maybe I should go and check on him." She started for the door.
"Shirley, he went to the men's room. I'll go check on him." Reuben offered.
"Thank you." Shirley smiled tiredly.
xoxo
When Reuben entered the men's room, he found Keith rinsing out his mouth at the sink. As he'd suspected, Keith had lost what little he'd eaten for breakfast that morning.
"You gonna be alright?" Reuben asked quietly so as not to scare him.
Keith's eyes flew to the mirror and he looked at Reuben with slightly watery eyes. He closed his eyes in a very long blink and when he opened them back up, he nodded slightly. He didn't trust his voice at the moment.
After a couple of minutes of silence, Keith finally said, "I can't go back into that room."
"You mean the conference room?" Reuben asked surprised. Everyone in that room was on his side. Why would he be afraid to go back in there?
Keith nodded and then tried to explain when Reuben's surprised look didn't disappear. "They all want to give me words of support."
"And?" Reuben wasn't following.
"Reuben, I know they mean well, but I just can't handle sympathy right now. Understand?" Keith leaned heavily against the sink and only met Reuben's eyes through the mirror image.
"Sure. I'll tell them we'll meet them in the courtroom, alright?" Reuben offered. At Keith's nod, he continued, "I'll be right back. Just wait here for me. There's a police officer at the door, so you should be left alone."
Reuben met everyone in the hallway. They had been asked to take a seat in the courtroom. The proceedings were about to start. Reuben pulled Shirley aside and told her that he'd bring Keith in, in just a minute. He told her that he was pretty sure Keith had gotten sick, but that he seemed a little better now. She nodded solemnly and wanted so much to cry, but held it in.
Moments before the bailiff would announce the judge's entrance, Reuben escorted Keith into the room. Keith paused once again surprised by the size of the audience. The courtroom was jam packed with reporters. No cameras were allowed, but notebooks were out and they were all madly scribbling their impressions of the proceedings so far. A hush fell over the room as soon as everyone realized he'd entered.
Keith took a half a step back and almost bumped into Reuben. His body was urging him to flee. He was seconds away from giving in to that urge when he finally caught his mother's eyes and saw her motion him forward with a gentle smile. He kept his eyes locked on hers, pulled himself together, walked past all the curious onlookers and took a seat next to her sliding over far enough so that Reuben could sit down next to him.
He immediately reached over and grabbed his mom's hand, holding it tightly. His body was so tense that he thought he just might shatter at the next loud sound.
Shirley felt tears again spring to her eyes as Keith was finally reaching out to her for support. He'd pushed her away for weeks, but now he needed her. Desperately. She squeezed his hand just as hard as he squeezed hers letting him know that she was there for him – no matter what.
Laurie reached over and put her hand on top of their joined hands. Keith could not bring himself to turn his head toward Laurie who was leaning forward. All he did was momentarily bring his other hand on top of hers but kept staring straight ahead. A lone tear fell down her cheek and landed on her mother's other hand. When Laurie leaned back and brought her hand back across her mother's body, Shirley grabbed it tightly with the hand still wet with her daughter's tear. They were now physically united in their stand against Olivia.
While the courtroom waited with baited breath, the door opened one more time and Olivia's Aunt Millie walked stately into the room. She looked neither right nor left but settled herself on the opposite side of the courtroom in the reserved front row. It was obvious she'd been crying recently. Shirley surmised that she'd been allowed to visit with Olivia before the hearing and that things had not gone well. The woman held too much guilt. Guilt that wasn't hers to bear. A feeling she had in common with her son.
xoxo
Nic was sitting in the row behind Keith and his family. She too had her hand firmly wrapped in that of her parent. She wanted so badly to lean forward and whisper words of encouragement to him. So badly to tell him that she had kept her promise.
She'd watched him enter the room and fight the urge to run. It was the same urge she'd felt when she'd walked in to face the room full of reporters and curiosity seekers. Other than those victimized by Olivia, the rest of the room was full of people who just wanted to see this whole sordid story play itself out in front of them like a movie. The thought made her both sick and more angry than she could ever remember feeling. How could complete strangers want to watch this very personal event take place?
Oh, she understood the reporters need to be there. It was their job, though she knew many of them took more pleasure in writing about this story than they should have. Too many of them had forgotten that Keith was a victim in all of this. Too many of them partially blamed him for everything that had happened.
She'd been reading all of the news stories since she'd gone home with her dad. She hadn't tried to contact Keith in those weeks knowing that seeing her would just be a reminder of all of the bad things that had happened to him recently. Though it had been hard, she'd kept her distance.
Only once had she called and spoken to Laurie just to ask how he was doing and that had only been recently. She'd been so concerned that he'd answer the phone and be angry that she was checking up on him only to find out that he wasn't currently living at his house, but had moved back in with their manager.
She and Laurie had had a very long chat about how he was doing physically but more importantly emotionally. Laurie had alluded to what Nic knew about their time with Olivia, but Nic had quickly changed the subject. She knew Laurie's curiosity was driven by her desire to help her brother, but Nic knew it was Keith's story to tell – not hers.
All of these jumbled thoughts tumbled through her mind in the few minutes that they sat quietly waiting for the judge to enter the courtroom. Minutes that she closed her eyes and with every fiber of her being sent positive supportive thoughts in Keith's direction.
xoxo
Francesca sat next to Nic Landry and had much the same desire. To let Keith know that she was there for him and that Anne's parents, Francesca's sister and brother-in-law had had time to reflect on everything that had happened and no longer blamed Keith for his part in Anne's death.
She knew that Keith needed to hear it from them directly, but also knew that now wasn't the time. She held her breath while Keith walked toward his mother and then watched him sit down stiffly next to her. She watched him stare straight ahead not once acknowledging anyone in the courtroom except for his mother.
She sensed that he was very close to snapping completely in half. The thought frightened Francesca greatly. She had seen victims of crimes so badly affected by what had happened to them that they never regained their former life. She prayed fiercely that Keith would not be one of those numbers.
xoxo
Everyone rose when the bailiff instructed them to and sat down as instructed. Through it all, Keith's eyes never left the seal behind the judge's head. His mother's hand was almost numb from the tight grip he'd kept on it since sitting down.
When a side door opened and a handcuffed Olivia was lead into the room, a murmur of excitement erupted from the gathered throng. Millie's eyes filled with tears again and she reached into her handbag to remove a wad of tissue to blot the tears she could not hold back.
Shirley looked at the young woman who had tried so hard to ruin her son's life.
She was met by a malevolent stare from a girl whose madness was getting harder and harder to hide. Olivia returned Shirley's look and then transferred an equally hate filled look on Laurie who was glaring at her from behind her mother. Olivia transferred her hateful gaze to Nic who drew in a quick gasp of surprise at the hate that felt much like a slap.
Olivia even turned a glare on her Aunt who began to weep quietly when Olivia's gaze didn't soften. If anything, Olivia added a cruel curl to her lip as she looked upon the woman who had tried so hard to get her help but in Olivia's eyes had only tried to keep her from Keith. It was obvious that Oliva regretted not having checked to make sure her aunt was truly dead the day she'd pushed her down the stairs.
Once her eyes had traveled over the rest of the courtroom's attendees, she turned back to look at Keith. It was the first time the look of anger and hate left her features. They softened immediately into a soft smile and a look of radiant love that caused another murmur of surprise to flow through the onlookers.
Her lawyer pulled her attention away from Keith and instructed her to sit down and face the judge.
Through it all, Keith had never once looked in her direction. Shirley knew he was aware that she was now in the room, because the grip that had been firm before was now downright painful. Keith was well aware that she was near and was holding on by the thinnest of threads.
The judge slammed his gavel down which made Keith jump. It was the only movement he'd made since sitting down.
"Order. I want quiet and I want it now or I'll clear the courtroom." The judge threatened.
"Mr. Gates have you had the appropriate amount of time to converse with Miss Braddock?" The judge asked the public defender sitting next to Olivia.
"Yes, your honor." Mr. Gates answered respectfully. Olivia again curled her lip in disgust at the proceedings.
"Well, I have had time to read the depositions given by….let's see here….Mr. Jonathan Burnhardt, Miss Nicole Landry, Miss Laurie Partridge and Mr. Keith Partridge. I assume that you've also seen them?" The judge inquired.
"That is correct your honor." Mr. Gates confirmed.
"Based upon the evidence in the case, the state is moving to have Miss Braddock charged with four counts of kidnapping, two counts of attempted murder and one count of murder in the first degree." The judge read from the sheet in front of him and then looked up. "There are several other lesser charges that I'll not read at this time, but suffice to say it's quite a laundry list of wrong-doing. How does your client plead?"
"Not guilty by reason of insanity." Mr. Gates stated to another murmur of excitement from the crowd.
The judge was just about to bring his gavel down and order the appropriate mental evaluations when Olivia jumped up and faced her attorney screaming. "Insane! You call yourself my attorney and you have the gall to call me crazy!"
"Order! Order in the court!" The judge slammed his gavel down.
"I am more sane than you are, you incompetent boob!" Olivia continued.
"Miss Braddock!" The judge tried again.
"Oh shut up, old man. You sit up there and think you are worthy of judging my competency." Olivia sneered.
"Mr. Gates, get control of your client." The judge was fuming.
Mr. Gates had risen and was about to put a restraining hand on Olivia when she swung her cuffed hands at his head and made solid contact with the side of his head knocking him back into his chair slightly stunned.
With him out of the way, and before the bailiff and guards could react, Olivia moved around the defendants table and approached Keith who had finally looked at her when she'd started her theatrical ravings.
"Keith! Darling, I love you so much. Don't let them do this to me!" Olivia scrambled to be near him.
Keith's eyes were wide with shock and he had leaned back, his body tensing even further if that was possible. He was close to climbing over the row of benches to get away from the quickly approaching Olivia.
The guards finally caught her and started wrestling her toward the side entrance. The whole time she was screaming for Keith to help her. The crowd of reporters were all watching and writing furiously hoping not to miss a thing, but everything in the room came to a stunned halt when Olivia shouted her last parting comment.
"Keith, how can you do this to me? To us? To me and our baby?"
