CHAPTER 79
Wynn and Jack were beginning to plan something, they were inside the police station and they were making a short text. They were going to expose Charles' photo as a fugitive and a millionaire and that would be very bad for his reputation. Just then voices were heard and the door was opened. Henry, Frankison and Bill had arrived.
Despite recovering from their injuries, both Bill and Frankison insisted on going on this mission, so Henry decided to take them by car, none of the three men looked good, and they looked exhausted. After hugging, they all sat down to coffee, where Bill grimaced after tasting...
- Jack! Charlote was right. Your coffee looks like dirty sock water.
Jack frowned as everyone laughed in agreement.
Wynn noticed that his son was looking lost, whatever they had discovered had stirred him up. He was running his hand through that lock of hair and that only happened when he was nervous or lost.
- Speak up, Frankison. I'm your father and I know you very well, and I know you have something important to say.
Frankison looked at his father, not knowing how to tell him all this, if it was difficult for him as a brother to listen, he couldn't imagine what his father would feel.
- Go ahead. I promise to listen until the end and I'll breathe well.
Wynn knew the story wouldn't be pretty, and Jack had the same feeling.
Frankison began, and sometimes Bill or Henry joined in. They recounted everything that Jane had said, every detail. Wynn and Jack were crying. Bill had his hands on Wynn's, giving her strength. Today, Bill knew the pain a father felt when he heard about the pain his child had gone through, and he was Elizabeth's father, just like Wynn. Jack couldn't accept it, he wished he had met Elizabeth sooner and taken her out of that hell.
Wynn and Jack were horrified when they heard that she had to drink water from the toilet in order not to die of heat and thirst when she was trapped in that room. Wynn remembered that week he had to take on a rescue mission, with so many people falling unconscious because of the heat.
- How could they be so cruel to a child? I can't understand human evil... said Jack.
- Sometimes, Jack, people are so bad that nothing and no one can change them.
Bill and Henry talked it over with them, they didn't think they should tell Elizabeth that they had found out about the facts of her life, because she might feel humiliated or ashamed, she might become depressed about something she had already overcome.
They agreed to love and do everything they could to make Elizabeth very happy.
Jack and Wynn passed on information about Charles' case and the mountie's recovery. Henry, even though he wasn't a mountie, was invited to stay, as he loved Elizabeth. What's more, Henry was very intelligent and a great gambler, and that could help set the trap.
- Jack! Henry was serious... I know I'm not a mountie, like everyone else in this room, but you know my history, you know I've had contact with mounties, pinketons and even some gangs, I wasn't a very good man.
- What do you mean, Henry? Bill said without patience.
- If you have the three guys involved in this plot, you'll have to bait each of them separately, a different bait. For example: Charles Kinsegton II, you could throw his picture in the Rose newspaper, as a fugitive, a millionaire man being sought as a fugitive from the mountie, it would damage his image, in addition, the gossip that high society would raise like dust to the ground. Your company's shares will fall, you'll lose partners or investors, your family will suffer from their surname being linked to a dangerous fugitive.
- Got it; you want to catch the rat with a piece of cheese? Bill laughed and spoke.
- Yes... Imagine Rosemary Leveaux Coulter, she loves a good story, she loves Elizabeth and she wants to protect her and above all she wants justice. She has the gift of gab and knows the channels.
- But would a simple newspaper from a frontier town have all that visualization? Would it have that effect or that power?" Wynn asked seriously.
Henry, Jack and Bill looked at each other.
- Wynn, I need you to understand the effect of Rose's words. She can put in words that will hold and make Charles very angry and make mistakes, and so we can catch them in this trap.
- What do you mean, Henry? What are these words and how can she help us?
- Rose can throw crucial information at Charles. After all, she has you as informants. She'll be able to plan and write a plot that will provoke him into action, I think she's fooling the police. Henry explained.
- It sounds risky, but if it leads us to Charles, I'm willing to go along with the plan and talk to Rose.
- I know it's risky, but she can and will do a story, which will attract the attention of the big newspapers, because it will have Charles' name on it, in a matter of days the news will be running in every newspaper in Canada; we just need to be open and ready to act, when Charles takes the bait.
- What do you think he'll do, Henry?
He looked down and then back up at Jack and said:
- He'll come after Elizabeth...
- I won't let him get to her. Jack stood up angrily.
- Jack, I know your feeling and it's mine too. But listen, he's going to come after her anyway, so you'd better spring the trap and keep an eye on her and catch this man, without giving him a chance to lay a finger on her.
Bill sighed and told Jack that he understood what Henry was getting at. It was at this point that Bill spoke up:
- Jack! We have another problem, apart from Elizabeth.
- What's that? I'm getting tired of all these problems.
- Charlote.
- My mother? Jack couldn't have been more surprised.
- Boy, I need to talk to you about something very serious. It's about your mother. Years ago, something terrible almost happened to her, something I need you to know about.
- What's going on? Please tell me everything.
- Your mother almost fell victim to a distressing situation. You were just a young boy, barely fifteen... a man, if you can call him that, threatened her and tried to do horrible things to her. I arrived in time and managed to rescue her from his hands, but I feel she's in danger again.
- She... He... He didn't do what I think he did, did he? Jack couldn't speak without stuttering.
- No, Jack. He didn't succeed, but as I told you, it was close; he already had your mother in his hands and some of her clothes had already been torn, she had some bruises, but thank God, I felt I needed to see her and I went to your house, at that time you and your brother were on your uncle's farm.
- This is unbelievable. I can't admit it... how come she never told me anything about it? Jack was pale and Frankison supported him with his hands on his shoulder.
- She kept it from you and Tom, to protect you, not to make you suffer. But back then you were children, not today, you've growing up and as well as being a son you're a mountie, and you need to know.
- I can't believe what I'm hearing. I just need two pieces of information, Bill...
- Who did it and have they been punished? Jack was as serious as Bill had ever seen him.
Bill looked at Wynn, who, listening to the story, knew there was more to the story, and he didn't like what he was about to hear.
- I did everything I could to get him arrested, but his surname was strong within the Mounties, a list of ancestors with glory, the central office even used the powers of his grandfather and father, who were still alive at the time, to cover up the case, and I only managed to send him to places, far away and with almost no communication. He was also responsible for me leaving as your father's partner. It was a plan to get your mother, that's why I got that punishment...
- Bill, you're not who I think you are, are you?
- Yes, Jack...
Jack jumped up screaming:
- I'll kill you, Margraves...
