Murder Deja Vu

when Larkins cuffed him and took him away. Cameras flashed and newsmen peppered Reece with questions as he walked into the daylight. How did these people know what was going on? They were like vultures picking at carrion. One pointed to the flowering stain on his shirt. He ignored them all. Tobey caught up with him and steered him toward a waiting car, pushing away the reporters blocking their way. He opened the rear door. Dana sat inside. She threw her arms around him when he got in, and he put his arm around her, flinching when he did. She pulled back and noticed his shirt.
    “You need a doctor,” she said. “You’re pale as a ghost.”
    He nodded.
    Larkins and Tobey had told her their plan before they told Reece, but she had teased him with the key and the idea of escaping. He was glad he nixed the idea.
    “It’s over,” she said.
    Reece fought a mood, despite Dana’s warm body next to him. How could he tell her that it would never really be over. Not when he thought of his brother. Not when he thought of the last twenty-one years.
    “Your attorney and her investigator are waiting at the station,” Tobey said, getting behind the wheel. “We need to settle a few things, then you’re free to go. But first, we’ll stop at Mercy. Get that wound looked at.”
    “Free to go.” Reece put his head back and closed his eyes. He had waited a long time to hear those words and know they were forever.
    “You must feel a sense of justice, Reece,” Tobey said, dodging the photographers and reporters clustered around the car as he pulled into traffic.
    Reece traded glances with the Portland detective in the rear view mirror. “Justice? Carl’s my brother. I get no satisfaction knowing what he’ll go through in the coming years. All I feel is an overwhelming sadness.”
    “I’m sorry,” Tobey said. “I assumed everyone thinks like me. ‘Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.’”
    “The words were, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay , saith the Lord.’ Vengeance is for God to repay, not man.” Reece felt Dana’s eyes on him and turned to her. “And vengeance isn’t as sweet as I thought.”
    “That’s because you’re who you are,” Dana said, stroking his face.
    Reece thought back to when Larkins and Tobey came into his hospital room. Larkins had come to Portland to investigate the mortgage fraud. He had no idea Reece would figure into his plan. The Portland Police were on the lookout for him, but when Jim Payton called after arresting Klugh and told them his suspicions, it became a collaboration. Federal agents had tried to find Reece in Massachusetts, but until Carl took his shot, Reece managed to stay off the radar. Even Dana couldn’t reach him, because he’d shut off his phone. Reece shook his head at the turn of events. He remembered when Larkin presented his plan. The agent had the warrant to get inside Carl’s office and he had the recording equipment. All he needed was Reece to go along.
    “Sorry we had to use you,” Tobey said. “But the FBI needed the information to prosecute Carl, and if we could help your sheriff close out a couple of murders, well, all the better. You were our best bet.”
    Best bet, Reece thought. He’d been the best bet of a vengeful public twenty-one years ago. The best bet for the murder of two women in North Carolina. Today he’d been the best bet to trick his brother into confessing he perpetrated a colossal mortgage fraud and that he framed Reece for murder, not once, but twice.
    “Looks like Carl will be prosecuted for murder before he will for fraud,” Dana said.
    Tobey craned his neck toward the back seat. “Double murder. Depends in which jurisdiction, North Carolina or Massachusetts. They can fight over him. Either way, he’ll be going away for a long, long time.”
    Reece mulled over those words. Going away for a long time . Knowing what they meant burned a hole in his gut.
    “Your investigator called it from the beginning,” Tobey said. “He felt sure forensics wouldn’t match Carl’s story. No powder burns on your shirt, for one thing, but hearing it in Carl’s words clinched it. Glad it worked out to your advantage.”
    Reece looked out the window, passing places from another life he didn’t recognize anymore. “Did it? Yeah, I guess it did. Somehow it’s bittersweet.”
    “At least before your father died he found out the truth,” Dana said.
    Reece turned to her. “Hardly comforting for him to realize that one son wasn’t the