Free DoubleDown V by John R. Little and Mark Allan Gunnells Page A

special look in their eyes, she could help them with that too.
    Carlene Jameson was the first, but there’d been many after her.  Karen knew in her heart that she was truly helping them.  They suffered and had no chance of recovery.  Waiting in pain to die is something few people were equipped to do gracefully.  Karen only helped when time stopped for her, so there was no way to tie the murders to her.  As far as she knew, nobody ever really suspected anything unusual had happened.  Terminal patients die.  No surprise there.
    Only one area of her life nagged at Karen. She sometimes woke late at night and thought of her father.  She remembered the four boxes he’d squirrelled away in the closet and the words in his confession, written so many years later: I wish I could say I’m sorry, but when I face myself in the mirror, would I really believe my own lies?
    Part of her tried to forgive him, to say that she was just as much a murderer as he was, but that didn’t hold water for her.  She was killing to help people.  He took the life of an eight-year-old girl who had her whole future ahead of her.
    Tammy Preston had been dead in her grave for close to thirty years.  She would have been in the prime of her life right now.  No punishment could be doled out to her father anymore, but there was still one thing that Karen had struggled with since finding her father’s secrets nine years earlier.
    “Hey, Mom,” Karen called when she walked into the house.  Even though she hadn’t lived there for years, it still felt like home to her.
    Her mom was in the kitchen, baking bread.  It was a hobby she’d picked up in the past few years, when she found a cooking group organized at her local supermarket.  She smiled when Karen walked in, and they hugged.
    “How’s things?”
    “I’m good,” said Karen.   “We’re both doing great.  One piece of news for you—we’re looking into adoption.  It’ll take a long time, but you always told me good things come to those who wait.”
    “That’d be so wonderful!  It’s been a long time since I’ve heard little footsteps padding around this place.”
    After a pause, Karen said, “Mom, I need to show you something.  It’s kind of a big deal.”
    She took her mom by the hand and started up the stairs to the master bedroom.
    “What is it?”
    Karen sat on the bed with her mom beside her.  Both of them could feel tension in the air.
    “A long time ago, I found some things that Dad had been hiding away in the closet.”
    Her mom stared at her, clearly surprised Karen had snuck into their bedroom closet.
    “I know I shouldn’t have gone in there, but I did.  I think you need to see what he was hiding.  You need to know because you have a view of Dad that you may have to modify.  I’ve been haunted by the boxes in the closet for years, and I just need you to know they’re there.”
    Karen went to retrieve the boxes and placed them on the bed beside her mom.  She suggested they be opened in the same sequence she originally had opened them: the report cards, the magazines, the gun, and the note.
    Karen hugged her mom, who just looked confused.  Then she smiled and said, “I’ll be down in the living room. I’ll make us coffee for whenever you’re done.”
    She bit her tongue as she left, wondering if she’d done the right thing.
     
    *   *   *
     
    Thirty minutes later, Karen’s mom came down and sat with her, smiled as if resigned to the truth found upstairs and gave Karen a long hug.  They never spoke of the boxes again.
    The last of Karen’s stress points melted away, and she smiled as she thought of her future.
     
     

 
     
     
     
Chapter 10
     
     
    Two years passed.  Karen and Bonnie had the perfect life.  They loved each other, they enjoyed their jobs, they enjoyed their home, and they found time to travel a little bit each year.
    They hoped to adopt but so far that hadn’t worked out.  That was okay; they were patient.  They