Lost & Found Ch. 05

Dolan was almost frothing now, his eyes blazing, not a hint of sanity or remorse for what he was doing showing there, only black rage and the thirst for revenge.

Angie was close to collapsing with fear for her baby, but she managed to speak calmly to him, trying to get him to step away from the baby, put the carrier down, anything to keep that lethal blade away from her baby. As she slowly stepped toward him she caught sight of someone slowly, silently moving up behind him, so avoided looking at him so she wouldn't tip him off, concentrating instead on her baby, miraculously still fast asleep in her baby-carrier.

"What do you want from me, Steve? You know what you did, that's why I had to leave; I'm married now, I have a baby, please, I'm begging you, don't hurt my baby!"

Steve glared at her, not even the ragged edge of sanity showing in his eyes.

"I want my life back, I want my home, I want my money, my wife, everything, everything you took from me, that's what I want, you fucking bitch!"

Angie spoke calmly, her voice calkm and even, not a trace of the fear she was feeling showing through.

"If you want, I'll come away with you, Steve, but you have to put the baby down; just put her down, Steve, and I'll do whatever you want, I promise!"

A look almost of sad wistfulness flitted across his face.

"Really...You'll...you'll come back? You promise?"

Angie wrung her hands, realizing she had to keep him talking, had to prevent him from making any move toward that tiny body strapped into the carrier.

"I...promise, Steve, really, I'll come back, and everything will be the way it was, I promise you, but you have to put my baby down, please, just put her down!"

He looked confused, wavered, the razor sharp blade weaving erratically in front of the sleeping child, then grinned happily and put the carrier down between his feet, and toppled forward as whoever it was Angie had seen standing behind him hefted the heavy candlestick, then bashed him with it again. Steve folded without a sound, blood pouring from a gaping scalp wound.

"I knew my son was a bastard, I never realized he was a crazy bastard!" the slender, red-headed woman remarked to no-one in particular as Angie darted forward with an inarticulate cry, scooping up the carrier and holding it protectively to her as Elio rushed forward to hold his wife and daughter. Roisian Dolan looked down at Steve, lying unconscious on the church floor, her face set and her eyes flinty, and hefted the candlestick again.

"That's what you get for trying to hurt babies, you rotten little bastard, see how you like it! How the hell I ever gave birth to something like you I'll never know!"

The wailing of sirens came from outside the church, then a handful of Daly City Police officers slipped into the church, guns drawn, to find the hostage-taker sprawled unconscious and bleeding from a head wound, Frank and Joey crouched over him to subdue him if he stirred.

The paramedics patched Dolan up, then, still unconscious, he was cuffed to a gurney and bundled into an ambulance. The police sergeant handling the arrest told Robbie that Dolan would be taken to San Mateo Medical for treatment before being locked-up in Santa Rita pending Psychiatric evaluation. Casey hugged Karen as she trembled with shock and outrage, holding her while one of the paramedic's dressed her split lip, after he checked over all the babies to make sure none of them had been injured in any way.

Steve and Robbie had asked all the guests to make their way to the Green Hills Country Club, where the Reception was being held, until there was only the immediate family left at the church. Frank formally introduced Kat to her aunt Roisian, the two of them looking more like mother and daughter than aunt and niece as they embraced.

Sarah had been amazed at the close resemblance between Kat and Roisian, and intrigued at the fact that Roisian, as well as being Joey, Robbie and Casey's grandmother, was also the sister of her beloved Papa Mike. She watched in teary wonder as her sons embraced their grandmother for the first time, and Roisian's tearful reaction to little Joey, and Robbie, her two great-grandsons.

Then came Casey's meeting with her grandmother, and there was only one thing on her mind.

"Gramma, if you hadn't been here, I don't know what...!" she shook as she thought again about what had so nearly happened. Roisian hugged her tightly.

"It's okay, shush, nothing bad happened to anyone, except your pig of a father, and he asked for it! I know what went wrong with your father, but I was never able to fix it, he was just too much like his father, and today was the result of that. I should never have left, I should have stayed, I heard from Frank what Steve did before, please believe me, if I'd been here, I would have tried to protect you from that. I was a coward, I didn't like my son, I hated what he'd become, I didn't know how to deal with him, so I ran, and this is the result...!"

She wiped her eyes on the square of lacy cotton Casey handed her. Roisian smiled at her, looking younger, looking just like Kat.

"I was just going to sit at the back and slip out before the end; I didn't want us to meet like this, and I didn't want a big reunion scene to overshadow your wedding day; after all, it's your special day, but something made me stay until the vows; it's a good thing I did!"

A look of barely suppressed outrage flitted across her face.

"When I think how my son endangered that poor little baby, and my own great-grandbabies... I'm glad I did what I did, he had it coming, and it was richly deserved!"

"How did you know, Gramma, who told you I was...we were...?"

Roisian grinned, no trace of the sudden anger on her face, or in her voice.

"Young Frank invited me; Robbie told him where he thought I was, Frank tracked me down and asked me to come, so I did; it's amazing, he's amazing, he's the living image of his father, and he's just as sweet and thoughtful as Martin ever was; my niece is a very lucky girl! I heard how much she and Frank love Robbie, and you, and I was glad you'd found yourselves a real family. After Frank went to so much trouble to find me, I couldn't not come."

Casey calmed down under her grandmother's soothing embrace.

"And Robbie...and me? What about...?"

Roisian chucked her lightly under her chin.

"I came to see my grandchildren get married to the people they love, not to judge them. I've missed their whole lives, so I have no right to judge or dictate what they do with them, even if I were inclined to do so. And Joey, what a lovely boy he is, so like his grandfather Martin, and so handsome; dear, sweet Martin Novak lives on in him as well! I think I'm going to like getting to know my grandchildren...and my great-grandchildren as well!"

Casey and Angie were still feeling the effects of what had so nearly happened, and were considering cancelling the reception, but Roisian persuaded them to attend their wedding reception; she reminded them that they had guests, and this was their day, even if Steve Dolan had so very nearly turned it into a tragedy. Casey had initially been feeling strange about having her absentee grandmother suddenly so near, but then she watched Roisian pick Robbie out of his carrier and hug him close, talking softly to the little boy as she showered him with kisses, and listening as Robbie laughed and gurgled back at her, and grinned in relief; perhaps everything was going to turn out all right after all.

*

Steve Dolan was evaluated by the court-appointed psychiatrist and found to be unfit to stand trial on the grounds of mental incapacity, and was sent to Atascadero, Casey signing the committal papers without a qualm. After what he'd tried to do to an innocent baby, and done to her in the past, she would have strapped him in the chair and pulled the switch herself if she had the opportunity. She still felt the horror and helpless outrage swell up in her, hot and powerful, whenever she thought about what he'd threatened to do to that innocent baby.

No, let him rot in that scary place, penned-up together with all the other crazies and violent sexual predators; he was where he deserved to be, he was one of them, after all, so he should feel right at home. She'd never agree to his release; if necessary she'd swear to a judge on a stack of bibles that she considered him a threat to her life and family, anything to keep him caged-up in there forever.

As it transpired, she didn't have to resort to that; six months after his initial committal, Steve Dolan was re-evaluated and this time was deemed to be fit to stand trial, and so he was transferred back to the jail at Santa Rita to await trial. Less than a week after he was transferred back, he was found dead in a shower room; he'd been viciously beaten and gang-raped, a bar of soap forced into his mouth to muffle his cries, and once his attackers had finished with him, they'd stabbed him several times through the neck and chest with a shiv carved from a toothbrush; whoever had done it had used such force it had snapped-off inside one of the puncture wounds. No perpetrator had been uncovered, and the case was listed as 'Under Investigation'.

When Robbie got the news, he pondered how to break it to Casey; asking Frank only got him one answer; "Tell her the truth, Robbie, it's what you're good at."

Robbie waited until that night to tell her, waiting for the right opportunity. They were lying in bed, luxuriating in the feel of each other, warm and comfortable, when Robbie decided that now was the right time.

"Baby, we got a visit today, Sergeant Bell, Daly City PD; it's about your fath...about Steve."

Casey turned away from him, her body suddenly stiff and unyielding.

"Robbie, if you ever loved me, if you want me to stay with you, you'll never mention that fucker again, not as long as you live, do you understand?" she gritted, her voice almost harsh with hatred and anger.

Robbie put his hand on her waist, drawing her closer.

"No, Case, you don't understand; he was found...dead, in a shower room in Santa Rita, he'd been...sexually assaulted, beaten and stabbed. They don't have anyone for it yet, they're still investigating, was all he could tell me."

Casey lay absolutely still, and Robbie thought she was crying, but when she turned back to face him, her eyes were dry, and her features calm, composed.

"Then it's over, baby, he's gone and it's all finally over. If there's a Hell, he's in it, and I'm glad; he did so much wrong to both of us, to so many other people, and if he went to jail, one day they'd have let him out, and none of us, you, my babies, me, would be safe. Now I know he'll never be the boogeyman waiting around the corner, now he'll never be back to plague us; now our babies will be safe, and so will we. God help me, but I'm glad he's dead, now at least he won't try and kill any more innocent little babies, now he'll never rape me again, now he'll never be back to try and hurt you. He thought he could live by the sword, instead he died by the sword. It's over, and we can forget him!"

Robbie was shocked at her dismissal of the man who, irrespective of his actions, was still their father. Casey saw the shock and dismay in his eyes, and reached up to caress his cheek.

"You're a good man, Robbie, and one day, a year, ten years from now, you'd have found a way to forgive him, but I can never do that; I know what I sound like, baby, and if it shocks you, I'm sorry, but when it comes to my husband and my babies, nothing matters except that they're safe; I would condemn that man to a million hells if I had to, if it meant my babies slept safe in their beds at night. I hate him for what he did to us, for what he had the power to do, and I cannot find anything inside me that allows me to forgive him, not now, not ever. Right now he's being punished for what he's done, and that's an end to it. I never want to hear his name again, Robbie; that part of our life is gone now, dead and buried with him!"

Robbie backed away, her words making sense even if he was a little shocked at her harsh dismissal of the man. As he pondered her words, something she'd said clicked, and he turned back to her.

"Case, you said "babies", what did you mean?"

Casey stretched and slid her arms around him as she hugged him close.

"Oh yes, my darling Robbie, I knew there was something I wanted to tell you...!"

FINIS.