Back Recluse Save as PDF
Chapters (64)
  1. Recluse
  2. Dedication
  3. Book Description
  4. Also By Helen Hardt
  5. Praise For Helen Hardt
  6. Warning
  7. Prologue
  8. Charlie
  9. Roy
  10. Charlie
  11. Roy
  12. Charlie
  13. Roy
  14. Charlie
  15. Roy
  16. Charlie
  17. Roy
  18. Charlie
  19. Roy
  20. Charlie
  21. Roy
  22. Charlie
  23. Roy
  24. Charlie
  25. Roy
  26. Charlie
  27. Roy
  28. Charlie
  29. Roy
  30. Charlie
  31. Roy
  32. Charlie
  33. Roy
  34. Charlie
  35. Roy
  36. Charlie
  37. Roy
  38. Charlie
  39. Roy
  40. Charlie
  41. Roy
  42. Charlie
  43. Roy
  44. Charlie
  45. Roy
  46. Charlie
  47. Roy
  48. Charlie
  49. Roy
  50. Charlie
  51. Roy
  52. Charlie
  53. Roy
  54. Charlie
  55. Roy
  56. Charlie
  57. Roy
  58. Charlie
  59. Roy
  60. Charlie
  61. Epilogue
  62. A Note From Helen
  63. Acknowledgments
  64. About the Author

“I don’t know. It’s clear as day now.” Roy rubbed at his temples. “Dad and Father Jim came running toward the elevator, and…” He closed his eyes. “Finally, the doors shut. All that time I’d been trying to get them to close, but they wouldn’t. Then, just in the nick of time, they did. That’s all I remember until…” He squeezed his eyes shut harder.

“Until what?” Reid asked.

“I remember going up in the elevator. I remember the door opening into the lobby. I remember the girl running out screaming. Then it all went black.”

“You probably fainted.”

“No. I didn’t faint.” Roy rubbed the back of his head. “I woke up later with a throbbing headache and a bump on the back of my head.”

“Someone knocked you out,” Rock said, “and I’ll bet you the Wolfe fortune I know who.”

“It couldn’t have been Dad,” I said. “He was somewhere else. Down…”

“Are you saying there’s a lower floor to our building that none of us know about?” Reid asked.

“I don’t know what I’m saying. All I know is the elevator shaft broke and I fell. When the doors opened, I didn’t recognize where I was. And there wouldn’t be a naked woman running around on any of the other floors. Dad was down there. He couldn’t have been the one who hit me.”

“So there’s Dad, Father Jim, and some unknown assailant,” Rock said, shaking his head.

“And the woman,” Lacey added. “Whatever they had planned for her, she escaped it. None of you ever heard anything more about this?”

“I wasn’t around,” Rock said.

“And I never heard a thing,” Reid added. “I don’t even remember you having a concussion, Roy.”

“Neither do I, really,” Roy said.

“A concussion can sometimes cause some retrograde amnesia,” I piped in. “Maybe that’s what happened to you, Roy.”

“Or Derek could have drugged you,” Lacey offered. “A lot of drugs can make you lose the several hours before you actually took them.”

“Maybe,” Roy said. “Dad couldn’t have let me remember. What if I’d gone to the authorities? He’d have been finished.”

“Or not,” Rock countered. “He probably owned the authorities.”

“Then how could he be remembering now?” Reid asked. “No, this was something he buried intentionally. What that detective said is starting to make sense.”

“What?” Roy asked, still rubbing his head.

“Hank Morgan. He said some of your artwork showed signs of psychosis.”

Roy stood. “What?”

“Relax.” Rock’s voice was oddly soothing. “We didn’t believe it. We don’t believe it.”

Reid nodded. “I only mean that it makes sense that some of your art is dark. It must be how you dealt with this all these years.”