Disclaimer: I own none of the Charmed characters or locations. The idea for this story was from the movie Eye for an Eye [1996] starring Sally Fields, Ed Harris and Keifer Sutherland and many scenes will be very similar to the movie. So credit for that goes to the writers of that movie. Please don’t sue me.
Warning: There will be violence and highly emotional scenes in this story. Please, read at your on risk.
Notes: For this story there are no powers. Leo and piper are married, live in the manor and have two daughters. Lindsay [16] and Hallie [5]. This is purely a Piper fic with Leo, Lindsay and Hallie as side characters. There is no Phoebe, Prue, Paige, Cole, or Darryl.
Piper Halliwell Wyatt felt as though she had been in one place forever. Her patience was wearing thin in the afternoon San Francisco traffic. The interstate was a parking lot and she had too many errands on her list to have to deal with crazy drivers and insane traffic jams. Balloons filled her Jeep Grand Cherokee and a birthday cake was sitting precariously in the backseat waiting for a party. She relaxed only slightly knowing that Lindsay, her oldest daughter, was at home waiting for grocery delivery and decorating for her youngest daughter’s birthday party and that her husband Leo was out shopping for the gifts Hallie had wanted. It was Hallie’s 5th birthday, and Piper wanted everything to be perfect for her.
Hallie was a smart, funny, independent little girl. Hallie never needed much of anything from Piper. She smiled thinking of her youngest daughter’s’ stubbornness and intelligence. She then thought of Lindsay, her oldest daughter. She was a beautiful 16 year-old and a talented piano player. She had long straight brown hair, like her mother’s and a smile that melted hearts. But Piper knew that Lindsay was shy and awkward in her own skin. One reason for the shyness was that Lindsay stuttered often and that speech impediment made her the butt of many childhood jokes.
“Children can be evil,” Piper thought out loud as she reached for her cell phone.
She dialed her home number and waited for Lindsay to answer. After six rings finally the sweet voice of her oldest daughter answered.
“Hi, mom. I w-w-was just setting up for the p-party.”
“How is everything looking?”
“P-Perfect, how else?”
Piper smiled. She knew Lindsay did everything she could to please her mother. Piper hated to admit it, and would never tell another soul, but Lindsay was her favorite, if only for the fact that they needed each other so much. Leo and Hallie were so much alike. They needed no one but themselves.
“I knew it would be, that’ s why you’re in charge.”
She listened to Lindsay laugh on the other end of the line and smiled again.
“Hey m-m-mom. I think the delivery g-g-guy just drove up. Where’s the m-m-money?”
“It’s in the envelope on the table in the hall. Don’t hang up the phone, though, I’m sitting in traffic and I’m bored.”
“Okay.”
Piper could hear Lindsay place the cordless phone down in the hallway followed by the echoing chimes of the doorbell. She could hear Lindsay saying hello and then a man’s voice, deep and disconcerting. Piper listened carefully as her daughter paid the man and, stuttering, told him thanks and goodbye. Piper thought she heard some kind of commotion, as though Lindsay was trying to shut the door but he wouldn’t let her. She then heard something that would forever tear at her heart. Her daughter screamed.
“Lindsay!? Lindsay, pick up the phone! Oh, god, who is that Lindsay?”
Lindsay didn’t pick up the phone and Piper’s heart raced as she looked for a way out of the middle lane of traffic she was trapped in. There was no room to move the vehicle. Piper’s hands shook as she gripped the cell phone tightly to her ear and with her other hand threw the car into park and got out into the traffic.
She could hear things breaking and her daughter screaming for help on the other end of the line as she weaved between cars motioning for drivers to roll down their windows. Some looked at her like she was crazy, others ignored her. Finally an elderly lady rolled down her window and asked what she could do to help.
“Lindsay hang on sweetie, mommy’s getting help.”
She held back tears as she looked at the lady.
“Ma’am, please, please call 9-1-1. Someone is my house attacking my daughter.”
The woman immediately picked up her own cell phone and began dialing. Piper could hear her daughter crying and pleading with her attacker. She could tell the cordless phone had been knocked down during the scuffle and knew it was near her daughter. She prayed her daughter could hear her.
“Lindsay, hang on baby, the police are on their way.”
“What’s your address?”
Piper looked at the woman blankly but quickly recovered as she realized what she was asking.
“1329 Prescott Street.”
Piper let the tears stream down her cheeks as she listened further to the sickening sounds of her daughter being struck and then finally there was silence. Piper wanted desperately to hear her daughter’s voice, for some sound. After moments of silence she heard someone breathing into the phone.
“Lindsay, oh god, is that you, answer me please!”
She heard a strange chuckle through the phone and then the phone went dead. She knew then that whoever had attacked her daughter had hung up the phone. Piper fell to her knees gasping for air in the exhaust fumes of afternoon traffic. The balloons escaped the open door of her Jeep. The cake began to melt in the back seat. Her heart burned with intensity and with broken beats, as she knew her daughter, her Lindsay, was hurt, possibly even dead. The asphalt was rough on her knees but she didn’t even notice. Horns honked all around her but she was deaf to the sound. The only thing that echoed into her mind was her daughter’s scream for help. Her 16-year-old daughter screamed for her mommy.
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Piper’s mind raced as she followed the police car onto her street. She parked haphazardly in the middle of the road and ran through the police barricade to her front yard before a uniformed officer stopped her.
“Ma’am, I’m sorry but you can’t go in there.”
“This is my house, and I was on the phone with my daughter when something happened!” She was only vaguely aware that she was screaming and resisting the hold he had on her hand.
The officer held her by the arm and escorted her to the front door where a plainclothes detective was standing scribbling in a small notebook. Piper felt as though she was in a movie, another good guy, bad guy movie.
“Lt. Nelms, this woman says she lives here.”
The detective took Piper’s hand and waved the officer away. Piper was shaking head to toe. She wanted nothing more than to be inside with her daughter.
“Ma’am, are you the mother of Lindsay Wyatt?”
Piper nodded yes, knowing in her heart what would come next. She saw the detective close his eyes and take a deep breath. The sirens around her echoed and the world seemed to spin as the door behind them opened revealing a gurney with a sheet-covered body.
“No. No, no, no, no. Not Lindsay, please, not my daughter, please.” She pleaded with the detective.
She had no idea that he had gathered her in his arms as she fell faint to the ground. She watched as they loaded her daughter’s covered body onto an ambulance and drove away in slow motion. She could hear her own breathing as the other sounds were silenced by her breaking heart.
“Mrs. Wyatt, can you hear me? We need you to come to the station with us. Please, Mrs. Wyatt?”
The world came rushing back to her. The sounds were once again audible, the sights visible. Numbly, she stood and faced the officer.
“Okay. Let’s go.”
She followed the detective to the car and got into the backseat. She looked mournfully at the still open door of the manor. As the detective’s car pulled away from the curb, she knew that her life, their lives would never be the same again. She looked at the back of the detective’s head.
“My husband. I have to tell my husband.”
“He’s already been called, Mrs. Wyatt. He’s picking up your other daughter and taking her to the babysitter’s house. He said he would come to the station after that.”
She nodded without emotion.
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The police station was crowded and noisy, an apparent theme in Piper’s day. She thought of Lindsay, home alone in such a crowded world. She regretted leaving her there that morning. She thought of the way Lindsay looked as she had left the house for work.
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“Lindsay! Get down here and eat your breakfast. I have to drop your sister off and then get to work, and I don’t want to miss my morning hug!”
“She’s brushing her hair, mommy. It takes her forever.”
Piper smiled at her 5-year-old daughter with pride as she climbed into the chair at the breakfast table. She had two beautiful daughters born out of absolute love. Hallie was thin-framed like her older sister, but had bright blue eyes and silky blonde hair. She looked like a child straight from a baby shampoo commercial. She was the image of her father. Lindsay had been born when Piper and Leo were still in their first year of marriage, a honeymoon baby. Hallie had been born in a reconfirmed faith in their marriage. A 16-year marriage filled with love and devotion and two beautiful girls. Piper smoothed down Hallie’s hair as she once again called for Lindsay.
“Come on Lindsay!”
Piper waited patiently as she heard her older daughter’s footsteps bounding down the stairs. Piper loved how Lindsay seemed to shine at home. But once they were in public and she was forced to speak, the shyness settled in and her shine dissolved. Piper and Leo had never been able to figure out the reason.
Lindsay was wearing her usual favorite pair of GAP Jeans and a black short-sleeve T-Shirt. She had no shoes or socks on and her hair was brushed perfectly straight. Piper felt as though she was looking in a mirror, only Lindsay was much more innocent, gentle and giving than Piper could ever hope to be.
“Mom, aren’t I g-getting too old f-for a morning hug?”
“Never Lindsay.”
“Yeah, never!” Hallie always jumped in on their conversations.
Piper often worried that Hallie could sense the special bond between Lindsay and herself. She hugged Hallie tightly and gave her a long kiss on the cheek.
“I love you my pumpkin bear.”
“I love you my mommy tree.”
Piper wasn’t sure how it had started but the strange names for affection were fitting for the relationship she and Hallie shared. She turned to Lindsay.
“Now give your old mom a hug will you?”
Lindsay wrapped her arms around her mother and Piper could almost feel Lindsay smiling brightly.
“I love you, m-mom.”
“I love you too. Now walk me and your little sister to the door.”
As they reached the door, Piper gave Hallie the car keys.
“Does this mean I get to drive?”
“Yes, in about 11 years. Right now, what this means is you can go unlock the Jeep. I’ll be right there.”
Piper watched her younger daughter as she skipped to the car. She turned to Lindsay.
“Okay, are we ready for the party?”
“I’m going to g-get s-s-started as soon as you p-pull out of h-here.”
Piper looked at her daughter thoughtfully. Her stuttering wasn’t usually that bad around the family unless there was something on her mind.
“Lindsay, baby, is something wrong?”
“N-no. I’m j-just t-tired.”
Piper decided to leave it for later as she looked down at her watch and saw the second hand ticking.
“Okay honey, I’ll call you this afternoon after I get the cake. I love you.”
Piper quickly kissed Lindsay on the cheek and headed out to the Jeep where Hallie sat making faces through the window. Piper laughed and got in on the driver’s side. As she pulled away, she looked again at Lindsay waving from the front porch of the manor. A true angel from God, she thought as she turned her attention to the road.
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“Mrs. Wyatt? Mrs. Wyatt, are you okay?”
Piper snapped her head toward the sound of the detective’s voice. She was seated at a table with two chairs face to face with Lt. Nelms. She could tell by his face that she didn’t look so well.
“Mrs. Wyatt, I am truly sorry about your daughter, but we need to get a statement from you so we can catch this person.”
Piper nodded and explained to him what had occurred on the cell phone. She told him what delivery company they used. Immediately Lt. Nelms put a man on that trail. She was handed a glass of water that she meagerly sipped. As she held the glass she watched her hands shaking. The situation was distant, surreal. However when Leo walked through the door of the interrogation room, she fell apart.
The tears fell heavily and without pause as she sunk into his arms and felt his chin on her head. She could hear a voice, strangely muffled and desperate and quickly realized it was her own.
“Leo. She’s gone! My Lindsay is gone. My angel. How? Why?!?!?”
Leo said nothing. Piper could feel his arms tightly around her shoulders. His lips on her forehead, his tears mixing with her own. She could feel her world tailspin into grief, into pain, into darkness. Nothing else truly mattered anymore, her Lindsay was gone.
Piper sat quietly in the passenger seat while Leo guided the vehicle home. She dreaded the mess she would find in her house, not because of the clean-up, but because the mess would indicate exactly what had happened to her daughter. She had already heard too much, had too much information. Her daughter had been raped and strangled.
She watched the mailboxes pass, one by one as Leo drove slowly down their street and finally into their driveway. She looked toward the door and was relieved to see the police tape was gone from the house, but was crushed to find that Lindsay would not be waiting for them in the kitchen as she always did. She barely noticed the tears falling from her face as Leo turned the key in the door.
“Piper, honey, we don’t have to do this tonight. We can wait tomorrow or a week, or whenever it will be easier for you.”
Piper snapped her head in Leo’s direction and the scowl upon her face showed her disapproval. She found her voice.
“How dare you, Leo. How dare you ever suggest that this will be easy for me ever again. My little girl is gone, Leo. I heard her being raped and then murdered. Tell me exactly how this will ever be easy.”
Leo said nothing as Piper threw open the door and marched into the foyer. She stopped immediately upon seeing the broken glass of the lamp that had once sat on the foyer table. She turned a left into the living room and on the floor she could a dollar bill crumpled and torn. She remembered the money she had left for Lindsay.
“Piper. Please.”
She turned again to look at Leo and this time noticed his eyes, too, were filled with tears and loss. She swallowed hard not ready to comfort anyone. She looked again at the broken lamp, the spilled groceries and the crumpled dollar bill. She noticed a small stain in the carpet. She knew it was blood.
She felt the nausea rise in her throat. She ran to the downstairs bathroom and kneeled by the toilet. She was thankful when nothing came. The sadness and sickness that steadied itself in her heart was too heavy for anyone to bear. It was certainly too much for Piper. But still, like a mother does, she rose from the ground and found strength inside her. She knew she needed to find the man responsible and she knew that she needed to make him pay in a court of law. She prayed that the police would find and arrest him.
She heard the light knocking on the door.
“Piper, Piper, please. Come out. We have to talk about some things.”
She studied Leo’s face as she stepped out of the bathroom and smoothed down her hair. She avoided looking at the living room and went straight into the kitchen. Leo followed quietly. As she poured herself a glass of water she took note of the tremble in her hands. She wondered if they had stopped shaking at all since earlier that afternoon.
“What do we need to talk about Leo?”
“A funeral.”
She felt her knees weaken and her stomach lurch. She couldn’t possibly think about Lindsay’s funeral.
“I can’t Leo, I cannot bury my daughter.”
“We have to Piper. We have to give her a place to rest.”
“What are you? The funeral home owner?”
“Piper, please. We have to make decisions.”
“You make them Leo. You decide what to do. You decide what box you want to put her in for eternity. You decide which dress she should be buried in. Decide if she looked better in pink or yellow. Frankly I believe she had her favorite jeans on when that monster came and took her away from us. Would you like to have that put back on her?!?”
She could tell Leo was in as much pain as she was. But she knew he wasn’t in more pain. He hadn’t lost his favorite daughter. She thought about her youngest daughter.
“Oh god,” she whispered. “What are we going to tell Hallie?”
Leo looked stunned. Piper knew the thought hadn’t crossed his mind. They were going to have to tell a 5-year-old child that her older sister was murdered. She wondered how Hallie was ever going to be the same. She wondered how any of them would be the same.
“Leo, listen to me. I want to tell Hallie. I want to wait until tomorrow and then go get her and tell her. And while I do that you can decide what Lindsay’s funeral should be. I think she should wear the white dress she wore at her sixteenth birthday party.”
Leo nodded in agreement, no longer hiding his tears. Piper took in a deep breath and swore to herself that she could still smell Lindsay’s perfume in the kitchen. She shook away the thought and left the room leaving behind her husband.
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The night was longer than the day had been. Piper tossed and turned and never closed her eyes. She watched Leo and wondered how he could sleep so soundly. She wondered if he cared at all.
Images flashed through her mind. A balloon floated up, up, up until it could no longer be seen. A cake melted in the backseat of her Jeep. Lindsay screamed for help. A man with no face, laughing.
Piper sat up in the bed. She had been asleep and a nightmare had rudely awakened her. Leo was sitting on the edge of the bed holding her. She snuggled into him and immediately thought of Lindsay. She thought momentarily that it had been a dream but when she saw Leo’s face she knew it had been real. She quietly pulled away from her husband’s solemn face and looked at the clock. It was just after 8am. She inhaled a sharp breath and stood from the bed.
Without a word she walked down the hall to Lindsay’s room. Piper needed to grieve. She needed to feel the loss. She felt as though if she didn’t cry for Lindsay then she was betraying her. She opened Lindsay’s door and walked into the clean orderly room. That was her Lindsay, Piper thought, always trying to please them with her neatness, her good grades, her effort in everything she did.
Piper let her hand float to a framed picture on Lindsay’s desk. It was a photo of their family. Leo, Piper, Lindsay and Hallie smiled back at the camera with pure love and happiness.
The tears were involuntary. She grieved. She felt Leo’s presence at the door. She didn’t mind his hovering and was grateful for his silence as she took note of her daughter’s room and her still-viable presence. She thought about how Lindsay had seemed preoccupied the previous morning.
“24 hours.” Piper said quietly.
“Until what?” Leo asked.
“No, it’s been 24 hours since I last saw her.”
She could tell Leo was simply nodding. It had been longer for him. Piper knew he hadn’t seen her since she went to sleep the night before that.
Piper picked up a teddy bear from Lindsay’s bed. She held it to her face and breathed in its scent. It radiated Lindsay’s shampoo and perfume. Piper continued to let the tears fall. She looked again at the picture on Lindsay’s desk and wondered what had gone through her daughter’s mind as she had been attacked, as she had called out for her mother.
“I’m going to get Hallie.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, Leo, I need to be with her right now, to know she’s okay. I need to tell her about her sister.”
Leo nodded, “Okay, I’ll call the funeral home.”
Piper could feel her heart tear even further. She left Lindsay’s room and locked herself into the bathroom. She turned on the hot water and when the temperature was perfect she got into the shower. As she stood under the soothing water, images of her daughter being hurt and strangled flashed through her mind. She turned off the water, dried off, got dressed and told Leo she would be back later that afternoon with Hallie.
“Okay, then I’ll get everything cleaned up.”
Piper frowned. She had forgotten about the mess downstairs. The mess created when her daughter had fought for her life. She nodded to Leo and headed for the stairs. She avoided the living room and went to the back door.
In the Jeep on her way to get Hallie, she tried to think of a way to tell her five-year-old daughter that Lindsay was dead. She wasn’t about to tell her the details of what happened. As the drive continued, Piper thought about Lindsay’s 16th birthday party.
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The house was decorated in silver and pink. Hallie had helped Piper decorate, so some of the streamers were hung rather low. Piper smiled looking at them. Lindsay would love it. Lindsay was upstairs getting a shower and getting dressed. Piper had told Lindsay that they were going to a play and that she should wear the dress that Piper had bought her for the occasion. Lindsay had no idea that Piper, Leo and Hallie had decorated and baked a cake and invited Lindsay’s best friends over for her birthday. A small, intimate gathering was just the thing Lindsay needed.
Piper answered the door and was face to face with Natalie Davis. Lindsay had known Natalie since 2nd grade and they were best friends. Natalie was the one friend Piper knew that took up for Lindsay. All the adults in the neighborhood loved Lindsay, but the people her age were afraid of her beauty and therefore made fun of her one true flaw, her stutter.
Soon, there was a small get together of about 15 people. Eight people from Lindsay’s school, some neighbors, and a few people from Piper’s office and Leo’s office filled the living room. Lindsay’s face was one of surprise and elation as she walked down the stairs dressed in her beautiful white dress, her hair slightly curled at the bottom. She wore no makeup, but had no need to, she was beautiful. She laughed as they yelled surprise and as Piper brought out the large chocolate cake with sixteen candles.
The best moment of the party was when Hallie gave Lindsay her birthday present. Lindsay opened a badly wrapped box, smiling the entire time.
“Hallie, did you w-w-wrap all b-by your-s-self?”
Hallie, who had crawled onto the chair next to Lindsay looked up admiringly at her big sister and nodded.
“Well, y-you did a g-great job.”
Piper smiled. She had let Hallie do all her wrapping and present making all by herself. Hallie looked so proud and Lindsay looked so pleased. Piper listened as her daughter stuttered and realized that her daughter wasn’t fully comfortable with all the people in the room but still she continued to smile.
Hallie clapped as Lindsay finished ripping open the box and pulled out a painting Hallie had done in her preschool class. It was a finger painting.
“It s-says, ‘I love you.’ And everything is s-s-spelled r-right.” Lindsay said smiling proudly at her little sister.
“Do you like it Lindsay?” Hallie asked in her small happy voice.
“Nope. I d-don’t like it.”
Hallie frowned.
“I l-love it!”
Lindsay hugged her little sister who smiled back at her.
“And I l-love y-you.”
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Piper wiped away the tears as she pulled into the driveway of the babysitter’s house. She could see Hallie waiting on the porch. Her little face looked sad. Piper knew that she didn’t know about Lindsay and could only surmise that Hallie thought they had forgotten all about her birthday party. Piper sighed as she opened the door of the Jeep and stepped toward the house. Hallie ran from the porch and jumped into her mother’s arms. Piper held Hallie close and tight and could feel her little legs wrapped around her waist. She hugged her and kissed the top of her head. Hallie looked Piper straight in the eyes.
“Mommy, where’s Lindsay?”
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The zoo was crowded as usual and Piper held onto Hallie’s hand tightly. Together they walked the paths around the animal exhibits. Piper felt uncomfortable in such a large place. She was scared to let go of Hallie’s hand. She was waiting for something bad to happen. She couldn’t shake the feeling, as though someone or something would take Hallie from her as well. She bumped into a man as they traveled along the sidewalks.
Their shoulders brushed one another. She turned to say excuse me and came face to face with a slender man with bright blue eyes. He smiled. Piper could hear a scream and realized quickly that the scream was in the back of her mind. It was Lindsay and again her oldest daughter was screaming for her. Trying to beg for mercy. Piper’s mind faded from the zoo and suddenly she found the view in front of her much different. She was standing in the foyer of their house. The doorbell rang and she opened the door. The man she had just bumped into was there, smiling. Suddenly she was back at the zoo. She shook off the picture she had imagined and she and Hallie continued on. She knew she would have to see Lindsay’s killer for herself, for her own sanity. For the rest of the day every man she saw or heard was the man who came into their house and took away their joy, their angel.
********************************
The morning had worn away and the afternoon was slowly slipping past. It was late in the afternoon. Piper drove Hallie to Golden Gate Park. Piper and her youngest daughter sat in the swings at the empty playground of the park. Hallie looked at Piper with wide eyes, waiting expectantly for Piper to tell her where Lindsay was. Piper swallowed hard as she looked into her daughter’s blue eyes. Her own brown eyes felt dry and burned with fresh tears. She wondered how she could tell her five-year-old baby that her sister was gone.
“Mommy. You look sad. Did I do something bad at the zoo?”
Piper was surprised at the comment.
“No baby. Of course you didn’t do anything bad. But I am sad.”
“Why mommy? Did Lindsay do something bad?”
“No, Lindsay is a good girl just like you honey. But there’s something I have to tell you about Lindsay, baby and it’s not good.”
Piper waited for a response and getting nothing but a curious stare she continued.
“Yesterday, when Lindsay was decorating for your party, a man came into the house and hurt Lindsay very badly.”
“Did she cry?”
Piper thought about what her youngest said and recalled the screams of pain and fear the she had heard from Lindsay over the phone.
“Yeah, sweetie, she cried. But honey, Lindsay will never feel pain again.”
“How come?”
“Honey, Lindsay is in heaven.”
Piper watched as confusion and then realization took their turns swimming in the eyes of her youngest daughter. Then she watched as Hallie’s bottom lip began to quiver and as tears formed at the corner of her eyes. She held her hand and waited for the outpour of the child’s emotions, but none came. Instead they were simply replaced by one simple yet mind-altering question.
“Mommy, did I make Lindsay go away?”
The question broke Piper’s heart over again and again. She wondered how it was a five-year-old could ask if the blame were hers. She thought self-blame and finger pointing was an adult game but apparently she was mistaken. “Why wouldn’t Hallie blame herself,” she thought, “I blamed myself.”
“No, Hallie, not at all. You did not make Lindsay go away.”
“It was a bad man?”
“Yes. A very bad man.”
“Why Lindsay mommy? Is she doing something bad?”
“Absolutely not, Hallie.” Piper fought the tears with all her strength. She slipped out of the swing picked up Hallie and carried her to a bench, sitting with Hallie in her lap. She felt how small her youngest was. She was five but she looked more like she was three. She snuggled her chin on top of her daughter’s head and sighed.
“Baby, listen to me.” She felt Hallie move against her and look up into her eyes. Hallie was scared and Piper could feel it. Piper wondered if anyone was as scared as she was at that very moment.
“Lindsay didn’t do anything wrong. Sometimes in life very bad things happen to very incredible people. Lindsay is an incredible girl. Something bad just happened to her, that’s it. She didn’t do anything to make it happen. She wasn’t in trouble for anything. She was just being a good girl and something bad happened.”
“That doesn’t make any sense mommy. Lindsay is a good girl so nothing bad should ever happen to her.”
“But it did, Hallie.”
“I want my sister. I want Lindsay, please mommy, let me see her.”
“You can’t baby, Lindsay is…well, she’s…honey, Lindsay’s gone. Gone forever.”
It was then that finally the blue innocent eyes spilled over with tears. The bottom lip jutting out quivered harder. Piper pulled Hallie into her and held onto the sobbing child with no thoughts of letting go. If anyone understood the loss that Piper felt it was her five-year-old daughter. Hallie worshipped the ground Lindsay stood on.
Piper clenched her jaw in anger as her cell phone began ringing in her pocket interrupting the mourning she was sharing with Hallie. She knew no one from work was calling, they already knew about Lindsay. She looked at the Caller ID on the phone’s display and immediately recognized her husband’s cell phone number. She shifted Hallie on her lap and answered the phone.
“Hello?”
“Hey, honey. Have you told her yet?”
“I just did?”
“How’s she holding up?”
“She’ll be okay.”
“Listen, I wasn’t going to interrupt you, but the police just called. They have a man in custody.”
Piper felt her heart leap to her throat. She swallowed it back down and tried to catch her breath. Hallie must have recognized the change in her mother’s demeanor because she sat up straight and looked at her mother with dry eyes. Only the stains of her previous outburst were evidence that she had been upset.
“Piper? Are you still there?”
“Yeah. Yeah Leo. Do we get to know anything about it other than they have a man in custody?”
“Not until trial. Why don’t you two come home? I want to spend a little time with Hallie, too. Be sure she knows it isn’t her fault.”
“What do you think I was doing Leo?”
“Sorry, I know. It’s just that I know you were up a lot last night and it’s been a horrendous 24 hours and I thought maybe you’d want to bring our daughter home so you could get some rest.”
“Yeah, we’ll be home in a minute.”
She turned off the cell phone and felt her heart thundering in reverberation of Leo’s news. Piper felt as though the man who hurt Lindsay would pay largely for his actions.
“Mommy, are we going home now.”
“Yes baby.”
“Can we have hamburgers?”
Piper smiled a little. Despite her excruciating heartache, her youngest daughter found a way to make her smirk. The human being’s increased hunger in extreme situations was always a source of amusement for Piper.
“Hallie we can have a zillion McDonald’s hamburgers if you want. We can go later on the way home.”
“Okay.”
Piper could tell that Hallie was hiding her sadness. She wondered why her youngest felt as though she couldn’t release that sadness with her. She took Hallie’s hand in her left and together they walked to the car. Her other hand felt empty and cold. It was always the hand that Lindsay held on their walk together.
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Leo and Hallie had inhaled dinner while Piper took a bite from her regular hamburger and a sip of a chocolate shake. Piper didn’t even notice Hallie as she kissed her cheek and whispered goodnight. She didn’t see Leo as he picked Hallie up and took her to her room. She barely felt herself move from the kitchen table to the living room couch, where she mindlessly turned on the 9pm news and stared blankly at the screen. She knew there were words coming from the television but nothing she cared to hear. She felt the numbness all over her body. Her arms and legs felt heave, her breath labored and her mind foggy with the pain of loss. She felt nothing. The anchorwoman’s voice on the news slowly worked its way into Piper’s mind and in that instant she felt everything. It was like a sharp knife being driven into her chest.
“On a more horrific news front, a 35 year-old delivery man has been arrested for the rape and strangulation of a 16-year-old girl. The girl was found dead by police yesterday afternoon and reportedly was on the phone with her mother as the attack occurred in her home on Prescott Street.”
Piper’s heart raced as her grip on the remote control tightened and as she increased the volume of the TV. She wondered how the details could have been out so quickly.
“The man accused, Donald Rune, was arrested this morning on charges of rape and murder. He is a deliveryman at Bill’s Grocery downtown. He is expected to be arraigned later this week at the San Francisco county courthouse.”
Piper’s eyes widened as her eyes caught sight of the man arrested. Donald Rune loomed large on her screen as policemen led him, cuffed, to their squad car. He looked at the camera and smiled. Piper could feel the blood drain from her face. She could feel the numbness sink in again. She knew without doubt that the man on the screen was the man that murdered her daughter.
********************
[lyrics are Fly: Celine Dion]
Three days had passed since Lindsay’s murder. The coroner had released the body and Piper and Leo were laying their daughter to eternal rest.
Hallie sat still and cried in Piper’s lap as the sun shone upon them. The tears were plentiful, the breaths shallow. The ache unbearable. Natalie sang a song as the breeze blew the petals of the numerous flowers garnishing the graveside service. Natalie’s voice was strong and powerful. Her sixteen-year-old face matched perfectly with her smooth, sweet voice. As she sang, Piper wondered how such a young person could hold it together enough to perform when she herself was about to breakdown. She let the music touch her heart and thought of Lindsay.
Fly, fly little wing
Fly beyond imagining
The softest cloud, the whitest dove
Upon the wind of heaven's love
Past the planets and the stars
Leave this lonely world of ours
Escape the sorrow and the pain
And fly again
Fly, fly precious one
Your endless journey has begun
Take your gentle happiness
Far too beautiful for this
Cross over to the other shore
There is peace forevermore
But hold this memory bittersweet
Until we meet
Fly, fly do not fear
Don't waste a breath, don't shed a tear
Your heart is pure, your soul is free
Be on your way, don't wait for me
Above the universe you'll climb
On beyond the hands of time
The moon will rise, the sun will set
But I won't forget
Fly, fly little wing
Fly where only angels sing
Fly away, the time is right
Go now, find the light
Natalie wiped a few tears and Piper nodded a thank you to her. Piper turned her attention to the preacher standing next to a hole in the ground. Piper knew that within the hole there was a beautiful white casket adorned with silver. The preacher cleared his throat as though letting go of that lump one gets before a big cry. He began.
“As we gather here today, I ask God to, please, look upon this crowd. See these faces, these tears, these broken hearts and to heal them. I ask God to look not upon our child now gone, but upon the family still here. Look upon them and give them strength, courage, faith, hope, give them the things that will heal their hearts. Let them not be drenched in the animosity of revenge. Let them not taste the fruit of violence. It is a horrid, horrid thing that was done upon Lindsay. I ask that God give those here the vision to see that this horrid thing was not an act of God, but an act of man. I ask God to give us all the ability to forgive, and to accept what is and to try our best to move forward in His name.
Dear Lord, we ask that You take into Your heart, Your Kingdom, this slain child. We call upon Your angels to lead her home. We call upon Your angels to ease her parents’ heartache, to ease their ache and loss. We call upon You to guide us in the way of recovery. Open Your Gates to this child.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.”
The preacher paused and scooped up a handful of rich, brown earth. As he tossed them he ended his prayer.
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Amen.”
The sound of the Preacher’s handful of dirt hitting the coffin stung Piper’s ears as though it was amplified by surround sound. She stood still holding Hallie, almost afraid to let her go, and threw a white rose onto the coffin. She could feel Hallie tighten her tiny fist around a knot of her black dress. The breeze picked up and a small, decayed leaf floated into the hole and landed next to the white rose. An odd contrast of white and brown, like life and death, light and dark.
Piper allowed a steady stream of tears to make a path across her bare face. Her hair was pulled back in a simple ponytail. She felt as though makeup and primping were silly things. She thought of all the times she had spent in front of a mirror that she could have spent with Lindsay. She swallowed hard as bagpipes began to play Amazing Grace in the close distance. Hallie switched from Piper’s arms to Leo’s and once again Piper felt as though her world was empty. She followed her husband and child to the black limousine someone had rented for them and suddenly stopped.
She turned back toward the gravesite and realized what she was walking away from. The crowd of mourners and supporters had dissipated and the only people at the site were cemetery workers waiting to cover the casket with the mound of dirt that sat covered next to it.
Walking slowly at first, Piper headed back toward Lindsay’s grave. She quickly realized she was sprinting. She could feel herself losing control but couldn’t stop. Somewhere from behind her she could hear Leo calling her name, but still she ran faster. She stumbled inches from the edge of the hole and peered down into the dirt entombment. She could see Lindsay in her mind. Laughing and smiling and the image changed to Lindsay crying begging not to be left alone.
“I can’t, I can’t leave you.”
Piper felt herself being yanked from the ground. She knew it was Leo’s hands pressed into the backs of her arms. She pulled away from him falling again to her knees on the soft cold grass next to the hole.
“Piper, please, please, honey you’re scaring me.”
“What about Lindsay, Leo? Don’t you think she’s scared too? Tell me that. You don’t think she’s scared. We’re leaving her all alone in this dirt. She’s going to be six feet underground and we’ll never be able to hold her or touch her again. I won’t be able to smell her perfume or shampoo. How do I let go of her and leave her here all alone? Tell me that, Leo.”
Leo kneeled to the ground next to Piper whose fingers were digging solidly into the ground.
“We leave her body in the ground, Piper, but her soul, it’s not there, the essence of Lindsay is with us. We’re taking Lindsay with us in our hearts, please Piper. Please, let’s take the memory of Lindsay away from this place and back home where she belongs, please.”
Piper looked up into Leo’s pleading eyes and using his shoulders for support together they stood from the ground. Leo held her tightly. Piper wanted to feel okay; she wanted to feel that everything was going to be okay. As she wondered how that would ever happen a face flashed across her mind.
Donald Rune. Lindsay’s killer. Piper knew she wouldn’t rest until he was behind bars. And she knew she wouldn’t be completely satisfied until she and Leo were in the courtroom watching him cuffed and being dragged to jail.
“Leo, I want to go to the courthouse tomorrow,” Piper said as the limo pulled slowly away from the cemetery. Hallie was asleep on one of the seats.
“Are you sure?”
“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my entire life.”
************************
The courthouse was abnormally quiet. Piper was thrown from her own world into reality each time her black two-inch heels clicked on the solid marble floor of the hallway. She and Leo, hands pressed into each other, paused outside the courtroom assigned to their case and both looked at the ominous solid maple door. Piper could hear Leo clear his throat. She knew he wanted to speak, but words escaped them both. She simply tightened her grasp on his hand and he returned the gesture as they smiled weakly at each other.
Piper thought about how silent they both had been in the hours after the funeral. She had been busy trying to ward off the sound of her daughter’s screams in her head, and the image of Donald Rune attacking her daughter. She remembered screaming in the middle of the night scaring Leo and waking Hallie. She remembered that it was Leo who rushed to Hallie’s side when she, too, woke from a nightmare of her own, while Piper could merely sit frozen in her thoughts.
Together they sat a few rows behind the prosecutor’s table. Defense attorneys and prosecutors were busy going over their papers and straightening out their briefcases. Piper and Leo had been called the night before to hear the prosecutor's details. The lawyers had told them that the procedures they were about to see were only an evidentiary hearing determining whether or not there was enough evidence to go forth with a trial against Rune. The detectives and the prosecution had reassured Piper that there was more than enough evidence to get a trial.
Piper was staring at a door on the side of the room and knew that before long Donald Rune would walk through the door
“I’m scared, Leo.”
“It’ll be okay, Piper. He won’t be able to get near us.”
“I’m not scared about that, Leo. I’m scared of what I will do to him when I see him.”
Piper could feel Leo’s eyes on her as the side door to the courtroom opened and two jailers walked in leading the way for a man in a bright orange jumpsuit with black writing merely stating, “county jail.”
Piper could feel her breath catch in her throat as she followed the orange up from the black lettering to his thick, muscular neck. She felt as though she could see his heart beating in his carotid artery. She thought she could hear the beating of that pulse. Then she realized that it was her own heart beating in her ears with the urgent need to see this man hurting as much as she knew Lindsay had in the moments of her death.
The muscles in his neck moved and drew Piper’s attention to the man’s face. She swallowed the air she had been holding in her throat and took in the details of her daughter’s murderer. His chin was lined with a thin five o-clock shadow. His cold, dark green eyes never left their target. Piper blinked and quickly looked away as she realized he was staring at her. She could hear him laugh.
Piper was only slightly reassured by Leo’s hand on her own. She finally took a breath as the judge soon entered the courtroom and took her seat in front of the great seal of California. The sound of the gavel snapped Piper into the proceedings.
She and Leo listened as lawyers bantered back and forth about one legality or another. The word evidence finally caught Piper’s awareness and she listened intently. The prosecutor, a stout man in his fifties planted his feet firmly in front of the judge and in a loud baritone voice, addressed the judge.
“Your honor, the prosecution has more than enough evidence to convict this man.”
The defense attorney, a stylish woman in her early forties interrupted, “Yes your honor but the defense was given no fair opportunity to inspect or get a piece of this evidence to prepare for trial. The sperm sample promised to us by the DA’s office was never turned over. Therefore, my client, Mr. Rune would not receive a fair trial with this evidence that is obviously very one-sided and very convenient to the prosecution.”
“Mr. Trimble, is that true. Did you promise a sample of the semen taken from Mr. Rune to the defense team.”
“Your honor, we promised Mrs. Yeilding a 20% sample. She turned down the offer, so we used the entire sample for our own testing.”
“That’s right your honor, and they left no sample for me and my team to work on.”
“Is there a written contract?” Piper could see the judge growing visibly impatient. Piper wasn’t savvy in the legal sense but she knew what the defense was trying to do. Dismissal of charges by lack of evidence.
Mrs. Yeilding answered the judge, “Yes ma’am, there is a written and signed contract between the DA and our team. I have a copy right here.”
“Your honor, that’s not fair. Mrs. Yeilding turned down that request.”
“Well, Mr. Trimble, I am holding here in my hand a written agreement between you and Mr. Rune’s defense team and it says that they should receive 20% of the sample. I have no further cause to hold Mr. Rune when there is no evidence to hold him on. Bailiff, release the prisoner. Mr. Rune is hereby free of all charges until further evidence can be brought to light.”
Piper could feel the judges eyes scan over her face. She knew the judge felt sorrow in having to let go of a criminal. She stood as Leo stood and together they stepped toward the aisle. As they did they came face to face with Donald Rune. Leo bit his tongue and Piper’s hands began to shake. She hoped that Rune would walk on and leave them, but instead Rune spoke. In a deep voice filled with a Texas drawl he directed his words toward Piper.
“S-s-s-sorry about your l-l-l-loss,” he whispered mockingly.
Piper’s heart stopped as Leo hurled himself at Rune and tackled him to the floor, they rolled twice and Leo hurled a punch at the man before being picked up off the floor by an officer of the court. He backed away as he watched Donald Rune laugh and stare at Piper. Piper lowered her gaze and merely listened as he walked out of the courtroom.
*************************
“I can’t believe they let that son of a bitch walk!” Leo yelled as they settled into the car. Piper remained silent, in shock, as Leo’s outburst caused him to slam his fist into the dashboard. Hot tears burned Piper’s eyes as they surfaced and then sizzled their way along her cheek. She knew her daughter’s killer had been set free for good. She wasn’t ready to accept that. She couldn’t accept that. If the law couldn’t take care of it, she would.
Cold steel pressed into her palm. Her hands shook at the thought of the recoil from the 9mm P99 Walther handgun with silver finish. She glanced again at the safety ensuring it was in the off position. Her index finger rested gently on the trigger. She stared down the barrel from the back of the gun and lined her sight up with the shaded figure twenty feet from her. She could see his face, cold, ruthless, smiling.
She pulled the trigger with as much confidence as she could muster. There wasn’t a lot to spare. The sou