Chapter 23

Saturday, September 19^th Continued

Kate had never fainted in her life, but she could tell she was on the verge. All the blood rushed from her head and suddenly her legs would no longer support her. She sat down hard on the wood step directly behind her. If she hadn’t instinctively reached for the stair rail, she might have pitched forward onto the gravel as she fought a wave of dizziness and nausea. The many nightmares of discovery she had lived with all these months was beginning.

“My name’s Kate Brice,” she rasped, her throat constricted by tears.

She vaguely recalled the woman, Janet Ferguson ... yes that’s who she was ... half carrying her up the stairs to her apartment. But it really wasn’t her apartment. It belonged to two dead people. Everyone would know that now.

“Here, drink this.” Janet handed her a cup. She had to wrap Kate’s seemingly nerveless fingers around it. Kate just looked at her. She had somehow ended up sitting in Jacob’s recliner. The cup was warm in her hands and it smelled like tea. It was as if she was incapable of doing anything besides just holding the cup and her grip was tenuous at best.

Janet walked out of her line of sight, but Kate’s eyes were unable to follow her movement. Somehow her gaze was fixed on the photo of Jacob with his airplane taken in Vietnam that she had printed and framed and was now hanging over his desk.

Janet reappeared with a warm washcloth and sat in front of Kate on the leather footstool as she bathed her face. It felt good.

“Kate, that’s your name, isn’t it?”

She simply nodded, hoping Janet wouldn’t stop stroking her face with the warm cloth.

“Have a sip of the tea. I think it has cooled enough by now.” She put her hand under the cup and lifted it and Kate’s hands so it reached her mouth.

“Now just try a sip.”

The freshly brewed sweetened tea tasted good. It was Earl Grey, one of her favorites. She wished Janet would bring the cloth back to her face.

“Another.”

She took another sip; this one a little longer. Her brain kept trying to tell her something important, but it seemed the only important thing was to keep sipping the tea.

“Kate, you recognized me, so I guess you know something about me.”

Kate nodded. She sipped more tea, although now without Janet’s urging.

“Do you know about my relationship with Jacob?”

Kate nodded again, watching her bright blue eyes. They seemed friendlier now than before.

“How do you know about me?”

Janet couldn’t miss Kate’s glance toward Jacob’s laptop which was open on the rolltop desk.

“Jacob’s computer?”

She nodded. She noticed the cup she held was now empty, but somehow she couldn’t bring herself to put it down. It was still warm and seemed to represent something secure.

Janet stared at her and asked, “You read our emails?”

Kate looked down and nodded.

She jerked her head up as the woman laughed, “That must have been a bit of an eye-opener!”

At that point, the fog that enveloped Kate’s brain seemed to lift a bit. She murmured, “I’m sorry.”

Janet leaned forward and took the cup from her hands and set it on the floor. She then took both of her hands. “Kate, I don’t mind and I’m sure Jacob wouldn’t.” She paused and looked sad. “Jacob and I were in love as well as lovers. I have all those emails and I treasure them. They helped you see what kind of man he was?”

“Yes.”

“And Jessica’s emails too?”

“Yes, and her diary.”

“Oh ... Yes, I remember Jacob saying he had discovered her diary on her computer. He just couldn’t bring himself to read it.”

“Jessica loved Jacob very much.”

“Yes, she did. He was the world to her and she to him.” Janet brushed away a tear. “Would you mind if I read it?”

Somehow that seemed odd to Kate. Why would Janet ask anything of her? She probably had more right to that diary than Kate Brice did.

Kate started to get up, but Janet continued to hold her hands. “Not right now ... maybe later.”

What did sometime later mean? After she called the police to report this stranger who was impersonating her lost love’s granddaughter?

“Kate, do you feel up to telling me how you got here?”

Kate thought about that. Her emotions were running rampant. She knew she’d have to explain, make Janet understand she didn’t mean any harm. Maybe Janet would just let her pack a bag and leave. She’d miss this place and all the people she loved and who loved her, but how would they feel once the truth came out? The tears started again.

“Yes,” she whispered.

Janet brushed away her tears with the washcloth once more, but this time it didn’t seem to help.

“Kate, how about I make us both some tea? We can sit on the sofa and you can tell me your story? Would that be okay?”

Sitting on Jacob’s large sofa which faced the windows, Kate began. No one had ever heard the whole thing. Haltingly at first, she talked about her life growing up in Chicago and her family, especially her little brother Peter. She told Janet about her happy life and how they had loved her and she loved them.

Then she seemed to curl into herself, drawing her knees up under her chin and wrapping her arms around them as if trying to protect herself from body blows as she related the events of four years that started with the murder of her parents by a drunk driver. That terrible event had been followed by a year of captivity, then by three years on the run as she moved west across the country to escape her uncle.

Suddenly, it was as if a terribly infected wound had been lanced and all that was poisoning her came flowing out.

For the first time she talked about that terrible day when her family went out for ice cream while she stayed behind to talk to a girlfriend about a silly problem with some boy. She related how the policeman who came to her door had held her as she sobbed in his arms after he delivered the news. Her life had stopped at that moment and had never been the same – never could be the same.

Tears flowed as the guilt associated with that day twisted her insides – guilt because she was not there with them, especially for Peter.

She looked at Janet, tears in her eyes. “I’ve asked myself over and over – could I have saved him if I’d been in the car? Peter always looked to me as his role model and protector. I failed him and he died.”

A study in misery, arms even tighter around her knees, Kate paused and wiped tears away.

“Peter insisted I read him bedtime stories every night. That was my job, not mom and dad’s ... Peter would be in his pajamas fresh from his bath and snuggle on my lap ... or against me as he got older on the big sofa in our family room. He’d listen to my voice and mostly just watch me as I read. We kept it up even after he was old enough to read for himself.”

More tears fell as she talked about the day of the funeral and how she couldn’t even cry for them because of the numbness that enveloped her. Then, while still in shock, she was drugged and kidnapped by her uncle and aunt and held prisoner at their home outside Philadelphia. Repressed nightmarish memories from those times resurfaced as she related the details of her captivity.

Kate talked about the school where she was enrolled and how the drugs her uncle insisted she take impaired her ability to concentrate, how the lies her uncle told the school had her branded as a troublemaker. She was shunned by the other students as that slow girl with the bad reputation.

Reflecting, she had to admit that, for a time, she embraced the feeling of disconnectedness. The numbness helped her cope with her loss. It was only by accident she discovered it was the bedtime pills she was required to take which caused her lethargy and inability to focus.

Detail after detail poured out as Kate discovered she couldn’t stop talking. It was important she make Janet understand.

Janet sat and listened, appalled by what had happened to the girl, yes, girl. She began to understand that Kate Brice was the victim of a monstrous series of events set off by a drunk driver which allowed her uncle and aunt to exploit the tragedy for their personal benefit. Their actions surpassed greed and showed a malevolence that shocked her.

She surprised herself because her normal skepticism was held in check by the details of Kate’s narrative. Either this girl was telling the truth or was such a pathological liar that she could paint this kind of picture and come to believe it. Based on her preliminary investigations that she made before confronting ‘Jessica, ‘ Janet decided she was telling the truth.

“One night, I was out of my room and heard my uncle tell someone on the phone I was going to disappear right after graduation. He had arranged to sell me. I knew he was an evil man, but how could anyone do that to another? He assured the caller no one would miss me and I knew he was right. I was just going to disappear. I knew then I had to get away.”

As Kate told her of the discovery of her uncle’s plan and then how she formulated her escape, Janet began to see the woman who would eventually emerge in Lodi as Jessica Brant. She wondered if she could have done what Kate did. Her experiences on the road for the next three years – constantly looking over her shoulder, living hand-to-mouth, sometimes dumpster-diving for her meals while refusing to give up – made Janet sad. But she did see how those experiences allowed Kate to make the transition from victim to survivor to determined young woman who would take on her uncle despite her fears. She also began to see the woman who could step into a dead girl’s shoes as the heir of Jacob Brandt and be successful.

When Janet had returned to Lodi from her self-imposed sailing trip exile in August, she had heard from a number of sources the story of how Jessica Brandt had miraculously appeared from some backpacking adventure and had taken over the reins of Three Corners Farm and the Brandt businesses. The people of Lodi were impressed with someone so young successfully taking on the Jacob Brandt role. They had quickly decided that in the case of Jessica, the apple had not fallen far from the tree.

Jos Foss was also Janet’s attorney and friend, and when they met shortly after her return, she had asked Joe his impression of Jessica.

“Janet, I have nothing but admiration for her. We both know Jacob’s goal was to spend a couple of years getting her familiar with the farm and the businesses. Eventually, she would take over and then he would retire.”

He stopped, collecting his thoughts. “Janet, we lost Jacob much too soon, but when Jessica showed up she never hesitated. Perhaps another young woman in her place inheriting great wealth with lots of responsibilities might have sold out and headed for much greener pastures. On the surface, there’s not much in Lodi to hold a bright young woman like Jessica. She’s not even from here and without Jacob she has no family, but it didn’t make any difference. In the months she’s been here, she’s surrounded herself with friends, created a new family and made a very positive impact on this community. I don’t believe it ever crossed her mind to do anything but to continue what Jacob started. She loved and respected him that much.”

Janet’s (and Jessica’s) accountant, Alicia Estrada, pretty much said the same thing. “Like Jacob, she’s not afraid to listen to her advisors and the board and she doesn’t pretend a degree in business gives her any more insight than anyone else. She asks questions, and like Jacob, she can make a timely decision.”

Alicia had introduced Janet to her assistant, Sofía Torres, and over lunch she learned more about how Jessica was helping young women in the community by paying for their education and that she had set up a scholarship fund at the community college.

Everyone she talked to had stories about Jessica Brandt. From Carmen her hairdresser, the manager at the bank, friends at the police department and highway patrol, even members of the town council, Janet heard the same positive message. She had known the real Jessica and knew the young woman who was passing herself off as Jessica Brandt was an imposter. Why hadn’t anyone questioned her or challenged her story? Apparently the town wanted her to be Jessica Brandt, and so she was.

Eventually Kate seemed to wind down. She had reached the point in her story where a kindly trucker had picked her up at a snowy truck stop in Colorado the previous December. It had been her intent to go to California. At that point, she put her head on her knees, seemingly too emotionally drained to go on.

Janet got up and discovered some homemade chicken soup in the refrigerator. She heated that and made another pot of tea.

Janet was saddened by the fact that Kate had led a very lonely existence the last few years, relying upon her own intestinal fortitude and the kindness of strangers – strangers she could never get close to – never trusting enough to share her secret. She spent four years without love or affection, keeping everyone at arm’s length. Even at her happiest, during the nine months at the University of Texas, she had hidden herself away when she wasn’t attending class or waiting tables.

Kate had ached to join her classmates in typical youthful campus life, but it was not to be. Her fear of detection forced her to become isolated from everyone. She had chosen to leave Tyler when it became known that the INS was checking all the employees of most restaurants, especially Mexican restaurants.

Janet set trays on the coffee table in front of the sofa and they sat next to each other in silence as they ate. She noticed Kate didn’t have much of an appetite, but with Janet’s urging, she did manage some of the soup and a few crackers.

Finally Janet asked, “And when you arrived here?”

Kate gazed out the window into the cloudless, late afternoon sky. “Yes, it was the first week in December. A trucker dropped me off at the truck stop on I-5. He was headed north, Seattle I think, and I wanted to go to the beaches. I was tired of being cold,” she said, managing a slight smile.

“Oh. That was not long after I went away ... ran away.”

Kate reached out and tentatively covered Janet’s hand. “I’m sorry about Jacob.” Janet wiped away a tear.

“Then I had something to eat at the truck stop and the nice waitress, her name’s Janine, let me stay longer than I should have. I was taking up a booth where she could have been making tips, but she saw I was in trouble and let me stay. I think she knew I was getting sick too, so she kept bringing me tea. She’s a sweet person.”

“Kate, I know Janine and I talked to her a few days ago. She thinks you’re behind having the VFW fix up a newer car for her and she told me about Christmas Eve.”

“Janine’s a kind person and she needed a break.”

“Yes, and now Three Corners Farm is a sponsor of the group Sage, the group where Janine is one of the lead singers.”

“She told you that?”

“No, another young woman named Sofía Torres told me. She got a break too.”

“Oh.”

They were quiet for a while and Kate stared at the photos of Jacob and Jessica in various places around the room as she thought about the night she arrived at Three Corners Farm. She was out of tears.

“I finally left the truck stop and just started walking. I was sick with the flu and I needed someplace where I could lie down out of the weather. It was starting to rain when I saw a light at the end of a driveway so I came here. I found the key in the flowerpot. The house was warm and there was water. I put my sleeping bag on the floor and I slept and slept...”

Her voice trailed off. Reliving that time was very difficult.

She finally found her voice again and went on to tell Janet about Sam finding her, how he ‘helped’ her find the keys hanging in the pantry, discovering a bounty of food in the apartment pantry and then in the freezer. Janet simply sat and listened.

“Once I got better, I discovered all the things Sandy Thompson left on the coffee table.”

Janet looked puzzled.

“Sandy picked up all the mail and delivered it to Joe Foss, but she left all the condolence cards for Jessica. She also left the newspaper articles about Jacob and his memorial service. That’s when I saw your picture.”

“Oh. I never knew a photo of the memorial service ran in the paper.”

“Yes, it did and you were close to the front. I thought you were quite beautiful and once I read the emails and understood your relationship with Jacob, I felt terrible for you. And now I know you were also carrying the secret grief for Jessica, it makes me very sad. Janet, you must be very strong.”

“Kate, I don’t see myself that way, otherwise I would have never have run away.” She paused, her eyes full of sorrow. “The day of the funeral I could hardly get out of bed, but I had to be there, for Jacob and for Jessica. And when I came here to get Jessica’s ashes, I could barely summon the energy to climb the stairs.”

“Jessica’s ashes?”

It seemed to take Janet a long time to return from the memory of the funeral. “After everyone left the cemetery, I asked for a little time alone in the mausoleum before they sealed the vault. I told the funeral director I had a few private things I wanted to put in with his ashes. I put Jessica in with Jacob so they’d never be apart again.”

Janet buried her face in her hands. “I loved him so much...”

As Kate hugged Janet, she remembered the day in early December when she had first gone to the cemetery. She had talked to Jacob and had done a pirouette showing him how nice she looked in Jessica’s clothes. Somehow the fact Jessica had been there too made her feel warm inside.

After a while, Kate told Janet about solving the mystery of Jessica’s absence – how she had discovered her wallet, phone and computer and then the call to the Johnsons who told her Jessica had been sick.

“It was heart-wrenching to read her diary knowing what was going to happen. I cried as I read it, knowing the ending. She loved Jacob so much and he loved her,” Kate recalled, feeling the sense of loss anew.

Janet put her arm around her and they both used tissues from the box on the side table.

Eventually Janet got up and poured more tea and heated the cups in the microwave.

“But Kate, how did you convince the whole community you were Jessica?”

“That was Sandy.”

“Sandy? But how?”

Kate told her the story of stopping at the cemetery and her conversation with Jacob and then meeting Sandy. Janet seemed to understand how Sandy had concluded from Jacob’s truck being there and a young woman who looked like Jessica sitting in front of Jacob’s resting place that she had to be Jessica.

Janet shook her head. “And you didn’t try to correct her?”

“No, because how could I explain wearing Jessica’s clothes and driving Jacob’s truck without getting into trouble? I just hoped I could bluff my way until I got back to the farm and then disappear.”

“But obviously that didn’t happen.”

“No, because Sandy called Joe Foss and said she’d bring me to his office. Short of running from her, I had to go along. Somehow they never questioned Sandy’s statement that I was Jessica. Then Joe explained that had I ... I mean Jessica, not appeared, the state of California would get his estate. I still wanted to disappear, but then he and Keri took me to lunch where they introduced me to a number of people, then on to the bank and then to get a driver’s license, and on top of that to get my hair done.

Suddenly, it seemed the entire town wanted me ... needed me to be Jessica Brandt, even though I never said I was. By the end of the day, I was exhausted and my head was spinning. I thought if I could just hole up for a few more days here at the farm then I could figure out what to do.”

Janet looked at her. “So you had money, a new identity and transportation. Why didn’t you leave?”

Kate didn’t hesitate. “Incredibly ... during those days, I discovered I wanted desperately to be Jacob’s granddaughter. I had no one and nowhere to go. What happened to him and to Jessica was a tragedy. I rationalized I wasn’t hurting anyone by being Jessica, at least for a while, and maybe I could help some people. I wanted him to be proud of me. And the more I got involved in this community and with what Jacob built here, I wanted to stay. I’d not had a home in four years and there was no home to go back to. So I finally had a home and it was where I was respected -- at first for being Jacob’s granddaughter and then because I was Jessica Brandt.”

“Didn’t you worry about being discovered?”

Kate looked down. “Constantly, but then after a few months, I simply became Jessica and the Kate part of me was relegated to a tiny portion of my subconscious. I do have nightmares though – I’m sure that’s my subconscious breaking through while I’m asleep.”

“Kate...” Janet stopped as she thought about what she would say, almost as if she was deciding something on the spot. “Kate, who else knows about you?”

A brief flare of hope welled up inside her. “Only three people, well, now you’re the fourth. My attorney in Chicago, Carolyn Kensworth; she represented me in my lawsuit against my uncle. Her boss, the senior partner in the firm, also knows, and a man in Chicago named Dmitri Assonov. Dmitri, he’s ... well these days he’s a surrogate father. But none of them knows the whole story and my attorney has been very careful not to inquire about my Jessica Brant persona.”

“What about your uncle?”

She shook her head. “He only knew Kate Brice reappeared in Chicago in February and sued him for twenty million dollars.”

“My God. Twenty million! But if he’s some kind of mobster aren’t you afraid he’ll track you down?”

“I’m pretty sure he was looking for me for over three years without success, but not long ago he disappeared. There’s not been a trace of him in months. My attorney in Chicago thinks he’s dead – some kind of mob thing.”

“Dead? So what about the lawsuit?”

“I met with my attorney in Chicago last week and countered a settlement offer from my aunt. They agreed to our offer. In the next few weeks my bank in Chicago will get a wire transfer of four million dollars.”

“Really, four million?” I guess that means you’re not after Jacob and Jessica’s money.” Kate shook her head. Janet thought for a moment. “That also means that you could leave now and go back to your life as Kate Brice.”

“What life as Kate Brice? She has no home and no one to care about her. Janet, it’s never been about Jacob’s money. I don’t need it, didn’t want it. I went to Chicago in February as Jessica Brandt, initiated the lawsuit and disappeared again behind the Jessica Brandt persona. I needed that cover identity for Kate to be safe in going after my uncle, but it didn’t mean I wanted to be Kate again. It was more about standing up to him, letting him know I wasn’t afraid and that I would have some compensation for what they did to me and to everything my parents built while they were alive.”

Janet nodded, digesting the fact that Kate was soon to be a wealthy woman in her own right. “So your aunt agreed to settle just like that?”

“No, but the case against them is pretty damning and I think her attorney convinced her to cut her losses. They were so sure of themselves – so sure that no one would challenge them that they didn’t bother to cover their tracks. Of course my uncle used intimidation to get his way, but it didn’t work this time and I was represented by a top Chicago law firm. I was lucky there.”

“You have attorney-client privilege with your attorneys and this Dmitri person considers you a daughter?”

“Yes.”

“So your secret is safe with them. Then that leaves only me.” Kate’s heart was in her throat as she started to realize where Janet was going with her questions.

“Yes, so where do you go from here?” Kate asked.

Janet was a little surprised. Suddenly, some part of the tough young woman who was Kate Brice seemed to have resurfaced. She had come to the farm to challenge this young woman and uncover her motives and now she was discovering what everyone else seemed to have seen.

“Kate, you have some decisions to make...”

Kate cut her off. “No, Janet, I’ve already made my decision. While we’ve been talking, I’ve had a chance to consider what I might do, but there really is no deciding. There is only one course of action open to me and that is to stay right here, even if it means going to jail. I have a man who loves me, a sweet little girl whom I adore and a business to run. I belong here. It’s you who has to make a decision, although I think you’ve already made it.”

“What?”

“When you ran away – your words – right after Jacob died, you knew Jessica was dead, so what were you afraid of?”

Janet looked at her for a few seconds. “I ran away because I was in shock from Jessica and Jacob’s death and I didn’t want to deal with being the one to tell Joe Foss that, for all intents and purposes, Jacob died without a will. When I fled, I thought he’d figure it out before too long when Jessica didn’t appear.”

Janet found herself a bit off balance by Kate’s questions.

“Let me tell you a bit about what happened at the end,” she said as her expression changed to one of deep sadness. “Jacob called me. He said Jessica wasn’t going to survive. I got on the next plane for Baltimore.” She paused, trying to rein in her emotions.

“I was with Jacob and Jessica at the hospital when she died.” Janet stared out the window, blinking away tears.

“Jacob held one of her hands while I held the other. Her hand was so cold and she looked so fragile. It was quite a shock seeing her like that since I had met her before ... before the cancer. She had been so full of life. She was wearing a knitted cap to help keep her head warm since she had lost her hair, but even then I thought she was beautiful,” Janet said, tears rolling down her face.

Janet looked up. “When I drove up and saw you in the vineyard, my heart leaped. It really did seem like I was seeing Jessica again. It was unnerving, the resemblance that is. You really could be sisters, maybe even twins.”

Kate just waited for Janet to continue. “We had been at the hospital a couple of hours, both of us taking quietly to her, when she opened her eyes. There was a wonderful calmness there. She was ready to go, but there was sadness too. I knew she hated to leave Jacob, but her battle was over. She didn’t speak; just smiled a tiny smile then she closed her eyes and was gone.”

This time it was Kate who did the comforting, wrapping her arms around Janet as she sobbed. Finally regaining some control, she dried her eyes and said, “I’ve never told anyone that story.”

They were quiet for a bit, then Kate asked, “And then?”

At first Kate didn’t think Janet would go on, but finally she continued, “The hospital staff left us alone for the longest time, but finally we had to go. Jacob was crushed. It was like his spirit had been torn from him. A couple of days later we had the viewing. It was just the two of us saying goodbye. She looked so peaceful. I’d never seen Jacob cry before, but he was so devastated he couldn’t even drive.

“Then she was cremated and while we waited a few days to claim her ashes, I helped Jacob with some things like putting her car in storage. Actually I did all of that, including shipping her clothes. He just couldn’t think about giving them away right then, much less trying to sell her car. I even chartered a plane to take us and Jessica’s ashes home.”

“Do you think Jessica’s death contributed to Jacob’s?”

“Without a doubt. When we got back Jacob tried to do all the things he was doing before. Harvest was over, but there were all those other things he was involved in. On the outside, he must have looked like the old Jacob. I don’t know if anyone asked about Jessica. I think most people still thought she was at school.”

“What about Maria? She’s pretty perceptive.”

“Kate, from what I’ve heard, you have a completely different relationship with Maria than Jacob did.”

“Oh?”

“Maria was his foreman’s wife and the lady who cleaned for him every week, but that was pretty much it. Even if she thought there was something troubling Jacob, she most likely would not have asked. In your case, Maria has adopted you and feels very protective, as does Tomás.”

“You talked to Maria?”

“Of course. She and I have known each other since she was a little girl. Maria loves you like a daughter. I’d bet it was Maria who left this chicken soup in your refrigerator.”

That gave Kate a warm feeling. Maria was as close to a mother figure as she had known since her parents died. She had mentioned one time to Maria that her mother had made wonderful chicken soup, so now each time she returned from traveling there was a freshly made pot in the refrigerator.

“Janet, the newspaper said Jacob died after a short illness. Joe Foss has the death certificate, but I’ve never seen it. What happened?”

Janet stared at the floor. Her voice husky with tears, she answered, “He died of a broken heart.”