Family Secrets

by Ronnie Ashmore

  It took a moment for her to catch the meaning of the chief’s words. You could see when the truth hit her. She went from solemn, but nonchalant to instant tears, creating another makeup mess.

  “Oh my God! No! No!” She repeated that word several times until Tolliver interrupted her.

  “Yes! Yes! You knew what kind of animal he was. You left Lydia there to suffer the same things you suffered as a child. You knew!” Tolliver stood looking down on Elizabeth,

  “You knew!” He left the room leaving Mike and Morgan in there.

  After a few minutes she regained her composure. She wiped her eyes and blew her nose.

  “I didn’t know he would hurt Lydia. I told Christine to get her out of there. She told me she would. I should have made sure.”

  Morgan and Mike left the room, Morgan left the video camera recording. In the chief’s office they formed a new attack plan. Tolliver replayed what they knew already. It was a lot of information, some of it confusing, some of it incomplete. When he finished, he looked at Mike and Morgan.

  “Next step?”

  “I got a warrant for George; we need to find him. Nobody has seen him since he got out of jail. Getting him will put this whole thing to rest.” Morgan said, standing up from his chair.

  “Not yet! One more thing to do.” Tolliver said, standing up and leading everyone back to the conference room.

  He opened the door and Elizabeth stood ready to leave.

  “You can’t leave, yet” Tolliver said, offering her to sit in the same chair she stood up from.

  “Why not?” She asked, taking the seat.

  “You helped hide your mom’s body, remember?” He said.

  “Oh, please! Give me a citation for littering or something and let’s be done with this.” She stood up to leave.

  Tolliver stood blocking her exit path. Looking in her eyes he said, “I got a better idea. Captain Morgan, I want you to draw a warrant up for the arrest of Elizabeth Parks for abuse of a corpse, failure to stop or report the sexual assault of a child, federal fraud charges for the theft of her mother’s disability money and that’s just for starters.”

  “You’re really arresting me?” She asked.

  “Oh, yeah. We really are.” Tolliver said, as he moved out of the way for Mike to move in to put the handcuffs back on her. She appeared to be in shock this was happening.

  “When you get done putting her in a cell, let’s go find her daddy and put him in one, too.” Tolliver said.

  26

  Mike led Elizabeth Parks to the jail processing area of the building and told the jailer that the paperwork would be forthcoming. He came back up front to the offices and joined Sergeant Marten as he was talking to Morgan and the chief. The chief looked at him when he came up to them.

  “You up for this? If you want to go home, I can use the others.”

  “No, I’m good.” Mike responded. He wanted to see this case to the finish.

  “Fine. You and Captain go to Dallas and talk to Toby Parks. Now that the story is out maybe he will be more forthcoming. I will make sure Elizabeth doesn’t get a PR bond.”

  Mike and Morgan headed to Dallas in Morgan’s pickup. It was a long drive to Dallas and would be made longer if construction in Fort Worth was bad. Both men grumbled about going to the metroplex, neither liked it.

  Two and a half hours later they arrived at the apartment address for Toby Parks. It was a red brick building that could have used a power washing to get the graffiti off. Looking around the commons and the neighboring apartments Mike felt better having his gun back.

  Toby Parks lived on the ground floor. They were looking for numbers but none of the apartments had any visible numbers on them. After some guessing and knocking on a couple of wrong doors of apartments where the residents gave glowering looks and no information, they found the right apartment. Toby Parks opened the door when Morgan knocked.

  “Mr. Parks. Captain Morgan, Officer Collins Colby Police Department. We need to ask some follow up questions.”

  Toby motioned them in. The apartment was scarcely furnished and not well kept. In the living room there was a single recliner with an old tv stand beside it serving as a table. There was an opened beer on it with empty bottles in the floor beside it. A small tv sat against one wall on a worn-out dresser with missing drawers. The living room and kitchen were one big area. Mike saw the kitchen was overrun with dishes and take out trash.

  “A man could get killed coming to visit you. Apartment is hard to find.” Mike said.

  “Yeah, every time they put numbers up, they take them down. Makes it harder for the police to raid the dope houses. What’s this about?”

  “New developments. We had a visit from Elizabeth and later Christine. They told us everything about your childhood.” Morgan said.

  Toby was silent for a long while staring at the far wall. He looked at them and shook his head.

  “They told? How much?”

  “Everything.” Morgan said.

  “I didn’t think any of us had the balls to disobey the old man. Am I in trouble for what I did back then?”

  “I think you were a victim just like your sisters. No one can blame you or them for what he did to you. I do need to know if you knew why your son was going back to Colby.”

  “No. I knew he found them on that phone app and started talking to that girl. I told him to leave it alone. There was nothing in Colby worth going back for. We fought about what the girl said, I don’t remember her name. Jamey packed a few things and told me he was going to make it right. I let him go.”

  “You found out George was hurting Lydia? That’s your niece’s name, Lydia.” Mike said.

  “Not details. Just that Lydia needed someone to help her. That’s what he wanted to do.”

  “We arrested your dad and Elizabeth. Your dad made bail, but we are working on getting him arrested for the abuse he done to you guys.”

  “Elizabeth is arrested. What for?”

  “We found your mom. Elizabeth and your dad hid her in the basement of the house after she died so he could keep cashing her checks.”

  Toby Parks remained silent. He sat in the recliner staring off in space again.

  “Mom died.” Toby said, he shook his head as he laughed. When he stopped laughing, he said, “I guess I should feel sad she’s gone. But I don’t.”

  “We are charging Elizabeth with that and other things. We need a statement from you on what you knew about your sons plan in Colby.”

  “I didn’t know anything. I’ll write that if you wish.”

  “And the abuse?”

  “Yes. That too.”

  As Morgan began pulling forms from his notebook for Toby to write on, Mike was watching Parks as he sat in the recliner as if he was all alone in the world. He knew he had to tell him now.

  “Toby. Mr. Parks. I’m the one who shot and killed your son. He was robbing that store to get money to help Lydia escape your dad.” Morgan looked sharply at Collins stopping his movements. Parks stared at Mike for a long while.

  “Jamey wanted to make things right for that girl in Colby. I guess he didn’t know how to do it any other way. But it seems he accomplished what he set out to do.” Toby sighed, wiping a tear from his eye. “You may think my son was just a criminal, but if my father goes to prison because Jamey robbing that store led you to this horrible secret, then I consider him a hero.”

  Toby stood up approaching Mike, who was prepared for Toby to swing at him. Toby extended his arm for a handshake. Mike accepted the hand.

  “Thank you for telling me. I know my son was a good kid. I hold no hard feelings. But I miss my boy every day.” He cried again.

  An hour later they had a signed statement of Toby’s story of his experiences growing up in that house and the abuse he suffered as well as his knowledge of his son’s commitment to helping his cousins. They thanked him for his time and left the apartment glad to be going back home.

  27

  Morgan pulled into the pa
rking lot late in the afternoon. Mike wanted to give the chief the rundown of what they learned in Dallas and go home. Morgan was silent on the ride back and it made for a long trip.

  They met Tolliver in the hallway. Morgan told him the information as he made his way to his office. As he finished talking, he sat in his chair with a long sigh.

  “Well. That puts all three of his children on the same page. That will help us a lot. We still have had no sign of Christine or George.” Tolliver said.

  The door chime went off and Ranger Bart Murphy walked into the hallway and made his greetings to everyone as he joined them.

  “What news do you bring for us?” Tolliver asked.

  “I figured you boys would be swamped, I wanted to help out. Got the preliminary results on the examination of the body.”

  “That’s fast.” Morgan said, impressed that he could get any answers on a Sunday.

  “I know someone who could pull strings. Anyway, what you want to know is the body is too de-composed to tell more than it’s a female. Older probably as the bones are in bad shape. No known cause of death yet. And she had been down there for about five to eight years.”

  “Closer to five, we think.” Tolliver said.

  “No kidding. How do you know that?” Murphy asked, looking around at the group.

  Morgan filled him in on what had happened since calling the DPS crime scene in. After listening to the update, Murphy looked at Mike and shook his head.

  “So, the kid you shot was robbing a store to get his cousins out of town? Guess that’s what was meant about setting things right.”

  “Yeah, guess so.” Mike said, then a thought hit him. One he hadn’t yet considered. Nobody had heard or seen George since he left jail or Christine since she left her house, what if she wasn’t hiding from George, but rather looking for him. He said as much to the group.

  “We need to find him. We will start at the hardware store.” Tolliver said, leading Mike outside.

  Out in the parking lot they met Amy Roberts coming back in. The chief eyed her suspiciously.

  “Thought I sent you home?”

  “You did, but I want to finish this. I changed my uniform and napped a little. I’m ready.”

  Tolliver didn’t argue, instead he instructed her to ride with Mike and follow him. In the car following Tolliver, Mike filled her in on what she missed. She shook her head in confusion.

  “How the hell are we gonna make sense of the report we have to file?” she said. Mike laughed, glancing at her.

  Mike kept thinking about his earlier encounters with Roberts. How when she smiled at him, he could feel a jolt of electricity. He thought if he concentrated hard enough, he could still feel the burning sensation where she had touched his leg a day or so ago. She had never given him any kind of hint that she was thinking of anything other than a professional relationship.

  He caught himself before he spoke. Working this case, with all its complexities and depravities, was probably not the right time to ask about romance or making decisions on dating life. He decided he would wait until this case was settled then he would ask her out. He silently hoped the case was settled soon.

  Mike followed Tolliver to the hardware store that George Parks owned. It was a blue building that sat in the middle of the block of downtown businesses. His hardware store had been in this building since his father opened it after coming back from the second world war. George’s father left the business to him in the sixties sometime, a few years later Herman Parks died in the store while restocking shelves. George found him later that night when he didn’t return home at his usual time.

  He recalled all this history while parking next to Tolliver’s car in the parking space in front of the building. Tolliver met Roberts and Mike at the front door. It was unlocked, the open sign hung from a little chain in the window.

  A high school kid was behind the counter messing with a scale weighing nails for the one customer that was in the store. He looked up and seen the police and became nervous, dropping some of the nails.

  “Take your time, son. We ain’t in a hurry.” Tolliver said, although they were in a hurry.

  The kid calmed down and smiled. For a second Mike thought that was him a decade or so back. Doing that same thing, with the same scale. He shook the thought from his mind as the customer left the store leaving them all alone.

  “Where is your boss at?” Mike asked.

  “He didn’t come in today. I had to open.”

  “You know where he could be?” Tolliver asked.

  “No, sir.”

  “Has a female been in asking about him?” Roberts asked, thinking of Christine.

  “No, Ma’am.”

  They left the kid to his business as they walked outside to discuss their options in private. They did not know where to look for George Parks next.

  “How could one old man just disappear?” Roberts asked, looking at the chief and continuing, “No offense, Chief.”

  Tolliver only raised his eyebrows in acknowledgement. His ringing cellphone interrupted their conversation. He opened the phone and spoke into it walking a little distance away so he could have privacy. He rejoined Mike and Roberts speaking as he approached.

  “Dispatch has a report that Parks truck just arrived at his house.” He said.

  They left the hardware store in a hurry with screeching tires and with emergency lights activated. Tolliver turned off the overhead emergency lights on his unit as they approached the driveway for Parks’ house prompting Mike, who was following still, to turn his lights off as well. They pulled into the drive and made their way to the front of the house.

  Mike and Roberts were looking for any sign of danger as they drove up, but the house seemed empty of activity. Roberts noticed Parks’ pickup was there but not parked where they had seen it parked the last few times at the house. This time it was parked on the far side of the house in the grass, as if he was attempting to hide it from view. Mike wondered aloud how he got to his truck after being released from jail.

  Mike parked behind Tolliver a few feet and they all got out and met at the chief’s car on the driver side putting the car between them and the door.

  “You remember seeing any guns in the house?” Tolliver asked.

  “In one of the bedrooms, they were locked in a cabinet.” Roberts said.

  As they were talking Mike seen the front door come open a little bit, he unholstered his gun which made the other two pull their guns out. They couldn’t see anything but the door window reflecting distorted images as whoever opened it continued to move the door.

  Mike looked at the chief. It seemed Parks had them at a standoff.

  28

  George Parks voice was loud as he spoke from inside the house.

  “I got Christine in here. I need you bastards to bring me Lydia and Max right now.”

  Parks voice was louder than at any time Mike could recall in the past.

  “George, that ain’t goin’ to happen. You let Christine go and you come on out here.” Tolliver said.

  Parks slammed the door in response. “It was worth a try.” Tolliver said to the others.

  “How do we know Christine’s in there?” Roberts asked, her voice a little strained from the adrenaline that was flowing through her.

  Mikes’ cellphone rang, he pulled the phone, checked the call screen, and answered.

  “Hello…Okay!... We are going to get you out of there. Has he got a gun, or anything?” Mike waited for the response, then after a few seconds, continued, “What I need you to do is leave your phone on, don’t hang up. Put it in a pocket or whatever. I’ll mute mine so nobody inside can hear us, but we can still hear you, okay? If you can, keep us informed on what’s happening inside. Just stay calm, we’re here and we ain’t leaving you.”

  Mike pushed the mute button on his phone to cut their conversation from being heard inside the house, he activated the speakerphone so they could all hear. He gave the other two a briefing of the call as he manipula
ted the phone functions. George showed up at Christine’s house while she was there at around noon and forced her to come back here with him. She said he had a pistol and was threatening to kill himself and her if she didn’t cooperate and help him. Parks had her chained to the refrigerator where she couldn’t get too far from him. He had not taken her cellphone, so when he went to the bathroom, she called Mike.

  They could hear the scratches and noise from Christine’s phone being moved around in the house. As the background noise cleared up, they could hear voices talking. Parks’ voice was loud and deep. Even through the phone you could tell Parks was under stress. He was yelling at Christine about telling the family secrets.

  Christine’s voice could not be heard. That’s good, Mike thought, don’t antagonize him. He was feeling like a damn fool. They should have kept someone at Christine’s house, he thought. He was going to tell the chief that same thing, when he looked that way, he seen the chief had walked a few feet away to stand behind a tree.

  The chief was on his own cellphone talking to whoever was on the other end. He came back to stand beside the car when he was finished.

  “I got Jimmy and the boys comin’.” He said, referring to backup units.

  “Chief, we need to go in there.” Mike said.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Mike. It might escalate something.”

  Mike could not imagine standing out here waiting for George Parks to decide how this situation ends. The conversation had ended from inside the house. Christine’s voice suddenly came over the phone.

  “You just going to sit on the couch? Let me go, Dad. You are in trouble enough.”

  “Shut up, whore. If you and your sister had just shut up everything would be fine.” Parks was yelling at Christine.

  It was an odd conversation to listen to. From where they were in the yard, they could only hear the distorted rumble of Parks’ voice yelling from inside the house. Without the cellphone connection, they wouldn’t know what was going on in the house. Mike looked at Roberts and Tolliver.

  “How’s this end, Chief?” Mike asked.