Captured Lies

by Maggie Thom

Bailey moved closer to the open door.

  "Did you tell her?"

  "No." Something was mumbled she couldn't make out, then, "?let me worry about that."

  "What's happening?"

  "Donna Saunders aka Donna Zajic, married to Doug Zajic, a Member of Parliament. Donna disappeared in July of 1983. There was suspected abuse. Several calls, no charges. She was never seen again after the early morning of July 6, 1983. There was even question of him murdering her. Since no body, no blood, no sign of foul play, they had to drop it. The car she took when she left was finally recovered in southeast Calgary. Apparently she gave it to some guy at the airport and paid him to park it miles away. No sign of her buying a ticket though, to fly anywhere. I think that's where Mr. Lund comes in. I'm guessing he's responsible for getting her a new name. I'm just not clear why. Nor do I understand this next part." There was silence except for the clacking of the computer keys. "It seems our Mr. Lund was playing a bit of a nasty game. He was getting twenty thousand dollars for territory fees - don't know what that means - and another twelve thousand for cabin fees from Mr. Zajic and was paying Donna eight thousand dollars. So he pocketed at least twenty-eight thousand dollars a month for himself. Not clear on whether it was agreed upon or what. I'm guessing it was blackmail. The man was a pro. The list of people he was being paid by, for some crazy things - everyone from police officers, to lawyers, to judges, to members of parliament. Nasty man. He had to be responsible for Donna's name change. I just don't get why."

  "There's no way in hell my mom was getting eight thousand dollars a month. We lived like rats in the sewer most of the time."

  Two guilty pair of eyes swiveled to face her. Guy stood up from where he was perched on the corner of the bed. Bailey stepped back, putting her hands in the air, halting his forward motion towards her. She stepped around him and over a pile of papers to lean over and look at the monitor. Graham looked at Guy but when he didn't change the screen she figured Guy had given up hiding the information from her.

  "What proof do you have?"

  Graham showed her the files he had. How they were encrypted and the detail that was there. It definitely showed at least on screen that her mom had been paid each month. $8,000 would have made a huge difference in her life. They could have stayed in one place.

  "It didn't happen." Looking beseechingly at Graham, she asked, "is it possible that he said he sent her a cheque but didn't?"

  "Yes. But I don't have any proof of it."

  "What would you need to find it?"

  "Access to his bank accounts, any other books he might have had."

  Pursing her lips, Bailey stared off into space for a minute. She went back through her visit with Mr. Lund. "I might know how to get that." She grabbed her backpack from where it had been chucked in the corner and pulled out her purse. Opening it, she took out the two letters that had been given to her. Her name, written in her mom's meticulous handwriting, stopped her. Tears flooded her eyes. Her index finger traced her name. The craziness of the whole week started to crash in on her. Nothing made sense and she was tired of looking like a blubbering idiot. "I need some time." Stuffing the envelope in her pocket, she spun and raced from the room.

  She didn't stop until she'd unlocked the four dead bolts, flung open the front door and was soon four blocks away. Gasping for breath, she quit running and bent over, bracing her hands on her knees. She stood like that for a few moments not paying any attention to the people who walked around her. It wasn't until she raised her head that she realized she wasn't alone.

  "I?"

  "It's all right. I think you're entitled. Let it go. How about we go for a walk. There's a park about another two or three blocks from here." Guy gestured off to his left.

  She nodded and fell into step with him. It was the most normal thing she'd done in a long time, one that seemed to compel her to talk.

  "My mom? or the woman I knew as Mom?"

  "Don't. It's okay to call her Mom, still. That's what she was. Right or wrong."

  Pressing her hand to her chest, she continued, "she was always conservative with the money we had. But there's no way she was getting a cheque for that much a month. A year maybe. If it's true that kind of money was exchanging hands, I think Lund was keeping it and we were his tax evasion. On paper he'd give the money to others when really he'd keep it for himself. There were times we'd all of a sudden have some cash but it never lasted. It was long stretches between those tiny jackpots we got." She turned to look at Guy and waited until he looked at her, "I don't know where that money came from. Maybe Lund. But there's no way she got that every month. She did a lot of weird and questionable things but she did them to get us some cash so we could eat. I always knew where the cash was, how much we had and where it went to. She wanted me to know about the evils of our monetary system. She wanted me to know how to look after it. How to save it. She was always scared I'd be taken advantage of."

  They walked in silence for a while. Bailey's mind though was anything but silent.

  "Do you think that man Doug Zajic, that Graham said was her husband, could have done that to her? If he abused her would that be why she had to run all the time? Was he what she was scared of?"

  Guy stepped onto the park path, stopped and put his arms around her. She couldn't help it, she stiffened.

  "Relax. I'm not going to do anything. I'm here for you. That's all."

  His hand rubbed circles on her back, bringing up a strong memory.

  "Oh Mama. That feels soooooooo goooooooooood." Bailey tried not to squirm while her mom rubbed her hand over her back. Softly and gently at first. Then more firm. Then softly. She loved when her mom touched her. "Don't stop. Please don't stop."

  "I won't, sweetheart. I won't ever stop. I love you, Bails. Don't forget that."

  "She loved me." Startled by the revelation and the fact that she'd laid her head on Guy's shoulder, she pulled back.

  "I'm sure she did. Let's sit down." They sat down on the bench, side by side, thighs touching.

  "You said you could get the information on the bank accounts. How?"

  She dug into her pocket and pulled out the crumpled envelopes. This time though, she made sure she didn't look at the front side. She flipped them both and handed them to him. He studied the pictures, doodles and designs.

  "She was quite talented wasn't she?" He started to open one of the envelopes but stopped when Bailey's hand landed on his.

  "The answers are right there."

  Turning it around and around and around, he finally gave it back to her. "All right, I give up. I can't make any sense of it."

  "That's the whole point." She smoothed out both envelopes side by side. Pointing to some drawings, she explained, "This is a law book and this is a police badge underneath it."

  "Let me see that." Guy studied it for a moment. "Wow. I see it now. It's like those optical illusion things. This is cool."

  Bailey smiled. "Yeah, she was talented. It took me a while but I learned to read her doodles. This one," pointing to the one they'd just been discussing, "means that someone thinks they're above the law."

  "I don't get it. Why would the law book be above the police badge? Shouldn't ?"

  "Sorry. It means that someone in the judicial system thinks they are above the law."

  "Lund?"

  "Yeah. See this wormlike thing on this fishing hook? That stands for Lund." She didn't explain that was how she'd figured out the cabin. She wasn't sure why her mom had chosen that symbol for him, though. She knew it meant something more.

  Guy chuckled as he studied the pictures. He put his hand to his chest. An image of Lund doing that same move, flashed in Bailey's mind.

  She clapped her hands. "Oh my God. Oh my God. I missed it. Dammit." Jumping to her feet, she paced back and forth in front of the bench.

  "Do you want to share?"

  She stopped and looked at him but couldn't quite halt her thoughts so she could focus on him. "uhmm? he said to me, 'your mom said you'd be full of
questions'. How would he know that unless he'd known Mom was dying? For Mom to say something like that she'd have been very stressed. He knew. That pig, he knew. She had to have been in his house. That's how she knew about his jump drive and she wouldn't have trusted anyone but me. What else did Graham find in his stuff?"

  Guy met her gaze briefly before looking down. "You know most of it. Lund was squeezing money out of a number of people. He has files on several people. Some are recordings. Some are pictures. It seems he was running a bit of a scam. He'd get certain guys off in exchange for them getting dirt on anyone in power. And he'd pay them a thousand dollars and I guess keep them out of jail. He made hundreds of thousands of dollars off other people. Great retirement fund, I'm sure. It'll take months to unravel it all. We just looked through the basics."

  "I can't believe we lived like street urchins damn near my whole life and that son of a bitch was making money because of us. I'll kill him." She looked at him and then away and then back. "Look I need to tell you what happened at the airport today. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner but... someone tried to grab me. He snatched me from behind and was forcing me to go with him."

  Suddenly there was a zing sound, very close.

  Startled, Guy dove to the ground, taking her with him.

  She yelped in surprise, "What the hell?"

  A few feet away from them the dirt sprayed up. Someone was shooting at them. He grabbed her and ran behind the row of trees several feet away. She followed him without question. Several more shots followed. Grass and gravel bounced up, letting her see that her leg was missed by mere inches. It was so close she swore the bullet whispered to her on its way by. Not waiting to see what Guy did she sprinted ahead of him, running for all she was worth.

  Huffing, he caught up. "This way." Winding their way through the park and out the other side, they raced down streets, jumped through a few yards and crouched behind garbage cans. Finally, they stopped to catch their breath.

  "Okay, that word's off limits."

  Beat, she dropped her head back against the weed infested fence for a second, wondering what it would be like to make it through a whole day while staying clean. Memories of her childhood came flooding back. The dirty, grimy places. Places where they were lucky if there was running water - enough to bathe and wash clothes with, never mind to drink.

  As his statement penetrated her thoughts, she turned to him.

  "What word?"

  "Kill. I think that's the second time you've mentioned something like that and someone has taken offense to it."

  Her lips almost moved into a smile. Since they were too tired to do that, she soaked up the light feeling of his joke.

  He punched a button on his phone. "Graham. I need you to call the cops. Report a shooting at Tennessee Park. Okay? Don't mention us."

  "No, we're fine. No idea. Come pick us up. We're in the back alley?"

  Bailey stopped listening. Her life had gone to hell and she didn't know how to make it stop. It seemed the nightmare of having to flee, to always be on the lookout, the horrors of her childhood, weren't over yet. There always seemed to be a price to pay. She thought about that for a while.

  Is there always going to be someone after me? Someone who wants to right some wrong just because I was born?

  A movie she'd seen many years before popped into her head. She wasn't totally sure of the name, Seventh Sign or something like that. But she remembered it was about a baby about to be born who was the Devil's child. Lowering her head to her bent knees, she wondered if that child was her.

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE