“Dad said she wasn’t feeling well. You think she’s okay?”
No, I think she’s in denial. “She’ll be fine. She didn’t take you to school?”
“Dad did. He sometimes does, and sometimes we get up early and go out to breakfast.”
“That’s fun.”
She drove to a nearby ice cream shop. It was crowded with the afterschool crowd, even though it was raining. They got the ice cream, but went back inside her car to eat it. The rain fell steadily on the roof. Soothing to Jackie.
“How’s school?” she asked her nephew.
“Good. We get report cards right before Christmas.”
“What’s your favorite class?”
“Lunch.” He laughed. “Just kidding! Well, I like lunch because my best friend, Michael, is in Mrs. Jenkins class and I’m in Mrs. Jackson’s class and so lunch is the only time we can hang out.”
“I get that.”
“I like math best, I think. I’m good at it. I was the first in my class to memorize the multiplication tables.”
“Your mom told me.”
“And I got an A on my test yesterday. I didn’t miss anything.”
“Good. You know, I didn’t go to college and neither did your mom. Maybe you’ll be the first.”
“Dad went to college. He graduated from Sacramento State.”
“Is that where you want to go?”
“I dunno. I have years and years to think about it.”
“Very true.”
“Maybe I’ll be a policeman like you.”
“That would be cool. So—I was talking to my partner the other day, and he’s Catholic and says that your school is one of the best.” A small fib, but she was pretty sure Chris would think any Catholic school was good. “We don’t really go to church. Is it kind of weird?”
“Not weird. It’s neat.”
“Neat?”
“I mean, you know, that there’s someone out there who knows everything.”
“God?”
“Yeah. He knows everything. Not just what you do but what you’re thinking. That’s why you can’t lie, because even if you lie to your parents, God knows. And it’s one of the Ten Commandments.” He recited them as if he’d just memorized them.
“I agree with you about lying, buddy. People lie to me all the time.”
“How do you tell if they’re lying?”
“I just… know.”
“Like God?”
She laughed. “No, not like God. Like a cop. We’re trained to look at situations, and listen to people carefully, and watch how they react.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Well, generally—not always, but usually—when someone doesn’t look me in the eye, they’re lying or trying to come up with a lie. Or sometimes they’re scared. To figure out the truth, I have to look at the whole picture—the situation, their body language, what they’re saying and how they’re saying it.”
“Wow. That’s cool. If I was a cop, I could find out if Bobby Thompson lied when he said he didn’t throw my lunch in the trash.”
“Someone picking on you?”
“No. He’s just mean.”
Jackie would deal with this third grade bully another day.
“Is everything cool at home?”
He shrugged. “Sure, I guess.”
Her heart skipped a beat. Maybe he’d seen something. She hoped not. She didn’t want TJ to live through what she and Melissa had lived through. But if she could get him and her sister away from Tom, she’d take it.
“Is something wrong?”
“Why was Mom mad at you when you came by on Monday?”
“Was she?”
“If you didn’t know, then you’re not a really good detective, are you?”
Wow. Coming from an eight-year-old?
“Yeah—well, your mom and I had a disagreement last week. I came over today to make sure she wasn’t still angry, and we made up.”
“You can still come to my party, right?” He sounded worried.
“Of course. All good now.”
“Great.” He started down at his partly eaten ice cream cone.
“Is that it?”
He nodded.
“Really?”
“Don’t tell my mom.”
She didn’t want to promise that—but she needed to know what TJ was thinking. “That depends, TJ. I can’t keep secrets from your mom, like if you’re going to tell me you knocked off a liquor store.”
He laughed. “That’s funny, Auntie.”
“I’m a riot. What is it, TJ?”
“Mom hasn’t taken me to school for weeks. I think she’s really sick and is pretending she’s not.”
“Why would she pretend?”
“Because… I don’t know. When I’m sick, I don’t pretend because I get to stay home from school and Mom makes me chicken noodle soup. It’s the only thing she can cook.”
That sounded like something Tom would say.
“I got most of the cooking genes in the family, but your mom isn’t that bad.”
“She tries really hard.”
“Your mom always tries to make everyone happy.”
“Can you make sure she’s not sick?”
“I’ll talk to her, and make sure she doesn’t know you’re worried, if that’s what you want.”
He breathed easier. “Yes. Thank you.”
“Have you asked your dad?”
“He says she’s fine.”
Of course he’d say that.
Jackie parked in front of Melissa’s house and walked TJ inside. Melissa greeted them at the door. After showering and re-doing her make-up, she looked a thousand percent better.
“Is that chocolate I see on your chin?” Melissa said, giving TJ a kiss on the forehead. “Go wash your face, buddy.”
“Thanks for the ice cream, Aunt Jackie. I had fun.”
He ran down the hall.
“You feeling better?” Jackie asked.
“I’m fine. Really.”
“Sleeping until two is not fine.”
“Knock it off, Jackie!” She glanced behind her, where TJ’s bedroom was. “I’m fine,” she whispered. “I’m pregnant. I haven’t told TJ.”
Jackie saw red.
“Pregnant,” she said flatly.
“Shh! I just want to make sure I can carry the baby—”
“What? What does that mean?”
“Nothing.”
“Dammit, talk to me, Melissa!”
“I had a miscarriage last year. I didn’t want to tell you because you would have this insane idea that it would be Tom’s fault.”
Last year. Something clicked.
“When Tom pushed you down the stairs?”
“That was an accident! I told you!” She averted her eyes.
“It wasn’t. You lost the baby.”
“It was a freak thing, the doctor said. Just the shock or something. It wasn’t Tom’s fault.”
It was all Jackie could do to keep her temper in check, but maybe there was a God because her voice remained calm. “Does Tom know you’re pregnant?”
“Of course.”
“And he still wants to have rough sex.” She wasn’t buying it.
“Shh!”
“He put bruises on his pregnant wife,” Jackie said through clenched teeth.
“Time to go, Jackie. Please. Leave me and my family alone.”
“Remember that little girl who was killed by her father? I gave her mother a half a dozen chances to get help. I worked that case for months, and her mother would never leave. Never walk away, no matter how many bruises and beatings she took. And now they’re all dead.”
“You are such a bitch! I told you that one thing that happened years ago, one little mistake, and you’ve lost your mind. You think everyone is as perfect as you? What are you, a saint?” She barked out a nasty laugh.
“Tom hit you and then cheated on you. You were upset, but that was the only time that you were ever completely honest with me.”
“Keep your voice down,” Melissa said. “I swear, if you tell TJ any of your ridiculous accusations, you will never see him again. Ever.”
Her heart skipped a beat, but she kept going because Melissa had to face the truth. “Wake up, Missy. I get it—you’re embarrassed, but I can help you. I love you. You’re my sister, and it would kill me if you and TJ ended up like Marla and Lizzy Becker.”
Melissa’s face was a white as a ghost. She said in a low voice that Jackie almost didn’t hear.
“Get out of my house and never, never come back.”
Chapter Nine
Rhonda Regan Anderson lived in Rancho Cordova in a sketchy neighborhood—and that was being generous. Jackie got out of her Jeep and saw a group of teens wearing sagging pants and too much gold jewelry scatter. Yeah, even in jeans and a T-shirt, Jackie still looked like a cop. Could be because she wore her gun and badge. Sure, Jackie was off-duty but she was still packing heat.
She knocked on her mother’s door. Jackie could count on one hand how many times she’d visited her mother here. The last time had been after her third husband Billy—the prick she was still married to—had been arrested. That’s when her mother had nearly been arrested herself for mouthing off and attacking the police officers who’d come to serve the warrant. Jackie had wanted to throw her in jail as well, but Rhonda was injured—not from the police, but from the asshole she’d married. Jackie had taken her to the hospital where a broken rib was taped and her wrist put in a brace. A contusion on the back of her head meant an overnight stay.
Even with those injuries, Rhonda wouldn’t tell the police or Jackie that her husband had hurt her.
Jackie had long given up hope that her mother would come to her senses. She was fifty-two and had fallen again and again into the same abusive patterns.
The only upside was that while she still claimed to love her husband, he was locked up for a few more years, so Rhonda wasn’t being physically abused.
Oh, joy, what a silver lining.
“Jackie—what are you doing here?”
“We need to talk about Melissa.”
Rhonda looked nervous, but she always looked like she was expecting the next blow. After all the beatings her various husbands had inflicted on her, she probably had brain damage. Well, the first and third. The second was also a bastard but as far as Jackie knew, he never hit her. He just yelled and emotionally berated her. Rhonda actually left him of her own accord.
Probably because she wasn’t scared of him.
Jackie would never understand her mother.
“I need to come in,” Jackie said.
Rhonda opened the door wider, then closed it behind Jackie.
The house reeked of marijuana—legal now, but Jackie detested drugs. Drugs made smart people stupid. But the odor had her craving a cigarette.
In her small kitchen, Rhonda pulled out a vinyl-topped chair and sat. Jackie took a seat across from her. Rhonda lit up—nicotine, not pot. Rhonda offered her a Virginia Slim. Not Jackie’s preferred brand, but she wasn’t choosy. She took the cigarette, lit it, and inhaled deeply.
Rick was going to be mad, but right then Jackie didn’t care. It had been months since she’d last lit up. She took another drag, then stubbed it out in an overflowing ashtray.
“Melissa is pregnant.”
“She told you?”
“Yes. She also told me about having a miscarriage last year. That wasn’t the first miscarriage, was it?”
Rhonda wasn’t looking at her. “I don’t know what you mean.”
Jackie slammed her hand on the table. Her mom jumped. Jackie felt both vindicated and ashamed that she’d got the reaction she wanted. “Tell me the truth!”
“That’s why she didn’t want to tell anyone. She’s had a couple.”
“A couple? Two?”
“Three.”
“Three miscarriages since TJ?”
Rhonda nodded.
“Because of Tom?”
“No, no, of course not! He treats her like a princess. The house, the car, the jewelry. He’s a gentleman. I know you don’t like him, but—”
“Today she had bruises all over her legs and claimed they’d just had rough sex, but I know what rough sex is and this wasn’t it.”
“Jackie! Please.”
“Oh, come on, Rhonda! I remember Daddy slapping you upside the head, then begging you to forgive him and you two would go at it like rabbits.”
“You remember no such thing.”
“You can lie to yourself all you want, I don’t give a shit anymore. But Melissa is married to a man who hurts her, and because of you, she won’t say a word against him.”
“Missy told me you’re jealous because Tom is successful. Very successful. And handsome. Your boyfriend’s just a nurse. Nurses don’t make hardly anything, and he’s all scarred up.”
Jackie couldn’t believe that Rhonda would mention Rick with such… contempt? Animosity?
Just a nurse? What the hell did she think nurses did?
And Rick was hardly just a nurse, though Jackie wouldn’t care one iota if he was an orderly. He was the best man who had ever walked into her life.
“So, because Tom is rich and buys Melissa stuff, it’s okay that he hits her?”
“Tom treats Melissa like she’s made of glass. He loves her.”
Why had Jackie come here?
To confirm that it wasn’t just one miscarriage.
But she wanted more than confirmation. She wanted her mother to help—Melissa wasn’t listening to Jackie, maybe she’d listen to Rhonda. Jackie didn’t know what else to do, who else to call for help, not where Melissa was concerned.
“Rhonda,” Jackie said. She hadn’t called her Mom in years. “I know you care about Melissa. You have to help me get her out of that house.”
“I’ll do no such thing! Where would Missy go? She doesn’t have a job. She doesn’t have any money! She needs Tom, and TJ needs a father!”
“A father who beats his mom?”
“I have never seen a bruise on Missy. Never!”
“I sure as hell have, and I’ve seen them on you. You looked the other way when Daddy took a belt to me. I have the scars on my back from when he whipped me.” Jackie was losing her temper, but worse, she was getting upset. She didn’t want to remember that time, nor could she ever forget.
“You talked back,” said Rhonda. “If you would of just done what he said when he said it, he would never have laid a hand on you.”
“He didn’t lay a hand on me. He laid his belt on me.” Why was she having this conversation? This wasn’t about her. It was about Melissa and TJ and getting them safe. “Melissa will listen to you, but I don’t know why I thought you would help me save her.”
“She doesn’t need saving. She has a perfect life.”
“She’s going to be dead.”
“How dare you!”
“Mother!” Rhonda jumped. Jackie surprised herself. When was the last time she’d called her Mother? She softened her voice. “I need your help. Please. Do you think I would come here if I had any other choice? We need to do an intervention together. If Melissa understands that you and me agree on this, she’ll listen.”
“Missy is just fine. She doesn’t need my help or your help, and if you go on spouting these lies, you’re going to ruin her marriage.”
“Tom pushed Melissa down the stairs last year and caused her miscarriage. He did it on purpose—because he was angry.”
Rhonda shook her head.
Jackie pounded her fist on the scarred table and Rhonda jumped. “Listen to me!”
“You want to ruin Missy’s life. Leave her alone.”
“He’s going to kill her!” She hadn’t meant to say that. She wanted to say hurt the baby or hit TJ, but it slipped out and she saw Marla Becker bloody and dead in her home, her daughter Lizzy cowering in the closet.
Jackie got up because Rhonda was no help. “You might as well kill her yourself,” she said. “Your inac
tion, your pathetic self-pity and lies won’t help her, not now.”
“You think you know everything. Because you’re a fucking pig cop? Putting men behind bars because you don’t like them? What did Missy and Tom ever do to you? Nothing! And you want to ruin their lives. Ruin TJ’s life. You know nothing, girl.”
Jackie started for the door. She should never have come here. She confirmed the information she wanted, but was it worth this?
“Nothing!” Rhonda shouted at her back. “You’re just a big bully like every other cop I’ve ever met. Just like your father.”
Jackie walked out, slamming the door behind her.
#
After getting into her car outside her mom’s house, her cell phone rang. When she saw who the caller was, Jackie reluctantly answered. She had been tempted to let the call go to voicemail, but Rick would be pissed, and he was the one person she didn’t want to upset. “Hey,” she said, pulling away from the curb.
“I thought you were coming over when I got off shift.”
“Something came up.”
Silence. Of course he wouldn’t accept a vague answer.
“I need to do something,” Jackie added.
“I’ll meet you. Where?”
“Not a good idea.”
“Jack, tell me what’s going on.”
“Melissa’s pregnant. I saw bruises on her thighs. Remember her fall last year? When she sprained her wrist and had a concussion? She was pregnant then, too, and lost the baby. She just told me today.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah. So. I’m taking care of it.”
“Dammit, Jack, don’t touch him.”
“I just need to know what he’s doing. I have a plan.” Sort of. “I need more information.” She turned onto Highway 50 toward downtown. The rain started to fall again, so she turned on her windshield wipers, then slowed down because visibility was crap.
“And?”
“I won’t do anything stupid.”
“You’re anything but stupid, Jackie, but sometimes you let your emotions get the better of you. I just don’t see anything good coming out of a confrontation with Stafford. He already caught you following him this week, you can’t keep doing this.”
“Rhonda confirmed that last year wasn’t Missy’s first miscarriage.”
“You talked to your mother?” His voice was hard, more than a little angry. “What can I say to you to get you to back off? This is getting out of hand, and you know it.”
Betrayed: Powerful Stories of Kick-Ass Crime Survivors Page 44