The Healer

by Dee Henderson

  “What do the prints show on the two .45s that were recovered?” Marcus asked.

  “Mark handled the guns and loaded the clips of both. Greg’s prints were found only on the grip of the .45 caliber gun he had picked up.”

  “But what set off the school shooting? There had to be a triggering event, and Tim, Mark, and Greg aren’t around to tell us what it was.” Quinn nodded to the board. “What’s between March 16 and April 10? A river and a flood. No one who murdered Carol is going to hold on to the weapon used in the crime. It got pitched in the river. Only the floodwaters left items behind when it receded.”

  Rachel’s chair fell back to four legs with a small crash. “At Adam’s sleepover with Tim, he said they were taking Greg’s metal detector to search the riverbanks. Adam was excited about the chance to go exploring again. They had already found three silver dollars.”

  Marcus turned toward her. “If Tim found that .38, Adam would know about it.”

  She rubbed her eyes. “He wouldn’t want to darken the memory of his friend by saying Tim had taken the handgun to school. In an awful way this makes sense. Tim was getting bullied by Mark. What does a boy getting bullied do? He boasts, ‘Back off, I’ve got a gun.’ That might be the trigger that led to the school shooting. We’ve got two boys goading each other to prove it.”

  “What time does school get out? Talk to Adam and find out if that .38 was in Tim’s possession.”

  Rachel looked at her watch. “Ann will be picking him up in forty minutes.”

  “Quinn, Cole, as soon as we finish the general update go with Rachel to meet them at the school. We need to know.”

  Rachel nodded. Cole reached under the table and squeezed her hand.

  Quinn set down the report he’d been scanning. “Was it a truck that hit Amy’s car?”

  “The car trunk was crushed downward when it crumpled and you can see the height of the bumper on the other vehicle,” Lisa confirmed. “They’re working on a warrant for Brian’s truck now.”

  “I want to turn to the time line of what happened at the school. Are there any general questions before we do so?” Marcus asked the room at large. Quinn closed his folder and nodded toward the door. Cole and Rachel joined him to head to see Adam.

  “I can’t read my notes.” Rachel struggled to make out the information in her composition book as Cole drove them to the school. “My handwriting wasn’t even legible through a few of the days last week.”

  “Relax, Rae.”

  “I misread Adam. I asked him my standard follow-up question, and rather than answer me, Adam asked about Kate and why I had gone into the school with her. I should have seen it.”

  “We’ve known ever since Lisa figured out the gun was missing that someone had taken it. In an odd way, I hope it was Adam who took it. He’s not someone who would use it. If he took it, at least Adam will have the smarts to hide it well.”

  Rachel looked over at the man she loved and took a deep breath. “Thank you. I appreciate your optimism.”

  “As bad as the school shooting was, it could have been much worse.” Cole reached for her hand. “This is coming to an end, Rae. You’ll get a chance to breathe again.”

  Rachel’s pager went off. She looked at the number and tensed. It was an emergency code, and there had been only a handful of them over the years. “Not for a while. There’s trouble.”

  Thirty-five

  Rachel flipped to a blank page in the composition book as she returned the call. “I’m here, Kate.”

  “Are you driving?”

  A chill traveled up her spine. “Cole is.”

  “I was at the high school when the middle school reported a problem with a number of backpacks left behind after school was let out. With everyone a bit spooked, I’ve been helping clear them. I found Adam’s and gave his mom a call to let her know it had been left behind. Rae, Adam is missing. He called his mom and asked to go home early, that he wasn’t feeling well. Ann said when they got home Adam asked her if she would fix some macaroni and cheese and then he went to lie down. When she went to check on him ten minutes later, she found his bedroom window wide open and he was gone. Stephen’s on his way to Ann’s now, and I’m pulling together a search group.”

  Rachel reached out and touched Cole’s arm. “Hit the car horn and warn Quinn. I need you to divert to Ann’s home.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Adam’s missing.”

  She didn’t have time to explain beyond that as she dropped the call with Kate and turned her attention to the composition book she had been assembling. She traced back the web of notes she had for Adam’s friends and began placing calls, looking for anyone who might know his plans.

  But as she spoke with each friend, it became obvious that Adam had told no one. He would have shared his secret with his best friend Tim, but his best friend was dead. And in trying to protect Tim, Adam was trying to take an adult-sized problem on his own shoulders.

  She closed the phone, feeling lost, not knowing what else to do.

  “Rachel, what do you need?”

  “Wisdom. Where does a little boy go when he’s overwhelmed?”

  “We’ll find him.”

  “We need to check Tim’s grave site.”

  Cole reached over and squeezed her hand. “We’ll start at his neighborhood first.”

  They turned onto Governor Street. “Cole.” Rachel pointed toward the bridge. “I thought the bridge was still closed.”

  “It is.” He slowed to look down the street. “Is that Adam?”

  “I think so.” The boy was trying to climb under the railing.

  Rachel spotted Stephen and Ann running toward the bridge from the opposite direction.

  Adam lost his balance and disappeared from the bridge. “No!”

  Cole threw the car in park and was out and running along the riverbank before she got her door open. Moments later he went into the river after the boy.

  Rachel ran down the riverbank and joined Ann, trying to keep up with Stephen as he raced ahead to help Cole. Rachel saw Cole grab the boy in the swift-moving current.

  Cole angled himself and Adam toward the shore. Dirt crumbled beneath Rachel as she slid down the bank to the river’s edge. Her feet slipped into the water as she stopped her descent. She reached for Adam as Cole dragged him close to the bank. She pulled Adam from the water, turned, and passed him up to his mom. He coughed up water.

  “Go on, help Ann,” Stephen urged as he pulled Cole ashore. Rachel left them and scrambled back up the riverbank.

  Adam was crying in his mom’s arms. Rachel ran her hand across his wet hair and dried his face with her shirtsleeve. “Adam, please, what’s going on? What were you trying to do? Where were you going?”

  “I didn’t want Tim blamed for bringing the gun to school.” His voice quivered. “I was going to put it back where Tim had first found it.” Adam looked at his mom, pleading for her to understand.

  “You took the gun after the shooting?” Rachel asked softly.

  “I told Tim I’d meet him in the gym after he got out of his detention. I was bouncing a ball, practicing. Mark came in the back gym doors and went through to the locker room. I heard Tim and I went to see what was going on. I heard the shot and saw Mark run out, being chased by Greg. Mark dropped the gun in the hall as he ran by.”

  “Where is it now?”

  Adam pointed back toward the bridge. “Under the bridge span. I was trying to reach it.”

  Stephen had joined them. “Come and show me, buddy.” Stephen reached down and picked up the boy. In that simple gesture, Adam got the first assurance that the grown-ups had arrived to take over.

  Ann offered Rachel a hand up.

  “I’m sorry, Ann. I should have been able to help sooner.”

  Ann patted her shoulder. “Adam left a note on his desk. It said: ‘Don’t worry, Mom. I have Rachel’s card.’ He knew he could count on you even if he was hiding what had happened.”

  Rachel wiped away te
ars. “You have a wonderful son, Ann. Two of them.”

  Ann wrapped her arm around Rachel and hugged tight. “And I’ve got a great friend.”

  “You better go join Stephen and Adam. Get Adam a hot shower and then feed him macaroni and cheese. I’ll wait down here until Lisa arrives to take the weapon to the lab, and then I’ll come talk to him.”

  Ann nodded. “Take care of Cole.”

  Rachel smiled. “I’ll try.”

  Cole brushed mud from his jeans. Climbing up that riverbank had left him a mess.

  “You’re dripping.”

  “Quit laughing, Rae. I’ll lean over and hug you, then you’ll be dripping too,” Cole threatened, even as he smiled. The river water stank. He slipped off his watch with a sigh. Water dripped from it. This one hadn’t even survived a month.

  Rachel offered the napkins she had found in the car. With her shirtsleeve she reached up and rubbed his cheek. “That looks like slimy mud.”

  “You’re really finding this amusing.”

  “Relief. Pure relief. You did great. I want to give you a hug, but I don’t want to get that wet.”

  “Adam’s going to be fine, Rae. He’s a smart kid. If you want to stay with Ann and Adam for a while, I’ll head back to the fire station and get a shower.”

  “It might be best. Why don’t we meet for dinner later?”

  “I’d like that.”

  Tones sounded on the radio he’d left on the front seat of his car. “Get that for me please,” he requested as he mopped mud and water away.

  She retrieved the radio and Cole listened to the traffic. “I’m sorry, Rae. I may be gone for a while.”

  “What is it?”

  He opened the driver’s door and pulled out his keys. “A house fire. I’ll call you.” He gave a rueful laugh. “At least the heat will dry me out.”

  Thirty-six

  The address of the fire was one Cole knew well, and there were some things he didn’t want to tell Rachel. Carol Iles’s house was burning.

  The intersection of Rosecrans Road and Clover Street was closed to traffic. Cole could see in the blackness of the rising smoke and the height of the flames that the house would likely be a total loss. He parked out of the way and walked down to the scene, annoyed by the wet clothes. The house was brick, but the major parts of the structure in the roof and rooms were wood, and as they burned through they collapsed onto the bricks, bringing down part of the outside walls.

  There were enough firemen trying to drown the fire it was creating another miniflood as the water that didn’t turn into steam drenched the fire and ran back into the yard. Cole picked his way across the mud, seeing remnants of the police tape that had marked the home as a crime scene. “What do you know?” Cole asked the commander on the scene, shouting to be heard over the noise.

  “We got here and the front of the house was fully involved with the roof of the garage smoking,” he yelled back. “By the time we got hoses laid, the fire had jumped to the back. It’s been burning dark smoke the entire time. Two small explosions ripped through the kitchen area. Gas pockets possibly. They both blew out as much as up.”

  Cole studied the blaze. “One problem—gas to the house was turned off.” The black smoke told him more than even how fast the fire spread that he was likely looking at arson. The carbon particles not burning but rather turning into black smoke told him gasoline probably wasn’t used as the accelerant. “Tell your guys as they come off the fight that I’ll need descriptions of what they saw. This was a crime scene, and now it’s likely also an arson case.”

  Cole set out to circle the scene. He already knew the suspect he had in mind. Carol’s ex-husband Brian Rice. Proving it wouldn’t be so simple. A house known to be empty, set a distance away from neighbors, a house floor plan Brian knew: It would require coming prepared, but he could have been on scene mere minutes to set up the arson if he knew what he wanted to do. And the ignition source could be on any kind of timer, making it possible to be long gone before the house went up.

  Cole walked back to his vehicle to get his gear. He had to check the chemical composition of the smoke to give him a clue of what he wanted to look for.

  “Wilson, I thought you might be this way.”

  The detective stepped out of his car. “Arson?”

  “Looks like it to me, and smells like it.”

  “We went to serve the material search warrant for Brian’s truck and found that apparently he hadn’t been home in the last three days. The newspapers and mail were piled up.”

  “He’s at the top of my suspect list for this,” Cole said.

  “It’s one way to destroy evidence, whatever might have been left at the house—burn it down. He’s running,” Wilson said.

  “If he’s guilty, he murdered Carol, ran Amy off the road, his son died in a school shooting, and now he’s burned down Carol’s home. I wouldn’t stay around either. He shot his wife and threw the gun into the river. Tim found the gun and thought he could use it to get Mark to back off. Only Mark was already angry and ready to react to such a threat. He brought a gun to school too. Whether Mark ever thought he would fire the gun or not, no one will ever know, but it was a recipe for tragedy from the time Brian shot his wife. Mark was as much of a casualty as Tim.”

  They walked down the street to the house together. As the garage crashed in, a vehicle appeared in the wreckage. “What do you want to bet that’s the truck I’m trying to serve a warrant on?”

  “Tires are melted, paint is burnt off, it’s crushed under the weight of rubble. Your evidence just got destroyed.”

  “This guy is annoying me. How long before you can sort through this?” Wilson asked.

  “Tomorrow morning at the earliest. We’ll cordon off the scene and let it cool for the night.”

  Cole walked across his backyard, carrying iced tea for himself and Rachel. She had moved her lawn chair to the side of the yard where she could watch the evergreens in the neighbor’s yard. She had seen two rabbits there shortly before sundown, and for once Hank had listened to her soft admonition not to give chase. Cole had a pretty good idea his dog hadn’t been able to see them.

  The moon was huge as it rose in the sky tonight. He paused to enjoy the sight.

  It had taken him some weeks to realize why she preferred to sit outside rather than inside during an evening. She worked so many disasters she was braced for unexpected events even when she relaxed. She preferred not to have something over her head that could fall on her. Firemen had similar learned behavior in the routines they maintained.

  Cole offered her the drink. “Here you go.”

  “Thanks.”

  She was tired but relaxed to the point that she was melting into the lawn chair. Cole moved his chair over beside Rachel’s and leaned down to greet Hank. The dog was flourishing under the attention.

  “He’s growing into his name.”

  Cole smiled. “He’s working on it. How’s Adam?”

  “I spent an hour walking with him along the river, talking about Tim. He’s got a few hard months coming, but he’ll get through this. Can you tell me about the fire?”

  He’d considered what to say during the drive home, not wanting to add this to her day, but it would be public knowledge with the morning papers. “There was an arson fire at Carol Iles’s home. And Wilson recovered the truck Brian drives. Both were destroyed.”

  “Brian is trying to run.”

  “I somehow don’t think he’ll get far.”

  “While he runs, a thousand people try to cope with the chain of events he began.” Rae leaned her head back and sighed. “The right answer to this is to try to let it go?”

  “There’s not much you can do tonight about any of it,” Cole agreed.

  She nodded. “The memorial rubber duck float is coming together for Saturday the fifth. Will you be able to come?”

  “I’ve already rearranged my schedule,” Cole said.

  A comfortable silence stretched between them.


  The dog took off barking only to get stuck in a bush. Rachel snapped her fingers at him, laughing. “Hank, leave my bunny rabbits alone.”

  Cole caught the dog’s collar as he raced back. “Yes, I know this is your turf. But you have to learn to share.”

  “I’d like to take him with us next time we visit Adam and Nathan.”

  “He’d like that,” Cole agreed. One hand holding his dog still, Cole leaned over and kissed Rachel.

  Her hand tightened around his wrist to keep him close. She kissed him back. “Thanks. I’ve been thinking about that for days. I’ve missed you.”

  “Same here.”

  Her pager went off.

  He laughed at her expression. “Answer it.”

  She reluctantly released his wrist. She picked up the pager and her phone and tugged Cole over to listen in to the call. “You’ll want to hear this.”

  “Hi, Jen.”

  “Tom is on board.”

  Rachel picked up her notebook and flipped to the short list of wedding plans. “That just leaves the puzzle of getting Kate there. She’s already getting a bit suspicious.”

  “Lisa wants to handle it.”

  “Tell her not to make assumptions. Surprising a cop can elicit an interesting reaction.”

  Jennifer laughed. “I’ll warn her. Let me talk to Cole a minute.”

  Rachel raised an eyebrow.

  “Give me the phone,” Cole said, chuckling. He walked toward the house so the conversation would remain private.

  When he rejoined Rachel a few minutes later, he handed her the closed phone.

  “I’m like Kate,” she mentioned. “I don’t like surprises.”

  Cole smiled. “You’ll like this one.”

  Marcus followed Kate into her apartment. He bent to scoop up her tabby cat and ruffled his ears as Marvel waffled between hissing back and purring. Kate was still talking on the phone with Wilson about the nationwide search for Brian Rice. Marcus bet he’d be picked up within twenty-four hours. The system was designed to find murderers trying to flee.