Blood and Justice

by Rayven T. Hill

  She touched his hand. He looked intently at her, and lost a tear. He rubbed it away, cleared his throat, and took the last bite of his sandwich.

  Amelia pushed back her plate. She sat back, dabbed at her lips with the cloth napkin and smiled at Hank. “That was delicious. Thank you.” Now she was feeling guilty again. She really just wanted to get home. She had no right to be out when Jenny could call. And no one would answer. She decided then that she wouldn’t leave the house again until Jenny was home and safe.

  “You’re welcome,” he said. “It’s been a pleasure.”

  Chapter 9

  Wednesday, August 10th, 8:45 PM

  ANNIE’S FRIEND, Chrissy, had willingly dropped over from next door to watch Matty for a while. Annie called Jake in from the other room where he was helping Matty put the finishing touches on a Lego mansion. Matty was in his pajamas, and came trailing along behind him as Jake answered the summons.

  Jake grabbed a duffel bag from the kitchen table. “All ready,” he said.

  “We should be back in a couple of hours,” Annie said to Chrissy, and then turned to Matty. “Don’t forget to brush your teeth.”

  “I will Mom. You know I always do.”

  Right on time, Jake and Annie arrived at Cranstons Department Store. Jake tapped lightly on the door of the security office, and eased it open. Chris rose from his chair, and slapped Hank on the back. “Good to see you buddy!” He offered his hand and a grin. Jake shook the hand and returned the grin.

  Chris shook Annie’s hand as well. “Hey, Darlin’,” he said. “Welcome to my corner of the world.”

  Jake dropped the duffel bag full of tools and equipment he was carrying, onto the floor. “We’re all set here, any time you are,” he said.

  “Got all your spy stuff in there, do you?” Chris asked, pointing to the bag.

  “Enough and more,” Annie said.

  “We’ll give it a few minutes to let the cashiers check out, then we can get this thing done.”

  Before long the huge store was empty, save for a few security guards patrolling the aisles, making sure all of the customers were gone. Jake and Annie followed Chris to the jewelry department.

  There were three showcases that contained the most valuable items. Necklaces, rings and bracelets, made from gold and containing jewels, diamonds and gems. These were the cases that had endured the losses.

  The cameras were tiny and could be put almost anywhere without being obvious. They would wirelessly send what they see back to a special bank of digital recorders already set up in the security office, ready to go. The recordings were time-stamped and could be viewed live on monitors, or played back at a later time.

  They fitted two inside each showcase, one at either end. Another pair went on top of the case fastened to the cash register, or advertising material. A couple more went behind the counter to cover a larger area, and they were done.

  Chris glanced over the inventory control sheet. “Nothing missing today,” he said. “Yesterday we had a diamond ring go missing. It’s usually about every couple of days.”

  “We’re done here,” Annie said as she zipped up the bag. “Now it’s just a matter of waiting.”

  Chris let them out of the front door of the megastore, locking it behind them.

  Jake left a little rubber on the asphalt as the Firebird peeled away from the curb. Annie smiled to herself. He’ll never grow up, she thought. He’s just like a big kid, but at least he’s all mine.

  Wednesday, August 10th, 9:00 PM

  HANK SPUN the wheel and the car veered to the right. He swung it into Amelia’s driveway, squeaking to a stop in front of the double garage.

  Amelia looked at her watch. “Would you like to come in for a coffee?” she asked.

  Hank didn’t want to sound too excited. “Sure,” was all he said.

  He climbed from the car, moved around to the other side of the vehicle and opened Amelia’s door. He offered his hand as she stepped gracefully out. Approaching the house, she fumbled briefly in her purse, and in a moment, the front door swung open, and they were inside the lobby.

  Lilia was a live-in maid. She had been with the family for many years and was a cherished helper. She was treated almost like one of the family. Amelia asked her to make a pot of coffee as she greeted them at the door. Lilia nodded slightly, smiled, and headed for the kitchen.

  Amelia excused herself for a moment and followed Lilia to the kitchen. She checked the phone. No one had called. No messages. No missed calls. She didn’t know whether to be relieved or not. She checked the phone to be sure it was still working and the call forwarding was still in place. It was.

  Coming back to the lobby, Amelia motioned toward the sitting room. Hank followed her and they took a seat on the divan. He propped up one knee on the couch, turned sideways, and faced her, his arm over the back cushion. She sat at the other end, and crossed her legs.

  Seeing the photo albums still on the coffee table, she breathed a sigh. She seemed to be in deep concentration. Finally, she looked at Hank. “Jenny loves this room,” she said. “She used to come in here to read or do her homework. She loved... loves... to have the fireplace going and just sit here and talk.”

  Hank agreed, “It’s a beautiful room,” he said, “and comfortable. I can see why she likes it so much.”

  Amelia turned to face him. “So Hank, tell me about your daughter, about Beth,” she asked cautiously.

  Just then, Lilia eased into the room, her feet in soft ballet-like slippers, barely making a whisper. She slid a silver tray gently onto the coffee table, carefully moving one of the albums aside to make room. As well as coffee, cream and sugar, the tray contained a plate of fruit stuffed scones. Just big enough for a single bite, Hank thought. Or maybe two bites for Amelia. She poured two cups, and smiled sweetly at them, slipping again from the room.

  Hank fixed up his coffee with cream and lots of sugar before sitting back, cup in hand. He looked at Amelia.

  She caught a faraway look in his deep-brown eyes as he sipped his coffee thoughtfully, before finally speaking.

  “Our daughter, our beautiful daughter Beth, was diagnosed with a brain tumor at six months. She had started to refuse food, and wasn’t thriving very well. She had an MRI scan which showed she had a brain tumor. Chemotherapy to reduce the size of the tumor wasn’t helping much. She grew constantly weaker. The specialist recommended surgery, but it wasn’t effective due to her weakened condition, and she died less than a week later.”

  Amelia was silent, but her compassionate look encouraged him.

  He looked down, brushing some invisible dust from his pant leg, and then looked up and continued. “Naturally it was a hard time. For both of us. We were devastated. And now the happy future we had envisioned was just dark. I know time heals all wounds, and it pretty much does. At least the pain gets less, but at the time, we sure didn’t think so. I guess everybody grieves in their own way. I buried myself in my work, but Elizabeth just wanted to cling to me. She wanted to always be talking about it. I just wanted to be busy. Neither one of us understood the other. We grew apart. Just like that.”

  Hank cleared his throat again and took another gulp of coffee, and then poked a scone into his mouth. He chewed slowly, assessing his thoughts. She watched him.

  He continued, “Though of course I was still in a lot of pain, I could come to accept it after a while. But Elizabeth never could. I didn’t expect her to just forget it. Of course not, but she just couldn’t deal with it. The amount of help and encouragement I tried to give her, and the support from her family, just wasn’t enough.”

  He shrugged his shoulders and spread his hands palms up, as if resigned to the past he couldn’t control. “And so we separated. She went back to live with her parents. I thought it was only temporary, but it didn’t work out like I thought, so I just went my own way. Back to work, and tried to move on with my life. And here I am.” He smiled. “I’m ok now.”

  Amelia studied him momentarily. He see
med like such a caring man in the little time she had known him. Compassionate, and always sympathetic toward others. Now she understood why. Those who experience pain can best understand the pain of others. She touched his hand, smiled, and nodded slowly. “Yes, you’re ok now,” she agreed.

  Hank popped another scone and downed the rest of his coffee. “He stood up and said, “I better go.” He was tempted to kiss her. Maybe just on the forehead, but he didn’t. Instead, as she rose, he thanked her and moved toward the door.

  “Hank,” she said, as his hand was on the doorknob.

  He turned, “Yes?”

  “Find Jenny for me.”

  “We will,” he promised. It was then he kissed her. On the forehead. Then he was gone.

  Chapter 10

  Thursday, August 11th, 10:20 AM

  JAKE WAS FIDDLING with his car in the garage. Annie knew it had something to do with the mufflers, but she wasn’t quite sure what. Jake always had some emergency adjustment to do, or something that couldn’t wait to be fixed. It always seemed to run ok to her.

  She backed her Ford Escort out of the driveway, heading for Mortinos. It had the best selection of meats, and a good load of red meat was necessary to fulfill Jake’s cravings. Especially during barbecue season.

  Four nice big steaks for the barbecue tonight. Then she put two back and selected a couple of smaller ones. Lettuce and tomatoes for a salad. Some nice big potatoes for baking. She consulted her shopping list, moving aisle to aisle, gathering what they needed, and only what they needed. Mostly.

  “Hello, Mrs. Lincoln.”

  Annie turned around. “Hi Jeremy,” she said.

  She looked at the little man grinning up at her. Barely to her shoulder in height, he was a bit of an odd specimen. But always polite and helpful. He knew where everything was in the store, always bustling around restocking, and was quick to point out special sales. Today he thought the tomatoes were especially nice.

  “Local grown,” he said. “Nice and juicy.”

  Annie pointed to her cart. “Yes, I have some,” she said.

  “You should see my tomatoes,” he said. “I planted a whole crop of them this spring. They’re just getting ripe now. Big ones. I’ve got great soil. I can grow anything. I got lettuce and carrots growing too. Not ready yet of course.”

  Annie smiled. He was way too helpful sometimes. Rambled a lot, but she couldn’t help feeling sorry for him. Normally she wouldn’t have paid much attention to him, let alone know anything about his personal life.

  When his father had been sent to prison when he was young, she hadn’t been aware of it. When he was found dead in his cell, a shiv fashioned from a sharpened toothbrush protruding from his heart, no one heard about it. At least she hadn’t.

  But when his mother had been found in the barn, hanging from the rafters, with a length of strong rope noosed about her neck, one shoe lying quietly on the straw below her lifeless body, Annie had heard about it. That didn’t happen every day. And so, Annie felt some compassion for the young man, odd though he was.

  “I’m sure your garden is nice,” she said. “It’s good you can still put the land to some use.”

  “Yeah, can’t let it go to waste. Mother always had a nice garden. We took care of it together. We had to, you know, with Father not able to be there. She’s buried out near the garden. With Father. And my grandparents too, you know,” he said, and added thoughtfully, “Guess I’ll be buried there too someday.”

  “I expect that won’t be for a long time, Jeremy,” Annie said.

  “Yeah, I guess not. Well, I better get back to work. Goodbye, Mrs. Lincoln.”

  “Goodbye Jeremy.” She watched him bustle over to the next aisle and disappear behind a stack of baked beans.

  Thursday, August 11th, 11:00 AM

  JAKE WAS IN THE basement doing his daily workout routine. Annie found a message propped up on the office desk from Sammy MacGlen from MacGlen Forensic Services. The message said he had found something interesting and could she please call him back.

  She took a seat, tapped in the phone number written on the note, and after two rings she heard, “MacGlen Forensic Services, Sammy speaking.”

  “Hi Sammy, it’s Annie Lincoln.”

  “Hi Annie, glad you got back to me right away. As I told Jake, I found something.”

  “Yes?”

  “We did a sampling for any botanical material found on the tires, and underneath the vehicle as you asked.”

  “Yes?”

  “Well, not surprisingly, the tires didn’t show anything unusual at first, but the underbody sure did. We found evidence of partially decomposed plant materials, like water lilies, fern, and cypress, resulting in a buildup of peat and a rich soil. There are fragments of plant tissue, excluding live roots, which have retained recognizable cellular structure of the original plant.”

  “So what does that really mean?”

  “The materials examined came from an area that had probably been a swamp at one time. The breakdown suggests many, many, years ago, possibly hundreds. And so, we examined the tires again, and found small traces of the same soil in the treads as well. Not enough to be remarkable on its own, but there nonetheless.”

  “Excellent work Sammy. Will you fax me a copy of that report?”

  “I’ll send it over right away.”

  “Hang on to the samples for now,” Annie asked.

  “Sure will. I’ll put them in storage.”

  After hanging up the phone, Annie pulled up her chair and powered on the computer. She knew exactly what she needed to find. An area, probably locally, that had once been a swamp. It certainly appeared Bronson’s car has been driven in a spot with that description. Maybe not much to go on, but it seemed to be all they had.

  She searched through topographic maps online. No luck there. A geological map looked more promising. After a few minutes of more research, she found what seemed to be the answer. There was an area west of Richmond Hill, toward King City, that fit the description. A lot of it was now government-protected land because of the wildlife that flourished in the area, and much still contained swamp, but in many places, the swamp had receded and it was thriving and heavily forested.

  Annie printed out the maps, and sat back, staring at the monitor. She had to go on an expedition.

  Thursday, August 11th, 12:00 PM, Noon

  JAKE STEPPED out of the shower and dried himself off on the way to the bedroom. After getting dressed, he wandered down to the kitchen where Annie was putting together a light lunch.

  “Did you call Sammy?” he asked.

  “Yes I did, and he found out something interesting. The vehicle had recently been driven through an area that was previously a swamp. There were bits on the underside of the car body. I did some checking and it looks like there are three possible areas.”

  Jake whistled. “Nice call!”

  “According to the maps, two of the three possible areas are near roads, but one is much further away from any traffic areas, and probably not reachable by vehicle. I doubt if it would be the spot. If you are game, I think we should take a look at one of the two possibilities and see if we can find anything.”

  “I’m ready,” Jake said.

  “We’ll take my car,” Annie said. “I know how picky you are about yours. We’ll bring a shovel just in case. And I might want to take some soil samples.”

  “I’ll load up the trunk as soon as we’re done here.”

  After lunch, Jake and Annie changed into some hiking gear. Jake threw a shovel, a length of rope, and some kitchen garbage bags into the trunk of Annie’s Escort. “All set,” he said.

  Annie climbed in the passenger seat and studied the map. They had to start a couple of miles west of Richmond Hill, where the city met the country. Four main roads, making a rectangle enclosing about eight square miles, surrounded the area. It was in this rectangle where the swamp was located. The two possible options were along the north road or the south road, where the swamp, as well a
s the reclaimed areas, came closer to the back roads. She was sure the place where Bronsons vehicle had been was along one of those two roads. There were a bunch of farms in the area, but none especially close to the swamp. She ruled them out.

  “We’ll take the north road first,” she said. “That may be all we have time for today.” She looked at her watch. Matty would be trudging home from school by three-thirty and they needed to be back by then.

  There was little traffic on these roads. They met only a few vehicles after they left the city and made their way toward Service Road.

  “OK, go slow now,” Annie said. She was looking for any possible route off of the road.

  Going slow wasn’t something Jake was good at, but he tapped the brake, and they crept along the road.

  “Stop here!”

  Jake brought the vehicle to a standstill on the shoulder of the road and Annie stepped out. She had noticed a spot where the fence was broken down. There seemed to be a narrow access path into the tree-covered fields. She stood at the side of the road and studied it. Too narrow for a vehicle, and no wheel ruts, tire marks, or other indications it had ever been used for anything other than maybe a footpath, or a deer crossing.

  She climbed back in the car. “Keep going,” she said.

  Jake threw the car in first gear and pulled back onto the road. He peered at her over his Harley Davidson sunglasses. “Well?”

  “Not there,” she said. “Get your eyes on the road.”

  After another minute or so Annie spied another possibility. “Maybe there,” she said, “but keep going. We’re almost at the end. We can come back later.”

  After a couple more minutes, they reached an intersection, where a north-south road marked the border of the block of land they were interested in.

  “That’s all,” Jake said. “I’ll turn around.” He made a three point turn and headed back the way they came. He pulled over when they reached a path that led from the main road, stretching through the bramble of vegetation, into the trees beyond. Wide enough for a car, but just barely. A carpet of wildflowers ran along the fence beside the path.