“They’re dead now, both of them. Leda and her sister Nicole, Will’s mother. I said to myself, what can it hurt at this point to tell you what I know? I can’t say if it will help you find your father, Caroline, but there’s no point in not telling you. It’s not a secret, I guess, just kind of sad.” Violet reached out and took another lady-like sip out of her cup.
“And?” Kaitlin pressed her hands further down into the chair’s seat.
“Will’s mother was Leda’s sister, you know, but there was something more to that. They were identical twins. Their mother died when they were toddlers, and their father didn’t feel he could raise both of them, so they were separated. Leda stayed with her father. Her twin, Nicole, was sent to his brother and wife. The two girls saw each other only during the summers. They looked so much alike, even though they spent most of their time apart. But they were quite different in temperament.” Ms. Means paused again in her story and Kaitlin worried she’d have to make another pot of tea, this time stronger. Maybe more caffeine would energize her.
Kaitlin raised the teapot from the table and gestured toward Ms. Means’ cup. She shook her head no and continued her story.
“Leda was a kind, generous little thing, loving to everyone. Nicole was self-centered. Her uncle and aunt gave her everything, seemed to love her to distraction. They favored her over their own two children, yet Nicole was an unhappy child and jealous of Leda. She thought her father abandoned her and, in a way, he did. It was probably stupid to separate the two girls, but it was done.” Caroline leaned further forward, her green eyes fixated on Violet.
Violet slumped back into the couch and waved one hand at Caroline. “I’ve not talked of these things in so long that it’s hard for me to speak now. I hope what I’m saying will help you, dear, and not make things more difficult.”
Caroline nodded and gave Violet a small smile. “Please, go on,” she said.
“By the time the twins were teenagers, it was easy to tell them apart. Their characters were so different it showed in their interactions with others. Even their voices were different.” Violet paused in her tale and raised her thin shoulders in a slight shrug of embarrassment. “You know the rest. Leda got pregnant with you, put you up for adoption, and several years later married Robert Pippel. Nicole married also. She was Will’s mother. She died giving birth to him.”
Caroline remained still for a moment, then jumped out of her chair and rushed over to Violet, throwing her arms around the older woman.
“Oh, this is wonderful news,” she said. It was too. Kaitlin knew what she was thinking. Even if she couldn’t find her father, Will was a closer genetic match to her child than they had originally thought.
Caroline told Violet about her son Daniel’s fight with leukemia.
“I’m so glad I told you about Leda’s sister,” Violet said.
“Did Nicole know about Leda’s pregnancy?” Kaitlin asked.
“I don’t know, but I don’t think she did. But Freddie Hatfield surely must have known, as close as she and Leda were. Freddie never encouraged Nicole’s confidences, but I think she got them anyway. Everyone Leda was close to, Nicole wanted to be friends with also. She even tried to become my buddy one summer. It was disturbing to have someone who looked so much like Leda behave so differently. I couldn’t stand the girl, but I tried to be nice to her for Leda’s sake.”
Kaitlin told Violet that Ms. Hatfield had died.
“I suppose Leda’s secrets went with Freddie then,” she said.
After Violet left, Kaitlin caught Caroline scrutinizing her features in the hall mirror.
“Will’s eyes are more blue than green like mine.” She pulled herself away from her reflection.
“I think I’ll visit Will in the hospital again and see if he knew our mothers were more than siblings. I was going to talk with him about Daniel at some point, anyway, but since my search for my biological father has hit a snag, I think now is the time for me to be honest with him about my visit here.” Caroline looked as sad as week old birthday cake.
“First, I take his inheritance and now I want his bone marrow.”
“But you’re now the only family each other has,” Kaitlin said.
* * *
The house was quiet when she got up from her nap. Mac had left soon after Ms. Means, and he took Caroline to visit Will in the hospital. The mail lay on the kitchen counter. Probably Mary Jane had gotten it, then taken Jeremy out for a snack and left her to nap. Bills, advertisements, more bills. And a letter addressed to Jeremy, torn open, its contents lying face up on the counter. She looked at the envelope. No return address and no stamp. Someone had just dropped it into the mailbox. Odd. Her eyes wandered over to the letter. She’d accused Jeremy of snooping and now here she was. But it was in plain sight, she reasoned. She moved the paper with her fingertip so that she didn’t have to read the writing upside down. It was probably a letter from a friend.
No. Definitely not from a friend. The message was simple. And frightening.
We’ve got your pig. Come to the old bottling plant at eight tonight or you’ll never have to shop for bacon again.
She looked at the clock. It was after eight already. Was that where Jeremy and Mary Jane had gone? If so, they were in danger. She grabbed her backpack and headed for the same danger.
It was almost dark when she got to the plant. The sun was going down behind the building. Its orange glow shone through the broken walls and made the windows look as if there were a hundred fiery eyes peering down on her as she approached. She reached into her backpack for the flashlight she always kept there and stepped inside through the front entrance, now wide open, the doors hanging off their hinges.
The building was in total disrepair. Vandals and time had destroyed most of the glass in the windows, and part of the third story of the structure had fallen onto the second floor. She’d read in the newspaper that both the county and the village wanted the building torn down, but neither would take responsibility for its demolition. Parents warned their children away from the place, but that only made it a more attractive site for adventure.
As she flipped on the flashlight and shone it around the downstairs, she could see evidence of teenagers’ parties here; beer cans and bottles, wrappers from food, and used condoms littered the leaf- and dirt-covered floor. A boy of Jeremy’s age had to be afraid of this place. The only thing that would bring him and his mother here was Dessie. And someone else knew that about him, too.
She stepped inside and picked her way through the debris. “I’m here for the pig. Where is she?” Her voice cracked with fear. Where were Mary Jane and Jeremy? Was she too late?
“Up here.” The voice came from the second story of the building.
She turned toward the stairway on the right and picked her way up the broken risers to the second floor.
“Where are you?” She stood at the top of the stairway and listened. A high-pitched squeal split the dim air. Someone was tormenting an animal.
“Desdemona!” Kaitlin heard Jeremy cry out. He plunged out from behind an open closet door, Mary Jane close behind him. With Kaitlin rushing toward the man and the pig from the stairway, and Jeremy and Mary Jane coming from the other direction, the man let go of the pig and stepped to one side. One moment Kaitlin saw his silhouette outlined by the setting sun through the broken windows. The next he disappeared.
* * *
In the gathering twilight Kaitlin and Mary Jane stood at the side of the building near the edge of the wall and floor that had given way years ago. Below them, on the river bank, lay the body of the man Kaitlin had heard torturing the pig.
“Better not get too close,” said Kaitlin. She held out her arm to prevent Mary Jane from coming any nearer to the collapsed floor. Jeremy had rushed to the pig and now sat with his arm around her. It wasn’t Dessie, but it was an animal, and Jeremy seemed intent upon comforting it. The pig’s snout was bleeding, bashed by the heavy metal object the man still held in his lifeless hand.
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“That’s what made the pig squeal in pain,” said Mary Jane. She pointed to the weapon.
“It’s like a human getting hit by a baseball on the nose. Pigs’ snouts are delicate,” said Jeremy. “I’ll bet that hurts.” With a tender touch, Jeremy massaged the pig’s snout, then loosened the rope that was tied too tightly around the porker’s neck, and patted the bristly skin. “It’s a girl, too. And this one will grow up to be real big. I think I’ll call her Maude.”
“Don’t name her,” said Kaitlin. She was glad everyone was safe, even the pig, but she didn’t want to consider yet another animal soul in her house. It was already too crowded.
As if reading Kaitlin’s mind, Mary Jane turned her gaze from the body on the ground below. “It’s somebody’s pig, Jeremy. And they’ll be missing it. We’ll take her for a visit to Doc Martin. He’s a good vet, and he’ll do something for her nose. Maybe put a splint on it or just a Band-Aid.”
Kaitlin didn’t know how you could put a splint on a pig’s snout, but she was relieved to hear Mary Jane’s suggestion. We have bigger problems, thought Kaitlin. There’s a dead body down below, and that meant yet another trip to the local gendarmes.
A light appeared at the top of the stairs and traveled across the room to settle on the three of them.
“Everybody okay?” It was Mac. Mary Jane rushed into his arms.
“You might want to take a look at this,” said Kaitlin. Mac gave Mary Jane a hug and approached the crumbled wall. His flashlight illuminated the edge of the floor and the ripple of the river below them.
“Where?” He walked over to the edge of the floor as it tilted downward toward the water and directed the light there.
“Ah. Looks like someone took a fall.” Mac pulled his cell from his pocket. “I’ll call for an ambulance and the police.”
“Is the man dead?” asked Jeremy.
“I don’t know, but it looks like it. What happened?”
“We were running toward the pig from opposite directions, and the guy just stepped back, stumbled, and he fell.”
“Whose pig is that?”
“We don’t know. We need to get her to the vet for her bleeding snout. Now,” insisted Jeremy.
* * *
Several hours after they dropped the pig at the vet’s, Jeremy fell asleep in his room. Much as Kaitlin might have liked to sink into her bed also, she knew the night was not yet over. The State Bureau of Criminal Investigations had sent an investigator to Kaitlin’s house, and he sat in the living room. Mary Jane and Mac seemed to have worked something out between them for Kaitlin could once more sense the pheromones bouncing off the walls of the room. Neither Caroline nor the investigator seemed aware of the disturbance in the air although Kaitlin thought it was the kind of thing any good detective should be able to spot.
His name was Jim Wallace, and he made Mac’s six feet two frame seem small by comparison. His chocolate eyes seemed both kind and commanding, and he appeared to know exactly what he was doing.
“We’re certain that someone helped Leda Pippel to her death thanks to the evidence you shared with us—the cross and note from the EMT whom we interviewed.”
Kaitlin looked at her lap, unable to meet his eyes. It appeared she was generating some pheromones of her own when it came to the guy. “Glad I could be of help,” she said.
He extracted a picture from his pocket and handed it to her. It was obviously taken in the morgue. No one would pose for a shot like that, not even if it were a mug shot.
“Dead, isn’t he?” Kaitlin asked.
“Yes. Know him?”
“It’s kind of hard to tell from this photograph. Should I know him?”
“Not necessarily. He was the body found on the riverbank outside the bottling plant. Obviously the person who was mistreating that pig.”
“Let me see that,” said Mary Jane. She scrutinized the photo as if she were memorizing it. “He was at Hiram’s house when I was there.”
“Hiram…”
“Hiram. Kaitlin’s old boyfriend. The guy whose car went into the river the other night,” said Mac. These words seemed to remind Mac of Mary Jane’s misadventure at Hiram’s place, and Kaitlin felt a drop in temperature between the two lovebirds as well as a severe reduction in air born love hormones.
Wallace turned his attention to Mac. “How did you happen to be at the bottling plant?”
“I came here expecting to find Kaitlin home. I was just kind of checking up on her, and I found that note on the kitchen table.” Mac motioned with his hand to the note now lying on the coffee table. “So I decided to head out for the bottling plant in case they needed me.”
“I’ll take the note. Maybe we can lift some prints off it,” said Investigator Wallace. He dropped it into an evidence bag. “And now, I could go for a cup of coffee. It’s time we all had a long talk about your involvement in what’s been happening around here.” His gaze took in everybody in the room.
Several hours and several cups of coffee later, Investigator Wallace uncrossed his legs and rearranged Hester, perched on his legs. The cat had wandered through during the middle of the various tales, sniffed Investigator Wallace’s pants, which seemed to smell cat right, and jumped into his lap.
“Someone doesn’t like you and your friends very much,” he said. He was stroking the cat’s head, a gesture that elicited loud purrs from the animal.
He lifted the cat from his lap and handed it over to Mac. “It’s late, and I think we’ve covered enough ground for tonight. He arose and addressed Kaitlin. “I’d like to ask you a favor.”
“Anything, anything at all,” Kaitlin said. She blushed at the innuendo in her words, certain he picked it up.
“Hang in there with your ombudsman duties at ARC. For reasons I’m not free to divulge, I’m interested in that place. You could provide us with some insight into the happenings there by just going on with your volunteer work. Don’t try to play detective, but keep your ears open. We’ll be around in the background so that you don’t run into any further bumps on the head or a frightening rendezvous for Jeremy in the bottling plant. And, by the way, the name’s Jim.”
Kaitlin thought she’d faint.
Chapter 20
Mac, Caroline and Kaitlin took the night after the pig incident to visit Kenny’s. Caroline talked Mac into teaching her to play pool, and she was lining up a shot at the six ball. The tip of her stick wobbled back and forth, and she missed the ball completely.
Mary Jane decided to stay home with Jeremy. She’d told Kaitlin that after the horrifying experience with the pig, Jeremy needed some time alone with his mother. Kaitlin applauded her motherly intuition about Jeremy. Besides, it meant Mac could concentrate on pool rather than on Mary Jane. Kaitlin sat at the bar drinking diet soda, observing the pool lesson and wondering how she had gotten so involved in Leda’s death.
She scanned the bar crowd and was surprised to find Barney Bartlett in here. This wasn’t his usual night.
“Hey, Barney. What’re you doing here? Barbara kick you out of the house?”
She didn’t expect a reply. He looked as out of it as usual, but he pulled his bleary eyes off the television and tried to focus on her.
“It’s Kaitlin, Kaitlin Singer.”
Oh, oh, she’d made a mistake. He sloshed off his bar stool and chose one nearer. It took him a while to settle onto the new stool. When he did, he propped one elbow on the bar, placed his head on his hand, and turned to address her. Pivoting on the stool almost put him onto the floor, but he recovered his balance by gripping the bar with his other hand. He tried to focus again and missed by several feet. “Where cha go?”
She tilted her body so that she was in his sight line.
“Barbara left me. Left me. Yup. Thass truth.”
“Left you, you mean…”
“For some guy. Money. He’s got a lot of money. Thass truth. And a red car.”
His elbow slid down the bar, and his head followed until it lay in a pool of warm beer
. He closed his eyes and appeared to be asleep. Kaitlin shook his shoulder. She had questions she wanted to ask him.
“He’s gone,” said Kenny. “You can pummel him all you want, but he won’t wake up until tomorrow morning.”
She stepped outside for a better signal on her cell phone. “The name’s Jim” had given her his number just before he left the house last night. She scrolled down to his name and hit “call.”
Investigator Wallace, Jim, answered the phone himself. She was surprised and said so.
“This isn’t headquarters. This is my personal cell.” Now that was thoughtful of him.
She related to him what Barney Bartlett said. There was silence on the other end of the line for over a minute, and she thought she’d lost the connection.
“I’ll be there in a few minutes,” he said.
When he entered Kenny’s, all heads except for Barney’s turned toward the door. There was something about the man that just said “cop.” Mac had the same demeanor even after years of retirement. Kaitlin decided it had to be some kind of brain implant that made them look, walk and talk with that police deportment. Mac paused in his pool game and shook Jim’s hand. Caroline paused mid-shot to nod and then missed the cue ball completely.
“Keep your eye on the ball,” Mac said.
Jim took the bar stool next to Kaitlin’s. “This the guy?” He nodded toward Barney.
“Yep.”
“Any way we can sober him up?”
“Kenny says no. That he’s out until tomorrow morning. Barbara, his wife, is usually the one who takes care of him and can get him awake and sober. If we could find her…”
“She won’t be doing that anymore. We found her. Dead. Up river from the bottling plant.”
* * *
Caroline returned to California the next morning, having extracted from Will a promise to donate bone marrow to her son if Will’s marrow analysis indicated he was the closest match. He seemed a changed man since the loss of his practice, his car and his house and his encounter with the hooligans who beat him up. No longer the arrogant city physician who looked down on country folk, he was a man in search of a new life.
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