Twisted Reason (A Lucinda Pierce Mystery)

by Fanning, Diane

  Ellen stabbed a forkful of potato and brought to her mouth. She picked up her steak knife and carved off a piece of her steak and chewed on it as she stared out the window.

  Ted sensed the fragility in the air. He dared not say a word fearing it would shatter the evening – and maybe his life.

  Ellen set down her fork. “So, what about me and the kids? How did we fit into your plans?”

  Ted ran his a hand through his hair, then brought it down, across his mouth.

  “Well, Ted?”

  “I, uh, I . . .”

  “You were planning on moving up there without us.”

  Ted hung his head and nodded.

  “Have you lost your mind, Ted?”

  Ted opened his mouth but could not form a word. He shrugged in silence.

  “How did you expect to take care of your father and work at the same time?”

  “I – I don’t know. Hire someone to look after him during the day if necessary.”

  “That is so stupid. I’m not working. I can take care of him.”

  “But, you and I – we’re not – I mean . . .”

  “Ted. Listen. In your father’s big rambling house, we could each have our own bedroom – that sure beats you sleeping on the sofa like you’re doing now. Maybe in time, we’ll get back to where we were before we lost the baby. Maybe we won’t. Maybe we’ll just live like a brother and sister taking care of your dad and the kids. But I love your dad. I want to take care of him. And the kids – they need you.”

  “I don’t know about that.”

  “You think the kids don’t need you?”

  He shrugged.

  “Oh, good grief. Yes, the kids need you. Yes, I enjoy your company. And yes, I want to help you with your dad. So, what is the problem? Oh!” The color drained from Ellen’s face. “Is there someone else? If there is, that’s okay. I understand. I can see why—”

  “No, Ellen. There is no one else. And before you ask, there is nothing going on between me and Lucinda.”

  “Ted, I wasn’t going to ask. I’ll be honest – if you got involved in a relationship with her – or anyone – it would bother me because I do still have hope that our marriage can be repaired and renewed. But if you’ve had enough or if we just can’t recreate our former bond, I can accept that. In fact, I promise you, I will leave without a fuss the moment you ask me to do so. I just think right now, we need to be there for your dad – and it will take the both of us. And the kids? They don’t completely trust me yet. I left them for months. I was institutionalized and had no choice – but they don’t understand that – they just know I left them. You are the security in their lives. They need you, Ted, as much as they did while I was gone.”

  “You really think so?”

  “Yes, Ted, I know so.”

  “You’re okay with being Dad’s caregiver?”

  “Aside from the fact that I wish he did not need one – yes, totally. He has been wonderful to me since before we were married. He’s a great guy and the children love him, too. It’s going to be hard for the kids to transfer in the middle of the second semester at school but I don’t think it’s wise to leave your dad alone until then.”

  “Maybe I can go up right away and you can come up when the school year is out?”

  “How would that work?” Ellen asked.

  “There must be a way. I’ll accept the job – I don’t think they want me to start for a month so that solves the problem for a short while. And during that time, I’ll look for an adult day care center, home care nurse or nurse’s aide, whatever – the solution might be expensive but it’ll only be short term.”

  Ellen nodded. “We can do this, Ted. We can make it work as long as we need to.”

  “I hope we can. But if I start showing my ass, you’ll have to speak up.”

  She threw her head back and laughed. “Oh, that so won’t be a problem.”

  Twenty-Three

  Lucinda started her morning in an interview room at the county jail. She sat in a wooden chair on the far side of a metal table. Jeremy Sanford shuffled through the door a few minutes later. He looked better than he had the night before, but even if you shaved his stubble, combed his hair and put on clean clothes, he wouldn’t be winning any blue ribbons.

  “Good morning, Mr. Sanford,” Lucinda said.

  Sanford narrowed his eyes. “Prove it.”

  “Have a seat, sir. I just have a few questions.”

  “First you answer a few of mine. Last I remember, I was sitting, watching TV in the comfort of my home. Then I wake up in this hellhole. What’s up with that?”

  “I had some questions for you, Mr. Sanford. Asked you to come down to the station with me and you did.”

  “Why am I still here?”

  “Because, sir, it is department policy not to interview anyone under the influence. So I had to wait until you slept it off.”

  “And I couldn’t get a private room? You wanted to ask me questions and I had to spend the night with that guy?” Jeremy wiped his hand across his mouth.

  “You didn’t like your room-mate? Why is that?”

  “He wasn’t white.”

  Lucinda wanted to tell him what she thought of that statement but she didn’t want to prolong the interview. The odor wafting from Jeremy’s unwashed body had intensified overnight. “Do you have a job, Mr. Sanford?”

  “No. Bastards fired me from my last one and they been bad-mouthing me any time I apply for another. I oughta sue the sunsabitches.”

  “I thought you were let go for drinking on the job, Mr. Sanford.”

  “I was. So what? I weren’t the only one hit the bottle. Takin’ care of those demandin’ little biddies rubs on your last nerve.”

  “What did you do there?”

  “I bussed tables in the dining room. Cleaned up trash in the courtyard. Cleaned up messes wherever they made ’em. But did they ever notice? Hell, no. They just bitched about what I hadn’t done yet. Gettin’ fired there was the best thing that ever happened to me. A man can only take so much.”

  “Then, why did you go back there, Mr. Sanford?”

  “Not ’cause I wanted my job back but ’cause I just needed a job – and because of them, I couldn’t get one. I wanted them to shut up and stop bad-mouthin’ me.”

  “Did you threaten them?”

  “Well, yeah. Wouldn’t you? I told ’em to shut the fuck up for I’d be siccin’ a lawyer on ’em.”

  “Did you ever consider any more drastic action, Mr. Sanford?”

  “Like what?”

  “Think about it, Mr. Sanford. You know bad things sometimes go down in the workplace.”

  Jeremy laughed, slapped the table and laughed again. “You mean like, I go in there with an Uzi and start firin’ the place up. Now that would be sumthin’. But, nah, I ain’t the violent type and I don’t like the sight of blood – paper cuts give me the heebie-jeebies.”

  “Did you ever meet the folks who brought in an elderly parent to look the place over?”

  “Yeah, right. Like they introduce me to the rich folks comin’ in there. Nah, see here was the rules: you see visitors, you make yourself scarce. You – the mop, the bucket, whatever – need to be gone, gone, gone. Don’t want to let any reality crowd in on the perfect little home for Mom and Dad.”

  “Did you know a man named Edgar Humphries?”

  “He a patient?”

  “No. He was on the waiting list.”

  “Don’t think so. Sure didn’t meet him at River’s Edge if he was just visiting. If I met him anyplace else, don’t remember. Name don’t ring a bell.”

  “How about Francis DeLong?”

  “Nah,” he said with a shake of his head.

  “Adele Kendlesohn?”

  Jeremy shrugged.

  “Is there anyone you worked with that didn’t seem quite right to you?”

  “Most of ’em,” he said with a snort.

  “Seriously, Mr. Sanford. Anyone who seemed inappropriate with visiting
families or with any of the residents?”

  “The people that didn’t seem normal to me is the ones who seemed to like working there. Couldn’t figure that out – too much smell of old in the air, too much paranoia from the ones who was losing it, too much end of the road vibes everywhere you turned. You wanna pick somebody who might do something crazy to those old folks, look to one of them fools who’re smilin’ all the time. Them’s the one’s who are gonna crack and start shoot the place up or injectin’ nasty drugs into folk’s arms.”

  “You ever hear of any abductions?”

  “Abduction? You mean like kidnappin’?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Listen, lady, those folks are in there ’cause their kids don’t want ’em around anymore. Now what good would it do to kidnap them? Those kids ain’t gonna pay a ransom to get ’em back – they don’t want ’em in the first place. So, that’s what happened? Old folks gettin’ snatched? Damn, you can scratch me off that list. Last thing I want is to bring one of them old codgers home. Can I go now? I’m in serious need of a cure for my hangover.”

  “Yes, sir, Mr. Sanford. But stay away from River’s Edge from now on.”

  “Tell ’em to stop bad-mouthin’ me.”

  Lucinda rolled her eyes and knocked on the glass. This was a waste of time. Where do I go from here?

  Twenty-Four

  The morning felt chilly when Layla DiBlasio stepped outside but after jogging a block, the temperature seemed just right. She hadn’t worn her iPod today. She wanted to hear the birdsong and appreciate the flowers rather than get lost in the music.

  She’d run half a mile, turned, run a block and took another corner, halfway to home. She was just three blocks from the next turn when she saw her friend Rosemary’s mother-in-law, Juliet Szykely walking out of the house near the end of the block with a man in navy blue hospital scrubs. I hope she’s not sick.

  She was only a block away from Rosemary’s home when Juliet stopped at the junction of the private sidewalk and the public one. She flapped her hands at her escort. He waved his arms around, talking to her. She shook her head back and forth.

  The man grabbed her elbow and pulled. Juliet shrieked. Layla broke into a sprint. “Hey, hey you! What are you doing?”

  He looked up at Layla and gave one last tug on Juliet before running to a white cargo van parked at the curb. Layla pulled out the paper and pencil she always brought along on her jogs and wrote down the name on the logo on the door of the van: Franklin Medical Transport. Then she jotted down the license plate number as the driver sped off far too quickly for the quiet residential street.

  “Mrs. Szykely, are you okay? Do you remember me?” Layla asked, approaching the older woman with slow, smooth movements.

  The fright drained from Juliet’s eyes and she nodded her head. “You’re a friend.”

  “Yes, I’m Rosemary’s friend,” she replied. “My name is Layla.”

  “I’m not supposed to leave the yard. Jeff said I can stay here if I don’t leave the yard unless I’m with him or Rosemary. I didn’t leave the yard.”

  “I know. I’ll tell them – I’ll make sure they know. Who was that man?”

  Juliet shook her head. “He said Jeff sent him. He said I needed to go to the doctor. I said I needed to call Rosemary first. He said we’d call with his cell. Then he tried to make me leave the yard. I can’t leave the yard. But he wouldn’t listen.”

  “Well, don’t worry about it. Let’s go into the house. I need to make some phone calls. Okay?”

  “Pierce,” Lucinda said as she picked up the phone.

  “Lieutenant, you said you wanted to know about anything strange involving elderly people?”

  “Sure did.”

  “There was an attempted abduction of an old lady over at 907 Dogwood Court.”

  “Thanks. Call Sergeant Butler in Missing Persons. Tell him to meet me out in the parking lot right away – or if that’s not possible to meet me over there.”

  “Got it!”

  Lucinda raced down the stairs and to her car. She backed out of her parking space and looked around for Jumbo. She spotted him running out the door as quickly as his short legs would carry him, his red hair flying in all directions. A harried leprechaun chasing down the last bowl of Lucky Charms. She stifled a laugh.

  He pulled open the door and hopped in the front seat, panting. Lucinda jerked forward out of the lot and over to the quiet of the Green Forest subdivision. The community was designed with curvy roads surrounded by lots of trees carefully preserved during the construction phase. All the streets were named after trees or woodland flowers and shrubs. It wasn’t the kind of place where the police were often required.

  The house was easy to spot; two patrol cars and an unmarked were in front of it, parked by the curb. She pulled up behind them. She was pleased when she saw Sergeant Robin Colter standing in the front yard. Lucinda had worked with her on other cases and trusted her instincts. After passing her sergeant’s exam, Robin worked home break-ins and burglaries most of the time. Both women hoped that she would snag the next opening in Homicide.

  Smiling, Lucinda called out to her, “Hey, Colter. What are you doing here?”

  Robin looked up the sidewalk and returned the smile. “I was just a couple of blocks away when the call came in and ended up being the first one on the scene. And what about you? I haven’t seen any dead bodies lying around.”

  “I’ve got three senior citizens who were missing and have now turned up dead under suspicious circumstances. I told Dispatch to put me on the hot list for any crimes against the elderly. Sergeant Butler here is from Missing Persons.”

  Robin stuck out her hand. “Sergeant Colter,” she said.

  “Just call me Jumbo,” he replied grasping her hand in his.

  Robin gave Lucinda a sideways glance. Lucinda’s lips struggled to subdue the urge to laugh. Robin looked down at the sidewalk, cleared her throat, and said, “Odd situation here.” She briefed the two detectives on what had happened and directed them into the house where the witness and the potential victim were waiting.

  Inside, Lucinda and Jumbo shook hands with Layla and turned to Juliet. The elderly woman blurted out, “I can’t leave the front yard unless I’m with Rosemary or Jeff. I told him that. He just wouldn’t listen.”

  “I am so sorry about that, ma’am. You never saw that man before?”

  Juliet pursed her lips and shook her head. “Never. Never. I can’t always remember names but I don’t forget faces. Do I?” she asked, turning to Layla.

  “She always recognizes me,” Layla affirmed.

  At a jerk of Lucinda’s head, Jumbo sat down next to Juliet and started talking to her. Lucinda drew Layla out into the foyer. “So really,” Lucinda asked, “how good is she with faces?”

  “I’m not sure. She seems to recognize everyone she’s known for a while. But can she recall someone she met for the first time last month or even last week? I’m not sure. Rosemary should know better. She’s on the way.”

  “She’s the daughter-in-law?” Lucinda asked.

  “Yes. She has more work-day flexibility than Jeff – she’s the sales manager for a radio station, he teaches high school history. I left word for him at the school but I’m not sure when or if he’ll be able to get away.”

  Layla recounted her morning to Lucinda. “I thought maybe I’d overreacted. Maybe he was supposed to take Juliet to the doctor and I scared him off? But I called Rosemary and she said no one was scheduled to come by the house. That’s when I called you guys.”

  “We have a bulletin out on the vehicle but the license plate number you gave us belongs to an older Nissan Sentra. Are you sure you got the letters and numbers right?” Lucinda asked.

  “Absolutely. I was close enough and quick enough to double check it before he was out of sight. Stolen plates or a computer glitch?”

  “Could be either or neither – we’re looking into it. And the sign on the door of the van? You got a good look at that,
too?”

  “Yes. It looked like one of those magnetic signs you just stick on.”

  “Do you recall any additional details about the man?”

  “No, sorry. At first, I was focused on Juliet. Then when he got in the van, I was paying more attention to the vehicle itself than the driver.”

  “And you saw no one else?”

  “No. But with a cargo van, who knows who could be inside? But the sliding door was open – he drove off without shutting it – and I didn’t see anyone else, but—”

  Suddenly, a harried blonde in a dark gray suit and matching heels crossed the threshold of the house, shouting out, “Where is she? Where is Mom?”

  “Your mother-in-law—” Lucinda began.

  “Yes, yes, yes. My mother-in-law. Where is she?”

  Lucinda gestured into the living room where Juliet and Jumbo sat with their heads close together. They both turned toward the noise and a broad smile stretched across the old woman’s face. “Rosemary,” she said.

  Rosemary walked over to Juliet’s chair, knelt in front of her and took hold of both of her hands. “Are you okay, Mom?”

  “Yes.”

  “You’re sure? That man didn’t hurt you?”

  Juliet turned toward Jumbo with a furrowed brow. “No. We were just talking. About the war. And the rationing. He said we can have all the butter and stockings we want now.”

  Rosemary inhaled deeply and forced a smile. “That’s right, Mom. No problems with butter or stockings. Well, I’ll let you two chat.” She pushed up on her knees, stood upright and walked back to the foyer. “Oh man, Layla, I don’t think she remembers what happened,” she said shaking her head. Rosemary gave her friend a hug. “Thanks so much for coming to her rescue. I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t been here at the right time. Jeff and I are going to have to have a long talk. It’s just not safe for her to live here any longer unless one of us stops working.”

  “What about that woman you called?” Layla asked.

  “Oh, yes, Dorothy Jenkins. I talked to her on the phone and I was seriously considering that possibility. But she’s pretty old, too. I thought she would be great social interaction for Juliet, but now I think she could have been overpowered herself if she were here. I think we’re going to have to find a placement.”