When they reached Charley’s room, the door was shut and a note taped to it read: “No Male People Allowed.”
“Are you already having problems with men?” Lucinda asked with a laugh.
“Don’t be silly, Lucy. That’s just to keep Daddy out. He can’t come in here while I’m working on his birthday present.” She opened the door and shut it behind them.
“Look,” she said. “I made the casts all by myself with plaster of Paris and strips of newspaper. I had to throw a bunch of them away before I got it right.”
An eighteen-inch-high skeleton hung from the hook of a black metal stand. It was sat atop a block of wood with a computer-generated label that read: “No break too big or too small, Dr. Spencer fixes them all.” It wore three casts: one on the right leg from knee to toes; another on the left arm hanging in a blue fabric sling; and a third, bulb-shaped, stuck up on the thumb of the right hand. The lower ribs were wrapped in tiny strips of adhesive tape. The crowning glory of the whole creation was the left hip: the socket was painted bright silver to resemble an artificial joint.
“This is incredible, Charley.”
“I wanted to wire his jaw shut but I wasn’t sure how to do it without making a mess of the skull, so I didn’t. But I do need your help with one thing.”
“I doubt if I can do anything to improve on this.”
“Yes. Yes, you can. It will be a big surprise,” Charley giggled. She carefully slipped the blue sling over the skull and off of the arm and handed Lucinda a fine tip pen. “Sign it. Autograph his cast. Write as small as you can – he’s got a little arm. Then I’ll put the sling back on so Daddy won’t see it right away. It’ll be a big surprise.”
Lucinda pinched the pen between her fingers and with her nose almost touching the cast, she spelled out her name on the white surface. “There you go.”
While Charley put the sling back in place, she said, “You know how I told you I liked that boy Shawn at school?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I don’t like him anymore.”
“What happened?”
“We were reading The Diary of Anne Frank and the teacher was talking about how those bad Nazi police busted into people’s homes and took them away to those prison camps. And Shawn raised his hand and said, ‘My dad says if we’re not careful the police here will start doing that to us – to real Americans.’
“I said, ‘They will not. My best friend is a police and she wouldn’t do that – she wouldn’t let anybody do that.’ And he said, ‘Not now. But my dad says to watch out cause those socialists want to take all our guns and when they do, we’re done for.’ And I said my dad said that you should never listen to anybody who calls people names – he says they only do that ‘cause their ideas are stupid. And then Mrs. Marsh said, ‘I don’t think your dad used that word, Charlotte’ – she always calls me that even though I told her I don’t like it. Then she says, ‘It’s not right to call people stupid.’ Well, she was right about one thing. Daddy didn’t say ‘stupid’. I forget what word he used, but I’m sure it meant the same thing as ‘stupid’. Anyway, she told us to stop talking politics and get back to history.
“And so I raised my hand and she called on me again but told me to watch my language which kinda made me mad since I wasn’t gonna say ‘stupid’ right after she told me not to and I almost just didn’t say anything but then I did. I said that politics and history need to be together ‘cause my dad said that we need to learn from the dumb things people did in the past, or else we’ll do the same things all over again. And she said that was right and then she said the same thing – kind of different from the words I said but I think it was exactly what Daddy said. Mrs. Marsh said that was a famous quote. But then she said we probably shouldn’t talk politics anyway.
“But I know the constitution says that I can talk about what I want, but I didn’t say anymore in class anyway. But maybe somebody should talk to her about that. She moved here from Bosnia and became a citizen. Maybe she doesn’t know we can do that here. Maybe she doesn’t know we have rights. Could you talk to her?”
“Well, Charley, I think she probably does know all about the constitution and about the Bill of Rights, which is where you’ll find the part about Freedom of Speech. But have you ever heard of this expression: there’s a right place and a right time for everything?”
“No.”
“I think that’s what your teacher was telling you. She wasn’t saying you couldn’t voice your opinions, she was just saying that right then when you were talking about Anne Frank, it wasn’t the right time to be discussing today’s politics.”
“Well, who gets to decide when the right time is?”
“In this case, your teacher, because it’s her classroom, her place.”
“That’s not fair. I’m an American, too. I’ve been an American longer than her.”
Lucinda was spared from mouthing a platitude by a knock on the door.
“Who is it?” Charley asked.
“It’s your dad.”
“Oh, oh, go away. Don’t come in here. You’ll ruin everything!” She plastered her back on the door and braced her feet on the floor. “Go away. Go away.”
“Hey, Charley, I’m not going to open the door. I just wanted to ask Lucinda if she wanted to stay for dinner.”
“Oh, Lucy, will you, will you, will you?” Charley pleaded.
Lucinda knew she should be focusing on the case, puzzling over the pieces, making plans. But the temptation to set it all aside for just a little while, to eat a sit-down dinner with other people in the comfort of their home was just too much. “Yes,” she said, “I’d be delighted.”
Ruby seemed more relaxed at the dinner table than she had appeared earlier but there was still a wariness wrapping around her. As if she were too keenly aware of the dangers lurking out in the world, too fearful they would invade her home again. When Lucinda smiled at her, Ruby would return the gesture but her smile was fleeting and her eyes skittered away too soon. Lucinda stayed until the girls both went to bed, enjoying watching the sisters interact with one another and with their father. As she was leaving, she asked Evan about Ruby.
“She’s still seeing the psychologist every week,” Evan said. “The therapist has every confidence in her progress, her recovery. But it’s been three years and sometimes it seems non-existent to me. I guess I was hoping she’d be happy and bouncy like Charley by now, but she’s not.”
“You know, Evan, at the dinner table, I was thinking that Ruby was very withdrawn and then I wondered if I was being fair to her. Maybe it’s just that Charley is so naturally gregarious than any child would look like an introvert in comparison.”
“You may be right. And I still think you should move in with us.”
“Evan!” Lucinda bristled.
“No, not pressuring,” he said, throwing up his hands. “I just think you understand the girls so well – maybe because of the trauma you share in common, maybe because you’re a woman—”
“Or maybe,” Lucinda interrupted, “because you have an idealized vision of me that I just could never live up to.”
“If I promise to behave, would you come by for dinner more often? I know you have a special relationship with Charley and I wouldn’t want to take away from that but I’d really like Ruby to get to know you better, too.”
“I’ll try, Evan. I really would love to spend more time with the girls. It’s not always easy – I probably should have been working on the case instead of relaxing here tonight . . .”
“Sometimes, you need to do what you want to do and work be damned.”
Lucinda’s cell rang. “Speaking of the damned – duty calls.” She slipped out the door and pulled out her phone.
Thirty-Four
“Pierce,” Lucinda said into her cell.
“Jumbo, here, Lieutenant.”
“What’s up, Butler?”
“Want to give you a heads up. My captain called me, wanting to know if my missing person’s
cases have turned into homicide and abduction cases, why I was still involved.”
“What did you tell him?”
“The only thing I could think of to stay in the game – I said you asked for my assistance because of my expertise in missing person’s cases since the evidence of abduction and murder is not clear in every case.”
“Good. I’ll make the request official with my captain in the morning.”
“There was one other thing. He asked me why, since we were suspicious of abduction, the FBI weren’t investigating.”
“Damn.”
“He said he’s going to arrange a meeting with your captain in the morning.”
“Shit.”
“You haven’t been keeping your captain up to date, have you?”
“Hell, no. I knew he’d want me to bring in the Feebs and I didn’t want to – not these local jokers and I doubted if I’d get my way again in bringing in the one special agent I actually trust.”
“Why not?”
“He’s located in the DC office and the Special Agent in Charge at his office doesn’t want him to even think about anything but terrorism threats.”
“Is there any way that we can work terrorism into our list of possible scenarios?”
Lucinda laughed out loud. “I knew there was a reason I liked you, Butler. You think of a way to do that, you let me know right away.”
Despite her anxieties about what the next day held on the bureaucratic front, the evening’s activities at the Spencer house had calmed Lucinda enough to allow her to get the first good night’s sleep she’d had since Edgar Humphries showed up on his son’s front porch. She awoke rested and refreshed.
She went into work a little early hoping to get to her captain before he heard from Butler’s supervisor. She’d only been there a few minutes, though, when Ted popped through her doorway.
“Ted, what are you doing in at this hour?”
“I was hoping to catch you at your desk so I could talk to you before the captain told you.”
Lucinda’s stomach lurched. She pulled her eyelids shut with a wince. “What now?”
“It’s good news – well, I think it’s good news. I gave my notice yesterday. The captain talked to my new boss at the Regional Computer Forensics Lab who persuaded him to let me go right away – today is my last day here.”
Lucinda blanched. “Today?”
“Yes, today. I’m driving up tomorrow and moving in with Dad.”
“Tomorrow? What about Ellen? What about the kids?”
“The lab is going to cover the travelling expenses for all of us to get together up there or down here every weekend until Ellen can sell the house and the kids can finish the school year. That will free me up financially to hire someone to stay with Dad twenty-four seven on the weekends I’m down here.”
“So you and Ellen are going to put your marriage back together?”
“Not really. We’re going to stay together – we need each other to take care of the kids and take care of Dad. Ellen won’t work outside of the home. And we’ll have separate bedrooms. We’re committed to making that work. We have our doubts that romance will ever be a part of our relationship again, but, for now, we’re both content with that decision.”
“I’m very happy for you, Ted. It solves so many of your problems and gets you into the work you really love. And it’s not going to be easy for either of you. I’m really glad for you, but, damn, I’m going to miss you.”
“I’ll miss you, too, Lucinda. Always. I will never forget you,” Ted said. He shook his head hard. “I knew this wouldn’t be easy. But, listen, you need any computer forensics, I’m your guy. Your cases will jump to the top of my priority list every time.”
“I’ll confiscate every computer I can,” she said with a smile.
“I’ll get back to you with phone number, email address, street address, everything as soon as I know it.”
“Pierce!” a voice growled from the doorway.
Ted and Lucinda looked away from each other at Captain Holland scowling in the doorway, his arms crossed tight on his chest. “Yes sir,” Lucinda said.
“My office. Now.” He walked back down the hall as Lucinda listened to the menacing tone of his retreating steps.
“I’m the one that’s leaving,” Ted said, “why is he pissed at you?”
“I don’t think he’s mad about that, Ted. We have other issues. I’ve left him out of the loop. And, as you well know, that has a tendency to make him very grumpy.”
Lucinda forced a smile onto her face and injected as much perkiness as she could muster into her voice as she stepped into Holland‘s office and said, “Yes, sir, what can I do for you?”
“Sit. Now.”
Lucinda slid into a chair across from him, her smile still in place. The effort made her lips ache and her pleasant expression had no impact on the captain’s sour one.
“First, let’s get the department business out of the way. I assume Branson told you his big news?”
“Yes sir.” She focused her eye on the top of his head. The red bristles of his brush cut seemed to vibrate with the anger she was certain lurked close to the surface.
“I want to replace him as soon as possible. I’ll go through the interested and eligible candidates and get a list to you and the others for feedback, hopefully by this afternoon.”
“Robin Colter, sir.”
“What?”
“Sergeant Robin Colter. She’s the best person to fill the vacancy. She’s helped out in a number of cases. She’ll start out running. You can save a lot of time – just give her an interview before you doing anything else.”
“Obviously, you didn’t notice my current state of displeasure,” Holland said, his face getting a little bit redder with every word he spoke. “You come in here telling me what to do when quite frankly I am so pissed at you, I could spit.”
“Yes sir. Uh, no sir, I wasn’t trying to tell you what to do. I was merely suggesting—”
“Shut up, Pierce. Despite my exasperation with you, I will take your suggestion under consideration. But I certainly would appreciate it if you would review the list I will send you anyway and inform me of your second and third choices.”
“Yes sir. Of course, sir,” Lucinda said, her smile long gone.
“Now I understand you’re dealing with the abductions of senior citizens and you haven’t bothered contacting the FBI.”
“Sir, they are suspected abductions.”
“Don’t finely chop this one, Lieutenant. You had a failed attempt.”
“We certainly did, sir. But it was only an attempted abduction—”
“Pierce, you are so trying my patience.”
“I am sorry, sir, but until we knew we had a successful kidnapping, I didn’t want to waste the FBIs time, sir. I know their priorities are on national security and I didn’t—”
“Bullshit, Pierce. You just didn’t want them involved. You didn’t want to give up any control. You think I’m stupid. I know how you work. Lone dog Pierce, nobody else can do anything right, can they?”
“Sir, no, with all respect, that is not true. Sergeant Butler has been by my side throughout this investigation. In fact, I’d like to make an official request to keep him working with me. And Sergeant Branson has assisted when asked. Research has been invaluable – and Forensics, well I can’t say enough—”
“Stow it, Pierce. You know what I mean. Sure you usually play well within your own sandbox, but you don’t play well with anyone else – in any jurisdiction or at any agency.”
“That’s not accurate, either, sir—”
“Oh right. There’s Special Agent Lovett. The one person from the outside that you can get along with – one exception does not change the rule, Pierce. I know how you operate and you know I know it. Now, get out of here and get to work. I want the FBI involved in your case. And I want it to happen today.”
Lucinda rose and walked toward the door.
“Is that clear, Pierce?”
She turned toward Holland, clenched her jaw and said, “Yes, sir.”
She knew she had to do what he asked but she swore she wouldn’t do it until the end of the day. The longer she could work without the Feebs, the better.
Thirty-Five
Sherry blinked open her eyes that morning, awoken by bird song. The awareness that she shouldn’t be there hit her hard. She knew she had to get back to her daughter. I should go now before anyone knows I am awake.
She dressed, tied her shoes, grabbed her purse and turned the door knob, gave it a hard tug and to her delight and amazement, this time, it opened. She peered out, making sure no one was watching. As fast as she could move, she scurried back behind her bungalow and into the woods. She followed the same trail she’d taken before and once again found herself at the gate. She examined the padlock holding it shut.
How to get to the other side? She knew at one time, she’d have scaled the fence and dropped down on the other side without a hitch. But now, even if she could get up the fence, she’d probably tumble off and break her hip.
She remembered early in the day seeing Donnie and his brother Derek driving the van up to the cafeteria and unloading food. They had to go somewhere to get those supplies which meant they had to leave the property. Maybe that’s when I could get out. I know it’s always early in the morning. But is it every morning? I don’t know.
After thinking it through, she was certain those deliveries were her best opportunity to get away. Somehow. She wasn’t sure how she’d get through without being seen but she knew she had to try. She sat down on a rock hidden by trees and shrubs but with a clear view of the gate. She clung to her mental clarity. It was difficult to maintain focus, to keep track of where she was and why she was there.
She wasn’t sure of how long she waited before hearing the distinctive sound of the van tires crunching over the gravel surface of the drive. She struggled through the wispy strands of fog that created a barrier between her and the ability to reason.
Twisted Reason (A Lucinda Pierce Mystery) Page 17