by Terri Reid
“No, the couple said the perps told them to think about it and not make a hasty decision,” he said. “So, I think we’re safe. But, just in case, is Joey still able to reach you?”
“Yes. Joey said once he made contact with me, he’s able to find me no matter where I am.”
“I’ve gotta tell you, sis. This is just too weird for me.”
Mary laughed. “Yeah, for me too. But, hey, you play with the cards you’re dealt.”
“You’re doing a great job,” he said. “I don’t know if I’ve told you I’m amazed at what you’ve done with your life.”
“Thanks, Sean, that means a lot coming from you,” she replied, her voice catching. “I’ll see you in a couple of hours, okay?”
“Yeah,” he replied. “See you then.”
“Are you okay?” Bradley asked.
She turned and smiled at him. “Yeah, Sean was getting mushy, so I had to get off the phone before he embarrassed himself.”
Bradley chuckled. “It’s pretty sad to see those big manly types go soft.”
“I know,” Mary responded, as she wiped the tears from her eyes. “They make such a mess.”
“So, what’s up with the perps?” Bradley asked, hoping the change of topic would clear the emotion from her face.
“Great news,” she said brightly. “They contacted the couple, who thought the whole adoption organization might have been suspicious. The couple is willing to cooperate with the police. We’re going to meet with them this afternoon.”
Bradley pulled onto Highway 20 and shifted into a lower gear. Mary sat up in her seat and looked around the snow-covered landscape. The road had been cleared of most of the accumulated snow, but was still covered with a layer of white. The divided highway wove through six-foot high drifts and an assortment of abandoned jack-knifed trucks and cars stuck in the ditch.
“Looks like there are a lot of people out there who drive like you,” Bradley teased.
“I’d punch your arm,” Mary said. “But you might lose control and we’d end up in there too.”
Bradley laughed. “Saved by fear.”
“This is one of the things I noticed when I moved out here,” Mary said, looking out over the acres of farmland frosted in soft white peaks, “the openness. You don’t have block after block of buildings. You can actually see for miles. In Chicago, you can only see for miles if you’re at the top of one of the high skyscrapers.”
He nodded. “I noticed the dark,” he said. “In the city, there is so much additional light you only see the brightest stars. At night in Freeport it actually gets dark, dark enough to see hundreds of stars. You get to see what’s really out there.”
“Some people don’t like to know what’s really out there,” Mary commented. “They would rather stay where the light shelters them from the truth.”
“Mary O’Reilly, are you a philosopher?” Bradley teased.
She laughed. “No, just someone who has been spending a whole lot of time in the dark lately.”
“Can I ask a personal question?” he asked.
“Sure.”
“It seems to me that your brother, Sean, really cares about you.”
“Yes, he does,” she replied. “We’re a very close-knit family.”
Bradley nodded. “That’s what I thought. So, why does he risk your safety by having you come into the city and work on a case?”
Mary looked out the window and sighed.
“He doesn’t know how the spirits can overwhelm you, does he?”
Mary shook her head. “No, he doesn’t. No one in the family knows except for my mother,” she admitted.
“And she guessed it for herself,” Bradley added.
Mary nodded and shrugged. “Yeah, she always knows more than we tell her.”
“Why wouldn’t you tell them?” he asked. “They would never...”
“Do you know what it’s like being the little sister of three big brothers?” she interrupted, “No, of course not, because you would be one of the big brothers. Always protecting little Mary. Always watching out for little Mary. Always warning off the boys. Always telling me what I should and shouldn’t do.”
“Because they love you.”
“Yes, I know,” she said, “And that’s what makes it even harder. They would smother me with love. I finally, finally, received the respect and trust I wanted when I joined the force and received commendations for my work. I was finally one of them, not just a little sister. An equal. I don’t want that to change.”
She turned in her seat and met his eyes. “I don’t want them to find out,” she said. “I want you to keep my secret.”
Bradley sighed. “Okay, I can understand your feelings,” he said. “But I think you’re making a mistake not telling them. However, I’m willing to do whatever it takes to help you keep your secret.”
“Thanks, I really appreciate it.”
He shrugged. “Hey, that’s what friends do,” he said.
“So, it’s my turn,” she said. “Can I ask you a personal question?”
He smiled. “Yes, my life is an open book.”
“Would you tell me about your wife, Jeannine?”
Bradley nearly drove the SUV off the road. “What?”
Mary cringed. “If you don’t want to talk about her...that’s your prerogative.”
He was silent for a few moments. Then he nodded absently.
“No, it’s fair,” he said. “I put my nose into your business...”
Mary shook her head. “No, this isn’t a game,” she said. “Really, if talking about her causes you pain...”
“We were married for four years,” he said. “We were high school sweethearts. She was a cheerleader...”
“And you were the football stud,” Mary added.
Bradley looked at her and shook his head. “No, I was the clumsy, nerdy, math geek,” he grinned at her, “But, thanks!”
She shook her head. “I don’t believe that. Come on, which position?”
He laughed. “Water Boy.”
“No! Really?”
“Yeah, I was the captain of the swim team,” he said, “The original water boy.”
The image of Bradley in a Speedo flashed across Mary’s mind.
“I can picture you in Speedo,” she said absently, her mind still focused on the mental image.
“What did you say?” Bradley asked.
Mary blushed. “I mean, I can see you as a swimmer.”
Bradley chuckled. “I could lend you my high school yearbook if you’d like.”
“Shut up,” she said.
He laughed aloud. “Just trying to be helpful.”
Mary snorted. “Continue with your story.”
“I did my time in the military and when I was finished, I got accepted in the police force. We got married a week after I completed my training at the Police Academy. I had accepted a position with the DeKalb Police Department and Jeannine worked as a veterinary assistant in Sycamore. We had a nice little house, some extra spending money, and good friends. I thought things were pretty great.”
“But they weren’t?”
Bradley smiled. “You know, you’re using your interrogation tactics right now.”
Mary blushed. “Sorry, hard habit to break.”
He nodded. “Actually, that ended up being our problem too,” he said.
“You would interrogate her?”
“No, I was just always on the job,” he said. “Always a cop. Always casing the joint. Always on alert. And she was feeling left out.”
“Yeah, sometimes I wonder how my mom does it,” she said. “She’s surrounded by cops. But she does insist we stop shop talk for a while and converse about other things.”
“Does that work?”
Mary laughed. “For about fifteen minutes, then we’re back at it.”
“Yeah, Jeannine was trying to get me to do the same thing,” he said. “But I wasn’t as willing to let things go.”
Bradley paused for a moment as
he negotiated the entrance ramp from Highway 20 onto Interstate 90 going southeast into Chicago. The roads on the Interstate where much clearer and traffic was a little heavier. Bradley moved into the left lane, passed a few slower moving trucks and merged back into the right lane.
“She got my attention when she asked for a divorce,” he said.
“That must have been a shock.”
“It was a punch to the gut,” he replied, “I honestly never thought it was that bad for her. I thought she’d just get used to my way of handling the job. But, I was wrong.”
“So, what did you do?”
Bradley shrugged. “I decided she... we... were more important than the job. It took me three years of married life to actually start acting like a husband. Six months later, she was pregnant and I was floating on air.”
He drove for a few miles in silence. Mary watched as he worked to control his emotions.
“Six months after that, I lost her.”
“She died?”
“I don’t know. That’s the hell of it. I got a call when I was on patrol that there was a breaking and entering, and then I heard my address. I don’t even remember driving home. When I got there, the chief was at the front door to hold me back. He said he didn’t want me storming around in there, messing up evidence.”
“What happened?”
“I still don’t know. The house was torn apart and Jeannine was gone. No notes, no kidnapping demands... no blood, thank God. But she was just gone. The chief asked me if she could have staged it, if she was unhappy with our life...”
His voice cracked and he tightened his grip on the steering wheel. He shook his head. “We had just found out we were expecting a little girl. We had just bought the pink wallpaper for her room. I was going to put the crib together that night. She was happy. I’m sure she was happy.”
Mary reached over, placed her hand over his and squeezed. “I agree with you, she was happy and she wouldn’t have left of her own free will,” she said, “I’m not saying this as a friend who wants you to feel better, but as a trained professional. She didn’t leave.”
Bradley stared ahead at the roadway, but nodded his head. “Thanks. That means a lot to me.”
They drove in silence until they reached a toll booth that flashed the Amber Alert about Jeremy across an electronic billboard.
“I searched for her,” he said suddenly, “for eight years. I followed up on any leads, checked out all of the Jane Does, made calls and worked the case twenty-four-seven. I never came up with anything.”
“So you don’t know...” Mary paused.
“Whether she’s dead or alive. Whether I have an eight year-old daughter out there somewhere. Whether she even remembers who she is,” he shook his head. “No I don’t know anything.”
Mary looked out the window to the snow covered fields surrounding the highway. How would it be to live each day, searching and not finding anything?
“I think I’d go a little crazy,” she murmured.
He nodded. “I think I did. I was totally obsessed. I lost my job, my house, my savings – trying to find them.”
She shrugged. “What else could you do? You would have to do all you could.”
He smiled. “Thanks, not many people understand.”
He took a deep breath. “So, about eighteen months ago, I looked around and realized that I was no closer to finding her than I had been eight years before. I didn’t have money or a job. And considering my recent history, it wasn’t going to be easy for me to get another job.”
“Why?”
“I went off the deep end with the investigation,” he said. “I pestered the investigators, told them they didn’t know what they were doing, interfered and generally made an ass of myself.”
“It’s hard when it’s personal.”
He nodded. “So, when I contacted my captain, he made a call and I got the job in Freeport. I think I got the job because the mayor wanted to hire someone who was crazy. He didn’t really like having a Police Chief who might catch on to him.”
“Funny how things work out,” Mary said.
He nodded. “Yeah, funny.”
“You know, I was talking to Joey just before we left. Telling him that the phone number he got could have saved his brother’s life. And then he said...” she paused as emotion choked her voice.
“What did he say, Mary?” Bradley asked gently.
“He said ‘Good thing I died, huh?’” she replied softly.
“Damn. Do you really think that God allows bad things to happen to people in order to serve some grand plan in the future?”
Mary shook her head. “No, but I think God gives us opportunities to turn bad things into good things and to make a difference in other people’s lives.”
They drove in silence for a few minutes.
“Mary, we are going to find Jeremy,” he said.
Mary smiled. “Yes we are!”
*****
Chapter Eleven
A narrow path had been plowed through the snow on the Chicago side street, enough for a car and a half to drive down. “This makes no sense whatsoever,” Bradley said, navigating the four-wheel SUV around the cars coming from the opposite direction. “Why don’t they just plow it wider?”
Mary smiled. “Welcome to Chicago.”
She turned and looked out the window at the shoveled out parking spaces that either held vehicles or an assortment of chairs, tables or other large objects claiming ownership of the spot. One particularly religious person had placed a five-foot high statue of the Virgin Mary in their spot.
“Turn right at the corner,” Mary instructed.
A few moments later they were in front of her parents’ brick bungalow on the northwest side of the city. “We can park here,” Mary said.
“What is that holding our place?” Bradley asked.
Mary laughed at the trio of plastic ghosts normally used for decorating the lawn at Halloween. “My brothers’ sick idea of a joke,” she said.
She hopped out of the car, moved the five foot high structure and stepped back so Bradley could park. He got out of the car with their gear and took a good look at the ghosts. “I think I’m going to like your brothers.”
Mary nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of.”
No sooner had they walked up the steps than the door burst open and Mary was engulfed by a pair of strong arms that lifted off her feet. “Mary-Mary, it’s great to have you home,” her father said.
“Dad, I was home two days ago,” Mary teased.
“Ah, but when you’re here, the house seems a wee bit brighter.”
She laughed and turned to Bradley. “Dad, this is my friend Bradley Alden. He’s the Police Chief from Freeport. Bradley, my dad, Timothy O’Reilly.”
Bradley stepped forward and extended his hand to the tall, burly Irishman. “A pleasure to meet you, sir.”
His hand was accepted in a firm grip. “Good to meet you, young man.”
Timothy smiled and placed his hand on Bradley’s shoulder, ushering him into the house.
“Welcome to our home.”
Margaret Katherine O’Reilly, Mary’s mother, came bustling forward, her petite frame covered in an apron. With arms outstretched, she gave Mary a fierce hug. “Mary, so good to have you home again.”
She turned to Bradley and, to his surprise, hugged him too. “Welcome,” she said simply and Bradley, knowing she meant it, found he had to swallow a lump in his throat.
“Thank you, Mrs. O’Reilly.”
She smiled. “Call me Maggie, everyone does.”
The house was decorated in warm tones, with large, comfortable pieces of furniture. Mary’s brothers, Arthur and Thomas, were seated in the living room watching a football game. “The Irish are down by three,” Arthur called, “Fourth quarter, twelve minutes to go.”
“Oh, well, then, the rest of the world and good manners should just go by the wayside,” Maggie said. “I’m ashamed that Mary’s friend should see the kind
of hooligans I’ve raised.”
Arthur looked up at Bradley and grinned. “Hi, I’m the hooligan called Art,” he said. “This is my hooligan, twin, Thomas.”
Bradley grinned, “Hi, I’m Bradley,” he said and made a comment about Notre Dame’s current quarterback.