The Mural

by Michael Mallory

  Why wouldn’t everything be fine with Robynn?

  “I’m assuming we’ll see her back tomorrow,” the voice went on, “but if she needs to be out again, please let us know.” The woman left a number and then hung up.

  Back tomorrow? Jesus, now what? Had Nola and Robynn come home while she was asleep? There was no noise in the house that would identify them, but she called their names anyway. There were no answers. She jabbed the number of the school into the phone, screwed it up, swore, and punched it in again. “Yes, hello, this is Elley Gorman Hayden, I need to talk to Jennifer immediately,” she said. A few seconds later, the voice came on, live this time.

  “Oh, hello, Mrs. Hayden, thank you for getting back to—”

  “Where’s my daughter?” Elley demanded.

  “Um, I’m sorry, but—”

  “Where is she, dammit! You said you want to see her back tomorrow, what do you mean ‘back’? Why isn’t she there now? I dropped her off this morning. What’s going on?”

  “Please, Mrs. Hayden, calm down,” Jennifer said. “Mr. Hayden came to pick her up earlier. He said she had a doctor’s appointment.”

  Goddammit, Jack! “I know of no doctor’s appointment. When did he come?”

  “Umm, it was right around lunch time, say 11:30.”

  “I’m going to hang up, I will call you right back,” Elley said, disconnecting the line. She then hit number five on speed dial, which was Robynn’s doctor’s office. “Westside Pediatric,” a voice said after the second ring.

  “This is Elley Gorman Hayden, the mother of Robynn Hayden. Apparently my husband brought my daughter in to the office today.”

  “Let me check,” the receptionist said, and Elley could hear paper ruffling in the background. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Hayden, but we don’t see any record of Robynn’s having been here.”

  Elley hung up again, and this time dialed Jack’s office. If the asshole was in town and he wasn’t here at home, and he wasn’t at the doctor, he had to be at work. “Yes, hello, I need to speak to Jack Hayden. Are you sure he’s out of town? Christ.” She slammed the phone down. Elley could always call his cell phone, of course, but that wasn’t going to tell her where he was unless he told her where he was, and if he was pulling this kind of shit, she doubted she would get any kind of straight answer from him.

  Phones were no longer going to handle this situation. She was going to have to go down to the school in person to see what the hell was going on. Her head throbbed horribly as she roared out of the driveway and sped to Robynn’s school, rolling through every stop sign she could. She got there in record time and sloppily parked against the curb. Leaping out, she ran into the office, demanding to see someone named Jennifer.

  Jennifer Vater proved to be the school nurse. She was a youngish African-American woman with a ready smile, but Elley was not in the mood for smiles. “I want to know what you did with my daughter!”

  “Good heavens, are you all right, Mrs. Hayden?” Jennifer asked, sizing up the bandages on her temples.

  “Never mind me, where’s my daughter?”

  “I’m sensing something is wrong here.”

  “Aren’t you the perceptive one!”

  “Please come into my office,” Jennifer said, leading her to a room more the size of a closet and closing the door. “Now then, Mrs. Hayden—”

  “Cut the crap. I know you probably can’t deny a parent if they show up wanting to take their child, but this has happened twice now this week, and I don’t know where my husband and daughter are. They didn’t go the doctor, I checked. Did Jack say anything to you before he left with her?”

  “Actually, I didn’t see them at all, I just got a note on her absence,” Jennifer said. “Let’s go talk to Miss Kacirk, who runs the kindergarten.” The two got up and walked to the kindergarten classroom. It looked to Elley like free play time, with twenty or so kids split up into groups covering the entire room. A very young Latina was officiating. “I thought Lainie Kacirk would be here,” Jennifer said.

  “I’m subbing,” the Latina responded. “Gloria Menéndez.”

  “Were you here when Robynn left?” Jennifer asked.

  “Robynn? Oh, the little one with the scar. Yes, she was here this morning and then left. Doctor’s appointment, right?”

  “Doctor’s appointment wrong,” Elley said.

  Gloria did not appear to understand. “All I know is that she seemed frightened of the doctor,” she said.

  “Nonsense, she likes her doctor. Why would you say that?”

  “Because she seemed really reluctant to leave. The man had to keep telling her that it was all right, that her daddy was waiting in the car and that—”

  “What did you say?” Elley shouted, and instantly, twenty-two four-, five-, and six-year-olds froze like statues and stopped talking. Three of them started to cry from fright.

  Gloria Menéndez blanched. “Robynn’s uncle said that her daddy was in the car.”

  “Robynn doesn’t have an uncle! Oh, Jesus Fucking Christ! You gave my daughter to somebody you didn’t even know?”

  “I’m a sub, okay? I don’t know any of the parents!”

  Jennifer Vater got between them. “Look, let’s just all try to calm down.”

  “Calm down?” Elley screamed. “You gave my daughter to someone you don’t even know and now you tell me to chill?” More kids started to cry.

  “Mrs. Hayden, please,” Jennifer begged. “They had to check out at the front desk, if something was wrong they wouldn’t have let Robynn go.”

  “The only way out of this building is through the front?”

  “Well, not exactly, but—”

  “So someone could have come in and snatched my daughter and gone out a side door and nobody would ever know!”

  “I think we’d better go talk to the principal,” Jennifer said.

  “No, I think we’d better go talk to the goddamn LAPD!” Elley screamed.

  “Mrs. Hayden, please, there are other children here.”

  “Yes, other children who are going to go home to their mothers tonight.” Elley broke down and began to sob. Her head felt like it was splitting open. Her legs gave out and she sank to the floor. “I don’t believe it,” she moaned.

  Turning to Gloria, Jennifer said, “Go take those kids onto the playground. Get them out of here.”

  “But they’ve already had recess.”

  “Just do it!”

  Gloria nervously assembled all the children, including the crying ones in a line, and announced they were going to have an extra recess, and then led them past Elley and out of the room. One boy on the way out asked, “What’s wrong with her?” As gently as she could, Jennifer picked Elley up off the floor and set her in a chair. “Can I get you something?” she asked.

  “A new life, maybe,” Elley mumbled.

  Another teacher, a more motherly-looking one, then poked her head into the room and said, “I heard some yelling, is everything all right in here? Where are the kids?”

  “They’re out on the playground, Maggie,” Jennifer said. “Are you on break?”

  “Yes.”

  “Could you ask Lucy to come down here ASAP?”

  A minute later Lucy Marshall, the principal, came into the room, asking: “What kind of situation have we got?” The nurse gave her a brief summation, which was punctuated by Elley’s sniffling. Lucy Marshall’s eyes got huge. “You’ve got to be kidding,” she said. “Where’s Gloria?”

  “Playground.”

  Lucy Marshall stuck her head out the classroom door and shouted for Gloria to come, which she did, seconds later. “Ms. Menéndez, don’t you know enough not to let a child go with someone not authorized?”

  “I’m sorry, okay?” Gloria whined. “The guy recognized her by sight, so I figured he really was her uncle.”

  “You say he recognized her?” Elley said, wiping her nose.

  “He pointed her out, he said that her father was waiting out front but that he didn’t want to co
me back to where the kids were because he had a bad cold and didn’t want to spread it, so he was going to take her up there.”

  “Did he give a name?”

  “He did, but I can’t remember it.”

  “Jesus Christ!” Elley wailed.

  “Stop yelling at me!” Gloria screamed. “It’s not my fault! He said he was Uncle somebody. I remember it was a Gospel name.”

  “There are only four,” Jennifer prompted.

  “Mark,” Gloria said. “He said he was Robynn’s Uncle Mark.”

  “My god,” Elley said. “What did this man look like?”

  “He was heavy and he had on an expensive suit.”

  Marcus Broarty. For some insane reason, Jack’s boss had taken her daughter. Jack was forever showing the latest pictures of Robynn to everyone. Marcus had to have seen them by the dozen. He could easily have recognized Robynn from a crowd.

  But why? Why in Christ’s name would he want Robynn?

  Ask your husband, a voice said in her head. Elley did not recognize the voice, but it was so clear as to be audible. Jack knows.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Two of the women seated at the Pines bar of the Tide Pool Inn looked nervous when Chief Rob Creeley strode in, but Creeley ignored them. Instead he looked around until he spotted Jack Hayden seated at a dark corner table, nursing a beer. Creeley walked over and said: “Had a feeling I might find you in here. I tried your room.”

  “Sit down, Cree,” Jack Hayden said. “Want to order something?”

  “No, even if I weren’t on duty it would be too early for me.”

  “What a coincidence. It seems to be too late for me.”

  “Where’s your lady friend?”

  “She left before I got up this morning.”

  “Trouble in the Paradise Motel?”

  “Come off it, Cree. She got an emergency work call and had to leave. She left me a note.” The truth was, even though there was no way they could become a couple—at least not at the moment—Jack felt a little bruised by her abrupt departure.

  Creeley pulled a chair out from under the small round table and sat down. “I came by to tell you that we’ve got a statewide APB out on Mr. Broarty, so hopefully he’ll do something stupid and get caught.”

  “If that’s the criterion for capture, Marc’s already in custody.” Jack took a long swig of his beer.

  “How many of those have you had?”

  “Not enough.” The policeman did not appear to be amused. “Okay, Cree, this is pint number three. Believe me, it takes a helluva lot more than this to get me wasted.”

  “Is that your goal today, Jack?”

  He shook his head. “My goal today, were it within the realm of possibility, would be to return my life to the way it used to be, warts and all. Even normally stressed out would be better than this. If whatever is tormenting me can change a pernicious mural back into a harmless painting, then why can’t some floating cloud of good drop down and change my life back to normal?” He started to take another drink then stopped. “Hey, I just realized something. When I dragged you in there to see, it was perfectly normal, like it was wearing a mask because it wanted you to think I was nuts, or behind the strangeness, or in some way responsible. But I have the proof, Cree. I have it on my camcorder. I videotaped the mural before we went in there! I’ll show you the tape and then you’ll see!”

  “You don’t have to prove anything to me, not any more. I’m already convinced that there’s something unnatural is going on and it somehow involves a painting.”

  Jack’s eyes narrowed. “Has it done something to you?”

  “No. But your friend McMenamin? When we got him out of the car trunk we found traces of blood all over him, which isn’t too surprising. But the coroner found something else: paint.”

  “Christ. Emac had paint on him?”

  The policeman rubbed his forehead and leaned in closer. “Not on him, Jack, in him. There was a trace of it on his buttocks, but more of it inside his anal cavity. Deep inside. Like it had been ejaculated in there.”

  Jack thought he might be sick right there on top of the table in the Pines Lounge of the Tide Pool Inn. Raped, Dani had said. She felt she had been raped out there in the woods, and she had traces of paint on her goddamned panties! At that moment his cell phone rang and Jack jumped so violently he shook the table and knocked over the beer glass, spilling the reddish liquid onto the table top. “Damn!” he said, dropping a napkin on the puddle while clumsily fishing out the phone to answer it. “Yeah, this is Hayden.”

  “Jack, where are you?” he heard, and was only barely able to recognize his wife’s voice through the tone of desperation.

  “Up at San Simeon. Elley, what is it?”

  “Robynn’s been kidnapped.”

  “What? When? How?”

  “That asshole boss of yours took her, Jack! Marcus Broarty took my daughter!”

  “Marc?”

  At the sound of that name, Creeley sat up at attention.

  “I need to know why, Jack. Why did he take her?”

  “Elley, I don’t know! But I’m sitting across from a policeman right now. They have an APB out on Broarty for another reason. They’ll find him. We’ll get Robynn back.”

  Creeley had overheard enough. He gestured for the phone and Jack handed it to him. “This is Robert Creeley, Chief of the Glenowen, California, P.D. I’d appreciate it if you’d give me whatever information you have on the whereabouts of Marcus Broarty. Where was he last seen?” Creeley knit his brows as he listened. “This was today?” he asked. “Have you called the police locally? Good. I’ll call them from up here, too, just to make sure they take this seriously. Thank you, ma’am, and I promise you that we will do everything to get your girl back. Here’s your husband.” He leapt up from the table and ran out to the radio in his police car.

  Jack meanwhile was saying: “Elley, look, they’ll find her. Why don’t you lie down for a while, try to rest. Everybody has everybody’s phone number. Someone will call once they know something.”

  “I need you to come home.”

  “I think I need to stay here.”

  “Why? Oh, of course. She’s up there.”

  “No, she’s not up here! She’s gone, so don’t worry.”

  “Then why can’t you come home?”

  “What if Marc’s heading back up this way? Shouldn’t I be here just in case this is where he’s taking Robynn?”

  “Why on earth would he be coming back up there? Dammit, what do you know that I don’t?”

  “Nothing, it’s just a hunch. I think it’s safer for me to stay on this end.”

  There was a pause, after which Elley said: “Oh my god, I get it now. You’re in on this, aren’t you? Broarty’s coming up there to deliver her to you!”

  “What? No! Elley, listen to me—”

  “You’re behind the whole thing! You weren’t able to keep hold of her on your own so you got your ratfucking bastard of a boss to kidnap Robynn, just to get back at me!”

  “Oh, grow a goddamned brain, would you?” Jack screamed back. “If I wanted to take her, I could have done it and you’d never even know! That’s how fucking attentive you are! She was snatched on your watch, not mine! Who’s the worthless parent now?”

  Without another word, the line went dead.

  “Elley! Elley!” Jack cried into the phone, but she was gone.

  Way to go, fuckhead. Of all the times to finally lose it and start flinging his built-up resentment at his wife like a chimp throwing shit at zoo visitors, this had to be the worst possible, right after she had learned of her daughter’s abduction. He imagined that there might be a combination of words that could have been more hurtful to a woman in her vulnerable state, but he could not imagine what they were. Jack tried calling her back, but the phone only rang. Jack gave up and buried his face in his hands.

  That was the way Creeley found him when he returned to the bar. “You all right, Jack?” he asked.

  “I
’m great, Cree. I’ve just taken the gold in screwing up.” The policeman sat back down and Jack described the phone call from Elley. When he was finished, Creeley leaned back and started clicking his tongue on the roof of his mouth.

  “You’re upset over the argument, right?” Creeley asked.

  “You’ve no idea.”

  “If I’d said something like that to Maria, I’d be walking funny for a month. But how come you’re not upset that your little girl’s been kidnapped?”

  Jack looked at his friend. “So you think I’m in on it, too?”

  “I’m just asking. It’s my job.”

  The young barmaid appeared at the table with a rag to wipe up the remainder of the spilled beer. “Will there be anything else?” she asked in the tone of voice that implied if not, then get out.

  “No, I’m fine, thanks,” Jack said, and she retreated with his empty glass. Once she was out of earshot, Jack went on. “I guess I’m not more upset because I have a strong feeling that they’re headed back up here, Broarty and Robynn. And I don’t think he’s going to hurt her, Cree. Marcus is too big of a pussy for that.”

  “He seems to have hurt McMenamin.”

  “Yeah, I know. But only after the mural told him too. I don’t think the mural has told him to hurt Robynn. Not yet, anyway. I think he’s bringing her back here so he can do whatever the mural wants him to in front of me, because here’s the thing, Cree: the mural on its own hasn’t been able to break me. It’s given me visions, or teleported me, or whatever the hell it is that I’ve been going through, and it’s done the same for Dani. It’s given us temptations like you wouldn’t believe, and frankly, we succumbed to them early on. But it hasn’t been able to break either of us. So it’s now using Marcus to help it.”

  “There you go again, talking like this painting has a consciousness.”

  Jack nodded. “Don’t ask me to explain how or even why it works, but yeah, I’m talking like it has a consciousness. Or else some kind of consciousness is controlling it. Honest to god, Cree, sitting here listening back to some of the shit I’m saying, I don’t know why you don’t lock me up.”

  Creeley turned around and called out to the barmaid. “Ma’am? Turns out we’d like another round after all. Another one for my friend here and I’ll have the same, whatever he’s having. Thanks.”