Interest of Justice

by Nancy Taylor Rosenberg

  Rickerson tapped his forehead and smiled. “Smart.”

  “It’s the candy,” she said. “Trust me.”

  Removing the candy bar she’d given him from his shirt pocket, Rickerson stood right at the window and ripped it open and then shoved the whole thing in his mouth and ate it. She laughed. Then he turned and walked away.

  Lara couldn’t keep Josh away from Emmet. After missing so much school, he had books stacked two feet high on the kitchen table, but they just sat there while he played video games with his new pal across the courtyard. Lara brought home Kentucky Fried Chicken and carried the sacks to Emmet’s.

  “That’s it,” she said, stepping inside Emmet’s bedroom and speaking to Josh. He was avidly jumping around in his seat pushing buttons on a hand-held control. “No more games, guy.”

  “But Mom…” Josh said without turning around. After that the room fell silent. Lara was flattered, but she quickly realized that Josh had just slipped back in time. She didn’t try to stop him when he got up from the computer terminal and left the room, but after glancing at Emmet and shaking her head, she went to find him.

  He was outside the condo, sitting on the grass under the weeping willow. Lara approached slowly and just stood there. Finally she said, “You shouldn’t sit there. You’ll get grass stains on your pants.”

  He stood and dusted himself off.

  “I wish your mother was still alive. Josh—that none of this had ever happened.” He nodded. She continued, “To be honest, I was very flattered in there—flattered that you would even accidentally call me Mom.” She turned around to head back to the condo. There was nothing more to say.

  “I…have…something,” Emmet said once Lara had returned. “Working…all day on it.” He hit a button on his chair and spun back to the screen, blanking off the game they had been playing and pulling up a menu.

  “See,” he said, “they…have…free services.” He selected something from the computer menu and a list of what looked like businesses with toll-free numbers flashed on the screen. He moved the cursor down until he found what he wanted and hit another button with the pen attached to his head. Lara was leaning over his shoulder, reading.

  SUPER SECRETS—THE GAME MAN, it said, listing an eight-hundred toll-free number to call. The caption under the title read, “If you want to be the best on your block, call the toll-free number on your screen for tricks and insider information on video games. No charge for this service. Nintendo, Super NES, Sega…” It went on to list all the different systems and games. Then it listed the person to contact: Tommy Black. The phone number was good only in the state of California.

  “What are you saying, Emmet?” Lara asked him.

  Emmet blanked the screen again and typed, “There are many numbers like this, help lines and things, but most of them are provided by the manufacturers of the games or the systems themselves. First, I explored the others and found they were all legitimate. I picked this one for the following reasons: It’s an independent company or individual, and I’m not sure how they profit from this unless they try to sell other things, like accessories, magazines, or something related to video games. And it is also listed in several different directories for maximum exposure, particularly the directories that young people might respond to, where they have information on sports and movies, things like that. Most of these toll-free numbers are national. Even though this one mentions the state of California, it is really only good in this immediate area. You know, Los Angeles and suburbs.”

  Lara became excited. It was feasible that a young boy might call a number like that to find out how to win at a game or improve his score. “This is great, Emmet. But the man’s name? We don’t know anyone named Tommy Black.”

  Emmet typed, “I thought you said the child molester would use an assumed name. Want to call him?”

  “Call who?” Josh said, entering the room. “And when are we going to eat? It’s almost eight o’clock. My stomach’s growling.”

  Lara looked at Josh and then had an idea. “Emmet, wouldn’t it be better if Josh called? Then we’d know how he handled a child. If I call, he might just fluff me off.”

  They decided to wait until Josh had finished his dinner. Emmet’s nurse had already prepared his meal before they’d arrived and Lara wasn’t hungry. They sat around the table and discussed what he was to say. “Just tell him you’re calling about getting better at a same. Do you have a favorite game that you can talk about?”

  “Yeah.” Josh said. Ti love Joe and Mac. My friend has it. It’s great. Emmet has it too.”

  “You can’t give your real name, you know?” she told him. “This is something regarding my work, a little detective work.”

  Lara didn’t set her hopes too high. Even if the killer was an active pedophile, it was doubtful if he was still trying to recruit victims after what had occurred. But then she ran through all the cases she’d handled in the past and knew that stress seemed to make these people’s needs even greater. Some of them even molested children while they were awaiting criminal prosecution. It was a compulsion, almost like an addiction to heroin. This man might be desperate now for the companionship of a young person. It probably made him feel more powerful, more secure.

  “Maybe we should wait,” she told them just as Josh was about to go to the condo for the cellular phone. She recalled Rickerson’s admonition not to run off on tangents on her own. This was a dangerous game. Three people had already died.

  “Why?” Josh said. “It sounds like fun. Let me call.”

  She was being silly, she decided. Nothing was going to come of it anyway, and it was only a phone call. “Okay,” she finally said. “Do it. Go get the phone and come back.”

  Once he returned, he dialed. They waited anxiously beside him. “It’s a machine,” he said.

  “Quick,” Lara said, grabbing the phone out of his hands. She wanted to hear the voice on the machine, knowing she would recognize it if it were Evergreen or Phillip. It had a strange, metallic sound. It didn’t even sound human. The machine clicked off, and Lara hung up and then redialed. This time she handed the phone to Emmet. “Listen to this, Emmet,” she said. “Is the tape worn out or something?”

  Emmet listened only a few moments and then the phone dropped involuntarily in his lap and his muscles jerked, tossing his arm off the side of the chair. “It’s…not a…real voice,” he struggled to say. “It’s…a…voice-synthesized…computer.”

  “A talking computer?” Lara said.

  “Yes,” Emmet answered.

  They agreed that Josh should call back and leave a name and the number to the cellular phone. He did, using the name of his best friend, Ricky Simmons.

  “Well,” Lara said, thinking that the whole thing was an exercise in futility. The chances of this working out were a million to one. “It’s time for you to hit the books tonight, Josh. No more games or you’ll be repeating this grade next year.”

  “Not hardly,” he said, indignant. “I have a 3.9 average. A week’s worth of work will take about four hours and I’ll be caught up.”

  Lara was embarrassed. She’d never even asked Josh about his grades at school, or what classes he was taking. For some reason she had decided that he was a weak student, possibly because of Ivory’s learning disabilities and his lackluster appearance and demeanor. Now as she looked at him, she saw him in an entirely different light. He was an extremely bright young man, probably more so than anyone knew. More than anything, she doubted if his mother or Sam Perkins had even noticed.

  “I’m impressed,” she said. “Really, Josh. I am extremely impressed that you’re such a good student, but why the 3.9? Can’t we make it a 4.0?”

  He smiled and there was a silent exchange between them. If he had done this well in school with no one to encourage him, they both knew he could do that much better with Lara’s guidance and support. She bent down and kissed Emmet goodbye on the forehead, and they headed out the door. As they started across the grassy courtyard, Emmet a
ppeared in the door. “Back,” he said as loud as he could manage. “Phone…ringing.

  They had left the cellular phone on the kitchen table. Josh sprinted back to the condo and seized it on about the fifth ring. Lara then ran right up behind him and whispered that if it was the game man, he should remember to use another name.

  “Yeah,” he said, talking now, nodding to Emmet and Lara that it was the man. He headed to Emmet’s desk in the bedroom, Lara and Emmet following behind him. “I have Super NES. My favorite is Joe and Mac.” Josh became silent and listened to the man talking. “Okay,” he finally said, “you said I should save my keys and open the secret area for extra one-ups. Then what?”

  Lara was frustrated. There was no line for her to listen in on and hear the man’s voice. She held her breath.

  Josh was cool, tossing his leg on Emmet’s desk and leaning back in the chair as though he were talking to one of his friends. “Right,” he said. “Then I can collect all the food and get four extra men. Wow! That’s cool. That’s cool…really.” He glanced at Emmet like the man knew his stuff. Then the caller apparently started asking Josh questions, like how old he was and where he went to school. Lara grabbed a piece of paper off Emmet’s desk and scribbled some words and held them up for Josh. He nodded acknowledgment.

  “Yeah,” he said. “I’m twelve.” He sneered at Lara, hating to make himself younger. “San Clemente Elementary,” he told the man and then gave his friend’s name. “Ricky,” he said, “Uh, Ricky Simmons.” He fell silent, listening. “Sure, that would be great,” he finally said. “Free…really? You’d let me have those games free? Prince of Persia, Smart Ball…Universal Soldier too. What do I have to do?”

  Lara put her hand over her chest. This was getting better every second. She was flabbergasted at how sharp her nephew really was. He’d realized that he couldn’t say he was in junior high school as he actually was and had told the man he was in elementary school. That was thinking on your feet. Even she hadn’t thought of that one.

  “My parents?” Josh repeated, glancing at Lara and making a face. “Yeah, I…”

  Lara leaped right in front of him and then scribbled as fast as she could on the paper: “Your father’s dead. Live with your mother.” She knew how these people operated from experience. They looked for single family homes, particularly where the boy was deprived of a father’s love and attention. These young people made perfect victims for pedophiles, and in many cases they stepped right into the family, convincing the child’s mother that they were attempting to help the young boy, take them off her hands every now and then.

  “No,” Josh continued, taking Lara’s cue, “my dad’s dead. I live with my…” He paused and swallowed. This was not easy for him. “…my mother.” Then he listened intently and answered again. “She works…yeah…works at the hospital.” He made an expression with his eyes to see if Lara approved. She nodded. A few moments later, he hung up.

  “What did he say?” Lara asked eagerly. She wished she’d grabbed the phone and listened to the man’s voice, but it was too late now. They’d call him back another time, she decided.

  “He gave me some pointers on the game. Pretty good, really. Then he said he could get me a bunch of games free, like demos or something. He never really said how or when, just that I should call back when I get home from school tomorrow.”

  “What about the other questions?” Lara asked. “The personal questions. And how did his voice sound? Was he young or old?”

  “I don’t know. It was just a voice. I can’t tell how old someone is by their voice. All the dude asked was about my family, my parents, if my mom worked, if I like movies, arcades, all kinds of things. You know…you heard.”

  “Okay,” Lara said. “You’re out of here guy. I’ll see you in a few minutes at the condo. And I hope I don’ have to tell you, never and I mean never call that man back without my knowledge.”

  “What’s this all about?” Josh said. “What kind of case is this you’re doing? I didn’t think judges did this kind of thing. Isn’t this cop stuff, trying to catch people?” He paused and then continued undaunted. “What do you think this man did anyway? It’s just a con or something. He isn’t going to give me those games for free.”

  “Go,” Lara said, shooing him away with her hands. “Homework, remember?”

  Once Josh left, she sat there and tried to put it all together. She sincerely felt they were on to something and thought of calling Rickerson, but then set that thought aside. The poor man couldn’t work twenty-four hours a day. She’d call him in the morning. Besides, Benjamin England had called earlier and asked if he could stop by later. She’d decided to give him another chance.

  What she really wanted was to purge herself somehow of her growing infatuation with Ted Rickerson. The way to do that would be to focus on someone else.

  “Trace…number,” Emmet said at the door.

  “For sure, Emmet,” Lara answered before heading back across the courtyard to the condo. “You can bet on it. This man might not be Evergreen or Phillip, but he sounds exactly like a child molester. No matter who he is, we’re going to check him out.” She paused and looked at the little man. “This could actually be the man who murdered my sister. It sounds unbelievable, but it’s possible. Thanks, Emmet. You’re a genius.”

  “I…know,” he said.

  Lara laughed. Emmet might be gravely disabled and frail, but he still had a pretty big ego.

  When she turned around, Josh was standing there, listening to every word they said. “I thought I told you to go to the condo and do your homework,” she said, her voice sharp, hoping he hadn’t heard what she’d said about Evergreen, that he could be responsible for his mother’s death.

  His eyes were dark and intense. “I forgot my key,” he said. Then he turned around and left, waiting for Lara in the courtyard.

  Josh was in bed and Lara was sitting in the living room of Emmet’s condo with Benjamin England. “I’m sorry,” she told him. “Pretty austere, huh?” He was in the one black and gray upholstered chair with the ottoman, and she was sitting Indian-style on the hardwood floor. It was sort of stupid to call it Indian-style when she was a real Indian. She and Ivory used to laugh about that when they were teenagers. They were sipping wine. Lara wasn’t really drinking hers. She was just swirling it around in the glass, lost in the past.

  “It seems impossible that all this has happened,” she finally said. “Only a few weeks ago, my sister was alive. I had no idea she was selling her body, doing the things she was doing.”

  “Well,” England said, “what she was doing for a living isn’t the problem. The fact that she got herself murdered is something altogether different. And you think she was blackmailing someone? A high-placed official. Tell me, Lara, who is this man?”

  “I can’t tell you. We don’t really know who it is anyway. I mean, we have suspects, but nothing concrete.”

  “Come on, you can tell me. You know I’ll keep anything you tell me in utmost confidence. I’m dying to know who this person is. Tell me.”

  “No,” Lara said. “I wish I’d never mentioned it. I’m really not in a position to tell you about it right now.”

  He’d been leaning forward in his chair, thinking Lara was about to reveal the secret. When she didn’t, he slapped back and looked disappointed. “Then you shouldn’t have mentioned it if you weren’t going to tell me. That’s like a tease.”

  Although he was smiling, she knew he meant it. In a lot of ways he was like an overgrown child.

  “We could go in your bedroom,” he said suggestively. “I mean, at least there’s somewhere to sit.”

  “Oh,” she said, “I guess you’re right.” Even though she had wanted to see him, now that he was here, she just wanted him to leave. Her mind was reeling, filled with visions of catching the killer. And if they were right and this game man was him, they might be able to catch him red-handed—right in the act of seducing a child. But she couldn’t use Josh. She’d never put hi
m at risk, and she doubted if there was any child they could use. It was just too dangerous a game right now. She put that thought aside.

  As soon as they stretched out on the bedspread in the bedroom, Benjamin reached for her and pulled her to him. “I really desire you, you know. I’ve been thinking about you ever since that last night we were together. You’re so small and delicate, Lara. Your body’s like a really young woman’s. You gonna be my little girl, huh?” he said, sliding into baby talk and stroking her arm.

  He looked at her and she promptly melted, allowing him to run his fingers through her long dark hair. Then his hands started roaming, reaching under her shirt for her breasts. She closed her eyes and imagined it was Rickerson’s soft, padded hands. There was no comparison. Even in her imagination, England simply wasn’t desirable anymore. Besides, he was grabbing, not stroking. “Stop it,” she whispered. “This isn’t going anywhere. Not with Josh in the next room.”

  He ignored her and slipped his hand under the hem of her skirt, his eyes filled with lust. “He’s asleep. He can’t hear.”

  His hands were sliding up the silk of her nylons, reaching the area between her legs. It had been so long. She moaned and in seconds he was on top of her. “Unzip me,” he said just as he shoved his hand inside her panty hose and raked his fingernails through her pubic hair.

  “No,” Lara said softly, closing her legs, trapping his hand so it couldn’t go any farther. “I told you we can’t do anything here. The walls are so thin. Another time. We’ll go to your place next time. Just be patient.” She turned her head toward the wall where Emmet’s file cabinet and computer equipment were located. “It’s too soon, Benjamin. I’m not ready for this yet. Try to understand. And Josh…”

  His hot breath was on her neck, and he was grinding his hips into her. This was definitely not sexy, she thought. The man had not even kissed her. Besides, it wasn’t her he desired. It was any woman, any warm and wet port in the storm. He had started unbuttoning her blouse when Lara pushed him off and sat up in the bed. “I said no,” she said, her voice forceful but still low. She didn’t want Josh to hear.