by P J Parrish
Their expressions told Louis they had heard his name a lot in the last few hours. One extended a hand and Louis shook it.
“They’re here for Austin Outlaw,” Mobley said.
“What are the charges?” Louis asked.
“Conspiracy to commit murder,” Ward said. “Transporting of illegal aliens and a few more.”
Louis looked up at the hospital then glanced at Joe. “He’s with his son.”
“We won’t cuff him inside the room,” Ward said.
“The kid will know you’re cops and he’ll know what you’re doing,” Louis said “Let me go up and bring Outlaw out.”
Ward hesitated and looked at Mobley. Mobley gave a nod.
“I’ll be right back,” Louis said to Joe.
She nodded toward a Sereno Key squad car that had just pulled in. “Our ride’s here. We’ll wait for you.”
Louis led the cops back upstairs to Ben’s room. He knocked, hoping Susan would come to the door. When she didn’t, he knocked again, louder. The door opened a crack and Austin peered out.
“We need you to step out here,” Louis said quietly.
Austin’s eyes flicked from Louis to the three cops behind him but he didn’t move. Susan appeared behind Austin.
“Now,” Ward said.
Austin came slowly out the door, followed by Susan. Austin looked at Louis as Ward pulled him forward to cuff him. Louis pulled the door shut.
“This is how you get rid of the competition? You turn me in to the cops?” Austin said to Louis.
“I turned you in,” Susan said.
Austin’s eyes jerked to Susan. “You? How could you do that to me? I’m his father. He needs me. He loves me.”
Ward started moving Austin down the hall.
“He’ll hate you for this, Susan,” Austin yelled.
Susan gave Louis a long look then opened the door and went back inside. The door closed behind her.
Louis followed the detectives downstairs and watched from the curb as they put Austin into the cruiser. Louis went to Joe, who was waiting in the passenger seat of a Sereno Key police car. She rolled down the window.
“Can you give me ten more minutes?” Louis asked. “I just want to see Ben.”
Joe nodded and Louis headed back upstairs. Just outside Ben’s door, Susan met him, hands raised.
“What’s the matter?” Louis asked.
“He saw you,” she said “He saw everything just now, from the window.”
“Shit,” Louis said softly. “Can I talk to him?”
She shook her head “He saw you down there, in that police jacket. He thinks you arrested his father.”
Louis stepped back, his eyes going to the door. It was ajar and he could hear Ben crying.
“I need to talk to him, Susan.”
“I’ll explain things to him when the time is right.”
“Susan --”
“No, Louis,” she said. “You need to go. Please.”
Louis turned and walked away.
CHAPTER 54
One week later
His suitcase lay open on the bed. Issy had made a nest in his shirts but he let her stay. He looked around the bedroom. Everything else was already packed.
Joe had left to take one last walk on the beach. She had been taking the walks every day. They helped her heal, she told him. He could tell she was eager to get back to Miami.
So was he. Things had gone well with Major Anderson, and in the series of interviews that followed. There would still be a battery of tests and weeks of certification. But at the end of it all, he would be given a gold badge.
Issy got up, stretched, and jumped off the bed. Louis closed the suitcase. There was only one thing left to do.
He went to the porch, watching Joe heading away down the beach. He pushed open the screen and went out into the yard. Kneeling under the gumbo limbo tree, he started scooping out the sand.
It was still there, right where he had buried it over a year ago. He pulled the thick plastic evidence bag out of the hole, brushing off the sand. He could feel the hard contours of the gun inside.
Back inside the cottage, he left Joe a note saying he’d return in an hour.
When he pulled up in front of the Sereno Key police station, Jewell was just getting out of his car. He was in jeans and a T-shirt, carrying his uniforms in cleaner’s plastic over his shoulder. He recognized Louis’s Mustang and waited, pulling off his sunglasses.
“Hey, Jewell,” Louis said.
“Good afternoon, sir.”
Louis was looking at the uniforms. “What’s going on?”
Jewell shifted from one foot to the other. “I’m glad I ran into you before you left. I need to tell you something.”
“What is it, Jewell?”
“I was the one who sent Adam Vargas to your cottage. I told him where Detective Frye was staying.”
“What do you mean?”
“The day he was in the house, he asked where everybody was. I told him she was staying with you on Captiva.”
“Shit, Jewell,” Louis said softly.
“She could’ve been killed and —-”
“She wasn’t.”
Jewell looked toward the station. “I came here to quit, sir.”
Louis’s eyes went to the uniforms slung over Jewell’s shoulder. “Don’t do it, Jewell.”
“Sir...”
“You take that badge off something goes with it, and it’s really hard to get it back,” Louis said.
Jewell looked back at the station then at Louis.
“Don’t let this get to you, Jewell.”
Jewell hesitated. “I don’t want to quit.”
“Then don’t.”
Jewell let out a long breath. Then he nodded and stuck out his hand. “Thank you, sir.”
Louis watched him walk away, back to his car.
Wainwright was tilted back in his chair, eyes closed, sunlight on his face. Louis closed the door behind him and Wainwright looked up, bringing his feet down off the desk.
“Didn’t expect to see you for a while. I thought you went to Miami.”
“I’m back, wrapping up some things,” Louis said.
“How’s Detective Frye?”
“Getting better.”
“And the boy?”
“I haven’t seen him.”
Wainwright’s eyes dropped to the plastic evidence bag in Louis’s hand. “What’s that?”
Louis set the bag on Wainwright’s desk. “I need you to do something for me, Dan. I need this to be found out on Sereno Key with no connection ever made to me. And after you process it, it needs to find its way to Mobley.”
Wainwright picked up the bag. “This is a gun,” he said.
“Yes.”
“And what will happen when Mobley gets it?”
“Mobley knows this gun. And he knows it will free an innocent man from prison.”
Wainwright looked up at Louis. “You hid evidence?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Louis took a moment “I didn’t know how else to get her justice.”
Wainwright was silent, studying Louis’s face. “Why’d you bring it to me?”
“Because you’ve crossed lines, too,” Louis said. “You know what it’s like.”
Wainwright set the bag on the desk and leaned back in his chair, staring at it. “And you think doing this will clear your conscience before you take that job in Miami.”
“Something like that,” Louis said.
Wainwright hesitated then opened a desk drawer. He put the gun in and closed it. “I’ll take care of it.”
CHAPTER 55
Louis looked to the left as he drove along the beach road, watching the sun as it began its slow descent into the gulf. The air was still cool and the sunset was going to be lost behind the heavy cloud bank that hung over the water.
He hurried, wanting to get back to Joe. They had planned to go to Timmy’s Nook tonight for their final dinner on Captiva.
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When he pulled in, he slowed, seeing Susan’s old silver Mercedes in front of his cottage. Joe and Susan were standing by the car. And then he saw Ben sitting on the step of the cottage watching Issy playing in the sand.
He parked behind Susan's car. Susan and Joe watched him as he came up the gravel path. Ben looked up. There was nothing in his face, no expression, no happiness, nothing at all.
But he was here.
There was a second of awkward silence before Joe spoke.
“I think I will go for a walk,” she said, glancing at Louis.
Louis and Susan watched her head over the low dunes. Susan looked back at him. He had hoped to tell her about him and Joe before she learned it from someone else but there hadn’t been time. It was obvious from her face that she knew now.
“I like her,” Susan said. “She’s good for you.”
Louis couldn’t think of a damn thing to say. It hadn’t worked out for him and Susan and they both knew it. But they were both okay with that.
Susan looked at Ben, hunched on the porch steps, then back at Louis. She started to say something then just gave Louis a long, hard hug.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you so much.”
As he held her, over her shoulder he saw Ben watching them. He pulled back gently.
“How’s he doing?” he asked.
Susan’s smile faded. “He’s very angry,” she said softly. “He talks to me about the things that happened to him. He asks about the woman he was locked up with, what happened to her, and he even asked about the McAllisters. But he won’t talk to me about his father.” Susan looked at Benjamin, her lower lip quivering. “I think he hates me.”
“He needs time,” Louis said.
She was still looking at Ben. “He asked me to bring him here,” she said.
Ben was drawing circles in the sand with a stick.
“Go talk to him,” Susan said.
Susan headed out toward the beach and Louis walked over to the steps.
“Can I sit down?” he asked.
Ben shrugged.
Louis sat down on the step. Ben didn’t move away when their shoulders touched.
“What are you drawing?” Louis asked.
“Nothing.”
“You feeling okay?”
Ben waited a moment. “I’m scared a lot.”
“Of what?”
“Being taken again,” he said softly.
Louis shut his eyes for a second. It was very quiet except for the soft hiss of the surf.
“Why didn’t my daddy come back for me?” Ben asked.
Louis looked at him. “What do you mean?”
“At the park? Why didn’t he come back? We waited a long time.”
Louis cleared his throat, unsure he could talk. “Maybe he wanted to, but he just couldn’t.”
Ben stared at the sand, the stick motionless.
“The blond man said Daddy was a coward,” Ben whispered.
“These were bad guys. They wanted to hurt your father,” Louis said. “Being afraid doesn’t make you a coward.”
Ben looked up at him. “Ma says you came,” he said. “She says you never stopped looking for me.”
Louis’s throat tightened.
“I looked for Daddy when I found the helicopters,” Ben said. “But he wasn’t there. Were you?”
Louis nodded.
Ben leaned over, his head against Louis’s shoulder. For a few minutes they just sat there motionless, the soft evening breeze against their faces.
“Ma says you’re moving and you’re going to be a cop again.”
“Yes.”
“Will you come and see me sometime?”
“Yes.”
A long silence.
“I love you, Louis.”
CHAPTER 56
It was still dark when he slipped out of Joe’s bed. He looked back at her. Her face was in the shadows, a shaft of moonlight falling across her shoulder. Her two cats were curled at the bottom of the bed.
Pulling on a pair of sweatpants, he left the bedroom. Out in the dark living room, his eyes were drawn to the sliding glass doors and the lights beyond.
He went out onto the balcony. Miami was spread out below him like a carpet of lights. A police siren wailed and died in the distance. A warm breeze came up, wrapping itself around him.
He leaned on the railing.
Oh man... this is going to be tough.
He felt the press of her breasts on his back and her arms wrapping around his chest.
“What’s the matter?” she asked.
“I can’t stay here,” he said softly.
She hesitated. “I have a feeling you’re not talking about my apartment.”
Louis turned to face her. “I need to know he’s going to be all right.”
“He’ll be all right, Louis,” Joe said. “Kids are resilient. They’re stronger than you think.”
“They’re more fragile than you think, Joe. Especially boys.”
“He has a strong and loving mother.”
“And no father.”
Joe took a step back. “You can’t be Ben’s father, Louis.”
“I know that,” Louis said. “But I can be something.”
She just looked at him.
“I don’t want him to grow up scared,” Louis said. “I don’t want him to grow up angry. And I don’t want him to not trust people because his mother can’t. I just want...”
Louis shook his head.
Joe took another step back. “You’ve waited a long time for this. How can you just turn your back on everything?”
Louis knew she meant the job -- and her.
Her eyes teared up. He wrapped his arms around her, crushing her against him.
“I need you, too,” she whispered.
He closed his eyes and buried his face against her neck.
“I’ll be three hours away,” he said.
She pulled back and wiped her eyes. “Two if you drive fast.”
He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her.
The road in front of him was straight and flat, cutting a cruel slash across the gut of Florida. No curves, no hills, nothing to relieve the sadness of the journey. The sun had crept below the visor, making him squint as he headed west.
He glanced at the odometer, calculating how many miles he’d come. And how many more miles he had yet to go. He’d be back in Captiva before sunset.
His thoughts were jumping between Ben and Joe.
He was thinking, too, of Phillip Lawrence and he realized he had never thanked him. How did you thank a stranger for stepping in and saving your life? How did you thank a foster father for being a father?
There had been other boys in Phillip’s house. Other boys who had come out whole because of him. But Louis had also seen the others. The broken boys. Seen what they could do. What they could become.
He drove on, the sun sinking lower into the west.
Ben and Joe. They were both in his head, but Joe was there in his heart. His eyes flicked up to the rearview mirror. He missed her already.
A rest stop came into view. He hesitated, then let up on the gas, pulling off Alligator Alley. He stopped in front of the pay phone and got out.
The low slanting sun had turned the saw grass into a rippling river of gold. The blades whispered in the wind. He started to pick up the phone to call her. But then he stopped. He was thinking of the picture, the one of the little boy Joe carried behind her badge. The boy she couldn’t save.
He went back to the Mustang and opened the passenger door, popping open the glove box. It took him a minute to find it in all the junk. But finally, he pulled out Ben’s picture, the one Susan had given him the night he disappeared.
He looked at it for a moment then took out his wallet. He folded the photograph carefully and slid it behind his license.
Back in the car, he started the engine and pulled out of the lot, stopping before he pulled back out onto Alligator Alley.
He looked left, across the flat grass to where the gray edge of the coming night was shading in from the east. Then he turned the Mustang west toward Captiva, heading home.
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CHAPTER 1
Wednesday, December 31, 1969
He was staring at the frozen lake and thinking about his mother lying on a table somewhere screaming in pain.
He was remembering what she told him, how they had kept her in that little room and held her down, how it felt like her insides were being torn in half and how it went on and on and on for two days until she begged to die.
He was thinking about her and how much he had loved her. But he was also thinking that if she had been able to stand the pain for two more minutes –- two damn minutes -- his life would have been so very different.
But she couldn’t. So he was pulled from her womb at two minutes before midnight on September 14, and because of that everything now had changed.
The ferry was coming in. He heard its horn before he saw it, a white smudge emerging slowly from the gray afternoon fog. It was running late. The straits had frozen over early this year because of the long bitter cold snap and the ferry was forced to stay in the narrow channel that had been cut by the coast guard icebreaker Mackinaw. It was so cold, far colder than it should be, even for December. He pulled the hood of his parka up and looked down at the duffle at his feet. Had he remembered his gloves? Everything had happened so fast he hadn’t given much thought to what he had packed. Now he was so cold he didn’t even want to open the duffle to look, so he stuffed his red hands into his armpits and watched the ferry.
It was taking a long time to get to the dock, like it was moving in slow motion. But everything was like this now, everything was moving as if time no longer existed. But it didn’t really, he thought. Not anymore. Time was nothing to him now. By tomorrow, he would have all the time in the world.
But what world?
He looked around. At the clapboard ticket house of the Arnold Line ferry, at the docks, the empty parking lot and the boarded-up pastie shack. He looked past the park benches and the bare black trees still wearing their necklaces from last night’s ice storm. He looked back toward town where the fog blurred all the places he had known during his nineteen years here, and he tried hard to burn everything into his memory because suddenly he knew that once he got on the ferry there would be no way to ever come back and he would forget all of this and the person he had been here.