WISHBONE II: ...Some Wishes Should Never Be Made

by Brooklyn Hudson

  “Of course, of course. I love that little girl. They were just at my house for Thanksgiving. They’re family to us. To be honest, I don’t really know what set Rachael off. Julien and Rachael have always gone through phases where they kind of, well, pull back, pull away. As close as our families have been, they can be ultra-private. There have been periods where we won’t hear from them for a while. Of course, I see him here at work, but that’s about it. No Sunday dinners, no phone calls, no getting together for the kid’s birthdays. Just periods of isolation. Sometimes I get a sense that something’s troubling Julien, but when he doesn’t want to talk, there’s no use in trying. I learned that a long time ago.”

  “Why do you believe that is? Why are they so…ultra-private? Could there be something else going on? Maybe another aspect to their lives that they don’t want anyone to know about? A gambling problem? Drinking? Financial difficulties?”

  “Who doesn’t have financial difficulties? We all live above our means…whether you work at a fast food joint or own Wal-Mart, right? Look, Detective Bale,” Matt sat forward, folding his arms and resting his elbows on his desk, “if you’re thinking Julien’s up to something or has anything to do with his daughter’s disappearance, you’re heading in the wrong direction. The only person Julien would ever hurt is himself. He’s a real…rule follower. Takes good care of his family. He’s extremely dedicated to that little girl. Julien’s quirky and private, and sometimes even goddamned arrogant, but he’s definitely not one to put his family in jeopardy, or to get involved in anything illegal or questionable, and he certainly would never allow that little girl to be hurt, nevertheless hurt her himself.”

  Bale agreed with Matt’s assessment, but continued to push, “Does he confide in you?”

  “Well, sometimes…I mean, like I said, he’s not much of a talker, but yeah, we talk…here and there…certain things.”

  “Well, has there ever been anything you came to find out, after-the-fact. Anything that you were surprised to learn, or surprised he didn’t tell you sooner? Anything uncharacteristic?”

  Matt didn’t have to think for long, “That his wife was pregnant. Then again, he didn’t know either.”

  “He didn’t know she was pregnant?”

  “Well, I overheard my wife talking to Rachael, saying she was pregnant. Like really pregnant…three or four months, something like that. I thought Julien knew and just hadn’t shared the news yet. So, over drinks the next night—we go to this pub around the corner here, Brennen’s, on Friday nights after work—I mentioned what I overheard…that Rachael was pregnant. Man, he went bat-shit on me…lost his mind over the news.”

  Bale wasn’t sure he was following, “Bat-shit? Meaning, he was ecstatic?”

  Matt shook his head, “Oh No…I really messed up,” he laughed, clearly embarrassed. “He definitely was—not—happy.”

  “Okay, so he wasn’t happy that you knew his wife was pregnant.”

  “No, he wasn’t happy that they were pregnant, at all. He had no idea she was prego…Rachael hadn’t told him yet, and here I was, spilling the beans. Julien wanted nothing to do with having kids.”

  Bale played devil’s advocate, “Well, having kids is a huge deal,” he counted back the years silently to himself, “after all, at that time, Julien would have been quite a few years older than the average guy starting a family.”

  Matt nodded and smiled, “He’s a great Dad. He really took to fatherhood, once Jessica was here. I mean, considering her issues and all…”

  “So he was not happy to have a child, but accepted it pretty quickly?”

  Matt paused to think then chuckled; a baffled expression came over his face, “Ya know, I really don’t remember. In fact, now that I think about it, I don’t remember a lot about Jessica’s first years. Wow! I really don’t remember. I feel like we spent so much time together then; kid’s playdates and jazz, yet I can’t recall any of it. I honestly don’t remember.” Matt grew distant, disturbed by his lack of recall.

  Bale wanted Matt to keep talking, “But you remember he wasn’t happy to have a child?”

  “Yeah, he flipped the hell out in the bar,” Matt shook his head again. “What the hell…? How can I not remember them having that baby?” Matt, visibly shaken by his failed memory, tried to move past it.

  He continued, “Like I said, Julien’s a great Dad and loves that little girl.”

  “Was there ever anything else Rachael kept from Julien?”

  “Not that I’m aware of. They have a tight relationship. My wife and I are in awe of those two. I mean, back when things were normal anyway, but even now, they stand by each other, no matter what life throws there way. They may not share everything that goes on in their private life with us, but Julien and Rachael are the real deal.”

  “Anything else you remember him not telling you that you later found out about?”

  “Em, not really, no. Well, maybe the surgery, but I can totally understand that. Julien’s not one to like that kind of attention.”

  “Surgery?” Bale pressed.

  “Yeah, a while ago…a few years now. One day, Rachael calls the office and said Julien would be out for three or four weeks. Some sort of emergency surgery, but she didn’t give Caroline, the receptionist, any details. Being friends and all, that night, my wife and I tried to call them…make sure everything was okay. Now that I think about it, we might have even stopped by their apartment once or twice during that time, I don’t remember, but no one saw Julien until he came back to work, like a month later. He was pretty messed up too. He was never the same after that…uses a cane sometimes…less focused, mentally. It really did a number on him.”

  “You said a few years ago? Was it the ladder accident?” Bale slipped, giving details rather than collecting them.

  Matt, confused, narrowed his eyes, “Ladder? What ladder accident?”

  “I might have gotten my information mixed up.” Bale lifted the pad from his lap and pretended to scan its pages.

  “To my knowledge, it was some sort of freak thing…something upstate.” Matt huffed again, “Ya know, you’re making me feel like I’ve got dementia, for Christ sake. Seriously, I really don’t think about this stuff much and they don’t talk about it at all, but I do kind of remember them looking to buy a house up there at one time…they never did though. I don’t remember the details because I wasn’t really given any, but something happened up there, upstate, and the surgery came right after it…right after they came back, I think.”

  Matt became very animated, “Right here,” he laughed, “here you have a perfect example of Julien. He has some awful accident and Rachael calls the office, doesn’t tell us what sort of emergency or what exactly happened, no one answers their phones for weeks, and then Julien shows back up for work with nothing much to say about it. I’m his closest friend and I don’t even have the details of an accident that permanently impacted his life. That’s the Grenier’s, right there in a nutshell.”

  Bale threw it out to him, “You don’t have the details, or you don’t remember them?”

  Matt’s demeanor changed again, “What does any of this have to do with Jessica’s disappearance anyway?”

  “Absolutely nothing, Mr. Dwyer. I know you have to get back to work, but one last question, you said years. Can you narrow down when that surgery actually took place?”

  Matt got to his feet and grabbed a pen from his desk then slid it into his pocket, “I’m gonna say about four years ago, maybe a little longer.”

  Bale jotted a fast note then stood up, “Well thank you very much for your time. I might want to speak to your wife at some point.”

  “Hey, whatever you think will help. Lily should be here any minute, to pick up that bag I left at the desk. If you want to hang around and wait, I have a meeting, but I can arrange for some coffee and set you up in the lounge until she gets here.”

  “Actually, that would be great…black, four sugars.”

  Matt shook the detective’s hand,
“Thanks for all you’re doing. Can you find your way back to reception? I’ll call Caroline and she’ll show you to the lounge.”

  Bale nodded and walked away.

  “Hey, Detective,” Matt called out seconds later.

  Bale stopped to look back.

  “When you talk to Julien, tell him he’s got a lot ‘a people here who really care and want to help him get through this.”

  Bale nodded and left Matt in the hall. No sooner did he reach the front desk, when, Caroline hung up with Matt and introduced Bale to Lily Dwyer, already standing there.

  Caroline came around the desk, “Let’s set you two up in here, follow me. I’ll come right back with your coffee.”

  Lily, dialed Matt on her cell phone as they walked. She flashed a brief smile at Bale as she spoke with her husband.

  “Yes, he’s right here… Okay, but you know I need to pick up Nicholas at 2:40 today… Well, I know, of course… Okay, see you tonight… Love you.”

  Lily hung up and replaced her phone in her purse then extended a hand to the detective.

  “Mrs. Dwyer, I’m Detective Ed Bale. I won’t keep you long. I appreciate you taking the time to talk with me. I understand you are a close friend of the Grenier’s, particularly, Rachael Grenier.”

  Lily took a seat at a round café table. Bale did the same directly across from her.

  “We were very close, at one time,” she corrected.

  Bale sensed immediately, his conversation with Lily Dwyer would be quite different from his interaction with her husband.

  He began, “First let me put it right out there, I’m only here to help find Jessica Grenier. No one’s being accused of anything and both parents have been cleared of any involvement, at this point.”

  Lily’s stiff posture did not relent; his words meant nothing to her. He got the feeling, if she were aware of anything that might help this case, she would talk, regardless of her relationship with the Grenier’s.

  Bale continued, “You said you were close. Did you have a falling out with Rachael?”

  “No, not at all. I guess you can say we drifted apart.”

  “Your husband mentioned they were just at your home for Thanksgiving, just few days ago. That they’re family to you.”

  “It’s complicated,” her eyes bore into him, “first of all, only Julien and Jessie were with us for Thanksgiving. Secondly, we are like family, but that doesn’t mean we talk every day.”

  “Can you elaborate on that?”

  Caroline returned with two cups of coffee and placed them on the table; her practiced smile still beaming as she hurried away.

  “Rachael has problems. Something changed. She’s not the woman I first met.” Lily stared down at her cup and shook her head, “Not even close.”

  “When did you first notice this change?”

  “I don’t know. A while ago. I would talk to her, but she wouldn’t really respond. Not like she used to anyway. She was staying home all the time, wouldn’t meet me for coffee anymore, or come over so the kids could play. At first I thought I had done something to upset her, maybe said something wrong, but then I realized it wasn’t that at all.”

  “What did you decide it was?”

  She shrugged, “She was getting sick.”

  “Sick?”

  “Yeah, I mean, I wasn’t privy to what was happening at home during that time, but a short while later, she’s trying to throw herself off a roof, potentially leaving her special needs child to grow up without her. I mean, what kind of mother does that?”

  Lily continued, “That child is already destined for a difficult life and, selfishly, Rachael tries to take the easy way out and leave that precious baby to fend for herself, and with an emotionally stunted father, at that.” Lily looked down and brushed at her lap to smooth her dress, “He didn’t even want that child in the first place and she’s gonna abandon her to him?” she mumbled.

  There was no mistaking, she was still very angry about the disintegration of her friendship with Rachael, and Bale felt sure, Lily placed, at least partial blame, on Julien. He had a hard time swallowing Lily’s dismissive take on mental illness and found himself biting his tongue to keep from defending the Grenier’s.

  “Julien? Emotionally stunted? I don’t know if I would say that…” he purposely challenged her opinion.

  “Oh yeah? Believe me…Julien Grenier ruled that roost for years. Rachael, always jumping through hoops to keep him happy, doing it all his way or the highway. You know, little things like… she would never try to talk him into anything, no matter how badly she wanted something, she’d just accept his decision and leave it at that. Always walking on eggshells, I mean, what is this…1950? I would never tolerate that from Matt.”

  “And you said, Julien didn’t want children?”

  “No, absolutely not,” she shook her head vehemently, “she actually thought he would divorce her when she got to the point where she had no choice but to tell him she was pregnant. We talked about it for, probably two months or more, before she finally got up the courage to tell him.”

  “Why do you think Julien was so against the idea of starting a family?”

  “Because he’s Julien and he’s against anything that isn’t his own idea. Kids need love and that might put him in a position where he had to show a little emotion. Julien’s not capable.”

  Bale nodded, hanging on her every word, he challenged her again, “Your husband seems to feel Julien is a good father.”

  Lily ignored the comment, “I remember talking to her, day in and day out, you know, while she was pregnant. She was terrified to tell Julien they were having a baby. She even talked about terminating the pregnancy, just so she would never have to tell him at all.”

  “What kind of father do you think Julien is today?”

  Lily sipped her coffee then shrugged, “Well, he loves Jessica. He’s come a long way,” she admitted then rushed to add, “He’s strict, though. Really strict.”

  “Nothing wrong with that, right? Better a strict parent than a neglectful one?”

  “Well right, but now that Rachael is locked away, I worry that Jessica isn’t getting all the love and attention she should be getting. Not that Rachael was doing a very good job. At least not in the months leading up to her crazy drama. He’s always on top of Jessica now…riding her. I mean, let the kid be a kid sometimes. They don’t always have to be so perfect.”

  “Not doing a very good job? At parenting? Anything specific?”

  “Well, the beginning of the breakdown, I guess. Like, there were a few occasions when I had gone to see Rachael, out of concern…practically had to force myself into their apartment. She would be all weirded-out and paranoid about Jessica. Her own child! She wouldn’t tell me why, but, for a while, they were leaving Jessica in an after school program, sometimes until seven-thirty at night, until Julien would get off from work and go pick her up. I’m sure that’s what he’s doing now, too…he must be; he works long hours. Anyway, Rachael suddenly didn’t want Jessica around anymore. Almost as if she was afraid of Jessie. I don’t know, it was so strange and secretive…it’s hard to say. It eventually got to a point where I could hardly stand to be around Rachael. She never got dressed anymore. She just lay there in bed, talking about all this crazy crap.”

  Bale urged her on, “Crazy crap?”

  “Yeah,” she shook her head as if it was hardly worth mentioning, “she was having dreams and, I mean, most of this I had to piece together over time because, after a while, she stopped telling me anything, but it started with her having some weird dreams where she had done something terrible to Julien.”

  “She did something terrible to Julien in a dream and this upset her?” Bale wanted to be sure he understood.

  “Yeah, it was all crazy talk. She would ramble about it endlessly, but I got so tired of hearing it, I honestly stopped taking her calls. Ya know, sometimes you just need a break. Then, by the time I tried to call her again, it was too late…she had totally lost
it. Too far gone for me to make heads or tails of what she was on about.”

  “Do you remember anything else about the dream?”

  “Dreams—plural. Not really. Just crazy stuff about wishbones and this entire village of incestuous freaks that she created in her mind. Truthfully, it’s too bad she couldn’t have applied that creativity to paper. It would have made a helluva book!” Lily laughed.

  Bale smiled; it was the first time he had seen Lily unfurrow her brow since their conversation began.

  He continued the interview, “So this was the start of her mental illness?”

  “Big time. Look, I don’t want to sound heartless, but I can’t forgive their selfishness. Once you’re a parent, you lose your right to lose your mind. Your kids come first, and you hold your shit together…period…no matter what.”

  Bale sat back, “I don’t know, Mrs. Dwyer, with all due respect, mental illness is mental illness.”

  “See, I don’t buy into that crap. She was driving herself nuts with those ridiculous stories.” Lily swept the air with a dismissive gesture.

  Bale thought he saw a glimmer of sorrow peek through her repugnance.

  “Detective Bane…”

  “Bale,” he corrected.

  “Sorry. Detective Bale…I pray for Rachael and that family every night. I would love to see Rachael come home, and for the Grenier’s to live happily ever after, but I just find some of what’s gone on in the Grenier household to be unforgivable and I don’t see it changing, ever.”

  “I understand, Mrs. Dwyer. Do you ever visit Rachael?”

  “At Fair Oaks? No,” she shook her head, “I can’t be in those places. Way too creepy for me.”

  “There but by the grace of God go I, right?”

  Lily did not respond.

  Bale continued, “My last question, Mrs. Dwyer. Do you have any idea or thoughts about what could have happened to Jessica?”

  “If I had even the slightest clue, I would tell you. I’m so scared for that poor baby. She must be terrified out there, somewhere, so confused. I pray she hasn’t been hurt.”