Remains of Innocence

by J. A. Jance

  She had understood what was behind the little bastard’s last self-satisfied ugly grin. He knew exactly where Ruth was, and he wouldn’t tell, no matter what. Joanna suspected that, in all probability, Ruth was already dead, but what if she wasn’t? What if there was a chance that she had been injured but was still clinging to life? It was almost noon. If she’d already been gone for most of a day, that meant time was running out.

  Chief Bernard had told Joanna that Fred Harding had found a single strand of purple hair in the trunk of Rebecca’s wrecked Mazda. A strand of hair in the passenger compartment of the car meant nothing, but in the trunk? People didn’t climb into trunks of cars of their own volition. Ruth had been in the trunk of her mother’s car because she had been placed there by someone else. It wasn’t hard to imagine that she had been unconscious at the time.

  All right, Joanna told herself, trying to marshal her thoughts. Lucas put Ruth in the trunk. Then what? He took her someplace and dumped her, but where? He had been at the house, seemingly alone, in the late afternoon on Sunday when Joanna had gone there to talk to him. And he had been home again when his mother came home. He wouldn’t have wanted to risk letting Rebecca know that he had taken her Mazda for an unauthorized joy ride. That meant the dumping ground would have to be somewhere fairly close by, someplace Lucas was familiar with, someplace no one was likely to go looking.

  And then, as suddenly as if a light had been switched on, Joanna knew. Or at least she thought she knew. The cave where they had found Junior, the one with the glory hole just inside. Lucas knew all about it. It was close by. As long as no one realized Lucas was involved in what had happened to Junior and Star, no one would think to look there. Thanks to Calvin Lee, Joanna knew better.

  As soon as that series of thoughts surfaced in her brain, Joanna’s fingers sought the ignition key. She swung the Yukon out onto the roadway and merged into the traffic circle. She resisted the urge to turn on the lights. If she was right, she’d arrive at the Dowdle crime scene much sooner if she didn’t wait around to summon additional personnel. And if she was wrong? No one would ever know, and Ruth Nolan, wherever she was, would be no worse off than she had been before.

  Joanna drove up Highway 80 behind the main business district, pulled an illegal U-turn in a no-passing zone, and parked on the shoulder of the road near where the collection of emergency vehicles had clustered the day they had retrieved Junior Dowdle’s body. After turning on both her overhead lights and her emergency flashers, Joanna grabbed her Maglite, jumped out of the vehicle, and scrambled up the wash. That second clump of scrub oak seemed impossibly far away. She clipped her all-important flashlight to her belt so it wouldn’t hamper her as she climbed. By the time she reached the shade of the oak grove, she was out of breath; she had a stitch in her side, and her lungs ached with effort, but she was there.

  Wanting to help her eyes adjust to the coming change of light, Joanna closed one of them as she made her way through the trees. She was relieved to see that as yet no one had made any effort to repair the damage done during the removal of Junior’s body. The iron bars that had been cut away from the mouth of the tunnel still leaned crookedly against the rocky cliff, looking like a pair of wrecked doors that had been knocked off their supporting hinges.

  Cautiously, Joanna stepped through the opening and switched on the light. The powerful beam illuminated the whole place, rendering her precaution of closing one eye unnecessary. She moved forward carefully, listening for any sound that would betray the presence of any other being, human or otherwise. She used the powerful beam of light to explore every chink and soaring crevice of the limestone cavern. A few steps from the abyss, she paused. “Ruth,” she called. “Ruth Nolan, are you in here?”

  For a long moment, all she heard was the hammering of her own heart, but then there was something else—a strange humming noise that was hardly human. She eased her way over to the edge of the drop and aimed the beam of the flashlight down into the hole. At first she wasn’t sure what she was seeing. Netting of some kind seemed to have been strung from one side of the hole to the other. Caught in the middle of the net, dangling over the bottom of the hole like some kind of huge landed fish, was a silver figure of some kind.

  “Ruth, is that you?”

  In answer the figure struggled to move. As Joanna’s vision improved, she realized that the silver came from a layer of duct tape that bound the girl’s legs together and held her arms imprisoned at her sides. A separate strand of tape formed the gag that covered her mouth.

  “Stop!” Joanna ordered. “Do not move! I don’t know what’s holding the netting in place. If you wiggle around, you might dislodge it. Stay where you are. I’m going out to call for help. My cell phone doesn’t have service in here.”

  Another unintelligible pleading sound came from the bound girl. Joanna didn’t need to hear the words to know what she was saying.

  “I won’t leave you. I promise. I’ll be right back.”

  Joanna had to go only as far as the cave’s entrance before she had enough bars to make the call.

  “Nine one one, what are you reporting?”

  “Sheriff Brady here,” she said. “Contact the Bisbee Fire Department. I’ve found Ruth Nolan. She’s trapped in some netting inside the glory hole at the same location where we found Junior Dowdle’s body last week. Tell them to hurry. I don’t know how strong the netting is or how well it’s secured.”

  Ending the call, she went back into the cave and peered over the edge once more. “I’m back, Ruth,” Joanna assured the girl. “I’ve called the fire department. They’ve got a team on the way to get you out of there.”

  Joanna knew that without the unexplained presence of that netting Ruth would have been dead.

  The girl made another faint whimpering noise. This time Joanna couldn’t guess what was being said, so she answered with what she knew. “Your brother is under arrest,” she said. “We believe Lucas is responsible for what happened to Junior Dowdle and also what happened to you.”

  Twelve feet beneath the rim of the hole, Ruth nodded desperately. Turning the light away from the girl, Joanna studied the netting. It had been fashioned in such a way that anyone falling into the hole would be guided away from landing on the hard ledge ten feet below the surface. Instead, Ruth had slid past that unharmed and now dangled in the void above the remaining twenty-foot drop. Joanna could see where metal eyebolts of some kind had been drilled into the rock surface. After that, carabiners had been used to secure the netting to the bolts. It was an ingenious arrangement that had taken skill, effort, and time.

  “Are you hurt?” Joanna asked.

  Ruth shook her head. That could have meant either no, she wasn’t hurt, or no, she didn’t know. In Joanna’s estimation, either answer was acceptable.

  A thousand questions roiled through Joanna’s head. Had Lucas carried her here or had he forced Ruth to walk on her own? If so, had she known what was coming—that he intended to shove her over the edge? Maybe he had simply rolled her into the hole. He must have been so confident of the outcome that he hadn’t bothered to stick around long enough to watch her fall. Had he seen the netting, he most certainly would have attempted to cut it down.

  Beyond the cave’s entrance, Joanna heard a faint wail—the welcome siren from an approaching emergency vehicle.

  “They’re coming now,” Joanna said reassuringly. “They have to climb up from the highway, but they’ll be here soon.”

  She went to the entrance of the cave to meet them and was not in the least surprised that Adam Wilson was the first to arrive.

  “Is she alive?” he asked.

  Joanna nodded. “Did you do the netting?”

  He bit his lip and then shrugged. “I figured it would take the powers that be forever to get around to putting the bars back up and doing it properly. I was afraid some little kid would fall in accidentally in the meantime, so I decided to do something about it. My grandfather always says it’s better to beg forgiveness than t
o ask permission,” he added with a self-deprecating grin.

  “Well, it worked,” Joanna told him. “It worked like gangbusters.” Standing on tiptoes, she managed to plant a kiss on the tip of Adam’s chin because that was as far as she could reach. “Thank you,” she added. “Thank you so much.”

  “So how about moving out of the way so we can get her out of here?”

  He didn’t have to say it twice.

  CHAPTER 31

  ADAM AND HIS CREW HAD COME PREPARED TO EFFECT A RESCUE. They had brought along ropes and gaff hooks, which they used to raise the netting far enough to lift the girl out of it. After Adam kicked Joanna out of the area, it took less than ten minutes before Ruth was removed from the cave and her restraints loosened. Because she was suffering from both hypothermia and dehydration, they stuck a normal saline drip in her arm and wrapped her in warming blankets before placing her in a Stokes basket for the trip down the mountain.

  As the loaded ambulance set off for the hospital, Joanna’s Yukon followed close behind. At the ER entrance, she made use of her badge and uniform to follow the gurney all the way to the curtained cubicle where they stashed Ruth. Seated at the girl’s bedside, she waited while a nurse took the required series of readings. When the nurse left, Ruth turned to Joanna. “How did you find me?”

  “Lucky guess,” Joanna said. “Can you tell me what happened?”

  “I think Lucas tried to kill me,” Ruth said. Tears came to her eyes. “Mom left right after I finished your interview. As soon as she was gone, Lucas lit into me. He accused me of ratting him out to you. Why would he think that? Rat him out about what? I tried to tell him I didn’t—that I didn’t know anything to tell, but he didn’t believe me. He gave me a glass of chocolate milk and made me drink all of it even though it tasted funny—bitter, like it was spoiled or something.”

  “Made you?” Joanna asked.

  “Lucas hits me sometimes, if I don’t do what he says,” Ruth answered quietly. “He told me if I didn’t drink it, I’d be sorry.”

  “You mean he beats you?”

  Ruth nodded. “And he would have done it again, so I did what he said, and then I fell asleep. When I woke up, I was sick to my stomach. I was also locked in the trunk of a car—Mom’s car, I guess. I fell back asleep. When I woke up again, he was taping my mouth shut.”

  “You believe Lucas drugged you?” Joanna asked.

  Ruth shrugged. “I think so,” she said. “He probably used one of Mom’s pills—like the one she gave me the other day when I had the cramps. That’s what it felt like anyway. When I woke up again, he was carrying me up the hill. My legs were taped. He had me over his shoulder the way firemen carry people out of burning buildings. Then he rolled me into that hole—the same hole Junior was in. I thought I was gonna die. Instead, I landed on something soft, like a hammock. I was there for a long time. It was cold. I was freezing to death, hungry, and thirsty. And then there you were.”

  Joanna’s phone rang. Casey Ledford’s name appeared in the window. “Excuse me a minute,” she said. “I need to take this.” She went back out through the double doors and stood under the outside portico.

  “What’s up?” Joanna asked. “Did you find anything?”

  “You’re not going to believe it,” he said. “Not in a million years.”

  “What?”

  “They both have trophy cases.”

  “What do you mean both?”

  “Ruth and Lucas,” Casey answered excitedly. “We found loose boards in the floor under the beds in both Lucas’s room and in Ruth’s, too. The stash in Lucas’s room included a baseball bat, a cigarette lighter, razor blades, a half-used pack of smokes, three dog collars—including one for a dog named Roxie—and a pink ribbon, too. Sound familiar? Didn’t the owners say that Star was wearing a pink ribbon when she disappeared?”

  “Yes, they did,” Joanna answered.

  “Oh,” Casey continued. “And a mostly used roll of duct tape.”

  “What about Ruth’s room?” Joanna asked.

  “That’s where we found the rabbit’s foot. It’s hard to tell one rabbit’s foot from another, but I’m guessing it’s Junior’s. We also found a Timex watch. It’s engraved on the back: ‘Happy Birthday, Billy.’ No idea who Billy is. Or was.”

  It didn’t matter, not right then. What mattered was that both of them were involved—two evil twins, not one good and one bad. Joanna didn’t bother going back into the ER. With the phone still clutched in her hand, Joanna raced for the Yukon. She punched Alvin’s number before she turned the key.

  “Has Lucas asked for an attorney?”

  “Not to my knowledge. Why?”

  “Put him in an interview room alone and let him sit there. I’ll be there in three minutes. Sooner if I can make it.”

  “Without a parent with him? Why? What’s going on?”

  “You ever hear of John E. Reid?”

  “Of course,” Alvin said. “He’s the guy who wrote the book on modern police interrogation. Why?”

  “Because I’m on my way to try my hand at a little direct confrontation.”

  “Okay,” Alvin said. “Lucas will be waiting. Do you want someone in the interview room with you?”

  “Nope, I’ll handle this one solo.”

  Lucas looked up curiously when Joanna entered the interview room. Then, feigning disinterest, he looked away.

  “You’ll never guess where I’ve just been,” Joanna said. “At the Copper Queen Hospital—the ER—talking to Ruth.” She watched how he responded to the news and was relieved to see the telltale bobbing of the Adam’s apple in his scrawny little throat.

  “Aren’t you going to ask if she’s okay?” Joanna continued. “Nah, I guess not, but that’s all right. What’s interesting is what she’s doing right now. She’s writing out a confession, Lucas, about how she helped you murder Junior Dowdle.”

  Lucas’s eyes shot up in surprise. “No way!” he said. “I didn’t kill him.”

  “Oh? That’s not what Ruth says. And we gave her a great deal. I told her if she testifies against you, she’ll probably walk. She says you planned it all in advance. Premeditation means it’s likely that you’ll be tried as an adult. If you’re lucky, you’ll get second-degree homicide rather than first, which means you’ll get out of prison when you’re a few years short of forty. Think about it. You’ll be older than your mom.”

  “I didn’t do it,” Lucas insisted. “I already told you. Ruth’s a liar. She did it and she’s trying to put the blame on me.”

  “Did what?”

  “Pushed Junior over the edge. She told him there was a kitten that was stuck in a hole up on the mountain. He fell for it. Came right out through the window, just like that. He wasn’t very good at climbing, and at first he didn’t want to go in the hole, but then we told him to listen for the kitten. When he heard it crying, he went right under the bars. Then, once he got inside, he was scared of the dark. He stopped just inside the door and wouldn’t go any farther. That’s when Ruth sort of helped him along.”

  “She pushed him?”

  “Yeah,” Lucas said. “Sort of. She kind of shoved him with the end of a baseball bat.”

  “Who’s Billy?”

  Once again, Lucas’s surprise was apparent. “How do you know about Billy?” he asked.

  “We found your sister’s trophies. They included Billy’s watch. Who is he?”

  “Billy Rojas. Just a kid in Gallup,” Lucas said with a shrug. “He was sort of like Junior, only worse. He was in a wheelchair. He thought Ruth was his friend. When we invited him on a picnic with us, he was glad to go because no one ever invited him to do anything. It had rained. The washes were running. His chair went off the edge, and that was it. He drowned. The cops said it was an accident.”

  Filled with rage, Joanna gripped the edge of the table hard enough that her knuckles turned white. For a moment she said nothing for fear she might simply explode. She had walked into the room carrying a blue-lined notebook and a
pen. Forcing herself to be calm about it, she pushed the two items across the table.

  Lucas looked at them and frowned. “What are these for?” he asked.

  “They’re for you to write down what you just told me,” she said. “Write it down and sign it.”

  “Why should I?”

  “Because the first one to confess always gets a better deal.”

  “But you just told me Ruth had already confessed.”

  “Yes, I did,” Joanna said. “I guess I lied.”

  When Joanna buzzed to be allowed out of the interview room, Alvin Bernard was waiting outside. “I already called Matt Keller,” he said. “He’s on his way to the hospital right now. And I checked with the ER. They’ve admitted Ruth overnight for observation. We’ll make the arrest there, and I’ll post a guard outside her room.”

  “If you need any help with staffing, call me,” Joanna said. “I’m sure I can spare a deputy or two overnight.”

  They arrived at the hospital in a multivehicle entourage that looked more like a parade than any kind of police activity. Matt Keller and Ernie Carpenter covered the outside exits in case someone was stupid enough to try making a run for it.

  When they found Ruth’s room, Rebecca was sitting next to the bed, looking out at the dull red tailings dump that rose up outside the window, blocking everything else from view. When Joanna entered, Rebecca frowned and stood up.

  “What are you doing here?” Rebecca demanded. “This is a hospital room. Ruth’s been through a terrible ordeal. She’s supposed to be resting.”

  Ruth was lying on the bed with her purple hair fanned out across the pillow. She smiled brightly at Joanna. “It’s okay, Mom. I told you. Sheriff Brady is the one who found me. If it weren’t for her, I might be dead.”

  Joanna didn’t smile back. “I’ve just been to see your brother,” she said curtly. “When I left him he was writing out a full confession, explaining exactly how you lured Junior out of his room on the pretext of rescuing a kitten and then how you pushed him over the edge of the cliff with a baseball bat. Ruth Nolan, you’re under arrest for the murder of Junior Dowdle.”