by Mike Faricy
“Where’s your husband?”
“Operation Enduring Freedom,” she scoffed.
“He’s in the service, deployed?”
“No, he’s dead.” Isabella said.
“Afghanistan, Helmand province, 2011,” I added.
“I’m sorry,” the suit said.
Isabella nodded and dabbed her eyes again with the Kleenex.
There was a noticeable silence for a couple of beats before one of the uniforms behind me asked, “Do you have a jacket here, Mr. Haskell?”
“My jacket? Yeah, it’s a brown leather bomber’s jacket. It’s hanging up in the front closet.”
One of the cops stepped over and pulled the bifold door open on the closet in the entryway. The door was louvered and painted white. It gave a high-pitched squeak as he pulled it open and the sharp pain in my head seemed to immediately ratchet up with the sound.
“A brown bomber jacket? Doesn’t seem to be anything like that hanging in here now.”
“It should be on a hanger in there, got a Ranger tab on the left shoulder, it’s next to a little pink ski jacket, if I remember correctly.”
“I see the ski jacket, but there’s no brown leather jacket in here.”
I thought for half a second, swallowed to keep my stomach down, and said, “My car keys were in there. Can you check and see if my car is out front? It’s a black Infiniti QX, two-thousand-five. It’s got silver wheel rims and the taillight on the passenger side is taped over with red tape. There’s a crack down the passenger side of the windshield, oh, and a big crease along the passenger side.”
The cop stuck his head out the front door then called back in the room, “Did you park it near by?”
“Are you shitting me? It should be right out front at the curb. I parked it in front of the house,” I said groaning as I slowly got back up on my feet. I had to steady myself on the dining room chair for half a moment.
I worked to keep the contents of my stomach down as I walked to the front door and looked out. There was a police squad with flashing red and blue lights parked exactly where I had left my car. The lights immediately set off a wave of nausea and I had to close my eyes again until things settled down.
“God damn it, I don’t suppose you guys had it towed, did you?” I asked the suit now standing right behind me. My question sounded more like I was pleading, hoping they’d moved my car for some reason.
“No, we didn’t. You know your license number?”
“Yeah, Minnesota, F-N-L,” I said then gave him what I thought was the number. “I’m sorry, I’m still a little foggy, pretty sure the letters are right, but the numbers, I’m not so sure, it’s either seven-four-nine or seven-nine-four. I just can’t seem to focus too clearly at the moment.”
“That’s okay, will have it in just a second, you’re calling it in, Joey?” he said to the uniform standing next to him and already on the radio attached to his shoulder.
The guy nodded then looked at me. “Haskell, H-A-S-K-E-L-L, first name Devlin. Yeah, two-thousand-five Infiniti QX, black. Did you say there was a rear taillight broken?”
“Yeah, on the passenger side, a crack from top to bottom on the passenger side of the windshield, and then that crease across the passenger side doors.”
He nodded then turned and said something else into his radio, but I couldn’t pick up what it was.
“Maybe come back and sit down at the table, Mr. Haskell. I’m sure you’re hurting, but we need to get as much information, as quickly as we can.”
“Not a problem.”
“You’re a pal of Lieutenant LaZelle’s aren’t you?”
I was about to nod, but my head was throbbing so hard I didn’t dare. “Yeah, we go way back to when we were kids. I was always the better hockey player,” I said then gave a throaty groan as I sat down.
“I’ll be sure to remind him.”
I proceeded to answer questions for the better part of the next hour, but I don’t think I was much help.
Chapter Three
It was well after midnight. There was an attractive uniformed female officer named Patty Ryan who had been assigned to spend the night at Isabella’s. She arrived maybe an hour earlier and more or less taken charge. She’d picked up glasses and cups from the coffee table, the dining room, all over the kitchen and loaded the dishwasher. She straightened up the kitchen, got the usually spotless living room back into a semblance of order all the while attending to Isabella and helping her maintain at least a degree of sanity.
Just now she was making a fresh pot of coffee. Officer Patty and I, along with the other officers, were working to keep Isabella away from the coffee. The paramedics had left some sleep aids and Isabella had taken one maybe a half hour ago. She’d been fighting sleep ever since. That sleep aid could kick in anytime now and it would be just fine with me.
“God, if I’d known he was out there I never would have left the girls,” Isabella said, not for the first time. She had pretty much cried herself out over the past few hours, but that didn’t stop her from repeating the same mantra over and over again. Blaming herself for something that was clearly out of her control.
“When you told me a while back that your ex-boyfriend was in Pleasant Lake, I thought you meant a house, you know actually on the lake. It never dawned on me he was in rehab.”
“Hardly a boyfriend, more like a bad encounter that kept coming back to haunt the three of us. It was one of the conditions of his going back into rehab again instead of the workhouse, they were supposed to inform me of his release at least a week in advance of the date.”
“Well, I guess with your new phone number it looks like that sort of fell through the cracks.”
“The information we have is that he wasn’t released. He just walked away, again, without completing the twenty weeks. Apparently he’s done that before,” the detective at the table said.
“Walked out of a rehab facility?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Isabella said. “He’s done it at least twice that I know of and now this, God. I suppose that means there’s a fourth trip to rehab somewhere in his future, plus he’ll have to do the workhouse time for the bounced checks.”
“I think, under the circumstances, the state might just have a little different plan for his future. I’m sure the girls are all right, he’ll come to his senses and bring them home anytime now,” I said
“You really think so?” She sounded like she was grasping at the only straw out there in a very large cesspool of sludge.
“Yeah, we’ll have a big welcome home party for them, with two cakes, and we’ll invite all their friends,” I said waiting for her to smile. Instead her lower lip began to tremble and suddenly there was another flood of tears. Under the circumstances, who could blame her?
The pounding in my head had gone from being constant to more of a lightening strike mode. Things seemed to be settling down for a moment or two and then suddenly this searing pain would race back up my neck and blast across my skull exploding on the right side of my brain like an artillery shell. I made my way over to the refrigerator and exchanged the room temperature gel-pak I’d been holding for the cold one I pulled off the freezer shelf.
When I closed the freezer door Officer Patty shot me a look then walked over and quietly said, “You both should try and get some rest. You’re going to have a busy day tomorrow.”
“Do you think he’ll call?” Isabella asked again.
Officer Patty shook her head and said, “I don’t know. I do know that whether or not he calls we’re going to need you, and the girls are especially going to need you, both of you, to be at your very best. Now, you need to get some rest. Don’t worry, we’re here if your phone rings or someone’s at the door, so why don’t you just try and close your eyes for a bit.”
“I don’t think I can,” Isabella said.
“You need to try, Is …” I said. “I’ll flake out on the couch, if anything happens one of us will get you. But, she’s right, you’ve got to be sharp
tomorrow, we both do. The girls need you to be at your very best, and you won’t be able to do that if you don’t get some sleep. So come on, try and close your eyes. We both should.”
“I won’t be able to sleep.”
“Then just rest, but you have to give it a try. You’ll be no good tomorrow if you don’t try. Come on,” I said and then put my arm around her shoulder and guided her down the hallway to her bedroom.
“Are you going to be here in the morning?”
“Yeah, I will be, and then once you’re settled I’m going to help look for the girls. But before any of that happens, you need to get some rest.”
“Okay, okay, I’ll try. I’m really sorry he did that to you, Dev,” she said and indicated my swollen face with a nod of her head.
“Don’t worry about it, looks worse than it really is, you’ve got more than enough on your plate right now.”
“Do you think they’ll be alright, the girls?”
“They’ll be okay. I’m sure Emma is giving him directions right now.”
“Oh, God, one time he yelled and called her a bossy little bitch,” she said and a tear ran down her cheek.
“Don’t you worry about that, Is. They’ll be fine and probably home sooner than you think. And then we’re going to throw the two of them the biggest party you’ve ever seen.”
“I just don’t know.”
“Well, I do, and like Officer Patty said, you need to get some rest. I’ll just be out there on the couch. I’ll come get you if anything happens. I promise, so you just lie down and close your eyes. You don’t have to sleep, but you do have to try and get some rest, okay?”
“Sorry about your face, you really look like shit.”
“You just get some rest,” I said.
I closed the door to her room and went back out to the living room. I stretched out on the couch and pulled a leopard skin fleece blanket up over me. I turned onto my left side then cautiously laid the gel pack on the right side of my face and hoped for the best. I closed my eyes and things started to spin for a moment or two then settled back down. I drifted off to sleep hoping a little rest might alleviate some of the pounding and fireworks in my head.
According to the digital clock on the stove it was just a little after five when I got up and walked into the kitchen. Officer Patty was on an iPad and looked like she was in the process of sending an email. I sort of half leaned over to see if I could get her email address, but the screen had changed.
“Any news?” I half whispered, afraid even the slightest noise might wake Isabella.
She shook her head. “No, at least not so far. Don’t worry, we’ll get those girls back safe and sound.”
“What an absolute asshole,” I half said to myself.
“Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. Based on the list of priors I’ve seen, he looks like the poster child for spoiled little rich kid. I’ve seen this sort of history before. It’s hard to believe, but he’s probably a bigger disappointment to himself than to anyone else. So how’s the head?”
“Actually, better, at least the constant pounding seems to have stopped for the moment. Now it seems to be in direct relation to just moving my head too fast. This is just about the worst I’ve ever had.”
“He really nailed you, you’re lucky there wasn’t more damage, you don’t mind me saying, it looks like shit.”
“I can’t wait to discuss that fact with him.”
“No doubt, but if you really intend to help just let us deal with this butthead, he’s not about to see the light of day once we get hold of him. And, we will get him. Then, you can visit him and tell him what an idiot he is, but for right now, the best way you can help is by not helping. You should maybe try and get some more rest, it can only improve your condition and we’re going to need you sharp as well as Isabella.”
“Hear anything from her room?”
Officer Patty shook her head. “They take about forty minutes or so to kick in, but once those pills from the paramedics start working, she could be out for a few more hours. You wouldn’t want to make them a steady diet, but for tonight, in this sort of circumstance it’s just what she needed.”
Chapter Four
Just as Officer Patty opened the front door and cautioned whoever was out there to be quiet, I came awake on the living room couch. I kept my eyes closed for a moment and listened. I recognized Aaron LaZelle’s familiar voice as he stepped into the living room, talking softly and trying not to wake me. We’d known one another since we were kids playing hockey and I knew the suit who’d been directing the questioning last night reported directly to him. I opened my eyes just as another uniform stepped into the living room right behind Aaron. The uniform was a big guy and his jacket covered up the name stitched on his uniform shirt.
“No need to pretend you’re nice by talking softly,” I said and slowly sat up.
“Man, you look like shit,” Aaron said.
I smiled.
“Didn’t we teach you to duck? So how’s the head, how you feeling?”
“I’ll make it. You got any news for us?”
He shook his head slightly. “Nothing yet, we got everyone in town looking for your vehicle. We’re doing rousts on all known contacts of this Carlos O’Kelly, character. Something’ll click sooner or later and things will take off. We just need a little break is all.”
I’d heard him give a version of that speech more than a few times in the past. Based on my experience, in reality what he was saying was, “We are royally screwed for the time being.”
“Known associates? You mean bar flies, idiots?”
“Yeah, along with family and anyone else we can think of. We’re checking everyone and everything, believe me, Dev. I’ve had teams out rousting folks all night long and they’re not about to stop. Something’s bound to turn up and we’ll have those two little girls back just as soon as possible.”
“What about the feds?”
“At this stage, I’d prefer not to go there, but we’re keeping an eye on that option. The moment it looks like we’re losing control, they’ll get the call to come in. I don’t have any problem with that.”
“Do you even have control, now? Have you, have we, even for a moment been in control?”
“Believe me, I understand what you’re saying and, I share your frustration, we all do. But this isn’t your standard snatch and grab. We haven’t heard anything from this idiot, no contact, nothing like a ransom demand, no taunting phone calls, zip. We’re still looking at this as a really bad domestic.”
“No calls, no contact, what does that tell you?”
“It strongly suggests an impulse reaction. I think if he looks back with some honest, soul searching reflection, he’ll start to see the mistakes he’s made and find a way to get the girls back to their mother. Then, he’ll probably try and hightail it out of town. At which point, we’ll grab his ass and lock him up in a dark hole for the rest of his remaining days.”
“Honest, soul searching reflection? You got a hell of a lot more faith than I do.”
“Faith? No, nothing to do with faith, Dev. Just good hard work that will let us catch a break. That’s all we need, one break, Dev. Just one and then we got this jackass by the short hairs.”
I stupidly shook my head and the pounding suddenly started up again then launched into the fireworks exploding on the right side of my brain.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, just a momentary short in the system,” I said.
“There’s liable to be another problem, as well,” Aaron said after waiting a long moment.
“What’s that?”
“Word seems to have gotten out, so the news media is going to be camping on the doorstep here.”
“That won’t help, Isabella doesn’t need all that going on right now. Can’t you lock them up or something?”
“We can post someone out front, a squad, at least keep them more or less at bay, if not away. For starters don’t talk to them, don’t give a comment, don’t
even let them wish you good luck, just keep it buttoned up.”
“Maybe it would be a good idea if we got Isabella out of here before they show up? You know, so she could avoid them completely.”
“No,” Aaron said. “First of all, if Carlos plans to phone or somehow make contact, this is the place to be. Secondly, she needs to be here, in surroundings that are familiar to her. And, well there’s still the hope that he might just bring the girls back here. We won’t leave her alone. Someone is going to be here with her for the foreseeable future. I’m guessing under the circumstances she’s probably had just a couple hours of sleep, fitful at best. How are you doing, by the way?”
“Me? I look a lot worse than I feel at this stage. Sacking out for a bit seemed to help. I get another twenty-four hours under my belt and I should be back to normal.”
“Whatever that is.”
I ignored that last comment. “Now, what can I be doing to help?”
Aaron looked at me and shook his head. “Here’s what would really help. Please, do absolutely nothing. Please. In fact, the less you do the better. Well, unless you remember something that slipped your mind last night when Ditter interviewed you. Then we’ll want to hear from you, otherwise stay the hell away.”
“Ditter, that was the guy’s name? I mean he told me, probably more than once, but I was having trouble focusing to tell you the truth.”
“Yeah, Jack Ditter, he’s good, Dev, very good. He’s my best which means you don’t have to help, we’ll call you if we need you. Okay? So, Have you been checked out?” ” Aaron said changing the subject.
“Me? Yeah, the paramedics were here, they gave me something for the headache. Twenty-four hours will probably be the best thing for me, that and getting those little girls back home safe and sound. Once this swelling goes down I’ll be back to my perfect self.”
“You should see a doctor, Dev. Probably a psychiatrist, too, but certainly a doctor just to get checked out and be sure.”
“Once those girls are back, I will, I promise.”