She was coming out of the bathroom when her phone rang. She dreaded answering it, sure that it would be a callout of some kind. She answered it without checking the caller-id.
She heard a female voice that she didn’t recognize. “Sonia? Is that you, Sonia?”
“Who is this?”
She could hear a soft exhalation of breath. “This is your mother . . . Errika.”
Sonia felt as if some huge weight had suddenly fallen on her covering her whole body. She collapsed onto the bed, not knowing what to say or do next. Then when her thoughts cleared slightly, she knew this had to be a hoax of some kind.
“Who is this?”
“Sonia, I really am your mother. Didn’t Karl ever tell you anything about me?”
Okay, this was getting really weird now. Errika had been her mother’s name and her father’s name was Karl. But there were probably lots of people out there who knew that . . . right?
“Why are you calling me, assuming you are my mother, that is?”
“I want to see you.”
“Why, after twenty-eight years?”
“Oh, Sonia, I can’t go into all the details now, over the phone. But, just let me meet with you once, and after that, I promise that if it’s what you want, I’ll never contact you again.”
“Why should I meet with you? You abandoned all of us when I was only three years old. Why do you think you deserve even that much?”
“Oh, Sonia, you are a police lieutenant. You above all people should know that things aren’t always as they appear to be. Will you give me a chance to explain?”
“Why me? Why not my brothers?”
She heard a sniffle on the other end and determined not to let it bother her. “I did call them, starting with Sven, then Lars, then Bjorn. But they all refused to even talk to me on the phone much less meet with me. You’re my only hope, Sonia, please.”
Sonia was overwhelmed. “I can’t make a decision like this so quickly. Call me tomorrow night at this same time and I’ll give you my answer.”
“Okay, I’ll call you tomorrow night. Oh, and please don’t say anything to Karl just yet. Although, I’m sure your brothers have already told him I called them.”
As soon as she disconnected the phone, Sonia stretched out on her bed and stared at the ceiling wondering what had just happened. Had her mother just called her? Her mother? Was that really her mother? Sure, she knew all the right names, but there must be many people who know all that.
Even if the caller was her mother, should she meet with a complete stranger who had walked out of her life and never once contacted her in all those years?
Before she could even think past that, her phone rang again. Not her again. If it was, she wouldn’t talk to her. This time, she looked at the caller-id and still almost decided not to answer it when she saw that it was her dad.
“Sonia, did some woman call you claiming to be your mother?”
“Hello to you too, Dad. Yes, was it really her?”
His voice was gruffer than usual. “No, it couldn’t be her. Sonia, I never told any of you this, but they told me that she died a few months after she left here.”
“So what do I do? I told her to call me back tomorrow night at the same time, which would be about nine.”
As soon as he started talking again, she could tell he had switched to cop mode. He was planning.
“Okay, here’s what you do. Tell her you’ll meet her and I’ll be the one who meets her, whoever she is. Then, we’ll get to the bottom of this mess.”
Sonia should have felt good about that plan. That way, she wouldn’t have to see the woman at all. Her dad would take care of it all for her.
No, wait, she was thirty-one years old and on top of that, she was a police lieutenant. She didn’t need or want her dad handling her problems for her.
“No, Dad. I want to meet with her. I have to face this myself, especially if she is my mother. I think it’ll be okay for you to be there. Otherwise, I wouldn’t know if she is who she says she is or not.”
She knew her dad was struggling with what she said. She also knew that he didn’t like it but would do it her way. After all, she could just keep him totally out of the loop if he didn’t go along with her plan.
“Okay.”
“Good. I’ll call you tomorrow night right after she calls me.”
Her mind was still spinning and she was no nearer a decision an hour later when her phone rang again. She immediately checked the caller-id. She didn’t want to talk to either one of her previous callers again tonight.
It was Grant.
“Sonia, Stan and I saw Bill Hogan leave his mother’s house about an hour ago. He called 911 twenty minutes later. It seems that someone roughed him up pretty bad. We’re almost at the hospital now.”
“I’m on my way.”
When she arrived at the ER, both Grant and Stan met her at the entrance.
Grant began filling her in. “Hogan said he was driving home from his mother’s house when a car pulled out in front of him forcing him to stop. Then two guys knocked the driver’s side window out of his truck and pulled him out of it. That’s about all we got out of him before they ran us out so they could patch him up. They really beat him up though.”
When they were finally able to talk to Bill Hogan, the nurse would only let one of them in to see him. Sonia looked at her two sergeants and they both pointed at her.
When she stepped up to the gurney that Bill Hogan was laying on, she wasn’t sure what to expect. The first thing her mind registered was that whoever had done this knew what they were doing. His whole face, especially his eyes, was swollen and starting to discolor. But the one area that was almost untouched was his mouth. They had wanted him to be able to tell them something all right.
“Bill, can you hear me? This is Lieutenant Nordstrom.”
He nodded his head and moaned from the movement. “Yes, as you can see, my mouth is about the only thing they didn’t beat on.”
“How many were there?”
“I’m not sure. There had to be at least three, someone driving the car that blocked my truck and the two who grabbed me.”
Did you get a good look at any of them?”
He started to shake his head but caught himself this time. “No, I couldn’t see the driver at all and the other two guys had ski masks on.”
“What did they say to you?”
“They just kept asking me where the recording was. They didn’t ask me anything else just that question. When I said I didn’t know what they were talking about, they would hit me again. I guess they finally gave up and left me lying in the street.”
“Did they say anything else before they left?”
“No.” He seemed to think about it. “No, wait, they did say something as they were walking away. One of them said that they weren’t finished with me yet.”
Chapter Ten
Wayne Newcomb was not an emotional man. He never had been even while growing up without a father and then losing his mother at the age of fourteen. Through all of that, he had always toughed his way through everything that came at him or at least that was what he had thought he had done.
But . . . here he was sitting in his grandfather’s soft leather desk chair behind his grandfather’s huge oak desk and his eyes were moist. It couldn’t be, not him.
What felt like a hundred different emotions raced through him almost at once as he sat there where his grandfather had sat for almost fifty years.
He had just wiped his eyes when the connecting door between this office and Kelly’s new office opened and she just stood there in the opening staring at him.
They continued staring at each other for a long moment then he stood and walked toward her. She met him halfway and as they embraced, he noticed that she had tears in her eyes too.
“Oh, Wayne, I miss him already and they haven’t even left town yet.”
Wayne turned his head back toward the desk. “I know what you mean. It just doesn’t
feel right for me to be sitting there behind that desk . . .his desk.” He shook his head. “I feel like I did when we were little and I’d sit there and pretend I was him. I almost wish he’d given this office to you instead of me.”
They moved to the conversation pit and sat next to each other on one of the sofas. Kelly pulled a tissue from a box on the table in front of them and dabbed at her eyes.
Wayne suddenly realized she didn’t have Gwen with her. “Hey, where’s Gwen?”
Kelly smiled that special mother’s smile at the mention of her daughter. “Oh she’s being spoiled by Grandmother, Grandfather, and Maria.”
He laughed. “So, are you back to work a little or a lot?”
She frowned and wiped her eyes again. “I don’t know at this point. I guess I’ll just have to take it one day at a time right now.” She clapped her hands together and almost shouted. “Oh, Wayne, I almost forgot. You haven’t seen my office since it was finished have you?”
He shook his head and she struggled to get up with her bad ankle giving her a problem. Wayne stood, pulled her to her feet, and held on to her until she was stable.
“Come on. You’ve got to see what they did to my office.”
Wayne followed her through the connecting door into her office, which, at first glance, looked exactly like his. Then she led him to the rear of the office past the conference table to a door in the back wall. His office didn’t have that door.
Kelly opened the door, which opened out and stepped aside for Wayne to look in.
He couldn’t believe it. There was a fully equipped baby nursery complete with bed, playpen, changing station, swing set, and a three-drawer dresser.
Kelly was giggling now. “Can you believe that? It even has a dresser for clothes and diapers. And Grandfather did all this without telling us. I had no idea that my office was going to be any different from yours.”
All Wayne could think of to say was, “Wow! This is really something. Now I know why he gave me his old office.”
“Yes, and the idea behind it has to be that I can hire a babysitter to come and stay with Gwen in here. And I’ll always be this close to my little girl. Isn’t that just fantastic?”
She hugged Wayne again. “I’m going to run an ad in the newspaper right away and start interviewing as soon as I get applicants.”
Wayne smiled with his sister then sobered. “Are you here to work today?”
“Why, yes, of course. What do we need to do first?”
Wayne smiled at her energy. He hoped it would keep up once she was working fulltime with Gwen next door.
They walked back to her conversation pit and sat down on one of the sofas.
“Well, one of the things that I thought Grandfather was going to do before he left was to appoint a new general manager for this dealership.” When she gave him a puzzled look, he shook his head. “He didn’t.”
“Oh my. That means that you and I have to do that.”
“Yes, and between bouts of feeling out of place in my new office, I was thinking about that before you came in.”
“All right, who do we have that we need to consider?”
“Okay, providing we promote from within, there is Dave Robertson, the service manager, Ron Kallman, the used car manager, and Mike Owens, the new car manager.”
Kelly giggled again and Wayne was perplexed. What did she see about this that was so funny?
“Okay, Kelly, give.”
She kept smiling and said, “Well, don’t you think that Grandfather has already made his choice for the next general manager clear?”
When he only glared at her she said, “Remember what Grandfather said yesterday about hiring new general managers over the past five years who were close to our age?”
He nodded and she continued, “Well, Dave and Ron are much older than us.”
He still didn’t know where she was going with this.
“Okay, didn’t Grandfather hire Mike from another dealership and doesn’t he fit the age description perfectly?”
Wayne finally understood. He slapped his knee and said, “You’re right, Kelly. Not only that but I even think he’s the best qualified anyway.”
“Sure he’s the best qualified, Grandfather picked him. That’s the way he planned it all along.”
Wayne laughed aloud. “Kelly, I think we’ve been outmaneuvered by Grandfather again.”
“Of course, as he always does. Now, are you going to tell Mike this morning?”
“Sure, I’ll give him a call and see if he can stop in yet this morning.”
Later, after they had met with Mike and he eagerly accepted the promotion, Wayne was sitting at his desk thinking about all that needed to be done. Grandfather had not announced the change in leadership so he and Kelly would need to get an announcement out to all the employees at this dealership and the main office since the other general managers were supposed to do so at their dealerships.
Then, as they always did lately, his thoughts turned to Sonia. The meal she had prepared for him the night before had been fantastic. When he stopped to think about it, what was there about her that wasn’t fantastic?
He suddenly felt that he needed to talk to her, just to hear her voice if nothing else. He picked up the phone and hit the speed dial for her office number.
* * *
Sonia was having a busy morning with several of her detectives in and out of her office with questions and updates on their various cases.
As Linda was leaving her office, Sonia leaned back in her desk chair, took a deep breath, and looked around her new office as if seeing it for the first time. One wall was glass from four feet high up to the ceiling. That wall had the door in it and faced the open area where the other detectives had their desks. Of the other three walls, the one behind her desk held all of her diplomas and certificates, and the other two had nice southwestern theme reproductions hanging on them.
She was just about to pick up the file on the hit-and-run homicides when her phone rang. It was an outside line and the display read Newcomb Motors. She was surprised at the sudden surge of pleasure that raced through her.
When she answered, Wayne said, “Good morning Sonia, I hope your morning is as great as mine is. How are you?”
She smiled to herself and tried to keep the pleasure from showing too much in her voice. After she returned his greeting, she said, “What can I do for you Wayne?”
There was a pause on the other end then Wayne let out an audible breath. “Okay, Sonia, remember, you said you wanted me to be honest with you at all times. So I won’t make up some reasonable excuse to have called you.” He paused. “I just wanted to hear your voice before I went on with the rest of my day.”
Not long ago all sorts of warning bells would have gone off in her mind at any statement like that coming from any man but especially Wayne. However, even though it was a little more than she was really ready to hear at this point, she was certain that Wayne was being perfectly honest with her about his feelings.
The question was, what was she going to do about those feelings? She hadn’t set down and analyzed her feelings for Wayne yet. She almost laughed. It was difficult when he kept changing before her very eyes. She needed to wait until all the changes had taken place before she made any decisions as to how she would react to Wayne.
By the time she had waded through her mental muddy waters, Wayne spoke again. “It’s okay, Sonia, you don’t have to say anything to that statement. I’m just happy with the fact that it didn’t make you mad . . . or did it?”
She laughed then. Sometimes Wayne acted like a little boy seeking his parents’ approval. “No, Wayne, you didn’t make me angry. I just don’t know what to say to it. As long as you’re okay with that, then there is no problem.”
He blew out his breath again. “Great. I was really worried there for a minute.”
They talked for a few minutes more with him complimenting her again on her shrimp fried rice and then they talked about maybe getting together Frida
y night this time for a movie as well as dinner.
After she disconnected, she sat there looking into space wondering just exactly where this thing with Wayne was going. Most of all, did she want it to go anywhere? She realized that she seemed to be growing fond of Wayne. Did she want things to get more serious? She had so much to think about.
She was so deep in thought that she didn’t even notice that her phone was ringing until it started on its third ring. It was the chief and he wanted to see her in his office.
Sonia wondered about the nature of this summons on her way from one side of the wide building to the other. She thought that Chief Darrel Winters was a good chief in many ways. But there were a few areas where Sonia thought he could stand to improve.
One of those was his easily noticeable fear of possible repercussions from the city government due to any decisions that he made. Sonia had suffered from this particular problem of his often in the past. And for some reason, maybe it was the tone of his voice, she wasn’t really certain, but she felt that this was going to be one of those times.
Even though she would rather have been wrong, she knew she was correct the moment she stepped into the chief’s office and he was sitting at his conference table with the city manager, Randy Travers.
She could have written the script for this one. She had played this particular scenario out many times before.
After the initial greetings, Winters said, “Sonia, I’m sure you are aware of the delicate steps we must take whenever one of our police investigations enters either the political or city government arenas.”
He leaned back seemingly to let that sink in. She knew what was next. She could tell by the smirk on Travers’ face.
“From this time forward, all requests for interviews with anyone associated with the city government must pass through this office first. If I approve it, then Hilda will call to make the necessary arrangements.”
When Sonia just stood there with no expression on her face, Winters said, “Is that understood, Sonia?”
Resolved Memories (Sycamore P.D. Series Book 3) Page 14