Forsaken Trust

by Meredith Doench

  I thought about what Ava’s mother had said regarding Eric Reid’s legal issues. Had he committed suicide on the lake? He’d been involved with the early trade of meth in the Wallace Lake area, and I wondered if he too was wrapped up in business relations with Joan Marco. Richardson pulled Eric Reid’s arrest record, but there was little information other than his charges, and there was no way to tell exactly whom he might have been working with. Given that the mother of Eric’s child and his daughter, Sadie, were both involved with the Marcos, the chances of his involvement with the Marcos were strong, too.

  Harvey stood beside me with her PFD pulled tight against her chest. She gripped the overhead rail for stability. “I can’t swim very good,” she said in my ear.

  “Seriously? You were snorkeling for evidence in the river when I met you.”

  Harvey shrugged. “I could easily make my way to the bars where I could stand. We’re so far out right now, I bet the bottom is a hundred miles down.” She gave a nervous laugh and moved closer to me. I thought about the rubber rescue rafts without motors Riley had used that day. It was possible the river wasn’t very deep in those places. At least Harvey’s fear served me well in this instance—I didn’t have to fight her for the lead.

  Our boat roared on. The spotlights swept across the smooth surface of the water, but there was no sign of a rowboat. After a few minutes, the officer slowed our watercraft down to a gentle rumble. “We are approximately in the center of the lake,” he called back to us.

  Riley’s voice crackled through the radio—they’d found nothing, either. We could see the lights from their boat, which had traveled the northern parts of the lake and then turned back toward us. “We are heading west toward the canals,” Riley said.

  “Go toward the thickest tree line,” I told the officer. Perhaps Sadie decided to go to the location where her father washed up—a thick wooded grove on the eastern edge of the lake.

  The officer gave the boat more gas, and we veered toward the southeast. Above us, the stars shone clear in the night sky, and the loss of the sun chilled the night’s temperature. The edges of winter weren’t far away.

  Once we neared the wooded groves, the officer idled along and I rotated the large lights to see into the wooded corners with the deep lake beneath. We found all sorts of abandoned fishing equipment caught up in the far-reaching branches, but no rowboat.

  Finally, we saw a dim light waving with the current about one hundred yards from the tree line. I motioned the safety officer toward the dimming light, and he edged our boat closer to where a dying battery-operated lantern rested on one of a rowboat’s benches. A shadowy figure sat beside it.

  “I’m here to help, Sadie,” I called out to her.

  The officer set the motor to a soft hum and did his best to get as close to the rowboat as possible.

  Sadie looked up as if she fully expected to see us out on the lake at night. Her face was ghoulish with the glow of the lantern highlighting her chin, cheekbones, and eyebrows. Long dark hair fell about her shoulders in sheets, and her knees bobbed up and down. Empty bottles of liquor lined the bottom of the steel rowboat, and I could smell the alcohol all the way from where I stood.

  “I won’t go to jail!”

  “We can talk about that, Sadie, but we need to get to shore first. Will you follow us?”

  “I’m staying here with him.” She spoke fast, and her words slurred. Sadie had taken something else besides the sedative of alcohol, something that had revved her up.

  “Sadie, I know you didn’t want any of this to happen. You just didn’t know how to stop it.”

  Behind me, Harvey radioed Riley for backup. The safety officer had already tied a rope to the rescue flotation device. “We’ll tug you to shore,” he called to her, carrying the float to the edge to throw it to her. “Hold on to this float. Ready?”

  Sadie ignored him and spoke to me. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  The tip of our boat now floated only inches from hers. “Joan Marco is a psychopath, Sadie. She and Henry are in jail. You are safe.”

  I moved closer to the edge of our boat. If I could somehow get into Sadie’s, I could subdue her and drive us to shore.

  Sadie tossed her head from side to side. “What will happen to Joan?” she screamed. Her actions were frenetic, her voice too high-pitched. She’d taken meth, and from the looks of it, too much. We needed to get her to shore and restrained before her behavior turned into excited delirium, a state some users went into that gave them superhuman strength and caused them to fight.

  “How about I help you into this boat? Or I join you for the ride to shore?”

  “No!” she cried. “I’m not going back.”

  “Sadie, please.”

  “The others are coming, aren’t they? You told them where I am.” Paranoia laced her words. Suddenly she stood, and the small boat rocked with the shift in her weight. The edge of her boat knocked into ours.

  “I’ll make a deal with you,” she shouted. “If you promise me nothing will happen to Joan, I’ll come with you.”

  “I can’t promise that.” I understood that Sadie was so far enmeshed in Joan Marco’s grasp, she couldn’t see clearly. She didn’t recognize how much control Joan had over her. “She’s not who you think she is,” I said.

  “I won’t turn on her. She needs me.”

  Our exchange wasn’t going anywhere, and I needed to get to Sadie. With a deep breath, I stepped up on the lip of our rescue boat and jumped into the center of her rowboat. It rocked wildly underneath me, and it didn’t help when Sadie moved to the opposite side of the boat. She was off balance and near the edge. It didn’t take much for the shifting boat to dip hard and throw her over the side.

  “Sadie!”

  Harvey used one of the light beams to scan the water where Sadie had gone down, but there were only the air bubbles that floated to the surface.

  Without a second thought, I dove into the dark waters. I knew the safety officer had the rescue equipment ready, and Harvey had already called Riley for backup. Still, I’d broken standard protocol that everyone studying water safety learns first: don’t jump into the water to save a drowning person—her panic could pull you down as well. In all my years of training, though, I’d never received any information on what to do for someone trying to drown.

  The rush of the cold water engulfed me and its darkness—its blackness—swallowed me whole. When I surfaced, there was only the wavering light of the rescue boat. Sadie was underneath the surface, lost somewhere inside its blackness. In order to save her, I had to give up my sense of sight and use only my touch. I reached down, but she was too far below.

  Something splashed beside me: a round floatation device. “Hold on to the floater, Luce!” the officer called to me.

  I knew that he and Harvey intended to pull me onto the rescue boat. I refused to go without Sadie.

  Slipping under the glassy surface, the familiar grasp of the water’s strong arms held me. A part of me wanted to sink into the heavy safety of the water—the pure cool comfort of it. Then I felt the wide kick of my foot touch the bony edge of Sadie, possibly her shoulder. I dove deep and fought to lock my arms around her chest. Sadie wasn’t going to go easily, though. She kicked me hard in the stomach, and I sucked in a large mouthful of lake water with a scream. I refused to let go of Sadie, and I kicked hard and arched my back sharply until we both buoyed to the surface. I held her tight with the bend of my arm under her throat, sputtering and coughing from the swallowed water.

  “Let me go! Please,” she begged. “Leave me with my dad!”

  “I got you, Sadie. Lean in to me.” I tried to maneuver her in the water to begin the rescue crawl toward the safety boat.

  Sadie twisted in my arms and yanked against my grip. Her legs kicked me hard, and suddenly my forearm screamed with pain. Sadie bit down until she drew blood and didn’t stop until my arm released around her chest. We battled in the water as I tried to get ahold of her and s
he tried to stay away from me. The air felt heavy so close to the water’s surface, and my lungs screamed for a full breath of oxygen.

  Harvey yelled from the side of the rescue boat. “Get out of the fucking lake, Hansen! Now!”

  I looked up and caught sight of the black gun she pointed toward Sadie—a Taser.

  “No!” I screamed. “Drop the Taser!”

  The safety officer turned and realized Harvey had the Taser pointed at us. He knocked it out of her hands. Harvey didn’t consider that using the Taser in water could create a dangerous shock.

  Sadie pulled me under the surface again. She scratched, kicked, and bit me, finally resorting to yanking my braid. We fought hard, flipping over one another without anything solid to ground us in the deep lake. Another round of water flooded my windpipe, and I knew we couldn’t keep up this fight for long. My body would most likely give out before Sadie’s, as I suspected she’d already slipped into a delirium from meth. I did the only thing I could think of: I fisted a patch of her long hair, broke the surface for a breath, and held Sadie by her hair above the water.

  Suddenly I heard the sound of Sanders’s voice from the interview I did with him. Linda Clarke’s methodical, he’d said. She plans everything. Had Joan Marco planned Sadie’s suicide? Was it possible she’d booked the boat for Sadie and provided the alcohol and meth? There had been no reports of Sadie struggling with drugs or alcohol, and it would be in Joan’s best interest for Sadie to die—she held all of Joan’s secrets. I couldn’t let that happen. In order to save her, I had to hurt her. Everyone who was supposed to help and take care of Sadie in her life, save her grandmother, let Sadie down. She never had much of a chance. I wanted to be the one to give Sadie a chance now by putting an end to this thing once and for all.

  I let go of Sadie. Once her body began to slip underwater, I pulled my fist back and punched her as hard as I could on the right cheekbone. Her head flung back with the force of the punch. Then her head lolled. What I didn’t take into consideration was how fast she’d go under. Coldcocked, she sank like a bag of cement. I reached for her, and suddenly we both went down as Sadie pulled me into the water’s darkness with her.

  For a moment, I couldn’t gather my strength to pull Sadie above the water. I closed my eyes to center myself, and when I opened them, I saw the image of my dad wavering in the dark water. “You don’t need me anymore, Luce,” he said. “You’ve always known exactly what to do.”

  I reached for him, my fingertips spilling through the lake’s thickness and grabbing hold of nothing. My father’s image was gone just as quickly as it had emerged.

  Soon I found the perfect grip on Sadie and scissor-kicked hard until I lifted her unconscious body to the surface. Without having to contend with Sadie’s delirium, it was easier to move her body through the water. My arm swept across her upper chest, and I leaned back into the rescue crawl while hearing bits and pieces of Riley’s voice barking orders. I felt Sadie’s warm breath on the crook of my arm—she’d regain consciousness soon. I reached for the rescue device. Once I got ahold of the floater, the safety officer pulled Sadie and me toward the rescue boat under its bright spotlights.

  Harvey tossed a harness down to me. As I maneuvered Sadie into the straps that wound around her legs and shoulders, I pulled close to her ear hoping somewhere inside she could hear me. “I won’t let you go through this alone,” I told her. “I promise.”

  Harvey and the safety officer hoisted Sadie up, water running from her dangling arms and legs in rivulets. They positioned Sadie on her back against the floor of the rescue boat. I climbed up the boat’s ladder and my exhausted body soon came to rest beside Sadie.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Day Fifteen: 10:00 a.m.

  The incessant beep of the hospital monitors kept me awake most of the night along with the uncomfortable drip of antibiotics and extra fluids through an IV. And then there was the painful bloat of my belly. I’d swallowed more lake water than I realized in the fight to save Sadie, and every part of my body ached. The doctor kept me overnight for observation after stitching the wounds in my forearm where Sadie had taken a good-sized chunk out of me.

  After a short rap on the door, Harper Bennett pulled the curtain back. She was dressed in heels, navy pants, and a simple off-white blouse—clothes that told me she’d been in court, not examining bodies along the riverbank.

  “How are you feeling?” she asked, pulling open the drapes across my window.

  “Like I’m carrying a child.” I pulled the sheet down for her to see my stomach’s swell.

  “Ah, I have just the thing for you.” Bennett reached into her shoulder bag and pulled out a bottle of water.

  I laughed. “You can’t be serious.”

  “I am serious. It sounds ridiculous, I know, but you need to take in fluids to expel the water from your system.” She put the bottle on the bedside table. “So drink up.”

  I felt exposed in the hospital gown and pulled the covers up to my shoulders. The tilt of the hospital bed rendered my body useless except for my hands—a very uncomfortable position for someone like me who thrived on the physicality of her body.

  “How is Sadie?” I asked, hoping to take the focal point off me.

  “She’s hanging in there, though I suspect she’s not very happy with you.” Bennett pulled up a chair to the bedside. She sat down, crossing one leg over the other. I noticed for the first time that she was wearing makeup, a hint of dark eye shadow with a brush of mascara.

  “I just left the courthouse. Joan Marco’s hearing was this morning. No surprise, old Judge Neelan kept her without the possibility of bail. They are moving her to a facility for females in Columbus since she can’t be in the same jail as Sadie.”

  “What did Marco plead?”

  Bennett gave me a look that said, Do you really have to ask?

  “Not guilty because of what? Insanity?”

  “The defense didn’t go there. They only pleaded not guilty and offered no explanation. Word is she’s blaming Henry and Sadie for all the murders.”

  I guessed that was coming. A woman like Joan Marco would never admit to the evil deeds she committed no matter what the consequences. Just like the infamous Brazilian wandering spider, Linda Clarke, Joan Marco expected to use her charm to manipulate her way out of the consequences.

  “Joan has a tough judge. Thomas Neelan is the toughest, really. He won’t fall for her lies. There will be justice in this case, Luce.”

  “Maybe there will be some justice for the murdered women and the girls caught up in human trafficking. But what about Sadie? She’s only eighteen. What kind of justice will there be for her?”

  There was nothing more to say regarding Sadie, so we sat in silence while the monitors beeped around us. We both knew Sadie would be charged with the murders. The circumstances that led up to the murders didn’t matter much in our court of law, particularly since Sadie was the one who delivered the poison and fatal stab wounds. Sadie would be charged for the four murders no matter who told her to commit them.

  Finally, Bennett broke the silence between us. “The talk all around the station is about how you saved Sadie. Impressive, Luce, but you could have drowned with her.”

  I knew the lectures from my superiors would be coming soon. Jumping in after Sadie had been a tremendous risk, and my body was paying the price for it. I’d gone out on my own again, and Sanders would only be more than happy to remind me of how these behaviors were my biggest fault as an investigator.

  “I heard you gave Harvey quite a scare.”

  I grinned at the memory. “She learned it’s best not to use a Taser on the water.”

  Bennett chuckled. Then, she said, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  I wanted to play dumb with Bennett to avoid the conversation, but we were way beyond pretending. I needed to come clean if I ever wanted to be something more than her co-worker.

  “I tried to, but it never seemed like the right time. I’m sorry, Bennett. We were b
oth so drunk.”

  “That’s a lame excuse.”

  I agreed. “If I could take it back, I would.”

  Bennett stiffened, and then re-crossed her legs. “I trusted you.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said again. “I never meant to hurt you.”

  Bennett shook her head and looked past me out the hospital room’s window. Her eyes took on an unfocused and distant look. “You don’t owe me anything, you know? Not even the truth.” She folded her hands in her lap. “Maybe I just wanted us to have some sort of a connection.”

  “There is a connection between us,” I said. “The intensity of this case brought out the worst in me at times.”

  Bennett continued as though she hadn’t heard me. “It’s just that it was with her. Of all the people, Harvey.”

  The conflict between the two women made more sense to me, but I also sensed there was no point in bringing Harvey into the conversation. Bennett’s continued anger implied she still cared for Harvey—perhaps I’d been the one to misread the connections going on around me.

  “I owe you the truth, Bennett, and I hope you’ll accept my apology.”

  Bennett stood up. “Most of this is about me—I’m sure you know that. What you don’t know is that I was in a long-term relationship headed for marriage until I found out about the cheating. It had been going on for almost two years, and I never suspected.”

  “Bennett…”

  “All of this”—she waved her hand in my direction—“has shown me that I’m not ready to see you or anyone else.”

  Bennett pointed to the bottled water on my hospital tray. “Drink up, Hansen, and take care of yourself.” She pulled the door closed behind her.