Carlene Thompson

by Black for Remembrance (epub)

  "And you're only now reporting it?"

  "Well, sometimes she's gone for hours at a time. On jobs, that is."

  "A six-year-old has a job?"

  Mrs. Stanton's jaw set. "Are you gonna let me tell this or are you gonna ask a bunch of dumb questions?"

  Tom spread his hands. "Tell your story. I'll keep my mouth shut."

  "Okay. First of all, you got to understand that Joy's dad died two years ago and left a ton of bills but no life insurance. Just like him, the bastard. He never was no good." Her eyes blurred even more with martyrdom and she was breathing faster.

  "Yes, Mrs. Stanton?"

  "Well, that's why I got to take money where I can find it. I just want you to understand that up front."

  "I do. Please go on."

  Mrs. Stanton cleared her throat, although her voice remained raspy. "Around Halloween this woman come to me and said she wanted to play a trick on someone and she wanted to use Joy. She was a classy-lookin' woman, but I was pretty leery at first. But like I said, I need money and she offered twenty dollars just to take Joy around on Halloween. Well, Joy'd been whinin' for days about not havin' a nice costume. I told her to put a paper bag on her head with holes for eyes, but that wouldn't do for her; I guess I've spoilt her no end and this woman said she'd buy Joy a costume on top of givin' me the twenty bucks. So I says, "Sure, why not? God knows we can use the money." She got Joy in pretty early and Joy was all giggly and happy, tellin' me what a good time she had. So the next time the woman asked me if she could use Joy for one of her tricks, I said, 'Yes indeed. For a good price, that is.'"

  "Mrs. Stanton, what did Joy do for this woman on Halloween night?"

  "She said she just struck up a conversation with a little girl. Told the kid her name was Hayley you know, like Hayley Mills and she lived in a log cabin and her dad was a painter. Bunch a crap like that. Then she went to someone's house and said treats or tickles, whatever the hell that means."

  Tom's heart was pounding. "Mrs. Stanton, who was this woman?"

  "I got to tell my story first. If you don't hear it all, you won't understand."

  "Mrs. Stanton, cut the bull!"

  The woman drew back indignantly. "If you're gonna be hateful, I won't say another word."

  She's enjoying this, Tom thought angrily. Her hour in the sun. He felt like wringing her neck, but he forced himself to smile. "I'm sorry. Go ahead."

  Mrs. Stanton looked around nervously. "How about another slug of that Scotch? You scared me, talkin' harsh like that and me so upset anyway."

  This time Tom gave it to her willingly. Anything to keep her talking. "I'm sorry I frightened you. So what happened next, Mrs. Stanton?"

  "Well, today she wanted two things—she wanted Joy for the day, and she wanted me to make a phone call. I was startin' to feel pretty uncomfortable about her and her tricks, but she offered fifty dollars at the end of the day when Joy and me was finished. I was s'posed to call a woman named Webb and say I was Donna Bell, the school nurse, and her little girl Melinda was real sick. We rehearsed and I was pretty good, if I do say so myself. I sounded damned classy." She smiled wearily. "But the woman said she'd have Joy back by three. When it got to be five, I started worryin'. Then I saw on the news that a kid named Melinda Webb was missin'. That was the name of the kid I'd called about. She was gone. Joy was gone. I got the super—he's a special friend of mine—to let me into the woman's apartment."

  "You know the superintendent of the woman's apartment building?"

  "Hell, yes. It's the same as mine. She lives right down the hall, although she hasn't been around much the last couple of days. She talked to me a couple of times and told me where she worked. That's how she seen Joy, too, there in the buildin'. Anyway, I went in and there was all these black silk orchids layin' around…"

  "Whose apartment were you in?" Tom barked, unable to contain himself any longer. "Dammit, who is this woman?"

  Mrs. Stanton flinched. "Your girlfriend's assistant, Tina Morgan."

  Chapter 20

  BY EIGHT O'CLOCK a knot of reporters stood doggedly in front of the house, video cameras poised. The terse statement Tom had given out three hours ago hadn't helped they were still waiting for some juicy tidbit for their eleven o'clock reports. The phone, which had been ringing incessantly for an hour, had fallen mercifully if eerily silent, and David was sitting with his arm around Caroline's shoulders to stop her shaking, when a furious Greg appeared with Mercer, the officer who had been with them all day. "Why do I have to stay here?" he demanded. "Why can't I be out there looking for Lin?"

  "You've already done enough," Tom said. "You tracked Melinda to Maple Drive and found a woman who saw her getting in a Volkswagen."

  "But the woman didn't see who was driving. She just saw some blond-headed kid with Lin. If you'd let me keep questioning people…"

  "We have men on the streets doing that. Besides, we think we already know who was driving."

  "You do? Who?"

  "Tina Morgan."

  Greg looked from Tom to Caroline. "Tina? That's crazy!"

  "I know it seems that way," Caroline said. "But Tom has a lot of evidence that points to Tina."

  "I don't believe it." Greg sat down without removing his leather jacket. George gazed around, waiting for his next command. "Why would Tina do something like that?"

  "We don't know," Tom said. "But everything fits. Apparently Tina hired a six-year-old blond girl named Joy Stanton to play what she called tricks on your family. It was Joy dressed in a clown suit who approached Melinda on Halloween night."

  "And the person who got into the house and tore up Lin's room, left messages in blood for cripe's sake—that was Tina, too?"

  Tom nodded. "Tina helped Lucy redecorate this house. She had access to the keys."

  "But the locks were changed."

  "Somehow she got a copy of one of the new keys. And the fact that it was Tina explains why the dog didn't attack her earlier today although he was in the house. She made a big point of making friends with him when she worked here."

  "I should have known yesterday," Lucy said. "Some crates in my storeroom were knocked over and a clown doll came tumbling out—a clown doll like Twinkle that Caroline gave me ages ago. I'd forgotten I still had it—it's been packed away for over ten years, ever since I moved into the condo—but Tina must have found it some time ago. She went absolutely white when it fell on the floor. Then she recovered and accused me of using it to scare your mother. She's a quick thinker and obviously a very good actress. I was standing there defending myself like crazy."

  "Where does Tina live?" Greg stormed.

  "We've already searched her apartment, Greg, and we have someone watching it now."

  Greg shook his head. "She shot my dad and now she's stolen my little sister." He pounded his fist on the chair arm. "Damn!"

  George started reflexively barking, picking up on Greg's mood. "Settle down, Greg," Caroline said. "Why don't you take George out to the kitchen and give him a drink? His tongue's practically out on the floor. And he needs his dinner."

  "How can you be so calm?" Greg demanded.

  Caroline started to cry quietly and David said, "Gregory, shut up and go feed the dog."

  "I'm sorry, Mom." Greg looked at the rest of them defiantly. "Okay, I'll give George his dinner, but I'm not going to sit around doing nothing. As soon as he's finished, I'm gonna get some of the guys together and we're gonna keep looking."

  "I told you already I have men working on it," Tom said.

  Greg glowered at him. "It was George who tracked Melinda to Maple Drive, not your men."

  "But he lost the scent there, after she got in the car." Tom looked at Greg patiently. "You and George did a great job. But you're only fifteen and Tina's still out there. Like you said, she shot your father and she's taken Melinda. Now you're not going to do anybody one damn bit of good by making yourself the next easy target"

  "He's right, Greg," David said. "Please don't make this harder than it
already is."

  Greg glowered, particularly at Chris, who was still lingering uncomfortably in the living room. "Well, hell," he muttered and stomped off to the kitchen with George following.

  The phone rang for the first time in twenty minutes.

  Please, God, let that be Melinda, Caroline prayed. Please let her be at a friend's and those flowers be a prank, just like the call from the school.

  "Ames will get it," Tom said, but Greg didn't know he wasn't supposed to answer the phone and beat her to it.

  "Mom!" he shouted from the kitchen. "Mom, pick up the phone, quick!"

  "Melinda," Caroline gasped, already reaching for the phone on the end table. "Melinda, sweetie, is that you?" she cried into the receiver.

  "Hi, Mommy," the child said. "Melinda is still alive, but not for long."

  Chills rippled down Caroline's back as she fought for control. "Is this Joy," she blurted, "or Tina?"

  She heard a sharp intake of breath.

  "Tina, we know you have Melinda. We know. It's all over."

  "Not until you find me," she said in her normal voice. "Not until you come and talk to me. Alone."

  "Talk to you about what? I don't know where you are."

  "Yes, you do."

  "Tina, please let my little girl go. Please…"

  "Alone. No police."

  The line went dead.

  Twelve-thirty. Caroline tossed on the bed. She had lain there for an hour, vainly trying to rest while Detective Ames and Tom waited downstairs for more calls. David, with the help of medication his pain required, had fallen into an uneasy sleep beside her. Greg had retreated in surly silence to his bedroom, and Tom had sent Lucy home to get some rest in case Melinda wasn't found and she was needed early in the morning. Chris had been asked by Tom to stay rather than return to his lonely cabin where another cruiser would be required for surveillance in case Tina decided to attack him again.

  Every time Caroline started to drift into sleep, she saw Fidelia's body in the hall, surrounded by a pool of blood, and she jerked awake. Was Melinda already lying in a pool of blood, too? Or had her kidnapper decided to make her wait for death, just like Hayley's had done?

  Hayley's death could have been prevented, Caroline thought. I sat back and let the police handle everything, and look what happened. "But I will not let it happen again," she murmured, climbing out of bed. "This time I won't leave it to others. If I think clearly, I can come up with something. I have to."

  She pulled on jeans and a sweatshirt and went downstairs, George trailing along behind her. Detective Ames was in the family room.

  "Where's Tom?" Caroline asked.

  "He finally located Tina's boyfriend, Lowell Warren. He was in Washington at a conference. He told Tom that he'd left his wife and he'd bought a house for him and Tina. Maybe she's gone there."

  "Why didn't anyone tell me?"

  "From what Tom's said, you've been under siege for weeks. You're ready to collapse from exhaustion. He said to let you get as much rest as possible. There's nothing you can do. He's checking the house."

  "Do you really think she's taken Melinda there?"

  Detective Ames's eyes slid away. "There's always that chance."

  But you don't think so, Caroline thought. Of course Tina would know she would be found there. If she was thinking rationally, that is. But maybe she wasn't. "I'm going to make coffee," she said dispiritedly.

  The young woman smiled, her eyes slightly shadowed from weariness. "Good. I could use some."

  How many pots of coffee had they consumed in the past eight or nine hours? Caroline wondered as she plugged in the percolator. While it perked, she sat at the kitchen table, racking her brain for anything about Tina that might give her a clue as to where she had taken Melinda. She had not shown up for work yesterday morning, nor had her car been located at any area hotels or motels. But she must have been waiting for Melinda on Maple Drive. Caroline just couldn't understand why Melinda would have gone with her. She'd been warned over and over not to go anywhere except with the immediate family. Yet, obviously she'd left the schoolyard with Joy Stanton, and together they'd disappeared with Tina.

  When the coffee was finished, Caroline took some to Detective Ames. The woman was on the phone again, and when she hung up she looked disappointed. "That was Tom," she said as Caroline handed her the coffee. "Tina isn't at the house."

  "No, I didn't think she would be."

  "Tom said there isn't a sign of her ever having been there. Mr. Warren told him Tina hadn't moved in yet. It might cause problems with the divorce. He's been living there by himself for a couple of weeks."

  "I see. How did he take the news about Tina?"

  "He had a fit. Didn't believe it, of course. He only gave us the address of the house because he wanted to prove that Tina wasn't there hiding a child." She frowned. "Still, Tom said he got the feeling that Mr. Warren was really shook, like part of him knew something was wrong with Tina. Maybe he just hadn't wanted to admit it. Of course, that's pure speculation."

  "That's all any of us can do now—speculate. No one even knows why Tina would do all of this."

  "Tina—or whoever she is."

  Caroline looked at her blankly. "Her name isn't Tina Morgan?"

  "We don't know for sure that it isn't, but Tina Annette Morgan of Indianapolis has been missing for over nineteen years. She disappeared when she was six."

  "Nineteen years? Six years old?" Caroline repeated slowly.

  "I know. Too close to your daughter to be a coincidence. We contacted the mother of the Morgan child. She said Tina had dark hair and eyes. That's awfully thin evidence, but still…"

  "Good God!" Chris stood in the doorway, blond hair falling over his forehead. "You mean Tina is some kid that disappeared about the same time as Hayley? Maybe taken by the same pervert?"

  "Maybe, Mr. Corday. We don't have any proof."

  The phone rang again and the woman picked it up. "No, Mrs. Webb does not wish to appear on your talk show tomorrow," she was saying as Caroline went back to the kitchen in shock. Chris trailed after her. As she sat down at the table, he poured two cups of coffee and joined her.

  "Chris, what in the world is going on?" Caroline moaned, putting her head in her hands.

  "I don't know, Caro. I don't get this at all. Maybe this woman isn't the same Tina Morgan. I mean, where would she have been all this time? And if the kidnapper killed Hayley, why wouldn't he have killed Tina?"

  "Who knows what line of logic those people follow? If any. And maybe the two kidnappings are totally unrelated. We don't even know exactly when Tina Morgan disappeared."

  "They aren't unrelated, Caro. You know that. The woman put flowers on Hayley's grave and sent the same kind of flowers to the funerals of people who knew Hayley."

  "But Tina! She seemed so normal. So capable. But she's killed three people and injured four. Now she's kidnapped two little girls, one of whom she means to murder."

  "I told you before, Caro, there's something different about her method this time. The flowers came first. Then the phone call. Maybe she's cracking and can't kill again."

  "That's a comforting thought. I wish I could believe it." Caroline raised her head. "I keep remembering the day of Pamela Fitzgerald's funeral, when Tina was so kind to me. Or seemed to be. Obviously she'd planted the black bouquet and was watching for my reaction. When I nearly fainted, she took me outside and we went for coffee and a drive. She told me about her little girl who had died of leukemia last summer."

  "Where's her husband?"

  "There wasn't one. She had to go through it all alone."

  "Do you think she's taken Melinda as a replacement?"

  "So she can kill her?"

  Chris grimaced. "I guess not. I'm just trying to figure out why she's done all this."

  "Because of Hayley. It all has something to do with Hayley. I just wish we knew more about Tina's background."

  "Can't Lucy come up with anything? She must have checked her references."


  "No, she didn't."

  "Shit. Good old 'go by your instincts' Lucy. That philosophy could have gotten her in a lot of trouble this time."

  "Tina gave her a very plausible reason for there being no references, and you know how charming she is. Was. You wanted to believe her." Caroline went silent in thought. "She said she'd worked in New York City."

  "Talk about looking for a needle in a haystack." Chris leaned back in his chair. "Where did Tina take you on that drive?"

  "To the wildlife preserve."

  "The old munitions manufacturing site? I'd nearly forgotten it."

  "Me too. I wasn't too happy when we ended up there. It's such a depressing place." Caroline's jaw dropped. "Oh, my God! Talk about mental blocks! That's where she's taken Melinda. I was just too upset over finding another bouquet to wonder why she'd taken me all the way out there, then asked if I hadn't been there before. That's an odd question to ask someone who's lived here all her life. Chris, she was calling attention to the place. She must have known even then she was going to kidnap Melinda. She led me right to the hiding place. That's why she said on the phone I knew where to find her!"

  "We have to tell Ames."

  He started to rise, but Caroline grabbed his arm. "No! She said to come alone."

  "You can't go out there alone!"

  "Lower your voice!" Chris sank down on his chair. "Chris, she wants to talk to me. If the police go roaring out there, they might frighten her into killing Melinda, if she hasn't already."

  "They won't go roaring out there, Caro. They know how to handle situations like this."

  Caroline leaned toward him. "Chris, this is my little girl we're talking about. What if it were Hayley? Would you risk getting her killed because you thought you should follow procedure? Last time we did everything just the way the police wanted us to, and Hayley is dead. Please, Chris, please just let me go and don't tell Detective Ames."

  Chris stared at her for a moment. "Okay," he said reluctantly. "But Tina only said no police. She didn't say anything about me."