"He's drinking buddies with Derek, isn't he?" The picture became clearer. Had Dave suspected Derek's involvement and deliberately destroyed the evidence? Had Derek coerced him to do it to throw the scent off the real culprit? Could it be a vulnerable looking eleven-year-old girl? She did not have to say it out loud. Judging from the tight line of Kathy's mouth, it was a conclusion they had both reached.
"I need to get home."
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Erin hurried to her truck and disregarded highway traffic laws in her haste to get home. Her truck's tires screeched around the last corner and into her driveway. She flung open the front door and called Allie's name.
"I'm in here."
Erin came to a standstill when she saw Allie hunched on the sofa. Wrong-Way Rachel sprawled across her lap, fluffy tail curled up around her neck. A veritable mound of crumpled Kleenexes littered the cushion beside them.
"Are you okay?"
"I was okay. Really, I was okay, until I saw Fiona's dish sitting on the kitchen floor." Her voice choked. "I'm sorry, I just lost it." She pulled another tissue from the box and dabbed at red puffy eyes.
"Oh, baby!" Erin swept the trash to the floor and sat beside her.
"I called Judy." She gripped her hand as if it tethered her to planet Earth. "I mean, I called my mom. She wanted to take the next plane down here but I told her we are fine and you would be home soon. I felt better after I talked to her and I'll call again later when I can keep it together."
"I'm glad she was there for you." Erin's guilt skyrocketed. "What did the doctor say about your leg?"
Allie gingerly touched freshly applied bandages. "It's basically a dog bite. It's not infected but he gave me a tetanus shot and antibiotic ointment anyway. He said rabies are rare around here so he'll wait a few days to see if I foam at the mouth."
"He did not."
"He said my physical injury should heal on its own." Allie tried to smile but it faded before it reached her eyes. "And he offered me a prescription for Ativan so I can sleep."
"You don't need a sedative or an anti anxiety drug, baby." If alcohol magnified Allie's abilities until they screeched out of control, Erin could just imagine what medication would do.
"I don't either. That's why I turned it down." She leaned into Erin's shoulder. "I only need you."
"I'm sorry I didn't give you a chance to tell me what was wrong at the ranger station," Erin began. "I thought we had it all figured out. I thought you were just overwhelmed by—by everything." She did not want to rip open the emotional wound that had not yet begun to heal.
Allie inhaled sharply. "I should have made myself talk to you. I was fighting a headache when we caught up to the other canoe but I was managing it. In my mind I kept seeing this big wild cat, the one we had been searching for. Suddenly it turned and came back to taunt us, to show us how invincible it was. When we all rode in the big boat, a flood of images poured into my mind. The pressure was unimaginable, like my head would explode into tiny pieces. It was spinning so fast that I had to get away from everyone as soon as I could. I was a little better when you came to get me, but when that kid grabbed my hand, I knew. The whole picture became clear." She searched Erin's face for any hint of doubt. There was none.
"I'm beginning to understand." Erin told her about the bizarre interview at the station, halted by the mysteriously appearing attorney. The girl had not called him, so how had he come to be there? Had Derek's phone call been not for himself, but for the girl? In retrospect, it seemed likely that it had. Something Allie had said about Derek slithered up Erin's spine and began to coalesce in her brain. "What did you mean when you talked about a part of Derek's essence?"
"Have you noticed that Lily's eyes are the lightest shade of green? Just like Derek's." Erin's bones shivered when Allie laid out the puzzle pieces. "They have the same hair and pale skin, don't they? She looks a lot like him, don't you think?" She waited for Erin to finish the puzzle.
"She's a part of him!" Erin shouted. Wrong-Way Rachel let out a perturbed squeak and with a peevish swish of her tail leapt off Allie's lap. The cat padded out the door to the kitchen and the last piece slammed into place. Erin gasped. "He knows what she's done and he's protecting her because he's her father!"
The mysterious deposits into Gunther's bank account. Child support? Gunther Schmidt had known too. For the price of a six pack of beer in the fridge and a monthly check, Derek fulfilled his fatherly duties and Gunther kept his mouth shut. Lily played the middle, one man against the other. For what? Her own amusement? Twisted revenge toward a father who deserted her at birth? What did she have to gain by poisoning her own grandfather? Macabre entertainment? Was she simply bored? And where had her mother gone? Nefarious scenarios filed through Erin's mind. She let her breath out, but tension stayed between her shoulder blades. Derek had confessed to it all and Lily was going to walk away, free to do as she pleased.
Erin sprang to her feet and paced across the room. She scrubbed an angry palm over her face until the skin reddened. "All this time, your thoughts were about her, not him. She's the one who watches and stalks." Erin remembered the night they nearly drove into the barricade on the road. "The rock in your back window. Was that her? Was she watching us at the bog too?"
"The energy felt the same. Like a dangerous wild cat. I think so."
"I feel like puking." Erin sat down hard beside Allie. "Oh my God, you should have seen her play everyone at the office, all smiles and batting eyelashes. Poor little victim!" Erin groaned. "She played me too."
Allie touched her knee, her hand warm through the fabric of her jeans. Confident, reassuring, sincere. "She thinks she has won. More people will get hurt. You must stop her."
"Derek confessed. He is taking the rap for everything she's done. I don't understand why. As far as they are concerned, she is a vulnerable little child with no direct evidence implicating her. I can't even talk to her now. How can I stop her?"
"I don't know. You—" Allie paused and amended, "—we need to find a way. I am in this now, as much as you are." She rested her head on Erin's shoulder and Erin hugged her tight.
* * *
"What did that bastard say?" Erin scratched a fingernail into a worn crease in the kitchen countertop. She switched the iPhone to her other ear.
"Not much." Zimmerman sounded distracted and she heard him get up to close the door. The background noise muted. "When I talked to Striker, he said Derek looked depressed. The interrogation lasted for three hours but he didn't say much, except that his wife is filing for divorce. He seemed more upset about Lily."
"I never guessed she was his kid. This town can sure keep a secret. In retrospect, how did we miss it? She looks just like him. What else did Derek say?"
"Striker said he confessed to everything. Everything but molesting the girl. That, he vehemently denied. Derek signed a skimpy confession, and refused to provide any more information. He simply crossed his arms, invoked his Fifth Amendment rights and asked to be taken to his cell. A disgraced police officer like him will do hard time for one murder and two attempts. The lawyer he phoned never arrived, so I wonder if that will be part of his defense."
"I'm sure the lawyer was for his kid," she said. "Who would have figured he'd be capable of such family loyalty?"
"You must have gone to school with Lily's mom, Tiffany Schmidt. Were you aware that she and Derek were an item?"
"I stayed away from Derek as best I could, but it seemed he always had a new cheerleader on his arm. I do remember Tiffany, but we didn't travel in the same circles. She hung out with the drug crowd by senior year and I avoided that bunch."
"You want this?" Zimmerman whispered. "Yeah, come and get it."
"What the heck are you talking about?" Erin shouted into the phone. "Are you doing weird kinky stuff?"
"I am feeding Picasso a cricket," he retorted. "Forgive me for multi-tasking, Ms. Perfect."
"You are one wacky guy. I was afraid I was intruding…"
He disre
garded her insinuation. "Striker discovered that Derek couldn't possibly have burned down Dolores Johnson's house. He was with the Staff Sergeant, getting a lecture on deportment, when it happened. The call released him from the boss's office and he seemed genuinely perplexed about the origin of the explosion. He didn't have much to say about the fire at the convenience store either. He said he drove Lily straight home and was with his wife by the time that happened. Unfortunately for him, he already confessed to it and his wife is so angry that she won't corroborate his belated alibi. She's been wanting to leave him for a while and this is the last straw. He'll rot in jail before she helps him."
"Derek hated Gina, but I doubt he tried to kill her. My money is on the kid. She blurted something about the gas can that was used to start the fire. She knew exactly how her grandfather was poisoned."
"Lily is a strange little creature," Zimmerman said. "The murder of Dolores Johnson. The arson of the store and attempted murder of Gina Braun. Do you really believe a kid is capable?"
"I wouldn't put much past her. Ice water runs in her veins."
"Even if Derek is her dad, why would he be willing to go to jail? Striker said he'd planned to take the kid north of the border to stay with a friend until he could sort out his life and come for her. I can see him ditching his job for a long-lost daughter, but going to jail? That's sheer lunacy."
Erin nodded. She focused on a spot in the distance. "It's possible that he was trying so hard to protect his kid that he impulsively confessed, figuring he'd get out of it later. He was the golden boy, remember? He always got what he wanted. Not this time."
Zimmerman continued her train of thought. "You might be right. By the time he realized what he'd done, he was looking at the inside of a jail cell. His wife had frozen their bank accounts, his lawyer refused to take on his appeal, and now he has to apply for a public defender."
"That makes more sense than the martyr theory. He's too arrogant and self-centered."
"So there he sits. You know what happens to cops in jail."
"I kinda feel sorry for him. He's an idiot, but---."
"Don't feel sorry for that jackass! Dude pulled his service weapon on you! Not to mention the souvenir he gave you on your arm. I'm glad he didn't go after your girlfriend."
"I don't think he regarded her as a threat." Erin's skin crawled at the thought of Derek harming Allie.
"Not until he was looking down the barrel of the shotgun in her hands. That girl you've got is no shrinking violet, that's for sure!" He snorted.
"She's definitely not."
"As far as I'm concerned, you don't owe Derek an ounce of pity."
"Still, I'd like to understand." Erin scrunched her shoulders forward in a semi-shrug.
"Gunther might have answers." She found a new crease in the edge of the countertop to trace with her fingernail.
He sighed loudly. "If you're so damn determined, Gina said she was going to the hospital to see him tonight. You could just happen to drop in…"
"Gina?" How did he run across her?
"Uh, she mentioned it…" A knock interrupted him. "I gotta go. My mom needs a hand. Give me a shout after you talk to Mr. Schmidt." He disconnected the call.
Erin jammed the iPhone into her pocket and found her keys. She left a note for Allie, who had gone to the gym. Fifteen minutes later, she parked her truck at the hospital and got Gunther's location from the information desk. She quietly opened the door to his room.
On the bed, Gunther Schmidt looked like a corpse. Skin on his ashen face had a strange mottled texture. His swollen jaundiced eyes took in the new visitor.
"I was in the neighborhood," Erin lied. "I decided to pop in for a minute."
"Hey stranger." Gina leaned back in a visitor's chair at the side of Gunther's bed, paperback in her hands.
"Louis L'Amour," Erin said, glancing at the cover. "My dad loves his old Westerns too."
"We are at the end of the chapter." She patted Gunther's hand. "Why don't we stop here and pick it up tomorrow?" He nodded and Erin noted a tremor in his movements.
"How is he?" She directed her question to Gina.
"I'm just ducky," he croaked. "I ain't dead yet."
Gina grinned at her apologetically.
"You're right, Mr. Schmidt. I'm sorry." Erin sat in the chair opposite Gina and he turned his puffy face to her. "I should have asked you."
"He's so much better than yesterday." Gina tucked his exposed arm under the blanket and pulled it around his shoulders. She brought a glass of ice water up and bent the straw to his mouth.
"Will ya quit yer fussin', girl? I ain't no infant!" His words were belligerent, but his tone was soft. "It's dang hot in here!" He shoved starchy bedcovers aside and pushed his arm back out. Against the stark sheets, dark-colored lesions speckled his temples and the palms of his hands. Had Doctor Holloway talked about it the day she told him about the arsenic? It had been hard to follow the technical specifics of that conversation. How had she not noticed the spots when she found him in his hidey hole?
He turned to Erin. "You fished me out, didn't you?"
She nodded.
"Well then, thank you for savin' an old fart like me. I appreciate bein' able to take a few more breaths in this lifetime. I wasn't sure if I dreamed that or not."
"Do you remember what happened to you?"
"'Course I do. Lily came and told me she'd made a mistake and the store caught on fire. I was worried she'd got herself in too deep this time so we were just bidin' our time until the coast was clear. I drank a bad beer, or two. That last one was a doozy. I remember upchuckin' and wakin' up in here. My angel has been fussin' over me pretty much ever since." He raised a corner of his mouth in a half smile and Gina wiped her eye. "I'm real sorry about sayin' mean stuff to ya, girl. I got no idea what came over me."
"It's okay. It wasn't your fault." Gina retrieved a tissue and daintily blew her nose.
"They said Derek Peterson confessed to givin' me the poison. I'm tryin' to wrap my noggin' around that," Gunther said. "I've known that boy since he was a teenager and he don't always make the best decisions, but I didn't figure him for tryin' to kill me."
"He confessed, but I don't think he did it." Erin sat forward in her seat.
"Well, you don't think I tried to off myself, do ya?"
"I think Lily poured the poison in your beer." Erin waited for his reaction. His body stiffened but he didn't immediately respond. He glanced at Gina, then back to Erin. He breathed a plaintive moan.
"Gottverdammt!" He whistled the curse through his teeth and sank his head onto the pillow. "She's been havin' a hard time but I didn't wanna believe she'd try somethin' like this." He looked over to Gina. "She's not the one who hurt you, is she?"
Gina couldn't meet his eyes.
His shoulders sagged. "Sie verloren ist."
"She is lost," Gina translated.
"Will you tell me what you know?" Erin's eyes flitted around the room, searching for pen and paper. She had not come prepared.
"She's my granddaughter! My blood. I can't speak out against her! She's only a girl, and so much like her mother, my sweet Tiffany. I miss her every day."
"Where is she?" With nothing to write on, Erin tapped notes into her iPhone. It was like having a mini computer in her pocket.
"Last time I seen her, she showed me a big ol' ring on her finger. Said she was goin' to marry Derek. Said he would leave his wife and be a father to Lily. She looked so happy." His gravelly voice wavered. "The next day she was gone and I never understood why. She didn't take a thing, 'cept her purse." Eyes closed in private agony, he bunched his hands into fists. "Maybe it was the drugs. She tried so hard…"
"Did Derek tell you what happened to her?"
"No, he was heartbroken. Said he searched every town within a thousand miles. Lily was eight by then and he tried to help out with her. She treated him more like a slave but he'd do pret'near anythin' for that child. Had so much guilt over leavin' Tiffany after he got her pregnant. T
hey were just kids themselves." Gunther coughed and Gina sat up, alarmed. She rubbed his shoulder. "That boy used to hang around the house 'til I sent him home. It was no use sittin' around waitin' for her. She never called. I know how I felt when I lost my wife to the cancer so I felt bad for him."
"Will you give me an official statement?"
He closed his eyes and shook his head. "No. I can't. She's all I have left. I swore to help her." He coughed again, phlegm rattling in his throat. Gina leaned him forward and rubbed his back until he caught his breath. She focused pained eyes on Erin.
"Thank you for what you were able to tell me, Mr. Schmidt." She stood.
"Please, she's all I got. She's just havin' a bad time. She don't mean it. Ihr helfen."
Erin remembered that last word. She certainly wanted to help the girl. Help her face justice. She turned her back so he didn't see her anger. You're wrong. Lily knows exactly what she's doing. She quietly closed the door on her way out.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
This house is like a sugar coated fairy tale for toddlers. The people are idiots, but aren't they all? It takes forever for the introductions and dopey questions, which I ignore of course. I'm too upset to talk about it, right? They buy it like stupid sheep, with their stupid sheep faces.
All through dinner I make my eyebrows do the sad thing but I really can't complain about the food. Pork chops and mashed potatoes. I even ate my carrots like a good little girl. I have to admit that it was way better than any dinner I've had since my mom left, well, since she went and drowned herself in the bog. It wasn't my fault. Her cooking is about the only thing I miss, and I can't remember the last time I ate a vegetable.
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