“Cold hands,” he said.
“It’s cold out here,” she said, hunching her shoulders inside her jacket.
“You’ve been sitting here awhile” he said and her heart sank. Had he noticed her watching him? How embarrassing.
“The coach’s wife brings us hot chocolate,” he said, nodding at the folding table by the fence.
“You want some?”
“Sure,” she said nonchalantly.
He offered her his hand this time and helped her down the bleachers. A gentleman, her mom would say. Maybe her parents would actually approve of him, imagine that! Together they walked across the field, ignoring the calls from the other players. They were already lost in each other.
Evil walks about among us
Harboring the dark, on slimy little feet
We all pretend that we are safe
And don’t even recognize it when we meet
Keep your head down
Don’t look it in the eyes
You don’t want it to hang around
To become familiar enough to recognize.
‘Stay out of the dark’
Shianne Minekime
Chapter Seven
Day 14
Tina slipped out of the bedroom carefully so as not to wake him up. She made coffee and sat quietly in the kitchen staring out the window and smelling it brewing. The day was already full of sunshine and the promise of being beautiful. She drank it standing on the porch, just like she had two weeks ago. A lifetime ago it seemed like. She saw Jamison’s car through the trees coming up the road and then lost it around the corner of the house before it turned up their road. She knew who it was immediately and her heart pounded and she felt suddenly dizzy. She stood rooted to the spot as he pulled up and parked.
“No news,” he said as he walked up to the porch and she felt a rush of emotion. Relief, disappointment, and fear, they all smothered her for a second before she got it together. He carried a file folder in his hand and that made her nervous.
“Would you uhh, like some coffee?” she asked, grateful he got that out of the way and didn’t leave her hanging.
He nodded and followed her into the house.
“Where’s Mr. Hanson?” He asked, sitting perched on the edge of the sofa.
“Asleep” she tossed over her shoulder as she went into the kitchen.
She refilled her cup and poured him one and returned to the living room. He was standing looking at pictures of Hailey on the wall. They were a series of professional ones where she was dressed in an old fashioned dress and bonnet, taken several years ago. In one she sat at a pretend tea party, daintily holding her cup and saucer. In another she held a fancy lace fan, smiling for all the world like a little princess.
“Cute,” he said with his back to her, his voice a little husky as though there might be tears behind it. When he turned his face was neutral, carefully so.
She handed him his cup.
“Just black, right?”
He nodded “Ah, good memory.”
She sat on the couch and sipped her coffee watching him as he studied the room, studied all the little details of their life and their family. She had known him quite a long time, but she really hadn’t know him at all until that day, that awful day. Just a few brief encounters were all she had had with him. He had come to take her statement when someone had smashed the window on her car at Walmart a couple of years before. He had been polite and business-like. Watching him she wondered what his life was like, dealing with other people’s crap every day. He probably saw the worst of people even in a small town like this one. She had heard he was divorced but knew nothing beyond that. He must be a pretty private person she figured.
“Do you have children?” She asked and he looked over his shoulder at her a flicker of surprise on his face.
“No,” he said, and didn’t volunteer any more information.
Yep, definitely a private person, she thought. Shame though, he seemed like he would be a great dad. He came and sat opposite her on the stuffed chair.
“I need to talk to you about some information I found,” he said. Her heart stutter stepped and she set her cup down carefully on the coaster on the coffee table.
“Is it bad news?” She asked, careful to keep her voice even.
He shook his head.
“Nothing like that, but it’s not going to be easy for you to hear.” He looked at her directly, seeing the fear in her eyes and the tremble in her hands. No way was she was responsible, he thought. His first instinct had been right. She clasped her hands together to stop the trembling.
“I’d like your husband to hear this too,” he said. “So I don’t have to say it twice.”
And so you don’t have to hear it alone, he thought.
She nodded and said, “I’ll go get him,” and the calm of her voice gave nothing away.
He continued his perusal of the room after she left. Cozy without being stuck up was his feeling of it. Clean, just like Marcie had always kept theirs. Back when they had been a ‘they.’ He realized that he was thinking of her a lot lately, even more than normal. Inevitable he guessed, seeing a couple happy together always made his aloneness sting more. He wondered what James Hanson was like, he had seemed pretty stand up during the search but you never really could tell. With the information he had found they were both cleared as suspects in his mind, which was a relief in a way seeing as how he liked Tina Hanson. It didn’t make his job any easier though because when you got right down to it he had no suspects. And that wasn’t good at all, and that he would never tell Hailey’s parents. He wondered when he saw the shattered whisky bottle beside the couch. He remembered the smell of whisky on Tina when she came into his office, couldn’t really blame her though. He of all people knew what a crutch alcohol could be. Picking up the bottle he touched the cracks wondering how that had happened, no violence he hoped. He couldn’t really see either of these two whacking each other over the head with a bottle but then you never really knew about people.
It just seemed odd and out of place. He felt a sudden chill and glanced around to see if the door had blown open. It was still closed solid. Struck with s sudden uneasy feeling he set the bottle down telling himself to knock it off. He returned to the couch.
His cup was empty by the time they came out. James looked rumpled and every bit as scared as Tina did.
“Detective,” James said, shaking his hand.
“Mr. Hanson.”
James shook his head. “Just James,” he said.
“Call me Jamison then,” said the detective.
“Nobody calls me Charles” he said by way of explanation for not offering the use of his first name. It seemed a little rude since James offered his.
“Not in years anyway.”
“I like Charles,” Tina said. “That was my grandfather’s name.”
Jamison nodded but didn’t offer for her to call him that either. It had been so long he might not even remember to answer to it. Marcie had called him Charley. Annoyed with himself for letting her pop into his mind again, he got down to business. He watched their faces as he told them about the other girls. Tina looked horrified and scared. James looked pretty much the same and then angry. He had expected, here we go, he thought.
“How could you not tell us this right away,” James demanded.
“Easy,” Jamison said. “The last girl, Susan Aimes, was found over three hundred miles from here in Harper County.”
“It just wasn’t connected right away,” he said, seeing that James looked like he was about to fly off the handle.
He picked up the file folder, turning it away from them so they couldn’t see its contents.
“The first girl was thought to be an accidental drowning,” he continued, flipping to the page he wanted.
“Amanda Douglas, 13 years old.”
“How do you know it wasn’t accidental?” James asked in a calmer voice.
Tina reached over and took his hand.
; Jamison shook his head.
“I don’t for a hundred percent, they found her head band and one of her sandals so it was assumed an accident.”
Tina was hit with a flash of Hailey’s shoe floating in the water band for a second she couldn’t breathe. ‘Still Alive, Still Alive,’ she chanted in her mind and the band on her chest eased a little.
“They didn’t find her body until a couple of months later, an old couple out fishing found it.”
Jamison looked at his hands, studying them as though the answers to the world’s mysteries were in the lines as he continued.
“Her body was in rough shape by then and they probably never thought to try to determine an estimated time of death, then too he could have held onto her too. Probably won’t really be able to tell for sure.”
Tina looked at the folder he so carefully kept tilted away from them.
Were there pictures in it, she wondered, pictures of the beautiful little girls who were taken from their lives too early. Some little part of her wanted to snatch it from his hands and look but a far bigger part wouldn’t have looked at pictures like that for anything in the world. ‘Please God,’ she prayed, ‘not Hailey.’ I’ll bet their mothers prayed for the same thing whispered the evil little voice in her mind. She cleared the huskiness out of her voice.
“Were they,” her voice cracked and she stumbled over the rest of the words and stopped.
Jamison shook his head.
“Susan Aimes wasn’t assaulted and Amanda probably wasn’t either.”
He looked at them trying to decide how blunt to be. They needed the facts; he would just have to be as gentle as possible.
“If there had been any sign of that on Amanda it never would have been considered accidental.”
He sighed and ran his fingers through his receding hair.
“Susan was an obvious homicide but she was not assaulted either, that’s pretty unusual in that sort of case.”
“I remember reading about Susan’s disappearance,” Tina said quietly, staring at her feet and remembering the cute little girl’s picture in the paper.
“How could I not have remembered her earlier?” She asked, a frown furrowing her brow.
Jamison shook his head. “There’s no fault in this for you.”
Her head snapped up. “Wait, how long was she missing for before they found her,” she asked, her heart thumping. “Wasn’t she missing for weeks?”
Smart lady, Jamison thought approvingly, the only semi good news he had for them really. They both looked at him hopefully and he nodded.
“She was missing for twenty three days before they found her and she hadn’t been dead,” he saw them flinch and mentally kicked himself.
“Hadn’t been umm, gone for much over 24 hours.”
“But they got the guy that took her didn’t they? James asked.
He nodded.
“Yes sir, uhh James, they arrested someone for her murder but he killed himself before it went to trial.”
“You don’t think he did it, you think someone killed him, too,” she asked with horror in her voice.
How little people know about the things that happen in this world, he thought. But it was probably better for them not to know. That knowledge changed you forever. God knew most people probably slept better at night than he did. But maybe if everyone knew there wouldn’t be so much opportunity for evil to slip in. He felt the weight of sadness settle around him. You could never get used to the things people did to each other, and it would be even worse if you could get used to it. He did not have children of his own but he knew it was the worst kind of pain. He would have to interview the other girls family’s now and bring up all that pain and loss all over again for them. He would have to put them right back in the middle of the worst time of their life.
“I don’t think Joseph was responsible for the girl’s death,” he said slowly feeling his way and trying not to say too much. “I don’t think he was murdered though, I think all of it was just too much for him to take.”
They both sat quietly and Jamison knew they were thinking that fourteen days were gone already. That only left eight days, and who knew if there would be the same amount of time in this case anyway. He would never say that aloud but he knew that it would cross their minds anyway. The countdown of days was looming large in his mind already.
“I’m bringing in the FBI,” he said and got both of their attention.
“Why weren’t they involved already?” James asked frowning.
“It’s a little more complicated than that,” he said in a placating tone. It went against his nature to be placating but the family of a victim was different and he swallowed his pride. He liked these people anyway.
“A possible serial killer warrants their attention in a big way,” he said.
He shook his head at Tina’s expression.
“Don’t be scared by the term, if it gets us their help and resources than it’s a good thing. More manpower can’t hurt, I’ve already called in every reserve deputy in three counties to help with the search. They’ve gone home by now but I can call them back at any time.”
She looked at him searchingly and he held her gaze steadily. She realized that she trusted him and it helped a little. The term serial killer had made her coffee threaten to come back up. ‘Toughen up,’ she told herself harshly, you know what you’re up against now and you can take it. You can do anything you have to get her back. Watching her Jamison saw the change, fear to determination. Sure there was still fear but she wasn’t letting it ride her into the ground. Good for you, he thought. They were all quiet for a moment until Tina spoke out of her thoughts.
“Which one of them lived here?” She asked. The second it was out of her mouth she realized what she had said. Jamison was looking at her as though she had asked which train to take to get to Mars.
“Ummm, what?” He said.
Jamison looked at James questioningly and James looked as though he were trying to think of somewhere else he needed to be. It was said now, she had known she would have to talk to Jamison anyway. She would Not give up anything that could help bring her daughter home no matter what people thought of her. She sat up and squared her shoulders, pulling her hand out of James’ and clasping her hands together in her lap. Jamison was looking at James for help but James just stared at his lap.
“I said, which one of the other girls used to live here?” she said clearly.
He dressed for work like usual. His pants and shirt were pressed and spread neatly on the bed. He showered and brushed his teeth until they stung. He dressed with his usual exactness. He was tempted to peek in on her but he figured she would be asleep this early in the morning. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to keep her much longer. He had kept the last one too long. It was getting harder and harder to give them up. If it wasn’t so risky he would keep this one, but sooner or later she would try to escape. He had already made that mistake once and he couldn’t afford to make it again, especially here, where he lived. Like his mama used to say, ‘One mistake is forgivable, two mistakes is unlivable.’ Stupid old bat, thank God she wasn’t still here to rule him with her iron thumb and ‘spare the rod’ justice. But he was smart, smarter than she ever gave him credit for and that’s why he had left town for the last one. And it had worked, they still hadn’t connected the pieces, and they never would. He let himself out and locked the door behind him. He took the little square of cardboard off the doorframe and wedged it between the door and the frame way below the knob. Just in case someone got in while he was gone, he would know it and slip away. He smiled, he wasn’t anyone’s fool. Maybe he would even drive past her house today after work. Her parents were gone anyway. His smile widened at the thought and he was happy. Hailey was being docile and meek, exactly the way she should be and everything was going perfect. He drove off to work, where all the unsuspecting people would treat him as a trusted citizen of this little town he had secretly tormented for so long. He lived among the people that
called him a friend and some that almost considered him family, the people that meant so much to him and yet, so little. Some of them he considered to actually be his friends but there wasn’t a person among them that he had ever considered showing his true self, too, except the girls of course. They simply couldn’t be trusted to understand what he was doing or to try not to derail him.
Chapter Eight
Day 15
She explained it as best she could. She kept it brief and factual and did not try to convince him or try to plead her case. Her last words still hung in the air like a nasty smell that you just can’t find the source of. She had told him the facts, simply and clearly. Except the facts hadn’t sounded simple or even sane, even to her they hadn’t. Jamison’s sat looking at her stone faced. He hadn’t said one word while she talked and he had nothing but a poker face.
Aw crap, she thought. He set the coffee cup gently on the coffee table.
“I don’t know what the kind of game you guys think you’re playin’ with me,” he said, his voice low and angry.
“You got to be some kind of stupid to play around like this when your daughter’s life is at stake.”
He picked up his folder off the table and stood up in one angry, jerky motion. He looked at both of them as though they were something he had just accidentally stepped in and stomped out, just stopping himself from slamming the door. Sitting in the sudden, loud silence Tina heard the car door slam and his tires squeal as he peeled out. She looked at James and peeled her fingers apart from the involuntary death grip they had taken on each other.
“That went well,” she said in a remarkably calm voice.
James looked at her and smiled a sad, disbelieving little smile. He ran his fingers through her hair and along the side of her cheek in an old familiar gesture.
“You can’t really blame him honey, he deals in facts and it’s a pretty crazy story.”
“Crazy?” She said, cocking an eyebrow at him.
“Sorry, not the right word maybe. How about ‘hard to believe’?”
Down in the Lake Page 5