“What I think is if you e-mail, you might not be able to get back in here to check the e-mail for a response, whereas if you call, you have a real person on the other end of the phone. I vote for the phone call. If they trace the call, Charlie won’t know a thing about it when they show up to question him. If you need to make a second call, you’ll have to use a phone booth or buy one of those throwaway phones. Find a paper and pick a reporter.”
Josh turned off the computer and pushed the chair back to its original position. Charlie would never know that his territory had been intruded upon.
Yesterday’s edition of the Chronicle was on top of the pile. Josh scrutinized it carefully and finally whittled down his list of possible reporters to call. He looked around for a piece of paper and a pencil. He found a pencil next to a crossword puzzle that seemed to have stymied Charlie, since it wasn’t finished. Josh couldn’t help himself, he finished it and made a star at the top of the puzzle. He then ripped a corner off one of the older newspapers and wrote down his short list: Desmond Quigley, Amanda Summers, Phil Coster, and Tessie Dancer. “Which one would be your choice, Tom?”
“Think Captain Queeg. Amanda sounds like a flirt. Phil sounds like a fuddy-duddy. Tessie Dancer sounds like she’s got it going on. I think I’d go with her. What do you think?”
“Tessie Dancer it is.” Five minutes later Josh had the main number for the Chronicle. He dialed the number and asked for Tessie Dancer. He almost fainted when he heard a female voice announce her name—“Tess Dancer. What can I do for you today?”
“Miss Dancer, this is Josh Baer. I’d like to talk to you about…some…some things. Will whatever I tell you be held in confidence?”
“Josh Baer! The kid from the academy?” Tessie bolted upright in her chair, the power bar in her hand all but forgotten. She quickly snapped on her recorder, and said, “A reporter is just like a priest. We never give up our sources, and once we give our word, it’s golden. I’m giving you mine. Kid, where the hell are you? Everyone and their brother is out there looking for you.”
“I can’t tell you where I am. I’m okay. I tried to go to the FBI and the police, but they wouldn’t help me. Doesn’t anyone care about all those kids and teachers that were killed? I don’t see anything in the papers or online.”
Tessie’s heart raced as she tried to come up with something compelling that would keep the boy on the line. “That’s because some very powerful people put a lid on it.”
“I sent them a picture of the man who did the killings. I didn’t see it on the news or in the papers. Where’s Jesse?”
“I didn’t know that. Can you send it to me? I don’t know this for sure, but I think the FBI has Jesse safe in a secure location. I can try to find out more. How can I reach you?”
“Are you crazy? I can’t tell you where I am. I can call you from time to time, but that’s it. That crazy guy almost killed me yesterday. He wants me dead because Jesse and I saw him kill all those kids and the teachers. He keeps following me. I don’t know how he knows where I am, but he does. He changes the way he looks. And some big guy keeps showing up with a dog and a lady.”
“Listen, kid…Josh…the big guy, the dog, and the lady are the good guys. Trust me on that.”
“I’m sorry, Miss Dancer, but I can’t trust anyone. I don’t even know you. I have a book with all the numbers in it. Me and my friend Tom wrote it all down. Tom and Sheila are dead, and now I have the book. When you catch that guy, I’ll turn it over, but only if I’m sure it goes to the right person. You work for a newspaper. Why aren’t you writing about the shooting? All those kids are dead, and no one cares. I care, dammit, they were my friends, and now they’re dead. They were my brothers and sisters.”
“All of them were your brothers and sisters?” What the hell?
“Jesse was. I think. They said we were all related. Mr. Dickey… Mr. Dickey said that was impossible. Miss Carmody said it could be true. They were going to get married, but no one knew but me and Tom. Now they’re dead. Mr. Dickey knew a lot. He was going to quit. I don’t know about Miss Carmody. Maybe she was going to quit, too. They killed them. They don’t care.”
Tessie was beside herself as she struggled to give this tormented boy some kind of hope. “I care, Josh. I really do. I’m working with that tall man with the dog and the lady. He wants to find you desperately.”
“Why?” Josh snapped.
Truth or lie? Somewhere in between. Find the right words without scaring the daylights out of the kid. Try to get him to trust you. “He wants to help you. He doesn’t live here in California, but he’s visiting right now. He’s a good man, so is the lady. They were at the school yesterday. The guy doing the shooting shot out their tires. You helped the lady get to the kitchen. She was scared out of her wits.”
Josh threw Tessie for a loop when he asked, “Are you a mother?”
“I wish I was, but, no, I am not a mother. I have a mother, though. And a father. I take care of them. Is it important to you for me to be a mother?”
“Mothers are protectors. They don’t let bad things happen. Miss Carmody taught us that. She cared about all of us. She used to tell us what it was like to have a family and how families did things.”
“Sometimes, Josh, when mothers and fathers get old, the roles reverse, and the children have to take care of them. Do you have a mother or a father?”
“No.”
Tessie bit down hard on her tongue. She wanted desperately to tell him he did have a father, but this wasn’t the time. Then again, maybe this was the right time.
“Josh, what would you say if I told you I think you do have a father, and I might know who it is?”
“Josh, don’t fall for that. We both know we don’t have parents. We’re artificial kids. She’s lying to you to gain your trust. Don’t trust her. Hang up right now.”
“I don’t believe you. If what you said is true, it would have been in the newspapers because that’s news. Your newspaper doesn’t care about me or the others. No one is looking for that guy who wants to kill me. Tell me I’m wrong, Miss Dancer.”
“If it was up to me, Josh, I’d have it plastered all over the front page of the paper and it would be on the news twenty-four/seven. Unfortunately, I just work here. You can trust me. Maybe between the two of us, we can figure out the best way to handle all of this.”
Josh broke the connection, his hand shaking when he replaced the phone in its base. Shit, shit, shit. Now what am I supposed to do?
“Get out of here right now. Hustle, buddy, and don’t forget to leave some money for Charlie.”
Josh was almost to the door when he realized he was still in his underwear. He grabbed his clothes from the dryer and dressed. He was back in Mr. Dickey’s kitchen within minutes. He was huffing and puffing as he stood in the center of the floor, shaking all over.
“Okay, okay, calm down. Let’s talk about this calmly and rationally. That’s what Mr. Dickey used to tell us when things got out of hand.”
Josh snorted in disgust. “None of that stuff we learned is worth anything. This world is nothing like the make-believe one we were taught. I’m getting scared, Tom. There’s no one out here I can trust. What’s going to happen now?”
Josh felt like crying when there was no response from Tom.
Chapter 22
When the boy broke the connection, Tessie sat in stupefied amazement as she listened to the tape over and over until she had it virtually committed to memory.
She felt like worms were crawling all over her. She racked her brain for what she could have said, as opposed to what she did say, to Josh Baer to make her feel like this. Why had he called her, of all people, in the first place? She should have asked that. Yes, she’d taped the call, but what good was that going to do her? She would have traced the call, but the paper didn’t have those capabilities. The boy had sounded so nervous, so frightened. He mentioned a book. A book he and Tom wrote. What the hell was in the book? Copied files or records? Poor kid. And
then that business about her being a mother… What did that mean? Whatever it was, it must be important to the boy.
The bottom line was she’d failed the kid. Maybe he’d call back when he replayed the call over in his mind the way she was doing. In her own defense, she thought she’d sounded motherly on the phone. But did her tone ring that way in Josh’s ears?
Tessie heaved herself up out of the chair and was halfway to the door when she walked back and sat down. She yanked at her cell phone to call Little Slick. When he picked up, she started to babble. “Look, Slick, I know you said you were walking away from this and I was on my own, but can you do one more thing for me? The boy called me here at the paper. I taped the call but I need to know where the call came from. I know it’s a piece of cake for you to find that out. The kid’s in mortal danger, Slick. If the situation were reversed, you know I’d move heaven and earth to do it for you.” Tessie clinched her little speech with, “He’s got no one, Slick, and he reached out to me. Please.”
“You’re breaking my heart, Tessie. Okay, okay, I’ll do it. Give me fifteen minutes, thirty tops, if you want a profile, which I know you do.”
Tessie’s sigh of relief was so loud she startled herself. She reached into her drawer for a power bar and made a vow to stop eating such crap. Tomorrow she’d bring some raw veggies and crackers. She knew she’d do no such thing, but vowing that she would made her feel better. It was like promising herself she’d go to a gym on Monday morning. On Sunday afternoon it always seemed plausible to make a promise like that to yourself.
With nothing else to occupy her until Slick called back, Tessie reached for a ragged, tattered picture of a beach house she’d clipped from a travel folder twenty years ago. She referred to it as an incentive to make things work for her and her aging parents, and someday, maybe, she’d be able to retire to something close to what she hungered for in the picture. Just a one-or two-bedroom bungalow on or near the water, preferably on the water. A small garden so she could plant a few vegetables and maybe some flowers. A front porch. Not a deck. A deck was for yuppies. She wanted a front porch with a few rocking chairs. Maybe some potted flowers for color, a few hanging ferns from the beams. A bachelorette home. A big old fireplace, a sunken bathtub. Maybe a pretty kitchen where she could pretend to cook once she learned how. Not that she literally couldn’t cook. Anyone could make meat loaf. She had over two hundred recipes for chopped meat. She wanted to branch out, maybe pork chops that were stuffed, rack of lamb, even though she hated lamb. “Come on, you dumb shit, call me. What’s taking you so long?” she seethed.
Almost on cue, Tessie’s cell phone rang. “Didja get it?”
Slick sighed. “Didja think even for a minute that I wouldn’t?”
“No, no, not even for a minute. I owe you my life, Slick. Shoot it to me.”
“The call was made from 16 Castle Gate Apartments. The phone is listed to a Charles Garrison, age 73, a widower. He has two sons, one lives in Boston and one lives in Delaware. He has six grandchildren. He’s a retired master chief in the navy. He currently works at a place called Hotdog Haven and makes ten bucks an hour. You happy now? Swear to me you won’t call me again.”
Well, that was certainly more than she needed to know. “I’ll try not to. Thanks, Slick.”
“Tessie, when are you going to get it through your head you can’t save the whole world?”
“The same time you do. We’re the good guys, remember?” When Tessie realized she was talking to a dial tone, she hung up.
Tessie turned her computer back on and went to the MapQuest Web site and typed in “16 Castle Gate Apartments.” Then she typed in the address of the hotel where Pete Kelly was staying. She printed out the directions, turned off her computer. She took a moment to call home to tell the health aide she wouldn’t be home for dinner, then gathered up all her gear for the trip to pick up Pete Kelly. It was almost five o’clock, rush hour. She shuddered at the thought, but it didn’t stop her. She had a lot of thinking to do, and what better place to do all that thinking than in her car while stuck in traffic.
Winston heard Tessie’s footsteps even before she turned the corner of the path leading to Pete’s villa. Zolly appeared out of nowhere and groaned when he saw who the early-evening visitor was.
Tessie marched up to the security guard and stuck her face in his. “Can you tango, big guy?”
“Huh… What?” Zolly sputtered.
“Guess that’s a no. Not a problem, I can teach you. You really need to loosen up. This dog has more finesse than you do, don’t you, little fella?”
Winston whimpered as he licked Tessie’s hand. “Bet you can’t even do the two-step.”
“I can fox-trot,” Zolly blustered.
Tessie just laughed as she made her way to Pete’s villa. She didn’t bother to knock but just opened the door and announced herself. “Saddle up, guys. I found the boy. Move, move, move!”
Pete and Lily both stood rooted to the floor. Zolly stood in the open doorway, listening.
“And I have directions,” Tessie said, waving the printout for everyone to see.
Awe rang in Pete’s voice. “You actually found him! How? When? Are you sure this isn’t some false lead? Hey, I’m ready. Let’s go.”
Lily was as dumbfounded as Pete. She gripped his arm for support. “You didn’t call the police or the FBI, did you, Tessie?”
“No way. I really think Zolly should stay here, and we go in one car. No sense spooking the boy. He’s going to be watching us. On the drive up here, I knew there was something I was missing. I figured it out when I hit the parking lot. The teacher, Adam Dickey, lived at the Castle Gate Apartments, but my source told me the call came from a phone listed in the name of Charles Garrison. He might be the boy’s friend or someone the teacher knew. I just don’t recall the number of the apartment for Adam Dickey. Anyway, that’s where the boy is. I should have figured it out sooner but I didn’t. I’m sorry. Sometimes my brain goes on overload. I’m driving,” Tessie said firmly.
Zolly lumbered into the room. “You can drive, but I’m going. I better not hear another peep out of you, either.”
Tessie whipped around. “Why are you being so nice to me all of a sudden?”
Zolly was so befuddled he threw his hands in the air. He thought he was being nasty. “Just make sure you drive the speed limit.”
“If you think you’re going to tell me what to do, think again, big guy. Is the dog going, too?”
“That’s a really stupid question even for you, Miz Smart-ass. The dog goes everywhere we go. We should take the SUV, because there’s more room in it. I’ll let you drive it,” Zolly said.
“I suppose you think I don’t know how to handle an SUV. Well, I do, Mister Smart-ass. Can we just leave already?”
Pete and Lily barreled through the door to follow Tessie to the parking lot, where the SUV waited. Zolly tossed Tessie the keys, and she caught them in midair. She unlocked the door.
“Mr. Authority here sits up front, you two and the dog in the back. We all agreed?”
Zolly started to mumble as he strapped himself into the passenger seat in front.
“I hope you aren’t one of those people who feels the need to talk when she drives.”
“Actually, I do talk when I’m driving. I even taught myself Spanish and Italian from tapes. I’m studying Greek right now. Being multi-lingual is a definite asset in my line of work.”
Not to be outdone, Zolly said, “I speak Polish, Russian, and Japanese.”
In the backseat, Pete and Lily rolled their eyes. “It’s the mating dance. They’re flirting with each other, and neither one knows it. Well, maybe Tessie knows it. Zolly is a little slow on the uptake,” Pete whispered in Lily’s ear.
While the give-and-take banter went on in the front seat, Lily leaned closer to Pete, and said in a low voice, “I’m so excited for you, Pete. I know I feel relieved, and know you must feel the same way. We’ll get him to safe ground, then the powers that be will hav
e to listen to him and keep him safe. It will happen that way, won’t it?”
“If it were a perfect world, yes, it would happen that way. But this is far from a perfect world, Lily. What can go wrong will go wrong. I’m hopeful, though.”
“Tessie said he had a book that he and his friend Tom made up. What do you suppose… Do you think they know about whatever it is that was going on?”
“Obviously the two of them knew something they thought was important enough to commit to paper. Having said that, the short answer is yes, and that’s why he’s so afraid to trust anyone. I would be, too, if I were in his shoes.
“He’s out there all alone fending for himself with no friends. The friends he did have are all dead and only by the grace of God is he still alive. Living in a group home all his life hasn’t prepared him for the world as we know it. So far he’s doing okay, though. We both know that can change in a heartbeat. I think right now he’s getting desperate. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have called Tessie. He sees the authorities as the enemy and not to be trusted; and then there’s that maniac who’s after him. The kid has guts, I can tell you that. I hope to God he is my son. Do you think he is, Lily? Tell me the truth.”
“I do, Pete. I really do.”
“Well, if he is my son, he’s never going to understand any of this. Seventeen-year-olds have minds of their own. When this is all over, and he has to move on, how does he go from what he’s known to me? I tried putting myself in his place, and I stunned myself with my reaction.”
“What?”
“I’d say to me, ‘Go pound salt and get out of my life.’ I would be bitter and hateful. He thinks he’s artificial. So he knows, or thinks he knows, about the donations, the artificial insemination, the surrogate mothers. He probably knows more than we’re giving him credit for.”
“Don’t go there yet, Pete. And don’t sell that kid short either. I see a whole other scenario. Oh, look, Tessie is slowing down. We must be almost there. You ready?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be.” It was a lie, and Pete knew it. In a million years he could never ready himself for the moment when he would be eyeball-to-eyeball with his son.
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