Sophie closed her eyes with embarrassment. No doubt her face was back to a shade of red, which was getting typical these days.
“Well, it’s not going to happen again. So you don’t have to worry.”
“It can’t, Sophie. I’m eighteen.”
“I know. I’m sure it was really awful for you and everything. Me standing there in my bra…”
“No,” he spat out. “That part wasn’t awful. That part…was actually pretty awesome. We both know it can’t happen again, but there is no point in lying.”
“Really?”
“Really. You puking up right after that…that was the awful part.”
She couldn’t help it. She started to laugh. So hard she made a snorting noise through her nose, which could have been humiliating all on its own if Bay wasn’t also laughing as hard.
“Friends?” he said finally.
“Yeah.”
“Cool.”
It was cool. It was actually better than cool. Bay thought she looked good without her shirt on. He was going to have no chance against her when she finally turned eighteen.
CHAPTER TWENTY
“MR. SHARPE, A WORD.”
Mark looked up from the watercooler where he was pouring a second cup of water. He’d lingered for a little longer than ten minutes and was about to tell Bay his time with Sophie was up. Today had been a long day for her and he wanted her to try to sleep, which would be hard in a hospital. Harder still if she was thinking about her current crush.
Mark looked at the man approaching him and immediately knew he was a cop of some kind. He had swagger mixed with authority and since he was dressed in jeans, a flannel shirt and a lined leather jacket, Mark pegged him as a detective.
Mark felt overdressed, still wearing his suit. At least he had ditched the tie.
“I’m Mark Sharpe.” Mark held his hand out and the man shook it.
“Detective Milton. I got a call earlier from Dr. Fishman. He said he let you know we would be contacting you.”
“Yes. It’s about my daughter.”
“I understand she was poisoned. Is that right?”
“Partly. She ingested a chemical that broke down into cyanide in her system.”
“Dr. Fishman indicated you fear this may be intentional.”
“I do.” Mark spent the next ten minutes catching the detective up on the events of the past several weeks. “The hit-and-run was reported to the police in Philadelphia. I told the officer who filed the report about the notes, as well. You can verify that.”
“Can you describe these notes?”
“The notes are vague, as I said. An implied threat. No evidence of any kind that might reveal who sent them. I’m speculating that they may have come from someone involved in my most recent case, but that’s all it is at this point. Speculation. It’s also circumstantial to connect her condition to the notes. However, I’m not willing to take any chances.”
“Understood.”
“So what happens now?”
“I’ll file a report. I’ll wait for morning to talk to your daughter and this partner you mentioned. Then we’ll take it from there.”
Mark nodded. While he appreciated the detective’s attention on the matter, he already knew there was nothing to find. Certainly nothing that could be proved in a court of law. Mark’s interest was not justice. Only safety. For his daughter. Who every once in a while called him Dad.
“There you are, Mr. Sharpe.”
Dr. Fishman was walking in their direction. Mark introduced the detective to the doctor. “Detective Milton will be investigating this from Chicago. Detective, I’m assuming you can transfer any information you learn back to the Philadelphia police?”
“If the poisoning happened in Chicago it’s our case.”
“I don’t think it did,” Dr. Fishman interrupted. “Looking further at her levels and the chemical involved, and given the slow progression of her symptoms, I’m fairly confident in saying this has been administered in small doses over a couple of weeks.”
A slow steady poisoning. It was exactly what Jack Anderson had done to his daughter, Sally. To cover up the fact that he had been molesting her for years. It had to be connected. It had to be.
“I have a list of products this chemical was actually used in before anyone knew about its toxicity. Some of these are fairly innocuous. It’s a wonder more people didn’t die from this stuff, but then again most of this isn’t ingestible.” Dr. Fishman read from the list. “Cleaning solvents, some cosmetics. I guess with skin absorption that could be an issue. Some nail polishes, but they’ve all been taken off the market. Nail polish remover, as well…”
“What?” Mark took the list from the doctor’s hands and scanned the items again. “Holy shit. It’s in the nail polish. It was absorbing into her skin and she was ingesting it.”
“Excuse me? Why ingesting it?”
“She bites her nails,” Mark snarled. “It’s a really bad habit.”
*
JOJO LET OUT her breath when she read the list of products that contained the chemical known as acetonitrile. Any nail polish containing the chemical should have been removed from the shelves, but what if someone had an old bottle? Something that didn’t look that old. Something clear in color.
JoJo stood and left the computer room. She made her way to the checkin counter and didn’t bother with any pretense or story. “Can you please connect me to Nancy Burke’s room?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
JoJo took the phone and listened to it ring. On the second ring, Nancy picked up.
“Hello.”
“Hi, Nancy, it’s JoJo.”
“Hi.”
“Can I come up?”
There was a pause before Nancy finally said, “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“I just want to talk, Nancy. Don’t you think we should talk?”
“I suppose you’re going to want to know why I did it.”
“Yep. But I also know you’re sorry. You said so in your last note.”
“I am,” the woman said on a broken sob. “I’m really sorry.”
“Tell me your room number. I’ll come up. We’ll just talk.”
“Don’t lie. You’re going to bring the police.”
“I am. Not right away, though. It can just be the two of us for a while. I think that will help you, Nancy. I really do.”
“It’s 742.” Her voice was small and tight. JoJo could hear the panic, but she didn’t think Nancy had any plans to run. In fact, running or fighting back were the last things she feared Nancy would do.
As JoJo hung up the phone, the cell in her pocket started ringing. She picked it up and thought about how Mark was going to react to the news. He probably wasn’t going to like what she planned to do.
“JoJo, it’s Nancy. It was in the damn nail polish she gave her.”
“I know.”
“I take it she hasn’t tried to leave or you would have spotted her. But she has to be thinking about running. Let the hotel security know that all exits have to be watched. You need to find out what her room number is and stay posted outside her door. The police are on their way and I’ll be there as soon as I can. If the staff needs confirmation they can call the Chicago P.D. and ask for…”
“I have her room number. I just talked to her. She’s still there.”
“What do you mean you talked to her? Did she confess?”
“She did, but I already knew. I realized it when I saw the list of products that contained the chemical. Mark, I think she’s going to hurt herself.”
“Then. Let. Her.”
It was the anger talking. Or maybe not. Mark had lived a different kind of life abroad in which emotions like compassion and forgiveness were in short supply. He’d lived in a kill-or-be-killed environment and she didn’t judge him for that. But she hadn’t lived that life and she couldn’t let Nancy do what she suspected the woman wanted to do.
“I can’t. She knew we would find out. She kn
ew when you confronted her about the notes. It was only a matter of time. She didn’t run for a reason. I think I can talk to her. I think I can convince her I know how sorry she is.”
“JoJo.” There was a moment of silence and she imagined him taking a breath and doing what she’d yelled at him to do earlier that night. To think logically and rationally. “That woman is unstable. That woman tried to run you and Sophie down with a car. That woman tried to kill Sophie. You are to wait there until the police arrive.”
“I got your gun. I stopped at our hotel room first before I came back here. I can’t believe you thought you needed it but I guess you were right to be prepared.”
“JoJo, I swear to God…”
“I knew you had it because I saw you show airport security your papers. Former CIA but you still get to carry concealed on an airplane. As an American citizen I’m not sure how I feel about that.”
“JoJo…”
“Why didn’t you have it on you?”
“Truthfully, I forgot about it. If you remember, I was a little rattled this afternoon.”
She smiled then. Poor Mark. He’d gone from taking her virginity, to getting screamed at by his daughter, only to have her run off. Yeah, she could see why he’d been rattled.
“Please don’t do what you’re thinking of doing.”
“I know how to handle a gun,” she assured him. “I’ve also had training in hostage negotiation.”
“Who the hell is the hostage?”
“Nancy is. At least her life is. You’ve seen my training, you know I’m as qualified as any police officer to confront her. If I don’t act now, she’s going to find a way to take her life. I can’t stand by and let that happen. I have to try.”
“JoJo. Please. Please don’t do this. I’m coming. I’ll be there in minutes. Let me do this with you.”
“She won’t want to talk to you. She’ll be too afraid. I’m going to hang up now. Please don’t hate me when this is over.”
“I will,” he shouted back. “I will hate you. Do you hear that? Are you listening to me? I will hate you!”
JoJo hung up the phone and then left it on the desk. She could hear it ringing again as she made her way to the elevators. Nancy was seven stories up. Waiting.
*
JOJO STOOD IN front of the door and considered what she was doing. She didn’t know how Nancy planned to take her life. Only that she was going to. There was no other reason for the woman to stay. Even now she could be suffering from the effects of an overdose or bleeding out from cuts to her wrists.
Or she could be armed.
JoJo fought through her fear and realized that if the woman was going to live, JoJo was her lifeline. She knocked on the door and in seconds Nancy opened it.
“Come in.”
Cautiously, JoJo walked into the room. She didn’t see blood, and Nancy didn’t appear to be suffering from a reaction to drugs. She was only a second late in registering the gun in the woman’s hand before Nancy was pointing it at her own temple.
JoJo had her gun out and pointed at Nancy in less than a blink, but the woman only laughed.
“What are you going to do? Shoot me?”
“Nancy, put the gun down. It’s why I came here. I want to talk to you.”
The woman, who was only a few years older than JoJo but who looked so much older, so much more worn down by life, shook her head. “There is nothing to talk about. I tried to kill an innocent young girl. There is no forgiveness for that. Only a life in prison.”
“It’s still life. Your life. I’m sure there were circumstances. You just need to tell people why.”
“I thought I had to. I thought it was my penance.”
JoJo hated having her gun trained on the woman, but didn’t dare lower it. As long as Nancy’s gun was engaged, so was JoJo’s weapon. She thought about taking a shot at her arm, or hand. Ultimately, she had to hope that Nancy would choose life over death.
Rather than ask the hardest question, the one she knew Nancy would hesitate to answer, JoJo kept it lighter, easier for the woman. “Where did you get the gun?”
“Gun show this week at the Chicago Convention Center. They’ve really got to do something to close those loopholes, don’t you think?”
JoJo didn’t bother to engage the woman on a gun debate. “What about the nail polish? That must have been a really old bottle.”
“I found it in my mother’s house. In an old makeup kit. I had researched all these poisons and then when I found the nail polish I thought, well, Sophie has that horrible habit. I sent a sample away to be tested. I told the company I was concerned that my nail salon was using a banned product and the lab confirmed that the chemical was present.”
“It was a good plan.” An evil and horrific plan. “But I know you’re sorry.”
“I am sorry,” the woman nodded, tears barely held in check surfacing again. “You know that, right?”
“Yes, you sent the note.”
“I wanted to tell him. So that he would know. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. All of it was my fault. From the very beginning.”
The gun dipped a bit and JoJo didn’t move. “I understand. You made a mistake, but we all make mistakes. Don’t let this be another one. Put the gun down and we can sit and you can tell me everything that happened. Oh, Nancy, I know you want to. Please, talk to me.”
“You really are nice. Even though you look that way with the tattoos and the nose piercing. It’s really very off-putting, to be honest. So harsh.”
“I appreciate you letting me know that. I don’t want to put you off, Nancy. I want to try to be your friend instead.”
“But I tried to hit you with the car.”
“I know, but you didn’t hurt me. A bump on the head. What’s that? Nothing.”
Nancy’s eyes drifted and again JoJo watched the gun dip. She might consider tackling the woman, but the risk that the gun could go off was too great. Better to keep her talking.
“I could see he liked you and I thought I’m always second. Never first. Always second. My whole life. Why is that? Everything was working so well, but then you showed up and I just got mad. Really, really mad.”
JoJo nodded. “I get that. It makes sense. Nancy, who is Jack Anderson to you?”
Instantly Nancy refocused on her and her hand started to shake. JoJo tightened her hold on her weapon, her finger resting on the trigger. If Nancy made one startling move, JoJo was going to have take her down.
Please don’t make me do that.
Time was passing. The police were on the way. Mark was on his way. She was running out of time to end this peacefully.
“He was my father. My real one. But my mother…Mommy…gave me away. Sally they kept. Sally was first. I was second and they sent me away.”
“I don’t understand,” JoJo said, truly confused.
“She said she was protecting me. She said Daddy would hurt me. I can only assume it was their compromise. He would let me go and she wouldn’t report him? I’ll never know. All I remember her telling me was that she had no choice. She was crying and I thought…but there was a choice. She could have sent Sally away.”
She could have sent her husband away. To jail. JoJo considered a mother who would give away a daughter. A mother who knew what was happening to her oldest but wouldn’t stop it. Thinking her only option was to try to save her other daughter. She hoped the woman was on some seriously good drugs in the mental health facility where she had been committed.
“And your brother? Sean. Didn’t he wonder…”
“He was only two. But Sally was older and she told me it was going to be okay. I thought we were moving to a new house, we were so excited. But then Mommy gave me to this couple and said I was going to be their little girl. That I was going to be safe.”
“You understand why she did that now, don’t you? You know your father hurt Sally.”
“I know,” Nancy snapped. “Sally and I were sisters! Sisters. They couldn’t break us up. I knew
my name was Anderson. When I was old enough I found out where they moved. They were only in the next town. I went to Sally’s high school and found her there. She told me I had to stay away. She told me what Daddy was doing to her. She wanted to scare me.”
The pieces started to fall into place for JoJo. “Then she got sick.”
Nancy shook her head. “I didn’t know. I didn’t know he was hurting her that way, too. She just got sick, but she was so scared. The last time I saw her I could tell something was really wrong. The way she said goodbye to me… But she wouldn’t have killed herself. I know that. She wouldn’t have left me!”
“You sent the anonymous letter, didn’t you? To Mark, telling him to look into her death.”
“I saw his ad in the paper. How he specialized in cold cases. I thought maybe someone should look. Even after all these years…nobody looked after she died and she was so scared.”
“You did a really brave thing.” JoJo didn’t know if Nancy could hear the sound of footsteps in the hallway outside the room. Too many to be a guest. The police were here. A small force was outside the room, waiting to make their move. In minutes the phone would ring. A police specialist would be on the other end of the line ready to take over the job that JoJo wasn’t getting done.
“But I didn’t! I ruined everything. My father killed himself, my mother had to be institutionalized. If Sean remembered me a little and knew I what did, he would hate me. My only family would hate me. Because those other people weren’t my family. They were never my family. They were just the people I lived with until I could get away. I needed to do right by my family. I needed to make it even.”
“By hurting Sophie?”
“I almost didn’t because I didn’t think it would matter. When I first got the job, I saw that Mark and Sophie could barely stand each other. I was going to quit and just leave it alone, but then I could see things changing. They were starting to like each other. Laughing and joking and it wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair that my family was ruined and his was just starting.”
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