Once they had paid for their time slot, Summer stood quietly while the teenaged attendant fitted and tightened her safety harness and gave her some basic instructions. The young man then led her to the kiddy wall and assisted her with the first couple of halting grips. He stepped back and left Summer clinging to the wall.
Becky watched the child with a growing uneasiness. She sensed that something wasn’t right. Her empathic personality was meshing with the feelings of the little girl and a sudden burst of anxiety flooded her consciousness. Summer wasn’t just nervous about the first-time climbing experience. Something else was happening. Becky felt a deep fear bordering on terror.
Suddenly, Summer began to cry as she began to frantically grab at the climbing grips with her hands while her feet flailed to find the footholds. She seemed to have no fear of the height as she struggled to scale the wall at a pace far faster than the other children. She reminded Becky of the time one of her cats had gotten onto a screened window. Spread-eagled, the animal had almost ripped the screen to shreds as it fought to get to the top of the window. It was obvious that this child was in a mental place removed from the wall itself. Becky jumped from her chair and raced to the little child.
She was just able to reach Summer and pulled the girl from the wall. Hugging her tightly and stroking her hair, Becky placed her cheek against the girl’s face and spoke to her calmly, telling her she was safe now. Summer clutched Becky around the neck ferociously.
John and Sandy had watched in stunned silence, unsure what to make of the situation. Finally, John spoke. “What’s going on, Becky? Why’d you do that? She was doing just fine, far better than the other kids.”
Sandy turned angrily to her husband. “John, you ignoramus, Summer was scared to death and Becky knew it. She literally rescued our granddaughter from a situation she didn’t understand.”
Becky tried to defuse the tension. “Sandy is right, John, and it isn’t your fault that you didn’t know. I’m able to connect with Summer’s feelings and I knew she was terrified of something about that wall. She wasn’t climbing the wall, guys, she was trying to escape from it.”
John looked at Becky appreciatively. “Oh my gosh, I guess I didn’t pick up on that. Guess the grandfather in me wanted to think she was overachieving. So why is she afraid of it?”
“I wish I knew, guys. That’s the $24,000 question,” Becky replied. “I don’t think it’s the wall, I think it’s something that the wall represents.”
Sandy tried to ask Summer what she was afraid of, but to no avail. Her granddaughter just sobbed as tears trickled down her cheeks. She seemed to have no idea why she was so afraid. It was obvious that her experience at the climbing wall was over. The adults left the business without understanding what had happened.
Back at the Hayden’s home, Becky and Summer said good-bye to the grandparents. Becky then discussed the events at the climbing wall with Lizzie while Summer took a nap. Guy had gone into town to watch a college basketball game at Foster and Logan’s Pub and Grill with a work friend. Lizzie poured them each a glass of red wine and invited Becky to sit in front of the fireplace with her. They chatted before the fire, basking in the warm glow of the flickering flames. Outside, the mountains to the west cast a shadow over their log home and the entire town. The temperature seemed to drop ten degrees almost instantly as the sun sank below the peaks. The state of dimming twilight would last another half hour.
Becky savored her first sip of the semi-sweet elixir and studied her female employer. Lizzie was a very cute, round-faced, woman. Her naturally wavy dark hair just touched her shoulders. She sat barefoot with her legs pulled up inside the big log chair, staring at the embers as she tugged at her sweater. Becky felt a connection to her that went beyond that of work. She felt like they could become best friends. It was easy to see why Summer was such a little cutie.
“Lizzie, I’m very puzzled by what happened today.” Becky kicked off her own shoes and pulled her socked feet under her. “Do you have any idea what might have happened to set your daughter off about that wall?”
Lizzie turned her gaze from the fire back to Becky. “I’ve been trying to think of anything remotely like that. The only thing that comes to mind as even a slight possibility is a camping trip last year. We went with Guy’s brother and his son to the Ovens. It’s an area of limestone and dolomite cliffs not too far south of here. It’s sort of a beginner’s climbing area. The boy and Summer went hiking around there for an hour or two. They apparently got a little too close for Summer and she wanted to go back to camp. He said she was scared.”
“Did they actually try to climb any of the formations?” Becky asked.
“Not according to the boy. He said they just walked along the base of the first major cliff and Summer kept saying she was afraid of them.”
Becky asked, “nothing like the panic she had today then?”
“No, not at all. She just seemed to not like being that close to them,” Lizzie said.
“What was happening today went beyond fear,” Becky said. “She was feeling a combination of terror and outright panic.”
“I haven’t seen that before. But you see what I meant by other things. Every so often, without any warning, something like this will happen. It catches you by surprise and you have no idea why.” Lizzie wiped away a tear.
“I’m so sorry,” Becky said. “We’ll keep after this until we figure it out.”
“Thank you, Becky,” Lizzie replied. “I know you probably need to check in with your company soon. Would you like to go to church with us tomorrow? We haven’t been there for a couple months. Maybe it’s about time.”
Becky was thrilled to be asked. She agreed to meet them for breakfast in their house about 8:30 and go with them to the Red Lodge Community Church. It should be a clear and sunny morning, though very cold.
She felt her heart begin to ache for Lizzie. It had to be very frustrating and painful to see your child go through these unexplained episodes. She could also sense a degree of fear in Lizzie; fear of the unknown and what else it might bring. Somehow she had to get to the bottom of this and help the mother and her child. For now, though, the wine in her cup was nearly gone and a wave of sleepiness hit. It was time to go back to the cabin, take a short nap, grab something to eat somewhere, and then call Bert and Norah.
***
In the dusk of the sinking sun, the last rays peeked over the western horizon and then disappeared. Bert strolled slowly in the snow along the tree-lined gully bordering a fallow cornfield a short distance from the Nebraska City Holiday Inn Express. He decided to pull the earmuffs down on his cap to subdue the increasing cold of impending darkness. He was normally somewhat impervious to the chill of winter, but when he felt his ears begin to sting he knew it was time to cover them. His eyes strained to pick out Missy as she roamed at the edge of the gulley, in and out of the trees. If not for the snow-covered ground, her thick reddish-grey coat would have been very difficult to discern from the terrain in the fading light.
Missy was in her element. Most of the time, the snow would support her 45-pound weight, but every now and then she would break through and sink almost up to her belly. Bert got a kick out of watching her leap from the drifts until she found harder crust to walk on. The wild in this animal always had her senses on high alert. A furry snack was always on the menu. There just might be a mouse in the clumps of grass or a rabbit in the trees.
Bert turned to his spirit wife, who had accompanied them on this evening walk, and nodded toward their vehicle. She nodded back. It was time to get back to the motel and do some work before darkness overtook them. He whistled for Missy.
Back at the motel, Bert took care of Missy’s needs as he talked with Norah. Besides being his wife, he valued her opinions and inputs into their business. Her spirit was as attractive to him as when she was alive.
“Well, Sweetheart, I’m thinking the first order of business is to call that friend of Robert’s mother,” Bert said. “Patricia Dome
nica I believe her name was. Do you have a better idea?”
She paused and then answered, “No, Honey, I think that’s a good first move. I’m getting good vibes about her. I’m also seeing a telephone, Bert. I think we need to pay attention to the phone logs in the police report. I get the feeling that something is in those logs.”
“Yeah, Sweetheart, I think you’re right. There must be something the police missed about her calls. Her son thought she made a call from the café. Did they pick up on that? Surely it registered.”
“If Becky calls later, please tell her about my church vision. I’m continuing to see the parishioners, as if from the altar. She might be going to church with the clients out there, just as you’re going with Robert here. I’m not able to tell if my vision relates to Red Lodge or here. Right now, it could be either case.”
Bert nodded affirmatively. “I’ll tell her tonight, Norah. She said she’d call. For now, let’s see what we can find out with Miss Domenica.”
He took a longing look at his wife’s spirit and blew her a kiss. She held up her hand and blew it back to him. He dialed the number for Patricia Domenica.
Patricia seemed to be expecting his call. Robert must have laid the groundwork well. She answered in a strong voice with good English, although there was an undercurrent of Spanish dialect. Bert introduced himself and explained why he was calling. He could tell that she was reluctant to talk much with him. This was often the case with phone work. People weren’t comfortable talking over the phone about sensitive issues with someone they haven’t met in person. He needed to meet her face to face.
It turned out that Miss Domenica attended the same Calvary Community Church as Robert; the same church they were going to tomorrow. Bert arranged to meet her an hour before the service started. She suggested getting a coffee at the Phillips 66 station near his motel at the intersection of highways 2 and 75. If they needed more time, she would meet him again after the service.
With that settled, they turned to the police report. They first began to scan and identify common elements within Vicki’s cell phone logs. The detective had identified to whom the calls were made. Vicki called her places of employment several times weekly. These were Billingsley Insurance, Wilson and Wilson Realty, Century 21 Real Estate and the Holy Mother Catholic Church. She had apparently kept books for these organizations for several years with the Wilson Realty and the catholic church being the longest. During the week she disappeared, Vicki had called the church business office on Monday and Tuesday, once each day. On Wednesday and Thursday, she called the insurance company office, once Wednesday and twice the morning she vanished. Those two calls were made at 9:23 and 10:12 and lasted about ten minutes each. Very few of her calls exceeded fifteen minutes. There were no calls made during the lunch time frame.
Vicki had few friends it seemed. Most of her non-business calls were to Patricia, two or three times a week. She only talked once or twice monthly with her one sister who lived in Omaha. Vicki had no land line since early 2008.
Her most frequent calls were to her son, Robert. It appeared that she called him daily during school or work breaks. Few of those calls went over five minutes. The record gave the impression of a mother just keeping in touch with her son.
Bert leaned back and looked at Norah. He knew she thought the same thing he did. Robert must have been wrong about his mother making a call during their lunch. So, what made him believe she did? Did it matter?
The long day was beginning to catch up with Bert. Missy was already curled up in her favorite place near the window. He told Norah it was time to get hold of Becky and see how she was doing with the Red Lodge case. He dialed her number.
The phone rang four times before she answered in her usual upbeat way. “Hello boss Bert. How are things down east?”
“Hi Becky,” he replied. “We’re making some headway here I think, considering we just got here.” He proceeded to give her a quick recap of their activities.
Becky brought him up to speed on her day’s activities and the newest development with the climbing wall. She told him about the plan to go to church with their family the next day.
Bert looked at Norah and nodded his understanding. “Becky, Norah continues to have the same vision inside a church. We’re going to meet our client here at his church tomorrow, also. So, we aren’t sure which case she may be picking up on.”
“Wow, how bizarre is that,” she exclaimed. “Does Norah still have that portal vision?”
“Yes, she still sees that unsettling portal. And she just now told me that she’s getting a strong feeling of fear and terror in your case.”
“I felt that same thing from Summer,” said Becky. “Whatever is going on with this child, she feels genuine terror from it.”
“Just be careful, yourself, Becky,” he said. “We don’t know how much of the fear may apply to you or us. There can be an element of danger even in the most mundane cases.”
There was greater concern in her voice. “Okay guys. Good advice since I’m digging into the background of that daycare worker as well as the father. I can only imagine what skeletons may be in those closets.” She laughed somewhat nervously.
“Well, good luck tomorrow. Looks like we’re all going to church. It may be interesting to compare notes tomorrow evening and see if we have more hope or confusion.” Bert laughed.
“Good night, boss,” Becky said. “I hope you, Norah, and Missy all have a good sleep and learn a lot tomorrow. Talk with you then.”
Bert put down his phone, leaned back in the swivel chair, and placed his bare feet on the foot of the bed. Norah was at the head of the bed. “I love you, Norah,” he said. “I don’t know what I’d do without you here to give insight into these cases. Even on this first day, your gift has given us a direction to focus on. Vicki’s phone records.”
“I have loved you from the first day we met, Bert,” she replied. “I’m happy that I’m still able to help you with our business and to share your life. Someday you’ll join me on this side, Honey. Until then, I’m glad I can join you on your side.”
Bert held back tears. “Yup, this is truly a blessing, Love. I’d be lost without you, but I don’t have to be lost.” He reached for the report. “There’s another question that just came to me, Sweetheart.”
“What’s that, Honey?” she asked.
“Where did they find Vicki’s car? That might provide some more questions, if not answers.” He looked over the report’s table of contents until finding the section on vehicles.
He scanned the vehicle area until finding the report on the victim’s car. It was a small 4-door sedan, black in color. It would not have stood out. The location where it was found caught him completely off guard. The police found it in the back part of a parking lot at the Table Creek Golf Course.
Bert told Norah what he’d just read. He continued to scan that section of the report as he asked what she made of that.
“I think we need to find out if she had any connections to golf or to that location,” she said. “It seems obvious that she either met someone there, took someone there, or someone put her car there. Maybe Patricia will know if she was dating a guy who golfed there.”
Bert was listening as he scanned. “Good thoughts, Sweetheart. It sounds like the detective was thinking that also. He reports interviewing a Daniel Simmons several times. Apparently Vicki dated him off and on, and he was a golfer. He was a suspect early on, but they ruled him out because he had a solid alibi. He was in Kansas City at an amateur golf tournament all that week. Friends corroborated his story and said he stayed in KC all the time.”
They both mulled over this bit of information as Bert continued to look over that section of the report. This was apparently one of the big stumbling blocks to this case. The church where she worked was about three-quarters of a mile from the golf course, but she reportedly always parked at the church when she was working. She normally worked when there were no church events, so parking should not have been an
issue. On a Thursday, there were usually no events and often nobody at the church. Besides that, she was working at the insurance agency that day. The detective concluded that Vicki had met an unknown person at the golf course. He felt that that person knew something about her disappearance, but the police could never make an identification.
“Let’s go by that golf course tomorrow, Honey,” Norah said. “Maybe I’ll be able to pick up on something that can help us.”
Bert agreed with that. He reluctantly put the report aside. It would take many hours to digest it all, and it was after 11:00. He needed to get some sleep. Sunday was shaping up to be a big day.
“Good night, first officer Norah,” he said as he turned off the light and crawled into bed.
“Good night, Captain Kirk. See you on the flight deck.”
Though his eyes were closed, he could see her sweet face and smile enveloped by her radiant red hair. He focused on her image and her goodness, as he fought to not feel the longing to touch her. In the darkness, he felt the tears slowly trickle down his face.
Into the Light Page 8