Do You Want to Know a Secret? (52 page)
Read Do You Want to Know a Secret? Online
Authors: Mary Jane Clark
“Make sure there
are lots of bubbles, Mommy.”
Janie grinned as Eliza poured more Mr. Bubble into the tub.
“I love Mrs. Twomey, but I missed
you
, Mommy.”
Janie, her precious Janie. How close they had come to losing one another!
Eliza longed to sit here and just watch her child splash away, but she knew that they would never be safe unless she figured out who had tried to kill her.
“Why did you bring your work bag in here with us, Mommy?”
“I have something I have to read now, sweetheart. It won’t take me long. I promise.”
“Promise?”
“Cross my heart.”
Janie began playing with her plastic tub toys and Eliza picked up Bill’s personal notes. On top of the sheaf of papers they’d printed out in Bill’s office was the file on Joy Wingard.
With tears in her eyes, Eliza read of Bill’s love for the woman and his heartbreak over the end of their love affair. The text rambled on a bit, especially when he began to describe his fear that he might have exposed Joy to the horrible disease.
At the end was a direction: “See
ROMANIA.AID
.”
Eliza remembered that this file had been toward the end. She quickly rifled through the pages until she found Bill’s recounting of his trip to Romania to do the special on the hellholes there called orphanages. He described the sickening, outraged feelings he’d experienced as he witnessed the retarded and physically deformed children stockpiled, mistreated and forgotten in the filthy, dangerous warehouses. He included snatches of dialogue between himself and some of the civil authorities there, venting his feelings of frustration with the Romanian government that valued its own citizens so little.
“When are you going to be done, Mommy?”
“Soon, sweetheart. Thank you for being so patient.”
Eliza caught her breath as she read Bill’s next words.
In the end, I, too, was a victim of their callous disregard for human life. When Range and I drove back from shooting at an orphanage outside Bucharest, we had a serious car accident. Range and I were both pretty badly injured, but only I required a blood transfusion.
Imagine how I felt upon later discovering that a full 10 percent of the blood collected and tested in Bucharest was found to be tainted with HIV.
“Oh my God.”
“Mommy, what’s wrong, what’s wrong?” Janie looked at her worriedly.
“Oh my angel, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“Mommy, please stop reading and play with me.”
The phone rang
and Mrs. Twomey answered.
“Mrs. Blake is giving Janie her bath, Ms. Gregory.”
“Well, tell Mrs. Blake, please, that the police were just here and they want to talk to her about a lost key ring.”
Eliza was eager
to read the notes from the filed labeled JUDGE.$. She knew it would have something to do with Dennis Quinn.
“Janie, if you just bear with Mommy a few more minutes, I’ll read you two extra stories tonight.”
“That would make six all together?” Janie asked guardedly.
“Six.”
“Okay.”
Eliza read that municipal judge Dennis Quinn had once been the treasurer for New Visions for Living. He’d seemed, in Bill’s estimation, to be a good man, Quinn even dressing up as a clown at New Visions parties.
Two years ago, the notes continued, Bill had discovered that Quinn had embezzled $500,000 from New Visions. When confronted by Bill, Quinn, who’d just been nominated for a seat on the Bergen County Superior Court, had begged Bill not to turn him in. The encounter was a bizarre one, as Bill had pulled the man aside during a party at one of the group homes. The judge was in his clown makeup when Bill confronted him.
“William’s ‘man with the funny red hair’!” Eliza blurted out loud. “He played a clown!”
“Ronald McDonald?”
“No, sweetie, someone else.”
Eliza continued reading.
“Please, not for me. This would kill my mother. She’s already buried two husbands. She’s worked hard all her life. It would kill her if she knew about this.”
Bill doubted that Quinn was getting the Superior Court slot based on his legal expertise and merits. His suspicions had been confirmed when he demanded that Quinn replace the funds. The judge admitted he had financed his new position on the bench with the retarded people’s money.
Bill had written down the dialogue.
“You mean all the money is gone?”
“Almost.”
“Well, you are going to give it back. Every last bit of it.”
“How can I do that?”
“We’ll figure out a way. And you’re damned lucky I don’t expose you and that crooked little bunch you hang out with on the other side of the Hudson. But I’m a sucker and I do feel sorry for your mother. Tell me her name, I want to see if she really exists.”
Then Janie said, “Mommy, I forgot to tell you. A real policeman was here today.’
Eliza’s phone was
busy.
Mack’s cab was stalled in traffic on the Fifty-ninth Street Bridge.
He had to tell Eliza—she and Janie were in danger.
Urgently, he punched the numbers again.
Busy.
Again, the phone
rang. It was her Dennis, full of news about his trip to Houston and the convention. “It was grand. The best time I’ve had in years. It’s so wonderful to have the load of those payments off my back. Things are really turning around for me. Isn’t it strange, Ma, how things take care of themselves sometimes? First, Bill Kendall killing himself. Then Leo Karas being murdered.” A lighthearted Dennis chuckled.
Their conversation over, she left the phone off the hook.
Ah, Denny. You’ve no idea what I’ve done for you. What I’m
doing
for you. For you, my son.
I didn’t tell you how close Eliza Blake was getting to you. Much too close.
Frances Twomey thought of the woman down the hall bathing her daughter.
Things
don’t
take care of themselves, Denny. They have to be helped along.