Secrets and Revelations (Bellingwood #4) (15 page)

Polly felt awful. She desperately tried to remember if she and Andrew had seen those kids while they were in Boone, but there was nothing she could capture from her memory. Henry didn't know how to help his friend and all she could do was hold his hand, so she reached under the table and set her hand on his thigh. He brought his hand down and gripped hers tightly.

She reached across the table with her other hand trying to extend herself to Henry's friend. "Won't all your boys be here later today with their host families for dinner?"

His eyes were filling with tears. "They will and I need to stop feeling sorry for myself. All of these boys have grown close this last year as we've worked toward this trip. They've learned to trust each other and to trust me. It's been a long process. They'll need me to be normal tonight."

He brought his fist down on the table, "Damn it. I go from sad to angry in a second. What in the hell were these boys thinking? Even if we do find them, they're out of the program. They know that."

Aaron said, "Don't make any decisions until you know what has happened. I don't know your kids, but sometimes there are circumstances beyond their control and they don't know how to make the best decisions at this age. Punishing them without fully understanding is something I try to never do. I have people out looking for them, and though Boone has a pretty good mix of people, I'm guessing they will stick out. If they are still in town, we'll bring them back."

Roy nodded. "You're right. I think maybe I'm internalizing this too much. If it were any other boy, I would be right there with you, giving them every chance in the world to make it right. Maybe I'm just personally offended by this, because I trusted them and they've betrayed that."

"You don't know that yet," Polly said quietly.

Aaron stood again. "I see that Jeff is free. I'm going to talk to him about Mrs. Rothenfuss and if I can separate Marla Singer from her tasks, I need to speak with her as well."

Roy stood up and shook the Sheriff's hand. "Thank you for your help. I appreciate that you are trying to make this easier for us. The kids don't always get this type of understanding from law enforcement."

He moved to follow the Sheriff out and turned back to Henry, "I'm sorry. I'm not much good right now. I'm going to head up to my room and see if I can come up with any way to find these boys."

After he left, Polly said, "I'm sorry, Henry. I know this isn't easy."

"I'm just glad it was the Fosters. Of all the host families, they are the most easygoing. If the boys had needed to go somewhere, they probably would have just given them the keys and let them go. Their name is perfect
, you know. They've fostered six or seven kids while raising four of their own. They get it. If Roy brings the boys back to Bellingwood, they'll open their home again and act as if nothing happened."

"Is Roy going to be able to get past this?"

"He has to. There are ten other boys who need him to lead throughout the week. I know these two aren't his first disappointments, but I don't think it has ever gotten this far."

"I wish there was something I could do."

"This isn't yours to worry about," Henry smiled. "You have enough on your plate."

He spun her chair so they were knee to knee, "You didn't tell me you found another body. My girlfriend is becoming more and more infamous around town.
I can’t imagine what they’re doing with this down at the Elevator. You probably made someone a winner."

Polly slapped his knee, "I knew you were going to tease me about it. Was I supposed to drive past and not try to help? Huh?
Huh?"

"Of course not," he winked, "but I've never heard of one person walking into so many terrible situations. How do you do it?"

She backed up and stood to leave. "I'm not talking about this with you any longer."

"Oh come on, I'm only teasing you. You have to have some sense of humor about it."

"Nope. I don't," she pouted dramatically. "No sense of humor at all. I don't like finding bodies and I want it to stop."

Henry followed her out of the conference room into her office, nodding at the Sheriff as he and Marla Singer came in.

"Thanks guys," Aaron said. "If you don't mind, I'm going to tie up this room for a while."

"Use whatever you need, Aaron," Polly replied. "Let me know if anything else comes up."

He went in and shut the door. Polly dropped into her own desk chair. "Today wasn't supposed to go like this. I took Andrew to Boone to buy some books. I picked up shirts for the parade. I took him to McDonald's. A mundane day in the life of Polly Giller." She leaned back and put her feet up on her desk. "I like mundane days."

Eliseo stuck his head in the door. "Polly?"

"What now," she growled.

He glanced at Henry, looking for help. Henry shrugged.

“Mark is coming over to work the team again. Did you want to ride along?"

She dropped her feet to the ground and jumped up. "That sounds perfect! I'm out of this madhouse." She patted Henry on the back and scooted past Eliseo. "Hold down the fort guys, I'm gone."

Polly started out at a slow trot, then picked her feet up and ran to the barn. When she got there and realized that she still had too much energy, she checked the horse's stalls to make sure they had hay, then checked to make sure the bedding was clean. When she finally looked up, Mark was standing in the alley, watching her move from stall to stall.

"What's got you in a lather?" he asked when she pulled up short in front of him.

"Are you telling me you don't know?"

"Know what? I've been gone all day. I came over here instead of going back to the office. Marnie said I wasn't needed. Walk with me and tell me what's up."

She followed him to the tack room. He pulled the first harness off the wall and walked out the back door. Demi noticed him and came to see his favorite veterinarian. Daisy followed and Polly put her hand on the girl's neck to hold her in place.

"I found Cindy Rothenfuss dead in a cornfield this afternoon."

Mark stopped what he was doing and turned to look at her with an immense grin, "You did what?"

"I know," she smirked. "I was driving back from Boone and pulled over because it looked like someone had been in an accident. Sure enough, it was her car in the field, she was dead and someone had spray painted the word 'bitch' on the back of her SUV. Then, I get back here and two of those kids from Chicago are missing. Someone has defaced one of the quilts and you know what the worst of it is?"

"No, what's that?"

"There's every probability that whoever has done something bad around here is someone I know and I'm going to feel stupid for having trusted them."

"Here, hold this," he said, handing her the reins. He went inside and came back with Daisy's harness and Polly moved over to stand beside Demi. He nosed her shoulder and she reached up to rub his forehead. It was so soft and Polly loved looking into those immense, trusting brown eyes while she stroked him. She leaned in on his head and planted a kiss in the velvety spot above his nose.

Mark and Polly led the horses over to the wagon where it was parked under the front overhang and he proceeded to
hitch them up. She watched what he was doing and realized how grateful she was not to have to learn all this on her own. He'd be there as often as she needed him and she also had Eliseo and Henry.

"Get on up," Mark said. "It sounds like you need to be out of here."

"I do! As soon as Eliseo told me you were coming over, I just took off. I might not have even finished the conversation I was having with Henry. But he gets it. He'll be fine."

"Do you want to take the reins?" he asked, trying to hand them to her.

"No, just keep going."

He clicked the horses up to a trot and they headed out of town. He turned right on the first gravel road and said, "Whoops, sorry about the dust and dirt. You're going to have to wash the wagon down before the parade on Friday."

"Maybe it will be a good job for Jason," she laughed. "The poor boy is ready to do anything just so he can be in the barn with Eliseo and the horses."

"That might be abusing your power, Polly."

"No!" she was shocked. "I'll pay him. His birthday is on Thursday and I think his mom is getting him a cell phone. He has to pay for anything extra he puts on it. He will be begging for ways to make money."

When they'd gone a mile, Mark turned left and said, "Have you talked to Sal lately?"

"Since last week? No, I'd bet you talk to her a lot more often than I do."

"Oh, I just wondered."

"Don't tell me there's trouble," Polly sighed. "I don't want anyone else to have trouble in their lives."

"No. There isn't any trouble. It's just very difficult to try to build a relationship with someone who lives half a continent away."

"Duh. Didn't I try to tell that to both of you? But no. You two were different than everyone else who has ever tried it. You were just going to be really good friends. It was going to be easy."

"Way to make me feel better, Polly."

"I'm not very good at that, am I? Did something happen between you two since the last time I was sitting in this seat?"

"I talked to her about Christmas and she didn't like the idea of meeting my family."

"I told you! Don't talk to her about it again until you are face to face, you moron."

"We are face to face. We always use video chat."

Polly rolled her eyes at him. "You know what I mean. This conversation needs to happen in person. If you want to have a relationship with someone who lives that far away, you have to be creative and you have to be patient. Both of you." She patted his knee. "So don't be stupid."

Mark turned the horses onto the highway and headed back to Sycamore House. "I don't know what I was thinking, but we had so much fun when she was here and I love talking to her. She's so damned bright and she laughs at my stupid jokes. She is interested in what I do and when she talks about the things she loves, her passion erupts. Polly, I could fall for this girl. Why can't she live here?"

"Maybe she can someday. You just have to be patient."

"I can't talk to anyone else about this. My friends think I'm insane, my sister thinks it is a stupid, little crush and my parents would have my head if they thought I was setting myself up to be in a relationship that fell apart. I know it isn't what you wanted to do today, but thanks."

She smiled up at him. "That's what friends are for. Even when they yell at you.”

Offering to help with cleanup,
Polly and Henry stood in the corner of the auditorium as the kids and hosts finished their meals. Roy had invited everyone to join them, but both figured with the day he'd had, it might be better for him to spend time with the kids and families. They could eat in the kitchen anyway. Henry wasn't ready to leave his friend, but he told Polly he didn't want to act like he was hovering.

After supper, Jason and Eliseo took off for an evening trail ride. The kid couldn't get enough time on Nat's back and Eliseo didn't seem to mind.

Rachel had looked questioningly at him in the barn when Jason asked about the ride. Eliseo assured her that her time would come, but that he didn't want to worry about her if they didn't come back until dusk. Polly watched her try to accept direction from him and as soon as she processed it, she moved on. She still couldn't get over the girl's transformation. As soon as she walked into the barn, she turned into a different person. The corners of her mouth seemed to lift along with her spirits. She became more talkative and engaged with them.

The girl was worried they would be upset when she told them the nursing home needed her to work extra hours because of Bellingwood Days. She wasn't going to be able to help in the mornings for the rest of the week. Both Polly and Eliseo
told her that wouldn’t change anything. Her paying job was more important and the horses would be here when she showed up in the afternoon. She lamented a bit that she wouldn't be able to help out at the parade. But Eliseo told her she could help give the horses a bath the night before and get them all cleaned up.

Polly had looked sideways at him when she heard him say that. She knew exactly what Demi liked to do in the morning when he hit the pasture. He wasn't likely to stop rolling around in the hay and dirt simply because they had planned to show him off in a parade. The others might be fine, but there would be another bath before they hit the parade route. Eliseo laughed at her and told her that the horses wouldn’t be allowed in the pasture until after the parade

Sylvie and Hannah McKenzie served dinner to the boys and their host families. The Fosters had joined the group, sitting with Roy Dunston. Polly noticed the other boys whispering and nodding at them. She wondered what they thought of all this and how much they knew. As soon as the group began to eat, she followed Sylvie back into the kitchen and sat down with the kids and Eliseo.

They were quietly waiting for the group to finish their meal. They tried to move as unobtrusively as possible throughout the group, clearing tables and refilling drinks.
She rolled the first cart into the kitchen when Roy stood up to speak. His voice was clear and deep.

"Folks, we have some difficult news. Jaleel and Mickey are gone. They took their host family's truck to Boone early this morning and we have no idea where they are."

She walked back into the auditorium and watched him steady himself by putting his hand on the chair in front of him.

"Boys, I've talked to several of you, but I need to know if any of
you have heard from them. I’ve called their cell phones and they aren't responding. At this point, I'm worried sick. If you know anything about where they are, please tell me."

Polly looked around the group and saw several of the boys drop their heads. Others pulled out their phones and began texting. She realized they were sending messages back and forth to each other. They would glance up at one another, then go back to their phones.

"I wanted to spend time listening to you tell me stories about your first few days on the farm, hear what you think about all of this open space and if any of you got to drive a tractor, but I'm heartbroken. We've always been real honest with each other. I've learned to trust you and believe in each of you and I hoped you would trust me.

"If any of you boys are in contact with Jaleel or Mickey, please ask them to reach out to me. Tell them I want to know that they are alive and well. Tell them I want to help them figure out what to do next. Tell them I'm not angry any longer."

Polly focused on one young boy, who was furiously texting as Roy spoke. His fingers were flying across the keyboard. She tugged on Henry's sleeve and said, "Who is that family over there?"

He followed her eyes and must have seen what she saw. "That's the Gregory's. Do you think something's up?"

"I don't know. He's texting, but none of the other boys are paying attention to their phones right now. Look at them. They are all listening to Roy, but that one keeps sending texts."

Roy was still speaking and Polly heard him say, "Let’s shift gears. I'm sending around piece
s of paper. Everyone should take one."

He put a stack on each of the six tables and followed that with pencils. There was shuffling as each person got paper and pencil in front of them.

"I want you to write down two things that were new to you these last four days. Host families, it would be great if you wrote something down as well. I'm sure that these boys have brought new experiences to your homes. Take a few minutes and I'll come back to you."

Henry motioned for Roy to join them and they stepped outside.

"Polly wonders if one of the boys staying with Mr. and Mrs. Gregory might know something. All of the boys were texting back and forth with each other, but when they were all listening to you, he was still texting. None of them seemed to respond to him. I don't know if he is in contact with your two missing kids, but it might be worth a conversation."

"You saw that?" Roy asked Polly. "You have quite the eye. No wonder Bellingwood talks about you as the Body Finder."

"Oh come on," she said. "Not you too."

He grinned. "Me too. You're good for Henry. If you hadn't come into his life, he was on track to become a boring old man. With you finding dead bodies all the time, he gets an extra dose of excitement on a regular basis."

"It's not like I do it on purpose."

"But, you do keep an eye on things. Noticing those boys and the way they were texting was a good catch.
It might not be anything. A couple of the boys left girlfriends in Chicago, but it won't hurt for me to get a little more personal with them. Thank you."

He ducked around the corner and turned back. "I think they're done, I'd better get busy."

"Now I'm going to ask you to think about one more thing. Boys, before we left Chicago, I asked you to write down two things you hoped to gain from this adventure. Now that you are here and in the middle of it, do you think those two things are as important or is there something else that you have discovered?

"Host families. We never talked about this, but would you write down why you agreed to host these boys in your homes? Was it because Jeff or Henry begged? Were you feeling philanthropic or is there something you wanted to learn about yourselves or boys from a different culture?
If you would take a few minutes to write that down, it would help me. Be honest. It's not a test.

"When you're finished, hand your papers to me. I'd appreciate having your names, but if you don't want to do that, it's fine."

He glanced back and saw Sylvie and Hannah come in pushing two carts. "Mrs. Donovan has made us a special treat tonight for dessert. Have you ever had homemade ice cream?"

Several of the women in the group smiled and a couple of the men nodded. But the boys' eyes were big.

"You can come up and get a bowl of ice cream. She says you can have as much as you want, she made plenty. You won't believe it, but she also made some homemade chocolate sauce and a caramel sauce. You can decorate your ice cream with whatever you like. Be sure to say thank you. We'll start with the back table."

The host families stayed seated and sent the boys to the front first. It astounded Polly to realize that these kids had never had something like homemade ice cream. She'd grown up with it in the summer time. It was her father's favorite thing to make on a warm Sunday afternoon. When she was little, he cranked the ice cream maker by hand, but by the time she was in high school, he'd purchased an electric machine. He said it gave him time for a nap.
Her friends soon learned that there was ice cream on Sunday nights at the Giller's house and would make any excuse to come over.

That would be a fun tradition to reinstate at Sycamore House. Nothing organized, just ice cream. "Stop it," she muttered to herself. "Get through this week and you can think about those things later."

"What?" Henry asked. "Are you talking to me or to yourself?"

"Whoops!" she said. "Talking to myself."

"Was it an interesting conversation?"

"I was thinking about my Dad making homemade ice cream on Sunday afternoons. Some days there was a crowd of friends at our house eating ice cream. Wouldn't it be fun to do that here?"

"They sell ice cream up at the General Store."

"I'm not talking about for sale. Just making it and having friends come over. If no one comes, I'm eating ice cream for a week. That would be a pity." She chuckled. "But if we had a crowd, it would be a blast!"

Henry slipped his arm around her waist. "You are wonderful. You do add excitement to my life. I'll even put up with you discovering dead bodies as long as I get to have fun with the rest of what you do."

She batted her eyes at him. "It's a whole package, sweetie. A whole package."

Sylvie was making wild motions with her head, so Polly went over to stand beside her.

"What's up?"

"I need more crushed candy bars and M&Ms. They're on the counter. Would you mind filling up those bowls?"

Both she and Hannah were up to their glove-covered forearms in ice cream and Polly scurried out the door to help them.
Sure enough, everything was prepared and all she needed to do was bring out the containers. Some sauces had spilled and Polly went back to the kitchen to get a wet cloth in order to clean things up.

The line of people was just beginning to thin out when some of the boys came back for seconds. One of the younger boys had ice cream all across his face. Polly desperately wanted to take the cloth and wipe him down, but he was having so much fun, she figured his family could take care of it.

Sylvie sent Henry to the kitchen for another container of ice cream and then another. The ice cream had changed the tenor of the room completely. The boys had been quiet and reserved through dinner. With Roy Dunston's announcement and plea for help, they'd shut down, but now they were re-charged and began chasing each other around the auditorium. Hacky sacks came out and they circled up and began kicking them around.

The adults in the room gathered up the bowls left on tables and cleaned things up as the kids played games with each other.

One of the women stopped Polly. "Was it really you who found Cindy Rothenfuss today?"

It felt like such a long time ago. Polly couldn't believe it had only been earlier that day. She nodded, "Yep. Me."

"I'm sorry the woman is dead, but I can't say I'm surprised. Someone was going to do something horrible to her someday."

"She wasn't very friendly," Polly agreed. She didn't want to get into a gossip session about the dead woman and wondered how long it was going to take before she could escape.

"The boys were talking about how mean she was at breakfast the next morning. They couldn't believe it."

"They were still talking about it?" Polly asked. "Roy seemed to think they would just file it away."

"I don't think so," she said. "My two boys wanted to deal with it. They were really surprised that someone who had so much could be so mean. They all saw her car and were impressed at how fancy it was. A couple of them were outside looking at it and she screamed at them to back away and get their filthy hands off it."

Polly looked at the woman in shock. "That happened Thursday afternoon?"

"I guess," the woman shrugged. "We tried to explain to them that sometimes people are mean no matter how much money they have, and many times a lot of money makes people even meaner. Especially if they are greedy instead of generous."

"It's really too bad," she continued. "
Barry is such a nice guy. He would do anything for anyone. Especially after she'd tormented someone. He always tried to step in and make things right."