The Depth of Darkness (Mitch Tanner #1) (31 page)

She turned when I got within five feet of
her. “You doing okay?”

I nodded and leaned against the split rail
fencing.

“I guess I owe you an apology,” she said.

“For what?”

“Running out on you after we visited that
woman. Turns out she was helpful.”

I shrugged. “She might have just been lucky.
Honestly, I should have noticed it before. Those bricks were on the
floor the first time I was in there, and then they were stacked and
mortared the second time. That shouldn’t have been the case. This
place hasn’t been operational in years.”

“You had no way of knowing that.”

“I suppose.”

“I’ll go to bat for you, Mitch. If they try
to press charges against you, I’ll be a witness and stand up for
you.”

“Appreciate that.” We both said nothing for a
few minutes. Finally, I broke the silence. “So, what’s next?”

She looked up at me with full eyes that began
to water over. “I leave for Denver in two weeks.”

“I guess I should offer you my
congratulations.”

This time she shrugged.

“What are your plans until then?” I asked.
“I’m pretty sure I’m going to be free.”

Bridget shook her head and took a step back.
“I can’t, Mitch. I’m sorry. I just can’t do it.” She walked
away.

Fortunately, Sam spotted me and headed my
way, preventing me from chasing after her. He held up two bricks
and nodded.

“A match?” I asked.

“You bet your life it is.”

“I guess we ought to go pay Lana a
visit.”

We managed to leave the water tower without
anyone following us. The drive to Lana’s took only a few minutes.
The windows of her house were dark and the shades still drawn. I
knew she’d be up soon, though. I pulled into the driveway and
parked behind her car. Though I didn’t think she’d run, I figured
I’d make it hard on her if she decided to.

Sam made it to the front door before I did.
He raised a large fist to knock.

“Don’t,” I said, waving my keys in the air.
“I can get us in.”

Sam stepped aside to let me stick the key in
the lock. The door opened with a creak. We stepped inside and
stopped in the foyer. Envy the cat greeted us. I nudged him away
with my foot. He stuck his tail in the air and walked off,
perturbed, I presumed.

We walked through the entry hall toward the
back of the house. Lana stood in the kitchen wearing a short silk
nighty that barely covered her breasts and stopped several inches
short of the cast that came up to her knee.

“Mitch?” she said. “What are you doing
here?”

“We found the girl,” I said.

Her eyes widened and grew wet, and she
smiled. “Debby? She’s okay?”

I nodded. Sam began walking toward the back
door, cutting off the possible escape route.

“Where was she?”

“I have a few questions for you, Lana.”

She set down her coffee mug and placed her
hands on the counter. “What is it?”

“What happened to the bricks?”

“Bricks?”

“From the chimney.” I nodded toward the back
of the house. “There’s a stack of new bricks, but half of the old
bricks are gone.”

“I don’t… I…”

“You what?”

She started looking around the room and her
hands felt along the counter top. She seemed to wobble a bit. I
couldn’t tell if she was going to make a break for it or pass out.
Regardless, I could not relent.

“Why’d you do it, Lana?”

Her gaze focused on me and she steadied
herself. “Why’d I do what?” Her voice was steady and calm. Had she
rehearsed the line in anticipation of this?

“How much did they pay you to go along with
it?”

“What? You don’t think—”

“Where’d you hide the money, Lana? Did they
give you all of it for safe keeping, or just your share?” I
mirrored every movement she made.

“Mitch, I had nothing to do with this.” Tears
fell from her eyes. “Those kids mean everything to me.”

“Dammit, Lana.” I pulled my pistol and aimed
it at her.

“Mitch,” Sam said from behind me.

I ignored him and took a few steps toward
Lana. She tried to step backward and lost her footing, falling back
and catching herself on the counter. “Tell me what you did!”

She couldn’t speak through her sobbing.
Either she was guilty as hell, or scared to death. It’d be a few
moments before she’d calm down enough to talk.

Sam came up behind me and grabbed my arm,
pulling the pistol away. I’d already shot and killed one person
tonight. I figured he worried that I’d do it again. Once he had my
weapon, he pulled me back and said, “Get over there, Mitch.”

I took a few steps back, grabbed a chair and
fell back into it. I found it difficult to watch Lana struggle to
stand upright, tears falling across her cheeks. Though it had been
based on a lie, we had spent four months together, and, at one
time, I thought she have might been the one to ease the pain Ella
and I shared.

“Lana,” Sam said. “I need you to look at me.”
She wiped her eyes and met his stare. “Look, we took Roy Miller
into custody an hour ago.”

Instinctively, my eyes darted to the side
then back at her.

Sam continued, “He’s in a room right now
spilling his guts out and telling us everything about how this went
down. If you are in any way involved, he’s going to let us know.
Now, if you tell me what I need to hear, we can work something out
for you. But, if you decide to lie to me and he says something
else, there’s nothing I can do for you. You understand that?”

Lana nodded while looking at me. I rose and
walked over. I held out my hand to her and she took it. I helped
her over to the chair I had been sitting in.

Sam walked over and said, “What role did you
have in all this, Lana?”

She shook her head. “I had nothing to do with
it. I swear, nothing. I’d never seen that man prior to the week
before when he started as the janitor.”

“Okay.” Sam took a deep breath. “Tell me
about the bricks.”

“What about them?”

“Why are the old one’s missing?”

She quickly looked up at me and then shifted
her gaze away. “Ben came over one day and he took them.”

“Ben McCree?” Sam asked.

She nodded.

“Did he say why?”

“Um, he said something about needing to
replace some at his house.”

“Lana, we found bricks that match those at
the water tower,” I said. “They were used to cover up the opening
to a room where Debby Walker was being kept.”

“Oh my God,” she said, a new wave of tears
descending down the slope of her face.

“Again, Lana,” Sam said. “If you’ve got
anything to tell us, the time is now.”

I marveled at how calm and convincing he
sounded.

“A few weeks ago, when we were…” she paused
and bit her bottom lip, looking at me. “When Ben and I were
together, I mentioned that Bernard had told me his father had sold
something to the government, and they were going to receive a lot
of money. I mean, a lot, like ten or fifteen million. I thought it
was a good thing, the boy could get all the treatment he needed and
go to a school where he’d be accepted.” She used her palms to wipe
the tears from her face. “Oh, Jesus. You don’t think Ben was
involved do you?”

“Lana,” I said. “Roy Miller had an
accomplice. That accomplice’s name is Brad McCree. Brad is Ben’s
brother.”

“I thought he was an only child,” she
said.

I stared at her and said nothing. She met my
gaze for a few seconds, then closed her eyes. Tears lined her shut
eyelids. Whether or not she’d physically taken part in what
happened, she now realized she’d indirectly caused it. She planted
the seed by telling Ben McCree about the Hollands’s windfall. The
rest fell into place after that.

“We’re going to have a car come by and pick
you up, Lana,” Sam said. “You’ll need to give a statement at the
station. It’ll be up to them whether to hold you.”

Sam followed me outside where we waited for
an officer to arrive and escort Lana.

“You think she’s innocent?” Sam asked.

I nodded. “Of some things.” I turned to face
him. “I think the guilt of knowing that she helped initiate this,
even indirectly, will eat at her enough to make up for the
rest.”

“I’m sorry, man.” Sam placed a hand on my
shoulder and squeezed reassuringly.

I shrugged and looked up at the orange-tinted
sky. The humidity had already kicked in and I felt sweat beading up
on my forehead. “Not your fault, Sam. Hell, you probably warned me
about her.”

Two officers showed up ten minutes later.
They escorted Lana from the house. She refused to look at me. Her
sobs were the only sound I heard. It went quiet after they shut the
doors to the car and took off.

I drove Sam home. We stopped off for
breakfast, but didn’t speak.

“Heading back to your place?” he asked as he
opened the car door in front of his house.

I shook my head. “Heading west. Gonna pick up
Ella.”

“They’re probably going to want to talk to
you about what happened with Miller.”

“I suppose they will.”

“I know Dinapoli said she’s got your back.
You know I do too.”

“I know.”

“All right.” Sam remained seated for a
minute, door open, one foot in the car and one on the ground. He
looked like he wanted to say something, but didn’t. Finally, he got
out without another word and slammed the door shut.

I shifted into first and made my way to I-76,
heading west, toward Ella.

I spent a week at the campground with Ella.
We fished and swam, talked and sang, and just enjoyed each other’s
company. Terrence spent his spare time with us accompanied by his
own children, who were there a lot of the time anyway. I spent
several hours on the phone with Huff, Townsend and Chief Warren.
The latter two didn’t sound too happy to speak with me. Huff was
surprisingly supportive. The interviews had the air of formality
more than anything else. Both Bridget and Sam had gone to bat for
me. A knife had been found in Miller-Lipsky’s possession,
solidifying the story that had been told.

We left the campground amid a flurry of hugs
and tears. Ella had had a great time there and made me promise that
we would return for a few weeks next summer. I obliged. I figured
I’d need it by then for one reason or another. From there we headed
south to Williamsburg, Virginia. We spent a day wandering around
Colonial Williamsburg, and then two days at Busch Gardens. A bit
further up I-64, we stopped outside of Richmond and spent another
few days at King’s Dominion. Turned out Ella was something of a
daredevil. Although she wasn’t tall enough for all the rides, I
managed to get her on them. Benefits of the badge.

Before heading home, we spent two days
walking around D.C. It was Ella’s first trip. She wanted to go to
the White House and play with the President’s daughters. I told her
that might not happen. She didn’t believe me. As we drove away from
D.C., she went so far as to blame me for not trying hard enough to
set up a play date.

I mostly managed to keep my mind off
everything that had happened. It was easy to do during the day.
Ella kept me occupied. But at night, when my brain needed to shut
down and go to sleep, I had a hard time. I thought about Lana and
the lie that made up the crumbled foundation of our relationship. I
thought about those two children and wondered what the rest of
their lives would be like. They’d need a lot of therapy to cope.
Bernard’s parents could afford it. Could Debby Walker’s mom do so?
Perhaps we could arrange it through the city. I made a note on my
phone to do just that when I got back on active duty.

Time and again, my thoughts turned to
Bridget. What was it about this woman that I only knew for a short
time, and only a few days romantically, that made her so hard to
get out of my mind? As crazy as it sounded, there was a part of me
that wanted to try and make a long distance relationship with her
work. Thank goodness my rational side was the strong one, because
it told me to let it go. Let it go, and let her go.

We got home mid-afternoon after stopping near
Center City for a couple cheesesteaks. I wanted to head to my room
and crash, but knew there’d be none of that. My mother showed up a
half-hour later with a bag full of things for Ella. Toys and
clothes, mostly. I headed out back and turned on the grill. The
patio table was covered in a fresh layer of fallen leaves. I left
them there for Ella. She enjoyed brushing them off and watching
them fall in spirals to the ground.

I threw four ribeyes on the grill. One for
each of us, plus Sam who was on his way over. Ella came outside.
She climbed up on one of the patio chairs and proceeded to sweep
the leaves off the table with her arms. Her face had a gleeful look
as she watched them fall.

“Go ask your Grandma for some plates,” I
said.

She smiled at me. I watched her run inside. I
leaned back against the siding, enjoying the feeling of the wind as
it blew in my face while the smoke from the grill wrapped around
me. The smell of the seasoning I’d rubbed on the meat made my mouth
water. The fire hissed each time fatty juice dripped off one of the
grates.

Sam slid the back door open and stepped
outside carrying a stack of plates and a six-pack of beer. We
exchanged greetings while he opened two bottles. We all ate dinner
quickly. Ella and my mother had plans for the evening. Sam and I
waited for them to leave, and then he caught me up on the goings on
of the past two weeks.

In the middle of him telling me that they had
no leads on either of the McCree brothers, my cell phone rang.

“Bridget,” I said, showing him the phone.

“You going to answer it?”

I shook my head and set the cell phone on the
table, face down. It rang again. And again.