Wrong Turn (18 page)

‘Did Gloria tell you that?’

‘Yes, Trevor, she did.’

‘Why do you care if my dad goes back to prison or not?’

‘Because, Trevor, I think anyone who takes another person’s life should take responsibility and accept the punishment for the crime they committed.’

‘If I decide not to testify, will you tell him what I tell you?’

‘No, Trevor. I will not. I promise you that I will never tell him.’

Trevor turned to Dr Craig, nodded his head and said, ‘OK.’

‘You may ask questions now, lieutenant.’

‘Trevor, did you see anything when Patty died?’

Trevor squeezed his eyes shut and squeezed his lips together sideways with one hand. ‘I can’t. I can’t. I want to but I can’t. They’ll all hate me.’

‘Who do you think will hate you, Trevor?’ Lucinda asked.

‘My grandparents mostly. If I tell you what I know, they’re going to think I saw what happened to my mother and they’ll hate me. But I didn’t – I didn’t see him do anything to my mother.’

Lucinda wondered if that was true or if the memory was so deeply repressed that he might never resurrect it. If he did see something, she hoped he would never remember. She knew how painful that could be.

‘They won’t hate you, Trevor,’ Lucinda said. ‘They know how young you were when your mother died. They know that even if you were there, you couldn’t possibly remember anything.’ Out of the corner of her eye, Lucinda saw Dr Craig nod in what seemed to be approval of her responses.

‘But Patty’s parents will. And Gloria will.’

‘No, Trevor, they won’t. They will understand that you couldn’t say anything no matter what you saw. They will realize the quandary you were in.’

‘What does quandary mean?’

‘A no-win situation – a place where no matter what you did, it would feel wrong. It would damage you whether you spoke up or not.’

‘But if I saw something and I didn’t say anything doesn’t that make me responsible? If I saw what happened to Gloria and didn’t tell anyone, doesn’t that mean it’s my fault that Patty is dead?’

‘No, Trevor. It’s not your fault. I can understand why you would feel guilty about it. But I know: it is absolutely not your fault.’

‘You weren’t there. How could you know? How could you have any idea of what I’m thinking?’

‘Because, I’ve been there, Trevor.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I saw my father shoot my mother. I saw her die right in front of my eyes.’

‘Did you tell the police what happened?’

‘I gave a statement, Trevor, yes.’

‘You told them what you saw?’

‘Yes, Trevor, but—’

‘See you did the right thing. You must really think I’m a pile of crap.’

‘No, Trevor, because I don’t know what I would have done in your case. You see, after shooting my mom, my dad shot himself. They both died that day. Unlike you, I had nothing to lose.’

Trevor stared down at his shoes. A minute passed. And then two.

‘Trevor,’ Dr Craig said. ‘Do you want me to send the detective away?’

Trevor raised his head and looked straight at Lucinda. ‘No, Dr Craig. I want to tell her what happened.’

Both women sat quietly waiting for him to begin. Lucinda doubted the wisdom of remaining silent, but felt unsure. Should she ask a question or just wait on him?

Finally, he broke the silence. ‘Like I said, I don’t remember anything about my mom dying. I don’t remember much about her at all,’ he said while tears puddled in his eyes.

‘But I do remember Gloria. Dad was putting concrete blocks into the stairwell landing just before he turned and went out into the living room. I asked him why he was doing that. He said, “Insurance, son, insurance”. I asked him what he meant and he said, “Someday when you have to deal with women, you’ll understand”. I asked him what that meant and he shushed me.

‘He went upstairs and I followed after him. He went into his bedroom and shut the door and I heard him start yelling at Gloria. I went into my room but left the door open. Then the yelling got louder when Gloria came out of the room. She saw me standing in the doorway and said she was sorry.

‘Dad came out and he was still yelling. Gloria said, “Not in front of the boy, Chris”. And my dad said, “How else is he supposed to learn what women are like”. She said, “Stop it, Chris”, and went toward the stairs. He went after her, spun her around so her back was to the stairs and pushed her.

‘I ran to the top of the stairs and saw her tumbling. I don’t know how she did it but somehow she crashed into the banister and fell through to the floor below instead of hitting the blocks.

‘My dad ran down the stairs after her and I followed him. He stood over her with his hands on his hips and started cussing. Gloria lay on the floor moaning. I kneeled down next to her and Dad shoved me and told me to leave her alone. I ran out of the house and went to the neighbors. I told them to get an ambulance ’cause Gloria had fallen down the stairs. But I knew she didn’t fall – she was pushed but I didn’t tell anyone that.’

Tears ran down Trevor’s face. Lucinda wanted to rush to him and wrap her arms around him but she sensed he’d resent it if she did anything to acknowledge that she’d even seen his tears. ‘Did the same thing happen to Patty?’

‘He didn’t put the blocks down there that time. He put a glass top table on the landing. And he didn’t push her. He hit her over the back of her head with my baseball bat and she fell. He wiped off the bat with an old T-shirt and handed the bat to me and told me to go down to the river and throw it in the middle. I just stood there.

‘He went down the stairs to Patty. She’d hit the table, there was broken glass and blood all over the landing. He dipped that T-shirt in the pool of blood around her head and smeared it on the banister and the post. Then, she groaned. He said the F word and wrapped his T-shirt around a broken piece of glass. I looked away then. I didn’t want to see what he was going to do. When I turned back, blood was shooting up in the air like a fountain. And then it stopped, like someone turned it off.

‘Then he said, “Get going” and I told him it was dark outside. And he said, “Listen, little scared-of-the-dark baby, I need you to get rid of that and get back here – I’m not going to call 9-1-1 until you do”.

‘All I could think about was Gloria. And how calling 9-1-1 saved her life and I didn’t think anyone could do anything for Patty but maybe I was wrong. So I ran as fast as I could, threw the bat as hard as I could and raced back home. All my dad said was “about time you got back”.’ Trevor doubled over, his arms wrapped around his stomach.

‘Very good, Trevor. I’m proud of you. You needed to get that poison out,’ Dr Craig said.

‘He said we’re going to take a nice, long vacation on a sunny beach in the Caribbean after he has custody. Don’t let him take me. Please. I think he wants to get rid of me.’ Trevor cradled himself and rocked back and forth on the chair as he pleaded with Lucinda.

Dr Craig and Lucinda both said, ‘What?’ Then Lucinda asked, ‘When did you talk to him, Trevor?’

‘He sent me a text message at school.’

Dr Craig turned to Lucinda. ‘Please leave your tape recorder on my desk and wait outside the room while I talk to Trevor.’

Lucinda rose and crossed the room, wondering why she hadn’t brought two devices and kept one hidden. She placed the recorder on Craig’s desk, her fingers not wanting to release it. She looked up at the doctor.

‘We had an agreement, lieutenant.’

Lucinda nodded and walked out of the room. She couldn’t sit down. She paced the room, one side to the other lengthwise, then shifted to walking the width of the room.

When the door opened, Lucinda’s mouth dehydrated in a flash. She held her breath. Dr Craig handed her the recorder and said, ‘Thank you for using restraint. You didn’t act like a cop and that’s what he needed. I think it went rather well. Well, I need to get back to him but he’s ready to testify. I think he needs to do it to resolve his feelings of guilt. And you need to make sure he survives to do that.’

‘Thank you, doctor. I will do everything in my power to protect Trevor and with the information on this tape, I am certain I will have the full support of the district attorney. Phillips’ message to Trevor has made him a flight risk – that should be sufficient to revoke his bail. Please tell Trevor not to delete that text.’

Dr Craig nodded, turned, went back in the room and closed the door.

Lucinda was buzzing. She got out of the building and pressed the play button. She had to make sure the recording really was still there. She heard Trevor’s voice and wanted to shout – she settled for one, slightly subdued, fist pump in the air and a quiet, ‘Yeah, me!’

Climbing into her car, she called Jake. ‘I’ve got it, Jake, I’ve got it.’

‘Trevor?’

‘Yes. He has a vivid memory of Gloria’s accident and Patty’s death and he wants to testify. His shrink even said it would be good for him.’

‘And good for you, too. This is going to please the DA. You’ll be his new best friend.’

‘I doubt that, Jake, I haven’t told you about this morning yet – I’ll catch you later for that. But at least now, I don’t have to worry about the DA running me over in the parking lot after work.’

J
ake sat at his desk getting more frustrated by the moment. His review of the reports on the search for Mack Rogers didn’t generate a single idea of where he should look, what he should do next. His phone gave an in-house call buzz and he picked up the receiver. ‘Tell me you’ve got some good news.’

‘Look sharp, agent. The press is on line two for you.’

‘I don’t want to talk to a reporter right now.’

‘You rate higher than that, sir, it’s a producer calling.’

‘Thanks. But no thanks.’

‘She says she can help you find Mack Rogers.’

‘Yeah and I’ll help her find Elvis.’

‘Sir, you don’t want her telling everyone that she tried to assist the FBI but they wouldn’t even talk to her.’

‘Crap. OK. I’ll take the call.’ He disconnected the in-house line, cleared his throat and punched the button two to reach the outside call. ‘Special Agent Lovett.’

‘Hello, sir. This is Jeanne Jacobs, producer of
Virginia’s Most Wanted
for
Eyewitness News
.’

‘I was told you believe you can help me with the search for Mack Rogers.’

‘Yes, indeed, sir. We’ll allow you to come live on our program this evening and make a personal appeal for tips. We’ll have a hotline up and running and you can help man the phones.’

‘No offense, Ms Jacobs, but Rogers could be anywhere in the country by now. Your show is local – what good will that do?’

‘Sir, one of our other guests on the show is a criminal justice professor from Radford University. He makes a very compelling argument that Rogers would still be here in the state. In fact, he believes he would be within our viewing area so that he can keep track of the excavation at his former home.’

‘Good for him.’

‘Oh, sir, please don’t be negative about this. You are vital to the show tonight. We have found in the five years we’ve been on the air with this program that the response from the public has been far more vigorous when we have had an investigator or sheriff here on the set to talk about his efforts to find a dangerous criminal.’

It was tempting but Jake knew that his supervisor was always looking for an excuse to give him grief. And he knew she’d never approve it if he made a request. ‘I’ll have to run this by my regional director,’ he said.

‘Sir, you and I both know what the FBI bureaucracy is like. If they cooperate at all, they’ll send a spokesperson. That is just not as effective as someone really involved in the case. People with information are far more likely to call the hotline if the guy in actual pursuit of the criminal is waiting to take their calls. And if he’s watching, it would seem a lot more serious if an FBI agent is talking about him instead of one of our announcers. It might push him to do something . . .’

‘Like kill another woman? Is that what you want?’

‘Oh my heavens, sir. Not at all. But he might feel the heat. It might make him move from wherever he’s hiding out, worried that you’re getting too close. And I’ve always been told that it’s easier to find a fugitive when he’s on the move. And sir, if you’re hesitating because you are not familiar with our work, I can give you the name of a few sheriffs who have had very positive results from appearing on our show.’

Jake had no leads to follow. He needed something. Sure, Director Goodman would be pissed but he could grovel for the wicked witch’s forgiveness later. If he did get results, she could do nothing but chew on his butt for a while – what’s new? ‘OK. What would you want me to do if I agreed?’

‘We’ve already written script for you.’

‘You want me to read a script? I don’t think so.’

‘Oh no, sir. It’s just a guideline to help you follow the show’s point of view.’

‘I don’t care if I follow your point of view or not, Ms Jacobs. I need to be able to say what needs to be said without any constraints.’

‘Well, of course you can, sir. You’re the expert. We just want to make you comfortable.’

‘When is this show?’

‘Tonight, sir, right after the eleven o’clock news.’

‘That’s sudden.’

‘We wanted to make sure we had everything in order and we were ready to proceed with the other guests, the background, the hotline volunteers and a strong promotional effort. We didn’t want to waste your time if we could not pull it off tonight.’

Jake suspected that she didn’t want to ask him before now because she didn’t want him to have time to cause problems with any other aspect of the production. ‘All right. When do you need me?’

‘Come to the studio tonight at ten thirty or a little before. We can do a walk through, get you familiar with the set, fine-tune the blocking and make sure the lighting is appropriate to make you look your best.’

Jake wasn’t certain what all of that entailed but he’d just go there and do as he was told. ‘I’ll see you at ten thirty then.’

He ran down the price he’d pay if it didn’t go well tonight: grief from Goodman, punitive action from her or maybe even dismissal. He chuckled. Nah, she won’t fire me. I’ve got a friend in the media right now. If I get canned for appearing on her show, Jeanne Jacobs will make sure everybody knows and Goodman despises bad press. Now, what will I say?