Wrong Turn (21 page)

Lucinda slid a photograph of Mack Rogers across the table. Helen looked at it and gasped. She threw her hands over her face and sobbed.

Jake put an arm on her shoulder. ‘Is that the man who kidnapped Prissy?’

‘Oh, why did you have to come here? You’ve killed Prissy,’ she wailed.

‘Does that mean you recognize the man in the photo?’ Lucinda pressed.

‘Oh, poor little Prissy. Oh, I hope she doesn’t suffer.’

‘Ma’am, you need to help us or we can’t find Prissy and bring her home.’

She dropped her hands from her face. ‘Yes. Yes, that’s him. That’s Mack. I don’t know how he’ll do it, but I know that he’ll know what I said to you. And he’ll kill Prissy.’

Lucinda reached across the table and placed a hand on top of Helen’s. ‘That’s why you hid from us, because you think he knows everything that goes on in your house?’

Helen nodded her head.

‘Well, then, Helen, he’ll know you tried. That ought to count for something. Maybe it will save Prissy’s life and we’ll be able to bring her home to you. Do you have a recent photo of her?’

Helen nodded again, rose from the table and retrieved a small frame from an occasional table in the living room. She turned it toward Jake and Lucinda who looked at it and then at each other. It was a photograph of a small gray dog with fur pointing in every direction and a little pink bow on her head.

‘So,’ Jake said, ‘Rogers kidnapped your dog?’

‘She’s not just a dog,’ Helen protested. ‘She’s the most important person in my life. She’s the only one who really cares about me.’

Jake opened his mouth to speak. Lucinda gave a sharp shake of her head and said, ‘I know exactly what you mean, Helen. My little Chester – he’s my cat, but he’s one of the best people I’ve ever met.’

Helen looked at her and beamed. ‘You understand.’

‘I sure do, Ms Johns.’

‘Oh, please, call me Helen.’

‘Certainly, Helen. Now, I need your help to rescue Prissy, if you could please give me some background information, OK?’

Helen nodded, her demeanor noticeably calmer.

‘How do you know Mack Rogers?’

‘He’s my cousin. Known him all my life.’

Jake said, ‘Wait a minute. We checked for Rogers’ relatives in the area, your name didn’t come up.’

Helen nodded and pushed a strand of hair out of her face. ‘We weren’t really cousins, I suppose. I just always called his mom Aunt Irene and he called my mom Aunt Frances. We always thought of each other as cousins but I don’t think we were really related by blood. Our moms worked together for a while and roomed together off and on.’

‘Where did they work?’ Lucinda asked.

‘On the streets, if you know what I mean,’ she said as the color rose in her cheeks.

‘You lived under the same roof with Mack at times?’

‘Yes, off and on. I think things were better for Mack when they lived with us. My mom might have been a whore but she always made sure that there was food on the table and she never brought work home. Mack’s mother really didn’t care at all. When the two of them were on their own, she’d leave Mack at home without even a pack of crackers in the house. And she often entertained men at her place – which usually was nothing more than a bedsit with everything crammed in one room – there was no place for Mack to go.

‘I think that’s one of the reasons my mom kept trying to get them to come back and stay with us. She said it was to share expenses but I think she worried a lot about little Mack. He and I were pretty close growing up but then he got a little weird. He talked too much about dead bodies. Gave me the creeps. Still, when he was in jail or prison, I’d write to him – sending a little spending money if I had it, visited him when I could. We only had each other – never knew who our fathers were – and both of our mothers died years ago, one right after the other.’

‘When did Mack come here, Helen?’

‘Oh, couple of weeks back. Now, don’t get the wrong idea – he slept right over there on the sofa.’

‘We noticed that.’

‘Good. Well, he said that these guys were after him. They threatened his life and now they were trying to frame him for murder. So what could I do? I let him stay here. It felt like a family obligation, you know what I mean?’

Lucinda nodded. ‘When did he leave – when did he take Prissy?’

‘It was Friday night,’ she said and pointing at Jake added, ‘And it was all your fault.’

‘He saw the show?’

‘Oh yeah. And he cussed you out every time your face was on the screen. He said he was doomed now that the FBI was in on the conspiracy to destroy him and frame him for murder.

‘I told him he oughta turn himself in to the local police – get them to protect him and straighten it all out. That’s when he hauled off and punched me in the face.’ She placed her fingers on the bruise and winced. ‘Still pretty tender,’ she said.

‘You believe he’s being framed?’ Jake asked.

‘Well, I did. Up until he punched me and took Prissy. And if he did what you said he did in that show, you ought not to arrest him – you oughta shoot him dead on the spot.’

‘Where would he go now, Helen?’ Lucinda asked.

Helen shook her head. ‘If I knew, I’d tell you. He spent a lot of time with creeps he’d known in prison. Some of them came around here – tattooed head to toe a lot of them. He never introduced them and I never stuck around. I stayed to my bedroom until they left.’

‘But he must have talked about some of them – anything you can tell us would help,’ Lucinda said.

‘There was this guy he called Tom Cat – he and Mack really got into it one day about money Tom Cat said Mack owed him. Mack called him a liar and I thought they were gonna start busting up furniture, but Tom Cat stomped out of the house saying that Mack would regret stiffin’ him.’

Lucinda wondered if that argument was the instigation for the anonymous call about the fugitive’s whereabouts.

‘Let’s see,’ Helen continued, ‘there was this other guy he called Mean Joe Green – but I’m sure he wasn’t the football player – they seemed to get along just fine. And there were a few others – let me think a minute.’

Lucinda’s cellphone rang. She pulled it out and saw the number for the Justice Center. ‘I better take this,’ she said, pressing the button. ‘Hold on a minute,’ she said to the phone and walked outside. ‘Pierce.’

‘Lieutenant, this is Brubaker. Cafferty has ’em all in here. The three girls, one boy and all three sets of parents. Each family group is in a separate room – except for the brother and sister. They divided them up and each one has a single parent at their side, though the boy looks old enough that it’s probably not necessary but best that Cafferty is taking no chances.’

‘I’ll get back there as soon as I can. Call me back if anyone’s arrested. And thanks, Brubaker.’

Jake was still probing Helen’s recollections when Lucinda went back into the kitchen. For another half hour, he and Lucinda poked and prodded her memory but didn’t come up with anything that seemed useful. They left the home with promises that they would do everything they could to find Prissy and bring her home.

‘And, Helen, make sure you keep all your doors locked,’ Lucinda said. ‘You don’t want Mack slipping in the back door like I did.’

Helen promised but Lucinda still felt uneasy leaving her there alone.

J
ake pulled up to the front of the Justice Center to drop off Lucinda. She opened the door but before getting out, she turned back to Jake, leaned forward and planted a kiss on his lips.

She went up to the second floor, heading for Brubaker, but just before she reached his desk, Cafferty approached her and said, ‘Too bad, lieutenant. Not one of them confessed. Guess it’s all on your girl. You might as well kiss her goodbye.’

He turned and pressed the elevator button.

‘Wait a minute, Cafferty.’

The elevator doors slid open. He stepped in and pressed the button to close the door.

‘Cafferty,’ Lucinda shouted.

He just waved and said, ‘See ya,’ as the doors closed.

She took a couple of steps toward the stairwell when she heard Brubaker call her name. She turned back to him. ‘I’ve got to catch him.’

‘He’s just jerking your chain, lieutenant.’

Lucinda looked at the door for the stairs then back at Brubaker. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Come over here a minute,’ he said. When she reached his desk, he said, ‘The techs are in the interview rooms now, gathering up the soda cans and coffee cups. They’re dusting them for prints to see if they match the ones that aren’t Charley’s on the spray paint can. And getting DNA to match to the urine. Cafferty’s doing what needs to be done. After meeting with them, he seems to agree with you about who’s responsible. But he hates to admit he was wrong, so he’s going to give you as much grief as he can before he has to acknowledge it. Steer clear of him until the forensics unit has results.’

Lucinda went to the forensics lab hoping to impress the urgency of the results on the department head Dr Audrey Ringo. When she got to the door, she encountered the doctor on her way out. ‘Hey, Audrey.’

‘Who?’ the skinny redhead asked.

‘You.’

‘And my name is . . .?’

‘Dr Ringo. Yeah, so I was checking on the evidence you gathered from the interview rooms a while ago.’

‘It’s Saturday, Lieutenant Pierce. I created my budget with built-in expectations that my field staff would have to go out and gather evidence without notice any time of day or night. My lab staff is a different situation. They work Monday through Friday.’

‘No exceptions, Dr Ringo?’

‘Certainly not for a petty crime like vandalism, lieutenant – even if the accused has an influential member of the police force on her side.’ Audrey peered at Lucinda’s face. ‘Not quite done with the repair work, are you? I certainly hope you’ve scheduled another procedure soon.’

‘Not yet, Audrey,’ Lucinda said, trying and failing to keep the irritation out of her voice.

‘Well, see that you do. We’ll all be happy not to have to see the ugly consequences of the risks of police work every time you drop by,’ she said, walking off toward the elevator. She stopped halfway there and spun around to face Lucinda. ‘Oh, I saw your sister on the news talking about your recent screw-ups. Migod, lieutenant, what did you do to that woman to deserve that?’ Audrey turned away without waiting for a response.

Audrey always made her want to scream but Lucinda bit down the urge. She knew Audrey pushed her buttons deliberately and she’d be damned if she’d let her see that she succeeded.

At her desk, Lucinda returned to her review of the files and her notes on the Sherman case in preparation for Monday’s hearing. She’d been at it for a couple of hours when Jake called.

‘His pick-up truck’s been spotted at an apartment complex on the south side of town. I’ve got a patrolman watching it until I get there – you want to come along?’

‘I’ll be there in five minutes. Be out front. I’m driving.’

Jake chuckled. ‘Yes, ma’am. See you in five.’

The maze of tired apartment buildings behind a brick enclosure looked as if they just wanted to fall down and rest for a while. Shingles were missing from roofs and the white paint on the window trim was cracked and flaking off onto the ground below.

Rogers’ pick-up truck sat in a space in the back of the building at the greatest possible distance from the entrance. It was locked with a security bar across the steering wheel. They went to the manager’s apartment but he had no knowledge of the truck and didn’t recognize Rogers’ photo.

Lucinda and Jake went door to door, asking residents to look at his picture. They ran into a few hostile people but no one gave any indication of deception when they said they didn’t recognize the man in the photo. One man even admitted that he looked vaguely familiar but could not recall why.

‘We need to stake this place out,’ Jake said. ‘It doesn’t make sense that he’d lock up the truck that tight unless he was planning to come back for it.’

‘Could be what he wants you to think,’ Lucinda suggested.

By the time they arranged for a stake-out that night, it was ten o’clock. They left two patrolmen in an unmarked car in the parking lot and headed home to grab some sleep before returning to relieve them at four the next morning.

On the way back, Lucinda said, ‘Don’t even think about using your car in the morning. It’ll stand out in that shabby neighborhood more than a fur-covered, bejeweled matron. And besides, if we had to leave the car for any reason, it’d be stripped clean in five minutes fast.’

‘No argument from me, Lucinda,’ he said as they pulled up to his car. Before getting out, he leaned over and kissed her, and then he was gone.

When he got into his Super Sport and started the engine, Lucinda pulled out of the lot. This peck and run routine is lame, Lucinda thought. How old are we anyway? It’s my fault, she had to admit. I always make him think if he presses too close, I’ll cut him off at the knees. I’ve really got to make up my mind. I’m driving us both nuts.

N
o time of the week is lonelier than a Sunday morning at four. Lucinda and Jake were grateful for each other’s company on the quiet streets. The only signs of life were feral cats that ran and hid at the slightest provocation.

They talked at length about the status of the cases foremost in their mind. Would Martha Sherman be released from prison on Monday? Would Mack Rogers ever be found and arrested? Would Chris Phillips walk away from his crimes and, God forbid, end up as their elected congressman once again? Would Charley ever be cleared and how would the experience change her? They shared their hopes and fears about outcomes in each one. Jake tried to help Lucinda cope with the guilt she felt over each situation.

When they ran out of thoughts to share, they sat in companionable silence until Jake broke it. ‘Lucinda, I’m not telling you what to do and it won’t make any difference to how I feel about you; but I really think it would do you a lot of good to get the final surgical procedure done.’

‘I’ve been thinking about it, Jake. But one thing stops me every time.’

‘What’s that?’