Wrong Turn (8 page)

She shoved them up as high as she could.

‘Turn around!’

‘But, but . . .’ Charley objected.

‘Turn around!’

She obeyed the order, her knees shaking, heart pounding. She didn’t think they’d shoot her in the back but she’d heard some strange stories on television. Her wrists were grabbed from behind. Her hands secured in a pair of cuffs. A hand pushed on the back of her head. ‘This way, girlie,’ the officer said, maneuvering her around, leading her out of the apartment and into the back seat of a waiting patrol car.

On the way to the Justice Center, she spit out the names of the kids responsible for the vandalism, admitting she didn’t know all of their last names. ‘Please don’t say anything else,’ the officer in the passenger seat said. ‘We need to read you your rights but before we do that, we need to have one of your parents present.’

‘No,’ she insisted. ‘I just need Lucy – I mean Lieutenant Lucinda Pierce.’

‘You want Pierce?’

‘Yes. She’s my best friend. Don’t call my dad. He worries about me too much.’

‘Lieutenant Pierce is your best friend?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Yeah, right,’ he said with a chuckle.

‘No, really, she is, honest,’ Charley pleaded.

‘Just shut up, kid, before you get yourself in even more trouble.’

Charley simmered. She’d gotten pretty disgusted with adults over the last twenty-four hours. But these two were the worst. Wouldn’t even let her explain anything. She hoped nobody called her dad.

She rode up in the elevator to the fifth floor with an officer by each side. She took turns staring at them but neither one would look her in the eye. They walked down the hall and stopped outside of an office marked ‘Sgt. Cafferty.’

One of the officers went into that room, leaving her there with the other one. She followed the conversation inside. ‘Got another little criminal on the line, Cafferty. You might have to throw this one back, though; I think she’s too small to keep.’

‘Deadly kids come in small packages,’ she heard the other man, who Charley assumed must be Sergeant Cafferty, respond.

‘She claims Lieutenant Pierce is her best friend.’

‘Pierce? Oh, give me a break. How old is this kid?’

‘Looks about ten.’

Out in the hall, an indignant Charley shouted, ‘I’m eleven. I’m in middle school. I’m not a little kid.’

‘Zip it, kid,’ the officer with her said.

‘Whoa, officer, sounds like a hardened criminal to me,’ Cafferty joked. ‘Empty her pockets and put her in an interrogation room. And if you have cuffs on her, take them off. It really freaks parents out, with the little ones especially.’

‘Sergeant Cafferty, sir!’ Charley shouted. ‘I need to see Lieutenant Lucinda Pierce. Don’t call anybody until I talk to her.’

A dark-haired man in a suit came out of the office and looked down at her. He had those spooky blue eyes, the kind that always made her feel like a butterfly pinned to a board. ‘You want me to call Pierce?’

‘Yes, sir,’ she said. Then, quickly added, ‘Please, sir.’

‘What’s your relationship to Pierce?’

‘She’s my friend.’

‘Really, what did she bust you for?’

‘She didn’t bust me, she’s my friend.’

‘Right. What’s your home phone number?’

Charley pursed her lips tight.

Cafferty crouched down on his haunches. ‘C’mon, what’s the number?’

Charley shook her head. ‘I’m not telling you anything until you let me speak to Lieutenant Lucinda Pierce.’

Cafferty rose back to his full height, a look of disgust on his face. ‘Take her away.’

The two officers hustled her down to an interrogation room. Once inside, they removed the handcuffs. ‘Now, everything out of your pockets. Everything.’

Charley pulled out her cellphone, a pen and the change from the ten she spent at the coffee shop, laying it on the table. As an officer started to scoop it all into the palm of his hand, she said, ‘Wait! That’s my stuff. You can’t just take it.’

‘You’re under arrest, kid; we can take anything you’ve got.’

‘Can you leave my cellphone here?’

The two officers burst out laughing and one of them said, ‘No way.’

‘I promise I won’t make any phone calls without permission. I just want to play a game while I wait for the sergeant guy to come back.’

‘Kid, we don’t want you entertained in here; we want you bored. Now sit down and shut up or we’ll cuff you to the table.’

Meekly, Charley took a seat and stared down at the surface of the table. She wanted them to think she felt defeated. She could think better if they got out of the room and left her alone.

When they were gone, she raised her head and saw her reflection in the glass across the room. She knew that it wasn’t a mirror. Lucy had told her about the two-way glass. They’ll be watching me, she thought. I can’t forget that. She swore that when she was grown up, she’d treat everyone with respect no matter how old they were or how tall they were and she wouldn’t let anybody laugh in anyone’s face in her presence – no matter what they did or said.

J
ake had a fitful night wondering what was going on out in Idaho. He woke up every two hours; reaching for his cell to check if he’d missed an incoming call. At seven thirty that morning, he decided he’d waited long enough. He picked up his phone and called the cell of the Special Agent in Charge at the Salt Lake City office.

‘Do you know what time it is, Lovett?’

‘Seven thirty or so,’ Jake answered, puzzling over the question as he spoke.

‘That’s on the east coast, Lovett. Out here, we have what we call Mountain Time and it’s just five thirty – the sun hasn’t even come up yet.’

‘I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking about the time difference. Did I wake you?’

‘No, Lovett. I’ve been awake all night, sitting in the ranger station overlooking the campsite where we’ve narrowed down the location of Rogers.’

‘Why don’t you go in and get him?’ Jake asked.

‘Listen, Lovett, I don’t know how you handle things out east but out here in God’s country, we place a value on women and children and kind of think we ought to protect them.’

‘What’s that got to do with anything?’

‘At the campsite, there’s a woman and two small children. We were hoping to avoid turning all three of them into hostages. So we’re waiting for him to come out of the tent for a morning whiz or a bit of early fishing. You got a problem with that?’

‘No, of course not. Sorry to have bothered you. You will keep me posted on any developments?’

‘Don’t call me. I’ll call you.’

Jake hung up, disgusted with his western colleague. He had to keep busy. He got dressed and drove to his office. On route, he called Lucinda and updated her on the latest in the hunt for Rogers. ‘You sound distracted, Lucinda.’

‘I am, Jake. I’ve got two things bothering me. One is an anomaly I found in the Sherman case files last night but I can hardly think about that now because of the other thing – Charley is missing.’

‘Anything I can do? Do you think she’s been abducted?’

‘Honestly, Jake, I think she’s up to something and we are going to find her safe and sound before we know it. But, in the meantime, no matter how unlikely, I can’t help but worry that something else is behind her disappearance, or that whatever she’s gotten into this time, she’s not going to come out of it unscathed.’

‘Let me know if you need my help at any point. I’m following the developments out in Idaho but aside from that I’m at loose ends – nothing that can’t be dropped to help you and Charley.’

‘Thanks, Jake. Let me know when Rogers is in custody.’

Arriving in his office, he asked one of the agents to keep an eye out for any mishaps involving a young girl that might possibly be Charley. ‘It’s not official. We’re not involved in the case but if we can find out anything to help them locate the girl, I don’t think anybody will mind where the information comes from.’

At his desk, Jake pulled out Rogers’ file and once again went through it looking for any small item he could have overlooked that could point the search for the fugitive in the right direction. Finally, at nine his cellphone rang. It was an agent in the Pocatello satellite office. ‘Sir, I’ve been asked to give you a call and let you know we picked up Rogers. He’s being transported in as we speak. You will receive an update after the completion of his interrogation.’

‘The woman and the kids – are they OK?’

‘They were still in the tent asleep when we left. They don’t even know we were there.’

‘What about Rogers?’

‘Scraped up a bit when he tried to resist – but nothing all that serious. He keeps insisting he is not Mack Rogers but he sure looks just like him. As soon as he gets into the station, we’ll get his fingerprints for confirmation.’

‘Can you let me know as soon as that’s happened?’

‘I don’t know. I was told we’d call you after the interrogation.’

‘Ah, c’mon . . .’ Jake pleaded.

‘OK. OK. I’ll call once the prints are checked. But keep it to yourself, all right?’

‘You got it,’ Jake said. He was pumped. He wanted to be there – and maybe he’d get to go once Rogers’ identity was beyond question. He hated sitting here so far away with nothing to do but wait. He was thrilled that it was all about to be over but the pent-up energy was making him crazy. He had to get out and get moving. He left the office and walked the four blocks to his favorite diner – eggs, bacon and a stack of silver dollar pancakes sounded like just the thing to calm his jangled nerves. By the time he finished eating, he should have an answer – and maybe a plane ticket to Pocatello.

L
ucinda was on her way out of her office when the phone on her desk rang. Normally, she would have just kept going but now, with Charley missing, she couldn’t ignore the call. ‘Pierce,’ she said into the receiver.

‘Hey, lieutenant, this is Brubaker. That little girl you were worried about this morning, someone matching her description came in here in cuffs.’

‘In cuffs? I don’t think it could be her.’

‘Lieutenant, it looked a lot like that photo you emailed down here. You’d better check it out.’

‘Where is the kid?’

‘Property crimes, second floor.’

‘Thanks,’ she said, and went down the stairs to the floor below hers and asked the first officer she saw.

‘You just bring a little girl in here?’

‘Yeah. Sure did.’

‘Is her name Charley Spencer?’

‘Don’t know, lieutenant. But she’s in Interrogation Room B; you can go check her out.’

Lucinda went down the hall to the room in question, stretched out her arm to push on the door. ‘Hold on a minute, Lieutenant Pierce.’

Lucinda turned around and spotted the sergeant walking her way. ‘What’s up, Cafferty?’

‘The little punk’s been asking for you.’

‘What little punk?’ Lucinda asked, hoping it wasn’t Charley.

‘Her name is Charley Spencer – leastways that’s what she told us before she got stubborn and refused to talk to us until she talked to you.’

Lucinda’s hands planted on her hips. ‘So why didn’t you call me, Cafferty?’

‘She didn’t kill anybody, lieutenant. It wasn’t a case for Homicide. And since I knew she was lying when she said that you were her friend, I didn’t want to bother you.’

‘You idiot. She wasn’t lying. You didn’t call me because you didn’t want me around to keep an eye on you. I’ve heard of your division’s reputation with minors. Twist their minds up until they confess and then the hell with the truth. I’m going in to talk to her.’

Cafferty glowered at Lucinda as he slid between her and the door. ‘I can’t let you do that, lieutenant.’

He was two inches shorter than Lucinda and of average height and build. In her heels, she could look down on the top of his head at the brown hair slicked back from his forehead. She lowered her stare to his artificial contact lens blue eyes. ‘Out of my way, Cafferty.’

‘Sorry, lieutenant, conflict of interest. I am following procedure when I refuse you access to the subject,’ he said with a smirk. ‘Can’t have you interfering with an investigation, now can we?’

Lucinda had a strong urge to punch him in the face but held it back. ‘Why did you arrest that child in the first place?’

Cafferty leaned back against the door and folded his arms across his chest. ‘It’s solid, lieutenant,’ he said with a smile. ‘9-1-1 got in a call saying that there was an act of vandalism in progress.’

‘Who made the call?’

Cafferty shrugged. ‘Don’t know. No identification on the incoming call and the number tracked back to a disposable phone.’

‘Oh, that sounds real credible.’

‘It panned out, lieutenant. We sent out two squad cars. When the four officers got there, she was inside the apartment. She was caught with a can of red spray paint in her hand – kind of like catching literally red-handed,’ he said with a chuckle. ‘She also had a cut on one of her hands that she admitted was from the broken window and she was standing with her feet ankle deep in water. They figured she had to have been there all night to flood the place. They’re trying to estimate the damages right now – only a broad estimate of twenty to sixty thousand at the moment, they’re working on narrowing that down. No doubt, though, it’s a major crime. Your little friend is in a shitload of trouble.’

‘You’ve got the wrong kid. She was not out all night. She was home in bed.’

‘You know that for a fact, lieutenant? Were you there, too?’

‘No,’ she sighed, regretfully accepting the fact that he was completely within his rights as lead investigator to block her from having any contact with Charley; in a similar situation, she would do the same. She was determined, though, to get other concessions. ‘Can I just see her through the glass?’

Cafferty eyed her suspiciously as if he thought it was a trick. ‘OK. Come on into the observation room.’ After stepping inside, Cafferty warned her, ‘Stay clear of the control panel. I don’t want you getting a wild hair and pressing the intercom button to deliver a message to that kid.’

Lucinda suppressed the urge to lash back at him and turned her focus to the little girl on the other side of the glass. It was Charley all right. But Lucinda could not believe that Charley was responsible for destroying that apartment. There had to be another reason for her presence at the scene.