The Girls Across the Bay

by Emerald O'Brien

  She picked up her phone and texted Madigan.

  Good news. Call me when you get this.

  She set the phone down and stared at Lily’s picture.

  “What were you doing with Mickey? Placating him? Entertaining the idea of being with him? Were you afraid of him?”

  He left you alive.

  That means something and nothing at all if he hurt you.

  I’m sorry, Lily.

  “John and Mickey set up the dominoes, and Evette tapped the first one into motion,” she said. “Your own mother…”

  What’s Madigan going to think of Evette?

  She’s already distrusting.

  Grace opened her purse and took out the piece of paper Madigan gave her with Joe Harris’ phone number.

  “Time to follow through on my promise,” she said, dialing his number while turning one of the note pads on the table toward her.

  “Hello?”

  “Mr. Harris?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  “This is Detective Inspector Grace Sheppard. Tall Pines PD.” She grabbed a pen and tapped her paper, waiting for a response. “I’m calling in regards to the investigation of the disappearance of your fiancée, Valerie.”

  “What do you want from me?”

  “I’m sorry to disturb you, Mr. Harris, but I’m following up on the cold case, and I have a few questions. I was wondering if there is any new information you have in regards to the disappearance?”

  “Valerie’s dead,” he said, defeated. “You people didn’t do yer job, and she’s dead.”

  “How do you know that, sir?”

  “Because she wouldn’t have run away with anyone else. She wouldn’t have left her parents, and she wouldn’t have left me. She’d have used her debit card. Sent a message. Written. Anything. But she hasn’t because she’s dead.”

  “And who do you think killed her?”

  “The guy you’re investigating ‘cause he’s done it again,” he said. “John Talbot, or whatever he goes by now. He killed Valerie, and he killed Lily too.”

  “Mr. Harris, why do you think that?”

  “Because he got away with it the first time,” he sighed. “Didn’t you read the reports? They made her out to be some flimsy floozy, gone like the wind. Like some whore. Like I’m some douche who couldn’t satisfy her.”

  “Sir—”

  He’s drunk. Great.

  “Then he came back like a bloody ghost,” he said. “I’s in a bar one night downtown, and there he was. John fuckin’ Johnny, lookin’ different but the same sorry piece’a’shit, sitting at the table with a pretty blonde girl. Smilin’ at her. Laughing with her. Manipulating her like he did my Valerie. So I went right up to him, an’ know what he did? He ran, ‘tective. The sorry fucker ran out onto the street, and I chased him. He wasn’t getting away with it again. I got a few good punches in there too.”

  Joe Harris chuckled, and something slammed in the background.

  The fight at Wild Card outside on the street on John’s record.

  “Pigs pulled me off—I’m sorry, ‘tective—officers pulled me off, an’ know what he did?”

  Grace waited.

  “Absolutely nothing. He’s a dealer, y’know that? Drugs and, oh shit, God knows. He’s a prick. He couldn’t shake no legs or step to my face cause he’s a coward. He got my Valerie when I was away. Picks on women he thinks he can overpower. Gets ‘em alone. Fights he can win, but if I hadda minute, just a moment alone with him again…”

  Something cracked and popped in the background.

  Another can of beer opened.

  “Mr. Harris, do you have any hard evidence or reason to think it was John?” she asked.

  “Hard evidence,” he mumbled, laughing. “Don’t need any.”

  “Alright, well thank you for your time, Mr. Harris.”

  “You nail that fucker,” he said. “Lily was a good girl, that one.”

  “You knew her?” she asked.

  “Ayuh,” he said, hiccupping. “I tried to warn her. Found out she’s workin’ showin’ homes so I booked an appointment of my own. She was smart. Didn’t want to talk to a drunken stranger.”

  “You followed her?”

  “I followed you too,” he laughed, caught in a fit. He tried to speak, but kept laughing. “I sent you twits those pictures in a pretty little package. I handed you the win, and you still haven’t got ‘em. He have you under his spell, too?”

  “You set the fire,” she said, grabbing the paper, standing from her chair and rushing out the door into the hallway.

  “I sure’s hell did,” he said. “Aren’tcha gonna thank me, ‘tective?”

  “Why?” she asked and put him on mute, handing the paper to Tarek at his desk. “Find me his address and get two units there, now.”

  “…but if you won’t,” Joe Harris said, “I will.”

  She took him off mute.

  “Mr. Harris, I understand your concern about John, but we need evidence to make an arrest, and you admitted, you don’t have any against John.”

  Mac walked up beside her, and she put Joe on mute again.

  “It’s Joe Harris,” she said. “He started the fire and left us the pictures. The note.”

  “Who?” Mac asked.

  “Oh,” Joe said, “don’t you worry, Missy. I got all the proof I need right here.”

  “He’s going to go after John if we don’t get units to wherever he is right now,” she said.

  “I’ll go to his house,” Mac said.

  “I’m coming,” she mouthed and took him off mute again. “I’d like to meet with you. Where are you, Mr. Harris?”

  He laughed.

  “Keep him on the phone,” Mac mouthed. “I’m going.”

  Her shoulders fell, and she nodded.

  “Oh you want to talk, now? Why does everybody want to talk now?” he shouted.

  Mac pointed at the phone, and she pressed mute.

  “Tarek’s going to trace the call,” he said.

  “Burned his house down so he can burn in the fire like the devil he is—” Joe shouted on the line.

  “Be careful,” Grace told Mac, and he nodded before tapping a nearby officer on the shoulder.

  Grace took the phone off mute.

  Remember your training.

  Keep him talking.

  Everything depends on you.

  Chapter Thirty Six

  Madigan walked behind the first row of cars, around the side of the building, just out of sight of the lodge.

  “I’ll have to use the sidewalk to get back,” she muttered to herself before smacking her hands on the hood of the first car in the neighbouring lot. She continued on to the next, looking around the parking lot.

  No one watching.

  She pushed the car and yanked at the handle to open the door.

  Nothing.

  Third time’s a charm.

  She did the same to the next car.

  Nothing.

  Maybe it’s a sign I shouldn’t be here.

  She turned around and bumped into the next car, parked too close, and the alarm bleeped over and over. She covered her ears and darted out from between the cars, running to the sidewalk before walking at a normal pace.

  The police car drove down the Whitestone Lodge lot toward the street and straight at her.

  Make them think it’s something bad.

  Someone else.

  “Hey,” she waved at the officer and pointed to the lot she came from. “Someone’s trying to break in.”

  “We’ve got a possible threat.” The officer spoke into his speaker as he drove out onto the street and back up into the neighbouring lot.

  Madigan kept walking down the sidewalk past the lodge and made a break for it. She rounded the corner, and John ran toward the field at the same time.

  She pushed herself, her heart racing as John ran into the dark field and she sprinted after him. Gasping for breath, she caught up to him as he slowed down, and she passed him.
<
br />   “Come on,” she panted.

  Her heart beat hard in her chest and through her ears. The smell of smoky leaves sent flutters through her lungs each time she gasped for breath.

  He feels the same way.

  They jogged to the edge of the field and found her bike parked where she left it.

  She put her helmet on, swung her leg over, and John did the same.

  He’s ridden before.

  “Let’s go,” he said.

  “Where?”

  “The fairgrounds,” he shouted over the bleeping car alarm. “Come on.”

  Her heart raced as she started the engine.

  I should tell Grace.

  I need to tell Grace where we’re going.

  “Let’s go,” he shouted.

  She pushed the choke knob in all the way before driving the bike through the dirt, kicking dust up behind the spinning wheels and merging onto the road.

  The fairgrounds in the fall.

  An open empty field that will be dark by the time we get there.

  At the next light, she made a right turn, down toward the water.

  I need to let Grace know where I am.

  I have no way to do that until we get there.

  “I wasn’t around back then,” Grace said, sitting. Tarek hooked her cell up to a tracking device. “But I’m looking at the case now, and I want to help. I want to do better, Mr. Harris.”

  I can do better.

  Grace opened the PD database and searched Valerie’s name. Her case came up as the only result.

  “Shouldn’t be too hard,” Joe laughed. “Y’know it’s too late though, right? You had yer chances.”

  I have to keep him talking.

  I have to be more personable. Like Madigan.

  “Why, Joe?” she asked. “Can I call you Joe?”

  “Fine,” he said.

  “Why is it too late?”

  “Cause she’s dead,” he sputtered. “And John’s gotta pay.”

  She opened the case online and scanned the initial report and information. Nothing she could have worked with at the time either.

  “Joe,” she said. “In the initial report of her disappearance, you never mentioned John.”

  His heavy breathing made her pause.

  “Was that because you didn’t know it was him back then?”

  “I didn’t even know he lived there,” Joe said. “I don’t think he did, you know that? But after the news came out about Valerie seeing somebody, neighbours started to talk about the hot guy ’usta live next door. How they bet it was him. How they’d seen her over there.”

  Grace checked the date, and Tarek made a phone call, speaking in a hushed voice beside her.

  This was after we moved in.

  I never saw another woman in our house except druggies.

  I’ve never seen Valerie, or I don’t remember her.

  “How did the rumor start, Joe?” she asked, and Tarek tapped her arm, pointing to the screen.

  A red dot blinked across the street from the Lodge. She turned to Tarek.

  “I sent them the location,” he mouthed.

  “One of her friends, I guess,” Joe sighed. “One of her stupid friends who couldn’t keep her mouth shut.”

  Grace searched through the statements given by Joe, family, and finally the last statement given by a friend.

  “Hello?” he said.

  “You don’t think this friend should have told the police what they saw?” Grace asked, reading the statement as she spoke.

  “I was at the fair this summer, and I saw Valerie there with this guy.”

  “Did you recognize him?”

  “No. I just know it wasn’t her fiancé. I waved to Valerie, and I think she saw me but pretended not to, you know? Like she was embarrassed she’d been caught with him.”

  “O’course she should have told the police,” he said. “Lotta good that did, though. After that she shoulda kept quiet out of respect for Valerie and her family. And me.”

  “Right,” Grace said.

  “What did the man look like?”

  “I didn’t get a good look. Brown hair, maybe, but I think he was wearing a hat. Plaid shirt and jeans. This was weeks ago.”

  “Anything else you noticed?”

  “No.”

  “Okay, thank you.”

  “She was carrying a big pink bunny.”

  “So. You gonna arrest him?” Joe asked, and Tarek tapped her shoulder again, holding up his landline phone.

  They had a big pink bunny in their room the night after the fair when Evette took them. When Eli thought they’d stayed home.

  Eli put it there, hadn’t he?

  “Mac,” Tarek mouthed. “He wants to talk to you.”

  Or did John?

  An engine hummed in the background and she pressed her cell phone to her ear.

  “Hold on, Joe,” she said, grabbing the other phone. “Joe?”

  The line went dead.

  “Mac?” She set her phone down. “I lost him.”

  “So did we,” he said. “Officers are checking in on John, now.”

  “He can’t be far,” she said.

  Grace’s heart raced as a heavy feeling in her gut hit her hard, and she picked up her phone.

  “You have to find Joe, Mac,” she said, pressing Madigan’s number. “Hold on, okay?”

  She hit call and pressed the phone to her ear. It rang and rang.

  “Pick up,” she hissed. “Pick up the phone.”

  The call went to voicemail.

  “Mac?” she asked, picking up the phone. “I think my sister might be in trouble.”

  “John’s gone,” Mac said.

  Her breath caught in her throat.

  Madigan.

  Chapter Thirty Seven

  Madigan drove through the front entrance to the fairgrounds, and John pointed to the left. She drove through the crisp leaves on the ground toward another opening in the trees. Toward the path she and Grace took that eventually led to the rocky coast.

  John pointed to the right and tapped her shoulder. She turned right, and he patted her shoulder again. She stopped in front of thick trees forming a barrier around the fairgrounds. A metal fence had been set up just before them each year.

  John got off the bike, and she grabbed her cell from her pocket and hit Grace’s name.

  Fair, was all she could type.

  John reached toward her, and she hit send before he swiped the phone from her hand.

  “You have to trust me, Madigan,” he said. “We don’t have much time.”

  I should have called her before, but then she’d have stopped me.

  Maybe she should have stopped me.

  Come on, Grace. Get here.

  He tucked her cell phone into his pocket, and she took off her helmet, gripping it tightly in her fist.

  I can hit him with it if I need to.

  John turned and marched past the treeline into the forest.

  “Come on,” he said. “I’ll tell you as we walk.”

  She kept her helmet in her hand and followed him into the forest. He glanced over his shoulder before continuing ahead.

  “Everything I told you about Eli is true,” he said. “I left because I didn’t want to become him. Abusive. Manipulative. I didn’t want his life. I don’t know where I got the confidence, but somehow, I thought I could do better.”

  “You did,” she said, scrambling to catch up.

  “Eli told me not to come back once you two got there, but it was Evette who made me promise to stay away. At the time, I thought she didn’t want someone like me near you two. I was—pretty bad at that point. I understand that now, but I was angry then. Now I know it’s because she didn’t want me to be like Eli either.”

  He stopped by a large fallen tree, and she caught up right behind him before he turned left.

  I have to leave a trail.

  She took off her necklace and hung it on a branch while John navigated the rocky terrain.

&n
bsp; She’ll see it. She has to see it.

  He stopped on the other side and turned back, waiting for her. She ambled down the slope and joined him.

  “But I was mad at Evette,” he said. “Eli asked me back to help with odd jobs. Score some easy cash. It was all I knew at the time, so I did it. It kept me off the streets for months.”

  “Why didn’t we see you there?”

  “I came by late when you were both asleep. One night, late, I got a call from Eli that changed my life.”

  He stopped by a tree to catch his breath.

  Or to find the way?

  “He told me he needed my help and to come over right away,” John said and turned to Madigan. “I was high out of my mind, but I didn’t know where my next fix was coming from, so I went.”

  He swallowed hard and leaned against the tree.

  “When I got there…”

  He leaned over, and she wanted to reach out to touch his arm. Comfort him.

  He grabbed me before in his room, and he’ll do it again.

  “John?” She gripped her helmet strap tightly.

  He looked up at her. “Everything I’m about to say is true, and I’m not proud of it, but you need to know. You, and your sister. Valerie’s family. Evette. If I don’t make it, please tell her I love her.”

  “I will,” she muttered. “John, what happened that night?”

  “Something that haunts me. Something I’d never have been able to live with if it weren’t for Thom. And Lily.” A tear slid down his cheek, and he wiped it away. “They didn’t know, but they made it better. Easier sometimes.”

  “John, please, you need to tell me what happened!”

  He grabbed her hand and squeezed it tightly, pulling her close and staring deep into her eyes.

  “You shouldn’t have come.”

  Grace ran to her car as her cell phone buzzed, flashing Madigan’s name across the screen.

  The fair

  “The fairgrounds,” she whispered, sending shivers down her spine. “He’s taken her there.”

  He brought the bunny. The fair has meaning to him somehow.

  She got in her car and called Madigan’s number as she ripped out of the parking lot.

  No answer.

  Something happened that night of the fair with him and Valerie.