“My mother wasn’t in the explosion. She came to the restaurant afterwards and freaked out. Poor thing had to be fully sedated way back then. Eventually she was hospitalized in a long-term facility. When she finally woke up she was much like you see her now.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Henderson. We don’t want to upset her, but there is someone setting bombs off all over this city and we need to know if your mother has any information that will tell us who is doing this. We believe the long-ago explosion may hold the key to the recent bombings,” Murphy said.
“Alright, but if she gets upset, you’ll have to leave. You can call me Marvin,” he said, ducking his head.
He then stepped back and allowed them to enter. Alice was sitting at the kitchen table, centered in a large old-fashioned kitchen space reading a book of recipes. Marvin told them he would be down the hall if he was needed and stepped away, leaving them with his frail mother.
“Hi Maggie. How is the little bun in the oven today?” Alice started out as usual, looking up from her book and cup of tea as they entered. Little did she know it might actually be true this time. Stop it. It is not.
“The little bun is fine, Alice. Can we talk about the birthday party?”
Alice ’s eyes faltered a little at first, but then she perked up. “Birthday parties are supposed to be so much fun,” she said with forced exuberance.
“Did the little pumpkin go to a birthday party, Alice? Do you remember if there was a birthday party at the Fireside Inn…that day?”
Alice stood up. “I don’t want to talk about that place,” she said in a low, trembling voice.
“Then just tell me about the birthday party, Alice,” Sabrina said, looking at Murphy with raised eyebrows.
Alice perked back up again and responded, “Well, you planned it for a couple of months. You knew it would be the last party with just the three of you since the little bun in your oven was due a couple of weeks after the little pumpkin’s birthday.”
“And when was the little pumpkin’s birthday again?”
“May 15th.”
“No,” Sabrina shook her head, “my…” she stopped and cleared her throat, “the little pumpkin’s birthday is on the 25th of May,” Sabrina finally stuttered out, wondering why Alice thought her birthday was on a different day. She’d seen her own birth certificate. Her birthday was ten days after her parents had died. The orphanage had given her a copy when she’d left there at age eighteen.
“No. It’s the 15th I remember clearly because I can’t go to the party. I have to stay and wait for the deliveryman to come with all my medicine. He always comes on the 15th. Even if it’s Sunday,” Alice whispered, as if the Sunday delivery were a guarded secret.
“Who else knew about the party, Alice?” Sabrina asked.
“Well, not very many people, and I certainly didn’t tell anyone!” she stated emphatically, as if she were trying to convince herself.
Sabrina wondered if Alice had told someone. Maybe someone she wasn’t supposed to tell. “So you didn’t tell anyone about the party, Alice? Because it’s okay if you did.”
“Really?”
“Of course,” Sabrina said softly.
“Well, one day a couple of weeks ago, there was this very polite man who asked about you, Maggie, and he wondered where your apartment was. He told me he was your cousin. Since he was family, I told him you were out buying a dress for the little pumpkin for her birthday party on the 15th. I told him the party was a secret. He promised not to tell.”
“What else did he say?” Sabrina tried not to sound harsh.
“He said he wanted to send a gift to the party. He said it would be a big surprise and not to say anything about him being there. Did you get the gift, Maggie? Were you surprised, dear?” Alice’s eyes pleaded as if for some measure of forgiveness.
“Yes. I got the surprise,” Sabrina choked out as the possibilities assailed her. She took a couple of deep breaths to settle her rioting emotions.
“Could you describe him to us, Mrs. Henderson…this cousin you talked to…a couple of weeks ago?” Murphy asked, coming to Sabrina’s rescue.
“Sure I could, but you know what your own cousin looks like, Maggie,” she said, giggling brightly, and went on to describe a tall thin man with nice neat clothing and very nice manners. Not too old and not too young, just in the middle.
“What else do you remember about the day of the party, Alice?” Sabrina found her voice to ask.
“Well, I called you to tell you to look for a surprise package. Do you remember, dear? I told you your cousin had come visiting a couple of weeks earlier and he was sending something.” Alice ducked her head as if embarrassed and wouldn’t look Sabrina in the eyes.
“What did I say, Alice?” Sabrina asked quietly, afraid of the answer.
“You said you had to go. You sounded upset…and I thought I had ruined the surprise, so I came down to say I was sorry, but there was smoke and fire and…I saw you, Maggie. You were bleeding and they put you in an ambulance.” Alice sat down on the floor and started crying. Her frail blue veined hands went to her face as she sobbed. Sabrina crumbled to the floor on her knees putting her arm around the grief-stricken Alice.
“It’s okay, Alice. You didn’t ruin the surprise,” Sabrina told her.
“I didn’t?” she asked with tearful eyes. “Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure.”
“And the little bun in the oven and the little pumpkin…are they okay?” Alice whispered in a frail little voice, as if fearful of the answer.
“Yes. I promise, Alice. The little bun and the little pumpkin are just fine.”
Alice nodded as if in relief and promptly rested her head on Sabrina’s shoulder. They sat arm in arm for several minutes. Sabrina eventually let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. Poor Alice .
Sabrina concluded Hollingsworth had been the fake cousin who spoke to Alice in advance of the party at the Fireside Inn so long ago. He could have placed the bomb in the restaurant with a timer set days ahead. But why would he do that? What did Sabrina’s mother Maggie have on Hollingsworth or know about him, which threatened him to the point he would kill her? Sabrina pondered the answers to her own questions and looked at Brian and Murphy, who had been blessedly silent throughout this tearful exchange. Sabrina thought about how she could test Alice’s limited memory about who Maggie’s ‘cousin’ might be and had an idea.
“Alice, I want to thank my cousin for the surprise. Could you describe him for me again, I have so many cousins I want to make sure and thank the right one. Will you help me?”
“Yes. I’ll help,” she said. “I know just what he looks like. I just saw him the other day.”
Sabrina looked up and smiled over her head at the look she got from both Brian and Murphy regarding Alice seeing her cousin the other day. The other day probably meant twenty-three years ago.
“Okay, Alice.” Sabrina helped her stand up.
“Oh, I almost forgot. I have that box of pictures you wanted me to hold for you, Maggie. Do you want it back now?” Alice seemed in much better spirits now.
“Yes. I would. Thank you for taking care of it for me.”
Alice went out of the room for a few minutes to retrieve a small box from which she promptly pulled out several pictures Sabrina had never seen…five of them. Sabrina sucked in a rush of breath as she saw the first one.
It was Sabrina, as a child, being held by her father. She looked at the picture of the man who loved her and who always called her his little pumpkin. Her eyes swelled with tears at the sudden rush of memory.
The next photo, according to the date written on the back, was one taken a week before the Fireside Inn explosion with Maggie well along in pregnancy holding hands with the man Sabrina remembered from her dreams as the someone who loved her. The man held a very small Sabrina in his other arm. They were standing in front of the now ruined apartment building where they’d lived. The third was of her parents, arm-in-
arm, standing in front of the now destroyed city hall building where they had just been married. Back then the justice of the peace resided in the building.
Additionally, there was one of her mother alone, as a teen, her name on the back of the photo was smudged to badly to read. And finally, the last one was of Sabrina as a baby in her mother’s arms. The date on the back the photo was May 25th of the year Sabrina was born. It said below the date: “Maggie holding Sabrina, 10 days old.”
Sabrina realized with a rush that her birthday had just been taken away from her.
The ringing phone in Murphy’s pocket made them all jump. He answered as she and Brian made arrangements to bring Alice some photos to identify who “Maggie’s cousin” could be.
“That was a Mr. Dunn. He was another survivor of the Fireside Inn bombing,” Murphy said once he got off the line, “Mr. Dunn made a bread delivery to the kitchen back then directly before the bomb exploded. He remembers a pregnant woman talking on the phone in the kitchen. He told me we could ask him some more questions if we wanted and to come right over. I have the address.”
Sabrina gathered her new possessions in the small stationary box, and along with Brian and Murphy left the Hendersons’ to question the next witness. Sabrina made a mental note to show these to Suzanne tonight. Sabrina didn’t think she could keep her girly emotions in check to do it now. Especially if she had extra hormones running around.
* * * *
“I was flat on my back for three months after that blast,” Mr. Dunn started out. “I was out cold for the first three days in a coma. Cost me a flippin’ fortune in hospital bills once I got out.”
“What do you remember about the pregnant woman in the kitchen?” Sabrina asked pointedly.
Although she was getting better at talking about the explosion which had killed her parents and haunted her dreams for the greater part of her life, she still didn’t like rehashing it. She used up all her willpower not telling Mr. Dunn to quit being such a crybaby and tell them what they wanted to know. At least he’d lived through the blast, unlike others she could name.
“I remember she was yelling at somebody on the phone. That’s why I remember. She was this tiny little thing with a big belly. Sorta looked like you,” he said as if it had just occurred to him.
“Who was she yelling at…this pregnant woman?” Sabrina said, ignoring him. Mentally kicking the annoying girly emotion, which had almost escaped just then to make her sob.
“How should I know? She was screaming in the phone something like. How did you find us? And then why won’t you leave us alone? Or some shit like that. I don’t know the exact thing she said. I was just minding my own business delivering bread to the restaurant, you understand.”
“What else did she say?” Sabrina asked harshly. Her patience was about used up with Mr. Dunn.
“Jeez, I don’t know, it was a long time ago. And I’m old now, ya know. You’re lucky I remember as much as I’m telling ya.”
“Anything else you can tell us would be helpful.” Murphy suppressed a smile at Mr. Dunn’s attitude.
“Only other thing I remember was when she stopped screaming on the phone.”
“And what was that?” Sabrina prompted. Sheesh, quit dragging this out, you moron. Sabrina was on the verge of running screaming and crying out of the room.
“Well, she suddenly straightened up and looked around the kitchen with the phone still buried in her ear, eyes as wide as saucers. It was flippin’ creepy. She looked in the open door of the pantry and then this little peep of a noise came out of her. Like a squeal. She dropped the phone and left it banging on the wall before she ran out. Never seen a preggo run that fast. I was behind her wondering what the hell, there was only big cans of vegetables and the like in there. She made a beeline to a table in the restaurant and started talking to a guy there as I went out the front door.”
“And then what?” Sabrina asked, her patience at an end.
“Then I made it halfway back to my truck before…Boom!”
Sabrina paled and swayed against Brian. She tried to shake it off, but failed. Curse her emotional weakness lately, and score one for the girly emotion that had risen despite a sound kicking. Brian grabbed her upper arm and led her outside, as Murphy remained briefly to say their goodbyes.
“You okay?” Brian asked as they headed for the car, still holding on to Sabrina’s arm. He didn’t let go until they arrived at the car. Sabrina sat against the vehicle, resting her butt on the hood, and put her hands on her thighs. She took a couple of deep breaths.
“I guess,” Sabrina finally answered as she shook off her haunted feeling, and pierced Brian with a watery look and a forced smile. “It’s hard to hear about my parents sometimes.”
“I’m sorry. I forget how close you are to this case. Seems cruel to force you be involved.”
“I want to be involved. It’s my job, and besides, I want it to be over. I want this guy caught.”
Brian nodded then suddenly asked, “You and Jake okay?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“I don’t know. Just being nosy. I sensed a discussion in progress the other night when I drove him to you.”
“What did he say the other night at the orphanage site?”
“Nothing. I swear. I got an earful of silence on the way over, he just insisted on a ride.”
Sabrina chuckled, “Why does he go by Jake anyway? It’s not the obvious nickname for James, right?” Sabrina asked out of the blue. She’d wondered for a while and kept forgetting to ask Jake. Now was the perfect time to change the subject at hand.
“Oh, that. Well, when Jake was almost three he saw some show on TV where the hero was wrestling alligators. His name was Jake. So at dinner that night, he proclaimed he was going to be called Jake from then on. He said he wasn’t going to answer to anything else, the stubborn little cuss…and he didn’t either. Mom finally told us we had to humor him since he was the youngest. Colleen wasn’t born yet. Maybe he thought it would help him when he had to wrestle his four older brothers, but the name stuck.”
Sabrina laughed until she bent over. She could see three-year-old little Jake proclaiming what would now simply be because he’d decreed it. Just like his proposals, the thought of which caused her to sobered a little.
“You laugh, but he’s still stubborn to this day. You wait and see.”
“Oh, I already know.” She nodded. That very stubborn streak was the reason she was living at her sister’s house right now.
“Thing is…Jake is a great guy. He’s solid and he won’t let you down, and I’m not just saying that because he’s my brother.”
“I know,” Sabrina said, a little too wistfully.
“As stubborn as he is, we didn’t think he was ever going to settle down. The family is glad he’s finally met his match in you.”
“His match?”
“Well, yeah you being a bomb tech, of all things.”
“Instead of…” Sabrina asked with her eye brows raised in question.
“Instead of some simpering little Barbie doll who wants him to be a fireman only until the ink is dry on the marriage license then give it up for a safer job. Jake wants a woman who will let him be a fireman without grief. The family knows he needs a strong woman to settle him down, and I’m not insulting you either.”
“I know, but I never pictured Jake with anyone who would…simper.”
“Oh, yeah. Lots of simpering went on before you,” Brian said matter-of-factly.
“Oh, yeah? So how many were there? Just round to the nearest hundred.”
“No comment. Jeez, you don’t want me to break the bonds of brotherhood, do you?”
“That many?” Sabrina smiled broadly, because calm, staid Brian was so undone.
“No. I don’t know.” Brian sounded so exasperated Sabrina smiled again. “The truth is, I’ve only ever seen him go out with three girls for more than a short time, and one of those three is you, and I’ve never seen him look at anyone the way he look
s at you. Not ever.”
Sabrina nodded and smiled, tucking that away for later. She looked at her watch and realized she only had an hour before she had to go get the blood test. Guess who might be pregnant, Brian, she thought to herself with a little thrill she should probably quash. Don’t. It isn’t true.
After a car shuffle back at the Sheriff’s station parking lot, Sabrina made it to the doctor’s appointment with seconds to spare. She had to do some fancy footwork to ditch Murphy and Brian without telling them where she was going, but she finally escaped. She told them she needed to do some girl things at lunch. A threat which usually scared men off. Murphy gave her a strange look, but didn’t say anything. Hallelujah. Free at last.
Once at the doctor’s office Sabrina filled out about fifteen sheets of paper asking a lot of questions she didn’t know about her family history. Finally, she was called back into a small examination room. After they drew the blood, she was told it would take until tomorrow to process the test. They assured her they would call her as soon as they had the results. She gave them her cell phone number only.
Sabrina mentioned the five over-the-counter tests she’d taken and asked how accurate the blood tests were. The technician tried to hide her smile, but told Sabrina the blood test was the most accurate evaluation. She also said that while one over-the-counter test might be wrong, five usually meant get ready for motherhood.
Sabrina tried to smile in return, but she wasn’t ready to believe it. Not yet. After the blood test was revealed...then she’d think about it. Motherhood. Hmm. Warmth. Acceptance. Sweet baby smiles.
Sabrina’s cell phone rang as she stepped up to her car parked in the clinic’s crowded lot. Her heart started beating double time until she realized it couldn’t be the results yet. Jeez, relax you just walked out of there.
“Hey babe, how did it go last night with Suzanne?” Jake’s honey-smooth voice came rushing over her unexpectedly. Bam! Her throat muscles froze. Try to be cool. Don’t give anything away. Okay, now just try to talk.
“Oh…um…Hi Jake. Um…good. It was good.” She stuttered for a moment, trying not to blurt out anything. Take a breath, her girly emotional side even said in exasperation. “We watched chick flicks and ate chocolate. Alas, not a Chippendale in sight,” she joked, passing over the five pregnancy tests and the vomiting portion of the evening as unimportant for right now. She longed to tell him, though. Guess who might be pregnant, Jake? No! Not yet. Don’t get your hopes up. It still might not be true.
Blonde Bomb Tech Page 29
