by Reid, Terri
Bradley shook his head. “With his condition, he probably was more comfortable watching and not participating.”
“Probably why he got his kicks with his camera,” Chris surmised.
“Well Chris, you just turned my suicide into a homicide,” Bradley said with a sigh.
“Don’t mention it, youngster,” Chris said, patting Bradley’s shoulder. “Don’t mention it at all.”
“Speaking of don’t mention it,” Bradley said, lowering his voice. “How long can you keep this information on ice? I’ve still got a killer out there who thinks he’s pulled a fast one.”
“I can keep it quiet for a couple of days,” he said. “But it’s not me you’ve got to worry about. Once this hits the press, his good wife is going to probably talk about his lack of family jewels to clear his good name.”
“Crap, you’re right,” Bradley replied. “Well, we’ve got to move fast. Thanks Chris.”
He looked around and saw that Ashley Deutsch was in the house. “Hey, Ashley, find his cell phone,” he said. “We need to find out who he talked to last night.”
“We’ve been looking for his phone, Chief,” she replied. “And we can’t find it.”
Bradley thought for a moment. “Call Julie Quinn from the school district, ask her about the carrier the school district uses and what Sears’s phone number was. Then call the carrier and get a print out.”
“On it,” Ashley responded.
“Killoran,” Bradley called, when the officer entered the house. “I need you to get a female officer, drive out to Sears’s house and stay with his wife. I don’t want the press to get anywhere near her. Got it?”
“Yes, sir,” he said, and he turned and hurried from the house.
“Now all we can do is wait for a break,” Bradley muttered under his breath.
Chapter Forty-one
“Clarissa,” Mary called up the stairs. “Rosie and Stanley are here to visit with you. I’ll only be gone a little while and then we can talk about shopping again.”
There was no response from Clarissa and Mary sighed. “I hope she comes down once I leave,” she said. “I’m not her favorite person right now.”
Rosie gave Mary a hug. “Give her some time,” she said. “She’s going through a lot.”
“Iffen I acted like that, I’d be seeing the business end of a paddle,” Stanley said, taking off his coat and hanging it over the chair. “Folks are way too soft with children today.”
“Stanley, my mom paddled my brothers and me when we were growing up,” Mary said. “But it was only when we did something that could have endangered our lives. She wanted to be sure the lesson sunk in.” She rubbed her backside. “And it always did. But Clarissa is more confused about how she fits into our new family and I think spanking her would send the wrong message.”
“Well, maybe you’re right and maybe you ain’t,” he said, folding his arms over his chest. “But I gotta say that kids in my generation had a whole lot more respect for their elders than kids today.”
“Yes, but I don’t think you want children to blindly listen and obey to someone just because they are an adult, as we did,” Rosie said, giving his arm a little squeeze. “The world today is too full of adults who mean to harm children. So, children should learn that adults need to earn trust and respect, just like everyone else.”
“Well, Mary should be respected,” Stanley argued, nodding at Mary. “She’s more than earned Clarissa’s trust and respect.”
“I don’t think that’s the problem,” Mary said, pulling her coat out of the closet and slipping it on. “I think Clarissa is fearful, that’s why I want to go over and speak with Katie and Maggie. Maybe they can give us a clue about what prompted her concerns.”
“Well, you go and have a nice chat with the Brennans,” Rosie said. “And I’m sure we will have a delightful time with Clarissa.”
“Thanks,” Mary said.
She reached for the doorknob just as her cell phone rang. Pulling it from her pocket, she answered it. “Hello.”
“Mary, it’s Celia. Is it true? Someone posted on Facebook that they found the man who kidnapped the last little girl.”
Closing her eyes for a moment, Mary sighed softly. “Well, it’s early yet in the investigation,” Mary said. “But they did get a breakthrough.”
“Mary, please, can’t you give me any more information?” Celia pleaded. “I’m going a little crazy.”
“Sure, why don’t we meet at my office,” she said. “I can be there in ten minutes.”
“Thank you, Mary. I’ll be there.”
Mary hung up her phone and turned to Rosie and Stanley. “Change of plans,” she said. “I need to meet a client at my office. I shouldn’t be very long.”
“Don’t matter to us,” Stanley said. “You just go and do what you need to do. Rosie brought over stuff to make cookies, so I reckon Clarissa will be down those stairs soon as the cookies are out of the oven.”
“You two are the best,” Mary said, giving them each a hug. “I’ll call Katie on the way over to my office and let her know I had to change plans.”
Mike followed her out onto the porch. “I’ll hang here,” he said. “I want to keep an eye on Clarissa.”
“Thanks, Mike,” she agreed. “That would be great.”
Chapter Forty-two
Ray Giles sat in his car, watching Mary leave the house and drive away in her Roadster. He’d been there since dawn, about a half block away from the house, waiting for his opportunity to take the little Alden girl for a nice long ride. He’d seen Chief Alden leave in the early morning hours and knew they had found Nick’s body. Smiling to himself, he settled back in the seat. It was only a matter of time before everything was tied up in a neat bow.
He gazed up into the rearview mirror at the small potted pine tree sitting in the back seat. He had picked it up that morning at the twenty-four-hour, big-box store’s garden center. One more pine tree, one more student and then he would have to leave Freeport. Even though he’d thrown them off his trail, he realized that he was going to have to find a new town with new students for his special school. The little Alden girl would have to be placed on an accelerated plan, he needed to have the new young pine planted by tomorrow morning, just before he left town.
Tapping his fingers on the steering wheel, he wondered how long he was going to have to wait. Even though he didn’t consider the elderly couple much trouble, there would be a risk with having two of them in the house. And, since it was a Saturday, he couldn’t use his customary ploy of truancy. He sighed, he was just going to have to sit back and wait.
Suddenly, an explosion of noisy children emerged from the house he was parked across from. The Brennan clan, he thought, those boys were always stirring up trouble.
He watched the youngest, a little girl, follow her brothers down the steps. Why did she look familiar? Oh, yes, she was with the Alden girl that morning. She was the one who pulled her back away from the street.
“I’m going to go see if Clarissa wants to play,” she called to her brothers and started to run down the street.
Smiling and skipping, she was lost in her own world, when she suddenly froze and turned to look at Ray’s car. He rolled down the window and smiled at her. “Hello there,” he said. “I’m just waiting for a friend to come out of their house. Don’t I know you?”
Her eyes filled with fear and she kept transferring her gaze between his face and the back of his car. Finally, she took several slow steps backward, turned and ran back to her house.
“Hey, I thought you were going to go get Clarissa,” one of her brothers called.
“I just remembered,” she called back as she ran up the porch steps. “She can’t come out and play today.”
Ray watched her run into the house, slamming the door shut behind her and a knot of fear twisted in his stomach. She knew, he thought. Somehow she knew about his students.
Turning the car on, he casually pulled out of the parking spot and dr
ove down the road. Now he was going to have to rely on the small GPS tracker he placed on Clarissa’s backpack when he saw her at the school. Turning the locater on, he saw the red dot remaining stationary at the location of her home. “Still working,” he said softly. “Now, come on Clarissa, it’s a beautiful day to take a walk. I’ll be waiting.”
Chapter Forty-three
Celia rushed through the door of Mary’s office moment after Mary had arrived. “What did they find?” Celia asked, her words spilling out of her mouth. “Did they find anyone else? Have they located the bodies? Are they sure this is the right person?”
“Just wait a minute, Celia,” Mary said. “Have a seat and I’ll tell you what I know. Okay?”
Celia took a deep breath and then collapsed into a chair. “I just want it to be…” she said, her voice trembling. “I just need it to be over.”
Mary sat on the edge of her desk in front of Celia’s chair. “What I’m going to tell you needs to stay confidential,” she said. “At least until the press gets a hold of it.”
“Okay, I promise,” Celia replied. “I’ll keep it to myself.”
“Bradley was concentrating on members of the school district,” Mary explained, “because it seemed the kidnappings were linked to the attendance and truancy records.”
“I hadn’t even thought of that,” Celia said, shaking her head in awe. “And Ray Giles, the truancy officer, is a good friend of ours. He would have helped me with research.”
“Well, Bradley hadn’t gotten very far in his investigation when he received a call this morning. Nick Sears killed himself last night and the young girl who had been kidnapped was found in his home.”
Celia clapped her hands over her mouth. “Oh, I read they had found her,” she said. “Is she going to be…”
“She’s alive, but in critical condition,” Mary said. “She had a lot of drugs pumped into her system.”
“Nick Sears,” Celia repeated. “I would have never considered him.”
“Well, the case hasn’t been closed yet,” Mary said, still feeling uncomfortable with the outcome.
“But, if he killed himself and left a note, really, what else can there be?”
“You’d think that would be open and shut, wouldn’t you?” Mary mused.
“But you don’t think so.”
Shrugging, Mary stood up and walked to the other side of the desk. “Maybe I’m just looking for shadows when there aren’t any,” she said. “The house where he had her was on Henderson, that wasn’t close to the park at all.”
“And Courtney didn’t know Dr. Sears,” Celia added.
“What?” Mary asked.
“Courtney didn’t know Dr. Sears,” Celia repeated. “She wouldn’t have carried on a conversation with him.”
“Celia, would you mind if I shared that with Bradley?”
“No, please do,” she said. “I want the right person caught, not the convenient one.”
“Me too,” Mary agreed.
Celia stood up and walked with Mary to the door. “Call me when you find out the truth,” she said.
Mary nodded. “I promise,” she said. “First thing.”
Chapter Forty-four
As Mary drove home, she called Bradley. “Hi, how’s it going?” she asked.
“I can’t say a lot,” he said. “But, I can say a lot has changed since I left home this morning.”
“I just met with Celia,” Mary said. “She read the news on Facebook.”
“Good grief,” Bradley said. “What did she read?”
“Just that the little girl was recovered and on her way to the hospital,” Mary said. “No other details.”
Mary turned on Empire toward her house. “But I wanted to let you know that Courtney did not know Nick Sears,” Mary said. “Celia said she would not have gotten into a car with him.”
“Yeah, that matches with some of the stuff we’ve discovered,” he said. “Looks like another long day. Are you okay?”
She smiled. “Yes, I’m fine,” she said. “I’m heading home. I anxious to see what Rosie and Stanley have got planned with Clarissa.”
“Well, call me if you need me,” he replied. “Love you.”
“Love you too,” she said. “See you later.”
She hung up the phone and turned into her driveway, a little surprised to see smoke coming out of the chimney. The weather hadn’t really been cold enough to light a fire lately. Grabbing her purse, she hurried across the lawn and up the stairs to the door.
Opening the door, she found Stanley and Rosie adding logs to an already roaring fire. “Hi,” she said, stepping in and removing her coat. “What’s going on?”
“Well, Clarissa thought it would be a great surprise to help you clean up your cabinets,” Rosie said, with a bright smile on her face. “So she suggested we start a fire and burn up some old papers you wanted to destroy.”
“Old papers?” Mary asked.
“Yeah, she said there was a box of old stuff in the cabinets you didn’t want to keep,” Stanley added. “Just old junk.”
“My box?” Mary cried, running into the kitchen. “Clarissa please tell me…”
Clarissa stood on the countertop, holding Mary’s keepsake box upside-down in her hands. She turned, as Mary ran into the room, and fear washed over her face. “I didn’t mean to,” she yelled.
The floor was coated with thin slippery paper and, before Mary realized it, she was sliding on the floor, her feet slipping out from underneath her. She grabbed wildly for something to hold onto, but her fall was too fast and there was nothing nearby. She fell backward and felt her head make contact with the edge of the butcher-block counter and then there was nothing but darkness.
Chapter Forty-five
“Mary!” Clarissa screamed, scrambling down from the countertop. “Mary, are you okay?”
“Oh, Stanley,” Rosie shrieked. “She’s bleeding. Mary’s bleeding.”
“Go to the fridge and grab some ice,” Stanley yelled, grabbing a dishcloth from the sink. “We got to stop the flow of blood.”
He looked up at Clarissa. “You know how to call 911?” he asked sharply.
She nodded.
“Well, then call them, so your new mom don’t die,” he yelled.
Sobbing, Clarissa grabbed the phone in the living room and dialed 911. “My mom fell,” she cried. “She fell and she’s bleeding and she’s not awake.”
Rosie brought the ice over in a plastic bag and Stanley gently placed it on Mary’s head, trying to staunch the flow of blood with the dishcloth.
“Oh, Stanley, is she going to die?” Rosie asked.
Stanley started to reassure Rosie, but saw that Clarissa was also listening. “I don’t know,” he said. “Falls like these can kill people.”
“The ambulance is coming,” Clarissa sniffed. “I told them to come fast.”
Mike appeared in the midst of the chaos. “What happened?” he asked Clarissa.
“I did it,” she cried. “I was going to burn Mary’s stuff, her special stuff and she came into the room and slipped on the papers and hit her head. She’s not waking up, Mike. She’s going to die and it’s my fault.”
Clarissa ran from the room and up the stairs to her bedroom, slamming the door firmly behind her.
Stanley looked up in the direction Clarissa had been speaking. “Mike, iffen you’re still here, don’t worry,” he said. “She’s got a nasty bump, probably a concussion, and head wounds always bleed a lot. But I have a feeling she’s going to be just fine.”
But Mike wasn’t standing where Clarissa left him, he was on the floor kneeling next to Mary and talking to her. “Hey, babe, you got to hang in there,” he said. “I know it would be easy to let go, easy to just walk away, but you’ve got to fight and you’ve got to stay. It would ruin Clarissa’s life to know that her actions killed her mother. And Bradley, how would he go on knowing that his daughter killed you? Babe, I know you want to be with me. I know I’m irresistible, but you made a co
mmitment and you gotta hang tough for a while.”
Leaning over, he placed a kiss on Mary’s forehead. “Come on, babe, take a deep breath and grab back on to your body.”
Mary groaned slightly and Stanley breathed a sigh of relief. “I think she’s gaining consciousness.”
“There you go,” Mike said. “I always knew you were a scrapper, Mary. Besides, you’ve got more to fight for than you realize.”
Mary blinked and looked up at Stanley. “What happened…” she started and then she winced in pain. “Owwww, I feel like I was hit in the head with a semi.”
“Pretty close,” Rosie said, dabbing the tears from her eyes. “You got hit with a butcher-block counter.”
“Who threw it,” she whispered.
“You kind of threw yourself against it,” Stanley said. “And you weren’t very graceful in the execution.”
“Blame my dad,” she whispered. “He never let me take ballet lessons.”
The sounds of the siren came up the street and stopped in front of their house. Mary tried to turn her head and nearly screamed. “Please, Stanley, not an ambulance,” she said. “I really hate ambulances. I really hate hospitals. I die in hospitals.”
Mike leaned over and smiled at her. “You won’t die in this one,” he said. “I promise. Now do as you’re told and I’ll come along for the ride.”
“Promise?” she asked.
He nodded. “Yeah, I promise.”
“I ain’t promising nothing,” Stanley grumbled. “You’re going to that hospital and that’s that.”
Rosie hurried to the door and let the paramedics in.
“She fell backward against the edge of the counter,” Stanley explained. “She’s got quite a large knot on her head and she lost consciousness for about five minutes.”
“It would be best for her to go into the emergency room,” the paramedic stated. “They can check her for concussion and maybe perform a CAT scan to see if there is any internal damage. Does one of you want to ride along?”
