5 The Ghosts in the Audience

by SUE FINEMAN

  Another girl called to her. “Coming,” Sarah said, lumbering to her feet. She walked inside, pulled an apron on over her bulging stomach, and started scraping dirty plates. The kid was about to have a baby, but she was on her feet all day and half the night, washing dishes.

  She dropped a plate and it shattered on the floor. A man yelled at her, and she started to cry. “I’m sorry. I’ll clean it up.”

  “Dolly will have your hide if you break anything else,” he said, and Steffen knew exactly where she was.

  Dolly’s Diner, right here in Chicago.

  “Jerry, I’m going out.” Steffen grabbed his leather jacket and the car keys and raced downstairs, hoping to get to the diner before the girl went home for the night, wherever home was these days. He knew she wasn’t living with her parents.

  Minutes later, he slid into a booth at the diner and ordered two glasses of milk. Then he asked to see Sarah.

  “Why?” the waitress asked.

  “She’s a friend of the family.” He slid a twenty across the table. The waitress put it in her apron pocket and went into the back. A few seconds later, the girl came out, eyes red from crying and hands raw from the hard work. She looked exhausted.

  He motioned her into the seat across from him. “My name is Steffen Marchand. I’m a psychic.”

  “I’ve heard of you. What do you want with me?”

  “I received a letter from your father. He said your mother told him to contact me about finding you.”

  “Forget it. I’m not going home.” She started to stand when the waitress brought the milk.

  He motioned to one of the glasses. “Drink the milk. It’s good for the baby.”

  The girl’s eyes looked dull and her clothes didn’t fit right. Aside from the bulge in her belly, she looked thin, as if she hadn’t been eating and sleeping enough. She sat down and picked up the milk.

  “What are you planning to do with the baby?”

  “Give it away, if I can find someone who wants it.”

  “Then what?”

  “Then I’m leaving Chicago.”

  “Does your mother know what your father did to you?”

  She shrugged. “I told her, but she didn’t believe me.”

  “He should go to prison for raping you.”

  “Yeah, sure. He’s an elder in the church. Nobody would believe he crawls into my bed nearly every night.”

  “I believe you,” Steffen said quietly.

  “Sarah, get back to work,” a man yelled.

  “No,” Steffen called back. “She’s not washing any more dishes.” Lowing his voice, he said, “I have a spare bedroom with a lock on the door. You can stay there until your baby comes, then we’ll talk about your future.”

  Gazing into the girl’s startled eyes, he sensed her reluctance to trust another man, so he planted thoughts of trust and safety in her mind. It didn’t take much. She wanted to believe someone had come to her rescue.

  The man called from the back again, and Sarah ignored him. She drank her milk and Steffen pushed the other glass over. She drained that glass, too.

  He threw some money on the table, said, “Let’s go,” and the girl followed him out to the car. She was too tired and beaten down to think about what she was doing.

  On the way home, he asked, “Have you seen a doctor?”

  “I don’t have money for a doctor, and I’m afraid they’d call my father.”

  “We’ll find a doctor to take care of you, Sarah. For the baby’s sake, you need to see someone soon.”

  She rubbed the bulge in her stomach as if soothing the child growing inside her body.

  After the baby was born, they could get a DNA sample to confirm Sarah’s father had fathered this baby. They wouldn’t have to wait long. Steffen sensed her baby would be born this week.

  Sarah’s baby boy wouldn’t live through the day.

  She’d get through the birth and death of her baby, and she’d get through the trial of her molester, but her mother would disown her.

  <>

  The next morning, while Sarah ate breakfast with Jerry, Steffen called Charles Hamilton and told him about Sarah.

  Charles said, “I doubt a judge will give custody to a single man. Child Protective Services will probably want to put her in a group home.”

  “That’s not an option,” said Steffen. “I’ll find her a home.” He wasn’t sure who he could find to take her, but he’d find someone. In light of what her father had done to her and her mother’s reaction, she couldn’t go home.

  Steffen drove the pregnant girl to the police station later that morning, and she spoke with a police detective. Jimmy Grantham was about ready for retirement, but Steffen had worked with him before, many years ago, to find two missing children. He knew the veteran detective would handle the girl carefully.

  While Sarah talked with Jimmy, Steffen wandered through the station, the place he’d spent so many hours when he was a boy. A balding man called him over. “Hey, Steffen, come look at this picture and tell me what happened to this kid.”

  Steffen sat beside the man’s desk and stared at the picture. “Pretty girl. She was tortured, raped, burned with cigarettes, and stabbed to death. She’s buried in her killer’s backyard, under the roses. There are two other bodies in the yard, girls he took off the street.”

  “Prostitutes?”

  “Runaways or throwaways.” Like Sarah.

  Staring into the distance, Steffen said, “Better find him soon before he kills the one locked in his garage.”

  “Damn! Where is this place?”

  “It’s not far from the girl’s home. The house is small and rundown, green with black trim, and the garage looks like it’s about to fall down. He has the girl chained up inside.”

  “You get a number or street name?”

  Steffen sat quietly, summoning a vision of the outside of the house. “Six-one-nine-seven-two. The nail came out of the top of the nine, and it’s hanging upside down. Looks like a six. The numbers are on the front of the house, beside the front door. Be careful. The house is filled with loaded guns, and this guy is crazy enough to use them.”

  “Anything else?”

  Steffen shook his head. “Isn’t that enough?”

  “It’s a helluva lot more than I expected.”

  Detectives scrambled around, looking at maps on the wall and calling for help. They’d need help. If they didn’t find the girl in the garage today, her abductor would bury her in the backyard with the others tonight.

  Sarah came out of the interrogation room smiling. She’d be a pretty girl after she put a little meat on those skinny bones. After she got through the birth and death of her baby.

  After she put her father in a prison cell.

  <>

  Early Friday morning, Sarah went into labor. She still hadn’t seen a doctor, but this baby wouldn’t wait any longer. He took her to the hospital and sat by her side, holding her hand while she struggled with the pains ripping through her young body.

  Hours later, she delivered a tiny, weak little boy. He was whisked off to the NICU, while Sarah cried. “He’s so little, and he sounds like a kitten when he cries.”

  Steffen knew the baby wouldn’t survive, but he couldn’t tell Sarah. After the nurses cleaned her up, he wheeled her down to the NICU, where she was allowed to touch her tiny son.

  Steffen took the nurse aside. “Look, you and I both know that baby isn’t going to make it. How about letting the girl hold him before he dies?”

  “I’ll have to check with the doctor.”

  “Fine, check with the doctor. Do it now, before it’s too late.”

  Minutes later, the baby was wrapped in a blanket and handed to the young mother. Tubes and wires snaked out of the blanket, but as soon as Sarah held him, he sighed as if he’d finally come home. Seconds later, he took his last breath. The tiny baby boy died in his mother’s arms.

  “What’s his name?” the nurse asked.

  Sarah looked up at Steffe
n. “Steffen,” she said. “I’m naming him Steffen.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Two weeks after she got home from her vacation trip to Florida, the box of tampons sat unused in Ginny’s dresser drawer, taunting her every time she opened the drawer. Her bras were getting tight, and her nipples felt tender, things Julie had complained about when she was pregnant with the twin toddler monsters.

  How could she work long hours and take care of an infant?

  Maybe she wasn’t pregnant. Maybe this was simply her body’s reaction to making love so often over the past few weeks.

  And maybe she was fooling herself.

  When Kayla and Billy got married, Kayla wanted so much to give Billy a baby. They ended up adopting, but not before going through the anguish of fertility treatments and surgeries, none of which helped the situation. They had great kids now, two boys in junior high school and a beautiful little girl, but getting there hadn’t been easy. They adopted older kids, so Kayla never did get her baby.

  Maybe she wanted this one.

  <>

  Steffen wasn’t surprised to get a phone call from Billy Sunday afternoon. “Hey, Billy. How was your vacation?”

  “It was great. Kayla and I want to thank you again for allowing us to stay at your beach house. Best vacation we’ve had since we adopted the boys.”

  “I’m glad you enjoyed yourselves. Uh… Do you want another kid?”

  “That depends.”

  “I have a sixteen-year-old girl living here with me. I’d keep her myself, but my attorney tells me a judge won’t give custody of a teenage girl to a single man, especially in her case.”

  “What’s her story?”

  “Her father raped her, so she ran away from home. Sarah’s been on her own for about six months, since she discovered she was pregnant. She’s a nice kid, but she can’t go home. Her father is in jail for child rape and her mother has essentially disowned her.”

  “Poor kid. Is she keeping the baby?”

  “The baby died.”

  “That’s too bad. What about a foster home?”

  “A group home is her only option, and I hate to do that to her.”

  “I hear ya. I’ll talk with Kayla, but I know what she’ll say. We always planned to have four. Is Sarah a good student?”

  “I have no idea. She wants to go back to school, but she doesn’t want to stay in Chicago. She’s been out for most of this school year, so she’ll probably be a year behind the other kids her age.”

  “Not a problem. We have a foster care license, but we’re talking different states here. Have your attorney contact me, and we’ll fly up for a hearing or whatever we need to do to take custody. The sooner we get it done, the sooner we can get her settled and back in school.”

  Billy hadn’t even met Sarah, yet he was willing to take a chance on the kid. That said a lot about the man. It reminded Steffen of Ginny bringing him home after he was shot. She didn’t have to invite him to her home any more than Billy and Kayla had to take in Sarah.

  Hannah and Donovan Kane had taught their kids strong values.

  Steffen intended to teach those same values to his own children someday.

  <>

  Sunday afternoon the entire Kane clan descended on the house on Livingston Avenue for a family dinner. While the others talked, Ginny cuddled her youngest nephew, seven-month-old Bobby. Johnny and Rosie, Andy’s twin toddler monsters, raced around the house, giggling and playing happily. Amid the adult chatter, Ginny heard Billy say Steffen Marchand had agreed to do a show to cap off the grand opening of the inn.

  Oh, no! Once Steffen saw her, he’d turn on that fancy radar of his, and he’d know.

  Ginny handed the baby to Mom and excused herself. She didn’t think anyone noticed her absence until Charlie appeared in her bedroom door. “What’s wrong, Sis?”

  She had to tell someone. The secret was eating her up inside. “I think I’m pregnant.”

  “Hey, that’s great. Have you told Steffen?”

  “Not yet. He’ll expect me to quit my job and—”

  “Don’t keep this from him, Sis. It’s his kid, isn’t it?”

  She nodded. Of course it was his. “I know I have to tell him. I just don’t know how.”

  “Have you told Mom and Dad?”

  “I haven’t even taken one of those pregnancy tests.” If she took one and it came out positive, as she knew it would, she’d have to face the fact that she’d soon be a mother. But she wasn’t ready to be anyone’s mother.

  Charlie sat beside her on the bed and put his arm around her. “Another baby in the family. Mom and Dad will be thrilled, but you don’t sound happy.”

  “I’m not. I thought I’d just spoil your kids instead of having my own.” She twisted the ring on her finger. “I don’t want to give up my job. I’ve worked so hard to make detective, and I can’t give it up now.”

  “Then don’t give it up. Alex is working now.”

  Ginny stared at her brother. “Since when?”

  “Last week. She’s got a radio show two nights a week, something she’s always wanted to do. Julie is still selling real estate. With the twins, she isn’t working as many hours as she was, but she’s working. Kayla does interior decorating when she has time, but her first priority is the kids. Billy says Steffen is sending them another one, a sixteen-year-old girl who was abused by her father.”

  “I didn’t know about her.” Even though she thought about him all the time, she’d cut herself off from Steffen.

  Charlie rubbed her back. “Have you talked with Steffen lately?”

  “No. He keeps calling, but I’m afraid he’ll find out over the phone, so I tell him I’m too busy to talk. I know I have to tell him, and I will, but I need to tell him in person.”

  “Soon,” said Charlie. “Tell him soon, so he can be part of the whole experience.”

  Ginny smiled. Charlie didn’t know about Taylor until his daughter was six, but he knew about Bobby from the beginning. You’d think Charlie was the one who was pregnant, but he was a good father. Like Dad. Steffen would be a good father, too, but she didn’t want him hovering like Charlie had when Alex was pregnant.

  Charlie grinned. “Just think, my little Ginny Poo is having a baby.”

  She jabbed her elbow in his side. “Brat! Don’t call me that, and don’t tell anyone. I need to see a doctor and get used to the idea before everyone starts fussing over me.”

  He gave her a big hug. “You’ll be a good mother.”

  She had her doubts about that.

  After most of Ginny’s family left the house, Phoebe called. “Ginny, we set a date. We’re getting married the first Saturday in May, if we can find a judge to marry us.”

  Tears filled Ginny’s eyes. “I’m happy for you, Phoebe.”

  “You don’t sound happy.”

  “I’m feeling a little down today, but it’ll pass. Where are you going to live?”

  “In Roland’s house. Is Andy’s wife still in the real estate business?”

  “Yes, she is. Does this mean you’re selling your mother’s house?”

  “It’s way too big for me and Roland. We’d have to have a bunch of kids to fill it up, and I don’t plan to have more than one, two at the most.”

  Ginny didn’t plan to have any. So much for plans.

  “Do you want me to have Julie call you tomorrow?”

  “Sure, that’s fine. Have her call the cell phone number. I’ve been going back and forth between the two houses.”

  They talked a few more minutes, then Ginny ended the call. Her emotions were so raw, she was afraid she’d start crying and ruin Phoebe’s euphoric mood.

  If he shot Steffen over a simple kiss, what would the man with the wall of pictures do when he realized she was pregnant?

  <>

  Steffen sat in Joseph’s study and worked through the pile of letters until he got to the end. The last letter was from a distraught mother in Texas looking for her thirteen-year-old daughter, Jessica. Sh
e’d enclosed a picture and a favorite scarf the girl used to wear. She’d also given the name and phone number of the detective in charge of the case.

  He held the scarf, rubbing the silky material between his fingers while he stared at the picture of a pretty dark-haired girl who was barely a teenager. The vision wasn’t a pretty one. Steffen watched the killer dig a shallow grave and drag the body out of the trunk of his car. Shovels of dirt hit the girl’s body as he buried her, but the killer didn’t notice the tip of her finger poking through the soil when he finished his gruesome task.

  Steffen saw the license plate number when the killer drove away. He wrote it on the bottom of the letter, then called the detective in charge of the case, George Kennedy. Steffen identified himself and explained how he knew about the case. “I had a vision of him burying the body in a shallow grave near a dirt road. Do you use a cadaver dog?”

  “Sometimes.”

  “A dog will lead you to the body. Look for a finger sticking through the ground. The nail has pink polish on it.” Steffen described the setting and a nearby farm house. Then he gave Detective Kennedy the license plate number of the killer.

  “Are you sure about this?”

  “The vision was quite clear. If you need verification of my credentials, call the Chicago Police Department.” Steffen gave the names and phone numbers of three Chicago detectives he’d worked with before.

  “You realize if we find a body, people will think you killed her yourself.”

  “It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been a suspect, but Jessica was taken and murdered the week I was in Florida on vacation. My companion there was a police detective from River Valley, Ohio.”

  The detective chuckled. “You know how to cover your ass, don’t you?”

  Steffen smiled. “I know my visions can’t be used in court, but you’ll find blood in the trunk of his car and semen on her body, enough evidence to convict him.”

  “Did you get a good look at this guy?”

  “Good enough. He’s average height and build, with straight, dark blond hair, kind of longish and stringy, and he has a multi-colored tattoo on his right forearm.”