“Why wouldn’t I be?” she spit out.
She stepped back up on the running board. “Derek. Derek. Can you hear me?”
His lids opened to small slits. He gave a nearly imperceptible nod.
“The ambulance is almost here. You’re going to be fine.”
His lips smacked. “Hurts,” he rasped.
“I see the ambulance. Help is here. Coming this way. They’ll take care of your pain.” She stepped back to make way for the emergency medical personnel. She ran both hands through her hair as she walked back to her car. She leaned her rump against the hood and watched the activity at the van.
She heard the car door open, and then Jumbo was by her side. “Hey,” he said.
“Hey, Butler.”
“I was thinking . . .”
“What’s that?”
“Maybe after what we’ve just been through, you could start calling me Jumbo – all my friends do.”
Lucinda’s head dropped back as she laughed. “Yeah, you would think I would, wouldn’t you?”
Thirty-Eight
Terrified and paranoid, Sherry did not move until the urge to pee overcame her caution. She stepped back a little deeper into the wild growth on the roadside, blushing a bright red the moment she pulled down her pants. Squatting she felt vulnerable and immodest. When she finished, it hit her: no toilet paper, no tissue. She thought about ripping off a leaf, but she’d spent her life in the city, she’d heard of poison ivy but didn’t know what it looked like. Instead she bounced in place for a moment then pulled up her slacks. She wrinkled up her nose with distaste at the damp spot left on her underpants.
She couldn’t remember how she managed to get into the bushes on the side of the road but one thought remained anchored in her mind: she had to find her daughter. She high-stepped through the undergrowth until she reached the mowed swatch next to the pavement where she walked at a slow but steady pace.
The road was not well travelled but every car seemed one too many and she cringed as each one whooshed past her. Reaching a bridge, she stopped. When she crossed it, she’d be exposed with no easy place to hide. She located the midway point and picked out a mark nearest that spot and kept her eyes on it. If I need to run before I reach that point, I have to turn around. She ratcheted up her courage and crossed the bridge with a pounding heart.
She grew hungry as she traveled down the road but the grumbling in her stomach was far more tolerable than the dryness that spread from her mouth down into her throat. Her tongue felt like a big wad of partially chewed squid – she wished she could spit it out. She had to find water soon. She continued forward on the road that never seemed to end.
A car slowed beside her. She panicked and ran into the bushes again, ducked behind a tree. The car, though, didn’t stop as Sherry feared. She exhaled her relief when she realized the driver had no interest in her. It was just making a turn off the road up ahead. She couldn’t see a street sign. Maybe there was a store or a house or a school up there – someplace I could get a glass of water.
She moved her tired legs as fast as she could. How long have I been walking? How far have I gone? She was painfully conscious of the weight of her feet and the effort it took to lift and move them forward. What if there’s nothing there? What if I’m hurrying to nowhere? Her lower lip quivered. Tears formed in her eyes. She shook off the threatened crying jag; she had no time for it now.
At long last, she reached the spot where the car turned off the road: a paved entrance to a gas station and convenience store. It was an old place that appeared a bit down on its luck; nonetheless, the sight of it gave her a fresh burst of energy. She hurried across the lot and into the front door. She stepped up to the counter and forced her dry mouth to form words. “Could I have a glass of water, please?”
The man behind the counter said, “The bottled water is in the back along the wall,” and turned to another customer. When he counted out that man’s change, he turned back to Sherry who stood in the same spot, blinking her eyes and clutching a purse to her chest. “Ma’am, did you hear me? Did you understand me?”
“I really need some water,” she squeaked.
He rolled his eyes, stepped from behind the counter, walked to the back and plucked a bottle out of the refrigerator case. Getting back to the cash register, he punched in the price and said, “That’s ninety-four cents after tax.”
Sherry just stuck out her hand, reaching for the water.
“Ma’am, you’ve got to pay for it first.”
“Please,” she said.
“Hand me your purse,” he said, reaching his hand toward her. “I’ll get the money out for you.”
Sherry stepped back, clutched her purse more tightly to her chest and shook her head.
“Okay, lady. Calm down. Here,” he said, stretching across the counter with the bottle. “Take it. It’s yours.”
She stepped forward, jerked it from his hand and twisted off the cap. She upended the bottle gulping hard and fast.
“Hey, lady. Easy there. You’re going to hurt yourself.” He grabbed the folding chair from behind the counter and set it down beside her. “Here. Sit. Drink slow and easy. Are you hungry, too?”
Sherry looked up at him and nodded.
“Okay. You stay right here. I’ll see what I can rustle open for ya, okay?” She watched as he turned his back to her and raised a thin, flat object to his ear. When he whispered into the object, she thought he was talking to himself.
Returning to Sherry, he held up a candy bar, a pack of peanut butter crackers and a bag of pretzels. “Does any of this look good to you?”
She pointed to the crackers. He gave them to her and watched her eat. She gnawed on the edges like a squirrel. When she finished the first one, she took a huge gulp of water. After the second one, the water was gone. He got her another bottle and asked, “You got a name?”
Sherry bit her lower lip, nodded her head and said, “Sherry.”
“You got a last name, you know, like a family name?”
Her eyes darted back and forth in their sockets as she struggled to comprehend the question and find the answer. “Gibeck,” she said.
“Well, Miss Gibeck, you from around these parts?”
She shook her head.
“Where you from?”
Sherry shrugged.
“Where’d you come from? I mean, like when you started your walk that brought you here?”
She furrowed her brow, but it relaxed as a she remembered. “Hollow,” she said.
“The hollow? Which hollow?”
She shook her head.
Chief Deputy Hirschhorn walked through the front door and toward Sherry. She jumped up from the chair and darted behind a row of shelves.
“She scares pretty easy, Chief.”
“Did you get a name?”
“Yeah, Sherry. Sherry Gibeck.”
Hirschhorn walked softly to the end of the aisle and whispered, “Miss Gibeck? Sherry? I’m a deputy with the sheriff’s department. I’d like to help you find what you’re looking for. You want to ride in my car back to the station?” He eased around the shelf and stood, with his hands loose at his sides, smiling at her.
She pressed her back against the shelf, knocking off a few cans that hit the floor and made her jump. She sobbed out, “I need to find my daughter.”
“Okay. I can help you with that,” he said stepping closer. “Just give me your hand and we’ll go find her. Before we leave, do you owe that nice fella any money for your drink and stuff?”
She nodded her head and handed him her purse.
He opened it up but there was nothing inside but a pile of acorns. He closed it, handed it back to her and said, “Thank you, ma’am.”
Hirschhorn pulled a five out of his wallet and slapped it on the counter.
“No need for that, Chief.”
“Don’t worry about it. Just take it,” he said and led Sherry out of the store and into his car. He strapped her in the front seat and finally,
she gave him a smile.
Thirty-Nine
A uniformed officer stood by the entrance to the operating room. Another was positioned in front of the double doors leading out of the wing of surgical suites. Lucinda and Jumbo slumped in chairs in the waiting room across the hall. Lucinda wasn’t sure what they were doing to Derek behind those closed doors but it certainly was taking longer than she thought it would.
Jumbo’s cell phone rang and he stood up and walked out into the hall. When he returned he was grinning as wide as his mouth could stretch.
Lucinda bit her tongue. She wanted to ask if he finally found the pot of gold. Instead she said, “Good news?”
“The best. The sheriff’s department just picked up Sherry Gibeck.”
“Sherry Gibeck?”
“Joan Culpepper’s mother. She just wandered into a convenience store asking for a glass of water.”
“She’s been missing since December and she just now asks for water? Do they have any idea of where she’s been?”
“Chief Deputy Hirschhorn – he told me to say hello by the way and to let you know they found Hannah Singley.”
“Where did they find her? Is she okay?”
“She was dehydrated and hungry but otherwise doing fine. She’d gotten up early, went for a walk and got lost. She eventually found her way to the elementary school and fell asleep on the loading dock by the cafeteria. The head cook spotted her there, fixed her a bite of breakfast and called the sheriff…”
“That sure is good news. Okay, was there anything else about Sherry Gibeck?”
“Yes. Hirschhorn said that whenever she’s asked where she’s been, she just says, ‘hollow’. But when he asks which hollow, she just looks confused. But she knew her name and he found her on the Silver Alert list and gave me a call. I’m going to run out there and pick her up and take her home. Hopefully, she’ll remember something more on the ride back.”
“Keep in touch,” Lucinda said. She sat still for as long as she could, then rose and paced the room. It seemed to be bothering some of the other people in the waiting room so she stepped out into the hallway and went back and forth out there. Finally, a doctor in green scrubs called out her name. “Derek Blankenship is in recovery now,” he said. “But he’ll be moved to his room in an hour or two. He’ll be a bit groggy at first but as long as he doesn’t get agitated, I don’t see a problem with you talking to him as long as you promise to get out of the room if asked.”
Lucinda gave him her assurances and returned to the waiting room, taking a seat in the first available chair. She reined in her impatience by considering her approach with Derek. How can I get the information I need without making him get overly excited? She thought twenty-one-year-old Derek was involved in the abductions only because he was doing his father’s bidding. She hoped her theory was right and she could appeal to the young man’s conscience.
Ninety minutes after Lucinda talked to the doctor, a nurse arrived to escort her down the hall to Derek’s room. A uniformed officer Lucinda knew sat in a chair by the door. She nodded to him as she passed. The nurse laid a hand on Lucinda’s forearm and said, “Keep him calm. We’ll be monitoring the room and will end this interview immediately if we perceive a problem.”
The detective nodded and pushed open the door. Derek was propped up in bed with a spacey look in his eyes, but he smiled when she entered the room.
“Hello, Derek. I’m Detective Pierce. I want to ask you a few questions, is that all right?”
“Sure. You caught me red-handed. I shouldn’t have taken off like that but I just panicked. I knew Dad wouldn’t like it if I was spotted doing my job.”
“And what was your job, Derek?”
“I was keeping an eye on a house across the street, keeping a log of the times people came and went from the home. Making a schedule so my dad would be able to figure out the best time to send my brother in to rescue this old lady before she got locked up and brainwashed with drugs.”
“Rescue? Don’t you mean kidnap?”
“Oh, no. You don’t understand. She was going to be put in this institution where she could never leave. We wanted to save her from having her mind destroyed and take her to a place where she could be free and enjoy her second childhood.”
Noticing Derek’s distress, she regretted her accusatory question and backtracked. “Derek, don’t get upset. I simply want to understand.”
“That’s okay. A lot of people don’t realize what goes on in those places. They destroy people so that their heirs can get their money.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, they did that to my dad’s mom. Oh, but my dad was all against it. It was her second husband that had her put in there.”
“Is that what happened to your mother, too?”
“Oh no, my mother – jeez my mother. I never knew her but I don’t think she deserves to be called a mother. I was just a baby when she ran off with that man.”
Lucinda decided to save her suspicions about what really happened to his mother for later. Switching gears she asked, “So this old lady you were watching on Independence Way, once you figured out when to rescue her, where will you take her?”
“Oh, I don’t do the rescuing. That’s my brother’s job.”
“Okay. Where would your brother take her?”
Derek bit his lower lip. “I don’t think Dad would want me to tell you that. Maybe I shouldn’t be answering your questions at all.”
“Derek, listen, I promise I won’t ask that again.”
Derek worried his lip, sliding it side to side against his teeth. “I don’t know.”
Before he could decide, Lucinda jumped in with another question. “Do you know an old lady named Sherry Gibeck?”
“Sherry. Did you find Sherry? Is she okay? She wandered off this morning. My brother and sister were looking for her when I left.”
“Yes. We did find her and she’s okay. A detective is taking her home right now.”
“Oh man, that is so sad.” Derek shook his head. “They’ll mess up her head again. And she was doing so good – most of the time, anyway.”
“Did Edgar Humphries stay out at your place?”
“Oh, yeah. He was such a nice man. My sister Donna and me really liked him. He loved to tell stories and we loved to listen. And then he just died in his sleep. Donna found him in his bed like that.”
“And what happened to him after that?”
“Oh man, me and Donna got into a lot of trouble with Dad over what we did. He was so mad when we told him, he yelled at us for hours. Do you know how hard it is to stand at attention at two o’clock in the morning when someone is screaming in your face?”
“Derek, tell me what you and Donna did. I won’t get angry.”
Derek sighed. “Old Edgar was real special to me and Donna. Like a grandfather, you know? We thought he should go back to that old house he loved so much. He told us a lot of stories about that place and how he turned the whole backyard into a victory garden filled with vegetables during the war. It just didn’t seem right to bury him out at our place. So we fixed him up real nice and took him back there. It seemed like the right thing to do.”
“I’m glad you did that, Derek. Now, what about Adele Kendlesohn? Did you know her and do you know what happened to her?”
“Adele, Adele, Adele,” he said shaking his head. “Oh, that’s right. Adele. I remember her,” he said slapping his hands across his mouth.
“Derek, we found her body. No sense in trying to cover it up.”
The young man hung his head. “Oh, that just wasn’t good. That wasn’t right. I wish I had no part in that.”
“You wish you had no part in what, Derek?”
Derek sighed. “Dad said that we had to get her body off the property because no one would believe we didn’t hurt her. But we didn’t, I swear. It was an accident.”
“What happened?” Lucinda said leaning forward in the chair and taking Derek’s hand. “You can tell me.”
; “She fell out of the boat but nobody realized it right away. As soon as we did, me and Don dove into the water, looking for her. We finally found her but it was too late. I wanted to bury her in the oak grove – she loved to lay on the ground up there and listen to the acorns fall out of the trees and onto the earth. She’d giggle whenever one of them would land on her. She was a sweet, funny, old lady.
“I want her to rest up there where the acorns could fall on her grave for all eternity. But Dad said we had to get rid of the body. So me and Don loaded her in the van and Don drove out to this place I’d never been before. I didn’t want to dump her body in that pond but Don he insisted that we had to do it. Said Dad would be pissed if we didn’t. So I did.” Derek’s brow furrowed and his mouth turned down. “I’m really sorry about that. I know it wasn’t right.”
“But you did it again, didn’t you?”
“Yeah,” Derek exhaled forcefully. “We put Francis in that pond, too. Man, he was a crazy one. We rescued that one too late. His mind was already ruined. He beat his head against the wall. He did it a lot. But this time, we didn’t get to him soon enough. He knocked himself out. We carried him to the room and watched over him. Donna stayed in his room for two whole days, listening to him moan in his sleep. But he never woke up again. Don and me took him out to that same pond. When we got back, I told Dad I wasn’t ever going to do that again.”
“What did your dad say?”
“He said, ‘You will if I tell you to, boy.’ I didn’t argue with him. There was no percentage in that. I just shut up and figured I’d deal with it when I had to but I wasn’t dumping any poor old people out there in the middle of nowhere again. It just isn’t right.”
“How many others do you having staying out there, Derek?”
He bit on his lip again and said, “Mmm, let’s see. I guess we have about thirteen, maybe fourteen guests out there now. Two cabins are empty – so, yeah, fourteen.”
“How many passed away while staying with you?”
“Oh, I’m not sure about that. Never kept count.” Squinting his eyes, he said, “I think there’s about eight crosses up in the plot. But that doesn’t count those other three we talked about.”
Twisted Reason (A Lucinda Pierce Mystery) Page 19
