The Girl From Blind River

by Gale Massey

  “Why did you steal back then? How was that so much more important than playing it straight, staying out of jail so you could take care of your kids?” The question came out angry and she hated how it made her sound like a child.

  “That was a long time ago.”

  “Seems like nothing’s changed.”

  “That’s not fair.”

  “You’re leaving here without explaining anything. I might never even see you again.”

  Phoebe tilted her head and turned away. “It was hard to make ends meet, you know. Your dad didn’t leave any insurance and I was broke. Toby got a bad fever and I took him to a walk-in clinic. It was six months after your dad died and I hadn’t filled out the paperwork for Medicaid yet. When the nurse found out I had left you home alone, she threatened to call Family Services. They handed me a bottle of antibiotics for Toby and I snuck past the front desk without paying. They wanted two-hundred and eighty dollars for one bottle of antibiotics! Next day a cop comes knocking on my door with an arrest warrant. There were other misdemeanors, bad checks, petty stuff. Back then I made one mistake after another. I was already on probation. The DA worked out a deal to get me a reduced sentence if I pled guilty and saved the town the cost of a trial. I knew Loyal would take you two in until I got out, so I took the deal.”

  It took a moment for that to register, and when it did, Jamie’s voice was not much more than a whisper. “Antibiotics? That’s what you stole? A bottle of pills for Toby?”

  It had never occurred to her that Phoebe might have stolen drugs to help one of her kids. Jamie had just assumed oxy, and in eight years no one had said a thing that made her think differently. “No one told me.”

  “Yeah, well. I’m sure Loyal spun it to make me look like a bitch. But you were a kid, and people? People believe what they hear.”

  Jamie and Toby had never talked about their mother stealing drugs. Despite small-town rumors, she’d hoped to keep that one thing from him so he’d grow up believing in his mother’s innocence and see himself in that same light. She’d hoped to get that one thing right. But it had been a stupid plan because she herself had never believed. All she knew was that she’d been abandoned and that made her angry. Angry enough to assume the worst and never question it.

  Phoebe handed Jamie a cup of coffee. “You hungry? They got chocolate chip.” She dropped more coins in the machine.

  “But eight years? That doesn’t make sense.”

  “Well, prison was rough. I made the wrong friends, got punished for things I did and framed for things I didn’t. Got into fights. Pissed off the guards. They added months, years, before I figured out how to keep out of trouble. Some people get along inside, some don’t.” She reached down to retie a shoelace. “It took me a long time to learn. Strange, though, I almost miss it. It’s not so different outside. I work hard all day, six days a week, but all I got either place is a meal and a cot. Except one thing. Out here I got at least one kid that needs me.”

  Phoebe’s smile seemed defeated. “It’s okay, Jamie. We’re family. We don’t have to be friends.”

  Jamie thought about that night she and Toby had gotten picked up as runaways—the steel grid in the back seat of the police cruiser, the tidal wave of anxiety. The sight of those bars still left her breathless. She couldn’t imagine living inside them. She handed the coffee back to her mother. Her mother stared out the window, her reflection stark and plain. It was frustrating, this anger, and never being able to place blame.

  “But, that man—”

  “It was self-defense. Jesus. He was angry, drunk. He recognized me from the poker game. He lunged at me and, I don’t know. I jumped and my gun went off. Then there was a bloody hole in his stomach and he was dead. You could tell from his eyes, the way he stared at the ceiling. It was horrible. Keating went ballistic and I knew right then I was screwed. So, I took the ring, because I knew I would need money if ran. But it was Keating who started the whole thing, getting him to bet that stupid ring.”

  Phoebe shivered and took the chair opposite the window. Neither of them would ever be completely free of the images from that night.

  “Do you know what it’s like? To think your life has taken a turn for the better, that you might have a future? And then watch it fall apart because two men get into a pissing contest? Keating’s a powerful man in this town. Do you really think I could tell him no? He changed my life completely once and he could have done it again. He’d been nice to me, gentlemanly. I let myself hope that maybe I’d found a home, a real home. I let myself think that for a whole day and half of one night. I wanted to get back a little bit of what I’d had with your father. Is that so much to ask?”

  Jamie’s memory of those days existed in the form of snapshots. Her mother and dad and Toby at a picnic. Her parents sitting together on the couch watching reruns. Briefly, they’d had it all. Jamie put her hand on her mother’s arm, surprised by how thin it was. It startled them both, this sudden intimacy, the small bones of the woman’s forearm feeling like a wing Jamie could twist and break. She pulled her hand back. “I don’t know what to believe anymore.”

  Phoebe shook a cigarette out of her pack, said nothing.

  “You can’t smoke in here.”

  Phoebe lit it anyway. Silence hung between them, thick as the smoke clouding her mother’s face.

  “I never lied to you. Your whole life, I never told you one lie.” Phoebe pocketed the lighter. “I’ve done a lot of bad things, but the one thing I never did was lie to you. That’s what happened that night. You decide to believe it or not.”

  An aide pushed an empty gurney around the corner and Phoebe crushed the cigarette under her sneaker. “Doesn’t matter,” she said. “I’m not leaving, not now, anyway.”

  “You’re staying?”

  Her mother stared at the floor, her face stern and gaunt with something it took a moment to recognize. Determination. Between the bad luck and the bad choices, the woman was down to nothing but her own free will.

  “The cop said they’ll let me visit him for fifteen minutes, twice a day. I’m broke but I still have my job, my apartment. When I got out of prison I thought I was getting a second chance to get things right. But I was wrong. This is my chance. My only chance.”

  “I thought you were afraid to stay.”

  Phoebe stood up and stretched her back. “What I am is tired. There’s not enough to pin it on me unless Keating testifies, and what’s for sure is that he doesn’t want anyone to know he was screwing an ex-con.”

  “But once the body is found, some other piece of the puzzle will give.” Jamie searched her mother’s face for some evidence of truth and saw it, right there, in the steady way she held her gaze.

  “It was Keating’s house that got broken into. He picked a fight with that man when he swindled him out of the ring. That cop saw it. And Keating’s the one who got Loyal to cover everything up.”

  Jamie squared that with what she already knew. Keating had gotten rid of the guns because the gun Phoebe used was registered to him.

  Her ten minutes were almost up and Garcia was waiting.

  Jamie handed Phoebe the necklace from Toby along with the bus ticket. “You should keep this and get a refund on the ticket.”

  “You never even thought about coming with me, did you?”

  Jamie shrugged. “Not really.”

  “I guess it was silly to hope. You’ve been a good sister to him, you know? But this is my time to try and be a half decent mother.” She lowered her voice. “Did you get rid of that ring?”

  “Not yet, but I got a plan.” She made a zipping motion over her mouth. It was the only thing linking Phoebe to Bangor, but Jamie knew exactly what she needed to do with it.

  “Fair enough. How did the tournament end?”

  “I found that queen of spades you tossed down in the alley and played it against Keating.”

  “Ha! I was going to slip that to you just to keep things interesting. Don’t tell me you won with it.”

>   Jamie laughed darkly. “I hit a flush.”

  “And won?”

  “I won, but Garcia busted Loyal’s operation and confiscated the prize money.”

  “Loyal got busted and you’re broke? Jesus, kid. The curse lives on.”

  CHAPTER

  39

  GARCIA WAS WHERE she’d left him in the ER driveway. When Jamie closed the car door, he put it in drive and asked, “Which way?”

  “Straight up Main. Keep north on the county road.”

  He cracked the window and clenched a cigarette between his lips, offered her the pack. She waved it off.

  “Put your safety belt on.”

  She tugged the thing over her chest, hating the way it cut into the side of her neck.

  They passed the three billboards for Mimawa, the neon lights still pulsing but pale against the sky.

  They approached the interstate and he asked, “East or west?”

  “Straight.” She pointed. “Take the underpass.”

  “Huh,” he said, and slowed the car a bit. “People don’t come out this way much unless they’re hunting.”

  At the end of the tunnel, the road dipped and turned to gravel. The sedan bounced and bottomed out briefly, and Garcia swerved around a pothole. Another hundred yards and the gate appeared off to the left. Everything was how she’d left it. He would still be there, under all those rocks. It made her queasy to think of decomposing flesh, worms, maggots. A flash of heat hit her stomach and she fought it off by rolling down her window and letting the cold air hit her face.

  “Right there,” she said, and he stopped the car in front of the broken gate.

  He threw his cigarette out the window. “I remember that gate. I came hunting here once, with some guys from vice. This is Keating’s land. Are you telling me TJ Bangor is here?”

  “Follow me.” She grabbed her backpack.

  “Christ. Is your uncle in on this?”

  Jamie got out of the car. “You could call him the cleanup man.”

  “This is enough to get a warrant for Keating’s house.” He cut her off in front of the car. “You know you’re about to cross the most powerful man in this county.”

  “As far as he’ll ever know, Loyal gave him up for revenge.”

  “Okay, but you need to be clear. A move like this will affect the rest of your life.”

  “I know that. I already made my decision. I know exactly how this plays out if I keep quiet. I’ve seen it with my own two eyes. From now on I take my chances.”

  The ground was squishy and wet, weeds bending beneath her boots. The deer blind in the pine tree was to the left and beyond that the ground sloped away to the right. Garcia followed her awkwardly, his shoes already caking with mud. They stopped at the top of the rise just before the gully. The rock mound covering TJ’s body lay untouched at the bottom of the slope. Stones piled in the shape of a coffin.

  Garcia caught up and stopped next to her. “Oh, man,” he said. Wind blew across the field and he turned up his lapels.

  Jamie said nothing. The mound of rocks had caved in a little in the middle and it made her uneasy to think of the weight of them pressing against the man’s soft middle. Jamie shut her eyes, pushing down the queasiness, telling herself it was almost over.

  “How long has he been here?”

  The days were a blur. It seemed like a year. “Five days, maybe.” He could piece it together himself.

  “Was he killed here? Do you know what happened?”

  “No and no. You should ask Keating, though. He’s the man with all the answers.”

  Garcia shook his head. “I figured, what with the game that night and the ring. How did you get dragged into it?”

  She told him about that night, how Loyal had woken her up after a call from Keating, how her uncle had made her sit on the floorboard so she wouldn’t know where they were going, how just last night she’d put the pieces together on her own and found her way here. She didn’t mention seeing Phoebe in the second-story window that night at Keating’s, but added, “It’s not surprising. Loyal and Keating go back years.”

  “Nothing surprises me anymore.” He shook loose another cigarette.

  Jamie fingered the ring inside her pocket, thinking it through. The diamonds alone might be worth more than fifty thousand. But if the Elders curse was real, she had this one chance to break it.

  “I’m going to have to talk to your mother, you know? There’s a lot of unanswered questions.”

  “No, you don’t need to talk to her. But, if you go looking, you’ll find her where she’s been all along. Working in a little diner on Main Street, dishing out blue-plate specials to the good people of Blind River.” Jamie held her hand out, opened it palm up. “You should give this back to Lena Bangor and her mother.” What was left of the day’s sunlight caught in the facets of the diamonds and bounced off the gold.

  He took it, turned it over in his palm. “Where’d you get this?”

  “It’s everything you wanted, right?” She shrugged. “Here’s what I think. TJ Bangor went back to Keating’s house and got shot during an argument over that ring. It was between the two of them. Maybe it was self-defense, maybe he’ll say that he wished he’d handled it better. Nobody else pays for this. Not my mother, not my brother.”

  “That’s what you think?” He wiped the ring with a handkerchief.

  She’d just handed over a fortune, yet she felt like she’d dropped the weight of a hundred lies.

  “It’s a fair deal, don’t you think?” She adjusted her backpack, caught herself when the horizon tilted.

  “It’s homicide, Jamie. If your mother’s involved, it will come out.”

  Sweat began to bead on her forehead. “Keating would never let it come out if he had an ex-felon in his house, much less if he’d slept with one. He’d be ruined. All his convictions from the last twenty years would get thrown out and throw this town into chaos. He’ll claim innocence or self-defense, but his career will be over. He’ll retire early and spend more time at his country club. That’s the way things work in this town, right? And you’ll be rid of a dirty judge.” A sweet decaying smell came at them on the wind. She rubbed her forehead, wincing at the bruise Loyal had left with the back of his hand.

  “It’s freezing out here and you’re sweating. You okay?”

  “There’s a dead man under that pile of rocks. No, I’m not okay.”

  He pulled a roll of peppermints out of his pocket and handed them to her. “Sometimes, sugar helps.”

  She moved away from the smell and sucked on the candy. Her stomach settled a little.

  “Here.” He handed her a slip of paper with a phone number on it. “Give me a password.”

  She took the paper. “What’s this?”

  “Text that number, type in the password, and the funds will be transferred to the bank account number you give it.”

  “The reward? I don’t want it. That family? No, I can’t take that.” Another little part of her died right there, having to pass on that money.

  “It isn’t just the family’s money. Half of it came from Keating.” He turned the ring over in his palm.

  “What? Why would he do that?”

  “Probably wants to look innocent. Look, I had to take that prize money, but isn’t it better this way? The reward money is free and clear. Yours because you earned it.”

  She thought it through. This money wasn’t tied to Loyal, and she had found the body on her own. Still, wasn’t it blood money? “I don’t know.”

  “Listen, kid. You’ve been through a lot. Maybe it’s time you let go of everybody else’s business and started building a life. This money is a result of doing the right thing. It’s twenty thousand, not enough for you to feel guilty about but enough to give you a start in life. Maybe somewhere new. Take it.”

  The unexpected kindness caused her eyes to burn and a hard knot to form at the back of her throat. For once she’d have enough money not to worry about food or clothes. She could have a pl
ace of her own, somewhere far away with a door and a lock. A feeling of warmth settled about her shoulders. It would be enough.

  “It can’t be traced if you use a burner cell phone. Give me a password.”

  It might even be enough for her to play the professional circuit for half a year, if she kept the buy-ins low and lived cheap. She said the first thing that came to mind. “The Odds.”

  “I’ll set it up as soon as I get a positive ID on the body.”

  “What about the ring?”

  He hesitated. “Forget you ever saw it. But don’t be surprised if you read in the paper that it turned up when we searched Keating’s game room. As far as anyone can recall, it was the last place it was seen. Eventually it will get back to the family.”

  Family. She thought of Phoebe sitting by Toby’s bed, holding his hand, wanting this last chance to get things right. All Jamie had to do was step out of the way.

  Garcia brushed his fingers on his trousers and climbed back up the ridge. “Stay in touch. I might need to get a statement from you. Down the road.”

  “I thought all I had to do was locate the body. I thought it would all be anonymous.”

  “I’ll do everything I can. You’ve been instrumental in two big cases and you got no priors. That should go a long way. I’d say, as things stand, you’ll be okay. Who knows? You might even be the first Elders to avoid seeing the inside of a jail cell. But you should lay low. You got someplace to go?”

  She thought about Florida, where the legal age for gambling in the Indian casinos was eighteen. “I was thinking about heading south.”

  “Where?”

  “Florida.”

  “Florida? What the hell’s in Florida?”

  “Casinos. Big tournaments.” Warm weather and orange trees.

  “Huh. All right. Just make sure I know how to find you.” He flipped open his cell phone. “You got to go now. Once I call this in, this area will be swarming with a forensic team.”