Peppermint Soul (Liza McNairy Mysteries Book 1)

by Dan Glover

  They were heading into a storm. One of those proverbial Great Plains twisters, only this one wasn’t visible to the naked eye. He could feel it, though, like a drop in air pressure just before the monster slammed into him picking him up and carrying him off into the nether regions of those places he'd managed to hide from most all his life, at least his waking life.

  It was like having an itch he couldn’t quite get at and if he did finally manage to hit the right spot it'd return a few seconds later. Yet what else could he do but scratch? Was this trip necessary? No it wasn't. Yes it was. Would they find the twins? He had no idea on that score. But if they didn’t go to Oklahoma they stood not even an iota of chance of ever uncovering the truth.

  "Seems like a long trip for nothing, sweetness... we'll burn a lot of time that we might spend more profitably elsewhere."

  "It isn’t for nothing, Liza. We have to go. I have to go. If you'd rather stay behind, I understand."

  "No fucking way, DanMan. You're not getting rid of me that easily."

  "You know I'm not trying to get rid of you, lover. I just thought..."

  "I know. I'm glad to get out of the city for a few days, Danners. You too?"

  "As long as we do it together, sweetie. I'd hate to have to do this on my own. I'm afraid of what we're going to find."

  "You, afraid? Come on, Ranger Rick. Ain't nobody got a thing on you. You forget... I've seen you in action. I'd take you in my corner over anyone, believe me."

  She didn’t know he operated purely on instinct that night in Compton. Had he stopped to think even for a second, they'd both be dead right now. Ranger Rick... now that was sick. But accurate, too... only his military training saved them, and to rely on that... well, he was afraid. Frightened that next time it wouldn’t be enough. And if he knew anything at all, there'd be a next time. Soon. And that was the truth.

  The truth? No... Danners Forthright didn’t believe in truth. No absolutes... only probabilities. Truth was what people made up in order to live in a world that might well collapse upon them any instant. It leant a certainty to that which was otherwise nowhere to be found. Reality for Danners was the sum total of all possibilities.

  He'd spent ten years of his life locked up in a six by eight cell for trying to tell the truth. Would he do it again? Hell no. Let the little bastard rot in that abandoned where they found him after he told them where to look. Where the dragon told him to look. Compton. Each time Liza made him take her there it all came rushing back... the stench... the furtive glances... the muffled voices all of them looking at him, as if he was the one.

  To them, he was. A man with a conscience who couldn’t take it any longer and rather than confessing to the sordid crime he made up a tale of vivid dreams and surreal encounters with a dead boy who'd spent his final moments in fear and in doubt, knowing his time on earth was over and wondering how his mother could do it.

  2

  She sold him.

  No one believed that, of course. Mothers don’t sell their children to get their daily fix... not in sunny California. If it was Chicago or Buffalo or even Detroit, well, then maybe. But not in California. Only Danners knew differently. Was it the truth? No... it was the only possibility left out of a myriad of events all predicated upon the eventual moment... the preconditions leading up to the motive for murder.

  Now he was feeling it again... that implausible pandering to ideals. Who really cared what happened all those years ago? No one, other than a drunken father bent upon some weird revenge drama and a pill popping mother who was fucking the detective in charge of the cold case unit involving her own daughters. What did he have to gain by going there? Nothing... and he had everything to lose.

  Still... he'd learned long ago that if he didn’t use his gift, it would desert him. No, he didn’t believe in some god bestowing a magical skill upon him enabling him to see what others couldn’t. God couldn’t be dead because it was all simply an invented notion taught to children by adults who knew better to coerce them into becoming docile little sheep. Damn all the religions of the world to hell... and all the priests too. The world would be a far better place without it.

  "You saved my life. Thank you, Danners. You're the best."

  What would she do without him? Oh... she'd survive. Danners learned long ago how dispensable he was... how replaceable everyone was, in fact. Even those people who imagined they were bigger than life. Once death got a grip upon them, no one remembered. Oh sure, maybe long enough to pay homage to them on social media... but in a few days, it was over and on to the next best thing.

  "You know I worry about you, Liza."

  "Of course you do. You love me, Danners."

  Yes he did. Danners Forthright had been in love millions of times but Liza McNairy was someone beyond special. If something happened to her he doubted he could go on. He'd end it rather than face life without her. Did she realize that? And if so, why did she continue taking the chances she did in using that shit?

  "I'm getting the distinct impression how someone close to those twins knows more than they're letting on, Liza. What can we do to shake the tree?"

  "Patience, Danners... let's give them a little line before we reel them in, otherwise we're liable to loose everything."

  She was right, of course. Liza had a feeling for these things, one he'd come to rely upon nearly as much as his own intuition. Still, it was easy for her to counsel patience. She didn’t sense the need that he did... that if they didn’t act precipitously, the ones most responsible for the disappearance of those girls would walk right out of the trap they'd so carefully set.

  The real question was

  3

  How much should they let Reilly know about the case? The man was good at what he did but he had a propensity to drink too much and when he did he became a liability. He liked to talk shit and to anyone who'd listen. To hear him tell it, Liza and Danners were the ones to blame for the ending of his short and unhappy career with the Bureau but all three of them knew otherwise.

  He used it to play the sympathy card with them... to get work when none was available. Even so, his dalliances nearly cost them more than once. And now here he was cuddling up to Allen Picany. Reilly had to know Picany wasn’t gay. What did he hope to prove by becoming friends with the man? Had he inadvertently stumbled upon something that he wasn’t sharing? If so, he should know better.

  Danners hoped it was just a matter of two lushes getting together over drinks but his inner sense told him otherwise. Reilly was milking Allen Picany for information. What was more, he wasn’t sharing. That meant he might well have his own agenda... one at odds with solving the cold case of the missing twins. It might be best not to renew Reilly's surveillance contract.

  What did Reilly Cooper need more than anything? Money. The man was constantly bitching about being broke. Hell, he had a college degree. That was a lot more than Danners ever managed in life, and he'd always done okay. It almost seemed like Cooper expected things to be handed to him, and it wasn’t just because of the color of his skin, either. Yep. Reilly had his problems but so did everyone. That was the way of the world.

  Still, why would Allen Picany jeopardize the case? Did the man know more than he realized? Danners had seen it before. Some people simply were too close to the real perpetrators of the crime to objectively see what was happening. Or else Allen Picany wasn’t the innocent father that he worked so hard at portraying. He'd talked with Liza about that just before leaving California.

  "Cooper is acting up again. He's been keeping company with Allen Picany."

  "How do you know that, Danners?"

  "Paula Picany called while you were taking your nap. She wondered why Reilly Cooper is spending so much time at the house with Allen."

  "Do I detect a note of jealousy, Danners?"

  "Come on, Liza... you know better than that. What we had's been over for ages. No... Paula told me they've become drinking buddies."

  She liked teasing him about his relationship with Cooper bu
t she knew how it all played out. He'd never been able to keep secrets from Liza. Even if he tried, she'd know. Maybe that's why they were so good together... she couldn’t keep anything from him either. They told one another their secrets knowing they were safe in doing so.

  He'd never been married but he'd known those who were, and the one commonality they seemed to share was a propensity to tell their better halves about things—secrets, unmentionables—that the spouses invariably turned around and shared with others. The world was a hard place, especially when there was no one to trust.

  Chapter 62—Concerns

  (Of Pictures and Poverty)

  Normally he didn’t allow himself the luxury of friendship. He couldn’t. Camaraderie was too messy, like love affairs. People invariably expected more than he was willing to give, as if he was somehow beholden to them. And to become friends with a client was unthinkable. So what was he doing?

  "We have concerns, Reilly. I've talked it over with Liza. I'm afraid we're going to be forced to stop using your services unless you cease and desist in seeing Alan Picany on a personal basis."

  Fuck you and your concerns, Danners. Are you jealous? Were you two concerned last month when I couldn’t make my rent and had to borrow money on the title to my car? Hell no. And now you're threatening to terminate our contract? Well, go ahead. See what happens you ungrateful piece of shit.

  "I'm not sure what you mean, Danners. Concerns about my seeing Alan Picany on a personal basis? Really?"

  Play it cool, Reilly. Tell the man what he likes to hear. Above all, be nice. No one likes a bully. Mother's words still rang in his ears even after all the years that had passed. She was right. It was a game and those who played it well would win in the end.

  "Let me put it this way: we understand you're spending inordinate amounts of time with Allen Picany. Is there a reason why?"

  So the bitch squealed. Of course she did. It had to be Paula Picany who put Danners and Liza onto his visits. Why should she care? Did she think her husband was turning gay on her? No... more than likely she'd gotten wind of his surveillance upon her. Could be Allen said something—the man was high strung when drunk—or maybe she was tech savvy enough to have an app that told her when someone was tracking her by way of her cell phone. He doubted that. No... someone sang a song to her about it.

  And why was Paula hanging around with Sally Lupo? He'd done some checking. The two women had been friends ages ago... in fact, Sally babysat the twins. But since the disappearance their sundering seemed final. Now they'd apparently picked things up right where they left off. Just the other day Paula walked in the house. She saw him sitting in the kitchen, sighed, and walked upstairs. Allen had gone to the boy's room or perhaps upstairs to placate the little woman so he'd taken a second to rifle the desk in the corner, just for kicks. And what did he find? Naughty pictures of Sally Lupo... quite erotic, really.

  Was that why Paula didn’t appreciate him keeping time with Allen? Of course he said something to Allen about the photos, like any friend would do. Did Allen know about them? He was surprised at first. Then the man seemed relieved that his wife might be having an affair with a woman instead of a man, as if that made it somehow better. And of course he doubtlessly told Paula that too.

  "Look. I need to establish a rapport with the man, Danners. Something's up with Paula. She's keeping time with Sally Lupo again."

  "So what? Weren't you the one who told me they're old friends?"

  "They are old friends, yes... and yes, I'm the one who told you that. But they lost touch after the twins vanished."

  "Is Sally Lupo aware that Paula is screwing her husband, Reilly?"

  "If she is, she hasn’t said anything to Allen about it. That's why I want to get closer to the family... gain Allen's trust. Let me show you something."

  He'd kept some of the photos he'd found in the bureau at Allen's house. They was enough of a surprise that he thought they might prove useful in getting Liza and Danners to keep him on a while longer. Christ only knew how much he needed the work. If the two of them were recommending him to others like they'd promised to do, none of those other prospective clients were bothering to contact him.

  He enjoyed the look on Danners' face as he studied the picture. The man had always been such a prude, especially when it came to women's bodies. As if he secretly took pleasure in seeing them and yet didn’t want anyone to know... like the child he was.

  Danners once told him how his mother had abandoned him in Union Station. Yet the man still clung to the notion how she hadn’t done it on purpose... that she'd been waylaid by a mugger, knocked unconscious, and carried off somewhere to some obscure Middle Eastern country where she was sold into slavery and yet to her dying day struggled to escape and get home to her little boy. Danners didn’t take rejection well.

  "Jesus, Reilly... is she doing what I think she is?"

  "Don't ask me, girlfriend... take it. Keep it. Show it to Liza. She might like it too."

  Chapter 63—Caring

  (For the Crazies)

  1

  "We call them Jane and Jill Doe. They've been with us nearly eighteen years come April."

  Eastern Oklahoma State Hospital had officially closed its doors in 2006 but according to Ms. Ally Nola, the director of the facility, a small percentage of the residents were too institutionalized to be released to the general populous. Included in that number were a set of unidentified twins, women about thirty five years old.

  "Are they ambulatory?"

  "Oh yes, Ms. McNairy... they enjoy strolling over the grounds every day, usually hand in hand. Normally they're as docile as new fallen snow. They've been agitated for the last week or so. No one can understand why."

  "They knew we were coming."

  "Oh no... that's not possible, Mr. Forthright. I didn’t even know you two were on your way here until you showed up at the gate. Truthfully, we don’t generally allow visitors, you see. But since you said you might be able to help us identify them..."

  "We'd like to take DNA samples, Ms. Nola... with your permission, of course."

  "Do you really think they might be those missing twins, Ms. McNairy?"

  "I hate to speculate on that without confirming it, Ms. Nola. All we need is a cheek swap from each woman. We should have the test results back within a couple days. We'll wait here in Oklahoma until we know one way or the other."

  "Where are you from, Ms. McNairy?"

  "We live in Los Angeles... that's where the twins we're searching for are from as well. They disappeared some twenty years ago. These girls seem to be about the same age, and the resemblance is uncanny. Here... look at this picture of them when they were sixteen."

  "Yes... there is a faint similarity, Ms. McNairy, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up. You two aren’t the first folk to come around here searching for lost children."

  "Would you mind if we talked with Jill and Jane for a few moments, Ms. Nola?"

  "Oh, you can talk all you want, Mr. Forthright, but don’t expect any answers. These girls haven’t said a word in all the time I've known them."

  "How long have you been here with them, Ms. Nola?"

  The building reminded him of the state prison where he was a guest for so long... dreary hallways leading to nowhere, beige paint peeling from walls and ceilings, and the eerie sounds of silence erupting as soon as they set foot inside. Rusting metal furniture hunkered in corners as if waiting for the arrival of fresh meat. The old woman seemed as much a prisoner within the walls as anyone. When she greeted them, Ally Nola seemed surprised anyone even knew they were there, as if she was secretly hiding out from the world. Danners could think of many other more inviting places to haunt than a shuttered insane asylum but to the old woman it apparently seemed like home.

  "Well... let me think... I took a job here back in 1963, Mr. Forthright. I came out from California too. Sort of a reverse migration, I guess you'd say. Oh, you should have seen us then. A regular institution... a veritable little village it was, s
hining and neat. We housed only the most violent... what they called the criminally insane back then, you see. Our doctors were the best anywhere. It was a real opportunity for me."

  "So you've been here over fifty years, Ms. Nola?"

  "Yes I suppose I have, Ms. McNairy. My, when you put it that way I can't help but wonder where the years have gone. The government kept cutting our funding until now we only house six patients. This building is far too large for our needs but until they find us better accommodations we make the best of things."

  "Do the twins ever speak, Ms. Nola?"

  "Oh no, Mr. Forthright. They've never uttered one word in all the years I've known them. I even tried writing to them on a notepad. They simply don’t respond."

  "The scars on their temples... are those the results of procedures done here, Ms. Nola?"

  "No... that’s the way they arrived, Ms. McNairy. According to the attending physician those two women had some sort of exploratory brain surgery during some time in the past... most likely in an attempt to alleviate their conditions. Possibly epilepsy or another ailment that caused seizures... that's a fairly routine operation."

  "Do they have other scars on their bodies, Ms. Nola?"

  "Oh my yes... the poor things are covered in them both front and back, Mr. Forthright."

  "Where did they transfer from, Ms. Nola?"

  "Nowhere, Ms. McNairy... they were found wandering the streets of Oklahoma City by the police department, both of them in fugue states, just like they are now."

  "You must have made efforts to identify them over the years, Ms. Nola."

  "Of course we did, Mr. Forthright. We tried tracing them through their fingerprints... we ran articles in various newspapers with their pictures... oh, we tried lots of avenues. But we came up empty. Do you think they might be the girls you're searching for?"