Forgotten Place

by LS Sygnet

  "An estrogen conspiracy. You might have a point, but I don't believe I ever said I planned to make Darkwater Bay my permanent home, Jerry."

  "Really? I heard you spared no expense rebuilding in Beach Cliffs."

  "Our investigation revealed something surprising, Jerry. Were you aware that at one point, one of the lab technicians was in school studying mortuary science?"

  "Surely. It was no secret. I believe it was the favored tech of Maya Winslow. Billy Withers if memory serves. Was the randy old goat abusing the corpses before sending them off to their final rest?"

  I leaned forward. "You tell me, Jerry. There wasn't a thing happening in this city that you didn't know about. I suspect there still isn't."

  "Billy Withers was authorized to conduct certain technical procedures on the dead before they left the morgue. It was hardly a secret. Riley Storm encouraged all the staff who worked for him to try to better themselves if at all possible."

  "So Riley would've known who Billy practiced on, authorized that type of clinical experience?"

  "Authorizing is not the same as supervising, Helen. Tsk, tsk for trying to make me say anything bad about a fine medical examiner like Riley Storm."

  "Still, Dr. Storm was ordered by the court to perform additional testing on at least one victim of a suspicious death. I don't believe one instance of alleged investigatory oversight is a fair example of his skills as a medical examiner. If you ask me, Orion probably did that thing he does so well and Dr. Storm didn't appreciate it."

  "Which thing is that?"

  "He's overbearing, a know-it-all, pushy, impatient, dogged to a fault, unreasonable, and not half as clever as he thinks he is."

  "I heard that the two of you have grown quite close over the past several months. Odd that you would enumerate his faults so thoroughly."

  "The bit at the press conference yesterday. You heard about it?"

  "Darling it was practically on the evening news."

  "And a girl does what she must to keep the enemy off balance. Tell me, Jerry. If Orion and I were truly so close, do you think he'd have let me within ten miles of you? It's no secret that you'd like to choke the life out of me."

  He held up his hands in surrender. "I don't disagree with any of the insults you cast at him, Helen. I'm simply unconvinced that you really believe them."

  "And I'm telling you that he has no idea I'm here. So make of that what you will."

  "This really isn't about smearing Riley Storm's good name, is it?"

  "We exhumed the body of Harry McNamara."

  Lowe nodded slowly. "And of course, you found something irregular, or you wouldn't have come to me. Why not simply ask Riley what happened? He's still in town."

  "Considering the animus he feels toward the city, I dismissed it as an option at this point, because I thought he would feel that we were condemning all the work he performed for the county. Even Dr. Winslow has praised his thoroughness in the past, Jerry. Of course, there are those in the city who would rather turn a blind eye toward problems that don't highlight things that are on – shall we say – the sanctioned agenda for prosecution."

  "I don't know all the details," Lowe said, "but I am aware that Riley discovered a problem with Withers' work and immediately put a stop to his little practice sessions."

  "You sound like you knew Dr. Storm well."

  "I liked him," Lowe said. "I wouldn't say we were of the caliber of golf buddies or anything like that, but Riley could be counted upon when circumstances were dire."

  "I feel the same way about Dr. Winslow."

  "Do tell," Jerry grinned.

  "Were you ever injured on the job, Jerry? Ever take a bullet for the good guys?"

  "I'm afraid that was one experience I never had."

  "It's fortuitous to have a friend with a prescription pad. Recovery would be much more difficult without it."

  "Why Helen, if had known this side of you last spring, things might've been very different. It seems we have more in common than I ever imagined. Yes, I do believe we might've made an incredible and unstoppable team."

  "My estrogen notwithstanding."

  "You look Riley up and tell him Jerry sent you. If the well dries up with Winslow, Riley will do right by you."

  "Perhaps Riley might be amenable to talking to me, Jerry. If the request were to come from someone who knows I'm only interested in prosecuting the guilty party for what happened to Harry McNamara, he might not see me as part of the witch hunt that got him fired."

  "I'll see what I can do, Helen, but I want something from you in return."

  "Name it." I cringed inwardly.

  "When this nonsense about my competency comes up again, I don't want you to testify."

  My mouth tightened into a thin line. Repugnant as the suggestion was, it was a promise I could make. "Jerry, by the time that happens, I have no intention of being a resident in Darkwater Bay."

  When I left the locked unit, the urge to break into a dead run for the exit almost overwhelmed me. Mr. Sykes' curiosity prevented a fast escape.

  "Dr. Eriksson, I am truly stunned that Jerry cooperated with you," he said.

  I shook my head and lied through my teeth. "That wasn't cooperation. It was a game. Score one for Jerry Lowe."

  "Then he wasn't willing to help you with your case?"

  "Of course not. Which I completely anticipated."

  "Dr. Eriksson, may I ask why you wasted your time talking to him if you knew he wouldn't cooperate?"

  I smiled at Sykes. "Because sometimes what a man doesn't say is more important than what he says."

  Devlin cupped my elbow and led me out of the hospital. "You realize that Sykes didn't believe a word you said back there. Until the last thing, that is. He looked like he might swallow his tongue. What do you make of it, Helen?"

  "Who knows? Who cares? Sykes is nobody, Devlin."

  "So Lowe didn't say anything useful?"

  "He'd deny it all if asked, which is why I kept your Blackberry. I recorded the entire conversation."

  "It's inadmissible."

  "Against Lowe, sure, but not against Riley Storm. Lowe knows exactly what happened to Harry McNamara. And I have no doubt how he got his supply of succinylcholine now either."

  "Dr. Storm?"

  "Yes. We need to get back home and see what Crevan learned about our homicidal pathologist and bring everyone else up to speed."

  "How does any of this help us get to Datello?"

  "One domino falls and they all fall, Devlin. Believe me when I tell you that a man like Riley Storm isn't going to prison for anyone, no matter how much incentive Datello tries to provide. Why else would Lowe kill Southerby if not because Datello was afraid he'd confess murder for hire?"

  "There isn't enough yet that links directly to Datello."

  "Not by a long shot, but after we talk to David tomorrow, I have a feeling all of that will change."

  "Helen, are you sure you really want to go ahead with that? Maybe you should tell Orion."

  "I'll make a deal with you. If he shows up before we leave tomorrow morning, I'll tell him. But I'm not going out of my way tracking him down when he made it perfectly clear that he doesn't want to know what I'm doing anymore. He entrusted me to the care of others, so he can live with it now."

  "Forgive me for pointing out the obvious, but it sounds like you resent the fact that he's off doing something else right now."

  "Doing someone else is more like it," I muttered. "Look, if Orion shows up, he shows up. We have a case to solve. Do you want to be the one who gets the information that links all of this into one neat little package or not, Devlin?

  "Sure I want that. If that's your real goal here, fine, but I don't want to get sucked into the middle of something else that has nothing to do with police work."

  "Fair enough. I think our next step is to have a conversation with Dr. Storm."

  "Do you think he'll cooperate?"

  "Oh, I'm sure that Lowe is getting information from the outsid
e. He'll make sure Riley learns that I am sympathetic to his side of this story."

  "Do I want to know how you convinced Jerry Lowe that you are sympathetic to a killer?"

  "I intimated that Jerry and I have something in common," I said. "Hurry back to my house. I'd like to share what we know with everyone, Devlin."

  "And I wish that we actually knew everything," he said.

  ~

  The second I walked through the front door, I felt the tension suck air out of my lungs. "Ah hell," Devlin muttered over my shoulder. "I'd say the jig is up, Helen."

  Indeed it was. We hadn't showed up to search the Ireland home at the appointed hour, not to mention, the sanctioned plan called for me to be ensconced in my office with boxes of meaningless pages from David Ireland's past.

  Crevan was pacing. Ned sat in a chair with his hands draped loosely over his knees. It was he who spoke first. "I sure hope you have a good explanation for where you've been, Helen, because your disappearing act – in the presence of my partner no less – is not going over well this afternoon."

  "For God sake, she didn't disappear anywhere, Ned," Devlin said. "We did exactly what we said we were going to do, but got a hot lead from the ME and followed up on it. The second we finished, we came straight back here to fill you guys in on what we learned."

  Oxygen rushed through the house.

  "Really?" Crevan ceased wearing the finish off my hardwood and bounced on the balls of his feet. "What was it? When we called Maya to see if you showed up there, she never said a word."

  Devlin chuckled. "In a not so rare moment of female solidarity, Helen persuaded her to let us share the news. It's pretty big. Would you like to sit down and listen to it now, or is there more scolding in store for us?"

  A third voice joined from the vicinity of the mud room. "I'd be very interested to learn why Helen wasn't home going over David's office paperwork the way she agreed to do."

  My heart sank just a little bit. Dev must've felt it because he shot me a sympathetic glance. I gave my word after all. If Johnny bothered showing his face before Friday morning, I'd come clean with everything – including my requested presence in Washington D.C. Never mind that he would go nuclear when he learned that I spent the morning chatting face to face with Jerry Lowe.

  I was deliberately slow explaining what Maya and I pieced together over Harry McNamara's corpse that morning. I even paused to go to the kitchen to rummage for something to drink, hoping that a little demonstration of appetite might cushion the blow. My shadow, newly returned, followed.

  "What are you doing, Doc?"

  "Looking for that tea you made the other night."

  "You won't find it in a box. Keep talking. I'll brew."

  The theory of how McNamara died brought all activity to a stop. "And of course the logical conclusion, considering who allegedly found him unconscious, and his history of using drugs that incapacitated his victims led me to believe that maybe –"

  Johnny slammed a cup on the counter hard enough to crack it. "You went to see Jerry Lowe?"

  Crevan, Ned and Devlin inched backward involuntarily. I stood my ground.

  "It's not like I went in there alone. Devlin was with me the entire time. I wasn't out of his sight for two seconds. Lowe was restrained in a chair. Did you think he'd chew through leather to get at me?"

  "I think if there's one man on earth inclined to try, it would be him. Jesus, Doc! Have you lost your goddamned mind?"

  "He's involved, Johnny. I explained what the mortuary told Devlin. Storm set the whole thing up to incriminate poor Billy if anybody ever got suspicious. And Lowe, with very little prompting from me, perpetuated that lie as a defense of his succinylcholine-supplying pal. What does that tell you?"

  "So that's why you wanted me digging into Riley's background," Crevan said. "Johnny, I think they're onto something huge. You guys aren't gonna believe what I found."

  Chapter 25

  Johnny gritted his teeth. "Can it wait fifteen minutes, Crevan?"

  "I suppose. It's gone undiscovered for all these years, I can't see how a few –"

  "I'd rather hear it now," I crossed my arms over my chest and planted my feet firmly.

  Johnny gripped my right arm in a vice of flesh and bone and steered me out of the room. "And I would've much rather that you called me before you went off to meet with a man who'd do or say anything to best you. Life is full of disappointment, Helen. We need to talk in private before one more word is said. Got it?"

  He maneuvered me into the bedroom and shut the door.

  "You can let go any time, Orion."

  "Back to that are we? Do you ever keep your word when you give it, Helen? You promised me that you'd cooperate."

  "And I have! I'm eating. I'm taking the non-narcotic pain medication. I'm on the stupid Prozac. I'm sleeping. I'm not running off investigating anything without proper backup! What more do you want from me?"

  Johnny's fingers dug into the flesh of my upper arms and kneaded. "I would've preferred to know in advance that you wanted to talk to Lowe. Why shouldn't be a question."

  "Maybe if you'd been around to know, you would've!"

  His eyes widened a little bit, and Johnny sucked in a deep breath. "I was in Montgomery filling Joe in on what's happening with the case, Helen. Is that the sort of errand you wanted to be included in?"

  "No."

  "I could've told you what I was doing, but frankly, I didn't think you'd react to it particularly well, this being Downey Division's case and all. It matters to Joe that this is done carefully and correctly. We want more than an arrest. We want charges and evidence that can only have one result – a guilty verdict."

  "And Devlin and I just made a huge step in that direction," I said. "So why berate me for doing what you and the governor want done?"

  "Because I know you," he murmured. "I've watched you leap without bothering to look for the past six months. Jerry Lowe is a dangerous man, Doc. Leather restraints or not, he could still hurt you. Do you have any idea what he's capable of doing?"

  "Of course I do. He's getting information from the outside, Johnny. There's not a thing going on in this city that he doesn't know about. Which is exactly why I played him the way that I did. He needs to believe that I'm as corruptible as the next guy in Darkwater Bay."

  "And he bought that?"

  I shrugged and twisted out of Orion's grip. "Not at first. Seems he heard about my – what did you call it – public display of affection at Weber's press conference yesterday."

  "What did you tell him?"

  "I told him that women do what they have to do to keep the enemy off balance."

  "Was that the truth? Is that the only reason you've been cooperating with me?"

  "Johnny –"

  "Answer the question, Doc. Are you manipulating me, giving me what you think I want so I don't realize what you're really up to?"

  "I said what I had to say to Lowe, not you. Since you don't trust me, I realize there's nothing I can do to convince you it's the truth." Or was there? "I also let Jerry believe that my relationship with Maya mirrors the one I suspect he shared with Storm."

  "Meaning what exactly?"

  "That she is open to a little prescribing on the side."

  "And that's what led you to believe that he got this succinylcholine from Storm?"

  I nodded. "He even went so far as to offer Riley's services to me should Maya ever cut off my supply. I taped the entire conversation on Dev's phone, Johnny. I know we can't use it against Lowe –"

  "But we could against Storm." Johnny sighed heavily and dragged his hand over his face.

  "Something else happened this morning, Johnny. I promised myself that I'd tell you if you showed up before tomorrow morning."

  He eyed me warily. "And if I had been delayed in Montgomery?"

  "I would've taken Devlin with me."

  "Taken him where, Helen?"

  "I talked to David."

  "Levine?"

  I nodded. "Remember t
he plan to speak to him this morning? I called. He was acting strangely, having a conversation on his end that clearly wasn't with me. He called me Mr. Carlyle for heaven's sake."

  "And from this you got what exactly?"

  "He said he'd like to discuss the portfolio options in person. Tomorrow night in Washington."

  "So you and Devlin were planning to jet off tomorrow without saying a word to anyone." Johnny started pacing. He raked one hand through his hair. "It could be a trap, Helen."

  "David wouldn't do that to me. The FBI doesn't have to operate that way. They know where I am. If they wanted a conversation, all they have to do is come pick me up and force the issue. True, I could refuse to talk without an attorney, but that kind of subterfuge isn't really necessary."

  "Unless they're using David's relationship with you to catch you without an attorney, with your guard down."

  "And he wouldn't be part of that. He wants to tell me something, Johnny, and he couldn't say what it was over the phone or in front of whoever he was with this afternoon."

  "Did you have a chance to ask him about Southerby?"

  "No, which is another reason that I have to go see him tomorrow night."

  He stared at the floor. "With Devlin."

  I opened my mouth, clamped it shut again and looked away from him.

  "Helen, is that how you want this to play out? Devlin goes with you to Washington?"

  "What do you want?"

  Johnny sighed and started pacing again. "What I want. I'd like to turn back time a couple of months and simply accept that earning your trust doesn't happen over night. I'd like to have been in the loop on that case and made sure you didn't get hurt. I wish I could go back six months to the night I met you, so I could've started out with a clean slate instead of a lie. What I want is impossible, so that leaves me in the unenviable position of trying to make sure this plays out the way you think it should."

  "Then you'll let me go?"

  "Yeah, Doc. I don't have a choice but to let you go. How many ways do you have to tell me it's what you want before it sinks in?"