“Pom-Pom.” Hiro shrugged. “But I guess I’m describing both of them. I can’t think of one thing that would prove they’re two different people.”
The only details she was absolutely sure of could have been used to describe Lynn just as easily as Pom-Pom.
“Did you notice any jewelry? A ring? Bracelet? Earrings? Necklace?”
Except for the necklace hanging around her own neck, Hiro had never been a fan of jewelry. Even if Pom-Pom had been wearing some, Hiro wouldn’t have paid much attention to it. “She didn’t have a Chicago Police star necklace.” Hiro would have noticed that. “That’s all I know.”
Officer Tarpy’s eyes dropped to the necklace, then back to her eyes. “Friend or relative?”
Hiro fingered the necklace. He got it. She didn’t need to explain that somebody she loved had died in the line of duty. “My dad,” she said.
Officer Tarpy closed his eyes. “I’m sorry.” He turned to look at Hiro’s mom. “I’m sorry, ma’am. I really am.”
He paused, as if unsure whether he should continue the questioning. And really, Hiro hadn’t given him anything more than what she’d already told him outside of Scoops.
“Did you notice if she was right- or left-handed?”
Hiro pictured the scene in the boat. “She waved at me with her left hand and held the pizza box in her right.” She remembered that perfectly.
Officer Tarpy pursed his lips. Obviously her answer was inconclusive. Again. The girl could have been either right or left-handed. “Okay, tell me about that camera.”
Hiro tried to visualize it. “It had a long lanyard.”
“How long?”
Hiro held her hands two feet apart. “She had it around her neck — and it hung below her belly button.”
Officer Tarpy didn’t make a note.
“The lanyard was bright green. Nylon-looking. And the camera looked like it was some kind of underwater model.”
“What made you think that?”
Good question. And one Hiro couldn’t answer. Not well anyway. “Not sure. It’s just a gut feeling. Or maybe it was something Lynn told me on the beach. She said it was totally waterproof.”
Officer Tarpy tapped a pencil on his notebook. She obviously wasn’t giving him what he needed. Her stomach tightened. Twisted. She was going to be a cop someday. Why hadn’t she paid enough attention so she could remember some detail that would actually be helpful?
But helpful for what? Why was she even here? Because of the questions she’d raised outside Scoops?
Officer Tarpy pulled out a file folder, slid a half-dozen photos from it, and arranged them in a row on his desk facing her. “Does anyone here look like the first girl you saw?”
Hiro studied the pictures. They looked like they’d been taken from a high school yearbook. Actually it looked like a cheerleading tryouts lineup. All the girls were blonde. Beautiful. If Pom-Pom was one of them, Hiro couldn’t be sure.
“Take your time,” Officer Tarpy said.
Maybe it was a test. Maybe he didn’t even put Pom-Pom in this group to see if Hiro really saw a difference. If she picked the wrong one, she’d lose all credibility — if she even had any. The fact was, none of them looked like the girl — and they all did. “None of them are jumping out at me,” she said.
“Okay,” he said. “Earlier today you were positive that Lynn wasn’t the same girl you’d seen in the boat when they pulled away from their mooring. Correct?”
Hiro nodded.
“Would you testify in court that you saw two different women that night?”
After how miserably she’d done when trying to pinpoint even one definitive difference between Pom-Pom and Lynn? She’d look ridiculous. “No,” she said. “Not unless my feelings are admissible as evidence.”
Officer Tarpy sighed. “Thanks for your honesty.”
Great. That was a really polite way of saying, Thanks for wasting my time. You’ve been absolutely no help to me.
He closed his notebook and smiled. Interview over, apparently. Good. This hadn’t been nearly as much fun as she’d hoped.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t more helpful.”
“Nonsense,” Officer Tarpy said. “I was out to find the truth, and you were kind enough to give it to me.”
But she had the feeling her answers had disappointed him. “Can I ask you a question, Officer Tarpy?”
“Shoot.”
“Why all the sudden interest in this?”
Officer Tarpy drew a deep breath and exhaled loudly. “Nothing really. Just a shot in the dark.”
So there was something more to this. Hiro looked at him and held his eyes with her steady gaze. It was a little technique that she’d perfected on Coop. It made it really hard for someone to hide the truth from her. “Meaning?”
Officer Tarpy chuckled. “I’m doing my duty to follow up with a concerned citizen.”
“You mean me?” Hiro said. “There were too many questions for that answer to wash — if you’ll excuse my forwardness.”
“Hiroko,” Mom said.
It was all Mom needed to say. It was her way of letting Hiro know she’d crossed the line. But Hiro had to.
Officer Tarpy waved at Hiro’s mom. “No, she’s fine.” He leaned back in his chair. “This afternoon, after you talked to me outside Scoops, I got a missing persons report.”
Hiro’s heart double-timed.
“The girl roughly matched the description you gave me.”
Cooper tried to read Hiro’s face when she walked out of Officer Tarpy’s cubicle with her mom. Her eyes were blazing. And the way she was rubbing her necklace, she could start a fire.
Hiro’s mom gave Cooper a hug. “I just talked to your mom. We’ll all meet for dinner at Culver’s. Lunk and Gordy are already there.”
Dinner sounded great. But what he really wanted to do was talk to Hiro and find out what had happened in there. When Tarpy agreed to bring him along, Cooper didn’t figure he’d be stuck in the waiting room the whole time.
“Sooo,” Cooper said. “Everything okay?”
Hiro’s mom nodded. “I think everyone will be relieved to hear there’s no connection between what you saw — or heard, rather — and the missing girl.”
Cooper eyed Hiro. “Missing girl?”
She drew a finger across her throat.
Okay. Cooper got the message. She didn’t want her mom to be any more concerned about things than she already was. But Hiro would talk later. Cooper would make sure of that.
Dinner took forever. The four moms sat at the next table with Lunk, while Hiro and Gordy joined Cooper and his six-year-old sister Mattie at their own table. Cooper tried to stay engaged and seem interested in Mattie’s endless stories about the outlet mall. But his mind kept reeling him back to the thought of a missing girl. Had Hiro been right?
Hiro smiled. Chatted. Nodded. She gasped with excitement when Mattie showed her the T-shirt she’d bought. But Hiro also kept rubbing that necklace of hers.
Lunk was sitting next to his mom. She smiled a lot and used her hands when she talked. By the way her hands were flying now, it seemed she’d had a wonderful day. And Cooper saw a side of Lunk that he’d not seen before. Lunk leaned forward as she talked. He listened. Smiled. Nodded. Lunk acted like she was the only person in the room.
Gordy sat back and looked at the ceiling, lost in thought. Cooper followed his gaze to where the train was running around the perimeter of the ceiling. One of the flat freight cars carried the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile. A classic.
“You know,” Gordy said, “a guy could throw a fry up there and derail the train.”
Cooper pictured the train veering off the tracks and crashing onto a table below.
Hiro looked up like it was the first time she’d noticed the rails. “You will do no such thing, Gordon Digby.”
Gordy laughed. “I didn’t say I wanted to do it. But if someone did, there’d be a real train wreck. Which is how our vacation is going to turn out if it keeps going
like this.”
Hiro looked confused. “Aren’t you having a good time?”
“I’m trying to.” Gordy looked dead serious. “We came to Lake Geneva to have fun. No mysteries — remember?”
Hiro leaned forward. “This one found us.”
“But now you’re going after it.” Gordy looked like he wanted to say more but didn’t dare. Not with the moms sitting so close.
“How am I doing that?”
Hiro asked the question, but she didn’t need to. The answer was obvious, and Gordy was right. She was the one who kept looking for the camera. She sought out Officer Tarpy with her theories. She was watching for black pickups around every corner.
“I think you know exactly what I’m talking about,” Gordy said. “Please don’t turn this vacation into a train wreck.”
“Not to worry,” she said. “I don’t think there’s anything else I can do anyway.”
Gordy nodded but looked skeptical.
Mattie trotted over to the counter to get some frozen custard. Hiro went with her.
“Why can’t she leave it alone?” Gordy asked as soon as Hiro was out of earshot.
Cooper shrugged. “Cop blood.”
“Don’t cops ever take vacations?”
Cooper laughed.
Mattie took her treat to the other table. When Hiro sat down across from Cooper, she placed a flier on the table between them. It was a color photograph of a smiling blonde. The word MISSING was written in bold caps across the top. Cooper’s stomach turned. For an instant he saw Gordy’s picture in the girl’s place. A few months earlier, that’s exactly where it had been.
“Where did you get that?” Gordy said.
She pointed to the counter. “Somebody just asked the manager if he would post one on the glass door. I asked if I could have a copy of it.”
Cooper studied the picture. He’d barely seen the girl in the boat — and definitely not well enough to identify her as anybody other than the girl he’d seen walking down the road after the cops got there.
“Officer Tarpy showed me the original photograph,” Hiro said.
Coop read the caption below the photo. “Last seen Sunday, four p.m.” It listed her height, weight, hair color. It was all there. “Braces.” Cooper read out loud. “Tattoo on left ankle — a pair of dice.”
Cooper read the girl’s name. “Wendy Besecker.” He looked at Hiro. “Is this the girl you saw?”
She shrugged. “I’m just not sure.” She tilted her head as if seeing the picture from another angle might help. “This is a studio picture or something,” Hiro said.
Cooper knew what she was saying. Her hair was up. That would make anybody look different. But still, the girl in the photo could have passed for Lynn’s sister. Maybe Lunk was right about how much people resembled each other.
“Did you see her braces — or the tattoo?”
Hiro shook her head. “Officer Tarpy asked me the same questions.”
“Does she have any connection to Kryptoski at all — did you ask Tarpy that?”
“I did. And if the girl had a connection, he wasn’t aware of it. I think he was hoping I’d be the connection.”
“You?” Gordy’s voice sounded flat.
“If I had identified her by the picture, or the tattoo, or the braces — he’d have the connection he needed to bring in Kryptoski for questioning.”
Cooper looked at her. “He told you that?”
“He didn’t have to. It was obvious.”
“So that’s it, then,” Gordy said. “End of the road. If you can’t positively ID her, there’s no reason to be involved anymore.”
Hiro didn’t say anything. But she didn’t let go of her necklace either.
“But what if he did do it?” she whispered. “And he gets away with it? Where’s the justice in that?”
Gordy didn’t answer.
“And if there’s no justice, no payday for that creep, then he could do it again,” Hiro said.
“Well, I guess you’ll just have to pray that God exposes the guy — if he’s really guilty,” Gordy said. “There are no other witnesses.”
“The camera is the silent witness to the whole thing. I bet it has a story to tell,” Hiro said. “Find that camera, and we’ll be able to prove whether Pom-Pom and Lynn are the same person.”
“We?” Gordy looked at her. “This is police business, not ours.”
Hiro looked down.
“You’re going to do it anyway, aren’t you? No matter what anybody says.”
“Do what?”
Gordy shook his head and looked up at the train. “Throw fries on the tracks.”
Lunk got the lowdown from Coop after the moms went back to the condo. The tension between Gordy and Hiro was obvious. Actually, it was kind of funny seeing Hiro so steamed at somebody else.
Cooper walked ahead with Gordy. Probably trying to cool him down. Lunk kept pace with Hiro. He’d do what he could to help them patch things up.
“Do you really think you’re going to find the camera?”
Hiro looked up at him. “I wish.”
“Realistically,” Lunk said.
“If the wind was blowing toward the opposite side of the lake? Sure. It would drift to the north shore.”
“But the wind was coming from the northwest,” Lunk said.
Hiro looked miserable. “Exactly. It would have reached shore within hours. And I searched the area really well.”
“You couldn’t have missed it?”
“With a two-foot bright green lanyard attached to it?” she said. “Not hardly.”
Lunk agreed. “And we know Kryptoski and his blonde didn’t find it.”
Hiro nodded. “Either it doesn’t float, or somebody else picked it up.”
“So it’s gone,” Lunk said.
Hiro jammed her hands into her pockets. “You could try giving a girl a little hope.”
“You’ve got to face the facts, Hiro. That camera is g-o-n-e.”
She kicked a pebble off the sidewalk. “Krypto is a creep. I can feel it. And I hate the thought that he might get away with this.”
“If he did anything wrong.”
Hiro gave him a half-smile and slugged him in the arm. “You are absolutely no help. Do you know that?”
Lunk laughed. “Thank you very much.”
They walked in silence for a while. Lunk looked at her. “Why not let this thing go — at least for now — and make up with Gordy.”
“Hummph.”
Lunk wasn’t sure if it was the thought of letting go or the idea of patching things up that irritated her more.
“How would I do that? I’m not going to promise him that I’ll stop working on this.”
“We still have an hour of daylight,” Lunk said. “Why not suggest that he show you the other part of the river he was talking about? He’ll forget all about being upset.”
Hiro appeared to be thinking and her shoulders relaxed a little. That had to be a good sign, Lunk thought. Maybe he could help Coop bring the group together again. “Then we could go to Scoops afterward. He’d love it.”
“He’d love it?” Hiro was smiling now. “I bet you would too.”
Lunk felt his face getting warm. “I’m just saying — ”
“I like your idea,” Hiro said. “Watch how fast I change his mood. Hey, Gordy!”
Gordy turned. “Yeah?”
“We’re really close to the river. Think there’s time to show me that pipeline you were talking about?”
Gordy stopped. “Are you serious?” He definitely looked skeptical.
“Absolutely! I feel like doing something — fun.”
Gordy’s face brightened. “Well, yeah. Why not?”
“Lead the way,” Hiro said.
Gordy clapped his hands and started jogging.
Coop pointed at her. Thanks. He mouthed the word, but Lunk was sure Hiro caught the message by the way she smiled back.
Hiro and Lunk jogged after them. “That was fast,” Lun
k said.
“He’s no match for me,” Hiro said.
“Who is?”
“Exactly,” Hiro said. “Don’t forget it.”
Cooper and Gordy kept a good lead. They crossed the street and passed an old brick building. As much as Lunk didn’t want to think about the camera, he couldn’t keep his mind off it. Why? Maybe the challenge of finding it. Or maybe he wanted to make Hiro as happy as Gordy looked right now. Maybe both.
“Hiro?”
She kept jogging, but glanced up.
“You said the camera floated.”
She nodded.
“What if the boat clipped it good? Maybe the prop or something — and the housing cracked. What if it sunk?”
She stopped dead — her eyes wide. “Oh my goodness. Lunk, that’s it!” She stared at the sidewalk. “Everybody’s been looking on shore. It could have dropped straight to the bottom.” She paced a few steps. “Coop has masks and fins on board. We could do a little snorkeling if it’s not too deep.” She held out her hand. “Please accept my apologies.”
He reached out and shook it. “What’s that for?”
“I think I was wrong.” She smiled.
“Hiro? Wrong?” Lunk cupped his hand around his ear. “Run that by me again. I don’t think I heard you right.”
She slugged his arm. “You heard me. I was wrong.”
“About what?”
“Maybe you’re a big help after all.”
Gordy led the way down the steep, wooded path to the river. The water was high — which was perfect. They’d get a little whitewater. The muffled roar of the water drowned out all sounds from town. They could have been miles from civilization. It felt like they were.
The iron pipeline angled across the river and under the old concrete railroad bridge. Even from here Gordy could make out the graffiti-covered walls beneath the bridge.
Gordy hopped onto the pipeline. He could lie flat on his stomach and wrap his arms around the pipe and grab his wrists. He’d tried it the last time he was there. Years of people using the pipeline as a footbridge had polished the top surface smooth as a cannon. He trotted halfway across and waited for the others. Lunk followed, then Coop.
“Isn’t there another way across?” Hiro looked totally unsure of herself.
Below the Surface Page 14
