Room for Doubt

by Nancy Cole Silverman

  She didn’t wait for me to answer.

  “And the other poor devil, the one those tabloid rags said was killed by wolves? He died at his own hands, so to speak. He trained pit bulls to fight in the arena. An inhumane and illegal act for sure. Even more so when you knew he had also threatened his wife with his dogs. We simply took dog-man and his dogs for a walk. His wife knew the command words. Attack. Release. Too bad we remembered the second word too late. But we buried him, partially anyway, so when the cops found the body, they’d know we had finished the job.”

  “Sally, this is crazy.”

  “Crazy is what happens when you live with an abuser long enough that it starts to feel normal, Jennifer. That’s crazy.”

  I exhaled. I needed to hold it together for a few more minutes. “And how many were there altogether?”

  “Does it matter?” Sally looked at me like I had asked a naughty question.

  “No. It frightens me, that’s all.”

  “Not one died that didn’t free a woman of her tormentor and whose life isn’t better for it.” Sally glanced back behind us. “I think it’s time, Jennifer. We should be getting back to your friend. You wouldn’t want him to sober up and come looking for you. He might stumble too close to the cliff and fall. And where would the justice be in that?”

  I glanced at my watch: 8:27. The path was still wet from the rain. Just a few more feet and we’d be directly in front of the second wedding area. DJ. Whatever you do, don’t be late.

  Sally put her arm around my shoulder, pulled me to her and whispered, her voice in my ear. “Come on, Jennifer, we need to go.”

  I slipped from beneath her arm and, turning toward her, grabbed both her wrists in my hands and held tight, refusing to budge. “No. No. I can’t.”

  Sally’s strength was bigger than my own, and she surprised me. Twisting her hands from my grip, she grabbed my upper arms before I could defend myself.

  “Yes, you can,” she said. She shook me hard.

  “No! I won’t.” I tried to break her grip and stepped back. Nearly stumbling over the barrier between the walk and cliff’s edge. Desperate, I grabbed her and held tight, my hands on her shoulders. Like two wrestlers, we held each other, pushing and pulling, refusing to let go. Until—

  Sally grabbed my hair. My wig. And I let go. With one hand I tried to hold my head while I continued to push her back away from the cliff. But I wasn’t strong enough. The wig came flying off. Sally let go and glared at me. “Who are you? Why are you doing this?”

  I grabbed the wig up off the ground and stuffed it in my jacket pocket. I didn’t think for a second Sally knew who I really was. Only that she was frightened. Years of being on the run had taught her to trust no one. And now, in her mind, those fears had caught up with her. Those enemies she feared. Who she had evaded so carefully, living below the radar, changing out her phone. I was suddenly one of them.

  Panting, I held my sides, nearly doubled over trying to catch my breath. “Sally, please, I’m here to help.”

  “No, you’re one of them. You’re trying to kill me.”

  With a strength I hadn’t expected, she came at me again. Her energy renewed. Pushing me backward over the barrier. Falling on my back, I rolled and grabbed for a rock, anything, to get my bearings. But before I could stand, Sally was on top of me. Her rough hands on the collar of my shirt, pulling me to my feet. Then pushing me backward towards the cliff’s edge.

  “Sally, no.” My feet slipped in the mud. I glanced back, the inky black waters churning below me. “Please, stop!”

  From behind her, in the moonlight, I could see DJ running towards us.

  I yelled, “DJ, help! Help me!”

  DJ rushed forward, jumping over the barrier wall, and grabbed Sally from behind. Despite the difference in their height, she pinned her arms behind her. Then with one well-placed kick, like a karate chop to the back of Sally’s knees, Sally fell back and collapsed like a wounded animal.

  The expression on my face must have registered my surprise. Short of a Bruce Lee movie, I’d never seen such moves.

  DJ smiled. “Black belt. Three years in a row. Another secret I’d prefer you not share.”

  Sally moaned and rubbed the back of her knee. Doubled over in pain.

  “You don’t need to worry, Carol. She’s not going anywhere.”

  “Probably not. But just the same.” I leaned down and slipped my hand into Sally’s coat pocket and retrieved the gun. I wasn’t taking any chances. “I’ll give you this for safe keeping, and maybe a little insurance.”

  DJ took the gun from my hand and shoved it in the back of her waistband. “We’re not going to need it. But I could use your help getting her back to my car.”

  I grabbed Sally’s other arm and, putting it over my shoulder, helped Sally over the barrier.

  “What are you doing?” Sally sounded as though she were still in pain.

  “We’re helping you escape,” I said.

  “Who’s we?”

  From beneath Sally’s arm, DJ said, “Me, Sally. Doris Jean. You remember?”

  “Doris?” Sally straightened up and grabbed my arm for support. The recognition spreading across her face like relief. “Is it really you?”

  “Yes, but we need to go.”

  “She’s right,” I said. “It’s not safe for you here anymore. The cops, your tribunal, everyone’s searching for you. We need to get you out of here.”

  Sally turned back to DJ. “You’re here to help me?”

  “I’m here to return the favor you did for me.”

  “And Jennifer?” Sally asked.

  “I’ll explain everything to you in the car. But we have to get you out of here, now.”

  Overhead the sound of helicopter blades buffeting in the wind interrupted our goodbye. I looked up and was nearly blinded by a searchlight sweeping from beneath the chopper, it’s broad beam focused on the cliff in front of me.

  “Something’s happened.” I pushed Sally into DJ’s arms. “Hurry, the two of you need to go. Now!”

  DJ put Sally’s arm back around her shoulder and, ducking beneath the low-flying chopper, turned and hobbled as best they could towards the parking lot.

  The chopper swung wide out over the ocean, its searchlight flooding the area beneath the cliff, to the sunken city, and back towards the lighthouse, and the big fig tree.

  Oh my god, Chase.

  CHAPTER 43

  I ran. The light from the sky chopper swept the trail ahead of me. The sound was deafening as the big bird swept back from out over the ocean and hovered above the party tent. It’s light, like a giant white funnel, scoped the area just beyond the cliff’s edge. On its perimeter, I could see the shadow of a crowd. Then as I got closer, the looks on their faces, reflected in the copter’s bright light. They were ashen.

  I pushed through the crowd. My hands on the shoulders of strangers, jumping and bobbing between people, trying to look over their heads. “What happened?”

  “Someone jumped.”

  “Or fell.”

  Nameless voices from in the crowd hollered back.

  “Who?” My heart was beating like the thrashing of the chopper’s blades above me.

  No one knew. I looked back at the picnic table where Chase and I had sat. Empty! The only evidence of Chase being there was Charlie’s cooler, abandoned on the bench.

  “Chase! Chase, where are you?” I spun around three-sixty. Searching. Yelling his name. He had to be here. Somewhere in the crowd. God, please don’t let it be him. I ran back toward the party tent. He wasn’t there. I turned and ran back towards the bench. And then from behind me, I heard a voice.

  “Carol! Carol, is that you? Are you okay?”

  From beyond the party tent, Chase came running towards me.

  I rushed to him, and without thinking, threw my arms around
him. Thank God he was alive. “Where were you? What happened?”

  “Someone must have fallen.” He put his hands on my upper arms, rubbing them up and down as he stared into my eyes. Then he shook his head, pulled me to him, and held me tight. “I thought for a minute it might have been you. I’ve been searching everywhere. Where were you?”

  I was about to lie and tell him I had wandered toward the cliff when I heard Sheri’s voice.

  “Carol, I saw the chopper. Are you all right? I couldn’t wait in the car any longer. I heard somebody fell. I was afraid it was you.”

  Chase pulled me close. The warmth of his body against mine was reassuring.

  “She’s fine. It was someone from the party.” He nodded over to a group of partygoers huddled near the cliff. “They were a rowdy crowd. Lots of drinking going on.”

  I turned away from Chase and pulled Sheri to me. She was shaking uncontrollably. I tried to reassure her. “I’m fine, Sheri. Really. You don’t need to worry. Everything’s okay. I promise.”

  Then catching her breath, she straightened herself and pushed a tear away from her eye. “And did you get what you came for?”

  “Mustang Sally?” Chase looked at me, I shook my head.

  “No,” I said. “She never showed. And I don’t think she will. Not now. Not with all the cops here and the choppers in the air. I’m sure whatever happened scared her off. She’s gone.”

  CHAPTER 44

  Chase, Sheri, and I hung around in the park until the rescue operation’s retrieval of the body was complete. I think Chase wanted to make certain the body pulled from the rocks below wasn’t Mustang Sally. Which, of course, it wasn’t. Rather, it was exactly as Chase had predicted. One of the partygoers, a young man who’d had too much to drink, had wandered too close to the cliff’s edge and fallen to his death.

  I called the the station to report the accident. Tragically, the young man’s death got no more than thirty seconds of coverage and was sandwiched between two other stories. That’s the way it was on a busy Saturday night.

  Once the body was recovered, Sheri announced she wanted to go ahead and get the kids, it was getting late. I shouldn’t worry. They would caravan back to the valley. Sheri promised she would be behind Misty’s van the whole way, and Charlie would be fine driving.

  “But the two of you,” she paused and looked at us both, “I think you might need more time together.”

  I was about to protest when Sheri bussed me on the cheek and whispered into my ear. “And it might be a good idea if you drove Chase’s car home.” Hugging me goodbye one last time, she winked at Chase and gave him a quick thumbs up sign.

  “What was that all about?” Chase said.

  I shook my head like I didn’t know and shrugged my shoulders.

  “I take it I wasn’t supposed to hear that bit about you driving me home? Something you need to share?”

  I winced. “You heard that ?”

  “I did. But before you say anything, I think we should go back to the picnic table, pick up Charlie’s cooler, and have a little chat. What do you say?” Chase grabbed my hand and led me back to the table.

  Whatever warm feelings I was beginning to harbor toward Chase suddenly chilled. I sat down on the bench and grabbed Charlie’s cooler, and, with both hands, clutched it against my stomach.

  “You have anything left to drink in that thing?” Chase pointed to the cooler.

  “Coffee, maybe,” I said.

  “Because that’s what you were drinking, right?”

  I nodded. “Yes.”

  “While I was drinking tea. A special tea, maybe one of Misty’s specials?”

  I hugged the cooler tighter. I didn’t like where this was going.

  “Admit it, Carol, you’re busted. You set me up. Not only did you use me to attract Sally, but then you put something in my drink so you could kidnap her out from under me.”

  I closed my eyes and exhaled. “Fine. You’re right. I did all that, and I’d probably do it again.” I looked up at Chase. He was standing in front of me, scratching his head like he wasn’t certain what he was going to do.

  “Think about it, Chase. If there are cops who knew what Sally was doing, and she disappeared…so what? What’s the crime? We didn’t kill anybody. And if you found Sally and turned her in, it wasn’t going to play out well for you. A bunch of cops who were keeping a secret would go down for a crime they had turned a blind eye to. Plus, who knows how many women who had been victimized would be facing criminal charges. Nobody was going to win. You certainly wouldn’t. The police wouldn’t embrace you for exposing their own. Why not just help her disappear?”

  Chase took the cooler from me and removed the thermos with the blue cap on it. The thermos I had been drinking from. “You mind?”

  “No,” I said.

  He sat down next to me and poured himself a cup of coffee into the thermos cap and took a sip. “You want some?”

  I nodded. I was shaking from the chill in the air or was it nerves? He held the cup to my lips as I took a sip. “Thank you.”

  We sat silent for a moment. The park was empty. I hugged myself. The damp chill of the night air sent a shiver down my back. The sound of waves breaking on the shore beneath us.

  “I have a confession to make too,” Chase said.

  “What’s that?”

  “I wasn’t a hundred percent surprised.”

  “No?”

  “When you mentioned you were having second thoughts about Sally, I knew something was up.”

  “But you still drank the tea.”

  “No. I faked it.” Chase took the red-capped thermos I had given him earlier out from the cooler and opened it up, emptying the contents out onto the ground.

  “But how?”

  “I’m a detective, Carol. I’m supposed to know a thing or two about human nature. It didn’t take much to figure out you had spiked my drink. You had two thermoses, and you kept going on about how salty Sheri’s brownies were. What was I supposed to think?”

  “You just went along with it?”

  “I did, but what I didn’t expect was for that young man to fall off the cliff. When I heard all the commotion, I was afraid something had happened to you.”

  “You were worried?”

  “I was.”

  “So I guess you’re going to turn me in then?”

  “Nope.” Chase took a sucker out from his pocket, put it in his mouth, and leaned his elbows on the table, staring out at the horizon. “The way I see it, we’re even. You gave me the tip on Silva, and from that, I was able to work myself back into the good graces of LAPD. So I’ve been thinking, if you can break a few rules, maybe I can do the same.”

  “I’m not sure I understand.”

  “That is unless this case has you totally soured on men.”

  “I’m not soured on men, Chase. It’s just—”

  “Because I was thinking, since we have this secret between us, I might be able to convince you to break a few rules of your own. Maybe mix a little of your professional life with your personal.”

  “You’re blackmailing me?”

  “Not at all. I’m only saying that as far as Sally goes, you’re right. This is just another unsolved missing person case. And the cops, as you pointed out, aren’t about to investigate. You, on the other hand, you’re a case I’m not about to let go of. Not unless you tell me you’re absolutely not interested. And then I’d probably tell you you’re lying, because of the way you get that cute, little nervous smile on your face when I get close to you.” Chase gently pushed a strand of my hair behind my ear and held my head with hand.

  I grabbed the sucker out of Chase’s mouth. “I’ll tell you what. You get rid of this damn sucker, and I might just consider it.”

  “Oh yeah?” Chase took the candy from my hand, tossed it over his shoulder and p
ulled me closer to him. “I suppose you got something else I might like just as well.”

  “That all depends.” My eyes met his, a lightness filled my chest.

  “On?”

  “Whatever you’re considering a suitable substitute,” I said.

  “How about this?” Chase took my chin in his hand and gently turned my face to his, then kissed me softly on the lips. “Suitable enough?”

  I put my arm around his neck. “Do it again.”

  CHAPTER 45

  Sunday morning I was awakened by the sound of Jennifer’s cell phone buzzing. I had left it in my bag in the bathroom and stumbled into the room to answer it, still groggy. After last night, I was no longer apprehensive it might be Sally, and since Jennifer’s desperate call to me yesterday requesting she talk to Misty, I wasn’t surprised when I tapped the screen and saw Jennifer had sent a message.

  You won’t believe! Just wanted to share.

  Attached was a photo of Jennifer with Jason in front of a Las Vegas wedding chapel. Jennifer was holding her left hand up in front of her. Big smile on her face. On her ring finger was a large diamond. Jason appeared dazed but pleased.

  I tapped in my response. Congratulations! Then noticed the time. It was more than twelve hours since I’d left Sally and DJ. If I were going to learn anything, now was the time. I reached back into my bag for the scrap of paper DJ had given to me. On it was the number she had scribbled, telling me to call if I wanted to verify Mustang Sally had arrived safely.

  I punched in the number and waited. Finally, after several rings, a woman’s voice answered. “Aloha.”

  Aloha. The greeting caught me by surprise. I paused, then repeated the message DJ had given me.

  “I’m calling to inquire about the arrival of a package. I was told someone at this number could verify delivery?”

  “I’m afraid, miss, I’m not at liberty to share that information. May I ask who’s calling?”