Paradise Park

by Carolina Mac

  “So go,” Marg said, “they’ll never find him.”

  Rob stared, made a fist and took a step towards Marg. I took his arm and propelled him towards the door and out onto the deck. I followed him out and closed the kitchen door behind us.

  I leaned close to Rob and whispered, “Hitting her won’t get us anywhere. She said the cops would never find him. She knows something. We’re going to the police station.”

  I drove into town and found the police station with little trouble. A red brick building attached in an ell to the back end of the courthouse. Rob hadn’t said a single word during the trip. He jumped down from the running board of the truck, chains clunking on his Harley boots and walked slowly along beside me. I reached for his hand and felt his nervousness.

  At reception, I did the talking. “Are either Detectives Spangler or McMurtry on duty?”

  The dark-haired girl whose nametag read ‘Kim’, checked the duty roster and nodded. “Spangler has another hour on her shift.”

  “I need to speak with her if you don’t mind. Thanks.”

  “And your name is?” she poised her pen to write it down.

  “Grace Whitmarsh.”

  The girl pointed the end of her pen at the visitor chairs and Rob and I sat in silence until Spangler appeared from the depths of the building. She smiled when she recognized me.

  “Miss Whitmarsh, nice to see you.” Her gaze fell on Rob and she looked puzzled.

  “We need a moment of your time, Detective.”

  Spangler nodded. “Come into my office.”

  The colour left Rob’s face and I reached for his hand. “It’s okay. We can do this.” We sat in the two guest chairs in front of Spangler’s desk and watched her take out a yellow notepad.

  “What’s seems to be the problem?”

  “Rob’s brother, Gary, is missing,” I said. “Rob has been looking for him since last night and he can’t find him or his truck. Gary found out that Marg pulled a scam on him and he was angry.” I went into detail explaining all about Marg buying the trailer with Gary’s money and putting it in her name. Gary just finding out about it and Marg telling Gary to move out of her trailer.

  Rob listened but didn’t contribute.

  “Marg has been making waves, saying the trailer is hers and suddenly Gary is gone?”

  “Yes,” I said, “Rob and I went over to ask Marg a few questions and get a read on her body language and her reactions and she was pretty drunk. I think she might have made a slip up.”

  “What did she say that you felt was suspicious?”

  “When Rob asked her point blank where Gary was for the umpteenth time, she said ‘They’ll never find him.’

  Spangler raised her eyebrows. “And those were her exact words?”

  “Exact, yes.”

  “He’s not so much of a missing person as you suspect some kind of foul play?”

  “Marg doesn’t appear to be concerned in any way that Gary is going to come back and beat her senseless or do whatever he usually does—I don’t know what that is and I don’t want to know—but I would have to say that she knows he’s not coming back. She’s cocky. Only my impression.”

  “Thank you Miss Whitmarsh. I know you have a lot of insight and a lot of hours logged with interviewing victims and perpetrators for your books.”

  “Rob wrote down the license number of Gary’s pickup. It’s a dark blue Ford F-10, 2002 with some rust spots and a dark blue cap on it.” I eyed a near comatose Rob and he handed over the paper.

  Spangler rolled her eyes and cast a questioning glance at me.

  “Rob and I have become friends and I’m trying to help him with this problem.”

  Spangler nodded. Her glance clouded with obvious skepticism.

  “For now, we’ll put a BOLO out on the truck. If he hasn’t shown up in another forty-eight hours I’ll need you, Rob, as next of kin,” Spangler pointed, “to come back and fill out some forms.”

  Rob nodded.

  “We’ll do that. Rob’s working full time now in Oshawa so it will have to be in the evening.”

  Spangler looked dazzled and I figured she wondered what I was doing with Rob, but the detective took it in her stride and nodded.

  “Come on, sugar.” I stood up, took Rob by the hand and headed for the door. Out in the darkened parking lot half way to the truck, Rob stopped for a minute and hurled on the pavement. He wiped off his face with the back of his hand then lit up a smoke.

  “Fuck, girl. That was the high shits. I thank God you were with me.”

  I smiled and waited in the cab of the truck for him to finish his smoke.

  At ten after eleven I pulled through the park gates, drove straight to Gary’s trailer and parked. Rob kissed me lightly before he jumped out of the cab.

  “Thanks for going with me. I feel a little better, but I know in my gut that something is wrong.”

  “Happy to help you, sugar.” As I watched Rob run up the steps my headlights illuminated a bunch of stuff scattered all over the deck. I stepped out the driver’s door onto the running board and called to him. “What’s all that on the deck?”

  Rob looked at the stuff, tried the door of the trailer then came back down the steps. “That stupid bitch locked me out and threw all my clothes and shit on the deck.”

  “Damn it.” I shut the motor off and got out. “Load it into my truck and then ride your bike over, honey. That woman has a screw loose.”

  We picked up all of Rob’s belongings which didn’t amount to much, threw the pile in the back of the cab and I drove home. Rob followed on his Harley. I started a pot of coffee and sat with him at the kitchen table.

  “Where’s Gary?” Rob said half to himself. “He took care of me since I was six. Where the hell is he?”

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  I ROLLED OVER when the alarm buzzed at six a.m., pressed snooze and cuddled into Rob. He stirred and pulled me close to him. He was strong and warm and all male. Testosterone fairly oozed from every cell in his body. When the alarm buzzed annoyingly for the second time, he sat on the side of the bed trying to wake up while I headed for the kitchen to start the coffee.

  The shower ran as a pan of bacon and eggs sizzled on the stove. I filled the four-slice toaster with bread. Rob liked whole wheat toast. I had found that out and it made me smile not really knowing why. Everything about him spelled white bread and baloney, burgers and fries, but that wasn’t Rob. Not within a country mile. I was in the discovery phase and enjoying it. The best thing I’d uncovered so far was Rob’s prowess in the sex department. Hands down, I’d never had a more gifted or reciprocal partner.

  He came to the breakfast table all shiny clean and smelling of shampoo. There was still lots of time before he had to leave for work.

  “Thanks for letting me stay here, girl.” He’d been almost silent since Gary went missing and I felt bad for him. Gary was a shit, but over the years he might have been the only thing between Rob and Child Services. Who knew what their life had been like and what they’d overcome.

  “I’ll straighten out your clothes today, sugar. I’m happy to have you here.”

  “You’re the nicest person I’ve ever met, you know that?”

  “I’m not that nice,” I said with a grin. “I’ve got big plans for you.”

  Rob winked. “You’ll be yourself soon, won’t you baby?”

  “I think so. I’m feeling it.”

  Rob cleaned up his breakfast plate and chuckled. “I’ve got to go.”

  LONNIE SAT BEHIND the wheel in the cab of the big rig at seven a.m. contemplating his not-so-rosy future when Rob came out of Gracie’s trailer. A lightning bolt of pain, fueled by envy and self-hate, shot though Lonnie’s heart. He watched Rob rev up the shiny black Harley, roar out of the park and head down the highway. He and Ted were ready to leave for Sault Saint Marie and they’d be gone two days—maybe three. He had ruined his own life with all-consuming jealousy and hurtful behavior he didn’t know he was capable of. Gracie and Rob
were only acquaintances when he turned them into something else entirely—they merged into something else under his careful prodding and his unwavering insistence. He could barely look at himself in the mirror.

  He jumped out of the cab. “Stay there, Ted. I’ll be right back.” He ran up on Grace’s deck and knocked. When she opened the door, and saw him standing in front of her, he heard her suck in a breath.

  “Hi,” she said.

  “Hi Grace. I just wanted to say…” He stared at his boots for a couple of seconds. “That there is nothing I can say or do to fix what I’ve done to us. I’m an idiot and I deserve whatever you want to feel about me. That’s all I wanted to tell you.” He searched her beautiful face through the screen door and saw the tears beginning. “I’m so sorry.” He turned and hoofed it to his truck and took off.

  I WASTED THE whole morning locked away in my bedroom crying my eyes out. Lonnie’s early morning declaration of sorrow and regret had taken me by surprise and ripped the scab off the wound in my heart once again. At twelve-fifteen my phone rang. “Hi,” I said barely audible.

  “What’s wrong baby?”

  I couldn’t speak.

  “I’ve got one more hour of work and I’m coming home.”

  “Okay,” I choked back a sob and pressed end.

  Before Rob arrived, I sucked it up and tried to fix my face and disguise my red weepy eyes. Maybe fresh mascara would help, a little blush on my cheeks and some pink lip gloss. I had been working my way further and further from the Lonnie pain and now the distancing was gone. The hurt was back—worse than ever if that was possible.

  With a Toby Keith CD blaring in the player, I cracked open a cold one and sat on the deck in the sun. My home remedy for pain.

  An hour later the Harley rumbled up the highway towards me and I smiled. Rob would be upset because I was upset and that was because he loved me unconditionally. Right now, I needed somebody to love me. He parked the bike and took the steps two at a time. I jumped off my chair and he took me in his arms. He was so strong and I desperately needed a strong man in my life. He kissed me and I kissed him back. He smelled of sweat and leather and a welding smell that was always present after work. He could light a fire inside of me in an instant. “I’m glad you’re home,” I whispered.

  “Do you want to tell me what happened?” Pain showed in his face.

  I nodded. “Lonnie knocked on the door before he left this morning.”

  “Yeah. Did he hurt you?”

  “No.” I shook my head. “He said he was sorry for fucking up my life.”

  “And that made you cry all day?” He stroked my hair.

  I giggled a little bit. “That was it.”

  Rob hugged me tight. “He hurt you so bad and you’re not over it. It’s gonna take a long time.”

  “You’re so smart,” I said. “I love that about you.”

  “That’s the first time anybody ever said I was smart.” He grinned.

  SHEILA PULLED HER old Toyota into the driveway of Gary’s trailer. His truck still wasn’t there and it looked like no one was home. She went to the door and knocked not expecting a reply, but Marg opened the door and gave her a cold stare. “Where’s Gary,” asked Sheila.

  “Gary doesn’t live here anymore.”

  “Do you expect me to believe that Gary just left without a fuss and let you have the trailer? He would never do that in a million years,” said Sheila with a frown and a shake of her head. “There is no way you could ever make me believe that.”

  “Well, that’s exactly what happened. I told him the way it was and he left. Simple as that.”

  “Can’t be true.”

  “Is true,” hollered Marg. “Get out of my face, bitch.” She slammed the door and locked it.

  Sheila retreated in disbelief and drove to Grace’s trailer. Rob and Grace were on the deck having drinks.

  “Hi Sheila,” said Grace, “what’s up? Did Gary come back to your place?”

  “Nope. I just went over to his trailer and that stupid bitch, Marg said he just up and left after she told him it was her trailer.”

  Rob shook his head. “My brother would never take that kind of a shafting lying down. Never.”

  “I don’t know what to do,” said Sheila with a little whimper.

  “Nothing you can do. Rob and I are going up to the police station to file a missing person’s report. Detective Spangler’s expecting us.”

  “Okay.” Sheila brightened a little. “Will you let me know if you hear anything?”

  “Yes, of course we will,” said Grace.

  ROB AND I headed to the police station in my truck right after dinner. He was unnervingly quiet and had hardly uttered a syllable since Sheila’s visit. “I’ve got a bad feeling, baby,” he said as he flicked his butt out the window.

  “I’m not feeling great about Marg’s story myself, and I hardly know your brother. She was definitely lying when she said Gary just up and left. That would be totally out of character.”

  Rob stared out the window.

  I parked the truck in the almost deserted lot and waited for Rob. He was having trouble getting it together and opted for one last smoke before he went inside. Finally ready, he tossed his butt down and stepped on it. “I can’t believe I’m going in that fuckin police station twice in the same fuckin week.” He kicked at the pavement on the way to the front entrance. “Makes me want to puke.”

  I reached for his hand. “You did puke, sugar. Remember last time?”

  Rob chuckled. “Yeah, I did.”

  In the reception area, I gave Rob’s name and said he had an appointment with Detective Spangler. In a matter of minutes Spangler came out and ushered us into her office. She wasn’t smiling. Rob picked up the vibe immediately and he paced like a caged tiger behind the two visitor’s chairs.

  “Have a seat, Mr. Eastman,” Spangler said peering over her glasses.

  He shook his head. “No. No I can’t sit down. You’re gonna lay some terrible shit on me. I can feel it.” He sucked in a big breath and leaned on the wall near the door.

  Spangler inhaled and started. “Since you called this afternoon and set up the appointment to file a report on your brother, a call came into the office.”

  “What kind of a call?” I asked.

  “Some kids—teenagers—were fishing for mud cats in the swampy area down by the Pigeon River and they came across a truck half submerged.”

  “What?” Rob was a white as a ghost.

  I jumped up and slipped an arm around his waist. “Was it Gary’s truck?”

  “The colour and make matches the description you gave. There is a crew there now on the scene towing it out of the swamp.”

  Rob turned and bolted out of the office.

  “Was Gary in the truck?” I asked Spangler.

  Spangler shook her head. “No. There was no one in the truck.”

  “Okay. I’ll drive Rob. Will you be coming our way?”

  “I’m heading out there now with McMurtry. It was his day off but he’s been called in.”

  “Then I’ll see you shortly?”

  “Definitely.”

  I grabbed up my purse and rushed out the door of the station house. Rob stood leaning on my truck looking more like a zombie with the shit kicked out of him than a tough bad-ass. I hurried across the parking lot, pressing the lock release as I ran. We jumped up into the cab and I stomped the gas, burning rubber out onto the highway. “There was no body in the truck, sugar. You took off before you heard that.”

  Rob released a breath. “Gary wasn’t in the truck?” There was a hint of hope in his voice.

  “No. They found the truck. That’s all.”

  Rob stared out the window during the fifteen-minute ride back to the park and I couldn’t get a glimpse of his face.

  It was almost dusk as my big pickup rolled down the gravel side road and past the back gate of the park. Rob stared straight ahead focusing on the windshield and I covertly stole a glance at his pale expression. Tea
rs welled up in my eyes. Gary may have been an asshole but he was all Rob had.

  The last traces of daylight disappeared and it was more difficult to see with the woods looming large on both sides of the road. I flicked the truck lights on and half mile farther along the road we reached the river. After bouncing through the pot holes in the narrow rusty bridge, the vegetation changed from trees and brush to dense swamp all around us. Dead trees rose like skeletons out of the dark murky water and the whole area was shrouded in a thick low-lying mist. The reek of stagnant water lay heavy on the warm night air.

  I applied the brakes and pulled up behind a police cruiser. Parked ahead of that vehicle were two more cruisers with blue and red strobes flashing. The cars were parked on haphazard angles to make the section of the road they were working on inaccessible to local traffic. Four uniformed officers were in conversation with a tow truck driver. One officer was waving his arms and pointing, obviously giving directions. The tow truck was hooked to a nondescript pickup, dark in colour, covered in mud, algae and swamp debris.

  I shoved the gear shift into park and before I could reach for the keys, Rob was out of the vehicle and running down the road towards the tow truck. I jumped down from the running board and walked slowly towards the grisly scene. Two of the officers were trying to prevent Rob from looking in the truck and I couldn’t hold back the tears any longer. My heart ached for him.

  Was Gary dead in the swamp? Just knowing it was a possibility made me shudder. Thinking it best to give Rob some space and let him deal with this development on his own, I turned and walked back towards my truck. I was almost there when Spangler and McMurtry pulled in behind me in their black sedan.

  “Where’s Rob?” asked Spangler as she stepped out on the ditch side and tried not to tumble into the muck.

  “Down there by the tow truck,” I said and pointed through the gray fog. “I’m going to wait in the truck for him. He’s pretty upset.”

  “If you want, we can drop him off,” said McMurtry.

  “Thanks, but I’ll wait. Do you think Gary is in the swamp?”