The Secrets on Forest Bend

by Susan C. Muller

  Mai’s apartment was only a few blocks away. When he rang the bell, she answered immediately. “What are you doing here, Adam? I’m getting ready to go out.” He could see that. She had on her favorite clubbing outfit and reeked of that perfume with the name he hated. What did she call it, Heroin? No, Opium.

  “What’s happened to you, Adam? You look terrible. You’ve let yourself go all to pieces.”

  He looked down. His suit and shirt were fresh from the cleaners that morning and his shoes were polished.

  “Where are the contacts you bought? And you’ve quit going to that stylist I found you.”

  Adam adjusted his glasses and raked a hand through his hair, but didn’t say anything.

  “At least you’re still wearing the Polo glasses I picked out.”

  Only until these silly frames break and I can buy some new ones.

  “You have to leave. Someone’s about to pick me up.”

  “This’ll just take a minute, Mai. I wanted to talk to you.”

  “It’s too late for that. After the way you treated me, I’d never take you back. I don’t care how much you beg.”

  He wouldn’t have taken her back on a dare, but he didn’t tell her that. “I know. I wouldn’t ask you to. But something’s been bothering me. We broke up just before your birthday.”

  “It was the worst birthday I ever had.” Her lower lip trembled. “I sat home and cried. I didn’t have anybody to take me out.”

  Adam doubted she spent any time crying and he knew for a fact she hadn’t stayed home. She was seen using the concert tickets he had bought for that night.

  “I feel bad about that. I had already bought you a present and everything. Every time I see it sitting in my drawer, I feel worse. I hope you’ll let me give it to you now.”

  Mai’s tears suddenly dried up. “You want to give me a gift? Shouldn’t you give it to your new girlfriend?” she said with a pout.

  She could pretend the package was a gift. He knew it was a bribe and nothing more.

  “No. It’s your gift. I’d never give it to someone else.” The rumor mill must be working if she already knew about Jillian. He pulled the box from his coat pocket and handed it to her. When she took the cover off her eyes lit up, just as he knew they would.

  “Well, I suppose if you’ve had it all this time...” She held out her arm as he put the bracelet on. “That was nice of you, Adam. We’ll consider this a peace offering, but now you have to go. I don’t want my date to see you.” She stood on tiptoes and gave him a quick kiss, pushing her tongue into his mouth as if to remind him what he was missing.

  He nodded, acting too choked up to speak, and started down the stairs. If that’s all it takes to make my life run smoother, I wish I’d come up with it a year ago. Besides, I did owe her a gift.

  Insincere words and cheap trinkets weren’t going to carry much weight with Jillian. He might actually have to be honest.

  When Adam got home, he called Ruben and brought him up to date. He told him about everything, except the time he’d spent with Jillian and what she’d said. That wasn’t part of the case. After Ruben’s earlier warning, he didn’t want to give his partner a chance to say I told you so.

  “Sounds like you have everything covered. I’d have chipped in on the bracelet to get that witch off our backs. You better wait another twenty-four hours on the gun so there’s no way he can say it hadn’t made it to property yet.” Ruben’s voice was growing stronger every day.

  “How did Jillian do?” he asked. “I’ll bet she acted like a pro. I may have had my doubts about her early on, but she’s turning out to be a keeper.”

  “She did a great job, real professional. Unfortunately, on a personal level, things aren’t going as well.”

  “That’s you in a nutshell. All gung ho when it’s inappropriate and cold feet when things start to work out.”

  Ruben was never going to let up until he learned the whole story.

  “It’s not that. I’d love it if we could work things out. But there’s a little problem. I think she might be actually, literally, crazy. She thinks her dead sister follows her around talking to her and causing trouble.”

  His partner was silent for so long Adam began to worry. Finally Ruben spoke softly. “Tell me exactly what she said.”

  He started at the beginning and told Ruben everything. He described her pronouncements about his house and his efforts to find out how she had known those things. He told about the mirror falling and about Rover’s death. Ruben asked a few questions, but let Adam tell the story in his own way.

  “How does her version of Manny and Eddie’s actions line up with what they had to say?”

  “Well, I only have Eddie’s word on what Manny said, but they line up almost exactly, even to the point of a woman’s voice speaking to them. I haven’t talked to Marshall, so I don’t know what he’ll say.”

  “She was worried Heather might try to hurt you. Has anything happened since she left?”

  “I got a piece of glass in my foot that almost reached the bone, I cut my finger so I can barely use the computer, I was nearly impaled by a set of clippers when the contents of the tool shed fell on me, and a bus missed running over me by a millimeter. In the car on the way home, the sun reflected off a building and I wanted to turn my head, but I remembered what Jillian said and kept my eyes straight ahead. It’s a good thing I did. A car changed lanes and cut right in front of me.”

  Laying everything out like that made Adam see how strong the coincidences were. Maybe Jillian wasn’t as crazy as he thought. Forget it. If he believed her, he was the crazy one.

  Ruben let the silence drag on before he started to speak. “You’re not going to care for what I have to say, partner, but here goes. When I first met Jillian, I liked her, but for some reason, she worried me. Later, when Mamacita said she had a dark shadow, I knew exactly what she meant because I sensed it, too. When you grow up in a house with Mamacita, you learn to have faith in things you can’t necessarily see. I’m not saying to accept everything Jillian says, not just yet, but keep an open mind. There are things in this life we’re not meant to understand. And be careful. Keep your eyes on the road at all times.”

  “You’re not actually saying you believe her?”

  “No, I’m just saying don’t write her off. Not yet anyway.”

  The next two days were like trudging through molasses. Time moved so slowly, Adam thought the clock was broken. Evenings weren’t any better. Without Rover to keep him company and limiting himself to only one beer a day, he was at loose ends. He wanted to call Jillian, but didn’t know what they could talk about. After a few days, he phoned and asked about the store and Cara, but the conversation was strained.

  The carburetor finally arrived, so he was able to work on the car in the evenings. He thought that would be his salvation until the jack slipped and the car nearly crushed him. He tried to convince himself the accident happened because he wasn’t concentrating, but he decided to work on it another time.

  When the phone rang shortly after midnight on what was technically Wednesday morning, Adam didn’t know what to think. It was Yvonne Flores, the pregnant teenage girlfriend of his pawn shop murder suspect.

  “You said I could call you any time if I had a problem,” she said.

  “Sure, Yvonne, did Hector come back?”

  “Not yet, but my water broke. I might be further along than I thought.”

  “Okay, you better get to the hospital. I’ll be there in the morning to see if Hector shows up.”

  “That’s the problem. I don’t have a car.”

  “Call a taxi. I’ll reimburse you.”

  “No taxi’s going to take me in this condition. And they want their money up front. What am I going to do?” She was wailing, and the fear in her voice was palatable.

  He groaned. This was a part of life he wasn’t prepared for. “Stay there, I’ll come get you. It’ll take me about half an hour. Will you be all right for that long?”

>   “I don’t know. I never had a baby before. You better hurry.”

  Adam took his city issued car. He wasn’t about to risk having a baby come in the backseat of his own car, and if things got dicey, he wanted to be able to use the siren.

  When he reached Yvonne’s apartment, she was waiting at the curb with her mother and little sister. She looked enormous. Damn right she was further along than she had told him. He put her suitcase in the trunk while they all piled into his car, then he peeled away. He watched Yvonne’s face in the rear-view mirror. It was chalk white.

  “How far apart are the contractions?” he asked when he saw her grimace in pain.

  “About two minutes.” She started sobbing. “I was going to be the first in my family to graduate from high school. I wanted to go to college and be a teacher. Now what am I going to do?”

  Adam didn’t know how to answer her so he turned the conversation back to more immediate concerns. “Is your doctor expecting you?”

  “I don’t have a doctor. My mother used to be a midwife, and she’s been taking care of me. But I want the baby to be born in a hospital, so he’ll be legal.”

  She moaned again, and Adam looked at his watch. One minute.

  Her mother began yelling at him in Spanish. He had no idea what she said, but her gestures indicated he should hurry. He made an executive decision. Ben Taub Hospital was too far away. They’d have to take her at Methodist, with insurance or without, if she was this far along.

  He pulled in front of the emergency room on two wheels and leaned on the horn. An orderly came out with a chair and Yvonne and her mother rushed off. Just as he was about to relax, he realized the little sister was still with him.

  “Don’t you want to go with your mother?”

  “She told me to stay with you,” the little girl said. “I’m hungry. Can I have something to eat?”

  Damn, he didn’t like being left with a strange child, but the two women had disappeared and he had no idea where they’d gone.

  They wandered up and down deserted corridors together, looking for the cafeteria. Signs pointed one direction, but when they went that way, another sign would point back the way they came. In desperation, he decided to follow his nose and eventually found it.

  The little girl, he never learned her name, wasn’t kidding. She was hungry. She ate a full meal, and then asked for ice cream. He didn’t want her to feel bad, so he joined her.

  They killed an hour, and then went looking for the maternity ward. By the time they found it, Yvonne had delivered a baby boy. Neither she nor her mother seemed worried that the little girl had been missing for so long.

  “Have you told Hector?” he asked.

  At the mention of Hector’s name, the mother started a long monologue, which ended with her spitting on the floor.

  “I don’t know where he is, but he’s supposed to be in Mexico. Mama called his brother, so he’ll know soon.”

  If Hector was hiding in town, he could be arriving any moment. If he was in Mexico, as Adam had been told, it would be a day or more. Adam was betting on an hour.

  He knew he should call for back-up, but he kept thinking of all the red tape that would mean. If he could just show up for work in a few hours with the case solved, it would go a long way toward smoothing out any problems he might encounter with Hard Luck if he got into trouble over Marshall.

  He looked in the lounge for a comfortable chair and sat for a while with a cup of coffee and a newspaper. If Hector showed up, so be it. If he didn’t, Adam would call for help and go home to take a bath and change clothes before starting work. He knew what Hector looked like from his mug shots, but Hector had never seen him. The brother had, though, and that could be a problem.

  Twenty minutes later, he saw Hector’s brother poking his head around the corner. Adam held the newspaper up so his face couldn’t be seen. He had thrown on jeans, a golf shirt, and a pair of slip-on Vans, when Yvonne called. He hadn’t taken the time to shave and combing his hair didn’t really make that much difference anyway. He knew he didn’t look like a cop. When Hector’s brother saw Mrs. Flores leave the room, he signaled and Hector hurried down the corridor toward Yvonne’s room.

  Adam waited. It was much too dangerous to try to apprehend him in that small room with Yvonne, her sister, and the baby. He could call for help. A security guard could be there in seconds, but Adam wouldn’t know him and was hesitant to depend on someone he’d never worked with. He didn’t even want to use the back-up piece strapped to his ankle. He had mentioned to Jillian the ease with which bullets went through walls, and in a hospital setting like this, it was much too dangerous. He would have to wait until he got Hector into a secure place or let him go and try again later. While he might be hesitant to use a gun around so many civilians, Hector wouldn’t be.

  When Hector stepped out of the room, Adam slipped in behind him. They walked toward the stairs, Hector unaware Adam was following him. His plan was to hold back until they were in the concrete stairwell to make his move and just hope Hector’s brother wasn’t waiting. As they passed the elevator, the doors opened on an empty car, and Adam took the opportunity to shove him inside. Hector stumbled, but regained his balance and stomped on Adam’s foot.

  Son of a bitch! How did he know? Just when that toe was almost well.

  Hector threw himself backwards and smashed Adam into the elevator door. Air flew out of his lungs with a loud whoosh. Adam hung onto the hand rail with one arm and wrapped the other around Hector’s neck. He used his leg to keep Hector from pulling away while he tried to allow small, painful sips of air back into his lungs. As Hector worked to pull Adam’s leg away, his shoe slipped off and Hector saw his toe. It was still slightly swollen and had turned a rainbow of colors.

  Adam was larger than Hector, but older by almost fifteen years, while Hector was obviously in his prime and adept at street fighting. Hector grabbed the toe and started twisting. Adam let out a yelp and dropped his leg. Hector immediately drove his elbow into Adam’s mid-section.

  Adam didn’t have time to hop or limp, so he swung his sore foot at the back of Hector’s knees and Hector fell to the floor, already reaching for the gun hidden under his shirt. Adam kicked again, and Hector’s gun skidded across the elevator floor. A fresh jolt of pain shot up Adam’s leg, but this time he didn’t have enough air to manage a sound. Hector tried to reach for the gun, but Adam threw himself on his back and clamped a hand on his wrist. By the time the elevator reached the ground floor, Hector was in handcuffs and Adam was carrying one shoe, his toe bleeding again.

  “You hurt me, man,” Hector complained.

  “Stand up and stop whining or I’ll leave you alone with Yvonne’s mother for five minutes. Then you’ll have something to bitch about.”

  He called a squad car to take Hector in while he went home to change.

  Hard Luck was pleased with the arrest, but unhappy that Adam was back in sandals. “When are you going to quit trying to be a cowboy and learn to call for back up? It would have been your hard luck if his brother jumped in.”

  “He was supposed to be in Mexico. I didn’t expect to see him for a couple of days.”

  Half of that was true at least.

  By Wednesday, Cara had settled back in at work. Her arm was obviously tender, and she favored it, but no she longer wore the sling. Jillian watched until she was convinced Cara didn’t need her help.

  “Do you feel up to minding the store for an hour? My Little Sister, Kendra, called last night and invited me to an awards ceremony at school. Any senior who won a scholarship was being recognized. She’s had a hard life. Her father left when she was three, and her mother pops in and out of her life with each new boyfriend. She’s staying with an aunt who makes it clear her presence is an imposition.”

  “Go. It sounds like she needs you more than we do. If I have a minor problem, I’ll fake it. If I have a major problem, I’ll call you.” She made a shooing motion with her hands.

  “Thanks, I promised
her I’d be on the front row applauding if possible.”

  After a ten minute drive to the school, Jillian saw the crowded parking lot, and knew she wouldn’t be able to sit on the front row. She’d have to make up for it by cheering louder than anyone else.

  The school was a two story, dingy white brick that had seen better days. Overcrowding had necessitated the placement of temporary buildings, which had been located beside the old school for fifteen years. Even the parking lot needed repaving.

  The halls stank of old gym clothes and teenage hormones as Jillian hurried to the auditorium. She found a seat near the front and stood to cheer as Kendra’s name was read. She even made it a point to clap and cheer for any student who didn’t seem to have family present.

  When the ceremony was over, Kendra came out to meet her, beaming. “I knew you’d make it. Did you see my certificate?” She handed Jillian an embossed sheet of paper.

  “School’s over for the day. Do you think we could go to Dairy Queen for a Blizzard to celebrate? Lots of kids will be there.”

  Jillian’s stomach suddenly growled. She hadn’t eaten lunch. She pulled out her cell phone. “Let me check on things at the store.”

  Cara sounded insulted that Jillian would doubt her ability to cope. “There’s not even anyone here now. I just sold an H&K, a holster, and three boxes of ammunition, then sent the guy over to the firing range to try it out. He’ll probably come back to buy another couple of boxes of ammo when he finishes. Am I good, or what? I think I can handle things a while longer.”

  Jillian and Kendra spent an hour at Dairy Queen. While Kendra and the other winners compared their certificates, Jillian wolfed down a hamburger, then took her time with an ice cream cone, letting the creamy goodness melt in her mouth.

  The noise was overwhelming. It was amazing what a piece of paper with some fancy writing could mean to a kid who’d never had much encouragement. Jillian couldn’t have been more proud if Kendra had been her real sister.

  She wished she could tell Adam about it, but doubted she’d see him again. He’d be respectful enough to call and check on her, and he might even come over to break up in person instead of over the phone, but that would likely be the last time she’d hear from him. If only she could rewind back to the day she’d told him about Heather. She could have tried harder to get him to set some guns out, or told him she wasn’t feeling well and had to go home. Anything but the truth.