“Chill out. I thought it was a nice gesture.”
Her head was pounding. “When did she say this? I was there the whole time last night, and I sure don’t remember any such invitation.”
“She called this morning to tell me how much of a pleasure it was to meet me last night. I told her likewise.”
“She called you? She must have just called my extension, and since you’re loitering at my desk—”
“Actually, she had me paged.”
Her head felt like it was going to explode. All she needed was Aunt Sissy involved in her personal life. What there was of it.
The sound of airbrakes and a diesel engine hissed through the alley and around the corner.
“I’ve got to go. The delivery guy’s here.”
“OK. We’ll talk about it later when—”
Ellie slammed her phone closed and slipped it into her pocket. They would not talk about it later. And she was going to give Aunt Sissy a piece of her mind, too.
A refrigerated delivery truck sporting a blue and green logo of a fish bent into a circle was backing up to the loading dock. The fish looked like it was chasing its tail. Arching over and under the circular fish were the words “Bekley’s Wholesale Seafood.”
“I see you’re back,” Shorty McCorkle yelled from the dock. He was wearing his poofy gloves and heavy parka with the fur-lined hat.
“Good morning.” Ellie said as she raised herself onto the dock, feeling the rough concrete picking at the seat of her linen trousers. More evidence to support her fight with Jack about the dress code.
“Steps are around on the other end,” Shorty said, motioning toward the other side of the dock.
“Thank you.” Embarrassed, Ellie smiled and dusted off her bottom.
“Any new leads on the kid?”
“We have several we’re following. Have you heard anything new?”
McCorkle shook his head, sending the fur around his face into a frenzied dance. Ellie offered a casual nod then crossed the dock to the driver’s side of the truck. A moment or two later, the door opened; the driver got out slowly and even more slowly made his way up the few steps.
“Are you Jerome Kenton?” Ellie asked.
The man glanced at her and nodded. Even that looked painful. Purplish green bruises crossed the bridge of his nose and spread out toward his cheekbones. He looked to be mid-thirties, with shallow lines bordering his lackluster eyes. Average size with drooping shoulders, his confused expression looked like it was permanent. Carrot-colored hair poked from underneath the sides of his Bekley’s ball cap.
Each movement seemed to bring a new pain and a new grimace. He moved like a slug toward McCorkle.
“I’m Detective Ellie Saunders with the Burkesboro Police Department. I’d like to ask you a couple questions.”
He flashed a surprised glance then quickly looked back at McCorkle. “You’re going to have to unload today, Shorty. I’m still pretty banged up.” He spoke with a thick accent that wasn’t local, similar to Dr. Deveraux’s strange cadence.
“Sure, sure. No problem.” McCorkle waited for Kenton to unlock the door then rolled it halfway up before his height gave out. He grunted and moaned as he tried to stretch his too-short body just a little bit more. Kenton reached up and finished the job, the pain evident in his scrunched-up face.
“You wanted to ask me some questions?” he said, turning to Ellie.
She stepped out of McCorkle’s way. McCorkle carried three large boxes past her and disappeared through the open door of the warehouse. “How’d you get the bruises?” She vaguely pointed at her own nose.
“I was in a wreck, the other night.”
“Sorry. We’re you in the truck?” She looked at the delivery truck then back at Kenton. “Looks like you got the worst of it.” She tried to smile, hoping to put him a little more at ease.
Kenton shook his head. “My old lady and I were coming home the other night and a deer ran out in front of us.”
“Ouch. Lot of damage?” She leaned against the outside wall of the warehouse, relaxed, out of McCorkle’s way.
He nodded. “Totaled.”
“Big ouch.” She raised her brows for emphasis. “I saw a big ol’ buck the other day lying on the side of 401. Wonder if that was him?”
Kenton shook his head again. “This was on Valley Road, up in Avery County.”
Ellie chuckled. “I guess there is more than one deer out there, isn’t there? I hope your wife wasn’t injured too badly?” She wasn’t sure if he was actually married to his old lady but didn’t feel comfortable using the term herself.
He shrugged. “Broke her wrist. You wanted to ask me some questions?” He shifted his weight from one foot to the other.
“Yeah. You made a delivery here on Tuesday. Do you remember seeing anything odd or out of the ordinary? Maybe someone hanging around in the parking lot that you didn’t recognize?”
Kenton shook his head. “I’m not really up here enough to know who belongs and who doesn’t.”
“So you didn’t see anyone?”
Kenton gnawed on his bottom lip. “No, can’t say that I did. Sorry.” He shifted his weight again. “Did something happen?”
“Actually, yeah. A child was found Tuesday evening badly beaten and dumped in the alley.”
Kenton glanced toward the alley and slowly shook his head. “People these days. You have to wonder about ‘em.”
That was an understatement. “Did you drive this truck Tuesday?”
He stared at her a moment before answering then nodded. “I always drive this truck. You don’t think someone did something to it while I was here, do you?”
Ellie cocked her head to the side, unsure of what exactly he meant. It was an odd question. “Do you?”
He shrugged. “I haven’t noticed anything.”
Ellie walked over and peered inside the back of the truck. Metal shelves bolted to the walls held various sizes of cardboard boxes neatly stacked one on top of the other and secured with bungee cords. Besides being painfully cold inside, it was unusually clean.
She turned back to face Kenton. “Where’d you stop before coming here?”
“Today or Tuesday?”
“Does it differ from day to day?”
He bobbed his head. “A little. I’ve got some stops I make on Tuesday or Thursday, but not both. And then some, like Shorty, I make both days.”
“On Tuesday, where’d you stop before Shorty?”
He scratched at his head, sliding his fingers beneath the ball cap. “Garner’s Fish Fry. A little restaurant in Dentonville.”
“And nothing out of the ordinary happened there?”
Again, he shook his head then smiled. “I’m not college educated or anything, but I probably would have noticed if someone had put a little dead boy in the back there. I mean, maybe not at first, but when I got here to Shorty’s, I probably would have seen it.”
Ellie stared at him. “I never said he was dead.”
Kenton’s already pale face turned white. He studied Ellie for a moment. “Sorry. I thought they said on the news that he was dead.”
Ellie smiled. “Just goes to show you can’t always believe what you hear on the news.”
****
Ellie jacked the heat up in the car, flipped open her cell then punched in the extension at her desk. After the third ring, she heard her own voice instructing the caller to leave a detailed message. Where was Jesse? The one time she needed to talk to him, he wasn’t at her desk. Her heart was beating so fast, she could feel it pulsating in her throat. A flash of anger gripped her as she realized she wanted to talk to him.
She wanted to know everything Jesse could dig up on Jerome Kenton, and she wanted to know it now. She punched in Jesse’s cell number, praying he’d answer. “Come on,” she mumbled.
After what seemed like a thousand rings, he finally answered. “Hey, sweetcakes.”
“Jerome Kenton knows something. He referred to him as the little dead boy an
d was just a little shocked when I told him the kid wasn’t dead.”
“Maybe he hasn’t seen the news lately. I don’t watch it every day.”
“You’re missing the point. His whole demeanor changed when he found out the kid was alive.”
“Didn’t yours when you found out he was alive?”
Her excitement evaporated not like a slow deflating tire, but like a total blowout while going a hundred miles per hour.
It was snowing again. Ellie turned the wipers on low and watched as they gently wiped away the cold evidence. She pushed her hand through her hair, digging her nails deep down to her scalp. “S’OK. You’re right.” She had so many thoughts banging around inside her head she couldn’t get a good grasp on any of them. But one did finally spring forward and slammed her so hard she felt her breath catch. “Jesse, what if he is involved, and now that he knows the kid’s alive… Tell Jack I want twenty-four-hour security on the kid’s room. No one goes in that room unless they’re cleared by me.”
“OK, OK. Calm down.”
“After you do that, I want everything you can dig up on Jerome Kenton. Send his driver’s license picture to my cell phone. How long will it take you to get it to me?”
“Not long.”
“Good. I’m heading back to the hospital now, and I’d like to have it when I get there.”
She heard him huff. “When’d you get so bossy?”
13
The snow had increased in intensity, and a thin white dusting coated the hospital parking lot. Ellie parked between two news vans near the emergency room entrance. At least they weren’t doing live remotes. She waved to Peter Bryson as she passed through on her way up to the fourth floor. Her blood boiled when she stepped off the elevator and saw Sara Jeffries loitering around the nurses’ station, chitchatting with one of the nurses. Luckily, Ellie passed without being noticed. She smiled to herself, wondering if Jeffries was losing interest in the story or if she wasn’t as observant as she should be. Either way, it was fine with Ellie.
Her cell phone dinged just outside Johnny Doe’s room, indicating she had an email. At least Jesse did have good timing. She knocked lightly on Johnny Doe’s door then eased it open. He was at the window with Deveraux, working a puzzle spread out on a small table.
“Hey, Ellie,” the boy said, a brilliant smile spreading across his tiny face. He was dressed in the red Spiderman sweatshirt.
“How you doing?” She joined them at the table and ruffled his hair.
“We’re going to glue it together when we finish, and it’ll make a picture.” He motioned proudly to his newest work of art. From what she could tell, it was going to be a Golden Retriever puppy in a field of bright yellow daisies.
“Oh, that’s beautiful.”
“Leon came to see me real early this morning. He’s coming back later, and we’re goin’ to the playroom.” He added another piece to the puzzle.
“That sounds like fun.” Ellie quietly opened her cell phone and downloaded the picture Jesse had sent. It was Jerome Kenton, all right. “Hey, Johnny, I’ve got a picture, too, and I was wondering if you’d take a look at it. You want to see it?”
He looked at her with an excited smile. “Yeah!”
Deveraux, however, gave her a less than approving glance. Ellie attempted to set his mind at ease. “It’s a picture of someone, and I want to know if you’ve ever seen him before, OK?”
Deveraux’s expression was still cautious, and Ellie wondered what in the world he thought she was going to show the kid. The before and after pictures of himself?
Johnny had all but crawled into her lap, anxious to see the picture. Ellie turned it toward him, angling it so he could get a good look. “Have you ever seen this man before?”
She had barely got the question out when Johnny shook his head, the smile wiped from his face as quickly as wipers batting away the snow. He quickly moved away from her and returned to the puzzle. A noticeable anxiousness replaced his enthusiasm. He picked up a piece and turned it over and over in his hand, his eyes searching the puzzle for where to put it.
He laid it down and looked at Deveraux. “Is it time for Leon to come?”
Deveraux glanced at Ellie then back to Johnny and gently smiled. “Not yet, buddy. He’ll be here after lunch, OK?”
Johnny nodded then slowly pushed the puzzle out of the way. “Can I watch TV now?”
“Sure.”
As he climbed up in the bed, Deveraux punched the remote and the television clicked on. Johnny sat cross-legged, staring expressionless up at the cartoons skittering across the screen.
“Johnny, are you sure you’ve never seen this man before?” Ellie asked, moving beside the bed. She moved the phone in front of him but he wouldn’t look at it. Instead he looked away, purposely avoiding even the slightest glimpse. “Johnny, it’s real important. If you’ve—”
He jerked his whole body away from the phone and focused on the wall, as if staring at something only he could see.
Deveraux reached over and snapped Ellie’s phone closed. “Hey, you know what? I think I’ll go call Leon and see if he can come a little early. Would you like that?”
Johnny nodded quickly but didn’t turn away from the wall. Deveraux grabbed Ellie by the elbow and led her outside the room.
“I’m sorry. I—”
“Save it.” He asked one of the nurses on the floor to stay with Johnny for a few minutes then marched down the hall toward his office with Ellie in tow.
“Marc…can I call you Marc? This is the first good lead we’ve had, and I, for one, think it’s kind of important that we find out who beat him half dead and left him to die in that stinking alley.” Ellie pulled her arm away from his grasp.
“It is important.” He opened the door of his office and motioned her in. “But so is his emotional stability. Sit.”
Ellie felt like a school girl in the principal’s office. And she resented it something fierce. “I’ll stand. And I won’t apologize for doing my job.”
“Neither will I.” Deveraux moved behind his desk and plopped down in the soft leather chair.
“Marc, you saw his reaction. He recognized the picture.”
“No—” he held up one finger, pointed sternly at Ellie. “The picture looked familiar to him, yes. But you don’t know if it’s the same man or just someone with similar features.”
“Regardless, right now this man is the only human being alive that we can connect to this child. And, speaking of this man, I’ve asked for twenty-four-hour security on Johnny’s room. I don’t want anyone in that room who’s not cleared by me.”
Deveraux stared at her as if she had sprouted an extra head. He propped his elbows on his desk, his palms pressed together as if he were praying. “What happened to not wanting to traumatize him?”
“I’m not traumatizing him. I’m protecting him.”
“Really? Are you sure you’re protecting him, or making a name for yourself with this case? You’re too focused on the case to see how you’re traumatizing this kid. You think having some stranger hanging around outside his door every minute isn’t going to scare him? And you think showing him that picture didn’t traumatize him?”
“You think I want to traumatize him?” Ellie hissed. She paced in front of the desk. How dare he think she would ever purposely hurt this or any other child. “How can you even think such a thing?”
“You saw his reaction, Ellie, and you kept pressing him. You got what you needed as soon as he saw the picture.”
“But you didn’t give me time to find out how he knew him.”
“It wouldn’t have mattered at that point. He’d already shut down.”
“So now what? I’m just supposed to let it go? I’m not supposed to question him again? I can’t do that, Marc.”
Marc sighed and leaned back in his chair. “I’ll have Doctor Mertzer work with him. After he’s settled down.”
“She’s not going to know the questions I need answers to.”
He slid a memo pad and pen across the desk. “Write them down.”
“At least let me be there when she questions him.”
“You can watch from the one-way mirror.”
“But—”
“You can watch from the one-way mirror,” he said again.
Reluctantly, Ellie accepted the pad and pen and sat in the chair across from the desk. Instead of the logo of some pharmaceutical company splashed across the top of the pad, there was a faint picture of Jesus holding a child; the words “Blessed are the pure at heart for they shall see God” inscribed beneath it. Ellie jotted down a line of questions then slid the pad back across the desk.
Deveraux glanced down at the paper. “Look, I know you’re in a hurry, and I respect that. But we can’t push him. It’s going to take more than one session to get these answers.”
Begrudgingly, Ellie nodded. “What about the other tests? That X-factor test. Anything new on that?”
Deveraux shook his head. “Fragile X. Came back normal. He has a slight indication of a possible marker but it’s not really enough to classify as a chromosome abnormality.”
“So what does that mean? He’s not autistic?”
Again, Marc shook his head. “From all indications, no.”
Ellie thought about it for a moment. “I guess then, that’s good. But it still doesn’t explain why he doesn’t even know his name.”
“Well, yes and no. There’re no physical abnormalities that would cause a mental deficiency. But he’s obviously developmentally delayed.”
Ellie lowered her brows, questioning what Marc was saying. “Environment?”
He nodded. “Very likely.”
She tried to control the sudden rage boiling in the pit of her stomach. Churning and twisting like a vile poison. “Neglect,” she mumbled, the word rancid on her tongue.
Whatever connection Jerome Kenton had to this child, she was going to find out. And Kenton may not like the way it was going to end.
Neither of them spoke for a moment. “Do you mind if I ask you a question?” Ellie asked.
He shook his head. “As long as you don’t bully me.”
The Rising Page 12
