Peggy Holloway - Judith McCain 02 - Portrait on Wicker

by Peggy Holloway

  The rest of us settled on the floor, in the living room again. We had started a notebook and the judge had explained to me that it was similar to a murder book. In a murder book, you keep anything to do with a murder in one notebook. It would have a section of crime scene photos, the autopsy report, and witness reports and so on.

  Our notebook was a little different. The first section was a biography of Mr. Lessiter. We didn’t have much in this section yet but we wanted to start back as far as possible. I remembered he had told me, when I lived at their house, that he was a retired lawyer.

  John volunteered to use his computer and get any information about Calvin Lessiter, including finding out when and where he had met Judge Renfroe and Judge Gadsby, what kind of relationship they all had, and how long they had known each other.

  He said he wanted to find out what kind of family he grew up in. How and where he met his wife and so forth.

  We had a section for each of the girls who had lived in his house and we were going to start filling that part in tonight.

  I tried to arrange the sections in order, according to when they were with the Lessiter’s. Some of the girls had written the year on their notebooks and there were even some yearbooks. Some had notebooks with icons, like rock singers, from the period they were living at the Lessiters, so we could at least narrow it down some. As far as we could tell, I was the third girl. I was twenty seven, so the girls before me were probably in their thirties now.

  The last part of the book was going to be a time line and other miscellaneous items. At the top of the page, for this last section, I put the license number for the tag of the car that tried to run me down.

  Bill began, “I can’t believe this son-of-a-bitch is so stupid as to let someone use his car as the hit-and-run. How can you be that stupid and become a judge?”

  “Watch it…” began the judge.

  We all started talking at once, “Who is it…” “Which judge…,” “Don’t keep us in suspense.”

  “Okay, listen up. Sh…be quiet. It’s judge Gadsby’s car.”

  I looked at Mark. We had almost gone to him. If Mackey hadn’t been murdered, we wouldn’t have met up with Bill and Sandy, and we would have probably signed our own death warrant.

  When I looked at judge Meadows, she was staring at the floor lost in thought. She noticed we were all staring at her and she looked at each of us like she was studying us.

  “I’m going to tell you all something that can’t go beyond this room,” she said and waited for each of us to promise not to tell anyone else.

  “Bill may remember this,” she continued. “A few years back there was a thirteen year old girl who died of starvation and exposure to below freezing temperatures. It had been a particular cold winter that year.

  “This girl had been a runaway from Indiana, I believe, and had ended up being placed in foster care with an old widower by the name of Jenkins. Before his wife died the year before, they had been taking in foster kids for a few years.

  “Mr. Jenkins was to have her; Beth was her name, for about a week, until her parents came down for her. They were farmers and needed to get some kind of crops harvested first.

  “Beth had ended up in front of Judge Gadsby, after trying to shoplift a coat from Dillard’s. He placed her with Mr. Jenkins temporarily until her parents could come get her.

  “About three days after she had been with Mr. Jenkins, he reported her missing.”

  “Oh, yeah, I remember that case. He came in and Sandy interviewed him. Remember him Sandy?”

  “I do. I remember thinking at the time that I didn’t trust him. It wasn’t anything I could put my finger on, he seemed very upset, but it was just something about him. But then after they found her body, and she had basically frozen to death, I had moved on to the zillion other cases we’re always trying to deal with.”

  “Was there an autopsy done on her, and if so can someone get the report, on the sly of course?”

  “I’ll look into that,” volunteered Bill.

  “Okay, let’s move on. John did you make any headway about any of the victims?”

  John had notes he referred to. “I only got to the first victim. I had to change some diapers today, and do some daddies stuff,” he said proudly.

  Sandy and I said, “Aw, how sweet.”

  He cleared his throat and continued, “Her name is Patricia Hunter or Trisha Hunter. She had run away from another foster home up near Baton Rouge.”

  He again referred to his notes. “This was in 1970. She was sixteen. She was picked up only hours after getting off the bus, for soliciting a man at the bus station, who was so outraged he called the cops.

  “He was a businessman from Detroit, who was passing by the bus station, on his way to pick up his car from a parking garage on Tulane. She saw him passing by and went out and stopped him.

  “She appeared before Judge Renfroe, after spending the night in Juvy Hall. After calling her foster parents, who said they didn’t want anything more to do with her, because she had been nothing but trouble, Judge Renfroe placed her with Calvin Lessiter.

  “There was never any follow-up on her and I couldn’t find out who the case worker was. I was afraid to dig around anymore.”

  “You did well, John,” said the judge. “Now let’s move on to Bill and Sandy. What did you find in the house today?”

  “Here’s what we found, in the night stand, by the bed, in the master bedroom,” Bill said, and began laying out some objects on the coffee table.

  Just then Trudy walked in and went over and picked up one of the items. I couldn’t tell what it was.

  “Where did you get this?” she said and she sounded mad. She began to shake and cry at the same time. Sandy and I rose and tried to hold her but she shook us off. But when John came over and put his arms around her, she cried on his shoulder.

  I went over to the coffee table and noticed there was a whole box of these. They were IUDs. I had one when Bill and I were sexually active. I had it taken out because it was making me bleed.

  I was confused. “Why would someone have these? They can’t be inserted except by a doctor.”

  “There was a doctor,” Trudy said.

  Everyone turned to stare at her and she said, “I should have told you about her. She came to the house one night, just before he started coming into my room. She and Mr. Lessiter came into my room in the middle of the night and she inserted it into me. It hurt like hell.

  “After bleeding for a few days, even though I wasn’t on my period, she came back and removed it and gave me some pills in a compact looking thing. She told me to take one every day.

  “When I asked her what they were for, she told me they were to give me energy. I saw Mr. Lessiter hand her an envelope, and saw her start to count what looked like a great deal of money.

  “They didn’t know I was looking through the keyhole. When she started to count it, I heard him whisper, ‘Not here you stupid bitch!’”

  John said, “Think carefully, Trudy. Did he ever call her by name? What did she look like?”

  “I thought I heard him call her Fro. But it might have been Flo. I’m not sure. She was tall and very thin. She had the blackest eyes I’ve ever seen. She wore her hair pulled really tight into a knot on top of her head. I remember thinking; she must have a lot of headaches. She carried a black bag, just like in the movies when doctors still made house calls.

  “I only saw her twice and both times she wore a black, much tailored, pants suit and a man’s shirt. I remember wondering if she was a lesbian.”

  Again everyone got quiet and was looking at the judge. She was staring off into space. Finally she spoke, “I’ve often wondered that about her myself.”

  “Who?” We all asked at once.

  “Judge Renfroe’s wife is a doctor. She’s sometimes called Fro.”

  “That’s not the worst thing we found,” Bill spoke up. “You wouldn’t believe what was under the house.”

  He opened up an ice ch
est and everyone fell silent as we stared in horror.

  “We didn’t dig any farther when we found this.”

  What was in that Ice chest was worse than anything I could imagine. I looked at John whose wife had just had a baby. He was openly crying.

  “We can’t let Rosa see or even know about this,” he said, his voice trembling.

  “This must be why he decided to use the IUDs. I’m wondering how many of these baby skeletons are under there,” Bill said as he looked from one of us to the other.

  CHAPTER 29

  I was so shaken after I saw the bones; I left the rest of the group and walked out front. I called Ben from my cell phone. Ben, the man I had left dangling for so many years; Ben, the man who had been there for me when I was a scared and confused sixteen year old runaway.

  Ben was my best friend. I could always count on him. But I knew I had also sometimes taken him for granted. He had been trying to get me to marry him for years.

  First, I had been too young. Then I had been in college and needed to devote my time and energy to getting my PhD. He understood all of that, but thought I would marry him when I got my private practice going.

  And still I had put him off. At one point I had told him I wanted to be friends and he said he understood. Everyone kept telling me he wasn’t going to wait forever; for me to make up my mind.

  I really took him for granted. I hadn’t even called him since I got to town and I almost hung up before he answered.

  As soon as he answered the phone I said, “Ben, please, I need you.”

  “Judith? What’s wrong honey? Where are you?”

  “I’m at John and Rosa’s. There’s some really bad shit going on.”

  “Is it Rosa? Is the baby all right? Did she have it yet?”

  “The baby and Rosa are both fine. Can you just come over here so I can talk to you?” As I asked this I looked at my watch and saw that it was 12:03 a.m.

  Ben still lived with his grandmother when he was on shore. He worked on an oil rig. But he was soon going to have to put her in a home. He worried about her when he was offshore.

  His grandmother’s house was just a few blocks from John and Rosa’s. They saw each other often. I waited in the driveway for him. It only took a few minutes.

  When he pulled into the driveway and parked I was there to open his door, and fall into his arms.

  “Oh, Ben, it’s so horrible. It’s even worse than I thought. That man is a monster. I’m so sorry I have been so cold toward you. I’m sorry Ben.”

  He held me close without saying anything and then dried my tears. “What’s happened, Judith? What’s wrong?”

  I led him to the front porch and we sat down on the swing. I told him everything, about getting the strange letter from Julia, about finding the other letter in the spaghetti, and the blacked out painting in her studio.

  I told him about finding and rescuing Julia, about taking her back to Houston, about putting her in another psychiatric hospital, and about someone trying to kill me with his car. I told him about the secret meetings we had been having with Judge Meadows, because we didn’t know who we could trust.

  Then I told him the worse, about the things found in Calvin Lessiter’s house and the story they told. He was quiet for awhile and stared off into space. He looked angry.

  Finally he said, “I should have killed that bastard, as soon as you told me what he did to you over ten years ago.”

  “And ended up in jail?” I said.

  “At least it would have saved some other young girls the trauma they went through. No telling how many girls went through hell, including your own sister.”

  “Twenty seven.”

  “What?”

  “There were twenty seven girls, counting myself, that we know of. He kept all their school notebooks.”

  “That makes me want to puke. I wish I could get my hands around his neck.”

  “You’re too late,” John said as he stepped out onto the porch. “They just found his body, floating in the Mississippi River, with a bullet hole in his head.”

  Everyone else joined us then. The judge looked at her watch.

  “I’m getting too old for these late nights,” she said, “It’s already after one. Bill, will you call me when you get back from the autopsy?”

  “Will do,” he said. “We’re not going to be able to keep this quiet, judge.”

  She blew out a long breath, “I know. We’re going to have to be careful though. Try to make sure you and Sandy are assigned to this case. Then maybe we can keep it under control.”

  After everyone either left or had gone to bed, Ben and I sat and talked a long time.

  “I know this isn’t the best timing, Judith, but, you being a psychologist, can you tell me what has been going on between us?

  “I waited until you reached eighteen, before I even had hopes of you wanting a committed relationship with me. Then when you got to college I understood that you wanted to concentrate on getting your degrees.

  “I backed off and waited for you to make the first move. When you got your license and opened you office, you called me. Your office was in one of those cottages next to Rosewood Hospital in Houston.

  “It was like a little house and you invited me to come see you there. We ended up spending the night in the cottage.”

  He chuckled, “You told Mimi you had work to do and may be there all night. But Mimi wasn’t fooled. She knew I was in town. She had me over for one of her delicious meals. When I came over the next day, she actually winked at me, did you know that? It was like she and I shared a secret.”

  He didn’t say anything else for some time but sat there staring at nothing and I wondered if he was pausing for me to explain. I knew I couldn’t.

  When he finally turned to face me, it broke my heart. He had tears in his eyes.

  “I had finally let myself hope, Judith. I thought we were building a wonderful relationship. Then you dashed all my hopes by telling me you wanted us to be friends.”

  “I’m so sorry, Ben,” I said and tried to put my arms around him, but he pushed me away. It was the first time he had ever pushed me away, and it hurt.

  “I’m done, Judith. I’ll help all I can with this stuff you’re going through, but I refuse to hang around hoping you will one day want to marry me. I don’t hear from you for months and then when you need me you call.

  “I refuse to be hurt anymore, Judith. You’re a psychologist and do marriage and couples counseling. You need to figure out what’s going on with you and why you can’t make a commitment.

  “I want to have children, Judith, if not with you, I want you to leave me alone and let me get over you so I can move on.”

  “I’m sorry…” I began.

  “No, I’ve heard those words from you so much, they mean nothing to me anymore. Good old Ben will always understand. Just say you’re sorry and he runs after you like a puppy dog.”

  Without another word, he got up and left.

  I felt so alone and ashamed. If I was honest with myself, I knew I had used him horribly. I didn’t know how to approach him and fix anything. I knew I should have answers but I didn’t.

  CHAPTER 30

  The next morning, I felt like I had been hit by a truck. After Ben had left the night before, I had called Dr. Anna and woke her up. While she was as supportive as ever, she told me I knew the answers as to why I couldn’t make a commitment to Ben.

  “Be honest with yourself, Judith, just like you tell your patients. Follow your heart. How is Julia, by the way?”

  After talking about Julia, I let her go so she could get some sleep. I knew I couldn’t.

  The next day, John said he wanted to get everyone out of the house for awhile, to get some fresh air. He was taking us all to Audubon Park down the road.

  I told him I wanted to be alone, to catch up on my sleep. Mark went to see his old buddy, Dave Boudreaux.

  It’s so much easier to take an objective look at someone else and I felt like I
was a good psychologist. But trying to look at something within yourself, that you don’t want to see, is so much more difficult.

  I was sitting in the swing, thinking deep thoughts, when Bill drove up. I was surprised. He was alone, and besides, I thought he was attending an autopsy.

  “Where is everyone?” he asked.

  “Mark is visiting an old friend and everyone else is at the park. I thought you had an autopsy.”

  “I saw all I needed to see. I left Sandy there to take any additional notes. I thought I would come by and relax here for awhile. It’s such a nice peaceful house.”

  “I know. I feel very relaxed here. I love both John and Rosa so much and Trudy is such a good kid. Of course the baby is beautiful and such a happy baby.”

  I had always felt comfortable with Bill. When he had arrested me for prostitution at age sixteen, he had been gentle and kind to me.

  “Would you like some iced tea?” I asked.

  “That would be nice,” he said, and followed me into the kitchen. He sat at the kitchen counter and watched me. “I might be speaking out of turn, Judith, but I guess you know, I’ve always been attracted to you. I hope you don’t mind me telling you.”

  “To tell you the truth, I’ve always been attracted to you too. I’ve got to tell you, Ben broke it off last night. Not that we had much there to begin with. I feel so bad, like I’ve strung him along.

  “It wasn’t my intention. But I love Ben as a friend. Kind of like a brother. I hate that I hurt him, but the chemistry just wasn’t there.”

  Bill spent the rest of the day playing hooky as he called it. It was nice to get my mind off everything else. He said he had to get away from the case for awhile, too.

  Later, we walked to the park and met up with John and them. When the day was over and we walked back home, Rosa said she wanted to see me privately.

  She took the baby to the nursery and closed the door. As she was changing Jennifer, she shook her head like it had a motor on it. She put the baby in her crib and Jennifer fell instantly asleep. Then Rosa turned to me.