Smoke Screen

by Suzanne Ouimet

  So: she bought new clothes for the boys and stored them, along with some of her own, in a locker at the bus station. She would leave everything behind at the house except for the children. She removed all her savings from her bank account the day before her planned departure and purchased tickets for the bus to Tacoma. She arranged for a taxi to pick them up very early in the morning to catch the earliest bus.

  Kate woke the boys before the rest of the household was awake, warned to them to be very quiet, promising they were going on a nice trip and would soon meet their grandma and grandpa. The children whispered quietly, looking forward to leaving and loving the idea of a trip.

  Fearing that Gabriel would rush to the bus station as soon as he discovered they were gone, she was relieved when they’d safely boarded the bus and were headed out of town.

  At each stop along the way, Kate was extremely apprehensive, still half-expecting to find Gabriel pursuing them. When they finally arrived in Tacoma early the following morning, she breathed a huge sigh of relief. So far, so good. They’ll never find us now. She was happy she’d never told Gabriel where she grew up. He’d often asked, but intuitively she knew she shouldn’t tell him.

  * * *

  Arriving in Langdon later that evening, she checked into its only hotel under the name of Katie George. In the morning, for a treat she ordered breakfast from room service. Afterwards, she left them with strict instructions to stay in the room. not to answer the door to anyone, nor to answer the telephone. To her dismay when she arrived at her parents’ house she discovered that they had moved. The young woman who answered the door didn’t know where they’d gone.

  Unsure of what she should do next, she finally decided to go and see her friends, Marilyn and Margaret Nordstrom, although she knew it had been a long time since she last saw them and was sure they’d probably married and left home by now. Their mother recognized Katia right away. Explaining that both of her daughters were now married and had moved away, Mrs. Nordstrom told her where her parents had moved and wrote down the new address, as well as her daughters’. Katia took a taxi out to the subdivision where her parents had moved. She stood on the porch trying to get the nerve to knock. Finally, she rang the bell. Her mother opened the door, took one look at her and froze, an unwelcome look on her face. Kate immediately understood her mother was not going to welcome her home.

  “You’re not wanted here. Don’t come back,” she snapped nastily, shutting the door firmly in her daughter’s face. Kate hadn’t even had a chance to explain, to tell her about her sons, her ‘husband’ Ben. Not having expected to be so shunned, she returned to the hotel in a terrible state, unsure of where to go next. She took the boys out to eat lunch, then back to the hotel to watch TV.

  After a sleepless night spent praying, she took the boys to Tacoma, where she asked for help at a local church. She told the pastor there she was looking for her ‘husband’, Ben George, who had been in the Navy but had not returned at the end of the war. She confessed she was dying of cancer and was desperate to find her sons’ father, if he was still alive. She thought Ben might have returned to the Tacoma area, where he’d once told her he’d lived before joining the Navy.

  The pastor listened patiently to her story. When she’d mentioned Ben George, he knew exactly what to do.

  “I was that pastor, of course,” Father Dwyer told them when he had finished telling them Kate’s story. “This was when I was living and working in Tacoma. I knew immediately it was ‘our Ben’ Kate was talking about. He had come home so disturbed, so upset, but wouldn’t tell me why, what had happened in California. The only thing he told me about was his experience on PT 109, which obviously had a strong affect on him. The rest of the story I eventually learned from him and Katia later.

  “What Katia didn’t know was that Ben had returned to find her at the end of the war. He went to the dress shop, the only address he knew. She wasn’t there, of course. By that time she was working some distance away, managing Gabriel’s second shop. Gabriel was there though.

  “ ‘Ben! How’re you doing? He’d exclaimed, rushing up to Ben before anyone else in the shop could. “It’s good to see you! What are you doing here?’

  “ ‘I’ve come for Kate. To take her home,’ Ben replied, excitedly. ‘Where is she?’

  “ ‘Aw, geez, man. That’s a shame. Kate’s gone,’ Gabriel lied, probably believing he had no choice.

  “‘Gone? Where’s she gone? I told her I’d be back. She never mentioned to me in her letters she was leaving here. I wrote her two weeks ago telling her I’d be de-mob’d this week and would come for her.’”

  “Apparently Kate never received that letter.” Father Dwyer interjected. “When she and Ben eventually talked about what had happened, she thought probably Gabriel had stolen it from her mail.”

  Then the rector continued.

  “ ‘Geez, sorry, Ben. She left here awhile back. Just quit and took off. I don’t know where she went. She’s not living with my Mom and me anymore.’

  “Ben, now distraught, ran his hands over his face. “ ‘What am I gonna do?’ he moaned.

  “ ‘Maybe she went home, wherever that was, back to her parents,’ Gabriel suggested, knowing full well she hadn’t. Ben had the feeling Gabriel was trying to get rid of him as quickly as possible, wanted him out of there, but he didn’t know what to do.

  “ ‘Well, I guess I’ll just have to go back and see if I can find her …’ Ben said, slumping off.

  “Ben did go to Langdon, but Katia wasn’t there.” Father Dwyer continued. “He went to her parents’ home and received a cold reception too. While Kate’s mother didn’t exactly shut the door in his face, (she couldn’t treat a man in uniform, a man who’d served his country, with disrespect), she made it quite clear that Kate wasn’t wanted there, nor were any of her friends. He hadn’t even had time even to explain his relationship to her daughter.

  “He became despondent. Feeling really discouraged now, he returned to Tacoma. At least he was welcome there. He spent some time with friends he hadn’t seen in years. He heard about a job from an old friend, Howie, who said he could get him on at the fire department. But he couldn’t settle down. Not yet.

  “A few weeks later, wanting to keep searching for Kate, he returned again to Langdon. He took a room at the local hotel and wandered the streets, hoping he’d find her. Then he had an idea. He’d go to some churches on the off chance she might be known at one of them. Baptist – yes, she’d mentioned the Baptist Church.

  “Listed on a board outside the church was a young peoples’ group meeting taking place that evening. He attended and found the group was his (and Katia’s) age.

  “ ‘My name is Ben George,’ he introduced himself, then asked if any of them knew Katia. One pretty, vivacious young woman said she did.

  “ ‘Katia – Kate - was one of my best friends,’ she told him. ‘But she left home when she was twenty and never came back.’

  “ ‘Was this her?’ Ben asked, showing the girl a photograph of he and Kate, taken in a photo-booth on Rodeo Drive.

  “ ‘Oh yes. That’s Kate, for sure. But she looks so much prettier in this picture. Her hair is different. And she looks so happy.’

  “ ‘She didn’t come back here?’ Ben asked hopefully. ‘We were engaged to get married, but she disappeared from where she lived and worked in L.A. When I got out of the Navy I went to get her but she was gone.’

  “ ‘What a shame! But no, she never came home. I’m still mad at her for not writing as she promised she would. She never wrote her mother either. Her parents are really strict and I don’t think they want her back. Oh, by the way, my name is Marilyn.’

  Just then another girl joined them, ‘This is my little sister, Margaret. We look alike, don’t we?’”

  “Ben shook hands with both girls. ‘I recognize your names,” he told them. ‘Kate told me about you.’

  Pastor Dwyer paused again. “Now the plot thickens,” he said, smiling at them.

&nb
sp; * * *

  “Ben told me later he was more attracted to the younger sister, Margaret. But both girls were really nice so he decided he’d stay in Langdon awhile, maybe get to know them both better.”

  “As you might guess, the following year I performed Ben and Margaret’s wedding. He had joined the district fire department by that time. They had their daughter, Lisa, the next year. I christened her.”

  “So it was you who told him about his two little boys?” Marybeth asked.

  “Eventually, that’s right. Lisa was about four by then, I think. Ben convinced Margaret that they should take them on as foster children. While they were mulling it over, I suggested they meet the little boys, who were staying with us. Of course, Margaret fell in love with them right away, she was so tenderhearted.

  “Once the boys moved in with them, I told Ben, in private, about Katia. He was stricken, devastated, torn. He wanted to see her, but didn’t know what to do about Margaret. I advised against going to see Kate, but he was adamant. She was, by that time, very ill, in hospital. He arranged to pay all her medical expenses. She didn’t live long after the boys moved in with Ben and Margaret. I guess she felt it was okay to go on, they were safely in their father’s hands.”

  “Weren’t you afraid they’d refuse to adopt the boys?” Marybeth asked. “That you might end up having to keep them yourself?”

  “To tell you the truth, no, I wasn’t. I had faith they would want them. I had prayed and prayed, and my prayers were answered.”

  “Did he, Ben, have any doubt about them being his kids?” Tom asked.

  “No doubt at all. He loved Kate and knew she wouldn’t lie to him. He knew she’d been in a difficult situation and had done what she felt she had to do. Besides, the two boys are the spitting image of him. Actually I was surprised no one else seemed to notice.”

  “Did he ever tell Margaret about Kate?” Marybeth asked.

  “No. No, I don’t think so. I don’t know if she ever suspected. I mean, the boys looked so much like him. She might have realized but I don’t really know. She certainly never mentioned it to me.”

  “Do you know if they went by the surname, ‘Juarez’?” Tom asked.

  “That’s right. ‘Juarez’. But Ben changed it to George when they adopted the boys officially a few years later.”

  “That’s an incredible story,” Marybeth remarked. “I guess they knew about Sonny’s diabetes when they took them in?”

  “Of course. It would have made no difference to them, though. What you have to realize is that, although she was quite young when the boys came to them, Margaret was a wonderful, strong woman. This was a hard job she took on and she managed it well. No one ever heard her complain about them. In fact, she rejoiced in bringing them into her family. Even when things were really difficult, which they were at the beginning, before the boys settled in properly, and then again before they left home, she never wavered in her love for them. I wouldn’t hesitate to call her a saint.”

  “How was her relationship with Ben, if I may ask?” Tom said.

  “Ben adored her. He loved her. And she loved him, was always very loyal.”

  “What was he like?” Marybeth asked.

  “He was a difficult man to figure out, you know? He could be tough sometimes. Some people found him cold, maybe even callous. But he had this tender side too and was often very generous. He gave a lot of time to some of our less fortunate parishioners. And you know how he stayed loyal to that crippled boy, Wayne Howard, his whole life. Helped him out all the time. I often wondered if he might have felt responsible for the Howard’s accident. Couldn’t have been easy, the man was very – well, maladjusted, I guess you could say.

  “They weren’t well off, he and Margaret, but they gave freely of themselves. I guess I’d describe him as a complicated but kind man, whatever that means.”

  “What accident was that?” Tom asked.

  “When they were kids, Ben and Wayne, they were playing basketball in the school gym. Ben got knocked down and took Wayne down with him. Wayne got slammed into the edge of the steel door and was badly injured. He was hospitalized for quite a long time, a year maybe. Ben was by his side almost constantly and stayed friends with him until he died.”

  “Is this Wayne Howard still around?”

  “I’m not sure, to tell you the truth. I lost track of him when Ben and Margaret were killed. He’s not somebody I’d want to spend much time with, to tell you the truth. Un-Christian of me, I know, but he was pretty unpleasant.”

  “Was he a good father, do you think? Ben, I mean?” asked Marybeth.

  “I think he did the best he could. It wasn’t always easy, you know, but I think he tried. I know he was pretty broken up when they left him.”

  “The question is: why did they leave him?” Marybeth wondered.

  “Do you have any idea where those boys are now, Father Dwyer?” Tom asked.

  “Sonny, or Allesandro Juarez, as he now calls himself, lives up at The Falls. He’s a teacher at the School for the Deaf in Black Rock. I’ve heard very good things about him. I think Carmine, or Cal, is in Utah. But that’s another story, for another time.”

  He rose from his chair and joined them as they walked to their car. “I’ll pray you find what you need,” he told them as they left.

  Chapter 10

  Marilyn

  A message from a Mrs. Marilyn deJean awaited Marybeth and Tom when they returned to work. It said they could call her back at the Sheraton Hotel to arrange a meeting.

  When they arrived at the hotel suite, she had coffee waiting for them in the elegant living room. While serving the coffee from a sterling silver coffee pot, she told them her niece, Lisa Kelly, had told her they’d been searching for her.

  “That’s true, Mrs. deJean,” Tom told her. “We’re re-investigating the fire when Ben George rescued your niece, Frannie. We’ve been looking for her too.”

  “Frannie is my daughter, not my niece. She lives in Victoria, on Vancouver Island, with her father and me.” Slim and elegantly dressed in a midnight blue hostess gown, Marilyn deJean closely resembled her niece, Lisa.

  “The manager of the apartment building that burned, where you lived, told us she was your niece.”

  “I told the management she was my niece. It seemed best at the time.” She was cool as a cucumber.

  “Ben’s Aunt Agnes told us Frannie is Ben’s daughter,” Marybeth told her. “Is that right? She showed us a snapshot of you with the child when she was about 3 or 4.”

  “Yes, she is. I told everyone she was my niece when I brought her here to have her baby. It’s not a well known fact around here I have a daughter.”

  “Why not stay in Canada to have the child, then?” Marybeth asked.

  “I’m American and so is Frannie. We discussed it and she decided she’d have the baby here, so the child would be American, too. You know, of course, that her little girl, Nicole, died as a result of that fire, don’t you? So it’s not even relevant what we decided, one way or the other.”

  “It’s relevant. It’s one of the reasons we’d like to find out who started that fire.”

  “Started?” the woman looked surprised, shocked. “You mean it was an arson?”

  “Yes. It was.” Tom informed her, amused that she seemed to be warming up. “And a murder.”

  “I know you probably think it’s none of our business, but did your husband know that Frannie was Ben’s child?” Marybeth asked.

  “Yes. Of course he did. Frannie was born two years before we met.” Marilyn deJean protested, annoyed at the question. “Pete, my husband, loves Frannie like she was his own daughter. He couldn’t have children of his own so adopted Frannie when we married. He’s the only father she’s ever known. He’s Canadian, rarely comes down here.”

  “You mentioned you’ve been living in Canada. Yet you were living here, at the Bellevue Apartments, when the baby was born?”

  “That’s true,” Marilyn said. “I kept an apartment here b
ack then because I often came down her to visit my sister, Margaret.”

  “That’s Margaret George? Ben George’s wife? Did she know her husband was Frannie’s father? ”

  Marilyn looked down at the coffee cup in her hand, not answering immediately. “I hope you realize these are all rather personal questions you’re asking? I’m not sure I’m comfortable answering them,” But, finally, after a few seconds, she told them. “No. She believed Pete was.”

  “Was Frannie married?” Tom asked.

  “No, she wasn’t married. Frannie met Nichole’s daddy on one of our visits down here. That’s another reason why we wanted the baby born here. So he could be with them during the birth.”

  “You weren’t home the morning of the fire. Apparently only Frannie and the baby were. Can you tell us where you were that morning?”

  “It doesn’t matter anymore.” Marilyn answered so quietly they could hardly hear her reply.

  “It might be very helpful if you told us.” Marybeth told her gently.

  “Would you like some more coffee?” Marilyn asked, frowning as she checked the empty pot. “Maybe some pastries? Danish or something? I’ll call room service.”

  “Not for me,” Tom answered.

  “I’d like something, if you don’t mind. I haven’t eaten today.”

  “Sure, go ahead. I’ll have something, too,” Marybeth agreed.

  When room service had come and gone, Tom picked up a Danish, bit into it, then said, with his mouth full, “I find I’m a bit peckish after all. You were going to tell us where you were when the fire started.”