“What? When did she pass? I don’t remember Suzi telling me anything about it, but perhaps she was just trying to save me from any further sadness. Oh, wait, I just spoke to her a little while ago. She was under the impression that the woman was still alive and living in a facility. When did she die?”
“On Barry’s sixteenth birthday.”
“What? That can’t be right.”
“They’ve included a death certificate. Insurance information. A number of public records. Her funeral notice.”
Anna stood looking at the screen, one hand on her hip. She shook her head. “What in heaven’s name? And why did Molly say something about his mother if his mother has been dead for so long? And why didn’t Suzi know? And what or who the hell is Pickles?”
Carolyn sounded worried. “This may all be a lot more twisted than we thought it was, and to be honest with you girls, this was already just about as twisted as I can handle. I think it is time to hand it all over to the professionals.”
Anna didn’t want to give up. “There haven’t been any disturbances at the O’Flynn house, correct?”
“A.J. has been staying there at night. He is concerned that if Barry is going to do anything, he will want to do it under cover of darkness. Cara’s parents are taking care of her during the day, making sure she gets to her doctor appointments and such. She is still on a mostly liquid diet and she is heavily sedated at night.”
“I’d like to give us just a little longer. If we don’t come up with anything by day after tomorrow we’ll turn it over to Roland. If anything happens to warrant a change in the plan, we’ll reevaluate then.”
“That sounds like a good idea.”
“I need to run. Suzi has a doctor appointment today.”
“That girl seems to be going to the doctor often. Is everything alright?”
“The doctors want to keep a close eye on her knowing the amount of stress she has experienced, plus she confided in me last night that Barry hit her. It was the precursor to everything that happened to Cara. When Barry went after Suzi, knowing that Suzi was pregnant, Cara stepped into the middle of Suzi’s war. Suzi said that Cara kicked out at Barry and did some very serious damage to his knee.”
Adeline sounded proud. “That’s my girl.”
“It was that damage that was a trigger for Barry. They say that it is the reason he came back and did such damage to Cara.”
Anna was incensed. “That is pure horse pucky. Barry did what Barry did because Barry is Barry.”
Most of the next thirty-six hours were spent documenting what they’d learned and how they had come to the conclusions they’d arrived at.
They were able to track down a girl Barry dated while he was dating Suzi. She said she’d stopped all contact with Barry the moment she’d found out about Suzi. She was never interested in a long-term relationship with him anyway. She said he had a terrible temper. That he’d hit her a few times, but that most guys these days did that at some point. She couldn’t remember a guy she’d been with that hadn’t treated her badly.
Anna had found some resources online for her. The girls tried to get her to commit to counseling or a support group, even a private therapist, but she wanted no part of it. She thought her life was rather normal. No different than her mother’s life.
They’d tracked down some people that Barry had worked with. That was much easier, but it soon became obvious that the people Barry worked with had no idea about his other life. He’d been very successful at keeping the two worlds from colliding. Seeing the extreme difference in his two lives and how many people were utterly shocked that anything bad could befall such a lovely young man, the girls were becoming more and more comfortable with the fact that Suzi had no idea what Barry was really capable of.
He may have ‘knocked her around a little bit’ – which is completely inexcusable and brought the girls’ ire to the surface immediately – but at least he hadn’t tried to initiate Suzi into the truly warped parts of his life.
They looked online for anything and everything they could think of that might bring them closer to understanding Molly’s comments about his mother and Pickles. Nothing.
The girls were sitting at the table drinking a cup of tea. They were trying not to show their disappointment that they’d been unable to come up with anything new about Barry.
“If something doesn’t break, tomorrow we bring all of our stuff to Roland and see if the youngsters can do better than we have.”
Carolyn spoke quietly at first but her voice grew stronger as she went. “Even if we get no further, I still believe we’ve done a good job. We have everything well documented. We can show patterns of behavior from long before he married Suze. We have the threat of his mother and Pickles even if we don’t know what it means. I think we did some good.”
Adeline reassured her. “I know we did.”
“I feel like I’ve accomplished something. When my husband was dying, I felt so hopeless and helpless. I think that is part of why I had such a hard time dealing with it. I feel like I’ve helped my Suze. I couldn’t have done it without the two of you. I pray you never know how much this has meant to me because you are never faced with this type of burden.”
Adeline patted Carolyn’s hand. “A burden shared is much lighter.”
Anna was quick to address Adeline. “I hope you will remember that when it comes time to deal with your problems.”
“I assure you I will. Thank you.”
Adeline’s phone rang. She normally didn’t bring it to the table with her, but had made an exception.
She said little more than ‘yes’ and ‘thank you’ repeatedly. There were a few ‘wheres’ and ‘whens’ in there too.
Carolyn and Anna were quite sure Barry was in custody by the time Adeline was off the phone.
“They got him?” Although it was a question, Anna’s tone made it more of a statement.
“Yes, it is a very long story, but basically, Barry was spotted in the area of the O’Flynn house. He was loitering at the park. There is a long wall of bushes at the end of the park and he had been hiding his belongings there and sleeping on the far side of the bushes up against an embankment of sorts.”
“I’m surprised that Roland’s people weren’t on top of that.”
“As am I, but that is a discussion for another time. Evidently, Barry never actually went onto the O’Flynn’s block, instead he was adjacent. A neighbor noticed him because of his limp. I would assume sleeping on the ground had exacerbated his knee injury.”
Carolyn couldn’t hide her anger. “Good.”
“The neighbor saw him limping down the street, then she noticed that he had changed his clothing but was limping down the street again. A stranger changing clothing at the park in the middle of the day put her ill at ease and she contacted the authorities. Barry is now in custody, without a fight I might add.”
“Are the O’Flynns aware?”
“I am told they are.”
“There must be some kind of party going on in that house.”
“As there will be in this one.”
“Let me take you out to dinner tonight. You have both been so good to me and to my Suze.”
“I’m not sure your granddaughter will be in the mood to celebrate just yet.”
“Perhaps not. Let me give her a call in case she hasn’t been informed. I’ll feel her out and we’ll go from there.
TEN
Anna drove. If Roland had heard about this, or actually, when he did hear about this, there was going to be hell to pay. The girls thought that it would be worth it.
Although Carolyn was insistent that she be the one to speak to Barry about this issue, Adeline and Anna were determined to go with her, if only to sit in the waiting room and give her moral support from afar.
The area wasn’t particularly bad. They drove around in circles a few times. There were school buses parked in a huge lot. A few different buildings that had signs that said everything from ‘re-entry’ to ‘cler
k of the court.’
There were the bondmen shops about, which one would expect near a jail. By the time they found the place that Anna was sure was the right building – housing the video visitation center — Carolyn and Adeline were completely confused.
“I appreciate you girls coming, but I have to do this my way. On my terms. Please.”
Anna nodded. “We’ll be right here.”
“Why don’t you just drive down that main road? There are all kinds of places that you can shop or eat or find something to do. I’m sure this will take a while. My appointment is at one o’clock. They told me that I would have forty minutes. I assure you this will take far less.”
Anna’s voice was firm. “We’ll be right here.”
“Very well. Tell you what. Why don’t I leave my purse with you? They said you are not allowed to carry anything but a wallet and car keys. I’ll go in with just my ID. That might make it go a little quicker.”
“Either that or they are going to find that suspicious and you will be summarily strip searched.”
“No problem, I wore my good underwear.”
The girls chuckled as Carolyn got out of the car, threw her shoulders back, and walked toward the glass doors at the right of the building.”
As Carolyn walked away, Adeline confirmed with Anna, “You said this was all done on video conferencing, am I understanding that correctly?”
“That is what I understand.”
“So, our Carolyn walks in and gives them her identification, asks to speak with Barry, he is at a computer somewhere in the jail and Carolyn is at a different computer somewhere else in the jail. Safe. Well outside of his grasp.”
“Yes. I believe they are several hundred feet and many a locked door apart.”
“I still don’t like this.”
“Nor do I, but there was no talking her out of it.”
“I just think it would have been better to allow Roland or one of his young muscle bound contemporaries to deliver the message.”
“Do you know exactly what it is that Carolyn plans to say?”
“I haven’t a clue.”
“I hope she can stay strong. This is such an important thing for her to do. It will empower her more than she realizes.”
“I couldn’t agree more.”
“But you are still worried?”
“Very.”
The girls sat in the car with the windows cracked just a bit for air circulation. Anna pulled out her phone and checked for missed calls and emails. Adeline busied herself with some documents she pulled out of her purse.
About ten minutes into the wait – or maybe it was longer Anna had completely lost track of time — she looked up and saw a sheriff come toward the car. “Oh crap, what’s this?”
“Ladies?”
“Yes, officer?”
“Can I ask what you’re doing here in the parking lot?”
“Our friend just went in to meet with someone and we are waiting here for her.”
“I see. As you can see, it is posted that there is no loitering in the parking lot.”
“We weren’t really loitering, officer, we are waiting.”
“I see.” The officer took a look around, seemed to be arguing with himself a bit.
“Here she comes now. That’s her. We’ll be on our way, officer.”
“You ladies drive safe.”
“Thank you.”
Carolyn hurried toward the car. Anna and Adeline each looked her over carefully.
“Well, that’s done.”
“What happened?”
“Let’s get out of here. There are some scary people in that room.”
“I thought you said that the visit was basically a conference call on the computer.”
“It was. I was talking about the visitors, not the visitees.”
“I see. Do you want to go back to my place or shall we stop at one of the little places down the road that you were talking about.”
“If it is okay with you, I’d really like to go back to your place, Anna. It is more private there and I feel safe there.”
“We are on our way.”
They arrived at Anna’s a short time later. They all gravitated to the pretty little kitchen that overlooked the garden outside. There were a couple of squirrels trying to get seeds out of the bird feeder and birds were splashing around in the birdbath.
Adeline walked over and put the kettle on. Anna went to the fridge and pulled out some goodies the girls had made the day before while they talked about their strategy.
Carolyn plopped herself down on the chair, seeming to deflate right in front of them.
Adeline gave Anna a worried look.
“Are you okay, Carolyn? He didn’t threaten you, did he?”
“No. It was a little anticlimactic, really.”
Adeline hurried to put some cups around and tapped on the kettle, wishing it to boil faster. “Don’t start without me. I swear I’ll get this thing to boil faster.” She glared at the kettle.
Carolyn laughed. It was a lighthearted sound they hadn’t heard it a while and it immediately put them at ease.
When the kettle was boiled and the tea was brewing, Adeline carried the pretty teapot over and placed it on a beautiful hand-painted tile that Anna used as a trivet. It had been a gift from Morgan when she was seeing the counselor, not long after the attack, and was told to focus on beautiful things for at least a little while every day. Morgan had taken up crafts. One of the things she had learned was to paint beautiful flowers by dipping a special paintbrush in multiple colors of paint and almost vibrating the color onto the surface to be painted. She’d tried many times to show Anna how to do it, and each time Anna feigned a complete inability. She felt that Morgan needed to have the ability to create beauty and to excel at it. It helped. She knew it did.
Carolyn took a deep breath. “I’m not going to go into all the details about everything, but I’ll tell you this, I wasn’t expecting to see what I saw or for it to go so easily. I checked in. They were very kind to me. Then I was in a big room with a bunch of cubicles in it. Each cubicle has a chair, pretty much like an office chair with a computer monitor and a phone and camera. You see them. They see you. But you are completely safe. At least from the inmate. Some of those visitors were a rather scary group. And the way they treated their children. Lord, help us. The next generation hasn’t a hope. Of course I’ve seen the same thing in church, so it isn’t just the criminal element.”
The girls allowed her to ramble a bit. To let go of some of the tension that she’d built up during the day.
“So, anyway, I sat there for a bit, and then I see Barry on the screen. Poor lad. It looks like he has had quite a time of it.” Her disdain was evident and her comments so dripping with sarcasm that it took the girls back a step.
They’d not seen that side of Carolyn.
They kind of liked it.
“I think the boy was actually going to plead his case with me. I think he has been listening to his own fabrications for so long that he might actually believe them. I think that he was hopeful that I was there to help to reconcile him with my Suze. It was at that moment I was very glad that we were having the conversation digitally and that I was so well aware that everything that I said and did was being recorded. I might actually have hurt the monster or said something that he and the lawyers my Suze is forced to help pay for – a whole other conversation for another time – would be able to use in court.”
Anna and Adeline exchanged a look. Surprise mixed with pride for Carolyn’s growing strength.
“So anyway I didn’t say much, but I can tell you exactly what I said. I said: ‘Barry, I have to come suggest to you that you take full responsibility for your actions.’ He started to say something but I stared him down. I continued. I said: ‘I want you to stay away from Suze and the baby. I will make certain they are well cared for. You will spend the rest of your miserable life in prison.’ Again, he started to say something and I stared him down. I s
aid: ‘Barry, I know everything there is to know about you. I don’t think you want me to say anything now’ – and then I pointed at the cameras and the phone – and I finished by saying, ‘Barry, I know about your mother. Don’t get any ideas, I am not the only one that knows. I suggest you think about what I’ve said.’ Then I started to stand up slowly and put the phone back, but just before I let it rest I looked him in the eye and said: ‘Oh, and I know about Pickles.’ You should have seen the look on his face. His jaw literally dropped. His eyes were as wide as saucers. I gave him a look, quietly put down the phone and calmly walked away. I didn’t look back.”
Anna let out a low whistle. “It sounds like you did it just right. Didn’t give him the luxury of asking any questions. He didn’t deny anything, not that there was really anything to deny. We’ll see what happens.”
“I think it is time to give Roland a call and let him know what it is we know and see if there is anything he can follow up on. Perhaps he can get to the bottom of the Pickles and mother mystery.”
“If it causes Barry to take responsibility for his actions, to stay in prison for a very long time and to leave my Suze the hell alone, I really don’t care about his mother or Pickles. His mother is dead. He can’t hurt her any more. And, whatever or whoever Pickles is, I pray that if it is a person, he or she is safe.”
“I’ll let Roland know. Oh, and I have to ask, did either of you hear from Teagan today?”
“I have a voice message from her. I haven’t had a chance to call back.”
“I have a voice message from Morgan that said she has a message from Teagan, but I haven’t returned the call either.”
“Teagan is hosting a rather interesting event. I think you should give her a call.”
The ‘We Are So Glad You Aren’t Dead’ party was about to start. The girls had driven together. Suzi had decided she would attend separately. Mr. O’Flynn himself had called her and asked her to attend. He wanted her to know she was still a welcome part of the family and that the problems with Barry would not interfere with that.
The girls discussed it on the way. Each was flabbergasted by the grace the O’Flynns showed, as individuals and as a group. There were lessons there to be learned.
Hawaii Can Wait (The Girls Series) Page 14
