“I didn’t know that,” Dan said. “How do you know?”
Her eyes roamed the room. “I can hear them. They talk to me.”
“When you’re sober or just when you’re high like today?”
“Oh, I’m not —” She covered her mouth with both hands.
“Speak no evil,” Dan said. “Do you want your baby to grow up to be a drug addict?”
She shook her head sadly. “No — that would be a crime.”
“Then why don’t you get off drugs, Sarah?”
“I try, but he won’t let me.”
“‘He’ being the baby’s father?”
“He says we’re destined to be together, but we can only be together if I listen to him.”
“How old are you, Sarah?”
She looked at him with a childlike expression. “Twenty-eight.”
“If you want to see thirty, you need to stop doing drugs. Isn’t that what the doctors have told you?”
“Yes, it is. And I do want to see thirty, only —”
“Only what?”
“Only it’s so hard to stop. Whenever I try, he gives me more.”
“More crystal?”
Her fingers reached up and turned the sun-catcher again, but she didn’t answer.
“Where does he live?”
She turned away so abruptly it was as if he’d slapped her across the face. “I can’t —”
She turned back to face him, smiling as though they were both in on the same secret.
“You can’t what?”
“I mean, I’m not really …”
“Pregnant?”
Her face was a mask of sorrow. “It’s just that — when you lose one the others are so precious.”
“Who did you lose, Sarah?”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to remember.”
“Was it someone you cared about?”
“There is a god for everything.” She reached out a hand and stroked Dan’s face. “Even for you. And for me. It makes me happy when I remember that. And even if someone dies, there is still a god for them. It doesn’t matter how they die. It could be hunger …”
“Like the children in other countries you were trying to save.”
“Yes!” Her face lit up. “You know about that?”
He took her hand and held it gently. “You told me.”
Her smile was heartbreaking. “Because I trusted you.”
“I won’t betray you.”
She put a finger to his lips. “Please don’t tell anyone else.”
“I won’t.”
“What I did was a mistake. I won’t do it again.”
“That’s good,” Dan said. “Otherwise you would have to go back to prison, and this time it would be for a good deal longer.”
“Oh, no!” Her wail cut through the air. “Please! I was in jail when my father died. They wouldn’t let me go to his funeral.”
“What about your mother? Have you seen her recently?”
“My mother?”
“Are you in touch with her?”
“She doesn’t like it when I …” She looked off.
“She doesn’t like it when you get high?”
“No — when I call. She doesn’t like it when I call. I told you — I’m not high.”
“How is your mother these days?”
A pained expression crossed her face. “She’s fine. Why do you keep asking me about her?”
“I just wondered how she was. Did she look after Jeremy for you while he was away?”
“What? No!” She gave him a strange look. “Oh-ho! You’re trying to trick me.” She wagged a finger at him. “It’s not nice, you know.”
Dan held up his cellphone, showing her the photo of the woman in the copper-coloured Volvo.
“Is this your mother?”
Sarah looked at it then looked down. She shook her head. “No — I — no.”
“Look again. Are you sure it’s not your mother?” Dan pressed. “Or someone else you know?”
“I’m sure.” She pushed her cup aside. “I think you should leave now. Marjorie is coming. That’s my social worker. She’s coming and I have to get ready. I’m going to have a baby soon. Everything needs to be ready.”
“I’m so glad for you. Whose baby is it, Sarah?”
“I can’t!” she cried. “I can’t tell you.”
Her hands fluttered around her. An anxious nun caught in a paroxysm of apostasy. But she would not betray the man she loved.
“Why can’t you tell me?” Dan asked.
“Because — I couldn’t save him. I wanted to, but I couldn’t.”
“Who couldn’t you save?”
“The boy. He fell and … I didn’t mean to.”
“You wanted to save him but you couldn’t,” Dan said.
“No! Yes!” She sat there shaking her head. “It wasn’t my fault.”
“Was it the baby’s father?” Dan asked. “Did he make someone fall?”
“Of course not! It was before I even met Elroy.”
Her shoulders shook as she laid her head down on the table and sobbed into the tablecloth.
“Elroy James?”
She turned her sad, gentle face toward him. “I couldn’t save him.”
“It’s okay,” he said, running a hand softly over her head. “You don’t have to save anyone. Do you want me to call Marjorie to come over?”
“No.” She shook her head from side to side. “I’ll be fine.”
“Why didn’t you tell me Elroy James was Sarah Nealon’s boyfriend? Or should I say her pimp?”
The traffic was in a snarl. Dan stopped at River Street.
There was a pause before Janice spoke. “It’s sad, but I didn’t think it was worth mentioning.”
Dan tried to keep calm. “How could it not be worth mentioning when they’re both suspects in a kidnapping?”
“It didn’t occur to me,” she said. “I wasn’t thinking.”
“Did you tell the police about their connection?”
“I must have. Yes, I’m sure I did.”
“So it was worth mentioning to the authorities, but not to me?”
She sighed. “Look — why are you doing this?”
“Because I want answers. How did Sarah meet Elroy?”
“Eli introduced them.”
“Eli?”
“Yes, Eli. And don’t ask me how Eli and Elroy met, because I have no idea.”
“Did Sarah and Elroy ever have a child together? A child who might have been hurt?”
“What? No! Not as far as I know. Just leave it alone, Dan.”
“I can’t. I don’t like it when my clients have selective amnesia. First, you didn’t tell me you tried to con your husband into thinking Jeremy was his child, then you neglected to mention that Eli’s business venture with Elroy was a drug deal, and now I find that you didn’t think it worth mentioning that two suspects in the kidnapping know each other. Why is that?”
“That’s really no concern of yours now.”
“Now that I’ve done what you wanted me to do?” She was silent. “Remind me again. How do you and Eli know one another?”
“Why are you giving me the third degree? We met in a stupid posh school for rich kids. I got him expelled for something I did there. All right? Anyway, it was a long time ago.”
That was their sibling-like relationship right there. Rich kids growing up together, complaining their rich-kid complaints about how hard life was and how their parents just didn’t understand them. Dan knew exactly what that meant.
“It strikes me there are a number of things you didn’t bother telling me that would have helped had I known them earlier.”
“Fine — I’m telling you now. Eli and I go back a long way.”
“And Ashley? How long have you known her?”
“I told you that. We met when I was still married to Dennis. We had to keep it quiet at the time, but we all know each other’s secrets now.”
“There are f
ar too many secrets here. Only I seem to have been left in the dark about some of them. What else haven’t you told me?”
“Oh, Dan! I don’t know. I told you what you needed to know. You brought Jeremy back. That’s all that matters.”
“Is it really all that matters?”
“Yes. It is. And you did a great job. So thank you, but it’s over. You need to let it go.”
So everyone keeps telling me.
She hung up.
TWENTY-ONE
Cruise Control
NICK’S CALL CAME THROUGH just as Janice hung up. The good news was that Jeremy Bentham had been examined by child psychologists and forensic investigators, all of them concluding that he showed no signs of having been mistreated in the time he was missing. The bad news was that they could shed no light on where he had stayed or who had held him captive. Turquoise fibres on his clothing indicated he’d been sitting or sleeping on a couch with worn polyester cushions, but that could have been anywhere. All they could say for sure was that someone had looked after him and fed him. He seemed to have no idea that anything out of the ordinary had occurred. Then again, that was the nature of autism, especially as severe as Jeremy’s. Kids like him lived largely in their own minds. The report concluded by saying he had been taken care of and may never for a moment have felt threatened.
Case closed, at least as far as Dan was concerned. It’s what everyone was telling him. But for the missing million dollars. And the kidnappers still at large.
As he crossed the Don Valley, he tried the number for Elroy James. It went straight to voice mail. He dialed again. This time someone picked up. He recognized the voice of Elroy’s secretary, or whatever she called herself.
“Elroy Enterprises.”
“My name is Dan Sharp. I’d like to speak to Elroy.”
“What’s it about?”
“Extortion and kidnapping.”
“Oh, right. You called before. He’s not here.”
“Remind me. What is the nature of your business?”
“It’s on the website.” She hung up.
He called his son. When he had Ked on the line, Dan asked him to look up the business address.
“Hey, Dad! It’s near your office. On Matilda Street near Broadview.”
“Does it say what kind of business it is?”
“Shipping.”
“Thanks, pal.”
He set his GPS then turned his car around and headed back toward the river. He was cruising along when an incoming call caught his attention. The number wasn’t blocked this time: E. James. Speak of the devil. He picked up.
“Sharp.”
“What the fuck do you want now?”
Not nearly as friendly as the last call, Dan noted. He wondered if Sarah had called him.
“How’s your girlfriend?”
“What?”
“Your girlfriend. Sarah Nealon. I was a little worried about her last time I saw her.”
“Sarah’s fine,” he snarled. “Is that a concern of yours?”
The blue arrow on the GPS showed him homing in on Elroy Enterprises in one minute.
“At the moment, it very much is.”
“Why is that?”
“Because anything that might concern the kidnapping of Jeremy Bentham concerns me.”
There was a pause. “I heard the kid came back. It was on the news. All is well, no?”
“I don’t think all is well. Not by a long shot.”
“Well, that’s too bad.” He paused. “If that’s all you called about —”
“And Eli Gestner — is he still fine too?”
“Eli’s got his own problems. He’ll have to deal with them. Listen — don’t waste my time. I’m about to board a plane.”
“For Montreal or Hong Kong?”
Elroy’s laugh was harsh.
“Neither! I’m on my way to Kauai. That’s in Hawaii.”
Dan had never been to Hawaii. Never wanted to. “Aloha then,” he said and hung up just as the GPS announced his arrival.
He looked up at the red brick building. A sign in the second-floor window read Elroy Enterprises. No outward indication of what their enterprises consisted of. It could have been a real shipping company. It could just as easily have been the offices of paid assassins.
A large man bustled out the front door, locking it behind him. As he turned, Dan glimpsed the bullfrog face in Nick’s file. He was a mountain of muscle in a leisure suit. Not someone he’d want to tangle with, fair fight or not.
Elroy carried a slim, black briefcase. As he raised his arm to signal a waiting car, there was a glint of metal: he was handcuffed to the case. A limousine glided over. The car door opened and Elroy disappeared behind tinted windows.
Dan waited till the car pulled away from the curb then headed after it. The driver kept up a leisurely pace as he made his way down to the expressway. Dan stayed several car lengths behind. Their route took them directly to the airport. Maybe Elroy had been telling the truth about going to Hawaii.
He was about to give him the benefit of the doubt when the limo veered toward Terminal 1. Dan slowed and pulled up to the curb. The big man got out of the car and made his way to the sliding doors. Through the glass, Dan watched as Elroy headed to Air Canada domestic departures. Kauai my ass, he thought, as a terminal cop waved him on.
He set his speed at 120 and cruised along the 401, mulling over Elroy James’s words. All had been good, but now it was: Eli’s got his own problems. He’ll have to deal with them. Dan wondered what those problems might be. Eli still hadn’t returned his call. In fact, he was beginning to think Eli was avoiding him. He tried again, but the call went right to voice mail. He hung up without leaving a message.
He got Nick on the phone, updating him on his airport run.
“You’ll need to do a quick check to find out where he’s going,” Dan said. “Assuming he’s used his real name, that is. Then give his luggage a proper search when he lands to see what’s in that briefcase.”
“You’re suggesting I haul a guy in for no obvious reason and search his personal belongings?”
“He’s a suspect in a kidnapping and I just helped hand over a very large ransom. Can’t you guys do that sort of thing?”
“You’re kidding, right? You don’t really believe we can just go in with guns blazing and make a search like that without proper warrants.”
“I’d find a way.”
“I’m sure you would, but my way is a lot more bureaucratic than yours. No wonder people think cops can’t get anything right, they’re all so sure we do things the way they do them on television.”
“So you’re willing to let a million bucks slide away on a technicality?”
“How can you be sure the money’s in the briefcase? He could be making a legitimate business trip.”
“In case you need any added incentive, I just learned that he’s the boyfriend of the surrogate and drug addict, Sarah Nealon — who also happens to be a suspect.”
“Well,” Nick said at last, “I wasn’t expecting that.” There was a moment of silence. “Oh, and by the way —”
“Yes?”
“Lydia says thanks again for the photos of the guys in the boat. Impossible to get a fix on their identities with those sunglasses they’re wearing. Same goes with the boat. It couldn’t be more generic.”
“Best I could do without risking getting shot.”
“Not complaining, just letting you know Lydia is grateful for the help. Also for the notes. There were no fingerprints, but we didn’t really expect there would be.”
“I hear you. I’ll leave it in your hands.”
“Wait. Where are you off to now? Not heading up to the Bruce again, I hope?”
“No such luck. You’ll see me when you get home.”
On a whim, he turned off the highway and down Black Creek Drive to Lawrence. An image of the copper-coloured Volvo floated through his mind. He could still see the panicked look on the driver’s face. Why would she
make herself so obvious if she had intended to pull off a crime like kidnapping? You’d want to stay as far away from your victims as possible rather than give them a chance to take your photograph. Unless, of course, you had another reason for being there.
He headed to the intersection where he’d lost sight of the Volvo, his mind on other things. Like the box of money they’d left on the table at the cottage in Lion’s Head.
As they’d headed back, Dan once again caught sight of the place he and his parents had stayed at. The mornings were still vivid in his memory. Each day he’d awakened to the sound of waves, the crying of gulls, and white clouds piled like meringue, making everything look pristine and perfect. The happy time had just begun and the drinking not yet started, for his parents woke slowly and moved like rusty machines till they got their bearings. Young Daniel had hoped to catch some perfect moment and hang onto it, to find the fulcrum before it tipped over into the abyss of drink and retribution.
He thought of Sandy again. When they drove away that final day, he’d been heartbroken. His mother had tried to distract him by telling him dogs were able to sniff their way home over hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles. She reminded him of a movie they’d watched together, The Incredible Journey. Two dogs and a cat, separated from their owner, had returned home after months. All that fall Dan had wandered up and down the railway tracks each day after school looking for Sandy, waiting and hoping he would return.
Persistent, his Aunt Marge had called him. When he told her about the movie she offered to buy him a cat, but he wasn’t interested. After all, Sandy would be coming back. He felt in his heart he was right. All the while, his father had stayed silent on the subject.
The suburbs flashed by. It was close to lunchtime. Dan was about to turn around and head home when he saw it. A copper-coloured Volvo, sitting in a driveway like any ordinary car. Not like something that should have been kept hidden and out of sight.
TWENTY-TWO
A Telegram for Death
THE STREET WAS PERFECTLY ORDINARY. Split-levels and clipped lawns. Pleasant Valley. One house just like another. A dream of perfection with nothing but uninterrupted boredom and the comforts of presumed security. Dan wondered which was higher in the suburbs — the divorce rate or the suicide rate.
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