He Never Forgot

by P. D. Workman

  He couldn’t think of anything else to say. He was quiet, staying close to Burton and trying to give him the moral support he needed, watching the curious watchers. The biker dude was still there. Pretending he was watching the house more than he was watching Zachary and Burton. Zachary saw him take out his phone to make a call. He quickly slid his own phone out and tapped a message back to Campbell, inside the house.

  There is a man out here who confronted us when we were here before. I think maybe the one who followed me.

  He didn’t know whether Campbell would take out his phone and look at the message, or whether he would be too busy with what was going on inside. It would be loud and close and he might not even notice that he’d received a text.

  Is it Sam Dougherty? Campbell fired back.

  Don’t know. Could be. Or a friend.

  What’s he doing?

  Been watching us. Making a call now. Maybe to Sam?

  There was no answering text from Campbell for a few seconds. No dots to tell Zachary that he was composing his message. Then his phone rang. He held it up to his ear. “Hello?”

  “Officer Blau is going to come talk to you. I want you to point this guy out to him. Discreetly.”

  “Okay. Sure.”

  A heavyset officer approached. Belly straining over his duty belt. He rocked side to side as he lumbered toward them, looking like a bear or a Sasquatch. He looked at Burton, then Zachary. He leaned closer, talking to them with a voice that was raised instead of confidential.

  “Everything okay here, sir?”

  Zachary glared at him and spoke quietly. “You need to check on the guy behind you. By the red truck. Doo-rag on his head and tats down his arms.”

  “You should go home,” Blau said loudly. “There’s nothing to see here. Nothing is going to be happening here tonight. You’re making a scene.”

  “The black and white doo-rag,” Zachary insisted.

  Blau straightened up, hitching up his belt. “See to it. You’d better be moving on your way soon, or I’ll do what I have to to see you off the property. We don’t want drunks and meth-heads hanging around here.”

  He wheeled around one hundred and eighty degrees and walked away again. Zachary tried to reconcile what had just happened with what Campbell had said on the phone. He knew what he was supposed to do, but Blau had appeared to be totally off-script. Like he thought he was there to protect the scene and see Burton and Zachary off rather than looking into the biker dude.

  He watched Blau walk around the edges of the onlookers, eventually working himself into a position behind the biker, who had finished his phone call and was chatting to another neighbor while he kept his eyes glued on Zachary and Burton. Blau tapped him on the shoulder and he turned slowly, unconcerned, then froze when he realized that he had been flanked. He said something and looked like he was going to make a run for it. Blau grabbed his arm and stopped him cold. There was no struggle, but the biker dude suddenly had his arm twisted up behind his back and couldn’t seem to move out of the hold.

  Zachary turned to face Burton to prevent anyone seeing his grin. He had thought that Blau was stupid, but he’d been anything but.

  Burton was wiping his face, looking at Zachary with his brows drawn down. He didn’t understand what had just happened or why Zachary was smiling.

  “I have a right to be here. No one is chasing me away.”

  “No. You’re fine. It was just a distraction. He didn’t mean it.”

  “He didn’t mean it?”

  “He just needed to know who I wanted him to talk to.” Zachary glanced at Blau and the biker out the corner of his eye, not making it obvious he was looking at them again. “Him.” He nodded sideways. “They need to talk to him.”

  “Why?”

  “He knows something. He might know Sam.”

  “Who is Sam?”

  “Sam is your birth father.”

  Burton’s eyes went over to the biker. “That’s not him, though. That’s the guy that talked to us before. Last time.”

  “Yes. That’s right. But… I think he followed me the other day after I dropped you at the hotel. And he’s here again, watching us, calling someone on his phone.”

  “You think he’s calling… my birth father?”

  “He could be. Or I could be totally wrong. It’s not like I haven’t made mistakes before.” Zachary rolled his eyes. “Plenty of times. But the way he was acting… I think he knows something, even if he says he doesn’t.”

  “You don’t think he was here back then? That he knew Sam when we lived here. In this house.”

  “He might have. People don’t usually stay in this neighborhood that long, but he could be an exception. Or he might just know Sam and moved here coincidentally. You know ‘Hey, Sam, would you believe that I just moved onto your old street?’ That kind of thing does happen. But I don’t like coincidences.”

  “When did he follow you? You didn’t tell me anything about this.”

  “You have enough to worry about. I didn’t want to bring it up. Nothing happened, and I thought… that it might have been connected with an old case, something that I’d already wound up. I didn’t realize until later that it might be related to this case.”

  “Or not at all.”

  Zachary conceded. “Right.”

  Burton rubbed his eyes, which were red and swollen. He sniffled loudly and looked around. He seemed to have cried himself out. At least for the moment.

  “What are they doing in there now? They found him, so… now what?”

  “They’ll declare it a crime scene. Take what evidence they need.”

  “How?”

  Zachary didn’t want to give too much to Burton. He didn’t want Burton to see it in his head. “I don’t know all of the details. They’re going to need to remove… the remains. And they’ll have lab work that needs to be done. There may be other pieces of evidence to examine. Maybe clothing or jewelry that survived.”

  “Allen didn’t have any jewelry.”

  “No, of course not. But there could be things that would last longer than cloth. A belt buckle. A zipper. Pocket rivets or buttons. I don’t know what else.”

  Burton nodded, sniffling and snorting some more. He rubbed at his eyes, which Zachary imagined didn’t make them feel any better, just rubbing whatever grit was on his face and hands into his eyes.

  “I can’t… I can’t believe they would do that to Allen. Just… bury him there. Leave him there. No one knew? No one knew anything?”

  “Just them. I don’t imagine they would have told anyone. Criminals can be stupid, but they had to know that if they told anyone, it would mean more charges against them. They had to keep it a secret.”

  “How could anyone not know?” Burton shook his head. “How could everyone just forget him?”

  Zachary had the same questions. Elizabeth’s mother had known about Allen, but she had kept quiet to spare her daughter. How many other people had known and not said anything? Sam’s parents were still living too; wouldn’t they have known Allen before Sam started ‘acting funny’ and being paranoid, eventually locking the boys up? What about neighbors? No one missed him? School teachers and friends? Had no one asked whatever had happened to the Dougherty’s boy?

  “I don’t know. But now we found him. Now they’ll have to pay.”

  “I can’t believe that they weren’t sent to prison for the rest of their lives. Wouldn’t you? You wouldn’t let someone like that just get out and go free in a year, would you? You know… that they can’t be let out to just… do it all over again.” He swallowed and looked at Zachary, thinking the same thing as Zachary had. “What if… they had other children? Does anyone know? Was anyone watching to make sure that they couldn’t ever do it again?”

  “Probably not. They might have had parole rules when they got out initially… but that was years ago now. They can’t watch people forever. Eventually, they have to let people just go free and stop monitoring them.”

  “They
monitor sex offenders.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Why wouldn’t they monitor murderers? Do they seriously think that just because someone has done their time that they’re not going to do it again? Sex offenders re-offend, but murderers don’t? What kind of logic is that? Why don’t we have monitoring for killers?”

  42

  The biker had been discreetly removed from the scene, maybe taken to the police station for questioning. Zachary and Burton waited for some word from inside. It was starting to get cooler, the sun beginning to sink toward the horizon. Most of the curious neighbors dispersed, deciding there was nothing to see.

  There were still a few onlookers on the street and in nearby homes but, for the most part, Zachary and Burton and the officers who were watching the perimeter had it to themselves.

  There was a buzz from Zachary’s phone. He pulled it out. Another message from Campbell.

  Prepare Burton. We’re going to be coming out.

  Zachary slid the phone away again. When he looked at Burton, his eyes were already on Zachary.

  “They’re getting ready to come out.”

  “Does that mean… they’re finished?”

  Zachary nodded. He didn’t know whether the police would need more time at the scene, but the part that Burton was concerned with was done. They had recovered Allen’s remains.

  “What are they… what will happen?”

  “They’ll be bringing the remains out. They’ll take them to the police lab. They’ll examine them, try to make an identification and determine cause of death.”

  “We already know his identification.” Burton’s voice was angry. “It isn’t like there were any other children in the basement.”

  “I know. But they still need to confirm it scientifically, if they can. We all know who it is.”

  “I told you. I told you he was in there.”

  “And we managed to get them to look. They were able to recover him. You were right, and because of you, Allen will be laid to rest somewhere… more appropriate. Somewhere you can put a headstone and visit if you want.”

  “When?”

  “I don’t know how long it will take. A few days to a few weeks.” Kenzie would know. She would be involved in checking the remains in, cataloging everything, maybe involved in the post-mortem with Dr. Wiltshire. “They’ll get it done as soon as they can.”

  Burton looked toward the house, waiting. Zachary was cramped and cold sitting on the ground with Burton. He rose to his feet, and in a moment Burton followed suit, looking like a newborn horse or deer testing out its legs.

  “You okay?” He touched Burton’s arm to steady him.

  “I’m fine.”

  Zachary withdrew his hand and let him be. “It won’t be long, now.”

  The front door opened as if on cue. The officers started coming out. A couple of them with the x-ray and digging equipment first. Then behind them, several in a line, men carrying boxes. They were closed and sealed and marked as evidence. They didn’t joke around and talk among themselves like police officers often did, but walked in a solemn procession. The officers who were standing around outside removed their caps and stood watching. The equipment was loaded onto the truck, and the evidence into a white van. Campbell joined Zachary and Burton.

  “How are you holding up?” he asked Burton in a low, respectful tone.

  Burton wiped at his eyes, leaking at the corners again as he watched them put the bones of his brother into the van. He shook his head. “I can’t believe this is happening. It feels like I stepped into a nightmare. I keep waiting to wake up, but… I can’t. I just keep getting deeper and deeper.”

  Campbell nodded. He slapped Burton on the shoulder. “I’m sorry about all of this. You shouldn’t have to go through it.”

  “Why didn’t they find him back then? How could they just leave him there? Pour concrete over top of him?”

  “They didn’t know. If they had known, they wouldn’t have left him there. At least you remembered, when you came back here, what had happened.”

  Burton’s eyes slid to the side. He looked at Zachary, and then back at Campbell.

  “We’ll set up a time to meet tomorrow,” Campbell suggested. “I’ll need to document everything you can remember.”

  “But… I don’t know if I can do that.”

  “It was a long time ago, and your memories will be hazy. We’ll take that into account. But we need your statement. You are the only witness, other than your parents. At least, I assume that is the case.”

  Burton tried to nod and shake his head at the same time. “I don’t remember…”

  “We’ll have some experts available. They’ll be able to help you to retrieve some of those memories. We have psychologists, hypnotists, other kinds of experts. You may not remember a lot, but every little thing will help.”

  Burton’s arms wound around his stomach and he held himself like a child with a stomachache. He looked at Zachary again.

  “You’ve done fine so far,” Zachary told him. “You did remember things. Even though you thought you couldn’t. You remembered the house, what it looked like, and where you had been. You found your bug jar and the names on the wall. You remembered Allen’s name and you knew that we would find him here. That’s a lot.”

  “But it’s not enough.” Burton’s eyes were wide and worried. “That’s not enough to put them back behind bars.”

  “You let us worry about building the case,” Campbell said. “We’ll get the evidence we need and pass it all on to the prosecutor. We’ll have enough. We’re not going to drop this.”

  “He was only a little boy.” Burton wiped his face with one hand and went back to holding his stomach. “We were just little.”

  “Yeah. That’s one of the horrible things about it. He was so young. He never had a chance. But we’re going to do something about it.” He squeezed Burton’s upper arm. “We don’t forget innocents. We’re not going to let them get away with it.”

  “How will you stop them? How will you even find them?”

  Campbell glanced at Zachary. “We already have some leads on that. Don’t worry about the police work. We know what we’re doing. All you need to worry about is getting a good night’s sleep tonight so that you’ll be ready to give your statement tomorrow.” He paused, weighing his words. “We’ll expect you to be clear and sober.”

  Burton scowled. “Would you be?”

  “This isn’t a question of how I would be. I’m sure I would be an absolute wreck. This is about you and what you can do for your brother. You need to hold it together for his sake. You need to be alert and coherent. You don’t want alcohol blurring things. You need to be able to give a legal statement, which you can’t do if you’re under the influence.”

  “I can stay sober,” Burton growled. “I don’t know what nonsense Zachary’s told you. I’m perfectly capable. I can speak for myself. I don’t walk around here letting everybody else speak for me. No matter how much I drink, I can still function just fine.”

  “I’m sure you can,” Campbell said without any hint of sarcasm or criticism. “And tomorrow, you will need to be that person. Sober and ready to make your statement.”

  “I will be.”

  “Good man.” Campbell gave a nod. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then. First thing?”

  Burton looked suddenly trapped. He looked at Zachary for rescue. “I might…”

  “I don’t think I can be there in the morning,” Zachary said. “And I’d like to be there for moral support. Could you do early afternoon instead?”

  Campbell gave him a disapproving look. “Suddenly this isn’t the most important thing on your calendar?”

  “I have a doctor’s appointment in the morning. You know I can’t miss those. Besides, it’s been thirty years. A few more hours isn’t going to make that much difference. Maybe in the afternoon, you’ll have a preliminary report from the medical examiner. What they’ve found on gross examination of the remains.”

  “Fi
ne. Afternoon, then,” Campbell agreed. “I’ll make time for you on my calendar. And I’ll have the experts in, so if you don’t show up, you’re going to be wasting a lot of people’s time.”

  “We’ll be there.” Zachary looked at Burton and raised his brows. “Right?”

  Burton nodded. “We’ll be there. Early afternoon. No problem.”

  “It better not be.”

  43

  Campbell walked away from them once more to talk to his men as they took the last of the evidence out of the house and moved it safely to the van. The police started to take the yellow tape back down and, after a few minutes, Burton turned away, finally ready to go.

  “That’s it. That’s all they’re going to do.”

  “They’ll still be doing more behind the scenes. There’s lots to do in the lab, and they need to track down Elizabeth and Sam, which will be more difficult if they have bolted. They’re done here, but there is still more to do.”

  Burton looked at the house one more time. Committing it to his long-term memory, Zachary thought. Making sure it was something that he would never forget again. Saying goodbye. Reconciling himself to the fact that he would need to go on with his life. He had found Allen, and now it was time to go on.

  “Come on,” Zachary invited. “Let’s go.”

  He didn’t grab Burton by the arm, but waited patiently for that last goodbye to be finished. Then Burton turned and followed him to the car.

  “Thanks for…” Burton cleared his throat uncomfortably. “For talking to the cop, telling him it would have to be tomorrow afternoon.”

  “No problem. I actually do have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow morning.”

  “Oh. What for?”

  While he would normally have considered it an invasive question, a client stepping over the line and trying to become too involved with his life, Zachary felt like it was only right that after Burton had lain bare his soul that there should be some kind of reciprocation. Zachary knew everything personal and private about Burton’s life, and Burton knew nothing about Zachary’s.