In Double Jeopardy, page 27
“I can’t,” she said, the tears now freely moving over her eyelids and trickling down her cheeks.
“Sure you can. It’s in the genes, right?”
“You killed her,” she said.
“And you’ll bring her back. Just like Dad brought me back. Yes,” he said, more excited than ever. “We’ll both cheat death. Well?” he demanded. “What’s it going to be? Do I return to California and buy a house or—”
She nodded. “I’ll do what you want,” she said.
“Good. I tell you what, Farah,” he said. “It’ll be like the old days. I’ll spoil you. I’ll go make the bed and get things ready for us, okay? Okay, Farah?”
“Yes,” she said, her throat closing.
He smiled. “Atta girl. My special Miss America. Remember how you used to ask for that hole in one? I’m feeling good today. Everything’s under par, baby.”
He leaned down and kissed her on the forehead and then the cheek, and then he moved to her lips, a soft, brushing kiss, but a wet kiss.
“Just a sample of what’s to come,” he whispered. He kept his lips close to her ear. She could feel his hot breath. Her stomach churned, but she kept herself under control, swallowing back the acid that wanted to come gushing up and out of her throat.
“Farah used to stick her tongue right in my ear, just a little thing, but it gave me a delightful chill,” he said, turning his head. “Well?”
She took a breath, closed her eyes, and did it.
“Great,” he said. “That’s it.” He straightened up. “Be right back,” he said. “As soon as I prepare the grounds, we’ll tee off together.”
She watched him strut toward the bedroom. Then she looked helplessly at the locked front door, tugged on the wire until it cut into her skin again, and sat back, defeat washing over her like a twilight shadow rising from the underground.
23
HARRY’S FEARS TURNED TO RAW panic after 11:00 P.M. with the realization that it was after 2:00 A.M. in New York and Elaine still did not answer her phone. He sat in the living room in his underwear, unable to close his eyes in bed, and sipped from a glass of bourbon, watching the late news and then a late movie. He barely heard a word and didn’t follow the action.
Lil finally came to the door in her nightgown. “You can’t stay up all night, Harry. You might as well go to sleep. There isn’t anything you can do at the moment,” she said softly.
“What are you talking about? How can I go to sleep? I’ll call every fifteen minutes,” he said, determined.
“You have to face the possibility, Harry, that she’s at someone else’s home, someone else’s apartment,” Lil said softly. “She’s a mature woman. She might have met someone, or maybe she’s with a friend and decided to stay the night.”
“Or maybe …” He looked away rather than voice any of the fears that crisscrossed his consciousness like a series of trailers for horror movies.
“Harry.”
“All right,” he said. “I’ll just watch a little more television, get more tired, and go to sleep.”
Lil stood there. He tried not to pay attention to her, but she didn’t move and she didn’t turn away. He raised his eyes to the ceiling and then seized the phone.
“I’ll just call once more.” He punched out the numbers carefully and waited. The damned answering machine came on again. He lowered the receiver and stared at the floor as if he had just been told something terrible.
“There’s nothing you can do until morning, Harry,” Lil said.
“I shouldn’t have left New York. I shouldn’t have left her until I knew she had involved the police.” He looked up, his eyes swelling with tears. “If something has happened to her, it’s the second time I failed to prevent a terrible thing happening to one of my children,” he added, his throat closing before he finished his sentence.
“Oh, Harry.” She crossed to him, and he reached up to pull her near, so he could bury his head against her warmth. She brushed back his hair and then kissed the top of his head. “Come to bed, Harry. We’ll call first thing. You’ll get ahold of her tomorrow.”
“I hope so,” he said. He turned off the television set, rose, and walked like an invalid alongside her back to their bedroom. She helped him under the covers and then crawled in herself. The silence and the darkness were far worse. Now he had only his own thoughts with which to contend. Finally, near daybreak, he fell asleep, but he woke with a start, angry at his body for betraying him. It was past eight. Lil had gotten up and was already in the kitchen. It was after eleven in the morning in New York. He reached for the phone.
“I called already, Harry,” Lil said coming to the door with a cup of coffee in hand.
“And?”
“She wasn’t there.”
“What time?”
“Seven-thirty her time and then eight.”
“She never came home,” he said. He shook his head. “She would have at least checked her phone messages, Lil. Something’s not right.”
He rose, now determined to deal fiercely with any resistance to his actions. He had nothing to fear from Lil. She looked substantially worried herself. However, rather than being satisfied that she was finally as concerned as he was, he felt more terror. She was stronger than he was, and she was falling apart, too.
“It’ll be something innocent,” she said. “You’ll see. You’ll see,” she chanted. It sounded like her morning mantra.
He went to the bathroom, threw cold water on his face, and hurried out to his closet, a plan formulating in his mind as he ripped clothing off the hangers.
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to get in touch with someone at the school first and have them check on her. I don’t know her schedule, but maybe someone in the school’s administration can get back to us quickly.”
“She’ll be furious.”
“I don’t think that’s a consideration at this point under the circumstances, do you, Lil?”
She shook her head.
He went to the den and started calling, first getting the number for the administrative office. When a secretary answered, he tried in as controlled and as clear a voice as he could muster to explain what he wanted, what he needed. She was confused almost immediately nevertheless and transferred him to someone in registration, who, after hearing some of what he said, then had him transferred to the office of the dean of students. That secretary sounded far more intelligent. She listened. She apparently knew who he was, who Elaine was, the history of their family tragedy.
“I can understand your concern, Mr. Ross. Give me a few minutes. I’ll call you back.”
“I don’t mind holding on,” he said.
“Whatever you like,” she said. “Let me see if I can locate Elaine’s schedule quickly.”
Lil brought him a cup of coffee. He sipped it and waited. She stood beside the desk, occasionally sipping from her own cup.
The secretary returned. “She has a lecture this morning,” she said. “I’m sending someone over to the classroom to check on her. That will take at least fifteen minutes, Mr. Ross. I promise I’ll call you instantly with the information.”
He thanked her and told Lil.
“You want something, a piece of toast?”
He nodded. It would be best to occupy themselves until they got their call. It came close to twenty minutes later.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Ross,” she said. “Your daughter is not in attendance.”
It was as if someone had shot him in the heart. For a moment he couldn’t respond. The memories of the police coming to their office the morning of the murder, the looks on their faces, the revelations about the tragedy, their attempts to withhold the gruesome details—all of it flashed through his mind.
“Thank you,” he managed to say.
“I hope everything will be all right,” she concluded and he cradled the phone, shaking his head.
Lil gasped and bit down on her lip.
“She would never miss a lecture,” he said. Lil nodded. There was no resistance to his panicking now. There was barely any to her own.
Harry had grown to appreciate one particular Los Angeles detective, Pat McShane. Throughout the investigation of Farah’s murder and the aftermath, Harry had felt McShane’s humanity, his compassion and concern. He came to mind immediately, and it was their good fortune to be able to reach him on their first call.
Harry explained their concerns quickly.
“I have some friends in the NYPD, Mr. Ross. I’ll be on the phone with them immediately,” he promised. “Where can I reach you?”
“I could come to you,” Harry suggested.
“I don’t recommend your hanging around here, Mr. Ross. Best thing would be to occupy yourself as best you can until I can get someone over to Elaine’s apartment to do some checking. It’s gonna take a while.”
“Okay. I’ll be at my office,” he said and gave McShane the numbers.
“What about her girlfriend?” Lil asked as soon as he hung up.
“Yeah, right. Let’s get her number.” He called information and got it. Kathy too had an answering machine, so he left a desperate message with their office and car phone numbers. Her call came in first, a little after they had arrived at the office.
“I was surprised she wasn’t at the lecture, Mr. Ross,” Kathy said. “I called her apartment, and then I decided to go there on my way home. I don’t have another class until seven tonight. The police were already at her apartment,” she added. “We got the superintendent and went inside.”
“And?”
“She wasn’t there, and it didn’t look as if she had been there last night.”
“No, we knew she wasn’t. What do the police think?”
Her hesitation put a fist of ice around his heart.
“Kathy?”
“Well, I don’t know what to make of it, but … when I was leaving, I noticed a textbook in the gutter, soaked through—we had a hard rainfall last night. I recognized the cover so I picked it up. It was Elaine’s book, Mr. Ross. I turned it over to the police.”
“Christ,” he said.
“What?” Lil cried, her fist against her lips.
He shook his head. “And what did the police say?”
“Nothing. They took the textbook, and I came home and found your message on my machine. I’m sorry I don’t know any more.”
“Did you tell them about the man at the dance club?” he asked quickly.
“Yes,” she said. “I’m sorry to have to worry you like this.”
“No, no. Thanks for what you’ve done on your own. I’ll see you soon,” he added and hung up. He told Lil the details.
Minutes later McShane called with the same basic information. When Harry pushed, McShane said, “It’s a little early yet, but with the family’s history and such, the NYPD is going to treat it like a possible kidnapping, Harry. They’ll inform the FBI today.”
“The FBI,” Harry repeated. Lil was already looking quite pale. “Okay,” he said. “Thank you for your help, Pat.”
“I hope it turns out to be a false alarm, Harry.”
“Thank you.”
“I’ll call you as soon as I hear anything else,” McShane said.
“I won’t be here,” Harry said.
Normally, Pat McShane would have pointed out the futility of running around the country, hanging out at police precincts, haunting an investigation, but under the circumstances, he decided not to interfere. “I understand,” he said. “Call me if I can help you in any way.”
“Thank you,” Harry said and hung up. He immediately dialed his travel agent.
“What are you doing?” Lil asked.
“I’m getting myself a ticket to return to New York.”
“I should go too,” she said.
“Maybe you should stay here and man this post, Lil. You’re better at occupying yourself and—”
“I’m not thinking about myself, Harry.”
He thought a moment. “All right. You get our tickets,” he said hanging up the receiver. He pulled out the phone book and started thumbing through it rapidly. “I want to do one more thing before we leave.”
“What? Where are you going to do, Harry?”
He found the address he wanted and got up.
“Where are you going?” she asked as he started around the desk toward the door.
He paused. “I want to see the FBI myself, right here. I have something I want checked out. I’ll fill you in later,” he said, and before she could ask anything else, he was gone.
Special Agent Ted Andrews lifted his coffee cup mechanically, staring out over the patio toward the Hollywood Hills. Behind him in the kitchen, Toni was fixing Erik and Melissa’s lunches, giving them instructions for the day. As their nine-year-old daughter and seven-year-old son stood obediently and listened, Melissa’s eyes opened wider and she grew a little more alert. Both glanced through the patio doors at him toward the end of their traditional litany of warnings, cautions, and orders.
Normally Ted participated with a humorous comment that drew Toni’s rebuffs. Their parents had this loving interplay, often teasing each other with an underlying affection. They knew their father was an FBI agent and that made him larger than life, but their mother had ways of bringing him down to earth and making him seem no more intimidating than anyone else’s father. In fact, more often than not he looked a bit afraid of her, and she was just a fraction of an inch over five feet five, weighing in at one-ten. Her dainty features were doll-like, but her temper could be quickly brought to flame in those emerald eyes if her ire was aroused. Her hair, which hung down nearly to her shoulder blades, was so red it looked on fire in the sunlight.
“They’re leaving, Ted,” she called out to him.
“Yo,” he said, turning. The kids came out to receive his hugs. “Hey, have a good day, squad,” he said. He watched them go through the kitchen to the front door with Toni trailing. Then he turned and gazed out at the hills again.
“What’s bothering you, Ted?” Toni asked.
He hadn’t heard her return. “What?”
“You’ve been distant for a while now. And don’t tell me it’s on a need-to-know basis, either,” she warned. “Besides, I have a need to know. I’m the interested party.” She stepped out on the patio and sat across from him.
In the distant sky a commercial jet lifted toward its flight path and disappeared between two waves of cumulus clouds, making what looked like a ponderous journey from one horizon to the other. The world looked painted on a wide canvas, all the movements small. He liked it here. He loved it here.
“Well?” she persisted. “Don’t start denying how you’ve been behaving, Ted,” she added before he could.
He laughed and shook his head. “I think you know me better than I know myself. That defense didn’t come yet, but I guess it was on its way.” He took a deep breath. “I got pulled off a case,” he said, “because I was getting too close to solving it.”
Her intense look of concern, beading up those eyes and tightening her small mouth, changed radically to a look of confusion. “Why would they do that?”
“The perpetrator or perpetrators are people who exist on a level or two higher than my reach is supposed to go,” he said. “I could embarrass people of great authority, programs that are, at the minimum, controversial.” He smiled. “Thanks to Billy Powell,” he said. “My computer genius tapped on some doors in cyberspace that are not even supposed to exist.”
“Oh. And this has upset you?”
“At first not as much as it does now.”
She tilted her head in that way that stirred his heart. How lucky he was to be married to someone as adorable as Toni, he often thought. As corny as it sounded, she did pluck the strings of his heart with those cute gestures.
“What do you mean, as much as it does now?”
“Well, it’s been heavy on my mind. I’m a soldier in a kind of army, Toni. Law enforcement is a war. I’ve always believed in being loyal, following orders without questions, having faith in the leadership, but this is the sort of thing that gives government a bad name. Something,” he said, “is not kosher. At the least, I should be trusted at this point with the information, don’t you think?”
“Absolutely. You have clearance to guard the president of the United States, if need be, Teddy. This stinks.”
He nodded. “I’ve been given the opportunity to take a special holiday if I take it now.”
“When were you told?”
“Jack Bradley told me it was coming, and the paperwork came through yesterday.”
“Jack Bradley?” she said impressed.
“Yes. I told you this was high up. I was informed yesterday. Selzer saw me moping about, rereading my file on this matter, and then stopped by and told me he had gotten word from Bradley’s office. Then, late in the afternoon, Billy was informed he was being transferred to the Florida office.” He looked up quickly to see the reaction in her face. It turned quickly from sympathy to outrage to fear. “He’s leaving next week.”
“And you blame yourself for that?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he sipped the cold coffee and gazed at the Hollywood Hills again.
“Why should you?” she asked.
“I don’t and I do. Anyway, it’s sort of like losing faith in someone you’ve held in high esteem. I’ll get over it,” he said, rising. He released a great sigh as if all his frustration and unhappiness had turned to air he could exhale.
“I’m sorry, Ted. What are you going to do?”
“Nothing. Be a good soldier. I’ll make arrangements for my vacation and let the embers cool. Everyone will breathe a sigh of relief, I guess. Sorry I was so distracted with it. It just kind of hit me one day. I mean, people have been killed, things have been done, and it’s all being taken care of by the powers that be. Why is it so hard to do the right thing as well as the legal thing?”
“Invite Billy over for dinner one night before he leaves,” Toni said. “I still haven’t thanked him enough for helping Melissa with her computer.”
“Good idea,” he said. “Call you later.” He leaned over and kissed her. She held him a little longer than usual, and he kissed her again.
