“Okay,” Wedmore said. “Was that it?”
“Not… really. Darren figured out Kelly had heard some of this phone conversation, which his wife had not told him about, and he wanted to know everything Kelly’d heard. He came by here Saturday, looking for her. Throwing his weight around. I told him what Kelly heard, which was next to nothing, and he promised not to bother her. But then I found him questioning her, without my knowledge, or permission, at the funeral home.” I looked down. “That was when I hit him.”
Wedmore put her palm on the back of her neck and rubbed. “Well. Okay. Why was Officer Slocum so concerned about that phone call?”
“Whoever it was, he thinks it was why his wife left the house that night. And then she had that accident down by the pier.”
When Wedmore didn’t say anything for a moment, I said, “It was an accident, right?”
A male uniformed officer came into the room and said, “Excuse me, Detective. The woman who lives next door, Joan…”
“Mueller,” I offered.
“That’s right. She happened to be looking out her window at the time and she says she saw a car drive past quickly at the time of the shot.”
“Did she get a look at the car? Get a plate or anything?”
“No plate, but she said it was a small car, but squared off at the back, like a station wagon. Sounds to me like a Golf, or maybe a Mazda 3, something like that. And she said she thought it was silver.”
“She get a look at the driver?” She didn’t ask the question with any hope in her voice. It was night, after all.
“No,” the cop said, “but she thought there were two people in the car. In the front. Oh yeah, and something on the end of the antenna. Something yellow, like a little ball.”
“Okay, keep knocking on doors. Maybe somebody else saw something, too.”
The cop left and Wedmore turned her attention back to me. “Mr. Garber, if you think of anything else, I want you to call me.” She reached into her pocket and produced a card. “And if we find out anything, I’ll be sure to let you know.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“What was that?”
“Ann Slocum. Her death. That was an accident, right?”
Wedmore gave me an even look. “That investigation is ongoing, sir.” She put the card into my hand. “If you think of anything.”
TWENTY-EIGHT
Slocum answered his cell before the second ring.
“You tracked down that plate?” Sommer asked.
“Jesus Christ, what did you do?”
“Excuse me?”
“The Garber kid’s window?” Darren was practically screaming into the phone. “The girl’s bedroom! Is that how you lean on people? Kill their kids?”
“Did you get the plate?”
“Are you hearing me?”
“The plate.”
“You’re unbelievable, you know that? Unfuckingbelievable.”
“I’m ready to write down the information.”
Slocum tried to catch his breath. He’d been shouting so loud he was nearly hoarse. “The car’s registered to an Arthur Twain. Out of Hartford.”
“An address?”
Slocum gave it to him.
“What’d you find out about him?”
“He’s a detective. Private. With something called Stapleton Investigations.”
“I’ve heard of them.”
Slocum took another breath and did his best to speak calmly. “Listen to me, and listen to me carefully. You can’t go around shooting up kids’ bedrooms. Not just because it’s fucking wrong. It attracts way too much-”
Sommer ended the call.
TWENTY-NINE
There were still cops up in Kelly’s bedroom when I went back down to the study. The money I’d found in the brown envelope was no longer on my desk. I’d dashed down here, bringing Kelly with me, between the time I’d called 911 and the arrival of the first squad car, stuffed the money back into the wall and replaced the panel. I’d had her stand outside the office door while I did it.
Just as well, because the police were all through the house. There were only so many questions I wanted to deal with.
I dialed Fiona.
“Hello? Glen? Good God, do you know what time it is?”
“I need a favor.”
I could hear Marcus, on the other side of the bed. “Who is it? What’s going on?”
“Shh! What kind of favor? What are you talking about?”
“I’d like you to look after Kelly for a while.”
I could sense Fiona trying to figure out what I was up to. Maybe she’d return to her earlier suspicion, that I wanted Kelly out of the house so I could have a woman over.
“What’s the problem?” she asked. “Have you decided you do want to send her to school here?”
“No,” I said. “But I would like her to stay with you. For a few days, anyway.”
“Why? I mean, I love having her here, but what’s your thinking?”
“Kelly has to get out of Milford for a while. No school, nothing to worry about. She’s been through a rough time and it might be just the thing for her.”
“Won’t she fall behind in her studies?” she asked. “At that school where they call her Boozer?”
“Fiona, I need to know whether you can do this for me.”
“Let me talk to Marcus and get back to you in the morning.”
“I need an answer now. Yes or no.”
“Glen, what’s this about, really?”
I paused. I wanted Kelly out of town, someplace where it would be more work for Darren or anyone else to find her. I knew Fiona’s house had a full security system that was directly wired into the police, and that Fiona had it on all the time.
I said, “It’s not safe here.”
There was an even-longer pause at the other end of the line. Finally, Fiona said, “Fine.”
I went upstairs and asked Kelly to come into my room, out of earshot of the police still in the house. I sat her on the bed next to me.
“I’ve made a decision and I hope you’re going to be okay with it,” I said.
“What?”
“I’m taking you to your grandparents in the morning.”
“I’m going to school there?”
“No. It’ll be like a vacation.”
“A vacation? Where?”
“I don’t know that they’ll actually take you anywhere, but I suppose that would be okay,” I said.
“I don’t want to be away from you.”
“I don’t like that, either. But it’s not safe here, and until I’m sure it is, it’d be better if you were someplace else. You’ll be safe with Fiona and Marcus.”
She thought about it. “I’d like to go to London. Or maybe Disney World?”
“I don’t think you should get your hopes up about that.”
She nodded, then thought a moment. “If it’s not safe for me here, then it’s not safe for you here. Are you going to go on a vacation, too? Can’t we both go?”
“I’m going to stay here, but I’ll be okay. I’ll be very careful. I’m going to find out what’s going on.”
She slipped her arms around me. “My bed’s got glass on it,” she said.
“You stay here with me tonight.”
After the police had left, Kelly got into her pajamas and slipped under the covers of my bed. She nodded off fairly quickly, which surprised me, given the events of the evening. But I guessed her system was telling her to sleep, that she needed to recharge her batteries to cope with all the confusing things that were going on.
My system didn’t work that way, not after someone had taken a shot at the house. I felt a need to do regular patrols. I turned off all the lights except for one in the kitchen and a night-light in the hall outside my bedroom. I’d check in on Kelly, head downstairs, take a look at the street, go back upstairs and check on Kelly again.
Sometime around three, I was starting to feel pretty beat. I went up to my room, lay down on the bed on top of the covers next to my daughter.
I listened to her breathing. In, and out, and in, and out. So peaceful. It was the only reassuring sound I’d heard in some time.
My intention was to stay up, to maintain my watch, but sleep finally overtook me. But my eyes opened with the suddenness of a fire station door. I looked at the clock and saw that it was just after five. I got up to do another perimeter patrol and decided there was no point in going back to bed.