Lost Innocents (32 page)

“Sometimes they do need a little encouragement,” Maddy agreed carefully, trying to humor her. “Were you ever…were you really pregnant when you got married?”

“I tried to get pregnant, but it’s not easy with a guy in prison. You don’t see him much, and there’s a lot of interruptions when you do try to do it.” Bonnie’s voice was gaining enthusiasm as she told her story. “But he believed me when I said I was. So, we got married. Then I had to come up with a baby.” She was quiet for a minute, thinking things over. “First I just borrowed a friend’s baby, and pretended it was mine. I don’t know. I didn’t plan ahead. I mean, who would have thought that he was ever going to get out. He was supposed to be in for life. I thought I’d have time to figure something out…you know? Say the kid drowned or got run over by a car or something.”

Maddy stifled a gasp. This was the kind of loony thinking that was impossible to understand. She had to remind herself that it made sense to Bonnie. She could see that the other woman wanted to talk, to explain herself. Maybe if she could get some communication going between them…not seem judgmental.

“So…what…you just looked for a baby, and then…what? The baby-sitter caught you trying to take Justin?”

Bonnie’s tone of voice changed when she remembered. Gone were the sniffles and the plaintive tone. Instead her voice was steely as she remembered how she had accomplished her purpose. “I saw them in the park. I had a baby carriage and I was pretending to walk my own baby. It was just a doll, but she couldn’t see into the carriage. I stopped and talked to her a minute, about babies, so I could get a look at him. I could see he would be perfect, but she kept her eye on him all the time. So, then I walked away, but I still kept an eye on them. And then some guy started bothering her and she got up and was trying to get away from him….”

Maddy froze, remembering the police drawing, their inferences about her husband. In light of what she now knew…“Was it Doug?” she blurted out. “Was it my husband?”

“How would I know?” Bonnie said, annoyed at having her story interrupted. “I didn’t look at the guy. I was busy looking at the baby, trying to figure out if this was the best one. Trying to get my courage up to do what I needed to do. It wasn’t easy, you know,” she said, as if she expected kudos for the feat she had performed.

“I’m sure,” Maddy murmured, horrified by this whole recitation. It was like agreeing that the world was flat. Once you accepted the initial premise, anything that followed was possible.

“I saw them leave the park. She was upset about the guy touching her. So I caught up with her where I knew no one would see us. I pretended to be real sympathetic, and I went on about all the creeps these days, bothering women. Then I offered them a ride, you know, to get away from the park. And she took it. That was her mistake,” Bonnie announced gleefully, as if recalling an opponent’s shortsighted move in a chess game.

Maddy shuddered at the thought of the poor, innocent Rebecca Starnes, trapped by her own righteous desire not to get into any trouble. She did not want to hear any more. It was making her ill to hear it. But Bonnie was warming to her ghoulish reminiscences.

“You might not believe this, but I didn’t really plan to kill her. I kept telling myself, I won’t kill her if I don’t have to.” Bonnie chuckled, and Maddy’s scalp prickled at the sound. She forced herself to watch the road.

“At first she was too shook up by the pervert to notice anything, but then she started asking questions about my baby. How come he wasn’t in a car seat and all? She wanted to see him. She got real pushy about it. Then she wanted me to let her out. She kept saying, ‘Pull over, pull over. Let us out, now.’ That pissed me off,” Bonnie recalled indignantly. “She had no reason to think badly of me. She started yanking on the door handle and kicking at the door, making great big scuff marks on everything. I’d gotten that car all spruced up and shined for Terry’s big day. I told her to stop, but she was a pain in the ass. Finally, I pulled out the gun and I shot her. She keeled right over on the dashboard. I had to hightail it out of there, and drag her into the state forest. I didn’t know where else to put her.

“I regret it now,” Bonnie cried. “I swear I do. I wish I could just take it back. You know, once one of these things starts, it just snowballs. I did everything for him, for Terry, so he could have his son…”

Bonnie’s voice trailed off as she remembered how all her efforts had been for nothing because Terry didn’t love her after all. Maddy felt a sickening twist in her stomach as she wondered again if it had been Doug there in the park, making a pass at Rebecca Starnes. Obviously he had not killed the girl. She thought that should make her feel more kindly toward him, but all she felt was numb. She looked in the rearview mirror and saw that Bonnie had rested her head on her forearm and was staring blankly out into the darkness, even as she held the gun to Maddy’s neck.

She’s insane, Maddy thought. She sees nothing wrong in what she did. Murdering that young girl seems to carry about the same amount of moral weight for her as if she had pinched a candy bar from a corner store. You’ve got to do something, Maddy told herself, do something now. But what could she do that would not endanger the children? She felt useless, unable to find a way out of this mess.

A car sped by her in the other lane, its taillights disappearing into the night. After a few moments she saw the flashing light of a state trooper’s car in her rearview mirror and heard the whine of its siren. For a moment her heart lifted with hope, then fell again as the trooper’s car whizzed by her in hot pursuit of the speeder. At the sound of the siren Bonnie sprang to attention.

“He was chasing a speeder,” Maddy said, but even as she said it, she realized that somewhere up ahead he would catch the speeder and might even be standing by the side of the road. Maybe there was something she could do. Please, God, she thought. Give me a chance.

“Mommy, I’m hungry,” Amy whimpered.

“We’ll get you something,” she said, trying to sound as if she were in control of the situation. “Bonnie,” she said hesitantly, “we probably have to think about stopping for the night somewhere.”

“Why?” said Bonnie.

“Because I’m going to nod off at the wheel. That’s why,” said Maddy.

“Just keep driving,” said Bonnie. “I don’t want to stop.”

Bonnie’s response did not surprise her. She didn’t even know why she had asked. Just to distract her from any thoughts of the trooper, perhaps.

“I’m a widow,” Bonnie said incredulously. “I’m a widow now.”

Whose fault is that? Maddy wanted to ask. The statement sounded perversely funny to her ears, and she almost wanted to laugh, although she was at that moment very close to tears. All right, she thought, stay calm, pay attention to what is up ahead.

A mile later she saw them. The speeder was pulled over to the side, and the trooper was leaning into the window of the offender’s car. Please look up at me, Maddy thought.

“How about a little music?” she said, reaching for the dashboard.

“I don’t want any music,” Bonnie said. “I need the quiet, to think.”

Maddy wasn’t really thinking about music. She just wanted an excuse to press the button for the emergency lights. She turned them on and hoped, desperately, that the trooper would look up and see them before Bonnie noticed the flashing on the dashboard. She could not tell what was happening. She did not dare look in the rearview mirror.

At that moment Justin awakened and began to cry, knocking the pacifier out of his mouth. Bonnie picked it up and shoved it back between the fussing child’s gums. Thank you, baby, Maddy thought.

It all happened quickly on the highway. Once they were past the trooper Maddy reached out and pushed the button to turn off the flashers. Bonnie did not seem to notice. Maddy drove on, holding her breath and not daring to look behind her.

T
here were five passengers on the commuter plane that Nick Rylander took to the Taylorsville County Airport. Nick usually disliked people who rushed to be first off the plane, but tonight he didn’t care whom he offended. He was out of his seat and first to the door, ignoring the reproving look of the stewardess, whose only job on this tiny flight seemed be to informing busy people of what to do in a disaster. Nick was busy thinking about other disasters.

“Excuse me,” he murmured. “Excuse me!” as he rushed past the baggage handlers who were approaching the plane on the runway. He had come without even a bag, only his wallet. He’d left the rest in his car at the Maine airport. He’d found a flight that connected from La Guardia to Taylorsville with very little breathing room, and he wasn’t going to miss it for the sake of a suitcase. It wasn’t important, anyway. Nothing mattered but getting back. Nick pulled open one of double glass doors to the terminal and hurried to the rental car desk, only to find it unmanned. He looked around frantically. A ticket agent was walking back to his counter, balancing a paper cup of coffee and a piece of pie.

“Excuse me,” said Nick.“Do you know where the rental car person is?”

The fellow nodded pleasantly. “She’s over in the coffee shop.”

“Thanks,” Nick said. He ran across the terminal, found the coffee shop and went inside. Two women were sitting at the counter, one dressed in a similar uniform to the ticket agent, the other was a blond-haired woman in a red blazer with the rental car logo on the pocket.

“Excuse me,” he said. “I need to rent a car right away.”

The blond woman was visibly annoyed at being summoned on her break, the anxiety in Nick’s pale face softened her attitude.

“All right,” she said.

“I’m sorry about your break. This is an emergency. It’s terribly urgent.”

The blonde got up the from counter stool. “Okay, I’m coming,” she said. She picked up her cup of Coke to carry with her. “Catch you later,” she said to her companion.

The woman walked slowly and deliberately back to her counter. Nick had to grit his teeth not to yell at her to hurry, but once she got behind her desk she was quick and efficient. In only a few minutes Nick was in a compact rental car, driving the dark, twisted roads toward Taylorsville.

He tried turning on the radio, but the music only made him more anxious, so he turned it off. This is probably stupid, he told himself. This is probably
insane
. He didn’t care. He had get to her and was going find out for himself what was going on, make sure Maddy was all right. She has a husband, he reminded himself, but that didn’t really matter to him either. Doug Blake was selfish. You could see it in his eyes. If that was what she wanted, well then, all right, but right now Nick believed that he himself had inadvertently put Maddy in harm’s way, and it was up to him to help her.

Fortunately the roads back to town were familiar to him, because the drive, especially along the River Road, could be treacherous. He forced himself to slow down as the roads became steeper and more winding. It wouldn’t do to someone hurt else in his zeal to protect Maddy.

As well as he knew the roads, he made two wrong turns before he was able find the way to her house from the direction of the airport. Including yesterday, he had been to her house only twice. Their other meetings had been on his territory one way or the other. He probably could have made excuses to visit her more often, but he disliked the idea of going there, of seeing where she lived and ate and slept with her husband. He didn’t want to be reminded that the woman he loved so hopelessly was the wife of another man. Nothing has changed, he reminded himself. Once this nightmare is over, you are going back to Canada. And she is staying here, with Doug. He realized that people would think this impromptu trip back was strange. That it showed an inordinate interest in Maddy welfare. So what, he thought. You’ll be leaving again, and you won’t have to deal with the snide remarks and the whispers. And, he thought grimly, if you’re right about Bonnie Lewis and the baby, whatever actions you take will be justified by the result.

He recognized Decatur Street and turned in, crawling slowly down the street until he came to Maddy’s driveway. A couple of lights were on upstairs inside the house, but the first floor was dim. Maddy car sat alone in the driveway, and Lewises’ car was gone. Nick sat in the driver’s seat, his face aflame. Gone. The Lewises were gone. Oh, this is great, he thought. You are going to look like such an ass. She’s not going to be fooled for one minute. The first words out of her mouth are going to be, “What are doing here?” Maybe with her husband right there by her side. And you will stand there looking like a perfect fool and try to explain why you had to personally swoop back into town to save her. He reminded himself that Maddy was not the only reason he had come. An innocent child was involved, a baby who, at the very least, belonged to someone other than the woman claiming to be his mother.

Focus on that, he thought. A person could fly around the world for a child in danger and no one would find it strange. Nick nodded as if in approval of his actions and opened the door of his car. He got out and strode the up walkway to the house. His heart was pounding as he reached the door and knocked, anticipating the sound of her footsteps, the look on her face as she threw the door open.

No one came. He waited a few minutes and knocked again. No one was home. Nick frowned. Maybe Maddy and Amy had gone off to celebrate with Doug once the Lewises were gone. He stood on the step, uncertainly wondering what to do next. It was undeniably anticlimactic to rush back like this, only to find an empty house. He felt a little knot of a headache forming over his left eyebrow. He felt more angry than weary. He stood with his hands on his hips, wondering what to do next. The Lewises may have disappeared, but they still had be to stopped. Regretfully he thought of Terry. Well, he’ll have to take his lumps, he thought. The child is more important. He’d have to drive to the police station and tell them in person. That was all there was to it.

As he started down the walk, he thought he heard something. A noise that sounded like a moan. He turned around and looked at the house. It must be the wind in the trees, he thought. This time of year was spooky, no matter who you were. Even he, a priest, wouldn’t want to walk through a graveyard on the night before Halloween. He hesitated, then started off again. When he heard the noise a second he time, he was sure it was not the trees.