Necessary Lies (41 page)

“That’s her,” Paula said.

I nodded. “How can I help you?” My hand shook and I hung on to the doorknob to keep the tremor from showing.

“We’d like to come in and speak with you a moment,” the older policeman said.

“All right,” I said. “Why don’t we sit out here?” I motioned to the rockers on the porch, although there were only two of them. “It’s such a pretty day.”

“We need to come in, ma’am,” said the younger policeman.

“Where is Ivy Hart?” Paula asked.

“At home, I assume,” I said, blocking the doorway.

“You need to let us in, ma’am,” the older policeman said. “Step aside, now.”

I did. What else could I do? They walked into the foyer, looking left and right into the living room and dining room.

“Your former client, Miss Ivy Hart, has gone missing,” the older policeman said. “Mrs. Jorgen, here, has reason to believe you might know where she is.”

I hadn’t out-and-out lied yet. I wondered how long I could evade the truth. “Why would you think that?” I frowned at Paula.

“She just coincidentally disappeared the day you’re fired?” Paula asked, although it wasn’t really a question.

“She probably ran away,” I said, wondering what Winona had told them.

“The grandmother believes you have her,” the young policeman said.

“She’s not here,” I said. My first—and I hoped my only—actual lie. “And I was just on my way to the grocery store, so I’d appreciate it if you’d let me get on with—”

“Listen!” Paula held her hand in the air to stop my chatter.

“Listen to what?” I said. I thought I’d heard it, too. The small but distinct cry of a baby. “I don’t hear anything.”

The three of them cocked their heads, waiting. I looked at my watch.

“I really need to go,” I said. Just then, Mary let out a full-blown wail and I shut my eyes.

“She had her baby already?” Paula asked, but she didn’t wait for an answer as she took a step toward the stairs.

I grabbed Paula’s arm. “You can’t just walk in here and—”

“We have a warrant,” the young officer said.

“Please!” I said to Paula as she jerked free of my grasp. “Please leave her alone. She just had a baby.”

Paula marched across the foyer toward the stairs, the younger policeman close behind her. “You are in so much trouble,” Paula said to me over her shoulder.

I looked at the policeman in front of me. “She needs to rest,” I pleaded. “Let her stay here and—”

“You’re under arrest for the kidnapping of a minor.” He pulled handcuffs from his belt, and I panicked at the sight of them. I raised my arms out to my sides to keep my hands away from him.

“No, please!” I said. “Don’t do that. I’ll do whatever you say. You don’t need to—”

“
Two
minors!” Paula corrected the older officer as she climbed the stairs. The younger man was close on her heels. “She kidnapped
two
of them.”

“Give me your hands,” the policeman said, and there was something about the authority in his voice that made me give in. I lowered my hands in front of me, fighting panic as he snapped the cuffs into place. Bile rose in my throat. I’d failed Ivy and her baby, once again. And Robert! Oh my God. How long before everyone knew his out-of-control wife was under arrest?

“Don’t hurt her!” I shouted after Paula as she and the younger police officer disappeared into the upstairs hallway. “Please!”

But my last word was drowned out by the shouts of a panicky fifteen-year-old girl, the cries of her baby … and the scream of a full-grown woman.

54

Ivy

The lady yanked me to my feet and pulled Mary out of my arms before I could stop her. I never been so furious in my life. I stabbed her in the face with the fork. I wasn’t thinking about what I was doing. She had my baby and I wanted my baby back. I would of killed the lady if I could and I tried to stab her again, but the policeman grabbed me by my arms, holding them behind my back and twisting my fingers until the fork dropped out of my hand. The lady slapped me across my face, she was so mad. Four trickles of blood ran down her cheek. I wished I hurt her worse. I tried to get away from the policeman to get Mary back, but he wasn’t letting me go, and the only thing I could do was kick the air. The lady held Mary way too tight and halfway upside down, and Mary was crying and crying.

“Jane!” I screamed. “Help!”

The lady turned and walked out of the room toward the stairs, carrying my baby. “No!” I hollered. “No! Come back!” I was crying and trying to kick the policeman to make him let go of me, but he was like a dog with a bone and I couldn’t get free no matter how hard I fought.

“She’ll keep the baby safe,” he said. He had a calm voice I hated. “That’s what this is all about, miss. Keeping both of you safe and sound.”

“Let go of me!” I pictured the lady walking down the stairs with Mary in her arms. I thought of the blood running down her cheek, and then I remembered my mama—how she cut Mrs. Gardiner. For the first time, I understood how you could get crazy enough to do something like that. They locked my mama up for all time. They locked her up and then they cut her open. Was that going to happen to me now?

“I want my
baby
!” I shouted.

“Now, now,” the policeman said, and he must of loosened his hold on me because I suddenly got one arm free. I flung my elbow into his face and heard the crack of his nose. He yelped and let go of me, and I ran out the door and flew down the stairs, hanging on to the railing and jumping over half the steps. Nobody was in the big hallway, but I heard car doors slamming and voices shouting in the front yard and I just kept running and running.

I needed to get to my Mary.

55

Jane

The older officer had pushed me into the backseat of the police car parked in my driveway and he was now getting in the front.

“If you let me go to her, I can persuade her to cooperate,” I said, trying to sound reasonable and rational when I felt anything but. The younger policeman and Paula were still inside my house with Ivy and the baby, and I had no idea what was going on. “She’s terrified,” I said. “She’s just a child herself. Please.” The officer acted as though he didn’t hear me, and I wondered if he was deaf. “You can keep me handcuffed if you have to, but just let me talk to her.” The police car parked at the curb made me nervous. “You’ll let them ride with
me,
won’t you?” I fought hard to keep my voice from breaking. He wouldn’t even turn to look at me, much less answer me.

But then he said something I didn’t understand.

“What?” I leaned forward to hear better, but realized he wasn’t speaking to me but to his radio. I kicked the back of his seat. “Damn it!” I shouted. “Listen to me! We have a lawyer. You have to let us speak to—”

A
third
police car pulled up to the curb, and I suddenly spotted Paula rushing across the yard toward it, Mary in her arms. The policeman in the third car got out and opened the rear door for her.

“No!” I shouted as Paula climbed into the car with the baby. I turned in my seat to look back at my house through the rear window. “Where’s Ivy?” I shouted. “Let them ride with me!”

The officer sitting in front of me started the car.

“What are you doing!” I kicked his seat one more time. “Wait for Ivy!”

I turned to look out the rear window again and saw Ivy running down my porch steps. “
Please
wait!” I said to my deaf driver. “She’s right there. Please let her come with us!”

But as the car her baby was in drove away from the curb, and the car I was in pulled out of my driveway, Ivy stood alone in my front yard in my blue robe, her hands pressed to her pale cheeks. Not screaming. Maybe not even crying. She turned her head toward the car I was in, and I pressed my cuffed hands to the window.
Be strong,
I wanted to shout to her, though I’d never felt so weak and powerless myself. I watched her standing there, looking small and dazed, until I couldn’t see her anymore.

56

Jane

I was sitting on the cot in my small, wretched cell, leaning against the cold concrete wall and hugging my knees, when the guard appeared on the other side of the bars. “Your lawyer’s back,” he said. “They’re checking him in, so he’ll be here in a minute.”

Finally!
I jumped up from my cot and held on to the bars of my cell, trying to see the heavy door at the end of the hall, just out of my sight. I’d been cut off from everyone and everything for the last twenty-four hours. I had no idea what was happening, and I’d spent a sleepless night, imagining the worst.

They’d allowed me a few phone calls when they first brought me in the day before. I’d called Gavin first, of course, then tried unsuccessfully to reach Robert at his parents’ and my mother at the library. Gavin came over right away and I nearly attacked him when he walked into my cell, trying to tell him everything as quickly as I could because I needed him to find Ivy and prevent them from sterilizing her. After all she’d been through, after all I’d done to try to prevent the worst from happening, I couldn’t bear the thought that we’d lost the battle. I cried every time I thought about it.

Once Gavin got over the shock of what I’d done, he was agonizingly methodical, taking notes as he sat on the chair in my cell while I paced. He talked about trying to get me out on bail, explaining why it was going to be difficult, and I had to stop him. “I don’t
care
about that right now!” I said. “Find Ivy first!” I’m sure I sounded hysterical to him. He asked so many questions, and I rushed through my answers. The only time I slowed down was when he asked me about the baby’s birth. I hesitated before telling him about my mother. It would come out eventually, I knew, and I needed him to be able to trust me and my word.

When he’d gathered as much information as I was willing to take the time to give, I literally pushed him out of my cell. “Go!” I said, pushing his arm. The guard holding the door open eyed me like I was a crazy woman. “Hurry, Gavin, please!” I said.

Then he was gone, and I’d spent the loneliest night of my life, my overactive imagination my only company.

Now, I heard the door at the end of the hall creak open and fall shut with a thud, and in a moment the guard appeared again, Gavin two steps behind him. I tried to read his face, but it was impassive. He looked at the back of the guard’s head rather than at me, and I clutched the bars tighter.
Please,
I thought.
Please let her be all right.

“Morning, Jane,” he said, as the guard unlocked my cell door.

I didn’t answer. I wasn’t interested in niceties. I waited until he was locked inside with me and then grabbed his arm. “Is she okay?”

He motioned toward the cot. “Sit,” he said, sitting down himself on the small wooden chair.

I sat on the edge of the cot, leaning forward, my hands locked around my knees and my feet jiggling impatiently on the floor. “Tell me,” I pleaded.

“Ivy and the baby were taken into custody by DPW and placed in two separate foster homes,” he said. “They—”

“Oh, that’s crazy!” I stood up again. “They need to be together. Ivy adores her. She’s responsible. That baby’s in no danger from—”

“Please sit, Jane,” Gavin said again, and I did so, reluctantly. “They had to do it that way while they evaluate the situation. You worked for the department. You must understand they have to determine what’s in the best interest of the child. Or in this case, two children.”

“Yes, but—”

“They planned to have Ivy examined by a physician today, but—”

“Oh no. I’m afraid once they—”

“Jane!” he said. “Let me finish. This is a quickly changing picture, all right? Ivy’s gone.”

“What do you mean?”

“She took off from the foster home in the middle of the night.”

“Took off? She ran away?”

He nodded.

I sat down on the cot again, taking that in. She’d given birth only a few days ago and had nothing with her but one of my nightgowns and my robe and whatever clothes DPW had given her.

“Is there any way she could have found out where Mary … where her baby was?” I asked.

“The baby’s still safe in another foster home,” he said, “but someone else is missing.” He looked at his notes. “The son of the farmer who owns the place where she used to live. Henry Allen Gardiner.”

Both my hands flew to my mouth. “Oh my God, Gavin!” I said. “He must be the baby’s father!”

“You know him?”

“Not well, but I’ve met him. I had no idea.” No wonder Davison Gardiner was so anxious to have Ivy sterilized. “I know Ivy loved him … she loved the baby’s father. I don’t know
his
feelings … although if he took off with her last night, they must be mutual.” I hoped he could keep her safe. Maybe, just maybe, we didn’t need to find her. Maybe her life would be better at this point if no one ever did. But her
baby,
I thought. Ivy would die without her Mary.

“So, of course they’re looking for her,” Gavin said, “and I’ll see what I can do about getting a hold put on that sterilization order for when they find her, but it’ll be hard with her gone. Meanwhile, we need to focus on getting you out of here. I managed to reach Robert. He’s on his way home from Atlanta.”

I cringed. “Was he furious? This was supposed to be his time away from me.”

Gavin smiled for the first time since walking in my cell. “He honestly didn’t sound all that shocked,” he said.

“What did he say when you told him I was in jail?”

“Nothing right away. He didn’t say anything for so long, in fact, that I thought we’d lost the connection. Then he said, ‘Why couldn’t she take up knitting, like normal wives?’”

I groaned. “That sounds like Robert,” I said.

“Well, I don’t think he’ll have to worry about you being a working girl any longer,” Gavin said. “It’s not easy to find a job when you have a record.”

“A record,” I repeated. They were words I’d never expected to hear in relation to myself.

“You’ll have to do some time,” he said, “but I’ll do my best to make sure it’s as little as possible.”