Shadow of Doubt (11 page)

“Come in,” she said.

Ted shook his head. “I'm on my way over to Bon—to Melissa's. It's going to take me a while to get used to calling her that. All these years I've been thinking of her as Bonnie. She's scared, Patricia. She says her ex-boyfriend has been stalking her.”

“
Stalking
her?” My mother's eyes widened. “Has she reported him to the police? What are they doing about it?”

“She reported him to the police in Edmonton—that's where she was living before she moved here. She says they didn't take her seriously. She says that the reason she moved was to get away from him. But he tracked her down. He trashed her car—which he denies, of course. She reported it to the police, and they say they investigated, but...” He shook his head in disgust. “Far as I can tell, the police here aren't taking her seriously either. He showed up at her house this afternoon while I was there. I was just making it clear that he was to stay away from her, that's all. After all this time—” His voice broke off. “Patricia, I don't want anything to happen to her. You understand, don't you?”

“Of course I do.”

He kissed my mother on the cheek. “Thank you,” he said. “I have to go. I'll call you.”

Fifteen minutes after he left, the doorbell rang again. This time I answered.

“Dad, what are you doing here?” I glanced around nervously. If my mom saw him she'd be furious. The rule was that my father wasn't supposed to show up at my mom's house unless she invited him. Which she never did.

“Robyn?” my mother called. “Did I hear the doorbell again? Did Ted come back?” I heard the rustling of her robe. “What brings you here, Mac?” Her icy tone was a sharp contrast to the warmth with which she had greeted Ted.

“I wanted to talk to you about what happened,” my father said. “Has Ted told you everything?”

“He was just here, Dad.”

My mother shot me a furious look.

“You haven't answered my question, Mac,” she said.

“What did Ted tell you?”

“Excuse me?” my mother said. What she really meant was, How dare you stick your nose into my personal business?

“Patti—”

My mom winced when he called her that. She insisted on being called Patricia. My dad resisted.

“Good night, Mac.” She started to turn away.

“There's something I think you should know about Ted's ex-wife and his daughter,” my father said.

My mother spun around. “Look, Mac, I appreciate what you did for Ted. But I wish you had recommended someone else to find his daughter for him because, frankly, I don't want you involved in anything that has to do with me and Ted.”

“Do you really think I
wanted
to be involved?” my father said. “I gave Ted several names. Any one of them could have done what I did. But he insisted that I take the job. He said he wanted someone he could trust.”

My mother stared at him. “Why on Earth would he trust you?”

“Mom!”

My mother turned to me. “Go to your room, Robyn.”

I started to go, but then my father spoke again, refocusing my mother's attention.

“Patti—”

“It's Patricia,” my mother said. “How many times do I have to tell you? My name is
Patricia
.”

I decided to stay where I was. After all, I knew Ms. Denholm better than either of them did.

“Patricia,” my father said, for the first time ever that I had heard. He did not look happy. “Melissa Denholm, formerly known as Bonnie Gold, then Bonnie Duguid, claims that she is being stalked by her ex-boyfriend. However, neither the police nor I could find any evidence of this. In fact—”

“Neither the police nor
you
? What does this have to do with you?” My mother crossed her arms over her chest.

“Ted hired me to find his daughter, and I did. I believe in being thorough. It's been sixteen years since Ted last saw her. I had Vern do a background check.”

My mother eyed him suspiciously.

“A few of the people Vern was chasing down returned his calls after Ted had already reunited with his daughter.”

I remembered seeing Vern at my father's place with his notebook open.

“And?” my mother said in a still-icy tone.

“
And
in the matter of Melissa Denholm and Mikhail Mornov, the only charges that were ever laid were charges against Melissa Denholm.”

“
What?
”

“For assaulting Mikhail Mornov—that charge was laid by the police and subsequently withdrawn at his insistence. And for vandalizing Mornov's car—
that
charge was laid by Mornov's father and was subsequently withdrawn, again at the insistence of Mornov.”

My mother stared at my father in silence for a few moments. Then she said, “What are you saying, Mac?”

“Ted doesn't know much about his daughter. He saw her a couple of times when she was a little girl. I tried to explain to him about her history—how it may have affected her. I thought you should know, Patti. Maybe you can help him.”

“What do you mean, her history?” my mother said.

“Melissa's mother was terrorized by a stalker,” my father said. My mother's expression changed from hostile to worried.

“Terrorized?”

“After Beth Gold left Ted, she remarried—to a James Duguid. Apparently it was pretty rocky. Turned really nasty when Beth finally left him. He didn't take it well. He began to stalk her. Even killed the family pet—Melissa's cat—”

My mother gasped.

“—slashed the tires on Beth's car, broke into her house, made threatening phone calls...”

“Please tell me she went to the police,” my mother said.

“She did. And they followed up. But Duguid was smart. They never got anything on him. And he tried to make it sound as if she was mentally unstable. Like I said, nasty. Then Duguid applied for joint custody—he'd legally adopted Melissa after he and Beth married. Beth must have been worried that he might actually get it. She fled with Melissa. From what Vern and I were able to find out, she moved a couple of times, but James always found her. She and Melissa went underground.”

“Underground?” My mother shook her head. “What do you mean?”

“They vanished. Beth changed their names—informally, anyway. She didn't want to leave a paper trail. Somehow she managed to get a new birth certificate issued to Melissa—probably illegally. They moved to a small town. She didn't get a phone, gave up all her credit cards, didn't get a driver's license. She worked at menial jobs and always insisted on being paid in cash. She didn't have a bank account.”

No wonder Ted hadn't been able to track her down
, I thought.

“She kept a close eye on Melissa too,” my dad continued. “Ted's daughter was homeschooled her in her elementary years, did high school through correspondence.”

“The poor thing must have had a lonely childhood,” my mother said.

My father nodded. “People thought Beth was eccentric. But really she was terrified that James Duguid would find her. She was convinced that if he did, he would kill them both. She spent most of her life hiding. Didn't surface until about eighteen months ago—right after James Duguid was killed in a bar fight.”

“I heard Ms. Denholm tell Ted that her mother died a year ago,” I said.

That's when my mother noticed I was still there. She gave me a sharp look but didn't order me to my room again.

“By the time James Duguid was out of her life, Beth was in the late stages of breast cancer,” my father said. “And Melissa...” He looked directly at my mother. “Melissa had a pretty tough upbringing. Every time she left the house—and from what Vern found out, it wasn't very often—her mother held her breath until she came back again. If Melissa was even five minutes late returning home, she'd find her mother in tears.”

“Poor thing,” my mother said. I couldn't decide whether she was referring to Ms. Denholm or her mother.

“When Melissa started going out with boys, she and her mother had a big blowup. Their first, according to Vern's sources,” my father said. “Melissa's mother drilled it into her head that men who take too much of an interest can be dangerous. You know how it is with men who turn out to be stalkers. They start off flattering a woman with excessive attention. Then they become overly possessive—they never want to let the woman out of their sight. They want to control her. Gradually isolate her from her family and friends. Then they become abusive. If the woman defies them or, God help her, tries to leave them, they get violent. According to a woman who knew Beth just before she died, Melissa had seen all of this with her mother and Duguid. She wanted her life to be different from her mom's. She wanted to meet someone nice, get married and have a family. But despite what she wanted, she had learned from her mother that it was dangerous to get too close to a man you don't know well, or to let him get too close to you.

“Beth and Melissa had an even bigger fight when Melissa decided that she wanted to go to college,” he continued. “Beth wanted her to remain hidden so that James couldn't track her down. Melissa refused. She enrolled against her mom's wishes. She dated while she was there, but never for long. Whenever a guy showed more than casual interest in her, she backed off.”

“Was Mikhail Mornov one of those men?”

My father nodded. “He was in love with her,” he said. “At least, that's what people told Vern. But his attention made Melissa nervous. The closer he tried to get, the more she backed off, until finally she ended the relationship. When Mornov tried to win her back, she accused him of stalking her. She kept calling the police about him, but they never found any evidence of wrongdoing on his part. According to police records, she was the one who behaved aggressively.”

“Are you sure, Mac?”

“You know how Vern works,” my father said. “I wouldn't be telling you if I wasn't sure.”

My mom didn't argue with him. However she felt about my dad personally, I think she knew he would never treat something this important lightly.

“And Ted knows this?”

“I told him.” He sighed. “There's no question that his ex-wife was being stalked. I'm sure Melissa filled him in on the details of her life with her mother. But I don't think he's willing to consider that Melissa may have developed serious psychological problems as a result.”

“That's one opinion, Mac,” my mother said. “From an ex-police officer, not from a qualified mental-health professional.”

“Look, Patti—
Patricia
—I have no intention of interfering in your personal affairs. But I thought, in light of your...relationship with Ted, that you should be aware of the situation.”

My mom waited.

“Mornov told the police that he just wanted to talk to Melissa,” my father said.

“Well, of course he told them that,” my mother said. “If he were stalking her, surely you wouldn't expect him to tell them the truth.”

“He trashed her car, Dad,” I said. “Billy and I both saw it. So did you.”

“We saw the
car
,” my father said.

My mother eyed him closely. “But?”

“Mornov has an alibi.”

“Alibi?” my mother said. “What kind of alibi?”

“According to what Robbie told me, the car must have been damaged between the time she and Billy saw it when they arrived at Melissa's house and the time they went outside again—in other words, between about seven-fifteen and eight-thirty. Does that sound right to you, Robbie?”

I nodded.

“Mornov has been staying with his uncle, a tile importer, since he arrived in town two weeks ago. He was helping out at the warehouse from four in the afternoon that day until just before midnight.”

“According to his
uncle
,” my mother said with a snort. “I suppose the police accepted that explanation.”

“They checked with some of the warehouse employees.”

“Who just happen to depend on the uncle for their livelihood,” my mom said. “Come on, Mac. They could have told the police that he was there because Mornov's uncle made it clear that they'd lose their jobs if they didn't.”

My dad turned to me. “Was Melissa in her apartment the whole time you and Billy were there with her?”

I started to say yes, but then I remembered. “She went downstairs to speak to her landlady.”

“Do you remember how long she was gone?”

“Fifteen minutes?” I said. I had looked at my watch. I explained about Ms. Denholm's landlady.

“I'll talk to her,” my dad said.

“About what?” my mom asked.

“Maybe she saw something, or heard something.”

“She's pretty deaf, Dad,” I said.

“The police probably talked to her already,” my mother said. Her face darkened. “What are you suggesting, anyway?”

“I'm not sure that I'm suggesting anything. But there were witnesses to what happened today. They all said the same thing,” my father said. “They said Ted attacked Mornov and threatened him.”

A troubled look appeared in my mother's eyes.

“This girl has had a rough ride, Patt—Patricia. And the young man, Mornov—by all accounts he's a decent guy. He's never been in any kind of trouble that Vern could find out about.”

“And Vern has done as thorough a check on Mornov as he has on Melissa, I suppose,” my mother said.

“Well, maybe not
as
thorough,” my father admitted. “We were looking into Melissa Denholm, not Mikhail Mornov.”

My mother shook her head.

“He can't be all that upstanding,” she said at last, “if he's bothering Melissa after she moved here to get away from him. So what is he doing here? Why did he show up at her house when she's made it perfectly clear that he isn't welcome in her life?”