Skeleton Key (24 page)

Erika hugged Clay and gave him a soft kiss on his cheek that made the hairs on his arms stand up. She felt so good to him. He wanted to help her. So he prayed all right. He prayed for Logan, but he prayed harder that Erika wasn’t involved in any unscrupulous activities. The second prayer was futile, though, because if she was involved seven years ago, no prayer was going to change that. It just made him feel better to pray it. It gave him hope.

The back door opened, and they jumped apart like guilty kids hiding from their parents. When the boys returned, Logan actually had a smile on his face. “If I play tonight, I think I’m gonna do all right,” he said.

“
How ’bout I trim those bangs from your eyes so you can see?” Erika said while smiling back. That was a lot of words from her son.

“
Okay,” was his more typical one-word reply.

They disappeared into the bathroom. Tanner said, “I may have told him that he’s gonna have a good shooting night tonight.”

“
Why would you do that?” Clay asked with all the sincerity of a disappointed parent.

“
I saw the future, Dad. If they’re playing Perry tonight, then he’s gonna make several baskets. Who are they playing?”

“
Perry.” Clay was noticeably curious. “More precognition?”

“
Yep. I saw into the future.”

“
What exactly did you see?”

“
Three threes in a row from the corner in front of the Durand bench.”

“
So you told Logan, and he believes you?”

“
I sort of told him to believe me, but it’s all good, Dad. It would have happened regardless. I can see into the future.”

“
Have you seen anything else?”

Tanner hesitated. Finally he said, “I saw that short, stocky cop that I saw the night Adrian’s body was recovered. He had a barrel chest, thick neck and arms. Kept staring at Erika.”

“
That’s Dan Duncan. I know him.”

Tanner hesitated again. “I saw he had a gun, and he shot it at you.”

While the Thomases and Paynes were at Erika’s house, Chief Hopper met with an expert in train mechanics. When Hopper and the mechanic arrived at the Depot, Roberto Gomez was just finishing work. Anna had been dropped off by Stacy, and she was pretending to drive the train engine—the brakes of which Roberto was repairing. Brake work was exceptionally difficult but vitally important, and Roberto was good at his job. However, when he saw Hopper leading the mechanic to the train exhibit outside of the Depot, he knew he could be in trouble. He hung up his tools, gathered Anna from the engineer’s seat, and left as quickly and inconspicuously as possible.

He was having trouble deciding what to do, but he finally decided to call Erika rather than Stacy. Erika took the call on her cell phone while she was cutting Logan’s hair. She could tell that Roberto was distressed, so when he asked if they could talk, she invited him over. Logan would need to leave soon for his game, but no one else would have to go until just before game time.

When Roberto arrived, Logan had already taken Erika’s car and left in time to be at the JV game. Anna peeked in the door with her familiar smile and immediately asked for Logan. She was clearly disappointed that he wasn’t there, but Tanner came to the rescue. Once they were reintroduced, they were off playing almost immediately. Gomez was clearly nervous. He didn’t like that Clay was there, but it wasn’t something that he could control, so he sat down in a chair next to the couch and fidgeted momentarily while he worked up his nerve.

“
I have something that I need to tell you,” he said. “And Stacy doesn’t know about some of this.”

Erika, as sweet as could be, sat down on the edge of the couch next to Roberto, and reached for his hand. “I can tell something is wrong, Robbie. What is it?”

“
I’m sorry, but could we speak privately? I know that Clay is your friend, but he’s working with Chief Hopper. I think it’s best if I spoke to you alone.”

Erika was going to object, but Clay agreed to leave. By the time Clay found the kids in Erika’s basement, Tanner had already stood Anna up on a stool at one end of a ping-pong table, and he was teaching her how to play ping-pong. Clay ended up shagging all of the balls she missed. Little Anna was squealing and laughing at each point. She was so cute that Clay couldn’t help but smile right along and admire her enthusiasm. After one particular shot in which her return tipped off the net and trickled over for a point, she smiled her crooked, dimpled smile, and all of a sudden Clay realized what made it so familiar. He headed back up the stairs.

Back upstairs, Roberto had already begun. “I’m so sorry, Erika. I have some things to tell you that you might find very disturbing, but I think it’s time that you knew the truth. Chief Hopper has someone checking out the train engine that’s on display at the Depot. I’m afraid that they’re gonna figure something out that I’ve been hiding for seven long years.”

“
This has to do with Adrian’s death, doesn’t it?”

“
Yes. Erika, I’m responsible for his death.”

“
No, Robbie, I know that’s not possible. The coroner says he died as a result of the train crash.” She didn’t know how to tell about Adrian’s claim to having a heart attack, so she added, “Or possibly natural causes. Unless you crashed the train, how could you be remotely responsible?”

“
Because the train couldn’t stop. I messed with the brakes. When that truck was left on the tracks, the train couldn’t stop on time, so it was my fault. Adrian was killed in the wreck. It was my fault, Erika.”

“
Just explain what you’re talking about.”

“
There’s so much to say. I went to Lansing that night. Everyone knew that the engineer—Joe Carrollton was his name—would let Adrian drive the train back into Durand. A lot of us knew that Adrian would buy him a good bottle of liquor, and Joe would sit back and let Adrian take charge. Adrian, to show off, always pulled into the station too fast and stopped the train too fast. On that night, I checked the train schedule and discovered that there was to be a crossing northbound freight train at 9:07. When the Amtrak was to pull into the Depot, the northbound freighter would pass through our railroad diamond. My plan was for the train to have a difficult time stopping as Adrian zoomed into the Depot. I didn’t ruin the brakes completely, but I fixed it so he wouldn’t be able to stop on time. I wanted to humiliate him. I wanted to embarrass him and cause him trouble with the commission. I was so angry with Adrian that I didn’t consider the consequences to other people. When I heard about the train wreck at Oak Street, I realized I had killed Joe, and probably Adrian too once his body was found.”

Clay appeared in the entryway to the living room. Roberto looked up and made eye contact with him, so Clay simply used mind control to tell him, “
Keep talking.
”

“
Why would you do such a thing, Robbie?” Erika asked.

“
I don’t know. Lots of reasons. He sexually harassed Stacy. He made racist remarks to me. He treated me like a second-class citizen.”

“
Tell her the truth, Robbie,” Clay said. When Robbie looked up and made eye contact, Clay said, “Tell Erika what he did.”

Roberto actually had tears in his eyes. “Your husband raped Stacey.”

“
What? When?” Clay had not told her what he had learned in the interview.

“
About a year before the wreck. He was always coming on to her. Told her he hired me just to make her happy. At a party, Stacy drank a little too much, and Adrian took advantage of her. When she resisted, he told her that he’d fire her and me if she didn’t let him continue. He said there were lots of people who saw her flirting with him, and they all knew she had come on to him in the past, so no one would believe her. Plus he’d make sure we lost our jobs. After the rape, Stacy found out that even before the rape, he had been telling people that Stacy was after him. He’d
planned
on raping her. After the rape, he treated me worse than ever.”

“
There’s something you’re leaving out, isn’t there, Robbie?” Clay said. He had figured it out while he was in the basement with Tanner and Anna. Robbie tried to act like he didn’t know what Clay was talking about. But he knew it had to come out eventually. It was Clay who said, “Anna is Adrian’s daughter, isn’t she?”

***

Chief Hopper and Robert Parker, the mechanic who was brought in to investigate the train engine, stepped up into the train and flipped on a couple of powerful flashlights to ward off the darkness that was quickly creeping in. It was cold outside, but there was shelter from the wind inside the train car. In a matter of seconds, Parker noticed that the air gauge instrument that indicates the amount of air pressure in the brake pipes was broken. “Could have happened in the crash,” said Parker. “But if it was broken prior to the accident, the engineer wouldn’t know how much air was in the reservoirs.”

“
From all we’re hearing, it was a pretty well-known fact that Adrian Payne would have been driving the engine. I checked. He wasn’t certified or even trained to drive the train. And the engineer, Joseph Carrollton, had a blood-alcohol content of .17, more than twice the legal limit. He was found at fault after the accident. It’s completely possible neither of the men would’ve noticed the broken instrument. The black box recorded a failed attempt to break the train on time. Is there any way you can identify break trouble?”

After a thorough examination, Parker found two other interesting problems. “First of all, Luke, this here brake cylinder has been tampered with.”

“
What’s the problem?”

“
The brake cylinder is a part of the air brake system. There’s lots of components to the entire system, but how this here part works is the cylinder contains a piston, which is forced outward by compressed air. The compressed air is what applies the brakes and slows the train. When the air pressure is released, the piston returns to its normal position by a release spring coiled around the piston rod inside the cylinder. This piston rod don’t got no release spring.”

“
Which means what exactly?” Luke prodded.

“
It means the piston can’t return to its normal position, so the air pressure ain’t able to build up for the next application. It means once the brakes are applied once, like when roundin’ a bend, for instance, then air’ll leak out and not enough pressure is built up to slow down the train properly the next time the brakes are applied.”

“
Someone removed the spring?”

“
Well, it can’t just fall out of the cylinder, Chief, even if it
did
somehow break. Now if the air gauge was workin’, the engineer would’ve known for sure there was a problem.”

“
Isn’t there a secondary system if something malfunctions? I mean, surely the engineer has another way to stop the train.”

“
Sure thing, but that’s the other problem I seen. This is the brake shaft.” He pointed at the shaft. “A chain is wound around this shaft, and it’s because of that chain that the power of a hand brake can be applied to the wheels.”

“
What chain?”

“
Exactly. There ain’t no chain. It’s been removed. Ain’t no way to stop a train quickly when the air brakes aren’t buildin’ up enough pressure. Given enough time and room, the driver could bring the train to a stop, but if there ain’t time and space, an engineer would have to rely on the hand brakes. This engine didn’t have no workin’ hand brakes.”

“
So what’s your assessment?”

“
It’s simple. Someone who knew what he was doin’—and had some specialized tools—rigged this train so it wouldn’t stop when the driver wanted it to. Someone broke the air gauge and walked away with the spring and the chain. The brakes on this train were messed up somethin’ good.”

“
Wouldn’t these things you’re telling me have come out in the investigation seven years ago?”

“
Could be they weren’t lookin’ if there wasn’t reason to believe the brakes failed. You said the engineer was drunk. Maybe they just blamed it on him and walked away nice and neat. Or maybe they saw it and didn’t publicize it, ’cause it woulda been bad pub. Hard to say.”

“
Well, whatever reason, the guy has gotten away with his crime for seven years. It’s time he came to justice.”

Erika was shocked. “Anna is
Adrian’s
daughter? Did Adrian know?”

“
Course he knew. She doesn’t look a thing like me.”

“
I just figured you had some Caucasian blood in your ancestry.”

“
I’m one hundred percent Mexican, as are both my parents and both their parents. Both sets of grandparents were immigrants from Mexico. While Stacy was pregnant, we didn’t know, but as soon as Anna was born, it was clear. When we approached Adrian, he didn’t even care. He didn’t give any money, didn’t take any interest. Didn’t even ask what her name was. When Anna was three months old, she got sick and was hospitalized. It was expensive, and my insurance wasn’t enough. I asked Adrian for help, and he laughed. Made a few additional racial slurs and told me I was lucky to have a job. He could take it from me anytime he wanted. I wanted to hurt him. When he went to that conference I took things into my own hands. It was predictable that he’d be driving the train. When I saw the train schedule, I figured I could cause an accident, and he would be to blame. I hated him. He violated my wife, the person I love the most in the world. I could find it in myself to love Anna, just because she was Stacy’s, but
he
couldn’t even love his own child.”