Chapter 33

 

The county officers took the three drug dealers away in separate cars, and DuWayne went with Detective Milford. He was being taken to the hospital in Emily City to have his arm and head checked. Forest County has no hospital. The boxes and pails were photographed, and then loaded into yet another police vehicle. I assured them that the blood on my arm was minor, just the rubbing off of a scab. Soon, there was no one in the old house but Tracy and Kyle, the dog and me. We humans sat on the edge of the front porch with our legs dangling, and Paddy curled up beside me. Most of the old railing was broken away, leaving plenty of room for us along the edge.

“Let us take you home, Ana,” Tracy said.

“I’d like that,” I answered with a sigh. “But my Jeep is at the other side of the railroad bridge.”

“We know. We saw it there.”

“How did you find me?” I asked.

“First, we got your call, but we didn’t know who it was.”

“I didn’t know if it went through.”

“It did. Almost immediately after that the 9-1-1 dispatch called us. They had heard what you said, but way too often the wireless emergency calls are dropped, out here in the State Forest.”

“But I never got as far as telling them where I was,” I protested.

“Sure, but they could tell which tower your cell phone was coming from. Trouble is, it’s the same tower you’d hit if you called from your house.”

“So you thought I was at home?”

“We did, and we went there. When we couldn’t find you, we drove farther down the road, and Paddy was sitting by the Jeep. He tried to lead us across the bridge.”

“Good dog!” I said, rubbing behind his ears.

He gazed at me with his deep brown eyes, then laid his head on his paws as if to say, “No problem, I do it all the time.”

“So we figured you must be over here somewhere, and this old house seemed the most likely. The worst part for Kyle and me was that we needed to drive around to another bridge to get here.

“That’s really a long way!”

“I know,” she continued. “We called Milford and Harvey and they got here first; they were already out of the office on another case. We all parked down the road so as not to make noise. Then we walked the rest of the way. We saw the truck outside, and then found your broken cell phone, and that made us sure this was where we’d find you.”

A tow truck pulled up and began hooking up Pablo’s black truck.

“How did DuWayne get here?” I asked.

“His canoe is down at the old landing.”

“So he’s been coming and going on the river?”

“Yup.”

“I thought someone was, but I sure didn’t picture him as an outdoor type.”

“How’s your arm?” asked Kyle. The Cherry Hill deputy was shy, happy to let Tracy do most of the talking.

“It’s not bad. The scabs are mostly scraped off, but I’ll clean it up when I get home.”

“Should we take you to a doctor, to have it looked at?” he continued.

“No, I’m fine. I’m glad you didn’t get here any later, though, or I might not be!”

Tracy was stern. “You seem to be making a habit of getting into dangerous situations, Ana.”

“I certainly wasn’t trying to get into this one. I called for help right away, but then Larry dragged me into the house.”

“I’m glad to hear you didn’t confront them on purpose. Let’s get you home.”

The evening was spent quietly. After a bath I examined my arm, and was happy to see that it now only needed a couple of band-aids. Every time it got skinned it looked terrible, but none of the scrapes was deep. Having a refrigerator full of groceries was wonderful, as I had choices for dinner. Paddy had earned a treat and I split the leftover kielbasa with him and made myself a big salad. The only other memorable event was that Detective Milford called and asked me to be at the Sheriff’s Department at ten the next morning to give them a statement. I thought the man must work twenty-four hours a day.

Tuesday morning was again cool. I expected it to be a quick trip, so I let Paddy ride along, thinking we’d go for a walk in a county park afterward.

The County Jail and Sheriff’s Department are located two miles west of Cherry Hill on the highway. I had driven past them, but had never been inside before. The buildings are low, sprawling and functional, built of concrete block.

When I went inside, I was shown into a plain room painted in two shades of gray with a metal table and chair. Detective Peters was there. He asked me to sit down and write out exactly what had happened on Monday. This took the better part of an hour. When I finished he thanked me and led me into a larger room, painted in two shades of tan, instead of the dismal gray, that was slightly more comfortable. It held a large conference table surrounded by thinly padded straight chairs. Milford was at the head of the table, and along the left side were Corliss Leonard, Star and Sunny. DuWayne sat opposite them. A gauze pad was taped on his shaved head, and he had a cast on his left arm.

There were two other men seated there as well. One was next to DuWayne, a suave black man with short graying hair, wearing a brown silk suit, and too many gold rings. Somehow I just knew he was DuWayne’s lawyer. The other man was young and thin, and wore a dark suit, white shirt, and tie. It looked as if they were all waiting for me, but I couldn’t imagine why.

“Come in, Ana,” Detective Milford said. It was an order rather than an invitation. When I was seated, he continued. “We have just a few more things we’d like to clear up. First of all, let me explain that DuWayne has been charged as an accessory in Angelica’s murder, due to his involvement in covering it up. However, his voluntary surrender and cooperation in capturing Larry Louama and the Ybarras, and breaking up the drug trade in both Forest and Sturgeon Counties should help reduce his sentence. We think he can help us some more, today.”

I looked at Star and Sunny. This must have been an awful lot for them to process on top of losing their mother. However, they seemed to be holding up all right.

Milford continued, extending a hand in the direction of the young man. “This is Special Agent Jeremy Powers of the FBI.”

“FBI! What is it that you want me for?” I asked in consternation.

“How carefully did you look at the wrist band the dog brought to you, which led to finding Angelica’s body.”

“Not very well. It was covered with mud and dog spit, and then the girls took it. They gave it to you.”

“So you didn’t make any marks on it?”

“Marks?”

“Yes. Did you scratch any words or numbers on it, for example?”

“No. Why would I do that? What are you talking about? It had the factory-carved words about their shared birthday. That’s all.”

“Well, no, you’re wrong about that.” I remembered how rough the band had felt, but that was just because of the sandy mud, I thought.

I looked around at the people present. I had no idea what was going on. “Could someone explain to me what’s happening here? Have I done something wrong?”

Milford nodded at Powers, and the agent took up the story. His voice was higher than I expected, but he was concise. “Larry Louama has long been suspected of many crimes which could never be proven. We think Angelica was killed because she could link him to the murder of J. Everett Bailey. What do you know about that?”

“I heard that he was killed in his motel, that’s all. I still don’t see how I can help. I didn’t live here back then. You do know that, right?”

“Please just listen,” Milford said. “The only people who handled that bracelet are in this room, plus DuWayne, who may have some prior knowledge of what we are trying to tell you.”

Powers continued. “If we can show that Louama killed J. Everett Bailey, we can also link him to several other murders in Illinois through forensic evidence from the bullets.” He turned to DuWayne. “Did Angelica ever talk to you about a place where she might have kept important papers, pictures, notes? Anything like that?”

“No,” DuWayne answered, shaking his head. “I’m the last person she would’ve told. She wanted to get out of dealing drugs. She said she didn’t care if we were poor. She wanted to have an honest job, and raise the girls the way she’d been brought up. Back then, I wouldn’t listen to her.” He looked at Star and Sunny and rested his head in his right hand. “I’m so sorry.”

Corliss moved uneasily in his chair. The girls stared at the floor, but no one was crying. There was an awkward silence.

Detective Milford’s voice drilled through the pain in the room. “All right, I’ve asked all of you about handling the bracelet, and no one added any words, or saw anything other than...” He paused and pulled some things out of an expanding file and laid them on the table. He looked at the top paper. “...Sunny and Star - Happy Birthdays – Mommy Angel?”

I said, “No.” The girls shook their heads.

“Please respond audibly,” Milford said.

“No, I didn’t,” Star answered in an even voice. “You have to tell him you didn’t, Sunny.”

“I didn’t do anything except hold on to it until you took it away.” She glared at Milford.

“I only had it for a few seconds when you showed it to me,” Len added.

“There was something scratched on the inside of the bracelet, which we found when it was thoroughly cleaned,” Milford said. “Do the numbers thirteen, thirty-five, and seven mean anything to anyone?”

Practically in unison, we all said, “No.”

“What if the numbers were in a series, with dashes between them, like a code?”

I could feel the blood draining from my face, and I whispered, “The tackle box under the bridge!”