“So, did you get your puppy all settled?” Linda Turner looked up from the menu she was reading in the restaurant booth. The place was a chain dinner house Jessie didn’t go to often but it was a good place to talk without calling any attention to oneself and the food would be decent and predictable. Tonight that all sounded fine.
“She’s not really a puppy.” Jessie slid into her side of the booth. “In fact I got her because she was older and already trained. Even on my best days I don’t have the time and energy for training a puppy.”
“And from what I hear there haven’t been many of those best days for you recently anyway.” Linda looked pleasant and motherly. “Just the parade of law enforcement officers through your office would be enough to rattle most people. Are they helping you any or just hounding you? My ex-husband was a cop and I don’t trust them to do the best thing all the time.” Her nose wrinkled in distaste. “They have their own agenda all too often.”
Jessie wanted to argue that they weren’t all that way. Steve at least was different, but the words stayed on her tongue. She and Steve may have made a connection, but he was still the detective on her mother and sister’s case. In some ways he had to have his own agenda to stay focused on his job. “I guess you’re right.”
“I’m sure some of them are better than others. That young man from the county sheriff’s department seems all right I suppose. But that other one…” Linda almost shivered. “He’s got such cold eyes.”
They were pale blue at least, Jessie thought. He wasn’t always the friendliest individual, either; sometimes she felt as though he was observing her a little too closely. Maybe her discomfort around Joshua Richards wasn’t just a fluke. Before she said anything the server was there to take their order and once that was over it felt like time to start a new subject instead of this rather grim one.
Jessie thought for a moment about how to approach what she wanted to know without offending Linda. Without any real experience talking to women her mother’s age about their past and things that brought up their age it was hard to know where to begin. She remembered the photos on Linda’s desk and decided to start there. “I saw the pictures on your desk. Are those your family?”
Linda nodded. “Yes, but I’m afraid neither of them is quite current. Teddy and Amy are both in college now. I suppose I should tell them I want new pictures for Christmas. Those high-school senior shots just don’t do them justice. Kids have a way of becoming adults on you in a heartbeat.” Her smile was that of a loving parent proud of her kids, and it gave Jessie a momentary stab of pain.
She took a deep breath and decided to be open with Linda. “If you’ve been talking to the other instructors, then you know that not only did I bury my mom this week, but that she and I were estranged, to say the least. I’ve really been trying to figure out why she would have walked out on two small children the way she did. If you’ve got kids who are in college, it’s likely you were a young mom in your twenties just a few years after my mom was going through the same thing.”
Linda sat back against the high padded booth. “Yes, I guess I was. What are you looking for, Ms. Barker?”
“Please, if I’m supposed to call you Linda, you have to call me by my first name, too. Outside of the office I’m definitely Jessie. If you want to be formal when we’re both at work then that’s up to you. But here, it’s Jessie.”
“All right then. The question’s still the same. What are you trying to find out, Jessie?”
She leaned her chin on one cupped hand, trying to find the right words. “Nothing particular and everything all at once. I guess I’m trying to get a feel for what it must have been like for my mom twenty-five years ago, staying at home raising two little kids while my dad worked long hours as the lowest guy in the food chain at a state college out in the boonies.”
Linda gave a short, wry laugh. “I can relate to that. Twenty years ago I was in a similar situation, except as I mentioned before, my husband was a beat cop, a patrolman. We had plenty of long hours, lots of stress and not all that much money. We divorced when the children were barely out of diapers and then things really got stressful.”
“Did you share custody of the kids?” Jessie wasn’t sure why that question came out the way it did, but she wanted to know.
“Not for long. Their father was killed during a robbery about five years after we divorced. He was moonlighting as security at a shopping mall, supposedly to pay child support but where that money really went I’ll never know. We got by but it wasn’t easy.” She looked down at the table a moment as if to collect herself and then patted her short graying strawberry blonde hair into place. “But I imagine that wasn’t the kind of thing you were asking about.”
“Oddly enough, I think it was. I know just from teaching my pop culture units that the eighties weren’t exactly a feminist stronghold of total equality. Women who built careers and wore power suits garnered a lot more respect than the ones who stayed home with little kids.”
The older woman nodded. For a moment Jessie caught a flash of something in her eyes that might have been anger or disappointment, but it was gone quickly. And then the server was back with their salads and the table fell silent for a while. As she pushed the lettuce around, Jessie tried to use what Linda had said and put herself in her mother’s position almost a quarter-century before. Even without adding a crime family into the situation, it didn’t feel like a comfortable place to be.
They ate in silence for a little while and then Linda cleared her throat softly. “I don’t want you to think life was all terrible back then. Some of it was good, especially with the kids. And I don’t regret having them.”
Not like my mother did, Jessie thought, the strength of her conviction shocking her into continued silence. She had few memories of her mother, but none of them involved those things some of her friends talked about, such as spontaneous ice-cream cones, finger painting at the kitchen table or making floury messes baking cookies together. Even the picture she had of that one lone picnic came about because her father insisted on going, and taking the picture.
Across the table, Linda seemed to be waiting for her to say something. “I can’t imagine you regretting the time spent raising your kids. And I bet it shows now that they’re adults themselves.”
That was all the leeway Linda needed to talk about Ted and Amy for most of the rest of the meal, leaving Jessie to wonder how good an idea this had been. In the end she decided it was worthwhile even though it had been painful, because seeing Linda had made her reach back into her own past to confront the reality of the mother she truly remembered instead of some fantasy mother out of a TV sitcom. When she went home to Maude later that evening she was happy just to stay there with the dog, bonding with her while ignoring the flash of the answering machine’s messages. The world, including Steve Gardner, would still be there when she felt like rejoining it.
On Fridays Jessie didn’t have classes to teach after noon, so she went in, lectured for her morning students and went to the main location of the St. Charles county library. There was more information online these days than in books on many subjects, but she still liked the feel of a book. It was a rainy day and spending the afternoon reading and researching was satisfying. All of this made Jessie think of her grad school days, except that the stakes here were a little higher in this research.
She still hadn’t listened to any of the messages on her home machine and that was okay with her. She wanted the chance to form her own opinions right now without interference from law enforcement. Linda’s statement about the police “having their own agenda” echoed in Jessie’s mind and she found it hard to dispute today.
Dinner that evening was a bowl of soup in front of the flickering gas log fire in the living room of the condo while she and Maude dried out after a damp walk in the light rain outside. The phone rang while she ate but Jessie didn’t pick it up, letting the machine get it. When she heard Steve’s voice she almost changed her mind. “I hope you’re okay, Jessie. Call me when you can, just to tell me things are all right. I’m getting a little worried.”
“He didn’t say anything about making progress in the case, did he?” Maude’s tail thumped on the rug as Jessie talked to her. She decided that she’d call Steve back before she went to bed just to reassure him that she wasn’t in trouble. Gathering the dinner dishes she took them into the kitchen and tidied up.
By now she’d learned about all she could from the books stacked around her chair and it was time to grab her laptop and start cruising different Web sites. She had marked places in several books and now went back to those spots to use the information as a starting point for more specific research.
When she started looking at Web sites she promised herself she’d only continue her research for an hour or two and then make an early night of it. This felt like one of the longest weeks of her life and she needed a good night’s sleep. But one site led to another and then she found information that stopped her in her tracks. For two hours after that she alternated between Web sites and the books around her, trying to convince herself she hadn’t really seen what she thought she had.
It was one o’clock on Saturday morning before she admitted defeat; the image she’d found hours before reappeared too much to be coincidence or mistake. She let Maude out briefly, drying the little dog off when she came back in out of the rain. Jessie struggled trying to decide whether to call Steve at this time of night or wait until morning.
Waiting definitely wouldn’t be for her benefit because after what she’d found, tonight would be nightmare laden at best. Finally she decided that she couldn’t wake him up this late after ignoring him for two days. She would call at a more reasonable hour on Saturday morning and hope that he paid more attention to her than she’d been paying to him.
Steve stood at Jessie’s door, holding a bag of warm cinnamon rolls and a carrier with two coffee cups. Just about the time he started worrying that she wasn’t answering the door, it opened. “Sorry about that. I put Maude in the kitchen so that she wouldn’t run out. I don’t think she’s very car smart.”
“Then it’s a good thing you put her in there. She’s been such a blessing for you that I’d hate to see anything happen to her.” He handed her the bag of rolls. “I brought us a late breakfast. I figured you might not have much in the house.”
Jessie smiled briefly. “You figured right. There hasn’t been any time to do grocery shopping this week. Thanks for thinking of me.” They went into the kitchen and sat at the table, Maude dancing around their legs begging for food and attention. Jessie sighed. She looked worn, and behind her glasses he could see shadows under her eyes.
He wasn’t sure how to be tactful about what he wanted to ask. Usually he dealt with suspects when he was asking questions, not friends. Diving right in felt like the right thing to do. “Okay, what’s up? I’ve been thinking about you a lot. And calling you a fair amount, too. Do we have a problem?”
Jessie looked down at the plates she set out on the table for their rolls. “No, Steve we don’t have a problem. I have several problems but most of them aren’t yours. I needed some time to sort things out for myself. I got the time, but not the results I was hoping for.”
When she looked up again her eyes brimmed with tears. “My mother really was Paula Brandino. I don’t even have to wait for the tests that Kyra’s doing for the proof. I found enough evidence by myself to know.”
“How? You’ve been sitting in this condo for a day and a half now. What could you have found that way that gave you the proof you wouldn’t take from Richards?”
Jessie’s hands were trembling. “Pictures, Steve. I found pictures of the crime boss, Jake Brandino. And I recognized him. He’s the man that was in charge of things the night my mother disappeared.”
Steve sat back in his chair. This was the last thing he expected. Still, he felt thankful that Jessie had come to this recognition on her own because it would make some of what he needed to break to her a little easier. With someone else he might ask if she was sure, but Jessie, with her determination, was the wrong one for that question. “I’m sorry, for your sake. That had to be a shock.”
“It was. In some ways it was proof that I hadn’t imagined things all those years ago. After almost every adult in my life trying to tell me that nothing I remember from that night was real, this feels like vindication. Of course there’s no way to prove anything to anyone else, but I know for sure now that it happened. That’s worth a lot.”
“And if we accept that the Brandino family has a lot of personal reasons to be involved in all this, I think I’d have to agree with Richards. There’s something I didn’t think I’d be admitting. But if your mother was Paula Brandino, then we have a solid lead to try and trace Laura.”
Jessie nodded. “That’s what I think, too. It’s the reason I called you as early as I did. I almost tried at one in the morning when I figured this out, but I didn’t want to wake you. If it had waited this long it could wait another few hours.”
Steve felt touched that she’d thought of him as a person instead of just an investigator. “That was kind of you. But I wouldn’t have minded a call for something this important. I am grateful for the extra sleep. Since we’re both somewhat rested, let’s have breakfast and then get back to work on this. There’s more new information to add to what you’ve found.”
“Is it good news?” Jessie put a hand on her chest as if she felt her heart flutter.
Okay, how did he phrase this one? “It’s different and surprising. And in the long run it probably is good news. But to tell the truth, Jessie, I need some of that coffee and something to eat before I get any deeper into any of this.”
“Sorry. I’m letting it all get cold.” They put rolls on plates and breakfasted in silence, with Jessie looking as eager to jump at him as Maude did. The difference was that the dog only wanted the crumbs from the cinnamon rolls and Jessie would be much harder to satisfy. She gave him the impression of a little kid at the other side of the table gauging just how little she could get away with eating and still call it breakfast.
Steve decided to eat his roll and enjoy the hot coffee while it was still hot. It might be a while before he got to have a meal with Jessie again in comfortable surroundings, so he’d make the best of it now. After about five minutes Jessie had consumed about a fourth of her coffee and dissected the roll into pieces. She might have even eaten a few of the pieces. “All right, why don’t you tell me what you know while you finish breakfast?” She leaned forward in expectation.
“You said what you found was pictures, right? And I have to assume they’re on the computer since you haven’t left the house.” Jessie’s eyes narrowed a little suspiciously. “What I’ve got is also stuff it would be easier to show you. Give me five more minutes and we’ll look at pictures on our computers together. In fact, why don’t you call up your information while I finish my coffee? That way you’ll have something to do.”
“And instead of pestering you and hounding you to hurry, I can bring up the information.”
“Well, I wouldn’t have put it quite that way, but yeah.” Steve knew he had a sheepish smile, and to his surprise she answered him with a small smile. She went and got the laptop and started tinkering with it while he savored just a little more hot coffee before they got down to business.
In another few minutes he was looking at twenty-year-old pictures of Jake Brandino. Unlike the later pictures he’d seen that showed a man with a thickening waistline and gray at his temples, the shots that Jessie had found showed a man in his prime with broad shoulders and slim hips and an aura of power about him already. Steve was struck by his resemblance to some of the things he needed to show Jessie, and silently thanked God that she’d found all of this on her own.
Grabbing his laptop out of his car he brought it in and showed Jessie first the shots of the Brandino family compound in a posh suburban enclave of Detroit. “As you can see, this is secluded. Brandino and his actual family members don’t come out often. There’s FBI and other federal surveillance pictures that can be tapped into, and that other wealth of information, tabloid journalism.”
He watched her face as he called up the second file. “Now I know that these shots are a little blurry but they’re the best I’ve been able to find. Once we get done here maybe we can convince your friend Joshua Richards to produce some better pictures.”
Recognition didn’t dawn immediately and he started narrating to go along with the pictures. “This is a group of family members leaving the compound in a car. I’m pretty sure the blond woman in the back is your mother.”
Jessie peered at the screen. “When was this?”
“About six months ago. The driver is probably a bodyguard.”
“And the other man in the front seat?”
Steve took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Brandino’s nephew, Matteo. The best information available says the kid is his heir apparent.”
Jessie stared in silence for a while and he watched the expressions behind her blue-gray eyes change. “Have I missed something in the family tree? Because everything I’ve found so far tells me there were two Brandino siblings, Jake and Paula. Any more I don’t know about?” Her expression pleaded with him to say that yes, there was a third brother or sister.
Steve shook his head. “Not to my knowledge. Research I’ve done so far is the same as yours.”
“Okay. Why is the nephew next in line? Isn’t Jake married?”
“No. He was married briefly as a young man, but the woman died without ever providing him with children.”
“Then that guy in the front seat…” Jessie trailed off but Steve knew she’d figured it all out now. “How old is he, Steve?”
“Twenty-four. Your brother Matteo is twenty-four, Jessie. And all he’s ever known is life behind those compound walls as a Brandino.” She took it better than he thought she would. At least this time the shock didn’t make Jessie pass out.