The Healer

  Rachel wasn’t sure how to answer that.

  “Would you have called your family first? Or just gone?” He started the car.

  “If it was a woman, I would have just gone.”

  “You work with kids. Marcus and Lisa and Kate deal with the crime. Remember that, okay? Call your family before answering a page like that.”

  The protective words touched her. “Thanks, Cole.”

  Her pager sounded. Rachel glanced at the numbers. “Okay if I make a call? It’s family.”

  “Sure.” He turned down the radio.

  She knew the number by heart. “Jennifer. Hi.”

  “Tell Cole I’m sorry to interrupt tonight of all nights.”

  “You can tell him yourself in a minute,” she offered. Jennifer’s voice was soft, but she sounded good. They had spoken a couple hours ago about planning Kate’s wedding. Jen should be asleep at this time of night.

  “I need a favor.”

  “Anything.”

  “I just talked to Stephen. He worked a tollway accident this afternoon. A child wasn’t buckled into a safety seat. He sounded pretty down.”

  She hadn’t heard the news yet. “I’ll stop by,” Rachel said quietly, knowing how hard the day would hit her brother. For a paramedic, a child dying from what may have been preventable was the call they dreaded the most. Stephen talked at times about moving from Chicago to a small town where he would get calls to treat bee stings and broken arms more often than tragic deaths. The years were wearing on him.

  “Thanks, Rae. Enjoy tonight with Cole.”

  “I plan to. You want to say hi?”

  “Maybe another time.”

  “Good night then. Sleep well.” Rachel put away her phone and double-checked that her pager was reset. She changed the radio station to the all news station to see if she could get a name for the family involved in the accident.

  “Do you need to go directly to get your car?”

  She turned to Cole. “This will wait until the morning.”

  “You’re sure?”

  She knew Stephen. The first hours after such a death, he wouldn’t want to talk about it. Tomorrow would be better. “It will wait.”

  “Then if you don’t mind a suggestion—plan what you will do, and then set it aside until tomorrow,” Cole said. “You tend to worry things in circles. Try to worry in a straight line.”

  “You make that sound so simple.”

  “Actually it’s just the opposite. But it’s worth learning how. You’ll sleep better.”

  “I’m trying to pray and let go, but it’s hard. Who taught you the wisdom of how to do it?”

  “My dad.”

  “He sounds like a good man.”

  “Dad was a civil engineer; he built roads. He called it permanent job security because a good road got used the most and always had to eventually be rebuilt. You would have liked him, Rae.”

  “I’m glad you have that memory.”

  “What do you remember of your parents?” Cole asked.

  “I didn’t have a good home, Cole. You don’t end up at Trevor House because life has gone smoothly.”

  “Were there good memories in that mix?”

  Rachel had tried over a lifetime to sort out the emotions. “Mom was a good cook. Dad could fix a car no matter what was wrong. They just weren’t a couple; you know what I mean? They would rather fight with each other than work together to find a solution. And I was all too often caught in the middle.” They’d divorced, and Rachel had gone with her father, but it hadn’t worked out. She ended up at Trevor House. “Trevor House wasn’t so bad. It was lonely, but I was already that. And the O’Malleys solved that problem.”

  “Is that past what made you go into the profession you did?”

  She took a risk no matter how she answered that. “Kate says my childhood was such a crash course in how to survive a crisis that I now spend my days teaching others who don’t have the skills. The reality is much more basic. I work in disasters because I learned how to be good at cleaning up a mess. That’s all people really need, a helping hand to get started and a reminder that they did survive.”

  “You have to admit, not many people can hear news that a tornado came through town and rather than freeze, have a prioritized list in mind for what needs to be found, starting with blood supply, doctors, generators, and water.”

  “I’m a gofer, Cole. I know enough about what has to be done to be able to plug in where they are shorthanded.”

  “You fill the need, no matter how big it is or how huge the commitment on your part.”

  “You exaggerate that a bit.”

  “Rae, you would do your job even if no one paid you.” She smiled. “It’s my own version of job insurance. A disaster will always be around to work.”

  “Let’s hope not for a few months. I’ve enjoyed having you in town.” She reached over and squeezed his hand. “I’m enjoying it too.”

  Marcus pulled up to the federal court building, leaned across the seat, and opened the car door for Quinn. His partner was juggling a cardboard box and a laptop. “You were persuasive.”

  “Judges are a tight group when it comes right down to it. Judge Holland called Judge Reece, and the order was issued. Security unlocked Amy Dartman’s office and I collected everything that looks personal,” Quinn replied.

  “Amy’s seventy-two hours late getting back from her vacation; if she actually made it to her vacation. We can’t even prove she’s missing.” Marcus checked traffic and pulled back onto the road.

  “We can prove she was at Carol’s that day. It’s Amy’s prints on both the soda can and the blue card. Amy hasn’t called anyone lately that we can find, including her parents. She had a vacation plan that comprised a full tank of gas and a map, but sometime in the last few weeks she would have had to use a credit card. I don’t buy a coincidence, not when they both worked in the criminal division.”

  “How does a twenty-three-year-old manage several weeks leave for an unpaid vacation?”

  “Call it work for a master’s degree,” Quinn replied. “I want to see her apartment.”

  “The warrant came through. Wilson and Lisa are already on their way. I told them we’d meet them there.” Marcus looked at his partner. “What do you think?”

  Quinn held up a picture of Amy. “Blond. Nice smile. Twenty-three. She’s probably dead.”

  Marcus opened the refrigerator at Amy’s apartment, studying the near empty contents. She had tossed anything that might spoil during her vacation. “What are we missing, Quinn?” He wasn’t sure what he was looking for that would suggest a lead, but this was the place Amy had called home. Looking around should at least tell them more about her.

  His partner turned on lights in the living room. “What’s the first thing you do when you return from a trip?”

  Marcus thought about it as he opened kitchen drawers. “Park the car, bring in the luggage, toss my jacket, and probably kick off my shoes. Get something to drink. Listen to any messages. Turn on the TV while I look through mail to see what’s urgent.”

  “I don’t see evidence that she did any of those things.”

  “Confirming the suspicion that she never got back from her vacation.” Amy was neat to an extreme. There wasn’t anything approaching a junk drawer. The phone book was in the drawer near the microwave with a blank pad of paper, one pen, and one pencil in the drawer. There were no coupons for restaurants in the area, no pack of matches, a rubber band, a garbage bag tie—the inevitable items discarded in such drawers. Had she moved in recently? Marcus made a mental note to check that out.

  “You know what else would be here if she had gotten home?” Quinn wandered around the living room, turning over cushions on the couch, the chairs. “Pictures, souvenirs. The first trip upstairs to the apartment she would have probably been carrying at least one or two valuables with her that she wanted to take extra care with and not leave downstairs unattended.”

  “If she never got back from her vacati
on, we’re now at the more critical question: Did she ever leave for vacation? The refrigerator has been cleaned out.”

  Quinn turned on lights in Amy’s bedroom. “Her closet is noticeably missing clothes.” A few minutes later he added, “There isn’t a toothbrush or hairbrush in her bathroom. That cosmetic bag recovered at

  Carol’s is going to prove to be Amy’s.”

  The small second bedroom had been turned into an office. Marcus pulled out the desk chair. Starting clockwise, he started checking drawers.

  Lisa entered the apartment. “In the morning I’d like to walk around the block.”

  “See something?”

  “Just curious. Her car is missing from the apartment garage. Wilson is checking to see if security tapes are left from that day that might tell us when she was here, if someone was with her.”

  Marcus uncovered a card from someone named Diana and a bill from a hair salon. Amy had probably gone to get her hair done before she left for vacation. Women talked while they got their hair done. It would be worth tracking down.

  “Marcus, come look at this,” Lisa called.

  Straining to read the date on the receipt, he went to join them.

  “This was on her nightstand.” Quinn opened a folded plain white envelope. “Do you know anyone who keeps old movie ticket stubs?”

  Lisa leaned against him. “I’m planning to hold on to the stubs from the movies we see.”

  Quinn bent down and kissed her.

  “Break it up, you two.” Marcus wasn’t sure if he was ready to see them married. He took the envelope from his partner and looked through it. There were about fifty movie ticket stubs. “Amy’s got a boyfriend.”

  Quinn reluctantly leaned back. “Any idea who?”

  “Someone she trusts. You’re talking a couple years’ worth of movies.”

  “So if Amy has truly disappeared, there might be another person out there with motive than whoever shot Carol.”

  “First, are we in agreement that she was indeed planning to go away on vacation?”

  “Everything here says she was,” Quinn said. “Even her mail had been stopped.”

  “Second, we’re agreed that she was at Carol’s the night of the murder?” Marcus asked.

  “Yes. She might be my missing body tossed in the river,” Lisa added.

  “Maybe. If we can track Amy’s movements that Friday, we can firm up the time line for the earliest Carol could have been murdered.”

  “Let’s go find Wilson,” Lisa recommended. “Maybe there are also security tapes for the elevators. We can find a boyfriend a lot easier with a picture.”

  Fifteen

  Marcus covered the phone as Lisa joined him at the marshal’s office Monday night. “Quinn wants to know if you’d like to do a midnight movie with him.”

  “Absolutely. You can afford to give him a few hours off?”

  “It’s the only way I’m going to get a few hours off,” Marcus replied.

  Lisa laughed and took a perch on the corner of his desk.

  “She said yes, Quinn.”

  Lisa took the phone from Marcus. “Not a murder mystery, Quinn. Make it funny.” She laughed. “I’ll hold you to it. I love you too.” She hung up the phone.

  “Hey, I wasn’t done talking with him.”

  “You can call him back.” Lisa handed him a folder she had brought. “For you. Morgue reports. This is every Jane Doe that was found since the day Carol was murdered that was roughly Amy’s age, in this and the surrounding states. Two are slim maybes, but I looked at the dental work. I’m no forensic dentist, but they don’t come close. You’ll have that officially in a couple days.”

  He scanned the list.

  “Amy’s in the river somewhere,” Lisa offered again her most likely guess.

  “And her luggage? Her car? We should have found something by now.”

  “There are a couple stretches of lowland still to be searched where the flooding is at best contained by sandbags. And for all we know, the car was buried in a mud bank somewhere with a foot of water now running over it.”

  “True.” Marcus held up the list. “Can I keep this?” Lisa nodded. He added it to his briefcase. “For what it’s worth, at least you have a body to work with. I can’t even prove I’ve got a crime. For all we know maybe it was Amy who shot Carol.”

  “No motive.”

  “But at least we’ve got the two of them placed at the scene of the crime. Any luck breaking the ex-husband’s alibi?”

  “Wilson reinterviewed people, but with his son Mark saying Brian was with him, and with others who were at the basketball game confirming they saw Brian there, it appears solid.” Lisa spun the pen on the desk. “What about this being work related? Someone watched the house or followed them and intentionally murdered both Carol and Amy?”

  “We’re burning the midnight oil to see if we can find something. Any luck on finding the gun?”

  “None. We need to talk to Rachel some more about Amy.”

  “Not yet. She’s having her first break in weeks, and I don’t want to interrupt that.”

  “It has been nice seeing her with Cole.”

  “Exactly.”

  Lisa slid off the desk. “I’ve got a car wreck to go look at, and then I’m heading over to the hotel to see Jennifer. Tell Quinn to meet me there later?”

  “Will do.”

  Laughter filled the hotel suite Jennifer had made home Monday night. Lisa had brought a movie with her called Down Periscope, and it played in the background as they made secret wedding plans for Kate and Dave. Tom had met them at the door. He kissed his wife, and with amusement told her to behave, and then he had disappeared to join Marcus for a few hours to give them the run of the suite. Jennifer was dutifully lying down on the couch as promised.

  “I think we should go with these napkins.”

  Rachel leaned over to see Jennifer’s choice. The floor by the hotel couch was crowded with open books of cards and napkin samples. Between Lisa’s ideas, Rachel’s notebooks, and Jennifer’s lists, they were actually trying to do the impossible and plan the wedding in one evening. “Those would be great.”

  “Which ones?” Lisa called from the suite’s kitchenette.

  “Medium size, white, with a red ribbon border, and a heart in the center.”

  “Yes, great choice. Get matching tablecloths.”

  “Do they have tablecloths?” Jennifer asked.

  “Got it.” Rachel found the page and added the stock numbers to their master list.

  Jennifer found the wedding cake book. “Did you hear, are we on for the ladies night this weekend?”

  Rachel added streamers to her list. “Lisa and I will be over with Kate about 2 P.M. Friday, so make sure the wedding stuff is hidden. Shari and Cassie are going to meet us here about five. We’ve got dinner reservations at the restaurant downstairs, and Kate is in charge of the movie selection. She promised to get something that was dramatic and romantic, but her taste has been pretty interesting recently, so I may slip one into my bag as a backup. I hear the guys are going to have a night out of their own to occupy Tom.”

  “I think they are starting with basketball,” Lisa added.

  “He’ll come home with a black eye and look sheepish about it.” Jennifer held out the book. “What about this cake?”

  “That is beautiful.” Rachel looked closer. “It’s the cake you had at your wedding.”

  “I knew it looked gorgeous.”

  “Kate would go for something with even more roses. She likes frosting.”

  Jennifer turned pages. “How about this one?”

  “Nice. Lisa, what do you think?”

  Lisa set down the coffee tray. “Excellent. Did Dave say what he was thinking about for a honeymoon? He’s got to make a decision soon.”

  “He’s going to take Kate somewhere her pager won’t work. Beyond that he hasn’t given much away,” Rachel replied, curious about it herself. She had no idea where she would like to go if she were p
lanning her own. “Have you and Quinn decided about yours?”

  “We’ll go back to Quinn’s ranch.” Lisa sat on the floor beside the couch and reached for sugar for her coffee. “We need another cake.”

  “Another sheet cake beside this one?”

  “A second wedding cake.”

  Rachel glanced at Jennifer and both looked at Lisa.

  “I want to get married too,” Lisa said simply. “We’ll have a double wedding. This way if Kate stumbles on some plans, we can just tell her they’re for Quinn and me. He and I talked, and we don’t want to wait anymore.”

  Jennifer leaned over, wrapped her arms around her sister, and squeezed until Lisa giggled. “A double. This will be so much fun.”

  “This way we get a Chicago wedding in and Marcus and Shari won’t feel so guilty about having theirs in Virginia where it will be more convenient for Shari’s family,” Lisa offered.

  “And then Jack and Cassie’s,” Rachel said.

  “They get the huge public wedding with all of Company 81 there to help them celebrate,” Lisa said.

  Jennifer looked over at Rachel. “Let’s find two great cakes.”

  Sixteen

  Rachel could barely remember what it felt like not to have aching feet. She shifted shopping bags between her feet trying to get comfortable as Kate pulled around to the restaurant drive-thru window to pick up their order. The Tuesday afternoon shopping trip that had begun as a quick trip by Rachel and Jennifer to the local department store had mushroomed into the four O’Malley sisters going to the mall. Jennifer’s brief stretch of renewed energy wasn’t likely to last, and they were determined to make the most of it. They had shuffled work schedules to get the afternoon of April 24 off.

  The four of them shopping together was an adventure. There was barely room in the car for them on the return trip because of all the packages. Rachel turned in the front seat to check on Jennifer. “Comfortable back there?” Lisa had as many pillows as Jennifer did. The two doctors were having a good time together.

  “Just fine.” Jennifer looked at Lisa and the two of them cracked up laughing. Lisa had taken charge of Jennifer while they explored the mall, pushing her wheelchair through stores and often stopping to compare ideas on clothes with Rachel. Four times she had found herself being sent to the dressing room to model something they had found for her. Several of the packages she now carried were gifts from her sisters.