Ada Unraveled (20 page)

“What are those?”

A pause.

“Oh, don’t worry. I get to live in an ivory
tower so I can’t complain, but, every now and then I remember what
it was to be free. Free of mommy rules, free of wifely rules, free
of rich woman’s rules. Pitiful, huh?”

Pitiful? No. Normal.

“Is that all he said?”

A pregnant pause.

She wasn’t going where I wanted her to, so I
said, “Okay, so you’re pitiful. Speak to me.”

She chuckled. “You’re good, you know that
PI?”

“Sure.” But it was nice to hear.

“Tom said….”

She stalled out. Afraid to share? Thinking?
I let the silence sit between us this time. Waiting her out.

She began again. “There’s something else,
Rachel. I think you need to have a better picture of Eddie and what
he’s been through, what he’s going through now. Much of this comes
from Tom. As you are aware, I didn’t even know about him. And when
I first pressed him about Eddie, after the bee, well, Tom relented
and shared.”

I repeated my request of this afternoon. “I
need dates, Gerry. Details. Times and places.”

For my timeline.

At last she began in earnest. “Okay. Tom
first heard about Eddie back in mid-September. Around the 14th. The
time of the wild fires that burned so much of the ridge…when they
raged through. That’s when Eddie appeared. Maybe because of the
fires. Maybe the fires drove him above ground, sent him up the road
to his grandma’s. This I’ve gleaned from several sources.

“Anne also told me a slightly different
version. She said the girls helped Victoria force Jake to go get
Eddie. Jake knew--all along. About…the prison. About all of it.
Anne says he confessed this to Victoria and Victoria went
nuts.”

She stopped. It was hard to say. Hard to
hear. I wasn’t liking Jake Stowall. He was becoming a villain, in
my book. She went on.

“Ada’s body was found after you found
Jake’s. You found Jake’s remains on the twenty-second, right?” I
nodded, forgetting she couldn’t see me. She went on as if she
could. “The very next day, a neighbor, one who didn’t want to be
identified, called the sheriff’s to complain about a terrible
smell. She thought it was a sewer line break, maybe behind the
Stowall house. Tom said he’s heard the tape of this call. Her
comments were…strange. It was like she was directing them to a
specific spot out behind Ada’s house, but didn’t want them to know
who she was—or how she could see the spot, let alone smell it. The
department took the call seriously because of that. They listened
to their guts. All cops and deputies do. So they traced it.

“Turned out the call was from a public
phone, at a gas station out on the main road that goes by Ada’s
neighborhood. But I think we just saw the woman, this evening. Up
in the next house.”

So did Ada’s only neighbor make another
call? After our little visit tonight?

I said, “Are you sure that was a woman in
the upper window?”

I had my doubts. I’d finally peeked up at
the window—very discretely—and I couldn’t tell if I was seeing a
woman or a man.

Gerry thought and said, “No, honestly. I…I
only saw a figure. A silhouette. Anyway, Tom and another deputy
went over to take a look and they found her—Ada--just this side of
the old Stowall cemetery. That was on September 24th. Tom also
confirmed our mom’s memory. Jake and Ada were buried on September
26th.”

She stopped again. I waited, thinking about
the young Tom Beardsley stumbling upon a rotted corpse.

Gerry said, “The condition of the remains
precluded pinning down the time of death, or any injuries she may
have suffered.”

I said, “Not even an estimate of time of
death?” Persistent me.

“I pressed him, too. Tom says the ME guys
think she probably died in late spring or early summer.
Unofficially, of course. Just a guess. Tom said the Stowall lawyers
showed up at the morgue before the ME and his team could get to
Ada. They whisked her away. Had her cremated.”

Stowall power-plays again.

So Andrea’s late June visit with Eddie may
well have been connected with Ada’s death. Unfortunately for
Andrea. But I wouldn’t be the one to tell her this.

“Tom told me that all hell broke loose when
he called the discovery of a body in. More deputies arrived,
finally even the Pinto Springs cops. They all showed up and began
congregating, taking pictures, talking in little groups, he said.
He caught some of it. Caught the whisperings that it was about
time.”

About time what, that Luke killed
her?
How callous. How inhumane.

I said, “The Pinto Springs cops interfered
with the county Sheriff’s work? How did that go down?”

“Not well. I understand the two head honchos
on the scene had a face-off in front of the house. Tom’s immediate
supervisor, Detective Commander Mark Spangler, in charge of
sheriff’s investigations, was one of them, and some nasty guy from
PSPD, a Detectives Captain Dean Broward was the other. So political
issues got tangled up in the whole situation. But Tom’s super
backed down, for reasons Tom never understood. And after that it
was a joint effort.

“That was in September, and here we are
again, with the same stuff happening, almost a month later.”

She stopped, took a deep breath.

“There’s a greater message here, Rachel.
Politics trumps all. Tom said he heard some of the guys making fun
of the
‘trio of bored housewives wanting to play Sherlock and
Watson’.
Apparently Broward is taking the message forward, all
the way up the chain, with the addition that you probably stepped
into the family’s pet cemetery. I wouldn’t get your hopes up that
our little backyard discovery this evening, behind Ada’s, will be
investigated anytime soon.”

“What?!” I sputtered. “There’s something
dead in that hole! What are they thinking? That it’s the family
dog? The cops can’t just ignore this, no matter how connected Jake
Stowall is!”

“I know, Rachel, it is beyond belief,” Gerry
said. “Tom’s outraged too, believe me. He’s working his way up the
ladder of command to override this stonewalling, but it may take a
day or two. You know, Broward is a Stowall too.”

More clan influence. But I still couldn’t
remember where I’d heard the name. Much later I would realize I
hadn’t heard this name before, I’d read it. On the genealogy. And,
probably the two halves of my brain had been talking to each other,
bouncing ideas back and forth between themselves, creating that
cranial echo the French call déjà vu.

I was also thinking negative thoughts about
how the Ada Stowall crime scene had probably been destroyed, how
there were probably a thousand cop foot prints and hundreds of cop
cigarette butts muddling the area by the time all was said and
done.

Gerry’s words pulled me back to the real,
out of my musings. “…after Ada’s body was dug up, some of them went
into the kitchen of that house, to hang around. The cops, I mean.
While most of the Sheriffs had left, Tom stayed. He was feeling bad
for her. He didn’t want to leave until her body was loaded in the
ME’s wagon and taken away.

“Tom joined the cops in the kitchen, Mosby
and Learner, you know, the ones at the autopsy. They took the scene
over from Broward. Tom said the kitchen fell silent and stayed that
way, as if he’d blundered in on some top secret meeting. Shortly
after, Tom was told to leave officially.”

I said, “This is so strange. Didn’t your
brother think it was strange? Ada’s house is in the county.”

“Yes. But Tom had already been told to let
the PSPD have the lead on the investigation. He didn’t like this.
But he couldn’t argue without risking insubordination.”

I’d given up feeding my brain. Way past
yawning.

“Later, back at the office, Tom says the
word came in. Eddie Stowall had been found in some sort of cage, in
the cellar.”

“
They found him in a cage?”

The basement! The dim light in the basement.
And then Andrea’s words flashed through my mind. “Ada just wanted
her boy…free.” She hadn’t meant free in an abstract way, she had
meant that he was literally a prisoner!

“Exactly. But the cage was unlocked. Eddie
even told them he just went upstairs whenever he was hungry. Tried
to tell them it was his punk bedroom. Claimed he designed it
himself. Anyway, the cops told the sheriffs later that Eddie must
have run off. The cops say they never saw him leave but that the
door was left open while they talked to Luke in the front rooms.
Claimed Eddie must have snuck out the back door.”

“Is this corroborated? Did any others see
him, like the M.E. and his assistants?” I had a bad feeling about
where this was going.

“Don’t know.”

I said, “And what about Luke? What was his
explanation? And why wasn’t he arrested?”

Another delay. She was being careful.

Gerry continued. “I don’t know what Luke
said about the basement cell. The point is Eddie is a broken man.
He probably never left that house. It doesn’t make sense that he
would have wandered off that night on his own. At least that’s what
the sisters say.”

I wondered why it mattered how Ada’s adult
son got out of the house. What did she think the Two Horsemen
Learner and Mosby had done to him? She needed to get to the point.
Suddenly I was exhausted and struggling to keep focused and
awake.

Gerry said, “Eddie stayed gone for days.
Then he showed up at Jake and Ada’s wake, with her quilt.”

I said, “What do you mean, Eddie is
broken?”

She sighed. “He was covered with bruises.
Layered, some yellow, some green, some blue-black. From older to
newer. Apparently Luke had been beating him. I heard that he has
scars on top of scars. And that they kept him in the basement, like
a…crated, bad dog.”

I thought she was done, but she started up
again.

“And…Eddie’s in his forties, Rachel, and
big. Soft from years of lying in the cellar, and big from living in
a cage with nothing to do but eat. There’s talk that he may be
brain damaged, that he’s stupid.”

In his forties, in a cage.
What would
living in a cage for decades do to a person? I needed to make a
connection with these sisters. I needed to get on Elixchel’s phone
list and make some calls to the others.

“He’s changing now, but slowly.”

I said, “Changing…how? No, tell me about the
sisters.”

Now she was going too fast. “Martha, Mary
and Anne are taking care of him now. And maybe Andrea is too. We
always called them the sisters at the bees, but of course they’re
aunts now, too. Well, have been, come to think of it. But they just
didn’t know it—thought poor Eddie was dead, like I did.
Everyone.

“Elixchel says he’s…physically frightening,
so I think she’s seen him too. It’s like…he’s growing a beard for
the first time. He has peach fuzz on his chin. How weird is
that?”

Great. And I had us skulking around playing
Cops and Robbers, scaring the bejesus out of him. Yet, I couldn’t
help thinking more than ever that I really needed to get inside
that house, meet him, and find out what he knows.

Gerry said, “Oh, I nearly forgot. Tom says
they sent an evidence team out to where you discovered Jake’s body,
up there on Applepine Ridge? And they found that hypodermic needle
he spotted in one of your pictures. The lab is analyzing the
contents now, whatever was left, that is.”

Venom, of course. Unless he was a diabetic.
I asked.

“No. That’s just it. He was homeopathic,
hated that his wife had begun taking medicines. No, what I’m
suggesting is…well, okay, the needle could of course turn out to be
from some junky out picnicking during the firestorms. But it could
also be…maybe a weapon? Does that make sense? The hypodermic wasn’t
burned badly. Must have been protected somehow, by the dirt,
but….”

But it was burned some, so it was from
before the fires.

And finally Gerry’s earlier comment sunk
in.

“Gerry, what did you mean the sheriffs are
busy with another missing woman? I just heard about the one this
evening. Have there been others?”

“Yes, there are two now. Turns out they
frequented the same bars around town. What has the guys worried is
that the women lived within a twenty-five mile radius. And they
were both middle aged or older. Detectives don’t like to see
patterns like this. Tom always says there are no coincidences.”

“Will you give me Tom’s number?”

My question shocked us both. What was I
thinking?

“Why? It’s late. And, he’s stubborn Rachel.
If you press him on this, wake him up late, it’ll just make him mad
and he’ll shut down.”

“Sorry. Guess I’m more tired than I know. I
was thinking I could call him first thing in the morning.”

I’d held back, trying to preserve my
objectivity, but it seemed so obvious.

After a moment of silence she said, “And I
think you should.”

Gerry fell silent again. I sensed she had
something more she needed to share, something important. But I was
so tired.

Gerry said, “I’m worried, Rachel. I’m afraid
you think police, deputies, are stupid and lazy. You know, the
old-donut-and-coffee saw. And some of them are, of course. That’s
true of any large group of people. But most…most of them are trying
to do a good job. The really smart ones—or the politically savvy
ones—rise up the ladder. The rest of them, well they may not have
advanced degrees, but they do have very stressful jobs and
sometimes getting through the day without getting killed or losing
self-control is the best they can do. I think they just don’t know
how to deal with huge problems. Politically. Emotionally. I think
they don’t know how to chew gum and walk on eggs at the same
time.”

She made me laugh. “That’s a good one,
Gerry. But let me assure you, I have nothing but the highest regard
for our defenders. I’m married to one, remember? And yep! Some of
them can be real dumb. But most are really good. Most have a hero’s
heart and a saint’s soul—even if they only have a normal brain.