The Twenty-Three 3 (Promise Falls) (25 page)

FORTY

CRYSTAL
found Celeste up in the main bedroom where she slept every night with Dwayne, folding clothes on the bed, putting things into drawers.

“Where’s Cal?” she asked, clipboard and paper in her hand as always.

“I don’t know, sweetheart,” Celeste said. “I haven’t seen him in a while. He’s probably in the living room watching TV with Dwayne.”

“No, he isn’t.”

“Well, I’m not sure. Look around. I’m sure he’s somewhere.”

Crystal went back downstairs. The television was still on, tuned in to some sports channel that Dwayne had wanted to watch. But Dwayne was not there watching it. She went into the kitchen, then down into the basement. She looked in the furnace room, and a dingy rec room with a Ping-Pong table that had no net, and a small workroom where Dwayne kept his tools and had a workbench.

Crystal went back up two flights and entered the main bedroom again, but Celeste was not there. She found her in the bathroom, putting up fresh towels.

“I still can’t find Cal,” Crystal said.

“Darlin’, it’s been two minutes since we last talked, and I haven’t seen him in that time. Didn’t you look in the living room?”

“Yes. And I looked in the furnace room and the workroom and the kitchen and the other bathrooms and a room with a lot of tools in it and I didn’t find him anywhere.”

“Did you ask Dwayne?”

“I didn’t see Dwayne,” Crystal said.

“How could you go in every room of the house and not see Dwayne?”

Crystal said, “I don’t know.”

“Maybe they’re both outside.”

“It’s dark now.”

“Well, if it’s dark, just turn on the outside lights. They’re right by the door. I just want to finish a couple of things up here and if you haven’t found Cal by then, I’ll help you.”

Crystal turned around and left without saying anything.

She went to the front door, looked outside, where Cal’s car was still parked at the curb. She turned on the light, took one step out onto the porch, and looked around.

No Cal. No Dwayne.

She walked through the house to the back door and turned on that light, too. She saw Dwayne, standing by his pickup truck, talking on his cell phone, but there was no sign of Cal.

Crystal went outside, headed directly to Dwayne, and even though he was in the middle of a conversation with someone, she asked, “Where’s Cal?”

He raised an index finger toward her and turned away ninety degrees. Crystal changed position so that she was in front of him again and asked, “Where’s Cal?”

Dwayne looked angrily at her and said, “I’m on the phone.”

“Where’s Cal?” she asked.

“Are you deaf? I am
on
the
phone
.”

“Where’s Cal?” Crystal asked.

“Do you see him? I don’t see him. Go look in the house.”

He turned his back to her and continued his phone conversation, speaking in low tones.

Crystal raised her voice. “I looked all over the house! He’s not there.”

Dwayne spun around. “Goddamn it, I’m trying to do some business here. Maybe he went for a drive.”

“His car is here.”

“Maybe he went for a walk.”

“Where would he walk to?”

“How the hell should I know? Around the block maybe.”

“Why would he walk around the block? He didn’t even finish his pizza. He didn’t finish his beer, either.”

“Go ask Celeste,” Dwayne said. He walked toward the middle of the yard, waving his free arm behind him, as though trying to ward off a swarm of mosquitoes.

Crystal followed and pulled at his shirtsleeve. “I asked Celeste. She told me to ask you.”

“Yeah, well, I’m telling you to go ask her again because I don’t know.”

Crystal stood there a moment, as though pondering whether this was a sound strategy. Then she started heading for the back door.

“No, wait. Hang on,” Dwayne said. “Hang on, kid.”

“My name is Crystal.”

“Yeah, okay, Crystal. Just hang on.”

Dwayne spoke into the phone. “I’ll call you back in a couple of minutes. It’s the kid.” He shoved the phone down into the front pocket of his jeans, let out an enormous sigh, and said to Crystal, “Okay, fine, you have my undivided attention.”

“I just want to find him.”

“Sure, of course, yeah. Okay, well, let’s have a look at the street. Maybe he’s out there having a smoke.”

“I don’t think he smokes.”

“Well, if he quit, having to look after you might have driven him to take it up again.”

“Why?” Crystal asked.

“Huh?”

“Why would looking after me make someone smoke?”

“It was just a joke.”

“I don’t get it.”

“Never mind. Come on.” He led her away from the garage, toward the street. “He had a pretty stressful day, you know? He might have come out here just to have a few minutes to himself.”

“But he likes me,” Crystal said. “Why would he come out here to be by himself?”

“What makes you think he likes you?”

“He’s nice to me.”

Dwayne nodded. “I guess.”

“He’s nicer than you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Dwayne asked. “Who brought home pizza and wings tonight? Huh? Who was that?”

“That was you.”

“You don’t think that was pretty nice of me? I was thinking about you when I got that mess of food.”

That gave Crystal pause. “Oh.”

They’d reached the street and were standing next to Cal’s Honda. “You’re right—his car’s here, so he can’t have gone far,” Dwayne said.

Without warning, Crystal shouted at the top of her lungs, “Cal!”

“Jesus,” Dwayne said, making a show of putting his fingers to his ears. “You nearly busted my eardrum when—”

“Cal!”

“Dial it down, kid.”

“Cal!”

She’d started off down the sidewalk. Dwayne ran to catch up to her, grabbed her by the shoulder. “You can’t be screaming like that.”

“I want him to hear me.”

“You don’t even know where he is. You can’t go around the neighborhood screaming for someone like they’re a lost dog.”

“Why?”

“You’re not normal—you know that?”

She looked up at him with wide eyes. “That’s what everyone says.”

“Okay, look, why don’t you go back in the house and I’ll look around for him? When I’ve found him, I’ll let you know.”

“If we both look, we’ll find him twice as fast,” she said.

“Not necessarily. If we—”

“Cal!”

Dwayne glanced around the street nervously, as though expecting people to start coming to their doors.

And someone did.

Celeste.

“What’s going on?” she said, coming down the porch steps and across the yard.

“Nothing,” Dwayne said. “We’re just talking.”

“No, we’re not,” Crystal said. “We’re trying to find Cal.”

Celeste put her fists on her hips. “You still haven’t found him?”

“No,” Crystal said.

“His car’s still here,” Celeste said.

“You’re a regular Sherlock Holmes,” Dwayne said. “Look, like I told Crystal here, I’m sure he’s just gone for a walk or something. If he’s not back in an hour, I’ll go looking for him.”

“I need him,” Crystal said.

Worry washed over Celeste’s face. “I think we need to find him now. It’s not like him to just walk off.” Something occurred to her. “You know what? I’ll just call him.”

“What?” Dwayne said, now looking pretty worried himself. “Is that a good idea?”

“It’s a very good idea,” Crystal said.

Celeste took her phone from her back pocket, made a couple of taps on the screen, then put it to her ear.

“It’s ringing,” she said.

Crystal stood stock-still, and Dwayne appeared to be holding his breath.

“He’s not picking up,” Celeste said. “I’m going to let it go a few more . . . okay, it’s going to message. Cal, hey, it’s Celeste, and we’re wondering where the hell you are.”

She ended the call but held on to the phone rather than put it away.

“Call him again,” Crystal said.

“Sweetheart,” Celeste said, “let’s give him a minute to hear the message.”

“No, I think I heard the phone.”

“What?” Dwayne said. “I didn’t hear anything.”

“Call him again,” Crystal repeated.

Celeste made the call. While she held the phone to her ear, Dwayne said, “I didn’t hear a damn thing. You must be hearing—”

“Shh!”
Crystal said.

No one made a sound.

Crystal pointed toward the garage. “It’s coming from over there.”

“I already looked there,” Dwayne said.

But his wife and Crystal were already moving up the driveway and past the house. The phone was still pressed to Celeste’s ear. “It’s still ringing.”

As they reached the garage, Crystal said, “Don’t you hear it? It’s in there.” She pointed to the door.
“Cal!”

“Okay, I heard it, too,” Celeste said, and put her phone back into her pocket. She went to the smaller door at the side, attempted to open it but found it locked.

“Cal!”
Crystal had her mouth right up to the door.

“Have you got the key?” Celeste said to Dwayne.

“I don’t know why the hell he’d be in there. I always keep the door locked.”

“Do you have the key?” his wife asked again.

“Um,” he said, “it might be in the house.”

“Check your pockets,” she snapped at him. “You never go out of the house without your keys.”

“Cal!”

He took a long time hunting for them in his jeans. “I’ve got my truck keys, but I don’t know if the garage key is on—”

“Of course it is. Give them to me.”

Dwayne, looking like a man who’d lost all hope, handed the keys over to his wife. There were half a dozen of them on the ring, and he didn’t bother to single out the right one for her.

The third key did the trick.

She opened the door, flicked on the light. Crystal managed to duck under her arm and got into the room first.

Cal was on the floor, on his side. Duct tape was wrapped around his ankles and knees, and had been used to secure his wrists together at his back. There was another strip slapped across his mouth.

“Oh my God!” Celeste said, and dropped to her knees.

Cal was conscious, and rolled onto his stomach to allow Celeste to release his hands more easily. But after picking at the tape for several seconds, she turned to Dwayne, who was still standing in the doorway, and asked for a knife.

“Uh, sure,” he said, and reached into his other pocket for a small jackknife. He extracted a blade, then carefully put it into his wife’s hand. “He’s probably going to say some crazy shit, but you need to keep in mind that he might have been hit on the head or something.”

“What are you talking about?” Celeste said, focused now on cutting through the tape on Cal’s wrists without nicking him and drawing blood. Crystal was working at the tape on his ankles. She managed to cut through it with her nails, and was now working on the tape that bound his knees together.

Once Cal’s wrists were free, he rolled back over into a sitting position and worked the tape off his mouth himself, his eyes on
Dwayne the entire time. He wadded the tape into a ball and flicked it his way.

“Pretty smart move, leaving me with my phone,” Cal said.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Dwayne said.

Celeste’s eyes darted back and forth between them. “What the hell happened here? What’s going on?”

Cal helped Crystal free his knees, at which point she threw her arms around his neck and held him tight.

“I couldn’t find you,” she said.

“I’m okay,” Cal said, pulling her arms from around him. “Thank you for tracking me down.” He struggled to his feet, picking up a two-foot-long scrap of two-by-four at the same time.

“You should put that down,” Dwayne said. “We need to talk about this.”

“We can talk in a minute,” Cal said, and then, his face flushed with an instantaneous rage, swung the board as hard as he could into Dwayne’s right leg above the knee. Dwayne wasn’t able to move quickly enough to avoid it, but when Cal looked like he was ready to take a second swing, he stumbled back and out of the way.

“Jesus!” he said, grabbing his leg. “I think you broke it!”

“No,” Cal said, holding up the board and inspecting it. “It’s fine.” Celeste got between them and screamed, “Stop it! Stop it!” She pushed Cal back, then turned to her injured husband. “Did you do this? Did you do this to my brother?”

“I’m hurt,” he said. “I’m hurt bad.”

Celeste, shaking her head in disbelief, looked back at Cal and asked, “Did he do this?”

But before he could answer, something beyond him caught Celeste’s eyes. A large black plastic tarp was draped over something in the middle of the garage floor.

“What is that?” she asked.

Cal turned around to see what his sister was looking at. Celeste walked to the middle of the room, reached down, and took hold of a corner of the tarp and started to pull.

“No,” Dwayne said. “Don’t.”

Celeste gave the tarp a strong tug to reveal what had been hidden beneath.

Dozens of boxes of stereo components. Receivers, mostly. By Sony, Denon, Onkyo. A box marked “3-D Projector.” Several more boxes filled with Blu-ray disc players.

“Where the hell did those come from?” Dwayne said.

FORTY-ONE

ANGUS
Carlson said, “They’ve pulled me off active duty until the investigation is over.”

“I’m sorry,” Gale said, slipping an arm over his shoulder to comfort him. They were sitting on the curb out front of their house, under a streetlamp. “But you did the right thing.”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. It seemed like it at the time. At least the guy isn’t dead. I shot him in the leg.”

“You did what you had to do. And you’ve got all those witnesses in the hospital. They’ll all back you up.”

“The gun was empty.”

“What?”

“The guy who was waving a gun around at the woman wearing the hijab—”

“Which one is that?”

“What?”

“There’re the hijab and the niqab and the burka,” Gale said. “Right?”

“The burka covers everything, and the niqab is like that, but you can see the eyes.”

“Then which one is the hijab?”

“That’s the scarf that goes around the head, covers the hair, but you can see the face.”

“Is that what the woman was wearing? That one?”

“Yeah. I was trying to tell you about the gun.”

“I’m sorry,” Gale said.

“When they checked the guy’s gun, there were no bullets in it. I just hope they don’t use that against me. I mean, he was waving it around, acting like a crazy person.”

“You couldn’t know his gun wasn’t loaded,” she said. “It’s not like you have X-ray vision. I mean, lots of people have been shot by the police for waving around toy guns. It wasn’t a toy gun, was it?”

“No, it was real. But when something like this happens, they look at everything. The other guy, he’ll probably get a lawyer who’ll say somehow I should have known, that I shot him needlessly, that I could have defused the situation some other way. But I talked to the chief, and she told me not to worry.”

“Then don’t.” She paused. “How long are you off duty?”

“I don’t know.”

“Will they still let you be a detective?”

Angus shook his head. “No idea. Probably, but I don’t know. This kind of thing, you think you’re in the clear, and then they find something to nail you on.” He laughed derisively. “Wouldn’t my mom just love to hear about this?”

“Angus.”

“It’s been great telling her how good I’m doing, how things have turned out for me, despite all the shit she put me through. But now, this happens, and—”

“Don’t talk about her,” Gale said. “I hate it when you bring her up. Just don’t do it.”

Angus became sullen. “Fine.”

They were both quiet for a minute. Finally, Gale said, “The hijab-niqab-burka thing got me thinking.”

“Thinking about what?”

“Actually, it doesn’t really have to do with that. But it’s just the way things link in your mind, you know. Anyway, it’s probably totally nothing.”

Angus Carlson closed his eyes and dropped his head. “Gale, just tell me.”

“I went for a walk this morning. I had to get out of the house, just to do something, you know?”

“Yeah.”

“So, you know Naman’s?”

“The bookstore?”

“Yeah, he sells used books. He doesn’t carry just-published stuff.”

“He got firebombed the other night,” Angus said. “Someone threw a Molotov cocktail through his window.”

“I didn’t know that. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have bothered, but I went down there looking for a book.”

“What book?”

“It doesn’t matter,” she said.

“Come on, what book?”

Now it was her time to sigh. “I wanted to see if there were any books about couples. You know, like us. Couples who don’t have children, and why that is, and why one partner might want a child and the other doesn’t.”

“Gale.”

“You asked me what I was looking for and I told you. But listen to me.”

“Okay, go on.”

“So I walked down to the store, and it was all boarded up, but Naman was there, inside, kind of going through the damage. It was just awful. Books that didn’t catch on fire were all water-damaged from when the fire department got there, but even so, there were some books that weren’t damaged that much at all, except for smelling like smoke. I slipped inside and I talked to him and I felt so bad for him.”

“Sure.”

“I mean, people were blaming him just because he’s Muslim or whatever he is. Thinking he had something to do with the bombing at the drive-in, or what happened to the water.”

“People can be like that,” Angus said. “They don’t know what to do with the anger, and they racially profile, and then that kind of thing happens.”

“Which is why I feel really bad to even mention this, but . . .”

“But what?”

“There was a book in his store, on the floor, right there in front of me, about poison.”

Angus stiffened, turned his head toward his wife. “A book?”

Gale nodded. “I can’t remember the exact title. But it was a kind of guide, of all the poisons that are out there. All these ways that you can kill people.”

Angus appeared to be thinking. “Just because he had a book like that doesn’t mean he’s the one who poisoned the town’s water.”

“I know. I know that.”

“Did you say anything?”

She nodded. “I picked it up and handed it to him. This was right after he’d made some comment about people being suspicious of him. And I made a bad joke of it, I guess, saying something like ‘Well, I guess you better not let anyone see you with this, then.’”

“You said that.”

“Yeah.” She screwed up her face worriedly. “You think I shouldn’t have said that?”

“I don’t know. Like you said, it’s probably nothing.”

“You’re right. It probably is.”

“Unless,” Carlson said, “it
is
something.”

“That’s kind of what I was thinking, too,” Gale said.