“I was happy to tell him no, but I was thoroughly discouraged. The police later told me that her suitcases, clothing, and personal items were missing from the apartment, and that a neighbor had heard her talking with someone in the afternoon, and the door opening and closing. That further convinced Detective Pointe that she had left with Derek.”
“What about Derek’s car? Is it missing, too?”
She shook her head. “It was found parked near Union Station in Los Angeles, but no one remembers seeing them board a train.”
“When did you call the police to report that Derek was missing?”
She stood, went over to a telephone in a small alcove and opened the built-in drawer beneath it. She brought out three clothbound journals and handed them to him.
“I wrote down everything I could remember about those weeks, from Derek discovering the problem at the company, Harold and Evelyn’s break-in, and so on. I have listed all of Derek’s banking and credit card information, a physical description of him, a list of his hobbies and interests, where his dental records can be found, and even his blood type. I’ve logged all my calls, with the date, time, who spoke to me, what they said, and so on.”
“I want to look through these, but tell me the short version of what happened.”
“Everyone believed my husband and I had an argument, and he ran off with his mistress. The police talked to three friends of Marlena Gray, and all of them said that she had called them on Halloween, excited, saying good-bye, telling them she and Derek planned to just disappear in a way that my ‘fancy lawyers’ couldn’t do anything about. Derek and Marlena wouldn’t leave a trail, they’d just go out of the country, using cash Derek had been squirreling away for years, hoping to escape me. And I would be ‘screwed over,’ as she put it, because I wouldn’t be able to touch his assets for at least seven years, and maybe by then he’d divorce me.”
“Wow.”
She smiled wryly. “Yes. Wow. Harold and Evelyn claimed he’d told them the same thing. Halloween was on a Saturday, and although Derek and Evelyn admitted that he had met them at the factory, they claimed he did so to tell them that he was running away with his mistress. He had supposedly been secretive, but told them that much of his plans because he didn’t want them to worry about him.”
She shook her head. “Fools. I showed them that even with Derek unavailable, I could do things with the company. I fired both of them. I had the place searched, looking for some clue to Derek’s whereabouts. That came to nothing. I rehired the accountant. He still runs the company and does a fine job of it.”
“I’m kind of surprised you were able to patch things up with your son after all of that.”
“We never did so completely, but things did improve. Harold and Evelyn ran out of money, and wanted to make peace. I agreed to talk to Harold, and to help him out, on the condition that he would not mention Derek to me. I wouldn’t let him come here-I met him in town and had this place watched while we went out to a restaurant for lunch. Sure enough, while we were having lunch, Evelyn tried to break in. I nearly had her arrested for it, but in the end I was so tired of legal hassles I just let her know that she wouldn’t get away with it a second time.”
“Did Harold seem to know about her plan to break in?”
“No, he seemed angry and embarrassed. I didn’t know if he was acting or if that was what he genuinely felt, though. This goes back to why we never completely worked things out. I didn’t trust my own son. It’s one thing to think your child has some wrongheaded ideas. Or to have a clash of personalities. These things happen in families. But every time I met him, I kept thinking that he had probably killed his father, and that the proof was somewhere in these boxes, or out in the garage. I gave him more than enough money to live on, but at the same time I had all those locks put on the front door and an alarm system installed on the house. Still, I knew if they ever really wanted in here, they would probably find a way.”
“I’m sorry you had to fear him.”
“Mostly I feared Evelyn, but yes, him as well. Suspecting a family member in this way is poisonous. It long ago deadened a part of me toward my son, and no mother should experience that, but plenty do. We tried to find a way, especially not long before he died. We were never again as close as we once were, though. Then late last year he suddenly became ill and died. Kidney failure. Evelyn is supposed to benefit from a large insurance policy, but my understanding is that the insurance company has some questions about his death.”
He glanced up to see Bear getting out of the car.
Frank held the journals toward her. “Would you be willing to make copies of these for me?”
She hesitated, then said, “You may take them with you.”
“I don’t-”
“I have a confession,” she said. “I was hoping you would be the one who responded today.”
He didn’t hide his confusion. “What?”
“I follow any news about the Bakersfield Police Department very closely. I read about the murder at the trailer park. That you were the one who didn’t take things at face value. I read about the indictment of Chief Cross-”
“Mrs. Sarton, please don’t think all that happened because of me. A seasoned homicide detective was kind enough to listen to a rookie. It was his case, not mine. As for the former chief, I shouldn’t even be talking about that, and he’s innocent until proven guilty. A case has been brought against him, and if that makes you happy, there are detectives and investigators from the state attorney general’s office who get that credit. A newspaper reporter found the tapes. It’s nothing to do with me, really. People have been working on this for longer than I’ve even been an officer. In fact, I should leave these here and ask a detective to come by and talk to you. If I take them, I have to check them into evidence, and… and-”
“Say no more. I understand that the cleanup of the department is still under way.” She sighed. “Well, it was worth a try, and you’ve listened to me longer than anyone else in the police department has. Thank you for that.”
It irritated him. He didn’t want to promise her he would be back, because she probably wouldn’t believe him. And who could blame her? But what more could he do?
He heard Bear knocking on the door. She went to answer it. He followed her. Bear was probably ready to make him run behind the squad car.
As he passed the boxes, and thought of the overfull garage, he found himself thinking of Jimmy Chao’s story. “Mrs. Sarton!”
She turned back to him.
“Have you gone through these boxes or looked through the ones in the garage?”
“No. I haven’t touched anything. I haven’t been in my own garage since the night I made Harold put that drum back. Not to make you think I’m another Miss Havisham, but little has changed in here since that day. When a person is missing, even if you know in your mind that most likely they are dead, your heart tells you to hope. It causes you to become superstitious, to want not to change anything, not to send any signal to the universe at large that you are leaving the missing one behind and moving on-one moment, Officer Bradshaw!”
This last was in response to much louder knocking, the type that says you don’t want things to escalate to the next level.
When she unlocked the last lock and opened the door, Frank spoke before Bear could say anything. “We need to check something in the garage.”
Bear stared at him for a moment, then said in the tone you use to calm a maniac, “All right-”
“The garage!” Mrs. Sarton said. “I… I-”
“You trust me,” Frank said, “or you don’t.”
She took a resolute breath. “Let me get the keys.”