Richard and Allie Davidson are at the jail visiting with their son when we arrive. It’s the first time I’ve seen Allie since the night her house was set on fire. She thanks me profusely for helping her son, and Richard asks if they can stay while we talk. It’s fine with Calvin and me, and fine with Jeremy, so I tell him that they can.
We spend some time answering Jeremy’s and Richard’s questions about any progress we are making. Allie is content to let her men do the talking. So far there has been very little progress, and I tell them so straight out. Jeremy is facing a very serious situation, and I’m not about to sugarcoat it.
“We need to talk to people that Elizabeth knew well,” I say. “People from Center City.”
“Are you having trouble doing that?” Richard asks.
“It would be easier to penetrate NORAD.”
“The people in that town are crazy,” Jeremy offers.
“Have you met any of them?” I ask. “I mean besides Elizabeth.”
He shakes his head. “No. Sometimes when she’d go home for a holiday, I’d ask if she wanted me to come, to meet her family, but she said no. She said I didn’t know what it was like, but that I wouldn’t be welcome. She was embarrassed about it.”
“And nobody came to visit her at school?”
He snaps his fingers. “Of course! Her sister… she came there for a weekend. Liz said it caused a big fight with her mother. I think her name is Madeline.”
I had initially talked to a teenager when I called Jane Barlow. “How old is Madeline?”
“Probably seventeen. But she’s cool. She wants to go away to school like Liz, but she’s not allowed.”
“Did Liz ever talk about any other friends… ever mention any other names?”
He shakes his head. “I don’t think so. Liz used to say that inside and outside that town were like two different worlds. But it’s not that she didn’t like the place. She was really religious; it wasn’t like anybody was twisting her arm about it.”
“Did she ever mention Keeper Wallace?”
He nods. “A couple of times. She thought he was a great man. A couple of times she went all the way home for some kind of big meeting that he led.”
“Did she ever describe those meetings?”
“No. Just that they were really important and that the whole town went.”
I have no trouble believing that, since I was first there during one of the meetings. The streets at that time were deserted except for the ever-present servants. “Never mentioned a wheel when she was talking about her religion?”
“A wheel?” he asks, clearly having no idea what I’m talking about, so I take that as a no.
Jeremy is taken back to his cell, and his parents leave with us. Once outside, Richard asks me again about progress in the case, as if I wouldn’t have been completely forthcoming in front of Jeremy, perhaps withholding something good so as not to get Jeremy’s hopes up. He is disappointed when I have nothing to add, but expresses his full confidence in me. I wish I shared it.
Calvin and I go back to the house, and as we approach, he stops short, a stunned expression on his face. “You must be kidding,” he mutters, almost to himself.
I look ahead, and there on the front porch is one of the scariest sights I have ever seen.
Marcus.
• • • • •
I HAVE ABSOLUTELY no idea how Marcus got here. He doesn’t fly, at least not on planes, and I don’t see any evidence of a car. It’s possible he hitchhiked, but if any driver willingly picked up Marcus Clark, that person should be immediately committed and placed under twenty-four-hour suicide watch.
Marcus sitting on the porch of this peaceful house in this sedate little town gives new meaning to the word “incongruous.” He projects pure menace and power, and Calvin says, “You’d better get him inside quick.”
“Why?” I ask.
“Because in two minutes, For Sale signs are going to be popping up on this street like weeds.”
“Hey, Marcus, how ya doing?” I ask. “I didn’t think you’d get here so soon.”
“Unhh,” Marcus says. His phone and in-person personalities are remarkably similar.
“This is Calvin,” I say. “Calvin, this is Marcus.”
“Hello, Marcus. Andy’s told me a lot about you,” Calvin says gently. Everybody talks gently to Marcus when they first meet him.
“Unhh,” Marcus says. He seems to have really taken to Calvin.
“Come on in,” I say. “You hungry?”
“Yuh,” he says. Now we’re getting somewhere.
I put Marcus in the kitchen and invite him to have whatever he’d like. It turns out that what he’d like is every single edible item he sees, including pistachio nuts with the shells intact.
Marcus is about ten minutes into the carnage when the doorbell rings. I go to answer it, hoping that it’s someone with a stomach pump, but it turns out it’s Laurie.
“I assume Marcus is here?” she asks.
“How did you know that?”
“We got four 911 calls from people who saw him on your porch,” she says.
“Was he doing anything wrong?”
“He was looking like Marcus.”
No more explanation is needed, and Laurie goes into the kitchen. She gets there just in time, as Marcus is preparing to eat the dead woman’s dinette set.
What follows is a transformation that I’ve seen a few times but still find hard to believe. The moment Marcus sees Laurie he breaks into a humanlike grin, moves to her, and hugs her. “Hey, Laurie,” he says.
“Marcus, it’s great to see you. How have you been?”
“Good.”
They wax eloquently like this for a few minutes, and then we all sit down and discuss what Marcus’s responsibilities will be here in Findlay. Laurie suggests that we make it a short list: that all he should have to do is protect my ass. I describe the situation in Center City, with the various servants ranging from burly to enormous, and he just takes it all in without responding or showing any concern. I’m not a doctor, but I don’t think Marcus was born with a “concern” gene.
What Marcus does have is a significant amount of ability as an investigator and an amazing talent to get people to tell him things. I wouldn’t describe it as cajoling or persuading; it’s more like scaring into submission. But it works, and I’m bottom-line-oriented enough to want to use these talents.
What we decide on is that we will use Marcus as an investigator, and as a protector when I think I’m going to be in a situation that could be dangerous. Laurie thinks so highly of my physical prowess that her view is that I’m in danger every time I cross the street, so she’s not thrilled with this resolution. But this time I’m calling the shots, and that’s how we leave it.
“Where’s Marcus going to live?” Calvin asks.
I hadn’t given it much thought, and now that I do, I’m not thrilled with the possibilities. “Do you have room at your place?” I ask.
Calvin shakes his head, as if he deeply regrets that he has to say what he’s going to say. “Damn… I wish I did. My aunt and uncle are in from Milwaukee, and they brought the twins.”
“Is that right?” I ask. “You never mentioned them.”
“I don’t talk about them much; they’re on my mother’s side.”
“I think Marcus should stay here,” Laurie says. “You’ve got three spare bedrooms upstairs, and it’s you he’s going to protect. Staying at Calvin’s house wouldn’t make much sense, even if he didn’t have his aunt and uncle and the twins on his mother’s side in town.”