“Just give it your best shot,” said Kristina. “That’s all I’m asking.”
“All right,” said Odelia finally. “At the very least I can talk to these five men. Maybe in the years that have passed since that night they have developed a conscience.”
Kristina scoffed,“I very much doubt that. But I’ve heard rumors of a falling-out, and I’m hoping that finally someone will be prepared to break rank.” Her expression turned hard again. “Someone willing to finally own up to what they did to my little girl.”
Chapter 3
Our next port of call were the woods that spread out just outside Hampton Cove. They’re a popular place for weekend ramblers to go for hikes, and also for mountain bikers to practice their biking skills. It was a novel idea for us to realize that there were actually people taking care of those woods and that they were called foresters. I’d always thought that woods sort of took care of themselves somehow, but apparently they didn’t.
We found Kristina’s husband Dominic and their son Rick near the cabin they worked out of. We arrived there just in time, for they were on the verge of going out and entering the woods that were their domain. As Dominic explained it, they were going to fell some trees that had become dangerous and were on the verge of toppling over. Why that was a bad thing became clear when Dooley and I glanced up at one of those tall trees. Next to it, the forester’s jeep was parked, and I could see how that tree could easily do a lot of damage to that jeep if it ever decided to give up the ghost and keel over.
Trees are big, you see, and in comparison cars are small. And if a person were to sit in that car when that tree came down, it would be game over for tree, car, and person!
“I just talked to your wife,” Odelia explained her visit, “and she asked me to investigate the five men she thinks are responsible for your daughter’s death.”
Dominic’s face spelled storm, I could tell. He had one of those bearded faces which seem to be all the rage with people who spend a lot of time in nature. Even his son Rick sported an impressive beard. Both men were dressed in sturdy boots, khaki pants, check shirts and were clearly very muscular and ofthe rugged, silent type. “I told my wife not to talk to you, but of course she had to go ahead and do it anyway,” the forester grunted.
“She said she hopes that bringing Poppy’s killer to justice might help her conquer her fear of open spaces.”
“Lot of psycho-babble,” the man grumbled.
“No, it’s not, Dad,” said Rick. “This all started the day Poppy died, and if Mom believes that finding her killer will help her, I think we must give her that chance, don’t you think?”
“What I think clearly doesn’t make any difference,” said the man, staring off into the middle distance with a dark frown on what was visible of his face through the hirsute shrubbery.
“Do you remember anything from that day, Rick?” asked Odelia.
“Nothing much,” said Rick. “All I remember is two cars coming at us at great speed. Poppy and I were playing. I was on my bike, and she was scribbling something on the street with chalk, when suddenly these cars came roaring up out of nowhere. I was lucky that I was on the bike. The car hit my bicycle from the side. It lifted me up and I was catapulted onto the sidewalk, where a tree broke my fall. But Poppy wasn’t so lucky.”
“Doctors told us that she broke every bone in her body,” Dominic grunted. “Said they’d never seen anything like it. The car that hit her must have been doing ninety miles an hour. Which is why I refuse to call it an accident. It was cold-blooded murder, pure and simple.” His voice broke as the memory of that day came back to him.
“I was in the hospital for the next couple of weeks,” said Rick, placing a comforting arm around his dad’s shoulder. “I remember the police questioning me a couple of times, but I couldn’t tell them more than what I’m telling you now.”
“Two dark cars.”
He nodded.“Big and dark. But of course to a six-year-old every car looks big.”
“I should never have left them outside to play,” said Dominic. “But it was a safe neighborhood. Almost no traffic. Except for that one day when…” He swallowed.
“It’s all right, Dad. It wasn’t your fault, or Mom’s. It was those crazy kids.”
“Joyriders,” said Odelia.
“Yeah, they’d been terrorizing other neighborhoods before that night,” said Dominic. “The police were keeping an eye out for them, so they decided to move to our neighborhood, where they knew the police wouldn’t be watching and waiting.”
“What happened after that night?”
“They were all picked up—all five of them—and questioned. But they closed ranks. And of course their daddies paid for the very best lawyers money can buy. In the end the police had to let them go. Couldn’t prove a thing.”
“And the car had disappeared.”
“Yeah, they never did find the car that hit my kids. It’s probably at the bottom of a lake somewhere, or shipped off to God knows where.”
“Do you think you’ll be able to do anything, Mrs. Kingsley?” asked Rick.
“I don’t know, Rick. But at the very least I’m going to talk to those men again.”
“Good luck,” Dominic scoffed. “We tried talking to them over the years, and you know what their answer was?”
“A restraining order, your wife told me.”
Dominic nodded.“They were rotten kids, who have turned into rotten adults.”
“Do you think they’ll still cover for each other?”
“Of course they will. That kind of person doesn’t change.”
“Your wife seems to think they fell out. So at least one of them might talk.”
“My wife is desperate, Mrs. Kingsley,” said Dominic, squarely facing Odelia. “It’s thirteen years she’s been confined to that house. It’s been hell on her—and us.”
We’d almost reached the car when Dominic caught up with us. He glanced back, but Rick had disappeared inside the cabin they used as their GHQ. “There’s something else you need to know,” Kristina’s husband said quietly.
“What is it?” asked Odelia.
“It’s my wife. She was recently diagnosed with cancer. The doctors have given her three months—at best.”
“Oh, God.”
Dominic glowered at the forest floor.“She’s hoping that before she dies, she’ll know that the animal who killed our little girl is finally made to pay for what he did.” He looked up. “Please don’t tell Rick. We haven’t told him yet. We’re hoping for some miracle. And in case she recovers, we don’t want to burden Ricky if it isn’t absolutely necessary.”
“Of course. I’m so sorry, Dominic.”
He nodded.“Please do your best, Mrs. Kingsley.”
“I will,” Odelia said, much impressed. “You have my word.”
Chapter 4
Jona Morro was grinning to himself as he studied a YouTube video on his phone. It was a demo from the newHigh-Speed Chaser game and looked really sick. It was only out next month, but Jona had a buddy who worked for the company that produced the game, and he’d been able to lay his hands on a copy three weeks before the official premiere. A real coup, and he was looking forward to spending all weekend playing on his computer.
He was behind his desk at Morro& Wissinski, the insurance company he and his buddy Omar had started years ago. And he was so engrossed in the preview that he didn’t even hear it when someone walked up behind him and suddenly gave him such a knock on the head that immediately he conked out, his phone dropping to the floor.
When he finally woke up again, he was suffering from a terrible headache. But that was not the worst part. He was strapped to his desk, and found himself looking up at the huge car he’d once had hauled up to the ceiling and which now hung there, suspended.
It was the first car he’d ever owned. A red Ferrari. Every single customer who walked into his office was impressed at the sight of that phenomenal car hanging over the desk. And all of them asked the same question: ‘Oh, Mr. Morro! Isn’t that dangerous?’ And every single time he answered them the same thing, ‘Not as dangerous as driving it was!’