“Well, you have to admit,” Jake added, “it isn’t something I run into every day. And I can almost see people taking two steps back whenever she walks into a room.”
“Grandmother told Sam that people are more receptive to healing powers. But other powers should not be advertised. Unfortunately, Sam chose a line of work where she can use her powers. I guess I should be glad she is callused enough to survive the opposition she encounters.” After a few moments she added, “Sam also tends to take lightly the danger she puts herself in. Promise me you’ll keep an eye on her.”
For the first time since he met her, Abby’s eyes showed genuine fear. He touched her hand and said, “Of course.” Jake leaned over to place his cup on the patio table. His shirtless torso was tan and muscular. He felt Abby’s hand on his back, a back he rarely exposed. When he heard her gasp, he stood up, felt his face flush. He thought he saw tears edge their way to the corners of her eyes. He departed abruptly explaining, “I should get dressed.”
Abby watched Jake leave. She leaned back against the table shaking her head in shock. Raised welts, old scars, had criss-crossed Jake’s back starting at the shoulder blades and disappearing below the belt line.
When she placed her hand on one of his scars she saw a vision of a boy, no more than six, shielding a woman, his mother perhaps, who was cowering in a corner. A leather strap cut across the boy’s back, literally ripping his shirt off.
The visions had come quick, split frames like watching a slide projector. The one that came into clear focus was the boy tied to a bed on his stomach, naked, his back and rear cut and bleeding profusely and then the strap slapping across the back once more, sending blood spraying onto the walls and sheet.
She knew more than ever that she made the right decision to use the sweat lodge. Jake had built an emotional wall around himself and now Abby knew that only the spirits would be able to penetrate that wall. Only they would be able to help him open his heart.
Chapter 35
Jake watched Frank through the glass partition in Sam’s office. Frank was on the phone with the Dallas VA Hospital.
“I thought Abby had told you she was my mother,” Sam said.
“She thought you had told me. All this time I thought she was your housekeeper.” Jake watched Frank hang up the phone and lean back in his chair shaking his head. “This doesn’t look good,” Jake observed.
Frank walked in and closed the door. “George Abbott, one of Preston’s fellow Army buddies, conveniently passed away last night.”
“Complications from surgery?” Sam asked.
“The doctor thinks there was a problem with his insulin. The nurse on duty said he received his proper dosage at six o’clock. But he seemed to have a suspicious amount in his system. I talked to the Dallas P.D. Told them Abbott was an integral part of our investigation and we would like them to treat it as a homicide.”
“That’s just great. Someone is picking off our witnesses one by one. First Leonard Ames dies in a car accident in 1976. Who’s next?” Sam asked. Janet buzzed Sam on the intercom. Benny was on the phone. She pressed the speaker button. “I hope it’s good news, Benny.” Benny informed them that Captain Murphy would be issuing a press release to the Chasen Heights Post Tribune informing them the Hap Wilson case was closed. Murphy’s memo to Benny requested that Benny report the preliminary tests were inconclusive on the cause of death but that drugs had not been ruled out.
“He can’t do that.” Sam looked up at Jake. “Can he do that?”
“He’s doing it,” Frank chimed in.
“I’ve already received the toxicology report, Sam.” Benny’s voice blared through the speaker phone. “It’s all negative. Basically, what Murphy says is correct. Cause of death is inconclusive.”
“But you and I both know Hap was murdered. How could he possibly want you to infer in your report that drugs might have played a part?” Sam argued.
“He’s closing the case is what he’s doing, and my hand is being held to the fire to sign off on it.”
“Can’t you stall him?” Frank asked.
Jake leaned on the desk, close to the phone. “How much longer can you hold the body?”
“As long as necessary.”
Sam ended her call with Benny and started pacing. The more she paced, the angrier she became. “It had to be Preston. He’s pressuring Murphy to close the case. Murphy is such a sonafabitch. He should be fired.” She picked up the phone and dialed Chief Connelley. “Do you know where he went, Mary?” Sam sat down at her keyboard and pounded out a note to Connelley on the computer. “That’s okay. I’m sending him a message. Do me a favor and read it to him when he calls in and have him call me ASAP.”
“What do you want your memo to accomplish other than pissing off Murphy because you went over his head?” Jake asked.
“That’s good for starters.” She pressed the ENTER key. “I don’t care what he says, I’m not giving up on this case. You two can do what you want.” She watched as the two men exchanged eye contact. Years of working together made Jake and Frank think like one. Sam never had the experience of knowing or even appreciating how that felt. “You think I’m crazy?”
“Other than ancient depositions, Sam, we’ve got nothing to work on,” Frank confessed. “The depositions revealed nothing other than that Hap was a respected, honest soldier. No proof that he might have deserted. But no proof that he hadn’t.”
“Elvis hasn’t come up with any responses to the ads he placed in the Korean newspapers,” Jake added. “Our backs are against the wall here and we’re coming up empty-handed. That, added to the lack of a relevant cause of death…” Jake let his comment trail off.
Sam held her hands up in surrender. “All right. Okay. Enough already.” She peered through the window toward Murphy’s office. He wasn’t in. She studied the two detectives. There was something in their eyes. Chief Connelley had told her she had it. And maybe that was what she was seeing. When she looked at their eyes she saw the hunger, the desire to get at the truth. Unrelentless.
She smiled slowly and said, “I don’t believe you. I don’t believe either one of you can walk away from Hap without knowing the truth.”
Chapter 36
A normal day for Lincoln Thomas was twelve hours. From seven in the morning until seven at night. He always brought his lunch and ate at his desk.
Some evenings were filled with meetings with local organizations and new business owners who were building hotels or convention centers and might need the assistance of Thomas Associates.
Lincoln had picked his American name from two presidents — Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson. It wasn’t that he lacked pride in his given name. After the war, he had stowed away on a ship to Seattle. He had been afraid he would be hunted down.
He could still hear them yelling, “You can’t hide. We’ll find you. And when we do, we’ll cut your tongue out.” He had run as fast and as far as he could that day. Never returned to the Base Commander.
The thought of them having a nationwide hunt for Ling Toy was his worst fear. So he had changed his name, found someone in the Korean underground to give him fake I.D. s, and hid himself deep in the Seattle Korean community.
He slept in a storage room above a bakery at night, helped with the baking between three and seven in the morning, then went to school. Melee, the bakery owner, was the biggest Korean woman he had ever seen. The Korean War had made her a widow. No children but enough friends and connections to help her open her own business in the States.
She never asked Lincoln about his nightmares, but would stay by him until he went back to sleep. She had a great business sense and within three years opened a small restaurant next door to her bakery.
Lincoln had been with her for seven years. He had no idea she had no living relatives. So it took him by complete surprise that she had willed him her businesses.