Color Blind (21 page)

“What was that? Are you okay?” Yancy asked.

Jenna jumped at his hand on her shoulder.

“Sorry,” he said, yanking it away. “What’s up?”

She shook her head. “Don’t know. Hank is coming to pick me up here. Wouldn’t tell me why. He sounded . . . I don’t know what.”

Jenna sank to the lip of the wall they were next to, scenario after scenario chasing each other around her mind. The case, their daughter. He said it wasn’t Ayana, but if not, what would make him sound so worried?

“Want me to wait with you?” Yancy asked, taking a seat beside her.

Oboe leapt after a butterfly flitting by. His front legs stubbed the ground on the way down, and he yelped.

“Yeah,” she said. “That’d be nice.”

Explaining Yancy’s presence to Hank would be fun, but right now the last thing she wanted to do was sit here and wait for Hank without distraction from all the horrible ideas forming.

Yancy leaned down to examine Oboe’s legs, which had nary a scrape. “You’re all right, you big sissy. You sure do talk a big talk for such a whiny dude.” Then, as if he could read her thoughts, Yancy winked. “I’ll tell Hank we ran into each other here.”

The BAU had so many years profiling liars, and this guy planned to bald-face it to the best of them. “That’d be a big coincidence.”

“Maybe so, but the
truth
is, he’ll never know. He might
suspect
, but believing and knowing aren’t the same thing. And like I said, I’m good at keeping secrets.”

Y
ancy swallowed hard as he watched S.A. Hank Ellis striding toward them, confusion on the agent’s face melting into frustration at the sight of Yancy with his ex. Yancy’s neck burned. He knew he shouldn’t be here. Just because he’d trained as an investigator once upon a time didn’t make him one.
What are you doing here, smart guy? Playing with the big boys?

Hank reached them, seeming to battle with himself for what to say or do. In the end he must’ve decided whatever brought him was more pressing than Jenna sitting in the park with one of the Gemini shooters’ victims.

“Mr. Vogul, good to see you again. Excuse us, will you?”

Jenna put her hand up to her ex. “He’s fine, Hank. Just tell me what’s going on.”

Awkward.
Ellis glanced back and forth from Yancy to Jenna, and Yancy averted his eyes to study Oboe’s progress scratching his left ear.

“Jenna, we need to talk in private—”

“Please, Hank.”

A loud sigh. “Fine. It’s about Claudia. She’s . . . Jenna, they’re releasing her from the Sumpter Building.”

At this, Yancy’s head jerked up. “What?” he and Jenna echoed at the same time.

“How is that
possible?
She’s charged with murder and attempted murder!”

Yancy knew that technically, Jenna’s mother had only been officially charged with the attempted murder of Jenna’s brother and father and the murder of one of the previous husbands. The books all talked about how the other murders were suspected, but no prosecutor would pursue them for lack of evidence. By the time anyone suspected Claudia of wrongdoing, the bodies couldn’t be investigated for the signs of foul play needed to convict her.

“The charges were dropped, Jenna,” Hank said.

All the blood drained from Jenna’s face. “They can’t have been! What judge in his right mind—”

Hank cut in. “She fired her old lawyer. New lawyer presented evidence to a judge today that her old lawyer and the DA have been living together in secrecy for several years.”

“What?”

Jenna’s voice sounded high, shrill. Panicked.

“New lawyer argued the prosecutor has been conspiring to violate Claudia’s right to a speedy trial, and the judge agreed. Hesitantly, but he agreed.”

Jenna’s knees buckled, and Yancy saw it coming and caught her under the armpits just in time to keep her tailbone from striking the stone wall. Oboe clawed at the pavement against the tightening leash.

“Wait a minute, boy,” Yancy said out of the corner of his mouth as he eased Jenna to a seat on the wall. “But isn’t she insane? I mean, they can’t just let her go free, right?”

Jenna shook her head. When she spoke again, her voice was eerily quiet compared to the piercing notes of before. “Not insane. Not legally. She was found
not competent
to stand trial. It’s not the same as being found guilty by reason of insanity.”

“But she’s schizophrenic, right?”

“Legally, she’s not even arachnophobic,” Ellis replied.

Jenna sat forward and let her head droop between her knees. She breathed deeply and blew the breaths out of her mouth.

Yancy watched her back curve up and flatten with the gasps, and he clenched his fists at his sides to resist the urge to touch her shoulder. God. So this was what helplessness felt like.

“When?” Jenna whispered.

Now Hank sat on the wall next to her. “Tomorrow morning.”

Jenna lifted her head. She looked like she would vomit at any second, but she didn’t. Instead, she reached down and scratched Oboe on the scruff of his neck.

“Tomorrow. Great.”

“Jenna, they’ll watch her. You better believe I’ll have her on surveillance twenty-four/seven from the moment she’s out. We’ll work on this constantly if we have to. We’ll find evidence. There are new techniques, new ways to solve cold cases. She’ll be held accountable.”

By the look on her face, Yancy could tell she didn’t believe him. Somebody really needed to tell this guy that if he wanted to preach about life ending up fair, he was playing to the wrong crowd.

Who could possibly decide to release that woman? Everyone knew she was guilty as—“Hey, Jenna. Wait a minute.”

Jenna stared at Yancy through glassy eyes, questioning.

“The Gemini mastermind found this guy with buttons to push. What about this violent crime you said was in his past? What about the jurors on the case?”

Jenna squinted like she was trying to read writing that was far away. Then she blinked rapidly. “There wasn’t a trial. No jury to look at.”

“Oh.”
Too good to be true. Stupid. Trying to bring up the other case at a time like this.

Yancy caught the look Hank shot at Jenna, but luckily she didn’t see it. She was too busy staring at the ground.

“Has Claudia’s release been on the news?” she asked.

“Not yet,” Ellis answered.

She hung her head again. “I have to tell Dad. Charley.”

“I’ll come with you,” Ellis said.

Yancy swallowed his urge to say he would come with her, as well. Talk about insane. Her mother wasn’t the only one.

Jenna patted Oboe once more. “Thanks for the talk.”

Yancy watched the two walk away, their heads together as they talked furiously in hushed tones. Just like when he was lying on the pavement at the theme park. Couldn’t help anyone.

He’d think of a way. Had to. It had to be a lot easier to help other people than to help yourself, right?

Okay, smart guy. Time to do some research.

“A
wesome. I’ll see you later,” Charley said.

He couldn’t be serious.

“Did you hear me?” Jenna asked.

Her brother picked up his guitar case and hoisted the strap on his shoulder. “Yes. Claudia released, technicality, out tomorrow. Good deal. I’m sure she’ll have found wedded bliss and be fixing her new hubs a special arsenic burrito in no time. Ten-four.”

“And you’re just going out? At a time like this?”

Sure, he’d been little when everything happened, but she knew he remembered. He’d had nightmares throughout his teen years. Probably still did.

“What am I supposed to do, Rain Man? Huddle in here and board up the windows? Wait for the Big Bad Wolf to come calling? I think not. I have better shit to do.”

He turned the doorknob, but Jenna grabbed his shoulder. “Charley, we need to figure out—”

“Figure out nothing. We can’t change it, Jenna. We try, and all we’ll get is a foot in the ass and a pat on the back. Trust me. It’s better we don’t waste our time. Easier to let it wash by than fight it, lose,
then
have it wash by. See you in the morning.”

Charley kissed her forehead and squeezed her middle, then he was gone. She stared after him for a long minute. Sometimes it seemed like maybe it was easier to be the stabbed, unconscious one. At least then you didn’t have to see other people stabbed.

Jenna wandered into the kitchen. Her father was pacing nervously, and a pot of broth boiled over on the stove, the liquid sizzling on the burner. Jenna turned down the heat.

“I’m surprised the floor hasn’t given way yet with the path you’ve worn in it over the years. One day the people under us will have surprise guests for dinner,” she said.

Vern muttered something indiscernible. Then, “Hank gone?”

“You thought he’d stick around after you screamed in his face how he ought to have to take Claudia’s place in the asylum? Yeah, I’d say he felt like he’d overstayed his welcome.”

Vern wrung his hands. “Didn’t mean to. Just antsy.”

Jenna’s eyes followed him as he moved. Her poor dad. He’d really loved Claudia. For that matter, she had, too. Maybe. Could you love someone if you never really knew them?

“It’ll be okay, Dad. She won’t hurt you,” she whispered.

He turned to pace the way he’d come, but she stood in his way. He hugged her tight, tighter than he had in years. She squeezed him back.

“It’s not me I’m worried for, Jenn. I worry for you.”

She pulled back from him. His eyes were tired. Sad. “For me?”

Her dad extricated himself from her embrace and padded the floor again. “I know you hate it when people say things like this, because I know you can take care of yourself. Different than me.”

“We’re not that different, Dad. I don’t pretend to know what it was like for you, but we all lived through it, didn’t we?”

“No,” he said, flat.

“Excuse me?”

Vern glanced at the baby monitor, which had crackled. Ayana murmured a few sounds, but then it went quiet again.

“Jenn, you lived with it longer than we did. You knew alone for so long.”

The shame in his voice brought tears to her eyes. “Dad, you knew it, too. You just weren’t a stupid kid who thought she could play detective. You loved her, so you gave her the benefit of the doubt.”

His back to her again. He walked slowly back toward the hallway. “You care more about
truth
. And you weren’t
that
young.”

“You couldn’t have stopped her, you know,” Jenna said.

Vern halted in his tracks. “Why not? You did.”

“Dad, I’m so sorry. I wasn’t trying to say you were weak—”

Vern waved her off, but this time, he walked straight into the hall. “Never mind. I know you weren’t trying to say anything like that. I guess I just think it enough on my own.” He sighed heavily, and his shoulders drooped, the weight of the moment seeming to manifest on top of them. “I’m going to get some shut-eye, hm? Maybe you should do the same. Take the baby monitor with you, okay?”

“I will,” Jenna muttered. Lecture from her ex on talking to a potential witness, brother gone, and now Dad upset, too. She was on a roll tonight.

Jenna lifted the pot her dad had started like he often did when he was disturbed. She poured out the forgotten broth. She set it on the counter, which was still coated lightly with the fingerprint dust the evidence clerks used to dust the package.

The station had gotten almost a hundred calls in the past few hours since the spot on Keaton aired, all from people claiming to be Isaac Keaton’s math teacher, childhood best friend, astronaut buddy. None of them sounded even remotely like the ferry shooter was taking the bait. If only Jenna could figure out where Keaton had found Thadius Grogan, maybe she’d come across where he got the ferry shooter, too.

Too bad Yancy’s thought about the jury had been off base. If Emily Grogan’s killer had been put on trial, the trial and its circumstances would’ve been a nice place to start looking for connections to Thadius.

Then again, it wouldn’t have mattered. If they’d caught Emily’s murderer, he’d most likely have gotten off on a technicality like Claudia. Hell, the exact same thing would probably happen with Isaac Keaton. They’d caught him with the gun in his hand, but Jenna had handed the cops all the information they’d needed to convict Claudia, and
she’d
managed to get out. Isaac came from the same mold. He’d met her mother somewhere. All his schemes of letters and packages were mailed after he went to jail. It wouldn’t surprise Jenna if Isaac had planted the damned evidence to get Claudia off.