Authors: Rebecca Forster
“I’ll leave this for you, Hannah. Perhaps, after you read it, you will understand.”
Isaiah Wilson put the papers he had taken from his coat and left them on the hall table. Archer followed Wilson out the door. As he did, he took the papers with him. The only way Hannah would ever read what went on in that courtroom was over his dead body.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR:
Hannah sat with her knees together, her elbows crooked, her face cradled in her upturned palms. Her index fingers tapped and tapped, paused and tapped. The sleeves of her jacket had fallen away from her wrists and pooled at her elbows. As Hannah watched herself attacking Isaiah Wilson on television, Daniel Young watched her.
She was used to men looking at her, but not the way Daniel Young did. It was as if he was trying to decide what to do with her. The fact that he was still in the house annoyed her. Or, maybe she was just aggravated that Archer insisted that Daniel sit with her like a nanny while he regrouped. She had looked out the window twice to see him sitting on the low wall. Both times he was talking into his phone. She knew one of the calls would be to Faye, because what happened was probably going to get child protective service’s panties in a knot. Archer wouldn’t be able to keep Hannah out of custody; they were going to need a lawyer. She figured the other call would be to Liz Driscoll to see if there was anything new on her end. But now it was just her and Daniel Young, and she wished she were alone. At the very least, Hannah wished she hadn’t sent Max out to be with Archer.
“What?” Hannah demanded without bothering to look Daniel’s way.
“I beg your pardon?” Daniel answered.
“You’re staring at my arms.”
“No,” he answered. “I was just thinking.”
“Bet you’re thinking it would be cool to cure me.” Hannah sat back, not liking this tall man in the well-pressed clothes.
“I don’t recall saying I thought you were sick.”
“That’s rich,” Hannah snorted. Her eyes were still glued to the television. The news anchors were laughing, and there was a picture of a duck in the corner of the screen. At least it wasn’t a picture of her.
“I am curious about you and her, that’s all.”
“What do you want to know?” Hannah’s eyes flickered his way. “I’ll tell you, and then you can go home.”
Daniel laughed, lazy and long before his voice just sort of blew away. He shook his head like a parent who had heard it all. His patients must hate it when he did that.
“I’m not some gossipy neighbor, Hannah.”
“And you’re not a friend. You’re just someone Archer is supposed to be protecting.”
He laughed again. “No, I don’t need protecting. I know things about Xavier Hernandez that. . .”
He never finished his thought. Hannah stood up so abruptly that he was stunned into silence. She turned her back and started to walk away.
“I was speaking to you, Miss.”
Hannah looked over her shoulder. It was her turn to laugh, but she didn’t. She just smiled slightly.
“Wow. That was weird.”
“And what you did was rude,” he suggested in that ever-so-patient way of his. Hannah titled her head. She narrowed her eyes. Something had crept into his voice that made her think twice about getting in his face.
“Okay. Sorry,” she said. “Do you want something to drink?”
“No. Thank you.”
“Then you can go if you want. I’m good.”
“I’ll wait until Archer comes back in.”
“Suit yourself, but I don’t need a babysitter.”
“Then do you mind if I look around?”
Hannah pulled up short again. He might as well have asked her to drop her drawers. This was Josie’s place and even Hannah didn’t take liberties yet.
“Why?”
“Maybe something will jump out at me.” Daniel stood up and wandered toward her. “You live here so you might not see certain things. I’m trained to notice, to read into clues that people leave subconsciously.”
“Cool. Like a pile of rocks that will point us to Josie?” Hannah widened her eyes, mocking him. “You must have been a Boy Scout.”
“You never know. Sometimes you don’t see what’s right in front of your eyes. That’s the funny thing about human nature, you see what you want to.” Daniel was neither insulted nor deterred by Hannah’s defenses. “Wouldn’t you be sorry if there was something that you missed? Wouldn’t you hate to live with that knowledge the rest of your life? What if there was one small thing you didn’t see that might have saved Josie?”
“I thought you didn’t like her,” Hannah said warily.
“It’s not about her, it’s about me,” he said as he held Hannah’s gaze. Then he smiled broadly. “It’s all about me, Hannah.”
He came closer. He touched a lamp. Hannah didn’t want him to do that. Not without touching it more than once. One more step and his shin was against the coffee table.
Hannah’s eyes swept over Daniel as she tried to figure out what made her wary of him. He seemed to be growing in stature, taking up more room than he should and Hannah backed up a bit. Yet it wasn’t his physical presence that bothered her, it was something else. Then she figured it out. There was something under Daniel Young’s skin that he was refusing to scratch.
If it had been her, she couldn’t resist touching, probing, and exploring the boundaries of whatever it was that caused her anxiety. She wanted to understand everything: the bad and the good. This guy was too eager for something and Hannah didn’t want to know what it was.
“Yeah, whatever,” she said abruptly.
Hannah turned on her heel and went into the kitchen, cupped the curved rim of the counter with the heels of her hands, let her fingers tap the cool granite top, and scanned the walk-street before looking out toward the ocean.
Wherever Josie was, Hannah hoped she could see the ocean. It was with that peaceful, wishful thought that the house erupted with a noise that seemed to come straight from hell.
A Rental House, San Fernando Valley
The girl sat on one of the dilapidated lounge chairs strewn around the backyard of the house she shared with her boyfriend and his friends. She smoked a joint and tried to relax. She didn’t have to be at work until eight, so she had all day to catch up on her sleep. But she couldn’t relax, and she couldn’t sleep because every time she closed her eyes she thought about that place in the woods.
Her boyfriend told her she was tripping. Her boyfriend laughed at her. Finally, her boyfriend told her to forget about it. Last thing they needed was any trouble with the law. Still, she argued, it was only a phone call to some guy. Her boyfriend got mad, called her a couple of names and then wanted to screw around. She didn’t like that one bit, so out she went to the yard where she stayed all night. Now it was another evening and he had gone off to his part-time job and she was supposed to be doing laundry. Instead she was watching the sun make its way across the sky. She was stoned and lazy and the thought that he was probably right about all that shit drifted in and out of her mind like the smoke to her lungs. She raised the joint to her lips, inhaled, and held it.
Yeah, he was right.
She should forget about it.
She was working on it.
Josie Bates’ House, Hermosa Beach
Hannah dashed through the house toward the sounds of Max’s barking and snarling, only to stop in the doorway of Josie’s bedroom and cling to the jamb. Archer stood with his legs splayed and his back bent over so he could hold on to Max who was straining to get at Josie’s closet.
“What the hell are you doing?” Archer growled.
Hannah pushed off, wanting to see what Archer was seeing. Knowing you didn’t run headlong into trouble, she made a wide circle and stood behind him. What she saw was Daniel Young cowering in Josie’s closet, half buried in her clothes, clutching a shoe like a club.
“Get that animal away from me!” Daniel’s scream made Max bare his teeth and snap all the more. Spittle flew from the dog’s mouth, and Daniel turned his head away. His escape was blocked on all fronts. Young’s arms flailed over his head, his knees were pulled into his chest as if he could save himself by getting small. He screamed again. “Put that animal away.”
Archer hollered back: “I should let him go.”
“Archer,” Hannah said quietly.
She touched him. Touched him again and again on the arm that quivered with tension of holding the big dog. A second later, he handed the growling dog off to Hannah.
“Put him in the kitchen.”
The tone of his voice left no room for discussion, so Hannah took Max and spoke gently to him as she led him out of the room. She would have been gone in another second, but Daniel Young defended himself at her expense.
“She gave me permission. It’s her fault.”
Hannah whipped her head back. The old dog, sensing a change in attitude, strained toward Daniel once more.
“I never did, Archer,” Hannah insisted. “I didn’t tell him he could come in here.”
“Go on, Hannah,” Archer said, making it clear he didn’t put much stock in Daniel’s objection. He grabbed for Daniel. “And you. Get out of there.”
Before Archer could touch him, Daniel stood up, pushed aside the clothes, and dropped the shoe in an attempt to regain his dignity.
“I’m sorry I upset you,” he said as he eased his way around Archer. “I thought I might find something you and Hannah overlooked. Something that might lead us to understand what convinced Ms. Bates to meet with Hernandez.”
“Do you think we wouldn’t have noticed something out of place?” Archer demanded.
“No, but you might not think that something you see everyday could hold a clue. No one is completely open about their lives, Archer.”
“Josie is,” He grumbled and went to the bed and sat down. He was tired. Physically and emotionally exhausted. The last thing he wanted was for his mind to be muddled. Young was slick and he muddled minds for a living.
“No, Archer, Josie isn’t any more honest than any other person. I’m not saying she has lied to you, I’m saying there are things that are personal to her. I was just going to look through the book at her bedside when that dog came at me.” Daniel swiped at his slacks but inclined his head toward the nightstand. “Do you know what she’s reading?”
Archer shook his head.
“Just because you don’t know doesn’t mean she has lied to you about something. It only means the subject hasn’t come up in conversation. But it might mean something to me. Xavier was a voyeur. Did you know that? He loved to watch women. He would go into houses and take things from them. They probably never knew their things were gone they were so inconsequential.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that before?” Archer asked, peeved that this kind of information was withheld.
“We’ve been busy, and as I recall you preferred me to speak only when spoken to.” Daniel sat on the opposite side of the mattress. “In forty-eight hours you’ve assaulted me and dismissed me. You’re angry with me for talking to the press. I would at least have expected a thank you for helping Hannah when Isaiah came, but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt on that one.” He laughed a little. “I must say meeting you has been a challenge, Archer. I didn’t expect you at all, but I do understand. Now I need you to understand me.”
“Yeah. Okay.” Archer gave a grunt and a nod. He looked around the room. “So did you find anything?”
Daniel reached for the book and fanned the pages. Then he put it back on the table and looked around the room.
“No. I suppose you were right. There’s nothing special here. Nothing special at all.” Daniel sighed. “I would have expected more of Ms. Bates. Something more interesting.”
Archer had enough. He stood up. He had things to do, but Daniel wasn’t finished.
“You have to prepare yourself for the eventuality that she may never be found.”
Archer shrugged him off.
“I don’t give up, Young, and neither does Josie.”
“Perhaps denial is best for now.” Daniel looked at his watch. “Just remember, I’m here for you if reality rears its ugly head. Now, I suppose I better be going.”
Daniel was almost out the bedroom door when Archer called to him:
“What did Josie do to you?”
Daniel turned around. He smiled as if he was pleased. Archer was finally beginning to realize that Josie Bates was not the woman he thought her to be.
“Are you sure you want to know?”
“Yeah,” Archer answered.
“She discredited me. Josie Bates questioned my integrity and my standing as a medical doctor. She found old records that indicated I had not finished my graduate work and she presented this information to the jury as if that made me a charlatan. I lost my standing with the media, the ethics board reviewed me, and it took me three years to straighten things out. By that time Josie Bates had moved on and made her fortune, and my practice was in a shambles.”
Daniel tilted his head and watched Archer. If he was hoping for sympathy he didn’t get it. If he was hoping to see Archer’s appreciation for Josie waver, he didn’t see it. Daniel took a step closer to the big man.