Authors: Lynn Hightower
Sam carried the blue bag and Mia took the backpack. “Mia, there's a lot going on we're not sure we understand.”
She nodded. She stayed quiet and watched everybody they passed. Looking for Collie.
“You sure you have no idea where Collie went?”
“She went to meet the friend.”
Sonora opened the back door of the Taurus, helped the little girl find her seat belt. She was wearing a pair of red cotton shorts today. Shorts and a sleeveless white denim shirt. Her hair was held back with a plastic white hairband. She looked hot.
“Why don't you tell me everything that happened since you got up this morning. Could you do that?” Sonora asked.
Mia nodded. “First thing, I got up. Then I ate some cereal. Lucky Charms.”
“That's what my little girl likes.”
“You have a little girl?” Mia asked.
“Yeah. Detective Delarosa has one too.”
“They must have been having a sale on little girls that year,” Sam said. He started the car. Pulled out of the lot where they were illegally parked.
Mia gave them a faint smile. “Collie was in the shower. She came out and checked the messages. There was one from the car place.”
“What car place? Do you know the name of it?”
“No. But it's the car place where Collie likes to go. I think they must have called while Collie was in the shower and I was still in bed. So Collie called them up and talked a minute, and then she started crying.”
“Why did she cry?” Sonora asked.
Mia shrugged.
“Did the phone ring in between? Did somebody else call?”
“I don't know. I don't think so. I didn't hear it if it did.”
Sonora caught Sam's look. “Maybe it was a big estimate.”
“Yeah, right. Okay, Mia, she cries. Then what?”
“I took her some Kleenexes and a Coke and a cookie.”
Sam looked over his shoulder and smiled at her. “Want to come and live at my house?”
“Then Collie blew her nose but she wouldn't eat the cookie so I did, because my Lucky Charms were getting soggy.”
Sonora nodded.
“Then she just stopped crying. She said, that's that then. Weird, I guess. Then she hugged me and said she loved me, and that it was time to face the facts. Then she told me we were going to go be with a friend for a while.
“I asked her why. She said it was grown-up business, and that I should do what she told me, and she would try to work everything out. And then she hugged me again and said she would always keep me safe.”
Sonora looked across at Sam. “We need to go to the house.”
“It's where I'm headed. Mia, did she tell you anything about this friend?”
Mia thought for a minute. “Just that he was very nice, and very understanding. That he really cared. That he was easygoing and didn't lose his temper, and that he liked little girls.”
Sam looked at Sonora. “How could she figure all that out on-line?”
“Probably told her so himself.”
65
Sonora half expected Gage Caplan to be in the doorway waiting for them, but the house was empty and unlocked.
Mia ran in ahead of them. Sonora and Sam followed. Mia went straight to the basement calling Collie's name. She was back up in a minute. Did a room-to-room search, looking.
The answering machine was in the bedroom. More white. Bedspreads, white carpet, heavy mahogany furniture, with peach accents on the wall. Expensive and bland.
The closet door was open, a dress on the floor like a blasphemy in the otherwise immaculate room. Sonora pressed the message button on the answering machine.
“Mr. and Mrs. Caplan, this is Wilfred Boggs, calling from Boggs Auto. Please call me at the following number, about your 1996 Nissan Pathfinder, regarding repairs.” Sonora wrote the number down on the scratch pad by the phone. Saw that someone else had written the same number down earlier.
“Should we call them?” Sonora asked.
Sam shrugged. “No stone unturned. Something made her cry. Want me to do it?”
“Yeah, I'm going to see if I can track down that computer.”
She found Mia sitting cross-legged on the top bunk of her bed. Sonora stood in the doorway.
“May I come in?”
Mia's arms were folded and she was staring into the jumble of sheets, bedspread, and blankets.
“Yes.” Voice barely audible.
“Nice room.”
Mia nodded. Words were too much effort. Sonora looked around the room with a smile, thinking that whoever had put this one together was an opposite to whoever decorated the rest of the house.
The bed was fire engine red metal, and there was a desk and dresser, simple blunt cut wood, maple. A big bear rug sat in the center of the room and it was evident that the bear head was groomed from time to time. Ribbons adorned the dead fur ears, and someone had colored his teeth with crayons, and stuck the head of a Barbie doll in his mouth. There were posters all over the wallâPatrick Swayze with a horse, a mama cat curled up with her kittens, and a hippopotamus with its mouth open wide.
The bookshelf was a jumble of Fear Street, Sweet Valley Twins, and some ancient Nancy Drew books. Sonora went to the shelf and picked up a yellow hardback copy of
The Secret of the Old Clock.
She opened the flap, saw Collie's name written inside in purple cartridge pen.
“Collie gave me those,” Mia said. “She liked to read my Sweet Valley Twins and Fear Street books, but made me promise not to tell, so people wouldn't tease her about reading kid books. She'd get Daddy to buy them for me, then we'd sit in the den and eat sandwiches and read. Daddy fusses at us when we do that because he says we don't have enough light. So we try to do it when he isn't home.”
Mia swung her legs over the bed, turned so that her belly was against the mattress, and jumped down.
Sonora assumed the ladder was only for the fainthearted.
“Do you think Collie will come back?” Mia asked.
Sonora hedged. “I don't think Collie will leave you. Remember, she had you pack a bag. She took you along.”
“Just because she has another baby, doesn't mean she doesn't want me. She already told me that. I'm not going to have sibling stuff. I want a sister.”
“What does Collie want?”
“A baby. A boy or girl will do.”
“Where's her computer, Mia?”
“In the den. But it's got a password. Collie told it to me so I can put on the dinosaur CD and do the kid thing for America Online. The password is Mia. She named it after me. The computer is downstairs in the den.”
“Here's what I think. I think you should get something to drink, and eat if you're hungry. Then you should curl up in front of the TV and zone out for a while, try not to worry. And while you do that, I'm going to try and figure out where Collie went.”
“How come Daddy's not at work?”
“Maybe he had an appointment.”
“I have Nintendo in my room. Can I stay in here?”
Sonora nodded. Headed downstairs for the den.
The computer was tucked into a corner, away from the little horseshoe of couch, TV, books, and toys. It sat on a small oak pressboard computer tableâstreamlined, and no frillsâright by a rowing machine and a Nordic-Track that were both layered with dust.
The computer was not dusty. Sonora sat down in a black rolling chair, which was much like the one she had at work, without the armrests.
She was not good with computers. She only knew the system she used at work, and the old Apple 2E that she and the kids had had for years. She wished her son was with her.
She turned on the desk lamp that curved over the work area, and smiled.
A multicolored apple was inset at the bottom of the monitor. Collie had a Macintosh, a Performa 637CD.
Computers for normals. There was hope.
Sonora studied the keyboard. Probably the key in the top right-hand corner with an arrow on it. Nothing else looked likely, and this one would be the obvious choice. Sonora pushed the button.
Heard the splay of music that meant she'd hit pay dirt, closed her eyes and smiled.
“Sonora?”
Sam's footsteps on the staircase. He was walking lightly.
“Down here, Sam.”
“Is Mia with you?”
“She's in her room playing Nintendo.”
“Good. I know why Collie bolted.”
Sonora swiveled in her chair, watched him come down the stairs. “Over here,” she said. She pulled a beanbag chair close to the computer. Sam looked at it, sat, and sank almost to the floor.
“Comfy.” He stuck his legs out and wiggled sideways. “Talked to Mr. Boggs. Sounds like a good mechanic, by the way. Anyway, Collie dropped the car off yesterday because it was vibrating like crazy, some kind of problem with the U-joint. Boggs said he'd talked to Gage about it a few weeks ago, but that Caplan said money was tight and he was busy with the Drury prosecution, and was going to wait a while on the repair.
“Evidently Collie got fed up waiting and took the car in herself yesterday. Boggs called to tell her that he couldn't get to the U-joint till he got authorization to fix the exhaust.”
Sonora narrowed her eyes. “What kind of problem with the exhaust?”
“Well, it seems that Mr. Boggs and his employees had the Nissan running in the garage, and it ran them out. Filled the place with carbon monoxide. They had to air the place out before they could go back to work. When they did, Boggs took a look and found a big hole way up in the exhaust system. He said it struck him as odd. They don't usually break through there, and that you could look the whole system over and not find it unless you were really looking. The upshot is that carbon monoxide has been pouring into the cab of the car, and he thinks it's been going on for a while.”
“I'll be damned.” Sonora twisted from side to side in the chair.
“That's why she bolted. Because if Caplan did make that hole in the exhaust, she passes out behind the wheel, drives the car into a light pole, or head-on across the highway. Remember what she said when we talked to her? She couldn't drive around the block without feeling bad? Put it down to heat and being pregnant?”
Sonora nodded. “The only thing holding her back was Mia. And if he rigs the Nissan, then Mia likely gets killed or hurt along with Collie and the baby. So now Collie cuts her losses, because now she's got nothing to lose. Why didn't she come to us?”
“Mia, Sonora. She comes to us, she gives up the kid. She's a stepmother, she's got no legal claim. What'd you come up with?”
“I got the computer turned on.”
“Veeeery good.” He leaned forward, came up on his knees, and pushed a square button on the monitor. “Now you've got a screen too.”
“My hero.” The password barrier came up and Sonora typed in
MIA
. “I got the password too,” Sonora said.
“Your two to my one.”
Sonora pulled the
EDIT
screen down and hit
FINDER,
then searched for America Online. The file came up immediately, again demanding a password. Sonora tried
MIA
again, and it worked.
“This is too easy,” Sam said.
“It's a Mac, Sam. It's supposed to be easy. Tell the truth. Your Pentium is back in the box because it's such a pain in the ass.”
“The kid uses it.”
YOU HAVE MAIL!
the computer told them.
Sonora hit the picture of the mailbox. The screen changed. Showed a communication called
ELUIS TO COLLIE.
She clicked it and pulled it up on screen.
Collie, I got your note, and I think you are absolutely right.
It's not safe for you, or the baby, or Mia. Of course I want you to bring her! We've talked around this before, and if I didn't make myself clear, I mill now. I WANT TO PROTECT YOU AND THE BABY AND MIA. I don't want anything to happen to you. Please just do me one favor.
When you come to the meeting place, come by yourself, just for a minute
.
Please understand. I want our first real life meeting to be private. You've never seen me. I am somewhat attractive, but not great. I want you to see me and look at me and not feel pressured. I want you to be able to say, look sorry, I'm calling this off. And I don't want to do that with Mia watching.
And remember whatever happens between us, we are friends. There is no pressure on you to be anything but a friend. I will give you safe haven, while you need it.
Be careful, and hurry.
Sonora shook her head. “Too good to be true. He's telling her exactly what she needs to hear. I never met a man who did that, and it wasn't some kind of con.”
“Look at the screen. Now we've read the mail, it's got a little red check. So evidently Collie didn't get this.”
“She must have. Why else did she leave Mia on the swing set, and tell her she'd be right back?”
Sam pushed a button that said
KEEP AS NEW
. The check mark disappeared.
YOU HAVE MAIL!
the computer told him.
“That was easy,” Sam said.
Sonora looked at him. “But stupid. Why would she do that? So someone could find it?”
“Let's go back into the folder and see if she kept any correspondence.”
“Surely she wouldn't.”
“Why do people do anything, Sonora? Because they're people.”
“This isn't hanging right, Sam. She wouldn't want Gage to find it.”
He ignored her and took over the keyboard.
And hit pay dirt.
A saved file, full of correspondence with her on-line lover. Elvis.
They had started talking on-line three months ago. Just friendly chatting. Two people who needed a friend. Collie was trusting and confiding, and ripe. She opened up to Elvis immediately, commented often on how he always seemed to know when she'd had a bad day, or was upset. Elvis hinted that perhaps he'd found a soulmate.
“Soulmate,” Sonora decided, was a term that had gotten women in almost as much trouble as “just this once.” She had seen women, and men, endure years of agony, because they were afraid their sweetie was a soulmate, and irreplaceable. Sonora had not believed in soulmates for years. Her soul was on its own.