Mr. And Miss Anonymous (19 page)

Josh felt like crying when there was no response from Tom.

W
hen the boy broke the connection, Tessie sat in stupefied amazement as she listened to the tape over and over until she had it virtually committed to memory.

She felt like worms were crawling all over her. She racked her brain for what she could have said, as opposed to what she did say, to Josh Baer to make her feel like this. Why had he called her, of all people, in the first place? She should have asked that. Yes, she’d taped the call, but what good was that going to do her? She would have traced the call, but the paper didn’t have those capabilities. The boy had sounded so nervous, so frightened. He mentioned a book. A book he and Tom wrote. What the hell was in the book? Copied files or records? Poor kid. And then that business about her being a mother… What did that mean? Whatever it was, it must be important to the boy.

The bottom line was she’d failed the kid. Maybe he’d call back when he replayed the call over in his mind the way she was doing. In her own defense, she thought she’d sounded motherly on the phone. But did her tone ring that way in Josh’s ears?

Tessie heaved herself up out of the chair and was halfway to the door when she walked back and sat down. She yanked at her cell phone to call Little Slick. When he picked up, she started to babble. “Look, Slick, I know you said you were walking away from this and I was on my own, but can you do one more thing for me? The boy called me here at the paper. I taped the call but I need to know where the call came from. I know it’s a piece of cake for you to find that out. The kid’s in mortal danger, Slick. If the situation were reversed, you know I’d move heaven and earth to do it for you.” Tessie clinched her little speech with, “He’s got no one, Slick, and he reached out to me. Please.”

“You’re breaking my heart, Tessie. Okay, okay, I’ll do it. Give me fifteen minutes, thirty tops, if you want a profile, which I know you do.”

Tessie’s sigh of relief was so loud she startled herself. She reached into her drawer for a power bar and made a vow to stop eating such crap. Tomorrow she’d bring some raw veggies and crackers. She knew she’d do no such thing, but vowing that she would made her feel better. It was like promising herself she’d go to a gym on Monday morning. On Sunday afternoon it always seemed plausible to make a promise like that to yourself.

With nothing else to occupy her until Slick called back, Tessie reached for a ragged, tattered picture of a beach house she’d clipped from a travel folder twenty years ago. She referred to it as an incentive to make things work for her and her aging parents, and someday, maybe, she’d be able to retire to something close to what she hungered for in the picture. Just a one-or two-bedroom bungalow on or near the water, preferably on the water. A small garden so she could plant a few vegetables and maybe some flowers. A front porch. Not a deck. A deck was for yuppies. She wanted a front porch with a few rocking chairs. Maybe some potted flowers for color, a few hanging ferns from the beams. A bachelorette home. A big old fireplace, a sunken bathtub. Maybe a pretty kitchen where she could pretend to cook once she learned how. Not that she literally couldn’t cook. Anyone could make meat loaf. She had over two hundred recipes for chopped meat. She wanted to branch out, maybe pork chops that were stuffed, rack of lamb, even though she hated lamb. “Come on, you dumb shit, call me. What’s taking you so long?” she seethed.

Almost on cue, Tessie’s cell phone rang. “Didja get it?”

Slick sighed. “Didja think even for a minute that I wouldn’t?”

“No, no, not even for a minute. I owe you my life, Slick. Shoot it to me.”

“The call was made from 16 Castle Gate Apartments. The phone is listed to a Charles Garrison, age 73, a widower. He has two sons, one lives in Boston and one lives in Delaware. He has six grandchildren. He’s a retired master chief in the navy. He currently works at a place called Hotdog Haven and makes ten bucks an hour. You happy now? Swear to me you won’t call me again.”

Well, that was certainly more than she needed to know. “I’ll try not to. Thanks, Slick.”

“Tessie, when are you going to get it through your head you can’t save the whole world?”

“The same time you do. We’re the good guys, remember?” When Tessie realized she was talking to a dial tone, she hung up.

Tessie turned her computer back on and went to the MapQuest Web site and typed in “16 Castle Gate Apartments.” Then she typed in the address of the hotel where Pete Kelly was staying. She printed out the directions, turned off her computer. She took a moment to call home to tell the health aide she wouldn’t be home for dinner, then gathered up all her gear for the trip to pick up Pete Kelly. It was almost five o’clock, rush hour. She shuddered at the thought, but it didn’t stop her. She had a lot of thinking to do, and what better place to do all that thinking than in her car while stuck in traffic.

Winston heard Tessie’s footsteps even before she turned the corner of the path leading to Pete’s villa. Zolly appeared out of nowhere and groaned when he saw who the early-evening visitor was.

Tessie marched up to the security guard and stuck her face in his. “Can you tango, big guy?”

“Huh… What?” Zolly sputtered.

“Guess that’s a
no.
Not a problem, I can teach you. You really need to loosen up. This dog has more finesse than you do, don’t you, little fella?”

Winston whimpered as he licked Tessie’s hand. “Bet you can’t even do the two-step.”

“I can fox-trot,” Zolly blustered.

Tessie just laughed as she made her way to Pete’s villa. She didn’t bother to knock but just opened the door and announced herself. “Saddle up, guys. I found the boy. Move, move, move!”

Pete and Lily both stood rooted to the floor. Zolly stood in the open doorway, listening.

“And I have directions,” Tessie said, waving the printout for everyone to see.

Awe rang in Pete’s voice. “You actually found him! How? When? Are you sure this isn’t some false lead? Hey, I’m ready. Let’s go.”

Lily was as dumbfounded as Pete. She gripped his arm for support. “You didn’t call the police or the FBI, did you, Tessie?”

“No way. I really think Zolly should stay here, and we go in one car. No sense spooking the boy. He’s going to be watching us. On the drive up here, I knew there was something I was missing. I figured it out when I hit the parking lot. The teacher, Adam Dickey, lived at the Castle Gate Apartments, but my source told me the call came from a phone listed in the name of Charles Garrison. He might be the boy’s friend or someone the teacher knew. I just don’t recall the number of the apartment for Adam Dickey. Anyway, that’s where the boy is. I should have figured it out sooner but I didn’t. I’m sorry. Sometimes my brain goes on overload. I’m driving,” Tessie said firmly.

Zolly lumbered into the room. “You can drive, but I’m going. I better not hear another peep out of you, either.”

Tessie whipped around. “Why are you being so nice to me all of a sudden?”

Zolly was so befuddled he threw his hands in the air. He thought he was being nasty. “Just make sure you drive the speed limit.”

“If you think you’re going to tell me what to do, think again, big guy. Is the dog going, too?”

“That’s a really stupid question even for you, Miz Smart-ass. The dog goes everywhere we go. We should take the SUV, because there’s more room in it. I’ll let you drive it,” Zolly said.

“I suppose you think I don’t know how to handle an SUV. Well, I do, Mister Smart-ass. Can we just leave already?”

Pete and Lily barreled through the door to follow Tessie to the parking lot, where the SUV waited. Zolly tossed Tessie the keys, and she caught them in midair. She unlocked the door.

“Mr. Authority here sits up front, you two and the dog in the back. We all agreed?”

Zolly started to mumble as he strapped himself into the passenger seat in front.

“I hope you aren’t one of those people who feels the need to talk when she drives.”

“Actually, I do talk when I’m driving. I even taught myself Spanish and Italian from tapes. I’m studying Greek right now. Being multi-lingual is a definite asset in my line of work.”

Not to be outdone, Zolly said, “I speak Polish, Russian, and Japanese.”

In the backseat, Pete and Lily rolled their eyes. “It’s the mating dance. They’re flirting with each other, and neither one knows it. Well, maybe Tessie knows it. Zolly is a little slow on the uptake,” Pete whispered in Lily’s ear.

While the give-and-take banter went on in the front seat, Lily leaned closer to Pete, and said in a low voice, “I’m so excited for you, Pete. I know I feel relieved, and know you must feel the same way. We’ll get him to safe ground, then the powers that be will have to listen to him and keep him safe. It will happen that way, won’t it?”

“If it were a perfect world, yes, it would happen that way. But this is far from a perfect world, Lily. What can go wrong will go wrong. I’m hopeful, though.”

“Tessie said he had a book that he and his friend Tom made up. What do you suppose… Do you think they know about whatever it is that was going on?”

“Obviously the two of them knew something they thought was important enough to commit to paper. Having said that, the short answer is
yes,
and that’s why he’s so afraid to trust anyone. I would be, too, if I were in his shoes.

“He’s out there all alone fending for himself with no friends. The friends he did have are all dead and only by the grace of God is he still alive. Living in a group home all his life hasn’t prepared him for the world as we know it. So far he’s doing okay, though. We both know that can change in a heartbeat. I think right now he’s getting desperate. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have called Tessie. He sees the authorities as the enemy and not to be trusted; and then there’s that maniac who’s after him. The kid has guts, I can tell you that. I hope to God he is my son. Do you think he is, Lily? Tell me the truth.”

“I do, Pete. I really do.”

“Well, if he is my son, he’s never going to understand any of this. Seventeen-year-olds have minds of their own. When this is all over, and he has to move on, how does he go from what he’s known to me? I tried putting myself in his place, and I stunned myself with my reaction.”

“What?”

“I’d say to me, ‘Go pound salt and get out of my life.’ I would be bitter and hateful. He thinks he’s artificial. So he knows, or thinks he knows, about the donations, the artificial insemination, the surrogate mothers. He probably knows more than we’re giving him credit for.”

“Don’t go there yet, Pete. And don’t sell that kid short either. I see a whole other scenario. Oh, look, Tessie is slowing down. We must be almost there. You ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” It was a lie, and Pete knew it. In a million years he could never ready himself for the moment when he would be eyeball-to-eyeball with his son.

“What’s your problem, Josh? Why are you pacing around like this? You’re safe. You have that big-screen TV over there to watch. You’re not hungry, and you’re not tired. So, why all the pacing? What’s the problem?”

“For one thing, even though it’s dark in here and no lamps are on, televisions give off a glow. Someone outside might see it. I should go outside to check it out. I don’t think I should have called that lady reporter. I think it was a mistake. I’m scared, Tom, and I don’t feel safe here. I think I should leave now, while I can.”

“Where will you go? Besides, it’s pouring rain outside. This is as safe as it’s gonna get, Number 8446.”

“I’m going outside to check to see if any light can be seen. You coming with me, or are you staying in here?”

“Scaredy-cat.”

“Easy for you to say, you’re dead. I don’t want to be dead. I want a family, and I can’t find one if I’m dead. Don’t give me any more of your bullshit either.” Josh flicked on the television and watched as a rerun of
Law & Order
came onto the big screen. He ran to the kitchen and out the door, a towel over his head. He sloshed his way around to the front in time to see a big black car turn into the street. He stopped next to a scraggly bush and watched the red lights of the huge vehicle. His blood ran cold when he thought he heard a dog inside the vehicle start to bark.

In this particular section of the apartment complex, there weren’t that many operable cars. Most people walked to the bus stop. He’d watched through the curtains earlier in the day. This vehicle was definitely out of place in this area. He strained to see through the rain. He literally stopped breathing when he saw the red taillights stop in front of Charlie’s apartment.

Josh waited a moment longer until the car doors opened. He watched four people and a dog get out, the tall man from the library holding on to the dog with a leash. Faster than lightning, Josh ran back inside. The moment the door closed behind him, he started yelling at Tom. “I told you! I told you! They’re here. I have to get out of here right now.

“You’re pretty damn quiet, Tom. See, you aren’t always right! My gut instincts warned me. I saw a slicker in Mr. Dickey’s closet. Oh, shit, I forgot to turn off the TV.” Josh rushed back to the living room, turned off the TV, then checked the front door to make sure the dead bolt was in place. He ran back to the bedroom, jammed things into a duffel from the floor, pulled on the slicker, and was out the back door in minutes.

Josh knew he had to run, and he had to run fast because the dog had his scent. He knew it as sure as he knew he needed to take another breath to live.

How did they find him? “How’d they find me, Tom?”

“I guess it was the reporter. She probably traced the call, and the trace led them to Charlie’s apartment. You’re safe, Number 8446. You didn’t see them coming here, did you? No, they went to Charlie’s. He doesn’t know you broke into his apartment.”

“Bullshit, Tom. Those people are determined to find me. All they have to do is turn that dog loose, and I’m toast. Where should I go?”

“You know what, Josh, you’re just panicking. Even if they turn the dog loose, he’s looking for Mr. Dickey’s scent, not you. You’re wearing his clothes.”