Mr. And Miss Anonymous (26 page)

“She was able to find out that a consortium owns both those operations and the California Academy of Higher Learning. One of the principals is Senator Hudson Preston of Preston Pharmaceuticals. We believe they were testing their drugs on babies born of our donations. When we made our donations, Lily and I both believed that the resulting children born from our donations would go to childless couples to complete their families. That, we know now, was not the case. Those people also had a surrogacy program in place, where women were paid large sums of money to deliver babies who were whisked away to be tested and monitored. You were one of those babies.”

“Holy shit!”
Tom said.

Charlie touched Josh’s shoulder. “Show him.”

Josh kicked off his sneakers and held up his toes to show the two tattoos on his big toes. Pete blinked and swayed. He stared at the number 2003 on Josh’s left toe. Mother and father. He looked over at Lily. Tears were rolling down her cheeks. Tessie was pretending she had something in her eye. Zolly smacked one hamlike fist into the other, his eyes murderous.

Winston got up, sniffed Josh’s feet, then did his best to leap onto his lap. Josh struggled to help the big dog. “Why’s he doing this?” he asked curiously.

“I think he likes you,” Pete said, his voice so husky he could hardly believe it was his own.

“Where is Jesse?” Josh asked abruptly.

“We’re going to have the answer to that real soon. Right now, if you are agreeable, we’re going to go to the paper, and Tessie will write your story so it makes the morning edition. You have to talk to her boss and tell him the same thing you’ve been telling us.”

Josh’s head bobbed up and down. “What about the guy that did the shooting and killed all my friends? Did anyone catch him? Is he still looking for me?”

“
No
to your first question, and the answer to the second one is probably
yes
.”

Tessie spoke for the first time. “Senator Preston, one of those who owned all three facilities, is dead. We just found out a little while ago. With the picture of the shooter, an all-out man-hunt will go into effect the moment my story hits the paper. That man, whoever he is, won’t be safe anywhere on this planet. I want you to believe me on that.”

“You didn’t see that guy. I did. He’s not going to give up. Charlie said you’re rich,” Josh said, looking up at Pete. “Is that true?”

“More or less. Is that important to you?”

“No, not to me. I want to make a deal with you,” Josh said. “I’ll turn over my book to you if you make arrangements to get a stone with the names of all my friends on it. I want a funeral and a place where I can go to see the classmates that guy killed. I want something really special.”

Pete wanted to grab the kid and run as far and as fast as he could. “Okay, it’s a deal. First, though, we have to follow the rules.”

“How long will that take?” Josh asked.

“I’m thinking not long at all once Tessie’s story hits the paper. The FBI will be falling all over itself to do the right thing. At least I hope so. Tessie, do you agree?”

“Absolutely. Listen, guys, we have to leave now if you want this story to hit the morning paper.”

Josh stood up and moved over to stand by Charlie. “He comes, too. He’s my new grandfather. So, does all this mean you’re my father, Mr. Kelly?”

Mr. Kelly.
“I think so. The clothes you left behind at Mr. Dickey’s house were sent off to be examined for DNA. Do you know what that is?”

Josh nodded.

“When the report comes back in a week or so we’ll know for certain.”

“Oh, man, are you one lucky dude. Not only do you find your real father, but he’s a rich father. One real family coming up.”

Josh ignored his friend’s comment as he joined the small parade to the front door and out to the SUV.

It was midnight when things wound down at the
Chronicle.
Two FBI agents escorted the little group out of the building, explaining they needed to get Josh to what they referred to as a “safe house.” Josh balked until the agents promised that Jesse would also be brought to the safe house.

“Someone needs to go to the morgue to get the numbers off…everyone’s toes,” Josh said.

“It’s being done as we speak, Josh,” Tessie said gently. “You look tired. A good night’s sleep is called for. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day for you.”

“Charlie’s coming, right?”

Pete nodded.

“Youngster, I am not leaving you. I’ll be with you as long as you need me.”

Winston, Pete noticed, was glued to the boy’s side. It was right, boy and dog. His heart was so heavy he could barely make his feet work on the way to the car.

“Pete, relax,” Lily said. “You just handed that boy a double whammy. Did you really think he was going to fall into your arms and call you ‘daddy’?” she asked gently.

“No, but it was what I wanted to happen. I watched him looking at me. He’s viewing me as something bad on the bottom of his shoe. How do I change that?”

“You don’t, Pete. It’s up to Josh now. You’ve done all you could. He seems like a great kid. I thought I was going to lose it there for a minute when he asked you if you’d buy a stone for his friends.”

“That’s the last thing I expected to come out of his mouth. You’re right, he’s a great kid. How many kids that age, going through what he’s been through, would be thinking about Jesse and buying a tombstone? None, that’s how many. He doesn’t like me, Lily, that’s the bottom line. He’s judging me, I could see it in his eyes, and I came up real short. Hell, if I was him I think I would have punched me out.”

Lily squeezed Pete’s arm. “It’s not about us anymore, Pete. It’s about Josh and Jesse and all their fallen friends, and the others who were removed from the academy and sent to the other schools. We have to accept that. Our day in the sun will come.”

“You’re right, Lily, as usual. What do you make of the fact that Winston wanted to stay with the boy?”

“I think Winston is one very smart dog, and the boy needs someone like Winston right now. And beyond that, maybe Josh smells a little like you. It’s a good thing, Pete.”

“Yeah, a good thing,” Pete murmured as he held open the door of the SUV for Lily.

“Back to the hotel, boss?” Zolly asked, his voice cracking with emotion.

“Yeah. The FBI said no way were we allowed to be with the boy. Just Tessie, since she and her boss called the shots. Tomorrow is another day.”

The weariness and sadness in Pete’s voice made Lily want to cry. She reached for his hand and squeezed it. “Yes, tomorrow is another day, Pete.”

I
nstead of going straight to Pete and Lily’s villa, Tessie stopped at Zolly’s, the morning paper under her arm. Zolly was waiting for her, which surprised her for some reason.

“I knew you’d come here first,” Zolly whispered, knowing voices carried in the still air.

“It’s all there, everything the boy knows and remembers. We copied everything in his little notebook, then handed it over to the FBI. There’s no way anything associated with this story is going to get sat on from here on in. By the end of the day, Ansel Montgomery will be relegated to some outpost far, far away for letting the power boys in Washington dictate to him. Pete gave a half-assed promise not to bring the wrath of PAK Industries down on the feebies. It worked. God only knows what his and Lily’s stockholders are going to think when they read the paper this morning.”

“I don’t think the boss cares a whole hell of a lot what anyone thinks, and that includes his stockholders. For the moment anyway,” Zolly said softly.

“The headlines have gone around the world at least twice already,” Tessie said wearily. “I got text messages on my BlackBerry congratulating me even before the paper hit the street. Don’t even ask me how that can happen because I don’t have an answer.”

“Well, damn. Will this get you your third Pulitzer?”

“My boss said it will. You know what, Zolly, this time it wasn’t about the Pulitzer. It was about…a kid, a bunch of kids, and a gaggle of scum who were the Devil’s disciples. I called them that in my story, too. You know what else? On my way over here I got a call from my boss who told me he had calls from MI6, Interpol, Scotland Yard, and a few more of the world’s police forces. All of them offered their help in tracking down the rest of the members of the consortium and the killer.”

“What about the boy?”

“He’s a great kid, Zolly. You should have seen him with Jesse when the feebs brought him over to the safe house. Jesse is all he has left from that other life. Challenged as he is, Jesse knew him, hugged him like he’d never let him go. They need each other. Both of those kids need to talk to a shrink. That will be ongoing. Eventually, Josh will be okay, and Jesse, as long as he’s with Josh, will be okay, too. Josh
talks
to his dead friend Tom. Tom talks back to him. Josh did admit to me he thought he was nuts—those are
his
words, not mine—the first time Tom talked to him. Then he said he thought maybe it was his own conscience talking to him, or he was in a dreamlike state. Charlie seems to think Josh really does talk to a spirit because he saw and heard Josh having a conversation with Tom. Someone a whole lot smarter than I is going to have to deal with that. Personally, if that’s what the kid wants to think and believe, it’s okay with me. He got this far with his buddy urging him on from the spirit world. That damn well has to count for something in my book.”

“I believe in stuff like that. My parents used to talk about those things in the old country all the time. They were believers, too,” Zolly said.

Tessie nodded, her eyelids drooping.

“Zolly, I wish you could have seen the pictures that boy Jesse drew. Every single one of the kids at the school who…who…aren’t with us anymore. Then someone asked him to draw a group picture, and he did it. He drew one of the other classes—one of the groups that supposedly went on field trips before the shooting. The detail was mind-bending.

“We didn’t include any of them in the article, but my boss, Harry, is sending them off to the other law agencies abroad. This is global now. I have to go, Zolly. Pete’s waiting for me.”

“Tessie…listen, I’m sorry if I…we got off on the wrong foot there in the beginning. I never… What I mean is I was jealous of you. I’ve been the boss’s right hand for so long, and I saw you as stomping on my turf. I just want you to know I’m sorry.”

Tessie patted the big man’s shoulder. “It’s okay, Zolly, I knew where you were coming from. I was just busting your chops. Hey, you never did tell me, can you tango or not?”

“Just like Fred Astaire.” Zolly laughed.

Tessie would have laughed, too, but she was too tired.

“Seems weird without the dog here,” Tessie called over her shoulder. “He was sleeping next to the boy when I left the safe house.” Tessie turned around and walked back to where Zolly was standing. “I hate to say this, but the kid wants no part of your boss. I tried to explain, as did Charlie, but he wasn’t buying into it. He even said that Tom, that’s the dead friend, said he needed to give the guy a chance. He said he wasn’t turning over that book of his till he had everything in writing. I was pretty impressed, and, yeah, even a little proud of the kid when he started cutting his own deals. One other thing, he wants to file lawsuits against Preston Pharmaceuticals. That kid is going to own the damn company when he’s through. Mark my word.”

Zolly just nodded, then he burst out laughing. “He’s the boss’s kid, what did you expect? The boss giving up the dog, now, that’s something else, but the way I see it is every kid needs a dog for a best friend, and Winston certainly fits that bill.”

Tessie waved airily as she shuffled her way to Pete’s villa. She was bone-tired. It had been a while since she’d pulled an all-nighter. She must be getting old. Maybe it was time to retire. Like that was ever going to happen. Just yesterday afternoon her parents had said they wanted to go to an assisted-living complex where there were people their own age. They were tired of seeing so little of their only daughter and having to live with the cross-eyed curmudgeon she’d hired to take care of them. Tears welled in her eyes. Didn’t they know how hard she worked, didn’t they know how every penny she earned went to their care? She couldn’t remember the last time she’d bought a new outfit or had her old Ford Taurus serviced.

Tessie sat down on the decorative bench outside Lily’s villa to blink away the tears. It was just a bad day in a long line of many bad days. When she looked up, Lily was standing next to her.

“What’s wrong, Tessie? Did something happen?”

Tessie sniffed and shook her head. “It’s…personal. I’m just tired. Here’s the paper, first one off the press. I’m going to go home.”

“You wait right here, Tessie Dancer, and do not move.” Lily took the paper and ran into the villa to hand it to Pete. “I think I might have a small crisis out front so don’t come out till I tell you. Promise, Pete.”

Pete nodded as he unfolded the paper Lily had handed him. Big, bold black headlines. The whole goddamn front page, complete with pictures. Almost all of page two as well.

Lily went back out to sit with Tessie.

“Tell me,” Lily said gently.

And Tessie did because it’d been so long since she’d heard a voice as gentle and caring as Lily’s. She let it all out and didn’t hold back a thing. It was a woman-to-woman thing, something she’d needed to do for a very long time.

“Okay, that’s enough of that,” Tessie said, getting up. “I have to go home and get some sleep. You know what, Lily, that’s another thing. I don’t have a bedroom anymore. I sleep on a pullout couch. My mother took my room over for her sewing and quilting room. All she does is complain about the pole in the middle of the room. I told her I was going to plant ivy around it but never got around to it. Someday I’m going to write a book. Look, honey, this was all just between us, okay? I just needed to unload. It gets to me when I’m winding down a story.

“Come by the paper this afternoon. The feebs are going to be bringing Josh to us to finish up some things. I know Pete’s going to want to see him again. And Jesse, too.”

Lily sat back down on the bench, her thoughts far away. She dropped her head into her hands and swayed back and forth, a keening sound escaping her lips.

All those children still missing. She knew in her heart, in her gut, some of them were hers. Pete was the lucky one, and she didn’t for one minute begrudge his happiness at finding his son. If only she’d found one of her children. If only. She knew she had to come to terms with the fact that they might all be lost to her forever. How was she going to live with that? To have come so far, to have learned so much, and now it all seemed lost. Tessie didn’t think so, but maybe that was wishful thinking on her part.

Lily knew now that if her donations had gone to childless couples, she never would have interfered in their lives. But that wasn’t the case. All those parentless children out there never knowing someone was trying to find them. How in the name of God could anyone ever make that right?

Maybe by dedicating one’s life to the pursuit of finding them. She and Pete certainly had enough money to do that. Maybe that was what she was supposed to do with the rest of her life. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

Lily rubbed at her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt when she saw Zolly approaching her. “You’re just the person I want to talk to, Zolly. I wonder if you would do me a favor.”

“Just name it, Miss Lily.”

She did, and Zolly’s head bobbed up and down. “I’ll get right on it. What’s the time frame, Miss Lily?”

“Sooner rather than later. Thanks, Zolly.”

The sun was up as Lily made her way back to her villa, where Pete was waiting for her. The birds were chirping their morning song. How normal everything seemed, yet there was nothing normal about the beginning of this new day.

Lily opened the door to see Pete bent over the little table, the paper spread out in front of him. His eyes were moist, as wet as her own. She didn’t know what to say, so she just sat down next to him and reached for his hand.

Pete pointed to the front page of the paper, where a life-size picture of him and Josh stared back at him. “It’s a sterling article, Lily. Heartbreaking, to be sure. I’m certain Tessie will get a Pulitzer for it. She’ll be following up for weeks.”

“It’s not about the Pulitzer for Tessie, Pete. It’s about Josh and the kids and what was done to them in the name of profits for a pharmaceutical company. What do you say we get cleaned up, have some breakfast, and head into town until it’s time to meet up at the
Chronicle
?” In a lighter note she said, “I’ll wash your back if you wash mine.”

Pete scooped up Lily in his arms and ran to the bathroom. “Best offer I’ve had today.”

“It’s only going to get better,” Lily promised.

Josh woke slowly, aware that there was something different going on. He tried to roll over but couldn’t move. He opened his eyes, then burst out laughing. Winston was sitting on his chest. He growled softly and licked the boy’s face. “You want to play, is that it? No? What, you want to go out?” Winston leaped off the bed and raced to the sliding door that led to a fenced backyard. Still laughing, Josh opened the door, and Winston raced outside.

Charlie and the two FBI agents in charge of Josh’s and Jesse’s safety looked at one another. The boy knew how to laugh. Charlie grinned from ear to ear.

“Hi, Josh,” Jesse said. “Breakfast was real good. The pancakes are better than the ones at school. Did you miss me, Josh?”

“I sure did,” Josh said, tousling Jesse’s hair. “Did those people treat you okay?”

“Yeah, sure. They liked my drawings. Look at this one.”

Josh picked up the drawing and smiled. Winston sleeping alongside him in bed. He laughed again. “Very good.”

“Where are we going to go, Josh?”

“With me, young fella,” Charlie said, sitting down next to Jesse. “Unless Josh changes his mind.”

Winston barked and barked. “I think he wants to eat. What do you feed a dog?” Josh asked anxiously.

“How about what you eat?” the female agent said. “Pancakes and bacon. By the time you shower and dress, I’ll have it all ready.”

Josh nodded. “Did the paper come, Charlie?”

“It did, youngster. You’re famous, and so is your…Mr. Kelly. It took a lot of guts for him to go public like that. You realize that, don’t you, Josh?”

“Yeah, I guess so. Do you think Mr. Kelly is going to want his dog back? I always wanted a dog. He seems to like me. I think he’d be good with Jesse, don’t you, Charlie?”

“Yeah, youngster. We can talk to Mr. Kelly about the dog. Go on now, take your shower and get dressed. Wear those new clothes I put in your room. I got them yesterday when I was out buying the TracFone. You want to look nice today for all the interviews you have to do. If we’re lucky, we might have time to get you a haircut.”

“That’s a hoot, Josh. You going to a real barber-shop. Or do you think they’ll take you to one of those fancy places where they style your hair? And you got a dog, too. Not to mention you’re now famous. I don’t think it gets any better than that.”

“You know what, Tom, just shut up. I don’t want to talk about any of this. I have a lot of thinking to do, and these people…all they want to do is pick my brain.”

“Well, helloooo, Mr. 8446. Isn’t this what you wanted? You’re safe, people are going to take care of you, you got a dog, Jesse is back with you, and you have a rich father. And a pretend grandfather. And if I heard things correctly, you are going to end up owning the drug company. What’s your problem? I don’t like the way you’re acting, and, just for the record, Sheila doesn’t like it either. So there.”

Josh slammed open the shower door and stepped inside. Tom was right. What was his problem? His father was the problem. All his life he’d wanted a father, and now that it looked like he actually had one, he didn’t know what to do about it. He soaped up and rinsed off. “Get out of this shower, Tom. I’m not in the mood for you today.”

“Tough shit, buddy. You need to listen to me. Sheila is hounding me to tell you that you need to be nice to your father. We think he’s sincere. So what if he sold his sperm? So what? You wouldn’t be here today if he hadn’t done that. He’s a good guy. You could at least be nice to him. Give him half a chance. Meet him halfway, buddy. You might piss him off, then you won’t get another chance. He got you to this safe house, didn’t he? You’d still be on the run if it wasn’t for him.”

Josh clamped his lips shut as he dressed in brand-new khakis, a dark green T-shirt with a polo player on the pocket, and a pair of Dock-siders. He slicked back his overly long hair. He did need a haircut. He felt a little like his old self as he made his way to the kitchen, with Tom nagging him every step of the way. He continued to ignore his dead friend.