Wicked Eddies (22 page)

Mandy went through the motions with Lee, Brenda, and Craig as quickly as she could. Thankfully when she shook Brenda's hand and murmured, “my sympathies,” Brenda didn't respond with a hug. She just pursed her lips, nodded, and dabbed at her glistening eyes with a crumpled tissue she held in her left hand.

After entering the crowded living room, Mandy exhaled deeply and realized she'd been holding her breath.

Rob peered at her. “Can you tell me what's going on, what you had to tell Quintana? It's obviously got you spooked. And frankly, it's got me worried about you.”

Mandy shook her head. “I can't say anything.” She gave his hand a squeeze. “And I'll be okay, now that that ritual is over with.” Her stomach growled. “Let's go get some lunch.”

She pulled Rob toward the buffet set up in the dining room. They loaded up paper plates with small sandwiches and munchies from the assortment of potluck donations on the table. Mandy noted thankfully that there seemed to be plenty of desserts, with platters piled high with cookies and brownies, so she didn't feel too bad about forgetting her contribution.

After they grabbed some cans of soda from a cooler, she led Rob outside to the backyard, where the younger crowd was hanging out. She figured she would be less likely to run into any of the Ellises there, other than Craig. Yes, Quintana had asked her to stay alert, but she figured it was more important to hide what she knew and she didn't trust herself around Brenda yet.

The yard was filled mostly with long-legged, gawky high schoolers uncomfortable in their formal clothes. A couple of
young men wore brand-new dress shirts with fresh-from-the-package creases. Likely friends of Faith's, the teens perched on an assortment of lawn chairs and decorative boulders, or sat on the grass. They squinted in the bright sunlight, and the girls held their long hair to keep the breeze from blowing it in their faces. They picked at their plates and talked quietly among themselves.

Mandy found a couple of empty lawn chairs next to two young men engaged in a heated, low-voiced argument and took the seat farthest from them. Rob plopped in the other chair and plowed into his food. He soon joined the debate two teens next to him were having over whether the Denver Broncos had it in them to make it to the playoffs that football season. Mandy was content to eat quietly and observe the others in the yard.

Craig came out and made the rounds of the knots of teens, asking if they needed anything and giving them a chance to relay remembrances of Faith to him. He listened quietly and somberly and thanked everyone for their stories. When he neared Mandy, she said, “We're fine. Thanks, Craig,” he continued on to a couple of rafting guides Mandy recognized who were standing near the back fence. She figured they must have worked for Lee that summer and had come to pay their respects.

After finishing her lunch, she realized she needed to use the
restroom and went inside. She dumped her trash in a large trashcan and looked with dismay at the line of fidgeting women outside the powder room.

An older woman passed by her and said, “Brenda told me to tell folks to use the upstairs bathroom if this one's full. Follow me.” She turned and waved her arm over her shoulder.

Mandy gladly followed, along with two other deserters from the line. Since she was last in line after they reached the hall bathroom, Mandy decided to slip into Lee and Brenda's bedroom to comb her wind-tousled hair in front of the dresser mirror. Her gaze passed over a ring tray with a few of Brenda's rings looped over the central spike. That reminded her that the sheriff's office had never found Howie Abbott's pinkie ring. She peered at the rings on the spike, but no luck, no ring resembled the description of it.

Then she saw the open door to the master bathroom in the mirror, and decided she might as well use that one. While washing her hands, she noticed that the toilet kept flushing and tsked. Just like her own toilet. The chain probably had a kink in it. She flipped down the seat lid, removed the tank lid, and placed it on top of the seat lid. Then she peered inside to see what the problem was.

A plastic bag that had been taped to the back of the tank had come loose on one side. The loose corner was tangled in the chain. Inside the clear bag was another one, and inside that lay a folded piece of baby blue writing paper and a man's ring, gold with a brown stone.

Mandy carefully untangled the bag from the chain, then loosened the tape holding it to the tank and held it up. She shook the bag gently to roll the ring from one side to another and read, “Salida High School,” and a year, 1979.

This must be Howie's pinkie ring!

While staring at the bag, Mandy debated what she should do next. Open it and see what was written on the paper? No, bad idea. That would be crossing the line from stumbling onto something to illegal search.

Return the bag to the now full tank, find Quintana and tell him about it? No, the bag was torn from her efforts and the paper inside would get wet from the now-full tank.

Take the bag to him? No, she'd be removing evidence from where she found it. She decided to hide the bag in the medicine cabinet, then go get him.

She put the now-quiet toilet back together and opened the medicine cabinet door.

At the same time, the bathroom door creaked open, startling Mandy. She dropped the bag and it fell into the sink with a clink.

Brenda stood in the doorway, gripping the doorknob. The sun streaming through the bedroom window backlit her, creating a halo of light around her. Looking like an avenging angel with wide, white eyes in a shadowed, glowering face, she pointed a quivering finger at Mandy.

“What the hell are you doing in here?”

Nineteen

Many men go fishing all of their lives
without knowing that it is not fish they are after.

—HENRY DAVID THOREAU

Heart pounding, Mandy stammered,
“The t-toilet, it kept flushing—”

Brenda advanced and slapped her. Hard.

The slap threw Mandy off balance. She fell back onto the toilet seat lid, putting a hand to her burning cheek.

Brenda slapped Mandy's other cheek, then stood over her, slapping Mandy with the furious speed of a madwoman. She hollered, “Bitch, you evil bitch!”

“Stop, Brenda,” Mandy yelled. She tried to stand while blocking Brenda's arms, but the effort put her off balance. She fell, landing on her butt in a corner between the tub and wall.

Brenda started kicking her.

Mandy curled up to protect herself. “Stop it!”

A kick to her stomach released all her air with an “oof” and left her gasping. That was followed by stabbing pain, and more pains from more blows.

Mandy realized rage had full control of Brenda. Mandy had to act and act now or this woman was going to kill her, just as rage had driven her to kill her own brother.

She uncurled and reached out, exposing her vulnerable midsection. When a well-aimed kick came in, she grabbed Brenda's ankle with both hands and yanked. Hard.

Brenda fell back through the door to the bedroom, landing on the floor with a thump, but she continued to flail with her legs against Mandy.

Mandy blocked and parried, trying to grab a leg so she could wrench Brenda away.

Suddenly space opened between them. Hands were on Brenda, pulling her away and to her feet. Men's voices yelled, “Stop, stop!”

Mandy looked up to see Lee Ellis and Detective Quintana in the bedroom on either side of Brenda, clutching her arms. Her legs were still windmilling toward Mandy, thankfully out of reach.

Panting, Mandy rolled to her hands and knees. Rob squeezed past Brenda and her captors and lifted Mandy to the toilet seat lid. She moaned and shut her eyes against a sharp pain in her left side.

“Where are you hurt?” Rob asked, his hands running gently down her legs and arms.

“My ribs,” Mandy gasped, opening her eyes. “I think she broke one.”

“What's going on here?” Craig asked over his father's shoulder.

That seemed to trigger something in Brenda, and she finally stopped kicking. She collapsed against Lee's side and started sobbing into his shoulder.

Quintana let her go, and Lee took her into his arms. He lowered her to the bed and sat next to her there. He patted her back while staring at Mandy. Quintana and Craig stared at her, too, as did Rob. Obviously, they all expected her to answer Craig's question, because Brenda sure wasn't going to.

Mandy took a deep breath, which sent another stabbing pain through her left side. “Ow, ow.” She clutched her side, but waved away Rob's hand. She took another experimental breath, shallower this time, and found the pain was bearable.

“She, she found me with that.” Mandy pointed at the crumpled bag lying in the sink. She stopped to rest, catch her breath, slow her racing heartbeat from the adrenaline still coursing through her bloodstream. “The bag was caught in the toilet chain. It has Howie's pinkie ring inside. And a note.”

“What?” Lee's eyes went wide with surprise.

When someone gasped, Mandy realized more people were standing in the bedroom and out in the hallway. A teenage face peeked over Quintana's shoulder.

Craig turned toward the others and shouted, “Give us some privacy here!”

Quintana turned, too. “I'm with the sheriff's office, and I'll handle this.” He advanced toward the onlookers with arms wide. “Go on. Get out of here. Move downstairs.”

People mumbled and stirred, then footsteps thumped down the stairs. Quintana and Craig herded the last few out of the bedroom and watched them go down the stairs.

Quintana shut the bedroom door and frowned at Mandy. He pursed his lips, obviously peeved at her. “Were you searching in here?”

Mandy's cheeks flushed. She straightened, which sent another bolt of pain through her and made her wince. “No, I wasn't. I swear. I used the toilet, and it kept flushing. So I looked in the tank, thinking I'd unkink the chain.”

Craig stepped into the bathroom and snatched the bag out of the sink before Quintana could get a hand on his arm. He moved into the bedroom while opening the bag and pulling out the note. He unfolded it and scanned it. “Oh my God!”

“Read it to me,” Lee said.

Craig took a deep breath, glanced at his parents, then read.

Mom and Dad,

When you find this, I'll be long gone. I'll have finally escaped the hell hole I've been living in for the past weeks. Uncle Howie won't be able to paw me anymore with his grubby hands—and worse. I can't believe you let him do this to me, even told me to hang out with him! You won't help me. And nobody else will believe me. I can't stand to live in fear another day.

Goodbye,

Faith

Aghast, Mandy stared at Craig, blood rushing to her head. Was this a farewell note from someone who was running away from home or a suicide note?

“When did you find this?” Craig asked his mother. “And why did
you keep it from us?”

Brenda slowly raised her head from Lee's shoulder and looked at him then her son, defeat and utter surrender making both her expression and her body droop.

Lee stared at his wife. “Brenda?”

She heaved a great sigh. “I found it the Sunday morning after Faith disappeared. On the kitchen table when I went down to make coffee. That's what made me run upstairs and check her bed, only to find it hadn't been slept in. Then I woke you both up, remember?”

Lee and Craig nodded.

“I was shocked by what she said about Howie, and that she thought we condoned it. I thought she might have made it all up. I didn't want you to see her ugly lies, so I stuffed the note in my pocket.” Brenda closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead.

“While you two went out to search for her and I called her friends and the neighbors,” Brenda continued, “that note was burning a hole in my pocket. I kept remembering little clues about Howie's and her behavior. I was horrified that I didn't see what was happening, but finally I had to admit it to myself. I knew my little girl was telling the truth, and she'd been afraid to come to us with it. God, I feel so guilty.” The last words came out in a choked voice and tears ran down her face.

Lee stroked her arm. “It wasn't your fault.”

“But I pushed her at Howie. By asking him to teach her fly
fishing and show her the river, I set her up to be abused by him. And she thought I condoned it, Lee!”

“Howie probably lied to her, twisted the truth all around so it seemed that way to Faith,” Lee said quietly. “So after you read the note, you confronted Howie?”

Quintana held up a hand. “Hold it right there. Brenda, you know I'm an officer of the law. You sure you want to answer that question?”

“I can't hold in the lie any longer. It's driving me crazy,” Brenda said to him, then looked at Lee. “I started out toward the Vallie Bridge campground planning to confront Howie. But when I saw him lying there snoring on his sleeping bag, the same bag that we found out later he raped Faith in, I lost it.”

She clutched Lee's hand. “He was a monster, Lee, a monster who was preying on our daughter. He wasn't my brother anymore, and I wasn't his sister. But I was still Faith's mother, and I had to protect her.”

“I didn't know that she was already dead,” she wailed and buried her face in Lee's shoulder again.

Craig stared at his mother, horror stiffening his hands into claws. “
You
killed him? You killed Uncle Howie?”

Brenda lifted her head. “Somehow I found the strength to pick up that ax and swing it into his neck, where it stuck. Then when he rose up with a roar like he was going to come after me, I got scared. I saw the bear spray and sprayed him with it. That made him fall back down.”

“What about the ring?” Lee asked.

“I stumbled away a few steps, then sat down and watched him die. I was glad at first, because I'd killed the beast who was mauling our daughter. But after he died, the rage just flowed right out of me, and I was staring at my brother again. The brother I'd just killed. I sat there and cried and cried.

“Finally a squirrel made a noise, and I was afraid again. Afraid that someone would see what I'd done and lock me up before I could help Faith heal. I had to get out of there. I stood up and walked over to Howie to have one last look, and that's when I saw his ring. It reminded me of our good years, when we were both children, so I took it.”

She looked at Mandy for the first time since she'd started talking. “I thought I was safe. That no jury would convict poor Cynthia. If they had, I would have come forward. Believe me, I wouldn't have let her go to prison. She's blameless in this whole mess. If I was in her shoes, I probably would have done the same thing. Buried the memories of what that monster did. But you, you ruined everything. You and your meddling.”

Quintana gave a nod of satisfaction and walked forward to face Brenda. “I'm going to have to take you into custody now for the murder of your brother.” He began the slow recital of her Miranda rights while Lee and Craig stared at the floor, shoulders slumped.

After getting Brenda's acknowledgement that she understood her rights, he turned to Craig. “I'll need to take the note and ring with me.”

Craig folded the note, returned it to the bag, and silently handed the bag to Quintana, who put it in his suit coat pocket.

With Lee's help, Quintana lifted Brenda from the chair. At the same time, Rob helped Mandy to her feet so she could hobble out of the master bathroom.

As Quintana escorted Brenda out of the bedroom, with Lee assisting at her other elbow, Mandy asked him. “Do you think the note was a suicide note? Did Faith kill herself ?”

His reply was solemn. “We may never know.”

_____

Rob drove Mandy to the emergency room to get an x-ray of her ribs. When the emergency room doctor came in the examining room with the x-ray film, he stopped dead. “You two again? Next time, get a padded room.”

Mandy looked at Rob's swollen nose and started laughing. She quickly grabbed her sore side. “Very funny, Doc.”

The doctor grinned. “You've got to admit this looks suspicious.”

“We didn't do this to each other,” Rob said. “Other people decided to use us as punching bags.”

When the doctor raised an eyebrow, Mandy said, “It's a long story—two long stories. Maybe once we're healed we'll buy you a beer and tell you.”

“I'll look forward to it. In the meantime, look at this.” The doctor held up the x-ray film and pointed out a hairline crack in one rib on her left side. “It looks like it might be incomplete, that the crack doesn't go all the way through the bone. Unfortunately, there isn't much I can do about it, other than tell you to take over-the-counter painkillers for the pain, up to twice the recommended dose, if needed. And take it easy for at least six weeks to give it time to heal.”

Mandy dreaded not being able to work. “What about paddling? I'm a river ranger and part-owner of a rafting business.”

The doctor raised an eyebrow. “The only thing I suggest you paddle in the next few weeks is a pen, at a desk.”

“Shit.” The only good thing was that the rafting season was winding down. There was paperwork both at AHRA and at RM Outdoor Adventures that she could catch up on, but that didn't mean she wanted to do it. “Do I need to wear an ACE bandage?”

“We don't recommend compression wraps for broken ribs anymore because they can keep you from taking deep breaths, which can increase the risk of pneumonia. So, even though they'll hurt, I want you to make an effort to take a few deep breaths every day.” He peered at her until she promised to do so.

After they came out into the reception area, Rob said, “We make quite a pair, don't we, with my broken nose and your cracked rib.” He went to give her a hug, then modified it into a gentle caress. “We'll get through it,
mi querida
, by taking care of each other.”

They drove to the pharmacy to pick up some more painkillers. On the way, Mandy popped a couple of Advil and washed them down with a swig from a water bottle. Then Rob dropped her off by her car at the church.

“You're sure you can drive?” he asked. “I can take you home.”

Mandy waved him off. “I'm fine. You've got to get going and run that afternoon shuttle.”

“I'll come by your house after.” Rob gave a wave and drove off.

As Mandy eased herself into the driver's seat of her Subaru, her cell phone rang.

It was Quintana. “After I booked Brenda, I filled out all the paperwork to release your friend Cynthia. She's being checked out of the jail now. I thought you'd like to know.”

“Thanks,” Mandy said. “I'll go over there now. She'll need a ride home. Can you get a message to her that I'm coming?”

After Quintana promised he would, he cleared his throat. “You know, I'm sure, about the legal term, ‘fruit of the poisonous tree'.”

Mandy was aghast. “You mean the ring can't be used as evidence, even though I found it by accident?”

“No, that was what saved us. If you had been deliberately searching without a warrant and found it, we couldn't have used it, or the note, or Brenda's confession. None of it.”

So maybe she hadn't screwed up. “But now we can.”

“Yes. However, the DA may ask you to testify under oath about finding the bag in the toilet by accident. Can you do that?”

Did Quintana not believe her? Did he think she was snooping in Brenda's bathroom? Mandy's cheeks flamed with anger and embarrassment. “Of course I can. It's the truth.”