All Roads Lead Home (Bellingwood) (34 page)

"It was the one out on the highway. I don't
remember the name."

"That's
fine,
it's the only
one down in that area. You don't know what kind of car he was driving, do you?"

"I'm sorry, Aaron. I don't. I don't think I ever
saw it."

Billy piped up. "He was driving a maroon Taurus.
Probably this year's model.
I didn't see the number, but it was a Polk County
plate."

Polly
interjected
, "He rented it in Des Moines at the airport."

"Alright, thanks guys.
” Aaron said,
“
That's
helpful."

Billy asked Polly, "You aren't going to stay here
alone tonight are you? I could call some of the other guys and I guess we could
come hang out."

Aaron Merritt stepped back into the conversation.
"No Billy, she's coming home with me. She can stay at our house tonight."

"Oh, whew,” he said. “
I wasn't going to sleep at all if you were here alone
with that psycho on the loose."

"Because I'm only thirty-two years old and have
lived on my own for the last fourteen years. Good heavens." Polly sniped.

"Quit muttering and go in and pack a bag."
Aaron said to her. "You know you'd never sleep anyway if you were here all
by yourself, so you might as well come let Lydia take care of you."

"I'll mutter all I want. You people seem to think
I'm incapable of taking care of myself," she huffed.

Billy said, "I'm leaving now. If she gets up
another head of steam, I want to be behind my own four walls."

The
s
heriff laughed at him, "
Thanks
, Billy. We'll
get Doug set for the night. If all he had were some bad scrapes and cuts, he'll
be home tomorrow sometime, I'm sure. Call his parents before you head down to
see him, alright?"

"Sure, Sheriff.
Goodnight."

Polly waved at Billy as he drove away and went inside
and up the stairs. Her room was completely ransacked. Bedding had been stripped
off and tossed
around,
things were pulled out of her bags and the laundry
baskets. Her box of books was turned upside down and
books were
scattered
across the floor. She didn't
even want
to look at the kitchen
, so figured she would
save all
of it until tomorrow and deal with it in the light of day. She scrounged around
and came up with some clothes and gathered her travel kit, jammed them in the
bag and zipped it shut
and then
turned all the lights off upstairs and went back down
to find the sheriff waiting for her.

"I've turned everything off down here and checked
the doors," he said. "You're going to want some help in that kitchen.
He might have gone a little crazy."

"That's what I figured. I'll check it out
tomorrow." She sighed, "Alright. I guess I'm ready to go back to your
place. This is kind of getting to be a habit."

"I've already called Lydia and she knows what's
going on. I'll follow you to our house and make sure you get inside safely,
then go over to the
Randalls
and let them know what has happened. I'll be home in
a bit."

He watched her get in her truck and followed as she
pulled out onto the highway, then followed her to his own house. Once she was
safely down the driveway, he headed off to deal with Doug's family.

Lydia was waiting for her
at the back door.
"Aaron
said you were driving in. I'm so sorry, Polly."

"You know, Lydia," Polly said as she walked
into their basement, "I'm getting tired of things happening around me. I
can't fix anything or make it right. All I can do is stand by while everyone
else has to clean
up
my stuff. I didn't ask for any of this, but the
splatter keeps making me hide."

"I know, dear." Lydia put her arm around
Polly's shoulder. "Sometimes life stinks. You're in that 'just stinks'
phase right now. It will get better one of these days. I promise."

She flipped the locks closed on the door behind her
and they walked upstairs and ended up in the kitchen again.

"It seems like I was here only a few minutes
ago," Polly said.

"Well, it wasn't that long ago, but I put your
plate in the oven. Aaron's is in there as well. Are you hungry or is your
stomach too upset to eat?"

"I don't want anything right now. Thanks,
Lydia." Polly cursed. "I feel so bad for that kid. And his parents
are going to be so upset. This is
all my
fault. How in
the world could I have let this happen? Helen Randall trusted me with her son. All
he did was
take
a job installing electricity."

"Stop it, you silly girl. This isn't your fault. You
didn't invite that boy to come to Iowa. You didn't raise him up to be a crazy
person. You didn't put those bodies in the ceiling of the bathroom and you
didn't collect all that junk into crates. There is no way anyone
will
believe
it's
all
your
fault, so stop with the pity party."

"Wow!" Polly blinked her eyes at Lydia. "You
don't let much wallowing happen around here, do you?"

"Not if it's useless," Lydia chuckled. "My
kids didn't get to take opportunities for it and I'm not going to let a 32 year
old woman do it either. Especially when the
only
purpose is
to make
you feel badly about yourself.

"It occurs to me that if you really don't want
any supper, we might need to shock your stomach into realizing
things
are
going to be
okay
."
Lydia pulled the lid off a container filled with pumpkin bars. "Would you
like some milk with this?"

It was too much. Polly threw her head back and
laughed. "Wow. There will be no wallowing around here, will there."

"Not as long as my oven works and I can get to my
recipes. You know, my grandmother always cooked and baked when stress was
happening around her." Lydia paused. "Actually, my grandmother cooked
and baked when there was happiness and joy around her too. I guess she taught
me that families and love and kitchens and good food all kind of blend
together. So, milk?"

"Sure. That sounds great."

Aaron walked into the kitchen and saw what was
happening at his table. "Oh, you pulled out the big guns, didn't you
Lydia?"

"What do you mean? I only baked something with
cinnamon in it so the house smelled good."

"Yeah.
I recognize this. It's the big guns. Did you save my
dinner?"

"Of course I did. I haven't been married to you
this long without knowing what to do. Polly, are you sure you don't want
dinner?"

"My stomach is fully on board now," Polly
said. "Dinner would be awesome."

"I knew it would work. I didn't raise five kids
without learning a few tricks." Lydia put their plates in front of them
and pulled the salad out of the refrigerator
and then took
the broccoli and potatoes
out of the oven.

They sat down and Aaron looked around the table. "Tonight,
I'm grateful that everyone is alright. May the good Lord keep us and save us."

"Amen," Lydia responded.

After eating a few bites,
Polly said, "Aaron, I don't know how we're going
to stop Joey. His mother isn't willing to deal with him. I haven't called his
counselor, but probably couldn't get through until Monday anyway. I can't
believe there is no one else in Bost
on
who sees what I see in him."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Polly. I guess I was h
oping there might be some help there,” Aaron responded.

"Well, if
it's
help you're
wanting,
” she said.
“
there
is a family of Italian boys who are ready to take
care of him. But, maybe that's not what you're talking about."

"No, not yet anyway.
We've got people out searching for him
tonight
. It's
like he dropped off the face of the earth and that makes me nervous. He checked
out of his hotel this afternoon and when we called the rental agency, they said
he had rented the car for two weeks. They have no idea where he is. It's not
like they ask for an itinerary. We've alerted the surrounding departments to
keep an eye out for the vehicle, but who knows which way he might have gone. He
had a bit of a head start on us before we got the information.

"I know you don't want to think about this,
Polly, but I'd like you to spend nights here with us until we know what he’s
doing."

"Do I have a choice?" she asked.

"I suppose you do, but I'd like you to make this
one."
Lydia took his hand at the
table in support. Polly recognized it was a losing battle against the two of
them.

"Alright,” she acquiesced. “
Until we know where he is, I'll spend nights here. But,
I am going to work there during the day."

"That sounds fair." Aaron replied.

He went on, "Oh, I stopped by Doug Leon's place
today. He wasn't answering his door and I don't have a good reason to break in
yet. I talked to his landlord and it seems like we might have a
hoarder
on our hands. Old Doug won't let anyone into his
apartment, and neighbors have started complaining about bugs. I'll wait until
Monday to open it up, but I want to try one more time tomorrow to see if I can
talk to him."

"Is there any
thing
the law is going to do to him or anything they can do
for him?" Lydia asked.

"Well, the thefts of the stuff in the school are
long past the statute of limitations unless you five come up with something
that got stored there in the last three years. Honestly, though, I suspect he's
not so much a thief as he is someone who sees something, picks it up and stows
it away. It wasn't so bad when he was busy all the time working at the school,
but the older he's gotten, I'm going to bet that wagon he totes around has more
in it than pop bottles.

"The landlord says he
never misse
s
his rent and pays his bills on time. There's no
reason to arrest him, so I have to be careful. But, if he needs our help, I
want to make sure he gets it."

Lydia looked sad, "That would be too bad. And I
suppose it does make sense when you look at it that way. Even if he was taking
things out of kids' lockers, he probably thought he was getting them all
together in the right place. He spent a lot of time down there in the basement
and maybe having all those things around him made him feel like he was part of
the kids' lives.”

"He didn't have a family or anything, did
he?" Polly asked.

"No. Even when I knew him in the seventies, he
was a lonely old man. He'd stand by himself at all of the basketball and
football games, leaning on his broom. Other custodians came and went through
the years, but he stuck around, doing his job and keeping an eye on the place.

"Andy and Sylvie probably remember better than I
do, but when they closed that building, he was pretty upset. He looked like he
lost the only family he'd ever had. And the worst thing is, if he lost all the
memories he'd collected about that family, it had to even be harder on him.

"He seemed to do alright for a few years. I think
he worked at the elementary school for a while, so the school could make sure
he had some money coming in.

"You know, Aaron. You might want to talk to the
principal over there to make sure they don't have something like the cache
found in Polly's school."
Lydia had
been slowly running her hand up and down her husband’s forearm while she talked.

He reached across with his free hand and grasped hers.
"That's a good idea, love. You're so smart. I'll call her on Monday."
Aaron keyed some strokes into his phone and set it back down on the table.

"They finally had to let him retire," Lydia
continued her musing. "You remember that, don't you Aaron? The whole
community came out for it. That was in, what, 1995? I think that's about right.
We still had three kids in school here in town. But then, when he didn't have
anything to do, he
cleaned
up the streets. He picked pop bottles up and recycled
them. You know, he was picking trash up too." Her face became pensive. "We
all thought he was throwing it in the trash bins around town. What if he took
it all home. Oh, Aaron. We have to help this man!"

"I love you, dear. We will do what we can for
him. But, we can't do anything if he doesn't want our help. There's nothing
illegal about p
icking up trash and
keeping it,” Aaron explained patiently.