Cry in the Night (9 page)

“Quinn Matilla.”

“My boyfriend,” Jenna said in an imperious voice. “What do you have on my brother?”

Montgomery rubbed his ear. “Plenty, eh?” He glanced at his computer screen. “Florence Hawkins was bludgeoned with a shovel, and Victor also had her blood on him. He was seen on the property with the shovel in his hand, and his prints are the only ones on it. We also found one of his puzzles by a baby that had been hidden in the woods.”

Quinn’s attention sharpened. “A baby? Dead?”

Montgomery shook his head. “The child is all right but her caregiver is dead.”

Jenna’s eyes were wet. “He did yard work for Florence, but he wouldn’t hurt anyone. His prints would be on the tools. And it’s likely he just found the body and that’s why her blood was on him.” She leaned forward. “Deputy, Vic is autistic. Violence among autistics is very rare. And I know my brother—he won’t even step on an ant. He didn’t do this.”

Montgomery shifted in his seat and dropped his gaze. “We have to go with the evidence, eh, Ms. Pelton.”

Quinn leaned forward. “What about motive?” How could he find out from this big dumb guy just where the baby was
now
?

“We don’t have a motive yet,” the deputy admitted. “Victor isn’t talking.”

“He hasn’t said how he happened to find Florence?”

“He’s not talking at all. Not a word. All he does is work sudoku. Over and over. He makes them up on sheets of blank paper.” Montgomery rose. “I’ll take you to him.”

The deputy led them to a small interrogation room that stank of sweat and desperation. The once white walls had turned a dingy yellow, probably from cigarette smoke. A battered table sat in the middle of the room, and four chairs surrounded it. The industrial gray tile on the floor made the room seem even more lifeless.

“I’ll get your brother, eh?” the deputy said.

Quinn glanced at Jenna. She was pale. He wanted out of this place. It was only by fate that he’d avoided being in one of those cells back there. He tugged at his hat and adjusted it to cover more of his face.

“I never thought Victor would get in this kind of trouble. Growing up, I always looked out for him. When people stared at Vic’s awkward movements and his monotone voice, I explained.” Her voice broke. “Sometimes I was embarrassed by his strangeness, but I always loved him.”

Quinn had never seen Jenna show such sentimentality, and it caught him off guard. When she reached over to take his hand, he squeezed her fingers.

“I have to get him out of jail. Victor will go crazy penned up. He loves to walk, even in bad weather. Nothing keeps him inside—not snow, ice, or rain.”

The door opened, and a young man stepped inside. Montgomery poked his head in. “I’ll lock the door. Use the intercom if you need me.” He pulled the door shut, and the latch clicked.

The man’s dirty blond hair obscured his face, which was turned toward the ground. When Jenna spoke his name, Victor didn’t look up. She rose and went to hug him. Victor’s gaze stayed on the floor, and his arms hung slackly in front of him, still in cuffs. He held a sheet of paper.

Quinn had never met an autistic person before, so he didn’t know what he’d expected, but it wasn’t this.

“It’s good to see you, buddy,” Jenna said, her voice shaking. She led him to the table. “I’m here to help get you out of jail. Tell me what happened.”

Victor threw the paper at her, but he still didn’t raise his head. She caught the paper and glanced at it.

“What is it?” Quinn asked. Rows of numbers in squares had been scrawled on the yellow sheet.

“What’s this about, Vic?” she asked.

Victor rose and went to the door. He began to bang his head against it. Jenna went after him. “It’s okay. I’ll call the deputy to take you back to your bed.”

“Does he always do that? Bang his head, I mean?”

Frowning, she said, “He hasn’t done that since he was five or six. And he’s not talking. He always talks about whatever his current interest is.”

When Victor left with another deputy, Quinn clasped her hand and led her down the hall back to Montgomery’s office. There had to be a way to find out the baby’s location.

Montgomery closed his file when he saw them in the doorway. “He talked to you, eh?”

“He wouldn’t say anything, and I didn’t press him. He gave me this though.” She held up the sudoku.

“We’ve got more in his file.”

“Can I have copies?”

The deputy nodded, then extracted several sheets from a manila folder, stepped to the copier and copied them, then handed them to Jenna. “Any help would be appreciated. When did you last talk to your brother?”

“Probably three weeks ago. I’ve called him several times since but he was out, so I’ve left messages.”

“And when you last talked to him, he didn’t say anything about his new hobby of sudoku?”

“No. All he talked about was how early the snow had come this year. He said he hadn’t been ready and some of Florence’s roses might have been damaged because he didn’t get all of them mulched in time.”

Quinn wished she hadn’t said that. Didn’t she realize that the deputy might consider it a motive if Florence had yelled at Victor?

She must have caught something in his expression, because she quickly added, “But if you’re thinking she might have criticized him and triggered rage, that doesn’t happen with Vic. When people get mad at him, he hides. Sometimes under the porch, sometimes in the attic. He’s such a gentle soul, Deputy. This is all wrong.”

Montgomery’s expression turned pained. “I, uh, I don’t think he’s guilty, Ms. Pelton. But we’re just doing our job. The evidence points to your brother.”

“Have you called a lawyer for him?”

Montgomery nodded. “As soon as he was arrested. He hasn’t talked to the lawyer either.”

“Where is his cell? Can he see the sky from there? Is he getting outside at all?”

The deputy fiddled with his pen. “No, ma’am. The cells with windows are all taken, and the weather has been too bad to let the prisoners out for exercise.”

“Can you do anything about that? Exchange a cell with another prisoner? Get Victor outside some? He can’t stand being cooped up. Maybe if he feels more comfortable, he’ll talk to me and we can get this cleared up.”

“I don’t think I can move him, but I can see he gets outside, eh.”

Quinn fidgeted. Mason could come back any time, and they’d been here way too long. He cleared his throat. “I noticed a lighthouse out by the bed-and-breakfast. They don’t take in boarders, do they? I noticed the Blue Bonnet isn’t open right now.”

“No sir. Kade Matthews, he’s a ranger out at the forest, and his wife, Bree, trains search-and-rescue dogs. They don’t take boarders.”

“I thought I saw a kid and a dog in the yard,” Quinn said, keeping his voice casual. So she’d married someone. Figured.

Montgomery nodded, but his gaze sharpened to suspicion.

Quinn shut up. He couldn’t have asked more questions if he’d tried. The news Bree had married was enough to take in. Good riddance, he told himself. Back outside he turned to Jenna. “I want you to stop by that lighthouse. I have a feeling they will know where the baby is.”

The tiny office Lauri occupied barely held her desk and chair, but she didn’t mind. She was working for a prestigious company. Her first day of real work. She couldn’t wait until Kade heard the news. He wouldn’t think his baby sister was such a major screw-up. Maybe she could live down all her past mistakes after all.

The intercom on her desk beeped, then Mrs. Saunders’s voice blared. “Lauri, in my office please.”

Lauri’s first summons of the day. She wiped suddenly moist palms on her black A-line skirt and grabbed her notepad on her way out the door. The thick carpet muffled her steps to the big office at the end of the hall. She tapped on the door.

“Come in.”

Lauri stepped inside and closed the door behind her. She waited for Mrs. Saunders to acknowledge her. The woman wasn’t her put-together self this morning. A tight bun contained hair that was usually coiffed and stylish. She wore no makeup or jewelry, and the harsh hairstyle accentuated the lines around her eyes and mouth. Wrinkles marred her lime green pantsuit.

Mrs. Saunders quit reading her computer screen and glanced at Lauri. “Sit down, Ms. Matthews.” Lauri sat with her notepad in her lap and her pen ready. Mrs. Saunders shook her head. “You won’t need that. I want you to run an errand for me before you leave for the day.”

“An errand?” She prayed she wouldn’t be asked to go get lunch or buy a shower gift. She’d hoped to have a real job learning more about accounting, not be a glorified gofer.

“What can I do for you?”

Mrs. Saunders reached under her desk and lifted a briefcase into view. “I need you to deliver this.”

Lauri wanted to ask what was in it, but the closed expression on her boss’s face warned her not to ask too many questions. “Where am I to take it?”

“A man is waiting for it at the library. He’ll be wearing a Red Sox cap
.
Simply walk up to him and give it to him. His name is Bill Jones.” She shook her head. “He’s on a tight time schedule today. I know this is outside your normal duties, and I’ll make sure you don’t turn into a delivery girl. This kind of thing doesn’t happen often. Call me when you’ve done it.”

Lauri grasped the handle of the briefcase. Heavy. What was in it? She tried not to imagine the worst: drugs, guns, papers for industrial espionage. Kade would tell her to squelch that vivid imagination, but the older woman’s furtive behavior had Lauri’s mental antenna at full alert.

She grabbed her coat from her office and hurried to her car with the briefcase. The Portage Lake District Library was on Huron Street. Lauri navigated the icy roads and parked in the lot before slipping and sliding her way to the building. The briefcase grew heavier with every step, maybe because her reluctance weighed it down.

The worker behind the circulation desk smiled at her, and she returned it automatically as she scanned the library for patrons. At eleven thirty in the morning, only a few people browsed the shelves. She knew the man wouldn’t be in the children’s section, so she headed for the adult fiction.

Then she saw him. Seated at a table, he held an open book in front of him. The bill of the Red Sox cap shaded his face since he was staring down at the book. When she approached, he glanced up, and she realized it was the same man she’d overheard talking to her boss’s husband. He gave her the creeps, but she had a job to do. “Mr. Jones?” she asked when she was a few feet away.

He nodded and his gaze never left the briefcase she carried as she walked to the table. He rose when she stopped and held out his hand. “I think that’s for me.”

Lauri’s grip tightened on the case. If he hadn’t smirked, she would have passed it over without a word. “What’s in here?”

“None of your business.” His fingers closed over hers. “What’s your name?”

“Lauri. Lauri Matthews.”

“Any relation to Kade Matthews?” He held on to her hand.

“My brother. You know him?”

“Not personally.”

The touch of his hand made her shudder, and she let go. It wasn’t her concern, she told herself, bolting for her car. She was just doing her job.

Driving away from the library, she decided to swing by her apartment and eat an early lunch before class instead of buying something. When she parked on the street in front of her apartment, Lauri saw Wes’s car. She climbed the outside steps to her apartment, wishing for the umpteenth time she could afford one that had an inside hallway. And maybe she could soon.

As she approached her door, she heard the pulse of rock music. A smile stretched across her face. His presence always did that to her. She hurried the last few feet and turned the knob to her apartment. He never locked it behind him. Zorro met her at the door and she put her hand on his head, so he didn’t bark.

The pulsing beat of his Kenny Chesney CD pounded through her veins. It was so loud he hadn’t noticed her arrival. Her lips curved as she watched the man she loved. Lauri enjoyed watching him when he thought he was alone. He bobbed and weaved in a jerky dance on her scarred wooden floors. She thought maybe he was trying an old Michael Jackson move, but on Wes’s frame, the jerks were weird.

She put a gloved hand over her mouth to stifle her giggle. Careful to keep her expression nonchalant, Lauri moved into his eyesight and waved. Wes stopped what he was doing, and the grin that always stole her breath appeared. The love she felt for him always took her by surprise, and she wasn’t sure when it had first happened.

He met her before she’d taken five steps and swept her into his arms. She burrowed against him, relishing his warmth. His lips brushed hers, and she closed her eyes. He drew away and led her to the sofa.

“Did you tell her yet?” Lauri asked. She knew the answer when his smile faltered and a shadow darkened his hazel eyes. “Oh Wes, you promised.”

He glanced away from her gaze. “I tried, Lauri, really. But I hate to hurt her. I’ll be disappointing our parents as well as Maura.”

They’d been over this time and again. He was such a—a
guy.
“The longer you wait, the harder it will be for her to stop all the wedding plans. You don’t want her buying a lot of stuff for something that isn’t going to happen.”