Forgotten Witness (35 page)

“He was waiting for information on Sandy MacIntosh. She was hurt in a truck accident.” –
Josie

“Was he a relative?”
– Oregon Community Hospital Nurse

“No. His name is Archer. A big man. Quiet.” –
Josie

“I’m sorry. I’m just coming off the night shift. I’ll leave a message for the next shift. They might know. Can you call back?” –
Oregon Community Hospital Nurse

“Who should I ask for?” –
Josie

“I’m not sure who’s going to be on. Sorry. I’ve got to run. Call back after ten.” –
Oregon Community Hospital Nurse.

“But is she awake? Is she talking? Look, who can I talk to…” –
Josie to no one

CHAPTER 27

Josie sat on the sand with her back up against the low wall that separated Hermosa Beach’s Strand from the beach. The hood of her sweatshirt was pulled up and the strings tightened beneath her chin. The shirt didn’t match her sweatpants which were her oldest and warmest. Underneath she wore a long sleeved t-shirt but it was Max lying across her legs and gathered into her arms that kept her warmest of all.

She had been sitting this way for twenty-minutes, thinking of nothing and worrying about nothing. There could be no bigger shock than finding her mother, no bigger terror than facing a wall of flames and surviving. There could be no horror worse than what she had found in that cave. So she wouldn’t worry about anything, not even Archer and Hannah and Billy. She would trust that they would keep themselves safe and get home to her as soon as they could. But she couldn’t sit this way until they did. There was still so much to do.

“Come on, Max.”

She kissed the top of his head, stood up, dusted the sand off her butt, and took one more look at the large, low moon hanging over the Pacific. They went around the wall since Max’s jumping days were over. No one else was out except Mrs. Fenwick’s cat. The Horowitz children ran through their living room past the picture window and Josie heard Marjorie Horowitz’s muffled voice calling after them. Not much had really changed since she left a month earlier for Washington and yet everything had. She certainly had.

She was wary, wondering who was watching her even now that she was home. But there was no one lingering where they shouldn’t be, no car parked out of place, and nothing in her house that had been disturbed. She was thankful for that especially. The house was now a bit cramped but other than that it was perfect.

She paused and considered her place while she waited for Max to take a detour and sniff out something irresistible on the sidewalk. The outside lights illuminated the front step and the patio off her bedroom as they had been every night while she was gone. Tonight, though the bedrooms on either end of the house were lit while the bare picture window looking into the living room was dark. That’s the way Josie would keep it. Until this was over, she didn’t want anyone looking in on her from the outside.

When Max joined her, she opened the gate and it swung noiselessly on its hinges. At the front door she swiped the hood from her head, let Max go first, and hung up his pink leash on its hook. The homecoming had worn him out so he went to his bed while Josie followed the sounds of women’s voices. Faye brightened as Josie walked in.

“We were just going to send out a search party, weren’t we Amelia?”

“I was thinking of sleeping on the beach but Max wanted to come back.” Josie gave the older woman’s arm a squeeze.

“I can’t get used to you not having hair.”

“I have hair. It’s just shorter,” Josie objected.

“Shaved. Are you sure you don’t want a doctor to look at the burns.”

“They aren’t that bad,” Josie insisted. Amelia was tucking Emily into bed so Josie deflected Faye’s concern in her by asking: “How’s she doing?”

“Good. Really good.” Amelia stepped away and put her hands on her hips “It’s only been a couple of days without that medicine. I guess it’s too early to tell if there will be much change without it.”

“She’s lucky it didn’t kill her. Scopolamine in all four of those packets. With the doses those patients were getting it’s amazing they weren’t dead long ago.”

No one in the room could argue with that. The lab Stephen contracted with reported an alarming cocktail of drugs that Amelia had been giving the residents. An unintended consequence of their curiosity was that the lab wanted to know where the stuff had come from since the legality of the concoction was in question. Josie wasn’t ready to share that information yet.

“She’s lovely, Josie.” Faye interrupted Josie’s thoughts. “I still can’t believe she’s here.”

“Me either,” Josie murmured.

Emily looked even more beautiful because she was lying amidst the riot of colors and exotic appointments that Hannah had so lovingly arranged and reluctantly left behind. It was nice to have this room occupied again.

“Are you going to be okay on the roll away?” Josie asked Amelia.

“Sure. I’ll probably be awake half the night anyway.”

“I hope not. You all need to rest,” Faye said as she left the room. Amelia followed, only to pause at the draped easel.

“Do you mind?” Josie shook her head. Amelia lifted the sheet and looked at the last painting Hannah had done. The woman who was a combination of Josie and Hannah looked back at them with clear, wise eyes. “She looks like Emily.”

“I guess she does. Kind of prophetic,” Josie answered.

“Kind of weird. I hope Hannah comes home soon. You’ll have your whole family here.” It did not escape Josie’s notice that Amelia sounded melancholy. That was understandable. Seeing the home Josie had waiting for Emily underscored how alone she was in the world. Amelia shrugged a little as she said: “I didn’t know what I was giving any of them.”

“I know. It’s okay,” Josie answered.

Amelia lowered the sheet, turned off the light and followed Josie into the dining room where Faye was setting out coffee. The overhead had been dimmed, the room looked cozy, and Stephen Kyle was regaling Faye with the story of their escape from the island of Molokai as he organized the paperwork in manageable piles.

“I can tell you, I thought Josie was a goner for sure. Bright girl, that. Getting out of the house the way she did.”

“And what way was that?” Faye asked.

“Here she is. She can tell you herself.”

“I wish it was that heroic,” Josie laughed. “It was pure reaction. Self-preservation. Johnson lit the gasoline and it just erupted. That woman’s body protected me to a point but my head was up. I fell off the bed when I got burned. There was nowhere to go but back against the wall. It was so dark and I hadn’t noticed there was a closet. I just wanted to get away from the heat so I went in but it turned out it was connected to the one in that room where Amelia had been sleeping.”

“You were lucky that lock was broken on my side or you never would have gotten out,” Amelia said.

“That’s the truth. The hall was engulfed so I couldn’t go down the main staircase. I went through your room and across to Emily’s. Luckily he hadn’t done such a good job there. I was able to make it down the back stairs and get back to Amelia and Emily.”

“Looking the worse for wear, I can tell you,” Stephen added. “I’ve been patching her up since I met her.”

“And then we came right home,” Josie said. “I had no idea how we were going to manage that since Emily had no identification. I couldn’t get her on a plane.”

“That was never a worry,” Stephen insisted. “I told Josie I knew everyone on Maui, including a lovely reclusive gentleman with a private airplane. A private plane only needs a flight plan. No security, you see. Did I tell you that we listed the passengers as Aolani, Anuhea, and Malia? I don’t think Josie found it amusing, but I certainly did.”

“A brilliant ploy,” Faye agreed even as she cast Josie an amused look.

“Ah, Josie. Amelia. Finally, I’ve found the perfect woman. Faye agrees I’m brilliant. Now, if only she liked Scotch.”

“No one is perfect,” Josie said as she pulled out a chair.

Amelia sat opposite Stephen at one end of the table and Faye to Stephen’s left. They stared at the crumpled papers and dirty files that had been taken from the cave, the notebooks that Amelia had gathered quickly before they left the island, and the things Ian Francis had thrust into Josie Bates’ hand that started the journey.

“So,” Faye murmured.

“So,” Josie echoed. “I guess I’ll start at the beginning.”

She picked up the plastic bag imprinted with the image of The Robert Lee and took out the lock of hair and the notepaper with the manic writing.

“I think this is a lock of mom’s hair and then there is this.”

Josie got up and brought Ian’s notes to Faye.

Rememberrememberemembermk

Poor thingpoorgirl isamarigold.

Ultraartichokechatter!Marigold.

195319751982SWGBS1986EB.

“Once I found Emily, I forgot about this stuff. But given what we found in the cave, this makes sense now. Emily and all the residents were victims of a government run program. Look here.” Josie leaned over to point at the notes. “The end of the first line is MK. Ian wanted me to remember what MK was. I didn’t know what that meant then, but I do now.

“The second line seems to be about Emily. We assume Marigold is the name of the program at Ha Kuna House.

“Next line down actually a history of covert government programs.

“The final line refers to the dates relevant to the start of each program.”

“I’ve run down most of them. There were thousands of people involved in those operations back in the day,” Stephen added.

“Before we left, we did some quick research. Artichoke and CHATTER were the code words for early programs dealing in mind control. Artichoke was the navy, isn’t that right, Stephen?”

“Right. The big program was called MKUltra and that was sanctioned in 1953,” Stephen answered. “Hospitals, universities, research facilities and individual scientists from the United States and Canada, even England, were all taking part although it’s been proven that many did not realize the insidiousness of the thing. The United States even employed Nazi scientists in the early days because they had experience with human experimentation in the camps. I think we can safely surmise that your father, Amelia, was an unwitting victim even in his capacity as a researcher.”

“I know he was. I’ve read enough in his journals now to see that he was slowly putting it all together,” Amelia said.

“I imagine we’ll find records giving instructions that he be neutralized or whatever they call it,” Stephen surmised. “What easier way to keep him silent than to do to him what was done to the residents. These drugs could be administered without the knowledge of the victim. That’s what I find so frightening. That one could be plucked up and made to disappear that way is almost unfathomable.”

“But it was easy,” Josie said as she reclaimed her chair. “The army used their own enlisted people as subjects. They branched out to mental patients and transients. These people were specifically chosen because they had no family or community ties. There was no informed consent. They were subjected to experimental drugs and later physical torture. Sleep deprivation. Rape. Electrocution. I can’t imagine how horrible it must have been for them.”

“What’s truly amazing is that they kept meticulous records of how these people were dosed, the different medications, the length of sleep deprivation and their reactions. When they passed away, they simply boxed up the records and stored them,” Stephen added.

“We may never have everything, but I’m betting there’s enough in that cave to sink a whole bunch of people. Reynolds for one, but he’s already dead,” Josie said. “I still think it’s amazing Emily led us there. The chair she was sitting in had restraints, so did the tables. We found an electroshock machine. We have to assume she was tortured.”

“You know that’s probably why she collapsed the day you took her for a walk, don’t you?” Amelia said. “She thought you were taking her there.”

“I know that now,” Josie answered. “But when we needed a safe place, she must have known that cave would be the last place Johnson would look.”

“So were the people in the house still being tortured?” Faye asked.

“No, I would have known. I think we were just watching them until they died.” Amelia looked around the table and saw that Stephen and Josie were nodding.

“MKUltra was publicly exposed in the seventies,” Josie added. “They thought they destroyed all the documents but some survived. There were hearings and trials and a lot of outrage.”

“Everyone involved was prosecuted,” Stephen said. “I suppose the general public thought that was that.”

Josie pointed to the notes again. “1986 with EB right after it. We’re assuming that’s Ian’s reference to Emily’s admission. We don’t know what the third date is or whose initials they are but Ian was trying to put this into some kind of context for me. He just couldn’t communicate well enough to tell me straight out.”

Faye picked up some of the papers and looked at them, “It’s like a horror movie. I didn’t think things like this happened here.”

“It wasn’t just these. There were many more,” Stephen said. “Project Paperclip. One called Midnight Climax where subjects were drugged and taken to government run brothels in San Francisco. I surmise Ian was trying to tell Josie that Marigold was also an offshoot of MKUltra. I haven’t been able to find anything on it in the public domain like the others. I assume that is because it is still a current program.”

“But to what end?” Faye insisted.

“Control,” Stephen suggested.

“Curiosity,” Amelia offered.

“Because they could,” Josie answered and then asked Faye: “Do you have the information Michael Horn sent?”

“Here you go.” Faye handed it over and Josie spoke while she laid it out.

“This man is continuing a lawsuit initiated by his grandfather who was a victim of MKUltra. His grandfather committed suicide before it got to the courts. Horn must have known about Ian’s work because when he saw the notice of Ian’s death in the paper that made mention of me he started calling. I’m sure he thought I had information for him. If I had called him, it would have saved us a lot of grief. I’ll read this complaint tonight, and then contact him when we’re a little clearer on what we have.”