Live and Let Die (17 page)

C
arol Henderson’s family had been notified and asked to look at the autopsy photos that had been identified as Tracy Ellis. They confirmed that, indeed, it was Carol.

Tracy’s case had been reopened and though the police were taking extra care to keep the story quiet, Sondra knew it was a matter of time before the shit hit the fan and the story was everywhere. Mimi had fainted when Sondra called her to tell her what was going on and Gordon could only respond in sputtering disbelief.

Sondra was determined to talk to Carol’s husband on her own and though Detective Wallace had told her to stay out of it, she took it upon herself to track him down and get in touch with him. It had taken Sondra a few tries, but she had finally gotten a hold of Kevin Henderson.

Sondra sipped her iced coffee and checked her watch again. Kevin had said he would meet her at two-thirty and it was already three. She hoped he hadn’t changed his mind. Sondra took another swallow and waited. Finally, a handsome, mahogany-colored man with a shiny dome of a head pushed open the door to the Starbucks. That had to be him. She threw up her hand to signal to him. He gave her a stiff nod and made his way over to the table.

“Ms. Ellis?”

Sondra nodded and held out her hand. “Yes, please, call me Sondra.”

The pair shook hands and Kevin eased his army green newsboy bag down to the floor and sat in the chair opposite Sondra. “I’m sorry I was late. I… I was at the police station.”

Sondra was quiet. “I’m so sorry,” she finally said.

“Yeah, well, now at least, I know what happened to her,” he said.

She gestured to the front counter. “Did you wanna grab something?”

Kevin twisted around. “Yeah, if you don’t mind waiting.” He chuckled, catching himself. “I mean, any more than you already have.”

“Go right ahead.”

A few moments later, he came back with some mocha tall grande cinnamon something or other. He slid back into the chair and stared at his drink without touching it.

“Do you mind me asking why you wanted to meet with me?” he inquired, never taking his eyes off his coffee. “Since you never really said on the phone.”

Sondra sighed. “I’m trying to figure out if there was some connection between your wife and my sister.”

Kevin sighed and went to take a sip of his drink when he stopped and snapped his fingers. “Wait a minute. Sondra Ellis. You’re not the filmmaker, are you?”

“Guilty as charged.”

Kevin leaned back in his chair, grinning, his demeanor suddenly much more pleasant. “Awwww man! This is crazy! I saw ‘The Deepest Cut’ with Carol—” Kevin’s face clouded momentarily as he mentioned his wife’s name. “Carol and I saw it when it came out. We both really enjoyed it. Damn. I’m sorry.”

“I wish I knew what to say.”

Kevin looked down at the table, his finger running up and down the length of his coffee cup. “Yeah, well… ”

Sondra was silent for a moment before she spoke. “Would you like to see pictures?”

He smiled and nodded.

Sondra pulled Tracy’s small purple photo album from her bag and flipped it open to the first picture of the family at Christmas. She tapped her finger on Tracy’s image.

“That’s her. That was taken probably four years ago.”

Kevin did a double take as he lifted up the small book. “Oh, she looks just like Carol,” he uttered in stunned disbelief.

“Yeah. What is it they say? Everyone has a twin? I couldn’t get over the resemblance myself when I saw Carol’s picture on that tape.”

Kevin frowned. “What tape?”

“Well, that’s how this whole thing started. I’d been thinking about doing a documentary about Tracy’s death and was looking at some footage from her news station from when she disappeared. One story about Carol’s disappearance popped up. I told the police and… here we are.”

“Police didn’t mention that. All they said was they wanted us to come down and look at some photographs.”

Kevin continued to turn the pages of the album with careful fingers, almost as if he were afraid they crumble beneath his touch. “It’s crazy, how much they looked alike,” he said, shaking his head. Finally, he closed the book and placed it on the table. “She was beautiful.” He looked down sheepishly, before he reached into his back pocket and withdrew his wallet. He flipped it open and pulled out a tiny photo.

“This is Carol,” he said, his voice so soft, Sondra almost didn’t hear him. She picked up the picture and looked at it, almost unable to keep it together. Carol had the same sparkling white teeth and clear, smooth skin as Tracy. She was in a black leather recliner with her feet curled underneath her and one palm cradling her cheek.

“You know, it’s more than just looking alike. She reminds me of Tracy because she looks so happy.” Sondra slid the photo back across the table to Kevin. “Tracy was always a very up person.”

“Man, you hit it on the head. That’s exactly how Carol was. Just so… full of life and positive. She’d do anything for anybody and that’s what makes it so hard to believe… that someone would do that to her… ” Kevin’s voice trailed off as he looked at the picture one more time, before sliding it back into his wallet.

Sondra cleared her throat and leaned forward, an intense look on her face. “Like I said, I’m trying to figure out if there might have been a link between Carol and Tracy.”

Kevin slumped back in his seat, his frosty reserve melted. “You know, I wracked my brain over and over to see if I could come up with anything and so far, nothing.”

“Well, maybe you can tell me a little about Carol and we can work from there? Like, for example, what did she do for a living?”

“She was a loan officer with Chicago National. She’d been working there, man, eight years. There are branches all over the city, but she worked downtown—the main branch.”

Sondra pulled her notebook from her purse and scribbled the name of the bank. “I don’t know if Tracy banked there or not. Easy enough to find out.” Sondra continued, “My sister was a producer with Channel Four news. Is it possible she did a story on the bank or something where Carol might have been involved?”

Kevin considered it for a moment before he shook his head. “No. No she would have told me about anything like that.”

Sondra bit her bottom lip. “You live in Hyde Park, which is on the South Side of the city, right?”

“Right.”

“Well, Tracy lived in Lakeview, which is north.”

“Hmm, mmm.”

“So, Carol was found near where Tracy lived. Did you all know anyone in that neighborhood? I mean, is there any reason she would have gone up there?”

Kevin shifted in his seat and shook his head. “Naw. Carol and I both grew up on the South side and that’s where all our friends and family are. We don’t know anyone up north.”

Sondra shook her head. “It just doesn’t make sense,” she murmured to herself.

“Believe me, I can’t figure it out myself.”

She looked at Kevin. “What happened? That night?”

Kevin let out a deep breath and closed his eyes. “You don’t know how many times I have thought about that night. If only I’d taken the dog out instead. If she’d taken him five minutes earlier, or five minutes later… it could have changed everything.” He took a gulp of his drink before he resumed his story. “It was Tuesday night—we had a huge blizzard that night. I mean the snow had been coming down all day, just non-stop. So, it was about eight-thirty, eight-forty five, and I was watching some ballgame—it was really important at the time, and now I couldn’t tell you what sport it was, what teams were playing, nothing.”

“Then what?”

“Carol yells out from the kitchen that she was going to take Rusty out to do his thing. She would normally take him out at that time, so I didn’t think anything of it. Just yelled back ‘Okay, be careful.’ Can you believe that? Be careful.” Kevin shook his head. “That was the last time I saw her.”

“How much time passed before you realized she wasn’t back?”

“Actually, Rusty came scratching at the door at about nine-thirty. I’d already started to worry a little and that just cinched it. She’d left her cell phone at home, so I couldn’t call her. I called the police, who wouldn’t do anything until it had been twenty-four hours. Never mind it was the biggest snowstorm of the season and anything could have happened to her.”

“So nothing happened.”

“Said I had to wait twenty-four hours. Some of us started passing out flyers around the neighborhood the next day though.” Kevin paused. “Did your sister have a dog?”

“No, she was allergic. We both were. Growing up, all we ever wanted was a dog, but of course the Ps told us to forget it. Then one day, we found a stray in the neighborhood and decided to keep him.”

“Uh, oh,” Kevin chuckled.

“Yeah, exactly, uh, oh. We hid him in the garage, determined we’d show them we could have a dog. Well, within a half hour, we’d both puffed up to twice our size and had to be rushed to the emergency room. No more pets after that.”

Kevin smiled. “Sounds like you two were a handful.”

“Yeah. We were good kids for the most part though. Never got into any real trouble.”

Sondra cleared her throat. “How long were you married?”

“About a year, but we’d been together about three years. What about you? How did your sister meet her husband?”

All of Sondra’s lightheartedness disappeared as she thought of Phillip. She wrinkled her nose. “He filled a prescription for her. They got engaged four months after meeting, got hitched six months after that and were married six months.”

“Man.” He was quiet for a moment. “Carol was terrible with taking care of her teeth. She had two root canals that year, so we had a lot of Vicodin around the house for a few weeks.” He grew silent again. “They were only married six months?”

“That’s it.”

Sondra blinked; Kevin’s words were registering. “Maybe Carol and Tracy had the same dentist?” she said, a hopeful note in her voice.

“Carol and I had the same dentist, over on sixty-third. South Side.”

“Shit. I bet Tracy saw some guy downtown. And Phillip worked at a pharmacy downtown… ?”

Kevin shook his head. “Like I said, we got everything South. About the only thing Carol did downtown was work.”

Sondra shook her head, the threads refusing to connect. “Damn.”

“So what happened to your sister?”

“God. That’s anyone’s guess. All I can say for sure is that she disappeared after she went jogging. And then… ”

“And then my wife’s body was identified as your sister.”

“Right.”

“And your brother-in-law IDd the body?”

“Yeah.”

Kevin leaned back against the chair, confusion clouding his handsome features. “I mean, I know they looked alike, but how… how could he… ?”

Sondra closed her eyes and shook her head. “The only thing I’ve been able to figure is that in his grief, he thought it was Tracy.”

“That just doesn’t make sense to me.” He cocked his head and looked at her. “How could he do that?”

Sondra looked out the window at the cavalcade of people rushing down the sidewalk. “I wish I knew.”

“Did you and your brother-in-law get along?”

Sondra scrunched up her face for a moment before she let it fall back into place. “At first no, then yes and now… ”

“Where is he?”

“I have no idea.”

“So, what about you?”

“What about me?”

“Are you married, single?”

“Choice C, divorced.”

“Ah.”

“Gary was my professor at NYU Film School—Film Appreciation. We had this just, crazy attraction to each other the whole time I was in his class. I was always making up some reason to be in his office during his office hours. Literally as soon as he turned in my final grades, it was done.”

“Hot for teacher, huh?”

“That’s an understatement. Anyway, we had this torrid affair and then one night after too many tequila shots and not enough common sense, we eloped. Actually, for a couple of years, it was really good.” Sondra drifted back to those days when Gary was the best thing about her. “It really was a beautiful, wonderful time, but… well, there were a lot of reasons it didn’t work. I think part of it was I grew up—Gary has fifteen years on me. I was still finding myself and all of that. So, after seven years of marriage, we closed that door. Of course, that’s when my career really took off. Hell, I even thanked him when I won my Oscar.”

“Well, at least you got something out of it.”

“Yeah. I still love him though. Always will.”

“No kids?”

Sondra snorted. “Oh, no. I’m not exactly the maternal type. Tracy? That was a different story. She was kind of princess-y, but she would have made an incredible mother. God. I hate talking about her in the past tense.”

Kevin hunched over his coffee, stroking the top of the lid with his forefinger. “It was months before I would stop talking about Carol in the present tense. The first time I referred to her in the past tense, I almost cried, it hurt so much.”

“So over this past year that she was missing, what have you been doing?”

“At first, it was intense. Posting a lot of flyers, a lot of just kind of amateur searching, you know? Knocking on doors asking if anyone had seen her. We got a little news coverage, but not much. It was hard.”

“That was actually one of the things that led me on this journey. I was reading a story about this girl from California that had gone missing after she went jogging—like Tracy. And it made national news. Like crazy national news.”

“She was white, huh?”

“You got it.”

“That’s sad.”

“I mean, Tracy’s station gave hers some play and there were a few items in the local papers, but for the most part, nothing.”

“Whatever happened to the girl in California?”

“Remains were found about three weeks later.”

“Man.”

“I’m sorry, you were telling me about the search.”

“Right. Well, anyway, we kept up with that for a while, held some candlelight vigils. After a while though, people began to lose hope, the momentum kind of died down.”

“I guess that’s to be expected.”

“Yeah. I guess. Every once in a while, we’d bug the police, or I’d put up a new round of flyers. Just to feel like I was doing something.”