Paradise Falls (19 page)

Jacob nodded. “Let’s do that. Grab a few hours of sleep first. I have-”

“Work to do,” Jennifer sighed.

5.

It took Jennifer less than two minutes to log in, pull up Hunter Fiore’s information, and print it out.
 

He lived in a trailer park across the bridge from the old section of town. Jacob skimmed police reports, tapping the eraser end of a pencil on a legal pad as he scribbled notes.

Jacob pulled out another car, a black Camaro, and Jennifer slipped inside beside him. Ten minutes after that they were pulling into the Lone Pines trailer park, a few turns off the main road. The new bridge loomed in the distance, its tall towers blinking in the August haze, while the long, squat trailers butted longways up to the road. Some were new and looked like elongated houses, others were the old style, with wheels still attached and hidden behind vinyl panels or shrubs.
 

Jacob drew up into the driveway and double-checked the address. The trailer was one of the old ones, pale yellow with faded paint, holes in the siding, and windows grimy from years of tobacco smoke.

“We’re going to go talk to them,” said Jacob.
 

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” Jennifer said, looking at the house.
 

“It’s a terrible idea,” said Jacob. “Let’s go.”
 

Housing like this was common in this area of Pennsylvania, and many of the houses on the same street had manicured laws and tiny cute gardens planted under the kitchen windows, and here and there abandoned toys, tricycles and bubble mowers, sat in the grass. With the birds chirping and the sun shining, it didn’t seem like such a bad place at all.
 

Jacob led the way. Jennifer stood next to him as he tapped on the battered storm door. There was no answer, and after a few minutes, he knocked again. This time the answer came in a rattling of chains and a scrape of metal as the inside door swung back. A lean man with a gaunt, saggy face looked up at Jacob, and scratched under his skinny arm.
 

“You cops?”
 

“No,” said Jacob.
 

“Who are you, then?”
 

“Teachers,” said Jennifer.
 

The man’s eyes narrowed and darted between the two people standing on his porch. “What do you want?”
 

“We wanted to ask you about your son,” said Jacob.
 

“He ain’t mine. You say you’re teachers?”
 

“At the high school, yes,” said Jennifer.
 

A reedy voice called from inside the house. “Let them in.”
 

The old man sniffed, scrubbed under his nose at the back of his hand and undid a hooked wire that held the storm door in place. Jacob pulled it open and Jennifer tensed as the squeal from the hinges. They both had to duck to step inside into a narrow hallway that led down to bedrooms to the right and a larger sitting room to the left. The old man retreated into the back of the house.
 

The woman sitting in a recliner in the living room looked old and young at the same time. Stick thin, she was wearing a head wrap that let a few loose, wispy strands of pale brown hair escape around her neck.

In her right hand, clenched between claw-like fingers, a cigarette burned, sending a steamer of smoke coiling to stain a dark brown spot on the once-white ceiling. She raised the cigarette, took a drag, and the next breath came out as a thick, hacking wheeze.
 

“Hunter is my son,” she wheezed.
 

“Have you heard anything from him?” said Jacob. “Since-“
 

“I never heard from him for six months,” the woman said, and the last word melted into a wet cough. “Then he shows up here Saturday morning. That cop dropped him off.”
 

Jennifer glanced at Jacob. His face was a flat mask.
 

“Who made his bail?”
 

“Bail? I don’t know anything about any bail. Cop dropped him off, said something to him about getting his shit together, he was gonna pick him up later. Came in here and took some of his things. Clothes and such. Didn’t have much here to begin with.”
 

“Where did he usually stay?” said Jacob.
 

“He got some slut pregnant. Little shit up and left me to die here. I told him not to come back. I don’t care where he’s gone.”

Jennifer stiffened. Her fingernails cut into her palm.
 

The old woman took another deep drag on her cigarette, and this time coughed something unpleasant into an old fast food soda cup. Jennifer fought the urge to cover her mouth and pushed her breakfast back down. If she saw that again, she’d be sick.
 

“What’s the girl’s name?”
 

“I don’t know,” the old woman hissed. “I don’t care. I’m glad the worthless little bastard is out of my life.”
 

Jacob nodded. “Thanks for your time.”
 

As they stepped out, the man of the house caught up to him.
 

“The girl’s name is Liz Stroud. She lives in the apartments over by the Stop n’ Save.”
 

“Thanks,” said Jacob.
 

“No cops come around,” the old man said. “Saw them on TV saying Hunter killed those other kids, but they never asked no questions here.”
 

“They should,” said Jacob.
 

“What’s this to do with you?”
 

“Civic duty,” said Jacob. “We weren’t here.”
 

“Whatever,” the old man growled, and slammed the door.
 

In the car, Jacob immediately pulled out and started driving.
 

“What now?”
 

“Find the girl. She might be in danger.”
 

“Why?”
 

“If he talked to her on Saturday, she might know something. If she knows something, she’s dangerous.”
 

Jennifer nodded.
 

The trip was quick, out onto the highway and ten minutes to the Stop n’ Save and the cheap block of apartments another minute down the road. Jacob pulled into a parking spot and stepped out. There was only the one building. Jacob stopped by the door, reading the directory.
 

“Let me talk to her,” said Jennifer.
 

Jacob nodded. Jennifer pushed the button. A moment later, the intercom beeped at them.
 

“Hello?”
 

“Miss Stroud?” said Jennifer.

“Yeah, that’s me,” a girlish voice said. “What is it?”
 

“Can we come up? We’d like to talk to you.”
 

“Who are you?”
 

She looked at Jacob. He shrugged.
 

“Teachers.”
 

“Okay.”
 

The door clicked open. Jennifer leaned on Jacob’s arm as the ascended the stairs to the second floor. The apartment door down the hall stood open, and a short girl with mousy brown hair peered out into the hall. She had the door secured by the chain. Jacob let Jennifer step in front of him.
 

“Liz?” she said.
 

“That’s me. You said you’re teachers?”
 

“That’s right.”
 

“How come I’ve never seen you before?”
 

“We work at No. 2.”
 

“I go to No. 1,” she said. “Are you here about Hunter? I saw them talk about him on TV.”
 

“Yes,” said Jennifer. “We’re curious about him. He went… he goes to our school.”
 

As the girl opened the door, Jennifer choked down a gasp. Liz Stroud was massively pregnant, and did not walk so much as waddle into the dingy little living room as Jacob closed the door behind them. She made a great effort of sitting down, so much so that Jennifer grasped her arm to steady her.
 

“Why aren’t you in school?” said Jacob.
 

“I dropped out,” she said. “‘Cause of the babies.”
 

“Babies?” said Jacob.
 

She nodded. “We’re having twins.”
 

Jennifer’s stomach churned, cold. She sat down opposite the girl while Jacob paced around the room, quiet. The girl kept eyeing him.
 

“You’re not in trouble,” she said. “We’re just trying to piece together what happened with your boyfriend.”
 

“Fiancé,” she said. “We’re gonna get married when he graduates and gets a job at the fracking thing.”
 

Jennifer’s throat tightened.

“I see. Was he living here with you?”
 

“Yeah. He was saving money from his job so we could get a place. We only got two bedrooms here and Mom didn’t want us raising the kids here. The apartments’d want more rent ‘cause of all the people.”
 

Jennifer glanced over the girl’s shoulder. Jacob’s fists clenched, and his forearms went steel-hard. His wounded left hand went white.
 

“What was the job?” said Jacob.
 

“I don’t know. He said he was in a program. He…” she looked down. “He tried to sell some pot last year. Him and this other boy, Tommy? They had a patch growing out behind the school and they were selling it to the other kids. They got caught and they made Hunter transfer over to the other school. To you guys, I guess.”
 

“The job,” Jacob said, evenly. “How’d he get it?”
 

“He said it was like a work release thing. This cop picked him up here and drove him places. It’s a program.”
 

“Have you seen him in the last few days?”
 

She shook her head. “He called me yesterday. He said he got in trouble in school, but his cop friend took care of it. He said he had to go somewhere and he’d call me when it was over. He said he had money for me. That was Saturday.”
 

“What time?”

She shrugged. Her face pinched and she choked back a sob.
 

“Afternoon. He said he had to do something really important and then he’d be home.”
 

The little room was quiet, except for the tick-tock of a tacky black cat kitchen clock and the muted whispers of the old tube television set in the corner. The girl folded up around herself, cradling her big belly in her arms and folded legs.
 

“He’s dead, isn’t he?” she said. “I can feel it.”
 

“We don’t know that yet,” said Jacob.
 

She choked out a little sob. “That’s what they said when my dad didn’t come home when I was eight.”

The dam burst and the girl broke out in choked, wet sobs, weeping into her own arms. Jennifer jumped to her feet and moved to the kitchen counter, sagging to her knees. Jacob moved past her and sat down opposite the girl.
 

“Liz,” he said. “Is that short for Elizabeth?”
 

She looked up and sniffed. “Yeah.”
 

“When are you due?”
 

She shrugged. “Next week, I guess. I’m scared, mister. I don’t know what I’m gonna do.”
 

Jacob stretched back and reached in his pocket, and handed her a business card. She took it and held it in her trembling hands. There was nothing on it but a phone number.
 

“What’s this?”
 

“If you have any kind of trouble, I want you to call that number. If any police come, don’t let them in, and call that number. Understand?”
 

“Why?”
 

“It’s for the best. Two men are going to come to you. When they buzz, they’ll ask for you. I want you to say to them, ‘the sun is shining’. If they say ‘but the ice is slippery’, let them up. If not, call that number. Do you understand?”
 

She nodded. “I don’t get it. What’s that mean?”
 

He took her hands in his. She flinched when she saw the crooked fingers of his left hand. Her fingers were tiny compared to his. Jennifer looked at her again and saw a scared little girl. She couldn’t have been more than sixteen- if she’d dropped out, it was this year.
 

“You and your babies are going to be fine. You’re going to see a specialist obstetrician that deals exclusively with teenage mothers, and then you’re going to have a place of your own to stay and food to eat. In exchange, I want you to do something for me.”
 

“What?”
 

“I’ll arrange for a tutor. When you’re ready, we’ll have a nurse take care of your children while you go back to school. High school, and I’ll cover four years of tuition to any college you’d like to attend and can gain admission to.”
 

The girl sniffed. “Why?”
 

“Because I can. Can you do that for me?”
 

She nodded. “Why are you doing this, mister? What are we to you?”
 

“Kids,” said Jacob, standing. “The sun is shining.”
 

“…But the ice is slippery.”

He nodded. “Tomorrow. We’ll come to visit you once you’re all set up, alright? Miss Katzenberg will call you once we have you situated.”

“Okay,” the girl sniffed.
 

She rose and made her way to the door. When she closed it, three locks crunched into place. Still stunned into silence, Jennifer didn’t speak until they were outside.

“The sun is shining, but the ice is slippery,” she said. “The Shadow?”
 

Jacob shrugged. “If it works, it works.”
 

“Did you mean all that?”
 

“Yes.”
 

“You don’t even know her.”
 

“I know enough,” he said, and took her arm to lead her down the stairs.
 

“What are we going to do about Hunter?”
 

He didn’t answer until they were back in the car.