The China Doll (12 page)

"I checked on her every day for a week, and I
somehow managed to convince her to come to class by the next week.
At first she didn’t want to talk or do her work, but slowly she
came around. I was going to help her, I really was. I was going to
keep her there if I had to take out a loan myself."

"Such dedication," Lucy said with a sneer.
But Emily smiled in spite of herself, remembering the day Joanna
had offered her the job of her dreams.

"And then a few weeks later she came to
class, but she couldn’t talk again. Her eyes were red from crying.
I pulled her aside after class, and she broke down. I dragged her
into my office, and I finally made her tell me." Joanna closed her
eyes and put her face in her hand, trying to avoid Jessie’s
eyes.

Jessie couldn’t breathe. "Oh, God," she said
softly. "Oh, no."

"I think you can stop now," Richard said
forcefully.

"No!" Jessie shouted. "It was 1991. It
doesn’t make sense. Why didn’t she..." She looked sick. "She didn’t
have to keep me! I wouldn’t have kept me!"

Miranda’s lip trembled. "I’m glad she did,"
she said quietly.

"It wasn’t an option for her," Joanna said.
"She couldn’t make herself do it, even though it meant everything
was going to have to change." She shook her head. "And I was
terrified for her. I told her to leave school at the end of the
quarter. I was going to find her a co-op—something, anything—and
she’d be gone until after...you came. And then maybe adoption,
maybe foster care. Anything but…" She looked disgusted again.

"So how did he find out?" Richard asked
angrily. "You wanted to hide it so badly, what happened?"

Joanna looked away again. "Tom owed her. I
went to see him myself. I told him that I knew what he’d done, and
that if he didn’t give Josie that scholarship, I’d go to the police
and tell them anything I needed to. Whatever it took. He laughed at
me. That wicked laugh of his. He said I had no proof of anything.
And I told him he was sloppy, I had the best proof of all." She bit
her lip. "I didn’t mean to," she said desperately. "I just wanted
to shut him up so badly."

"Oh, Joanna," Alex said disapprovingly. "What
were you thinking?"

Emily looked at Alex. "That’s perfect," she
said contemptuously. "Because you’re the expert in blackmail,
right?" Alex looked away.

"I couldn’t stop him," she whispered. "He
went straight to her. I tried to call her, to warn her so she could
get out, but he was too fast. I was terrified. I called campus
security, but by the time they got to her dorm, she was gone. I was
frantic. I asked every one of her friends, but they had no idea."
She sighed. "And it was like that for a week. Then one day I walked
into my office and I find an envelope under my door. A wedding
invitation."

Jessie laughed. She knew how the story had to
end, but it didn’t make any sense to her. "She married him?" she
asked incredulously. "He raped her, and then she married him?" She
shook with fury, and looked at Miranda. "Anyone care to explain
that to me, because I still don’t get it."

"Because he wasn’t a monster," Lucy said
furiously. She turned on Joanna. "He didn’t hurt Josie, and I don’t
care what you think you saw. And he wasn’t going to hurt his own
baby!"

"Funny, because that isn’t what I heard,"
Robert said matter-of-factly. "Mister Sheldon, you and Tom were
friends—"

"I wouldn’t go that far," Alex said
quickly.

Robert shrugged. "Okay, sure. But you saw
each other. Socially. And his pretty young wife. Ever see any
bruises? Did it ever look like she had trouble walking? Ever not
see her at all for periods at a time?" Silence again. "Interesting.
Because that’s what a couple of other people reported."

"Now is that your information, or your
father’s?" Lucy said icily.

Robert smiled. "You’ll find I’m pretty
thorough, Misses Hendrickson."

Miranda looked at Richard. "Do you remember?"
she whispered.

"Please," Richard said pleadingly. "This
isn’t going to help."

"Mister Hendrickson, I don’t think I’ve made
myself clear," Robert said. "This is in the context of a murder
investigation."

"Still open after all this time?" Mitch
challenged.

"Very soon," Robert said coolly. "Regardless,
refusing to answer questions is not going to work in anyone’s
favor."

"Then why don’t I call my lawyer and we’ll
meet you at the police station if you want to question me?" Richard
offered.

"Richard, please!" Jessie shouted, pounding
on his chest. "Did he hurt my mother? Is this true?" She couldn’t
breathe. "Tell me. I want the truth!"

Richard looked at Miranda, who nodded her
head. He closed his eyes, then kissed Jessie on the forehead. "I
was only nine when you were born, and I didn’t know...I didn’t have
much of a point of reference for what a marriage was supposed to be
like." He didn’t look at his mother. "I thought your mother was the
most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. And she was barely a woman—just
a little over twenty." Emily gulped. "And I had no idea why Uncle
Tom was so lucky. I was pretty sure he didn’t deserve to be,
because I always thought he was...strange. I didn’t like him at all
until he married your mother.

"She was so happy when you were born, Jess. I
did get that. She was happy when she was with you, and she liked
having me around to be the big brother. She liked when we all
played at Miranda’s house." He smiled. "She even liked Michael,
believe it or not. She called us all one great big family. And I
knew why that was important to her." He sighed. "Because she always
shrank away when Tom got too close. She was afraid of him." Now he
looked at his mother. "And anyone who looked, who really looked,
could see that."

"You were just a little boy," Lucy insisted.
"You didn’t understand all of the adult things going on around
you."

"Yes I did!" Richard shouted, and Lucy stood
back. "I got it, Mother. Or haven’t you figured that out yet?" He
took a second to calm himself. "And I got it when Josie came to my
house—your house, Dad’s house," Richard said. Zainab held back her
tears, watching all of Richard’s pent up bitterness flow out of
him. "It was just me. The nanny had an errand to run, and who knew
where you were? It was just me. It was nine o’clock. I was doing my
homework, and there was a knock at the door. It was Josie. Josie
and Jessie, and both of them were crying." He looked at his mother
as if he tasted something rotten. "And they were both bruised.
Josie didn’t have to explain because it was that obvious even to a
kid who wasn’t in high school. She begged me to take Jessie for the
weekend. She said she’d come back on Monday and everything would be
fine. But please take Jessie, and don’t let anyone take her away."
He looked at Jessie and smoothed her hair. "And you clung to me for
dear life. How could I say no to you?

"So I put you in the open room. The room you
use now. We had some ice cream. But then he came. Uncle Tom. I told
you not to cry, I told you that as long as you were quiet,
everything would be okay."

Richard scoffed, then went on. "I locked the
door, and I hid the key. I came down and Tom was...well, I thought
he was going to hit me. He demanded to know where Josie was, and I
told him I had no idea. It was the truth. He pushed me. But then
the phone rang, and he left. After that we were safe."

Lucy was pale. "Why didn’t you ever tell me
this?"

"Because Uncle Tom never came back," Richard
said. "Because after that weekend, he was gone forever."

"So you took care of me the whole weekend?"
Jessie asked, blinking through her tears.

Richard smiled. "Believe it or not, Michael
came over that Saturday and helped too." He looked at Miranda.
"Just one of the reasons I always knew Michael wasn’t all bad."
Then he looked back at his mother. "Are you satisfied now, Mother?
Sorry, I didn’t take any pictures, but I remember it very
clearly."

"I would have killed him myself if I knew
that he’d threatened you," Lucy said. "I wouldn’t have let anyone
hurt you."

"No," Richard said coldly. "Nothing too
obvious with the Bartolomes." Richard turned to Robert. "But you
didn’t know any of that, Detective. You couldn’t have."

"No," Robert said after a moment. "I didn’t.
But the bruises my father saw on Misses Bartolome—and he did take
some pictures—were enough to get him thinking. That, plus the fact
that the body was never recovered. It would have taken an unusually
strong explosion to throw him that far and that deep."

"Oh, so it started with pictures," Joanna
said, staring coldly at Robert. "You think he liked to look at
those much?"

"Excuse me?" Robert asked.

"She never said his name," Joanna said, "but
she told me that there was a detective harassing her. Everywhere
she went. And it sounded like his curiosity was a little bit more
than professional."

Miranda remembered Josie’s nervousness after
Tom died, and the way she insisted that Richard accompany Jessie on
all their play dates. "Wow, Lucy," Miranda marveled. "How much were
you paying him to do that?"

"And of course she wouldn’t have gone to the
police," Joanna said angrily. "Because your father had her
convinced that there was an active investigation, and that she was
the prime suspect. It wasn’t until after she died that the truth
came out."

"The truth?" Robert repeated, barely
concealing his rage. "Maybe he went a little too far, but he did
what he did on her orders." He pointed at Lucy. "He didn’t deserve
to have his career ruined. And you didn’t lift a finger, did you,
not even after
he
became a person of interest."

"Good!" Joanna railed. "Because he made the
last year of her life miserable!"

"Yeah? Wouldn’t you be happy if you knew how
he spent the last ten of his life?"

"There was blood," Jessie whispered. "Lots of
blood. In the bedroom. On the sheets." Jessie blinked. "There was a
knife. Someone stabbed her."

Richard’s eyes widened. "Jessie, do you
remember that?"

Jessie nodded. "Yes."

Robert looked at her for the first time. "Are
you satisfied now?" Emily hissed.

"No," Robert said finally. "Because that
isn’t the whole truth, is it?"

"Do you think anyone’s going to report me if
I kill you?" Richard asked fiercely.

"Right, that’s how you people do it, isn’t
it?" Robert looked at them in disgust. "Who do you think you’re
really protecting with all of your secrets?"

"It doesn’t matter!" Richard said, and now
Jessie had to hold him back. "Get out of my office now!"

"I want to know!" Jessie sobbed. Now she
collapsed into Miranda’s arms. Miranda shushed her, but looked at
Richard, begging him to make it stop.

"She was stabbed," Robert said in a cold
voice. "But that wasn’t all. She was raped before she died."

Jessie dry heaved. Now no one held Richard
back as he punched Robert in the face.

Robert fell back onto the floor. Everyone
else stood in shocked silence. "Get up, Detective. If I’m going in
for assault, I’m going to make it worth my while."

Robert helped himself up and wiped his mouth.
Jessie shook her head. "Why didn’t you tell me?" she whispered, and
Richard turned around.

Before he could say anything, Lucy answered.
"You were just a little girl, Jessica. You had nightmares about it
for a very long time as it was. There was no reason to make it
worse." She stepped toward Robert. "There still isn’t."

"They looked at my Dad for it," Robert said.
"Did you know that? No, you wouldn’t care."

"Did he do it?" Emily asked scornfully.

Robert smiled. "No, he didn’t. But thank you
for asking. You know how long it took to clear him? DNA testing
just wasn’t what it could have been back then. And he was dead
before they could run it."

"After your little performance, Detective, I
hope you’re here to tell us just who did," Alex said with
exasperation.

"I’m still working on it. But we do have the
DNA. Care to volunteer a sample, Mister Sheldon?"

Alex scoffed. "What?"

"You knew the beautiful Misses Bartolome, did
you not? And I think everyone knows by now that you aren’t nearly
as clean as you’d like people to think."

Alex narrowed his eyes. "I’ll give you a DNA
sample—I’ve got nothing to worry about. I don’t think I was ever
even alone with her."

"Great, thanks. I’ll be in touch," Robert
said, then turned to Richard. "And you, Mister Hendrickson? You did
say she was the most beautiful woman you’d ever met."

Miranda and Zainab held Richard back before
he could punch Robert again. "Richard, don’t!" Miranda pleaded. "He
isn’t worth it." She turned on Robert. "You bastard. I don’t care
what you think of us. We’re not murderers, we’re not rapists. And
Richard is the best man I have ever met in my life. You say one
more word against him and you will have to deal with me."

Robert burst out laughing, but Miranda didn't
flinch. Robert looked at Alex and pointed at her. "Wow, you are one
lucky son of a bitch, aren’t you? She’s gorgeous, but she doesn’t
have a clue, does she?"

"I’ll punch you myself if you say anything
else about her," Alex said menacingly.

Robert smiled again and turned back to
Miranda. "You know what? I think you deserve that clue. I think you
should know the truth about your knight in shining armor over here,
and over there." He turned around. He looked at Lucy, then his gaze
landed on Joanna. "Or would you like to tell them?"

Alex looked at Joanna and Lucy, and took in a
sharp breath. He grabbed Miranda’s hand. "We’re leaving now, and in
the morning I’m calling the commissioner."

Richard held Zainab’s hand. "Oh, Mother," he
said softly. "Are you that bad at keeping your secrets?"

Lucy licked her lips. "I only ever wanted to
protect you."