The Stranger You Seek (37 page)

“I made something spicy just for you,” Mother told Rauser with a smile. She had watched him sprinkle red pepper over nearly everything she fed him.

Rauser nodded and reached for the chipotle sweet potatoes. “You’re the best cook I know, Mrs. Street. You can’t get food like this anywhere else.”

“Well, I love doing it,” Mom told him, and flushed. “Especially for a man with a good appetite. It’s a sensual thing, cooking. You can’t peel the skin off a mango without realizing that.”

I stared at my mother, suddenly aware that she was
flirting
with Rauser.

“Awkward,” Jimmy muttered.

My dad seemed not to notice. I glanced at the water-size glasses filled with rum and eggnog and wondered how many of those they’d both knocked back today.

“Wasn’t always true,” my father said. I had heard him say this for as long as I could remember about my mother’s cooking. It was generally his sole contribution to our holiday conversation. “When we first got married, it was so bad we prayed
after
we ate.”

“Howard,”
my mother complained. “That joke was not funny the first thirty years you told it. I frankly do not know why you think it would be now.”

“I think it’s funny,” Miki said without looking up. She was examining the ceramic turkey-shaped napkin holder next to her plate.

Mother looked at her, then moved her violet gaze to my dad. “Howard, you have turned my only sister’s daughter against me. I hope you are happy,” she declared in her rich coastal accent—a betrayed Scarlett O’Hara. My mother seemed to become more southern as she became more of a martyr.

“Hey, Keye, where’s Diane?” Jimmy asked, probably hoping to change the subject. My brother was a natural peacemaker and an expert at diverting my mother. “I was hoping to see her while I’m here.”

I smiled. “She has a new thing.”

“Ahh,” Jimmy said, nodding. We had all watched Diane cycle through relationships for years. She was not the kind of person who could be happy alone.

Mother threw up her hands. “The one woman on God’s green earth you’re attracted to and she’s dumb as a box of hair.”

“Diane’s not dumb, Mother,” Jimmy said. “She’s sweet. And you will always be the only woman in my life.”

Mother softened instantly. “You’re just about the most handsome thing I ever laid eyes on. Do you know that?”

I had to agree. My brother was a pretty man, fine-boned, hazel-eyed, with deep chocolate skin. His heritage was a mystery. Nothing at all was known about his birth parents, but he had been a calming force in our high-strung family since he’d become part of it.

“You should come home more often,” Mother told him. “It’s not like it used to be. We have several African American families in the
neighborhood now, and China must have opened some gate somewhere, because there are little Chinese girls running around everywhere.” She patted my father’s hand. “Howard, we were ahead of our time.”

I made a big show of eye-rolling and Jimmy had to look away. We had been in trouble at the table for most of our lives, my brother and I. Generally during the blessing I’d make him laugh, and Emily Street didn’t put up with laughing during the blessing.

It didn’t take long for Rauser to practically annihilate his game hen and start piling on seconds. He reached for another heap of green bean casserole. Mother made it southern-style with rich mushroom cream, bread crumbs, and fried shallots piled on top. Her casseroles were always a heart attack on a plate. A bowl of Crisco had less fat.

“Keye, don’t you ever cook for this man?” Mother asked. Then to Rauser, she said, “I did teach her a thing or two, you know.”

Rauser touched the napkin to his mouth. “We’re big on takeout,” he said, and turned and looked into my eyes, smiling. “And I’m just fine with that.” To my astonishment, he leaned over and very gently kissed the corner of my mouth. I felt his hand on mine under the table.

“Well, a man like you shouldn’t have to eat takeout,” I heard Mother say, but my eyes hadn’t left Rauser’s.

My father suddenly announced into the silence that followed, “I got something to show y’all after dinner.”

“He won’t let me set foot in that garage,” my mother complained, and wagged a finger at my dad. Rauser squeezed my hand, then let it go and turned his attention back to his plate.

So after dinner and coffee we all ambled out into the front yard and waited for the garage door to open. Rauser was next to me with his arm draped over my shoulders. I looked up at him and he kissed my forehead. I was dumbfounded. He’d been gooey like this all day.

Mother had her arm around Jimmy’s waist and he was holding Miki’s hand. The neighbors from the houses on each side came out and joined us while we waited for my father to reveal his latest project.

The garage door began to lift and there was a collective gasp as Dad’s new hobby came into view. All six hideous metal feet of it. We looked at it, squinted, looked at one another, and then looked at it some more. No one said a word.

My father seemed bewildered. “It’s a sculpture,” he told us. “An eagle with a rat in its mouth.”

Someone said,
“Eeeww!”
And finally Jimmy had the good sense to clap. Then we all clapped and cheered and my father took a formal bow.

“Damn fool,” Mother whispered, and covered her face with her hands. “It’s not enough that he spells out
Leon
on the roof every year in Christmas lights. Now this!”

My father was dyslexic but would not admit it.

“Feel like taking a walk?” Rauser asked me after the unveiling.

We strolled silently to the end of Derrydown and crossed Shadowmoor Drive. “By the way,” Rauser said as we walked over the wooden footbridge to the playground behind Winnona Park Elementary, “I broke it off for good with Jo.”

“Who’s Jo?” I said, and grinned at him.

“Keye, that night on the interstate when you went off the road, I thought my heart was gonna stop.”

We were standing near the swing set on the soccer field behind the school. Lights glared in the houses on Inman Drive and Poplar Circle, the two streets that bordered the school. It was an old neighborhood and full now of young families and renovated homes and new money. I saw a car pull alongside the park and cut its lights. Teenagers come here to make out. People park in the school lot at dusk and let their dogs run on the soccer field.

He turned and faced me, held both my hands. “I just always thought there’d be time. But that night I started to think more about how short time is. I’m a true jackass, Keye. I’ve waited too long to tell you that I love you.”

I looked at the lines at the corners of his eyes, the ones that always made him look as if he was about to laugh, so familiar to me, so comfortable. I looked at all that thick silver and black hair and those wide shoulders and realized I wasn’t numb anymore. Not even a little. I was on fire for him, this man who knew me so well and loved me in spite of it.

“When I called that night and Jo answered your phone …,” I started.

“I knew you were jealous as hell,” he said with a smirk.

“No way was I jealous.”

“Uh-huh,” he said. “And maybe Jodie Foster will just walk right up to us right now, right here in the friggin’ park.”

“And? Where’s the part where she gives us a lap dance or shakes her rear end or something? I love that part.”

Rauser looked at me as if I’d just pulled down my panties in church. “It’s Jodie Foster, for Christ’s sake, Keye. Have a little respect.”

I leaned into him and we laughed. He wrapped his arms around me and I buried my face in his chest. He smelled like cold air and aftershave, and it crossed my mind that I hadn’t seen him light even one cigarette all day.

I heard the tiniest sound come from him, just a small
oh
, so faint, like a puff of air. I looked up at him and saw the oddest expression: shock, bewilderment.

“Rauser? What’s wrong?”

His brow furrowed and he took his hand away from his chest, held it out, palm up. Our eyes met just for a split second of recognition and horror. Blood.
Jesus Christ! Blood! What the hell?

The second shot was just as silent and swift and pitiless, and ripped into Rauser’s temple. His legs folded and he fell. I dropped on top of him.

Oh God, oh God, oh God

I yanked off my scarf and coat with my right hand and found my cell phone with my left, used my thumb to punch in 911, then pressed my coat over the wound on Rauser’s chest and used my body to apply pressure.

“Rauser, talk to me.
Rauser, can you hear me?
Stay with me.
Dammit, stay with me
.”

There was too much blood. It was coming so hard it was pooling before soaking into the dry ground.
Please God don’t let him die I’ll never drink again I’ll never complain I’ll never fight with my mother

I scanned the street while I lifted his head just enough to wrap my scarf around it. My heart was slamming against his weak pulse, his blood seeping into my coat, my skin.

“Nine-one-one, what is the nature and location of your emergency?”

“Officer down.”
I think I shouted but I can’t swear to it. Time and sound and light, it all seemed to go haywire. I could hear my own breathing, like being underwater in a bathtub. “Winnona Park Elementary. The playground behind the school,” I told the operator.

My God, we’re in the playground. His arms were around me just a moment ago. Oh God—

“Unidentified shooter,” I said. My chest felt like a pallet of bricks had dropped on me. I was having trouble breathing normally. “The officer is Lieutenant Aaron Rauser, APD Homicide. Oh God, he’s barely breathing.
Rauser, stay with me.
”

I put more pressure on his chest. My scarf was soaked and crimson. The blood kept coming. The operator was trying to keep me on the phone. She wanted to know what I’d seen. She wanted to know my name. She needed me to be clear with the details. Was she sending officers into a dangerous situation?

“I don’t know where the shooter is. On Poplar, I think. My name is Keye Street. Oh God, just hurry.”

And then I saw it. Headlights blinked on and the car sped in reverse away from us, past the school, and spun out onto Avery.

I was still screaming at Rauser, crying.
Stay with me. Rauser, I love you too. Stay with me
.

“There’s a vehicle leaving the scene fast on Avery heading toward Kirk Road,” I told the operator.

“Can you make out the vehicle?”

“No, Jesus, it’s too dark.
Where the fuck is the ambulance? Rauser, don’t you die on me.
”

My phone beeped to let me know a text had arrived, and I held it away from my ear to look at the screen. Just habit pure and simple. I wasn’t thinking anymore, just reacting. I felt utterly removed, as if I were watching someone else’s shattered life, registering just this escalating, surreal sense of unreality.

My fingers were so slippery with Rauser’s blood I nearly dropped my phone.

It’s just the 2 of us now
, the screen said.
Warmest personal regards. W
.

C
hief Connor was livid. He had scored an enormous public victory and he was not going to let anyone take that away. He glared at newly appointed Homicide Lieutenant Brit Williams as if there were an ear sticking out of his forehead. “That is absolutely not going to happen,” the chief growled. Williams had been put in charge the night Rauser was shot.

“Chief Connor,” I tried. I was standing next to Williams, in front of the huge mahogany desk in the chief’s office. “This text message I received, the rhythm and phrasing, it’s very, very Wishbone. Charlie Ramsey is a criminal, yes. He should stay in jail, yes, but—”

“And you seriously expect APD to reopen the investigation after what this city’s been through, Dr. Street? I know you have a personal interest in this. I appreciate that. We want this person just as much as you do, and I have absolutely made it understood that we will use any and all resources APD can muster in order to bring this monster to justice, but I will not reopen this painful wound on a theory that has not the slightest shred of supporting evidence. We found a weapon at Ramsey’s residence that tested positive for the blood of two victims, a weapon that had been present at every scene. The science is solid on this. We know it is
the
weapon. Not at
one
scene, not
two
, but present at
every
scene.” I looked down at my shoes. “Our killer’s in custody awaiting trial,” the chief stormed on. “And four women have come forward to say he assaulted
and raped them. One of them will even testify to the ligature being a thin wire.”

“Yes, that’s exactly the point. She’s alive to testify,” I interjected, and Williams shot me a look. I went on stubbornly. “Chief, none of Wishbone’s victims were raped. No other evidence linking him to the killings was found in Charlie’s home or vehicle except an automotive carpet fiber that’s consistent with carpeting in fifteen models. You didn’t find photographs, no trophies, no bloodstains on any of his clothes, his sink, in his vehicle. You have fiber evidence
and
DNA linking him to the rapes. You’d have to believe that this very intelligent and organized offender is nearly flawless at one scene and stupidly careless at another. Frankly, he does not fit the profile, Chief. He never did.”

“First of all,” the chief boomed. He was on his feet now and red-faced. Connor was a big, powerful man, and when his anger was directed at you, you felt it like a physical blow. “You don’t know that any other trophies existed or that photographs were ever taken. Criminals are liars, as you well know, Dr. Street, and the only indication we have at all of pictures or video or whatever is in the letters, the boastful, lying letters of a deranged predator. Secondly, that text message you received at the park could have come from anywhere. The phone was prepaid, could have been picked up at any store for fifteen bucks. The MO of Rauser’s shooting is all wrong for Wishbone. There has never been a gun. Not once at any scene. If this guy doesn’t fit your profile, that’s your problem, not ours. We did our job. The Wishbone case is closed.” He glared at Williams. “There’s a shooter out there responsible for putting a very good friend of mine and a fellow officer down. I expect you to pull him in.
Yesterday
. Did I make a mistake putting you in charge, Williams? Because the
Lieutenant
part of your new title can disappear real quick.”