فصل 01 - بخش 02

SORRY

July 14th–July 15th 1

The battery-powered bubble-light Alec Pelley kept in the center console of his Explorer was in sort of a gray area. It might no longer be strictly legal, since he was retired from the State Police, but on the other hand, since he was a member in good standing of the Cap City Police Reserve, maybe it was. Either way, it seemed necessary to plonk it on the dashboard and light it up on this occasion. With its help, he made the run from Cap to Flint in record time and was knocking on the door of 17 Barnum Court at quarter past nine. There were no news people here, but further up the street he could see the harsh glare of TV lights in front of what he assumed was the Maitland house. Not all the blowflies had been drawn to the fresh meat of Howie’s impromptu press conference, it seemed. Not that he had expected it.

The door was opened by a short sandy-haired fireplug of a man, his brow creased, his lips pressed so tightly together that his mouth was almost nonexistent. All ready to let fly with his go-to-hell speech. The woman standing behind him was a green-eyed blonde, three inches taller than her husband and much better looking, even with no makeup and her eyes swollen. She wasn’t currently crying, but somewhere deeper in the house, someone was. A child. One of Maitland’s, Alec assumed.

‘Mr and Mrs Mattingly? I’m Alec Pelley. Did Howie Gold call you?’

‘Yes,’ the woman said. ‘Come in, Mr Pelley.’

Alec started forward. Mattingly, eight inches shorter but undaunted, stepped in his way. ‘Could we see some identification first, please?’

‘Of course.’ Alec could have shown them his driver’s license, but opted for his Police Reserve ID instead. No need for them to know that most of his duty shifts these days were a kind of charity function, usually as a glorified security guard at rock shows, rodeos, pro wrestling fuckarees, and the thrice-yearly Monster Truck Jam at the Coliseum. He also worked the Cap City business area with a chalk-stick when one of the meter maids called in sick. This was a humbling experience for a man who had once commanded a squad of four State Police detectives, but Alec didn’t mind; he liked being outside in the sunshine. Also, he was something of a Bible scholar, and James 4, verse 6, proclaims, ‘God opposeth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.’

‘Thank you,’ Mr Mattingly said, simultaneously stepping aside and holding out his hand. ‘Tom Mattingly.’

Alec shook with him, prepared for a strong grip. He was not disappointed.

‘I’m not normally suspicious, this is a nice quiet neighborhood, but I told Jamie that we had to be super careful while we’ve got Sarah and Grace under our roof. Lot of people angry at Coach T already, and believe me, this is just the beginning. Once what he did gets around, it’s gonna be a whole lot worse. Glad you’re here to take them off our hands.’

Jamie Mattingly gave him a reproachful look. ‘Whatever their father may have done – if he did anything – it’s not their fault.’ And, to Alec: ‘They’re devastated, especially Gracie. They saw their father led away in handcuffs.’

‘Ah, Jesus, wait until they find out why,’ Mattingly said. ‘And they will. These days kids always do. Goddam Internet, goddam Facebook, goddam Tweeter birds.’ He shook his head. ‘Jamie’s right, innocent until proven guilty, it’s the American way, but when they make a public arrest like that …’ He sighed. ‘Want something to drink, Mr Pelley? Jamie made iced tea before the game.’

‘Thank you, but I better get the girls home. Their mother will be waiting.’ And delivering her children was only his first job tonight. Howie had rattled off a to-do list with machine-gun rapidity just before stepping into the glare of the television lights, and item number two meant racing back to Cap City, making calls (and calling in favors) as he went. Back in harness, which was good – a lot better than chalking tires on Midland Street – but this part was going to be hard.

The girls were in a room that, judging from the stuffed fish leaping on the knotty pine walls, had to be Tom Mattingly’s man-cave. On the huge flatscreen, SpongeBob was capering in Bikini Bottom, but with the sound muted. The girls Alec had come to pick up were huddled on the sofa, still wearing their Golden Dragons tee-shirts and baseball caps. They were also wearing black and gold facepaint – probably applied by their mother a few hours ago, before the previously friendly world had reared up on its hind legs and bitten a hole in their family – but the younger had cried most of hers off.

The older girl saw a strange man looming in the door and hugged her weeping sister tighter. Although Alec had no kids himself, he liked them fine, and Sarah Maitland’s instinctive gesture hurt his heart: a child protecting a child.

He stood in the middle of the room, hands clasped before him. ‘Sarah? I’m a friend of Howie Gold’s. You know him, don’t you?’

‘Yes. Is my father all right?’ Her voice was little more than a whisper, and husky from her own tears. Grace never looked at Alec at all; she turned her face into the hollow of her big sister’s shoulder.

‘Yes. He asked me to take you home.’ Not strictly true, but this was hardly the time for splitting hairs.

‘Is he there?’

‘No, but your mother is.’

‘We could walk,’ Sarah said faintly. ‘It’s only up the street. I could hold Gracie’s hand.’

Against the older girl’s shoulder, Grace Maitland’s head went back and forth in a gesture of negation.

‘Not after dark, hon,’ Jamie Mattingly said.

And not tonight, Alec thought. Not for many nights to come. Days, either.

‘Come on, girls,’ Tom said with manufactured (and rather ghoulish) good cheer. ‘I’ll see you out.’

On the stoop, under the porch light, Jamie Mattingly looked paler than ever; she had gone from soccer mom to cancer patient in three short hours. ‘This is awful,’ she said. ‘It’s like the whole world turned upside down. Thank God our own girl is away at camp. We were only at the game tonight because Sarah and Maureen are best buds.’

At the mention of her friend, Sarah Maitland also began to cry, and that got her sister cranked up again. Alec thanked the Mattinglys and led the girls to his Explorer. They walked slowly, heads down and holding hands like children in a fairy tale. He had cleared the front passenger seat of its usual load of crap, and they sat in it squeezed together. Grace once more had her face socked into the hollow of her sister’s shoulder.

Alec didn’t bother trying to buckle them in; it was no more than two tenths of a mile to the circle of light illuminating the sidewalk and the Maitland lawn. There was only a single crew left in front of the house. They were from the Cap City ABC affiliate, four or five guys standing around and drinking coffee from Styrofoam cups in the shadow of their truck’s satellite dish. When they saw the Explorer turn into the Maitland driveway, they scrambled into action.

Alec powered down his window and spoke to them in his best halt-and-put-your-hands-up voice. ‘Not one camera! Not one camera on these children!’

That stopped them for a few seconds, but only a few. Telling media blowflies not to film was like telling mosquitoes not to bite. Alec could remember when things had been different (back in the antique days when a gentleman still held the door for a lady), but that time was gone. The lone reporter who had elected to stay here on Barnum Court – a Hispanic guy that Alec recognized vaguely, the one who was partial to bowties and did the weather on weekends – was already grabbing his mic and checking the power pack on his belt.

The front door of the Maitland house opened. Sarah saw her mother there and started to get out. ‘Wait one, Sarah,’ Alec said, and reached behind him. He had taken a couple of towels from the downstairs bathroom before leaving his house, and now he handed one to each girl.

‘Put these over your faces, except for your eyes.’ He smiled. ‘Like bandits in a movie, okay?’

Grace only stared at him, but Sarah got it, and draped one of the towels over her sister’s head. Alec swept it over Grace’s mouth and nose while Sarah fixed her own towel. They got out and hurried through the harsh light from the TV truck, holding the towels closed below their chins. They didn’t look like bandits; they looked like midget Bedouins in a sandstorm. They also looked like the saddest, most desperate kiddos Alec had ever seen.

Marcy Maitland had no towel to hide her face, and it was her that the cameraman focused on.

‘Mrs Maitland!’ Bowtie shouted at her. ‘Do you have any comment on your husband’s arrest? Have you spoken to him?’

Stepping in front of the camera (and moving with it nimbly when the cameraman tried to get a clear angle), Alec pointed to Bowtie. ‘Not one step on the lawn, hermano, or you can ask Maitland your bullshit questions from the next cell.’

Bowtie gave him an insulted look. ‘Who you calling hermano? I have a job to do here.’

‘Hassling a distraught woman and two little kids,’ Alec said. ‘That’s some job.’

But his own job here was over. Mrs Maitland had gathered her daughters to her and taken them inside. They were safe – as safe as they could be, anyway, although he had a feeling those two kids weren’t going to feel safe anywhere for a very long time.

Bowtie trotted down the sidewalk, motioning for the cameraman to follow as Alec returned to his car. ‘Who are you, sir? What’s your name?’

‘Puddentane. Ask me again and I’ll tell you the same. Your story isn’t here, so leave these people alone, okay? They had nothing to do with this.’

Knowing he might as well have been speaking in Russian. Already the neighbors were back on their lawns, eager to view the next episode of Barnum Court’s continuing drama.

Alec backed down the driveway and headed west, also knowing that the cameraman would be videoing his license plate, and soon they would know who he was, and who he was working for. Not big news, but a cherry to put on top of the sundae they would serve the viewers who tuned in for the eleven o’clock news. He thought briefly of what was now going on in that house – the stunned and terrified mother trying to comfort two stunned and terrified girls still wearing their game-day facepaint.

‘Did he do it?’ he’d asked Howie when Howie called and gave him a quick shorthand version of the situation. It didn’t matter, the work was the work, but he always liked to know. ‘What do you think?’

‘I don’t know what to think,’ Howie had replied, ‘but I know what your next move is, as soon as you get Sarah and Gracie home.’

As he saw the first sign pointing him toward the turnpike, Alec called the Cap City Sheraton and asked for the concierge, with whom he had done business in the past.

Hell, he’d done business with most of them.