Eyeshot (30 page)

She hung up, saw Sam staring at her.

“My God, you're in a bad mood.”

“Come on, Sam, we got places to go.” Sonora looked over her shoulder. “Hey, Molliter. Anything you want to ask me? Like where I'm going? What I'm doing? Will copies of all forensic reports I get make it easier for you?”

He looked at her. “You're crazy.”

“And you're shit.”

Sam grabbed her arm. “Come on, girl, you're already in enough trouble for one day.”

59

Bea Wallace was standing outside the building when they got there. She held a piece of paper that fluttered in the hot breeze. She looked very solitary, standing close to a fountain, watching the street.

“Park already,” Sonora said.

“Nowhere
to
park,” Sam said. “You get out and I'll circle around and come back and pick you up.”

Sonora opened the car door part way.

“Wait for the …
shit,
Sonora, look before you jump out.”

“Sorry.”

“Go. Now, before the light changes.”

“Thanks, Sam.”

Bea Wallace was looking at her watch as Sonora approached. Her pink striped shirt was coming loose from the waistband of her navy skirt, and her shirt had been buttoned wrong, giving the front a lopsided, unfinished look. Bea Wallace had put on lipstick recently, and was in the process of chewing it off. She stood with her weight shifted to one side.

“Got here as quick as I could,” Sonora said. The wind blew a fine mist of water from the fountain across her face. Felt like heaven.

Bea Wallace gave her a tight smile. “This is for show, in case the counselor is looking out his office window. I wanted to do this in full view. If he can see me, he won't think twice about this.”

Sonora reached for her recorder, but Wallace shook her head.

“Pull that out and I walk. I value my job. I'm here to do somebody a favor.”

Sonora kept the recorder in the purse. “Who?”

“Collie. She's a nice little girl, and I don't want anything happening to this one.”

“You said ‘this one,' Mrs. Wallace.”

“I'm well aware what I said.”

“What happened to the last one?”

Wallace looked at her. She had dark brown eyes, bloodshot, outlined in black eye pencil. She did not look like she had been sleeping well. Which, Sonora thought, could mean she had something on her mind, or that Caplan worked her hard. Possibly both.

“I'm not going to dance with you, Detective. I'm short on time and you look to be short on patience. I don't
know
a thing, but I have worries. The first Mrs. Caplan had one or two near misses before she was murdered. All of them when she was pregnant. And now this thing with Collie and the canoe.”

Sonora moved closer. “What thing with the canoe?”

“You didn't hear about this? He set it up right under your nose, that day in the office when everybody was celebrating the big victory. Going down to the lake where Micah's mama and dad have a cabin. Mr. Caplan goes there all the time. Collie—she's not much for the water or the heat, and still, they're out canoeing in the middle of the afternoon. And the canoe goes over, and nobody's wearing a vest. I talked to Collie myself this morning. Sometimes that girl tells you things without knowing it. And what she told me I don't like.”

“Canoes go over all the time,” Sonora said. Was this what Dorrie Ainsley had called about? Had she seen the canoe go over?

“This one went over because Gage was conducting a ‘safety drill.'”

Sonora raised an eyebrow. “With a pregnant woman in the boat?”

“Yeah, and right in the middle of the lake. I don't know how much you know about that area, but that water is miles deep in some places. People dive there. Collie goes under
there,
never see her again.”

“She swim?” Sonora asked.

“Enough that she got to the shore. With no help from our hero. She's really shook up and I don't like the way this sounds. I wonder if you ought to talk to her.”

“Did you?”

Bea Wallace looked at her. “Tell you the truth, I barely know the woman. But she … something about her makes you want to look out for her. She's sure not looking out for herself. She's got a baby to protect. Maybe you can get her to see sense.”

“I don't think she's going to see any kind of sense that doesn't take Mia into account.”

Bea Wallace's lips went tight. “That's how he keeps her in place. One trick in a bagful.” She handed Sonora the sheet of paper that constituted Gage Caplan's paper-thin alibi. She turned and began walking away.

“Mrs. Wallace?”

“Yes?”

“That fax machine isn't likely to get fixed anytime soon. You need to send me anything else, don't hesitate to call. You can get me at home, I'm in the book.”

Wallace gave her a steady look. “Tell Collie to get the hell out, Detective. At least till after the baby is born.”

60

Collie met them at the door in a frayed pink corduroy bathrobe. It hung loose, buttoned every other one. A long belt hung from the loop on the left and trailed behind her like a tail. She stared at them through the storm door, running a hand through short straight hair, dingy brown streaked into highlights by the sun. Her hair would be almost pretty next time she got around to washing it.

“Afternoon, Mrs. Caplan. May we come in for a minute, and talk?”

At first Sonora thought she was going to turn them away. But Sam was so low key and appealing, ducking his head shyly and giving her a little smile, as if it would hurt his feelings to be turned away. He always knew when to be nice and when to be tough.

“This really isn't the best time,” Collie said. But she opened the door. She was barefooted. Her toenails had been painted hot pink. Sonora wondered who had painted them. She could not picture Collie bending that far over this late in her pregnancy. Mia, most likely.

Sonora tried to imagine a way for this thing with Caplan to play out so that Mia did not get hurt. She could not think of one.

“Mia's sleeping over with a buddy,” Collie said, as if following Sonora's thoughts. She led them down a staircase off the kitchen into a dark den in the basement.

It looked like the house refuge for messy people. Sonora had the feeling that Collie and Mia spent a lot of time here. A television was going without sound. One of those shock talk shows, where teenagers were shouting at their parents, whose faces were a despairing mix of hurt, bewilderment, and outrage. Sonora was glad the sound was off.

The downstairs couch was an old beige sectional, forming a cozy horseshoe that was littered with paperback books, Barbie dolls, Bryer horses, and an economy size pack of M&Ms, plain, not peanut.

“Sit down,” Collie said. “Can I get you something?” She handed Sam the open bag of M&Ms with an air of distraction.

Clearly the woman had not slept. She stared at Sonora, chewed the end of a fingernail. Sonora wondered if Caplan had passed his sexual harassment complaints on to his wife. She was glad Sam was with her.

Collie put her head in her hands.

Sam leaned forward and touched her lightly on the shoulder. “Are you all right, Mrs. Caplan? Should we come back at another time?”

“No, I'm okay. Just a headache and an upset stomach. I can't even drive around the block without feeling bad. Pregnancy and this heat, I guess.”

Her eyes had dark hollows beneath, and her lips were dark red.

“I understand fishing is a hobby of yours,” Sam said.

She looked at him dully. “Umm. Yes.”

“Does Mr. Caplan like to fish?”

“No. Not with me, anyway. Gage doesn't really have any hobbies. Except reading biographies.”

“Doesn't build those ships in the bottle, do woodwork, or build model railroads?” Sonora asked.

Collie looked at them. “Just biographies and ball games on television.”

“You go fishing with your dad a lot?” Sam asked.

Collie sat sideways, looked at him. “Yeah, I guess so. Who told you that?”

“Gage.”

“Oh. Yeah, I do. Why are you asking me these questions?”

“When was the last time you got a chance to go up there? Your dad live close?”

“Bowling Green. Mia and me went up in July. Couple weeks ago.”

“That would be the eighteenth? On a Tuesday?”

She waved her hands. “Could have been, I don't exactly keep the date lodged in my brain. Tuesday sounds right.”

“Catch anything?” Sam asked.

“Mia did pretty good.”

“I'm surprised you got that far away from home, with a baby coming so soon,” Sonora said.

Collie tilted her head to one side. “My dad called, and he sounded kind of … I don't know. Like he really needed me to come up. And I'm glad we went, Mia and me had a great time. My family really made a fuss over me. My sister came and we had a … it was fun.”

“I spoke with your father, Collie. He said Gage called and asked if you could come up because you were tired and needed to get away. He even canceled his plans for that weekend.”

She clutched one of the buttons at the top of her robe. “Gage called him?” She sounded out of breath.

“We also understand you had an incident out in the canoe this weekend.” Sonora kept her voice low, matter-of-fact.

Collie took hold of the loose belt and wrapped it round and round her hand. “Gage tell you about it?”

“What exactly happened?” Sam said.

“I just … it was my fault, I'm so clumsy. Even when I'm not pregnant, I'm a klutz. I just, I zigged when I should have zagged, I guess. Fell right out. If it wasn't for Gage, I probably would have gone straight to the bottom.”

“He a good swimmer?” Sonora asked.

Collie nodded.

“Bet he jumped right in after you and pulled you to shore,” Sam said kindly.

Collie was still nodding, but slower, and Sonora saw it in her eyes. Uncertainty. Hurt. She wondered how much Collie would shield him.

“He jumped in after you?” Sonora said. A question.

“He kind of had no choice, the canoe went right over. It was all my fault,” she said softly.

Sonora wanted to shake her.

“And he towed you to shore,” Sam said.

“It all happened so fast, I just … we both made it to the shore, so I guess it turned out fine. Except there he is on one side and me on the other, so I had to wait forever for …” She trailed off.

Sonora tilted her head. “So if he's on one side and you're on the other, he ditched you and left you there on your own in the water.”

Collie looked at her feet, put one bare foot over the other. “My ankles are swollen.”

“I'm sorry to hear that,” Sonora said. “He's a good swimmer, your husband. You said so yourself, and other people have told me the same thing. How is it he left you out in the middle of the lake, when you're seven months pregnant, and don't swim all that well? I have a hard time with that, Collie.”

Collie leaned forward as if her stomach hurt. “Not everybody can be brave when there's a crisis. It's nice if they are, but people are people. You can't make them be heroes. Do you know how embarrassed Gage was for leaving me out there like that? He cried! Don't you dare tell anybody I told you this, but he
cried.
”

Sonora was remembering Julia Winchell's voice, on tape. That the man she saw kill Micah was crying as he held her head down in the toilet. “When did he start crying?”

“Right before … I guess he saw what was coming up and panicked. I know I looked up and he was starting to cry—eyes all red and full of tears, and I remember thinking, well, what in the world? Then the next thing I know, I'm in the water, going under and down. And I was treading, my arms and all, and finally I get my head up. And I'm calling him, and looking for him, and I'm scared to death he's drowned. And the boat is way out of reach, and it's going farther out. And I still don't see him. But then I see that little red Coleman cooler, and thank God. I grabbed a hold of that and kicked with my feet, but I made it. Took me forever, but I made it. Then I crawled up through the rocks and sand, I'd lost my flip-flops. And I sat down, I was so tired. And I look across the water, and there he is, Gage, safe and sound. Just looking at me.”

Sam sat forward on the couch. “Why weren't you wearing a life vest? If you don't swim well, you should have been wearing one.”

“I know, and I almost always do. But … we left them in that toolshed by Dorrie and Grey's cabin, and decided not to go back.”

“Who decided not to go back?”

“I don't remember.”

“Yes, you do,” Sonora said.

Collie licked her lips. “What are you trying to say?”

“Let me see if the afternoon didn't go more like this. Didn't your husband tip that canoe on purpose? Didn't he make sure you didn't wear a life vest? Didn't he go off and leave you in the water on purpose, hoping you'd drown?”

“Of course not!”

“Really? You were there, Collie.”

“I am seven months pregnant with this man's child!”

“Micah was seven months pregnant when she died,” Sonora said.

Collie stood up. “This is a miracle baby. We wanted this child forever!”

“We, Collie, or you? How did he react the first time you told him you were pregnant?”

Collie's mouth opened, then closed. “He …” She sank slowly to the couch. “He yelled at me and screamed at me and broke the picture frame with me and my mom and my dad and my sister. He said any baby of mine would be a … an ugly baby. Oh God. I never saw him so mad in all my life.” She put her head in her hands. Shut her eyes tightly. “I know he loves me. He's just difficult sometimes. He's got a high pressure job, and his childhood. Just not the best. It's not surprising that he acts like he does.”

“What he does doesn't surprise me near as much as you, the way you take it, Collie.” Sonora stared at her.