JACK KNIFED (3 page)

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Jack sat in the driver’s seat, his hand frozen on the key. He stared straight ahead and didn’t move. An old man in a tan work jacket got out of the car next to them. He was carrying a package of flowers and a cardboard box. For a second, he looked at Jack and Jack looked back. The man nodded. Jack did too. There was a look of resolve on the man’s face. Jack had seen that look a hundred times; it didn’t matter whether it was a soldier going out on patrol or a policeman going on a raid, the look was the same.

It’s called doing what you’ve gotta do no matter how much it sucks.

The man turned, and Jack watched him make the walk to the brick building.

Replacement shifted in her seat. “Jack?” she whispered.

“I’m thinking.”

Replacement shifted.

He turned the key. “Sorry,” Jack mumbled as the Impala’s engine turned over.

She put her hand on his. “Do you want me to drive?”

“No. What I want is some answers.”

Replacement patted his arm.

Jack’s head rose up. He shut the car off. “Come on.” He shoved the door open and headed back to the hospital.

“Jack?” Replacement hurried after him. “Jack, I don’t think they’ll let you talk to her again today.”

Jack didn’t turn around to answer her. “I need to talk to the doctor.”

They headed back to the third floor and found the doctor speaking to an orderly. When Dr. Jamison turned and saw Jack, he sighed and rubbed his eyes. He whispered something to the orderly before he walked over to Jack.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Stratton but—”

“I only have two questions.” Jack held his hand up. “First, what she said about my father—did that actually happen? Or is she hallucinating?”

The doctor looked away, and his eyebrows knit together. “I can’t be certain, but I think so. When Patricia has spoken, which hasn’t been often, she hasn’t had any manifestations or hallucinations.”

“Would it be possible for someone to monitor what she says? From now on? Anything at all.”

The doctor nodded. “I can pass that along.”

“When will I be able to speak with her again?”

The doctor’s face fell, and he looked at the floor. “That will need to be determined. As you witnessed, the visit was particularly traumatic.”

“I understand. Do you know if I can talk to someone who has her case files? I need to find out her hometown.”

“That I can help you with: Hope Falls. The name of the town stuck in my head. It was something she said.” Jack leaned closer. The doctor continued, “When I first met Patricia, she didn’t speak for weeks. We were going through an identification game, and she started talking.”

“Do you remember what she said?”

“We were going through pictures, and she yelled out, ‘Alphie’ and started clapping. I asked her about it, but I didn’t get anywhere. I went back through the pictures, but she didn’t respond. I asked her where Alphie was, and she said, ‘Home—Hope Falls.’ It sounded picturesque, so I looked up its location; it’s up near the border. If I ever got a day off, I was going to go poke around up there.”

“Thank you, Doctor.” Jack shook his hand, and then he and Replacement headed back to the car.

“Jack?” Replacement followed. “What are you planning on doing?”

Jack looked up the road. “I’m going home.”

Be A Good One

The traffic on the highway as they headed north toward Hope Falls was heavy, so Jack stayed in the right-hand lane. He drove with one hand on the steering wheel and his window halfway down. Even with the sting of cold air, he had to force himself to pay attention to the car in front of him. The phone in his pocket started to bark, and he jumped.
Stupid ringtone.
He shot a sideways glare at Replacement.

She grinned. “Do you want me to change it back?”

Jack shook his head and answered the call instead. “This is Jack.”

“Hi Jack, it’s Cindy.”

Cindy Grant was Jack’s friend and a police dispatcher. She was always looking out for Jack, giving him a heads-up when Sheriff Collins was on the warpath or needed something from Jack.

“What’s up, Cindy?” He raised an eyebrow when Replacement slid over to put her face right next to his to listen.

Jack gripped the steering wheel and tried to fight back the anxiety that was building. It didn’t help that he was sure this call would mean Sheriff Collins was going crazy about something.

“Do you know
Criminal Minds Revealed
?” she asked.

Jack groaned. It was an investigative TV show that specialized in true crime. After what had just happened at the college, this was the last thing he needed to hear.

“Well, they swooped in, and now they’re camped outside the police station.”

“You have to be kidding me?”

There was no answer.

“Seriously? Why?”

“Why? Oh, I don’t know jack—Jack.” Cindy loved to make jokes with his name. “It could be the long trail of bodies they keep discovering. Or maybe it’s the prostitution angle? People love a good juicy story with drugs and—”

“I got it, Cindy. I was there, remember?”

“Well, you have a lot of vacation time coming…”

“Are you asking, or is it Collins?”

“Look on the bright side; you’re still on paid leave.”

“Do I have a job when I get back?” He had asked Collins that same question before he left, but the sheriff just turned even redder and told him to get the hell out. Jack smirked. The wiseass in him had wanted to ask whether Sheriff Collins meant the office or the city, but he’d held his tongue. Now he felt like Nostradamus.

“Thanks for the heads-up, Cindy.”

He tapped the brakes and took a sharp right into a gas station. He caught Replacement with his right arm as she slid forward.

“Doofus,” she snapped.

Jack laughed. “I told you to wear your seat belt.”

“That excuses you from driving like a wacko?”

“I need something. Can you pump the gas?” He ignored her question.

“We just got gas.”

“It’s an old car; I need a refueling plane following us. Just pump the gas.”

“I’m a girl,” she protested. “My hands will get all gassy.”

“Fine,” he huffed as he got out and shut the door.

Replacement smiled triumphantly and put her feet up on the dash.

Jack filled the tank and then ran into the little station. He walked past a big teenage boy reading a thick book at the counter. Jack grabbed two sodas and some chips. As he headed back to the register, he noticed a map rack with a big sign above it that read: “Take a Road Trip,” with a picture of a highway stretching out into the distance. Only a few maps were left on the rack, so he picked up a trifold, laminated map of the state. At the counter, he tossed down some bills and grabbed a tin of mints.

“Will that be all, sir?” The clerk looked about eighteen and his black hair was pulled back in cornrows. He had a square face, and he pressed his lips lightly together.

Jack read his nametag: Titus.

“What’re you studying, Titus?”

“Calculus.” He gave his open book a push.

Jack looked at the coffee can that was labeled College Fund. “What’re you majoring in at college?”

“Mathematics. I’m going to be a teacher.”

Jack smiled. “My father’s a math teacher.” He reached for his wallet. “A good friend of mine planned to be one, too.” Jack covered the two twenty-dollar bills as he took them out of his wallet and placed them in the can. “Do me a favor?”

“What?” the teenager responded.

Jack started for the door. As it opened, he looked back. “Be a good one.”

Titus smiled and nodded.

Jack jogged to the car, hopped in, and handed Replacement the map and a soda.

“Thank you. What’s this?” She took a swig from her soda and held the map at arm’s length.

“A map. Do you know how to read it?”

“Of course I know how to read a map. Why did you get it?”

Jack spoke mockingly: “So we can look at the
map
and find how to get to our destination.”

Replacement took the same tone, but she slowed it down even further. “Or I could just use my smart phone with the built-in GPS?”

“Shut up.” Jack was backward when it came to technology, and he needed to catch up. His phone had a GPS, too, but he didn’t even think about using it.

She tucked her legs up underneath her and pressed the screen on her phone.

Jack pulled the rearview mirror down and glanced at his reflection. “Do you think I look like him?”

“Like your father?”

“Did you see her eyes when she saw me?” Jacked looked over at Replacement, and she shook her head. “Something in her clicked. She recognized me. Not me but…my biological father. I always tried to guess what he looked like but I never guessed…me.”

“He must have been a handsome guy.” She pressed her lips together in a tight smile and glanced up at him.

Jack settled back into the seat and gave her a crooked grin. “Thanks, kid.”

Replacement typed into her phone. “It’s a three-hour drive to Hope Falls.”

“We’ll have to find a hotel.”

“Really? We’ll stay in a hotel?” She sat bolt upright.

“Sure. Why not?”

“Awesome. Can I look for one? I’ve got this neat app I’ve been wanting to try.”

“Yeah. We’ll stop, get something to eat, and go to the hotel.”

“You’re going to check out her story? Maybe we can find something out there. When I tried to get information about you and your birth mother, it was killer hard. Nothing from back then has been digitized.”

“Interesting choice of words: ‘Killer hard.’”

“Sorry.” She kept pressing the screen on her phone. “There’s a hotel right when we get off the highway. It’ll be around eight o’clock, so we can get something to eat.”

“Can you reserve a room with that thing?”

“Hold on.” She tapped a few times and smiled. “Yep.”

Jack looked over and shook his head. You’d think he was taking her to Disney World. As he slowed down for the car in front of him, he rolled his shoulders. Jack knew she grew up in foster care. She came to live at Aunt Haddie’s when Chandler and he went into the Army. Why couldn’t she get placed? She was older for adoption, but she was like seven when she went into the system.

Jack looked over. “Can I ask you something personal?”

Replacement’s hand hit the seat belt release like lightning, and she sprang across the large front seat and slid right next to him. “What?” Her face was so close to his that if he turned his head he’d be talking into her mouth.

He leaned his head away. “A little personal space, okay?”

“I brushed.” She frowned. “Hey, I won’t have a toothbrush.”

“They have them.”

“Who has them?”

“The hotel. Can you back up?”

She didn’t. “Won’t they cost a lot?”

“They’re included.” Jack turned to look at her with one eyebrow arched. “You’ve never…”

She turned red and scooted back over. “I never what?”

“Stayed in a hotel?”

“No. This is my first time.” She smiled crookedly and played with her phone for a moment before she continued, “Was that what you were going to ask me?”

What the hell am I going to say? I want to know why no one adopted you? You look like a normal kid, so why did you get passed over? Why did no one want you?

“I’m thinking that we will need…some stuff. A change of clothes. Can that magic device find a Walmart?”

“Really? Sweet! Yeah, hold on.”