My Sister's Keeper (31 page)

“
I believe he might be.”

“
You don’t sound very sure.”

“
The name came up in an investigation.”

“
You’re with the police?”

“
I’m—working with the police on this particular case.”

“
What’s he done?”

Martha picked her words carefully. She knew the next few sentences would determine whether or not she got his help. “We think he may be involved in a recent murder here. Perhaps more than one.”

“
I figured it was something like that. And the last we heard he was in North Carolina.”

“
So he keeps in touch with you?”

“
Oh, no. We haven’t actually heard from
him
since the day of the accident.”

“
The accident?”

“
When Dane first arrived, an honors student by the name of Bob McGillikin was assigned to him as his big brother, to help Dane assimilate into the system here. But Dane was a deeply troubled, violent young man, and was more than Bob could handle on his own. So another resident was also assigned to Dane. But Dane saw that as a weakness in Bob and taunted him even more for it until Bob finally graduated and went off to college.”

“
Where’d he go?”

“
He did his undergraduate work at the University of North Carolina and received a full scholarship to Wake Forest Law School.”

“
Smart fellow.”

“
Yes, he was. He was valedictorian at his high school and at the top of his class at Carolina. He wanted to dedicate his life to taking care of the legal needs of orphaned kids. Bob even wrote an important paper on it while at UNC that is still the legal standard for protecting the rights and properties of children whose parents have passed on.”

“
You said there was an accident?”

“
Yes. After graduating from UNC, Bob came back for a visit. And once again, Dane latched on to him. Bob again felt sorry for Dane and thought he could help him to see that you can’t just go around bullying people and taking what you want. That there are other ways to get the things you want in life. And, for the first time since he’d been here, it looked like somebody might finally be getting through to Dane. Bob noticed it, too, and tried to do even more for him. He started taking him off campus, bought him clothes and things, and the second week he was here there was some kind of freak accident and Bob was killed.”

“
I saw a couple of newspaper articles about that.”

“
Well, the papers never knew the whole story. According to witnesses, Dane was in the car at the time, but fled the scene. The police looked for him for a while…displayed his photo on TV for months, but he never showed up and they really didn’t have any reason to think it was anything more than an accident. So, they soon dropped their search.”

“
But you think…there was more to it?”

“
Nothing was ever proven, but there’s been a persistent rumor around the home here ever since that Dane was the cause of the accident.”

Pearl stepped in the doorway pulling on a sweater. “I’m going back to the hospital. You need anything while I’m out?”

Martha tapped her chest and mouthed the words “I want to go, too,” then spoke into the phone. “And you have no idea where Bonner might have gone?”

“
Oh, every once in a while, we’d hear that someone had seen him somewhere

mostly in North Carolina

but nothing ever checked out.”

Martha’s mother crossed the room, rolled the wheelchair up to the edge of her bed, and pulled the bedcovers back. Martha continued into the phone, “Like where in North Carolina?”

“
Someone once said they were sure they’d seen him in a nightclub on one of the beaches. Another time, he was spotted at a college basketball game. And once, someone actually swore they saw him taking the North Carolina bar exam. That alone goes to show how unreliable these sightings can be.”

Pearl looked at her watch. “We need to hurry, honey.”

Martha covered her open ear with her free hand. “Why do you say that?”

“
Dane Bonner couldn’t have passed a sixth-grade English test much less a bar exam. Believe me, I know. I taught him for three years. He was only in the seventh grade when he split.”

“
Would you, by chance, have a photo of him?”

“
A class picture, maybe.”

Pearl tugged Martha’s legs off the side of the bed and tightened an arm around her daughter’s back, trying to lift her as Martha continued on the phone. “That would help. Do you think you could e-mail me a copy?” she said, pushing her mother aside.

“
I don’t see why not,” Lord said.

Martha gave the man her e-mail address, thanked him, and hung up. “Mom! I’m working on something.”

“
I’m sorry, Baby. I’m in a hurry. I have a lot I need to do today.”

“
Okay! I’m ready.”

Pearl helped her twist off the bed, but as she lowered Martha onto the chair, it rolled away and before Martha could give it a second thought, her right leg caught it and pulled it back.

“
Oh my God,” Martha whispered.

“
What?”

“
My leg did something just then.”

“
What?”

“
I’m not sure.”

SYDNEY HAD NOT HEARD the crash or felt the impact. She’d only had the slight sensation that her van had slipped a little

like on a patch of ice

and felt a subtle nudge as it came to rest
backwards
between the columns in the approach to the University Library. Her window—that only a second ago had been closed—was now
gone!
She looked down and tried to make sense of the hundreds of squares of glass glittering in her lap. A warm liquid dropped off the end of her nose bursting into red mosaics on the glass in her lap. The door crunched open and the reality of what had happened began to sink in as Scott reached in and touched her arm.

“
Sydney! Are you all right?”

She slumped sideways and passed out.

When she awakened, Sydney was lying on the grass near the van. A man in a white lab coat was pressing a cloth against her forehead and two fingers against her neck. A shiver bucked through her. She felt weak and nauseous. Her teeth chattered. A policeman stood nearby in the midst of a small group of witnesses telling their varying versions of what they’d seen. Scott was among them. She closed her eyes and exhaled, “Is anyone else hurt?”

“
Not seriously,” the EMT said.

“
Did I cause it?”

“
I don’t know.”

“
I thought the light had changed.”

The man lifted the cloth off her forehead and looked under it. “Shhh. It doesn’t matter now.”

Scott followed the ambulance to the emergency room at New Hanover Regional Medical Center where doctors removed fragments of glass from Sydney’s head and put in seven stitches. An hour later Sydney handed the clerk in “check out” her insurance card and a credit card. “I can’t believe I did that. How could I have done that?”

Scott leaned against the wall next to her. “Don’t dwell on it. It’s over and done.”

“
I don’t have a car.”

“
Listen. I’ve come into some money lately, Sydney. And I’ve been thinking about what you said. I thought we could…go away together. Get married. And forget we ever heard of this

”

“
What?” Sydney exhaled. “What are you saying?”

“
I really need you, Sydney. Life just isn’t any good without you.”

“
Scott! I’m sorry, but I can’t.” Sydney looked at her watch as the clerk examined her credit card. “Can you hurry, please? I’m a dance teacher and I’m going to be late for my first class.”

Scott touched her arm. “Listen. I called Freda and told her what happened, and she’s calling in a sub for you. Can we go someplace and talk?”

She jerked her arm away. “No! I can’t.” The clerk pushed a credit card ticket through the window and Sydney leaned to sign it. “We’ve got competitions coming up. They need to rehearse.” She signed the charge ticket, pushed it back through the window, and slipped her cards back into her wallet. “Can you drop me off?”

“
Of course. Anything you want. I’m here to help.”

She folded the receipt into her purse and hurried to the exit. “I appreciate your being there for me today, Scott. I really do. I know how busy your schedule is, but this doesn’t change anything between us.”

“
I just want you to
think
about it.”

As the automatic door opened and she plodded through it, the impact of what had happened began to sink in.
All my things are in the van. What am I going to do without a vehicle?
Sydney’s eyes misted over.

I STOPPED BY MY STUDIO, shuffled through a stack of junk mail, and checked email. Having nothing that really needed my attention, I headed to the hospital to check on Dad. As I down-shifted the bike and turned into the parking lot, my eyes fell on a man and a woman getting into a silver Porsche. It looked like Scott’s Porsche—the one I’d ridden in once—and the couple looked like Scott and
Sydney!
As the car backed out of its parking space, I came to a full stop and set both feet on the pavement waiting for them to pass. As the car pulled forward, the woman looked up and my heart cracked in half. Even with the sky reflecting off the windshield diminishing my view, I felt sure it was Sydney. The car abruptly veered to the left and snaked through the parking lot heading for a different exit as a colossal weight settled on my chest.

43

I
N THE CARDIAC CARE UNIT, I found Martha and Mom sitting in the room with Dad. He didn’t look good at all—none of them did. When Martha saw me, she rolled out with her head hanging low. I bent and gave her a hug. “How’s he doing?”

“
Not too well. How are
you?
Things are better for you now

after the fire. Right?”

“
I hope.”

“
That license plate number we got from the beach house belongs to a man named Dane Bonner from Charleston. Not much on him on the Internet, but I’ve got a lead I’m working on.”

“
There was a man at that house named Bonner.”

“
Then we might be onto something with that. Oh, by the way, I just talked to a nurse and learned that you
can
extract semen from a man by massaging his prostate gland. All you need is a rubber glove, some petroleum jelly, and a finger. She says the fertility nurses do it all the time.”

“
Sounds painful.”

“
And one more thing…” She reached into her coat pocket and removed a couple of folded sheets of paper and spread them flat. “Do you remember that case a few years ago where Scott McGillikin was sued by a client?”

I glanced over the pages. “Scott?”

“
It was Ashleigh Matthews and her brother that sued him.”

“
For what?”

“
He had represented the two of them against an insurance company following the death of their parents where they won a $1.4 million dollar settlement.”

“
They sued over that?”

“
They sued Scott because he kept most of the money for himself. The publicity hurt his business, but he was eventually exonerated.”

I handed the sheets back to her. “So? How does this help?”

“
It shows how badly she needed the money.”

“
For what?”

“
The brother had been burned, right?”

“
Yes, burned badly as I understand it. Mostly his upper body.”

“
Then that’s what they needed the money for.”

“
The money Scott kept?”

“
And the money she
stole
from that guy that came to see you.”

“
The one hundred fifty thousand dollars…”

Martha rolled forward to move out of the path of a fast-moving nurse. “I’ve been doing some thinking and I’m willing to bet they’ve gone someplace where he can get reconstructive surgery.”

“
A burn center or plastic surgeon.”

“
Right.”

“
You, my darling sister, are brilliant!” I kissed her forehead. She winced, raised up on one side, and grabbed her leg. “Is something wrong?” I asked.

Her voice changed to a strained whisper. “I think it’s what they call a ‘Phantom Pain.’ It feels like I’ve got a red-hot iron rod jammed into my ankle. I’ve been feeling it a lot lately, but it’s getting worse.” She tensed. “Would you squeeze it really hard for me?”

Dropping to the floor, I removed her shoe, gripped her ankle with both hands, and clasped down on it hard. Her head rocked back. “Ouch! Ouch!”