Peggy Holloway - Judith McCain 04 - Jupiter Returns (13 page)

Every time she looked at the one way mirror there was fear in her eyes.
It was so subtle I didn’t at first pick up on it. I excused myself and left the room.

I got Tracy off by herself, “Tracy, I want to question her without anyone watching.”

“Why?”

“It’s just a hunch, but I think she will talk to me if she knows no one is watching.”

“Do you know what you’re asking? I know you took that FBI self-defense crash course but that’s nothing if you’re up against a real fighter. She could kill you before you could even call for help.”

“I have pepper spray in my pocket and I used to talk to Jupiter without anyone there, in her room.”

We argued back and forth until she finally gave in. “Okay, but I’m posting someone right outside the door.”

“No.”

“No? What do you mean no?”

“Tracy, can you stay outside the door yourself?”

She thought for a moment then nodded. “Okay,” she said, “but if you get into trouble scream as loud as you can.”

“Do you have any bugs in your office?”

“Of course I do Judith.”

“Can you take them out and let me use your office?”

She blew out a long breath, “If I wasn’t so desperate I wouldn’t be doing this.”

We went to her office and she reached under her desk and pulled out something attached to a bunch of wires.
She moved her phone to the other side of the desk.

“I will bring Gertrude in here and put here into my chair behind the desk.
You will sit over here opposite, closest to the door.

She switched chairs so I had the one with the rollers and she put the client chair, without the rollers, behind the desk.

“We will bring her in here and cuff her to that chair. You will keep your hand on the phone receiver at all times. I left the bug in the receiver there, but we won’t be able to hear you unless you lift it. You want a tape recorder in here?”

“No
not until later,” I said.

When they brought her in and handcuffed her to the chair her eyes shif
ted from wall to wall. She reached under the desk as far as the cuffs would let her.

“Agent Carr removed the bug from under the desk.
There’s one still in the phone receiver, but no one can listen in unless I lift the receiver. Do you understand why I brought you in her to interview you?”

She shrugged.

“I noticed that you had fear in your eyes when you looked in the one-way mirror. It was as if you were afraid a certain person was watching. Who are you afraid of here?”

She looked up at me and looked around again but didn’t say anything.
I didn’t say anything else but decided to wait her out. She opened the drawer of the desk and found a pen and notepad and wrote, “Jupiter is here.”

Chills ran up and down my spine and she took the paper and chewed it up and swallowed it.
I didn’t try to stop her. I knew that if I said anything to any of the others, she would deny it.

“I promise you, the only people I will say anything about this to are agents Carr and Shepherd.”
I was speaking so low she was leaning forward to hear me.

“They will keep you safe,” I continued.
“Is it one of the agents?”

She nodded but didn’t say anything more.
“I’m going to call them in now and tell them you still won’t talk. When I get home I will take John and Tracy, agents Carr and Shepherd, out to dinner where we won’t be overheard.

“One more thing, can you tell me where my sister is since I’m helping you?”

She shook her head.

“Oh, you’re
keeping this information back in case I double cross you. I understand. Is she still alive? Can you tell me that?”

“She hasn’t been harmed in any way,” she whispered and relief washed over me like a
flood. “Thank you,” I said.

CHAPTER 27

“How can one of my agents be Jupiter?” Tracy asked after we were seated on the patio of a Tex-Mex restaurant.
We were the only ones on the patio. “I mean, most of my agents have been here since I’ve been here, close to twenty years,” she continued.

“There hasn’t been any new agents
come aboard at about the time Jupiter escaped?” John asked.

“No, no one.
Gertrude has to be mistaken. This can’t be, no way, no how.”

My mind went i
n all directions before I spoke. “But yet her fear was genuine. I know she was terrified.”

Nothing made sense about this case and in the meantime Julia was out there somewhere.
I hung onto what Gertrude had said about Julia being safe but I didn’t know how long it would last.

I went straight to my office and pulled the file on Jupiter.
In the field of psychology, one of the things you look for are patterns and themes.

For example, I once had a client who had been married eight times to seven different men, one she had married twice.
They were all alcoholics.

I asked myself, “What are some of the patterns and themes connected to Jupiter?” and I came up with three: She liked to play games, she liked disguises, and she liked to jerk my chain.

Then I realized something.
When I didn’t fall for her games, her sole purpose in life was to hurt me. There was a knock on my door and when I called, “Come in,” Brad came running into the room.

“Guess what, Aunt Judith.” He said as he crawled in my lap and put his head on my chest and his
little arms around my middle.

I kissed the top of his head, “What, sweetie?”

“Doc is going to paint with me like Aunt Julia used to do. Why wouldn’t Aunt Julia paint with me this time when she was here?”

“She was kind of busy this time, Brad but she’ll paint with you when she comes back.”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

Mimi had hired extra help since our house was getting full and their joint effort at preparing supper was very good. The kids were taken upstairs afterward and we all gathered in the back den since it was so much bigger.

Mimi looked at Julia’s professor, “Dr. Prescott… what does Julia call you?”

He looked amused as he said, “Julia calls me Walt, baby.”

“May I call you Walt?” Mimi asked and we all laughed.
“I wanted to tell you how sorry I am about what’s happened to Julia. We’re all so worried about her and it’s obvious you love her”

She shook her head, “It really makes me mad.
My granddaughters have gone through so much and now that bitch has Julia and we don’t have a clue as to where to find her.”

“I have an idea,” I said, “It will sound far-fetched but just hear me out.”

They all looked at me with such desperation that I hesitated at first but it was all we had. I had thought about this all through supper and it was the only thing that made sense.

“After studying her file again this afternoon, looking for themes and patt
erns, I picked up on three. Jupiter likes to play games, she likes disguises, and now she would do anything to hurt me.”

“How is that going to help you get
my niece back?” Mark asked.

I held up my hand, “Bear with me.
Suppose Jupiter put someone in her place after I quit going to see her.

“Just before Christina was shot, she was t
rying to tell me something that she said would help us solve the case. She said it was about the time she was in the mental hospital where she met Jupiter. That was all she had a chance to say before she was shot.”

No one said anything but just sat there studying me
. Just as I was beginning to think they thought I was off my rocker, John spoke up.

“You know that would be easy to check out.
The timing I mean. Tracy, why don’t we see how many of your agents started about the time Judith quit seeing Jupiter.

“Judith, you know when that was, I’m sure.”

I told him the date and he and Tracy went back to her office to look up the personal files for around that time.

They came back shaking their heads.
“It doesn’t fit. There were only two agents who started around that time, both men, and they both transferred soon after they finished their training. One went to Seattle and one to St. Paul. You’ve got to get information from Gertrude, Judith.”

Since Bettina now lived with us, I didn’t have to go pick her up and I had set up a mini-playroom in my office.
We had a session the next morning and afterward I left to go talk to Gertrude again.

CHAPTER 28

We had the same setup as the day before with her handcuffed behind Tracy’s desk.
She didn’t look as scared as she did the day before but she looked worried.

“I want to ask you about Jupiter.
Yesterday you said she was here. Where, here?”

She looked around like a trapped animal and kept making that gesture with her mouth like she was kissing something.
I thought it must be a nervous habit but it was very distracting. She leaned over the desk like she was going to whisper something but her handcuffs wouldn’t let her. I leaned over closer and she shook her head.

She leaned back and once again
and opened the desk drawer, I assumed to find paper and pen again to write with. Instead, she took a paperclip and straitened it and started cleaning under her fingernails. Then with lightening speed, she picked the lock on her handcuffs.

I knew in that instan
t she was Jupiter and that she had, once again, conned me. Before I could complete the thought she had come over the desk and had her hands around my throat.

I had told Tracy that morning that while I was in her office with Gertrude, I didn’t want anyone standing outside the door, that I wanted to build trust and that I thought Gertrude would give us the information we needed if I moved slowly.

While I struggled to breathe she whispered in my ear, “I fooled you again. I could kill you right her right now so easily, but it wouldn’t be any fun. Besides, I need you to get me out of here.”

All I could think of was that I needed some air. Nothing else mattered.
I forgot everything I had ever learned about defending myself. She eased up enough for me to take a shallow breath but, before I could completely fill my lungs, she tightened her grip again.

“Are you going to cooperate with me, Judith?” She whispered in my ear and I think I would have agreed to anything in exchange for some air.

She finally let go completely and I collapsed on the floor coughing and gasping. She jumped over the desk and picked me up and grabbed me from behind. Pulling my head back, she held a letter opener to my throat and I was thinking, “Tracy’s going to be really mad at herself for leaving that in her desk drawer.”

She was still whispering in my ear, “
Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to open that door and look out in the hall and make sure no one is out there.

“We’re going to back out of here together.
If anyone tries to stop us, I’ll ram this thing into your throat so fast you’ll bleed to death before anyone can get to you.

“You know what I’m capable of.
I have left orders that if I don’t come back today, Julia is to be killed slowly. You’re going to do all the talking so it’s up to you whether Julia lives or dies.”

She pushed me into the hall and there was no one anywhere around.
I couldn’t believe it. When we got over toward the interrogation rooms I saw why. The agents all had their hands full with the three men who had been arrested with Jupiter.

There was a fight that was growing out of control.
The agents were trying to restrain them and they were putting up a major fight. Jupiter chuckled softly. “Good boys,” she said. “You timing is perfect.”

There was so much going on that she was able to back me out of the building without anyone looking our way.
I couldn’t believe it. When we got to the lobby of the building where I usually signed in and out, she tightened her grip on me and shoved the point of the letter opener against the side of my neck. I could feel blood pouring down my neck and thought she had hit an artery. The guard at the front desk didn’t even reach for his gun. He was an older man who had been with the FBI for years but had retired from the field.

She took his gun.
He gave it up with trembling hands when he saw what she had done to my neck. She took the handcuffs and handcuffed him to a chair in the lobby and then backed me into the garage.

When we got to my car she told me to open it and drive.
I thought about telling her I didn’t have the key that my purse was upstairs, but I knew she had been watching me and knew I kept a spare taped underneath.

When we got in the car she grinned a
t me and, her mouth no longer held tight or making the kissing motions, I recognized her.