Tippy Toe Murder (19 page)
Lost and found—at studio.
His rage spent,
Philip Roderick went out and stood on the porch.
“Melissa,” he called softly, letting his
tongue slip over the syllables. “Melissa, come to Daddy.”
Hearing no reply, he scanned the woods
surrounding the cabin. He smiled to himself. The little minx. They had played
this game before. Hide and seek. He loped down the steps and began searching.
He was sure she hadn’t gone very far but
was hiding nearby, waiting for him to find her. He listened for a soft giggle
or a caught breath; he looked for a scrap of bright clothing or a wisp of blond
hair. He heard birds. He saw leaves. He’d had enough of the game.
“Melissa!” he called sharply, resting his
hands on his hips. “The game’s over. It’s time to go home.”
The birds fell silent, the woods were
still. There was no sign of his daughter. He heard the thumping strains of rock
music from a car radio and caught a sudden flash of light, a reflection from a
windshield or chrome bumper. Someone was coming, he realized, thinking guiltily
of the old woman in the cabin. Time for a strategic retreat.
“That must be it,” said Lucy, pointing to a
clearing just ahead.
“This was easier than I expected,” said
Tatiana, glancing at her watch. “We made good time.”
“It was lucky those directions were still
in the glove compartment. Being a pack rat has its advantages.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” said Tatiana,
casting a disapproving glance at the litter of toys, books, and gum wrappers
that filled the Subaru.
As soon as Lucy braked, Tatiana threw open
the car door and leaped out, calling Caro’s name as she ran to the cabin.
Lucy followed slowly behind her, stiff and
tired from the drive. All that was forgotten, however, when she heard Tatiana’s
shriek. Heart pounding, she ran to the cabin doorway. She clutched the rough
wooden frame for support when she saw Tatiana bending over Caro’s prone body.
“Is she alive?”
Tatiana answered with a wordless wail.
“Don’t move her,” cautioned Lucy, trying to
remember the first aid course she’d taken soon after Toby’s birth. Faced with
the responsibility of caring for such a fragile young life, she’d wanted to
learn all she could. She grabbed a blanket off one of the beds and gently
tucked it around the old woman, assessing her condition as she worked. “She’s
in shock. We have to get her to a hospital. I’m sure she’s got some broken
bones, probably internal bleeding, plus the cuts and bruises we can see.”
Tatiana wasn’t listening. She was cradling
Caro’s head in her arms, sobbing softly over her.
“You’ll have to pull yourself together,”
snapped Lucy. “I can’t take care of the two of you. Help me get this mattress
off the cot so we can slip it under her.”
From her hiding place in the woods, Lisa
watched everything. She saw her father arrive in his car and go into the cabin.
A while later she saw him come out. She heard him calling her. He wanted to
play hide and seek. She curled herself up into a little ball and wished she
could disappear. She didn’t like that game.
When she heard the engine of her father’s
car start, she looked up and saw him drive away. A few minutes later another
car came into the clearing and two women got out and went into the cabin.
She wanted to stop hiding and see what was
happening inside, but she remembered what Caro had told her. So she stayed in
the little hollow at the base of the big pine tree and tried not to move. Her
khaki shorts and green T-shirt were good camouflage. She would be discovered
only if a searcher stumbled upon her; she was as invisible as a little brown
fawn.
“I’ll get the car,” gasped Lucy. She was
out of breath from the exertion of getting the old woman onto the mattress, but
she hurried across the clearing. She knew every minute counted.
As she pulled the car up to the porch and
flipped down the seat back to make room for Caro, she looked about the clearing
anxiously. Where was the child? What if she was hiding in the woods? They
couldn’t leave her there. A child couldn’t survive alone in the forest.
Back in the cabin, Lucy and Tatiana took
opposite sides of the mattress and lifted Caro as gently as they could. Panting
and struggling with even her small weight, they carefully carried her out to
the car. Tatiana climbed in back beside her, crooning words of comfort and
stroking her hand.
Once the old woman was settled, Lucy knew
she had to find the child. She felt desperately tom; anxious to get Caro the
help she needed but unwilling to abandon the little girl.
“Melissa,” she called. If the child was in
the woods, she was probably terrified. She tried to make her voice warm and
friendly, even though she felt frantic. “Melissa, I’m your friend. We have to
get Caro to the hospital. You can’t stay alone in the woods. Please come out.”
The little girl heard Lucy’s voice, she
heard her say that Caro needed to go to the hospital. She remembered Caro
warning her about that. “Someone might try to fool you, they might say I was
hurt. They might offer you candy. Don’t believe them. Hide. Remember, your
friends know what to call you.”
Tears trickled down her cheeks. She was
scared, and she wrapped her arms tightly around her knees.
“Melissa,” called Lucy. Suddenly inspired,
she reached into her pocket and pulled out a roll of mints. “I have some candy
for you.”
There was no answer. Lucy walked around the
clearing, scanning the woods, looking for any sign of a child. Maybe she wasn’t
there after all. What if Roderick had found her and taken her away with him?
Maybe she was wasting valuable time that could mean the difference between life
and death for Caro.
She decided to give it one more try. “Melissa,”
she called. “Melissa, Meleese, Meleesa,” she sang, remembering how Sara and
Elizabeth had special nicknames for their friends. “Melissa, Meleesa, Meleesa.”
Lucy was astonished when a little girl’s
head popped out of the bushes directly in front of her. Her blue eyes were
round with fear, and her skin was so pale the freckles on her nose stood out
sharply.
“It’s all right,” said Lucy. “I won’t hurt
you.”
“I know,” said the child.
Stunned, Lucy thought how close she’d come
to leaving the little girl, and hugged her close. Glancing around uneasily, she
thought how dark and threatening the woods seemed.
“Hurry,” she said, taking Lisa by the hand
and running to the car. “Let’s go home.”
A first aid kit is available backstage.
Lucy drove along the rough dirt road as
quickly as she dared, gripping the steering wheel with trembling hands and
trying to avoid the worst of the ruts and potholes.
Caro appeared to be unconscious, but after
one particularly bone-jolting stretch Tatiana saw her eyelids flutter, and she
gently stroked the old woman’s forehead.
“You’re going to be all right,” she told
her.
Looking down at the little girl who was
sitting so quietly beside her, Lucy tried to think of something reassuring to
say.
“We’re almost there,” she said. “There’s a
store up ahead. We’ll call the ambulance from there.”
The trees thinned a bit as they drew closer
to the main road, and soon Lucy made out the weathered siding of Bickle’s
Country Store,
hot
coffee, bait, food
read the faded signs beside the door.
“I need help,” yelled Lucy, running up to
the counter. A grizzled old character in overalls nodded sympathetically as she
explained, “I’ve got a badly injured woman in my car. I need to call the rescue
squad.”
Reaching under the counter he pulled out a
phone and shoved it toward her. A label with emergency numbers had been pasted
on the receiver, and Lucy dialed as fast as she could. Her hands were still
shaking; she wondered when they’d stop.
“They’ll be here real quick,” said the
storekeeper. “Those EMTs is real smart. Sewed up my leg real good last winter.”
He hitched up his pant leg and displayed an impressive scar for Lucy’s benefit.
She nodded her approval. “I’d better get
back to the car and see how my friend’s doing. Thanks for the phone.”
She strained her ears, hoping to hear the
faint wail of the ambulance siren as she crossed the gravel parking area, but
she didn’t hear anything. She peeked into the car at Caro’s still form, her
breathing growing ever more shallow, and prayed the rescue squad wouldn’t be
much longer. She was afraid time was running out for Caro.
Minutes later the ambulance arrived,
spitting up gravel as it spun into the parking area, followed by a police
cruiser. The sirens were promptly silenced, but the vehicles’ red and blue
lights continued to flash, and bursts of static noise from their radios filled
the air. The uniformed EMTs immediately began tending to Caro, and the police
officer approached Lucy.
“I need some information,” he said, taking
out a black leather notebook. He was wearing dark sunglasses and Lucy could see
herself reflected in them as she gave him Caro’s name and address, and her own.
When he asked what had happened, Lucy remembered Sue’s warning that the police
would have to return Lisa to her father. She knew she had to answer carefully.
“My friend and I went to visit Caro at her
cabin. This is how we found her.”
“Any idea who attacked her? Did she have
any enemies?” Lucy shook her head. “Not that I know of.”
“Who’s this?” asked the officer, glancing
at Lisa.
“My daughter,” answered Lucy quickly,
surprised that she could tell such a bold lie so easily. She put a protective
hand on Lisa’s shoulder and drew her close.
The officer made a notation in his pad,
thanked her, and conferred with the EMTs. They had efficiently transferred Caro
to a stretcher, applied an oxygen mask, and started an IV, and they were ready
to whisk her away.
Tatiana, who had been hovering nearby,
asked if she could accompany Caro to the hospital.
“No reason why you can’t,” one of the EMTs
told her sympathetically. “But she’ll be going straight into surgery. You might
end up waiting for hours. Why don’t you go home and call later?”
Tatiana seemed unsure what to do. She
turned to Lucy. “You can’t do anything at the hospital.”
“Okay.” Tatiana nodded. “Take good care of
her.”
“That’s guaranteed,” said the EMT.
They watched as the ambulance sped off,
siren blaring and lights flashing. Lucy glanced at the officer; he was leaning
against his cruiser filling out a report.
“Can we go?” she called.
He gave a wave, which she took for
permission, and they all climbed back in the Subaru. Lucy rested her head on
the steering wheel and let her arms fall into her lap.
“I don’t know if I can drive,” she said. “I’m
so tired.”
“I know,” agreed Tatiana. “It’s like a bad
dream, but I can’t wake up.”
“We need sugar or something.”
“I’ll get sodas from the store,” offered
Tatiana.
She watched as Tatiana went into the store.
The ballerina wasn’t graceful today, she was moving woodenly, reminding
Lucy of shell-shocked refugees on TV news
clips. Lucy turned to Lisa, who was sitting beside her.
“Don’t worry,” she said, starting the
engine. “I’ll take care of you.” It was a promise.
The rest of the day was a blur to Lucy.
They returned to Tinker’s Cove, and she dropped off Tatiana. Then she drove to
Sue’s to retrieve the girls.
“Lucy, what happened? You look ill. Do you
want some tea?”
“No. I want to go home. I’ll call you,
okay?”
Back in the car, an exhausted Lucy thought
this was surely the longest day in her life.
Sara and Elizabeth were full of energy,
however, and thrilled to learn that Lisa would be staying with them for a few
days. No explanation seemed necessary, so Lucy didn’t give one. The girls were
used to having their family expand when their friends slept over, or when Lucy
babysat.
Bill, however, might not be satisfied with
such a casual explanation. Lucy was trying to think up a plausible story when
she pulled off Red Top Road into her own driveway. She was surprised when she saw
Bill and Toby ready to leave in the pickup; she’d completely forgotten they
were going to the Red Sox game tonight.
“I got the camcorder,” said Bill, holding
up a vinyl case for her to see. He was grinning broadly.
“Great.” She couldn’t help smiling, too. He
looked so happy.
“Fred said he’ll be by tomorrow with the
check.”
“Okay. Have a good time,” she called,
waving goodbye.
It wasn’t until she’d ushered the girls
into the house that she realized she would be alone with them for the night and
they might all be in some danger. Philip Roderick hadn’t hesitated to beat up
Caro; he was a violent man. What could she do if he tried to take Melissa,
alias Lisa? She hadn’t noticed anyone following them, the few times she’d
thought to check her rearview mirror. That didn’t mean anything, she
realized—he could get her name and address from the Bridgton police. Lucy
shivered, and shot the bolt on the kitchen door.
