Wonderland (11 page)

“Can I help you?” Vanessa said, her voice crisp.

“Don’t help me, help her.” His voice was like thunder, and his eyes focused on Jenna. “Jesus fucking Christ. Look what that animal did to you.”

“I’m okay,” Jenna said, and then began to sob again.

“Did you not think I was going to hear about this?” His chest heaved and he pointed to Vanessa. “You gonna arrest that sonofabitch?”

“Sir, I just—”

“You arrest that no good piece of shit or I’ll kill him, do you understand?”

Vanessa stood up, moving her jacket slightly away from her body so he could see she was carrying. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t just hear you threaten to kill someone. I’m sorry, who are you?”

“Tanner Wilkins. This is my club, my place of business, and that’s my daughter,” he said, his breathing hard and even. “Who the fuck are
you
?”

Vanessa was so startled by the hostility in his voice that it took her a second to respond. She continued to keep one hand on her gun. “I’m Deputy Chief Vanessa Castro. I’m trying to help your daughter.”

“You must be new,
Deputy Chief
, so allow me to school you on how this is going to go.” Tanner stepped in, fists still clenched. “First, you’re going to arrest that no-good piece of scum Mike Bruin. Second, he’s going to
stay
arrested—I don’t give a flying fuck who his stepfather is. Third, he’s going to jail. Where he’s going to stay for a while. None of that anger management bullshit, none of that counseling bullshit, and none of that community service. He does time. Do you understand?”

“Most of that isn’t up to me,” Vanessa said. “I understand where you’re coming from, sir, but I’m still talking to your daughter. If you wouldn’t mind—”

“Of course I
mind
,” Tanner said, his red face turning purple. “And you be sure to tell your boss that if Mike Bruin gets any special treatment, I will sue the department. And the town. You hear me? I am dead fucking serious. Your boss screwed my family over once. He’s sure as shit not doing it again.”

“My boss?” Vanessa was confused. “If you mean Earl Schultz, he—”

“You’re goddamned right I mean Schultz,” Tanner roared. He stepped all the way into the bedroom, and instantly the room felt smaller. He shook a sausage-sized finger in Vanessa’s face, and Glock or no Glock, it was all she could do not to shrink back. “His precious weasel of a stepson isn’t getting away with this, you hear me?”

Vanessa looked at Jenna. “Your boyfriend is the chief of police’s
stepson
?”

“I told you it was complicated.” The young woman burst into tears.

“You never listen to me,” Tanner said to his daughter. “I told you that spoiled little rich kid was no good for you. And I talked to Debbie. She told me this isn’t the first time. How could you not tell me? How could you keep seeing him? Have I not taught you better? How could you think you deserved this?” His voice cracked at the end, and he took a few deep breaths.

“I love him, Daddy.” Jenna’s voice was small, and then she burst into tears again.

What a goddamned mess
, Vanessa thought. Earl Schultz’s stepson had assaulted Jenna Wilkins. It explained why Mike Bruin hadn’t been cuffed and in the police car when they’d arrived, and why she’d been called to the clubhouse to take care of what was basically your average, everyday domestic violence call. Nobody wanted to be the one who arrested the chief of police’s stepson. It also explained why Mayor Frank Greenberg had agreed to recommend her for this job—an outsider was the only hope he had of achieving any balance inside Seaside PD. It all made sense.

Wilkins seemed torn between comforting his daughter and yelling at the girl some more. Changing his mind about doing either, he instead directed his fury back to Vanessa. “You listen to me, Deputy. I’m tired of how things are done in this fucking town. We finally voted in a new mayor because a lot of people—good, tax-paying people who were here even way back when the town was falling apart—feel the way I do, and want to see things change. This has got to stop, do you hear me? The department cannot continue to cherry pick the cases they decide to work. Schultz isn’t going to make this go away, like he did with my son. Enough is enough.”

“Your son?”

“Daddy, stop,” Jenna said quietly. “Please.”

“My son, Tyler.” Tanner’s jaw was clenched. “He went missing, eight years ago. Earl Schultz has done shit to find him, said Tyler probably ran away.” He slumped, his shoulders rolling forward. “Do you know what it’s like, year after year, not knowing where your son is? Not knowing whether he’s dead or alive? And now my daughter’s been assaulted? I don’t give a flying fuck if Mike Bruin’s mother is married to the chief of police. I want him arrested, charged, and convicted. I need justice for at least one of my kids. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.”

Another missing boy? The timeline wasn’t right for Tanner Wilkins’s son to be Homeless Harry, but
two
missing boys, even if their disappearances were five years apart, felt like way too many. And if it turned out that Blake Dozier, the Wonder Wheel Kid, was missing, too, then
three
was bordering on ridiculous.

What the hell was going on in Seaside?

“First of all, you need to take a step back,” Vanessa said to him. “I don’t do well when I’m cornered, and I don’t like being yelled at. Second, I’m new here. I don’t give a rat’s ass who Mike Bruin’s stepfather is. Jenna told me what happened, and we’re arresting him, don’t you worry about that. And I can promise you he won’t get any special treatment, not on my watch.”

Wilkins eyed her, his posture relaxing slightly. He took a step back. “Fresh blood at Seaside PD.” There was a grudging note of respect in his voice. “About damn time.”

“And I care about both your kids,” Vanessa said. “When all this is done, come talk to me about your son.”

FIFTEEN

T
he good news was that Mike Bruin had been booked on charges of assault and battery. The bad news was that he’d spent exactly three hours in a holding cell before promptly being released on ten thousand dollars’ bail.

“Not to be a downer, but don’t be surprised if the charges disappear by the end of the week,” Donnie said. The detective was leaning against the doorway to her office. “He used his one phone call on his mom, which is why he was only in holding for, like, a minute. His family’s good friends with the judge. Earl plays golf with him every Saturday.”

Vanessa motioned for him to come in. “Close the door,” she said. “I’m sorry, but this is ridiculous. You didn’t see Jenna Wilkins’s face. She looks like she went three rounds with Joe Louis.”

Donnie’s face was blank, and Vanessa had to laugh. “Manny Pacquiao?” she said, trying again.

“Oh, right, boxing,” he said. “I get it.”

“God, you’re a fetus.”

“Sorry. I can’t help that I’m twenty-six and only now entering the prime of my life.” He grinned. “So you met Tanner, huh? I imagine that went . . . well.”

“He was pretty scary, not going to lie. For one thing, he’s huge, and for another, he was enraged. That’s not a good combination. I pulled his file.” She drummed her fingers on the desk. “Tanner has a colorful past. I counted seventeen arrests for drugs, weapons, and assault spanning a twenty-year period. But nothing in the last eight years.”

“Word is that he straightened up after Tyler went missing.”

“He mentioned Tyler,” she said. “Do you realize that means two boys have gone missing from Seaside within five years? If it turns out Blake Dozier’s missing, too, that makes three in the past eight years. That’s crazy.”

“Assuming the Wonder Wheel Kid’s actually missing,” Donnie said. “I’m still working on it. He might turn up. I’ve contacted some of his friends, and he’s done this kind of thing before. He always comes back.”

“Let’s hope. So did you know Tanner’s son?”

“Yeah. Tyler and I went to high school together. Worked at Wonderland at the same time, too, but we didn’t run in the same social circles.”

“I know it was a long time ago, but what do you think happened to him?”

“He just . . . disappeared.” Donnie rubbed his freshly clipped head. “I actually didn’t think much of it at first. This is Seaside, you know? It’s one thing to grow up here. That usually isn’t a choice. But it’s not uncommon for kids to bolt after high school. Most of my friends no longer live here. They went to college someplace else, and never came back.”

“Yet you did.”

The detective shrugged. “I had a girlfriend, fell in love, she wanted to stay here, that cemented it for me at the time. I went to PSSU, but I came home every summer. When I graduated, I applied to the police academy and got in. Eight weeks later, the department hired me. If that hadn’t happened, I might have left, too. Not a lot of career opportunities in Seaside unless you work at Wonderland, really. I can’t blame anyone for leaving. One day that might be me.”

“What was your impression of Tyler? He strike you as the kind of kid who’d leave without saying goodbye?”

“Hard to say. I mainly knew who he was because of his dad. Back then, Tanner was a scary motherfucker. The Devil’s Dukes was heavily into drugs and guns, and Tanner was a hard-core outlaw—”

Vanessa’s intercom buzzed. “Deputy, Tanner Wilkins is here to see you.” The officer calling her from the reception area sounded almost apologetic. “Should I send him back?”

Donnie raised an eyebrow. “Speak of the devil. Did we just summon him by talking about him?”

“Smartass.” Vanessa pressed a button on the intercom. “Yes, I’ll see him. Thanks.”

“Brace yourself.” Donnie pushed his chair out and stood up. “He probably heard that Mike Bruin is walking around, free. Tanner’s going to let you have it.”

“He already did earlier. How much worse could it be? Do me a favor,” she said before the detective could leave. “Pull his son’s file for me. I want to look it over.”

“That’s in the archives. I’ll have to dig for it. Can’t you ask Claire?” He grinned. “Kidding. I’ll go get it, might take me awhile, though.”

“I’ll buy you a coffee. Thanks.”

Donnie passed Tanner in the main area, and the two nodded politely to each other. A second later, the man was at her office door, looking even bigger and angrier than he had before at the clubhouse.

Vanessa stood up and extended a hand. “Mr. Wilkins. Please come in.”

His enormous fingers squeezed her palm briefly before letting go. She didn’t doubt he could break her hand if he wanted to without much effort. He took a seat opposite her and crossed one leg over the other, his massive motorcycle boot touching the edge of her desk.

“Mike Bruin’s out on bail,” Tanner said. “I’ve known you three hours and already you’ve lied to me, Deputy.”

“I wasn’t pleased, either.” Vanessa stifled a sigh. “I would have preferred he sweat it out in the cell for at least one night. But the good news is that the judge ordered him not to go within a hundred feet of Jenna.”

“And? That’s it?”

“And there’ll be a trial. He’s charged with aggravated assault. It’s not over.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Tanner’s face darkened. “Those charges are going to disappear faster than you can cry
nepotism
. They’ll either be dropped, or they’ll be reduced to a misdemeanor for which he’ll do community service. Whichever way it goes, that weasel won’t see the inside of a prison cell. I actually came here to talk to Earl, not you, but he’s not here right now. Which means I get to yell at you, which is a lot less satisfying because you don’t yell back. And, as you made a point to tell me earlier, you’re too new to have had anything to do with it.”

“I’m sorry anyway,” Vanessa said. “I’m a parent. I have a teenage daughter. If something like this happened to her, I’d feel exactly the same way you do. How’s Jenna?”

“She’s been better.”

A silence fell between them, not an awkward one, but it wasn’t exactly pleasant, either. A few moments later he let out a long, slow breath.

“I fucking hate it here.” Tanner’s voice was soft. Looking down, he picked at a speck of dirt on his faded jeans. “Every year I keep thinking, this’ll be the year I sell the shop and close the club, and I’ll get on my Harley and ride the fuck out of Seaside and never look back.”

“Why don’t you?”

“Because Tyler might come home,” he said, looking up at her. “And I don’t want him to come home and I’m not here. I don’t want him to come home and find the house he grew up in filled with some other family. I don’t want him to come looking for me at the clubhouse only to find it’s been turned into a fucking shopping plaza. His mother and I divorced six years ago. She left me for a guy named Steve who drives an Audi and sells vitamins for a living. They moved to San Francisco. Someone has to stay here and wait for Ty to come home.” His voice choked on the last word, and he looked away.

Vanessa didn’t feel the need to respond. There was nothing she could say that would make it better; nothing she could do would dilute his pain. His life had been on hold for eight years waiting for news—any kind of news—about his son, and while she could imagine what that felt like, she wasn’t living through it, and with it, like he was.

She wondered if she should put him in touch with David Cole; maybe the two of them could support each other and talk about what they were going through. But then again, Tanner didn’t look like the sharing circle type.

Donnie knocked on the door and entered her office with one of Seaside PD’s signature navy blue file folders. He placed it on her desk and left without saying anything.

Tanner didn’t even seem to notice. “Every year I hope Earl loses his job.” His voice was still soft. “But every year, there he is, sitting on top of the throne like the proverbial eight-hundred-pound gorilla. I thought things might change when we voted Frank Greenberg in for mayor last fall. He and Earl don’t like each other much. Are the rumors true? Are you and Greenberg friends?”

“Yes.”

“Good friends?”

“Yes,” Vanessa said, ignoring the implications. “What did Earl do exactly? To you? To Tyler?”

Tanner laughed, but there was not one speck of humor in it. “How much time you got?”

“Sum it up for me.”

“Where do I begin?” He leaned back in his chair. “Let’s see. First, he put that jackass Carl Weiss on the job. Weiss from the beginning didn’t believe Tyler was missing. He did a half-assed investigation, and about a day later concluded that Tyler must have run away from home. When I pointed out that Ty was eighteen and didn’t
have
to run away—if he wanted to leave, he could have left with my blessing—Weiss didn’t care. He didn’t care what I thought at all.”

Vanessa nodded. She reached for Tyler Wilkins’s folder and opened it, skimming through it quickly. “I’m listening,” she said. “Please continue.”

“So I went directly to Earl,” Tanner said. “We’ve had our run-ins over the years. I’ve done some shit, and I get that maybe me and my club have been a pain in his ass for a long time, and that he thought I was an outlaw who didn’t deserve to be helped. But it wasn’t about me. It was about my son. All I wanted was for him to try and find my son. The operative word being
try
.”

“And he didn’t?”

“He sided with his deputy.” Tanner’s jaw was tight. “Backed that moron all the way. Said there was no evidence that Tyler hadn’t left on his own, that there was no indication of any kind of foul play, and so the department couldn’t waste hours or manpower looking for a kid who probably didn’t want to be found.
Waste
,” he repeated. “That was the actual fucking word our esteemed chief of police used.”

Vanessa winced. She couldn’t blame Tanner for being angry. Earl’s poor word choice was about as insensitive as it got.

“First Earl screws over my son,” Tanner said. “And now he’s screwing over my daughter. It’s a goddamned joke, and nobody does anything about it. Nothing’s changed. Nobody has the balls to stand up to you people.”

“I just moved here,” Vanessa said. “Do I count as ‘you people’?”

“Haven’t decided.” He met her gaze and held it.

For the first time, she noticed his eyes were a bright, vivid blue. Intense. Piercing. The salt-and-pepper scruff on his face made him look older than he was, and he was only forty-six, based on his file. The edge of one his tattoos was just visible above the neckline of his T-shirt, and Vanessa found herself wondering what the rest of it looked like.

“But you
are
a cop,” he said. “You wear the badge. And now you live in Seaside. Give it a few months, Deputy. By Christmas, you’ll be toeing the company line.”

“Which is what?”

He leaned in, his eyes never leaving her face. “Wonderland and Seaside are pretty much married to each other. If you don’t see that now, you will. And you know what they say—happy wife, happy life. You hear about the proposed shopping plaza they want to build on Clove Street?”

Vanessa nodded.

“These developers, with Earl’s blessing and Wonderland’s backing, keep wanting to buy me out so they can tear down my club and my shop, and put a fancy mall right in that spot. That’s prime real estate, right off Main Street. Offered me top dollar, and then some. A deal like that would bring in a lot of money for Seaside, and there’s even a nice spot a few blocks down on Clove where I could relocate that’s a lot cheaper, too. Wouldn’t hurt my business a bit. Know why I won’t say yes?”

“Why?”

“Because fuck them. Fuck Earl, fuck Wonderland, fuck Seaside.”

Vanessa looked at him for a moment, thinking. He continued to hold her gaze unwaveringly. Finally she said, “Why don’t you tell me about your son?”

“I could, but why? You have the file right there, don’t you?”

“I want to hear it from you.” Vanessa reached for her notebook. “Because I give a shit. Let’s start from the beginning.”

Another silence fell between them. At first she thought he wouldn’t say anything because he didn’t trust her, and she couldn’t say she blamed him. But then he began to speak.

“Eight years ago, Ty was a Wonder Worker. Surprise surprise. Everybody in Seaside was, at one time or another.”

“I was.” Vanessa smiled. “A long time ago, when it was still called World of Wonder.”

That got a small chuckle out of Tanner. “You’re older than I thought, then,” he said. “But I never worked at the park. Didn’t have time for a legit job like Wonderland. I was too busy outlawing and getting into trouble and building Double D. But I wanted it to be different for Ty. Because
he
was different. He was an artist. Does it say anything about that in the file?”

Vanessa shook her head.

“He’d always been good with painting, drawing, sculpting, that kind of thing. Wanted to go to art school, which didn’t please his mother. She wanted him to get a business degree, or be a dentist, anything that would lead to a career. But I liked that Ty loved art. It made him more like me.” Tanner lifted up his left arm, revealing a beautiful dragon tattoo. The colors had faded a little, but it had once been vivid, and beautiful. “These tats? Did them myself.”