Homesick –Part II
Bubba was walking by himself in the chaos of the newly arrived carnival. Not far away, Officer Luke Everett was flirting with a group of girls, and somewhere on the premises, Sergeant Luann Corbin was present as well. They were there to make sure all ran smoothly; the carnival had been known to bring trouble to town with it. As Bubba approached the shooting gallery, he recognized the young woman working there. It was Jessica Cooke, who had lived in his neighborhood until she had graduated from high school two years earlier.
"Hey, Jessica," he said. "I thought you were off at school in Jackson."
"Hey, Bubba," she said. "I decided to take the summer semester off. I brought my fiancé Jonathan home to meet my folks."
"I heard you'd gotten engaged," said Bubba. "Congratulations."
"Thanks, Bubba. We'll be getting married in the fall; I'll be sure and send you an invitation."
He noticed while she was talking that there was a cut on her lip, and he asked her what had happened.
"I had an accident this morning," she said. "I've been working as an assistant to Cameron Hawkes the magician, and I haven't quite gotten the hang of handling sharp knives. He does a knife-throwing act sometimes. You should come to the show tonight. He's going to catch a bullet with his teeth."
"Now that I would like to see," said Bubba. "Maybe I will come tonight."
"I'll see you tonight, then."
"Yeah, you be careful with those knives, you hear?"
Bubba said goodbye to her and went back to his car. It was the end of his shift, and he had stopped by the carnival for a few minutes to see how things were going. He went home and got a shower and changed clothes, and at 8:00 that evening he returned to the carnival and sat down on one of the wooden benches inside Cameron Hawkes's tent. Parker came and sat beside him a few minutes later, along with Lonnie, who didn't look too enthused to be there.
"I can't believe I let you talk me into coming here, Parker," said Lonnie.
"Don't you want to see a guy catch a bullet in his teeth?" asked Parker.
"You do know it's just an illusion, right?" asked Lonnie.
"Lonnie, you just take the fun out of everything," said Parker.
The lights dimmed, and the magician's four assistants stepped onto the stage. One of the girls came forward and introduced Cameron Hawkes to the crowd, and he proceeded to perform various tricks and illusions for the next hour, until he at last came to his grand finale –the bullet-catching trick. Jessica Cooke carried the cup that contained the bullet. She walked into the crowd with it, stopping in front of Parker and asking him to mark the bullet with an "x". He did so, and she returned to the stage. Then Hawkes's apprentice Neil Lucas took up the gun and seemed to load it. He took aim at the magician, and he fired.
There was a puff of smoke and a brief stunned silence, but the silence soon gave way to screams of terror, for Cameron Hawkes had fallen to the floor bleeding. Panic ensued, and there was utter chaos in the tent. Bubba and Parker tried to calm the crowd while Lonnie went to the stage. He checked the magician's pulse; Hawkes was dead. He looked up at Lucas, who was still holding the gun, a look of sheer horror on his face.
"I didn't load it," he said. "It wasn't supposed to be loaded."
The next morning, Lonnie was waiting at the Sparta airport for the plane that would bring Crystal Collins back to town. She looked for him as she stepped off the plane, and when she found him, she ran and threw her arms around him as if she hadn't seen him for a year, when in truth only a month had passed since she had been here last. Her spontaneity floored him as much now as it had the day she left, and he didn't know what to say or do. Crystal pulled back and looked at him with her brilliant smile. Her blue eyes were even brighter than he remembered.
"You're looking well," he said finally.
"Thanks," she said. "You're not so bad yourself."
"Let me get those for you."
He picked up her bags and carried them to his car, and Crystal followed him. She had come back to Sparta now because she was obligated to be here for the trial of Paul Farnell. That was her original reason, but since she had been away, the Huntington family had at last been tracked down, and they had offered to give Crystal the old estate, and money for its upkeep, in reparation for what she had suffered. She knew that it was a bribe, and she agreed to accept it, though she had no real intention of backing down. She hoped to beat them at their own game.
"When I get settled in and get a car, I'll come by the station," Crystal said as they drove to the estate. "I'd like to say hello to everybody."
"I'm sure they'll be glad to see you," said Lonnie. "Everybody's been asking about you."
"I guess Sparta has become a second home for me," said Crystal. "People miss me when I'm gone, and now I even have a house here. It's nice to be back."
"It's nice to have you back," said Lonnie. "You planning on staying a while?"
"I don't know," she said. "I suppose I'll decide after this trial is over."
"So how are things in Chicago?" Lonnie asked.
"Hectic as usual," she replied.
"How's your partner?"
"He's fine," Crystal said. "He's a bit peeved at me, though."
"Why is that?" Lonnie asked.
"Well, let's just say that I haven't quite been the same since my stay in Sparta," she said. "He was expecting the old me back, and she didn't show up. It really is good to be back here. I think I left a piece of myself here in Sparta."
"Maybe a piece of you belongs in Sparta," said Lonnie. "Maybe all of you belongs in Sparta."
"Maybe."
On the way to the station later, Crystal saw the carnival and decided to stop for cotton candy. While at the concession stand, she noticed that there was a significant police presence here. Everett was closest to her, so she took her cotton candy and went to speak with him.
"Hey, Luke. Is there some kind of trouble around here?" she asked.
"Yes, Ma'am," he said. "The magician was killed last night during his act. We don't know yet whether it was an accident or a murder."
"Wow," she said. "That's one act I'm glad I missed."
She left him and strolled through the carnival, and a few minutes later she spotted Parker at the shooting gallery.
"Why don't you give this a shot, Ms. Crystal?" he asked. "No pun intended."
"Sure, why not? Hold this."
She gave him her cotton candy and took the gun from Jessica, but she when she looked at the girl, she felt that something was not quite right. Jessica did not look at her, but stood with her head down, her hair hanging over her face. Crystal asked her name.
"Nice to meet you," Crystal said.
Crystal took aim. She easily hit the targets, and when Jessica asked what she wanted as he prize, she purposely chose the furthest thing to reach. As Jessica reached for the stuffed animal, her hair fell away from her face to reveal an ugly bruise.
"Boyfriend do that?" Crystal asked.
"No," said Jessica. "It was an accident. I got bumped in the crowd last night. I thought those people were going to trample me."
"You sure about that?"
"It's a bruise, not a concussion," Jessica said. "Ask Parker; he was there."
"It was pretty chaotic, what with a man getting shot in front of everybody," Parker said.
"You must be a cop too," said Jessica.
"Yeah, I am," said Crystal. "Thanks, Jessica."
Crystal waited until she and Parker were a significant distance away from the stall before voicing her thoughts.
"Did you actually see her get hit last night?" she asked.
"No, but there was so much confusion…"
"You know her well?"
"Not real well," Parker replied. "Bubba does; she used to be his neighbor."
"Well, I have to get to the station," said Crystal. "I'll see you later, Parker. Make sure you keep an eye on that girl."
Crystal went back to her car and drove to the station. She was still finishing her cotton candy when she went in.
"What's that?" Lonnie asked. "Lunch?"
She laughed.
"Speaking of food," she said, "if you're free tonight, I'd love for you to come over to the estate. I'll cook dinner."
"I didn't know you were the cooking type," said Lonnie.
"I wasn't always a vending machine junkie," she said. "I know a few recipes."
"Well, I guess I'll find out for myself tonight," said Lonnie.
"Lieutenant Jamison, there's a call for you," said Dee.
Lonnie went to get the phone, and Crystal looked to where Bubba was standing by the filing cabinets.
"Bubba, can I talk to you for a second?" she asked.
He walked over to the front desk.
"What's on your mind?" he asked.
"Parker says you know a girl named Jessica who works at the carnival," Crystal said.
"Yeah, Jessica Cooke," said Bubba. "Is something wrong with her?"
"I think so. I just saw her, and she has a nasty bruise on her face. Do you know anything about her boyfriend?"
"Name's Jonathan Hollis," said Bubba. "They're engaged. Seems like a nice kid. You think he's been beating on her?"
"I have a hunch," she said. "She claims it happened last night in all the chaos of the shooting, but I don't buy it."
"Well, I was there," said Bubba, "but I didn't notice if she got hurt or not. Come to think of it, she had a cut on her lip yesterday that she said was an accident."
Crystal raised her eyebrows in response.
"Yeah, I'd better talk to her," said Bubba.
"Just be careful," Crystal said. "It's such a delicate situation when you have a case like this."
When Crystal left the station, she went to get groceries in preparation for that evening, and she spent the rest of the day cleaning up the inside of the house. She was exhausted when evening came, but she was looking forward to seeing Lonnie again, so she showered and changed clothes, and she got dinner started. She had decided to cook lasagna because it was one of the few dishes she felt comfortable making. It was almost done when Lonnie arrived.
"Something smells good," he said as he stepped inside.
"Thanks," said Crystal. "I hope it tastes as good as it smells."
She led him to the living room and offered him a glass of champagne.
"Champagne," he said. "You celebrating something?"
She shrugged.
"Housewarming, I guess," she said. "I'm going to go set the table. Just make yourself comfortable."
Lonnie sat down on the couch and took a sip of his champagne. Once again he found himself confused by the signals she was sending him. She had left him last time with a kiss, but she had not greeted him this time with the same. She had invited him here to dinner, but did that make this a date, or was she just being friendly? She had not said a great deal about the past month of her life, but she had seemed to hint earlier that she and her partner in Chicago were no longer romantically involved. She was already treating the estate as if it were her home, and yet, she said she had not decided to stay.
Crystal finished setting the table and went to the kitchen, and she carried everything to the dining room. Lonnie held her chair for her, and she sat down. She was still pleasantly surprised by his gentlemanliness. She waited for Lonnie to take his first bite, and she was relieved when her cooking met with his approval. As they ate, they talked about cases they had handled over the past month, but they finally came around to the one case that involved them both.
"I don't know what's going to happen, Lonnie," she said.
She hesitated slightly to talk about it. She had scoured the place for bugs and cameras earlier, and the Huntington family had closed their security office in Sparta, but she still felt a bit paranoid.
"The way I see it, there are two possibilities," she went on. "Either the Huntingtons really want to wash their hands of this whole affair, or they want to lull me into a false sense of security. I've been looking over my shoulder for the past month, thinking they would send assassins to Chicago, and here I am back at the scene of the crime, living in their house, near the lake where they almost killed us both. But I'm not afraid of them. I don't intend to just give in to them. We have Farnell, and that's something. We may not be able to take down their whole empire with only one player, but it's a thread unraveling for them. And I have my mother's things. Her journal tells something of the evil nature of the family. Could at least be terribly embarrassing for them, if not outright damning."
Lonnie reached over and took her hand in his.
"I'm sure your parents would be proud of you," he said.
"I like to think so," she replied.
They sat still looking into each other's eyes for a moment, but suddenly Crystal withdrew her hand and got up to clear the table.
"I almost forgot about dessert," she said.
The police had been over the scene of the carnival shooting several times, and they had found no evidence that Hawkes's death was intentional, but Lonnie's instincts told him that there was more to it than appeared on the surface. He said as much to Chief Forbes, and as Forbes had a great deal of respect for Lonnie's abilities, he told the Lieutenant to go ahead with a thorough investigation. Lonnie was convinced that the apprentice had never intended to kill Hawkes; Neil Lucas had no motive for that, and the young man was clearly distraught over the whole thing. Yet, there were no prints other than Lucas's on the gun; if someone else had loaded the gun, the person had been wearing gloves. It could have been anybody. He had all the carnival employees interviewed, but not one was found with a motive to kill Cameron Hawkes.
Meanwhile, Bubba spoke with Jessica Cooke concerning her bruise, and she swore to him that it was an accident. He had never known her to lie before, and her story did seem plausible, but Crystal was adamant that the girl was being abused. Bubba thought of speaking with Jonathan, but Crystal advised against it.
"If you make him angry, things could get worse," she said. "It's Jessica who has to make the decision."
And so both cases were stalled, until one day someone said something that seemed to have bearing in both. Lonnie and Parker were speaking to one of the magician's assistants, and she mentioned that Hawkes used to flirt with the girls, especially with Jessica.
"Why didn't you mention this before?" Lonnie asked.
"I don't know," said the girl. "I guess I just didn't think it was relevant. It was just harmless flirtation."
"According to you," said Lonnie. "Maybe somebody else saw it differently."
"You really think this is a murder?" she asked. "It was a dangerous trick; there was always the possibility that it could go wrong."
"Oh, it went wrong all right," said Lonnie.
Lonnie and Parker rounded up the rest of the girls and questioned them about Hawke's flirtation, but they said pretty much the same things. Jessica was the last girl to be interviewed. When Lonnie pointed out that she was seen as Hawkes's favorite, she just shrugged and laughed it off.
"He flirted with all the girls," she said. "It didn't mean anything."
"Maybe it meant something to your fiancé," Lonnie said.
"Jonathan? No, he didn't think anything of it. In fact, I don't think he even noticed."
Lonnie had Parker run a check on Jonathan Hollis, but the guy was squeaky clean. No one was sure where to go from here. Lonnie had plenty of suspicions, but no evidence to confirm them.
The trial of Paul Farnell moved along rather quickly. Crystal, Lonnie, and Bubba testified about what had happened, but when Farnell himself took the stand, all of them were in for a surprise. He retracted all the statements he had made concerning the Huntington family; he now claimed that he had acted entirely on his own, that he had murdered John Mayfair out of jealousy, and that he had hired coworkers from Huntington security to murder Ms. Collins in order to keep her from finding out the truth. Crystal was outraged at this turn of events, and in a desperate attempt to prevent a miscarriage of justice, she visited the jail that evening. Parker was on duty.
"I'm afraid visiting hours are over," he said, "and even if they weren't, I really don't think it's a good idea for you to see Farnell."
"Please, Parker, just give me a few minutes," she pleaded. "No one has to know. I just want to ask him one question. C'mon, Parker."
"Oh, all right," said Parker. "Just for a few minutes."
Parker led her to Farnell's cell and stood at a distance from them. Farnell sighed when he saw Crystal.
"What do you want, Ms. Collins?" he asked.
"I need to know why you've been lying in court," she said.
"You have me behind bars, and you have my guilty plea," said Farnell. "You have the man who killed your father. What more do you want?"
"I want the Huntingtons," she said. "Did they threaten you? How could they have gotten to you in here?"
He laughed quietly and rose to his feet, then he walked to the bars and stood in front of her.
"Don't you ever learn?" he asked. "You've been fortunate. They've given you a break, and you'd be wise to take it because it doesn't happen often. They won't just destroy you; they'll destroy everybody you care about. It's a sport to them. For your sake, and your friends' sakes, and for the sake of the town of Sparta, let this go."
After that night, Crystal was quiet about the trial. Lonnie could see that something troubled her, but she didn't seem to want to discuss it. She had a lot on her mind, for she was not only concerned over her own problems. She was constantly thinking of the bruise on Jessica Cooke, and it worried her that there had been no progress in the case. Now that there was a possible link between the girl's injuries and Hawkes's death, she felt it all the more urgent to convince the girl to come forward, and she had an idea about how to do it. With this in mind, she drove to the carnival again, but Jessica was not there, and no one had seen or heard from the girl. Crystal returned to her car and called the police station on her cell phone to ask for Jessica's address.
Jessica was staying with her parents, but her parents were at work. Fortunately, Jonathan was also out, so Crystal could talk with Jessica alone. It took a while to get her to the door, but finally she came, looking even worse than she had before.
"Can I come in?" Crystal asked.
"I've already told the police everything I know," said Jessica.
"I'm not here as a cop," said Crystal. "I don't work in Sparta. I just want to talk to you."
Reluctantly, Jessica let her in and offered her a seat on the living room couch.
"What happened to you?" Crystal asked.
"Did Bubba send you over here?" Jessica asked.
"Nobody sent me," said Crystal. "You remind me of myself when I was your age. I thought you might be interested in hearing a story about something that happened to me. Maybe you can relate, and if not, then I'll leave, and nobody has to know I was here."
"Okay," Jessica said quietly.
"Well, it started when I met a guy named Simon Baran," said Crystal. "He was handsome, charming, funny –I thought I was a lucky girl when he wanted me. But the first time we had an argument, I walked away from it with a black eye. He apologized, of course, said he didn't mean it and would never do it again, but it only got worse from there. I stopped seeing my friends and family because I couldn't come up with enough excuses to explain my appearance."
She pulled a picture out of her purse and handed it to Jessica. It was a picture of herself, almost unrecognizable underneath the bruises and cuts.
"That was me," she said. "I nearly died that time. A cop came to see me in the hospital, and she helped me to see that he wasn't worth my life. Because of her I lived to see another day, and to make something out of my life. It's not too late for you. I don't want to see you hit the bottom like I did."
As Jessica sat looking at the picture in her hand, she began to cry, and Crystal put her arms around the girl.
"He killed Cameron Hawkes," Jessica sobbed. "He was so jealous."
"Why don't you come with me to the station?" Crystal asked. "The police can help you. They can protect you. Bubba's been worried about you."
Jessica finally agreed, but as they were walking to Crystal's car, Jonathan pulled up in the driveway. Crystal handed her cell phone to Jessica.
"Get in the car," she said, "and call the police."
"Where are you taking Jessica?" Jonathan asked. "I don't think she's up to going out."
"I think she's a big girl and can decide for herself," Crystal said.
He started towards the car, but Crystal grabbed his arm and shoved him back.
"Get out of my way," he said.
"And what if I don't? Will you hit me too? Well, come one, I dare you. Let's see what you've got."
He tried to make a run towards Jessica, but Crystal tripped him up. He rose to his feet and swung at her, but she ducked. She came back up and punched him hard in the face before pulling her gun on him.
"Now we'll see how you like a bloody face," she said.
Bubba and Luke arrived shortly thereafter and took Jonathan into custody. Back at the station, Bubba thanked Crystal for all she had done to help Jessica.
"There's no need to thank me," she said. "I was her once. A cop saved my life, and I feel it's my duty to do the same for other girls."
With Jessica taken care of, Crystal felt a weight lift off her shoulders, but she still had her own problems to deal with. Farnell's trial came to an end, and he was given a life sentence, and abruptly after that, Crystal packed her things and prepared to return to Chicago.
"You plan to continue the investigation there?" Lonnie asked.
"No," she said. "I think I need to close this chapter in my life for good."
"Do you really think you can do that?" he asked.
"Well, I won't forget Sparta," she said.
She held out the locket the he had given her, that she always wore around her neck.
"I'll decide what to do with the house soon," she said. "I'll probably sell. It's much too lonely there for me, and the place is stained with blood and with memories that I don't even know about. I just don't think I can live there."
And just like that, she was gone again, leaving Lonnie a thousand times more vexed than the first time she had left. He didn't suppose she felt the same way about leaving him as he felt about watching her go. She had played her role well, and she had him convinced that she just wasn't the type to stick around for long and get attached. Parker, however, just couldn't believe that. He felt he held a missing piece of the puzzle, and after agonizing about it for a few days, he finally decided to tell Lonnie about Crystal's visit to Farnell and the conversation that he had overheard.
"I guess she finally decided to take the man's advice," Lonnie said. "I suppose that's understandable, given what she's been through. She said she wanted to put this all behind her. Maybe this time she will."
Lonnie had no idea what a struggle Crystal was having trying to put Sparta behind her. She kept trying to return to her former life, but each time she came home to Chicago she found it less possible to resume life as it had been. Peter Lanigan's handsome face no longer excited her, and her work seemed to be a mere distraction. Her apartment felt cramped after living for a while in a grand estate. Peter, who had known her much longer than Lonnie, was much more baffled by her sudden change of heart in the matter of her family.
"It isn't like you to back down," he said.
"Sometimes you just have to choose your battles," she replied. "I found my parents, and the man who killed my father is behind bars. I have a life to run here, Peter; I can't spend all my time running around Sparta looking for ghosts, bringing judgment down on people who don't deserve it."
That was the closest she came to admitting the truth about why she had left. She had thought to make a clean break with Sparta, thinking that it was best for everyone involved, but the more she thought about it, the more ridiculous it seemed to forget the relationships that she had formed in her parents' hometown. After two weeks had gone by, she called Lonnie at home, and asked him to visit her in Chicago.
"I don't know if that's a good idea," he said. "We're in the middle of some arson cases here."
"Just for a weekend?" she pleaded. "I miss you, Lonnie. Besides, I've spent plenty of time on your turf; now I'd like to show you mine."
Lonnie felt apprehensive about taking such a trip, and he felt that to agree to it might very well amount to tossing his heart in the street for her to trample on, but in the end he acquiesced to her pleas. Chief Forbes said they could handle the cases for a few days, that he was entitled to some time off, and so, Lonnie Jamison, a man who had been outside of Sparta only a handful of times in his life, was now headed for Chicago.
To Be Continued…
