Chapter Seven – The Elder Generation
"It was an ordinary day. A Tuesday, I remember that. January. The weather had been horrible all day; the January storm had us quite firmly in its grip. Graham and Sunday were in a very bad mood, because the school but was half an hour late and they had to wait for it in the storm. Sunday kept trying to persuade her parents to let her stay at home, but Sheila wouldn't give in.
"Natalya had gotten up early, as always, and spent the day doing the laundry. I remember that she was hanging up the clothes in the basement, but apparently she had started to smoke or something of the like, for when I came downstairs, the door was open and Natalya wasn't there. She returned about five minutes later and looked very guilty. She wouldn't tell me what she had been doing, but she apologized and said that it had been something important. But that doesn't have to mean anything; to Natalya everything was 'important'. That was one of the few words she had already known in English before she came to us. I finally gave up interrogating her, but I made her understand that she had to do her chores first. Afterwards she could smoke a whole package of cigarettes at once, as far as I was concerned. And then I went upstairs again, and Natalya finished the laundry and did some other chores, and then she had the rest of the day off. I remember I was looking after her when she went up the stairs because I found that something in her way of walking had changed. But I never found out exactly what it was.
"Gabriel was somehow depressed. Rick didn't notice anything about his son, but a mother knows when her children have a problem. But Gabriel didn't tell me anything, so I was assuming it was some kind of heartache. Maybe he had had a fight with Jordan. Gabriel and Jordan were almost engaged, you know. They had been a couple for more or less five years, and none of us doubted that they would one day get married. As you can see, Detectives, we were right."
"Never doubted it," Jonah Donahue repeated. "My Jordan found the right guy, didn't she, Diane?"
"Of course she did." Diane and Jonah smiled at each other. Then Diane continued her tale.
"I don't remember seeing Jordan on that day, so I supposed she had withdrawn and was working on her paintings. She had just started on oil paintings, so her motivation was still very high. She had already finished one and was working on a second one. I think you've seen them, Detectives. Both pictures are hanging downstairs in the living room."
"The Tempest-Tossed?" Lilly asked.
"Exactly." Diane nodded. "That was Jordan's first painting. It's wonderful, isn't it?"
Lilly nodded. "I don't know much about art but I know an extraordinary picture when I see one."
"You should talk to Jordan about the pictures when you're done here," Sarah Webster cut in. "It's great to talk to Jordan about art because she knows everything, but she has a way of not letting it show. When you talk to her, you always feel as if you understand every bit. The complex topic suddenly becomes understandable.
"I'd love to," said Lilly. "But first I've got to solve this case, so if you please, Mrs. Jarvis..."
"Where was I?" Diane pondered for a moment, then she remembered. "Ah, yes. As I said, Jordan was working on the second picture, and Gabriel was running around looking depressed... it was really not hard to tell that there was something wrong between them. But apparently they managed to sort it out by themselves, for a few weeks later they were as inseparable as always.
"Well, as the evening drew nearer, Natalya seemed to get a little bit nervous. I didn't really notice it at that time, but when I was reconsidering the events of the evening, I remembered that Natalya kept looking at her watch, and that she couldn't sit still for a minute. She had brought some needlework into the living room but she hardly looked at it. Rick taught her a few words and English grammar rules ever evening. but this evening she was so absent-minded that Rick gave it up after about half an hour. At nine o'clock, Natalya said goodnight and went to her room. She had a room on the ground floor in the back of the house and her own bathroom.
"I went to bed about an hour later, and Rick came a few minutes afterwards. Ten-thirty was our usual bed-time. When I was already starting to fall asleep, I heard a car."
Diane paused. "I suppose you have heard enough about my other son, James?" she said to Lilly.
"I don't know if we heard enough," Lilly replied, "but we know roughly who he is and how he was."
"He had an affair with Natalya," said Diane with surprising coolness. "Of course he tried not to make it obvious, but everyone knew it. I think in the end even Jamie no longer cared whether we knew it or not.
"What I was about to say was that the car I heard was Dylan's. He and Jamie had been to Deansville to meet the few friends they had in the town. But Jamie always returned in time for me to know he was back. He was very reliable. But what puzzled me was that I thought I heard him leave again some minutes later."
"What do you mean, you thought you heard him?" Lilly asked. "Did you hear him or not?"
Diane shook her head. "I thought I heard him," she said. "I was already dozing off, and then some time later I heard a car leave. I supposed in my half-sleep that it was Jamie, but of course I learned on the next day that it had in fact been our car, the one Natalya left with. Or rather: didn't leave," she amended. "But back then I thought, as everyone did, that Natalya had taken our car and run off. After all, how could we know..." She trailed off. "I'm ashamed, Detective," she said. "I'm ashamed that I ever thought that Natalya was capable of such a thing. I should have known better. She was such a nice and polite girl."
"Tell us what happened on the next day," Lilly said.
"Rick woke up and told me that the car was gone, and that there was not a trace of Natalya left." Diane sighed. "Her window was wide open, and her suitcase and personal belongings were gone as well. There was really only one conclusion we could draw from that. Of course, we called the police, but they didn't make us much hope. Such cases are very frequent."
"When did you notice that the money was gone as well?"
"I didn't notice that until a few days later. I used to keep a little bit of money in a tin box in the kitchen, for unexpected expenses. Natalya knew about it, of course, since she did some of the shopping. When I needed a few extra dollars a few days later, I noticed that the box was empty."
"How much was it?"
Diane shrugged. "Not much. Fifteen dollars, maybe twenty. Just a emergency provision."
"She wouldn't have come far with twenty dollars," Sarah Webster remarked.
"She didn't get anywhere," Chris reminded her. It was the first thing he said in this conversation.
"True," said Danny Webster. "So what happened to Rick's car, then?"
"Easy," said Lilly. "Whoever killed and buried Natalya, took the car and his it somewhere nearby, and on the next day or the day after, when the chances were good, he or she drove down to Philly and left the car somewhere downtown for the gangs to cannibalize it for parts. You leave a car there, and ten minutes later it's gone for good."
"I have another question," Chris cut in. "Mrs. Jarvis, do you sleep well at night, or are you easy to wake up?"
"Now or then?" Diane asked with a wink.
Chris smiled. "Back then, in the night in question," he said.
"I used to sleep very tight," Diane said. "Once I'd fallen asleep, a bomb could explode right beside my bed without me waking up."
"So you heard this car when you were still awake; it didn't wake you up," Chris stated.
"That's correct." Diane had an amused glint in her eye.
"And how fast do you fall asleep?" Chris asked.
"Quite fast," Diane replied, now smiling. "I guess I never take longer than ten minutes to fall asleep."
"So it was by no means later than ten-thirty or ten forty-five when you heard the car."
"Certainly not, no."
"Thank you." Chris leaned back in his chair and nodded to Lilly. Lilly had vague idea of why Chris was asking these questions, but she did not elaborate.
"We'd like to know a little bit more about the people living here," she said. "How were the children getting along?"
"They were one huge group," said Sarah Webster. "We were all surprised, because the age difference was quite big - Sunday was the youngest, and Jamie the oldest, and they were eleven years apart. Sunny was thirteen when Natalya disappeared and Jamie twenty-four."
"Eleven years didn't prevent her from having a mighty crush on Jamie," Danny Webster remarked. "She followed him everywhere he went - if he let her, of course. He was always very nice to her, even in the months before he left."
"He liked her, too," Jonah Donahue cut in, "but of course she was only a child to him. And besides, he had his girl, after all."
"I suppose you've heard of that, Detectives?" Diane said rather sharply.
"Yes," said Lilly hastily. "We don't need to go into much detail about that. Let me just ask one question: did any of you ever doubt this rumor?"
Everyone in the room shook their heads.
"What else can you tell us about the children?" Lilly asked. "What kind of relationship was there between Natalya and the others?"
"Nothing of much interest," said Danny. "Sunday didn't like her, Jordan didn't care for her but was always nice to her, and all the boys admired her. Well, I suppose that Gabe didn't."
"You mean because he had a firm relationship with Jordan?" Lilly asked. "That's not a reason."
"Jordan was practically mad about Gabe," Jonah said and giggled. "My goodness, that girl was so madly in love... She started very early with those things, but Gabe was the only man for her. Since she was ten, Jordan has been determined to marry Gabe one day, and now look how far she got." He smiled proudly. "My daughter knows what she wants. And she's always had this talent for drawing. When she was eight, she'd do sketches of the birds, and later she'd draw the faces of us all, including Homer, our scarecrow. When she was about twelve, I noticed that this thing she had for Gabe was really there to stay. She painted only him. I'm not quite sure, but I think she kept those sketches and drafts in a box in her bedroom." Jonah winked. "True love is something, isn't it, Detective?"
Lilly smiled. "I'll tell you when I've found mine," she said.
"Jordan and Gabe got married in 1968," said Diane. "One year after... well, after everything had been upside down. Jamie didn't even call."
"We don't have to talk about him if it hurts you," Lilly said.
"It's alright," said Diane. "He's been gone for so long, I can hardly remember his face. He was such a good son! A little rebel sometimes, but never did he let the family down. He loved his little brother and would have done anything for him. Jamie always protected Gabe, even when they were teenagers. When they had both done something wrong or caused some trouble, it was always Jamie who took the blame. Whenever Gabriel had a problem, he'd go to Jamie first, and only if Jamie couldn't find a solution did they both come to Rick or me. Sometimes we felt virtually superfluous."
"Don't you worry, Diane, Graham was the same way," Sarah said. "I guess all the children came to Jamie when they had a question or a problem. He was the oldest, and they were all looking up to him. He was a brother to them all."
"Strange how much he changed then," Danny remarked.
"He rejected them all," Sarah agreed. "That was so unlike Jamie."
"Sunny was the only one whom he treated with the same friendliness as ever."
"Which was of course fatal, because it only increased her crush on him."
"Oh dear, the poor girl was so sad when he left."
"I would have thought that maybe he'd stay in touch with her. She was always the little sister he never had..."
"Well, she survived it."
"But only barely. Imagine, Jonah, it would have been the other way round, and Gabe would have left Jordan behind. Just imagine how Jordan would have reacted..."
"I'd rather not!"
Lilly and Chris exchanged a glance. The group had started talking all at once; everyone wanted to tell his or her memories to the others.
"I don't think we can learn anything more from them," Lilly said silently.
"I think we've learned a whole lot of interesting things," Chris replied. "Now at last we have something we can work with."
"You mean the information about Diane's sleeping habits?" Lilly shook her head. "I can't see what use this will have, but I know you well enough to know that you have one of your little ideas."
"Betcha." Chris stood up. "Let's go. Maybe we should pay another visit to Sunday McLaren."
"You think..."
"I think," Chris interrupted, "that she's got something she still hasn't told us, and I wanna know what it is. Although I have an idea of that as well," he added.
"I'm very keen to see what you mean." Lilly stood up as well, and the detectives said goodbye to Diane and the others.
They went down the stairs and left the house. Jordan was nowhere to be seen, so they headed directly for the McLaren's house.
Before they reached it, Chris took Lilly's arm and slowed her down. "Listen, I know that you like her, but we really need to extract the last information from her," he said hastily. "So please just let me begin, OK? And don't be surprised; I'll be a little rude."
"Do you really have to?" Lilly did not like the thought.
"Yes," said Chris with a determination that made it clear that he really meant it. "Otherwise she'll never talk."
Lilly sighed. "Alright," she said.
"Thank you." Chris looked at her one moment longer. "Sorry," he said. "I've got to do this."
Lilly nodded. Then she and Chris went the rest of the way up to the house. Sunday opened almost immediately after Lilly had rung the bell.
"Still here?" she asked.
Lilly took a breath and wanted to answer, but Chris beat her to it.
"Sunday, don't you think it's time you told us the whole truth?" he said without introduction. "We just talked to Diane Jarvis and the others, and we learned some very interesting things. It made us reconsider what you said about Jamie and Natalya, and the more we think about it, the stranger it becomes that you are the only one who denies strictly that anything ever happened between the two of them."
Sunday recoiled at Chris's aggravated tone. "Detective, what does this..."
"At first we thought that you simply were not interested in gossiping, but we just learned that you actually had quite a crush on Jamie Jarvis, isn't that correct?"
Sunday stared at Chris. "What the..."
"Isn't it correct," Chris continued, "that you actually knew very well what was going on, but that you decided to deny it? You were thirteen years old, right? At thirteen, children are sometimes still capable of make-believe. Was that what you did, Sunday? You knew something and then decided not to believe it? Come on, tell us. You're probably the only one who knows for sure!"
"I don't know anything! Jamie wasn't..."
"You do know something!" Chris fired back. "You do know what was really going on. Why do you remain silent about it?"
Lilly watched her partner with growing bewilderment. Never before had she seen Chris so aggressive, especially not with a woman. Normally, he was a true gentleman, and she, Lilly, was the pushy one.
"Tell us," Chris implored. "What is it you know?"
"I saw them, alright!" Sunday suddenly shouted into his face. She was panting, and her face was flushed.
Lilly was surprised. How had Chris known?
"I saw them," Sunday repeated. "Can you imagine what it means for a thirteen-year-old girl to see her crush making out with another woman? Little wonder I wanted to forget it."
"You've actually seen them?" Lilly repeated in disbelief. "Where? Why? How?"
Sunday laughed wryly. I did not sound cheerful. "In the barn," she said. "I was supposed to catch the cat, and I was looking for him in the barn. And then I heard voices. I first recognized Natalya's voice, and then a man said something, and I knew it was Jamie. After all, it's not that I hadn't heard the rumor before. I didn't want to look at them, but in the end I did. I peered around the corner, and there they were. Jamie had turned his back on me and was busy kissing Natalya. She was leaning against the wall and was just unbuttoning Jamie's shirt. I don't know how I plucked up the strength not to scream or shout. I just retreated, as if in trance, and left the barn. And when I was through the door, I was already telling myself that nothing happened. I told myself again and again that I'd just been daydreaming - or rather having nightmares - and after a while it worked. And whenever I heard someone gossip about Jamie and Natalya, I'd deny it. Through my denying it, it was as if it had really never happened, and Jamie was still there for me." Sunday sighed. "But as you can see, he wasn't," she said. "In the end, he was also just a man."
Chris looked at Lilly. Lilly knew this glance; it meant, "You can go on, partner; I've done my part."
"But why didn't you talk to someone else about it?" she asked sympathetically. "Why didn't you talk to Jamie? Why did you keep it to yourself for all those years?"
"Because it was no one else's fucking business!" Sunday snapped. "I had been wrong about Jamie, and I just wanted to forget."
"I can understand that," said Lilly. "And now I also understand why you didn't like Natalya."
"She destroyed all my innocent childhood dreams about Jamie," Sunday said bitterly. "I still hate her for that. I know I shouldn't, and I certainly didn't wish for her to die, but I can't say that I'm sad about what happened to her." She laughed curtly. "I know I'm making a suspect out of myself, but I don't wanna lie to you, Detective. Natalya Atrochenko was a bitch, and no tragedy can alter my opinion of her. She thought she could do anything with her good looks - which she was quickly losing, by the way. She was putting on weight; she would probably have been fat, if not even obese, in a few years' time." Sunday trailed off and gave an uncertain laugh. "I sound like a stubborn child, I suppose," she said. "Or like a teenage high school beauty who wants to be May Queen and tried to discredit the competition. But that's they way I feel. I can't help it."
Lilly nodded slowly. "I can understand you to a certain degree," she said. "I know how much it hurts when a girl is disappointed by a man for the first time. It's hell. But still you shouldn't have hidden this detail from us. It's something we can work with. Up to now, we only knew that rumor had it that Jamie and Natalya had this affair. Now we know for sure."
"I wish you wouldn't." Sunday looked at Lilly and then at Chris. "Is that all, Detectives?"
Lilly nodded. "Yes, Sunday," she said. "I'm sorry that we had to stir all this up again. But we want to solve this case, and we can't do it without your cooperation."
"It's alright, Detective Rush." Sunday smiled, to Lilly's surprise. "In a way it's good that I finally told someone. It feels as if a heavy load is lifted from me."
"I'm glad to hear that," said Lilly truthfully. "I hope you'll be fine, Sunday. Really." She stretched out a hand, and after a moment of hesitation, Sunday took it.
"Thank you, Detective," Sunday said. Then she turned around and went back into the house, leaving Lilly and Chris standing on the threshold. The door closed, and Lilly looked at her partner.
"Is this your new method?" she asked. "I've never seen you like this."
"It didn't feel good," Chris said thoughtfully. "I don't enjoy being rude. This is one thing about my job that I hate: that sometimes I have to behave in a way I don't want to."
"You're not the only one," said Lilly.
Chris looked at his watch. "Let's go back," he said. "We did enough for today. Now we just have to put the pieces together."
"That's gonna take up some time, anyway," said Lilly. She turned around and headed for the car, but just when she was about to open the door, Gabriel Jarvis came out of his own house. He stretched and then lit a cigarette.
"He's having a break," Chris commented.
Gabriel spotted them and came walking over to them. "Hello, Detectives," he said. "I heard you were at my house this morning. I'm sorry I wasn't there to say hello; you must think I'm quite impolite. But I was working on my new book, and when I'm writing, I forget everything else around me."
"We thought so," said Lilly. "Nevermind, Mr. Jarvis."
"That's Gabriel," Gabriel corrected. "I hate formalities."
"Is that something you have in common with your next of kin?" Lilly asked innocently.
Gabriel stared at her. "What do you mean, Detective?" he asked, confused. "You can't be talking about my mother; she's anything but informal."
"She's not the only relative of yours," Lilly hinted.
Gabriel's expression suddenly hardened. "I see, you've heard Jamie's story," he said. "That's true, Jamie was always the informal one."
"In contrast to you."
"Might very well be," said Gabriel stiffly. "Excuse me, Detectives, but I'm really not willing to talk about my brother." He finished his cigarette and threw the stub on the ground, then he stepped on it to extinguish the glowing ashes. "I've got to get back to work," he said. "I can only afford a five-minute break. The book is proceeding quite well, and I don't want to risk it."
He turned to go.
"What is it about?" Lilly asked.
Gabriel stopped. "It's a psychological thriller," he said. "It deals with lost childhood, buried sins and subconscious memories. Someone cannot let sleeping dogs lie, and the results are fatal."
Gabriel turned on his heel and went back to his house, leaving Lilly gaping after him. "Chris, did you hear that?" she said. "Did it sound like a threat to you as well?"
"Maybe," said Chris. "Or he was just fed up and wanted to let that show."
"Either way, he hates to talk about Jamie." Lilly sighed and turned once again to the car. "What do you think does this mean?"
"You're quicker at making up psychological theories," Chris teased.
Lilly nudged him. "Don't be so naughty."
"I'm not being naughty," Chris protested. "I'm saying the truth and nothing but the truth."
"I'm driving," said Lilly, cutting off her partner's kidding. "Keys."
Chris tossed the keys in her direction, and Lilly had to jump for them in order to catch them. Ignoring Chris's laughter, she got in the car and started the engine. Chris hurried to get in on the passenger's side, and Lilly revved the engine and sped away.
XXX
When the time was closing in on seven p.m., Lilly and Chris were still in the office, talking to Stillman and Nick Vera about the case, or rather: they were reporting to Stillman, and Nick was constantly moving closer to them, quite obviously eavesdropping, so that Stillman finally lost his nerve and waved to Nick.
"Detective, come and join us," he said with a touch of amusement in his voice. "I can't bear seeing you crane your neck like this. I suppose you'll learn all the facts, anyway, so you may just as well help discuss the case. Maybe you'll spot something that these two here overlooked."
Nick grinned confidently, not at all embarrassed that he had been caught red-handed. He got himself a chair and sat down beside Chris.
"Very well then, my esteemed colleagues, what have we here?" he said cheerfully and rolled up his sleeves. Lilly grinned quietly.
Chris informed Nick about the latest developments, and the four of them spent the next thirty minutes discussing theories and assumptions. But no matter how they looked at it, they kept coming to the same conclusion: all the evidence was pointing at Jamie, but neither Lilly nor Chris believed that the solution was that simple.
After a while, Lilly remembered something. "Chris," she said, "would you now finally be so kind as to tell me why you asked Diane about her sleeping habits?"
"Let's just say I've got an idea in my head," said Chris, "but I still have to work it out. I'll tell you tomorrow."
Lilly sighed impatiently. "Sometimes you're worse than Hercule Poirot," she complained.
"Trust my little gray cells, Mademoiselle Rush,"Chris said with an enigmatic smile and stroked a nonexistent moustache.
"I was wrong," Lilly stated wryly. "You're twice as bad as Poirot."
"And twice as unnerving," Chris agreed.
"Oh, cut it, you two," said Nick bracingly. "We've got a case to solve."
"We?" said Stillman ironically. "I thought you were only a sort of interdepartmental consultant here. If I remember it correctly, you have another case."
"Sure, boss. I was just playing the mediator here to reconcile the partners."
Stillman sighed. "I see, Detectives, you're all tired," he stated wryly. "Maybe we should adjourn the discussion until tomorrow."
"A good idea, boss." Nick pushed back his chair and rose. "I have a date, anyway."
"With Daisy at the drive-in?" Lilly asked jokingly.
Nick straightened. "No," he said with as much dignity as he could muster. "Not with Daisy at the drive-in." He turned to go, and when he had reached the door he turned around once more. "With Kim at the Chinese takeaway just 'cross the street."
And with this, Nick went out of the room.
XXX"Good night, Lilly."
"Good night, Chris." Lilly waved at her partner and then unlocked the doors of her car. She slid onto the driver's seat and turned on the radio before she fastened her seat belt and started the engine. Freddie Mercury informed her that he had got to break free, and Lilly accelerated and drove home.
She had barely entered her apartment when the phone started to ring. Lilly put her purse and keys on the small table beside the door and rushed over to get to the phone before the machine answered. She was just in time, took the receiver and pushed a button.
"Hello?"
There was a sigh on the other end of the line. "Why can't you Americans never answer your phone with your name?" a man's voice complained in a grumpy tone. "It's always 'Hello'."
"I'm sorry, Dorian." Lilly grinned. "This is Detective Lilly Rush speaking."
"That's better." Dorian Wynter cleared his throat.
"What is it, Dorian?" Lilly wanted to know. She was alerted. If the pathologist called her late in the evening, it could only mean that he had found something.
"It's about that skeleton of yours," Dorian said promptly. "I did a second examination, paying particular interest to the structure of the bones and the proportions. And I found something that may be of interest. I can't say for sure, but the position of the pelvis indicates that she might have been pregnant when she died."
"Pregnant?" Lilly repeated.
"Yes." Dorian was impatient. "Expecting a child."
"I heard you." Lilly shook her head to get her mind clear. "Well, that's indeed something interesting. Can you say..."
"No," Dorian interrupted her. "I can only say that it was probably during the first half of the pregnancy that she died. No later than maybe the fifth month."
"Thank you very much for the information, Dorian." Lilly was excited. "I'll tell my partner immediately."
"And don't forget you promised to keep me up to date about the investigation," Dorian reminded her. "Even old, grumpy medical examiners want to know what happened."
"I'll keep you posted," Lilly promised. "Thanks for calling. Goodbye."
"Goodbye."
Lilly hung up the phone only to lift the receiver once again. Hastily, she dialed Chris's number, and when her partner answered, she told him the news.