Call Of The Witch (35 page)

Dominic stopped the tape again. “She is,” he
said. “The girl with the 140 IQ.”

I leaned over his shoulder and touched the
screen with my index finger. “What the hell? Is that Kelly?”

“
That’s her.”

“
Son of a bitch! I don’t
believe it.”

“
I told you.”

“
And who’s that?” I
pointed to the boy.

Carlos said, “That’s Brian Weismann, Kelly’s
schoolmate. He lives a couple of streets down from her.”

Dominic hit the play button again. The video
advanced. “Watch the boy now. See here, he takes the phone from
Kelly, attaches it to a scrambler device, dials the number and
holds the phone to his ear.” At that point, Dominic drew our
attention to the time and date stamp on the lower right hand corner
of the screen. “That was call number seven, Sunday morning,
establishing the details of the first ransom drop at Freedom Park.”
He waited until Brian ended the call and the two children
congratulated each other with high-fives, and then hit the pause
button again.

“
Unbelievable,” I said,
falling into a chair just close enough behind me to keep me from
hitting the floor. “Are you telling me Kelly orchestrated her own
kidnapping?”

“
That’s right.”

“
And this kid, Brian,
helped her?”

“
That’s what it looks
like.”

“
Now I understand,” said
Carlos. He turned around and took the seat next to mine. “Remember
Saturday afternoon when the second call came in. Somehow, the
caller knew we were there. We thought the kidnappers were watching
the house. They weren’t. That call came in right after Brian
stopped by the house to return Kelly’s books.”

“
He was doing
reconnaissance,” said Dominic. “Kelly sent him in to check out the
situation after the initial call.”

“
There’s your giant
shoes,” Brittany remarked.

“
Excuse me.”

“
Kelly had access to
Hector’s van the day before the kidnapping when Raul drove his
mother home to do the Brewbaker’s laundry. She probably already had
the details of the ransom pickup worked out in her head. When she
saw those shoes she recognized an opportunity and took them to
cover her tracks, so to speak.”

“
But why?” I said. “She’s
a bright girl with such a bright future.”

“
She probably just got
bored,” Carlos offered.

“
I think she’s crying out
for attention,” said Dominic. “The poor kid is an afterthought in
her parent’s life.”

Brittany shook her head doubtfully. “Well,
she’s got some attention now.”

On that note, I was about to offer my two
cents, when my phone rang, stopping me flat. It was Lilith. Her
voice sounded broken and scattered.

“
Lilith, slow down,” I
said. I stood up and pressed the phone tightly to my ear. “Start
over.”

I’ll spare you her side of the conversation.
Her mix of words and my interpretation of them probably wouldn’t
make sense anyway. But this is what the others in the room heard of
my side.

“
Yes. No, tell me.” I
looked at Dominic. “Yes, he’s right here.” I saw Dominic take a
deep breath, but I didn’t see him let it out. “Lilith, calm down.
Tell me what happened.” I knew the others could hear the anxiety in
her voice leaking out between the phone and my fingers, but they
couldn’t hear what she was saying. “What?” Carlos stood and crowded
my left side. “When?” Brittany crowded my right. “Where?” Dominic
grabbed my arm. “Is she all right? My God.” I checked my watch.
“We’re on our way.”

I tucked the phone back in my pocket.
Dominic’s grip on my arm dug in like talons. “What is it?” he
said.

“
It’s Ursula.”

He squeezed my arm tighter. “What about her?
Is she all right? Is the baby all right? Where is she?”

“
Calm down. It’s gonna be
fine.”

“
Where is she,
Tony!”

“
She’s at the hospital.
Lilith called 911.”

“
Why? What
happened?”

“
She fell. Got lightheaded
I think. Lilith called the ambulance as a precaution.”

“
No she didn’t. Lilith
would never let anyone look at Ursula unless it was an emergency.
I’m going to the hospital right now!”

“
Wait! We’ll get a cruiser
and run the lights.”

“
I’ll drive,” said Carlos.
“You two meet us there. Come on Dominic. Run!”

Brittany and I followed Carlos and Dominic,
opting for the stairs instead of the elevator because it was
quicker. Once outside, I could smell the rubber from Carlos’
spinning tires. He was out of the parking lot even before Brittany
and I made it to our car.

We got to the hospital in under five minutes
and went straight to emergency. There was a set of swinging doors
that we couldn’t pass, but Dominic was already beyond them. Lilith
saw me coming and ran into my arms. I held her tightly and could
feel her trembling. That’s when I knew it was serious. Even in
moments of life and death, I’ve never known Lilith to tremble.

I cupped my hands on the rounds of her
shoulders and held her at arm’s length so that I could read her
eyes. They were squeezed tight. I could see her pain.

“
Lilith. What
happened?”

“
Ursula fell.” She shook
her head as if not believing her own words. Her gaze wandered and
seemed so suddenly distant. “We were having a good time,” she said.
“Then Ursula complained of being lightheaded. We’d been checking
her blood pressure. It was spiking and dropping all morning. That’s
a sign that her vitals were kicking into maternal mode. I told her
to say in bed. Tony, I was waiting on her hand and foot. I was
doing everything for her I possibly could.”

“
I’m sure you
were.”

“
I told her I was going to
take a quick shower. I asked her if she needed anything. She said
‘no’. I said, are you sure? She said ‘yes’. So I went to take a
shower. Next thing I knew, I heard a loud thump. I came running out
of the shower and I found her on the floor,
unconscious.”

“
Oh, geeze.” I pulled her
back into my arms.

She began sobbing quietly, as if not wanting
Brittany and Carlos to hear. I remember rubbing her back, trying to
sooth her, and thinking how I had never seen her so vulnerable. Her
heart was breaking. I knew it, and damn it, so was mine.

After a while, she seemed to compose herself
long enough to draw her head back and let me look into her eyes
again. Even through the pain, they were amazingly beautiful,
tear-filled and shimmering like black pearls. “Tony…” Her voice
faded to a whisper.

“
Yes, Lilith.”

“
She was
bleeding.”

“
What do you mean? Did she
hit her head?”

“
No, down
there.”

“
Down….” I knew what she
meant.

She folded into me on a heavy breath, her
cheek against my chest, her arms locked around my waist, squeezing
me tighter than I’d have thought she possibly could. Carlos and
Brittany were watching us; Brit with her fingers to her mouth,
biting her nails; Carlos with his head down, looking past his bushy
brows. I waved them over and the four of us knitted ourselves into
a huddle as tight as a witch’s knot, my arms around Lilith; hers
around me. Brittany hugging the two of us, and Carlos’ big monkey
arms around us all.

I don’t know how long we stood there, but it
was awhile. Time just seemed to stand still. People moved about all
around us, passed us, hell maybe even through us. The cacophony of
hospital buzz droned all around us, but none of that mattered,
nothing so incidental as Kelly Brewbaker’s bogus kidnapping; Raul
Martinez and his damn kiddy porn or Hector Santana and whatever
bullshit he was into that we never knew. Nothing. Only Ursula,
Dominic and their baby mattered now.

My eyes were still closed when someone came
up behind me and tapped me on the shoulder. I opened them and
initiated the huddle break up. It was Dominic. His tears had dried,
leaving salty tiger stripes stains trailing down his cheeks. We
gathered around him. His arms hung limp at his sides. His shoulders
drooped forward in a slight stoop. He looked drained, small and
helpless. I tried to say something, but my voice got stuck and
nothing came out. I sniffed. Swallowed. Cleared my throat and tried
again.

“
Is Ursula all
right?”

His eyes began pooling. I could see his
facial muscles tightening. Lilith reached out and touched his
arm.

“
She’s going to be fine,”
he said, and that gave life to his tears.

We all gave a collective sigh.

I put my hand on his shoulder. “The
baby?”

I watched his chest rise and fall on a
stuttered breath. He was steadying himself, but losing the battle.
His lips quivered. His eyes blinked in rapid secession, so much so
they were closed more than opened. I knew he could find no words.
He didn’t need them. He simply shook his head no.

I heard Brittany gasp. She fell into Carlos’
arms and began to sob.

Lilith tried to say something. At least I
think she did. I heard her squeak. That was before she and Dominic
fell into an embrace that caused more silent tears to fall.

I took a deep breath, turned and walked away.
I don’t remember my feet moving, or people looking at me as I
passed through the hallways. I had no peripheral view. My eyes
could only see forward, a tunnel vision so narrow I could have been
looking through a straw. But I wasn’t looking for a way out. I
don’t think I was looking for anything, except maybe an answer––an
answer I knew didn’t exist.

I followed a particularly dark hallway to the
end. It was closed to the public, but I didn’t care. I went through
a door that led me to a back alley behind the hospital. A loading
zone. No one was there. It looked like a good place for a man to go
if he wanted to be alone. To sit. To think. To cry.

I did.

Later that night, I took Dominic to Lenny’s
Bistro. He had been at Ursula’s side all afternoon, and when the
doctors gave her a sedative to make her sleep, I figured it was a
good time to take him out for a beer. Maybe it would help take his
mind off Ursula.

Silvia Belmonte was tending bar again. She
seemed surprised to see me back there so soon. I waved at her from
the door and gestured toward the dining room that we intended to
eat. She gave a chin-up nod, indicating she understood. That wasn’t
necessarily my intentions, though. The truth was I intended to
drink first, maybe get drunk and get Spinelli drunk, too. I thought
if I could dull his pain for just one night it would be worth it.
We’d drink, get drunk, call for a taxi ride home, and then worry
about everything else in the morning.

We waited for the hostess, who soon greeted
us and sat us in the same booth that Carlos and Lauri sat in two
nights earlier. Then we ordered some beers, and only because
Dominic was hungry, a couple of appetizers, too. As soon as our
server left, I said to him, “You know we brought Kelly in.”

“
Did you?” He seemed only
mildly interested.

“
Yes, we took her down to
Juvenile Hall and questioned her on tape.”

“
And?”

“
And then we let her
go.”

“
How come?”

I shook my head. “We have nothing on her. We
didn’t find the money. She ditched her cell phone.”

“
We have video of her at
the bus stop.”

“
Yeah, well her story
there is that she ran away from home because of the dysfunctional
nature of her family life. She claims she’s been riding around the
state for the last three days looking for adventure.”

“
What about her statements
to us? She told us at the hospital she was kidnapped, taken and
held for ransom.”

“
She recanted her
statement.”

“
You’re
kidding!”

“
It doesn’t matter, it
wasn’t on tape anyway. It’s her word against ours.”

“
The DA would believe
us.”

“
Maybe, or he may believe
that her story was the product of a young girl’s over-stimulated
imagination, seeded by questions from a couple of cops that went
rogue in procedural law and operational protocol. Face it, Dominic.
You know the kid’s a genius. She’s figured out all the
angles.”

“
There are still the phone
calls we recorded. They prove that somebody extorted money from the
Brewbakers.”

“
Yes, of course. No one’s
denying a crime took place. Anyone can argue that the perpetrators
of the extortion somehow learned that Kelly ran away from home, saw
an opportunity to fake a kidnapping and schemed a way to extort
three-hundred-thousand dollars from the Brewbakers.”

“
But that’s not what
happened. You know that Kelly pulled this whole thing off
herself––her and Brian. And what about the fact the phone calls
came from Kelly’s phone?”

“
She claims she left her
phone in Hector Santana’s van on Friday afternoon.”

“
Oh, right,” he scoffed,
“like she left her sock and her house key in the van, too. How
convenient.”

“
Hey, she had to throw
suspicion somewhere.”

“
Seems like she threw it
just about everywhere, what with the bogus photo showing the hay on
the floor to make us suspect her riding instructor; the giant shoes
to make us think someone from the theater group did it. She’s
guilty as hell, Tony. You know it.”