Daniel Palmer - Helpless

“Not a hard thing to do.”

“These people can fool seasoned FBI investigators, spouses, children, parents… kinesics experts, too.”

“And you think I’m a sociopath and a liar?”

“No,” Rainy said. “I just asked if you were.”

“Well, if I’m that good a liar, why would you ever believe me?”

“Because I want to believe you,” Rainy said.

Tom made sure to look Rainy in the eyes. He knew all the tells of a liar—rapid blinking, excessive face touching, smiling with just the mouth, even a defensive posture.

“I had nothing to do with the disappearance of Lindsey Wells,” Tom repeated. Tom didn’t say anything more. Rainy would know liars often overexplained themselves, offering more details than requested.

“What’s the real reason you asked me to come to Marvin’s funeral, Tom?”

“Let’s go to your car, and I’ll tell you on the way to the cemetery.”

Rainy’s sedan brought up the rear of a forty-vehicle-long procession. Tom sat in the passenger seat. He had not forgotten that his last trip with a law enforcement officer was spent handcuffed in the backseat.

Rainy spoke first. “Are you ready to talk?” she asked.

“I wanted you to see how much Marvin was loved. I wanted you to get a feel for who he was as a person. Because I wanted you to care about his death.”

“Care in what way?”

“You don’t really believe Marvin died the way they said he did, do you?”

“What am I supposed to believe?” Rainy answered. “They caught the guy who did it.”

“But he’s denying having anything to do with it. He says the evidence was planted in his apartment. It’s a frame job. I told you what Marvin found out.”

“About Boyd’s stock-trading scheme?”

“You know this wasn’t a random attack. You know to look for connections.”

“Possible. But how do you prove it?”

“Look, we’ve got to come down hard on Cortland,” Tom said. “If you don’t want vigilante justice, than that’s what you’ve got to do.”

Rainy sighed and gave Tom a disapproving look . “I could talk to some people,” she offered. “There might be something we can do to investigate Cortland. But it’ll take a lot of paperwork, a lot of meetings, and I’m not promising anything. Okay?”

“I reserve my judgment until I see how much you do,” he said.

“Tom, no joke. You can’t go after these guys yourself, just because you think they did this to Marvin.”

“I know they did it to him,” he said. “Just promise me that you’ll do your best.”

“I promise,” Rainy said.

At the cemetery Marvin’s pallbearers stopped seven times while carrying the casket to the grave. Mourners followed behind as a show of respect. A misty rain fell as Marvin’s casket was lowered into the ground. Mourners used the back of a spade to shovel dirt into the hole, a symbolic gesture of their unwillingness to part with the departed.

Tom expressed his condolences to the parents and relatives waiting in two rows to receive them. Tears prickled his eyes again. He promised to pay a condolence call during shivah, the customary seven-day period of deep mourning.

The rain fell harder on their walk out of the cemetery. Tom held a black umbrella high enough to let Rainy stay dry, too. As they passed underneath the cemetery’s iron gates, Tom turned and looked behind him. He could still see mourners clustered around Marvin’s grave.

A sour taste washed the back of his throat. It’s my fault you’re dead, Tom thought to himself. Marvin was trying to help him, and it cost him his life.

Back inside her car, Rainy turned the ignition and put the vehicle into drive. It was a quiet ride back to the funeral home parking lot. Rainy pulled up next to Tom’s car.

“I’m so sorry about Marvin,” Rainy said, with the sedan’s engine still idling.

“Rainy, I’m glad you came. I know you’ll do whatever you can to help. I’m going to get some of my military friends involved, too.”

Tom broke from her gaze. Rainy touched his arm and brought him back to her.

“Tom, do you need me to stay longer?”

The moment she asked, Tom realized that he did. He needed her to stay more than anything. He had wanted Rainy to come to Marvin’s funeral so she could see the man Marvin had been, but just as strongly, Tom had wanted to be near Rainy again.

“You’d do that?”

“I’m not seeing this case the same way I did when I first came to Shilo.”

“What’s changed?”

“Now I’m seeing a father who loves his daughter more than anything in the world. And then I’ve got a laptop computer that was obviously tampered with to make the log file dates sync up. I’ve got a plausible reason for somebody to frame James Mann, evidence your daughter found on Mitchell Boyd’s computer that could link Boyd to PrimaMed, and then, suddenly, Lindsey Wells goes missing? Marvin was right. The evidence against you fell into my lap. It was too neat and pat. And you’re right, too. I know better than to overlook a coincidence.”

“Marvin died because he got too close to the truth.”

“Speaking of truth, if I find out you’re lying to me, I swear to you, Tom Hawkins, I’ll put you down so hard, you’ll never get back up.”

Tom smiled. He found the fierceness in her voice irresistible.

“I’m supposed to bring pizza home for dinner.”

“I love pizza,” Rainy said.

Tom cleared the dinner dishes from the table and put the pizza boxes in the trash. He returned to the kitchen, carrying with him two glasses of wine, a merlot from a California vineyard that he’d grown fond of. For Jill he brought a Diet Coke.

Tom raised his glass and looked up at the ceiling. “To Marvin,” he said, hoisting his glass skyward. “You fought for me. Now I’m going to fight for you.”

Tom and Rainy each took a sip of wine. Jill drank some Coke, then went back to texting.

“They didn’t find her,” Jill said, looking up from her phone with a longing in her eyes.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Rainy asked.

Jill shrugged. “Maybe you can convince my dad to let me go on the search.”

“I can’t do that,” she said. “I think your father is right to keep a close watch over you. Whatever happened to Lindsey could be connected to Mitchell Boyd. Until we know more, it’s better if you stay close by.”

“The whole team is planning two shifts, starting at six in the morning and another at four in the afternoon,” Jill said. “How much safer can I be? I’m like a prisoner. It’s not fair.”

“I agree, it’s not,” said Tom. “But it is safest. Once we know what’s going on, we can reassess. For now, it’s the way it’s got to be. What if something really bad happened to Lindsey? What if you’re the next target, Jill? I can’t let anything happen to you. I won’t.”

“If something happened to her, it would be because of me,” Jill said.

And to Marvin because of me, thought Tom.

“She’s going to be found,” Tom said, trying to reassure her.

“I know she is,” Jill said softly. She looked a bit sheepish, uncomfortable even. Tom could tell she wanted to say something else but wasn’t sure how to say it. “Are you guys dating, or something?” she blurted.

Tom hadn’t known what Jill was going to say, but he certainly didn’t expect that. He suppressed most of an embarrassed cough, while Rainy’s cheeks flushed.

“No,” Tom said. “Rainy’s going to help investigate what happened to Marvin.”

Jill turned to Rainy, seeming satisfied with that answer. “What about Mitchell Boyd? The pictures I saw on his computer? Are they connected to Lindsey’s disappearance?”