Tess Gerritsen - The Silent Girl

“So you made yourself disappear.”

“I didn’t plan it ahead of time. But there I was with my class, walking Boston’s Freedom Trail.” She gave a sad laugh. “And suddenly I thought, I want to be free, too! And now is the time to do it. So I slipped away from the teachers. A few blocks later, I started thinking about how to throw everyone off track. I dropped my backpack and ID in an alley. I had enough cash to buy a bus ticket north. I wasn’t sure where I was going, I just knew I had to get away from my father. When I got to Maine, and I stepped off the bus, I suddenly felt like…” She sighed. “Like I’d arrived home.”

“And you stayed.”

“I got a job cleaning cabins for tourists. I met my husband, Joe. And that was the biggest gift of my life, finding a man who loves me. Who stands by me, no matter what.” She breathed in deeply and lifted her head. Sat up straight. “Here, I remade my life. Had my children. Together, Joe and I built these cabins. Built the business. I thought I’d be happy, just hiding away here forever.”

The sound of laughter drifted from the lake where Will and his sister, now dressed in bathing suits, were racing down the pier. They leaped off and their laughter turned to squeals as they plunged into the cold water. Susan rose from her chair and stared at her children, happily splashing in the lake.

“Samantha’s nine years old. The same age I was when it started. When my father first came into my bedroom.” Susan kept her back turned to Jane, as if she could not bear to let her see her face. “You think you can put the abuse behind you, but you never can. The past is always there, waiting to meet you in your nightmares. It pops up when you least expect it. When you smell gin and cigars. Or hear your bedroom door creak open at night. Even after all these years, he’s still tormenting me. And when Samantha turned nine, the nightmares got worse, because I saw myself at her age. So innocent, still untouched. I thought of what he did to me, and what he might have done to Laura. And I wondered if there were other girls, other victims I didn’t even know about. But I didn’t know how to bring him down, not all by myself. I didn’t have the courage.”

Outside, Will and Samantha climbed back onto the pier and stood drying off, laughing. Susan pressed her hand to the screen, as if drawing courage from her children.

“Then on March thirtieth,” said Susan, “I opened The Boston Globe. ”

“You saw Iris Fang’s ad. About the Red Phoenix massacre.”

“The truth has never been told,” Susan whispered. “That’s what the ad said. And suddenly I knew I wasn’t alone. That someone else was searching for answers. For justice.” She turned to face Jane. “That’s when I finally got the nerve to call Detective Ingersoll. I knew him because he’d investigated the Red Phoenix massacre. I told him about Laura’s pendant. About my dad and Mark. I told him there might be other missing girls.”

“So that’s why he started asking questions about the girls,” said Jane. Questions that had put him in danger, because word got back to Patrick that Ingersoll was gathering evidence, linking him not only to vanished girls but also to the Red Phoenix. He would have assumed that Iris Fang was behind it, because she’d placed the ad in the Globe . She’d lost both a daughter and a husband. Killing Iris and Ingersoll would eradicate the problem, so Patrick had hired professionals. But the killers had underestimated what they were up against.

“I was terrified that my father might find me,” said Susan. “I told Detective Ingersoll not to say anything that could be traced back to me. He promised that even his own daughter wouldn’t know what he was working on.”

“He kept his word. We had no inkling that you were the one who hired him. We assumed it was Mrs. Fang.”

“A few weeks later, he called me. He said we had to meet, and he drove up here. Told me he’d found a pattern. He’d come up with the names of three girls who might have met me before they vanished. Girls who’d attended the same tennis meet or the same music camp. It turned out I was the link. I was the reason they were chosen.” Her voice broke and she sank into the chair again. “Here I’ve been living with my little girl, safe and secure in Maine. I never knew there were other victims. If only I’d been braver, I could have stopped this a long time ago.”

“It has been stopped, Susan. And you did have a role in it.”

She looked at Jane, her eyes glistening. “Only a minor role. Detective Ingersoll died for it. And you’re the one who finished it.”

But not alone, thought Jane. I had help.

“Mom?” The girl’s voice drifted in from the shadows outside. Samantha stood beyond the screen, her slim figure silhouetted against the reflected light from the lake behind her. “Dad said to come get you. He’s not sure if it’s time to take the pie out of the oven.”

“I’m coming, sweetheart.” Susan rose to her feet. As she swung open the screen door, she glanced back and smiled at Jane. “Dinner’s ready. Come when you get hungry,” she said, and she stepped out, letting the door squeal shut behind her.

From the porch, Jane watched Susan take Samantha’s hand. Together, mother and daughter walked away along the water’s edge and faded into the twilight. They held hands the whole way.

FUJIAN PROVINCE, CHINA

THE SWEET SCENT OF INCENSE WAFTS ACROSS THE COURTYARD where Bella and I stand before the tomb of her father’s ancestors. It is an ancient cemetery. For at least a thousand years, generations of the Wu family have been interred here, and now Wu Weimin’s ashes lie joined with his forefathers. No longer does his tormented soul wander the spirit world, crying out for justice. Here he will finally lie, for an eternity, in peace.

As the shadows deepen to night, Bella and I light candles and bow to her father’s memory. Suddenly I sense the presence of someone else, and I turn to see a figure step through the courtyard gate. Although I cannot see his face in the gloom, I know by his silent approach, by the easy grace with which he moves, that it is Wu Weimin’s son by his first wife, the son who has never forgotten him and has continued to honor him. As the man moves into the glow of candlelight, Bella nods to her half brother and he returns the greeting with a sad smile. They are so alike, these two, both as unyielding as the stone that entombs their father’s ashes. Now that their duty has been fulfilled, I wonder what will become of them. When you have devoted half your young life to a single goal, and you finally reach it, what is left to be accomplished?

He gives me a respectful bow. “ Sifu , I am sorry to be late. My flight from Shanghai was delayed because of weather.”

I study his face in the candlelight and I see more than fatigue in the worry lines around his eyes. “Are there problems in Boston?”

“I believe she knows. I feel her watching and probing. I sense her suspicion every time she looks at me.”

“What will happen now?”

He gives a long sigh and stares at the burning candles. “I think-I hope-that she understands. She wrote me a glowing commendation. And she wants me to work with her on another Chinatown investigation.”

I smile at Johnny Tam. “Detective Rizzoli is not so different from us. She may not agree with the way we accomplished our objective, but I believe she understands why we did it. And she approves.”