Mariah Stewart - Last Look

When Paula Rose disappeared into the church, Dorsey turned off the engine and watched for a while. When ten minutes had passed, she started up the car again and drove off, with no particular destination in mind. She wasn’t even sure why she’d driven to the church, except to have a place to go.

She drove hesitantly, not knowing which way to turn when she reached the stop sign at the end of the street. She was restless and feeling put out, and wondering if perhaps she shouldn’t go on back to Florida, back to working on her own cases. “Fat chance,” she muttered. She wasn’t going to leave until she was sent home.

A right turn would take her back toward the Randalls’. A left would take her out of town. She took the left, the road less traveled, and all that.

She wondered if John Mancini had given any thought to her request to join his unit. She had the feeling that her time here in Hatton might have been a test, and she couldn’t help wondering if she’d passed or failed.

Her cell phone rang and her hand reached out to grab it before it could ring a second time. She couldn’t answer it fast enough.

“Collins.”

“Miss Collins?”

Dorsey’s heart fell just a little. It wasn’t Andrew’s voice, but a woman’s.

“Who is this, please?” Dorsey asked.

“Miss Collins, this is Edith Chiong. Shannon ’s roommate.”

“Yes, Edith, of course. I remember you.” Dorsey paused. “How are you?”

“I am fine. I’m trying to reach Agent Shields, but he hasn’t returned my call. Then I remembered I had your card.”

“What can I do for you?”

“I, I have something I want to-you see, I’m leaving for Cincinnati and I want to make sure…but I don’t know…” She spoke quickly, then stopped.

“What is it, Edith?”

“I need to see you or Agent Shields before I leave Deptford.”

“When are you leaving?”

“Tonight. I have a ticket for the bus that leaves at six o’clock.”

“Where are you now?”

“I’m at the apartment. It’s on-”

“I remember.”

“Do you think you could come here? There’s something I have to give you.”

“What’s that?”

“ Shannon ’s diary.”

“I’m on my way.”

“Teach you to ignore my calls, Agent Shields.” Dorsey made a U-turn and headed back through the center of Hatton, then stepped on it once she got to the open highway. By noon she was knocking on the door of the apartment Edith Chiong had shared with Shannon Randall.

“I should have called before,” Edith said when she opened the door. “I should have told you before.”

“You’re telling me now.” Dorsey stepped inside and noticed the two small suitcases that stood in the middle of the living room. The furniture was gone except for a folding chair and the coffee table.

“I sold almost everything,” Edith explained.

“You mentioned you were going to Cincinnati. Do you have relatives there? A friend?”

“No.” She shook her dark head. “I heard about this place they have there. It’s for girls like me. Working girls? They help you make changes in your life.”

“Off the Streets?” Dorsey had heard of the program, newly begun in several cities across the country, that was formed to help prostitutes find another way of life.

“Yes, that’s it.” Edith smiled shyly. “A girl downtown told me about it. She left a few months ago and I heard from one of the other girls that she’s doing real good. She’s staying there at the shelter they have. She said the people there are real nice. I thought it might be worth a try.”

“It’s definitely worth it. Good for you, Edith.”

“Shannon and I used to talk about it, getting out of the life, you know? She didn’t get the chance.” Edith’s eyes welled.

“But you can. You’re taking it.”

Edith wiped her face with the side of her hand.

“You’re going to do fine, Edith. It’s a good first step.”

“I hope so. I hope I can.” She cleared her throat and stuck her hands in her pocket, and suddenly looked very young.

“You said on the phone…”

“ Shannon ’s diary.” Edith nodded. “Yes. I have it.” Edith reached into a large white leather handbag sitting on the floor near the door leading to the kitchen.

“I knew I had to give it to you. I just wanted to read it a few more times. When I read it I can hear her voice in my head, you know?”

She handed it to Dorsey.

“I wanted to keep it.”

The diary had a dirty white faux-leather cover and a lock that had long ago been broken.

“I don’t know if there’s anything in there that could help you find the person who killed her, but I thought maybe you’d see something I didn’t.”

“Thank you, Edith.” Dorsey slipped the diary into her own bag.

“What will happen to it?” Edith asked anxiously.

“It depends on what’s in it. If she talked about the night she left Hatton…”

Edith shook her head. “She didn’t write about that.”

“Then maybe there’s no reason for us to keep it. Look, I’ll read it through, and if there’s nothing in here that can help us solve the case, I’ll see what I can do about having it returned to you.”

“You will?”

Dorsey nodded. “Just make sure I know where you are, once you get there.”

“I will. Definitely.” Edith smiled. “It’s just that, I don’t have a lot of her, you know? She didn’t leave much behind.”

“By the way, where did you find the diary?”

“It was under her mattress. In an envelope.” Edith laughed. “The envelope said Carnival on it, so I wasn’t sure what was in it.”

“Edith, do you still have that envelope?”

She nodded. “Did you want that, too?”

“If I could.”

“Sure.” Edith took the brown envelope from the bag and gave it to Dorsey. “If you think it could help you.”

“I don’t know if it will, but maybe it will come in handy.” Dorsey smiled her thanks.

Dorsey had driven six miles out of Deptford before stopping at a convenience store. She went in and purchased a large soft drink with a lot of ice, then drove to the back of the lot and parked under a live oak with a huge sheltering canopy. She moved the seat back as far as it would go, got comfortable, and began to read. Shannon Randall had been twelve when she’d started to write in her diary. In it she’d recorded all the things that are important to girls of that age. What happened at school. What movies she saw. Who said what-did what-to whom. Who liked who that day, that week, that month. What grade she got on her history test. What silly thing happened in homeroom. What it was like to go from junior high to high school.

Dorsey sipped her cool drink and read it, cover to cover. When she finished, she closed the book gently and placed it on the seat next to her.

Before starting the car and heading back to Hatton, Dorsey placed another call to Andrew.

“I have Shannon ’s diary. I found one of the missing pieces of the puzzle. Not a big piece, maybe, but still, it’s something. Guess you’re going to have to start returning calls if you want to know what it is.”

Dorsey headed back toward Hatton, but couldn’t get there fast enough. Her first stop would be her motel room. She needed the list of names and addresses Judith had given them the first time she and Andrew had visited the Randall home. She hoped it was among the notes she’d kept in her folder, and not in Andrew’s briefcase.

She all but flew into the motel parking lot, kicking up some pebbles as she rounded the corner. She turned the key in the door and went right to the desk where she’d left the notes she’d been making all week. Relieved to see that the information she needed was there, she was back into her car within minutes of having left it. She drove straight out of town, following the directions Judith had given them. She turned right two blocks past the center of town; at 1813 Meadowlark Lane, she parked the car and got out.