Jan Burke - Sweet Dreams, Irene

“Yes. Julie? Have a seat.” I pulled the other chair up next to her. The presses were running, so it was hard to hear.

“I’m here because I have to do something to help Jacob.”

“Does your father know how eager you are to come to Jacob’s aid?”

“No. Well, maybe. I begged him not to put that flyer out, but he never listens to me anyway. He doesn’t know I’m here, if that’s what you mean.”

“Are you and Jacob seeing one another?”

She looked down. “Off the record?”

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! You political brats are going to drive me wild!”

She looked so taken aback, I realized my lack of sleep was starting to affect my self-control. “Forgive me, Julie. I’m a little edgy today. Yes, okay, off the record.”

“No one can know.”

“It’s hell to try to keep that kind of thing a secret.”

“No kidding. But we’ve managed to keep it quiet for almost a year. We met at a Christmas party they held last year, for all the families in the D.A.’s office. Jacob and I talked, and it just seemed like we both had something in common – you know, our dads and all. Like you said, political brats.”

“You have sisters and they don’t know about it?”

“My sisters and I don’t get along very well. They couldn’t care less. In fact, most of the time, everybody in the family is so wrapped up in their own problems, they don’t even notice whether I’m there or not.”

It was hard to imagine anyone not noticing her. Julie Montgomery was a beautiful, dark-haired girl with large brown eyes. She had the kind of figure that causes morning traffic to slow down in front of high schools.

“You said you wanted to help Jacob. What did you have in mind?”

“I know he isn’t a witch or a Satanist or any of those things.”

“What am I supposed to do? Write that Jacob Henderson’s anonymous girlfriend swears he’s just not that kind of guy?”

She looked down. “We’re going to tell our parents after the election is over. Right now it’s impossible. I can’t.”

“What I’m trying to tell you is that even if you let me use your name, I have to have more than just your affection for him on the scale. I need something that will have a little weight with the public. Were you around the night the photo was taken?”

“No, Daddy took us with him on his rounds of meetings that night.”

“Is that usual?”

“Not really. He brings us to the really big stuff – you know, fancy dinners and all of that – but mostly I think he wants us out of the way.”

“Do you know any of the kids in this coven?”

“No, just Sammy. She knows about Jacob and me, but I haven’t spent much time around her. She kind of – well, she hangs out with a different crowd. But she’s been good about not telling anyone about us.”

“Do you know who took the photo?”

She shook her head.

“Do you know how your father found out about this coven?”

Again, no.

“I’m sorry, Julie. I think it’s great that you’ve risked talking to me and that you’re trying to be of help. But I just don’t see what it is I can learn from you that will counteract what’s in that flyer. I like Jacob, too, but I can’t just make things up; I’ve got to report the facts as clearly as I can.”

For a moment, I thought I was going to be three-for-three in teenage crying jags, but she surprised me. Her disappointment couldn’t be hidden, but she held back the tears. “Jacob really likes you,” she said. “It’s funny, he’s all excited about being on the paper at school. I think it’s the only good thing going for him right now.”

“I suspect you’re on the list of good things going for Jacob Henderson. As far as the flyer goes, I’d suggest you try not to take all of this on your own shoulders. It’s something your fathers are going to have to fight about; it’s not anything you have any control over. Just try to hang on until next Wednesday.”

“By then the whole county is going to believe Jacob worships the devil.”

“By then the whole county will have forgotten about it.”

She shook her head. “I can’t stand watching him get hurt like this. By my own father!”

Were the tears going to fall after all? No. Determined streak in this one.

She stood up and reached out a hand. “Thanks for meeting me.”

“Thank you. Sorry to disappoint you.” I pulled out a business card. “Give me a call if you think of anything or hear anything that might be of importance, okay?”

“Okay.”

I led her out to the main lobby and watched her leave.

Not half a minute later, Mark Baker came running past me. He stopped at the door and turned toward me.

“SWAT teams are out down at the harbor. Couple of cops barricaded in a building with a suspect in the Gillespie murders. I think it might be Pete and Frank in there with him. Want to come along?”

Before I could answer, a voice boomed behind me, “She’s got her own work to do, Baker. Get your ass down there!”

I turned on John Walters. All the fear that had hold of me a split second before had turned to a blinding rage. He saw it in my face. He mirrored it in his own. Just as I was ready to start screaming at him about finding a small, dark lodging place for this job, a soft voice spoke up.

“Why, Mr. Walters, I can’t believe you meant to say that. If it weren’t for Detective Harriman, we wouldn’t know who killed Mr. O’Connor. And I hate to think of what would have happened to Miss Kelly. You don’t mean to keep her here while he’s being shot at?”

It was Geoff. Blessed Geoff, who will someday inherit the earth. He somehow took the wind out of our sails.

John sighed. “Shit. Come on, Kelly. I’ll take you there myself.”

This was startling. John didn’t go out on stories. I just stood there, feeling numb.

“Well, for godsakes, Irene, you don’t think I’m going to let you go down there to face that alone, do you?” he said gruffly, taking my elbow and propelling me toward the door.

I turned and shot Geoff a look of gratitude, but the anxious look on his face made me suddenly feel the impact of every word I’d heard in the last few minutes.

I let John pull me out the door.

EVEN PRESS CREDENTIALS couldn’t get us very close to the center of activity down at the harbor. We caught up to Mark Baker. He told us that Frank and Pete had come down to the waterfront that morning to question someone who was seen in the park about the time the Gillespie girl had disappeared – a man by the name of Jerry Tanner.

A bystander had seen a green van leaving the parking lot shortly before the Gillespies started looking for their daughter; the witness hadn’t been able to give a plate number. There had been a lot of people in the park that day, and tracking down those who had been near the site of the birthday party wasn’t easy. But a neighbor of Tanner’s had seen him there, and she knew he drove a green van. She had read about the van in the paper and called the police that morning. Frank and Pete had learned that he worked in a warehouse for an export company down in the harbor, a few blocks from where the body was discovered. They came down to where he worked to question him.

Apparently, Tanner saw them enter the building, and had taken out a gun. The other workers had fled, but he managed to pin down Frank and Pete in the building with him. Gunshots had been heard, but no one knew more than that.

Behind a barricade, Captain Bredloe was conferring with Lieutenant Carlson and the commander of the SWAT team, whose members were moving into position on surrounding buildings, some moving closer to the warehouse itself. I looked down and realized that my fists were clenched so tight my nails were stabbing into my palms.