Jonathan Kellerman - Rage

“Sorry for the interruption,” said Cherish. “She’s a terrific kid but she needs a lot of structure.”

“A.D.D.?” I said.

“It’s that obvious, huh?” Now she stared at me with wide blue eyes. “ I know who you are. The psychologist who saw Rand.”

“Alex Delaware.” I held out my hand.

She took it readily. “We met at the jail.”

“Yes, we did, Reverend.”

“I guess,” she said, “our paths cross at sad junctures.”

“Occupational hazard,” I said. “Both our occupations.”

“I suppose… actually, I’m not a minister, just a teacher.”

I smiled. “ Just a teacher?”

“It comes in handy,” she said. “For homeschooling. We homeschool the kids.”

Milo said, “Foster kids?”

“That’s right.”

“How long do they stay with you?” I said.

“No set time. Val was supposed to be with us for sixty days while her mother was evaluated for detox. Then her mother O.D.’d and died and all of Val’s relatives live in Arizona. She barely knows them- her mom ran away from home. Top of that, they weren’t interested in taking her. So she’s been with us nearly a year.”

“How many fosters do you care for?”

“It varies. My husband’s shopping over at Value Club. We buy in bulk.”

“What was the arrangement with Rand Duchay?” said Milo.

“The arrangement?”

“With the state.”

Cherish Daney shook her head. “That wasn’t a formal situation, Lieutenant. We knew Rand was being released and had nowhere to go so we took him in.”

“The county had no problem with his being here?” said Milo. “With kids?”

“It never came up.” She stiffened. “You’re not going to cause problems for us, are you? It wouldn’t be fair to the kids.”

“No, ma’am. It was just a question that came to mind.”

“There was never any danger,” she said. “Rand was a good person.”

Same claim he’d made. Neither Milo nor I answered.

Cherish Daney said, “I don’t expect you to believe this, but eight years transformed him.”

“To?”

“A good person, Lieutenant. He wasn’t going to be with us long term, anyway. Just until he found a job and a place to stay. My husband had made inquiries with some nonprofits, figuring maybe Rand could work at a thrift shop, or do some landscaping work. Then Rand took the initiative and came up with the idea of construction. That’s where he went Saturday.”

“Any idea how he ended up in Bel Air?”

She shook her head. “He’d have no reason to be there. The only thing I can think of is he got lost and someone picked him up. Rand could be very trusting.”

“He never phoned you?”

“He didn’t have a phone,” she said.

He’d called me from a pay booth.

Milo said, “How close is the construction site?”

“Up a few blocks on Vanowen.”

“Not very far, in terms of getting lost.”

“Lieutenant, Rand spent his entire adolescence in prison. When he got out he was extremely disoriented. His world was a buzz of confusion.”

“William James,” I said.

“Pardon?”

“Pioneer of psychology. He called childhood a blooming, buzzing confusion.”

“I probably learned that,” said Cherish. “I took psychology in seminary.”

Milo said, “So you kept in regular contact with Rand while he was in custody.”

“We did,” she said. “Right after Troy died, we initiated contact.”

“Why then?”

“Initially, we were more involved with Troy because we knew him before the trouble.”

“The trouble being Kristal Malley’s murder,” said Milo.

Cherish Daney looked away. Her stoop became more pronounced.

“How’d you know Troy before, Mrs. Daney?”

“When my husband and I were students, part of our community service seminar involved identifying needs in the community. Our apartment wasn’t that far from 415 City, so we knew its reputation. Our faculty adviser thought it would be a good place to find kids with needs. We talked to Social Services and they identified several prospects. Troy was one of them.”

“Rand wasn’t?” I said.

“Rand never got his name on any lists.”

“Troublemaker lists?” said Milo.

She nodded. “We met with Troy a couple of times, tried to get him involved with church or sports or a hobby, but we never really connected. Then, after… he must’ve mentioned us to his lawyer because she contacted us and said it would be a great time to start counseling him spiritually.”

Bible in a cell. Smooth talk about sin.

“Why didn’t you connect initially?” said Milo.

“You know how it is. Kids don’t always take to talking.”

She looked to me for confirmation. Before I could offer any, Milo said, “Being arrested help Troy’s communication skills?”

She sighed. “You think we’re naive. It’s not that we were unaware of the enormity of what Troy had done. But we recognized that he’d also been victimized. You met his mother, Doctor.”

“Where is she?” I said.

“Dead,” she said. Snapping off the word. “After Troy’s body was ready for burial, the Chino coroner’s office contacted us. They couldn’t find Jane and we were the only other people on his visitor list. We contacted Ms. Weider but she no longer worked for the Public Defender. Troy’s body sat at the morgue until our dean agreed to donate a plot in San Bernadino where some of the faculty members are buried. We conducted a service.”

She touched her crucifix. Suddenly, tears streamed down her face. She made no effort to dry them. “That day. My husband and myself and Dr. Wascomb- our dean. A beautiful, sunny day and we watched cemetery workers lower that pathetic little coffin into the ground. A month later, Detective Kramer called us. Jane had been found under a freeway ramp, one of those homeless encampments, wrapped up in a sleeping bag and plastic tarp. Which is the way she always slept, so the other homeless people didn’t think anything of it until she still hadn’t budged by noon. She’d been stabbed sometime during the night. Whoever killed her wrapped her back up.”

She shuddered, pulled out the tissue paper bookmark and wiped her face.

Milo said, “How long was that after Troy’s death?”

“Six weeks, two months, what’s the difference? My point is, these were lost boys. And now, Rand.”

“Any idea who’d want to hurt Rand?”

She shook her head.

“What was his mood like?”

“Disoriented, as I told you. Reeling from freedom.”

“Not happy at all about getting out?”

“To be honest? Not really.”

“Did he have any plans other than getting a job?”

“We were taking things slowly. Helping him settle in.”

“Could we see his room?”

“Sure,” she said. “Such as it is.”

We followed her through a compact, tidy living room; a dim galley kitchen and eating area; then a low, narrow corridor. One bedroom, the master, with barely enough room for the furniture that filled it. A single bathroom served the entire house.

At the end of the hall was a windowless space, eight-foot square. Cherish Daney said, “This is it.”

Cheap paneling covered the walls. Capped off pipes sprouted from the vinyl floor.

Milo said, “This used to be a laundry room?”

“Service porch. We moved the washer and dryer outside.”

A framed Bible scene- Nordic Solomon and two Valkyrian women claiming motherhood of the same fat, blond infant- hung over a foldable cot. A white plastic lamp sat on a raw wood nightstand. Milo opened the drawers. Well-thumbed Bible on top, nothing in the bottom.

A dented footlocker served as a closet. Inside were two white T-shirts, two blue work shirts, a pair of blue jeans.