David Baldacci - Simple Genius

Hazel waved this gesture off. “I don’t have anything to spend money on in this place. Just give it to Lindy. Way the girl goes through deadbeat men, she’ll need it. Four babies by four different sperm donors, excuse my French, and she’ll probably have four more before she’s done.” She sat quiet for a few moments and Horatio decided to ride it out.

“How is Michelle?” Hazel asked.

“She’s been better,” Horatio said frankly.

“I followed her career,” Hazel admitted. “Read about her in the papers and all.”

“You did? Why?”

“Look what the girl did with herself. Olympic athlete. Secret Service. Girl’s done herself proud. Always knew she would.”

“How?”

“Like you said, with a child you can tell how they’re going to be from a pretty early age. That girl was stubborn and determined. I remember thinking about her that it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog. And that girl was not going to let anything or anyone stand in her way.”

“You would’ve made a good psychologist.”

“I wanted to be a doctor. Graduated third in my class in college.”

“What happened?”

“My older brother wanted to be a doctor too. And back then the boys got what they wanted over the girls. So I stayed home, took care of my ailing parents and then got married, had my babies, my husband dropped dead of a coronary the day after he retired, and now here I am. Not much of a life, but it’s the only one I’ve got.”

“Raising a family is a pretty important job.”

“I’m not saying I regret any of it. But everybody has dreams. Some people, like Michelle, fight hard enough to realize theirs.”

“So did you notice a difference in her?”

“Yes. I couldn’t say it was when she was six. Too many years ago, you understand. But all of a sudden the child wouldn’t meet my eye and we were friends, had her over for little tea parties and such with some of the other neighborhood children. Then she stopped coming. Things would make her jump, or cry. Tried to talk to her mother, but Sally Maxwell didn’t want to hear about it. As it was they moved away shortly thereafter anyway.”

“And do you have an idea of what might have happened to cause the change in Michelle?”

“I’ve thought about it over the years, but nothing ever popped out at me.”

“One of the things that her family told me was that she became increasingly sloppy. And that hasn’t changed.”

“I wasn’t really invited over to their house much. Sally had her hands full, what with Frank gone so much with work and all.”

“I would’ve thought police work there would’ve had pretty regular hours.”

“Michelle was a late baby for them. Frank was trying hard to get on with a major city police force. He worked during the day and was taking night courses at a local college to get a master’s degree in criminal justice.”

“Ambitious guy. So nothing else you can tell me?”

“Well, there is one thing that’s puzzled me. Probably has nothing to do with what you’re looking at.”

“Right now, I’ll take anything.”

“Well, the Maxwells had a beautiful rose hedge that ran in front of their house. Frank planted it for an anniversary present to Sally. It was a pretty thing and the aroma. I used to go over there just to smell the flowers.”

“It’s not there anymore.”

“That’s right. I went to bed one night and woke up the next morning and somebody had chopped it all down.”

“Did you ever find out who did it?”

She shook her head. “Frank figured it was some kids he’d busted for drunk driving, but I’m not so sure about that. Teenage boys, what do they know from flowers? They would’ve slashed Frank’s tires or thrown rocks through the windows.”

“Do you remember when this was?”

She stared at the ceiling, the lips pursed again. “Nearly thirty years ago, I expect.”

“Or maybe twenty-seven or twenty-eight?”

“Could be, yes.”

Horatio sat back, deep in thought. Finally he rose and took out his wallet. Hazel immediately held up her hand.

“Give the money to Lindy. She’ll make your life miserable until you do.”

But Horatio wasn’t taking money out of his wallet. He wrote something down on the back of a card and handed it to her. “This is the name and number of a woman I know down here who can get you into a facility that’s a lot better. Give me a day to make the arrangements and then give her a call.”

“I don’t have money for a better facility.”

“It’s not how much money you have; it’s who you know, Hazel. And the place I’m thinking of has ongoing classes in different subjects, including medicine, if you’re still interested.”

The old woman took the card. “I thank you,” she said quietly.As Horatio turned to leave, she said, “If you see Michelle, would you tell her Hazel Rose said hello? And that I’m real proud of her?”

“Consider it done.”

Horatio walked down the hall, found Lindy flirting with a burly attendant in the visitor’s lounge, paid the sullen woman off and fled the state-supported hellhole.

As he climbed into his car he started wondering how vanishing rose hedges might have ended up destroying Michelle Maxwell’s life nearly three decades later.

THE NEXT MORNING MICHELLE WORKED OUT HARD, bitched at one of the nurses about the AWOL Horatio Barnes, went back to her room and ripped the straw out of Cheryl’s mouth after the woman emitted six excruciatingly long slurps in a row.

Then she heard the running feet heading her way and knew the moment of truth had arrived. She grabbed Cheryl, who was protesting loudly, and threw her in the bathroom. “Don’t come out until you hear one body hit the floor,” she yelled in the woman’s face. This remark actually made Cheryl stop screeching for her straw.

Michelle slammed the bathroom door, turned and braced herself.

The door to her room was kicked open and there was Barry, holding a metal pipe.

“You bitch!” he screamed.

“You drug dealer!” she screamed back in mock fury and then laughed. “So let me guess, they busted your partner this morning and he ratted on you.”

“You bitch!” he roared again.

She motioned with her hands. “Come and get me, Barry, baby. You know you want to. And after you kick my ass you can have yourself a real good time with me.”

He sprang forward, the pipe held high for the killing blow.

He flew backward just as fast when her foot collided with his face. She didn’t wait for him to recover. Her fist crashed into his gut and then she whirled around and delivered a crushing kick to his jaw driving him backward and over Cheryl’s bed. He struggled up, stunned by the strength of her blows. He threw the pipe at her, missing her head by an inch as she ducked. Then he picked up a chair and hurled that too, but Michelle was too nimble. He bounded over the bed and lunged for her, and caught nothing except air and a massive side kick to his kidneys that seemed to drive all the fight out of him.

He dropped to his knees groaning as she stood over him and for good measure drove an elbow into the back of his head. That sent him flat to the floor.

“I’m waiting, Barry. If you want to finish this, you better hurry; the cops will be here soon.”

“You bitch!”he moaned weakly.

“Yeah, you said that already. Can’t you think of something new?”

He tried to get up and she tensed to deliver a knockout blow when two Fairfax cops peered through the doorway, guns drawn.

She pointed at Barry. “He’s the one you want. I’m Michelle Maxwell, the one who tipped off Detective Richards yesterday.”