Alex Barclay - The Drowning Child

‘Some of the photos from the garden are more recent,’ said Ren. ‘I’m going to show you parts of some of the photos – obviously, I won’t be showing you anything distressing, but I think you might recognize the background.’

She showed them to Teddy. ‘Yes,’ said Teddy, horrified. ‘That’s our garden.’

Patti Ellis burst into tears. Her body folded in on itself, her head bowed against her knees. Ren and Teddy turned to her.

‘Oh my God,’ said Patti. ‘Oh my God.’

‘What?’ said Teddy. ‘What is it?’

Patti gestured toward the photographs. ‘I remember that time... you were in the hospital, John was in Iraq.’ She looked up at Ren, her eyes filled with pain. She pointed to an arm in one of the photos, where there was a triangle of dark freckles. ‘I know who that is.’

Ren’s heart rate shot up.

‘It’s Jimmy Lyle,’ said Patti.

‘Jimmy Lyle?’ said Ren. ‘Roger Lyle’s son?’

Patti wept. ‘I’m so sorry, Teddy, I’m so sorry. This is my fault – I brought Jimmy into Caleb’s life. I was seeing him back then. He was married, but we had this thing, on and off for years. I didn’t say anything, because I was ashamed, and he didn’t want his wife to find out, and...’

Teddy was momentarily speechless. Then, ‘Did you know about this, though?’ pointing towards the photos, her voice edging immediately into hysteria. ‘That Jimmy was into this?’

‘No!’ said Patti. ‘Of course I didn’t! I trusted him completely!’

‘Did you leave Caleb alone with him?’ said Teddy.

‘Yes,’ said Patti. ‘But not for a second did I think—’

‘How could you not have known?’ said Teddy. ‘How?’

Ren cut in. ‘A lot of people don’t know these things,’ she said. ‘People are very good at hiding those parts of themselves.’

Teddy turned to Patti. ‘You were supposed to be looking after my son!’

‘I was!’ said Patti.

Teddy looked at Ren. ‘Do you have photos of Caleb? ‘Have you seen any? Is it definite?’

‘No,’ said Ren. ‘I haven’t, however, received all the photos, yet.’

Teddy turned to Patti. ‘Does John know about this?’

‘No!’ said Patti. ‘Wouldn’t he have told you?’

‘No,’ said Teddy. ‘He likes to protect me from things.’ She glanced at Ren, and got a compassionate look in return.

Shit... if John Veir knows about this, and knows that Jimmy Lyle is back in town... maybe John has gone to find him. Or maybe if John found out Jimmy left town last week, he might have thought he took Caleb with him. He didn’t tell us, because he wanted the chance to confront him.

The full investigation team were gathered in the command center when Ren arrived back at Tate PD. Ruddock was at the top of the room.

Whoa: this looks serious.

‘OK,’ said Ruddock. ‘We have an update on Merrifield. The real estate agent shares a house with a divorced woman called Serena Jones, whose boyfriend is a courier for a pharmaceutical company that delivers to Salem Hospital. Jones’s maiden name is... Lockwood.’

He waited for everyone to process the information.

Oh my God. ‘Lockwood was the supplier in BRCI,’ said Ren.

‘According to Salem PD, Jones and her boyfriend have admitted to getting Merrifield out of the hospital that day in his delivery van,’ said Ruddock. ‘He deliberately held back some of his Friday delivery so he had a reason to be there on a Sunday.’ He paused. ‘Then Jones used her roommate’s key to gain access to the Lyle house.’

‘And was there a plan?’ said Ren. ‘Why were they doing this?’

‘Because Lockwood told them Merrifield threatened to blow his cover,’ said Ruddock. ‘They’re keeping quiet on the rest of it. They admit to supplying Merrifield with the heroin, but they’re not going to admit the OD was deliberate.’

‘So Merrifield thought they were going to release him into the wild?’ said Ren.

‘Apparently, so,’ said Ruddock.

‘Have they taken Rob Lockwood in?’ said Ren.

‘He’s waiting for his lawyer,’ said Ruddock.

Paul Louderback turned to Ren. ‘Do you want to fill everyone in on the Veirs?’

‘Sure,’ said Ren.

After the meeting, Ruddock called Ren into his office, closed the door behind them.

You look haunted in the eye.

‘What is it?’ said Ren.

‘There’s something I want to show you,’ said Ruddock. He handed her a Christmas card.

She read it. ‘It’s from Wiley. And his wife.’ Then she looked up at him. The handwriting – it’s the same as the note in Roger Lyle’s room. ‘Written by his wife?’ said Ren.

‘Isabella, yes,’ said Ruddock. ‘It looked familiar when I saw it, but I didn’t want to say anything...’

Because you know I have my doubts about Wiley.

‘I wanted to make sure I was right,’ said Ruddock. ‘It took me a while to find the card. I haven’t said a word to Gil,’ said Ruddock.

Isabella Wiley’s drink problem, Isabella found wandering drunkenly on Harvest Road the previous Thursday.

‘She must have gone to confront Lyle,’ said Ren. ‘Hearing about Aaron pushed her over the edge.’

‘Knowing that it was the night of the middle school dance and Lyle’s house was so close to the school...’

‘Lyle probably said something vile to her, as these assholes do,’ said Ren, ‘and whatever it was left her in a weeping mess on the side of the road for her husband to pick up. She obviously can’t bear to tell him.’

‘You know, I still have my wife’s photos,’ said Ruddock. ‘I went through the boxes.’ He handed Ren a photo. It was a beautiful, beaming little Latina girl in a swimsuit. A towel was thrown on the bench behind her. Ren could make out the image of a swan.

‘Oh, God,’ said Ren. ‘She’s in one of the CVIP videos.’ She shook her head. ‘Poor Isabella.’ She paused. ‘And poor Wiley.’

Ren went back to her desk and continued going through the images. She stopped when she saw something familiar in a little boy of about ten years old with auburn hair to his shoulders, standing proud, his chest out, a swimming medal on a ribbon around his neck.

The next images were him again, but they were all wrong.

Oh, God. Oh, God.

Not you too.

Fuck.

Ren called Ruddock. ‘I’m going to go out to The Crow Bar,’ said Ren, ‘I need to talk to Seth Fuller. It looks like he was one of Roger Lyle’s victims, too.’

‘I just got a call about Seth Fuller,’ said Ruddock. ‘I’m afraid it’s not good.’

Ren parked the car in the parking lot, but sat holding the steering wheel, her head bowed. She thought of Seth Fuller as a little boy, his long hair being grabbed by Roger Lyle, so he could torture him, so he could be his killer or his savior, so he could twist him all up inside and damage him and make him reach out to dissolve the pain. She thought of him watching the world going on around him, seeing dumber kids get better grades than him, feeling a terrible emptiness inside where he had been robbed of his innocent soul. She thought of him tearing open a fentanyl patch and how tragic it was that to take that was worth more to him than his life.

Just do this.

Seth Fuller looked up at Ren from his hospital bed, panic in his eyes, his face ghostly, his skinny body hooked up to monitors, tiny little lines making sure everyone knew that his heart still beat, that his blood still flowed, that he was alive, that he had a chance, that he had a future.

She blinked back tears. ‘Hey,’ she said. ‘I’m so glad you made it.’ She sat down on the chair beside his bed, touched his arm.