A Tangle in the Vines Read online

  “I, um, I’m not sure why I said that,” I stuttered. “Now that I think about it, I could have mixed up what he said with something reported in the media. I’m sure I saw him on television with Penney’s parents. When Penney first disappeared, Rachel Lincoln was on the air begging for information about her daughter.” Dahlia peered at me trying to gauge my truthfulness. If she planned on interrogating me further, Jesse put a stop to it.

  “Yeah, well Mrs. Lincoln wasn’t always so great on camera. She was hysterical at times and chewed out the police about not doing more. Don’t say I’m being too hard on a desperate parent because she was like that before Penney vanished. I remember a visit she made to elementary school. She was angry that Penney was in detention and threw a huge fit. I was waiting for her to punch the vice principal. No wonder she hired an attorney, she had to be a prime suspect.”

  “All parents are suspects when a child goes missing, but maybe they had more reason to be worried than most,” Rikki murmured.

  “Penney must have been embarrassed. I would have been humiliated, Jesse.”

  “She was. Maybe that’s another reason it was so easy for me to believe she’d finally found some guy who could get her out of there.”

  “Okay, so that makes me even more certain Children’s Services is the way to go,” I argued. “Diane’s already mixed up in all of this, so you won’t have to call on anyone else to dig into Penney Lincoln’s family background. Diane must qualify for extra duty pay. I hope she’s got a good therapist.”

  “Anyone who does the work she does, day after day, has to learn how to deal with compassion fatigue and secondhand trauma,” Rikki sighed. “We’re pushing the limits, though, I’m sure.”

  “At least she’s not sleep-deprived, like you two are.” Rikki and Dahlia both nodded. “Do you want me to speak to Diane about Penney Lincoln?”

  “No, we should try to restore some sort of boundaries between us, the professionals who assist us, and our witnesses,” Rikki said smiling. “I’ll tell her what we’d like her to do for us now. Once we know when the Lewis family is planning to visit, I’m heading to my hotel for a nap.”

  “You don’t need to do that. We have plenty of places for you to sleep. When Ma Tucker returns with her gang, we’ll fix lunch, and you can join us. You too, Dahlia.”

  “Thanks, Lily. A chair in a quiet corner will do it for me.” That’s when all our phones began to ring.

  11 Dustin’s Debut

  I ran through the butler’s pantry and grabbed the phone in the kitchen. I heard Jesse shout, “Where?” Then he ran past me and out the backdoor.

  “Lily?”

  “Yes? What is it, Judy?”

  “He’s here. The Numbers Man.” Judy spoke in hushed tones.

  “Where?”

  “In the basement of the theater building.”

  “Jesse’s on his way.” I heard the front door slam as I said that. That had to be Dahlia or Rikki or maybe both women. “Rikki and Dahlia too. Let me go get them and tell them where you are.”

  “No, no, please don’t do that. Is there any way you can get over here without attracting attention? The guy says he needs to talk to you and that it’s very important.”

  “Why me?”

  “He hasn’t told us. Will you just get over here? Billie says to tell you please not to bring the police or say a word to them. He doesn’t want anyone to get hurt.”

  “Okay. I don’t want him to hurt Billie,” I cried. A gasp from behind me caused my heart to jump into my throat. I’d forgotten all about poor Diane. Spotting her gave me an idea though.

  “Judy wants me to go to the theater building. She says the man we’ve been looking for is in the basement and he’s got Billie. Billie’s asked me not to say a word to the police. Will you come with me? If we get stopped, you can say I’m showing you the way to the theater building so you can check on Billie or bring him back to the house or something like that. For some reason, the Numbers Man wants to speak to me.”

  “We could stand here and argue about it, but let’s go. I won’t lie for you, though. Billie didn’t tell me not to speak to the police.” Before she could utter another word or change her mind, I ran for the front door. Diane shut the door and followed me down the steps from the porch, taking a little longer to navigate them in the pumps she wore.

  I made a beeline for the theater, taking the shortest route to the cover of the trees Aunt Lettie had planted around the theater grounds. I could hear shouts off in the distance and saw Dahlia’s police car careening down the main road to the entrance gate. I hoped they were moving too fast to have seen us.

  Once we were hidden by the trees, I ran down the middle aisle to the stage. When I turned to mount the steps to the stage, Diane was only a few steps behind me. She’d kicked off her pumps and was carrying them as she ran in her bare feet.

  “Thank goodness I didn’t skip my water aerobics class this week!”

  She was breathing hard, and so was I. “This had better not be another prank, or I’ll call Judge Brinkley and ask him to rescind his order placing Billie in your care. Now what?”

  “Up the stairs to the stage and then down the backstage stairs to the basement. After that, we improvise.” Minutes later, we were at the door leading into the huge lower level. When I turned the knob the door was locked, so I knocked.

  “Who is it?”

  “Billie, is that you?”

  “Yes! I knew you’d come.” He opened the door wide and then closed it a little. “Ms. Constantine, you’re still here.”

  “Yes I am. I have good news for you from Judge Brinkley.” She spoke in a chirpy voice, but there was anxiety written all over her face.

  “Stay here while I see if I can fix this, okay?”

  Fix what? I wondered as Billie shut the door.

  “How odd,” I muttered.

  “You’re surprised by odd?” We both shut up when Billie opened the door and told us to come in. As soon as we were inside, he shut the door and locked it. A man stood in the shadows near the cement walls beneath the windows. He was shielded from the sunlight that streamed in through the half-windows placed above us at ground level.

  Judy and my diva friends were sitting around a large worktable piled high with all sorts of tools and supplies. I don’t believe I’d ever seen all of them so quiet at once. When Marlowe saw me, he began to whine and wiggle. He squirmed away from Carrie, ran, and sprang into my arms. Dustin stepped backward.

  “It’s okay, Dustin. See how much the little dog trusts her? Lily won’t hurt you and she won’t let anyone else hurt you either.” Billie sounded too mature for a twelve-year-old.

  A breeze blew in from an open window and an unpleasant odor came from where the Numbers Man stood. Nothing as foul-smelling as the slime pit. More horsey—like old, dirty hay. His hair and clothes were dirty. There was mud caked on his boots.

  “These ladies are helping me. They can help you if you let them.” Billie took Dustin’s hand and brought him closer to us. Dustin’s head was down. “This is Lily.”

  “I know who she is. I saw her when she was small with a happy face. She wore hats and clothes and talked in different voices. I liked to watch her run through the woods with the other girls.” It took me a moment to process what he’d said. Not only that he’d been watching us, but he’d been living in the woods for twenty years. How was that possible?

  “Dustin, if you were watching us, why didn’t you join us?” I asked.

  “I was too big and wrinkled like an old man. I didn’t want to scare you. After they took Billie off the fence, I heard him. It made me sad that I scared him even when he couldn’t see me. He was good at watching me in the woods and I made sure the Sitter never hurt him.”

  “Dustin says he didn’t hurt Ms. Wainwright, but that it was his fault—until I told him what you said, Lily. That what other people do is about them, not us. Dustin never hurt anyone—the Sitter did it.”

  “Is that true, Dustin?” I asked.
r />   “Yes. It was my job to watch over the bodies, so they didn’t get out. I did something wrong, they’re out, and now the Sitter’s got to fix it. I came to tell Billie I’m sorry I scared him and I’m sorry the bodies got out.”

  “Judy told you that’s not your fault either. Coyotes and the rain did it,” Billie reminded Dustin.

  “If you didn’t hurt anyone, and the Sitter did, why don’t you want us to call the police?” I asked.

  “Because they’ll blame me like they did when the house burned down.”

  “Show Lily your arm.” Billie lifted Dustin’s hand and slid up one of his jacket sleeves. It didn’t move much, but it was easy to see scarring.

  “I’m so sorry. Did the Sitter set the house on fire?” I asked.

  “No. He told me my sister’s body got out. She set the house on fire to kill Mom and Dad. When I told the police, they said I was lying and took me to a place where there weren’t any woods.”

  “That must have made you very unhappy,” I said. “How did you get back here to the woods?”

  “Go on, you can tell Lily,” Billie urged.

  Then one of the women at the table sneezed. Dustin bolted. In a split second, he was on top of the boxes stacked next to the windows. When he raised his head to steady himself, even in the shadows I could see that his face was badly burned. I also knew he wasn’t the man who had glared at me from the fiery darkness during the savage storm.

  “Come down, please, Dustin. I have so many questions for you. My friends will make room for us at the table, and you can tell me more. Billie says you know lots about numbers. I’d like you to teach me about the numbers, okay?”

  “That’s not what I wanted to tell you. Watch out for the Sitter. Don’t be fooled because his face is bright and shiny. His heart is dark. He’s even better than you were at pretending, and he says it’s your fault, Lily.”

  “Dustin, I’m scared. What’s my fault? Come down here, please, and tell me who he is.” He appeared to be considering it when there was a ruckus outside the basement door Billie had opened for Diane and me. Then there was banging on the door at the opposite end of the room. Distracted by the noise I turned away, and when I turned back around, Dustin was gone. The window clattered shut.

  “Judy, will you answer that door while I get this one?” When I opened the door, Dahlia was standing there with her gun drawn. Before I could speak, she brushed past me doing that thing I’d seen cops do during filming. Pointing the gun one way and then another, Dahlia scanned the room until she reached Jesse, who’d come in the other way. Rikki stood next to Jesse.

  “What are you all doing now?” Dahlia asked, putting her gun in its holster. “Why do you stink like an old barn?”

  “It’s not me. You just scared off the Numbers Man. If you’d given us a few more minutes, we could probably have turned him over to you so you could take him into protective custody.” It took Dahlia only about thirty seconds to figure out the only other way out of the room was through the windows.

  “Go, you guys!” Dahlia ordered. “Search every inch of the property between here and the woods. He can’t sneak around during the day like he does at night.”

  I didn’t challenge her as two uniformed officers ran out the door and up the steps. Still, Dustin had managed to get onto the property in broad daylight. Jesse’s security patrol and the police patrols hadn’t seen him. I remembered what Austin had said earlier about the Numbers Man being so much more familiar with the property than the rest of us.

  “If you’d read us in on what you planned to do, we might have been able to help. Jesse got a phone call about the Numbers Man and one of the officers who took Jim’s place called Dahlia. One of the vineyard pickers flagged us down and said he saw someone go into the theater from the stage. Am I right to assume that the call you took was from one of these folks?” Rikki eyed the women sitting around the table.

  “Don’t blame Lily or anyone else. I’m the one who told her to get over here as fast as she could without talking to the police. I may have led her to believe that Billie was in danger when he wasn’t,” Judy said.

  “If Lily believed Billie was in danger, that was more reason to involve us, not less,” Rikki said, shaking her head as if she’d had it. I’d say Rikki was doing a little counting now—to ten maybe as she struggled to regain her composure. “Start at the beginning and explain what happened. Then you’re all going home and you’re not setting foot outside without express permission from Dahlia or me.”

  “Excuse me!” Zelda said, jumping out of her seat. She was winding up to chew Rikki out.

  “Are we under arrest?” Melody asked as she reached over and tugged on Zelda’s sleeve.

  “Not yet. For now, I’m putting you all into protective custody for your own good, and my sanity. Say another word, though, and Dahlia will start making arrests.” Melody yanked Zelda’s arm hard and made her sit. “Now give us the scoop about the Numbers Man. I take it he came in through the window since that’s the way he left.”

  “Yes, we’d left a window open to get rid of the musty smell,” Judy explained. “Billie came down here to get some scissors and straight pins for us. When he didn’t come back quickly, I was worried that he was having trouble finding the sewing supplies. I stepped through the door, and the Numbers Man dragged Billie into the shadows.”

  “We were talking, and when Judy came in, he got scared. I told Judy that his name was Dustin, and he wasn’t going to hurt me. He came out in the daytime to tell us he’d never hurt anyone because he knows what pain feels like.”

  “I’m sorry we’ve ticked you off, Rikki. I don’t believe the Numbers Man is the killer, but he knows who it is. I’m as upset as you are that he disappeared again. It’s not like I had time to call and check things out with you.” I avoided Dahlia’s gaze, afraid of what she might say if I looked at her the wrong way. “If I’d told you the troubled man you believe killed five people was in here, would you have waited to hear him out before scaring him so badly that he became catatonic?”

  “Probably not, but that wasn’t your call to make. This is a serious police investigation, and I’m warning all of you to lie low, or I’m going to turn Dahlia loose. Now someone please fill us in on Dustin, the Numbers Man’s, theatrical debut.”

  Judy and Billie were able to do that in less than five minutes. His visit had been a short one. He’d repeated himself a lot when I got here, so I’d heard most of what he’d had to say.

  “How much of what he’s says can we believe?” Diane asked me.

  “He’s obviously very confused, but he’s not lying. I believe him when he says he didn’t hurt anyone. Whether he understands it or not, though, he’s shielded a killer for years. The scars are real, so he was in a fire. I can also tell you that there was a second man in the woods during the storm. I saw him, and he fits the bill as the angry man Dustin calls the Sitter.”

  “Yeah, that guy had two mean eyes. This poor guy only has one good eye, and he’s not mean—except to himself.” Julie’s comment was tinged with sadness.

  “I was wrong about him being an old man, wasn’t I?” Billie asked. “He sounded almost like a regular guy today.”

  “You heard him. He considers himself old because his face is wrinkled—from the scars. That could be why he speaks like an old man sometimes. It’s hard to say how old he is, Billie. Did he give you his last name or say when or where his parents’ house burned down?”

  “No, Lily. It happened a long time ago is all he said—before I was born.”

  “From what he said about watching you and your friends play in the woods, he already had those scars then. With burns like his, he must have been hospitalized. Even if he was initially cared for in a burn unit when he was transferred into custodial care, he would have needed rehab,” Diane sounded glum about Dustin’s situation. “Rikki, Dahlia, I understand you need to find Dustin, but you won’t shoot him, will you? There’s a childlike quality about him. I’d say he’s a middle-aged man, b
ut he seemed to relate better to Billie than to the adult in the room.”

  “We’ll do our best to apprehend him with as little force as possible. It doesn’t sound like he was armed,” Dahlia commented. Everyone in the room shook their heads, or whispered, “no.” “No matter what we do, he’s going to be scared. By the way he talks about the Sitter, he’s already scared, and has been for a long time. We’ll be doing Dustin a favor to pick him up.”

  I had to admit Dahlia was probably right. When I’d come running to the theater without screaming for help from the police, I’d imagined the Numbers Man holding Billie hostage at knifepoint. Now, all I could think about was what poor Dustin had yet to face with the man he called the Sitter. Questions whirled in my head at a dizzying pace.

  “You know what? I’m ready to head home and let these folks do their jobs. Did you arrange for Brandy and her parents to visit us this afternoon, Diane?”

  “No, but they’ve agreed to come out here early tomorrow morning if the entire place isn’t on lockdown. Brandy’s very excited to meet you, Lily, and hear what it’s like to be an actress. She’s also looking forward to touring the theater.”

  “That was probably another error in judgment on our part, but since it’s set, let’s go with it,” Rikki said. I guess she assumed I wouldn’t object to the idea, but she and Dahlia hadn’t bothered to ask. What else was I going to do now that I’d been grounded?

  “It’s fine with me. I’m happy to speak with her, Diane.”

  “Have you all cleared out or do you need to get back into the Calla Lily Detention Center to collect vital police documents lying on my dining room table before you bar the doors and windows?” I didn’t wait for a reply. I grabbed Billie’s hand and left the basement practically flying up the stairs.