Chapter 9: Darek - Pisces

“Thanks for driving again,” Lizzy said as Darek took the next left as instructed.

“No problem. Things are so much easier when you have a good GPS. I remember my dad getting lost and how every trip ended up a game to see how many quarters he owed to the swear jar.”

“You had a swear jar?” She chuckled and let go of a sigh as if he’d had it easy. “My old man would have needed a bottomless pit to toss his quarters in.”

“Yeah? You mean your real father?”

“Yes, and slow down a bit. The driveway will sneak up on you. The house is far from the road.”

He slowed the Rover and wondered if he was actually going to learn something more about her on this trip. “How old were you when you left home?”

“I was still a minor. Robert took me in, and in case you’re wondering, we didn’t have a swear jar at his place, either.”

“No?”

“Nope, he let me say whatever I damned well pleased, but he was a gentleman. He used words like fiddle and fork instead. I used to laugh when he’d say shoe.”

“Shoe?” He couldn’t imagine what he’d use the word for. Darek heard the ping of the GPS, and Lizzy leaned forward in her seat.

“Here it is.” She eased back as he took the turn. “Yes, shoe, not shoot, but shoe instead of saying shit, which was probably his favorite swear word because he said it a lot.”

“He sounds like a nice guy.”

“He was, but I’m sure he cursed when it was just the guys.”

“I mean because he took you in. That had to be a big decision for both of you. Didn’t you have anywhere else to go when your father died?”

Lizzy’s head turned so fast; he thought her neck might snap. “He wasn’t dead.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I just assumed.”

She took a deep breath and then pointed to the clearing where a large house stood in the distance, like something from a southern romance.

“Wow, this place is amazing. It seems a bit out of place, though, like it belongs in Georgia or somewhere farther south.” The house had the kind of porch that was made for sitting and sipping tea or mint juleps.

“His wife was from Savannah. She passed away a while before I came into the picture.”

Darek stopped out front in the gravel drive, which looked like it needed a good weeding. There were flowering trees and hedges that needed trimmed. “Does anyone come and take care of the place?”

“I have a man that comes every other month. He’s not due for another week.” She gave Darek a wink as she opened the door and then turned to grab her keys from the ignition.

Darek got out and stretched. He hoped the house had a nice place to kick back and relax. Their day had started early, and even though they’d gone back to the camp and the crime scene, they hadn’t had any luck. The landscape just wasn’t the same, and he thanked the heavens for that. Lizzy did ask Mr. Williford if he found anyone that might know something, to please send them to her, but the man didn’t seem like he was going to find anyone.

Lizzy unlocked the door and pushed it open. Then she stepped aside to let Darek go in first. He hesitated, not used to someone holding the door open for him, but went inside where it looked like something out of an old movie. Most of the furniture was covered with sheets and drops cloths, some stained with the same colored paint that matched the walls. It didn’t look like anyone had been there in ages, but Lizzy wasted no time uncovering the couches and tossing the covers into the corners. The room came to life as he helped her, especially when she drew back a large curtain that opened up to reveal a large-paned glass window with a bench seat and the most amazing view of a lake in the distance.

“Wow,” Darek muttered under his breath as he walked closer.

“It’s breathtaking isn’t it?” He wasn’t even sure she’d heard him across the room, but she continued. “This was always one of my favorite places to sit and read. I’d open the windows when the weather was nice and let the breeze blow in from across the water.” She seemed to have a glow about her, as if coming back home had rejuvenated her, but it made him wonder what kind of life she had back with her father and what kind of misery the old man had taken her out of.

As she stared out the window, he turned and walked around the room, looking at the books on the large shelves that lined the wall on the far side of the room and the pictures on the mantle, and he was shocked that they were all of what could only be the man’s wife.

To his right in the corner, there was a small sitting area and a chessboard, but only one chair.

“Do you play chess?” she asked.

Darek looked up to see Lizzy leaning against the wall near the window and wondered how long she’d been watching him. “No, I never learned. You?”

“Yes, although Robert and I rarely sat down to play. We’d make moves and then wait to see when the other had played. He was much better than me, but I learned quick.”

Darek couldn’t help but notice that the game was still in play. “Whose move is it?”

“His. I guess I keep hoping that one day I’ll look over and find that he’s played. It’s the same with the puzzle there. I don’t guess I’ll ever finish it. We kept that one on the board so I could move it back and forth to his bed when he got too sick to get up.” She had a faraway look in her eyes. “He loved puzzles. He taught me to love them, too.”

“I guess that’s why you’re a detective. Crimes are your puzzles.”

She met his eyes, but her stare was empty. “Maybe. But mostly because when he’d tell me about his cases, it was like we were sharing secrets. He’d tell me the evidence and let me figure out who did it. I got really good at it and even found a few missing pieces. That’s when I learned about cold cases. Agent Reed would send old files down, and Robert and I would pore over them for hours at a time. I watched a lot of Court TV, and before long, there was nothing else in the world I wanted to be. By the time I graduated high school, I’d helped him solve five murders and one cold case. I even helped find a missing girl once.”

“Yeah? Was she alive?”

“No, she was dead. She’d been to a slumber party and wasn’t there when the other girls woke up. The older brother had lured her up to his attic room, given her some alcohol to loosen her up, and then claimed that she walked out of the house to get some air. But three weeks into her being missing, I told Reed that I would check the brother’s room again. And when they did, the odor was so strong that Reed called in backup immediately. She had been wrapped in heavy plastic and stuffed in an old suitcase that he’d piled a bunch of old newspapers on in the corner.”

“She was there with him the whole time?”

Lizzy nodded. “Yes, it taught me a lesson in how some things can be right under our noses. As you can imagine, I won Agent Reed’s heart. He got the credit, of course, with Robert being retired and in no way supposed to be sharing cases with a young girl he’d taken in.”

“That’s why you’re so close to Sam Reed? You gave him the leg up first?”

She smiled and gave a nod. “I did. He was intrigued by me and my abilities, and honestly, being here with Robert and working on those cases, it was the first time anyone gave a damn about my opinions.”

“What an amazing story. Much better than why I wanted to become a cop.”

“Let’s unpack the car, put away those groceries we picked up, and see if we can’t make dinner out of them. I bought bread and cheese, and if I’m not mistaken, there is a can of tomato soup I left in the cabinet three months ago on my last trip if you’re interested?”

“Sounds good. And then will you tell me more about Robert?”

“Only if you do me the honor of helping me finish that puzzle.” She gestured to the coffee table and then turned and headed for the door.

Darek followed and helped her unpack the car. The two spent the next half hour getting settled and grilling cheese sandwiches and heating soup.

When they were done, they carried their dishes to the couch where Lizzy dunked her grilled cheese in the soup and took a bite. “I’ve wanted to finish this puzzle for a while now, and I never like to finish them alone.”

“Your husband didn’t like puzzles?” He’d never asked much about her marriage.

“No, he didn’t like much of anything really. We weren’t that compatible.” She leaned over and picked up a piece and studied it. The puzzle was more than half-done, but one large corner remained.

“All of these pieces look the same to me,” Darek said.

“You have to look for the subtle differences. See, this one has some of the water on it?”

He glanced around the room. “Where’s the lid to the box? I need a guide.”

“You can’t look at the big picture, detective. That would be cheating.” She gave him a sly grin. “Besides, Robert always threw away the box. He liked to glue the pieces together when they were finished and hang them in the study.”

“You have a study?”

“Well, everyone else calls it a home office, but Robert called it his study.” She rolled her eyes to heaven and back as if to see him. She put the piece in place, and then before long, she had two more pieces added.

Darek couldn’t find one piece, but he kept trying. “I say we turn this thing around.” The puzzle was upside down. “Get a different perspective.”

“Nope, against the rules.” She shook her head and looked even more determined than before. “Looking at it from this direction keeps you from being distracted by what’s too common.”

He wondered if everything was a lesson. “Did he have you wash and wax his cars, too? Wax on, wax off?”

She covered her mouth and laughed with the last bite of her sandwich in her cheeks. “You’re going to make me choke, and then I’ll never solve this case.”

“You mean the puzzle?” Darek asked.

“No, the case. The killings. What we didn’t find shit on today. It’s going to take divine intervention for me to get a lead. No wonder Gough never had a chance. I’m sure the local detectives were in way over their heads.”

“Or, and this is just a thought so don’t get angry with me, but maybe it’s because Gough was guilty.”

She pushed another piece into the puzzle. “No. It’s just all too much of a coincidence. You have Tad and these brands and this fucking Camp Victory, where no telling what the previous owners were doing to small boys. If I could link the pedophile ring to that club, or at least find a reason that links Tad to it, I’d be happy.”

“You mean you’re still going to pursue it? Camp V, I mean?”

“If I can find the old staff, you bet your ass. I’ll also make a drive down on the weekend if I have to. I want that list of names, and there has to be someone willing to talk, someone who remembers something from when Tad was there. One of the names on that list could have done that to him. That person could be our killer.” She put another piece in the puzzle and then tilted her head.

Darek looked down and saw the picture finally coming together. His heart turned to stone as he looked at the depiction of an old millhouse, not unlike the one at Camp V, only the one on the puzzle appeared to still be in working condition.