Liz shook her head in confusion. “Do you know what you’ve done to Charlie, bringing him all the way down here without someone he knows? And what right do the police have handing him over to you, some stranger? Just because you’re a pastor doesn’t mean you know what’s best for Charlie. And while I’m at it, what kind of a pastor walks around pointing a gun at people?” She leaned forward. “So why don’t you start talking first? Because as far as I’m concerned, I’m the one who should have custody of Charlie, not you. And be asking all the questions.”
Ian folded his arms. “And where were you while Charlie’s father was dragging him all over the state?”
He knew he surprised her with his knowledge of Charlie’s whereabouts all these months, but with a withering look, she refused to be intimidated. “Jerry moved to Bangor a while back. I’ve been saving my money for a good lawyer. And part of the way through that time, I gave Jerry some of it. I knew he was going to blow it all on something stupid, but at the time, I just wanted to stay in contact with Charlie, and that was my only way. Though I realize now it was a mistake because it set me back months in my savings. The only good it did was it allowed me to see Charlie nearly every Sunday. So I took him to a church in Bangor. And out to supper.”
“Okay,” Ian said with a nod. “I’ll answer your questions, but you have to answer a few more, first. How did you find out about Jerry’s murder?”
“Like I said, I get to visit Charlie regularly. Jerry usually sleeps off a Saturday night binge, anyway. I went to their apartment last Sunday and found the police there.”
“Sunday morning?”
“No, Sunday afternoon. We do something special and go to church Sunday night.”
Abruptly, she pulled in a deep breath and blinked rapidly. Then she bit her lips. Both lips in a way he’d seen Charlie do when he wanted to keep quiet. “I remember telling the police who I was and…” She held her breath a bit while her chin wrinkled. “I was standing in the doorway of the apartment hoping to see Charlie.” She shut her eyes. “All I could smell was…”
Ian guessed what the smell could be. He watched Liz steel herself against the memory. But obviously, her nephew was too important just to relinquish herself to her fears.
“It was awful. Jerry was a drug dealer with high hopes of making a fast million. But the police had never charged him with anything. They were investigating him. Maybe they wanted someone bigger than Jerry. Someone whose conviction would take more than just a few drugs off the street.”
She lay her fingers along her eyebrows and shut her eyes tight. “But all I saw were Charlie’s things splattered with blood. It was terrible.” Liz bit her lips again. Then she rubbed her forehead. “I asked where Charlie was, and they told me he hadn’t survived the gun battle there. I wanted to see his remains….” She swallowed a sob. “But they wouldn’t let me.”
Her world had crashed, he could see.
“The police said they would release the body when they were done with it. Then they drove me home.” She set her head into her hands and finished off, “I went home and just cried and cried.”
“When did Charlie call you?”
She looked up to show him watering eyes. “A few hours later, after I’d gone for a walk and stopped in to see my pastor. I couldn’t believe it. He couldn’t say where he was, but he read to me what his boarding pass said and told me he was on an island at the edge of the Everglades.”
“How did he know that?”
“A friend told him about the Everglades—and the mosquitoes—and he said that some woman named Elsie said she went into Northglade for groceries. I used the satellite maps on the Internet and found this place. This had to be the place because it fit Charlie’s description exactly.”
Good deduction. Very good deduction, Ian thought. He hadn’t considered that little Stephen Callahan, Charlie’s new friend, might chatter on about where he lived. Stephen had told Ian that Charlie didn’t talk to him.
Beside him, Liz groaned and lay down again. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled. “I guess I got more of a scare than I thought. That guy was determined to run me off the road.”
“What guy?”
“I told you. The one who came up behind me all of a sudden. It was all I could do just to keep my car on the road. He kept sideswiping me, right on the causeway.”
Of course. She’d already mentioned that. “What kind of vehicle was it? Did you see the driver?”
She sighed and then sat up. “No. It was blue. A big car. I don’t know what kind. An SUV, maybe? It had tinted windows, so I couldn’t see inside.”
Ian went cold. Liz Tate had been run off the road. And the timing of that was just too coincidental to ignore.
It could only mean one thing.
Charlie’s safety had been compromised.
THREE
“Now it’s your turn to talk,” Liz said, coming back up to a sitting position. “When I saw Charlie two Sundays ago, he had long, dark hair. Did you cut his hair? And he never needed glasses before.”
“I did. It was a rat’s nest and far too hot for this weather. I also dyed it. The police offered the glasses. They don’t have prescription lenses in them.”
Liz absorbed what he said. “I don’t understand. Sure, his hair was always a mess. I did my best, but I didn’t want to get on Jerry’s bad side and have him tell me I couldn’t see Charlie again, so I ignored it most of the time. But glasses that aren’t needed? And a dye job? Why?”
“It was necessary.”
Understanding dawned on her. “You didn’t want anyone to recognize him.”
“I was told there was no one who would try to gain custody of him. His mother died years ago, and his father had just been murdered.” He looked at her. “Is there anyone else who might claim him? Grandparents?”
She shifted on the exam table. “As far as I know, Jerry had no contact with his family. My mother lives in Portland, but she’s a widow who’s not well, hardly able to care for a child. Besides, she hasn’t seen Charlie since my sister died. I’ve been trying to get custody.” She shot him a questioning look. “And you simply believed what you were told about his family?”
“I had no reason to suspect that they’d lie.”
“That who would lie? The police? They lied to me!”
“For Charlie’s own safety and well within the law.”
He could see that the local law enforcement officers had been prepping Liz and probably the media for Charlie’s entrance into the Witness Security Program, or WITSEC. People needed to think the boy was dead.
Liz dragged in a hot breath as she sat back. “And I’m left believing he’s been killed! This is not right. I’m going to take Charlie and leave. I know he’d be happy to go with me. And you don’t strike me as the kind of man who’d physically stop us.” She wasn’t sure if that was true or not. She tossed out the threat as quickly as she shot a furtive look his way. He knew right then that she was banking on a hunch. “I won’t fail Charlie like I did when his mother died. He deserves a loving environment, not getting shuffled around like a piece of secondhand furniture.”
Ian bristled at her choice of words. He wasn’t shuffling the boy around like furniture. He would never do that to anyone—not after living like that for years himself. “Don’t be so sure. I told you that Charlie’s safety is my main concern.”
“Mine, too. That’s why I’m here listening