Louis handed her the letter. She read it quickly. “Bastard,” she whispered, moving away.
Louis felt a tightening in his stomach. He had known when he set out for Dollar Bay that Lacey was the killer. But being here, in his room, breathing his air, made things different. It made Lacey real, more real even than he had been that day in the bar. He slipped the letter into his pocket with the Radio Shack paper.
“So, what’s your area of search?”
Louis looked up at Bjork. She was leaning against the door frame, arms folded over her chest.
“What?” Louis asked.
“Where you looking for him?” she asked.
“I don’t know exactly,” Louis said. He looked away, not liking the question he saw in her eyes, namely, “Why the hell aren’t you down there looking for him?”
“I’d bet he’s holed up in the woods somewhere,” Bjork said, pushing off the door.
“He’d freeze,” Louis said.
Bjork shook her head. “Lacey lived outdoors all his life. When he was a kid he built a shack out in the woods. He used to hide in there when Millie went off the deep end on one of her binges.”
“You check it?”
“First thing. No sign of life.”
Louis rose slowly from the bed. He glanced around the room, unsure where to go next. “I don’t get it,” he said.
“Get what?” Bjork said.
“How’d his kids get to Loon Lake? Lacey never lived there.”
“His wife did. She was from there.” Bjork frowned. “Shoot, can’t remember her name…”
“But Lacey never lived there?” Louis pressed.
Bjork shook her head. “No, but after his wife finally got fed up and put him in jail for battery she went back down there to stay. That was in early ’77, I think. Then when Duane went up for the assault she left here for good.”
“Any idea where she is now?”
Bjork shook her head. “I had my men check but we can’t find her.”
“Think she’ll come back?”
“Would you?” Bjork paused. “I feel sorry for Cole. My daughter went to school with him.”
Louis gave a derisive sigh. “Oh yeah, Cole’s a real upstanding young man. Real proud of his dad for blowing away a nigger cop.” Louis shut the drawer of the nightstand roughly.
Bjork said nothing. She turned and went to the window. “I was here that first time we came out on the child-abuse complaint,” she said. “I was a rookie.”
Louis turned to look at her. She was staring out the window.
“Cole was only five,” she said. “He had all these little red circles on his back. He was crying and I remember thinking it was chicken pox. Turned out to be cigarette burns. Duane burned him because he wet his bed.”
Louis waited, not knowing what to say.
“The doc said that he thought Cole had been sodomized, too. Probably with a broom handle. But Cole refused to tell us. The doc wouldn’t swear to it in court and we had no proof. Social Services refused to act. Cole was returned to Duane after six months in the system.”
Louis let out a sigh. The room was very still for a few moments.
“Helen,” Bjork said finally. “That was her name. The mother…Helen.” She turned to face Louis. “Let’s get out of here.”
He followed her down the staircase. Bjork went quickly out the front door without a word to Millie but Louis paused at the living room, trying to think if there was anything else to ask the old woman.
She had pulled the shade back down and turned on the television. She sat hunched on the couch, backlit by the muddy amber light, puffing on her Pall Mall. Her hair spiked out around her head and her face was hid in shadows.
“Mrs. Cronk,” Louis called. “Thank you for your cooperation.”
Millie turned her attention away from
“You see Duane, you tell him to call me,” she said.
Louis stared at her.
She took a deep sucking drag on her cigarette, squinting back at the television through the smoke. “You talk to him, tell him I want my truck back, you hear?”
“I’ll tell him,” Louis said.
“Damn kid,” she muttered. She turned away and punched the remote-control button, filling the fetid room with canned laughter. Louis backed out, closing the door behind him.
CHAPTER 21
Louis put on his glasses, crossed his legs on the bed and opened Lacey’s ID file. It was several inches thick. Bjork’s department had done a thorough job.
Lacey’s mug shot was on top. Louis stared at it but didn’t touch it. Finally, he brushed it aside and turned to the lengthy general report.
Lacey was born March 1, 1940, in Houghton, Michigan. He graduated from Houghton County High in 1959, held back a year in junior high. He was arrested in July of 1959 for joyriding and failure to stop for a police officer. The judge recommended the armed services. Lacey joined the army on August 5, 1959.
Louis paused, wiping his brow. The hotel room was hot and stuffy. He glanced at the heater, a long metal contraption under the window that seemed to have two settings: high and stifling. He rolled off the bed and went to crack the window. A stream of cold air slithered in. Louis reached out to the snowy window sill and snagged a can of Dr Pepper from the six-pack he had set out there earlier.
He returned to the bed, taking a long swig then pulled out Lacey’s military record.
After basic training, Lacey spent an uneventful couple of years in the army, returning home to Dollar Bay in 1962 only long enough to marry Helen Scully and father Johnny and Angela. He reenlisted before they were born, and Helen and the infant twins stayed with Millie.
In 1964, Lacey was shipped off to Vietnam where he was assigned to something identified only as LRRP. He had a special medal for marksmanship and he volunteered for a second tour of duty.
Lacey had achieved an E5 rank, buck sergeant. But by the time he left the army, he was an E4, a corporal. Louis searched through the rest of the information but there was nothing to explain it, just a notation that Lacey had been issued an Article 15 and got out on a general discharge in 1967.
Louis set the Dr Pepper aside. General? He thought there were only two ways out: honorable and dishonorable. Louis rubbed his chin in irritation. He was ignorant about the military and wasn’t sure who he could ask. Phillip…
Louis reached for the phone and dialed. Phillip Lawrence answered the phone after two rings.
“Hey, Phillip, it’s me,” Louis began. “I’m glad you’re home.”
