“Was she the one who drove you to Hyde Park that night?”
“Yes. She insisted on coming to my house to pick me up. I told her I would drive, but she said she needed to get out of the house. Her mother was getting on her nerves. I could relate.” Tinsley fell quiet for a moment.
“So, you came here to get away from it all?”
“I had nowhere else to go,” she said. “I didn’t want to go home. I wanted to be alone so I could sort all of this out. So, I just caught a cab and had the driver bring me out here. I needed someplace quiet where I could avoid talking to anyone. This house is closed for the season. The staff already moved down to open the Florida house for the winter. I should’ve called Chopper and told him where I was, but I really wanted to work things through in my mind first. I finally called him, but his phone went straight to voice mail, which he didn’t have.”
“What do you mean?”
“He never set up his voice mail, so I couldn’t leave a message,” she said. “No one leaves voice mails these days anyway. We just text. Then I called my father to tell him I was all right, and I was just thinking through things, and I was on the fence about whether I was really gonna reveal the scam. As upset as I was that he would do something illegal like that, he’s my father, and I love him, and I didn’t want him to go to jail for doing something stupid. I told him he needed to find a way to make everything right. Make a big donation somewhere or set up a foundation. Some kind of penance for what he did. And that’s when he told me Chopper had been found in an alley in Englewood.”
That explained why they called me off the search. They knew she was safe, and they were giving her space and time to work through everything.
I looked out over the lake and spotted a small prop plane flying in our direction from the northern border. I wondered if they could see us sitting there. The sky was so clear and quiet.
“Who knew about your pregnancy?” I said.
“My father was the first and only one I told for a while. I knew he would keep it a secret. He also talked to Dr. Weems, who connected me to the clinic and doctor in Wicker Park. Then I told Dr. Patel. She was already helping me with so much other stuff, and her husband knew, so it made sense to tell her. I had been stressed out about the pregnancy and the charity thing, so I was planning on going away anyway. She had agreed to look after Tabitha for me for a few days. I dropped off Tabitha the afternoon Hunter and I had that fight. I wasn’t expecting to leave so soon, but all the stuff Hunter was saying, I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to go.”
“When did your mother find out you were pregnant?” I asked.
“I never told her. My father kept it just between us. He said he would handle it all and just make it go away. But then when I called him from out here and he told me what happened to Chopper, I told him he could go ahead and tell her. I didn’t want to talk to her. I was in no condition to fight.”
I could relate. I often felt the same way with my father.
She tilted her head toward the sky. Tears flowed steadily from underneath the glasses. “I feel so alone,” she said. Then she rubbed her stomach and smiled softly. “I hope one day when they get older, they’ll understand how much I truly loved their father.”
55
HORACE HENDERSON STOOD BESIDE me with great determination as he lowered his head and took a deep breath. He stood not much better than five feet, and his lean frame still held the tight muscles that had served him well working construction on the streets of Chicago for almost forty years. His black skin glistened even in the darkness of the chamber’s anteroom. His salt-and-pepper hair had been cut close against his scalp.
“You’re not worried he’s gonna say something to someone once you let him go?” Henderson said.
“Not one bit,” I said. “He knows the only reason he walks out of here on his own two feet is because of me. He understands that he says a word to anyone, next time he leaves in a bag.”
Henderson looked at me.
“I have options. I have friends. He doesn’t even know where we are. Nothing connects me or you to him. What happens here will stay here. You’re safe.”
Henderson returned his gaze to the monitor. I could see the resolve settle in his eyes.
“Ready?” I asked.
He nodded without looking at me.
I opened the chamber’s heavy steel door and stepped aside. Henderson carried a chair in with him. I stayed back in the shadows. Henderson walked in ten feet, then sat on the chair.
“Who are you?” Stanton said, his voice scratching through his dry lips. “Please, help me.”
“I hate you,” Henderson said, his
