“Archer,” Joy said. “Cynthia Archer. At the time, I kept thinking, why couldn’t that happen to my family?”
“This Keisha woman’s name came up back then.” Wedmore thought about it. “Claimed to have visions about people who vanish. I think she tried to shake down the Archers.”
“I’m going to hand over all matters related to visions to you,” Joy said. “There’s something else. Looks like footprints just outside the side living room window, in the flower beds. Ground wasn’t that frozen. And there may be some prints on the glass.”
Wedmore didn’t know what to make of that, but asked to be kept posted.
Once she was done talking to Joy, the detective made several other calls from her cell. When she’d gotten the answers to some questions that were on her mind, she keyed the ignition and drove to Old Fairfield High School.
She went straight to the office, identified herself to the secretaries at the counter, and said she needed to speak to a member of their staff. “Just ask him to come down here. Don’t mention who it is.”
One of the secretaries consulted a timetable on her computer screen. “But he’s teaching American Literature right now.” Wedmore gave her a look that seemed to ask whether the study of Ralph Waldo Emerson or Herman Melville trumped her request. The secretary picked up the phone, got the person she was looking for, and delivered the message. Wedmore commandeered a small empty room-the guidance counselor’s officer, as it turned out-and waited.
Three minutes later, Terry Archer walked in. When he saw who was waiting for him, his face fell.
“Oh my God,” he said. “What’s happened?”
Wedmore flashed him a reassuring smile. “Nothing, Mr. Archer, nothing.” She extended a hand and the teacher took it, but he looked far from comforted. “It’s good to see you,” she said.
“I’d like to say the same,” Archer said. “But seeing you, it’s given me something of a start. You’re sure everything’s okay? Is Grace okay? Is this about Cynthia?”
“So far as I know, your daughter and wife are perfectly fine. I’m not here about them. How are they, anyway?”
Archer offered up a pained smile. “Grace is good.”
“I remember she had a real thing for astronomy. Is she still into that?”
Archer nodded. “She wants to be an astronaut. Wants to get a little closer to the stars. She’s pretty upset they’ve mothballed the space shuttle.”
Wedmore grinned. “Well, I’m sure they’ll get around to going back to space at some point. And Mrs. Archer- Cynthia. How’s she doing?”
Archer hesitated. “She’s good. She’s okay.”
Wedmore knew there was something going on, so she said nothing, waited for Archer to volunteer more information.
“It’s been hard for her,” Archer said. “Getting the answers to what happened to her family, it didn’t… it’s not like it made everything perfect. Sometimes, getting your questions answered, it just raises new ones. Like, how do I move on, knowing what I know? Right now, Cyn’s kind of taking some time to herself.”
“You’re separated?”
He shook his head. “No, no, not that. Not exactly. But she needs a bit of space at the moment. Grace is with me.” He shrugged. “Things’ll work out. You know, one way or another. They have to.”
“I’m sorry,” Wedmore said. “How’s Grace been handling it?”
“Well, she’s getting into those teen years, you know? It’s hard to know what she’s thinking. She doesn’t like to let me in.” He shrugged. “But I guess every parent of a teenage girl goes through that, right?”
Wedmore waved her hand around the room. “When I started calling around, I didn’t think you were still teaching here.”
“I transferred back a couple of years ago,” Archer said. “But it was good, taking some time away from this place. Listen, I got a class of aspiring first offenders who’d rather steal shopping carts than hear about Hemingway, so if there’s something I can help you-”
“Keisha Ceylon,” Wedmore said.
“Jesus.”
“That got a reaction. What can you tell me about her?”
“After they did that TV show, about it being twenty-five years since Cynthia’s parents and her brother disappeared, that woman came out of the woodwork, claiming she knew things about the case. Not first-hand knowledge, but things she’d seen in a dream or a vision or something. Cynthia and I were asked to come down to the TV station for a follow-up, so this so-called psychic could tell us on camera what she knew, but when she found out the station wasn’t giving her a thousand bucks, she clammed up.”
“Hmm,” said Wedmore.
“She came by the house one other time, trying to shake us down personally. Cynthia threw her out on her ass.”
“Has she ever been in touch since?”
Archer shook his head. “Never heard from her again.”
“What was your sense of her?” Wedmore asked.
A small shrug. “Two short meetings, that was it. But she was an opportunist. She liked to take advantage of people when they were at their most vulnerable. That puts her pretty high on my list of lowlifes.”
Wedmore smiled. “Yeah, I can see that.”
“Is she still out there, doing her thing?”
“Maybe.”
Something flashed in Archer’s eyes and his brow furrowed. “That thing on the news. The man and his daughter. Asking for information about his wife.”
Wedmore nodded and extended her hand again. “Thank you for your help. I should let you get back to your students.”
Archer tried to smile one last time, but Wedmore could sense the effort. The man wore his sadness like a jacket. “Actually, it is nice to see you again. You were a great help to us at a very dark time.”
He slipped out of the guidance counselor’s office. Wedmore had a strange feeling, as she watched him leave, that she would see him again before long.
Twenty-four
“Shit,” Keisha said as the banging on the door continued.
“What are you gonna do?” Kirk said, dabbing blood from his cheek with a tissue.
Keisha stood there, frozen, not sure whether to answer it, or escape out the back door and jump the neighbour’s fence. The latter seemed like a pretty stupid idea. If this was the cops wanting to talk to her, they probably already had someone covering the back door.
“I’ve got no choice,” she said, took a breath, and opened the door.
“Oh, thank God you’re home!” said Gail Beaudry, who had her hand raised, ready to knock again. The woman’s eyes were bloodshot from crying.
“Gail?” Keisha said.
“I have to talk to you!” the woman said, forcing her way into Keisha’s house. She glanced at Kirk, who was standing there, dumbfounded. “I have to talk to you alone.”
“This isn’t a good time,” Keisha said. “Maybe later this week, but right now-”
“He’s dead!” Gail blurted. “My brother’s dead.”
“What?”
“Someone killed my brother!”
“Gail, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“This morning,” she said. “And they’re saying all these horrible things about Melissa. Ridiculous things! That she killed her mother. It’s all crazy. The police have everything all wrong! You have to help me! You have to make
