Up Close and Personal. Fern Michaels
offered nothing, no Social Security number, no driver’s license in her name. Mitzi might be right. The girl could be married with a new name. Still, he should have been able to come up with a Social Security number. Maybe she had been smart enough to get herself a new identity. For all he knew, his old playmate could live on the other side of the country or maybe in another country altogether. He wondered if there was any point in hiring a private detective. He’d read in an article not too long ago that modern-day private eyes never left their offices. They had the ways and the means to do everything by computer.
Jake looked at the pile of work on his desk. Nothing that couldn’t wait for a day or so. Clara Ashwood’s updated will was complete, all she had to do was sign it. He looked down at his watch before reaching for his jacket. He waved good-bye to Stacy, waved again to the receptionist, and was out of the building in three minutes. His destination: Trinity Henderson’s family. Why the hell not, he thought as he climbed behind the wheel. He pressed the power button to lower the windows. The car was stifling with the early-summer heat.
Jake didn’t see his father watching him from his office window. Even if he had, he would have ignored him.
The ride out to the Henderson farm took barely ten minutes. He used to make it on his bike in five minutes, with all the bike paths he’d taken. There were no traffic lights on bike paths. He smiled to himself as he recalled those long-ago days when he’d pedaled out to the farm like a bat out of hell, trying to beat his own time.
The Henderson farm wasn’t really the Hendersons’ farm. It belonged to Windsor Hill and Sarabess Windsor. John Henderson managed the farm, and Mrs. Henderson cooked for all the farmhands. Back then, he’d just assumed Trinity’s parents owned the farm. Mrs. Henderson had on more than one occasion looked the other way when he and the other kids tried to outwit Sarabess so they wouldn’t have to play with or entertain Emily. It was Trinity who knew the best hiding places, places where Sarabess Windsor would not trample in her high-heeled shoes and fancy dresses.
Jake parked his car and waited for the golden retriever to sniff him before he made his way to the back door where Mrs. Henderson was shelling peas. “It’s Jake Forrest, Mrs. Henderson. May I come in?”
“Lord have mercy, is it really you, Jake? I haven’t seen you in a coon’s age. What in the world are you doing out here? Would you like some sweet tea? Mercy, that was three questions.”
Jake laughed. “It’s okay. I’d love a glass of tea. It’s going to be a hot summer, I think.”
Lillian Henderson was what his mother would have called a plain lady. She wore a simple cotton dress with a sparkling white apron. He’d never seen her without an apron. Her hair was as white as the apron she wore and was pulled back into a knot at the nape of her neck. She wore wire-rimmed glasses that appeared to be trifocals. She handed him the glass of iced tea. Jake couldn’t help but notice that her hands were rough and red, the nails clipped short.
“Sit down, Jake. Imagine you being a lawyer! John and I were talking not too long ago about coming to see you about making out a will. I don’t know why we keep putting it off. For the same reason we haven’t bought cemetery plots, I guess. Would you like some gingerbread? I just made it this morning.”
“No thanks, the tea is fine. I guess you’re wondering why I came out here.”
Lillian Henderson smiled. “I figured you’d get around to telling me.”
Jake decided to make it up as he went along. “I’ve been delegated to get in touch with all the kids we used to pal around with. We want to hold a reunion of sorts over…over the Fourth of July. We want to include Trinity. Do you know how we can reach her?”
Lillian’s head jerked upright. The emerald green pea pod she was shelling fell to the floor. It was obvious to Jake that whatever she had thought he was here for, Trinity was not it.
“I’m sorry, Jake, John and I never…Trinity never…What I mean is when she lit out, she didn’t look back. We’ve never heard a word from her. I’m afraid she won’t be attending your reunion.”
“Do you have any idea where she might have gone? Did she have cousins, friends of yours, anyone she might have gone to? What did the police say?”
Lillian looked away. She folded her hands in her lap. “There was no one that we knew of. She helped herself to the grocery money and left an IOU for the three hundred dollars. She might have had about sixty dollars of her own money. She took a few of her clothes and her gym bag. She made her bed and tidied her room before she left.”
“Did she leave a note?” Jake asked.
“No, she didn’t. Unless you count the IOU. She sent a money order for the three hundred about two years later. The envelope had a Pennsylvania postmark. You couldn’t make out the town, it was kind of pink and blurry.”
“Do you know anyone in Pennsylvania?”
“Not a soul.”
“What did the police say?”
Lillian bit down on her bottom lip. “Mrs. Windsor said we weren’t to call the police. She said Trinity was going on sixteen and capable of taking care of herself. She said she wouldn’t have run away without a reason, and she didn’t want the police crawling all over Windsor Hill. John said we should do what she said since we worked for her. I didn’t want to do it, but…John can be very convincing, as can Mrs. Windsor. I cried for months. Every time the phone rang I’d get so nervous I could hardly talk.”
Jake didn’t know what to say. He knew his mother would have been out beating the bushes with her bare hands to find him if he’d run away. She wouldn’t have stopped crying after a few months, either. “Did Trinity have a Social Security number?”
“What a strange question. Not that I know of. You being a lawyer and all, do you think you could find her? I have a little money saved up. It’s not much, and I don’t know how much something like that would cost.”
“I can’t take your money, Mrs. Henderson. I will keep trying to find her, though. Is there anything you can tell me that might help in the search?”
The shock over, Lillian went back to shelling the peas into the bowl in her lap. “Trinity was a good girl. She was a hard worker. Anything she did, she did well. She was an honor student, but then you know that. She wasn’t into fancy things or frilly dresses. Sometimes when she’d come back down the hill after visiting Miss Emily, she’d tell me about all the fancy things that little girl had. Now, don’t you be telling Mrs. Windsor I said this, but Trinity always called Miss Emily ‘the mean little princess who had evil eyes.’”
Jake laughed. “I grant you that wasn’t very nice, but we all called Emily the mean little princess. She was a spiteful, whiny little girl. We probably didn’t understand back then that she was as ill as she was. If we had, maybe we would have been kinder. At least I hope we would have. I’ve thought about those days over the years, and I think it was Mrs. Windsor we didn’t like. As kids we resented being told we had to entertain Emily.”
Lillian’s mouth straightened out to a thin, tight line. “Miss Emily was very unkind to Trinity. She would taunt her and say unkind things. One time she called her ugly. Poor Trinity kept staring in the mirror for hours hoping she’d magically change into a beautiful swan. I did my best to explain that Miss Emily was jealous, but Trinity didn’t believe it for a minute. She really changed after that. But before that happened she told John and me one night at supper that she would never ever go up to the Hill again, and she wanted us to tell Mrs. Windsor why. No amount of punishment could make that girl change her mind, either.”
Jake sucked in his breath. “Did you?”
Lillian shook her head. “John wouldn’t do it. He told me to mind my own business, it was a child thing, kids being kids. I don’t think Trinity ever forgave either of us. She simply endured her punishments. I’m sorry, Jake. I know I haven’t been much help. Will you let me know if you have any luck finding Trinity? Tell her…Tell her we miss her terribly.”
Jake