Harlan's Secret (Behind The Crime Book 5) Read online

  “What did you do to that guy?” Mia asks, breathing heavily as they run side by side.

  “Oh, just a little night time gardening. Weedkiller for a weed.”

  From there, they don't stop until they are back at Mia's car and driving away from a place that was once Jessy's home.

  Chapter 2

  Jessy and Mia know it's dangerous to go to an old haunt, but it's the only place that's near and it will give them time to think. It is still dark, and Mia fumbles with the keys at the front door. When the door opens, she rushes through it to a small closet nearby. Opening it, Mia punches four numbers into a keypad to disarm the alarm.

  “Do you think anyone followed us here?” asks Mia as Jessy closes the door and peers outside to the empty street.

  “I don't know. But we shouldn't linger long. We need a good table and light.”

  There are plenty of tables here. Chairs are neatly seated around them in the dark, waiting for the morning customers.

  “I hope Tiff doesn't get caught up in all of this because she's let us use her cafe,” Jessy says. She always feels sorry for Tiff because Mia never gives her a break.

  “She'll be fine,” answers Mia as she turns on an overhead light. “You don't think anyone will see this do you?” Mia points to the light.

  Jessy shakes her head. “The shutters are down, we should be fine.”

  Clearing the nearest table of some menus and cutlery holders, Jessy pulls out the file she grabbed from Harlan's desk.

  “Here it is,” she says, quietly staring at the file. “The last one.”

  “You never looked at? Not even a bit?”

  “No... I didn't have time before the cops came and told Danny and me that we were in danger. The only thing I had was this.” Jessy pulls a single piece of paper out from her bag and sits it alongside the file.

  “What is it?”

  “I grabbed it when we were at the New Canal lighthouse with Garrett, remember?”

  “Yeah,” Mia says, for once without enthusiasm in her voice.

  “Before I burned the files from the safe and threw them down at Garrett's attackers, I saw one piece of paper that I knew was important so I pocketed it.”

  Mia eyes the sheet of paper. “My word, Jessy. This is an admissions form to a psychiatric hospital. And... Harlan Mayweather is the patient.”

  “Admitted four years ago, suffering from acute paranoid schizophrenia.”

  “Do you think he's still alive?” asks Mia.

  “I don't know; maybe not. I think he wanted us to find him or at least figure out where he ended up, but this form is incomplete. The name and address of the psychiatric hospital are redacted in black ink.”

  Mia picks up the form and looks at it closely. “Why are Harlan's files and then this form always incomplete?”

  “It's deliberate, that's for sure. Whoever put all this together only wanted us to know certain things. But I don't understand why, yet.”

  Jessy runs her hand over the fifth case file on the table.

  “As much as these files have brought us misery, I'm kind of sad it's all coming to an end.” Jessy looks up at Mia. “It's been the most exciting time of my life.”

  “Me too, honey. Me too. But who knows? Maybe this isn't the end and there's more.”

  Jessy sighs. “It wouldn't matter. You're leaving in a week when witness protection has a new identity set up for you, and it’s the same with Danny and me. If we can't get some real answers about who Harlan is and why he set up the room in my house, then we're done. I just hope that, if we can find him, he'll have something we can use to bring our attackers to justice and get our lives back together. He's our only hope.”

  “That's a thick wad of files. I'll make some coffee.” Mia disappears behind the counter and tries to figure out Tiff's coffee machine while Jessy starts her research.

  Three hours and two cups of coffee later, Jessy finishes her third read through of Harlan's case, noting something down in her notebook and underlining it.

  “Well?” Mia says, bleary-eyed and yawning.

  “Nonsense.”

  “Nonsense?” Mia repeats in disbelief. “What do ya mean?”

  Jessy holds up the case file in its entirety.

  “This is fake. All of it. It describes a crime that never happened. A murder to be exact, but the victim is Daniel Trevette.”

  “The mayor? But he's alive?”

  “Exactly. So, it doesn't make any sense. And these files are elaborate... an elaborate fiction.”

  A sound comes from the door behind Jessy. She stands up and looks nervously at Mia.

  The shutter to the door is thrown up and the dim wisps of dawn shine in through the glass.

  “Oh, man! Tiff, you nearly gave me a heart attack!” Mia breathes a loud sigh of relief, touching her chest as if trying to lower her heart rate.

  “Sorry, guys. I thought you'd be done by now,” Tiff replies.

  “We are, Tiff,” Jessy puts the file in her bag. “We didn't find anything. And if anyone comes looking for us, you never saw or heard from us, okay?”

  Tiff nervously nods her head.

  Jessy and Mia walk towards the front door and, as they do, they both give Tiff a big hug.

  “I hope you find better customers than us, Tiff. You deserve them,” says Mia.

  “I'll see you both again,” Tiff says cheerily. “Won't I?”

  “Goodbye, Tiff,” Jessy says, and turns towards the street.

  What can be seen of the horizon from the outside is blanketed in the red sky of the coming dawn. Silently, Mia and Jessy walk to Mia's car.

  “We've got nothin' then... a dead end. After everything,” says Mia.

  Jessy's phone rings. Pulling the phone out of her pocket she looks down at it, worry etched on her face.

  “Danny?”

  “Yeah,” she says, and then answers the phone. “Hi.”

  “Jessy, I was worried sick. Are you okay?” he asks from the other end of the line.

  “I'm sorry, Danny, I just want to make all of this okay.”

  “Where are you? I'll send Murphy and Stanton to come pick you up. Please... don't do anything dangerous...”

  “Danny,” Jessy says softly, “I love you. I'm doing this for you. You were going places and I brought it all tumbling down. But now I have something. Please; I'll explain later.”

  “Jessy... whatever it is, it's not worth it,” he says. “As long as I have you, I have everything I need.”

  “I'm sorry, Danny. I really am. I'll call you as soon as I can. I love you.” Jessy hangs up the phone and then turns it off.

  “Wait,” Mia says, standing next to her car, “I thought you said we didn't have anything?”

  “I didn't want to involve Tiff, Mia. She's helped enough. Telling her anything would only endanger her life.” Jessy opens her notebook; on it are three underlined words. “The fifth case – it is all made up, deliberately so. But I noticed while reading the files that random letters were occasionally written in a subtly different ink shade. You might not notice it unless you're a stickler for details.”

  “And you most certainly are, honey,” Mia laughs.

  “Maybe it's all that time I've spent dealing with printers and fonts for my design business. At least something good has come of it. I took down all of the out of place letters,” Jessy continues, “and rearranged them as best I could. At first they didn't make sense, but then I realized that Harlan is in a psychiatric hospital. I Googled a list of nearby psychiatric hospitals and, sure enough, the letters can be rearranged to spell this.”

  Jessy holds the notepad up for Mia to see more closely.

  “Rochelle Psychiatric Hospital... hey! I know that place.”

  Grinning from ear to ear, Jessy opens the door to Mia's car. “Do you have enough coffee in your veins for a couple more hours?”

  “You're a hard boss, honey,” Mia jokes. “But we need to keep at this. If you go back to the apartment, I don't think you'll get another chance
to slip the cops again.”

  “Maybe. In any case, it can't be a coincidence that Harlan sent us to the lighthouse where we found a file showing he's been admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Then, the fifth file is all make-believe but contains a coded message with the name of a hospital in it. If Harlan made these files, he wants to be found. And we're the only ones who know where he is.”

  “The game is back on,” Mia says, getting into the car.

  “Exactly. Let's just hope this time we win.”

  Chapter 3

  Rochelle Psychiatric Hospital looks like a ghost from the past. Jessy and Mia drive through the large fields and pockets of woodland that surround it. Some of the patients are walking the grounds; some of them accompanied by a carer, others not. Along the private road, the hospital building itself sits. Outwardly, the building is from another time. It is grand in scale, its faded auburn brickwork spreading out both horizontally and vertically. To Jessy it appears like a frightening specter, the wings of its building like arms opened, waiting to embrace her with its secrets.

  “This building gives me the creeps,” Mia says, as they park in a small parking lot near the east wing of the hospital.

  “Appearances can be deceiving. I'm sure it's fine inside.” But Jessy does not feel this way in truth; she only says these words to comfort her friend. There is something wrong about this place, and it is not because it is a psychiatric hospital. Jessy had an uncle who stayed in one whom she would visit regularly until he passed. It was a great place, with loving staff.

  Something about Rochelle Psychiatric Hospital does not emit the same atmosphere.

  Mia and Jessy leave the car behind and approach the building. The barred windows look down like a gallery of accusing eyes. Jessy imagines for a moment that the building is alive, and wonders what it thinks of them. Do you know I'm here searching for answers? she thinks. And will you give them to me?

  At the front of the building are a small number of gray stone steps. Two patients sit on them chatting, and both are in their dressing gowns. Jessy smiles at them and they smile back, though one seems nervous. Jessy's heart goes out to him. He has a kind smile.

  Entering the front doors into the lobby, Mia and Jessy see a large reception desk sitting at its center, much like that of a grand hotel. Behind it, a woman in a white nurse's uniform sits reading a magazine. Jessy and Mia wait patiently at the desk, hoping that the reception nurse will look up. After a moment, Jessy clears her throat. But the woman does not look up from her magazine. Jessy clears her throat again, and still gets no response.

  “Good magazine, honey?” Mia says loudly.

  The nurse looks up, startled. She puts the magazine down quickly and pushes her glasses back along her nose and up to her brow.

  “Terribly sorry about that,” the nurse says. “I was engrossed in a bit of true crime reporting. Did you know they discovered a tomb full of bodies under St. Louis cemetery?”

  “Yes, I heard about that,” says Jessy, giving Mia a knowing, sideways glance.

  “Amazing how the police uncovered all of it.”

  “The police?” Mia says in disbelief. “You mean...”

  Jessy quickly interrupts.

  “Hi, I'm Julia Holland and I'm here to see an uncle of mine.”

  “Oh, right, of course. What's his name?” the nurse says, standing over her computer and wrinkling her nose up as her glasses agitate her.

  “Harlan Mayweather,” Jessy replies. She then points to Mia. “This is Maggie, my cousin, so we're both family and only just found out that Uncle Harlan is here.”

  “Well, it's good of you to visit, some people just leave their loved ones here,” says the nurse. “It's a real shame... oh, hold on... I don't see a Harlan Mayweather on our database. Are you sure he's here?”

  “Yes, my aunt told me,” Jessy says.

  “Now, let me check if he's been discharged. That might explain it.” The nurse types away again at her keyboard. “I'm really sorry to tell you this, but there's no record of a Harlan Mayweather ever having been here.”

  “There must be a mistake, sweetie,” says Mia, tapping her manicured nails on the desk. “Can you try again?”

  “I'm sorry,” the nurse replies. “I don't know what to tell you. He's not here and he never has been.”

  “Look, sis, we know he's here, and...” Mia says before being cut off by Jessy.

  “Sorry for wasting your time. Thanks again.” Jessy gently takes Mia by the arm and then walks her out of the lobby and back to the steps outside. The two men in their dressing robes are still sitting on the stone stairs. They are smiling at Jessy and Mia coming back out.

  “What did ya do that for? She’s gotta be lying!” Mia says, too loudly for comfort.

  “I don't get the impression she was being deceptive,” Jessy says, shielding her eyes from the sun.

  “Do you think we got it wrong?” asks Mia.

  “No, Mia. I think he's here, or at least was. I can feel it in my bones. Someone has taken him off the register for some reason.”

  “So, what now?”

  “We find a way...” Jessy looks at the two men on the steps, who are still smiling.

  “Why do I have a bad feeling about this?” says Mia, as Jessy sits down next to one of them.

  “Hi, my name's Julia,” Jessy introduces herself.

  “Mikey,” the man says, shaking Jessy's hand. He seems socially nervous, and his eyes dart around as though he finds it difficult to look Jessy in the eye.

  “And you are?” Mia says, shaking the other man's hand.

  “Larry,” he says forcefully. “What can we do for you two ladies?”

  “We have a friend on the inside,” Jessy says. “And I really need to see him. You wouldn't be able to escort me, would you, Mikey?”

  “To the wards?” he says, sheepishly.

  “Yeah, to the wards.”

  “Su... sure.” He stands up, as does Jessy, and she takes Mikey's arm.

  Then, she turns to Mia. “Mia, you need to make a distraction.”

  “Why is it I always have to get caught?” she says, laughing. “Hey Larry, you game?”

  “No thanks. I don't agree with breaking the rules.”

  “Suit yourself,” says Mia, and she stands up. “Jessy, you ready?”

  “Sure.”

  Mia walks straight into the lobby and starts raising her voice.

  “Now you listen here, missy,” she says to the nurse, who looks mortified at the intrusion. “I know my uncle is in here, and I'm going to search for him myself!”

  Mia steps around the front desk to enter deeper into the hospital and, as she does so, the receptionist stands up and shouts, “Security!” Quickly, two hospital orderlies appear, each of them three times the size of Mia on their own.

  “Get your hands off me!” Mia shouts as the two men attempt to remove her from the lobby.

  While this is all going on Jessy moves around the other side of the desk, ably escorted by the patient Mikey. To increase her chances of making it to the nearest doorway, Jessy places Mikey on the nearest side to the desk so as to partially obscure her from the nurse's view. Mia sees this and manages to dart around behind the orderlies to cause a bigger distraction. The orderlies then chase her, along with the nurse from behind the reception desk.

  Jessy slips through the doorway with Mikey to the back hallway and, seeing this, Mia regains her composure.

  “Get yer hands off me!” she yells. “I get the picture! I'll walk out myself!” She then leaves the lobby and exits the building, waiting nervously for her friend to come back out - hopefully with information about Harlan.

  Meanwhile Jessy is inside, along the corridor out of view of the reception area. It seems to Jessy that no one is the wiser to her infiltration.

  “Thank you so much, Mikey,” Jessy says, giving him a hug.

  Mikey blushes. “My pleasure. Where are you going again, the wards?”

  “I want to have a look around, but I don't wan
t to get you into trouble, Mikey, so I think it's best if I go on my own.”

  “Oh...” He seems a little dejected, but then quickly puts on a brave face. “That's fine. I... I hope you find what y... you're looking for.”

  “Me too,” Jessy says. “If you can point me in the direction of the wards...”

  “There are wards in each wing, then there are the ones upstairs,” Mikey says with a grim look on his face.