Locked Doors

27

THE starting gun for the girls’ race fired as Vi opened the back hatch of the Cherokee and grabbed the folded blanket she always brought to Max’s cross-country meets.

She followed the trail to the start/finish line, staring through the tall limbless loblollies of MacAnderson Park at the field of runners dashing up the first hill of the 3.1 mile course. The cheers of the spectators faded as the runners moved out of sight.

It was the first Monday of November, a mild one, the sky unblemished and sapphire, the leaves a week beyond peak-red into crimson, gold into russet. The air stank of pine needles and exhaust from the tailpipes of the yellow buses that had carried the six cross-country teams of the Foothills Athletic Conference to this championship meet.

Vi walked over a footbridge and made her way toward the circle of blue and white uniforms near the start line. Max stood in running shorts and a tank top amid eight lanky boys, charging them for this last race of the season. He’d woken her this morning practicing his pep talk as he shaved in the bathroom.

Stepping out of her heels and spreading the blanket across the grass, she listened to Max, tickled at his excitement.

“This is a special day, gentlemen. You each have the opportunity to make history for your school. Now I know we aren’t favored. I know ya’ll think the Raiders over there are an awesome squad-and they are-but anything can happen at a conference championship. What’s the most important thing? Somebody tell me.”

“Having fun?” offered the smallest boy on the team.

“Well, yeah. But after having fun.”

“Breathing,” said Patrick Mullins, truest athlete of the bunch and oldest son of Barry Mullins, Vi’s sergeant in Criminal Investigations Division. Patrick would be attending Davidson next year on a track scholarship.

“That’s it,” Max said. “Breathe, gentlemen. That’s all I want you to think about out there. Filling your lungs with sweet oxygen. Now it’s thirty minutes till the gun. Go warm up.” As the boys took off from the start line Max jogged over to Vi’s blanket.

“You came,” he said.

“Wouldn’t have missed it.”

That wasn’t entirely true. She would’ve missed it had Sgt. Mullins not left a message on her cell phone saying he needed to see her at the cross-country meet to “discuss things.”

“You look cute, honey,” she said. “Just don’t let your package hang out of those itsy bitsy shorts.”

Max grinned, said, “Violet King, you better watch that mouth.” He leaned down, kissed her, and ran off toward the footbridge to rejoin the team. As Vi watched him go, someone called her name.

“Violet! Hey, sweetie, how are you?”

She saw Judy Hardin walking toward her from the scoring station. Judy was a magpie, the loquacious mother of Josh Hardin, a junior, and the second fastest runner on the team behind Patrick. As Vi rose and met Judy in the grass, the tall redhead bent down and hugged her crushingly around the neck.

She wore a sweatshirt with “MOORESVILLE MAMA” in block letters across the front. “Go Blue Devils!” was stenciled on each cheek with glittery blue face paint.

“So you finally came to a meet,” Judy said. “Big day for the Blue Devils, huh?”

“Sure is. You know Max is-”

“Josh could hardly sleep last night. You know he’s got a pretty good shot at making all-conference today. That’s what everyone keeps telling me. Yeah, I’m so nervous for him. I feel like I’m running, you know? Isn’t that crazy?”

“It is nerve-racking being a-”

“Well, don’t you look darling in your suit?” Judy took the cuff of Vi’s black blazer and rubbed the wool between her fingers. “Is this like official detective ware?”

“Oh, no, it’s just-”

“So tell me, does it just totally blow your mind that you’re chasing Andrew Thomas? I mean, whoever thought that you, little Violet King, would be mixed up with that monster? I taught you in Sunday school for heaven’s sake, and you could be famous when this is all said and done! You better not forget me when you write your book and movie and do the whole-”

“I don’t really think of it like that, Judy.”

“And I see you on the news every night. I mean, you never talk or anything, but they always show you at that poor family’s house.” Judy winked and nudged Vi with her elbow. “So can you give me some inside scoop? Oh, you know I’m only kidding! You thought I was serious! Ha-ha! I know you can’t talk about the details of the case! I’m not naive!”

Vi saw Barry Mullins coming toward them. She wished he would walk faster.

“Judy, I’m sorry, I have to-”

“And Max is so good with the boys. Josh was telling me the other day that he liked “Coach King” so much better than that weirdo who coached last year. I mean-”

“Hello, ladies,” Sgt. Mullins rumbled. It was the first time Vi had felt relieved to see her boss. “Sorry to bust up your conversation, but Judy I need to speak with Violet privately.”

“Uh-oh. Gotta have a powwow about the big case?”

Sgt. Mullins only smiled and Vi smiled and Judy’s smile mutated into chagrin.

She slunk back toward the scoring station.

“Walk with me, Viking.”

The sergeant and his investigator strolled through the grass beyond the start line. The leaders in the girls’ championship were coming down off the first mile of the course and Vi listened as someone called out the mile-split for each runner.

In a fatherly fashion, Sgt. Mullins took hold of her arm above the elbow.

“I just talked to Bradley,” Sgt. Mullins said. “We got an AFIS hit off that partial.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Came back with a Luther Kite. White male. Thirty-two years old. Last known address is his parents’ house, Thirteen Kill Devil Road, Ocracoke, North Carolina. Ever been to Ocracoke?”

“No, sir.”

“Well, we’re going tomorrow.”

“We?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“I’ll go beat out a search warrant. I mean we’ve got probable cause just with the partial. Then we show Jenna and John David Lancing the AFIS photograph, maybe get an ID. That right there’s the foundation of our case.”

“Ease down, Viking. We just want to talk to the parents. For all we know, they haven’t seen their son in years. Last thing we need to do is bust in there with a SWAT team and tear the place apart. You could forget any help from them after that.”

They walked again. Vi smiled at the flushed face of each high school girl who ran by.

“Great job,” she said to a Mooresville runner named Holly.

“So how you holding up, Vi?” Sgt. Mullins asked. It took her aback. She’d never discerned anything approaching concern from her sergeant. For the two and a half years she’d worked in CID he’d maintained a hard unreadable veneer. This shred of kindness moved her and she stopped and looked up at him.

“I’m all right, sir. Thank you for asking.” Sgt. Mullins stared down at her, stroking his thick dark mustache. She saw the doubt resurfacing in his eyes.

“You want to take it away from me, don’t you?” she said. “You don’t think I can-”

“Viking, I wouldn’t take you off this case if you begged me. Now don’t make me regret letting a woman handle this.”

Sgt. Mullins walked away and Vi stood watching the race.

Across the creek, Max led the team in jumping jacks.

A runner limped by, stricken with cramps, red-faced and crying.

Vi wished Sgt. Mullins had taken her off the case and she burned with self-hate and shame.