Lost Lake

CHAPTER EIGHT

Vanessa Kohler paced her room, feeling more like a caged animal than a hotel guest. From her window she had a view of the majestic snow-covered slopes of Mount Hood and sailboats cruising the Willamette River. The streets below were full of people taking advantage of the sun. She would have given anything to get outside and away from the recirculated hotel air, but she was afraid that she would miss Ami Vergano’s call.

For a while, Vanessa had tried to distract herself by watching television, but the shows were vapid and so boring that she could not stick with them. The news channels were worse. They were obsessed with the presidential campaign and Morris Wingate’s surge in the polls. Every channel showed her father smiling with smug superiority. It made her furious.

The phone rang.

“Ms. Kohler?” Ami asked.

“Why did it take you so long to call? Is anything wrong?”

“There were problems, but I think I’ve handled them.”

“What kind of problems?”

Ami told Vanessa about her adventures with Dr. Ganett, Deputy District Attorney Kirkpatrick, Detective Walsh, and Daniel Morelli.

“Dan doesn’t want to see you,” Ami concluded. “He got upset when I tried to get him to talk to you. He’s also pretty adamant about me getting off the case as quickly as possible.”

“Shit.”

“I tried, really. I’ll take another shot at him after he’s had some time to think, but I don’t know if it’ll make any difference.”

Vanessa had some ideas but they weren’t the kind that she could confide to an officer of the court.

“Okay,” she told Ami, “you did your best.”

“Do you want me to find him a good criminal lawyer?”

“Yeah.”

“It will be expensive.”

“The money is the least of our problems,” Vanessa said.

“What does that mean?”

“I’m sorry, I can’t tell you.”

“Vanessa, who is Dan? The DA said that his ID is phony and they can’t match his fingerprints. When I asked Dan for his real name, he got very upset.”

“Believe me, you don’t want to be burdened with that information.”

“No lawyer is going to be able to help Dan without knowing who he is. No judge will grant bail to a man with a fake identity.”

“You’re right, but I won’t answer you.”

“Was Dan in Vietnam?”

Vanessa hesitated. “I don’t know.”

“I think he was a prisoner of war. Did you know that?”

“No.”

“But you know that he was a soldier?”

“I want to end this conversation, Ami.”

“Kirkpatrick and Walsh think he may be a terrorist.”

“I know that you’re just trying to help, but I’m going to hang up now. Thank you for everything you’re doing.”

Vanessa cut the connection and tapped a cigarette out of the pack that lay next to the phone. She paced the room as she smoked. What were her options? There was only a limited amount of time before her father figured out Daniel Morelli’s real identity.

It occurred to Vanessa that she had not spoken to Sam since she’d arrived in Oregon. Had Victor Hobson honored his promise to protect her lover? Was he safe? Vanessa looked at the clock. It was three hours later on the east coast. She dialed her apartment and Sam picked up immediately.

“Thank God you’re okay,” she said as soon as she heard Sam’s voice.

“I’m fine, but I’m really worried about you.”

“Did the FBI…?”

“You friend Victor Hobson had me picked up at work, Vanessa. It was very embarrassing, especially after having the police barge in the night before.”

“Why aren’t you in a safe house?”

“Because this is nonsense. I’m not in any danger.”

“Damn it, Sam, you are in danger. You have to believe me. My father will stop at nothing once he learns what I know.”

“Is this about Carl Rice, the guy in your book?”

“How do you know about Carl?”

“Hobson asked me about him. What have you gotten yourself into?”

“It’s better if you don’t know.”

“Where are you, Vanessa? I’ll come there. We’ll be together. I’ll help you get through this.”

“I don’t want you to come here.”

“Please. You need help.”

“I want you to get out of the apartment, Sam. I want you to go into hiding.”

“Vanessa…”

“No. I won’t tell you where I am. It will be even more dangerous if you’re here. You’ll be a distraction.”

“Vanessa,” Sam repeated, but he was speaking to a dead line.

Ami was more puzzled than upset when Vanessa Kohler ended their conversation. She knew that Vanessa wanted to help Dan. What she didn’t understand was why Vanessa and Dan wouldn’t give her the information she needed to do her job. Ami noticed the clock. It was time to pick up Ryan at school.

Ryan was waiting when Ami pulled next to the curb. He looked exhausted, and he didn’t say anything when he slid into the seat beside her.

“How was school, Tiger?” Ami asked as she pulled into traffic.

“Okay,” Ryan mumbled.

“I saw Dan today. I visited him at the hospital.”

Ryan looked at her expectantly.

“He says, ‘Hi,’ and he wanted you to know that he’s a little banged up, but okay.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, really. When I saw him he was sitting up and talking just fine.”

“Will he be coming home?” Ryan asked, his eyes wide and full of hope.

“No, Ryan. He’s okay physically, but he hurt Mr. Lutz and that policeman, so he’ll have to stay in jail until that’s cleared up.”

“But after that? Can he come home then?”

“That’s a way off, Tiger. Let’s wait and see.”

Ryan got very quiet. His shoulders slumped, and he cast his eyes down. Ami felt terrible. She wasn’t sure what would happen to Dan. He had been trying to protect Ben Branton when he hurt Barney Lutz, and there was no way he could know that a policeman had grabbed him when he hurt the officer. Maybe a good defense attorney would get him probation or a light sentence. Even if he got probation, Ami was certain that Dan would move on. He had no roots in Portland. Come to think of it, he didn’t seem to have roots anywhere. She had asked him where he was from when they first met, and he had told her that he’d moved around a lot as a kid and didn’t think of any place as home. She’d accepted the answer then, but in light of what she was finding out the answer seemed evasive.

Then she realized that the answer to the mystery of Daniel Morelli was some unknown lawyer’s problem, not hers. Tomorrow, she would start asking her attorney friends for recommendations. When she found a good criminal attorney, she would give the name to Vanessa.

This realization helped her forget about Morelli for all of three minutes. He might be out of her legal life, but she couldn’t get him out of her thoughts. There was something tragic about her lodger, a sadness that had bubbled to the surface during their brief meetings at the hospital. Ami was certain that Morelli’s wounds and legal problems were not solely to blame for his fear and depression. Vanessa Kohler had said that he was “emotionally wounded.” Who had inflicted Dan’s psychological wounds? Maybe it was something that had happened in Vietnam when he was a prisoner. She imagined that their Vietnamese captors did terrible things to American prisoners of war. Did Morelli have a mental defense to his charges?

Ami remembered a case she had worked on when she was with her firm. The client had been a seriously disturbed veteran, and they’d used a psychiatrist as an expert witness on posttraumatic stress disorder. Victims of PTSD often reexperienced a traumatic event, like a rape, an earthquake, or a car accident, that was outside the range of ordinary human experience. Other symptoms included guilt feelings and reduced involvement with the external world. Many Vietnam War veterans suffered from PTSD. Ami had conducted the initial interview of the expert to see if he would help their case. She remembered him as being very smart and personable. Ami was definitely not going to continue as Morelli’s attorney, but she hadn’t found a new attorney for him yet. It would certainly assist whoever ended up with Morelli’s case if she laid the groundwork for a defense. Ami was excited. First thing tomorrow she would start her search for Morelli’s lawyer. But she would also try to remember the name of the psychiatrist.