The Drowning Child

7

Gary, Ren and Ruddock stood in the shelter of the back door of Tate PD after the press conference. Ruddock pulled out a pack of cigarettes.

‘Do you smoke?’ he said, extending the pack toward Gary, then Ren. Gary declined.

‘For one night only,’ said Ren. Filthy habit.

Ruddock lit it for her, lit his own.

‘Sounds like Mom thinks Caleb ran away, and Dad thinks he’s been abducted,’ said Gary.

Ren turned to Ruddock. ‘Could he have run away?’ she said. ‘What do you think?’

‘Honestly, I don’t know,’ said Ruddock. ‘All I know is something is not quite right with the Veirs.’

‘It seems like they’re blaming each other,’ said Ren. ‘They weren’t even touching when they walked in. What vibe did you get from them when you first met?’

‘It was tense,’ said Ruddock, ‘but under the circumstances, that’s to be expected. Even if John Veir thinks his son was abducted, I agree – he sure is acting like he blames his wife for something.’

‘Maybe for not being there yesterday morning,’ said Ren. ‘But, surely, that wouldn’t have made a difference. It wasn’t like we know that Caleb was snatched from their home while she was distracted. And John Veir had his phone on silent. Maybe that’s what’s bothering his wife.’ She paused. ‘What was John Veir’s “no matter what” about?’

Ruddock shrugged. ‘Nerves? I don’t know.’

They could hear footsteps coming their way. They looked around. Wiley was striding toward them from where he had dumped the man who interrupted the press conference. He rolled his eyes at Ruddock. Ruddock didn’t respond.

‘Who was that guy?’ said Ren.

‘Clyde Brimmer,’ said Wiley. ‘A drunk.’

Wow... what drunk fucked you over?

‘Why was he talking about Lake Verny?’ said Ren.

Wiley was shaking his head. ‘His usual bullshit.’

Ruddock intervened. ‘It’s got to be about Aaron Fuller.’

‘The boy who drowned?’ said Ren.

‘Yes,’ said Ruddock. ‘Clyde was fired for drinking on the job. He was an embalmer. The last body he worked on was Aaron’s...’

‘Ah,’ said Ren. ‘It’s haunting him...’

Ruddock nodded.

‘And that was the job he was caught drunk on?’ said Ren.

‘Well, it was the last straw,’ said Ruddock. ‘There were some earlier complaints. He swears he wasn’t drinking when he was working on Aaron—’

‘Clyde doesn’t do himself any favors,’ said Wiley. ‘He showed up for work Monday to Friday in reasonably good shape, didn’t go too wild on weeknights. But he drank heavily on the weekends. Once you’re propping up a bar regularly, slowly drinking your way into oblivion, well, you’re telling people how to remember you. It’s all about perception, really, isn’t it?’

Jesus.

‘I’ll leave you to it,’ said Wiley. He walked back toward the gates.

‘What is Clyde Brimmer’s story?’ said Ren.

‘A sorry one,’ said Ruddock. ‘We were in school together. A group of us hung out, usual stuff: playing football, going swimming, duck-diving in the lake. We were pretty innocent kids. But Clyde went off the rails when he was seventeen, when his little sister died. He started drinking, doing drugs. Got off drugs eventually, but kept on drinking. He’d get sober every now and then, then he’d fall off the wagon again. The longest he was sober was when he did his embalmer training. He was lucky he managed it at all. It would break your heart. Bad things just seem to happen a lot around Clyde. It’s like life is always throwing things at him.’

You are so endearing. And I love pockmarked skin.

‘What happened to his sister?’ said Ren.

‘She fell through one of the decks at Lake Verny. The timber was rotten. Clyde was custodian at the time. It was the spring of ’84. He had already said there was a problem with the deck and the jetty of that cabin, but no one listened to him. He was concerned that sub-standard timber was used, and that it was unstable. He told the owners, but they were from out of town and said they’d get it fixed later: they wanted to enjoy their next break without having any construction work going on. This one day, Lizzie – Clyde’s sister, she was only ten years old – was hanging around with him, because their parents were gone to a wedding and he had to watch her. She brought a couple of her little friends along, they’d been playing around the cabins. Then she disappeared. She was found floating in the water... apparently she stepped right through the deck. It tore up her femoral artery, that was it, she bled out just like that. Clyde took it real bad. He always said if he had just fixed that deck when he wanted to, it never would have happened. He felt he didn’t try hard enough to get people to listen. It’s why he gets so agitated still if he feels something is unsafe, and people aren’t listening. It drives him crazy. And you know something? He didn’t even quit his job. He still stayed looking after the cabins for a long time after the accident, for whoever hung on to them. It was a control thing, I guess. He didn’t want to put anyone else through what his family went through.’

‘That is so sad,’ said Ren.

Gary turned to Ruddock. ‘Mind if Ren and I take a look at last night’s interviews with the Veirs?’

‘Sure,’ said Ruddock. ‘Follow me.’

Ruddock found Gary and Ren an empty room and left them to watch the videos of first John Veir, then Teddy, both carried out by Ruddock and Wiley together.

Ruddock was an impressive interviewer, thoughtful, measured, bright and sharp, with the perfect demeanor to make two traumatized parents as comfortable as they could be with a series of uncomfortable questions while their only child was still missing.

Wiley didn’t ask any questions, even though, at times, it looked like he was struggling to stay quiet.

I wonder were you under strict instructions from Ruddock. Or do you just not give a fuck?

There was a knock on the door and Ruddock walked in. ‘Sign-in for the search is kicking off, if you’d like to come out.’

‘OK,’ said Gary.

‘So,’ said Ruddock, nodding toward the screen. ‘What do you think?’

‘They’re both lying,’ said Gary and Ren at exactly the same time.