Chapter 32
32
Karen pushed the overloaded shopping cart to the checkout line, wondering what the total would be. While at the big box store, she had taken the opportunity to purchase some items for Laura, Olivia, Zannie, and Marty. But after having assessed the two newcomers' clothes, she knew they were desperate for clothes that fit. Some of their friends had donated some gently used clothing that was perfect, but she wanted them to pick out new things.
Once she was almost to the cashier, Zannie tugged on her shirt. “Miss Karen. I need to use the bathroom.”
Karen smiled down at her and nodded. “Laura, would you mind taking her?”
“Sure, Mom,” Laura said, then looked at her sister. “Olivia, you want to come, too?”
As the girls walked off, Karen started to unload the items onto the conveyor belt, placing them into two piles—one for her girls and one for Zannie and Marty. Turning to him, she asked, “Marty, do you need to go to the restroom?”
“No, I’m good,” he said, intent on helping her.
As she pulled her credit card from her wallet, she knew to keep her receipts to give to Lisa. Marty looked at her wallet and said, “We had lots of those.”
Busy with the task at hand, she didn’t process his words at first. As she ran her card through the reader, she looked down at her still-open wallet, where her few credit cards, debit card, and driver's license were tucked into the pockets. “Hmm? What was that?” she asked.
“Those,” he said, pointing at her cards. “We had lots of those.”
“Oh,” she replied, her gaze on the total ringing up. Then suddenly, it hit her—Carla probably opened a lot of cards to be able to charge for items and then possibly didn’t pay them off. “I guess most people have several of these,” she said.
Marty looked up, his nose scrunched. “Alan had a lot more than you have. He once had thirty-seven.”
Karen’s attention was diverted as the cashier rang up the total. Sighing in relief, she smiled and tucked her card away before placing the bags into the cart. She looked up to scan the area for the girls, smiling when Laura had Zannie by the hand with Olivia next to them, heading her way.
“Miss Karen! I got to dry my hands on a blower on the wall where my hands went down inside a tube!”
Turning to a bright-eyed Zannie excitedly describing the hand-blower, she laughed. “Well, that was special.”
“Marty, you should go. Then you can try it, too,” Zannie said, tugging on his arm.
“Nah, that’s okay,” he said, blushing.
“Let’s get home, guys,” Karen called out, then pushed the cart toward the parking lot. Once home, it was time for dinner. Tonight was fish, salad, and macaroni and cheese. It would just be them since Mark thought it would be a good idea for him to have dinner with Benji, not wanting to force too many changes at once. She readily agreed and thought tomorrow night would be soon enough for another gathering.
When dinner was over, Laura and Olivia began their homework, and Zannie, wanting to be just like the other girls, sat at the table and colored.
Karen had washed the new clothes and was upstairs folding them when Marty appeared.
“Can I help you?” he asked shyly.
She smiled and nodded. “Absolutely. I’ll put your clothes on this side of the bed, and you can take care of putting them away. I’ll do the same for Zannie’s.”
They worked in tandem for a few minutes, moving in a quiet rhythm. She asked about his day at school and was pleased when he responded with a smile. A nagging thought pulled at her mind, and suddenly, what he said earlier struck her. “I meant to ask you about all those credit cards of Alan’s. How many did you say he had?”
Marty looked up at her. “Thirty-seven.”
Karen blinked, taken aback. “Thirty-seven?” she repeated, disbelief coloring her words. “I don’t know anyone who has that many cards.”
Marty shrugged. “I don’t know if they were all his. They had different names on them.”
Her brow furrowed in confusion. “Different names?”
“Yeah.” He nodded, his voice lowering as if sharing a secret. “I only noticed once when he was taking a shower and left the cards on the table. Zannie was practicing her counting. She started counting his cards and made it all the way up to thirty-seven. When we heard the shower go off, I quickly put them back the way they had been. I never saw them again after that.”
A shiver ran down her spine as she forced her voice to stay calm and even. “Do you happen to remember any of the names you saw?”
Marty’s face scrunched in concentration. “Yeah, I remember one. It was Stanley Whitten.”
The name sent a jolt through Karen’s chest. She tried to stifle the sharp gasp that escaped her, but it was too late. Marty’s eyes darted to her face, his brows knitting in concern. She exhaled slowly, the weight of what she’d just heard settling heavily on her mind. Carefully, she moved closer to him, sitting on the bed, and took both of his small hands in hers. She needed him to feel safe, to know that what he had shared was important.
“Marty,” she said softly, her thumbs tracing comforting circles over his knuckles, “what you saw… it could be important. I think Mark should know about it.”
His expression hardened in an instant, the innocence of childhood slipping away as something darker and more adult crossed his face. “Alan was doing something he wasn’t supposed to, wasn’t he?” His voice held a sharp edge, too harsh for a boy his age.
Karen’s heart broke a little at the sight of him—so young yet forced to carry the burden of understanding things no child should. She swallowed, keeping her tone calm. “Honey, I don’t know for sure what Alan was doing. I can’t say if it was right or wrong. But I do feel like this is something important for Mark to know. He can help us figure it out. But I don’t want you to feel?—”
“It’s fine, Miss Karen.” His voice sounded too harsh for such a little boy. “I never liked him, and if he was doing something wrong, then I want to tell the police.”
Karen’s chest tightened, a deep sadness washing over her. She pulled Marty into a gentle hug, holding him close, her hand smoothing down his back. His bravery both inspired and hurt her, but she knew this was the right thing to do.
“Okay,” she whispered into his hair, her voice soft but resolute. “We’ll tell Mark. Together.”
And as they sat there, the weight of the moment wrapped around them like a heavy blanket, Karen couldn’t help but feel the shifting tide of their lives. The world felt darker, but there was still hope in that darkness—a hope for truth, safety, and the love that connected them all.
Pulling her phone from her pocket, she quickly dialed Mark.
“Hey, babe. You guys having a good evening?”
“Mark, I’m not sure what to do, but Marty has just given me information about Alan that I think you need to know.”
Immediately, his voice took on a different tone. “What’s going on?”
“I promise I wasn’t questioning him, but it came up in conversation. There are some things he saw in Alan’s possession that you should know about. I don’t want this to happen tonight so close to bedtime. How about tomorrow morning?”
“What about school?”
Karen closed her eyes and winced. She hated for Marty to miss any school and for her to miss more time out of the office. “It’ll be okay,” she said, forcing an upbeat tenor to her words.
“Once you drop the others off, come in. I’ll meet you there.”
“Okay.”
She was about to disconnect when he said, “Babe, I really hate this.”
“What?”
“We’ve barely been together, but I swear I hate being apart.”
“I know. I feel the same. We’ll talk more later. Let me get everyone down, and then we can talk.”
“Call me as soon as you can. Benji will be in bed about the same time as Marty, so you can call anytime.”
“Okay. Talk to you later.”
Disconnecting, she smiled at Marty, who held her gaze.
“I know you’re upset for me, Miss Karen, but it’s okay. We don’t know where Mom or Alan have gone. We don’t even know if they’re still together. I’ll go to the station and talk to Mark.”
“You’re very brave, Marty. And such a good young man.”
“Mr. Roscoe once said that sometimes doing the right thing isn’t always the easiest thing. But if it’s right, then we gotta take care of it.”
“He’s a wise man.”
Standing, she plastered a smile on her face, but Marty wasn’t finished.
“Miss Karen?”
“Yes?” She gave him her full attention.
“Let’s not tell Zannie what I’m doing tomorrow, okay? I don’t want her to get upset.”
Karen sucked in a quick breath through her nose before letting it out slowly, her heart full. “Okay, honey. For tonight, we won’t worry about anything other than clean laundry, getting bookbags ready for tomorrow, and having a bedtime snack. Tomorrow, you and I will take care of talking to Mark.”
He smiled, and her heart filled until it was overflowing.
The following morning, Karen was hyped up on caffeine and nerves. She barely slept the night before and forced a happy smile on her face as she got everyone ready for school. She hated not telling Zannie the truth, but she just said she had an appointment for Marty. She had already left the principal and teacher a message that they had an appointment to keep.
Now, with Marty at her side, they walked into the sheriff’s station. Marty was wide-eyed and didn’t appear nervous. He seemed almost excited about a new adventure. Mark met them in reception, then walked them back, pointing out things that a nine-year-old boy would find interesting.
Karen wondered if they would be going into a similar room where she had been interviewed, but instead, he led them into a room with a sofa, several comfortable chairs, and a table with a few cups. Turning to Marty, he said, “I have orange juice, apple juice, or water.”
Marty looked at Karen. She smiled and said, “You can choose whatever you’d like.”
“Apple juice, please.”
Mark smiled and walked out of the room, quickly returning with a full container of apple juice. Karen realized he must have just bought the selections. He winked at her as he poured. “Karen? A cup of coffee? I can guarantee that it’s better than most police office coffee.”
“Because it’s from my girlfriend,” Brad said, walking into the room with a cardboard drink carrier with four coffees in one hand and a paper sack in the other. “You’ve got to try Bess’s coffee. And there’s muffins from her bakery.”
“Oh my,” she exclaimed with exaggeration while lifting a brow. “Much different from the last couple of times I’ve been here.”
Brad had the good grace to blush bright red as he set down the coffee and muffin bag. “Yeah… um… I’m really…”
She barked out a laugh and waved her hand. She looked up as Lisa Berkley walked into the room. Standing, she greeted her with a hug.
Lisa looked down at Marty and smiled warmly. “Hello, Marty. Don’t worry about me being here. I just wanted to hear what was going on.”
Soon, everyone was sitting at the table, their impromptu breakfast in front of them, offering a casual environment for Marty.
Mark began. “Marty, I want to thank you for coming in today. We are recording this session so that we can make sure we don’t forget anything, okay?”
Marty looked at Karen, then nodded.
“Good. For the record, I’m Detective Mark Robbins, and this is Detective Brad Stowe. Next to him is Detective John Sullivan, and then Lisa Berkley from Child Protective Services. And of course, you know Karen Drummond, your foster mother.”
Marty sat up straight and held Mark’s gaze.
“It’s our understanding that you gave some information to Miss Karen yesterday. Can you tell us what it was you talked about?”
Karen smiled encouragingly. “Just tell them what you told me, honey. You can talk to them just like you talk to me.”
Marty nodded, his gaze moving around the table before settling on Mark’s face. “It was when Miss Karen had her wallet out at the store. It reminded me that Alan had a bunch of cards like those. You know… the ones that you use in stores to buy stuff.”
Mark’s gaze jumped to Karen’s face. “He was looking at my credit cards.”
Marty nodded again. “One night, he was fiddling with a bunch of stuff at the table. Me and Zannie were watching TV. He went into the back, and I heard the shower running. Zannie looked at the table and whispered that there was money there. I got up and looked and there was a stack of money. I knew not to touch anything of his, but Zannie picked up the cards that had a bunch of colors on them. She said they were pretty, and she wanted to count to see how many there were.” He grimaced. “I probably should have stopped her, but I couldn’t see how it would hurt. Anyway, she counted thirty-seven.”
Mark’s gentle smile remained steadfast, but his eyes cut to Karen. Her lips were pinched tightly, but she simply nodded.
“Thirty-seven credit cards?” Brad asked.
Marty nodded. “Yeah. When Miss Karen said that most people don’t have that many, I told her they weren’t all his. When Zannie counted, I put them back into the same stack that Alan had left them. I didn’t want him to know Zannie had played with them.”
“How did you know they weren’t all his?” Mark asked.
“I noticed they had people’s names on them. They weren’t his names. In fact, there were all kinds of different names.”
Brad leaned forward and asked softly, “Can you remember any of the names?”
“I remember one of them because it was easy for me to read. It was Stanley Whitten.”
Karen knew the significance of the name but hoped Marty wasn’t aware of the new current that started snapping around the room.
“Any other names you remember?”
Marty scrunched his face, then nodded. “Yeah… it was a real easy one. Walter Carter.”
“Good, good,” Mark said, smiling. “That’s really good of you to remember those names, Marty.”
“I told Miss Karen that if Alan was doing bad stuff, then I wanted to help catch him. I didn’t like him. Mom kept saying that he was going to take us with him when he got enough money. She really wanted him to have money, but he never spent it on us. She just said he was going to make it big. I don’t know what that meant, but I didn’t care. He was mean.”
“Besides the money and the credit cards, did you see anything else Alan had that didn’t seem like his?”
“Um… like what?”
“Well, I don’t want to put words into your mouth, so you can just think about it and let me know if you think of anything,” Mark said.
Marty scrunched his nose and looked at Karen.
“It’s okay, honey,” she said, patting his hand. “You go ahead and finish your muffin and juice. I’ll take you to school as soon as we’re finished.”
Lisa thanked everyone and left with Brad escorting her out. John and Mark made small talk until Marty was wiping the crumbs from his mouth. Then John stood and reached his hand over to the young boy. Marty grinned shyly as he shook the detective’s hand, and Karen’s heart warmed once more.
Mark walked them out, offering a hug to Marty who then climbed into her SUV. Standing in the parking lot, Karen turned to Mark and whispered, “It’s him, isn’t it? Alan is the thief?”
“I can’t talk about an ongoing case, babe.”
Her teeth bit into the bottom lip, then she pushed on. “But he wouldn’t know who to target if it wasn’t for someone who was with the patients. And that comes back to me.” Letting out a shaky breath, she asked, “How can these two cases be connected?” She suddenly jerked and grabbed his shoulders. “Oh God, Mark… could he have been following me?”
“I don’t know, but I promise I’m going to find out.”
With that, he squeezed her hand and leaned forward, placing a light kiss on her now cold lips. Climbing into the vehicle, she pulled out of the parking lot. With more enthusiasm than she felt, she said, “Well, Marty, that was exciting. Now, let’s get you to school so you can have a great day.”
If only I could feel the same!