I awoke to giggling just before we were pounced on by two little boys. Chase must have been already awake and between us we tickled the interlopers without mercy.
At the breakfast table Dad spoke to us about the detective who would be coming over that morning.
"I wanted you to know what's happening, a detective from King County is coming over this morning to interview John. We're going to try to figure out where his aunt and he were living and then go speak with the other residents there," Dad informed us after John and Carter had scrambled back upstairs.
"Does the detective have any new information Dad?" I asked.
"If he does he didn't share it with me. I think he's been without much to go on since he was assigned to the case and he has others to deal with too. Regardless of what you see on TV, police work many cases at the same time and act on new information as it comes in," Dad supplied.
Half an hour later Dad's phone rang and it was the detective letting him know he was on his way.
Herb Talbert looked to me like he was more likely to be a schoolteacher than a cop but I paused a bit when we shook hands. He had a bit of sadness in his life but he was dedicated to his job and this case in particular. I received a very good feeling about the man in the brief time we had touched.
Jem, would you and Chase go up and bring down John and I'd like you to stay up there with Carter if you don't mind Chase. I need John to be undistracted during the interview.
While we were upstairs Detective Talbert gave Dad some unpleasant news. The Detective had been called to the Seattle end of the Bremerton Ferry route to have a look at the scene where Tammy Reardon's body had been found in the back of her own minivan.
"Would you like to come sit with me John? Dad offered.
John allowed himself to be picked up and straddled on Dad's knee.
"John this is detective Talbert he's been trying to find your aunt. He's very interested in what you told us about the orange house. Would you mind if he asked a few questions?
"Okay," John replied meekly.
"Hi John, my name is Herb, so I think I've found the building where you were living, where inside were you living with Tammy?" Herb inquired.
"We were on the second floor, the bad people live on the bottom and nobody lives up on the top because the roof fell down," John answered softly.
"Do you remember any names of people who lived close by? Any friends of your aunt?" Herb probed.
"Just Baba and Marlo, they lived next to us on the side. Baba is nice but Marlo is just not very happy most of the time, I forgot Lolo she's nice and I play with her girls," John related.
"Is my aunt coming back, did something bad happen to her?" John asked, pleading with his eyes.
"John, I'm sorry to tell you this but Tammy can't come back. Something bad happened and she died," Dad told him in a gentle tone.
John turned his face to Dad's chest and sobbed.
After a few minutes John turned around. "I have to go there; I have to get something if it's still there. Tammy made me promise to get it if she didn't come back some day. I was afraid something bad had happened when she didn't come back to the park."
Dad looked across to Herb with a questioning look.
The neighbors might be more forthcoming if they see him there. I don't think there's much danger and I can have a couple patrol units pull in and scare off the dealers and their customers for a while so we can get upstairs without any trouble," Herb suggested.
"I'm inclined to agree but I'll need to run it past my wife first," Dad answered.
Dad hugged and kissed John and passed him to me. I took the opportunity to read John a bit and sensed his urgency to find something left, no hidden in the little apartment they had constructed from whatever they could find. He worried that someone else would find it and he would fail his aunt.
"I'll be coming too, John and I have bonded and he'll need me there to remain calm."
"I won't argue if your dad says it's okay," agreed Herb. " I want John to feel safe so he can help the people there see that we're not there to make their lives worse."
"Okay we're on, Minnie said she could see that it was necessary so let's get going," Dad announced.
"I'm going too Dad, can you hold up while I run up and tell Chase and Carter? We won't be gone long will we?" I asked.
"I'd say two hours tops," Herb estimated.
"Okay Jem, I think it will help John so I'll allow it."
John do you need to pee before we go?" Dad asked.
John nodded and Dad picked him up and carried him to the powder room.
Chase was reading and Carter was building something with Legos when I arrived at John's door.
"Dad and I are going with the detective to see where John was living. John says he needs to get something there. It shouldn't be more than a couple of hours. I can call you when we're heading back. You can stay here and play if you want. The piano movers aren't due until after noon so I can deal with taking my door down when we get back." I explained.
"Okay Jem, go do what you need to do but give me a kiss first," Chase requested.
I kissed him and whispered that I loved him and I would tell him more when I returned.
When I met up with Dad and Herb, Dad was just slipping a coat over his gun belt. Herb didn't seem concerned so I picked up john and we followed them to the Toyota Herb was driving. There was very little traffic and we were across Spokane street bridge quickly, soon we were on Marion and Alaskan way. John pointed out the old citrus warehouse that had been his home.
Herb made a radio call and asked for Seattle P.D. to send a couple of cars to clear out the dealers and tweakers on the ground floor and to keep them clear for an hour while we talked to John's neighbor's.
The old building looked ready to collapse, it was scheduled to be demolished soon for redevelopment.
We parked next to an S.P.D. unit and Dad carried John as we climbed the stairs. Herb asked the uniforms to stand by below so the neighbors would be more likely to talk.
There were several makeshift shacks on the second floor and John led us through the maze as people looked at us but didn't speak.
John pointed us to two shacks side by side. He pointed to the one on our left and Herb knocked gently at the door.
"Who is it? Said a voice with a Russian accent.
"It's me Babba, it's John!" he cried.
An older woman slid open the cardboard that passed for a door and looked out.
"John darling, where have you been? Come to Babba."
John strained towards her and Dad let him transfer from his arms to hers.
"Where have you been little man, I have missed you and where is your aunt Tammy we are very worried?"
"Tammy died, I just found out today. Can you talk to Herb and tell him anything you know about Tammy, it might help," John asked sweetly.
"Of course my dear, I'll help any way I can." She handed John to me and John pointed to the second shack.
"I need to get something from there," he looked up at Dad and we walked over to the other shack. John slid open the cardboard door and a voice shrieked, "Hey what are you doing?"
"Lolo? Is that you?" John called.
Lois Lopez stuck her head out of the door. "Little John is that you, are you guys back? Who's this?" she demanded.
I'm Mike and this is my son Etienne we're looking after John now. John would like to retrieve some of his belongings, are they still here?" Dad explained politely.
"You look like a cop, and besides scavengers got most of what was here."
"I just want my mommy's picture and something that's hidden. You can keep whatever is left," John implored.
"Let me get the picture for you and you can see if your stuff is where you hid it," Lolo granted.
John asked dad to follow him to the corner of the shack and then to lift him to a hole in the concrete wall where a pipe stub protruded.
Dad did as he was asked and John pulled the pipe stub out and to it was wired a long tube shaped canvas bag. John handed me the whole thing and I removed the wire and laid the stub on the floor.
"Aunt Tammy died so you can live here now. I have a new place to live and it's really nice, I miss Tammy but she wanted me to have a better home. I hope she knows wherever she is now."
Lolo stooped and hugged John and handed him the picture frame he was worried about.
"Good luck Sweety, I hope things get better for you," She said huskily. "I'll tell my girls you were here."
"Bye Lolo," John chirped.
We returned to Herb and Baba and John hugged her again. She lifted him and cuddled him. I presumed she was everybody's grandmother at least as far as the kids were concerned.
Herb, Dad and I stepped away. Herb began to outline what Baba had told him. Tammy had worked off of a computer escort page and set up dates with clients and always met in a public place. She would direct them to a hotel of her choice. She didn't have a pimp and seemed to stay busy. She would spring for a hotel room two or three nights a week so she could bathe John and sleep in a decent bed. She never had clients with John present. Baba often watched John while Tammy worked. Tammy had spoken of finally getting out of the city and getting a small house and a real life for her and John.
"We found her phone in the van, I'll have tech see if they can retrieve the data from the dating page she was using. Other than that I think we've learned everything we can here," Herb informed us.
Baba handed John to Dad and I shook her hand. From that brief touch I learned she wouldn't live long enough to be evicted. She seemed to know it and had accepted her fate. Here in this place she was useful, even important, it gave her a sense of pride that shown through the tough brown eyes and wrinkled skin. In those ancient eyes was also kindness and she was genuinely happy for John.
Dad carried John down the stairs and I carried the bag and photo he cherished.
"That was clever hiding place you had for this," I told John in the car.
"It has papers in it and some money, Tammy said I had to save the papers," John explained.
We arrived an hour and forty-five minutes after we had left the house. Mom told me Chase and Carter were still upstairs so I carried John along with me and he received a hero's welcome from Carter.
"Was it scary to go back there?" Carter asked.
"Not really, the scary people were gone because the police were there," John said plainly. "But I got to see Baba, she's a lady who lived next to us. She was always nice. Lolo and her girls live in our old place now but I got my mommy's picture and my special bag. That's really all I wanted. I didn't have lots of clothes or toys. Lolo said people came through and took most of what was there anyway. If you don't come back people just take your stuff."
"John, should we open this to make sure it has your papers in it?" I suggested.
John nodded and I opened the bag and began shaking out the contents. There was quite a bit of currency and at the bottom there were several documents and a handwritten letter.
"Chase, would you go get my Dad please?" I asked as I spread the papers out on my work table.
When Dad returned with Chase I held up John's birth certificate. The name was Michael Jonathon Hartford. It was issued in Olathe Kansas four years and ten months earlier. John's last name was the same as the mother and the father was listed as David Tremaine of Olathe, Kansas. That information would speed up the search for any relatives.
The handwritten letter was signed by John's mother. It made provisions for Tammy Reardon to take care of John if anything happened to her. She specifically did not want her own father to have anything to do with John, she cited being raped from age seven by him as the reason. The cash amounted to ninety-five hundred dollars mostly in hundreds. As we were reading and counting, the bag slipped off the table with a loud clack indicating something solid was inside. I picked it up and felt the end and detected something like a key wrapped in paper.
They key was wrapped in a two week old receipt for a small storage locker on Denny way. Thanks to anti-terrorism precautions train and bus stations no longer had lockers. For decades these had been the safety deposit box of the poor and homeless. The lockers were removed but enterprising public storage companies had purchased them and charged a monthly rent for their use. The odd looking key was just the type that had been used in the station lockers.
Dad grabbed his phone, I thought he was calling the detective but instead he called his attorney in Santa Barbara. He left the room to have the conversation but I guessed he would get the attorney to track down the details concerning John's family on the maternal side and see what the father's status was.
Our doorbell rang and I swept everything into an empty drawer in my worktable.
I rushed downstairs and just beat Mom to the door. Three men in work uniforms stood there ready to deliver two pianos.
Mom greeted them and asked which one they would bring in first. They explained the studio piano would be first, followed by the Steinway.
"Jem would you show these men where your studio is so they can decide how to approach the issue?" Mom requested.
"Ah I see you've already removed the door. Thank you." Randy the obvious leader of the group observed.
"I can remove the door opposite of this one if it will help, the pins are halfway out, I offered.
"I don't think we'll need to but you never know. The hall is plenty wide and I think we can turn our way into the room. Oh, which wall do you want it on?" Randy asked.
I pointed to the back wall and that was all they needed from me. It was quite a show the way they slung the piano in a harness while One man lifted the front the other lifted the rear but they were in an ideal posture for carrying heavy things. The third man and the driver acted as safeties for the men doing the carrying with one in front and one behind the other man as they ascended the stairs. Randy was correct and the other door remained in place. The mechanic/tuner arrived after the men had assembled both pianos and were getting ready to leave. Mom tipped them and they pulled away in their box truck.
The Tuner assembled the keyboards onto the pianos and began checking the mechanisms and finally the tuning. He spent two hours and when he was done both instruments were sounding perfect.
Mom asked me to try the Grand while George was still there. So I sat and began the Moonlight Sonata but after a few bars I switched to the Beer Barrel Polka and then segued into some Jelly Roll Morton style tunes.
"Sounds good to me," I opined, grinning at Mom.
I had already tried my piano and it sounded great.
George the tuner packed up his tools and bade us good afternoon.
Dad joined us in the living room and Mom asked what if anything we had discovered.
Dad explained the details we'd gleaned from our trip to the Orange house.
"And what was in the bag?" Mom asked."
"Quite a bit of cash, and several documents including John's birth certificate. I just had a friend run David Tremaine and discovered he's serving life in Missouri for a pair of drug related murders. The sentences are consecutive and he'll never get out so he's of no concern to us. We don't know if he's the biological father but that can be ascertained. I'm going to get a forensic DNA kit for John and I'll see if the Undersheriff can get it pushed through. Plus we'll do one of the commercial DNA kits to see if there are any relatives in the database."
"Anything else?" Mom asked.
"Yes, there was a key for an old airport type locker; the ones they use to have before they ripped them all out, and the receipt for the rental. They've become kind of a poor person's safe deposit box. Not completely secure but easily accessible and not a lot of questions about what's being stored," dad explained.
"I'd like to see this stuff, where is it?" Mom inquired.
"I put it in my worktable when the piano guys showed up, it should be safe there if you want to see it. There's a letter from his mother in there. She wrote it was imperative that John not be given to her father because he raped her for most of her time with him," I informed her.
"That's horrible, I will need to alert Mary so she can begin checking and find out what the next step is. Let's go on up and look the things over so I can know what I'm talking about."
"I'm going to meet Herb at the storage place and get a look inside the locker. Maybe there are a few more answers in there," Dad speculated.
"Well if the detective will be there it should be fine," Mom allowed.
Dad kissed us goodbye and went out the door and Mom and I went up to my room.