it possible I had something confused?
“Wrong number,” I said and hung up.
• • •
I reached my father’s second cousin once removed in Sydney shortly afterwards. Daddy always said if Donald Donnie MacDonald didn’t know about something, it couldn’t be worth knowing, even though it might not be worth repeating. Better yet, Donald Donnie and his equally observant wife, Loretta, lived right next door to the Fergusons. Not that they got along.
Lucky me. Donald Donnie answered his phone.
“Checking in,” I said after the initial pleasantries were over. “What’s the word on Jimmy Ferguson? Have they found him yet?”
He knew what was going on with Jimmy Ferguson all right. Apparently including my latest phone call to the Fergusons, made less than a half-hour earlier.
Across the room, Mrs. Parnell kept a close watch on the sleeping Alvin. She raised her glass to me and blew smoke rings sympathetically.
“Jimmy’s still missing,” I mouthed at her.
Mrs. Parnell had the grace to look surprised.
“I’m sure the family is in a state. I wouldn’t want to disturb them by calling and...” Here I lowered my voice and stepped around the corner into Mrs. Parnell’s kitchen.
Donald Donnie said, “Indeed, they’re disturbed already. Some wretched creature phoned and told them Jimmy was dead. They’re a pretty strange bunch, that crowd, but I can’t understand the cruelty of that.”
“Really? Someone called them and told them he was dead? Perhaps it was a misunderstanding.”
“A misunderstanding! My God, girl.”
“Well, I’m glad he’s alive.”
“We don’t actually know he’s alive, Camilla.” I could hear Loretta jabbering on in the background too.
“We don’t?”
“If the police don’t find him soon, he might as well be dead. That’s right, Mum, I’ll tell her. He’s in a bad enough way now. He can’t look after himself at all at all. Any more trauma, and I can’t imagine what would be left of that boy’s brain.”
• • •
When I returned to the living room, Mrs. Parnell looked up brightly. “Little something to take your mind off your trouble, Ms. MacPhee?”
I shook my head.
“Don’t blame yourself. In his state, young Ferguson could easily have misinterpreted his family’s message.”
“I guess so. Anyway, I’ll head back to the office and grab a few files. I can work here until we get this thing settled.”
“Before you go, you’d better fill me in on young Ferguson’s family in case he comes to. Then I’ll know what’s going on.”
“Sure. Seven kids, although it seems like more at times. Five are older and doing well for themselves. My father thinks the world of Alvin’s mother. She’s been a widow since Alvin and Jimmy were babies, yet she managed to get all those kids through university, except the youngest one, Jimmy. He had some kind of problems.”
Mrs. Parnell blew a couple of very impressive smoke rings. “What sort of problems?”
“Alvin didn’t talk about him much. I figure everyone in the family pampered him.”
Mrs. P. said. “The lovely boy in the picture. When did he go missing?”
“I haven’t really got the details. Everything blew up all of a sudden. His sister, Tracy, was very upset on the phone, and then Alvin collapsed. But it must have been after the going-away party last night. The family called to congratulate Alvin. Collect as usual. At first I thought it was strange people would be so agitated about this kid taking off overnight. I mean, Alvin’s way up here on his own, and nobody goes nuts about him.”
“Hmmm.” Mrs. Parnell picked up the photo and squinted at it through a veil of smoke.
I had a thought. “According to Donald Donnie MacDonald, Jimmy has seizures, and he’s not able to look after himself. Some kind of brain damage. And then the fact that he left his dog alone downtown, I guess that’s the clincher.”
Mrs. Parnell continued to examine the photo. She said, “We need better intelligence before we can develop a plan of action.”
My idea of a plan of action was to have Alvin talk to his family and tell them he was all right and maybe drive him to the airport.
Mrs. Parnell jammed another Benson and Hedges into her cigarette holder. “One always needs a plan of action. But more to the point, Jimmy may be all right, but young Ferguson certainly isn’t. We need to get to the bottom of that before it’s too late.” I had to hand it to her, Mrs. P. knew how to convey a fine sense of impending doom.
“Too bad my father’s in Scotland. I bet he’d know more about this Jimmy. What do you mean by too late?”
“Ah, these darling boys. I’ve seen it too often. Things set them off. Some small trauma. Something the rest of us wouldn’t give a second thought to. But it takes them inside themselves. Each time gets a bit worse. Then one day, they don’t come out again.”
What did this mean? That Alvin might never snap out of it?
“Ms. MacPhee, it would be useful to have something of a context. If we know what’s going on, then we can think about how to combat it. If young Ferguson wakes up, I’ll try to get a bit more out of him without setting him off again.”
I stood up. “We have to send him home. Pronto. He’ll be better off with his family.”
Mrs. Parnell stood up too. She leaned forward. I leaned back. She pursed her lips. I gathered that meant no. “Can he afford it?” she said.
“If he can’t, then I’ll have to help him.”
“Is that such a good idea?”
“No choice, Mrs. P. He needs to be with his family. They’ll be able to help him. Like you say, he seems traumatized.”
“Perhaps.”
“For sure. And listen, we have to contact his family, and I don’t want to get their panties in a twist again. So how about this. You call them and tell them he’s not feeling well and he’ll be in touch. In the meantime, I’ll make the arrangements for his flight.”
“Not so fast, Ms. MacPhee. Consider this, young Ferguson’s family are probably the source of his problem.”
Five
P. J. nabbed me on the cellphone before we got any further with that idea.
“I got some good news for you, Tiger,” he said.
As
