“No, I don’t know where she’s at, but I suspected that you’d head to Lakeville the first chance you got. And since I don’t want you going alone, I decided I might as well take you.”
I grinned and took hold of his arm. “Thank you, Lewis.”
He looked down at me, his blue eyes shining as he winked. “Anything to spend time with you.”
I playfully rolled my eyes, but inwardly, I wasn’t laughing. It had taken me a long time to realize that almost every time Lewis teased me, he was sharing his real feelings. He probably thought it wouldn’t hurt as much to be rejected if he could pretend it had all been a joke. But it wasn’t a joke—not to him or to me.
We got into his Chevy and pulled away from the house.
The day was picture-perfect, with a bright blue sky, no humidity, and a gentle breeze. The temperatures had been in the upper seventies, and the landscape was lush with summer blossoms. Wildflowers grew along the sides of the road, and cultivated gardens dotted the yards in our neighborhood.
“Have you heard anything about Annie?” I asked. “Beyond what you read in the paper?”
“I wasn’t on duty yesterday or today, so I haven’t heard anything else,” he said. “If they pulled off the robbery last night, they might still be in the Lakeville area.”
“Do you think they’ll head to Saint Paul?”
“Probably. But they might be planning other small robberies before they get there.” He glanced at me as he said, “I was able to do a little research about Annie’s life in Texas.”
I turned to him, eager to hear what he had to say. “And?”
“Are you sure you want to know?”
The automobile rumbled as we turned onto Lyndale Avenue and headed south. I was quiet for a moment, wondering what hadcaused my time-crossing mother to lead a criminal life in both paths. Was it something she could control?
“I want to know.”
“She was born in a small town in Texas in 1892,” he began. “Her father died when she was a few years old, so she and a couple siblings were raised by her single mother. It was a tough childhood, from all accounts. She wasn’t a great student and dropped out to get married when she was fifteen.”
I frowned. “She ran away with her merchant husband in South Carolina when she was thirteen. She was so young in both lives.”
Lewis readjusted himself in the driver’s seat, as if he was uncomfortable with what I’d told him about my second life. I thought of Marcus, who was always eager to hear about it. Nothing I told him made him act uncomfortable. It intrigued him to know more, which allowed me to share freely.
“Apparently,” Lewis continued, “Annie’s marriage wasn’t great. She stuck it out until she was twenty-one, but then left him, though there’s no record of divorce.”
“She died when she was twenty-one in her other life. I wonder if that affected her relationship with her husband here?”
Lewis didn’t respond as he glanced out the driver’s side window, not inviting more information from me.
“Does it make you uncomfortable when I talk about my other life?” I asked him.
“Honestly? I don’t know how it makes me feel. I’m still struggling to understand it.”
“I’ve been living this way for twenty years, and I don’t understand it, either.” I nibbled my bottom lip, not wanting him to stop telling me about Annie, but wondering if it was worth his discomfort.
“Anyway,” he continued. “She worked as a waitress for several years until she met Lloyd Rogers, and from what people have said, it was love at first sight for them. Lloyd was raised rough and had already spent time in jail for auto theft, safecracking, and burglary. Apparently, Annie took up with him right away, and they’ve notonly robbed banks, stores, and funeral homes, but they’re also accused of kidnapping a police officer and holding him for ransom.”
As he spoke, my despair grew deeper and deeper. “So, if she’s caught, she’s facing prison time.”
“That’s the way of it.” He let out a sigh. “I’m sorry, Carrie.”
We were driving down Lyndale Avenue toward Bloomington, not far from Wold-Chamberlain Field, where Charles Lindbergh would land in hisSpirit of St. Louiswhen he visited Minneapolis in just nine days. A lake appeared on the right, drawing my attention as a crane lifted from the water, spreading its massive wings in flight. Sunshine sparkled off the surface of the lake, shimmering like a thousand diamonds. The earth was so full of beauty, yet riddled with heartbreaking ugliness, too. Why had Annie chosen such difficult and destructive paths? Both of her lives had followed similar patterns. An early marriage to a man she didn’t seem to love, then passionate second relationships with men who had shared in her lawlessness.
“What will you do if you find her?” I asked him, almost afraid of the answer.
He was quiet for a few moments, and then he said, “I’ll have to do the right thing.”
As a Saint Paul police officer under the O’Connor System, I wasn’t sure what his definition of the right thing would be.
