Page 61 of Heart of a Hero

Karen shifted on the bed to face him, taking his hands in hers. “Tell me about your mom. You said she worked at night and then slept most of the day?”

He nodded. “She used to work at some restaurant, I think. She’d come home and be all excited about the money she’d pull out of her purse. She’d tell us we were gonna get a nice place to live. When we moved here, I thought it was gonna be nicer than the apartment we’d been in, but it was kind of dirty. I took some of the cleaner wipes from school and tried to clean the bathroom.” He cut his eyes toward Mark, and she quickly assured him, “That was a really smart thing to do.”

His tight little body seemed to relax at her words. “Mom usually works evenings, and she’d find someone to watch us. Then when we moved here and Alan moved in with us, she started working nights and sleeping in the day. I’d get Zannie up and make sure we were at the bus stop.”

“What about breakfast, honey?”

“We’d get it at school.” He lowered his voice and shrugged. “We didn’t have to pay for breakfast or lunch. Something about Mom not being able to pay.”

“I’m so glad you had that for you and Zannie,” she said again with added enthusiasm. She was reasonably sure a teacher assisted in getting the approval for the kids to eat at school, no longer feeling that their mom was doing much for her children.

“And when you’d get home from school?” Mark asked. “On a regular school day—where was Mom?”

“She’d usually be sleeping. Sometimes, she’d wake up and take more of the medicine that Alan would give her.”

“Was she sick?” Karen asked.

Marty’s shoulders hefted. “I don’t know. She just said she needed her pills.”

Karen looked up and caught Mark’s stiff jaw as a grimace crossed his face. She knew what he was thinking, and it was the same thing that slammed into her. Their mom was a junkie. And her boyfriend was her supplier. Staring at the little boy still holding her hands, her heart first broke and then opened for him.

27

After Mark, Brad, and Karen finished talking to Marty, they returned to the living room, where Mark watched as Karen kept Marty’s hand in hers and sat on the sofa next to Zannie. “We’re going to check out things next door and be right back,” Mark said, keeping his tone lighter than he felt. Inside, he was raging.

As soon as he was given Carla’s and Alan’s names, he and Brad had shared a look. The two names were both familiar, though Mark hadn’t heard anything about either of them for a while. When Karen asked him to check the address next door, he came up with a name that was not Carla Perkins. The woman’s name on the lease must have been one of their friends.

Carla was a woman they knew who’d worked at a bar in the northern part of the county. She had a record and was always on the fringes of nefarious activity whenever there was trouble at the bar. When he was a deputy, he’d encountered her several times when they’d been called to break up bar fights.

Alan Solstein had a record in both North Heron County and Accawmacke County. He’d been picked up several times with an assault and battery charge and possession of drugs. He’d spent time in jail, but Mark hadn’t heard about him since becoming a detective.

He and Brad stepped outside and looked at the two deputies. “We need to get inside the mobile home next door,” he said.

The female deputy lifted her hand and jingled a keychain. “I thought we might, so I asked the mobile home park manager for a master key.”

“Good job,” Brad said with a nod. “That saves us time.”

Turning to the male deputy, he asked him to stay outside in case either Carla or Alan came home or drove by.

From the outside of the kids’ home, it appeared that the bare minimum had been done to meet the management's requirements. He figured Alan wouldn’t want anyone snooping, so at least a weed eater had been used to keep the small patch of grass down. The deputy unlocked the door but knocked on it, announcing who they were. With no answer, she brought out her weapon and called out that she was entering.

As they entered, her gaze swept the dimly lit space, immediately sensing the neglect that clung to the air like a thick fog.

The deputy quickly checked the room before walking back into the living area, shaking her head. “Clear,” she called out.

This mobile home's interior vastly differed from Roscoe’s clean, orderly home. Looking around, Mark felt a shiver run through his body at the sight and stench of garbage that had not been removed. The living room was messy, with food boxes and beer cans sitting everywhere. Turning to look at the kitchen, he guessed it hadn’t been cleaned since they’d moved in months ago.

Brad cursed under his breath as he snapped on gloves before checking the kitchen.

Mark also pulled on gloves as he walked down the hall, announced himself, and found two unoccupied bedrooms. One was easily identifiable as the kids’ with only a single twin mattress on the floor and cardboard boxes that appeared to beused as a dresser. Peering out the window, he spied Roscoe’s house, and he remembered Karen once told him that the kids would peek out and wave to her when she came.

Stepping across the hall was like entering a war zone. Trash was scattered across the floor, mingled with the foul odor of unwashed sheets left to rot on a stained double mattress. Beer cans, food wrappers, and crushed cigarette butts cluttered the room. His eyes scanned the mess, but something felt off. There were no clothes. No personal belongings, nothing but the filth left behind.

He pulled open the dresser drawers, but they were bare. Stepping over the trash on the floor, he opened the closet door and peered inside the small closet. No clothes… just empty coat hangers.They fucking left… and abandoned the kids.

Brad appeared in the doorway, his face hard as stone as he relayed information to dispatch, calling for forensics and backup. His eyes mirrored Mark's disgust as they took in the scene around them. Mark stepped into the bathroom. He knew Marty had tried to clean the space, but despite the child’s best efforts, it was filthy. He opened the tiny cabinet with gloved hands, finding the shelves empty except for two small toothbrushes that should have been replaced months ago. Narrowing his eyes, he walked back into the main bedroom.If she were a user, she would have wanted a stash that Alan wouldn’t sell.

Brad stuck his head into the room and cursed.

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