Paradise Falls

by Jacobs, Jonnie

  “Adam must have known Karen, too,” Grace added. “She got extra class help through that peer tutoring program the school has. Adam is a math and science tutor. And he was really interested in Karen’s disappearance. I remember that because Caitlin called him a ghoul.”

  “Like I said, I’m not saying you’re wrong. It’s just such a ticklish situation.”

  “What am I going to do?”

  “What can you do?” Sandy cradled her coffee mug in both hands. “Confronting Adam isn’t going to get you anywhere.”

  “You’re probably right.” Besides, Grace wasn’t eager to take on Adam face to face.

  “What about Carl?”

  “I won’t get any answers that way, either.”

  “That leaves going to the cops.”

  “Behind Carl’s back?”

  “I don’t see that there are any other options. You can’t just sit on what you’ve discovered and say nothing. Even if there are innocent explanations, it will eat at you if you don’t do something.”

  “You’re right.” She’d have to deal with Carl one way or the other. The prospect made her ill.

  “Give the detective a call,” Sandy said. “Or better, go see her. Do you want me to come with you?”

  “Thanks, but I can handle it.”

  “Go now, Grace. The sooner you get this over with, the better. Get it off your chest and let the detectives investigate.”

  ~~~~

  Half an hour later Grace entered the now-familiar police station with a resolve that faded with each step. What was she doing? Could Carl ever forgive her?

  I have to do this, Grace thought. As Sandy had pointed out, she didn’t have a choice.

  Detective Godwin’s greeting was cool. “We’re really backed up here with a homicide investigation. I’m afraid I don’t have a lot of time.”

  Cool and slightly off-putting, Grace thought. But having come this far, she wasn’t backing away now. “I might have information that can help.”

  “What is it?”

  “Is there somewhere we can talk?”

  “Follow me.” Godwin led Grace to a small, windowless, stuffy room with a small table and four metal chairs. She pulled out one and sat. “Like I said, I don’t have much time. You said you have information?”

  The detective’s abrupt manner was puzzling, especially following what Grace had considered a shared personal moment when Detective Godwin had told her about her own daughter.

  It must be the added stress of finding Karen’s body.

  “I’m not sure where to start,” Grace said.

  “Give me the bottom line first.”

  Bottom line. That was the hardest part for Grace to accept. “I think my stepson, Adam Peterson, might be someone you should look at in connection with both girls.”

  The detective finally looked interested. “Why’s that?”

  Grace again laid out her suspicions. Spoken out loud in the grim, unwelcoming cell of a room, they didn’t sound convincing. “It’s mostly a feeling I have,” Grace added lamely.

  Godwin folded her hands on the table. “Tell me about his relationship with Caitlin.”

  “Well, they get along but they don’t have a lot in common. Adam is often sullen and grouchy. Caitlin is upbeat. She’d tease him sometimes. He seemed okay with it but you never know. He’d even tease her back sometimes.”

  “Did anything change recently?”

  “Not that I noticed.” She thought for a moment. “Except, I think he stopped teasing her as much.”

  “Did he ever mention Karen Holiday?”

  “No, not until she disappeared. I’m not even certain he knew her.” Grace wished now she’d paid more attention to Adam’s reaction when Karen disappeared. At the time, she’d been more focused on the story of the missing teen than her stepson’s response.

  “What about when Karen went missing, any change in Adam’s behavior?”

  “He seemed obsessed with the newspaper stories. I remember Caitlin called him a ghoul.”

  “Anything else?”

  Grace shook her head. She’d just unleashed a potentially powerful time bomb, and it had taken less than five minutes. “What are you going to do?”

  “We’ll talk to Adam again. After that, I’m not sure. Your information is far from conclusive.”

  “He’s at our house for the rest of the week. He usually gets home around three.”

  “We’ll try to get out there today. If you think of anything else, give me a call.” Detective Godwin stood but she didn’t move toward the door. She put her hands on the back of the chair. “Did you see Seth Robbins’s column yesterday?”

  “I don’t remember. Why?”

  “He seemed to know all about my daughter. The stuff I told you in confidence.”

  Grace leapt to her feet. “You don’t think I told him, do you?” Obviously, the detective had thought that. No wonder she’d sounded so cool. “I had nothing to do with it, I swear. I’d never do that.”

  But she had told Carl, Grace remembered. And Adam had been hanging out in the doorway at the time. Another thread added to the web of suspicion that had taken hold in her head.

  Chapter 23

  Rayna reached into the left-hand drawer of her desk and grabbed a handful of trail mix, the kind with chocolate and nuts. It was an old habit, one she’d pretty much given up since taking the job in Paradise Falls. She’d succumbed, intermittently, during the initial phases of the Karen Holiday investigation, but it was only this last week, with her anxiety escalating daily, that she’d found herself reaching into the drawer on a regular basis. Her waistline was already feeling the effects.

  And now this.

  She didn’t know what to make of Grace Whittington’s suspicions about her stepson. The evidence was far from conclusive. On the other hand, cases often turned on less. Rayna had trouble believing Grace would point her finger at Adam unless she believed there were grounds for doing so. And while intuition might have been a big part, that didn’t mean Grace was wrong.

  As soon as Grace had gone, Rayna reread the notes of her earlier interview with Adam. Nothing had raised any red flags. Now, popping a walnut into her mouth, she called up a mental picture of the boy. Tall and lanky with straight red hair that hung limply around his face. He’d appeared more listless than nervous about the interview, and had answered her inquiries largely in monosyllables. Teen behavior, but not necessarily criminal.

  “Oh-oh,” Cody said, startling Rayna by coming up behind her. “I see it’s back to nervous eating.”

  “Not that it’s any of your business.”

  Untouched by her cool response, Cody opened the drawer and helped himself. “Same drawer. You’re a creature of habit, Rayna.” He threw a handful into his mouth. “At least it’s healthy stuff.”

  “Except for the chocolate.”

  “Chocolate’s good for you. The dark stuff you like, anyway. It’s good for your heart.” Cody pulled up a chair. “You were a thousand miles away a minute ago.”

  Rayna eyed him levelly. If Grace Whittington wasn’t the source of Robbins’s information, it had to have been Cody. Rayna was angry enough to spit but she was afraid he’d find her ire amusing.

  “Grace Whittington thinks her stepson might be responsible for what happened to Karen and Caitlin. He might have tutored Karen Holiday. And Grace has recently become aware of suspicious behavior on his part toward Caitlin.”

  “Like what?”

  Rayna summarized what Grace had told her. “None of it means much in itself, but I don’t think she’d have come forward if she didn’t feel fairly strongly.”

  “Do we know where the kid was when Caitlin disappeared?”

  “Home. Alone.” It had come up when she’d interviewed him, but Rayna hadn’t thought anything of it at the time. “And then out later that evening.” He’d supposedly taken his laptop to a local hotspot coffee shop, then to a video store to look at video games. All perfectly logical, but nothing that could be substantia
ted.

  “What’s he like?” Cody asked.

  “Quiet. A little geeky. He’s never been in any trouble with the law as far as I can tell. I spoke with the principal about an hour ago. Adam is a straight A student, but not an easy kid to have in class because he’s always challenging the teachers. Probably brighter than half of them. He doesn’t have many friends. In fact, the principal said kids sometimes pick on him, but Adam mostly ignores them so it’s never been an issue.”

  “Except to Adam, maybe.” Cody reached for another handful of trail mix. “You know, what you just described pretty much fits the profile of a kid who might do something like this. Loner, alienated, bright. Probably never had a girlfriend.”

  Rayna bristled at the ease with which Cody had injected himself into her investigation. “That’s a rather broad generalization,” she said.

  “On target, nonetheless. But you sound skeptical.”

  “I am.”

  “Want to tell me why?”

  “Besides the usual, you mean?” Rayna asked pointedly. Cody already knew she thought profiling was over-hyped. “There was nothing I picked up on when I talked to him,” Rayna explained, countering Grace’s intuition with her own. “He’s never shown any signs of aggression or antisocial behavior, but supposedly he abducts and kills two girls, one of whom is his stepsister? It doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

  “Serial killers don’t think like the rest of us.”

  Neither did profilers, she added silently. “I’m not convinced the crimes were committed by the same person, Cody. We aren’t even certain what’s happened to Caitlin.”

  “You have to admit there are striking similarities.”

  “The Dumpsters at the mall, you mean?”

  “Among other things.”

  “What kind of killer would dispose of articles from both victims in the same place?”

  “A really stupid one. Or one who wants to rub your face in the fact that he’s done it again.”

  “It could just as easily be coincidence.” Rayna nibbled on a chunk of dark chocolate. Did she really want Cody brought into this? Especially after he’d leaked personal information about her to the press. “There’s something else. After Karen Holiday disappeared, I found a small stuffed dog in my mailbox.”

  “A what?”

  “A child’s toy. Kimberly had quite a collection.” Rayna still had every one of the animals in a box on the shelf of her bedroom closet. “At first I thought some kid dropped it and a passerby, trying to be helpful, stuck it in my box. But then yesterday, after we found Karen’s body, I got another. A bunny this time.”

  “And when Caitlin disappeared?”

  “Nothing.”

  “You gave the bunny to forensics?”

  “No,” she said sarcastically. “In Paradise Falls we destroy everything that might be considered evidence.”

  “No need to get snippy.” Then he held up his hands, palms facing her, and muttered, “Sorry.”

  Rayna ignored his apology.

  “Okay,” Cody offered. “For argument’s sake, different crimes, different perps. All the more reason to look at Adam in connection with Caitlin. There must be some interesting dynamics in that family. I can’t imagine any teenage boy who wouldn’t find it a little unnerving to suddenly have a girl a few years his junior as a new sister.”

  “Hank and Fritz are at the school now. Then they’re going to talk to Adam’s mother. I’m planning to talk to Adam this afternoon.” She looked at her watch. “He should be home from school any minute now.”

  “You want me to come along?”

  “Do I have a choice?” Rayna narrowed her eyes his direction. “Besides, your buddy Seth Robbins must be eager for the latest installment.”

  “Who?”

  “Don’t play dumb with me.”

  Once again, Cody held up his open palms. “I am dumb. Who the hell is Seth whatever?”

  “He’s a columnist with the Paradise Falls Tribune.”

  “And?” Cody seemed genuinely bewildered.

  “You didn’t feed him private information about my past?”

  “Rayna, honey, I’ve only been in town a few days. How would I hook up with some local columnist? And why the hell would I want to tell him about you?”

  “I don’t know.” To Rayna’s chagrin, she felt her eyes tear up. Oh, God, she wasn’t going to do the female thing. Not here, not now.

  Cody leaned forward and took her hands in his. “I don’t want to hurt you, Rayna. I care about you.”

  The phone rang. She pulled her hands free, nonchalantly brushed the back of her hand across her eyes, and answered.

  “Rayna, it’s Hank. One of the kids here at school, Rob Hardy, told us Adam likes to hang out at a spot by the river. It’s an isolated place, kind of his own nest. We took a look there and found Caitlin’s initials scratched in a boulder, along with Adam’s. And, get this, a ring. Nothing expensive, but it’s the sort of thing a girl might wear for fun.”

  Rob Hardy was on Rayna’s “something doesn’t square” list. She wasn’t sure she trusted him. But evidence was evidence. “Let’s see if we can get a warrant to search Adam’s room at both his mom’s and dad’s places, as well as his school locker. Meanwhile, I’ll interview him.”

  So much for her skepticism about profiling, she thought. She turned to Cody. “Let’s go. Adam just got more interesting.”

  Chapter 24

  The minute he walked into his room, Adam knew that someone had been there.

  Grace.

  It had to have been her.

  She sometimes came in to “straighten up a bit,” as she put it, but today his room was as messy as ever. It’s just that this was a different mess than the mess he’d left that morning. Which meant that Grace had been in here snooping. He could tell she’d been freaked out to find him coming out of Caitlin’s room the other evening. Not that he really blamed her, but it didn’t give her the right to pry.

  This was why he kept so few things at his dad’s house. His mom never set foot in his room at home. Probably less out of respect for his privacy than simple lack of interest—his mom was pretty focused on her own life—but whatever the reason, it suited Adam just fine.

  Well, now that Grace was into snooping, he’d have to be more careful. He dumped his backpack on his unmade bed and trotted downstairs for a snack. Lucy was at a friend’s house and Grace had left a note saying she’d gone out to do errands, so Adam had the house to himself. No big deal. At home, his mom was never there in the afternoons, although she usually left instructions for him to do the laundry or start dinner.

  The doorbell rang as Adam was scanning the fridge for possibilities. He grabbed a can of Coke. When he opened the door, he recognized the lady cop who was looking for Caitlin. A man he’d never seen before stood next to her.

  “Grace isn’t home,” Adam said. “She’s out doing errands. Didn’t say when she’d be back.”

  The woman—Detective Godwin, he remembered now—gave him a friendly smile. “That’s okay, Adam. We have a few questions for you. May we come in?”

  He’d taken a swallow of Coke and coughed as it went down. “Uh, sure. But why me? I told you what I know.”

  “It’s a routine follow-up and clarification.” Detective Godwin gestured to the man next to her. “This is Agent Cody with the FBI.”

  “Hi.” Adam sure as hell wasn’t going to offer his hand and say, “Pleased to meet you,” the way his dad would have. FBI had an onerous sound to it.

  He knew better than to leave them standing in the entryway, however, so he led them to the kitchen.

  “Is Lucy around?” Detective Godwin asked.

  “No. She’s at a friend’s. Do you want me to call her?”

  “Not necessary. It’s you we want to talk to.”

  So much for their routine follow-up. Lucy was the last person to see Caitlin, so why would they want to talk to him and not Lucy? Adam could feel his armpits dampen with sweat.

  The F
BI agent pulled out a bar stool from under the kitchen counter and perched on it sideways, casual and cool. “Tell me about Caitlin.”

  “What do you want to know?”

  “You worried about her?”

  “Yeah, of course.” Was the guy serious? “The whole thing sucks.”

  “Isn’t it a pain, having a fifteen-year-old stepsister? Girls like to be in charge, if you know what I mean.”

  “Nah, Caitlin’s cool.”

  “Or maybe she wasn’t a pain at all.” The guy gave Adam a little man-to-man smirk. “Having a hot chick living under the same roof must be kind of . . . well, fun.”

  Hot chick? FBI Man sounded like he’d stepped out of some low budget ’60s movie. Still, Adam felt his pulse race. He had a glimmer of where they were heading.

  “I didn’t really think about it that way,” he said.

  “Hard not to when you’re a guy.” Another smirk.

  Adam’s hands shook. He set the Coke can on the counter.

  “Do you have a girlfriend?” Detective Godwin asked.

  “I’ve got friends who are girls.” What Adam actually had were classmates and acquaintances, but he wouldn’t have wanted most of the girls in Paradise Falls for friends, anyway.

  “How about a boyfriend?” the detective asked.

  Adam laughed, despite his jitters. Was this guy for real? “Definitely no boyfriend.”

  FBI Man eased off his stool and looked at the family snapshots that Grace kept on the front of the fridge. “How well did you know Karen Holiday?” he asked.

  No reason to feel nervous, Adam told himself. But he did. The cops were clearly trying to back him into a corner about something.

  “I talked to her sometimes.”

  “In the tutoring program or otherwise?”

  “Mostly tutoring. She wasn’t assigned to me or anything, but we have people in the library on Wednesday and Friday afternoons if kids need help. That’s where I’d see her mostly.”

  FBI Man turned abruptly and faced Adam. “Where were you in the early evening on the Friday Caitlin disappeared?”