Exposed

by C. M. Sutter

  Max sliced an apple into bite-sized pieces and placed them in a bowl. He set it on the couch next to her with a bottle of water. Theresa stared at him.

  He groaned. “I’m not feeding you.”

  “Then I guess you’ll have to untie my hands.”

  “You’ve got five minutes, so chow down.”

  Theresa bit into the crunchy apple pieces once her hands were loose. “It was nice not having that ball gag in my mouth for one night. Can we just forget about that thing? I promise not to scream.”

  “No way. The minute I leave, you’ll be screaming your head off.”

  “I won’t be able to breathe with it on. My nostrils are swollen closed.”

  “You’ll figure it out—or not. It makes no difference to me.”

  “Why did you abduct me the other night? You didn’t demand a ransom from my husband.”

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  “I want to know. What’s the end game here?”

  “You’ll find out the end game when it happens.”

  “So, that means I’m going to die? My death by suffocation doesn’t sound that exciting. You won’t even be here to witness it.”

  “Fine, I’ll leave the damn gag off, but your hands and feet are getting tied, and I’m closing the shutters.”

  Max secured Theresa to the stove and couch with ropes. He locked the cabin door and closed all the outer shutters. With the knife on his hip and a baseball cap on his head, he followed the deer path through the woods in the direction of town.

  After an hour through brambles, vines that tangled and tripped him more than once, and marshy wetlands, Max came across a clearing where a cottage stood. A pickup and a station wagon, with rust eating through the wheel wells, sat parked on the dirt driveway. He assessed the area and didn’t see anyone. Smoke from the chimney hung in the air like a gray cloud above the roofline. Somebody was home. He pulled his cell phone out of his back pocket and checked the time—barely seven o’clock. Coals at the fire pit still smoldered, and with the quantity of beer bottles scattered about, Max figured whoever was inside could very well be sleeping off a late-night party. He crept to the station wagon and peered in. Nothing of value caught his eye. He moved on to the truck and cupped his hands around his face against the glass. The gun rack mounted above the back window held a shotgun and a rifle, making Max grin. He checked his surroundings again—all clear, and nothing blocked the driveway. If he could get the truck started, he’d be long gone in seconds. As quietly as possible, Max lifted the door handle, and the driver’s door creaked open. He climbed in and sat behind the wheel. He checked the center console, door pockets, and under the seat but found no keys. He pulled the visor down, and they fell into his lap.

  This day is improving already, and it’s barely seven o’clock.

  He found the right key and slid it into the ignition. With the window rolled down, he looked back to make sure everything was clear, turned the key over, and slipped away unnoticed. He was at the safety of the cabin ten minutes later. Max turned the truck around on the road and backed in. With the nose facing out and the box of the truck against the back of the van, he’d transfer all of his belongings to the truck and leave the area for good.

  He heard screams for help coming from inside the cabin.

  Stupid bitch has no idea it’s me. She’s in for a world of hurt.

  Max quietly slinked up the steps and turned the key in the padlock. He gently lifted it off the door latch and, with the full force of his enormous frame, kicked the door open. It bounced off the opposite wall, almost breaking it off the hinges. Like the giant he was, Max stomped into the room and looked into her terror-filled eyes.

  “I guess I’ll be here when you die after all.”

  Chapter 37

  “You can pick me up. The doctor just released me.” I closed my hospital room door and stripped off the gown patterned with tiny flowers while I had Jack on speakerphone. “You’ll have to come to my room and get me. They won’t release me on my own.”

  “Yeah, I know the drill. I believe we’ve done this before.” Jack chuckled. “I’ll be there in ten minutes. We have a full day ahead of us. Are you up for it?”

  “Definitely, and you can tell me everything when we’re driving. I have to get dressed.” I clicked off.

  Ten minutes later, Jack gave my door a knock and said he was coming in. He pushed a wheelchair into the room while I was brushing my teeth. “You have to leave via the wheelchair, like always.”

  “Okay, I’ll be ready in a second.” I came out of the bathroom, gathered my belongings, and took a seat in the wheelchair. At the nurses’ station, I was given instructions to watch for headaches, dizziness, or blurred vision and to call the hospital immediately if any of those symptoms occurred. I signed the papers and was released into the sunny morning. Jack opened the cruiser, and I climbed into the passenger side while he returned the wheelchair to the vestibule. “What’s the plan?” I asked when he took his seat behind the steering wheel.

  “We’re meeting Antonio at the Clerk of Courts office. We checked yesterday, and there weren’t any property tax bills that went to the Sims name.”

  I raised my brow in question. “Then why are we going back?”

  “They may have had property years ago that was sold to someone else. Max could be hiding out in an area that’s familiar to him. He wouldn’t risk staying in town for any length of time with a van that has a BOLO out on it.”

  I nodded. “Okay, so we’re going through old records?”

  “Yep. Antonio and I started late yesterday with old plat books. The computers store seven years of tax records. No Sims came up in those seven years, so we started on year eight and got through year twelve before they kicked us out for the night. I figured thirty years would be a safe bet.”

  “Good idea. Between the three of us, we should be able to knock that out in a few hours. What’s after that?”

  Jack turned out of the hospital parking lot and headed toward Main Street. “After that, we’re going to Katie’s Closet. We looked at the surveillance tape last night and actually saw Theresa cross the street and walk down the sidewalk. The tape didn’t show her starting position, but we assumed it was where the car was found parked. She turned in the direction of the Last Stop, but the camera didn’t cover that wide of an area.”

  I perked up. “That’s a good start, though.”

  Jack agreed. “We need to check the alleged time she left the bar more thoroughly. We looked at fifteen minutes of tape around the two a.m. mark and never saw her. I want to widen those parameters. The bartender could have been wrong on the time.” Jack pulled into the parking lot at City Hall. “There’s Antonio.”

  A black Cadillac Escalade was parked near the entrance. Antonio climbed out when he saw us park two vehicles away.

  “Jade, good to see you’re up and around. How do you feel?”

  “I’m okay and anxious to get busy. I hear we have clearance and your permission to help search for Theresa.”

  Antonio looked relieved. “I don’t want to dismiss the effort Green River Falls is putting forth, but it seems like they’re over their heads on this one. Nobody has a clue as to what happened to Theresa, and time is ticking away. I’ve heard they’ve searched along the riverbanks and through some of the county-owned wooded areas, but there’s an awful lot of land to cover and not many people helping out. We aren’t locals, so to speak, so not very many people know us personally. To me, it sounds like they’re looking for a body, not Theresa being held captive.”

  I patted Antonio’s shoulder. “I think they’re looking for anything that might help. They could find her purse or cell phone lying in a ditch, that sort of thing. Don’t assume they’re only looking for a body. We have to stay positive.”

  Jack jerked his head toward the door. “Shall we?”

  We walked into City Hall’s main entrance. Marble floors, guest chairs, and a large reception counter filled that space. A directory showed all of t
he offices within the building. Jack and Antonio knew where to go.

  “This way,” Jack said as he turned right at the sign that listed the municipal offices in that wing. We walked the hallway to the fourth office on the left, where the Clerk of Courts sign hung above the door. We passed through the glass doors, and a young woman glanced up from behind the counter. She smiled at Jack and Antonio. “Hello, Tara,” Jack said. “Is it okay if we continue where we left off last night?”

  “Certainly.”

  “Tara, this is my partner, Sergeant Jade Monroe. Jade, this is Tara. She was very helpful last night.”

  I extended my hand. “Nice to meet you.”

  “Would you like coffee?”

  “That would be wonderful, thanks,” I said.

  “Go ahead back to the information data room. I’ll bring in a carafe for you.”

  I followed Jack and Antonio down the hall, and we entered a large room. Shelves covered most of the four walls, and file cabinets flanked each end of the long table.

  “The plat books are over here.” Jack pointed at a shelf to his right. “Let’s grab years thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen. We’ll do three year increments, then search the next three years, and so on.”

  “So, these are only Jackson County plat books, we’re looking for any parcel with the name Sims on it, and we’ll end at 1986, correct?”

  “You got it,” Antonio said.

  “Okay, let’s dig in.”

  Tara showed up with three cups, a carafe of coffee, and condiments. We thanked her, and she left the room.

  We worked in silence as we each dug in and searched names in the plat books for the year in front of us. On average, each book took us nearly forty-five minutes to scan every parcel for the name Sims. The writing was small, and the entries were crowded.

  “I swear I’m going to have another headache, have blurred vision, and need reading glasses by the time we’re finished here.”

  “Yeah, and that’s only if we don’t go blind first,” Jack said.

  We were each on our second book when Antonio called out anxiously, “You guys, check this parcel. Does that read Sims or Slins? Everything is in cursive and jammed together.”

  Jack and I leaned in and took a closer look.

  “It’s almost impossible to tell. I’ll ask Tara if there’s a magnifying glass here somewhere.” I exited the room and walked to the main counter. Tara was on the phone. She put up her finger as if to say one minute. I waited.

  “Sergeant Monroe, what can I help you with?” she asked when she hung up.

  “Would anyone have a magnifying glass we could use? Some of that writing is hard to make out, but we might be on to something.”

  “That’s good news, and yes, there’s a magnifying glass just for that purpose in the top drawer of the filing cabinet on the right side of the room.”

  “Thanks.”

  I returned to the data room and told the guys where the magnifying glass was. Jack found it immediately. We took turns peering over the writing on the parcel and still couldn’t come to a definitive conclusion.

  “Which year is that book?” I asked.

  Antonio turned it over and checked the spine. “It’s 1999.”

  “Okay, let’s see if Tara can search the records for ownership of lot number 143 in 1999.”

  We returned to the main desk and gave Tara the information we’d gathered. We held our breath while she entered the data into the system.

  With a few taps of the keys, a long list of parcels for 1999 showed up. With her finger, she went down the list in numerical order until she reached lot number 143. She looked up at each of us and grinned.

  “Bingo! The owner at the time was Lee Sims. It shows he owned the twenty-acre parcel on Trout Lake from 1983 until 2000 when he let the county reclaim the land for back property taxes. Now I know why the name Sims didn’t come up in the tax records for privately owned property.”

  Jack huffed. “Back taxes, huh? It must run in the family. So does the county still own that land?”

  “Yes, it appears so. Usually when the county gets land back, they hang onto it. There are too many subdivisions going up in other parts of the county the way it is. We need to keep some land pristine, especially around pretty little lakes like Trout Lake.”

  “So you know where it is?” I asked.

  “Sure. It’s only a few miles out of town.”

  “Thanks, Tara,” Jack said. “You’ve been a big help.”

  “Good luck.”

  We walked out and gathered near Antonio’s Escalade. The concern on his face was evident. He knew what the Sims family was capable of. “Are we going out there?”

  I glanced at Jack and gave him a nod. He had spent more time with Antonio, and I felt he should explain the situation to him. Max Sims was a dangerous man, and if he was at that property, he’d likely fight his way out. If Theresa was indeed with him, she’d either end up as a hostage or he’d kill her if she wasn’t already dead. Our plan was to go in with the entire police force from Green River Falls assisting us. Antonio, as a civilian, had to stay away from the area. It could quickly escalate into a very dangerous situation. My cell phone rang just as Jack began explaining the process to Antonio. I excused myself and crossed the parking lot to stand by the cruiser.

  “Hello, Sergeant Jade Monroe speaking.”

  “Jade, it’s Lieutenant Clark.”

  “Boss, whose phone are you using?”

  “The battery on mine died. I’m using Dr. White’s phone. It looks like they’re wrapping up everything at the farm. They’ve retrieved all of the bones they can find in the field. We had the canine unit do one last sweep of the area, and they haven’t alerted on anything else.”

  “That’s good news.”

  “I’d say. Now we just need to match DNA results with the families that volunteered samples. We’ve had a pretty good turnout so far. Eleven families have come in. Lena and Jason have recorded all of the DNA from the families, and Dr. White’s team is going to start extracting samples from the bones. It will be a slow process, but we’ve actually released the property back to the developer. The Swedish megastore agreed to forge ahead at the Sims property site.”

  I breathed a deep sigh. “I’m relieved to hear that. There are quite a few North Bend residents looking for work, and that place could create a lot of employment opportunities. Plus, now we can move on with identifying some of those remains. Anyway, boss, we may have a lead in finding Max Sims’s whereabouts. I don’t want to get Judge Gardino’s hopes up, and we don’t know what we’re heading into. It could be a twenty-acre parcel of empty land. Apparently, there used to be a Sims that owned property here in Green River Falls. I don’t know if there is a connection or not, but we’ll coordinate everything with the PD first and go in together. If Max is actually there and if he has Mrs. Gardino, it could get hairy.”

  “Watch your back, Jade, and tell Jack the same thing. Call me later. I don’t care what time it is.”

  “Will do, boss. I better go.”

  “Be safe.” Clark clicked off, and I joined Jack and Antonio.

  Jack addressed me. “I was telling Antonio that he ought to go home and be with his kids. We’ll let the PD know we’re going to check out the property and we need their assistance. I don’t think it’s smart to go into an area that large when it’s only you and me.”

  “I agree.”

  Seeing the anguish and guilt on Antonio’s face broke my heart. In the next hour, he might find out his wife is dead, a hostage, or nowhere in the area.

  “We’ve got to go. Antonio, we’ll call you as soon as we know something—I promise. Go take care of your kids. Jack and I are good at our jobs. We’ve got this.”

  I gave him a nod and left. Jack and I headed back into the building and followed the hallway to the police department. I was sure Barb was getting tired of seeing us.

  Barb looked up from the counter when we walked in. “I know,” she said as she pushed back her chair and ope
ned the door at her back, “you need to see the lieutenant.”

  I held my tongue momentarily. “Yes, and right away. It’s important.”

  A few minutes later, Lieutenant Connors walked out to greet us. “This isn’t a good time, detectives. A report of a missing girl just came in. We’re up to our eyeballs with missing women this week. What’s going on? And please make it quick. Barb said you had something important to tell me.”

  “We do, sir. We have reason to believe the person likely responsible for Theresa Gardino’s abduction is nearby. We’re going to check out the location, but we need your help. We have to go as soon as you can gather officers. She’s been missing for several days, and we can’t prolong this anymore. This new information of another missing woman could be directly related to the person in question.”

  Lieutenant Connors squeezed his head between his hands and groaned. “Okay. I have four officers on duty right now—with me, it’s five. How do you want to move forward?”

  “We have to see a satellite image of the area first. We need to know what we’ll be walking into. Can we check on your computer?”

  “Yes, you can take care of that while I call in my officers. The few that are on duty are out on patrol. Follow me. We’ll go into my office. Do you have the address?”

  Jack spoke up. “I have it right here.”

  The lieutenant looked at the piece of paper. “That’s county land, probably overgrown and wild.”

  “We need to see what the best way to enter the property is and if there’s a structure on the land. We don’t need any surprises.”

  Lieutenant Connors nodded. “Go ahead. See what you come up with. I’ll round up my guys.”

  With everyone the lieutenant could spare in that short time frame gathered around his office computer, they studied the satellite imagery of the old Sims property.

  I sat and listened as Jack led the conversation with the group of officers. Here, out of our jurisdiction, my rank didn’t mean anything to them. They had their own commander. These were good ol’ boys, and I thought it better to have a man go over the plan with everyone.