Gone Missing (Kate Burkholder 4)

by Castillo, Linda

  “The tunnel, Kate. Where is it?”

  The sheriff’s deputy stands next to him, barking something into his lapel mike, but his attention is on me.

  “Basement,” I say. “This way.”

  Then I’m striding down the hallway, vaguely aware that my legs are shaking. The basement door stands open, the wood around the lock shattered. Evidently, Perry Mast used the rifle to blast his way out. I stop at the door, look down the steps into the basement. It seems like hours since I was down there, though in reality it’s only a matter of minutes.

  I start down the steps. The temperature drops as I descend. The odor of rotting wood and wet earth close around me like a dirty, wet blanket. Gray light oozes in from a single window at ground level, but it’s not enough to cut the shadows.

  My boots are silent on the dirt floor as I cross to the hatch. Tomasetti walks beside me, shining his Maglite from side to side. I hear the deputy behind me. He’s breathing heavily, which tells me his adrenaline is flowing. The fact of the matter is, we don’t know what we’ll find down here. We don’t know if there are other people, if they’re armed, or if they mean us harm. We don’t know if the girls are alive or if Mast killed them before coming out and turning the gun on himself.

  “They ran electricity to the tunnel,” I say as I take them to the hatch.

  “So much for all those Amish rules,” Tomasetti mutters.

  “I cut the extension cord.”

  We reach the hatch. The sickle I used to lock Mast in lies on the floor, a few feet away. One of the double doors lies next to it; the other hangs at a precarious angle by a single hinge.

  “He shot off the hinges,” says Marcus stating the obvious.

  Tomasetti shines his light down the steps leading into the tunnel. “What the fuck is this?”

  Marcus trains the beam of his flashlight on the steps. “House used to be part of the Underground Railroad.”

  “No shit?” Tomasetti says.

  “Newspaper did a story a few years ago.”

  “Did you know about the tunnels?” Tomasetti asks.

  “No one mentioned tunnels.”

  “Now you know why,” I mutter.

  The deputy sweeps his beam along the brick walls of the tunnel. “Creepy as hell, if you ask me.”

  Dread scrapes a nail down my back as I stare into the darkness. My heart is a drum in my chest. The last thing I want to do is go back down there. Not because I’m afraid of some unseen threat, but because I don’t know what we’ll find. If Mast shot and killed his wife, chances are good he also killed the girls… .

  “We need a generator and work lights.” Tomasetti glances my way, keeping his voice light. “You want to get that going, Chief?”

  He’s giving me an out, I realize. As much as I appreciate the gesture, there’s no way I can stay behind.

  “I need to go down there.”

  “Let’s go.” Drawing his weapon, he starts down the steps.

  Descending into the tunnel is like being swallowed alive by a wet black mouth. Even with two powerful flashlights, there’s not enough light.

  No one says what they’re thinking. That we’re going to find the hostages dead. That Mast won this little war and we should chalk up another one for the bad guys… .

  Our feet are nearly silent on the ancient brick and dirt floor. Tomasetti has to walk at a slight stoop because of his height.

  “Where the hell does it go?” the deputy asks.

  “The slaughter shed,” I tell him. “There was another turnoff, which might lead to the barn.”

  Flashes of my blind run through this tunnel nudge the back of my consciousness. I remember feeling my way along the brick walls, stumbling over unseen obstacles, knowing an armed Perry Mast was closing in and bent on killing me. I suspect I’ll be making that run in my nightmares for some time to come… .

  Twenty yards in, the unmistakable sound of footsteps reach us. Someone is running toward us.

  “Shit.” Tomasetti raises his weapon and drops into a crouch. “Police!” he shouts. “Stop! Police!”

  Beside me, the deputy drops to a shooter’s stance, raises his weapon. I pull the Glock from my waistband and do the same.

  Both men shine their lights forward.

  “The hostages were bound?” the deputy asks.

  “Yes,” I tell him.

  I see movement ahead. Out of the corner of my eye I see the deputy take aim. “Stop right there!” he shouts. “Sheriff’s office!”

  On instinct, the three of us move closer to the wall, but there’s no cover. A figure appears out of the darkness. I see a tall, thin silhouette, a pale face and dark hair, dark clothes.

  “Stop!” Tomasetti shouts. “Stop right fucking there!”

  A young man dressed in tattered Amish garb stumbles to a halt a dozen feet away. His arms flap at his sides. His mouth is open. His eyes are wild. He screams something unintelligible and falls to his knees.

  “Get your hands up!” Keeping his sidearm poised center mass, Tomasetti approaches the man. “Get them up! Now!”

  “Get down on the ground!” the deputy screams.

  The man stares at us, his expression terrified as he drops to his hands and knees and then onto his belly. He’s muttering words I don’t understand—an old Amish prayer I haven’t heard in years.

  We rush forward as a unit. Tomasetti pounces on him, puts his knee in the man’s back. The deputy withdraws cuffs from his belt and secures the man’s hands behind his back. My hands shake as I pat him down for weapons. I pull the pockets of his trousers inside out. As I run my hands over his chest, I discern the sharp edges of ribs. He’s little more than skin and bones.

  “He’s clean,” I say, trying to ignore the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.

  Tomasetti gets to his feet, brushes dust from his slacks, slants a look at me. “He one of the hostages?”

  “The hostages were female.” I turn my attention to the young man. “What’s your name?”

  The deputy helps the man to his feet. I guess him to be in his twenties. He’s breathing hard, his concave chest heaving with each breath. He looks at me as if he doesn’t understand.

  I repeat my question in Pennsylvania Dutch. “What’s your name?”

  “Noah,” he blurts. “Noah Mast.”

  A shockwave goes through me with such power that I take a step back. I glance at Tomasetti. He’s not easily surprised. But I see shock in his eyes.

  “You’re Noah Mast?” he asks.

  “Ja.”

  The deputy’s eyes widen. “Holy shit.”

  “Are you the son of Irene and Perry Mast?” I ask.

  The man nods. “They are my mamm and datt.”

  I’m so taken aback by the revelation, it takes me a moment to find my voice. “What are you doing down here?”

  “This is where I live.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I live here. This is where they keep me.”

  “You mean here? On the property?” I ask. “With your parents?”

  He looks at me as if I’m dense. “No. I live here. In the down below. Here.”

  If I wasn’t hearing this with my own ears, I wouldn’t believe it. My brain sorts through the information, but I still can’t get my mind around it.

  “Where are the others?” I ask.

  He looks at me. Even in the dim light from the flashlights, I can see he’s not healthy. His lips are dry and cracked. His face is so pale, I can see the veins through his skin. The hair at his crown is thin and dry-looking.

  “They are here. I hear them scream sometimes.” He says the words as if living in a tunnel where people scream is a normal, everyday occurrence.

  “Are they alive?” I ask.

  “Some of them,” he says matter-of-factly. “The good ones.”

  I glance at the deputy. “Can you take him topside?” I hear myself ask. “I’m going to get the hostages.”

  “Sure thing.” He glances at Tomasetti, who nods, th
en at Mast. “Let’s go.”

  The deputy and Mast start toward the hatch. Tomasetti and I watch them go. Mast turns his head and smiles. In that instant, he looks like a frightened teenager.

  “What the hell was going on here?” Tomasetti mutters.

  I look at him and shake my head. “I’m not sure I want to know.”

  Shaking his head, he shines the beam down the tunnel. “Let’s go find those hostages.”

  Neither of us holsters our weapons as we begin walking. I look around for some familiar landmark. A step-up or alcove or door. But there are only brick walls and the oval of the tunnel. It’s as if I’ve never been here.

  We’ve only gone a few yards when a scream echoes from the darkness. It’s the same voice I heard when I was down here earlier. It’s a bloodcurdling sound that rattles my nerves. But it also fills me with hope, because I know at least one of the hostages is alive.

  I break into a jog. Tomasetti quickens his pace to keep up, holding the beam steady and ahead. We’ve gone only a few yards when I see the door.

  “That’s it,” I say.

  “Careful. He could have booby-trapped it.”

  But I’m already pushing it open. I see two girls lying on the floor. Sadie is standing, one hand shading her eyes from my beam. I see terror in her eyes in the instant before she recognizes me.

  “Katie!” she cries. “You came back!”

  “Is everyone okay?” I ask.

  The girl’s face screws up. “I heard the gunshots,” she chokes out. “I thought he killed you.” She lowers her face into her hands and bursts into tears. “I thought he would kill us, too.”

  “It’s going to be okay.” I go to her, put my arms around her. The chain binding her to the wall rattles as she throws her arms around me. She begins to sob uncontrollably, her body trembling against me. “It’s over,” I tell her. “You’re going home.”

  CHAPTER 24

  Two hours later, the Mast farm is swarming with sheriff’s deputies, local police, paramedics from the volunteer fire department, and a slew of state Highway Patrol troopers. The coroner’s SUV is parked outside the slaughter shed. Midway down the driveway, out of the crime-scene perimeter, is a television news van from WCVK, out of Cleveland. A young reporter in a lime green raincoat is finger-combing her hair while the cameraman sets up lights.

  I’m about to go in search of Tomasetti, when I see him coming out of the house. The scowl he’s wearing softens when he spots me, and he starts toward me. “You’re getting wet, Chief.”

  The fact that I hadn’t noticed tells me something about my frame of mind. I’m unduly glad to see him—for myriad reasons—and it takes a good bit of self-discipline to keep myself from putting my arms around him. “Anything new?” I ask.

  “Going to take a while to figure this one out,” he tells me. “How are the hostages?”

  I’ve spent the last hour in the tunnel with Sadie Miller, Bonnie Fisher, and the third girl, who, we believe, is Ruth Wagler, while the local locksmith dismantled the shackles.

  “Sadie Miller and Bonnie Fisher are in relatively good condition. Physically anyway.” I look at Tomasetti and sigh. “The third girl is in terrible shape. She’s emaciated and weak. Nearly catatonic.”

  “I called the Waglers,” he tells me. “Sheriff’s deputy is driving them down from Sharon.” He pauses. “Did you speak with the Miller girl’s family?”

  “I called Glock and had him run out to my sister’s farm. They were … ecstatic. And thankful.” I grin. “Gave all the credit to God.”

  “Ah … the bane of being a cop.”

  We watch an ambulance pull away. I find myself thinking about the body I found. “Any more remains?”

  “One of the deputies found bones in the hog pen,” he tells me. “Two skulls.”

  “Jesus.” I stave off a shiver, trying not to think about what that means.

  “We’re going to search the entire property. Sheriff’s office is going to bring in some cadaver dogs.”

  I sigh, wondering if we’ll ever get the full story of what happened and why. “Have you talked to Noah Mast?”

  He nods. “One of the troopers and I did while we were waiting for the ambulance. Kid’s a mess. Doesn’t even know what year it is.”

  I struggle to wrap my brain around that. The conditions were truly horrific—dirty, unsanitary, damp. The hostages were malnourished and filthy. I can’t imagine the psychological toll nine years would take.

  “Does he know his parents are dead?” I ask.

  “Not yet.”

  A snatch of memory pushes at the back of my brain. “All of this makes me wonder what really happened to the sister.”

  Tomasetti nods. “We asked Noah about her. Evidently, the parents blamed him for her death.”

  “But it was a suicide.”

  “Maybe. We’ll need to take a look at the autopsy report. Maybe even exhume her body.”

  I’m still thinking about the parents and how they could lay blame on their son. “Did Noah say why they blamed him?”

  “We didn’t get that far. EMS took him to the hospital in Mayfield Heights. He’ll probably spend at least one night there. Once they get him set up in a room, we’ll do the interview.” His face darkens. “You get anything from the girls?”

  “Not much. They were pretty shaken up.”

  “We need to talk to them.”

  “They took Bonnie Fisher and Ruth Wagler to the same hospital as Noah. Sadie went to Pomerene, in Millersburg, so her family could be there.”

  For a moment, the only sounds are the crack of police radios and the patter of rain against the ground. “Tomasetti, what the hell was going on here?”

  He shakes his head in a way that tells me not only does he not know but the depravity and insanity are so far beyond his grasp, he can’t imagine.

  “The Masts seemed so fucking normal,” I say.

  “Except they kidnapped at least five teenagers, killed at least three people, and imprisoned their own son for nine years,” he growls.

  We fall silent, our thoughts zinging between us, and watch a trooper in a yellow slicker turn away a young reporter. But my mind is still on Bonnie Fisher, Sadie Miller, and Noah Mast. Tomasetti’s right: They’re going to be our best source of information. Our only source now that the Masts are dead.

  I hope they know enough to tell us why.

  There are innumerable rewards that come with the closing of an investigation. First and foremost is the knowledge that a dangerous individual—in this case, two—has been taken off the street and won’t be harming anyone else. But there are other rewards, too. The personal satisfaction of knowing you did your job to the best of your ability; that the time and energy you’d invested paid off. Then there’s the intellectual reward of finally having the question of “why?” addressed.

  That, more than anything, is the engine driving us as Tomasetti and I walk through the emergency entrance of Hillcrest Hospital in Mayfield Heights, a small community east of Cleveland.

  We don’t speak as we ride the elevator up. The doors whoosh open to a brightly lit nurses station. A heavyset woman wearing pink scrubs sits at the desk, staring at a computer monitor. She glances up when we step off the elevator. She doesn’t speak, but her mouth firms into a thin, unpleasant line, and I suspect she’s not happy about the police questioning her new high-profile patients.

  Beyond, a wide tiled hall is lined with doors. We don’t have to ask which rooms belong to the victims. Two Lake County sheriff’s deputies and a state Highway Patrol trooper stand outside rooms 308 and 312, dr inking coffee and talking quietly, eyeing us with the territorial glares of a pack of dogs. Another local cop sits in a plastic chair, reading a magazine.

  Since the crimes were committed in rural Lake County, the case falls under the jurisdiction of the sheriff’s office. But Tomasetti and I have been part of this investigation since the task force was formed. I don’t think there will be a problem with our sitting in on the interview.r />
  All eyes fall on us as we approach. I recognize two of the deputies from the scene at the Mast farm earlier. Their expressions aren’t hostile, but they’re not friendly, either, and I’m reminded they’ve lost a fellow officer today.

  Tomasetti slides his badge from his pocket, and I do the same. The deputy I don’t recognize steps forward and extends his hand. “I’m Ralph Tannin with the Lake County sheriff’s office.”

  He introduces the other men, one of whom is with the Monongahela Falls PD, and then addresses me. “We want to thank you for what you did, Chief Burkholder.”

  “I was at the right place at the right time,” I tell him.

  “No one could have imagined what was going on out there at that farm.” He rocks back on his heels. “Goddamn middle age Amish couple.”

  “You talk to any of them yet?” Tomasetti asks.

  “The doc’s with the Fisher girl now.” Tannin indicates the room directly behind him.

  “You guys find anything else at the scene?” I ask.

  He shakes his head. “Just those two skulls. But we’ve got a lot more to search.”

  The door behind him opens. I look up and see a tall, thin man emerge. He’s wearing a white lab coat over SpongeBob scrubs and glasses with small square lenses. He’s young, maybe thirty, with a five o’clock shadow and circles the size of plums beneath his eyes, telling me he’s been on duty for quite some time. His badge tells me his name is Dr. Barton.

  “How’s she doing?” I ask.

  The doctor looks at me over the tops of his glasses. She’s “dehydrated, exhausted, traumatized. But she’s going to be okay.” He glances at Tannin. “Are her parents on the way?”

  The deputy nods. “They got a driver and should be here within the hour.”

  “Good,” the physician says. “She needs them.”

  “Can we talk to her?” Tomasetti asks.

  Barton gives a reluctant nod. “She’s been sedated, so she can get some rest to night. Keep it short and try not to upset her too much.”

  “What about Ruth Wagler?” I ask.

  Dr. Barton shakes his head. “She’s not going to be talking to anyone for a while.”