Shadow Falls

by Wendy Dranfield

  If they lose this one, then he’ll take it as a sign from above that he wasn’t meant to be a husband or a father.

  Fifty-One

  As Nate drives them back toward the camp, the evening sun makes an appearance from behind the clouds and slowly begins to set. It’s casting a red hue over the tall trees around them. The air feels warm again. There are a lot of puddles along the roadside, so he’s expecting it to be muddy at the camp.

  He can feel a headache forming behind his eyes. He’s also a little shaky and doesn’t think it’s because he hasn’t eaten in a while. A familiar feeling of dread is looming and he’s powerless to do anything about it other than hope it doesn’t take hold. He can’t afford to let up on this case right now. To distract himself, he thinks about the painting Madison showed him on her phone, the one she thinks Jenny drew. “You know, that’s a pretty disturbing picture. I’d be terrified if a kid of mine drew that.”

  Madison agrees. “It’s creepy. Maybe her parents watch a lot of horror movies or something, and she was just painting what she saw on screen.”

  Nate thinks of Anna and Grant. They don’t look like they’re into horror movies, but how would he be able to tell, really?

  “You don’t think they’re into some weird satanic shit, do you?” she asks.

  He looks at her. “Seriously? They don’t seem the type, and there was nothing to suggest that in their home.”

  “We only saw their living room and Jenny’s bedroom. They’d probably keep that crazy shit for their own bedroom.” She sighs. “No, I guess they don’t seem the type. Maybe Jenny was acting out because she was being bullied. Or perhaps she’s not the sweet, angelic little girl her dad and grandmother have made her out to be.” She appears to think about it. “If Josh was telling the truth about the other kids not liking her because she was stealing from them, it’s totally possible we’re looking at this from the wrong angle.”

  Nate listens as she thinks out loud.

  “Maybe she has some kind of issues that stop her bonding with her peers and they all got sick of putting up with her and pushed her in the lake, taking it a step too far. They probably didn’t mean to kill her, just humiliate her. But if she was taken by surprise, she might have got into trouble and drowned.”

  “But the lake was searched,” he says.

  “It was, but maybe it’s time to search it again.” She sighs. “I don’t know. I could be wrong. Maybe she did run away after all.”

  “But she comes from a good home.”

  “Doesn’t matter. For all we know, Grant was abusing her. Or maybe he was too strict. There are a thousand reasons why kids run away from home, some of them reasonable, others not so much. Maybe she was just pissed at her parents and decided to teach them a lesson by disappearing. I mean, this painting is not what I’d expect from a happy twelve-year-old girl.”

  “We don’t actually know that she’s the same Jenny who painted it,” he points out. “We’re making assumptions. Would the camp staff even take the kids into town?”

  “Sure. Kids get bored easily. A day trip to the library would pass some time. I expect the library has drawing classes or something.” She turns to face him. “Did you notice how there were no missing child posters up anywhere in town?”

  He shakes his head; he hadn’t even thought of looking for posters.

  “It’s weird. Either they were all taken down by locals who didn’t want reminding they have a potential abductor in their midst, or Morgan never arranged for any to go up. That would be unusual. Well, actually, it would be incompetent.”

  “You think Ted’s not been effective in looking for her?”

  Madison looks away. “It’s hard to say without being on the inside. I’d give anything to be able to look through his investigation notes.”

  Nate can tell how much she misses being on the force. He finds himself rooting for her to get back there eventually. She’s obviously made to be a cop; she asks questions and considers theories that he would never have thought of. It reassures him to know that not all cops are corrupt like Detective Blake Diaz.

  He thinks about the footage of Donna’s meltdown in the grocery store. “I can’t help thinking Donna might be up to something after what I just learned.” He tells Madison what happened.

  “Sounds like she’s got a short temper,” she says. “Or maybe she was just on her period. God knows I could throw a shopping basket at someone on those days.”

  He daren’t laugh. His cell phone pings and he glances at it quickly. He has a new email from Rex. He pulls over to the side of the road to read it while Madison eats one of the sandwiches he bought.

  “Shit. Looks like Donna’s bankrupt.” He reads the short email, trying to concentrate despite the ache behind his eyes. “Rex says she owes four different credit cards a total of twenty grand, plus she defaulted on her home loan last year. Maybe that’s why she took a live-in job at the camp.” He opens his own sandwich and eats half of it, passing the other half to Brody, who’s breathing down his neck in anticipation. “Do you think it’s possible she might have taken Jenny to blackmail the parents out of some cash?”

  Madison scrunches up her wrapper. “As far as we know, there haven’t been any ransom requests.”

  He nods. “Not yet. Would there have been by now? Do you know of any kidnapping cases that have been about money?”

  Madison thinks for a few minutes whilst sipping her bottled water. “I haven’t worked any myself, but I’d assume the ransom request would come pretty quick. The more time someone holds a child, the more chance there is of it going wrong and them getting caught.”

  Nate thinks so too. “Maybe something happened to Jenny before Donna got a chance to ask for anything.”

  “You mean maybe she ran off?”

  Nate nods. “Maybe she ran off, or maybe Donna accidentally killed her.”

  Her eyes open wide. “Oh shit. That’s a possibility.”

  He starts the car. “Let’s see if she’ll answer some questions.”

  As soon as they arrive at Camp Fearless, Kat runs toward them with tears streaming down her face. Brody steps in between her and Nate, but she just dodges him.

  “What have you done?” she yells, hitting Nate on the chest.

  He holds her at arm’s length while Brody barks at her. “Kat, your boyfriend’s been screwing other women and recording them without their consent. Surely you can see he’s the one in the wrong here, not us?”

  “But he’s all I’ve got! He’s my only chance to get out of here and be someone.” She collapses onto her knees and Nate crouches next to her on the wet grass. He looks up at Madison, but she’s shaking her head in disgust. She clearly has no sympathy for the girl.

  Donna joins them. “Is she right? Has Josh been arrested?”

  Nate stands. “He has. But not in relation to Jennifer Lucas. Turns out Josh is a creep who has a thing for guns and filming women without their permission. Would you happen to know anything about that, Donna?”

  She gasps as she takes a step back. “Me? Why would I know what he was up to in his spare time? He was a good employee, or so I thought. I manage almost twenty-five people; I can’t be expected to know what they’re all up to.”

  Nate is running out of patience. “I need to speak to you in private.”

  Madison pulls Kat up and leads her away, giving Nate a look of reproach for leaving her to deal with the girl. He ignores it. She needs to realize she’s working for him now, and if he wants to take the lead, he will.

  Donna looks terrified, and she walks quickly to the office, clutching her necklace. Once inside, she closes the door. Nate doesn’t take the seat she offers him.

  “What’s going on around here?” she says. “First we lose a child, and now one of our counselors is a sex pest?”

  “You can cut the innocent crap. Are you seriously telling me you had no idea Josh Sanders was a creep? Haven’t you seen the way he treats Kat? I’ve been here just a few days and I’ve already witnessed
it.”

  She sits behind her desk and opens a drawer. He’s not surprised when she pulls out some vodka and takes a shot straight from the bottle. “These kids I employ are hard to keep track of, Mr. Monroe. They’re all either screwing each other or fighting each other and I can’t keep up. Just because Josh is a womanizer doesn’t mean I should automatically suspect he’s a criminal.”

  “But you should know what they’re doing when they’re here. Sounds like Josh was sleeping with several of your employees, plus someone’s been searching for child abuse images on your computer. Isn’t that your responsibility?”

  Her eyes widen in shock. “What?”

  “Madison found searches for underage girls on it. Know anything about that?” He’s starting to sweat. It’s not just grilling Donna in this hot office; his mood is changing.

  “Are you sure you found child abuse images on there? Because I’ve done plenty of searches for how to entertain pre-teen girls, and activities for girls and boys. I suppose now, what with everything that’s happened, I can see how those searches might be misinterpreted.”

  He doesn’t know whether to believe her. “Why would you search for that?”

  “Because it’s hard work trying to keep all these kids entertained twenty-four seven! They all have different interests and temperaments. I have one young girl, Becky, who doesn’t have any friends here yet, and I’ve been trying to find things to interest her.”

  Nate thinks she’s telling the truth. “I guess we’ll find out soon enough. Detective Morgan will be seizing your computer. Until then, I’d suggest you don’t let anyone touch it.”

  “Trust me, Mr. Monroe, there is absolutely no opportunity for anyone to search for that kind of disgusting content on our computer. We monitor the users; Kat is present when the children use it, and my staff are rarely on it. You’re barking up the wrong tree.” She looks away and groans. “Oh my God. If Josh is charged with something, I’m going to be fired for hiring him, aren’t I? We’re going to be in the papers.”

  Nate’s pissed. “Really? That’s your only concern right now?” He’s agitated and ready for an argument. “You make me sick. You hire people like Josh to work around the children in your care. Do you know how many unlicensed weapons he has at his house? What if he’d brought one to work with him and a kid got hold of it? And once your female staff realize he’s filmed them having sex, they’re going to want to press charges. So yeah, it’s going to be all over the news. Meaning all eyes will be on you and this camp.”

  She looks shocked and takes another slug of vodka. Nate can see her putting two and two together. The media will expose her financial problems.

  “So the question is, how are you going to survive, bankrupt and with no job?” he asks.

  She looks down. “How do you know about that?”

  “It’s my job to check people’s backgrounds. I know you don’t have a penny to your name, other than your income here, which I’m guessing isn’t much if the camp fees are anything to go by.”

  She takes a deep breath and holds back tears. “I only just get by. I get free food and housing here, but other than that, I don’t have much.”

  “Is that why you chose Jenny?”

  She looks up at him with panic in her eyes. “What?”

  “Well, she clearly has wealthy parents, unlike most of the others. Did you google everyone’s parents and think you’d hit the jackpot when you saw that Jenny is from a big house in Santa Barbara? I mean, it’s not much of a stretch to assume they’d pay a good ransom to get their daughter back if she went missing.”

  Her eyes are wide open and her mouth moves, but nothing comes out. She wipes away her tears defiantly and a look of disgust settles over her face. “How dare you accuse me of something so heinous? I would never hurt a child. I need this job to survive and I wouldn’t do anything to risk losing it.”

  “Not even for the twenty-five-thousand-dollar reward?”

  She stands up. “You and your friend are no longer welcome at my camp. You need to leave immediately or I’ll call the police.”

  Nate tries to read her. His gut tells him she’s genuinely insulted and not hiding anything, but he can’t be sure. He opens the door to her office and looks back. “If you know anything about what happened to that girl, you need to tell me or Detective Morgan as soon as possible, because the longer she’s missing, the worse it’s going to get for you. Especially now one of your employees has been arrested.”

  She reddens with anger. “Get out of my office.”

  He slams the door hard behind him.

  Fifty-Two

  Madison is on edge. Nate’s driving them to a hotel, but his personality has taken a sudden nose-dive. After she’d dealt with Kat, she found him looking out over the lake, and when she asked how it had gone with Donna, he barely mumbled a response. When he turned to her, his eyes were red-rimmed and he looked hopeless.

  She suggested they leave the camp and find somewhere else to stay tonight, and he agreed by just walking to his car. They left Brody at the campsite this time. Nate turned Madison down when she offered to drive, but his driving is erratic. He’s been drifting off to the side of the road for no reason. She’s worried he’s having a stroke or something.

  When they finally see a guest house, she’s relieved. “This will have to do. Pull in, Nate.”

  He does what she says, again without communicating. When he switches the ignition off, he looks down at his hands.

  “Nate, what’s wrong? Are you feeling okay?”

  He turns to her and the look in his eyes is one of despair. “This happens sometimes. I’m sorry. It’s overwhelming.”

  Her heart goes out to him. She’s seen this before, in prison. Nate’s having a serious depressive episode. She knows it could end badly, so she gets out of the car and takes charge. “Wait here, I’ll check us in.”

  She enters the guest house and is greeted by an empty check-in desk. She rings the handbell, and an older woman appears. Her hair is in a messy bun and her dentures are too big for her mouth, but she looks friendly.

  “Good evening. I’m Mary.”

  “Hi, how are you? I need two rooms for tonight, please.”

  “Sure thing. That’ll be a hundred and fifty dollars.”

  Madison hesitates. She’ll need to use her own cash, as she can’t ask Nate for money in his current state. She pulls her wallet out and hands the notes over. It hurts. Her wallet feels alarmingly light as she slides it back into her pocket.

  “I’ll need you to sign in, too.”

  Madison looks at the register and notices the page is yellowed with age. She’s guessing they don’t get many guests here. She signs in using just their first names.

  “Here are your keys. The rooms are right next to each other with interconnecting doors. You’re just in time for dinner, and breakfast is at seven. There are plenty of towels in the rooms, but if you need anything else, you just give me a holler.”

  “Thanks.”

  Madison turns to leave, but the woman wants to know more about her. “I’ve not seen you around before. Are you here to pick up your children from the summer camp?”

  She turns back. “Er, no. Just having a break from work. My husband and I needed some down time.”

  Mary looks confused. “You’re married but not sharing a room?”

  She takes a deep breath. Since when did everyone have to act like a cop? “He snores. It’s really bad.” She offers a fake smile.

  Mary makes a face to suggest she understands, and Madison heads back out to the car. Nate is standing by the side of the road. He looks like he’s waiting to throw himself under the next heavy vehicle that passes. His rapid change in behavior is alarming.

  She walks up to him and takes his arm. “Get our things from the trunk, then I’ll lead the way.”

  He does what she says. She climbs the carpeted stairs to find their rooms, but there are only two doors on this floor, so it’s easy. She opens the first one and lets Nate walk in
ahead of her.

  He drops their bags on the floor, slips his sneakers off and pulls his T-shirt over his head, revealing a toned torso and the rosary beads she glimpsed around his neck when she first met him. She can see they’ve been broken in several places, as if they’ve been pulled from his neck and then remorsefully fixed. Perhaps a sign of his wavering faith in God.

  He closes the curtains, drops onto the bed and covers his face with his arm. “You should go. I’m not good company when I’m like this.”

  “I’ll be the judge of that.” She closes the door and enters the bathroom. She’s looking for razor blades, or anything he could use to hang himself with. While in prison, she was unlucky enough to discover two of her cellmates hanging from their bunks. She hadn’t expected it and beat herself up for not preventing it, so she’s not going to let the same thing happen to Nate. He’s been through so much to get here that he can’t blow it all because of one bad day. But looking around, she can see a lot of items he could use to kill himself, and it’s then that she knows she’ll be staying in his room tonight.

  Madison figures all she can do is keep Nate talking, but that’s harder than she expected. He’s buried himself under the comforter, in just his jeans, and keeps telling her to get out of his room.

  As much as she’d love a night on her own in a comfortable, if somewhat flowery, hotel, she’s not going to do that. She’s sitting on the bed next to him, feet up and leaning her back against the headboard, with the TV on, hoping it will provide a distraction from whatever’s going on in his head. “Tell me about how you got out.”

  He doesn’t respond. He’s eerily still and silent. She shakes his bare shoulder. “Nate? Tell me how you got off death row.”