An Iron Fist, Two Harbors

by Dennis Herschbach

  “Well, let’s find out what’s so important.” They held hands as they walked to the Law Enforcement Center, and Deidre realized this was the first time they had touched in at least two days.

  They were ushered into Jeff ’s office by the receptionist, where they waited nervously for him. A few minutes later he came in and closed the door behind himself.

  “I think we might have a lead. It’s a long shot, but it’s something,” he began. Before he continued he asked, “Can I get you a cup of coffee? We’ve got a few cookies left out there.” Ben and Deidre shook their heads, and Deidre muttered a “no, thank you.” Both were sitting on the edge of their chairs looking intently at Jeff.

  “Here’s what we have. After putting out information about Maren’s disappearance, the story has been picked up by other agencies around the country. Computers have really changed this job,” he added, and Deidre wanted to scream at him, “Get to the point.”

  “There’ve been a string of abductions of women across the country, and they seem to fit a regular pattern,” he continued. “They might be connected, and have been occurring about every two weeks.” Jeff placed a map of the United States on an easel so they could see. A string of red dots, starting in Boston and ending in Oklahoma City, was easy to follow.

  He pointed at Boston. “A twenty-year-old waitress disappeared on February twenty-eighth. Her body was found two days later under a bridge. She had been sexually assaulted before she was killed.”

  Ben moved the pointer to the next red dot. “On March fifteenth, a nineteen-year-old college freshman went missing in Syracuse, New York. Her body was found by two joggers as they followed a trail through a nature preserve on campus. She, too, had been sexually abused.” Deidre and Ben shifted uneasily in their chairs.

  The next dot was placed near Cleveland. “On April first, a young lady who had been serving as a nanny didn’t show up for work. She was found the next day by a police officer when he investigated a report of a body found in an alley. She had met the same fate as the previous victims.” He pointed to Toledo, Ohio.

  “I’m sure you see the pattern. Each city in which an abduction and murder took place is along the I-90 corridor. It seems the perpetrator is moving east to west. In Toledo, a first-year kindergarten teacher didn’t come to work on a Monday. That was April twentieth. The next victim was discovered in Rockford, Illinois, on April twenty-fourth. That was followed by a similar incident a little over a week later in Madison, Wisconsin.”

  Jeff cleared his throat. “You first missed Maren on May fifth. Can you see it might fit the timeline? Then, on June second, a woman’s body was found in a gravel pit in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and on June twelfth, another victim was discovered floating in the Cheyenne River near Rapid City.”

  “Do you have evidence that the same person is involved?” Jeff nodded.

  “We’re certain. He makes no attempt to disguise the evidence. He doesn’t use a condom and has left plenty of DNA in each victim. Strands of his hair have been found on nearly everyone of the victims, along with fibers from his clothing. It seems he wears the same heavy shirt or jacket each time.”

  Ben had been studying the map and the notated dates. “He’s about ready to strike again, if he follows the same pattern, isn’t he?”

  Jeff looked a little surprised, but then realized he shouldn’t have been. Ben had worked as an FBI agent for over twenty years. “Unfortunately, yes. But the good news is, if he does select another victim and follows the same MO, we have a pretty good idea of where it will be.” He pointed to Billings, Montana. “And to go along with that good news, Billings isn’t a huge metropolis, which means the job of enforcement will be a little easier. If not Billings, then Butte is the next city on I-90.”

  “Do you think this is the person who took Maren?”

  Jeff collapsed his pointer, stretched it out, and collapsed it again. “Personally, I see some problems with that. True, the time frame fits. This suspect has struck roughly every two weeks or less. That would about fit the time difference between the Madison murder and the Sioux Falls murder. Here’s the problem: Two Harbors is a long way from I-90. If we’re talking about the same person, he would had to have gotten on I-35, driven over two hundred miles north, committed the crime, and then driven two hundred miles south. It just doesn’t fit the pattern. That said, you know as well as I do that this kind of criminal is irrational, and we don’t know what is going through his mind.”

  The three sat for several moments waiting for someone else to say something. Jeff decided he had to be the one.

  “We tried to find a match to the casts we made of the footprints left in the mud on the Spooner Road, but we drew a blank. When we searched Dave’s place, there were no shoes in the apartment that matched. We have microscopically examined the mud, and feel certain we can match it to samples on clothing or shoes if we find any. So far, that hasn’t happened. I know this isn’t much for you, but I felt you deserved to know we’re doing all we can to find out what happened to Maren. If anything more develops, I’ll let you know right away.” He stood and offered his hand to each of them in turn. “Take care, friends.”

  Deidre felt like a scab had been torn off a festering wound. Nothing had changed except there were more questions that had to be answered.

  Chapter

  Fifteen

  BEN CAME HOME from work at his usual time and immediately buried his face in the day’s edition of the Duluth newspaper. He had kissed Deidre on her cheek but said little. She worried about the hollow look in his eyes, but before she could initiate a conversation, she heard a ruckus outside and rushed to break up a scuffle between Steve and Jack. This was more serious than their usual roughhousing, and she was sure if she hadn’t intervened, punches would have been thrown.

  “What’s gotten into you two?” she demanded. “Look me in the eye. Steve. Look at me!” Steve toed the ground and finally looked up. “Now tell me what this is about.” Neither boy answered. “If you don’t talk to me, you’re going straight to your room until supper.” Deidre folded her arms across her chest and waited.

  “Steve said Maren is dead, and we should quit pretending she isn’t.” Jack began to tear up.

  Deidre’s heart took a leap. No one in the family had ever voiced those taboo words until now. She placed her arm around Jack and glanced at Steve. He looked like a puppy that had made a huge mistake, and knew it.

  “Come here, boys,” she said as gently as she could. “Come on up on the deck so we can talk.” She led them up the steps and hollered through the screen door.

  “Ben, come out here, please. We’ve got to talk.” She heard the paper rustle, and in a few seconds Ben was at the door, holding the sports section between the fingers of his right hand.

  “What’s the matter?” he wanted to know.

  “Come out here and sit with us.” Ben knew this was not the time to ask his wife why or to object. He folded the newspaper and tossed it on the kitchen table, then emerged from the house, a puzzled look on his face. He sat on the porch swing next to Deidre. It faced two chairs in which the boys sat, both of them looking as if they expected an anvil to fall on them.

  “I think it’s time we talk to each other, and I mean really talk to each other,” Deidre began. “We’ve been pussyfooting around, never really saying what we mean, avoiding the obvious for too long.”

  “Steve, what made you say what you did to Jack?” Deidre asked. Ben looked from Jack to Deidre, wondering what had happened, but kept his mouth shut, hoping to pick up the gist of the impromptu meeting.

  Steve swung one leg and kept his head down. “After ball practice today, Jimmy Johnson was walking with me and a couple of other guys who had been with us in the outfield.” He paused.

  “Go on,” Deidre prodded.

  “He said everybody knows that Maren is dead,” and Steve burst into tears. He tried to dry his eyes with the back of his dirty hand, which only left a mud smear on his face.

  “And why d
id that cause a fight between you and your brother?” She looked at Ben and noticed that his lips were so pursed that they were white.

  “I thought about what he said all afternoon, and I think he’s right. I said so to Jack, and he said, ‘don’t ever say that again.’ Then he tackled me and tried to hit me.”

  Deidre let a burst of air escape from her lungs. “Okay, guys, I think we have to talk about this right now and get it over with. Don’t you agree, Ben?”

  Ben knew how he wanted to answer, and he knew how he’d better not. At that moment he wanted to rush into the house, bury his head in the sports page, and let the world go by. Instead he heard himself say, “Your mother is right. It’s time we talk.”

  Deidre sensed she was going to be the leader in this conversation. “All right, Jack, have you ever thought about what Steve said? Before today, I mean?”

  Jack shrugged, then muttered, “S’pose so.”

  “Ben, what about you?”

  He looked surprised to be confronted so forcefully. He opened his mouth but no words came out. He forced himself to say “yes.”

  “Well, I think about that every day,” Deidre continued. “It’s the first thing I think in the morning, and it’s the last thing I think at night, and it’s what I think about all day long. It seems Steve has been the only one brave enough to say the words.”

  The other three looked at her with amazement and apprehension. They had never seen their mother and wife act this way.

  “Steve is right. Maren is probably dead. If she weren’t, we should have heard from her by now.”

  Jack spoke so softly the others had to strain to hear his words. “But I just heard on the news about a girl who had been kidnapped ten years ago, and then she was found and rescued. What if that’s what happened to Maren?”

  Deidre was careful how she responded. “Things like that happen, but not often. If we go around moping until she’s found or walks through that door,” she pointed at the kitchen door, “we’re going to ruin the rest of our lives. We’re going to allow this to destroy our family.” She stomped her foot on the deck.

  “I’m going to be honest with you about what I think. And when I’m done, I want each of you to tell the rest of us what you think. And then I’m going to tell you about the meeting Dad and I had with Jeff this morning.” She saw Ben’s head snap up and his eyes widen.

  “I think, I believe something very bad has happened to Maren. I think someone abducted her and killed her. I don’t know how. I don’t know why. She may have suffered, or she may not have. We don’t know that right now. But I do believe in my heart that she is dead. You don’t know how badly I want to pick up the phone and hear her voice, or to be able to hold her in my arms, or to get a message saying she’s okay. If that happens, I’ll rejoice like you can’t believe. But, honestly, I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

  She turned to Ben. “What do you think? And don’t tell us you don’t know, because you’ve got to be thinking something.” Moments passed.

  “I think, I believe that Maren is dead,” he said, and buried his face in his hands. When he looked up, his eyes were red-rimmed and his lip quivered. “I hope I’m wrong, but inside, I doubt that I am. Someone will find her body, and then we’ll know for sure.” He took a deep breath and leaned back in the swing, eyes fixed on the sky.

  “What about you, Jack?” Deidre asked in a hushed tone.

  Jack shrugged and drug his toe across the floor. “I think Maren is in heaven and is safe.” He couldn’t say more for a long time, and Deidre waited for him to continue. “I don’t want that to be right, but I don’t want her to be afraid or to be suffering. I think she’s dead.”

  Deidre looked at Steve. She wasn’t going to make him repeat what he had said to Jack. “You’ve already told us what you think. Now here’s what I want to say to my family. We have to begin sharing our hurt and our thoughts with each other. If we don’t, we’re each going to drift away into our separate worlds. If we stick together, we’re going to be like a rope made of four strands woven together, and that will be a rope that cannot be broken.” She hesitated, realizing she had just paraphrased what Pastor Ike had said to her, and suddenly she believed what she said. She was on a roll.

  “Every day after Dad gets home from work, we’re going to sit out here and talk, talk about how we feel that day, talk about what we did to take care of ourselves that day, talk about what is bothering us that day.” She turned to Ben. “You can read the paper after supper, but every day we are going to talk to each other. Understand?” Wisely, no one objected.

  Steve shifted his weight, causing the chair in which he was sitting to creak. During her tirade, Deidre had forgotten she had more to say.

  “Well, we’ve more or less laid our cards on the table, so I think we can face what Jeff said.” She saw everyone become more attentive. “There has been someone, a man, traveling across the United States, abducting young women and killing them. He has left a trail of bodies along I-90, killing someone about every two weeks. He’s making no effort to conceal clues about his identity. Jeff says it is as though he wants to be caught. His path would have taken him through Minnesota about the time that Maren disappeared.”

  “Does that mean he’s the one who took Maren?” Jack wanted to know, not quite being able to utter the words “killed Maren.”

  Deidre shook her head. “Jeff doesn’t think so, because Two Harbors is quite a way north of I-90, but on the other hand, he won’t rule it out.”

  “Will they catch the man?” Steve asked hopefully.

  “Jeff thinks they will, soon.”

  “Has anyone told Dave?” Ben gave the swing a push with his leg, and it moved back and forth like a metronome counting time.

  “I don’t think so. Speaking of Dave, he hasn’t been around lately. I suppose he’s busy at work. You remember how he threw himself into it right after Maren was gone. I think he’s one of those people who finds solace in his work. I suppose that’s okay. Whatever works.” Deidre tried to remember when they had last seen him. “I suppose one of us should call and let him know.” The swing kept moving and Deidre closed her eyes, letting herself feel the rhythm. She wondered when and if their lives would find a rhythm again.

  “Let’s go inside. I’ve got brats and potato salad made, and fresh raspberry pie for dessert. A perfect summer meal.” She moved through the door and everyone followed, Jack with his arm around Steve’s shoulder.

  Chapter

  Sixteen

  DEIDRE CALLED DAVE’S cell phone. It was a little after noon, and she hoped he was on his lunch break.

  “Hello, Deidre,” Dave answered. His voice sounded strong, and Deidre was pleased to hear him sounding normal. “How are you and Ben doing? It seems like forever since we saw each other. I’m really sorry, but I’ve been slammed at work. Usually don’t get home until nine or so.”

  Deidre said they were getting by, and wondered if he could come to supper that night. Dave began to say he couldn’t make it, but Deidre told him that Jeff had given her some news he might be interested in hearing. There was a long pause on the other end of the line, and Dave came back on.

  “You know, I was looking at the wrong day. Yeah, I’m free tonight. What time should I be there, six-ish as usual?”

  Deidre told him that would be fine.

  *****

  DAVE PULLED INTO THEIR driveway at exactly six, and Deidre was glad he didn’t have to work late. Her family had had their ritual meeting, and both boys said they were happy to learn that Dave was coming to dinner. Deidre thought their daily sessions were helping. At least Ben didn’t bury his face in the newspaper as soon as he got home.

  Deidre met Dave on the deck, and she gave him a warm hug. “How you doin’?” she asked as she stepped back to look at him. “You look a lot more relaxed. You’re so tan. You must be spending time on the golf course.”

  Dave laughed the half laugh Deidre so liked. “Not as much as I’d like. I told you work has been
wild, but it takes my mind off things.” They walked arm in arm into the house.

  Ben greeted him with a two-handed handshake. “Dave, it’s sure good to see you. Only a few minutes ago, we were saying how long its been since we got together. We miss you. I suppose part of it is you make us feel connected to Maren. Anyway, come on in. We’re ready to sit down to eat.” He clapped Dave on the shoulder. “Glad you’re here.”

  The conversation during the meal was relaxed, and Deidre was thankful everyone was able to take part. The boys wanted to know if Dave would play catch after supper, and he said just for a few minutes, as he would have to get back to town soon. To her relief, there actually was some laughter. But the most poignant part of the get together was just before they began to dish up the food. Ben asked if he could say grace. Everyone held hands, forming a circle at the table. Deidre was holding Dave’s hand.

  When Ben thanked God for Dave and for the joy he had brought into Maren’s life, Dave’s grip became so intense she thought she would cry out. And then he relaxed. Deidre was happy that the mention of Maren’s name brought such a response. He hadn’t forgotten.

  After dinner, Dave and the boys went outside to play ball. They wanted him to hit grounders to them, and Deidre watched from the windows as they stumbled over their own feet, trying to scoop up the bouncing hardball. She just hoped one of them wouldn’t end up with a split lip.

  Dave had warned them he needed to be back to town early, and as he was heading toward his car, Deidre walked with him. “So, you said Jeff had given you some news?” he reminded her. Deidre thought she detected a hint of anxiety in Dave’s voice but wasn’t surprised. After all, she was sure Dave needed answers as badly as they did.