An Iron Fist, Two Harbors

by Dennis Herschbach

  The manager’s eyes opened wide. He started to say something, but then thought better of it. Deidre calmly said, “I think you’d better do as my husband said. We’ll leave everything exactly as we find it.” She looked the startled man directly in his eyes. “Please.” He moved down the hall with a key in his hand, unlocked the door, and left without saying a word.

  Ben slumped into a chair and covered his face with his hands while Deidre quietly closed the door.

  “I’m sorry for acting that way, Deidre. I just lost it.” Ben kept his face covered, but Deidre could tell by the convulsive heaving of his chest that he was silently crying. She stood behind him and wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders, and they wept together until they could weep no more.

  Eventually, she left Ben to sit in her own chair across the table from him, and she sat silently, waiting for him to speak. Finally, after a deep sigh, he did.

  “What do we do now?”

  Deidre looked at her folded hands as though studying them for an answer. “We have no choice but to take the poor thing back to the police station in the morning. She’s somebody’s daughter, probably somebody who is as desperate to find her as we are to find Maren. We could call the police to come pick her up tonight, but I don’t feel good about doing that. Let her rest tonight, and let her medication work. Tomorrow, she might be able to give us some answers.”

  Ben nodded his agreement. “I dearly want to know how she came to have Maren’s purse. Do you think she even knows?”

  “Maybe we’ll get the answers we’ve been looking for. I don’t know. Do we really want them?”

  It was after two in the morning when Ben and Deidre finally turned out the lights in the conference room and quietly closed the door. They walked past the front desk, where the manager pretended he was doing paperwork so he didn’t have to look at them.

  Chapter

  Forty-Five

  THE TRIP BACK to the police station the next morning was strained, to say the least. Steve and Jack were terribly confused, and looked as though they wanted out of the car. Megan looked out her side window, watching a few street people who were beginning to rouse. Ben and Deidre were resolute in what had to be done, their faces stone-like, eyes unseeing. The nameless young woman was more alert this morning, and she seemed to be cognizant of her surroundings, at least more so than she had been the night before.

  “What did the police say when you called this morning?” Deidre wondered.

  “All they said was to bring her in. The desk sergeant said he’d set things up so we wouldn’t have to stay long.”

  Deidre thought for a moment before responding. “I don’t know about you, but I can’t simply walk away without knowing who she is. Without knowing how she came into possession of Maren’s purse.” Deidre was talking as though the girl wasn’t present until she heard a voice from the backseat.

  “I don’t want to go to jail.”

  Surprised, Deidre turned in her seat. “You can talk this morning. Last night you were pretty out of it. Listen, I don’t think there are any plans for you to be arrested, unless, of course, you’re somehow involved in the disappearance of the person who owned that purse.” Deidre nodded at the purse the girl still clutched on her lap.

  “We’re here,” Ben announced without emotion. He drove into a parking space and turned off the ignition. “Do you need help walking?” he asked their charge. She said she could make it on her own.

  An officer and the social worker from the day before were waiting for them at the desk. “Come this way,” the officer said as she led them down the hall to an interrogation room. A detective was seated at a table, on which was a coffee container and a cup, as well as an unopened bottle of diet soda.

  “Have a seat,” he said to the girl, motioning to a chair across the table from where he was sitting. He turned to Ben and Deidre. “I’d like you to step outside. Officer Holter will answer any questions you might have.” They looked to the officer, and she motioned for them to go first.

  “Good morning. My name is Ginny Holter,” she told them. “Why don’t you just call me Ginny. I know you’ve been through a miserable experience, but I want to thank you for the way you’ve reacted. If you want to leave, you may. But I suspect you want to know more about this girl and the circumstances surrounding her. You certainly can stay and listen in on the conversation between Detective Banks and the girl.”

  In unison, Ben and Deidre expressed a desire to stay. They wanted Megan to be present as well, but wondered about the boys. After a moment’s discussion, the boys said they wanted to be in on what was unfolding.

  Ginny parted a curtain covering a window, and the group could look into the interrogation room. She turned on a speaker, and the detective’s voice sounded clear. He had a calm, disarming manner about him, non-threatening.

  They heard him ask, “You’ve had a rough time, it looks like. Do you know where you are?”

  “Am I under arrest?” she asked. The girl was far more with it today.

  “Not yet. Although, you do have the purse and credit cards of a woman who has been missing for over three months. If you have an explanation for that, you’re in the clear. However, if you don’t, we might have to look at you as a suspect in the case. That would be for robbery, perhaps kidnapping, even murder if we find her body. I’ll ask again, do you know where you are?”

  “I’m in a police station,” she answered.

  “And do you know who I am?” the detective asked.

  “You’re a police officer.”

  “Well, not exactly. I’m a detective for the Minneapolis Police Department. Do you understand?”

  “Yes,” she answered.

  “Will you give me your name and tell me where you’re from?”

  There was a long hesitation on the girl’s part. Finally, she spoke. “My name is Sarah, Sarah James. I was raised in a small town in central Minnesota. You’ve probably never heard of it, Quamba.”

  “That’s on Highway 23, isn’t it?” the detective stated more than asked.

  Deidre saw the girl’s head snap up, and she showed more emotion than Deidre had seen from her yet. “Yes. Do you know anyone from there?”

  The detective chuckled. “No, but I’ve driven through it. Do your parents live there?” Deidre saw Sarah’s shoulders slump, and she hung her head. “Yeah, they do. Do you have to call them?” Her words were spoken so softly Deidre and the others could hardly hear them.

  “How old are you, Sarah?”

  She hesitated, and Deidre expected a lie. “Sixteen.”

  Deidre was amazed at how the detective gently led Sarah along, at times praising her for being so honest, at others showing sympathy as her story unfolded, until eventually he asked the question he had been leading up to.

  “Sarah, how is it that you have this purse that belongs to someone else, to Maren VanGotten?” Deidre held her breath, thinking there was no way Sarah would give a straight answer.

  Sarah hesitated, and Deidre thought her fears were being realized. Then Sarah’s eyes seemed to brighten, as if she suddenly remembered what she was trying to recall. “Late last spring, a couple of weeks after I had run away from home to be with my boyfriend, we traveled to the North Shore.” Deidre’s heart began to race, and Ben grabbed her hand. He squeezed so hard she thought she was going to have to pull it away. Sarah continued.

  “My boyfriend and I stayed in a small motel in Two Harbors. It was cheap and he said we could afford it.”

  “Were you doing drugs then?” the detective asked in a conversational tone. By this time, Sarah was talking to him like a long-lost friend.

  “Yeah, I guess we were. I met Jesse a year ago. I was working at a convenience store on Highway 23. He came in quite often, and we became friends. He was really nice to me. When he invited me to a party, I went. I didn’t want to seem like a kid, and I did what everyone else at the party was doing. I had two beers, and got pretty drunk. The next morning I woke up in bed with him.”

/>   The detective looked at her sympathetically. “I’ll bet you felt pretty lousy.”

  “Yes and no. Jesse told me he loved me, that nothing had happened, because I was safe with him. The funny thing was, nothing had happened to me, sexually, I mean. He took me home, and I had a big fight with my folks.”

  “Did you see Jesse again?”

  “On the sly. I’d lie about where I was going, and then hang out with him. Two weeks later he said he had some powder that would make me feel really good. I found out later it was crack, but he was right. It made me feel like I had never felt before. We saw more and more of each other, and one night I took what I thought was crack, but this time I was hit by such a rush I couldn’t believe it. Every night that week, we met and did drugs together. The stuff hit me harder than it did him. By the end of the week Jesse convinced me to run away with him. I did, and that’s how I ended up in Two Harbors.”

  “Have your parents tried to contact you?” the detective asked.

  “They have no idea where I’m at. We partied for a week in Two Harbors. One time we were at a gravel pit someplace in the woods, and Jesse had to go to the bathroom. When he came back to the car, he was carrying this purse. We looked through it, took the few bucks we found and looked at the ID. Jesse said, ‘Look at this. The chick looks just like you.’ He said she was my dopple something or other.”

  “Doppelganger?” the detective offered.

  “Yeah, that’s it. He said we could take it back to the Cities, and after a few months try to use the cards. Then I noticed some upside-down numbers inside one of the tabs. Jesse turned the purse over and said he thought it must be the PIN to her debit card. About two weeks ago we started to use the cards.”

  Sarah slumped back into her chair as though the story had sapped all of her strength. The detective let her sit for a few moments.

  “Let me ask you something, Sarah. Did Jesse continue to supply you with drugs, and if so, did you ever find out what he was giving you?”

  Sarah clenched her hands together. “He gave me as much as I wanted. One day I found out it was meth, and it scared the crap out of me.”

  “Did you try to stop using?”

  “I did, but then he’d offer me more, and I couldn’t stop wanting the stuff, needing it.”

  The detective reached across the table and put his hand on Sarah’s. She looked at him like a beaten puppy, and Deidre wanted to rush into the room and wrap her arms around the waif.

  “Sarah, did Jesse ask you to have sex with other men?”

  A tear ran down Sarah’s face, and she hung her head. She nodded.

  “Lots of men?”

  Sarah nodded again. “Sometimes three or four a day. If I said I didn’t want to, he’d wait until I was really hurting, and then tell me I wouldn’t get anymore meth until I did what he wanted. I couldn’t stop,” she wailed.

  “I want to help you, Sarah, but first, I need answers to some questions. Will you help me?” She nodded and looked at the detective with a twisted half smile.

  “Did you ever see the girl on this driver’s license, Maren VanGotten?” He looked at her directly as if waiting for a clue as to her truthfulness.

  “No. Like I told you, Jesse found her purse in the woods.”

  “Is it possible that Jesse might have done something to this girl?”

  Sarah looked at him strangely for a second, and then the meaning of the question hit her. “Oh, no, No! Jesse couldn’t have done anything like that.”

  “But look what he did to you,” the detective tried to use logic, but Sarah’s response wasn’t what he expected.

  “I know what he is, and I know he was capable of such a thing, but, you see, he never left me alone the whole time we were in Two Harbors. I think he worried that if I had the chance, I’d go back home. You don’t know how I wish I could have.” Sarah slumped in her chair, spent.

  “One more question, Sarah. Do you know where Jesse is now?”

  “All I can tell you is where he kept me, and where he used to hang out. Are you going to try to find him?”

  The detective smiled at her in a fatherly way. “We’re going to find him. When we do, will you help us convict him? Testify against him for what he did to you?”

  Sarah nodded.

  Chapter

  Forty-Six

  THE RIDE BACK TO Two Harbors was long. For the first hundred miles no one said a word, each member of the family wallowing in their own thoughts. Steve and Jack lost themselves in their video games, Megan looked out the window and watched the trees whiz by, and Ben and Deidre stared straight ahead. Deidre reached across the center console and placed her hand on Ben’s thigh.

  “Anybody have to stop?” Ben asked as he passed a sign saying there was a rest area a mile ahead.

  Megan said she could use a break, and each boy said he had to go. Ben pulled off at the exit and stopped in front of the wayside rest station. After taking care of business, they met out front.

  “There’s a nice nature trail that goes down to a small lake,” Megan said. “Let’s walk down there for a little exercise. I could use a stretch.” The group followed her to a spot overlooking a pond, and took a seat on one of the two park benches.

  Megan couldn’t choke back her tears, which triggered the others to begin sobbing. An older couple came down the trail, and, observing the grieving family, departed without saying a word.

  “What now?” Megan asked, not really expecting an answer.

  Ben wrapped his daughter in his arms. “Now we go home and try to pick up the pieces of our lives. Nothing we can do will bring Maren back, unless by some miracle she’s still alive. But we can’t ruin the rest of our lives by waiting for that miracle. It’s time we got back to living.” He let go of Megan and roughed the boys’ hair. Then, taking Deidre’s hand, he led them back to the car.

  *****

  THE NEXT TWO WEEKS went by without anything significant happening. Jack and Steve were busy with school. Megan was taking classes at college and working most evenings in the lab. Ben went back to work, and Deidre busied herself getting her flower gardens ready for winter. Even though it was at least a month off, the plants had been touched by an early frost, and the flowers were pretty well done blooming.

  Dave never did call back to answer the message Deidre left before they had gone to the Cities, and it dawned on her that he really didn’t want to continue a relationship with the family. The thought stung, but if he didn’t want to see them anymore, that was his call.

  Deidre worried most about Megan. She hadn’t heard from her daughter since they had gotten home, and she hoped it was because Megan had buried herself in her work at the college. She made a mental note to give her a call that evening.

  Chapter

  Forty-Seven

  DEIDRE WAS CORRECT. Megan buried herself in her research and schoolwork after returning from the futile trip to Minneapolis. But most importantly to her, she continued work on a project she hadn’t shared with her mother or father. Not long after her sister’s disappearance, Megan’s friends had told her that Dave frequented a local bar, usually accompanied by a woman. Megan had only mentioned it to Deidre once, then let the matter drop. However, not only did this raise her curiosity, it made her suspicious of Dave’s concern for Maren’s well being.

  Megan enlisted some of her friends from school to keep an eye on this woman and Dave. Her friends took the request seriously, more seriously than Megan had ever intended, and they set up a network to cover the bar every night. Soon, one or another of the group would casually say hi to Dave and the woman, and it wasn’t long before they were acting as acquaintances, and then friends. They discovered the girl was named Jackie, and that she lived near the college.

  Jodi, one in the clandestine group, called Megan the day after her return from the upsetting trip where what little hope she had was dashed.

  “Hi, Meg,” Jodi said, using the nickname Megan had picked up in college. “How ya doin’, kid?” Megan answered that she
was coping but it was more difficult now than before. Jodi continued.

  “This might not be the time, but I’ve got news for you.” She paused. “It’s about Dave and Jackie. Well, Jackie, really.”

  Megan perked up with those words and wanted to know what was going on.

  “The group and I have gotten to know Jackie well enough to be able to sit down and have a beer with her. Most of the time Dave is with us, too. Jackie is acquainted with the four of us who have been keeping an eye on them, like you wanted, and I don’t think that our being in the bar so often has raised any alarms. Each of us is only there two, three times a week at the most. Once in a while, we’ll go as a group or as a threesome, but not very often. Anyway, Dave will be out of town on business most of this week, so we’re planning to have a girls’ night out. We invited Jackie to come with us. Do you want to tag along? Maybe you can pick up some vibes from her that we’d miss.”

  Megan wondered if that would be wise. After all, she and Maren looked exactly alike. What if Jackie had seen Maren, or what if Dave had shown her Maren’s picture?

  “I don’t think you have to worry about that,” Jodi reassured her. “All she knows about Maren is what Dave has told her, and it hasn’t been complementary, believe me.”

  Against her better judgment, Megan agreed to join them for a night of bar hopping when Dave was out of town.

  *****

  “HEY, MEG. OVER HERE!” Jodi was standing near a booth, wildly waving to get Megan’s attention. The bar was filled with young people, mostly college students, but quite a few in their mid-twenties. Megan picked her way through the crowd until she stood next to Jodi.

  “Girls, I’d like you to meet my good friend, Meg. Meg, these are my friends I told you about.” Jodi went around the table reciting names. “That’s Sheila over there,” she said as she pointed at a pert little brunette on the far side of the table. “And that’s Jo over there, nursing her brandy Manhattan. One more and she’ll be under the table.” Everyone laughed. “This is Patty.” Patty raised her beer glass. “Last but not least, our newest friend here is Jackie.” Jackie just smiled and didn’t really acknowledge the introduction, and Megan worried about her reaction.