“Is this your first crime scene?” Matt heard Dylan ask him.
“Yes, sir, it is, and I hope it’s my last. I have a son about the same age.” He swiped at the tears on his cheeks.
“Look, Bill, this isn’t easy for any of us and we’ve seen a few. Give yourself a break. It’s natural for you to feel bad.” All the officers there nodded, including Matt.
Matt stood next to Kip and watched the medics at work trying to stabilize the boy. “There’s a lot of material under the nails. It looks like maybe we could get lucky with some DNA evidence. This kid put up a hell of fight against his attacker. Look at the bruises on his knuckles.” Matt pointed them out. “Be sure the hospital uses the crime kit.” Matt walked with them to the ambulance. “We’d like to test his clothing. You know the routine in a case like this.”
“We’ll do it by the book and call you when the evidence is ready for you to pick up.”
“Do you think he’ll make it?” Matt frowned.
“He’s hung in for who knows how long and seems to be stable. One can hope.” They lifted the stretcher into the ambulance.
“I’m going to have one of my men follow behind you. We need to get him identified so we can get his family here.” Matt stood at the door with him for a moment.
“Sure enough, I have a son. Anyone who would do this to a kid isn’t fit to breathe the same air.” The ambulance pulled out with sirens blaring and lights flashing.
****
Later in the day, Matt and Dylan drove back to the station. Matt wanted the perp off the street—now. It would help if they could find the site where the crime had occurred. The more evidence they gathered, the more they could piece together what had happened to the boy. Families usually topped the list of suspects when a child was involved. Although in this case, Matt wasn’t so sure. Waiting, he shook his head. How he hated to wait.
“What are you thinking?” Dylan watched Matt’s face. “You have that look.”
“I’m wondering if it’s a coincidence that the boy ends up in our jurisdiction at the same time Jessie has the connection with Abigail. Is it possible they’re connected? Sometimes an operation that goes undetected can slip up.” He slowed to make a right turn toward the station.
“It’s always possible, but they could be two different cases altogether,” Dylan pointed out.
“True, but my gut tells me they’re related. I think someone got sloppy, and I’m glad.
Chapter 3
Matt sipped his coffee, tapping a pencil on his desk. He tried to wrap his mind around the facts he was reading. A small number of kids had vanished over the last few weeks in the surrounding area. There seemed to be a trend that had begun more than five years ago, a few children from one area had disappeared about the same time. There were no more disappearances for a year. Then another increase in cases occurred a little further up the coast. Now Abigail and others had gone missing. True, there were always children who went missing, but there seemed to be a pattern here. The speed of his tapping pencil increased until it flew out of his fingers across the room.
Matt picked up the phone to call Jessie. He waited, his foot shifting from side to side. “Jessie, this is Matt. Have you heard from your friend with the dog?” He stilled his foot and took a deep breath.
“He’s going to call me after work around five thirty. Would you like to be in on the call?”
“Yes, I have a case that we’ve just started to investigate. I’m wondering if it’s in some way linked to Abigail. I want your friend’s dog to work the site where we found the victim as soon as possible.”
“Can I ask you something?” Her voice got quiet.
“Sure, go ahead.” He turned his chair toward the window.
“Was the victim a young boy? Was he still alive?”
“Geez, Jess, how’d you know that?” He snapped his pencil in two.
“I saw it in that whole encounter thing because, I think…” she stammered, “I think Abigail has that picture in her mind. She saw it happen. I’ll stop by the station after work so you can talk to Frank, too.”
“I’d appreciate it, Jess.” He stared out his window.
“You must think I’m odd, first a ghost and now Abigail.” She was overwhelmed. He could hear it in her voice.
“I don’t get it, Jess, but I don’t need to. I appreciate your input. And I’m fairly certain, had you not heard her, Abigail would be just another statistic.” He wasn’t sure if she wasn’t already. “I’m interested in what your friend has to say.” He paused when his phone beeped. “Jess, I need to take this call. I’ll catch you later.”
He clicked off one line and picked up the other. “Matt, this is Kip.”
“What do you have for me?”
“The boy’s name is Joshua Harris. His fourteenth birthday was a few weeks ago. His family lives in Rocky Pointe.”
“Thanks. I’ll call over to Rocky Pointe and see how they want to handle notifying the family.” He turned his chair around and opened his file, writing Joshua Harris in place of John Doe. He picked up his phone and asked Joe to get him Carter at Rocky Pointe. While he waited, he looked in the book of missing kids. He found Joshua’s picture. Joshua had been missing a little longer than Abigail. He was a good-looking kid with his whole life ahead of him. Hell, life wasn’t very fair. Sometimes it flat-out sucked.
Matt grabbed his ringing phone.
“Hey, Matt, this is Carter. What’s up? I was told it was a priority one.”
“We found a badly injured teen in our jurisdiction. He’s from Rocky Pointe. A male, fourteen years of age, named Joshua Harris. He’s in intensive care at the Blue Cove Hospital. We need to get the parents here ASAP. How do you want to handle the family?”
“I’ll notify the parents and get them over there.”
“Carter, he is in the system for missing and exploited kids.”
“I’m familiar with the case.”
“Would you ask the parents to bring an item of clothing or anything that he recently handled? We have a bloodhound on his way here to see if we can find the real crime site. This was a dump. The kid was pretty beat up.”
“Are the parents suspects?
“They could be. I won’t rule anyone out. I’m thinking this might be a part of something bigger though and connected to another missing person. We have some strong evidence the lab will be working on.”
“Okay, I’ll notify the parents and get them over there.”
Matt made a list of all the missing kids over the past few weeks from a hundred mile radius. There were a few. Then he circled out a little farther away, added another two weeks and found several more. Some of the kids were older and one was only eleven.
He continued looking over the database of missing children in the same radius to the north and approximate time. He found more. What the hell was going on? He ran his hands through his hair. It had to be connected, but it did not fit a normal abduction scenario. Was it trafficking? They usually went after the poor, illegals, runaways, or prostitutes in major metro areas. This was different. They actually took a kid off a crowded beach in broad daylight and yanked one of the girls out of her front yard. Why take several? Pedophiles usually abduct one. Was there a market somewhere they didn’t know about? His bet was on some kind of trafficking.
He wrote an email to Tom Maxwell at the FBI. Matt filled him in on what was happening and what he had found out so far. He asked if his unit had any knowledge of a group working the area using similar methods, or anywhere else in the country for that matter. The email ended with an invitation to come watch as Radar began his track.
He was putting the final additions on his note when Jessie came in. He looked up into a pair of questioning blue eyes. Damn, she was pretty.
“Do you need me to wait in the reception area while you finish up?” She flipped her hair over her shoulder, out of her face.
“No, I’m almost done.” He motioned for her to sit down. “I’ll be right with you.”
She sat down crossing her ankles, took out her small notebook, and opened to an empty page.
“How’d you meet Frank?” He watched her closely.
“I was sent out on a story about an autistic child who had wandered off. I met Frank and his dog Radar when Lt. O’Malley brought him in to find the boy after a search came up empty-handed.” She smiled. “It was amazing. Once he got the scent, he was off. Radar followed until he found the boy miles from where he’d started. He was tenacious. I kept up with Frank after that and wrote several stories about his work.” Her face lit up. “Bloodhounds are great trackers. Did you know testimonies based on their finds will stand up in a court of law?”
He nodded with a smile.
“Of course you do, but it’s not true with all tracking dogs.”
“What’s your favorite among all of the stories you wrote?” Matt wanted to prolong her enthusiasm on the subject.
“My favorite was Radar’s hit on the van of a suspected murderer. His find put the person in jail before he killed someone else. He was with another girl the day they arrested him, who probably would have been his next victim.” Jessie frowned. “I found it strange that he was a normal, even somewhat handsome, looking man. I guess I expected him to look like the monster that he was. Did you ever notice how you can’t always tell a criminal by looks?”
He nodded and grinned. “It would make it a whole lot easier if they would just stamp criminal on their foreheads. Is that all of the story, or did you get a little off track?”
“Okay, smarty!” She smiled. “The police had suspected him all along, but his van which had been used to transport the body had been cleaned and refurbished. Even after bleaching and cleaning the van, Radar picked up the murdered girl’s scent. One drop of her blood made its way beneath the carpet and landed on a screw. The police believe this particular suspect may have killed up to five women. The dog was able to find the body of the first girl buried in a remote area after a couple of weeks.” She sat forward in her chair. “If anyone can find the site where the beating took place and locate Abigail, Radar can.”
“I’m glad to hear it, sweetheart, because we’re going to need all the help we can get.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Where have you been keeping yourself the last few weeks?”
“I needed a break after the whole Harvest Club case. I finally got my life back, with no one to shadow me. I threw myself into getting to know Blue Cove. I got back to running every day and hanging out with Katie. You know regular life stuff. Did I tell you that I’m in negotiations to buy the Cove Bookstore?”
“Is that right? I didn’t know. You’ve been one busy beaver running away from one night with little old me.” He chuckled, his eyes creased at the corner.
“I knew you were going to ruin a perfectly good conversation somehow. You just couldn’t leave well enough alone.” She glared at him, her chin edging up.
“Are you going to run away?” He grinned, winking at her.
“Will you ever let me live it down?” She was starting to blush.
“Probably in time, but in the meantime, I’ve got to tease you. You turn such a nice color of red. You never answered my question. Are you going to go hide for a few more weeks, ignore my phone calls, and me in general again?”
“No, but if you keep it up, you may wish I would. Every time I think you have some redeeming quality, you up and ruin it.” She stood up, threw her hands up in the air, and headed for the door.
“Where are you going?” He leaned back in his chair, smiling.
“You don’t have to worry, I’m just going to get some water and cool off before I give you a piece of my mind. I need to remind myself you’re needed to help find Abigail and all this…” She pointed at him. “It’s just something I have to put up with to get the job done.”
****
Jessie could hear him laughing all the way down the hall. He could make her lose her cool faster than anyone had been able to do. She found herself pacing back and forth in the women’s room trying to let off steam. Why did she let him get to her like that? Other people teased her. She would have to try harder. She couldn’t ignore him forever, but maybe she could kill him with kindness. As Katie once told her, “You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar.” It wouldn’t hurt to try using a little honey.
She took her time walking back to his office. Her phone rang just as she sat down in the chair.
“Hey, Jessie, it’s been a while.”
“It sure has, Frank. I’m going to put you on speaker so the police chief can hear you. His name is Matt Parker, by the way. He may have some questions to ask you.”
“Okay. Hello, Matt, it’s nice to meet you. What kind of track are we looking at?”
“I have a victim, a young teen who was severely beaten and dumped. I’d like to find the crime site if possible. I think this case and another case of child abduction may be connected. To tell you the truth, Frank, I’m not sure what all we’re looking at. We do need to find the girl; we believe she escaped her abductors. With all the variables surrounding her case, the sooner we find her the better.” Matt’s forehead creased. “I’ve asked a friend from the FBI if he’d like to be here during the process.”
“I’d be happy to bring my dog and give it a shot.”
“You might be needed for a couple of days. We’ll take care of all your expenses including the usual tracking fees.”
“I’ll waive the usual fees if you take care of the rest. This one is for Jessie. What time do you need me there?”
“I’m meeting with the boy’s parents in the morning. They’re with their son tonight, so let’s say around ten thirty.”
“I’ll be there. I’ll need something belonging to each of the kids that has their scent on it.” He cleared his throat. “Do you have anything you want to add, Jessie?”
“Not at this time. It will be good to see you again.”
“Okay, see you tomorrow.”
Jessie stood up to leave when the call was over, but Matt asked her to stay a minute.
“Abigail’s parents should be here any minute. I’d like you to meet them. Tell them cautiously about Abigail. Don’t offer them too much in the way of hope, but give them a lifeline. Do you catch my drift?”
“Yes, do you remember when I talked to Gina’s parents telling them about seeing her? I was able to build trust with them; I’ll give it my best shot. I do know how to talk with people, seeing as I’ve been doing it for a while.” She forced herself to smile.
Matt answered his beeping phone, still grinning from her flippant answer. “Okay, send them back.” He straightened in his chair. “Are you ready for this?” He looked at her when he asked the question.
Jessie nodded and stood up.
A middle-aged couple came in the office. The woman was clutching a teddy bear in a plastic bag. She was petite like Abigail. He was slightly balding, but had the build of distance runner.
“Jessie, this is Stan and Sarah Davis. They’re Abigail’s parents.” Matt stood and shook Stan and Sarah’s hands and so did Jessie. “Please have a seat. I’ve asked Jessie to be here to tell you a story. Before she starts, may we get you something to drink?”
“No, we’re fine.” Stan looked at Jessie, sitting forward in his chair.
“I’d like to preface our conversation by saying up until today I hadn’t seen a picture of your daughter. I didn’t know she was missing. What I’m about to tell you may seem odd to you, but I believe real none the less.” Jessie adjusted her chair so she could make eye contact with both Stan and Sarah. “Last night I had an unusual experience. A young girl was pleading with me to find her. She told me her name was Abigail. She promised to keep calling out to me and I promised to try and find her.” The room was silent.
“Do you think it’s our daughter?” Sarah asked, still clutching the bear in her hands.
“Yes. I called and made an appointment with Chief Parker today. I asked him if there was a missing girl. He showed me the picture of Abby. S
he was the girl I had seen. She is alive, I believe.” Jessie touched Sarah’s shoulder. “My friend is bringing his bloodhound tomorrow to join in the search for her.”
“Is that what the bear is needed for?” Stan directed the question to her.
“Yes, I’ve worked with Mr. Wagner before. If anyone can find your daughter, his dog can.” She took Sarah’s hand. “We’re going to do everything we can to find your girl. I think she was able to escape her kidnappers, but she’s afraid that they still may come back. I have no idea how many actual days have lapsed since her escape.” She maintained eye contact with them. “Why I can see her, I can’t explain. I don’t claim to have any special abilities. I just think your daughter called out in her desperation, and for some reason I heard her.” She tried to let go of Sarah’s hand, but she held tight to Jessie.
“Thank you. I know all of you are doing your best to find her.” Sarah looked at Matt. “It gives me comfort to know she may be out there. I’ll try to listen for her, too.” She handed the bear to Jessie. “Please tell your friend thank you for bringing his dog.”
“I will, and we’ll take good care of this for you and for Abby.”
****
When Stan and Sarah left Matt’s office, Jessie walked out with them, parting in the parking lot. Getting in her car, she was happy to be in Blue Cove and not in the New York rush hour. She had the added benefit of going home to watch the changing look of the cove as the sun set. Watching the light and shadows that danced upon the water, changing its look from moment to moment, had become her nightly ritual. Before she pulled her car out of the lot, she picked up her phone to call Pastor John.
“Hi, Jessie, is everything all right?”
“Yes, I was wondering if I could have tomorrow off. My friend is coming to town with his dog to work on a case with Chief Parker. I’m doing some of the research for him. I’ve already got things ready for Sunday.”
“Of course, you have some personal days you’ve never used. It sounds like it could be an interesting few days. Have you ever seen the dog work before?”
Not for Sale Page 3
