by Robin Mahle
“Yes, sir. Thank you. We would be happy to come back in the morning.”
“All right, then; I’ll show you both out.”
Sergeant Reynolds walked them back to the front of the station. “You go on and relax this evening. I’m sure it’s been a busy day for you. Say ‘hi’ to your parents.”
After a restful night, Katie was ready to face the chief. She was prepared for whatever might happen, whether he decided to reopen her case or not. If not, she knew she was on her own and would continue without the help of the police. But the question remained as to whether Spencer would follow down that same path. He was there for her for the time being.
At the station, the same officer from yesterday was posted at the front desk.
“Good morning, Ms. Reid and Mr. Harris, was it?”
“Yes,” Spencer said. “Good morning. We’re here to see Chief Wilson.”
“If you’ll have a seat, I’ll call the chief down.”
Katie and Spencer sat down in the lobby chairs and he took her hand to calm her.
A man who appeared to be in his mid to late fifties approached them from around the corner. His salt and pepper hair, mostly salt, was on the verge of being a comb-over, trying to disguise the fact that it was slightly receding. He had a medium build and stood probably 5 feet 10. Katie found him to be fairly handsome, for an older gentleman.
“Katie Reid?” the chief asked.
“Yes, I’m Katie and this is my fiancé, Spencer.”
“It’s very nice to see you again, Ms. Reid.”
Katie rose to meet the chief’s extended hand.
“I don’t believe I’ve seen you since you were about sixteen. I’m sure you don’t remember that. It was only briefly when your mother was organizing an event for the lodge. Anyway, I understand you’re here on a different matter?”
“Yes sir, I am.”
“Please, call me ‘Chief.’ Everyone else does. Why don’t you two follow me back to my office?”
They sat down in the chief’s office. Katie struggled to get comfortable in her chair. The seat cushion was worn and the metal arms were bowed out too far for her to rest on.
“Sorry about the accommodations around here. We’re a small town with an even smaller budget. We try to make do without asking the taxpayers to fork out more money for things like comfortable chairs.”
“It’s fine, sir. I don’t mean to make a fuss. I was just trying to get my files out.” Katie rifled around for the envelope.
“Of course, that’s why we’re here, isn’t it? Sergeant Reynolds filled me in on your meeting yesterday. First of all, I want to say how sorry I am that you’ve had the misfortune of recalling some of the events of your abduction. I was in charge of your case. I had just been transferred a month before from Sacramento PD. After learning of the other abduction cases around Eureka, I wanted to be involved and there happened to be an opening here. I thought I could help, but it proved to be a highly complex case, as I’m sure you’re now aware.”
“Yes. I am now,” Katie replied.
“Believe me, Ms. Reid. I worked day and night on your case. We thought for sure there was a connection to the other missing children, but we just couldn’t get any solid evidence. The other kids, well, they weren’t as lucky as you. When the family dropped you off in Trinidad, your parents were very protective of you, as you’d expect. I tried to press them on the importance of having the doctors work with you to help you recall what happened. Our only chance at making any real connection to the other cases was finding out what you knew. But I don’t blame them, not one bit. If it were my kid, I would have done the same thing. So, we did what we could to find the man who abducted you. DNA testing was fairly new back then and CODIS, our DNA database system, wasn’t around until the mid-1990s. We didn’t have much to go on back in those days. Search parties scoured the area near where you were found. We tracked footprints, but it was a well-traversed area of the park and many of the prints were untraceable.” The chief paused and looked Katie directly in the eyes. “I’m sorry, Katie. You probably don’t want to hear how I failed to capture the man who took you.”
“Chief, I’m sure you did everything you could. I’m not here to lay blame or imply you didn’t do the best job possible with the resources that you had. I’m here to find him. I want to reopen this case.”
So far, he seemed receptive, and she was grateful for that. It was a good sign, but would he remain so after the mention of the necklace? It wasn’t DNA evidence, it wasn’t much, but it was all she had.
“Okay, well, let’s start off by you telling me what you’ve got. Sergeant Reynolds mentioned something about you and the Arcata girl?” the chief said.
“I know it isn’t much and may not even be useful at all,” Katie started, already doubting her confidence.
“Before you dismiss it, just give it to me straight.”
“Well, back home, I’ve been doing some research of my own. Since my parents told me that I wasn’t crazy and that my dreams were in fact memories of the abduction, I wanted to find out more.”
Chief Wilson nodded, casting occasional glances at Spencer.
“I looked up the other three missing children cases. I was able to pull up pictures of the kids who were taken. Now, it didn’t occur to me right away, but about a week ago, I had another one of my therapy sessions.”
“Hypnosis, right?” the chief asked.
“Yes; hypnotherapy was used to relieve what I believed at first to be stress. Anyway, I recalled being in a dark room, like a basement or something similar. I was blindfolded, but I removed it when I was alone. Across the room, I saw light reflecting off an object. When I walked over to see what it was, I found a heart-shaped pendant necklace. I was brought back out of the hypnotic state and didn’t realize the significance of the necklace at the time. In fact, it wasn’t until several days later when I was reading a book on cold cases that it hit me. The school picture I saw of the girl from Arcata showed her wearing a heart-shaped pendant necklace.”
No one spoke and the chief only stared out his office window in silence. Katie and Spencer exchanged looks, uncertain of how he would respond.
Finally, he spoke. “Mr. Harris, you’re an attorney, is that correct?”
“Yes sir, I am.”
“Would you consider what Katie has told me here to be admissible in court?”
“Repressed memories are generally not admissible as evidence in court, unless other physical evidence or other testimonies were concurrent. The difference here, I believe, is that her abduction was an active case. She escaped and was discovered by the side of the highway. That much is fact. What Katie is aiming to do here is discover, through her recalled memories, any new evidence that is relevant to solving the case. If she can establish a connection to the other cases, that may be enough to reopen the investigation. Whether or not it will result in the capture of her abductor remains to be seen. But the fact of the matter is, she is the only known surviving victim and if the victim can remember details not previously known, I’d say that would make for legitimate evidence.”
The chief, once again, sat in silence. Katie’s pulse raced as she waited for him to continue.
“Katie, did your parents tell you anything more about the abduction?” the chief asked.
“I’m sorry, but I’m not sure what you mean?”
“Let me sit on this for a few days.” He leaned back in his chair. “If I decide to reopen the case, it will take an extensive amount of resources I’m not sure this department can afford. Not to mention, what it will do to the families of the other victims, if, in fact, we were able to determine a connection. We’d have to keep it local to start, until we could find out more. No media, no tweeting, or Facebooking or anything like that from either of you, is that clear?”
“Of course. I’m not looking for anyone to find out about this,” Katie replied.
“Well, just so you’re prepared, if we open this thing up and it involves those other kids
, the media will be all over you, your parents, Spencer, everyone. You will be under intense scrutiny and so will your therapist. I suggest you go see your parents, tell them what you’re considering, if you haven’t already and ask them to tell you everything they know and I mean everything. You need to know what you’ll be getting yourself into.”
The chief stood, hiking up his trousers. “Leave your contact information with the officer at the front desk. I’ll be in touch once I’ve had a chance to get my head around this.”
Spencer helped Katie out of her chair and they followed the chief back to the lobby.
Chief Wilson turned back to Katie. “I would love nothing more than to find the person responsible for taking you from your family, please know that. But this has to be done by the book and I need to make sure we can handle everything that will be hurled in our direction.”
“Thank you, Chief. I sincerely appreciate what you’re doing for me.”
“It won’t be just for you, Katie; it’ll be for all the victims and for me.”
Spencer and Katie walked through the parking lot and returned to their car. They were both quiet, stunned by the sudden reality of the situation.
“Am I doing the right thing, Spencer?” Katie’s eyes welling with tears.
Spencer reached over the console and took her hand. “I had no idea the impact this has had on you, Katie. I’ve been in denial all this time and I’m so sorry. Hearing the chief go on about your case and everything they put into it has just put it all in perspective for me. But I think we need to see your parents before you decide to move forward. Something the chief alluded to makes me think they might not have told you the whole story.”
“Okay, you’re right.” Katie wiped the tears that had spilled onto her cheeks. “Let’s go see them.”
The gravel drive crunched beneath the tires of their rental car as they pulled up to her parents’ home.
“We’ll have to push our flight back and catch one later tonight,” Katie said.
“That’s fine. This is more important. We’ll make it back in time for work tomorrow, even if we have to catch a red-eye. Let’s get this over with.” Spencer yanked the keys from the ignition and stepped out of the car. He hadn’t been to Katie’s family home in probably three years.
Katie could see he was nervous. She had made certain that he hadn’t gotten to know them very well. How stupid all of that was, she thought, and how regrettable to have lost so much time trying to distance herself from them. If only they’d told her years before, when she was old enough to have understood, maybe their relationship wouldn’t be so strained. But what more could they have glossed over? What else could they be hiding?
Deborah opened the door. “Oh my word, what are the two of you doing here? What a wonderful surprise. Please, come in. Your father’s in his study. I’ll go get him.”
Spencer and Katie sat down on the couch in the family room when Deborah and John entered. Spencer immediately stood up, wiped his hand on his jeans, and shook John’s hand. “Nice to see you again, sir; it’s been a long time.”
“Yes it has, son.” John went in for the fatherly hug and Spencer responded in kind. “So, what brings you two into town?”
“Mom, Dad, I need to talk to you about something. Can you both sit down?”
An unsettling tension seemed to hover in the air.
“Can I get anyone a coffee or tea?” Deborah asked.
“No thanks, Mom. We’re fine.”
Deborah placed her hands on her lap as she sat perched on the edge of the side chair.
“Okay well, I’ll start.” Katie was barely able to disguise the anxiety in her tone. “We flew in yesterday evening to speak with the police.”
“Oh?” Deborah interjected.
“Mom, please, just let me get this out.” Katie took a breath and continued. “We wanted to talk to them about reopening my case.” She squeezed Spencer’s hand tightly in anticipation of their reply.
John’s face lost all expression and turned white, while Deborah clasped her hand over her mouth.
“I told you about seeing a therapist to help me with some of the memories I’ve been recalling and was of course, the reason why I was here to see you last month. Well, something new and possibly significant was discovered in one of my sessions. We don’t know if it’s important yet, that’s what we’re waiting for the chief to decide. But, in the process of discussing this with him, he asked that we speak to you both first. He wanted to be sure that I was aware of everything before we went any further. Can you explain what he might have been referring to?”
“Other than the fact that we took you to the hospital after we got you from the station because of injuries, what else is there to know?” John’s back was stick straight, appearing as though he was hiding something.
Deborah turned to her husband, her face, pale, drained of all blood. She looked back at Katie. “You want to know what happened at the hospital?”
“If you think it’s important, then yes.”
“Deborah,” John pleaded.
“She has the right to know. I don’t want to keep secrets anymore. This has done enough damage to our family.”
John closed his eyes tightly as Deborah continued. “Kate, honey, we took you to Trinidad Hospital. It was near their police station, where the family brought you. You were covered in bruises and had a huge knot on your head. They assumed you had fallen and hit a rock or a tree stump. Your bare feet were dirty and bloody. The first thing the doctors did was to take you to x-ray and make sure that lump was nothing more serious. Then they examined your external bruises and that’s when they asked you your name. Luckily, you remembered that much.” Deborah swallowed hard. “When I saw my little girl, bruised and bloody, well I’m sure you can imagine it wasn’t easy. Your father wanted to squeeze you so tight, but he couldn’t. We didn’t know the extent of your injuries. We were just so grateful that you were alive. The doctors got us up to speed on the tests they’d run to that point. That’s when we knew you couldn’t remember what had happened. Then, they suggested we allow them to check you for assault.”
“Sexual assault?” Katie asked. Spencer tensed up at the suggestion. This was just as hard on him, she could see that now.
“Yes, honey,” John replied. “You see, the problem was that at the time, we didn’t know for sure if you had been abducted or just wandered off the school grounds and got lost. We believed it was the former, but if that was the case, we needed to know if you had been abused while you were held captive. And it would give us a definitive answer as to what had happened.”
Deborah continued on behalf of her husband. “We allowed them to examine you while I was in the room.” She reached over to hold John’s hand. “It was too much for your father, so he waited in the hall.” Her lips began to quiver and her voice cracked. “They examined you while I held your hand and stroked your hair. You were so quiet; you didn’t cry. You just looked at me while I sang your favorite song.” Deborah could no longer hold back her tears.
Katie knew what her mother would say next, but couldn’t bear to listen to the words. A lump rose in her throat as she realized the true horror of what happened to her. And then that sadness turned to anger. She looked toward Spencer. He knew and she could see it in his eyes. Not only had this monster taken her from her family, but he had taken her.
Deborah closed her eyes, forcing the tears to stream down her cheeks. Katie cried and moved to embrace her mother.
“That’s what Chief Wilson wanted you to know,” Spencer said quietly.
“I just couldn’t tell you before, Katie. It was already so much for you to take in, I couldn’t add on to it. I had no idea you wanted to pursue this. I just thought you wanted to understand why you were having those dreams. I thought you had already been through enough.”
Katie grabbed a tissue from the side table. “It’s okay, Mom. I understand; I do. I don’t think I would have wanted to know otherwise. But now that I do, I can decide if I’m
ready to be exposed to everything this man did to me. I suppose I was lucky enough not to remember it, but now I’ll have to relive it if I want justice.”
“Katie, it’s getting late. Should I call and change the flight?” Spencer didn’t seem to want to interrupt, but the question had to be asked.
“Oh no, please don’t go; not yet,” Deborah started. “You both could use a good home-cooked meal. Let me make something for you. I’d like you to stay and talk for a while.”
“Okay, Mom. We can stay for a while longer. Spencer, will you call the airline and get us on the late flight?”
“Of course.”
Deborah made dinner while Katie and Spencer talked with her father. She felt numb at this latest news. But somehow, she had suspected this was the case. It was only by the grace of God she had no memory of the assault. Still, this latest blow didn’t sway her from wanting to pursue him. In fact, it only served to provide her with greater determination.
As they sat at dinner, the conversation was about anything else but what had just been revealed. Katie felt herself begin to harden; any trace of innocence of the ways of the world that remained had been wiped away. The idealistic girl that Spencer had fallen in love with was gone.
9
Three hours of sleep after the long red-eye flight back home and the alarm clock sounded. 6 a.m. Katie wasn’t the only one to mourn the early hour. Spencer seemed to suffer from exhaustion as well, groaning as he struggled to find consciousness.
So much had been brought to light in the past twenty-four hours and Katie had yet to process it fully. Now, Monday morning had arrived and they would be forced to see to their respective jobs.
