Probe

by Douglas E Roff

  “Because she’s your wife. And you love her.”

  “And I love her enough to take the heat and keep her safe. Dad too. But that isn’t what I wanted to talk to you about right now.”

  “What then?”

  “Just wanted to confirm a few things. Things I know from our mind excursions. And some things I may have missed.”

  “Such as?”

  “Dad and Pops tell me that he’s been corresponding with you. Threatening you. In fact, Pops tells me that he threatened you before Hawaii, and said he wanted a reunion of sorts on your ten-year anniversary? Is this true?”

  “Yes. I suppose there are no secrets in this family.”

  “No. In fact, just the opposite. Except when it comes to threats to the family. You do understand that Pops thinks you are the long-lost daughter he never had. Dad and Bethy feel the same. They take the threat to you from this guy seriously. Even Mom, who never says ‘yes’ to any sort of violence.”

  “She said do the deed?”

  “No, not in so many words. Not yet, but she’ll break her silence. I know she wants to. What is telling is that she has kept silent. First time ever; she’s normally the first to object. We all want this guy and his pals dead and so he’s going to die. Now tell me, what has he said?”

  “As I told Pops, he used to write to me every year around the anniversary of the event. Don’t know how he knew where I lived, but he did. Every year I sent the correspondence to the San Diego PD and the FBI. Every year they couldn’t trace it. NSA, CIA everyone in the alphabets, they were all up in arms and tried their best to find him. Never happened.”

  “You have any idea who?”

  “Nope. Never saw his face or any of the others. Always masked and careful. Besides, I was always restrained. I was sixteen and scared to death. I just did whatever they told me to do.”

  “Were they together? Or did they … act separately?”

  “Initially together, then one at a time. Over four days. But you already know that.”

  “Then you got away? You escaped?”

  “That’s what I thought then, but now… I think he let me go. I think they all did. Didn’t have the courage to murder me. That came later with the others, I’m certain.”

  “Why do you think they did that?”

  “I might’ve been the first captive. That’s what the FBI said. They were evolving and as they evolved, didn’t want to leave any evidence. And one more thing.”

  “Yes?”

  “The FBI thinks he got off on it.”

  “It?”

  “Stalking. Scaring. Controlling. Terrifying. Knowing that he could create a living hell and watch me in it. He controlled every move. He was in charge; even the alphabets couldn’t do a thing. We were all powerless and he knew it. No other explanation. Otherwise he had no reason for contact. If fact the FBI said it was dumb, a rooky mistake. They surmise he must like the excitement of the game, the danger and…”

  “And?”

  “Now it’s time to end the game with me. His last missive said it was time for a high school reunion. Been almost ten years. He and his buddies miss me. They want to have another get together. Can’t be sure that he was serious; the FBI gave it a 50/50 chance of being real, at least around the anniversary. Thought it may happen later. Or earlier.”

  “Good. Then the time couldn’t be more perfect. Time for a reunion of our own. But we need you to do some research for us. Very quiet, very private. Can you do that for us?”

  “You know I can.”

  “I do. It’s more a matter of pure will that you do what we need now. I know this won’t be easy. You’re not going to have to get up close and personal with the man we have identified as the culprit or his three friends. But we’re looking for something specific we think is out there. We just don’t know where. That’s where you come in. We need to go some places that aren’t out in the sunshine and we don’t know where to start or how to do it. But we are all certain that you do.”

  “What makes you so sure?”

  “We read your file. In fact, all of them. You’re super talented for such a young lady with an unpleasant past. I expect you will have mixed emotions about your involvement in this, but we really need your help, and we have nowhere else to go.”

  “Unlikely.”

  “Let me rephrase that. There is nowhere else we can go and keep the task private.”

  “You make it sound like you’re planning a surprise party.”

  “Except for the bullets.”

  “Yeah, except for those.”

  ***

  Three weeks later Alana delivered the information Adam requested. It was as unpleasant as Adam suspected it would be; Alana didn’t enjoy revisiting her own past. But she spent very little time there. In fact, she didn’t even crack the file. She delivered the evidence to Adam and Edward, who spent just enough time to get names and verify the women as missing persons. Once completed, final plans began to take shape.

  ***

  Christopher James Madson III had been identified as a suspect by the police along with his three best friends from college, all now capital partners in the Madson Investment Group. Aside from leased offices in downtown San Diego, and minor investments with national real estate developers, the only major asset the company owned was one hundred acres of improved real estate in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

  A hunting lodge in a remote location, owned by an offshore corporation. Ownership of that company was a mess to untangle, but there it was. Madson Investment Group of San Diego, California.

  Christopher James Madson III, Managing Partner.

  Almost ten years earlier, Chris Madson and his three friends had constructed an air tight alibi for themselves through business associates and Resort employees at the Fulton Ranch Resort up north on the Monterey Peninsula. Both the local police, and later the FBI, thought that there may be a connection between the four and the crimes committed in San Diego involving Alana McCarthy. There were striking similarities with several incidents reported while the four were in college locally at UCSD. There had been ample reason to suspect that the four were involved in those incidents, but family connections, reasonable alibis, and good lawyers left the police without sufficient evidence upon which to build a solid case. The District Attorney had been sympathetic but declined to prosecute.

  While in college, the four had begun their careers in crime together. One of their first targets was a young freshman college girl invited, then intercepted, on her way to a nonexistent party. She was a local junior college student who had been spotted and stalked by the boys and told that the party would be at the apartment of a fellow student at UCSD, Timothy Benton, claiming to be him. When she arrived at the fictitious apartment, she was drugged and kidnapped, taken to a cabin owned by Madson’s father in the mountains due east and north of San Diego. The men were wearing ski masks and spoke with a phony accent. After the drugs took hold, phony accents were unnecessary, and she remembered very little. Her trauma was severe, her recovery lengthy.

  She was held for several days, repeatedly sexually assaulted and nearly beaten to death. She was left near a hospital where a 911 call had been placed revealing her location. The call came from a pay phone.

  Her injuries and the specific crimes committed against her had a similar recognizable pattern to other crimes committed in the San Diego area over the past few years and bore a remarkable resemblance to the subsequent case of Alana McCarthy, age sixteen.

  One SDPD Detective, Jason Silver, had a feeling, a sense, that these boys were dirty and involved somehow. But there was nothing he could do, as the evidence was lacking and was barely even circumstantial. The District Attorney informed him that there was insufficient evidence to entertain a full-blown prosecution.

  Nothing was ever proven in the McCarthy case, and the trail went cold. Besides, the alibi constructed was quite solid involving senior executives from well-respected companies with no reas
on to lie or mislead.

  The crime was never solved and there were no other leads. Subsequent investigation by the FBI, after Alana became an important asset, revealed little more than the fine job the SDPD had done in its initial investigation, but nothing new ever developed.

  Both Edward and Adam reconstructed what the boys had done to avoid scrutiny and were able to confirm their movements thanks to the DL Main. The technique employed to construct their alibi was clever and Adam could confirm that the men had used it often after the McCarthy case. After all, it had worked before, why not use it again? It had misdirected the SD Police Department at the time and the FBI much later, not something so easily done.

  But repeated use would be their undoing. It left a trail; indirect, but a clear path leading to four men residing in San Diego.

  Had the San Diego boys been dealing with someone else, and not Alana, they might’ve gotten away with their crimes of unspeakable violence and depravity, including serial murder, forever. But Alana, working with Adam and Edward, reconstructed minute details of their stalking activities and various other telltale clues. Right down to the paper, envelopes, ink, and post marks Christopher used to communicate with Alana.

  Chris Madson had bought one hundred sheets of a lightly perfumed, and hand made cream colored stationary with matching envelopes from an upscale stationer in London some years back. The old-school proprietor had to consult his vintage sales book, but he eventually found everyone who purchased sheets from the lot his brother made that very year.

  “Oh, yes sir, yes sir indeed,” he said. “I have accounted for the entire lot right down to the jot and tittle. Indeed, sir, all were local purchases made by reputable, and longstanding customers of our establishment here in London. Oh, dear me,” he said. “I see I’m wrong. There was one small lot sold to a Mister C. Madson of San Diego. I believe that is in America. I do so hope you find your cousin. A pity to be apart for so many years.”

  Perhaps not dispositive in a court of law as Madson so clearly believed. It might be tenuous, but it was the only thread tethering Madson to the crime afterwards.

  However, it was more than sufficient evidence to convict C. Madson in the St. James family court.

  Only the sentence remained to be carried out.

  Chapter 49

  The private jet landed in a small regional airport north of the City of San Diego, in the growing San Luis Rey Valley. Oceanside “International” was the big name for a small airport, and a little joke among the locals. The actual name of the facility was Oceanside Municipal Airport which never had any regular daily commercial service unlike its sister facility across the slough in Carlsbad, the McClellan-Palomar Airport. However, the Carlsbad airport had the good fortune of being much closer to the large golf resort just to the south off the I-5.

  Four men disembarked the plane and were quickly ushered into a waiting 4x4. They left immediately for a secret location in San Diego, in a quiet neighborhood in the pleasant hills just above Old Town.

  Raimundo “Ray” Garcia was an old friend of Carlos Alarcon and a long-time acquaintance of Edward St. James. Whatever they felt they owed each other was never discussed.

  Ray had three children, two older boys, and a younger daughter. The boys had joined the military right out of high school, the Marines and Army respectively. His daughter, Juana Inez, had married a gringo and now had three children of her own. Carl Grogan, a well-respected architect and Juana’s husband, had helped Ray buy homes which Ray then remodeled through Carl Grogan Interiors, then sold at a handsome profit. His business was good, and he and his family wanted for nothing.

  Adam, Edward, Edmund and Carlos would stay at one of those remodels for the few days it would take to complete the job.

  Emilio Sanchez, another friend, and a commercial fisherman by trade, would be stopping by in the morning to have a talk with Carlos. Emilio understood there might be some 55-gallon drums that should be taken out to sea and sent to the ocean floor.

  No questions were asked; but it was made clear that all old debts would thereafter be considered paid in full. Henceforth, further communication would no longer ever be required.

  ***

  Edward hadn’t originally considered including Edmund in their little expedition. But he had shared the evidence with Bethy, Pops and Maria and had decided that Edmund had a right to know too. He insisted on coming along, though he had been made to promise he wouldn’t take an active role.

  Edmund said, “I spoke to Alana before we left. She was unsure about the wisdom of us pursuing this project. Are you both sure this is the right course of action?”

  Adam said, “We’re sure, Edmund. Very sure.”

  “How can you be so certain if she isn’t?”

  “Because she isn’t being completely honest with you, and we are.”

  “Are you saying Alana is lying to me?” He was incredulous; it wasn’t like his daughter to lie. She was as capable as anyone of course. But, why would she?

  “No, not hardly,” Adam said. “Alana isn’t trying to mislead you in any way. She’s just conflicted by what she feels is morally wrong contrasted with what she knows intellectually must be done. She doesn’t like us doing this job, and she hates that she has had to deceive Misti. There will be fall out and she wants nothing to do with that either. So, she isn’t lying, she just isn’t being completely forthcoming about the emotional residue of her experience.”

  Edmund asked, “What does that mean?”

  “It means that since Hawaii, Alana has made a great deal of progress supressing her memories, and the deep fears surrounding the whole episode. Before Hawaii, her daily life was a nightmare. She couldn’t sleep; she was anxious and tired all the time. Even so, she had to be sedated every night and the medication wasn’t always effective.”

  Edmund said, “She told me she’s almost completely healed. She barely even remembered it anymore and she was sleeping well at night.”

  Adam said, “And what she told you is mostly true, just not entirely so.”

  “Again, what does that mean?”

  “It means her residual fears, and occasional sleepless nights are still due to the incident. And they seem to be increasing in frequency and are related to one thing: the existence of him, and them, as a threat to her. She’s still haunted by visions that he’s out there, is watching her and is coming for her. As we approach the ten-year anniversary, she has become increasingly agitated. I can tell you that some of her nightmares have returned; nowhere near as bad as before and very infrequent. But always the same nightmare; him.”

  Adam continued, “I am well-aware of her sleep patterns and what they have been revealing. She’s afraid again and will never be free until this guy is finally erased from her life. In my opinion, his death will be the final release. Even incarceration wouldn’t suffice since the prospect of release or escape would still trouble her. This way it’s final.”

  “I see.”

  “I don’t think you do Edmund. I think you’d prefer to honor her expressed wishes but not her real needs. I get that. She wants this to happen; she just doesn’t want us to do it. She’s afraid for us. She’s afraid he might harm us or that the police will intervene. Neither is going to happen. Just as with Misti, we’re going to do what needs to be done, and bear the consequences later. When it’s over, she’ll be the same daughter she was on the day before her sixteenth birthday. She’ll finally be free, and the police will have all the proof they require. They may make some small effort to track us down. I expect a call from our government friends, but they’ll go away quickly.”

  “You’re certain?”

  “I am certain she wants us to finish this. I am certain she’s worried about us. I am certain she doesn’t want anything to go wrong. I am also quite certain she doesn’t want you anywhere near any of this business. She asked me to refuse to allow you to come along. But I believe you have every right to be here with us.”

  “I have promise
d to stand by. And I will keep my word as I doubt I could help anyway. But if you need an emergency backup, I’m here. I can at least do that much and feel useful.”

  ***

  Ten years earlier, the San Diego Police showed up at the offices of the fledgling Madson Investment Group, then not much more than a catchy name for the narcissistic Chris Madson, and his three friends from college. The four had become fast friends, their closeness based on a common experience with a life of privilege coupled with an immense sense of personal entitlement.

  The facts of the McCarthy case reminded Detective Silver of another case the SDPD could tie to the boys.

  That young woman had been involved in an incident during their senior year in college. The woman, then a student, had escaped from the men before any serious harm could be done. She had become suspicious of the men following her and, when she was accosted, she ripped off the ski mask of the leader, Christopher Madson, revealing his identity.

  Adam later discovered that she had been paid a great deal of hush money by Madson’s family to disappear. She promptly departed for a non-extradition country just as the investigation was getting under way. When questioned, the boys explained it was fraternity hijinks, nothing more. Besides, they said, no harm had been done, so the matter was dropped shortly afterward.

  When Adam sought to track down her present whereabouts, he discovered that she had been killed in a mysterious traffic accident five years later, after returning to the United States from Brazil.

  ***

  Adam explained that they had found the case files and evidence on the SDPD and FBI servers and had found quite a bit of evidence that the authorities had collected but were unable to tie to Madson. The death of the young woman had also gone unsolved, though the SDPD had found suspicious circumstances. It eventually went down in the books as an accident. Nobody connected the woman’s death to the earlier incident with Madson.

  Adam, using the DL Main, together with Alana sifting through Madson’s digital world, eventually found incriminating emails on a private, and secure server used by Madson, and owned by a foreign subsidiary of the Madson Investment Group. He and his chums had outlined in detail their plan to “resolve outstanding loose ends” with the woman newly returned to San Diego. One of the emails mentioned that the men’s private investigator had discovered the woman had recently hired a lawyer and was contemplating legal action.