by Douglas Hall
West didn’t have to be reminded that Madison was a formable adversary. He had crossed swords with others before him who thought they could best him and to their sorrow failed miserably. None was to match Madison.
Unlike some police investigators who resent PIs sticking their noses into a case, as they would call it, King welcomed the thought that West might bring something fresh to the investigation and give him full credit if it contributed to the solving of what was the most frustrating case of his career.
“How can I help?” King asked.
“I’d like to see everything you have beginning with the day you became lead investigator.”
King stood up, “I’ll get the case file with my reports, witness statements and evidence box. We can’t have any privacy here in the cafeteria so let’s go to an empty interrogation room where we can talk in private. After all, our years together on homicide, I owe you that much.”
For the next couple of hours, King took West through his investigation as he asked questions and took pictures of pages and items with his iPhone.
“I think that about does it,” said King as he arched his back. “You will have to agree that it was one frustrating investigation, and Madison didn’t make it any easier.”
“One only has to read his e-mails to realise it,” West acknowledged.
“You should have heard his phone calls. I recorded everyone. You can hear them if you want.”
“I’ll do that one day when I have more time. Right now, I’d like to know if any of Cindy’s friends jump out as persons of interest when you interviewed them, and I start there.”
King didn’t have to think hard to answer, “Amber Ferguson was Cindy’s closest friend, and confident, she was also not very forthcoming. She is one frustrating young woman. If I were you, I’d begin there, you never know you might do better. I don’t think she liked the police, and me even less. It was difficult to keep my tempter when she would only answer my questions with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’. That girl knows more than she ever told me, and with luck, you can get it out of her.”
“Do you think she knows what happened to Cindy?”
“If she does, she is protecting her, that is, if she is still alive.”
King made suggestions on whom else he thought should be interviewed along with background on each individual. When he was finished, West had the advantage of not starting cold and building his investigation from the ground up.
THE PAST TWO YEARS since the disappearance of her daughter had weighed heavily upon Martha Madison. The once vibrant society maven, who hosted galas, played bridge twice weekly at the country club, had retreated behind pulled drapes and refused to talk to her once wide circle of friends who took the hint and, gradually, dropped her. The retreat from reality also weighed heavily upon Madison when she began lashing out and accusing him of giving up when King informed them that the case had gone cold and he was moving on to a new investigation.
MANDY HAD THE PRESENCE OF MIND to call West, who was on his way to see Amber Ferguson, and tell him Victor Madison had arrived at the office and insisted upon waiting for him until he returned.
When West arrived, Mandy pointed to his closed office door. “He’s in there waiting for you,” she mouthed.
West stiffened and opened the door, “Mr Madison, this indeed is a surprise. I had planned to call you later in the day with an update after I had finished some business, but now that you are here, I give it to you in person.”
“This is something that could not wait. I gave your executive assistant the signed contract and wanted to tell you to start working.”
“I have already begun.”
Madison took out a folded piece of paper and handed it across the desk. “This is a list of everyone who knew Cindy. I hope it helps, and I have made some margin comments about a couple of them.”
“Go on,” West said, as he turned on the recorder and scanned the page. At the top of the list was Amber Ferguson.
Madison didn’t waste time. “Start with Amber Ferguson. We are members of the same golf and country club as her parents and have been for years. Our daughters are the same age and had been close friends all the way through public and high school. In fact, they were accepted at the same university and planned to be campus roommates. No one knew Cindy better than Amber, and she probably knows more secrets than we ever did. I talked to her shortly after Cindy disappeared, and she said she was as mystified as we were. She expected to hear from her any day and promised to tell us if she did.”
“Is Amber the only child the Ferguson’s have?” West asked.
“She has a brother, two years older. His name is Scott. He and Cindy were an item during her last year in high school and we thought it might work into something, but they separated a month or so before Cindy disappeared. I have no idea why. I asked her once and all she would tell me was that she had outgrown him, and he was not the one for her.”
West ran his eye down the page of names, “His name isn’t here.”
“No, I didn’t think he was important. When they went their separate ways, I had no more interest in him, or as my father used to say, he was off my list.”
“He could be very important. In situations such as this, we always first look at the boyfriend or husband. Did they part on friendly terms?”
“I have no idea. She stopped talking about him, and as I told you, she didn’t like to be asked questions.”
“What about his parents, did you ever ask them why they broke up?”
“We used to see them at the country club but have had little or no contact with them since Cindy disappeared.”
“I’d like to add the Fergusons to your list right below their two children.”
“You don’t suspect them, do you?” Madison’s eyes widened in surprise.
“In an investigation like this, everyone who knew your daughter is a suspect including you.”
Madison stiffened, “I take that as a personal insult. How could it include me?”
“Nothing personal, but more than one parent has had a negative impact upon the life of a child that resulted in disaster.”
“I was told you were good and left nothing to chance. Anything else?”
“Did King ever check out Cindy’s bedroom as part of his investigation?”
“He wanted to but Martha wouldn’t hear of it. There was no way a stranger was going to get into that room without a search warrant. He threatened to get one but never did.”
“I want to see it.”
“No way. In Martha’s present state of mind, it would send her over the brink, and I won’t allow that to happen. Forget it!”
“Does she ever go out?”
“Never, with the exception of going to the hairdressers every three weeks. Our housekeeper Mrs Bailey takes her.”
“When is her next appointment?”
“This coming Friday.”
“Phone me when she has left. It won’t take me long.”
“I don’t like it.”
“You want me to find your daughter, don’t you?”
Madison nodded.
“Who is first on your list?”
“Amber Ferguson!”
Three
“YOU ARE LUCKY that my parents aren’t home. My brother and I are not allowed to talk about Cindy to the police.”
“I am not the police, so you can talk to me.”
“Why should I?”
“I’ll be honest with you, Amber. I am a private investigator. Cindy’s father hired me to find her and bring her back while her mother can still recognise her.”
“Why wouldn’t she be able to recognise her?”
“She is in a very bad emotional state which began the day Cindy went missing, and it is slowly clouding her mind.”
“Well, you had better come in. We can’t talk about this at the door.” Amber led West into the living room and indicated for him to sit on the chesterfield.
“I am sorry Inspector King left you with such a negativ
e impression.”
“He was rude and even threatened to have my father charged with interfering in a police investigation if he didn’t tell him all he knew about the Madison family and especially Cindy. That’s when daddy ordered him to leave and never come back. I didn’t like that man. You have to understand that my parents and Cindy’s parents were close friends for many years, and my brother and Cindy were an item. If it continued through university, they would probably marry, and I would be her sister-in-law which I would have liked. It was a very uncomfortable moment, and Daddy said I was never to mention it again or tell my mother what happened. What do you want me to tell you about Cindy?”
“What was she like?”
Amber painted a verbal picture of a beautiful young woman whom she had known since childhood and considered to be her best friend…for life. “We told each other everything even about our crushes and boyfriends. We were like sisters. She and my brother, Scott, started going steady when they were in grade twelve. When he graduated from high school, he applied to a number of universities and was accepted by three. One was the same university Cindy was going to enrol in, so he did the same.”
“What about your parents?”
“They were very pleased and approved. They brought Cindy and me up to value family, class, and marry within our circle. Am I making sense?”
“Absolutely.”
King didn’t mention that he had a recording device in his shirt pocket turned on.
“Are your parents and Cindy’s parents still friends?”
Amber caught herself before replying and looked down as she thought about how to answer the question. Looking up and locking eyes with West she said slowly, “They haven’t spoken since my father told Cindy’s father just what he thought of her telling Scott her core values had changed, and he wasn’t right for her. I don’t know what was said, but it severed a lifelong friendship.”
“Did it bother you?”
“At first, it did, but I was going through a difficult relationship with Cindy as well. About three months before she disappeared, she changed. It was though she had, suddenly, got religion, and we were the unwashed. She dropped her friends including me and grew distant without explanation.”
“You say Cindy had changed, in what way?”
“For as long as I knew her, appearance and having fun was all that mattered. She dressed down and stopped wearing makeup, but she was still a stunner and head-turner. The things that interested her like dancing, movies and having a good time no longer interested her. I asked her why she had given up on a life many would envy, and she told me that we were both lucky to have been born into money, and to waste it on, what she called, carnal pleasures was a sin. She was critical of both her father and my father who she said made money their God. I thought it was a hurtful thing for her to say because she was always very self-centred and enjoyed the life that the money brought to both of us. To be honest, we led a life that was the greatest amount of pleasure with the least amount of pain. I didn’t like what she was saying and told her so. I was angry and said if we were all that bad, what was she going to do differently? She said that she was dedicated to using her money and life to make a change in this world.”
“Did she say how she was going to do it?”
“No, but from the look on her face, I could see she was dead serious and dropped it.”
For the next half hour, Amber reminisced about her past life with Cindy.
Amber looked at her watch and stood up, “You have to leave. Mother will be on her way back from shopping, and if she sees you here, she will know you have been talking to me about Cindy, and I’ll be in big trouble. Please leave.”
West gave Amber his card and asked her to call him anytime if she heard from Cindy or thought of anything else she could tell him.
WEST CALMLY LISTENED to Mandy letting off steam as she complained about what she called Victor Madison’s boorish attitude. He was on the phone just before you arrived barking out orders without so much as a ‘please’ or ‘thank you’.
“Do what he asks and keep a civil tone. I told you this wasn’t going to be an easy case, but I assure you it could be the most interesting and lucrative one to walk through the door in recent memory. Madison has deep pockets and the premise has grabbed my interest. What did he want?”
“His wife’s hairdressing appointment has been changed, and if you want to see Cindy’s bedroom, meet him at the house within the next half hour or forget it.”
“Call him and say I’m on my way,” West ended with “thanks” and bowed.
Madison answered the door on the first knock, “Come in and make it quick. I want you out of here within the next half hour.” He was in no mood for small talk and from his expression was not pleased with what was about to happen as he led the way up a circular staircase and stopped at a closed door which he opened with a key. “Don’t move or touch anything, Martha has a photogenic memory and would know if anything had been touched or was out of place. Any idea of what you are looking for?”
West shook his head, and Madison flicked the light switch. Taking out his smart phone he said, “I have a couple of calls to make. I’ll be right here in the hall waiting for you.”
Not being a connoisseur of a young lady’s bedrooms, West didn’t quite know what to expect and stood in the middle of the room slowly looking around. A number of things caught his attention, the first being the drawn drapes, but when he thought of it, they would have been drawn when Cindy left before dawn, and Madison had told him the room was exactly as she had left it. The bed was made up with a stuffed Paddington Bear on the pillow and the dial on the clock radio was illuminated. West checked his watch both read the same time, but it was the shelf under the table-top that really interested him with its pile of neatly stacked brochures picking up the top one he looked at the cover. It was a picture of a beautiful Creole girl about ten years of age with a beguiling expression. Underneath was the caption MANOUCHECA IS WAITING FOR YOU in bold type. West was about to read the instructions on the back page about how to get more information when Madison walked into the bedroom and, in a commanding voice, ordered, “I want you out of here and long gone in case Martha and Mrs Bailey return early.”
West had his back to Madison, and he couldn’t see him slip the brochure under his jacket.
“Get what you were looking for?” Madison asked.
West half-smiled, “It was most interesting indeed. I’ll be back to you shortly.”
“You do that,” Madison replied curtly and closed the door without a ‘goodbye’.
WEST RETURNED to an expectant Mandy who could hardly wait to hear how he made out. “I bet that wasn’t the first time you were in a young girl’s bedroom,” she teased as he sat down at his desk.
“I won’t dignify that question with an answer.”
“You just answered my question,” Mandy replied with a wicked grin.
West placed the brochure on the desk front cover up. “Have a look at this and tell me if it would have caught your interest when you were an innocent, impressible, young girl in high school?”
Mandy screwed up her face. “I was never innocent or impressible in high school, and for your information, that is not the kind of thing I would have been reading. Where did you get it?”
“I nipped it from a stack on a shelf under Cindy’s night table,” replied West.
“That is one beautiful little girl on the front. Who could resist a smile like that?”
“The name Child Waiting is catchy, and the picture is impossible to ignore.”
“It would not be my choice of reading material.”
“Mine neither, and you’ll have your work cut out for you. There is no masthead with the editor’s name, list of contributors or address.” Fanning the pages West said, “That’s strange there are no by-lines. Look at this one Only You Can Save Manchaca She Is Waiting for You. It is nothing more than emotional blackmail to assault one’s conscience. It is not glossily produced like most
brochures, but from the syntax, the various pieces seem to have been written by the same person.”
“You said there was a pile of them on the shelf, any others?”
“Such as?”
“Gossip magazines. I devoured everyone I could get my hands on and often clipped out pictures that caught my eye.”
“I thought you said you were not impressionable?”
“No answer,” Mandy replied with a wicked grin.
“Child Waiting was the only thing I saw, and there must have been a dozen or more?”
“What was hanging on the wall?”
“Such as?”
“I had a picture of David Cassidy over my bed. I really had the hots for him.”
“There was a framed map of Africa over her bed.”
“Weird!”
“You can say that again. She was not your normal teenaged high school girl.” Handing the brochure to Mandy he added, “See what you can come up with on Child Waiting. What did Charlie King say when you told him I couldn’t make it this morning?”
“He said to tell he’ll be at his desk the rest of the day trying to catch up on paperwork, and you can come by anytime.”
West stood up, “Good, call him and say I am on my way.”
NOT MUCH HAD CHANGED in the Criminal Investigation Bureau office since West left with the exception of who was sitting at his desk which was across from Charlie King’s. He was greeted with calls of welcome from the officers in the room. King spotted him and suggested that they go to a spare interrogation room where they could talk away from the cacophony of voices and ringing phones that filled the room.
After stopping to pick up couple of cups coffees at the vending machine, they sat down at a table in the empty room. King was the first to speak, “Did you get anything out of Amber Ferguson?”