by B J Bourg
“Mayor, what in God’s name is going on?” she asked heatedly. “What are you not telling me?”
“Look, all I know is that they had a tip—some information—about a possible location.”
“Location for what?”
“Rose’s possible location.”
“Oh no!” Laura’s knees buckled and she had to grab onto a tent pole for support. Rushing forward, Mayor Cain wrapped a slender arm around Laura’s shoulder and guided her to a chair. Laura was surprised by how strong the mayor’s grip felt.
“Here, have a seat.”
“I don’t want to sit. I want to know what’s going on.” Laura tried to push the mayor’s arms away, but the mayor was having none of it.
“No, you need to sit down and I’ll find out what’s happening.”
Laura turned up her eyes. “You will?”
Mayor Cain pulled out her cell phone and began making a call. “I’m already on it.”
Laura pressed her hands to her face and took a deep breath. She didn’t know how to feel. Did they find Rose? Is she okay? Is this finally over? Is she…is she…
“Dear God, please let her be okay!” Laura wailed, unable to stand the pain in her chest any longer. She stood and walked in a small circle, pulling at her hair and clawing at her chest.
Mayor Cain was speaking to someone while also trying to tell her to remain calm. Just then, more police vehicles sped by, but one of them slowed drastically and veered onto the shoulder. Brakes squealed and loose rocks exploded into the air. Laura immediately recognized the vehicle as the one Chief Susan Wilson drove. She broke out into a run, heading straight for Susan’s vehicle, crying out as she ran, “Did you find my baby girl? Did you?”
Susan dropped from her Tahoe and met Laura halfway across the yard. “We’ve got her! She’s going to be okay.”
“Is it really Rose?” Laura wasn’t sure if she’d heard correctly. “Are you sure you have Rose?”
Susan’s head bobbed up and down and her face was beaming. “Clint found her on a boat headed for Mexico, but she’s fine. Other than being a little banged up, she’s unhurt.”
The emotion was too much for Laura. She collapsed to the ground and wept, completely oblivious to the wet and cold grass that pressed against her face and clothes. She turned onto her back and stared up at the dark sky, screaming in elation and thanking God. She was still screaming as Susan began pulling her to her feet.
“We need to go,” Susan said.
“Can I see her?” Laura pleaded, allowing Susan to help her up. “I need to see her. Can I see her?”
“Of course, jump in with me. They’re taking her to the hospital for observation.”
“I thought you said she wasn’t hurt?”
“It’s standard procedure. I spoke with her after Clint found her and she assured me that she wasn’t injured.”
“But what happened? Who took her?”
“Get in,” Susan said, “I’ll tell you on the way to the hospital.”
“Wait a minute…I need to let Ronnie and Seth know,” Laura said, hesitating and shuffling her feet in confusion, unsure in what direction to move first. Should I get in the car? Do I run to the house and tell Ronnie?
“I’ll bring them to the hospital,” Mayor Cain called from the front door of the house. “Just go and be with your daughter.”
CHAPTER 50
Susan watched as Laura hurried around to the passenger side of the marked Tahoe and snapped into her seatbelt. “What happened?” Laura asked between sobs. She tried valiantly to stop crying, but it was futile. “Where has she been?”
Susan explained that, on the day of the kidnapping, Rose had been staring down at her phone when the bus arrived and she never even bothered to look up when she climbed aboard. Rose had admitted to being angry about not going to Orange Beach for the weekend, and she was upset with Michael for saying he would go to the beach without her.
“She didn’t realize something was wrong until the bus pulled sharply to the shoulder of the road,” Susan explained. “When she looked up from her phone, that’s when she realized it wasn’t Katrina Bradberry driving the bus, but some young man. She stood and asked him who he was, but he told her to shut up and sit back down. When she refused, he got up and backhanded her and she fell on her back, losing her phone. That’s when she realized she was in real danger.
“Rose tried to crawl to her phone to call for help, but he lifted her off the ground and threw her onto the floor near the first seat. He used some tie straps to secure her hands in front of her and then opened the door to throw her phone outside.
“Rose said he then turned the bus around in the road and headed south. They passed your house and continued south until they reached this shell road. She didn’t know it, but it was the road to the old abandoned fishing camps south of your house. She said the bus driver was going too fast and one of the tires blew out.”
“Is that the same bus y’all found?”
Susan nodded, and continued. “Rose heard the bus driver get on the phone and call someone to bring a car. She said there was some cursing and arguing back and forth, and the driver said it wasn’t his fault he got the flat and for the person to hurry up.” Susan paused and turned to look at Laura, who was starting to settle down a little. “You’ve got a bright daughter, that’s for sure. She decided to leave us a breadcrumb. She knew we would eventually come looking for her and she knew the bus was disabled, so she stripped her school identification card from the front of her shirt and bent it back and forth until it broke in half. She left one of the pieces on the bus and shoved the other in the front of her pants. She later left it in the trunk of the car that came for her. She said they put a mask over her—”
“They locked her in the trunk of a car?” Laura asked, interrupting. “Who in the hell are these people?”
“Yeah, they locked her in the trunk. They put some sort of sack over her head, so she wasn’t able to see the man who arrived in the car, but she could hear his voice. She said they lifted her way up in the air and dropped her into the trunk. When they closed it, that’s when she concealed the other half of the school ID card in a crack. She said they drove for a while and then she was carried into a small boat and covered with a thick blanket. She said they rode for a while and the water was really choppy. Finally, she was taken from that boat and wrapped in a blanket. She said both men carried her onto a larger boat, where she’s been locked in a small cabin ever since—well, until Clint opened the door and rescued her.”
“Did…did they abuse her?” Laura’s voice cracked. It appeared she was afraid to ask the question, as though she didn’t want to know the answer. “Did…um…did they…?” She clamped her mouth shut and refused to say the word. But Susan knew what she was after.
While Susan kept her eyes fixed straight ahead—where the headlights were having a hard time keeping up with the speed of the SUV—she reached over and put a hand on Laura’s arm. “No,” she said, “they didn’t assault her in that way. I had a private conversation with Rose and she said they told her they were taking her to a paradise. They said she would love her new home and her new family. She got the impression someone was adopting her.”
Laura began pulling at the front of her shirt. “God, I have this pain in my chest. If only I could reach in and rip it out, then maybe I’d feel better.”
Susan shot a brief glance in her direction. “Are you having a heart attack?”
Laura shook her head. “I…I don’t think so. I just realize how close I came to losing Rose forever. It’s…it’s so damned terrifying.”
“I can’t even imagine what you went through—and what you’re still going through.”
“You’re pregnant, aren’t you?”
Susan nodded.
“Well, I hope you never have to know this feeling.” Laura sniffled and asked if Clint would be at the hospital. “I want to thank him for getting Rose back to me and I want to apologize again for what I did. I…I don’t know what
would’ve happened had he not worked so hard on this case.”
“Clint’s heading to the police department to meet with Detective Mallory Tuttle from the sheriff’s office,” Susan explained. “She’s been assisting us with the investigation and she recently took a second suspect into custody—a kid named Junior Bradberry. His brother’s the one who got shot on the boat. They also seized the suspect’s car, and that’s where we believe we’ll find the other half of Rose’s identification card.”
“What about the first suspect?” Laura wanted to know. “Did they arrest him or did he get away?”
“No, he didn’t get away, but we didn’t arrest him either. His name is Lenny Bradberry. His brother must’ve tipped him off, because he lit up the field where we were hiding and tried to ambush us. Two of our officers returned fire, but he decided to take the cowardly way out.” Susan grunted. “He shot himself in the head just as Clint was boarding the motor vessel.”
Susan decided to withhold the irrelevant details, such as Lenny Bradberry had fallen overboard after shooting himself in the right temple and Melvin and Baylor had been forced to pull him out of the water with grappling hooks. The water at the edge of the pier was about twelve feet deep and a dive team was scheduled to go out at first light to search for the pistol. Clint said he was certain the pistol was the same one that Ricky Bradberry had purchased at Bill’s Jewelry and Pawn, and Susan had no reason to doubt that.
“Why didn’t Lenny shoot his mom like a normal person?” Susan had asked Clint when he told her about the pistol. “Why would he poison her?”
“Because he’s a coward.”
“Huh?” Susan had scrunched her face. “Shooting an unarmed person is equally as cowardly as poisoning them—especially since it was his own mother.”
“You have to be present to shoot someone,” Clint had stated matter-of-factly. “You have to see the results of your action. Sure, you can turn away or close your eyes, but you’re still there when it happens and you have to experience it. With a poisoning, you get to place the substance wherever you want and then leave—just like setting a rat trap. You don’t have to wait around and witness the destruction.”
Susan had never thought of it that way, but it did make sense.
“Well, here we are,” she said to Laura when she turned into the emergency room parking lot and shut off the engine. Amy Cooke was walking briskly down the ramp and changed directions when she saw Susan opening the door to her vehicle.
“She’s inside,” Amy said, “and she’s in good spirits.”
Before Susan could acknowledge what Amy had said, Laura jumped from the vehicle and raced up the ramp toward the sliding glass doors. Susan winced, thinking Laura would reach the doors before they slid open and crash right through them, but they opened just in time. She could hear Laura hollering to hospital staff that she was the mother of the missing child and she was demanding to know where she could find her daughter. The doors slid shut and muffled the rest of what was said, but Susan could see a nurse ushering Laura down the hallway, no doubt leading her to Rose’s room.
“God, I’m so glad it turned out this way,” Amy said, turning her back to the hospital so she could face Susan. “I really thought we’d find her dead.”
Susan nodded, able to breathe easier than she had in days. It was only then that she realized how anxious she had been over the missing girl. Of course, she hadn’t needed the added stress of Jennifer Duval’s stunt, but it was all finally over. She turned to Amy. “Have you gotten any sleep since this all began?”
“Not much.”
“Sorry about that. At least you’ve earned an ass-load of overtime.”
Amy’s watch lit up and she glanced at it. Susan cocked her head to the side. “What is that?”
“It’s a text message.” Amy held up her wrist. “It was my Christmas present—well, one of them.”
Susan grunted. She had heard of watches that could be linked to a cell phone. Apparently, you could do anything but bake a cake with the damn things. “What next?” she asked. “Sunglasses that link to your phone so you can read text messages without taking your eyes off the road?”
“Probably.” Amy sighed. “Well, do you still need me? I’d like to get some sleep.”
“Nah, you can turn in.” Susan knew the schedules of all of her officers, and she knew Amy was scheduled to be off this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. “I’m sorry you had to work today. I hope you didn’t have plans.”
“No, I didn’t have—” Amy suddenly clamped her mouth shut and slapped her forehead. “Oh, shit, I forgot all about Trevor’s plans!”
“What plans?”
“He reserved a hotel room in New Orleans for tonight and tomorrow night,” Amy explained, lifting her right hand to show Susan a shiny new ring. “I think it’s to celebrate our engagement.” She grinned widely. “I know I shouldn’t wear it on duty, but I just couldn’t resist.”
Susan smiled, slapped Amy on the shoulder. “Go on and salvage what’s left of your weekend. We’ll wrap things up here.”
Amy hesitated, and Susan knew she was about to object. Amy never liked walking away from a case. If there was action, she wanted to be a part of it. If there was a fight, she wanted to be right in the middle.
“Everything’s over, Amy,” she said. “After Clint gets a confession from Junior, there’ll be nothing left to do except the paperwork. You won’t be missing a thing.”
“You sure?”
Susan smiled. “Positive.”
Amy took a breath and finally nodded. “Okay, but call if you need something—anything at all.”
Susan promised and watched Amy walk away. Once she had driven off, Susan turned and approached the hospital. She needed to take a formal statement from Rose and speak with the doctors to make sure Rose hadn’t been violated in any way. While she didn’t think the young girl was keeping anything from her and she was fairly certain nothing had happened to Rose, it was entirely possible she had been abused and was just too embarrassed to say anything about it.
CHAPTER 51
6:15 a.m., Saturday, January 13
Mechant Loup Police Department, Mechant Loup, Louisiana
7 hours found…
“Look, son, when I find that school identification card in your trunk, it’s over for you.” I leaned forward in my chair and studied Junior’s bloody face. He’d been scratching the sore on his face all night and blood was caked under his fingernails and smeared on his flesh like war paint. He looked like a killer. “Just tell me why y’all kidnapped the girl.”
“I already told you—I didn’t have nothing to do with that. If Lenny stole that girl, then he did it by himself. I don’t even know how to drive my mom’s bus.”
I sighed and leaned back in my chair. I’d been interrogating Junior on and off for the past six hours, but the kid wouldn’t budge. He remained steadfast in his denial and wasn’t moved by anything I said.
“Tell me again why you think Lenny killed your mom,” I said, trying not to sound frustrated.
“I already told you why. Mom said she was going to divorce Dad and that they would sell off all of the property and split the money down the middle.” Junior scraped some blood from under his nail with one of his bottom teeth. I tried not to gag. “Lenny talked about it one day, told me he wouldn’t let them sell.” He shrugged. “Like I said a million times, my mom said I could live with her in her new house, so I didn’t care what they did with the property. As long as I had a place to stay, I didn’t give a shit. But Lenny, he wanted all that land. He claimed he was going to create a subdivision and make millions. He thought he was going to be able to retire before he was thirty.”
I nodded and studied my notes. Something suddenly jumped out at me that hadn’t before. “Earlier, you said Lenny had a plan to buy out your mom and dad, but your mom refused to entertain him. What was the plan?”
Junior shook his head. “I don’t know. It had something to do with his work. He said he met some guy on hi
s last hitch and the man offered him a lot of money to do something for him. I don’t know what it was, but he said the man offered him a down payment that was enough for him to buy the entire property outright. He said he would let Dad live in the house…”
Junior stopped picking at his sore and he allowed his voice to trail off. His face had scrunched in confusion.
“What is it?” I asked. “Did you remember something?”
“No, but I just realized he didn’t say anything about letting Mom live in the house.”
“What do you think it means?”
“I…I think you’re right. I think he killed her. I think my brother killed my mom.”
I took a breath, reminded myself to remain patient. “Let’s get back to the plan and this man he met. Did he say who the man was or where he was from?”
Junior shook his head.
“Did he say how much the man paid him?”
“No, he didn’t tell me any of the details. He just said he got a down payment and he would get more money when the job was done.”
“Did he give any indication at all what the job involved?”
“Um, nope.” Junior shook his head. “He didn’t say.”
I was about to ask another question when there was a knock on the two-way mirror. I told Junior to sit tight and I got up, exited the room. Susan was waiting for me in the hallway. “I’ve got Lenny’s wife in the next interview room. It took me a while to get her calmed down, but I think she’s ready to talk now. As you might expect, she’s distraught over the news about Lenny killing himself.”
I sighed. Natalie Bradberry was young and appeared innocent when we’d spoken with her on Thursday night. I hated to have to put her through this. “Will you sit in with me?” I asked.
Susan nodded and opened the door to the interview room. Natalie’s face was red like her hair. I hadn’t realized she was a redhead when we’d first spoken, because her hair had been in a towel. I extended my hand and apologized about Lenny. I spoke with her about random things for a few minutes, trying to establish a rapport with her. I wanted her comfortable with me.