“No, I haven’t.”
“May I ask why? Could be he spent the night with one of them and you and your wife are worrying for nothing.”
Statler looked around then lowered his voice to just above a whisper. “I trust my son to be strong and not give into temptations of the flesh, but he is a young man and I’ve heard rumors about this Crawford girl. If what I’ve heard is true…well…you know… my boy might not have been able to resist Satin’s lure,” he whined, needing to know they understood and agreed with him.
“Yeah them hormones can be a real bit…ter pill to swallow.” Jack caught himself in time.
“I have their names so as soon as we get back to the station house, I’ll call and see what I can find out.”
Statler left his chair, held out his hand. “I would appreciate that. And if you could, ask for me. I believe it’s the man’s place to handle such things.”
“Sure thing, Reverend Statler.” Jack leaned in close. “God forbid your wife should find out sometimes men have sex for reasons other than to procreate.”
“I… think we’ve got all we need for now. As soon as I know anything I’ll give you a call.” Donavan ushered Jack out the door.
“Thank you, Lieutenant.” Statler gave Jack a lingering glance before closing the door.
Donavan turned the key bringing the Jeep Cherokee to life. “I’m glad to see you haven’t lost your professional touch.”
Jack glared at him. “Cut me some slack, Donavan. The pious prick pissed me off! So what if his kid’s out gettin’ him some pussy! He’s eighteen-years-old for Christ’s sake!”
“I’m not getting on your ass, Jack.” He grinned over at him. “Tell you the truth the son of a bitch started to get to me, too.”
“So where do you think he is?”
“I hope he is out getting some dew on his stinger. But with kids, you just never know. One thing I do know, I’m not as worried as I would have been a year ago if we’d gotten a call about a missing kid.” He glanced over at Jack feeling a moment of apprehension.
“That’s for damn sure. All I can say is, wherever he is, it’s gotta be a step up from where he’s been!”
Chapter Four
“I’m glad you’re back, Lieutenant.” Jeff looked up as Donavan walked into the station house. “She’s been sitting in your office for over half an hour.”
“Who is she?” Donavan glanced through his glass-partitioned office at a slender woman holding a tissue to her eyes.
“Mrs. Crawford”. A flush of embarrassment crept up Jeff’s face.”
Donavan withdrew two messages from his cubicle. “Seems like every time I hear that name the person saying it acts like they got a crotch full of vermin.”
“Her daughter’s Tina Crawford,” he voiced the information on a whisper. “My brother says she’s the hottest thing to ever hit Parish High!”
“Oh yeah!” Donavan nodded. “The town’s wild child.”
“From what I hear, that’s putting it in a mild perspective.” Jeff turned away to answer a call.
Donavan walked into his office pulling the door to after him.
The woman jumped to her feet. “Are you Lieutenant Hays?”
“That’s right, Mrs. Crawford.” His dark gaze skimmed over her. Taking in her clinging, bright blue dress, low cut and falling well above the knees and he could feel an ache already beginning to throb in the arches of his feet as his eyes fell on her six-inch spiked heels. “What can I do for you?” He motioned her back to her chair.
She sat back down crossing her long legs ignoring the fact her movement hid little from the man standing in front of her. “My daughter Tina is missing, Lieutenant.”
“All right.” With effort, he brought his gaze back to her face.
“She went out on a date last night and when I came in this morning she still had not returned.”
“Maybe she went out to breakfast with Mr. Crawford. Is that a possibility?” He sat down behind his desk, loosened his tie.
“There is no Mr. Crawford!” Her soft voice cracked as she tried to make him understand.
Donavan glanced up at her. “Do you make it a habit of staying out all night?”
In an instant her demeanor changed. “I have a job that keeps me out at night!” Her green eyes snapped with anger. “And before you go passing judgment on me you need to understand I don’t have a choice in where I work!”
“Everyone has a choice, Mrs. Crawford.” He flicked a pen to begin writing down her information. “Where do you work?”
“You judgmental son of a bitch!” She jumped to her feet. “I came in here to get help finding my daughter and all you can do is look down your nose at me!”
Donavan’s head drew back. “No one is passing judgment on you, Mrs. Crawford. You said your daughter is missing. Therefore, I need to know where you work. I need to know what time you leave your house. I need to know what time you return to your house.” His voice warned her to calm down.
She flipped her long, dark, auburn hair over her shoulder, plopped back down in her chair. “I apologize for my outburst.”
“That’s better.” Donavan tossed the pen down on the desk. “So where do you work?”
“I work at The Gentlemen’s Elite Club.” Her full, red mouth settled into a defiant pout. “In case you haven’t had the pleasure of being a guest, I’ll enlighten you.” She licked her already, slick mouth, leaned in closer to his desk. “I take off my clothes for the gentlemen.”
Donavan picked up the pen, scrawled on the notepad in big bold letters. “GENTLEMEN’S Elite Club STRIPPER!” He watched her out of the corner of his eye to catch her reaction. “Now let’s get to the timelines.” He looked up, the pen poised in his hand.
“I get to the club at 10:30p.m. I get off at7:a.m., she whispered.
“All right, Mrs. Crawford, what time did you tell your daughter she had to be home?”
“I don’t set a certain time for her to come and go. I just leave that up to her.” Her voice rose as she saw his brows lift. “Tina is seventeen. It isn’t as if she’s a toddler who needs me with her every waking moment!”
Donavan thought of his eleven-year-old Jenny and felt his temper flare. “Children need guidance no matter what age they are, Mrs. Crawford.” He tried to keep the anger from sounding in his deep voice.
“Could we drop the Mrs.? Please? You make me sound like I’m old enough to be your mother!” She fluffed her silky thick mane. “My name is Christina.”
“When you got home this morning, Christina, what did you find?”
The woman with all the answers changed and in her place, he saw a worried mother desperate to find her child.
“I always go in and check to see if she’s okay and I could see she hadn’t slept in her bed. Tina has a habit of laying out what outfit she’s going to wear the next morning and I didn’t see an outfit.”
Donavan pushed the box of tissue over further on the desk. “I know how upsetting this has to be for you, Mrs.…Christina,” he amended, “but if I’m going to have any chance of helping you find your daughter you need to take a deep breath and clear your head.”
She reached out pulling several tissues from the box to press them against her eyes.
“What did Tina have on when you saw her last?”
For a brief moment, she remained silent. “A pair of cutoffs and a short, green, pullover top.” Christina tapped a long, red nail against her white teeth. “Oh, and a pair of green sandals.” She smiled. “I know she wore the sandals because they’re mine and she asked if she could borrow them.”
“You said she had a date. Do you know the name of the boy she went out with?”
“Of course I know the name of the boy!” Christina sat up straighter in her chair. “Paul Statler. His daddy’s a preacher and believe it or not one of my biggest tippers!” She waited to see what this little tidbit might bring from the man writing down her information and found herself feeling disappointed when he continued as though
she had not spoken. “Anyway, Tina said Paul told her he’d pick her up around seven and that’s all I know.”
Donavan tossed the pen on the desk, then, got to his feet. “Thank you for coming in and bringing this to my attention, Christina. You can rest assured we’ll get on trying to find your daughter as soon as possible.”
Christina turned toward the door then stopped. “I just thought of something.”
“What?”
“I almost feel foolish telling you.” She gave him an uneasy little laugh.
“Anything that might find your daughter is important. What is it?” he asked, anxious for her to leave so he could light up a cigarette.
“Tina said, she and her friends planned on partying at the old Hindel Mansion. At first, when she told me about it, I got real scared.” She ran a hand over her throat. “You know…because of all the dumb stories people spread about the place. Then I figured since no one lives there anymore what could it hurt? Anyway, that’s all I can think of.” With a nervous smile, she walked out the door.
Donavan glanced up to see Jack seated behind his desk. He tapped on the window to motion him forward.
“What’s up? He pulled the door closed behind him.
“Did you happen to see the woman who just walked out of here?”
“How the hell could I miss her?” Jack wiggled his brows. “A woman that stacked could make a saint forget he’s married!”
“Her daughter is Tina Crawford. She hasn’t seen her since she left to go out partying last night.”
“If she looks anything like her mother it’s a good guess she’s still at the party.”
“Tina Crawford is the name of the girl Paul Statler went out with. Remember?” Donavan flicked his ashes into the ashtray.
A wide grin started at the corners of Jack’s mouth to work its way upward. “There you go! Two kids out havin’ fun’n forgot ‘bout the time.”
“I don’t know.” Donavan stamped out his half-finished cigarette. “She said something that has me a little uneasy.”
“And that somethin’ is?”
“She said, Tina told her the kids planned on partying out at the Hindel Mansion.”
The grin left Jack’s face. “She didn’t try and talk her out of it? What the hell kinda mother is she for shit sake?”
“She said she thought about it, but since she thought no one lived there anymore she didn’t see any harm in it.”
“Except someone does live there. Don’t they?”
“She had no way of knowing that. Hell we didn’t know he was back until he made a point of telling us. And, to let us know what he’ll do about any trespassers…” his voice slid to a stop.
“He did make a big production of that!”
“Yes, he did!” Donavan leaned forward, punched the intercom button. “Jeff, run through last night’s calls and see if a complaint came in from Lawrence Hindel about any trespassers out at his place.”
“Will do,” Jeff said.
“If nothing shows up, then it’s a pretty safe bet the kids went somewhere else to raise hell,” Donavan said.
“Nothing,” the dispatcher came back to him. “I even checked back until the shift change at seven a.m.”
“Thanks, Jeff.” Donavan flipped off the intercom. “I guess nothing happened at Hindel’s or we would have heard about it.”
Jack’s head snapped forward. “I think we should put out the word on Hindel. You know, like we would on a known pedophile.” Jack got to his feet caught up in his idea. “He spent a year locked away in an idiot-bin. People deserve a head’s-up ‘bout somethin’ like that!”
“Everyone already knows about his stay in a psyche-ward.”
“That’s true!” Jack whirled. “But…how many people know the little turd’s runnin’ loose again?”
“I get your point!” Donavan drew in his breath let it out. “Listen, you’re a trained detective,” he spoke his words in a calm manner in hopes some of what he said would filter out Jack’s enthusiasm, “so I know you are aware of little things like…slander…harassment.”
“Goddamn it, Donavan! Don’t patronize me! I’m not suggestin’ we put out a sign sayin’ “Beware of the Hindel psycho!” What I’m sayin’— is, we use word of mouth to let people know what they’re up against, smart-ass!”
Donavan nodded. “That we can do. Yeah, that’s a good idea.”
Jack turned to the door. “Since we know the kids are goin’ at it someplace else, I guess we can consider this case closed.”
“Except,” Donavan rubbed a hand over the back of his neck, “something still ain’t right. What the hell am I missing here?”
Jack had already reached for the door knob when he stopped. “Today’s Sunday. Paul Statler’s a preacher’s kid.” He turned staring at Donavan. “Like it or not there’s no way in hell he’s gonna miss a Sunday sermon!”
“Looks like we’re going to church.”
***
Statler stood in the doorway of the church, shaking hands with the departing members of his congregation when he spied Donavan and Jack coming across the lawn. Without thought, he shoved his way through the throng of people to get to the detectives. “What are you doing here?” he growled, motioning them to follow him. When they moved out of earshot of everyone, he turned on them. “I don’t want the people of my church knowing about my private business.”
“Calm down, Reverend,” Jack warned him. “No one is here to tattle on you. Besides, how do you know we’re not here with some news `bout your son?”
“Is that what you’re here about?” Statler whipped a handkerchief from the inside pocket of his suit-coat to mop his face. “If you are, I would have appreciated hearing about it on the phone.”
“We’re not here with good news, Reverend Statler.” He delivered his statement in a deadpan voice in an attempt to get Statler’s reaction.
“Get to the point, Detective. It’s very humid out and I don’t deal well with it.”
“We talked with Tina Crawford’s mother, earlier.”
Jack winked at Donavan as Statler started to fidget.
Coming up alongside her husband, Mrs. Statler reached for Jack’s hand. In a trembling voice, she asked, “Have you had any word on Paul yet, Detective Olivier’?”
“Don’t you think if they had any information we’d of already heard about it? Just let me handle this!”
Jack turned on him. “You may wanna cut your wife a little slack here, Reverend. He’s her son, too. Remember?”
Mrs. Statler’s pale eyes rounded as she looked from one to the other. “No, it’s, it’s all right,” she stammered. “Reverend Statler knows best about these things.”
“Follow me.” He took a few steps towards the church then stopped as his wife fell in beside him. “You can wait out here with Detective Olivier’. This is man’s business. We don’t have time to answer a lot of your fool questions.”
“Why don’t we go wait in the jeep?” Jack took her arm to lead her away. “You’ll be a lot more comfortable in an air-conditioned vehicle than out here in the heat.”
Doris Statler hesitated to look at her husband.
“Don’t stand there like a ninny!” Statler waved her away. “The man’s offering you a comfortable place to wait!”
Donavan shook his head as Jack took a step forward.
“Are you coming with me or not?” Statler growled as Donavan remained standing.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes, Jack.” He turned away before Jack could comment. “You behaved a little rough back there. Your wife is going through the same worry about your son as you are.”
Statler never broke stride. “She’s a woman and women need to learn when to stay out of matters that don’t concern them. Now, you said you talked to Christina Crawford. Did she tell you where my son is?”
Donavan tried to hold onto his temper. “No and her daughter is missing, too. She did say something that may be of importance though.”
“The woman’s not
hin’ but trash. Anything she has to say would be a lie.”
Donavan stopped walking. “Do you want to hear what she had to say or not? If you don’t, then I got things to do.”
“Of course I want to hear what you have to say.” Statler halted his steps, unwilling to be intimidated in his own domain.
“What would you say if you knew your son had planned on partying with some of his friends out at the old Hindel Mansion?”
“Whoever told you that, doesn’t know what they’re talking about. It’s a place of evil.” An angry scowl dropped over his face. “Paul knows I’d whip him good if he went anywhere near that place.”
“Kids don’t always do what they’re told.”
“Paul ain’t just any kid. He’s got the fear of God in him. I’ve seen to that.” He continued walking through the church until he came to a small office. “No! If I don’t approve of something, I can rest assured he ain’t gonna do it!”
Donavan couldn’t resist. “He’s out with Tina Crawford. You can’t approve of that. Can you?”
The icy glare he turned on Donavan had Donavan taking a few steps back. “Paul knows it ain’t wrong to fornicate with an evil girl,” he delivered his statement in a calm voice before a look of righteous anger dropped once more into place. “At the same time, he knows the fires of hell await the man who touches a good girl! No! I ain’t worried about him bein’ out with Tina Crawford. Devil’s got her soul just like he’s got her mama’s!” He licked his lips and his hooded eyes iced over. “I tried to help her mama, but she wouldn’t listen. I ain’t even gonna waste my time on her daughter.” He glanced at Donavan. “Is that all you came to tell me? If it is, then I’ll wish you a good day.”
“That’s all I have at the moment. I plan to talk with Paul’s friends in hopes they will have some idea where we can start looking.”
“If you hear anything, you have my number. Goodbye, Detective Hays.”
Back in the jeep, Donavan turned to Jack. “When we helped destroy Jonathan Hindel, I thought I had seen the epitome of evil. But I’ll tell you something. The man I just walked away from is running a close second.”
Rougarou II Page 5