by E. E. Borton
They talked and laughed for thirty minutes as Tyler and Brittany finished their secret project. Talking and laughing was something that didn’t happen often with Dawson. He enjoyed his time and conversations with Emily. The subject changed when his brother and Brittany joined them. When Tyler got to the table, Dawson stood, grabbed his brother’s ears, and inspected his face.
“Good,” said Dawson, looking at Brittany. “No lipstick.”
“Please,” said Brittany, “In his dreams.”
“Oh, I’m sure of that,” said Dawson. “I hear him whispering your name and making kissing sounds in his sleep.”
“You’re such a dick,” said Tyler, pushing his laughing brother.
“Watch your mouth, kid,” said Dawson, pushing him back much harder, but holding his smile.
“You two cut it out,” said Karla, coming to the back door. “Dawson, Hank needs you in the garage.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Walking into the garage, he saw Hank standing in the empty space holding the door opener. He gave Dawson a Cheshire cat grin and pressed the button. When it stopped rising, Dawson’s jaw dropped.
“Is that our truck?” asked Dawson.
“Kind of,” said Hank. “I don’t own it anymore. You’ve got to check out the inside of it.”
“This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” said Dawson, taking his time with each step as he moved closer to the truck in the driveway.
There were no flaws in the candy apple red paint with a jet black stripe down each side. Sunlight was beaming off the chrome handles and trim. Dawson knelt to get a closer look at the new tires wrapped around alloy rims.
He rose to look inside the cab, but didn’t open the door. He didn’t want to put his fingerprints on another man’s truck. From where he was standing, he could see the entire dashboard had been replaced and that all the instruments were new, but were made to look like the original parts. He took a few steps back to bring the entire truck into his field of vision. He didn’t notice everyone had come outside to join them.
“This is amazing,” said Dawson. “This guy really went all out.”
“He did,” said Hank. “You can tell he cares about her.”
“That paint job just pulled it all together, didn’t it?” said Dawson. “I appreciate you bringing it over here so I could see it one more time, Mr. Hank.”
“I knew you wanted to have a peek before she was gone forever,” said Hank, reaching in his pocket for the keys. “All right, that’s enough eyeballing. I need to get it back to the shop before it closes.”
“Hank Pierce!” said Karla, stomping her foot.
“Okay, baby, okay,” said Hank, widening his grin.
Suddenly Dawson noticed everyone standing in a line on the lawn with the same wide grins. The only exception was Karla, who was covering her mouth with her hand. He could see that she was crying. A strange tingle formed in his stomach as he turned back to Hank.
“Happy Birthday, son.”
Instincts took over as the keys arched in the air towards him. His fist closed around them when they hit his hand. The tingle turned into fireworks.
“What?” said Dawson, grabbing his stomach with his free hand.
“It’s not our truck anymore,” said Hank. “It’s yours.”
“Mr. Hank, you mess with me all the time,” said Dawson, feeling his legs tremble. “I know this isn’t my truck. It can’t be.”
Karla couldn’t contain herself anymore and came bouncing across the driveway. Her face was red after the release of tension of having to hold a secret for months. He had never felt a hug so tight.
“It’s always been yours, sweetie,” said Karla. “Since the first day you two started working on it. Hank came to bed that night and asked me when your sixteenth birthday was. He didn’t say anything after, but I knew right then it was yours. I had to pray every night that God would give me the strength to keep my mouth shut.”
“No, no,” said Dawson. “This is too much. I can’t take anything from you.”
“Nonsense,” said Hank, moving closer. “You’re not taking from us. You worked your tail off bringing this old girl back to life. Do you realize I didn’t have to ask you one time for help? Not one time. That’s being a man. I’m not giving you this truck; you earned it.”
“That’s not what I mean, Mr. Hank,” said Dawson, losing his fight to hold back tears. “You and Ms. Karla took us into your home when ours stopped being one. You do everything for us. You feed us, take care of us, make sure we have what we need, make sure we stay out of trouble. You do everything. You’ve never asked us for nothing. I can’t take this from you. I owe you.”
Karla stepped to the side as her husband reached out and took Dawson by the shoulders. Hank was losing his fight to hold back tears as well. The last time he had cried was the first time he held Emily in his arms.
“You have no idea, do you, son?”
“About what?”
“How strong you are,” said Hank. “How proud I am of you and how much you mean to my family. You look out for everybody but yourself. You take care of your brother like a father should. You get him to school every day, and you do your best to take care of your dad. I know it’s hard for you when you’re over there. I know you miss your mom, and you’re hurting something terrible inside.
“In spite of all that, you wake up every morning and you do what needs to be done. You do it without asking anybody for help. We do what we do because we love you and Tyler. Do you hear me, boy? We love you. We love both of you like you’re ours.”
“I love you too, Mr. Hank.”
“The only thing you owe me is to live a long life and be happy. I have a strong suspicion that this old girl here is gonna make you happy, am I right?”
“Yes, sir, you are,” said Dawson, looking at his truck. “Do you think you and I can do this for Tyler and Emily when they turn sixteen?”
“You’re a better man at sixteen than most men I know,” said Hank, pulling Dawson in for a hug. “Yes, son. We’ll do the same for them.”
Chapter 11
The List
Deputy Anderson walked into the sheriff’s office and closed the door behind him. He was carrying a folder full of documents he had just finished printing. Lewis sat in silence for several minutes as Anderson skimmed the pages inside.
“Wow,” said Anderson.
“That’s it?” asked Lewis. “Wow?”
“You’ll be saying the same thing,” said Anderson. “I’ll give you the short version before she gets here, but there’s a lot more coming off the printer.”
“Who is she?”
“For starters, she’s filthy rich,” said Anderson. “Eighty million rich after she sold her dead husband’s company for forty of that.”
“How’d he die?”
“Accidental drowning while scuba diving is the official cause of death. The Coast Guard never recovered his body. Her alibi is pretty solid. She was in a coma when it happened.”
“A coma?” asked Lewis. “From what?”
“Bear with me, boss. There’s a lot to cover here. Pretty crazy stuff.”
“She’ll be here any minute. Speed this up.”
“Okay,” said Anderson, taking a deep breath. “About a year ago in the Florida Keys a man broke into their vacation home. He raped and tortured Kate for hours before killing her son in front of her. He was six.”
“Jesus Christ,” said Lewis, rubbing his temples.
“They believe his plan was to kill her too, but by some miracle she survived. She was stabbed multiple times in the chest and abdomen. He sliced her throat, but not deep enough to sever any arteries. He also cut up her face pretty bad. She ended up losing her left eye. They say she lost almost half the blood in her body.”
“You said this happened a year ago?” asked Lewis.
“Yep.”
“And now she’s in our town asking questions about Emily Pierce,” said Lewis.
“Well, not exa
ctly,” said Anderson. “She was invited by Karla. Kate runs a Victims of Violent Crimes online support group. I was able to read their message thread that started about a month ago. Karla asked for her help, believing that nobody here cares that her daughter is missing.”
“Did they ever find the guy that attacked Kate?” asked Lewis.
“Not yet. The investigation is ongoing, but it doesn’t look good from what I’ve read. I already reached out to the lead agency working on her case. The guy in charge is Sheriff Doyle. I left a message for him to get back to me.”
“Conrad Doyle?” asked Lewis.
“Yes, sir.”
“I know him. Not personally, but I know of him. He’s given a few lectures at the Drug Interdiction conference in Miami. He’s highly regarded in the law enforcement community. I’d like to be the one to talk to him.”
“Roger that,” said Anderson. “I’ll let you know if he calls back.”
A knock on the door let them know that Kate and Karla had arrived. “Okay, Anderson. Keep digging. I need to know what kind of people we’re dealing with here. You can go ahead and bring them in.”
“Yes, sir.”
Sheriff Lewis stood and walked to the front of his desk. He straightened his uniform and pulled another chair closer. He forced a smile when they walked inside.
“Good morning, Ms. Karla,” said Lewis. “And you must be Kate Freeman.”
“I am,” said Kate, extending her hand.
“Please take a seat.”
“I’m not staying,” said Karla. “In fact, I won’t come back here again if you make me a promise.”
“That depends,” said Lewis, crossing his arms and sitting on the corner of his desk.
“Tell her everything you haven’t told me,” said Karla. “Tell her everything that you think that I can’t handle. The time for sparing me heartache is over. I need to find my baby. Kate is here to help me do that.”
“I promise I’ll tell her everything I can,” said Lewis, standing. “You have my word.”
“That’s good enough for me,” said Karla. “I’ll leave you two alone now.”
“Well, I wasn’t expecting that,” said Lewis, sitting behind his desk.
“But you were expecting me,” said Kate, taking a seat.
“Tyler McKenzie called me this morning after he left Karla’s place. He told me you were asking questions about Emily.”
Kate was pleased that he didn’t try to lie. She already knew he wouldn’t be telling her everything. She didn’t know if it was because he was protecting himself, or if his hands were tied by someone else.
“Why do you think he warned you?” asked Kate.
“I’m not sure,” said Lewis. “He hasn’t been my biggest fan. The way I look at it, he either called because he’s truly concerned about Ms. Karla’s well-being, or he called to get in my good graces so I wouldn’t talk to you.”
“You’d like to believe it’s only because of his concern for her,” said Kate.
“You’re very perceptive. I believe it could be both.”
“You already know what happened to me, don’t you?”
“I do, Mrs. Freeman. I know a few of the details, but I don’t need to know all of them.”
“Why is that?”
“Because the second I found out your son was killed, I thought about mine when he was six. I tried to image the pain you must have gone through. I couldn’t. My brain wasn’t able to process it. I’m not sure why you’re here or what you plan on doing in our town, but I want you to know this: I’m sorry for your loss. I’m sorry your family was taken like that.”
“Thank you, Sheriff. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to accept what happened to them.”
“You may form an opinion about me when you leave today that might not be flattering,” said Lewis. “There are questions you’re going to ask that I can’t answer. Like Karla, you may think I’m dragging my feet and don’t care about what happened to Emily. That wouldn’t be the truth.”
“What can you tell me about her arrests?”
“On the record, there weren’t any,” said Lewis. “By law, she was never arrested, charged, or punished by the courts for anything.”
“Because they were expunged,” said Kate.
“I see you’ve done your homework,” said Lewis. “Yes, they were expunged with speed. Not only that, but they made sure everything disappeared. I mean everything. I’ve never seen anything like it in my twenty years on the job. We were ordered by the court to destroy all physical and electronic evidence associated with Emily’s non-arrests. We had no choice but to comply.
“Officially, it never happened. Included in the documents were gag orders that were executed against every deputy and employee at my office, the State Patrol, and any court official that was aware of her non-arrests. Simply put, I have no records indicating that Emily Pierce was ever questioned, detained, or arrested at any point in time, until the end of time.
“With that being said, Mrs. Freeman, you’re going to have to look elsewhere for information about her arrests for drug possession, prostitution, DUI, and public intoxication charges that never happened.”
“I walked in here not knowing if you were going to stonewall me because of personal involvement or because your hands are tied,” said Kate. “I believe I have my answer now.”
“You have no idea,” said Lewis. “I can’t even tell you who signed off for the records to be expunged or who issued the stack of gag orders. I don’t think it’s going to take you long to figure it out.”
“It won’t,” said Kate. “Can you talk to me about the missing persons report filed and where the investigation stands?”
“That, I can do,” said Lewis, smiling. “Once Ms. Karla filed the report, our investigators were told by reliable sources that Emily was addicted to heroin and may have been trading sex for it. We obtained information about a few places she would frequent to either buy or use. A couple of those places are hard to get to. I’m sure you’re familiar with our local topography.”
“I am,” said Kate. “I’ve heard it mentioned a few times that Boudreaux is at the end of the earth.”
“Maybe not the earth, but certainly the end of the road,” said Lewis. “Between us and the Gulf of Mexico are hundreds of square miles of sparsely inhabited wetlands made up of bayous, swamps, and marshes. The few folks that do live out there aren’t particularly fond of law enforcement or government. We searched those locations and found nothing.”
“What do you think happened to her, Sheriff?” asked Kate.
“Just like the rest of the country, heroin is making a strong comeback around here. It’s now cheaper than meth and the high is longer and better. What I find hard to tell Karla is that I do believe Emily was addicted to it and on occasion traded sex for it. I think she died out there in the swamp. I don’t know how or where, but she’s gone.”
“I agree with you,” said Kate. “But I believe she was murdered.”
“I’m not saying that she wasn’t,” said Lewis. “I am saying we don’t have enough evidence to open a homicide investigation. Even if I did, I have a funny feeling it would be shut down the same day I started it.”
“That doesn’t make you angry?”
“I knew Hank,” said Lewis, lowering his head. “He was a good man that loved his wife and adored Emily. She was his world. I’m glad he’s not around to see what happened to her. Yes, it makes me angry.”
“Karla is,” said Kate.
“I’m sorry?” said Lewis, raising his head.
“Karla is around to see what happened to her,” said Kate. “I know how it feels to lose your family. I know how it feels to have everything you love taken away from you in an instant. All she has left is hope that Emily can be found and laid to rest next to her father. I don’t think that’s too much to ask. That’s the reason why I’m here. I’m not leaving until I find her.”
“You’re going to find out quickly how hard that’s going to be,” said Lewis
. “There are bodies out there that may never be found. If you start kicking over rocks, you’re going to find snakes. A lot of them. This is a dangerous place, Mrs. Freeman. Trust me when I tell you that.”
“I appreciate your candor and your help, Sheriff. I won’t be coming back anytime soon. I now have what I came for today. Thank you for that.”
“Do you mind me asking what that was?” said Lewis.
“A name to cross off my list,” said Kate, smiling at Lewis. “A list nobody wants to be on.”
“Somehow, I know you’re serious about that. Listen, I’ll do what I can to help, but I’m afraid it won’t be much. I have a family of my own, and they need me to come home every day. Those snakes I’m talking about are poisonous and come at you in different shapes and sizes in this town. You’re going to figure that out as well.”
“I plan on it,” said Kate. “I have a few snakes of my own.”
“I hope you’re right,” said Lewis. “Can I ask something of you?”
“Of course.”
“I understand you have the means to make things happen quickly.”
“I do.”
“Then get Ms. Karla as far away from this place as you can before you kick over that first rock. I’m serious about that, Mrs. Freeman. She’s been through enough.”
“Arrangements have already been made,” said Kate, standing. “She’ll be leaving tomorrow night. She’ll be safe where she’s going.”
“Thank you,” said Lewis. “I hope you understand that I wish I could do more, but my hands truly are tied with this one. To be honest, I’m glad you’re here. I didn’t see you coming and neither will they.”
“I do understand,” said Kate, shaking his hand before leaving. “Yours may be tied, but mine aren’t.”
Chapter 12
Off Limits
Grey sat at the desk in his hotel room staring at the growing list of names in his notebook. He had read Emily’s journals twice. On the third round, he was reading slower. As an FBI agent, his job was to crawl inside the minds of violent criminals. Grey was considered one of the best profilers in the Atlanta field office. His fellow agents called it his gift. On most days, he called it his curse.