“Of course they are. You’re a good looking and smart young man.”
“I guess.”
“Take my word for it. Can you tell me their names?”
“Betty and Linda. They went to Karen’s house this week.”
“How do you know that?” I asked.
“Mom always leaves me a note,” he said and went over to the phone and brought the note back and handed it to me.
There were no last names on the paper but a phone number was next to each one. At least we would be able to find out the last names of the missing women.
“Tim, have you seen anything unusual or even slightly suspicious around here?”
“Like what?”
“Anything. Cars that don’t belong here. People hanging around that you don’t know. Anything like that?”
“I can’t think of anything. I mean it’s really dull around this neighborhood. I spend most of my time on my computer.”
I laughed and said, “Tell me a thirteen boy who doesn’t do that. Did anyone that you didn’t know come to the door?”
“Not while I was home.”
“Any packages delivered?”
“Maybe. I think UPS or FedEx stopped by one day. It was for my mom. She seemed to be expecting it. It had the Amazon logo on it.”
“Where is your father Tim?”
“Mom and dad divorced two years ago. My dad lives in the MiddleEast someplace. He works for an oil company and is always traveling. Mom said he has a new wife and I have a new step-mother. I’ve never seen her, not even a picture of her.”
“Can you get in touch with your dad?” I asked.
He shrugged.
“We need to let him know. What about other relatives?”
“Mom’s sister lives in Anderson.”
“Can you get her address?” I coaxed.
“Yeah,” he said and went off.
He came back a few minutes later and gave me a card with her name, address and phone number on it. We needed to let her know right away. Someone was going to have to take care of Tim for the time being.
I took out my cell phone and called the sister.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
This was not going to be easy. I was just about to hang up when a breathless woman answered.
“Branson residence,” she said.
“Ms. Branson, I’m sorry to disturb you but I need to talk to you about your sister.”
“My sister?”
“I’m Detective Angelina Bartoni. Your sister is Lauren McKnight, correct?”
“Yes. What’s wrong? Has something happened?”
“We have reason to believe your sister has been abducted,” I said.
I heard the phone hit the floor and a scream in the background. I had to wait several moments before she picked the phone back up.
“This can’t be happening,” she sobbed.
What do you say in a situation like this? I’ve done this a hundred times and I honestly never know exactly what to say. The worst are the ones like this. We don’t know anything. She may be alive or already dead. The uncertainty is debilitating to some people.
“I am so sorry to have to tell you this. We have another problem. Evidently Tim’s father is rather difficult to reach and Tim is here all alone. I hate to ask but is their anyway you could look after Tim for the time being?”
“Yes. Oh heavens, poor Tim. He is such a sensitive boy. Oh dear. I feel so bad for Tim. Yes. I can be there in less than an hour,” she told me.
“That would be great. I know Tim will certainly appreciate it,” I said.
“I’m as good as on my way.”
After she had hung up I told Tim his aunt was coming to be with him and he seemed relieved by that news.
While I had been talking to Tim’s aunt, Brad had called the station and used the reverse directory to find out where Karen, the bridge club hostess, lived. A few minutes later he closed his cell phone.
“Her name is Karen Crainer. She lives at 23 Longwood Lane. Do you know where that is?”
“I would imagine it’s on one of the fairways at the Longwood Country Club.”
“Gee, that’s a big help,” Brad replied.
“What? You think because I live here I know where every house in the city is located? Besides, I’m not leaving until Tim’s aunt shows up. You guys can go on and interview her. That big fancy SUV has GPS doesn’t it?” I asked.
“Okay, okay. We’ll find it. You’re just going to hang here until we come back for you?”
“I don’t see any other options. I refuse to leave Tim alone.”
“Then we’ll see you when we finish. I’ll call first and let you know we are on the way,” Brad said.
After they were gone I found Tim in his room playing some game on his computer. I watched him for a few minutes. He seemed totally lost in the game. I don’t understand the whole game thing but it doesn’t matter much. It’s what today’s kids were into.
I went down to the kitchen and looked around in the cabinets. I wasn’t just snooping around, okay? I was going to get something for Tim to eat. I found a package of Double Stuff Oreos and put some on a plate. I got him a glass of milk as well. I mean come on, it's not like I could actually cook something and who in their right mind doesn’t like Oreos and milk.
I took them up to his room and sat them beside him. He never took his eyes off the monitor. Hello, earth to Tim. Oreo’s and milk. He never acknowledged them. I shrugged and walked to the door. He paused the program, picked up an Oreo and dunked it in the milk. I guess he was too big to eat them in front of me. I just smiled and went back downstairs to wait for his aunt.
**
Tim’s Aunt Emma looked a lot her sister from the pictures I saw around the house. Tim ran to her and wrapped his arms around her. He had been brave for as long as he could. Emma was terrific with him. Within a few minutes he had stopped crying and actually laughed once.
“Do you have any idea who could have done this?” she asked.
“We only know bits and pieces at this point.”
“This is the same nut that has been killing those other women isn’t it?”
“We don’t know that for a fact but it appears that way.”
“Oh my God. Does this mean that Lauren is dead?”
“Emma, we just don’t know yet. She disappeared yesterday. Most likely she is still alive. How long, I don’t know, so time is our worst enemy. So far we simply don’t have much to go on.”
“How can he abduct three women and no one notice?”
“Emma, we have asked ourselves that same question a hundred times and we still don’t have a clue. We don’t even know where their cars are. You would think that as long as he has been doing this, someone would have found one of the cars.”
“What happens to Tim?” she asked.
“Probably a foster home at some point.”
“No way is that going to happen. I will not let something like that happen to my sister’s child. Tim is a great kid and I refuse to let his life be ruined.”
“Will you take him home with you until this all shakes out one way or the other.”
“Absolutely. Tim is not going to go into child protective services or whatever they are called. Tim can live with us for as long as he wants to,” Emma said forcefully.
I totally understood her position. I would do the same thing. If I had a sister or brother. And if they had kids. And if…never mind, you get the picture. Tim had enough trauma to deal with at the moment.
My phone rang and it was Brad telling me they were on their way.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
“Anything?” Captain McGregor asked when we got back.
“Not really. Let me rephrase that. Nothing good. We have a young boy who lost his mother, three missing women and a friend of theirs in near hysterics.”
“You’re right, that’s not so good. I take it no one saw anything.”
“Pretty much like the last one. We aren’t one step closer to solvin
g this damn case,” I said, tossing my gun in my desk drawer and locking it.
I know, a lot of people wonder why we take our guns off and put them in the desk. It’s simple really. A few years ago a perp being questioned was able to get the gun away from the cop and he shot and killed him. He wounded two others before someone put a bullet in him. It became policy pretty much universally in police stations all around the country.
It would be bad enough to get shot but ten times worse to get shot with your own gun. Your fellow police officers wouldn’t think too highly of it either.
“Nothing from the woman that hosted the bridge club?”
“Nothing useful. Her name is Karen Crainer by the way. They had to call in the paramedics because she freaked out so much. Brad said she couldn’t put a sentence together without breaking down into uncontrollable crying.”
“You know we don’t have much time if those women are going to stay alive. We need something and we need it now,” McGregor said.
Well no kidding. Like I didn’t know that? That is all I had been thinking about ever since we found out they were missing. There was something still missing from the equation and I wasn’t seeing it and it was really making me mad. Not just the three women, but how did he find out about them?
An idea was forming but it was just out of reach. You know how it is when you drop something and it rolls under a couch or chair? You get down and try to reach it. You can even get your finger tips on it but just can’t quite get a grasp. That’s where I was now. So close and yet so far away.
Dan came over and sat down at his desk. He looked whipped.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“Just this damned case. I mean it is bad when we have one woman missing but three at a time? What is that all about?”
“When we catch him we will ask him if I don’t just shoot him on the spot,” I said.
“I know what you mean. I could definitely do with some vigilante justice for someone like this guy.”
**
It was all Lauren could do to stay calm. The only way she could survive was by letting her mind go totally blank and shutting out the scene in front of her. Her friend, Linda, had made the crazy man mad and he was punishing her.
Lauren and Betty were forced to watch. If they closed their eyes or looked away, they would be next. They had no choice but to watch. After he had sexually abused her he had started in on his physical punishment. It usually started with a cane used on the bottom of the feet. The pain became so intense that it was all you could do to keep from going crazy.
Then he would work his way slowly up the back of the legs and continue on until he finally finished at the shoulders. The person would be a mass of red welts by the time he was through. He liked to mentally torture his victims as well, hitting softly occasionally and at other times so hard that it would break the skin.
Poor Linda. For some reason he had taken a dislike to her and she was the recipient of harsher punishment than Betty or her. He would single Linda out for the tiniest hesitation and start in on her. Of course it was not only the sexual and physical abuse that seemed to delight him. Humiliation and mental abuse were obviously important to him.
When he was done with Linda she just hung there by her wrists. She wasn’t moaning or crying. He walked around to the front of her and punched her in the stomach. She never made a sound. He stood there looking at her a few seconds before he walked over and cut the rope that was suspending her.
She fell to the floor, unmoving. It was all Lauren could do not to yell at him to stop it and leave her alone but it would result in the same treatment for her. She watched as he kicked the sprawled figure on the floor. Still nothing happened. He bent down and felt her neck then stood up and kicked her again.
He got dressed, looked at the woman one more time and then walked out of the room. Neither woman spoke for several minutes. They had found that it was forbidden to talk to one another. It was one of his rules that he had forgotten to mention and punished them for.
Finally Lauren whispered, “Is Linda dead?”
“I don’t know but I think so. I think she just gave up,” Betty whispered back.
“He is going to kill us as well,” Lauren said softly.
“We have to find a way to get out of here.”
“How?”
“I don’t know,” Betty said, “But if we don’t we will end up like Linda. I don’t think I can take many more beatings like that.”
“Quiet, I think I hear him coming,” Lauren suddenly said.
They both stopped talking and hung their heads down. The door opened and the man came back into the room. He had another length of rope with him. He tied one end around Linda’s feet and threw the other up over a beam. He made a loop on the other end and fastened a ratchet device to it and slowly pulled her body along the floor and up until she was hanging upside down with her arms a few inches above the dirt floor.
“Now I’m a reasonable man,” he said, “But I will only take so much disobedience. Your friend was very disrespectful on far too many occasions and, well you can see what I was forced to do. It was so unnecessary and such a waste. All she had to do was what I asked of her. Is that so hard?”
“No sir,” they said in unison.
They had learned that rule on another occasion
“No sir,” he said and left the barn.
They could hear the van start up and drive away. At least they were safe for now.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“Wait,” I said and jumped up.
Dan looked like he had been shot. He had no idea what had just tripped my trigger.
“Get the captain and come to the conference room,” I said.
He looked at me like I had serpents growing out of my head but he went to get the captain.
When we were all in the conference room I said, “Captain. I don’t want to put you on the spot but I need to ask you a personal question.”
“Personal question? Here? If it is personal then that means I don’t want to share it with everyone. Get it?”
“Okay. Let me ask a general question. When someone loses a loved one by death or divorce what is one of the things they are always prompted to do?” I asked.
They all looked at me with blank looks.
“Come on. When you are really struggling with a difficult time what are you told will help you?”
“Talk to a priest or pastor? A confession?” Brad said.
“Close.”
“Ah,” the captain said getting it now.
“Captain?”
“Support group. Now I understand the question. When my wife died I had a difficult time dealing with the loss. My world was turned upside down. On the outside I looked pretty much the same but when I was alone it would hit me like a ton of bricks. Time helps but the one thing people told me I should do was go to a support group. I didn’t and in retrospect, that wasn’t very smart. I’m a tough guy, I figured I didn’t need anyone's pity or commiseration to get over it,” he told them.
“Support groups? What makes you think they went to support groups?” Brad asked.
“I said we were missing a common element. It was lurking out there and I just couldn’t put my finger on it. It started getting clearer when Tim McKnight came into the picture. I got to thinking that first his father dumps her, then he remarries, and now his mother is missing. That’s a lot for one little guy to handle.”
“I’m still not seeing how this leads to support groups,” Marsha replied.
“Divorce.”
“Oh, I get it,” Dan said, slapping his head, “All of the victims were divorced which means they very well may have met at a support group meeting and became friends. This guy could pose as a recently divorced man and just see what happens. Hell, he may even help steer them into becoming friends,” Dan said.
“I’m not sure he went that far but he certainly could have lurked in the background, just watching. Once he made his selection he would start stalking them
and finding out their routines. When he felt the time was right, he would nab them,” I told them.
“How?”
“How? How what?” I said.
“How is he nabbing them?”
It was silent in the room. It was still a big part of the puzzle and I didn’t have a clue how he could subdue three women all at once. Not that many times. Someone someplace would have screamed. We were edging closer but the real question was could be figure it out before he killed the three women.
**
“I want you to like me,” he said to Lauren, getting right up in her face.
“I do like you.”
“Please, I don’t want to have to punish you again so soon but I will. You know lying is against the rules,” he said grabbing her cheeks and shoving his fingers together until it felt like he was going to break her jaw.
Just as suddenly he let go and ran his hands over her body. She knew she didn’t dare shudder. She managed to stay perfectly still.
“If you would obey me, I would let you have a place of honor at my feet,” he told her.
“Yes sir,” she immediately replied.
“No. No. No. Not yes sir. It would be an honor sir,” he yelled at her.
Spit flew out of his mouth as he got back up in her face again. She didn’t budge or attempt to pull back. When he went off like this it would only take the smallest infraction and he would haul her down and start abusing her again. She didn’t think she could take it again so soon.
She had somehow enraged him earlier that morning. She still wasn’t sure what had caused it. It didn’t matter anyway. He had beat her so badly that her skin was torn in several places and once he even broke the cane rod over her back.
“Do you want a repeat of this morning you ungrateful tramp?” he yelled at her.
“No sir. I’m sorry sir,” she managed to get out.
He stood there glaring at her for several moments and then as so often happened he just started talking like nothing had ever happened. They were back to being old buddies. The only thing that Lauren knew for sure was that he was totally insane. Her friend Betty had also felt his rage this morning and she had been hanging by her wrists for over four hours now. Her head hung limp but whenever the man would check on her he would just slap her face a couple of times. He didn’t cut her down and Lauren wanted to believe it was because she was still alive.
WHAT GOES AROUND - ANGIE BARTONI CASE FILE #4 (ANGIE BARTONI CASE FILES Book 1) Page 7