Walking to the car with serious faces, the two men don't even begin to discuss the events of the day until they are safely behind the doors of their vehicle.
"Thomas doesn’t have much except that his wife had been acting very strange, she refuses to sleep and if she does it is in the living room with the lights on. Though he thinks it strange, he also understands she might be reacting to the stress of losing their daughter." Jackson explains.
James gives him a detailed run through of the clue she gave him and hypothesizes "she might be afraid he will come after her as well. She knows more about what happened to her daughter than she is willing to say, of this I am certain."
"Peru?...That's worlds away, and just a bit out of our jurisdiction..how do we connect the dots? What is the next step? Jackson barks, frustration and curiosity oozing out into his tone of voice.
James replies with a typical cop's answer, “I intend to continue looking into the lives of each girl until something makes more sense. This is merely a ghost of a clue that needs much more substantiation to bring it out into the light. He will find the answers among the lives and homes of the other girls." Though he feels frustrated too, he tries to look strong and in control for his team-mate. He knows deep in his gut he has to solve this. There are too many things suggesting it isn't a onetime incident and it is likely others will die if he doesn't figure it out soon.
James isn't ready to make it a Federal case; he will lose control of the investigation if he takes to openly researching outside of his jurisdiction. The sheer facts of the case already make it a risky situation. There are multiple victims, making it a serial situation and missing children with the possibility of a kidnapping scenario already put it into a grey area that the Feds can decide is interesting at any moment. They have the ability to walk in and take him off the case any time they choose. He has to play his hand close to keep things in his court. This is far too intriguing of a puzzle to hand over. He doesn't want it to wind up in a box somewhere among the many other pissing contest cases the Feds have taken over in the past. If he thought they would do a good job, he would willingly take the help, but so many of the cases they have interfered with have wound up unsolved, sitting somewhere in a warehouse, where they will probably will never see the light of day again.
Something has come from each of the first two families, so James eagerly plans a visit to the third girl’s home, but this is a whole different ball game. His heart is sinking as he drives into the yard; this will not be a pleasant experience. Maggie has been raised in a small trailer home well off the beaten path. The yard is overgrown in some areas and has worn down to mostly dirt patches in others. There are animals running around all over; large dogs run at the car, barking and snarling. Pulling up close to the house, he pulls his sidearm just in case one of the dogs gets the wrong idea deciding to attack. He instructs Jackson to remain in the vehicle but to cover him from the open driver's side window.
The stress level of this interview hits extreme highs. The dogs luckily are more bark than bite, and once James exits the vehicle they scamper off, barking from a safe distance. Another sign of abuse he thinks to himself; this doesn't look good for poor Maggie. At least the other girls came from loving environments, this looks like a textbook bad situation. Before the gruff man of the house answers the door, James has already decided mom is not in the picture. This is the home of a single man, and it looks like a mean one.
The man behind the rickety screen is well muscled and far taller the James. His first instinct drives him to put his hand near the weapon he unfortunately re-holstered once he realized there was no threat from the hounds. Feeling a bit less stressed as he realizes Jackson still has his back from the car, he instead reaches his hand out in a gesture of greeting. The men shake hands and Rick does not hold back his show of brute strength, taking James by the hand and squeezing. For a moment James thinks he might have to break the contact, but he knows he doesn't dare. This is an unspoken challenge between men and he intends to hold his ground. Earning himself enough respect to get the conversation started Rick asks James "what the hell do you want?"
"I’m here about your daughter Maggie. We’re looking into her death and I know you’ve already spoken with police before, but I was hoping I might take a moment of your time to get to know her and to see her room. I want to make sure nothing is missed." The man's demeanor shifts and he seemingly melts under the pain of his loss. It’s at this moment James realizes this brute of a man truly loves his daughter.
Rick invites him in, and James is surprised to see the interior of the home is well kept and though old and rough, it is clean. There are signs of a woman's touch, from the lace trimmed pillows on the worn sofa to some photographs of flowers on the wall. Rick gestures to the photos and explains that his daughter loved taking pictures: "She saw beauty in everything. Even the ugliest mutt was a special friend to her. She had such an open heart. All those ruffian beasts out there are her rescues. They don't like me much but I still feed them for her, she would have wanted it that way. Seems that I’m stuck with them now that she’s gone." He shows James to a tiny bedroom with walls covered in drawings and photographs similar to the ones in the living room.
The general atmosphere is one of cheerfulness and artistic admiration of all things nature. She photographed each of the dogs in ways that make them look friendly and loving. She must have had a very special touch with animals. Her clothes are neatly folded and stacked on an old bookshelf. She has a journal but it’s full of doodles and quotes. This had been a happy girl. James kicks himself for making the snap judgement he’d come to earlier regarding this home and its inhabitants. He, of all people, should have known first appearances are not always what they seem.
This man is just as much a victim of his circumstances as Maggie. His wife dying of cancer after three years of battling the disease from every possible angle. Leaving them buried in medical bills after insurance allotments ran out, it was all way more than he could financially handle. He managed to remain strong for his wife and provide her with everything he could, keeping her comfortable up until the end. After she died he chose to move out of their family home and into this small trailer to catch up on the preponderance of financial obligations he’d accrued. His daughter, the only bright spot in his existence since he lost the love of his life, made life livable. They found happiness in their small and simple lives together, and now she’d been taken from him as well. He lost hope and any faith that anything good exists anymore at all. He is hopeless, broken, and mad as hell.
James notices a photo of the girl standing with her mother, and the two women are as different as different can be. Maggie's mother is a small woman with strawberry hair and freckles everywhere, the epitome of country girl from head to toe. Her sun-kissed skin glowing with a healthy radiance, hazel eyes full of sunshine; It’s hard to imagine this woman dying and frail.
Giving Rick a look of apprehension, and hoping this will not be a painful subject; James, ask the question that has led to so many of the other hints in the case. "Was Maggie adopted by any chance?"
"Yes, she was, when she was only a baby. She came to us from a poverty stricken war zone where many children either abandoned or orphaned were living in horribly crowded orphanages with not enough food or water. My wife petitioned for a child through a rescue agency that arranged to have them flown over to a holding facility where children could be viewed and chosen like puppies. The whole process was sickening but what else could we do? Had we waited for a child in the United States it could have taken years."
"The children were so crowded there were two or three in every crib with only one worker trying to keep things clean. The facility was horrible with dirt floors, and filth stacked up in the back of the room. Many of the children were underweight and under developed due to extreme lack of nourishment and socialization. Maggie was lying curled up in a little ball and when my wife laid eyes on her, she reached for her and smiled. There was no doubt from that moment on sh
e was meant to be our daughter. My wife wanted to bring them all home with us, especially when she was told that if we did not find what we wanted here there were six other facilities where children were held. The ten thousand dollar paperwork processing fee was all we could handle, and had we taken another it would have doubled. Of course they would not admit they were selling babies, but to us that was how it looked. With ten thousand dollars American money they should have been able to care for the children better, but then who are we to judge what goes on in third world countries?"
James asks where Maggie came from, already suspecting the answer. "They told us she was born in a small village in South America. The details are unclear since like many of the children there she was found among the dead after a rebel attack on her village. She was brought to the orphanage with no birth records or even a family name. These children are unknown refugees of a war that no one will ever win. They belong to no one and many will just fade out of existence right there due to lack of love, care, or adequate food and medicine."
They told us the money was to establish the paperwork necessary to bring her to America with a birth certificate and all of the proper filing and legal documentation to make the adoption legal. We took her and paid gladly to have the family my wife dreamed of. She at least had lived to see her daughter turn sixteen. And thankfully had not been here to see her daughter's life cut short in such a senseless way. That little refugee made us so proud and happy that it is impossible to think of what life would have been like without her, and to imagine it now is such an empty thought I can't bear it. Every morning I wake up expecting to hear her singing in the kitchen while she makes pancakes or running around the yard with mud in her hair taking photos of anything and everything from the most peculiar angles. I expect her to come bursting through the door with some story about the latest animal that needs to be adopted or mended. But I never will see her smiling face, or her wild eyes again. She is gone. Just like her mother, and the rest of her original family, she is just another notch on the belt of whatever power feeds on desperation and misery. She is just another statistic to you, but to me she is all I had left that was good in this world."
"Thank you for your time, Rick, and I won't let her fade out of memory. I will find out what happened to her. She deserves that much, and so do you. I can tell she was something really special, and she will be remembered that way."
James walks back to the car feeling the weight of this man's burdens on his heart. This is the kind of day he dreads more than any other part of his job. He has allowed the photos on his wall to become so much more than three dead girls; they each have a life, a personality and a future to him now, and each is a tragic piece of a better world that has been taken away.
A New Way of Thinking
These are not just numbers, statistics or the latest pretty girl to lose her life to a serial killer. This is Elizabeth, Jennifer and Maggie. They are spirited and promising young women with hopes and dreams and interests. He feels the pain of their loss as sharply as if he knew them personally. James believes it is his personal responsibility to ensure each of these girls finds her peace, and her justice. An intense anger rises within him like a thundercloud ready to burst. He is a panther on the hunt and no jackal will elude him. He will tear at its flesh and rip out its throat tearing out its evil heart in one swift and terminating thrust. The madness of the world cannot beat him. There has to be balance. There has to be justice. His sanity depends on it.
Jackson knows his partner well enough to just let him think on the drive back in. He feels the darkness brewing within him and senses the challenge has been laid. This is a case he will solve no matter what the cost. He has seen James in this kind of mood one other time and he became a driven and dangerous man. He is glad he isn't on the other end of his partner's rage. James will be a force to be reckoned with and this bad guy had better run and hide, because with this lawman on his trail it is only a matter of time.
When he gets back to the office, James does something that has never been done during a case before. Underneath each of the girls photos he writes their full names, the names of their parents their dates of birth and death and a brief description of their interests and traits. He forces the others on the team to recognize them as more than murder victims. He forces each girl into the light of reality. The mood of the room changes drastically from its usual chatty workplace day to day casualness to a somber and reflective world where everyone focuses completely on finding answers.
Briefing the team on what he discovered regarding each of the girls adoptions and many details about each of their lives. He leaves out the South America connection and only alludes to the fact that it looks like the two adopted girls came from illegitimate adoption sources, and suggesting further research will be required to determine if there is a connection there. They discuss the plan of attack for the time being and some of the team is sent to seek out leads on the missing infants, using any information they have on illegal baby smuggling.
They are sending out feelers in the informant community but little is coming back in the way of information. James is not optimistic that anything will be found there, but he has to give it everything they have. He and Jackson intend to continue the interviews with the parents of the missing girls and determine if the current pattern holds. The primary, and only suspect seems to be the father of the three dead girls, and quite possibly the missing girls as well.
James and Jackson head to the bar for a beer to ease out of the day, neither has on call duty tonight so they take the opportunity to relax a little and reconnect as friends. The job gets in the way of friendships sometimes, just as it interferes with one’s love life. There is always work to do and never enough time to get every maniac off the streets. James is beginning to think good people are growing fewer and farther between and the bad people are killing them off before new ones can replace them. His usual optimism is beginning to dim in the light of these last few horrific months. These atrocities and the accident are making him realize he’s not indestructible and he too will eventually face mortality. He hopes he’ll be able to take down a few more of the really bad guys first.
Jackson lightens up his spirits with his usual jovial comments about the waitress’s beautiful behind; the pleasantly plump rump. No one can be moody around this man, with his easy humor and smooth lines. He’s an entertainer, that’s for sure. Though he too feels the weight of the current case, he knows it’s his responsibility to lift James out of the darkness. They’ve held this arrangement for many years and they balance each other out perfectly.
Light-hearted and loving Jackson is one of the best people James knows and he trusts his friend with everything, although he has not yet told him about his new girlfriend. He isn't sure if it’s because he doesn't yet want to share her with the rest of the world or he’s not ready for the ration of shit his friend will give him about it. Jackson has a way of finding the soft spot and jabbing at it just hard enough to get a reaction, and James likes his privacy when it comes to matters of the heart and home.
The two men enjoy a pitcher or two playing pool until the balls no longer find their way into the pockets. Spending the evening laughing and enjoying each other’s company, just letting go of their responsibilities for a little while. It’s a balance that has to be played out. In order to survive the work, you have to learn how to let it go when it’s necessary. This case definitely requires some down time to reset the mind and emotions.
If he doesn't take the time to reset he will be clouded by anger and miss what he needs to be clear-headed to see. His finely-tuned senses will fail him and that could mean that he will fail the girls and their families. There’s a reason most cops turn to alcohol in times of stress, and many lose control of it over the course of their careers. James knows he is not a drunk and he also knows he is damn good at what he does. There’s no guilt over time spent behind the bottle as it’s time spent living his own life and not that of madmen and their victims.
The two men part ways and Jackson hops a cab home since he lives in the center of town and is a bit too loose to walk that far. James walks down the street to Amber's house, hoping she has not already gone to bed.
Circle of Friends
Amber and Rissa leave work together heading to the lake for a late afternoon walk. The sunlight glistens on the water and birds are everywhere. Rissa warns Amber that alligators might be lurking in the grasses by the water and to be wary of going too far off the pathways. The girls are planning a meeting with the members of Rissa's circle, or coven. There are five other girls in her order and Amber will make the total seven if the group accepts her. It’s a democratic society she explains, where there has to be complete unity. Each member will be given a chance to decide whether Amber is the missing piece. They are a natural order and Amber feels that their beliefs suit her well. Though she still does not know much about them, it seems she has been born to be a part of their number.
Awakening - Book of Fire (Blood Heritage) Page 9