“It was my mom’s boyfriend, Elliot. He was there with another man.” Ashleigh pulled in a deep breath and straightened in her chair. “They were talking about something and I listened.”
“Go on. What was it they were talking about?”
A long moment passed and Carrie started to doubt Ashleigh would continue. “Ashleigh?”
“There’s a body in my mom’s basement wall.” Ashleigh looked directly at Carrie as she said it. “It’s a boy. I think he was younger than me and he looked foreign. Kind of like my friend Leandro. He’s from Brazil. Elliot put the dead kid in the basement when he built the wall of the room he’s using as an office.”
Carrie felt her eyes widen, then forced herself to not let her surprise show. That had not been a reason for her running that they’d considered. “A body in the wall of your mom’s house? And someone named Elliot put it there?”
“Yes. Elliot’s a cop. Some kind of detective. He showed this other guy the body. I followed them downstairs. I don’t think the other guy saw me, though. But Elliot did. After his friend left he came into my bedroom and dragged me to the basement. He told me that I would end up just like that kid if I didn’t keep my mouth shut. Then he said the people he worked for would kill my mom, my dad, and my best friend.” Ashleigh’s voice was firm, resolute. Truthful.
“What happened next, Ashleigh?” Paige asked.
“He started telling my mom lies about me. I heard him. Telling her that the school called and he’d taken care of it. Told her that I was caught at a party when I wasn’t. All kinds of things. And my mom believed him.”
“What did you do next?” Carrie asked.
“I started watching him real close,” Ashleigh whispered. “And I tried to find out who that kid was. I went to the internet café near our house and looked up missing kids. I found him. His name is Marco Galeano, and he was thirteen.”
Carrie recognized the name from a list the National Center for Children had sent to all the Missouri youth shelters. Marco Galeano had disappeared from his middle school in Kansas City more than two months ago. Suspected endangered kidnapping. “What did you do next?”
“I waited until Mom and Elliot were gone and I went into his office. I know I shouldn’t have, but I needed to find out why he’d hurt that kid. Only, Elliot knew I’d been in there. So he waited until Mom left me alone with him and he took me to the basement and told me I’d be next if I didn’t tell him what I’d done. I lied to him and swore I’d not been in the basement. He didn’t believe me and he hit me. He fell on me, hitting me harder and harder. I kicked him in the penis and I grabbed my bag and ran. I kept running and running until I got to the river. I stayed there for a few hours, but I kept seeing cops everywhere. I hitched a ride with these three girls who were on their way to a college ball game. They took me to East St. Louis. I just kept following the interstate until I got to my dad. People gave me rides. I told them I was going home.”
“Ashleigh, did you find anything in Elliot’s office?” Carrie asked.
Ashleigh’s eyes widened and she shivered. She looked between Carrie and Paige. “Yes. But I don’t know what it is. I tried opening it, but it didn’t make any sense. I think you have to be a computer genius or something to understand it.”
“What did you find? I happen to know a few computer geniuses who can take a look,” Paige said.
“I found this.” Ashleigh reached under her shirt collar and pulled out a black cord with something tied to the end. “I made the necklace. I didn’t want to lose it, whatever it was, so I didn’t put it in my pocket. I had it in my backpack when Elliot hit me. I grabbed my bag and ran.”
She handed the necklace to Carrie. Carrie carefully untied the cord and unwrapped the cloth. Inside was a memory card. “And where exactly did you find this?”
“In Elliot’s laptop. He usually keeps it in his car but the car was getting worked on. So he had it in the basement. I didn’t know what it was, but I knew it was important. So I made sure not to lose it. I don’t know what to do with it.”
Carrie studied the memory card. It was the standard card you could pretty much buy anywhere. “We’ll see that it gets processed and will try to figure out what Elliot has been doing.”
“And the kid in the basement? Will you help him, too?”
Chapter 40
*****
Sebastian hit the record button next to the intercom the minute the advocate said it was ok. Legally, they couldn’t record a minor conversation without an adult responsible for the child giving consent. He got that consent when he’d called Sherry to report having found Ashleigh. The advocate had also indicated it was ok.
The minute Ashleigh mentioned the body in the wall, Sebastian grabbed his phone and placed a call to the legal department of PAVAD, requesting a warrant to search Sherry’s house, basement specifically.
If something turned up, if it truly was the body of Marco Galeano in the basement, then this just went from doing a favor for a friend to a kidnapping-turned-murder. And that would be well within the jurisdiction of the CCU.
His next act was to have his team recalled from stand-by.
One thing he did know for sure—Elliot Courtney wasn’t going anywhere until they knew what was on that memory card.
It took an additional half an hour for the warrant to be issued. The legal department worked fast because it was a police officer involved search. They understood that the officer could possess enough forensics knowledge to remove any evidence before the search team could arrive at the scene.
Sebastian knocked on the window of the conference room, knowing Paige would recognize the signal to join him. She and Carrie immediately stood, Paige offering reassurances that they would return to Ashleigh shortly.
“So what do we do next?” Carrie asked as Paige shut the door to the conference room behind her.
“I’ve got the warrant on its way. I’m going to search the basement. Carrie, you’re with me. Paige—you just became Ashleigh’s best friend. Closer than fleas on a dog, understand? Take her to Dr. Brockman’s, and you and Al keep Ashleigh there. I’ve already spoken with Al. I want at least two agents with her at all times. We don’t know how far this goes yet.”
“Do you think it’s true?” Carrie asked, looking at him with wide eyes. “Do you think the body is still there? This Elliot has had two weeks to remove it and redo the walls.”
“But did he? He may have been counting on Ashleigh not coming back or being found. Or he was simply getting her out there where she’d be more vulnerable. Something on that card is valuable enough to him for him to be looking for her, still,” Paige said.
“We need to know what it is.” Sebastian looked at the card in Carrie’s hands. “How fast do you think you can take a look at it?”
“Hard to tell. I’ll grab my bag and get started. I’ll need to copy the card to back it up.”
“Do it, as quick as you can. Bring a copy with you. I want you there when we search the basement.” He didn’t know why, but he didn’t want to let her out of his sight. Not tonight. Was it because of the break-in, or because it was late and she’d been with him all day and it just felt right to keep her with him? They’d started this hunt for Ashleigh together and they’d finish it side-by-side. “Paige, Al is meeting you and Ashleigh in the lobby. I’m assigning a detail to you. I’ve spoken with Malachi Brockman, he’s home for the night and is willing to help with security detail.”
“You think three agents are necessary?” Carrie was watching Ashleigh and the advocate through the one way mirror. Her face was sad and worried. Sebastian wrapped his fingers around her arm, his thumb brushing the skin just under the band of her shirt. She looked at him, but didn’t pull away.
He took it for the small victory it was and moved on. She would get used to him touching her in time. “I do. This Courtney is a police detective with the St. Louis P.D., and has the means and resources to find her if he digs deep enough. And she’s terrified of him. Marco Galeano disappea
red from an indoor school function. General consensus is that he was taken from inside the building. Possibly lured out by a trusted official. That could have been a police officer.”
“But why?”
Carrie’s question was the same one running through Sebastian’s mind. What was on the card that meant so much that Courtney would threaten the girl, and why was the body of a thirteen year old boy from Kansas City in Sherry’s basement walls? Other than Courtney, how were the two connected? “Carrie, we need that information from the card as soon as you can get it.”
She rummaged through the bag she always carried and came out with one of her laptops. She pulled a memory card of her own from the bag’s side pocket. “I always carry about a dozen of these. I’ll copy it here, and if you and Paige can sign off that you witnessed me putting the original in an evidence bag? Someone can run it down to the Questionable Documents/ Technological Information department; I can work on the initial data in the car.”
Chapter 41
*****
Ashleigh shivered when she walked out of the interview room and down the hall after telling the FBI everything she knew about Elliot. She still felt sick to her stomach, but at least now she wasn’t the only good person who knew about that poor dead kid.
“Ashleigh, your mom is in the other conference room. Do you want to speak with her?” her advocate asked. “You don’t have to. Not if you don’t want to.”
“Is she alone? Is my dad with her? Is...Elliot?”
“Elliot Courtney will not be leaving this building tonight, Ashleigh. You will be safe.” Agent Paige had an arm around Ashleigh’s shoulders and it felt good to know she wasn’t alone anymore. “I swear to you. He will not ever hurt you or anyone else again. Do you want to talk to your mom?”
Did she? Her mom hadn’t believed her when she’d said that Elliot was lying about the school calling. Elliot had told her mom the school had called because Ashleigh had skipped four days of school. It hadn’t been true. He was just trying to get her into trouble. Her mom had believed him, about everything. What else had Elliot told her while Ashleigh had been running? Would her mom even believe her? “No. Not tonight.”
“Ok. That’s your choice,” Agent Paige said. “I’ll tell Agent Sebastian, and he can tell your mom what’s happening, ok?”
Ashleigh nodded. She couldn’t deal with her mom tonight. Not yet. And not until she was sure Elliot was in jail and going to be for a very long time. “I just want to go.”
“You got it. We have to wait for our baby-sitters, than you and I are going to go meet my partner.” Agent Paige hugged her, quick. Ashleigh didn’t mind; it felt good knowing somebody cared about what happened to her again.
Chapter 42
*****
Carrie forced herself to look away from the remains. They couldn’t definitively say it was Marco Galeano in the wall, but there was no doubt that there was someone. Someone young and male, and probably of South American descent. It had taken the forensics team less than two hours to discover that there was a body behind the cinder blocks that someone—it was too early to say for certain it was Courtney—had used to separate the large basement into two smaller rooms.
It was crude, but anyone could look at the wall and see that there was a three-foot space that was unaccounted for. The forensic team followed the warrant to the letter, removing the blocks with a vacuum and chisel. The victim’s athletic jersey with the high school logo had been the first thing Carrie had seen.
It was enough to tell her that Ashleigh had been telling the truth.
There was a dead kid in the wall.
***
She waited for Sebastian to finish giving orders to the tech team, watching him from the window of the SUV. He’d suggested she work on the data from the memory card while he handled the minute details of an initial crime scene. His way of overprotecting her? Probably; although he hadn’t specifically tried to keep her from seeing the body.
He had shifted in front of her, but hadn’t touched her. She thought he’d wanted to. Had he not because of the forensics team that was with them? Dr. Richison was a stickler for protocol, but Carrie didn’t think the forensics supervisor would care if Sebastian touched her. The other man probably wouldn’t even notice.
Still, personal relationships had no business on the clock. And she strongly suspected she and Sebastian were headed toward personal.
She wasn’t sure she wanted that. What if something went wrong? Would it be difficult to work with him, after? She’d already received comments from Hell and Dan, not to mention she knew Paige’s opinion on her and Sebastian. What was she supposed to think? She had all the physical signs of sexual attraction whenever he was around. She’d certainly heard the profilers she worked with list the signs often enough to recognize when she was attracted to someone. And she’d enjoyed—more than enjoyed—what had happened in his apartment. But did she want to take it any farther?
Was she the kind of woman who could handle what others would call an office romance?
It wasn’t like he was her direct supervisor, or anything. And if he was, and it did work out to be something long-term, how would that be any different than Georgia and Hellbrook from her own team? Or Georgia’s friend Ana Sorin and Fin McLaughlin? They had gotten together on Fin’s first case and had been together pretty much ever since.
So it’s not like she and Sebastian would be breaking any obvious rules, although Bureau policy frowned on personal relationships. Georgia’s father, Ed Dennis, director of the division, had said once in Carrie’s hearing that he would never deny his people the right to find happiness in their personal lives, even if with their co-workers.
But Georgia and Ana had found permanent relationships with Hell and Fin. Who was to say that what she and Sebastian might do would be permanent?
The computer in her lap beeped, letting her know that the first of the files on the memory card were open. They’d had very crude encryption throughout. Obviously Elliot Courtney—or whomever had created the files, Carrie was making no assumptions—had very little computer skills. It had been ridiculously easy for her to break the encryption.
The first photo on the screen had her frowning. It was of a young woman, probably no older than she was.
Someone tapped on the window and Carrie jumped, barely suppressing a scream.
Aaron Cavanaugh stared at her through the glass. Carrie dropped her hand to her weapon. Where had he come from?
She opened the door and stepped out of the vehicle, keeping her hand on her gun. “Mr. Cavanaugh.”
“Agent Sparks, wasn’t it? What’s going on? Have you found my daughter? Where’s Sherry?”
Carrie studied him for a minute before taking her hand away from her weapon. He was worried. It was written all over him. He was very easy for her to read. “Ashleigh has been found and is safe. Would you please come with me? Unit Chief Lorcan will be able to answer your questions in more detail.”
“She’s safe? You found her?”
“I’ve talked to her myself and gave her potato chips and soda. She will be just fine. Right now she’s probably sleeping in an FBI safe house. Agent Lorcan will answer any other questions you may have.” Because Carrie didn’t feel comfortable telling any more of the details than she already had. This was Sebastian’s case and it was his place to decide what Ashleigh’s father needed to know.
Chapter 43
*****
They gave her milk and cookies like she was a little kid, but Ashleigh didn’t mind. These people were nice and listened to her and they were normal. She’d thought she’d never get to be around normal people again.
The blonde lady was beautiful and looked kind of like a Barbie doll. Her brothers were tall and muscled and really good looking. Ashleigh knew her mom would think so, too. Her mom liked cops, especially good looking ones.
She didn’t think Agent Paige liked the one brother, though. They kept sending each other dirty looks when they thought no one was looking. Ashlei
gh watched him for a little while. He was very big, and taller than his brother. He made Agent Paige look short, and Ashleigh thought the cool Goth woman had to be at least six feet tall.
All of them—Agent Paige, the blonde woman named Al, and Al’s two brothers—wore guns in holsters just like Elliot wore. And the bigger brother, Mick, kept watch at the window while Al played cards with Ashleigh. Agent Paige jittered around the room, never staying in one spot. Her moving around was making Mick angry and Ashleigh was just waiting for him to yell at Paige or something. He didn’t. Just glared and glared.
It made Ashleigh really nervous.
“If you’re ready for bed, Ashleigh, I have a day bed in my room that you can use. It used to be my bed when I was a little girl and I’ve kept it through the years. Paige has crashed there a time or two,” Al said, patting Ashleigh’s shoulder. She was in charge, and Ashleigh knew it. Both the brothers, Mal and Mick, listened when their sister told them to do something. Ashleigh thought that was kind of cool. She’d wanted a brother or sister, but her parents never had another kid. Probably were fighting too much to even consider it.
A good thing, she guessed. If she’d had a younger brother or sister, would she have been able to run away as easily as she had? What would have happened to her or her sibling then? “I’m ready, I think. I...need a bath. Or something. I stink.”
“There’s a bathroom connected to my room. And I think I can find you something to wear tonight. We can wash your clothes for you in the morning. Or have Agent Lorcan or Carrie bring you something tomorrow.”
Ashleigh wanted to take a long bath but settled for a shower. She didn’t want to be rude to these people who had already been really nice to her. When she came out of the shower she could hear people fighting. Al waited on the full bed next to the smaller day bed. She saw Ashleigh and she nodded. “Don’t worry. It’s just Paige and Mick. They fight every time they see each other for some reason.”
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