Paul straightened up, “Ashley?” He and Ashley had a ‘thing’ a couple of years ago that just died out because of work. He still cared a great deal about her and always thought someday they would try it again.
Paul looked at one of the detectives in the room, “Call her home, the courthouse, her family. Anybody! Find her.” He looked at Roger, a look of urgency and shock was etched upon his face, “He has her.”
Roger put his hand on Paul’s shoulder and said, “Let’s find this house,” as he bent over the map. “Maybe she is here.” One of the local detectives came over and pointed to where he thought the house would be based on the address. Roger asked him to locate where Ginger Hall’s body had been found. This took a little longer because they had to get a highway mile marker map. Finally, the detective placed a red dot where Ginger had died. It was a straight shot of about 200’ from the house. Roger and Paul were shouting orders as they checked their weapons and Roger said, “We are going in quiet …unmarked.” Roger pointed at the map, “Use four wheelers, and position here and here. Work your way to here on foot. No weapon discharging without authorization. Paul and I are going from the front. Use the x frequency. Ready?”
* * *
CHAPTER 18
* * *
Sandy thought she would probably see him today because she was running low on food. He was making sure she stayed alive. Bless his little black heart. She was being careful to wipe away all traces of saw dust from her sawing on the footboard slat. She thought she was starting to see real progress now. She was about halfway through the thickness of the slat and about three quarters of the way across it. She had bandaged both of her hands now because of the blisters, and was trying to think of a way to hide them from him. She heard a strange noise from the back door area; she turned the TV down low. She hadn’t heard his motor. Then she heard fast moving footsteps, lots of them, running through the living room, and then her door burst open!
Roger was in the doorway with his gun pointed straight at her, and two men behind him came forward to flank each side of him. Roger lowered his gun and slowly walked toward her. She was the woman in the TV video they had watched with Kim. Roger felt a spooky shudder creep through his body. “Is he here?” he asked Sandy quietly.
She answered quietly, “No.” Roger was looking her over for signs of torture.
He yelled, “I need cutters!”
Sandy threw herself over the lock on her ankle and said, “NO! You don’t understand. You can’t save me! I won’t go! He will kill those other women!”
Roger tried to comfort her, but she was having no part of it. It was now Roger, Paul and Sal in the room with her. Paul looked at Roger and said, “Ashley isn’t here.”
Roger yelled out, “Don’t disturb anything. Fix that door. Check out the grounds, basement…Report.” He looked at Sandy, “Can you tell me your name?”
He was startled when she giggled, “Of course I can. I can tell you your name. I have a TV.” She pointed to the television that was on, but the volume was very low. “My name is Sandy Nelson, well technically Sandy Devon, but I am going to fix that as soon as I get out of this mess!” Sal cracked a smile. “Special Agent Dance you have to really listen to me, and I don’t think we have a lot of time. He should be coming here fairly soon.” Roger nodded agreement. She continued, “James is a monster! He had that poor nurse a prisoner here, in that closet. (She pointed to the closet.) When she escaped, he decided to keep me here until my birthday on January 13th. I will be coming into the remainder of my trust money which is about fifteen million dollars.” Roger whistled. Sandy continued, “Being that James only married me for my money, as long as he feels safe, and can keep me alive until the 13th, probably 14th to be sure about legal stuff, I am perfectly safe. He brings me food, clothes, I have the TV, I have a hidden cell phone, his, but it doesn’t work here.” She took a big breath. “I have thought about this. At first I was praying for someone to save me, and now, I want to save the other women. I know there is at least one besides me, and I think he has ‘picked’ another one.”
Roger understood what she was saying. “I cannot leave you here chained to the bed. It isn’t going to happen. We are the FBI. Our primary goal is to protect. I believe James is in what we call frenzy mode. He isn’t thinking right, even for him.”
Sandy interrupted him, “Protect? If you want to protect someone, it’s those women he is raping, and he will strangle! He is scared to death I am going to catch a cold!” Roger couldn’t help but smile…this was certainly his day for strong women.
Roger looked at Sal. She was smiling ear to ear. “Don’t even have to ask boss.”
Roger looked at Paul, “Can we erase we were here?”
“I’ll go check,” Paul answered, and he was gone.
Roger looked back at Sal, “I saw a deli type place about a mile down the road. Can you get some provisions for say a day? I will get relief here for you, but…”
Sal interrupted him, “I’m already gone.” She popped her head back in the door. “You play cards?” she was talking to Sandy.
“Oh yes, and get some Ho Ho’s!”
Roger had a staff paramedic they had brought with them look at Sandy’s palms, and he had another detective saw through the remainder of the slat. They tested that it would give away with pressure. He also gave Sandy a Taser gun she swore she wouldn’t touch and made him put it under the mattress. He gave her a company issue phone in exchange for Devon’s phone she had hidden in the closet.
Sandy reached in her bra and brought out a big ring of keys. “I had these made from his key ring on December 23rd. I didn’t know which one, so I copied them all.”
Roger threw his head back and laughed. “They have been in your bra the whole time? You are one smart gal!” Sandy was still beaming when Sal returned a few minutes later.
Sal told Roger, “I parked just off the street and gave my keys to one of the guys to drive back.”
In Roger’s entire career in law enforcement, he had never left a victim at the scene knowing the captor would return. He and Paul talked about how to station personnel so they were invisible but useful. They also had to consider the weather. It was freezing, and they couldn’t expect anyone to be outside without any shelter.
Detective Sal joined them, “May I interrupt a minute?” They both stopped talking to listen to her. “I only need a guy that will stay close to the basement, in case he comes, and help me watch the driveway. I think she is right. He’s just going to drop off food and go. I can hide in that closet when he is here and hear everything.” Two people might not be enough, Paul was thinking.
Roger said, “I concur for now. Sal you report to me hourly.”
“Got it,” she answered.
Roger looked at Paul, “We’ll have to come up with something for tonight.”
Sal interrupted, “Jammies. Just switch out my bodyguard. I’m here for the duration.” She was holding an oversized T- shirt she had bought at the deli.
Paul’s phone rang as he and Roger were driving back to the police center, “Casey….damn…have you reached family?…. Okay, be there shortly.” He clicked his phone and without looking at Roger said, “Ashley missed court this morning.” He put the red light on the dash, and they sped back without talking. Roger could only imagine what Paul was feeling.
After a couple of brief updates to the team, Roger went to his office to call one of Ashley’s friends, a guy he knew Ashley started dating after Paul. “Dan, Roger here, have you talked to Ashley Tait lately?……Do you know who she is close to?…. I need to reach her and just trying to take a couple of short cuts. Can you spell that?…. Oh really? What was that number?… They were going to go together? Uh huh… Well thanks Dan, you’ve been a big help.” He hung up before any more conversation could take place.
Roger was dialing his phone, and Paul came in and sat across from him. Roger whispered “Anything?” Paul shook his head. Then Roger was speaking into the phone. “Is this Darlene? This is Sp
ecial Agent Roger Dance, a friend of Ashley’s. I understand you went to a Christmas Eve Party with her?…. Yeah. Have a good time?…. Good. Say, I need to reach her, and she doesn’t seem to be answering her cell. Would you know where she might be?….. Uh huh. You think she might have gone to family after all?…… Yeah, that’s true. What time was that call?…. She wasn’t there? Huh. Well you have helped Darlene. Happy Holidays.”
Roger hung up and looked at Paul, “She went to a Christmas Eve party, bunch of law types, with her friend Darlene. Said she was going to have a quiet Christmas with a good book. Darlene got a call at 8:00 a.m., caller ID said it was Ashley. No one was there, and she couldn’t get an answer later. Figured she had been calling just to say Merry Christmas and never thought about it again.”
Paul was up pacing. He spun around and declared, “8:00 a.m. Christmas Day? He had her when we were at his office!”
Roger cringed, “More than likely.”
Paul slammed his fist on the door, “Son of a bitch! I’m sorry, I just…”
Roger held up his hand, “I get it.”
Roger’s phone rang, “Dance…. wait, let me put you on speaker.” Roger said, “Go ahead Al.”
Detective Al Watson came on the line. “We are at Judge Tait’s house now. No sign of anything in the house, but looks like the service door to the garage was tampered with. Her purse is on the garage floor. Car is gone. I’ve called CSI. I already checked, and GPS is not operating in her car. It’s been manually disabled. Last known signal came from 2700 area of County Rd 6, this morning about 10:30, what now?” Roger told Al to have CSI report ASAP. This was now an abduction of a federal judge, and for Al to report back to center.
Roger looked at Paul and said, “That location and time matched up to where Jack Simpson was working.”
Paul said, “If he took her at 8:00 a.m. Christmas day, and took her car… We were at his house at 6:00 p.m. and the only vehicle was his Buick. We’ve had eyes on that house since we were there. He’s driving her car the next morning, today, at 10:30 a.m., Where is he keeping these cars?” Just then the cat jumped onto Paul’s lap.
Paul started stroking its fur without thinking, and Roger smiled, “Maybe your new friend can help with this one?”
Paul looked down and managed a half- smile. Then he looked at Roger, “This is personal for me now.”
Roger said, “I know. Do you want off?”
Paul said, “Hell no!” Just then the TV came on with a Santa sitting in the middle of University Park Mall telling the viewers they could already take advantage of post-Christmas sales.” Santa was still talking when Paul asked, “You think he is parking cars at the mall?”
Roger reached for his phone to place a call, “We’ll soon know.” The TV went off, and the cat was gone.
Paul looked at Roger, “I could get used to this.”
* * *
Ellen had told me to stay with Kim. Linda, Teresa and Mary had been busy at the county clerk’s office with Betty. They were going through documents that had been filed but not yet recorded. Linda had pointed out that especially during property tax season, the county staff gets behind. The FBI will only be pulling items already recorded. They had thought it was worth a shot, and they were right. Betty and Mary stayed busy “breaking” office equipment to keep the county staff busy on the other side of the room, so Linda and Teresa could move paper without being seen.
Mary had tucked an employee’s sleeve into the fax machine while she was using it. That was good for about twenty minutes, and kept two employees busy. Betty had the toilet overflow and the power go out. When they finished going through the entire pile of unrecorded deeds, they found seventeen unrecorded deeds to James Devon since August. Some of the deeds were part of estate filings and some were just warranty deeds. They also found two property tax bills in his name that were not the address of his office. Linda asked Betty if they could fax the documents to Roger. She said yes. The documents would have been eventually found, and they were not altering them. Linda had received the fax number for Roger’s computer from Ellen, and she began sending them. The cover sheet said, “To: Roger, From: Kim.” As soon as all of the documents had been faxed, Linda put them back into the piles in the same order they had been. Then Ellen called for a meeting at police central.
Kim fell asleep shortly after returning home from the police station. She had not slept well, worrying about how it was going to go with the FBI. I decided to do a little housework for her while she slept. Even the sound of the vacuum upstairs didn’t wake her. I made some brownies and was just putting the foil over them when I got the call from Ellen for a meeting. I blew a kiss to Kim and left.
Five minutes later Kim’s cell phone rang. She looked at the caller ID, and it said Govt… .. okay. “Hello?” It was Agent Dance.
“Kim, I need your help with this fax you sent me.”
Kim was puzzled, “I didn’t send you a fax.”
Roger was smiling, “Yes you did, about five minutes ago. I can see it is from the county clerk’s office. Didn’t you say that you worked with your mom and another gal doing mortgages, in addition to your job at the casino?”
Kim answered, “Yes.”
Roger continued, “Looks like a bunch of deeds, but our guys have already searched public records.”
Kim asked, “Do you see Register of Deeds Stamp on these deeds?”
Roger answered, “Where would I find those?”
Kim said, “Real big, right on the top of the page, stamp says Register of Deeds, will have the signature of the clerk and a date?”
“Nope.”
Kim thought for a moment, “Okay, I think if you check the dates of the deeds you will find they are all recent, meaning they have not been recorded yet. They wouldn’t show up in a public records search.”
Roger then asked, “I don’t see addresses on these, just legal descriptions. What is the quickest way to get addresses?”
Kim thought a moment and said, “If your people can access the tax rolls for the counties showing in the legal descriptions, they could match even a partial description to an address. The tax computers at the county level are more accurate than the other data bases.”
Roger said, “We had a break this morning after you left.”
Kim answered, “I know. Mom told me.”
Roger added, “We also had a setback.”
“I know, Mom doesn’t know anything, but she says they are trying to do anything they can.” Kim said, “Agent Dance?” Roger told her to call him Roger. “Roger, Mom says this guy is real evil. Her word.” Coming from Kim this may be more than just an expression.
Roger was careful in his response, “Your mom and her friends have already helped a lot. I just hope we prove ourselves worthy.”
Kim liked him, and she said, “Did you need anything else?” Roger answered no, and said goodbye.
Paul was excited as he pulled papers off Roger’s printer. “I count nineteen properties, all in St. Joseph County, all since October 1. There must be a reason he held up on having these deeds recorded.”
Roger was on the phone to Ray in IT. “Ray, I have been meaning to call you all morning… busy here… Yeah thanks. Look, first I’m going to scan you about nineteen legal descriptions in St. Joseph County. Can you access the property tax data base and get me addresses? Well try hard. Also cancel the airline info… don’t need it… and cancel the phone trace on Devon’s phone. He is using Sandy’s. I sent Devon’s phone to forensics to get his info. They should be contacting you.”
Paul had started scanning the documents to Ray and said, “If he owns these homes he could be keeping the women at any one of them. He may have Ashley at one of these! Do you realize it is already 3:00? We need the clocks to stop.” At that, they both looked up to the wall clock which was steadily ticking away the seconds. Then they both started laughing. It must have been tension relief because neither one of them could stop.
Paul was wiping his eyes when the stocky patrolman kno
cked on the door and said, “Your line has been tied up. Just got a call, we have another body.” Paul went pale.
Roger asked, “Our guy?”
The patrolman answered, “The detective there thinks so. This one’s in a house. Found by a HUD inspector.” He handed Roger a slip of paper with the info on it and said to Paul, “The Chief is looking for you guys.”
* * *
CHAPTER 19
* * *
Paul and Roger drove together to the location. The flashing police lights could be seen from three blocks away. Troopers were redirecting traffic and had taped off the entire block. People were standing in their front lawns and in the middle of the street trying to see what was going on. Paul ran up the driveway and slowed only long enough to hear the detective on sight say, “M.E. is in there. I’ve kept everyone else out.” Roger followed Paul into the house noting there was an SUV in the garage. He heard voices from down the main hall.
Paul was quickly walking back toward him. “It’s not Ashley,” he kept walking. Roger saw him throwing up outside in some bushes.
Roger walked into the room where a young woman had been bound to a chair with duct tape and ropes. She had obviously been dead for some time. The medical examiner, Dr. Ross said, “Been dead at least a week.”
Roger asked him, “Strangled?”
The M.E. shook his head, “This one starved to death, rough way to go, one of the worst.” Roger called CSI and looked around the room. There was an inflatable bed, deflated in the corner. The windows were boarded up in the bedroom. There was evidence rats had been in the room and feeding on her. The rest of house was empty. In the kitchen there was an empty beer bottle and a Menards’ receipt from about a week ago, charged to a Visa, signature unreadable.
Alcohol Was Not Involved : A Shallow End Gals Trilogy Page 15