The Anniversary
Page 39
crowd had dwindled in the past few hours but hadn’t disappeared S 35
entirely. A handful of reporters was still staked out in the fast-R 36
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fading sun. She dropped the blind, crossed the room, and headed 2
downstairs to make coffee.
3
She was groggy and disoriented from the long late-afternoon 4
nap. As she dumped coffee into a filter, she realized how alone 5
she felt. She needed to speak to another person, someone from 6
normal life, someone besides the cops and detectives with whom 7
she’d spent the night. Before she could stop herself she thought 8
of Rick with a sharp sense of loss.
9
Martha. She’d call Martha.
10
At the thought of her friend’s warm, worn face, her heart 11
seemed to lift.
12
Martha picked up right away, almost as if she’d been waiting.
13
“Callie,” she said in heartfelt tones. “I’ve been trying to call you.
14
Thank God Anna’s okay. And you — how are you doing? How 15
have you survived?”
16
“I’m fine now,” Callie said. “How . . . how did you know?” Even 17
as she spoke, though, she saw it was a stupid question. All those 18
reporters outside the house. Of course, the story was out now.
19
Martha was talking again, but Callie had missed the begin-20
ning. In the flood of words, she caught Posy’s name, but she 21
couldn’t make sense of the rest.
22
“I . . . Martha, please, you have to slow down. I don’t under-23
stand what you’re saying.”
24
Martha stopped. “You haven’t heard.”
25
“Heard what?” asked Callie.
26
A long, long silence. “Oh God, Callie, I’m sorry. Just forget I 27
said anything. You don’t need to think about this now. Tell me 28
how Anna’s doing. That’s the important thing.”
29
Blood pulsed in Callie’s veins. “I want to know what hap-30
pened.”
31
At the other end of the phone line, she could hear Martha 32
breathing.
33
“There’s no easy way to tell you,” Martha finally said. “Posy 34
was murdered. They found her body while they searched for 35 S
Anna last night.”
36 R
A tremor passed through Callie, like some small internal 2 6 6
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earthquake. She thought of the furor that had broken out in the 1
early-morning hours, that phone call that had prompted Lambert 2
to rush off so suddenly. That must have been when it happened.
3
When they discovered Posy.
4
“Who killed her?” Callie asked. “Is anyone in custody?”
5
“The cops aren’t saying anything. At least not to the press.”
6
“It must be the same person. The same man who kidnapped 7
Anna.”
8
“Not necessarily,” Martha said. “There’s no way of knowing 9
yet. It might be totally unrelated. I’ll bet that’s what they find.”
10
“You’ve got to be kidding, Martha. We’re in Merritt, not New 11
York. In all the years I’ve lived here, we’ve never had a murder or 12
a kidnapping. Now, in less than twenty-four hours, we suddenly 13
have both.”
14
“It’s not twenty-four hours. Posy was killed before that.”
15
Martha was talking so fast now, Callie knew something was 16
wrong. Something beyond the terrible fact that Posy had been 17
killed.
18
“What happened to her?” Callie asked.
19
Martha didn’t answer.
20
“Martha?” Her voice was stronger now. “Tell me what hap-21
pened to Posy.”
22
“I don’t know the details,” Martha hedged. “The police aren’t 23
saying much.”
24
“Tell me what you know, then.”
25
Another long silence.
26
“I don’t want to be the one to tell you. I’m sorry, Callie. No.”
27
The coffee had finished brewing, and Callie took out a mug.
28
She lifted the carafe from the machine, and poured out the 29
steaming liquid. But she couldn’t seem to control her hand. Cof-30
fee splashed the counter.
31
“I understand,” Callie said. “But I really have to go now.”
32
She had Lambert’s card in her purse. Now she went to find it.
33
She dialed the number. It rang twice, then he picked up the 34
phone.
S 35
“Ms. Thayer, I’m glad you called. We’re about to pay you a R 36
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visit.” He sounded brisk but preoccupied. There were voices in 2
the background.
3
She dispensed with preliminaries. “Tell me about Posy Kisch.”
4
A brief pause while Lambert regrouped. “I guess you saw the 5
news.”
6
“No, a friend told me. She . . . we both worked with Posy. In 7
the Windham Alumni Office.”
8
“Yes,” Lambert said. “I know. We’ll have to talk about that.”
9
Callie took a sip of coffee. It was hot but she couldn’t taste it.
10
“Do you think the person who killed Posy is the same one who 11
kidnapped Anna?”
12
“We don’t know yet,” Lambert said. “We’re still sorting things 13
out.”
14
Callie took a long, deep breath, trying to prepare herself.
15
“What exactly happened? How was Posy killed?”
16
A pause, this one longer.
17
“We can talk about that later. Right now, there’s something 18
else. We need to speak with Anna again, to show her some pho-19
tographs.”
20
21
Lambert untied a Redweld file and pulled out a stack of photo-22
graphs. The three of them were at the kitchen table, Anna on 23
Callie’s lap.
24
“Anna, I’m going to show you some pictures. I need you to 25
help me out here. I want you to tell me if you see the man who 26
kidnapped you last night.”
27
Anna was still in her pajamas. Her hair was a tangled mess.
28
She looked at Lambert through sleep-hazed eyes, not entirely 29
awake yet.
30
Lambert placed a photograph in front of Anna. She rubbed her 31
eyes and
looked. The man had a thin face, a sandy crew cut, a 32
neatly trimmed goatee.
33
Anna shifted in Callie’s lap. “It’s not him,” she said.
34
Lambert took the picture away, then put out another. The next 35 S
man had a pudgy face and sad, doleful eyes. His hair was a dark 36 R
reddish blond, his beard redder than the rest.
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Anna frowned. “No,” she said. “It’s not him either.”
1
Lambert took back the picture.
2
Then, as he laid out the next image, Callie’s heart lurched. He 3
looked younger, and he had a beard, but the features were the 4
same. The thin, pointed nose. The foxy eyes. “Oh, my God,” she 5
whispered.
6
Lambert’s head whipped around toward Callie. He gave her a 7
warning look.
8
Anna twisted to look at her. “What’s wrong, Mommy?” she 9
said.
10
Squeezing Anna’s shoulder, Callie gave a short laugh. “Noth-11
ing, honey. I was confused. It’s okay. You can go on.”
12
“Anna. Have you seen this man before?” Lambert’s voice was 13
level.
14
“No, I don’t think so. He’s not the man who took me.”
15
There were eight photographs altogether. At each one, Anna 16
shook her head. When they were finished, Lambert smiled at her.
17
“Okay. Thanks for your help. I’ve got to talk to your mom for a 18
second. Would you mind leaving us alone?”
19
Callie kept a smile on her face until Anna left the room. Then 20
she took the stack of photos from Lambert and flipped back to 21
the third one. “I saw him in Maine,” she said. “On the island 22
where Diane was killed. I’d gone out to look around. He followed 23
me to Carson’s Cove — that’s where Diane was ambushed. I 24
thought he was from the island. He said he was worried about me.”
25
Lambert’s expression was grim now. “When was this exactly?”
26
“A couple weeks back. May first, I think. That man in the pic-27
ture, who is he?”
28
Lambert fingered the photograph. “This is Lester Crain.”
29
30
31
32
33
34
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Tuesday, May 16
I
1
a s s u m e you’ve all read the background material.” Mike 2
Jamison scanned the faces at the conference table. All five men 3
nodded.
4
Jamison glanced at Lambert, who was seated to his left. Mer-5
ritt’s chief detective was hosting the task force, along with state 6
police detective Ed Farrell, and together they’d asked Jamison to 7
make his presentation. Farrell, mid-forties, quick gray eyes, sat a 8
bit back from the table. There were two Maine detectives, Jack 9
Pulaski and Stu Farkess, and Wayne Schute, from Manhattan 10
South Homicide. All of them had followed up obvious leads 11
without any success. They’d gathered at this state police barracks 12
outside Merritt to pool their resources.
13
“Okay, then,” Jamison continued. “We’ll briefly review the in-14
cidents, then talk about possible links. Anyone who wants to, 15
feel free to jump in.”
16
Even all these years later, it was a matter of habit to say that, 17
to make clear to the state and local guys that he respected them.
18
He’d always gone out of his way to show that he wasn’t some FBI 19
asshole. Because of that, he’d usually enjoyed good relationships 20
in the field. Of course, on this particular occasion, he didn’t really 21
have to worry. As a retired agent here by invitation, he had no of-22
ficial standing. He couldn’t make anyone do anything, even if 23
he’d wanted to.
24
Jamison briefly ran through the facts of Diane Massey’s murder.
25
“According to the M.E.’s report, the cause of death was blunt 26 S
force trauma to the head and strangulation,” he concluded. “The 27 R
victim’s body had been stripped of clothing and jewelry. A black 2 7 0
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stocking ligature was tightly knotted around her throat, and her 1
eyes showed petechial hemorrhages.” He didn’t have to explain.
2
All of them would know that the pinpoint blood clots were pre-3
sumptive proof of strangulation. “There were straight incisions 4
along the insides of both of the victim’s arms. The incisions were 5
made postmortem.”
6
“Those incisions on the insides of the arms — Gage did that 7
too, didn’t he?” The question came from Schute, the New York 8
detective, who’d been rapidly taking notes. He had bushy eye-9
brows, a weathered face, and dark, piercing eyes.
10
“That’s right,” Jamison said. “Gage also performed the mutila-11
tions postmortem, just like the UNSUB in this case.” UNSUB.
12
Unidentified subject. The old FBI lingo. “Another striking simi-13
larity is the black stocking ligature. Gage was tried and convicted 14
for the murder of Dahlia Schuyler. In that case, the victim was 15
also strangled with a black stocking.”
16
Next on the agenda was Melanie’s attack. Again, Jamison ran 17
through the facts. “In your files, you all have a copy of the artist’s 18
sketch of Ms. White’s assailant. You’ll note the resemblance be-19
tween this sketch and the composite of Anna Thayer’s abductor.”
20
“What about videotape?” Pulaski asked. “Did the apartment 21
building have cameras?”
22
Schute gave a sour smile. “Sure did, but the one that mattered 23
was out of service that day. Anyone who thinks you get what you 24
pay for hasn’t lived in Manhattan. Six grand a month that apart-25
ment goes for, and they can’t keep the cameras running.”
26
“What about noise?” Pulaski asked. “Were any of the neigh-27
bors home?”
28
“You can’t hear a thing through those walls,” said Schute.
29
“The tenants pay for quiet.”
30
As Jamison moved on to Posy Kisch, he could feel the tension 31
building. The men at the table were all fathers. Some had kids 32
around Posy’s age.
33
“The victim was found near the Connecticut River during the 34
search for Anna Thayer. The absence of blood at the scene conS 35
firms that the killing took place elsewhere. There
were cuff marks R 36
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on her wrists and ankles. Substantial evidence of sexual assault 2
and torture prior to death. In addition to having her throat slit, 3
she was stabbed eighty-seven times. It appears that the victim 4
was raped with a knife both anally and vaginally. No evidence of 5
semen inside the victim, though traces were detected on her face.
6
DNA analysis is under way. The tests are being expedited.”
7
“Kisch was last seen on Saturday, May 6, at a public dance in 8
Greenfield. She came to the dance with a classmate who’s been 9
on our suspect list. Nathan Lacoste — that’s his name — is also 10
acquainted with Ms. Thayer. Ms. Thayer was at the dance as 11
well, along with her boyfriend — a Merritt cop — and another 12
couple.”
13
“Is that a little strange?” Schute asked. “That all of them were 14
at the same dance?”
15
Farrell shrugged. “This isn’t New York City. There’s only so 16
much going on.”
17
“Anyway,” Jamison continued, “Ms. Thayer recalls that, dur-18
ing a break in the dance, Lacoste asked her if she’d seen the 19
victim.”
20
A little more back and forth, and then they moved on to Anna 21
Thayer. Jamison briefly outlined the facts surrounding her abduc-22
tion and release.
23
“Why do you think he didn’t kill her?” Schute asked, once 24
Jamison was done.
25
“My best guess,” said Jamison, “is that this UNSUB may have 26
kids of his own. Either that or, for some other reason, he strongly 27
identifies with them.”
28
Sitting back in his chair, Jamison surveyed the table.
29
“Let me cut to the chase. I believe we’re looking for two killers.
30
The first — let’s call him UNSUB 1 — killed Diane Massey.
31
He also attacked Melanie White and kidnapped Anna Thayer.
32
Someone else — UNSUB 2 — killed Posy Kisch.”
33
Schute said, “I’m having a little trouble with this. How can 34
you know it’s not the same guy? Doesn’t that seem more likely?”
35 S
“I’m not saying there isn’t some connection. Just that I’m fairly 36 R
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