by Blake Pierce
“You want me to say it?” Ellington asked.
“Say what?”
“That this really sucks. I’m sure we’re thinking the same thing.”
“How even if the SLC branch gets back into it, they’d be useless because they’re so scared of what happened last time?”
“Yeah, that’s where I was. More or less.”
“This is screwed up, E. How can they get away with something like this?”
“Maybe they won’t. Burke seemed like a pretty strident guy. I don’t think he’d just let this go.”
“I don’t know…”
“Look. It sucks to say it, but it’s not our problem anymore. So right now, just look ahead to the problem we’ll be facing when we get back home. Don’t forget we have all the drama with our mothers to look forward to.”
“Did you forget that my mother threw in the towel? We only have your mother to listen to when we get home.”
“But really, isn’t that enough?” Ellington joked. “We get an hour-long discussion about Kevin’s bowel movements and what we should be feeding him.”
“Ah yes. Because we don’t know how to raise our own child. Maybe we should pretend like we’re really interested in her advice. Like we…”
She stopped here as something clicked in her head. She even raised her hand slowly, giving Ellington the pointer-finger signal for wait just a minute.
He did just that. He knew her well enough to know what was happening. She even chuckled a bit before he asked: “Should I just find somewhere to turn around right now or—”
She hushed him, replaying what she had just said in her mind. Ah yes. Because we don’t know how to raise our own child…
“Yeah, I think maybe you should turn around.”
“We need to call McGrath first?”
“Not yet. No. I need to call Amy first.”
“Want to fill me in?”
Again, she gave him the pointer finger that now stood for hush and hold on a minute.
She did not have Amy’s number, so she called Burke and asked him for it. She was relieved to hear his reply.
“No need,” he said. “She’s still here at the station with the Jane Doe. Want me to go get her?”
“Yes, please.”
As Burke went to fetch Amy, Mackenzie looked over to Ellington and did her best to explain herself. “What if we were so blinded by the bullshit he spewed to the media that we overlooked something that might actually be true?”
“Which was?”
“What if Jane Doe is his daughter? What if he had this wild card planted in his back pocket the whole time, waiting to blow us out of the water?”
“If that’s the case, wouldn’t she have said something?”
“Not if the people in the Community are as brainwashed as we’re hearing. Not if Cole ordered her to never reveal who she was. Maybe her loyalty to him is still so strong that—”
She was interrupted as Amy’s voice came on the line. “Hello? Agent White?”
“Yes. Amy, listen to me. I know you’re trying to protect everyone and that’s admirable. As you know, we’ve been called off of this case but right now, I’m gambling something and I need you to be truthful. Please.”
“Sure.”
“What’s Jane Doe’s name?”
“I honestly don’t know her real name. And she won’t tell me.”
“Do you think it’s because she might be Marshall Cole’s daughter?”
“No!” But she stopped here for a moment and a heavy sigh filled the line. “I mean, I doubt it. If she is, I never knew it. And my insider never told me.”
“Okay, I believe you. Just one more thing. It might sound like an odd question, but just humor me.”
“Um, okay…”
“When is your birthday?”
“February fifteenth. That’s what I decided after I escaped anyway. They don’t really do the whole birthday thing at the Community.”
Holy shit, she thought.
“Amy, can you please stay there until we get back? Give us maybe forty minutes, okay?”
“Yeah, I can do that.”
“And don’t let Jane Doe out of your sight.”
“Sure. Is everything okay?”
“I don’t know. Just hang tight.”
Mackenzie ended the call and looked at Ellington. She was sure her facial expression said it all, but she tried to explain herself anyway. “I won’t go so far as to say Jane Doe is Cole’s daughter, but I’m at least willing to consider it. And if she is, then he’s probably going to want her back worse than any of the others that escaped.”
“But someone was coming after her with a crowbar. You really think he’d put a hit out on his own daughter?”
“I don’t know. Why don’t you ponder that while you find somewhere to turn around. In the meantime, I’m going to call McGrath to see if we can get one more day.”
“To do what, exactly?”
“I don’t know,” she answered, already pulling up McGrath’s number. “But I’m really counting on Amy having a change of heart and helping out.”
***
When they returned to the police station, Mackenzie noticed right away that Amy looked a little livelier than before. The girl was clearly tired, but there was something in her eyes that made Mackenzie think things might be a little different this time. Mackenzie was pretty sure the spark she saw in Amy’s eyes was hope.
They were once again sitting in the office Mackenzie and Ellington had been using. Burke, ever the polite host, brought them both cups of coffee without being asked to do so. Mackenzie gratefully picked hers up and started sipping. She’d lost count of how long she’d gone without sleep, but she knew it was reaching the forty-hour mark.
“Amy, you remember what I asked you on the phone, right? About our nameless friend perhaps being Cole’s daughter?”
“Yes. But the more I think about it, the more I don’t think it makes sense.”
“Oh, we’re with you on that. He did, after all, send someone to try to kill her with a crowbar. Or, if it wasn’t him that sent Bob Barton, I’m sure Cole had to have known about it. The thing I keep coming back to is this: if men are sharing women as wives in the Community, how can they keep track of paternity? What if she truly is his daughter and he’s going to use that fact to make this whole case blow up on us?”
“I…I’m sorry. I don’t follow.”
“Four women dead. Five if we hadn’t have stopped Barton, I’m sure. But all it’s going to take is for Cole to come back with hard proof that Jane Doe is his daughter. He’ll say we abducted her and kept his daughter from him. Pile that onto his crap about wrongful arrests and forcing our way onto Community property, and this case will come to an end. There will be some sort of investigation into these murders, but if it’s closely linked to the Community, I can pretty much guarantee you nothing will come of it. There may be arrests here and there for the sake pf productivity, but that’ll be it.”
“So what do we do?” That liveliness had faded at the possibilities Mackenzie had just laid out.
“I know you won’t give us the name of your insider,” Mackenzie said. “It makes things hard on us, but I respect it. But what can you tell us about her? She may be the only way we get a decent picture of what’s currently taking place within the Community.”
“I don’t know…”
“Amy,” Ellington said, “our director gave us one more day to crack this and he did that very hesitantly. This is our last chance to knock this out. Please…”
Amy took a moment to answer, and when she finally did she answered quickly. It almost seemed as if she got the information out fast in an attempt to forget she’d given it up at all.
“Some people call her the First Wife. She’s been there from the beginning and some say she’s had as many as nine husbands while she was there. She was married to Cole for a while but they sort of…I don’t know…separated. There’s no divorce, as you might imagine. But she and Cole sort of j
ust distanced themselves.”
“And this First Wife is the one that is helping you?”
Amy only nodded. She looked sad, as if she had truly betrayed this First Wife by giving up this information.
“Is that title like a position of power?” Mackenzie asked.
“No. She’s a woman. She has no power there. But she takes a lot of the girls under her wing. She consoles them and sort of coaches them through how to stay sane through the horrors of the marriages. She’s like a mother-figure to a lot of the younger women.”
“How does she get in touch with you?”
“She has an old phone.” Amy considered this for a moment and then, apparently figuring that she had already said too much, decided it was okay to continue. “I think it’s a Blackberry. We aren’t exactly allowed to easily contact the outside world. She texts me sometimes to let me know what’s going on and when there is a girl who wants out.”
“Does she try to coerce them into escaping?” Ellington asked.
“Not at all. She only assists the girls that come to her, wanting a way out. Some women are so brainwashed that they’re fine with it. They’re taken care of, never have to worry about anything—they just need to deal with the abuse and the polygamy.”
“If you were to reach out to her, how soon could she respond?”
“It depends. Sometimes ten minutes. Sometimes two or three hours.”
“I assume she can’t just leave the Community whenever she wants, can she?” Mackenzie asked.
“Actually, she’s one of the few that can. She’s sent out on occasion to get the necessary supplies for women. She also helps with the produce markets and setting all of that stuff up.”
“How can we talk to her?” Mackenzie asked.
“I can’t tell her that I’ve told you about her. She’ll feel betrayed. She’ll feel—”
“She’ll feel like she’s doing her part to make sure no other women are killed,” Mackenzie said. “Amy…don’t you think this First Wife would want this to come to an end just as badly as you do?”
“Yes.”
“If you want,” Ellington said, “we can frame it to make it sound like we forced you to give us your phone and we figured out what her number was.”
Amy thought about it for a moment and then shook her head. Still, she pulled her phone out of her back pocket. “What should I tell her?”
Mackenzie knew she had to be careful here. She did not want Amy thinking that they did not fully trust her source. And honestly, given everything she’d done to help Amy, Mackenzie did trust her. Still, she could not bank on the idea that the woman would be relieved that the FBI was so closely involved. Given the nature of the Community, it might make her shut down rather than become eager to help.
“For now,” Mackenzie said, “let’s just act as if it’s you contacting her. I don’t want her spooked. I assume you’ve met with her outside of the compound?”
“A few times, yes.”
“See if you can arrange a meeting. Try to really stress that it needs to happen as soon as possible. Like Agent Ellington said, we don’t have much time.”
Amy sighed, wiped a tear out of the corner of her right eye, and unlocked her phone. As Mackenzie watched the young woman type in a message to the First Wife, she could not begin to imagine the emotional turmoil this must be putting her through. While Mackenzie knew that she had to work to put her hatred for Marshall Cole on the back burner, she could not deny that the look of absolute brokenness on Amy’s face gave her one more reason to detest the man.
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
Mackenzie hated to separate from Ellington with such a short expanse of time to wrap the case, but it just made sense. While she and Amy prepared to head out for a meeting with Lilith, the name Amy had finally given up as belonging to the First Wife, Ellington stayed behind with Jane Doe. They had no idea when Marshall Cole would be returning to cause a scene with the supposed purpose of “claiming” his daughter.
To keep up appearances for as long as possible, Mackenzie insisted that Amy drive her car. Mackenzie sat in the passenger’s seat, feeling almost guilty. They’d had to push and push to convince Lilith to come out to meet with Amy. Given Amy’s urgency Lilith had finally broken down and relented but made it abundantly clear that it was very risky. Seeming a bit surprised that she was able to leave the Community so soon after receiving the text, she’d returned Amy’s text within forty minutes and they arranged a meeting for three hours later.
It was close to one in the afternoon when she and Amy entered into Salt Lake City. Amy worked her way into the downtown area, eventually pulling her car into a parking lot that rested behind a row of older buildings. Most of them looked to have long ago been abandoned; the only one still in business was an old rundown laundromat. When Amy parked behind the row of buildings, Mackenzie could see the steam from the dryers coming out of a back vent.
They arrived six minutes later than the agreed upon time and when Amy saw that Lilith had not already arrived, she instantly grew worried. She nearly opened the door and got out of the car to look around, but seemed to think better of it.
“This would be the fourth time we’ve met,” Amy said. “And she’s never been late. She’s always been here on time.”
“She’s just running a few minutes late,” Mackenzie assured her. “Everything is going to be okay.”
“What if they found out? What if someone killed her?”
Mackenzie said nothing because she could tell from the panic on Amy’s face that nothing she said could say would calm her down. The girl was a nervous wreck and for the last few hours, random tears had crept from her eyes. She looked almost has tired as Mackenzie, kept awake only by worry and adrenaline.
Two minutes later, relief washed over Amy’s face when another car pulled into the parking lot. It pulled up on Amy’s side, the driver not even seeing Mackenzie until she had parked the car and stopped. She instantly reached for the gearshift, but Amy had rolled her window down to speak.
“No, wait,” she said. “Lilith, it’s gotten bad. Shanda is dead, the police have the newest girl that escaped, and Cole is speaking to the media. The FBI has been called off of the case already.”
Lilith hesitated and nodded toward Mackenzie through her opened window. “Who’s that?”
“I’m Agent Mackenzie White, with the FBI.” Mackenzie showed her badge and ID, holding them up.
“Can I see those?” Lilith asked. It was more like a demand.
It was a strange request, but Mackenzie relented. She gave the badge and ID to Amy, who then handed them through her window to Lilith. The First Wife looked them over and looked back to Mackenzie. She was glad to see something like appreciation in Lilith’s face. The woman had a hard face, but the look of brief gratitude lit it up somewhat, if only for a moment.
“Someone knows what you’re doing,” Mackenzie said. “Someone else in the Community is meeting these girls and killing them. And I was hoping you might be able to tell us who it is.”
“I’m incredibly careful when I send messages to Amy,” Lilith said. “And when I leave the Community, I stop at the end of the road to make sure no one has followed me out. Believe me…I am very careful. I take my liberties very seriously. I, too, attempted to escape many years ago. But I’ve been obedient to the point of being dehumanized and was able to gain the trust of the elders again. I can’t keep risking my freedoms and the ruse I put in place.”
“How do you manage to get out so easily?”
“Well, it was easy this morning because Marshall hadn’t returned yet. I left a message with one of his second-in-command, telling them I had a meeting with a woman about the next haul of corn. Marshall never asks questions because he doesn’t care. As long as things roll smoothly, he’s happy.”
Amy spoke next, her voice thick with tears. “Lilith, I’m sorry I told her. I had to, though. All those girls…”
“It’s okay,” Lilith said, sounding like she legitimately meant it.
“You had no choice. And Agent White, I thank you for getting things this far. But the media is involved now and pretty soon, Marshall will get out of it. It’s just a fact.”
“He’s just a bonus, if I can make it happen,” Mackenzie said. “For right now, I just want to find the killer. And I’ve only got about fifteen hours left to get it done.”
“So how can I help?”
“Amy tells me you are the original wife of the Community—that you are in fact one of Marshall Cole’s wives. But you grew apart, right? Would he still talk intimately with you about things that are going on in the Community?”
“No. He hasn’t spoken more than several sentences to me in the past year or so.”
“Why not?”
“Many years ago, I tried to speak up for the women. No one dared hurt me or reprimand me because I was Marshall’s wife. Some of the girls started coming to me for solace and advice. Marshall saw that as a sign of power and influence…coming from a woman. It disgusts him, and I’m sure he’d love to just kill me or banish me. But that would admit that I hold something over him and he can’t admit such a thing, even in such a roundabout way.”
“He says the Jane Doe we have in custody right now is named Ruth. Ruth Cole. He says she is his daughter.”
“Yes. And mine as well. I’ve had three children by that wretched man. Ruth was the second. And several months ago, she was assigned to be married to a man thirty years older than her. The things he did to…to prepare her for their wedding night pushed her to leave. I took great joy in helping her escape.”
“Even when you knew the other girls were being killed as soon as they got out?”
“It sounds terrible, I know. But you can’t imagine the terror and absolute sense of worthlessness for the women living in the Community. The chance she had of making it out and avoiding the killer was enough for me. Any chance at freedom…of knowing what a normal life could be like. But now that she’s out, please…do what you can to make sure he doesn’t get her back.”