Smoke met me at the evidence room at 7:30 a.m. “No late night visits from furry creatures, or weird phone messages?” he asked right off the bat.
“Nope. So Carlson had another quiet night, thankfully. And as soon as we turn all the evidence over to Homeland Security, my next priority will be to catch that taunter.”
“Or taunters. Plural.”
“Right, but gorilla man is front and center, as far as I’m concerned.”
Smoke had the evidence room key and had gotten permission from the sheriff to go through the goods we’d collected at Champ’s office. When he’d unlocked the door to the room that held the waiting files, I was almost beside myself, feeling both excited and anxious at the same time.
“The kids’ folders should be in the gray files,” I said.
“And I want to read through Kevin Lionel’s file for the hell of it,” Smoke said.
“How many years do you suppose they’ve been at it, Champ and Fletch? We know at least four.”
“We’ll soon find out once the folks from ICE get here and start their interrogations. Four seems about right. I figure it’s about the same time Champ opened his real estate office.”
“Yeah.” I followed Smoke to the shelves where the files were stored.
“The human smuggling charges will trump what we have on them, but if we run across any other crimes in these files we can charge ’em with, we will.”
“You mean besides attempted murder, first degree assault, burglary, second degree assault against a peace officer, threats—”
“Besides all that. No doubt. And if the Feds ever let them out a hundred years from now, we’ll have the warrants for their arrests ready and waiting,” he said.
“Yup.” I pulled on a pair of gloves, pulled the first gray file box down, and opened it. I picked up each file, one by one, and read the names of all the children who had been smuggled to Minnesota. Most were brought to Winnebago County, but there were others in Stearns, Sherburne, Meeker, and Hennepin Counties also.
We had been searching over an hour when I found them. Sese and Lela. It was as though the words in their file were the most important ones I had ever read. Smoke must have sensed what I’d found, and moved in close beside me. “That’s the file?”
I was overcome with emotion and unable to speak. I nodded instead.
“Hand it over, I’ll go make a copy.”
After Smoke left, I pulled the photo of Maisa, Sese, and Lela from my pocket. I stared at the happy faces until he returned.
“So I see they live in rural Kadoka,” he said.
I nodded again.
“What would you want to tell them, if you could?”
“I don’t know. How do you tell little children their mother died of a broken heart, in the middle of saving up her money to hire a detective to find them?” I said.
“I don’t think you can tell them that.”
“No.”
Bob Edberg found us in the evidence room a short time later. “Quite the day yesterday, for the department, and for society in general.”
“Unbelievable. And you recovered a nice pile of damning evidence from Fletcher’s house,” Smoke said.
“Yes we did.” Bob’s eyes fell on me. “Are you okay, Sergeant?”
“I’m not sure. We found Maisa’s kids, here in Winnebago County.” I handed him the file. He shook his head as he read it. “I recognize the address. It’s the couple from Kadoka I followed home from Champ’s office in Wellspring, that first night I had him under surveillance. I can tell you one thing, those kids live in a nice house. If that’s any consolation.”
“Hmm. Well, I guess it is a little. But who knows what’s going to happen once Homeland Security’s ICE team gets here,” I said.
“All hell will break loose for a whole bunch of families,” Smoke said.
What a state of affairs. “Smoke, you asked what we should tell the kids. And I’m thinking of all the kids, not just Maisa’s. It came to me after we met Sula, the boy the Huebers abused. He was a survivor, and held onto his heritage, and his memories. I think that’s what we tell the others. No matter what happens going forward, they should hold onto every good memory they can.”
“Like prisoners of war do,” Edberg said.
I nodded. “I gotta say that as much as I hate when people shirk responsibility, I’m pretty relieved that sorting through these complicated cases is on ICE’s shoulders.”
“Tell me about it. And I hope they let Sese and Lela see their aunt, Lamara. I’m sure she can explain the things about their mother better than we can,” Smoke said.
All hell did break loose when ICE arrived around noon, and questioned Waldo Champion and Homer Fletcher. Going forward, they would bring in everyone they could locate who had a part in the human smuggling operation. It would be an ongoing investigation for some time to come. Until they had it all sorted out, the children would be left with their adoptive families, and the women with their husbands. To further complicate matters, they discovered a number of children had been born to the illegal aliens and were legal American citizens.
I was scheduled to appear in court at three o’clock that day on a case that dated back to the previous May. Coincidentally, it was the case I had mentioned to my friend Josh. The mayor’s son I’d arrested for gross misdemeanor DUI and criminal vehicular operation.
As I walked down the corridor, approaching courtroom two, I noticed Mayor Turner standing next to his miscreant son, Brendon. When Brendon lifted up a package of mints to offer his father, my eyes locked on his hand. At the thin gold band he wore on his little finger, in particular. Gorilla man. I was about to say his name when his father spotted me, and stared my way. That alerted Brendon. He turned toward me, and what he read from my expression prompted him to take off in a sprint.
It took me a second to realize he’d actually do something that stupid, so when I took off after him, he had a decent head start. As I ran down the long corridor, I keyed the mic on my radio to call for help. But before I said a word, a woman I recognized from somewhere, but couldn’t place, stepped into my path. As I tried to bypass her, I tripped on her foot, and barely got my hands down in time to prevent my head from striking the floor’s hard surface.
“Geez,” I mumbled then jumped up and took a quick look back at my interrupter. Instead of appearing apologetic, she looked pleased. I got on the radio and alerted all available deputies to be on the lookout for Brendon Turner, aka, gorilla man. As I left the scene of the trip, I heard Jackie from court administration say, “Regina, it looked like you tripped Sergeant Aleckson on purpose.”
Regina. The law library clerk. The one whose car turned around in my driveway, at least one time. The woman, I now realized, had given me the dirty look at The Sandwich Shoppe. The one Josh had asked me about. What in the world did she have against me?
“Seven fourteen, Winnebago County and Six oh eight.” It was Vince Weber calling.
“Go ahead, Seven fourteen,” Communications Officer Robin answered for both of us.
“I have Mister Turner in custody on the west side of the courthouse, and I’m escorting him to jail booking.”
“Copy that, at fifteen-oh-three.”
“Seven fourteen, I’m on my way,” I said.
20
Sara handed me a glass of wine then sat down sideways on the couch, facing me. “Okay, that is one of the craziest things I’ve heard in a long time. Regina Price, the law library clerk, was secretly in love with Assistant County Attorney Eric Stueman, and fell off the deep end when he died?”
“Sorta like me.”
Sara reached over and squeezed my arm. “Sorry. So the whole thing builds in her mind, and gets worse and worse until she flips, and she starts making harassing phone calls. The first one of which is on the same day Brendon Turner decides to start his harassing visits. Because the closer he gets to his court date, the madder he is at you for arresting him in the first place.”
I took a sip of wine. “I think
his father helped perpetuate his anger.”
“Whatever. So Regina drives by your house, and happens to see Brendon trespassing, and doing whatever no good thing he’s doing, like dumping cigarette butts in your driveway.”
I raised my hand slightly “And she’s the one who removed them, after she saw me poking at them. Just to make me think I was losing my mind.”
“Sweet woman that she is. She loves the fact that someone is actually doing stuff to bug you, and in fact sees him at your place on more than one occasion, like one of the two times he let Queenie out of her kennel.”
“It’s not always easy being popular.”
Sara laughed. “Sorry. This is not a laughing matter. Brendon was pretty darn sneaky to approach your house from the side, under the pan of the camera.”
“He’s young, and apparently tuned in to security cameras. They’re all over the place in today’s world. Yeah, Regina admitted to driving by my house, sometimes sitting for a while with her headlights off, watching. That’s when she saw me hug Smoke, and had to call to tell me so.”
“Creepy. And then when word got around the courthouse about gorilla man, that egged her on even more.”
I held up my glass as if to toast. “Well, Brendon’s in jail, and Regina has been fired. The county attorney told me he’ll cut some sort of deal if she agrees to move out of the county, seek treatment, never have contact with me again, and remain law abiding.”
“Her confession helped.”
I nodded. “I have my own confession to make.”
Sara leaned toward me. “Do tell.”
“When they brought Kevin Lionel in for questioning, I was downright pleased to see him squirm. If he had fully cooperated with our investigation in the first place, Champ’s and Fletch’s operation would have been halted weeks ago, Juergen wouldn’t have been shot, and Maisa would have been identified almost right away.”
“No kidding. And I wanted to tell you, I’ve checked on Emma and Conner a couple of times, and they seem to be doing okay.”
I gave Sara’s arm a tap. “You called him Sula, I hope.”
“Yes I did. But Emma prefers Emma over Thurpa.”
“I would, too.” I smiled. “I’m pretty concerned about all the kids who were brought here illegally. The agent I talked to from ICE said they’re more concerned with stopping the operations than they are about sending anyone back at this point. But still. Some of them may have parents living in their home countries.”
“It’s a mess, all right.” Sara set her wine glass on the coffee table. “So you’re holding up all right?”
I shrugged. “It has been an eventful, trauma-filled few weeks. But guess who helped me turn a corner?”
“Who?”
“Eric.”
“Eric?”
“Yes. It was actually a dream I had a couple of nights ago. It was the first dream he’s been in since he died that was actually pleasant. Calming.”
“What happened?”
“Not much, really. He took me in his arms and held me, and somehow that released me from the burden of guilt and intense grief I’ve had all these months.” Tears filled my eyes.
“You know that if he could, he’d tell you what happened was not your fault.”
A tear rolled down my cheek and I nodded. “And you know how much I wish he was still here to tell me just that.”
I pulled up and parked in front of the home where Maisa’s children, Sese and Lela, had been living the past three years. Their aunt, Lamara, was in the passenger seat. “Sergeant, I am very nervous. I do not know how to tell them about their mother.”
“They know she was ill, and as tough as it is, they need to know the truth so they won’t always wonder. And when you give them the money we found with her body, you don’t have to say where it came from. But we believe it rightfully belongs to them.”
She nodded her head. “You are right about being honest. And I want them to know the money is from Maisa.”
When Lamara had been given permission to see the children, I’d made the arrangements with the Campbells. They had been questioned by ICE, and were awaiting word of what the future held for their family. Candice and Matthew stood together in the entry when they opened the door, and invited us in.
No one seemed to know what to say. Lamara and the children had been illegally smuggled into the United States. The Campbells had paid a large sum of money to an illegal operation, in exchange for children of their own. And there I was, standing between them, an officer of the law who’d been sworn to enforce it.
Instead of speaking, Candice waved, and we followed her and Matthew into the dining room where Sese and Lela were drawing and coloring pictures. Lela was destined to be a beauty like her mother and her aunt. Sese had strong features and piercing eyes, nearly black in color. They both looked at us with curiosity, and then recognized their aunt. When she spoke their names, and said something in their native tongue, they were in her arms in a split second. The three of them all talked at once for some minutes.
Between the Campbells, the children, Lamara, and me, there was not a dry eye in the room. When things had calmed a bit, Lamara sat on a chair, and drew the children close to her. Lamara switched to English. “Your mama would be filled with joy to see the two of you so well cared for, and living in such a house as this.”
“Mama. Where is she?” Sese asked.
“In heaven, little ones. She was unable to recover from her illness. But she never stopped loving you, and praying for you. She hoped one day she would be able to visit you here, but it was not to be.”
Lela buried her head in Lamara’s lap and cried. Sese wrapped his arms around his aunt’s neck, and held on tight for a long time. When the children’s emotions had been spent, for the time being, Lamara eased them away. “Children, your mother had some money saved up for you.” She handed them each a wallet. “Use it for whatever you want, but maybe for something that will remind you of her.”
They gave Lamara another hug. Then she said, “I must go now, but I will be in touch with you, as much as it is possible. Would you like that?”
They both nodded and said they would.
I had been carrying a copy of their family photo next to my heart for weeks. I pulled out the original I had gotten out of evidence, and held it in front of the children. “Here is something precious that belongs to you.” Sese accepted the gift, and showed it to Lela.
The broad, sparkling smiles on their faces was the sweetest thank you I’d ever received.
Winnebago County Mysteries
Murder in Winnebago County follows an unlikely serial killer plaguing a rural Minnesota county. The clever murderer leaves a growing chain of apparent suicides among criminal justice professionals. As her intuition helps her draw the cases together, Winnebago County Sergeant Corinne Aleckson enlists help from Detective Elton Dawes. What Aleckson doesn’t know is that the killer is keeping a close watch on her. Will she be the next target?
Buried in Wolf Lake When a family’s golden retriever brings home the dismembered leg of a young woman, the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Department launches an investigation unlike any other. Who does the leg belong to, and where is the rest of her body? Sergeant Corinne Aleckson and Detective Elton Dawes soon discover they are up against an unidentified psychopath who targets women with specific physical features. Are there other victims, and will they learn the killer’s identity in time to prevent another brutal murder?
An Altar by the River A man phones the Winnebago County Sheriff's Department, frantically reporting his brother is armed with a large dagger and on his way to the county to sacrifice himself. Sergeant Corinne Aleckson takes the call, learning the alarming reasons behind the young man's death wish. When the department investigates, they plunge into the alleged criminal activities of a hidden cult and the disturbing cover-up of an old closed-case shooting death. The cult members have everything to lose and will do whatever it takes to prevent the truth coming to light. But will they find
an altar by the river in time to save the young man’s life?
The Noding Field Mystery When a man’s naked body is found staked out in a farmer’s soybean field, Sergeant Corinne Aleckson and Detective Elton Dawes are called to the scene. The cause of death is not apparent, and the significance of why he was placed there is a mystery. As Aleckson, Dawes, and the rest of their Winnebago Sheriff’s Department team gather evidence, and look for suspects and motive, they hit one dead end after another. Then an old nemesis escapes from jail and plays in the shocking end.
Secret in Whitetail Lake The discovery of an old Dodge Charger on the bottom of a Winnebago County lake turns into a homicide investigation when human remains are found in the car. To make matters worse, Sheriff Twardy disappears that same day, leaving everyone to wonder where he went. Sergeant Corinne Aleckson and Detective Elton Dawes probe into both mysteries, searching for answers. Little do they know they’re being closely watched by the keeper of the Secret in Whitetail Lake.
Firesetter in Blackwood Township Barns are burning in Blackwood Township, and the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office realizes they have a firesetter to flush out. The investigation ramps up when a body is found in one of the barns. Meanwhile, deputies are getting disturbing deliveries. Why are they being targeted? It leaves Sergeant Corinne Aleckson and Detective Elton Dawes to wonder, what is the firesetter’s message and motive?
A Death in Lionel's Woods Page 28