Anna had little to nothing to say to him, but then she thought of Keisha and focused on what mattered. She flicked her pistol above Strife’s head. “His name is Edger Strife. Sound familiar?”
“Strife…” Greenbell stroked his spade-shaped beard as he remembered. Then he looked at Anna with empathic blue eyes. “Anna, I didn’t--”
“It doesn’t matter,” Anna interrupted. “The quicker he’s questioned, the quicker we find Keisha.”
“She’s not here?”
Anna shook her head. “Not that I found.”
A sinister smile curved Strife’s lips.
“Get the bastard cuffed,” Greenbell commanded. He locked eyes with Strife. “Edger Strife, you are under arrest for the abduction of Keisha Rines. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be and will be used against you...”
Strife stood up as he heard his Miranda Rights and spit on Greenbell’s boot. Ashburn growled at him and tightened the cuffs around his wrists, making sure the metal dug into his skin.
“Come on.” The brawny officer shoved Strife into the squad car and slammed the door. Strife made kissy lips at Anna.
“We’ll take it from here,” Greenbell assured Anna.
Anna eyed him suspiciously. “You sure?”
Greenbell frowned at her comment but quickly brushed it off. “I’ll contact you if anything happens.”
Crossing her arms, Anna replied. “I’ll be waiting.”
That was a lie. She didn’t expect Greenbell to let her have a pass at his cash cow. She slid the pistol into its holster. Men-in-uniform, crime scene analysts, photographers, and K-9 units flooded around her and fanned out across Strife’s property, pouring into his trailer. They canvassed the destroyed kitchen, snapping pictures of scattered pills, plate fragments, and beer cans across the laminated tile floor. They moved into the living room, examining the bullet-riddled couch and walls. Eventually, they pressed into Strife’s room, extracting his computer hard drive. With gloved hands, they pulled dresses from their coat racks and packaged them for evidence. Under the bed, they found a large collection of unmarked VHS tapes. Masking tape labeled to the outside of the black casing. The one on top read Anna.
Anna eyed the black Chevy Silverado and the massive amount of damages. Taking a breath, she opened the driver side door. She gave a final look to the piles of bagged VHS tapes, photos, and children’s dresses filling evidence trucks. Anna climbed inside the Silverado and sped down the road.
Sheriff Greenbell had been going at it for what felt like hours and hadn’t heard the slightest peep. His pale fingers coiled around the square top of his aluminum chair. A cigarette dangled from his thin lips. Leaning on the wall beside the door, Ashburn took drags on his own. Tension hardened his short, stocky figure in the hot, hazy room.
With his hand folded calmly on the cold aluminum tabletop, Edger Strife bounced his gaze between them with smug silence.
“We know you have her,” Greenbell said, caging his frustration. “We have piles of evidence, so make this easy on yourself and confess.”
Strife’s lip curled into a smile. He said nothing.
Greenbell’s knuckles turned white on the chair’s rim. Suddenly, he picked up the chair and slung it against the Plexiglas behind him. It bounced back and skidded across the floor. Huffing, he twisted back and shoved his finger in Strife’s haughty face. “I swear I will start pulling teeth!”
Strife winked at him and presented a sinister, toothy grin.
Greenbell coiled his fist, but he stopped himself and leaned back. Taking a handkerchief from his pocket, he wiped the sweat from his forehead and tossed the rag to Ashburn. “I’m talking to a brick wall.”
The brawny officer wiped his forehead with the used handkerchief. “Maybe he’s mute?”
Greenbell glared at his partner. “That’s the best you’ve got?”
He approached his friend and lowered his voice. “This lowlife is the un-cashed government check that’s going to fund you and me for the next year.”
“You think I’m an idiot?” Ashburn growled back.
“I think we should come up with some new ideas because whatever we’re doing isn’t working.”
Ashburn got quiet for a moment. “Maybe...” He looked to Strife. “Maybe we’re asking the wrong questions?”
Greenbell glared at him for a moment and then turned back to Strife. “Okay, Edger. What do you want? Finally ready for that lawyer?”
Strife leaned toward the sheriff in an act of dominance. “I want Anna Dedrick.”
Anna turned off the headlights and sank back in her seat. Apart from her face, she was dirty from head to toe. Blues played softly in the cabby. The TV screen flickered through the living room window. She needed to go inside, but facing her father brought with it a flood of emotions. The idea of resetting all they had shared caused dread to pit in Anna’s stomach. With all the craziness with Evan, the overload of information would probably bring Richard closer to full Alzheimer’s. Sleeping on her office’s cheap-carpeted floor sounded better by the second. Against her better judgment, she turned off the ignition and mentally fortified herself to face her father.
A jiggle. Anna fished out her phone. Sheriff Greenbell. She wondered if he was calling to gloat. Grumbling, she answered.
It took her about twenty minutes to reach the police department. She swerved into a parking spot and parked the truck diagonally. Slamming the bullet-riddled door, she headed to the Van Buren Police Department’s front doors. Media outlets gathered around the stairwell. Reporters shoved microphones in Anna’s face as she pushed through the crowd.
“Do the police still believe your brother is involved?” one asked.
Another pressed forward and extended his mic. “Is it true you apprehended Strife in his own home?”
Using her hand, Anna guarded her eyes from the barrage of camera strobes and pushed inside the double doors. Police Sergeant Mathis stepped out of the woodwork and joined her. They bustled toward the interrogation room at a hurried pace.
“Greenbell and Ashburn have been working him for hours,” Mathis explained swiftly. “But the guy hasn’t said a word. Not until he asked for you.”
They rounded a corner, almost bumping into a group of officers. “What do we know?” Anna asked.
“We’re still running DNA tests on the dresses found in his closet and on his bed. One bit of good is that the Rines confirmed the dress size. It may be Keisha’s.”
“What else?” The interrogation room became visible at the back of the hall.
“His browsing history had hundreds of damning posts on white supremacy chat boards, and he had a few gigabytes of snuff and CP on his hard drives.”
Thinking of it made Anna sick.
Before they reached the room, Mathis slowed and pulled Anna off to the side. “There was something else.”
Anna braced herself for what information the sergeant would reveal.
“Some tapes were discovered under his bed.” Mathis started. He turned his intense eyes to Anna. “One of them was of you?”
She crinkled her brow. “I don’t follow.”
Mathis struggled with the words. “It’s from when you were a kid.”
Anna froze in fear. Her hands trembled and the walls closed in. She needed to run. Mathis saw it in her.
“It’s okay if you don’t want to go in there,” Mathis said with quiet sincerity. “Everyone talks eventually. Even Edger Strife.”
Anna gulped down her fears. “No. I’m going in there.”
They approached the door. “If it’s any consolation, the guy’s going away for a long time. It’s only the matter of the Rines girl now.”
Greenbell and Ashburn waited outside the door.
“He must like you,” Greenbell said.
Anna didn’t listen. She stepped through the threshold while Mathis and the two men moved into the observation area.
Strife’s head followed her across the room. The detective’s chair was sidew
ays on the floor. The door slammed shut, causing Anna’s heart to skip a beat. Anna faced the man, trying her best to put on a strong exterior, but fear tore apart her insides, making her want to puke. She attempted to swallow the anxiety and failed. Focus on the confession, she told herself. It seemed easy to run from the man when he had a shotgun than to face him in a “safe environment.”
Strife smiled sinisterly, almost like he could sense her fear.
His chapped lips parted and his soft voice leaked out. “Hello, Anna.”
10
Denied Salvation
“You’re still pretty,” Strife said as he watched Anna fetch the chair from the floor. “Even after all these years.”
The legs of her chair screeched against the floor. She sat herself down, keeping distance from the man that nearly ruined her life.
“It’s over, Strife.” Anna said, finding no pleasure in the situation. The man should’ve listened to her father and never come back home. “We have the dress and number of tapes linking you to dozens of sexual assaults across the last two decades. Do something right and tell me where Keisha Rines is.”
Strife’s gaze lingered at the upper opening of Anna’s shirt. “You never had much on your body, but your face...” His slimy tongue slugged over his chapped lips.
Instinctively, Anna felt for her top bottom and discovered that it must’ve been lost in the firefight.
Strife cracked a smile. “No need to hide it. It ain’t nothing I hadn’t seen before.”
The double-sided windows on the wall gave Anna some reassurance that she wasn’t alone. But having Sheriff Greenbell watching her back didn’t give her much confidence. “I’m after the girl. Tell me where she is and you may get a plea bargain. That’s more than you deserve for trying to take my life.”
The man’s bony finger danced on the tabletop. “Don’t you forget, it was my house you broke into. Every bullet out of my gun was justified as self-defense. ‘Sides, if I wanted to kill you, I would’ve. No, it’s a lot more fun flirting with you.”
Anna balled her fists under the table. Flirting? She wanted to sock him across the jaw, but opened her hands and spoke with control. “You called me here for a reason. If you’re not going to tell me what, I’m leaving this room and that will be the last you ever see of me.”
Strife’s smile left him. He studied her, trying to figure out if it was a bluff. Anna wasn’t sure either, but she remained stone-faced.
“You weren’t like the other girls,” Strife reminisced. “Most would beg, cry, or bargain. Some would even welcome my embrace.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
Strife disregarded her comment. “But you, Anna Dedrick, had a fire about you. Yeah, a fighting spirit. You didn’t make it easy on me. Oh no, but you made it worth it.”
Anna felt her blood pressure rising. The lack of AC and lingering stench of cigarettes made her feel nauseous. “Was Keisha a fighter, too?”
“You know,” Strife readjusted in his seat. “I was going to quit with the girls… and the boys... but once you came into my life, Anna. I needed that again.”
His cold gray eyes locked on hers. “I needed you. You changed me. Molded me into the man I am.”
The levee broke. Anna tore from her seat and brought her hand down on the table so hard that her fingers tingled. “You took something that wasn’t yours! Tell me why you’re back in Van Buren? Tell me why August 13th is marked on your calendar. Tell me what are you after. No more BS or I’m out.”
Strife’s face twisted into something she’d never seen from him. Empathy. Love. “I’m here for you, Anna. It’s always been you.”
Anna slowly plopped back into her seat. Out all every possible reaction, she could never have anticipated that.
“I’ve been keeping up with you since you left town all those years ago,” Strife said with a soft smile. “Whenever you got a promotion, I’d throw my own celebration party. Whenever you solved a case, I raised a glass of champagne.”
“So Keisha Rines,” Anna said as she processed the information. “She was just a ploy to get to me?”
Strife shook his head. Frustration boiled under his smug surface. “You think I care about some Negro girl? She’s nothing!”
“Where is she, then?”
A vein bulged in Strife’s forehead. “Always with the girl.” He stood from his seat, nearly tearing off the cuffs. “I kidnapped her, cut off her fingers, and left her in the woods. Is that what you want hear?”
Greenbell and Ashburn opened the door, ready to defuse the situation.
Anna looked directly into Strife’s soul. “That’s a start.”
She stepped past the officers.
“Anna, wait--” Strife’s begging was snuffed out by the slamming door.
She made a beeline for the bathroom and washed her face in the sink. Her reflection was tired and damaged, and the idea that Keisha Rines’s abduction was related to her made it feel like she was being crushed by twenty tons of guilt. She turned off the faucet and left the bathroom. Her day hadn’t ended yet.
Sheriff Greenbell and Sergeant Mathis met her in the hall.
“Good work in there,” Mathis said. “That should be enough to put him away.”
“Keisha’s still out there,” Anna reminded them.
Greenbell nodded. “I’ll round up some of the boys and get canvassing. There’s miles of woods around here, but I’m feeling optimistic. After all, the appendages were still fresh when they were delivered. The girl can’t be too far.”
Mathis shook Anna’s hand. “On behalf of the Van Buren Police Department, I give you wholehearted congratulations. We’d still be fishing for leads without your help. If you want, I’ll call for a press junket right now. It might be good for your business.”
Anna smiled at him. “I think I’ll pass.”
Mathis shrugged. “The monster’s going behind bars. That’s all that matters.”
Mathis and Greenbell took a few steps in opposite directions. Anna stopped them. “There’s one more thing.”
An officer unlocked the cell door and slid it open. The sound of screeching metal woke Evan from his uncomfortable slumber. He sat up on the hard bench and stretched his arms over his head. Yawning, he said, “Finally delivering that conjugal visit I asked for?”
“Just your sister.” Anna leaned on the doorframe. “Sorry to disappoint.”
Evan smiled back at her. “You look like you’ve been through hell.”
Anna looked him over and crossed her arms.
“Touché.” With his palms, Evan pushed himself from the bench.
“Come on.” Anna walked away from the cell. “Best not to keep Dad waiting. We have a lot of explaining to do. Especially you.”
Evan’s lip twitched into a smirk and followed behind. “All these years and nothing has changed.”
Together, they trekked through the lively bullpen as officers got prepped for the late-night search. Through the windows, a squad car could be seen speeding into the night. Evan and Anna approached the gated-in retrieval desk. Knowing what they would ask, the receptionist wandered to the back and retrieved Evan’s items from the shelf.
“I’m going to call the Rines,” Anna said aloud. “It could give them some peace of mind.”
“Tell them in person.” Evan grabbed his watch, phone, and wallet. “They’ll appreciate it more. If you show up with their daughter, they’d probably buy you a new car.”
“Tiny victories, that’s the life of a P.I.” Anna thought of her truck. “…but a new car would be nice. I need to find out if my insurance company covers buckshot.”
“It does,” Evan said without hesitation. He put on his watch and grinned.
His response didn’t shock Anna, but her own lack of one came as a surprise. Maybe she was getting used to his weirdness. That was a scary thought.
They headed for the double entrance doors.
“Ready to make the front page?” Evan asked.
Anna took a bre
ath and pushed into the outside world. Cameras flashed. A wave of noise splashed over them. They hiked down a few steps, expecting to get bombarded with questions. However, the cameras drifted to a novice officer jogging up the stairs past her. Something felt off. The reactions were not of joy, but of horror.
Anna twisted back, catching a glimpse of the object in the officer’s hand. Eyes wide, she grabbed his wrist. Looking sick, the officer turned back. An opened velvet ring box rested in his hand. “I found it in the department’s mailbox.”
Anna felt her heart drop. A pale, severed finger rested on the box’s inner red fabric. By the Caucasian skin tone, Anna knew that it didn’t belong to Keisha Rines.
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Kidnapped: Absent Ballad
1
Fox and Hen
Concealed by the night, Cain snaked up the grassy mound, ending his journey at the rusty rails of the train track. Keeping his head low, he studied the patrons pouring out of King’s Opera House like spiders from a broken egg sac. Jeweled necklaces and opal earrings adorned the aged ladies’ necks and ears while their middle-aged husbands chuckled loudly in their tailored suits. They were not the normal Van Buren crowd. They came here with a purpose, just like Cain, and, like Cain, they were pleased with the delivery.
Secrets Boxset: A Riveting Kidnapping Mystery Collection Page 44