by Rick Mofina
“Does she use drugs or drink alcohol?”
“No.”
“What kind of a personality does she have, outgoing or shy?”
“Outgoing, independent.”
“Is she a good student?”
“I’d say above average.”
“Did she spend a lot of time online, or on her phone?”
“No more than any other girl her age.”
“You say your daughter was holding her phone in her hand and had fallen asleep while gripping it.”
“Yes.”
“Do you know exactly who she may have been talking to?”
“No. I’m sure it was a friend.”
“Could she have met a stranger online and ran off to meet them or another friend?”
“It’s possible, but we set up parental controls on Maddie and Tyler’s phones and computers, so she only talked with people she knew.”
“Do you have any idea who she communicated with before she went missing?”
“I’m guessing one of her friends, but I’ve contacted all of their parents and I also gave you a list of names of her friends and their families. Aren’t your experts working on tracking down her phone?”
“Yes, they are. What about Crystal Hedrick. Do you have any concerns that she may have played a role in Maddison’s disappearance?”
“No.”
“Your husband suspects that, contrary to your wishes, Crystal invited her boyfriend, Zachary Keppler, to your home after the children went to bed. Do you share those concerns?”
“I have no concerns because Maddie and Tyler were asleep in their beds when I checked, and that was after Zach picked up Crystal.”
“What about the possibility of Zachary returning in the night?”
“Why? It makes no sense. Have you talked to him and Crystal about his whereabouts?”
“We’re looking at everything. We’re not ruling anything out yet. Now, did Maddison ever indicate any problems with her friends?”
“No.”
“Any problems at school?”
“No.”
“Other than the dating issue, arguments and mood swings, is there anything she complained about?”
“Nothing, really. I know she said that she was envious of her uncle Cole and his family because they have a bigger house and more money than we do. Maddie got frustrated when we couldn’t do all the things they did, like go to Europe or Disney World.”
“How was Maddison’s relationship with her uncle’s family?”
“Good. She worships her uncle as a hero and loves Jill, who treats her like a daughter. Dalton’s a bit older than Maddie and Tyler. They look up to him as their cooler, worldly cousin because he’s traveled places with his dad, has seen more and done more.”
“All right, let’s come back to your relationship with Ryan. Do you think he’s ever lied to you?”
“No.”
“Ever cheated on you?”
“No.”
“Have you ever cheated on him or lied to him?”
“No, my God, what kind of questions are these?”
“Has Ryan ever struck you?”
“No.”
“Has he ever struck the children?”
“Never.”
“Does he ever lose his temper?”
“Yes, who doesn’t? He runs his own business and is under a lot of stress.”
“So there’s tension in the home related to his business?”
“A little. He’s going through a rough patch now, but it wouldn’t have anything to do with Maddie.”
“Do you think your husband’s involved in your daughter’s disappearance?”
“Absolutely not!”
“You think Tyler’s involved?”
“No, that’s ridiculous!”
“What about Maddison’s uncle and his family, Jill or Dalton?”
“Are you crazy? No!”
“What do you think happened, Karen?”
“I don’t know. There’s that halfway house with convicts on the other side of the woods, there could be sex offenders living in the neighborhood, someone could’ve been stalking Maddie.”
“Yes, all those are possibilities we’re investigating.”
“Why won’t you tell me what you found in the forest?”
“What do you think we found?”
“Oh my God, you want to play guessing games with me? How can you ask such horrible questions? Why’re you being so cruel?”
“I’m sorry, Karen, but the fact is we’ve got to be careful with our investigation. Until we determine what happened, we have to ask every question you can imagine. What we found may be completely unrelated, but for now we’re just not disclosing any information on that. Our goal is to find Maddison safe and bring her home to you.”
“Is she hurt? Tell me if she’s hurt, please!”
“We have no evidence to indicate that she’s hurt. At this stage she’s missing. She may have been taken or lured from her room, or she may have run off with a friend or stranger. We’re doing all we can to get answers and to locate her.”
Karen’s eyes went around the sterile room before she stared into her empty hands. She was being punished again. A great karmic wheel had turned full circle, crushing her with agony for what she had put her mother through.
All Karen wanted was to protect Maddie, to keep her from making the same mistakes she had.
Oh God.
15
Unshaven, his hair wild, Ryan could feel his pulse drumming in his ears.
Zubik kept asking him the same things, going round and round, pulling him into a raging whirlpool until Ryan couldn’t take it anymore and slammed his palms on the interview room table.
“I’ve answered these questions! Stop repeating them and tell me what you found in Lucifer’s Green!”
Zubik didn’t speak.
“The dog picked up Maddie’s scent,” Ryan said. “We heard the radios, saw the reaction. Whatever you found has to be serious. What is it? I have a right to know!”
Zubik and Asher stared at him for several seconds, their faces blank.
“Is she dead? Did you find Maddie out there? Tell me!”
“Ryan,” Zubik said, “we didn’t find your daughter in the woods. We’re still searching there and everywhere. But we’re not prepared to disclose at this time what we found. It may be related to the investigation. It may not. But for now we need to keep that aspect confidential. I hope you understand.”
“Understand? Christ, we’re talking about my missing daughter! I have every right to know what the hell you’re doing to find her!”
“I appreciate that this is hard on you and your family, but we have a job to do and we have to do it properly at every step to ensure we find Maddison. You’ve got to work with us.”
“Work with you? Someone climbed into Maddie’s bedroom. Now she’s gone, you won’t tell me anything and you’re telling me to work with you?”
“That’s what you believe happened, that someone abducted her?”
“For God’s sake yes. How many times do I have to tell you? She was taken. It’s obvious. All the doors were bolted and chained from the inside. Mud streaks were on the carpet and near the window. You saw the ladder.”
“But no one heard screams or a struggle?”
“Tyler heard voices in her room. Maybe the guy had a weapon and threatened her to keep quiet. Someone was in her room!”
“Yes, it appears that’s what’s happened.”
“Look at Crystal’s boyfriend! My gut tells me he was in the house at some point, and I don’t trust that guy. Look at the halfway house, check the sex offender registries for creeps living around us.”
“We’re doing that,” Zubik said. “Now, about your brother helping you. Did you ca
ll him before you called police?”
Ryan hesitated. “No.”
“What was the first call you made after discovering Maddie was gone?”
“We called her phone, then I called our service provider to locate her phone, then I called police.”
“Then at some point you called your brother to help you?”
“Yes.”
“He’s a former Syracuse police officer, a decorated soldier, bestselling author, a somewhat famous figure, who now operates a successful private investigations company. He arrives with a team of investigators, all ex–law enforcement knowledgeable with police procedure. He puts up a ten-thousand-dollar reward for information that leads to the return of his niece. Cole sure looks like he wants to lead things. He’s a take-charge kind of guy, wouldn’t you say?”
A take-charge kind of guy?
Ryan considered the question, reflecting with ambivalence on his relationship with Cole, and in a flash remembered when they were both teens. Ryan had been happily heading off to work one morning to join his dad on a job site. In the kitchen, Cole said to him, I don’t know how you can do that, Ry, all the plaster, the dust, that backbreaking stuff. I could never do it, especially all day with him.
His brother’s words had pierced him. Even later when Cole told him that he just wanted to do something else with his life, Ryan understood, but in his heart he took Cole’s feeling as a betrayal of their dad, of all he’d struggled for.
Ryan couldn’t forgive Cole for that.
Even after Cole became a cop, then a soldier, even after he was blown up and lost his legs, and his will to live; even as he and Karen rescued him, brought him back from the edge; even after Cole triumphed, rebuilt his life with Jill, Dalton, wrote his book, started his business and achieved wealth to become a superhero.
All while Ryan struggled to keep his dad’s drywall business afloat.
Ryan’s resentment was still there. Only maybe it had hardened.
And now, Cole comes in with his people, his money, that there’s-nothing-I-can’t-handle drive of his, making Ryan feel helpless, and so damned obliged. Yes, Ryan loved Cole and needed his help now more than ever, but deep down he knew he could never shake his hard feelings, his bitterness.
And his envy.
“Yes,” Ryan said, “my brother’s doing all he can to help us.”
“That’s fine. We appreciate everyone’s help, but we just don’t want any complications where your brother’s concerned.”
“Complications? What’re you talking about?”
“If he or his people discover anything that could be pertinent to the investigation, he must bring it to our attention immediately. Failing to do so could be construed as obstruction.”
“Of course he would. Do you think we’ve got something to hide?”
Zubik let a moment pass before moving on.
“Ryan, are you given to losing your temper when you’re under stress?”
He looked at Zubik without answering.
“Have you ever lost your temper with Maddie?”
“No.”
“No? Come on, all parents lose their temper at some point.”
“I may have raised my voice a few times when she didn’t do what her mother and I asked her to do.”
“Ever get physical with your daughter? Ever strike her?”
“No.”
“What about in other instances? Have you ever lost your temper, ever resorted to violence?”
Ryan looked at Zubik and didn’t answer.
“We understand your drywall business is in financial trouble.”
Ryan said nothing.
“Things got out of control at the bank yesterday, didn’t they?” Zubik opened a folder to a report. “How come you didn’t disclose to Officers Greer and Porter, even your wife for that matter, how things ended after Henry Driscoll turned you down for a loan you desperately needed to help your business?”
Zubik referred to the report, summarizing what he was reading.
“When Driscoll rejected your loan request, you stood up in a threatening manner, picked up your chair, smashed it against the side of his desk and were verbally abusive. Driscoll summoned the security officer to his office. It happened that two SPD officers from Patrol Division, Simkin and Hughes, were in the bank at the time and assisted. You were asked to leave. Driscoll never swore out a complaint but conveyed your situation to the officers.”
Ryan’s face reddened.
“I was angry. I needed the loan.”
“You’re at risk of losing your business, aren’t you, Ryan?”
“Yes.”
“A business your father started and has been in your family for decades?”
“Yes.”
“During your meeting with Driscoll, you’d mentioned your family’s life insurance policies. We understand the benefit on each of the children is seventy-five thousand dollars. You were seeking a loan for sixty thousand dollars.”
Zubik set the report down flat on the table and looked at him.
Ryan said nothing.
“It’s interesting,” Zubik said. “It’s also interesting that in the time before you called police you were on your computer attempting to do something with Maddison’s phone. Were you attempting to wipe it?”
“No!” Ryan sat straighter. “I was on the computer trying to locate Maddie’s phone. And yes, I did lose my temper at the bank because I’m trying to save the business my father built! Why’re you twisting things?”
Zubik said nothing, keeping a poker face while eyeing Ryan.
“I know this is unpleasant,” Zubik said, “but in our effort to find Maddison, you don’t want us to leave any stone unturned, do you?”
“No.”
“That’s why at this stage we can’t rule out anything.”
Ryan said nothing.
“Ryan, we may need you and your family to consent to polygraph exams.”
“Polygraphs?”
“To help us rule you out as having had anything to do with your daughter’s disappearance. Would you be willing to cooperate?”
Ryan looked long and hard at Zubik.
“We’ve got nothing to hide.”
16
Syracuse police officers, county deputies and state troopers walked shoulder to shoulder, searching the woods behind Maddison Lane’s home while her family watched.
Ryan stood with his arm around Karen. She held Tyler in front of her as they looked toward Lucifer’s Green from their street. Juxtaposed against their house and the distant forest, the Lanes were a portrait of anguish that the news cameras had captured from afar in the moments after a patrol car had brought them back from police headquarters.
During the time they were downtown being questioned, the search for Maddie had grown. More volunteers, more police and more media had arrived. While coordinating his investigative team and the volunteer search, Cole Lane had become the family’s contact, keeping the press far back, affording the family privacy so he could talk to them.
“How did it go?” Cole asked Ryan.
Without looking at him, Ryan dragged his hands over his face.
“They practically accused us of being involved, distorting and misinterpreting our lives. Then they took our fingerprints and swabbed our cheeks for DNA.”
“That’s to be expected.”
Ryan turned to his brother. “They asked Tyler if he killed his sister. Then they suggested I wanted to kill Maddie for insurance money.”
“They’d be sloppy if they didn’t go hard on you. They’ve got to look at everybody because often in cases like this a family member is responsible for the crime.”
Ryan shook his head and resumed staring at the woods.
“They won’t let us go in there,” Ryan said. “They say they’ve got to keep the public
out to protect potential evidence. They won’t tell us what they found in there, and that scares the hell out of me. So does that halfway house.”
“If they found her, we’d know. You’ve got to stay positive. My guys will talk to their sources about the halfway house. We’ve also been combing through the registry. It doesn’t look like any level twos or threes, the predator types at risk to reoffend, have moved into your immediate area.”
“Can we be sure about that?”
“No system’s perfect,” Cole said. “We’ve also got something from Dalton. He’s been talking to neighborhood kids. Seems two weeks ago, two fifteen-year-old girls three blocks from you were followed home by a creepy guy who wanted to know where they lived.”
Ryan looked at his brother.
“We’ve passed it on to police,” Cole said. “There’s a lot happening. Your neighbors with home security are volunteering footage to police. We’ve got a new web page with tip line numbers, and Maddie’s friends have blasted out appeals for help. Donations for the reward are coming in, a big one from Karen’s employer. The total is now just over twenty thousand dollars. I promise you Ry, we’re going to bring Maddie home.”
Ryan looked at his brother then said, “Thank you.”
Cole glanced toward the news crews and satellite trucks lining the street, some up on lawns or blocking driveways.
“I’ve been getting calls from the New York Times, the Washington Post, wire services and the twenty-four-hour news networks, using their local affiliates. They want a news conference with you and Karen, and we think you need to do it.”
“We?”
“The police believe it can help and I agree.”
“When?”
“As soon as possible.” Cole searched the groups of people nearby then waved. “Syracuse PD has sent down their spokesman, Sergeant Roy Retler. Here he comes.”
Ryan looked at Karen then said, “I don’t know, Cole.”
“You should do this press conference for Maddie,” Cole said as Retler arrived and introductions were made.
“It can be very helpful getting solid information out there,” Retler said. “I’ll take most of the questions about the investigation. Ryan and Karen, just say a few words from your heart.”
“That’s right,” Cole said. “I’ll give you a few points to stress.”