Call Of The Witch (4 page)

“
That’s enough,
Mandy.”

“
For crying out loud,
Lionel, let your hair down once in a while.”

“
Stop it!” I said,
inserting myself between the two. “This isn’t helping Kelly at all.
Mr. Brewbaker, Please. We’re going to need some information about
Kelly for the Amber Alert.”

“
Amber Alert? Won’t that
tip off the kidnappers that we called the police?”

“
That doesn’t matter. I’m
sorry, but we’ve already lost valuable time. If the kidnapper is
traveling with Kelly, they could be leaving the area at a rate of a
mile a minute. Every second counts. Now then, we’ll need a good
description of her; height, weight, eyes, hair color,
distinguishing birthmarks, scars. Anything like that.”

“
All right,” said
Brewbaker. “Let’s see. She’s about 43” tall, 50 lbs. blond hair,
blue eyes, no birthmarks….” He trailed off then, and I could see
him choking up some as he recalled this next feature. “She’s got a
little scar right here.” He pointed to his upper chin. “Below her
lip where she fell and cut herself on the coffee table when she was
five.”

Carlos said, “43” tall, 50 pounds?” That’s
kind of small for a nine-year-old, isn’t it? Sounds more like your
average seven-year-old.”

“
That’s why I call her
Peanut, Detective. She was barely a pumpkin seed when she was
born.” His eyes were pooling now. “But like I said, what she lacks
in stature, she more than makes up for in IQ. She speaks four
languages you know: Spanish, Italian, French and of course,
English. She’s the smartest kid I know.”

The tears found life now. Lionel Brewbaker
excused himself to find a tissue. I turned to Amanda Brewbaker. “Do
you have a current photo of Kelly that we can use for the Amber
Alert?”

“
Of course,” she said, and
she went off to get it.

I asked Carlos if he would email Kelly’s
stats to Dominic. He held his phone up so that I might see the read
out on the screen. “Uploading as fast as I can.”

“
Okay, I wasn’t rushing
you.”

He shook his head and snickered.

“
Now what?” I
asked.

“
Oh, nothing. It’s just
that a year ago, you didn’t even know what email was.”

“
I did so.”

“
No you didn’t. Dominic
had you convinced that email was short for easy mail post-paid
envelopes you picked up at the post office.”

“
That’s because they have
such a thing at the post office. I knew they––”

“
Detectives!” Lionel
Brewbaker returned from the kitchen holding a prescription bottle.
His hands were trembling––again. “Detective, look.” He showed me
the bottle. “This is Kelly’s medication. She needs to take this
every day for her heart.”

“
Shit,” said Carlos. I
don’t think he meant for us to hear, but we all did.

“
Kelly has a heart
condition?”

“
It’s congenital. She
takes this every day.”

“
I have a picture,
Detective.” Amanda Brewbaker returned with a photo, a digital
snapshot printed on photo quality paper. It showed Kelly wearing
what looked like her riding outfit.

“
Is this
current?”

“
Taken about a month
ago.”

“
Mandy,” said Lionel. He
held the medication bottle up for her to see. She gasped, perhaps
the only time all afternoon I had seen her display genuine
emotion.

“
Is that
Kelly’s?”

“
Yes.”

I expected she would run to her husband and
the two would embrace. She didn’t. Instead she ran straight for the
bourbon.

“
Excuse me, Mrs.
Brewbaker.” I walked to her and removed the glass from her hand.
“I’m sorry, but I think we all need to keep a clear head about
things. Would you mind?”

She offered no protest.

“
Carlos, will you do me a
favor and escort Mrs. Brewbaker upstairs to Kelly’s room? Go
through Kelly’s belongings and look for letters, notes, a diary,
anything unusual she might have documented. Also, check her
laundry. Clean and dirty. Have Mrs. Brewbaker verify anything that
might seem strange or unfamiliar.”

“
Got it.”

“
Oh, and Carlos.” I waved
him over and met him half-way. Leaning in to him and whispering, I
said, “Pay particular attention to any soiled underwear. Look for
traces of blood.”

He nodded. “Right.”

As they headed up the stairs, I turned to
Lionel. “We need to know what your daughter was wearing this
morning. Can you tell us?”

“
She was still in pajamas
when I left.”

“
What color?”

“
White with little sea
creatures on them.”

“
Sea
creatures?”

“
Starfish, whales,
dolphins and such.”

“
I see. Now, if she left
the house on her own, have you any idea where she might have
gone?”

“
She wouldn’t have left
the house on her own.”

“
But if she
did?”

“
She didn’t.”

“
You don’t think she would
have gone to a friend’s house.”

“
I told you. She has no
friends.”

“
Does she know the
neighborhood well?”

“
How do you
mean?”

“
I mean if she left the
house for any reason, does she know her way around enough not to
get lost?”

“
Detective, you’re wasting
time with these questions.”

“
Humor me,
please.”

“
Yes. She knows her way
around the neighborhood. She has a great sense of direction.
Phenomenal even. I could drop her in the middle of the Amazon and
she’d find her way home before dinner.”

“
Ok, fine.” I took a deep
breath and let it out slowly, knowing he wouldn’t want to hear my
next question. “Mr. Brewbaker, do you by any chance have Kelly’s
fingerprints on record?”

“
Fingerprints?”

“
Yes. A fingerprint
card.”

“
Good God no. Why would I
need that?”

I think he knew why. “Just in case.”

“
In case of
what?”

“
It’s standard procedure,
sir.”

“
Then no, Detective. I’m
sorry. I don’t. I mean honestly, I would never have imagined my
daughter might someday be kidnapped.”

“
No parent ever does,
sir.”

“
Fingerprints,” he said,
shaking his head. “Who’d have thought of fingerprinting a goddamn
child?”

“
That’s all right. Don’t
worry about it. We can lift them from something in her
room.”

I followed Lionel Brewbaker to the couch, and
when he sat down, I sat down next to him. “I know this is extremely
difficult, but I have only a few more questions. I have to ask
this, sir. Can you think of anyone who might have done this? Do you
have any enemies at all?”

He had planted his elbows on his knees and
buried his face in his hands. He was not outwardly crying, but
subtle groans bled through his hands. Without looking up, he said,
“No, Detective. I have no enemies, and certainly Kelly has no
enemies either.”

“
Of course not. Tell me
about your visit today at your lawyer’s. Was that about the
divorce?”

He shook his head lightly. “No. My visit
today was with a corporate lawyer.” He raised his head and we made
eye contact. “I’m in talks with my business partner, Bill Massy Jr.
He’s offered to buy me out. I agreed.”

“
You’re selling your
interest in Brewbaker and Massy Department Stores?”

“
That’s right.”

“
May I ask
why?”

“
It’s
complicated.”

“
Has it got anything to do
with the divorce?”

“
I don’t see how that’s
any of your business.”

“
It is if it lends to a
motive for kidnapping.”

“
You think Massy kidnapped
my daughter?”

“
I’m not saying that. I’m
simply saying that where large amounts of money are concerned, we
have to look at all possibilities. How much is the buyout worth to
you?”

“
We’re still negotiating
that.”

“
Tony!” Carlos came back
downstairs with Amanda Brewbaker in close tow. He held up a pillow
case wrung tight mid-way and tied in a knot. “We didn’t find
anything suspicious, but I grabbed this stuff.”

I walked to him and took the pillowcase,
weighing it in my hands. “What is it?”

“
Pajamas, socks,
undergarments, hairbrush. You know.” he covered the side of his
mouth. “Scent stuff.”

“
Those pajamas, do they
have whales and dolphins on them?”

“
Yeah. How did you
know?”

“
Never mind. Good
work.”

“
What does he mean, scent
stuff?” Brewbaker asked.

“
They’re scent articles,”
I said. “For search dogs. If it comes to that.” I could see he
wanted to challenge me, assuming I meant if it came to finding his
daughter’s dead body. I came back to him. Put my hand on his
shoulder. “Mr. Brewbaker. More often than not, the dogs pick up the
scent of a live child hidden away in an old boxcar or a warehouse
or someplace like that.”

He nodded without comment.

“
Olson’s here,” said
Carlos.

We all turned toward the kitchen to see
Detective Brittany Olson coming through the swinging door
separating the two rooms. In all the years I have known Olson,
she’s never failed to turn heads when making an entrance. Even in
her fifties, she still maintains the perfect balance between
unquestionable authority and undeniable femininity. She’s bright,
confident, physically fit and masterfully perceptive. In many ways,
she reminds me of Lilith, only without the attitude. Maybe that’s
why the old Tony Marcella dated her, but never stayed with her.
Then again, that might have been her idea.

“
Mr. and Mrs. Brewbaker.”
I presented Olson with a sweep of my hand. “This is Detective
Olson, NCPD. Detective, Mr. and Mrs. Brewbaker.”

She shook hands. No smiles. All business.
“Detective Olson will set up a command center here in the house.
Either she, Carlos, Detective Spinelli or myself will maintain a
presence here at all times. Mr. Brewbaker, we’re going to need your
permission to monitor and record all calls activated on your cell,
Mrs. Brewbaker’s, Kelly’s and of course, your home phone
lines.”

“
Of course,” said
Brewbaker.

“
Detective Olson will also
need to access Kelly’s computer, check her browser and document
history, contacts, email flow and anything else she might need to
explore on its hard drive. I assume you have her passwords to her
social networking sites?”

“
All her passwords are the
same: KellyB140.”

“
Good. Detective Olson
will also need to go over your most recent phone bills. That’ll
include all cell and landlines that Kelly might have had access to.
Is that all right?”

“
Of course. Again,
anything you need, Detective.”

“
Thank you. And lastly,
we’ll need address and contact numbers for all of Kelly’s
acquaintances, anyone she may have been in contact with over the
last week or so. You mentioned she goes horseback
riding?”

“
Yes. She studies
equestrian disciplines at a place in Essex, off 133, just down from
one of my department stores.”

“
We’ll need her
instructor’s name and the name of the stables he operates. You also
mentioned she takes dance lessons?”

“
At the Swan Lake Dance
Studios on Route One.”

“
Route One,
where?”

“
In Danvers.”

I turned to Olson. “You’ll get that info and
send it to Spinelli?”

“
Of course. He’ll have it
on his desk before you get there.”

“
Thanks.” I turned to
Brewbaker again. “Sir, do you mind if I bring in some street cops
to canvas the neighborhood. Look for witnesses. You might be
surprised what people see and don’t report until––”

“
No. Absolutely not,
Detective. You heard the kidnappers. No police. I already let you
talk me into letting you call two more officers in on this. I would
really much prefer to wait until they call back with the ransom
demand, pay the damn thing and get my little girl back in my
arms.”

“
Yes, sir, I understand
that, but normally a child abduction case like this has dozens of
people working to––”

The phone rang. It was in Brewbaker’s pocket.
He took it out and handed it to me. I checked to make sure it was
still on speaker before hitting the pick up button. Brewbaker spoke
first.

“
Hello?”

The scrambled voice came back, “You called
the police.”

“
What? No. I didn’t. These
people are my friends. I didn’t call the police. I
swear!”

“
I want them gone. We will
not tolerate disobedience. We are monitoring your phones. If you
call anyone, your daughter dies.”

“
No, please. I won’t call
a soul. Just tell me what you want. How much do you need to let my
little girl go?”