Fancy Gap (30 page)

“You look pretty sharp, Sergeant Jefferson, if I do say so.”

Leroy laughed as he sat down. Quinn gave him a recap of what his suspicions were. Leroy thought about it for a while and shook his head.

“That doesn’t surprise me, Quinn. You don’t know this, but I coach the boys’ junior varsity basketball team at the high school. I like it, and the boys like me. I think some of the white boys enjoy having a black coach who knows his stuff. Couple of the boys asked me if I knew Michael Jordan. I told them I did.

Anyway, a few of my players were altar boys at the church. From time to time, I overheard them talking about Father Tony and how abusive he is. Some of them told their parents that Father Tony slapped them when he was angry at them. I asked some of the ones I knew well if their parents ever reported these instances to the sheriff ’s department. They all said their parents told them to forget about it because Father Tony was a saint and would never do anything like that. I even mentioned it to the sheriff, and he told me he thought the boys were bullshitting each other to see who could fabricate the best story. I didn’t buy that, Quinn. I could tell these boys were telling the truth.

Some of them were genuinely frightened of the man. They were between a rock and a hard place, because their parents thought it was an honor for them to be altar boys. I even asked a couple of them if he had ever sexually abused them. Two of the boys who suspected him of harboring gay tendencies told me that he had touched them in places he shouldn’t have.

So, yes, Quinn, I do have my suspicions of Father Tony. I know he’s done some wonderful things for the community, but the boys I spoke to were pretty emphatic. The man may be a saint in most eyes, but he’s sure as hell a sinner in some others, including mine.”

Quinn looked at him for a moment.

“Wow, all of that is very interesting and really doesn’t surprise me. So this is what we need to do. I want to talk to the two altar boys I witnessed him giving shit to. I need to hear what they have to say. The second thing we need to do is find out as much about Father Tony as we can. Where was he before he arrived here? Where did he live? Has he had problems in the past? We need to turn over every stone. I can just about guarantee that we’ll find something, Leroy.”

Leroy took out his phone. “Let me get a hold of some altar boys.”

* * *

Louisa joined the sheriff at the biweekly meeting of the investigative task force. This was her first meeting with the group. She arrived a little early to meet with the sheriff privately. He poured her a cup of coffee as they sat in his conference room.

“So what do you make of Quinn’s suspicions, sheriff ?” “Louisa, let me be honest with you. Quinn is in good company with Leroy Jefferson. Leroy confided in me some time ago about innuendos he’d heard from some of the boys he coaches. Nothing concrete, mind you, just talk from kids who might not like the good Father. I personally like him. Not to say that he’s perfect, but I have a hard time thinking he could be in any way responsible for this.”

“Sheriff, I agree. I get nothing but good vibes from him. But I’ll admit I have been wrong in the past. Please don’t tell Quinn I said that. But I’m usually not wrong when it comes to character. I just think he’s a good and just man. I also know that Quinn is about to tear into his past to find out if there’s something we should know about. And it looks like he’s going to get some great help from Leroy.”

Just as she had finished her sentence, Levi burst into the conference room.

“Sheriff, you need to turn on your computer. Hi, Louisa.”

“Levi, can it wait?”

“No, it can’t, sheriff. You need to see what has gone viral on the Web…again.”

The sheriff turned toward his desk and booted up his computer. Levi typed in an address, and a video started to play. The camera panned around a nearly empty room until it focused on a little girl, sitting on a rug in the middle of the room and playing with dolls. The little girl was Katie, and she was naked. A message was painted on her back: “
Is she worth only fifty thousand dollars?
” The camera then focused on the Toys“R”Us bags lying on the floor. The video ran for a minute and a half.

“Replay that, please,” the sheriff asked in a bewildered voice.

Levi hit the Play button, and they watched it again.

“Jesus Christ, I can’t believe what I’ve just seen,” muttered the sheriff.

Louisa reached over and hit the Play button again as she moved closer to the screen. She shook her head after it ended. The three of them looked at each other in silence as the door opened and the rest of the task force arrived. Jim Craig, Johnny Berry, and Rachael Ayres looked at the sheriff and Louisa curiously. Levi motioned them over to the screen.

“Watch this,” he said and hit the Play button again. They watched the clip several times before they sat down around the table.

“ We haven’t been able to determine who posted the picture of Pete Preston’s body on the Internet. The killer was able to effectively mask the IP address. I’m pretty darn sure we’ll encounter the same challenges with this awful video,” said Craig.

The sheriff held up his hand, indicating he wanted the room to be quiet as he dialed a number on the desk phone.

“Hello, Susan, this is Sheriff Pierce. I have some news that I need to tell you about. A disturbing video has been posted on the Internet that shows Katie. She appears to be in good health and doing all right under the circumstances.”

He gave her the Web address and waited a few moments while she and Tim watched it at their apartment. Susan was crying and hysterical when Tim got back on the line.

“Sheriff, do we have any hope of finding her?”

“Tim, the task force is meeting as we speak. Louisa Hawke is here with us. Believe me, Tim; we’re doing everything humanly possible to find Katie.”

“ We know you are, sheriff. I just pray we can find her…alive. I know you’ll call us with any news,” he said.

“You know I will, Tim.” The room was silent after the sheriff hung up.

Louisa stood up. “Let me suggest something that comes from the thirty or so years I’ve been involved in this sort of demented crap. This killer is very special. He’s fucking with us and doing so for a reason. He firmly believes he’s smarter than we are, and he doesn’t think we can catch him. Now, he gave in to the little girl’s desires yesterday when he ventured out of his safety zone and went shopping with her. That almost cost him the whole gig. He was lucky yesterday, but he doesn’t live on luck. He plans and executes with perfection.

His dark side usually controls the show. That side of him has had to retool the show because of what happened yesterday. For instance, his van is out of the picture now. He knows it, and we know it. So Rachael what do we know about the van?” she asked.

“ We already have video clips of the van from the McDonald’s parking lot and the Toys“R”Us store parking lot in Winston-Salem,” Rachael responded. “We’re pretty sure it’s a nineteen ninety-five Dodge Ram twenty-five hundred panel van. The stock tires on that model were two twenty-five/seventy-five R fifteen. That size would match the tire impressions we recovered from the motel as well as where it was parked off of Highway 52 in the wooded area. We have circulated pictures of the van to every police agency in the neighboring states. However, I agree that since he was stopped by the Mount Airy officer, he won’t use that van anytime soon.

I’m still working with the Bureau’s cyber forensics team to find out what we can about where the video came from. Unfortunately, we’re still ruining into dead ends. We thought the trace could yield better results. The team is working around the clock.”

“Thanks, Rachael. Good work. What else can we do about the van?” Louisa asked.

“I’m going to get pictures of the van posted on our department home page. We’re going to enlist the local and regional media to plaster the picture of that van all over the newspapers and television stations,” said Levi. “We’re also going to have the patrol deputies paste a picture of the van in all the local convenience stores and supermarkets. Based on what we know now, the killer had driven the van around Fancy Gap and other parts of Carroll County. If we get lucky, we might find someone who saw it come down some street or road or, better yet, some driveway. We just need a little luck in that department.” Levi felt good after saying all of that.

“Good plan, Levi that could lead to some good information. Let’s talk about the reward. Does anyone think we can get funds to up the ante on the reward to, say, one hundred thousand dollars?” Louisa suggested.

Everyone in the room looked at each other before the sheriff spoke, “The local reality is that there isn’t that much time until the flea market weekend starts. All of Carroll County is already being affected by this. All forms of business are feeling the pinch. Only half of the regular vendors had paid for their booths and ground space, and the motels are getting cancellation after cancellation. I have personally heard from more residents who are already feeling the fiscal pinch of the recession, and now any chance of recovery is diminishing by the day. This is not good.

I plan to have dinner with Libby Thomas tonight and see what she can do about getting more money for the reward,” said the sheriff. “Getting another fifty thousand will be challenging, but Libby has her ways. If anyone can do it, I’m sure she can.”

“Thanks, sheriff. I agree with you on that point. Libby Thomas certainly appears to have her way with things,” Louisa said, grinning at the sheriff. “OK, now for the next step. Since we have evidence that the killer transported Katie across state lines into North Carolina, we now have a federal offense. It’s time to officially bring the power and might of the FBI into the case. The more help we get on this and the sooner we get, the better our chances of getting Katie back alive. I firmly believe that Katie won’t live into next week.

The killer understands that the noose is now tightening around his own neck. He made a big mistake and now has to deal with the consequences. I agree that he is nearby and is watching us. The video is his way of slapping us in the face. But he isn’t going to play this game much longer. He will probably kill her and maintain his cover if he can, or move on after and create a completely new identity for himself somewhere else. We have to move in the next two to four days.

I’m going to call Sandy Wells, who heads the FBI office in Richmond. We need to see how many agents he can get over here and how quickly he can get them here. It’s time to saturate the area with investigative resources. I’m also going to call the ATF office in Roanoke to see what kind of manpower they can send to help us as well. I don’t expect to get any push-back from any of those folks. I suggest that the core team get together every other day to look at what we have. Any thoughts?”

“I’m not so comfortable with the thought of those federal folks bumping into themselves while we’re trying to conduct our own investigation,” Johnny Berry piped up. “This will make us look like ineffective morons who can’t properly investigate a local matter. I just don’t know if all of that will do us any good.”

Before Louisa could respond, the sheriff stood up. “Johnny, let me tell you something. I like my job. You state folks aren’t elected into office. I am. So let me remind you of what’ll happen if we don’t avail ourselves of federal assistance and the press gets wind of that. Let me tell you what our local residents will think of that. They won’t think we’re morons; they’ll think we’re nincompoops. And my old ass will be unemployed, and that is not acceptable, my good friend.”

Johnny Berry didn’t say a word.

“Listen, you may think I’m butting in to this whole mess,” Louisa said. “Not the case at all. I’m here for the Prestons. I can only be in the background. This is the sheriff ’s jurisdiction, and I’ll do as much as I can to help him and get Katie back to her parents before it’s too late.”

The room cleared out, leaving Louisa and the sheriff alone.

“Please do call Sandy Wells and get his folks out here to help. Every bit of manpower will help us. I agree with you that our window is closing rapidly. Johnny Berry will get over it, especially if we get the girl back alive.”

* * *

Quinn and Leroy returned to Quinn’s house.

“OK, Leroy, tell me exactly what we know about the priest.”

Leroy looked at his notes. “Well, all I know is that his name is Father

Antonio Cruz Martinez. I really don’t know anything else about him. I haven’t done a Google search on him or anything like that.”

“Cool, we can do that right now. Let’s get his name entered here and see what we come up with.”

Quinn looked at the screen for a moment and typed in some more information. He looked at the results and typed some more.

“Well, Leroy, this is interesting. The hits I’m getting are for his time here at the parish in Fancy Gap. Not a darned thing before that. Nothing! Did you enter his name in your system at work?” Quinn asked.

“I sure did, and nothing came back. No criminal history, no military history or even prior addresses.”

“Well, shit, that’s not good. Where else can we look? Let me look up the telephone number for the archdiocese offices in Richmond. They must have all the information on every priest in Virginia. Got it. Here’s the number for the human resources department. Give them a call and identify yourself as a police officer and see what you get, Leroy.”

Leroy dialed the number and spoke to the person who answered the phone. He looked at Quinn and covered the mouthpiece. “It’s the receptionist. She’s connecting me to somebody.” Leroy waited for a few moments. He identified himself to the new person and asked for information on Father Tony. “This is an important police matter… OK, I understand,” he said as he hung up the phone.

“That was Tami LePage the director of human resources. She told me they don’t give out that kind of information over the phone. She suggested she might talk to us if we go to their offices in Richmond.”

“I’m not surprised, Leroy. Just another bureaucrat covering her ass. OK, Leroy, it’s a three-hour drive to Richmond. Let’s hit the road and visit with them face to face. It’s always harder to say no if you’re standing nose to nose with them.”