Authors: Karin Salvalaggio
Macy taps the paper in front of her. “How are they tied in with this case?”
“That partial print on the back gate was inconclusive but the DNA from that hair we found in Grace’s room was a perfect match with what we have in these three cases.”
“Leanne’s killer is a wanted pedophile?”
“And a sex trafficker.”
“You’ve linked him to the meth house?”
“Yes, we found his prints and DNA in the basement.” Ray points at the paperwork. “Here are the photos of the girls from this case.”
Macy flips through the images, snapping them down on the table next to her, placing them in a neat row. She pulls out a file she brought with her and finds a photo of Grace and puts it next to the others. They bear a remarkable resemblance to each other—black hair, pale skin, and waiflike. She’s struck by the fact that they all look as if they’re slightly undernourished.
“It’s not a coincidence,” says Ray, leaning in and lowering his voice. “This guy was targeting Grace.”
“But Grace is too old.”
“Maybe he wanted to grow up.”
“What about the Brady Monroe connection? These girls weren’t smuggled over the border.”
“Maybe one of Monroe’s business partners is a pedophile. Brady Monroe told that paramedic that someone did things to young girls that he wouldn’t do.”
Macy’s mouth drops open. “This guy has come back for Grace.”
“What do you mean?”
“What if he was obsessed with Grace when she was younger but with her uncle around he couldn’t get close to her?” She pulls out a transcript of what was written on Grace’s wall and sets it next to the photos. “And now he wants something that he thinks only Grace can deliver. This stuff he wrote on her wall
. Nothing whatever pertaining to godliness and real holiness can be accomplished without
GRACE
. One who loves a pure heart and who speaks with
GRACE
will have the king for a friend. It is by
GRACE
you have been saved. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under
GRACE
.”
Ray picks up Grace’s photo and turns it around so it’s facing Macy. “What if it went further than that? What if this guy abused Grace when she was a child? It would explain her silence. He knows how to control her.”
Macy catches sight of the waitress coming toward them with a tray of food. She quickly gathers up the photos of the girls and tucks them away in the file. “You think she’s hiding her relationship with him.”
“It’s possible.”
Macy mulls it over as she picks at her scrambled eggs. Outside, the sky begins to lighten. They’ll both have to go soon. She looks up and Ray is watching her.
“Have you managed to gain Grace’s trust?” he asks.
“In fits and starts. She’s skittish.” She thinks of Jared. “There’s that paramedic.”
“The one with Brady Monroe.”
“Yes, but he was also first on the scene when Leanne was murdered.” She clears her throat.
“Heck of a week.”
“Grace has taken a shine to him. It might come in handy.”
“I’ll try to keep the Molly Parks connection out of the press as long as possible. We’ve already got sex trafficking and murder. If people know there’s a pedophile on the loose there will be chaos.”
“I’d appreciate that.”
“Has Elizabeth Lamm been cooperating?”
“To tell you the truth, she’s not saying much that’s been helpful. She’s a very proud woman. She’s also dying.”
“Cancer?”
“Yeah, Warren told me. They’re waiting for some test results but the prognosis isn’t good.”
“If she doesn’t have long to live I doubt she’ll ever admit to any knowledge of her husband’s involvement in sex trafficking. Any other leads?”
“Pamela Larson is still on my list of possibilities. She didn’t kill Leanne but I wouldn’t put it past her to offer financial incentives.”
“But how would she have known Leanne was coming back to Collier?”
“That’s a question that’s been bothering me all along. How would anyone have known?”
“Leanne hadn’t made contact?”
“If she did, no one is admitting to it. I’m working on getting access to phone records.”
“When are you going up to Canada?”
“That’s taking some sorting out. The registered owner of the car Leanne drove is currently in prison. They’re tracking down his girlfriend but it hasn’t been as straightforward as I hoped.”
“And what about known associates of Brady Monroe?”
“We have a few possibilities. We’re doing background checks.”
“Anyone stand out?”
“Brian Camberwell is an independent contractor who occasionally drove for Arnold, which explains how his name didn’t come up in the original investigation. He has a history of violence but has never been charged. Apparently, he was ice fishing near Calgary on the day of Leanne’s murder. We’re making inquiries but keeping it quiet for the time being.” She pauses. “Just so you know, he also likes to beat up his wife.”
“We’ll need more than that.”
“His wife happens to be Pamela Larson’s daughter.”
Ray puffs out his cheeks. “Collier is a small town.”
“Too small.”
“Any other employees at Cross Border Trucking stand out?”
“Walter Nielson worked for Arnold for years and was a close family friend. He was murdered about four years ago. It might be related. Scott Pearce is another name that has been thrown around. He wasn’t part of Arnold Lamm’s inner circle but he’s serving time for armed robbery. Neither of them could have killed Leanne but they might have been involved in the trafficking.”
“Hate to break it to you, but Scott Pearce was released early.”
“Why wasn’t I informed?”
“I’m telling you now.”
“How long has he been out?”
“Two weeks. He’s registered at a halfway house in Helena. I’ll handle keeping tabs on him from my end.”
“You should bring him in for questioning.”
“From what we’ve found at the meth house I’d say the sex trafficking operation was disbanded years ago. If Scott Pearce was involved, arresting him is going to have to wait until we have something that ties him to it. Our first priority is going after whoever murdered Molly Parks and has been abusing these girls. I don’t want to spook the guy by showing our hand too early.” He points to the next name on the list of known associates. “Why is Toby Larson’s name here?”
“He was close to Leanne and he’s rumored to be Grace’s father.”
“What does he have to say about that?”
“He asked Leanne years ago. She told him he wasn’t good enough to be Grace’s father.” She leans back. “I can’t rule him out as a suspect in her murder. Leanne broke his heart when she left town. He seems quite resigned to what happened, but for all we know he’s held it against her for the past eleven years.”
“It seems very unlikely. Now that we’ve found the house where the girls were kept it’s more likely Leanne’s murder is connected to the trafficking ring.”
“Toby Larson went fishing with Arnold and on occasion loaned his company vans off his used car lot.” Macy picks up a piece of toast and points it at Ray. “You have to keep in mind that we found no physical evidence on Leanne Adams. Her killer could be anyone. Meanwhile, Molly’s killer left us a trail of DNA and fingerprints. He was at the back gate, in Grace’s room, and in the basement at the meth house. Brady Monroe’s ski mask was found sitting on the seat of his car and instead of dumping it, he kept the gun he stole off of Gareth. I’m seeing very different levels of control.”
“You said Brady Monroe wasn’t working alone.”
“That’s what I’m thinking. It would explain what we found up at the house on Summit Road. One of them goes up to Grace’s room and creates a shrine while someone else cleans out the office. Brady Monroe was deteriorating fast, which is probably why he messed up so badly at the hospital. I don’t see how he would have managed a break-in, the message left on the wall, and a thorough search of Arnold Lamm’s office all on his own. He may have killed Leanne Adams though. Grace thought it was the same type of ski mask. The crime scene was a mess. The killer may not have been careful but he certainly was lucky.”
“How is Sam Fuller? Have you managed to question him?”
“He’s developed an infection in his lungs. I had Warren speak to him about what happened. He didn’t add anything to what we knew already.”
“I checked out that photographer who worked with Grace for the feature article. He’s been in Mexico for the past week and a half. According to his boss he’s not really an asshole, just a frustrated artist.”
“Must have been a bit of a letdown having to work for the
Collier Gazette
. Any connection to Leanne Adams?”
“Nothing that we can find, and he hasn’t got a record. Maybe they had an affair. It wouldn’t have been out of character for her to sleep with the guy.”
An army truck full of young soldiers pulls up outside and both of them watch the recruits spill out onto the parking lot. They’re probably from the training base that’s located on the southern end of the Flathead Valley. One of them pulls a face at Macy when he catches her staring at him. She smiles and looks away.
“How are your daughters? I hope Taylor is doing better.”
He purses his lips. “She’s back in the hospital.”
“Is she not eating again?”
“No, she’s self-harming this time.”
“Christ, when did that start?”
“It’s early days. We’re still trying to figure it out.” Ray rakes his hands through his hair and grimaces. “Jessica knows about us.”
Macy puts down her fork very gently and wipes her mouth with her napkin. She’s not seen Ray’s wife Jessica for nearly two years. They’d been friendly but were never friends.
He looks away. “She wants you to be transferred to another office.”
“That’s not going to happen.”
“I told her that.”
“How’d she find out?”
Ray spins a pencil around the tabletop with his finger. “I never threw away our photos. I never erased our e-mails. Maybe I should have, but I didn’t. Jessica found them.”
“That wasn’t very smart.”
“No. No, it wasn’t.” He glances down at her belly and Macy can tell he’s trying not to cry when he asks. “You need to tell me the truth, Macy. Is the baby mine?”
17
Jared’s head is so sore he can’t lift it from the pillow. Keeping his eyes shut is the only thing that feels right. He sleeps some more, waking up when his dogs jump into bed with him. They’re growling low and barking in short bursts. He takes hold of the closest one and scratches its ears. Its hair smells of wood smoke. The phone has been ringing intermittently and someone has been coming to the door on a regular basis. He’s not answered either. He waits quietly until he hears the resigned crunch of wheels pass out of the driveway. Jared doesn’t know if these visits are daily, hourly, or weekly. He’s lost track of time. He hasn’t bathed. He’s not eaten. At the hospital they’d prescribed tranquilizers and sent him home. He thinks it’s been two days. He digs his head into the pillow and scratches the coarse hairs on his cheeks.
Jared lights a cigarette and checks his pack. He only has three left and then he’ll be forced to leave the house. Very gently he stubs out his half-smoked cigarette and leaves it in the ashtray. He thinks he can slink unnoticed into Trina’s store. If there’s anyone in town who will understand, it’s Trina. She’ll leave him in peace and fill up his basket with cigarettes and whiskey and hand him his usual breakfast burrito. He figures he can be back home in half an hour if he avoids all conversation.
He leans out from the bed and checks the time. It’s nearly two. He scrolls through the messages on his cell phone. There’s still nothing from Hayley. Her silence is getting to him. Brian is keeping a close eye on her, but he’s got to work, he’s got to sleep, he’s got to take a shit.
Fucking Hayley.
Wrapped in blankets, Jared heads for the living room, pushing his dogs to the side when they refuse to make room for him on the sofa. Comforted by their presence, he’s taken to letting them stay inside the house all the time. Long wisps of brown and white dog hair cling to his blankets like lake flies on window screens. His dogs barely lift their heads before scratching out another nest and hunkering back down into the recesses of the sofa. He picks up the television remote from the coffee table and switches on the news. He grows more anxious with each new disclosure.
“This is Connie Evans reporting live at the scene of what police are describing as a house of horrors.”
The reporter stands on a road in front of what appears to be a house but it’s tented over. In the background he can see a forensic unit gathered on the front lawn.
“
The investigation is ongoing but details are slowly emerging. It appears that with the help of others, Brady Monroe ran both a methamphetamine lab and sex trafficking operation out of this modest home just north of Collier. The police are linking this house to the grim discovery of four dead Eastern European women in a roadside picnic area eleven years ago.”
They run old news footage from when the bodies were found. A younger version of Macy walks through a parking lot and ducks under a yellow ribbon of crime-scene tape. In the foreground Ray Davidson, now the chief of state police, fields questions from reporters. Following a brief summary the news report returns to Connie Evans and the house of horrors.
“Authorities are unwilling to comment on how this house is tied into the recent murder of Leanne Adams but public outrage is growing with each new disclosure.”
Grabbing a down-to-the-dregs bottle of whiskey off the coffee table, Jared heads for the bathroom. His gray face stares back at him from the mirror but all he sees is Brady Monroe. Jared is not ungrateful. He knows damn well the only real difference between him and Brady is a decent dental plan. A couple of pills in hand, he opens the whiskey. It doesn’t taste good but he drinks it anyway, popping the pills in his mouth and washing them down together. The capsules free fall before sinking into the lining of his stomach where they burn like cinders. Seconds later it’s all coming back up again. He leans against the toilet and closes his eyes but all he can see is Hayley curled up and barely conscious on his bathroom floor. Rocking back and forth, he tries hard not to cry.