Jane looked at the photo of Sara’s grandfather and his wife. “Your last name…Green? Did you change it?”
“Yes. My family name is Greenfeld. I changed it long before I was baptized. My family was okay with it. They understood the stigma.”
“Right. They agreed to bury it.”
“Yes.” Aaron looked off to the side. “Names are a funny thing, though.” He shook his head. “No matter how much you run from a name, it comes back to haunt you.”
Jane stared at him. “What do you mean by
haunt
?”
“Sara’s grandmother? She went by Lee. But her given name was Liora.”
Jane wasn’t sure she heard him at first. “Mollie must have heard the name mentioned…”
“No, I assure you, she did not. We rarely referred to her great-grandmother by name except to call her
Nana
. She may have heard us call her
Lee
, but it was usually
Nana
. It was as if she heard the name through osmosis. I have no explanation for it.”
“Osmosis.” Jane quietly pondered the notion.
The dead are following me.
That’s what Jake posted on the secret revelations website. To not acknowledge them was to incur their wrath…a wrath that could only be resolved by speaking their name in the light. “You have to tell Mollie the truth.”
“That her last name is really Greenfeld and her great-grandmother’s name was Liora? That she’s a full-blooded Jew by birth? I’m the minister of the Methodist Church, Detective. I have a good following and I have good Christian people who trust me. If we reveal ourselves to Mollie, we will have to reveal ourselves to everyone else in this town because I will not allow my child to carry a secret like that on her shoulders.”
“But you and Sara will carry it.”
“It’s our burden.”
“It doesn’t have to be. And anyway, on some level, Mollie already knows.”
Aaron looked stunned. “Has she said something to you?”
“No. She knows in her heart. And if you keep lying to her, she’s not going to be able to rectify what she feels. Talk about a mind-fuck.” Now Jane was really starting to channel Jordan Copeland. “Is the burden of the secret equal to the burden of the truth?”
“Think of the ramifications of telling the truth, Detective…”
“Oh, hell, Aaron. Haven’t you ever heard of
spin
? You could spin this to your benefit.” She assumed the voice of a PR guru. “The man who only accepted the Old Testament embraces the New Testament and, like the book of Revelations, he now discloses to his flock things that were only previously whispered
in the dark.” She let the idea sink in. “Jesus, Aaron. Don’t be a
shmuck
. This could be
gelt
…gold.”
Aaron couldn’t help but smile at Jane’s words. She handed him the photos and he replaced them in the album. “Are you going to spread this around town?”
“What kind of a person do you think I am?”
Aaron regarded Jane with pensive eyes. “I think you’re a good woman who just wants to know the truth.”
“Thank you. So, are you going to tell me the truth about what Bailey said to you?”
Aaron struggled. “This has to be off the record.” Jane reluctantly nodded. “You know I love Jake…”
“Yeah. He’s like your son.
What did Bailey say, Aaron
?”
“It was in Mollie’s best interest that they break up. There was no future and I didn’t want her to get hurt.”
“Why would she get hurt?”
“Because Jake is gay.”
Jane let the information settle. “This is what Bailey told you?”
Aaron nodded. “He said he… caught him…looking at gay porn on his computer and that, when he confronted Jake about it, the boy didn’t deny it. In fact, he said he was already hooking up with other homosexual boys he’d met on the Internet…”
“Hooking up how? He doesn’t have a car and only a learner’s permit.“
“I asked the same question. Bailey said Jake was sneaking out at night. He fashioned some kind of rope apparatus off his bedroom deck. He’d steal one of his dad’s cars and meet these guys. Bailey was…how can I say it…
disgusted
doesn’t even come close to his reaction. He described in very graphic detail the kind of stuff that he found on these gay porn sites…I just…I just couldn’t allow my daughter in good conscience to continue associating with Jake. These boys he’s meeting on the Internet… they could be drug addicts or perverts. It’s a dangerous world out there, Detective. You know that too damn well. In God’s
name, why would I put my daughter in harm’s way?”
“I understand. You had no choice.”
Aaron shook his head in dismay. “I think my fears were validated by what happened to Jake.”
“What do you mean?”
“He struggled with being gay and after his dad found out about it, he was humiliated. But the damage had already been done. He went to the bridge to kill himself, but some freak who he attracted from an Internet chat room caught up with him and…” Aaron struggled. “And murdered him.”
“That’s what you think happened?”
“I do. But I would never say a word of that to Mollie.”
Jane realized that when you don’t have all the facts, evidence or clues, it’s easy to jump to erroneous conclusions. With only the titillating elements to draw upon, it was simple to create what seemed like the most viable and obvious outcome. But Aaron didn’t have the benefit of a bevy of clues that told a different story—a story that was told by someone who was highly intelligent and who wanted to be caught. Aaron didn’t have the knowledge that the Van Gordens held back a clue. He didn’t follow Bailey to a seedy strip club and watch a payoff being made. He didn’t suffer through a disturbing one-on-one conversation with Louise Van Gorden and walk away from it feeling filthy. There were too many questions and not enough answers to float a possible conclusion regarding Jake’s fate.
They parted, with Jane retreating to her room. She checked her cell phone in hopes of finding a voicemail from Candy at the strip club. It was reasonable to believe that if Bailey was on the phone with his connection when they were leaving his house, he most likely would be at the club by now. Of course, it was Sunday and it could be Miss Cane’s day off to rest, wash her thongs and polish her tassels.
Jane hung the teddy bear by its one good ear on the clothesline in its appropriate timeline slot. She turned to the address label with the mysterious
BAWY!
and the reoccurring
twenty-five-cent Packard postage stamp. She’d already considered the relevance of the stamp as it was the answer to the cryptic riddle set forth by the kidnapper early on. A quick check on Jane’s computer showed that the stamp was issued in 1988 as part of an edition featuring old cars. Either the kidnapper owned the stamp in a collection or he bought it online, much like he probably bought the classic pack of Chesterfield 101 cigarettes. But why the Packard?
Jane found the third clue—the one with the magazine cutout of the young boy with the red cap holding out his arm—and looked at the envelope it came in with the uncancelled Packard stamp. She hadn’t noticed it before this, but the lower edge of the stamp on the envelope was slightly separated from the envelope. Wedging her fingernail under the stamp, it easily peeled off the paper. Underneath were the printed words:
HELP ME!
“Shit,” Jane mumbled as she grabbed the address label she retrieved from the box that held the bear and peeled off that Packard stamp. There were five extremely small words printed under the stamp:
TELL HER WHAT YOU SAW!
Jane threw the label on the desk as an electric shock coursed up her spine. She heard Weyler’s footsteps outside in the hallway and swung the door open, motioning him to come into her room. “Look at this!” she said nervously, showing him the two pleading statements.
“Jesus,” Weyler said, examining the writing carefully. “Why would he hide them under the Packard?”
“Maybe he drives a Packard and he’s saying these statements inside the Packard?”
“That’s a stretch.”
“No, I don’t think it is. You have to think like this guy. He’s under the Packard?
In
the Packard? I’m not sure. But these words are connected to the Packard.”
“So, this black vehicle that the woman saw on the bridge before Jake went missing was a Packard? Don’t you think she’d mention something about the car being rather old?”
“If she doesn’t know cars, then maybe not,” Jane offered.
“Is this Jake’s writing? If a guy in a Packard kidnapped him, is he writing
Help me
and
Tell her what you saw!
in hopes that we’re going to peel off the stamp? That’s a little out there, don’t you think?”
“If he’s being held captive and at the point of death, why would he risk that?”
“Maybe because he’s not being held against his will.” Weyler took a seat on the desk chair.
“So the kidnapper wrote it,” Jane deduced.
“Why would the kidnapper write
Help me
and
Tell her what you saw!
Jane, this is starting to seem like something Jake’s involved with.”
It seemed appropriate at that moment to divulge what Aaron told Jane about Jake. She relayed the information to Weyler in a matter-of-fact tone.
“Oh, for Chrissake. Well, that might explain why his dad erased his computer, including all the current emails and website history. If Jake visited gay chat rooms or websites, he’d most likely be getting daily spam from those sites to this day. Maybe his dad didn’t want to have his son further humiliated?”
“I don’t think Bailey gives a shit about his son. I think whatever Bailey Van Gorden covers up, he does so for Bailey Van Gorden! When he saw the Ace of Spades card with the bloody fingerprint, he screamed ‘Fuck him!’ Who was he talking about? Jordan or Jake? Do you remember the first time we met the Van Gordens? Bailey was telling us to investigate Jordan but he was also focused on Jake. As an aside, Bailey said, “
Little shit
.” I told you then that I thought Bailey was referring to his own son and
not
Jordan. Just the same way that I think he was thinking of Jake when he screamed, ‘Fuck him’ today! There’s no love lost there!”
Weyler nodded in agreement. “If Bailey’s disgusted by Jake’s homosexuality, he might feel that Jake got whatever he had coming to him if he was hooking up with guys on the Internet…”
Jane cogitated. “But then, what has the Ace of Spades got to do with anything? Bailey and Louise clearly reacted to the card
before
they realized there was a bloody fingerprint on it!”
“Are you positive?”
“I was watching those two like a hawk. I
am
sure!”
“What does the Ace of Spades represent?”
“The number
one
or
eleven
.”
“There’s got to be a deeper meaning.”
“I don’t get the sense that Bailey and Louise are deep thinkers.”
“Wait a second. Isn’t the Ace of Spades known as the Death Card? I recall hearing how the Ace of Spades was laid on the bodies of Vietnamese killed by U.S. soldiers during the war. Soldiers would cover the ground with the Ace of Spades as a calling card of death. It was used as psychological warfare.”
Weyler’s idea of
psychological warfare
rang true to Jane. In her mind, all the clues—as bizarre and unconnected as they might appear—were all meant to trigger a psychological schism. Still, the revelation that Jake was gay still gnawed on Jane. “If Bailey is personally disgusted by his son’s homosexuality, it doesn’t compute that he’s going to take the time to confront Aaron about his son’s gay liaisons without knowing where that information is going to end up. In my opinion, it was done purposely to
humiliate
Jake. Bailey could give a shit about Mollie and her feelings. Mollie said Bailey hardly ever talked to her when she was at their house.” Jane contemplated further. “No, this has got massive manipulation written all over it.”
“If Jake’s gay, this could turn the case in an entirely different direction.”
The light bulb came on. “Exactly. I gleaned the information
off the record
from Aaron. If I breech that trust, it’s Aaron who gets hurt for being a minister who breeched a confidence.
Then,
Jake is publicly humiliated once the information streams through town. We’re sent on a gay trail to who knows where to track down people we have no record of because Bailey
conveniently erased the alleged emails and websites. And while that’s all going on, the Van Gordens and whatever they’re hiding is tossed to the side while we chase our tails. It’s
brilliant evil
.”
“But it can’t be ignored, Jane.”
“Hang on…” Jane suddenly recalled a comment Bailey made during their first meeting. “You know, a guy can’t have it both ways. When we first talked to Bailey and I suggested that Jake may have met a predator online, he was adamant that Jake didn’t meet anyone online and then he was quick to add that the predator was Jordan Copeland!” She shook her head. “Damn! This is where understanding people is so critical. You can’t set the dominos in a clear direction if the first domino is a lie. Supposedly, Bailey told Aaron his son was gay to protect Jake. But the truth is he doesn’t give a shit about Jake. So everything else that follows after that lie is corrupted and meant to confuse the real issue.”
“Why would a father tell another man that his son is gay if he’s not gay?”
“I don’t know. But there’s a lot of things about Bailey I don’t know.” She turned to Weyler with a smug look. “Except for one thing…” Jane crossed to the clothesline and carefully removed the stuffed bear. “I told you they were holding something back from us.” He sat in stunned silence as Jane detailed her tense encounter with Carol in the kitchen and how Carol slyly directed Jane to the missing clue. “You can’t tell Bo about this one,” Jane advised, “because he’ll want to talk to the family about it and that’s going to put Carol in one helluva spot. Please trust me on this one.”
Weyler nodded. “I’ll say nothing for now. But if things shift, I’ll have no choice.”