Vanished - A Mystery (Dixon & Baudin Book 1) (16 page)

32

“Shit, I loved high school,” Dixon said as they parked in guest parking.

Baudin scanned the school and then looked at his partner. “I figured you’d be the type.”

“And what type is that?”

“Someone who would think this meat grinder was enjoyable.” He stepped out of the car and watched as Dixon popped some gum and followed him. A paved sidewalk led up to the front doors and was surrounded by grass and trees.

“I take it Ethan Baudin didn’t have a good time in high school. What, did you get picked on by the jocks?”

“How do you know I wasn’t a jock?”

“No, you got nerd written all over you.”

Ethan began to pull out his cigarettes then thought better of it. “I was an outcast. For gym class I’d sit on the sidelines and read Shakespeare. That didn’t win me many friends. Kids, though, adolescents, see, their brains aren’t formed like ours. They can’t repress what’s inside them as well. They’re cruel in a way adults would be arrested for. Monsters.”

“I wasn’t a monster.”

Baudin looked at him as he held the door open. “Ask the people you stepped on, and let’s see if they say the same thing.”

The school seemed small. Baudin remembered high school appearing larger than life, and he didn’t know whether it was the school or if he had been shorter. Maybe the perspective of middle age looking back on youth just aggrandized everything.

The administration offices were to the left, and Baudin went inside. Dixon sat down in one of the chairs as if he were waiting for the principal.

Baudin asked the receptionist to speak to the vice principal. He knew the vice principal was the one who did most of the work and would know the students intimately.

A skinny man with hair that was slicked back to cover a bald spot stepped out of an office a moment later. He shook hands with Baudin.

“Roger Daft.”

“Detective Ethan Baudin.”

“Pleased to meet you. My brother’s a highway patrolman, actually.”

Baudin ignored his attempt at familiarity and said, “We need to speak to one of your students, Ruth Chase. And then maybe a few more after that.”

“I assume this is about Alli.”

“It is.”

He nodded, solemnly looking down at the floor. “I was wondering when you’d come out. I don’t announce things like that without the parent’s consent. The mother consented, I want you to know that.”

Baudin shrugged, though it was odd that her mother had called Dora and told her that quickly. He wondered why she would want everyone else to know her daughter died. “I don’t care. I want to know about her.”

“I knew you would. I met with her a lot because of her behavioral problems.” He cleared his throat. “She accused me of sexual harassment once. You should probably know that. It was a complete fabrication, of course. But that was the way she was. She was promiscuous at an early age and used her sexuality to get what she wanted. Very underhanded that way.”

Baudin stepped close to the man, not breaking eye contact with him. “She was a kid.”

“I know,” he stammered, “I know. I’m just saying she had certain proclivities… that’s all. I’ll have someone pull Ruth out of class for you.”

Dixon was smiling when Baudin turned around.

“What?” Baudin asked.

“Just interesting the stuff that gets you riled up, that’s all.”

“Why would Alli’s mom call Dora and tell her she’s dead?”

Dixon shrugged. “Who the hell knows? Maybe she wants to play the grieving victim and can only do that if everyone knows our Jane Doe is her little girl. Don’t matter, I stopped asking questions like that a long time ago.”

Baudin paced the offices until one of the staff brought in a girl with glasses and worn jeans.

“May we use this office?” Baudin asked.

“Sure,” the receptionist said without looking up.

The office was decorated with motivational posters. Baudin sat on the couch so as not to give the appearance of authority. She sat across from him in a recliner, wringing her hands.

“You’re not in trouble, Ruth,” Baudin said. “I’m Detective Baudin, and this is Detective Dixon. But you can call me Ethan, okay?”

“Okay.”

“I guess you heard what happened to Alli Tavor.”

She nodded without looking up.

“It’s come to our attention that something like what Alli went through may have happened to you.”

She shook her head. “No.”

Baudin stared at her a while in silence. He rose and sat next to her, lowering his voice to almost a whisper, his lips close to her ear. “I know you’re scared of them, Ruth. But I promise you, you don’t have to be. Not anymore. I will protect you. I’m stronger than they are. I have more power than they do. I won’t ever let them hurt you again.” He took out his card and scribbled a number on the back. “This is my personal cell phone number. If any of them ever even look at you funny again, I want you to call this number.”

She took the card, her eyes never leaving the floor. “I told Mr. Daft about it.”

“What did he do?”

“He said he would look into it.”

“Did you tell your parents?”

She nodded, tears welling in her eyes. “My dad was leaving to play golf when my mom told him. He said, ‘Boys will be boys,’ and then he left.”

Baudin was silent, stealing a quick glance at Dixon, who was leaning forward, listening to the girl. “Ruth, that will never happen with me. Do you understand? I will protect you better than anyone’s ever protected you in your life. I swear it.”

Finally, she looked at him. A tear was running down her cheek and Baudin reached up and wiped it away.

“Alli was hanging out with those boys. I tried to tell her what happened to me. But she said she loved one of them. I don’t know which one, I never met him. But she said she loved him and that he loved her and wouldn’t let anything happen to her.”

“Which boys, Ruth?”

“The Sigma Mu guys. She was in love with one of them.”

Dixon asked, “Did she ever say his name?”

“Dustin. She said his name was Dustin.”

Baudin looked at Dixon, who nodded and immediately rose and left the office as he placed the call. A quick call to the administration office of the University of Wyoming should reveal a student named Dustin in the Sigma Mu fraternity.

Baudin turned to Ruth, who was wiping away tears with her sleeve. He took a box of tissues off the desk and handed them to her.

“What did they do to you, Ruth?”

She swallowed. “We went over there, three of us. We thought we were so cool. Hanging out with college guys. And they started giving us booze. I swear, I only had one drink. Not even that. Less than, like, five sips. But I was so drunk. I was so drunk I couldn’t move. And one of the boys grabbed me, and he lifted me up and carried me upstairs, away from where anybody could see me. I went in and there was like, maybe twelve of them or more… I don’t know. There were so many…”

He rested his hand on her forearm and just let it sit there. A long silence passed between them before she continued.

“And, like, they laid me down on the bed. And they took turns. All of them.”

“You saw their faces?”

She shook her head. “They wore these, like… black hoods. I couldn’t see any of their faces except the one who carried me up.” She began to sob. “I couldn’t move, and I tried to scream and one of them shoved a rag in my mouth. And they held me down, and they took turns and…”

“Shhh,” he said, wrapping his arm around her. Initially, she jolted as though startled, but then she eased into his warmth. Baudin closed his eyes, pretending that he was taking her pain into himself, that somehow he was lessening the agony she felt.

Dixon opened the door and nodded.

“I have to go,” Baudin said. “I’m going to stop these boys, Ruth. Do you hear me? They will never hurt anyone again. I promise.”

She wiped the tears away.

“Can you think of any other friends of Alli’s I should speak with?”

“She didn’t have any friends. There’s a girl named Dora Sullivan, and that’s it.”

Baudin kissed her on her forehead. “You have strength I can only imagine. Use that, turn to it. Hatred has energy, too, more than most things, but in the end it can eat you up—devour everything in your life. You take revenge somehow, whatever way you can, and then you close it like it never happened.”

She nodded as he rose. At the door, he looked back and saw her sobbing again. Baudin shut the door behind him and walked into Daft’s office.

“Detective, I assume—”

Baudin grabbed him by his tie and pulled him across the desk, knocking over everything on the desktop. Dixon ran over and tried to pull Baudin away, wrapping his arms around the detective. Daft was choking from the tie. Dixon finally got the two men apart.

“What the fuck!” Daft coughed as Dixon dragged Baudin out.

When they were heading back to the car, Dixon asked, “What is your problem?”

“I don’t have a problem.”

“You can’t treat people that way. This is a small town. You’ll get a reputation, and you’ll be out on your ass. Not to mention that he will never help us again with anything.”

“Fuck him.”

Dixon stepped in front of him. “You can get more from people if you’re nice. Shit, you don’t even have to
be
nice, just fake it. Just for a few minutes. Or is that too hard? Would you feel too inauthentic, or some other bullshit you tell yourself to explain why you’re an asshole?”

“He covered it up, man. That girl went to him for help, and he didn’t do shit. Probably knows one of the frat boys’ daddies.”

“So what? It’s already done. Strangling him with his tie isn’t going to do anything, and now he’ll work against us. You gotta think, man. These are small town folks. Simple folks.”

“Idiots, you mean.”

“Well, everybody’s an idiot compared to the great Ethan Baudin, right? The nut job who can’t handle a big city career so he tries to move to a small town and is fucking that up, too.”

Before another word came out of Dixon’s mouth, Baudin hit him. The blow was quick, a rabbit punch, and didn’t do much damage. But it was enough.

Dixon rushed him, tackling him at the waist. Both men hit the ground hard, Dixon on top. He struck with his fist, bouncing Baudin’s head off the ground. When he tried to punch him again, Baudin stopped his arm at the biceps. He headbutted him, Dixon’s head snapping back with the blow to his nose. Baudin rolled him off.

He got on top and was now the one hitting. Dixon wrapped his arms around him like a wrestler and pulled him close so he couldn’t strike him. Then he thrust his hips up and rolled on top of Baudin again. Dixon scrambled to his feet, holding his fists in a fighting stance.

“Come on!” Dixon shouted.

Baudin rose. He wiped the blood from his lip and instead moved slowly toward the car. He sat on the hood and lit a cigarette—one of the few that hadn’t been crushed during the tumble. Dixon watched him a moment and then went and sat on the hood, too. Neither said anything as Baudin smoked, and a bell rang in the school.

33

The precinct was awash in activity. The noise swamped Dixon as he stepped inside. The act of purposeful motion was calming to him, somehow, as if everything was just rolling on despite all the chaos. Life just moved on.

Baudin came in after him. His lip was swollen, and he had a red cheek, but other than that he looked fine. Dixon hadn’t looked at himself and didn’t know what he was showing.

They sat across from each other without a word and went to work on their computers. Dixon wanted a break from Alli Tavor. He hadn’t wanted to know about rape parties or any of it. His mind needed a reprieve.

“Kyle,” Jessop yelled from his office, “get your ass in here. You too, tough guy.”

They glanced at each other before Dixon rose and Baudin followed him. Inside Jessop’s office, Chief Crest sat on the couch, leaning to the side with his elbow on the armrest. A lit cigar held in between his fingers. He looked like a reclining king uninterested in his own kingdom.

“Shut the door,” Jessop said.

Dixon shut it.

“Sir,” Dixon said, “about the vice principal. It was a—”

“I don’t give a shit,” he said, his hands on his hips as he paced behind his desk. “The Sigma Mus had their house broken into last night.”

“Yeah, so?”

“The only thing taken was a bunch of photographs. A guy dressed in black snuck in through the back door. You two know anything about that?”

Dixon looked at Baudin, who was staring down at Jessop’s desk without moving.

Dixon realized he’d been silent too long. He had to say something. “Why would we want to break into a frat house?”

“You tell me.”

Dixon shrugged and shook his head. “We ain’t got no reason for that. And we’re cops. We ain’t stupid.”

Jessop turned to Baudin. “What about you, hotshot? You know anything about this?”

“No, sir. Probably another frat.”

He nodded. “Uh huh.” He looked from one to the other. “I find out either of you had anything to do with this… I don’t need to finish that sentence, do I?”

“No, sir,” Dixon said.

“Get out.”

Dixon was the first to leave, glancing back at the chief, who hadn’t moved anything but his eyeballs. His gaze was set on Baudin.

Once back at their desks, Dixon didn’t say anything. He typed a probable cause statement on a burglary case, finished the entire thing, and emailed it to the office assistant to print and email to the court for a warrant. He rose and headed out of the precinct to grab something to eat.

Once outside, he was walking to his car when he heard Baudin behind him.

“Wait.”

Dixon didn’t acknowledge him. He kept walking, never looking back.

“Would you wait a second?” Baudin grabbed his arm.

Dixon pulled away violently. “I can’t believe you did this,” he said through clenched teeth. “Getting
your
ass in a sling is one thing, but I want to keep my job.”

“I’m not saying anything about that.”

He snorted. “So if I’m ever forced to testify against you, I can say I have no knowledge about the break-in. Nice. What the hell is the matter with you? We’re cops, Ethan. We’re fucking cops.”

Baudin’s eyes changed. A gloominess came over him, and he took a step back and put his hands on his hips. A car drove by, and Baudin didn’t acknowledge it. “The darkness that’s eating this world doesn’t care, man. It doesn’t have ethics. It doesn’t have rules. And without that, it has a natural advantage. If we’re gonna level the playing field, we can’t think like you think.”

“You mean actually following the law? Yeah, I think cops should follow the fucking law, Ethan,” he nearly shouted.

“There is no law, man,” he said calmly. “There never was. It’s an illusion. The people in power exploit the people who have no power. We can stand between them. We can fight for people who have no power. And by the way, before you get too high on your holier-than-thou soapbox, everyone is capable of that darkness. Even you, man. Everyone. So don’t judge me for what I did. All my actions are for a greater good.”

“Bullshit. All your actions are for Ethan Baudin and to hell with everyone else around him.”

Dixon stormed off and jumped into his car. He peeled out with Baudin still standing there watching him. Dixon wasn’t sure which one of them he was more upset with: Baudin for lying to him and breaking into that house without telling him or himself for being envious that Baudin could do things like that.