Pied Piper

CHAPTER 11

On Thursday, March 19, a hysterical call was received by the Emergency Communications Center at 1:07 P.M. announcing that a child was missing and that an older woman needed immediate medical attention. An ambulance, dispatched from a local fire company, arrived at 1:21 P.M., followed less than ten minutes later by Daphne Matthews and John LaMoia, who intercepted the EMT crew as they loaded the stricken woman into the ambulance.

“Convulsions,” the ambulance driver informed LaMoia as Daphne consoled the parents. “Seizure of some kind.”

“Stun gun?”

“Could be, I suppose, but epilepsy more like. Been lying there the better part of an hour, I’d guess. She’s lucky to be alive-real lucky.”

“If it’s epilepsy,” LaMoia mumbled to himself, not believing it was.

A minute later the ambulance charged off.

“I’m going to follow them,” Daphne announced. “What I got was that the wife was out for her regular aerobics class and grocery shop. Mother-in-law watching the kid. Wife started her period and felt lousy. Came home. Finds her baby boy, Hayes, gone, mother-in-law, down by the front door in convulsions.”

LaMoia scribbled it down.

“I’ll be in touch,” she said, turning toward her car.

“Later,” LaMoia called out after her. He pulled the front door shut behind him, only a few neighbors out on the sidewalk. He said to the first officer, the first uniform on the scene, “Nice job on keeping this low profile. Let’s see if we can’t keep it that way. Send the neighbors home nice and quiet-the woman had a medical problem. She’s being taken care of. No mention of any kidnapping.”

“Got it.” The man hurried off.

The ECC had gotten it right, using landline telephones instead of contacting SPD dispatch over the radio, keeping it away from the media and the curious. Boldt had written the suggestion up as a memo after the Shotz kidnapping. The result, not a single reporter outside and LaMoia had some breathing room.

He sketched a rough look of the front door area in his notebook, including a large, empty cardboard box. As he did so, the crime scene came alive for him. With a patrolman shadowing him, he walked through the motions and explained, “Man arrives with a package. Large, heavy, by the look of it. Nearly empty, in fact. Convinces the mother-in-law to let him in to put it down. Does so. Turns around and zaps her with a TASER. It’s all a ruse in case of neighbors. Inside the box is a smaller one-seen entering with one box, leaving with a different one. Inside the smaller is the kid. Climbs back into his delivery truck-a white minivan, I’m thinking, with some kind of delivery name on the side-and is gone, no one the wiser.”

“You think?” the patrolman had the stupidity to voice.

“No!” LaMoia barked. “I’m telling stories here to entertain you. Go do something productive. There’s some phone equipment in the briefcase. Set it up.”

Hayes Weinstein might have been kidnapped by a copycat, someone who might attempt to ransom the child, unaware the Pied Piper never did so. The convulsing mother-in-law told him differently: the TASER had struck the diaphragm or too close to the heart, jarring her nervous system and sending her into the seizures. It was the Pied Piper. A sense of failure and guilt stole through him-as lead, it was his job to stop this bastard.

He made more sketches of the home’s interior and wrote notes to later remind him of what he saw. A few minutes later, at the door to the empty nursery, he announced sharply, “Carpet patrol!”

He and the first officer took to their knees, picking at the rug, working a grid imposed by LaMoia and pictured in his notepad. He started too fast, too anxious, and had to settle himself before beginning again. They then moved with caution and no eye on the clock, carefully working deep into the nap: crumbs, pet hairs, thread, pebbles-collected into white paper sandwich bags and labeled with ink. This, before other shoes arrived contaminating the scene.

They spent fifteen minutes in the nursery and another ten near the front door. SID’s crime scene van pulled up outside as LaMoia reached the front door’s threshold. He carefully worked the carpet there, knowing that shoes flexed as they bridged the gap between the door’s threshold and the carpet. As his fingers pinched a small, hard object, he released a grunt of excitement, his heart pounding. He lifted his find to the light beyond the uniformed officer on hands and knees and took in his prize.

A small but thick chunk of translucent blue glass.

Daphne used her badge and an implied sense of urgency to secure an empty office at the hospital. The hospital reminded her of Liz Boldt, who in turn reminded her of Lou, who in turn reminded her of her own lover, Owen Adler. Her hopes and fears cascaded over her as she awaited the Weinsteins. Her life pattern was to immerse herself alternately in work and then a lover, then work, then another lover. She could trace this history in the few tiny worry lines that insinuated themselves at the edges of her eyes, a history that had culminated over a year ago in her breaking off her engagement to Owen. And now he was back.

The flowers had never stopped, although the calls had. He had given her the time and space to think things out-to feel them out-but never let her fully forget him. Irises one week, lilies the next, daffodils, peonies, never roses, which were far too obvious for a man of Owen’s subtleties. She had placed the first call, and the second. She had arranged a reunion dinner. For weeks now they had dated, and he had never once pushed it past a goodnight kiss, even though lately she had wanted him to. A self-made millionaire who haunted the fund-raiser circuit, Daphne had come to accept his money, his prestige, the public’s seeking out his time and funds. She could do pearls and black velvet as easily as jeans and Birkenstocks.

Footsteps approached, and she called herself back to her work effortlessly, though did not entirely let go of Owen Adler, and this spoke volumes to her. Would he ask again, or would it be up to her?

While Phyllis Weinstein remained with doctors, Daphne spoke with the husband and wife, Sidney and Trish, emphasizing the importance of fresh memory to the recovery of their child.

Over the past two weeks, Daphne had studied more than fifteen child abductions in preparation for her appointment to the Pied Piper task force. Nine were attributed to the Pied Piper. The six others all involved illegal adoption, four overseas, two in the United States. Given such short notice, she felt as prepared as she could hope to be. As it turned out, nothing prepared her for Sidney Weinstein.

The small man had a predatory look about him. Average looking made older in appearance by a balding head, Weinstein sat hunched forward on the edge of his chair, his fingers laced together, his eyes wide, almost bulging, the vein in his forehead swollen and popped out like a long pulsing blister. Dressed in casual clothes, his button-down shirt was soaked through at the armpits, his throat and voice tight with venom.

His wife sat curled in on herself, as close to the fetal position as an adult could achieve. Paste white, her tearstained face carried blotches of pink, like hives. Her mouth hung open in a frozen state of disbelief, and she stared at Daphne with dead, unflinching eyes.

“Is it him?” Weinstein asked with difficulty, clearing his gravelly throat.

Daphne felt willing to allow in him some disdain for the police and for the FBI’s failure to solve the case, but his hostility seemed more deep-seated. “What we know at this time, Mr. Weinstein, is that your son has gone missing, and that your mother-” she paused to make sure she had it correct, “has been assaulted, most likely during the abduction.” She paused, expecting something back: anger, resentment, impatience. The wife remained in shock; the husband boiled internally. “By him, I assume you’re referring to the Pied Piper.” The wife lifted her head sharply, a sleeping animal startled.

“Damn right I am.”

“That bears further investigation.”

“Bullshit,” the husband spit out.

“Sid!” the wife chided sharply.

“It isn’t something we do, sir.” Daphne explained, “We do not attribute a criminal act to any individual without due cause. We treat each crime uniquely, your son’s included. To group his abduction with the other kidnappings would be premature and unfair to Hayes.” To the wife she said, “I need you both to answer some questions. The sooner we get those answers, the better our chances of recovering Hayes.”

“You know exactly who did this!” the father objected, erupting to his feet. “You let this man into our house! What good are you people?”

“Time,” Daphne said, maintaining her calm and poise, “is working in our favor now. Every minute wasted, every minute lost diminishes those odds.” Directing herself to the father, she said, “You want to make assumptions, Mr. Weinstein, I don’t blame you. This could well be the work of the Pied Piper-”

“Of course it is, and you know it! I told you people!” he blurted.

“I beg your pardon,” she said.

“Ten days ago, I told you people that someone was watching our house, and you ignored me, gave me the runaround. Ignored me! Now our son is missing, and goddamn it, you are to blame! This did not have to happen!”

“Back up,” Daphne said, her composure lost. “Ten days ago you told us what? Exactly what?”

“Go ask your nine-one-one operators, for God’s sake. They’re the ones that screwed me over.”

“You actually saw the individual?”

“No, I didn’t say that.”

“What then?”

“I felt him.”

“Oh.”

“You know that feeling of being watched. Don’t tell me you don’t,” Weinstein complained. “It’s not like anything else.” He glanced searchingly between his wife and Daphne for support, but found little.

“You never told me any of this,” the wife complained.

“Sure I did.”

“You told me some kidnapper was watching our house? I don’t think so.” A look of discovery swept the wife’s face. “Is that what has been bugging you?” To Daphne she explained, “He’s been acting like a nutcase for two weeks.” Returning to her husband, she told him, “I thought you were having an affair, however unlikely that is.” She returned her chin to between her knees.

Daphne said slowly, “Tell me how you knew you were being watched, Mr. Weinstein.”

“First off, there were noises one night. I heard them, even if she didn’t. … That’s when I called you people. Right outside the house, they were. ‘Someone out there,’ I told the woman who answered. ‘Send someone.’ But did you? She wanted a full description. Can you imagine? I’m being burglarized and the person who answers wants a description of every sound. ‘Oh, hang on a minute,’ I say to her. ‘I’ll go get my tape recorder. It sounds like a burglar,’ I tell her.” He sought sympathy between them. Found none. “She told me a car would do the neighborhood, but did I ever see one?”

“Were you burglarized?” Daphne asked. “A patrol car may have in fact come by.”

“That’s a crock of shit, and we both know it.”

“On any other occasions did you-”

“The next time I was in my car. I was driving the neighborhood, coming home from work. Two, three blocks north. I passed a guy getting into his van. You know, what do you call them? A bug sprayer-”

“An exterminator,” Daphne answered, feeling weak in her stomach. This matched Daech’s information.

“An exterminator!” Weinstein agreed. “And I swear he was watching me, even though he looked away. It may sound crazy to you but-”

“It doesn’t,” Daphne assured him. She appreciated witness testimonies and put more faith in them than her colleagues. Sometimes the content was off, but the littlest details right on target.

“And so I called again. Right? Same thing from you people: Was he on my property? Did he make a verbal threat? Was there any physical contact?” He shook his head disgustedly. “And now this …,” he mumbled.

“The vehicle?” Daphne asked, displaying no excitement in her voice. “A van, you said. What color van?”

“So now you care? Is that what you’re saying? You people are too much, you know that?”

“The color of the van?” Daphne pressed.

“White.”

“Tell me about the driver,” she encouraged.

“What’s to tell?” he asked. “Face was covered up. Goggles. One of those mouth things.”

“A respirator,” she supplied.

“Yeah. And what do I get from the cops? Questions. And here you are again, same thing. What’s any of it matter to Hayes? A dollar short and a day late is what it is. I’m going to sue you people. Goddamn it, I’m going to sue you!”

The door was opened by a woman doctor wearing a white lab coat and a grim expression. She took in both Weinsteins with her sad eyes and slowly shook her head. “I’m sorry to have to tell you this-” she said.