The Tribunal

CHAPTER 18

Kevin felt a wave of panic engulf him.

Diane let out a single scream; a primal burst from some painful place deep inside. Then, she burst into tears. Kevin felt like doing the same, but he knew first he should listen to the police, ask rational questions, and otherwise keep his wits about him.

He leaned against the wall near his front door, the breath taken out of him. All he could see was the beautiful smooth face of the daughter he loved so much. And then, he realized that he, too, was crying. He heard Diane say something in a voice that didn’t sound like hers. He took hold of her arm and together they led Detective Weber into the living room of their home that suddenly seemed very empty and quiet.

Kevin felt sick; a clammy, chilled feeling that made his stomach queasy. He was wracked with enormous guilt. Even without hearing the details, he knew it was all his fault. His work at the Tribunal had jeopardized his daughter’s life. Why had he done it? He wished so desperately to turn back the clock and have another chance to keep her safe.

Detective Weber, a large motherly-type woman with curly brown hair, seemed to be waiting for the stunned parents to compose themselves. She looked like a Dutch Oprah Winfrey before Oprah’s diet. “Take a deep breath,” she suggested. “We need to talk.”

“I’m sorry,” Kevin moaned, one hand now covering his face. His fingers were wet with tears. He pulled out his handkerchief and dabbed his face. He summoned up all the will he could to be strong.

“Please, detective, tell us – what happened,” he finally got out.

The detective looked at Kevin, then Diane. She spoke slowly and deliberately. “Your daughter was riding her bike home from school with her friend, Jennifer Morris. From what Jennifer told us, a white van drove up and cut in front of them in the bike lane. Ellen and Jennifer came to a complete stop. When they did, the side door of the van slid open, and two men burst out. They grabbed Ellen, pulled her off her bike, and carried her into the van. It was over in seconds. The van sped off toward the highway.”

Diane started sobbing again. Kevin put his arm around her shoulder. The information had focused him and given him a sense of purpose. He waited for more.

“We have officers all over the area looking for that van. We’re doing everything we can to find your daughter.”

Kevin immediately thought of the CIA and his last conversation with Pete Barnes. Barnes had warned him that something would happen next. Would the CIA really kidnap a little girl? Kevin’s hopes rose a little. They might kidnap her as a message to him, but surely they wouldn’t kill her. They could have their reports and tapes right now in a heartbeat. He didn’t care.

“I’d like to put a tracing and recording device on your phone,” Detective Weber continued. “If this is a kidnapping for ransom, the kidnappers will be calling here. Is that all right with you?”

Kevin nodded. “Please do everything you can,” he pleaded. “We’ll do anything to get our daughter back.”

The detective walked over to the phone and attached a suction cup device to the handset. One cord was connected to a tape recorder, another to a headset. “If the phone rings, we’ll be here to operate the equipment. Just listen carefully and watch our signals.”

The talk of contact from the kidnappers made Kevin feel somewhat hopeful. He needed to tell the police everything he knew. “I might have some information that could help,” he said.

In the time they had been talking, other uniformed police officers had arrived and entered the house. One of them, carrying a cellular telephone, came over and handed it to Detective Weber.

“Yes, I’m interviewing them,” she said into the phone. “No, not yet.”

She handed the phone back to the other officer.

“They found the van in Leiden. It was empty. They apparently had a switch car nearby.”

“What does that mean?” Diane asked.

“It means we’re probably dealing with professionals, not some child molester,” the detective said. “Someone planned to kidnap your daughter and make sure they got away.”

It made Kevin feel strangely better to think his daughter was in the hands of professional kidnappers. It also confirmed his suspicions about the CIA.

“I think the American CIA might be involved,” he said.

Detective Weber gave Kevin a surprised look. Kevin realized he would sound like some conspiracy nut, but plowed ahead anyway. “I’m a lawyer for a man on trial at the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague. I got my hands on some CIA reports that are very sensitive. Someone from the CIA has been trying to get them back. The last thing he said to me was something like he would not be responsible for what happened next.”

Detective Weber pulled out her notebook and sat down opposite Kevin. “Now, tell me this again, slowly please.”

Kevin started at the beginning, and this time telling the detective about the pictures of Ellen that Pete Barnes had shown him.

When Kevin was done, he felt relieved to have finally disclosed the secrets he’d been carrying around. At this point, with Ellen’s life at stake, he wasn’t going to play any games with anybody.

If Detective Weber was skeptical that the CIA would kidnap an eleven-year-old girl on the streets of Wassenaar, she didn’t show it. The woman seemed very professional.

“Were you aware of this?” she asked Diane.

“Some of it.” Looking sternly at Kevin, Diane added: “But I sure didn’t know about the CIA threatening Ellen.”

“I didn’t want you to worry,” he said lamely.

“You didn’t warn me, either. Now look what’s happened.”

Kevin nodded numbly. He knew Diane was right. He was to blame for this.

Detective Weber brought Kevin back to the conversation. “About this Pete Barnes – do you have a way of contacting him?”

“No,” Kevin answered. “I’ve only seen him two times. Both times he just showed up on my jogging route at 6 a.m.”

Diane started sobbing softly. “Why haven’t they called yet?”

“I don’t know,” the detective answered. “Each kidnapping is different. There’s no way to predict when or if they will call.”

Kevin got up and went to the bathroom. When he came out, he saw Ellen’s scooter leaning against the wall near the front door. As he pictured her happily riding the scooter in front of the house, tears streamed down his face.

“Tell her about those Yugoslavians who kept coming to the house,” Diane said to Kevin when he returned to the living room.

Kevin quickly composed himself. “It’s probably nothing. I went to the Serbian Embassy for help on my client’s case. A man named Zoran Vacinovic was supposedly helping me. He’s come around here a few times to talk about the case.”

“Who is this guy Vacinovic?” the detective asked.

“According to the prosecutor, he works for the Serbian secret police.”

“This story gets stranger and stranger,” the detective said.

Just then, the telephone rang.

Kevin jumped up off the couch.

Detective Weber raised her hand for Kevin to wait, then scurried over to the table where the phone sat. For a large woman, she was fast and agile. She pressed the “play” button and donned the headset.

“Pick up the phone,” she told Kevin. “Keep them talking as long as you can.”

Kevin was nervous, but anxious to pick up the phone before the caller hung up.

“Hello?”

“Kevin, this is Jennifer’s mother. What’s going on?”

The detective took off her headset and pressed the “stop” button on the recorder.

Kevin announced to the room: “It’s Jennifer’s mom.” Returning to the phone receiver he said, “Can we call you back later?”

Kevin looked at the clock on the living room wall. It was 5:30. Ellen had been kidnapped an hour ago. It seemed like a week to Kevin. He would give anything to be able to hug his little girl again.

Through the living room window, Kevin saw that his neighbors had begun to gather on the sidewalk outside, near the police cars parked in front of Kevin’s house.

“Do they know?” he asked.

“They don’t know Ellen’s been kidnapped,” the detective said. “For now, the fewer who know the better. We don’t want to spook the kidnappers.”

Kevin liked his Dutch neighbors and knew they were concerned with all the police activity. Ellen had been a familiar sight in the neighborhood, racing around on her scooter or her bike. In Holland, much more than in America, neighbors looked out for one another.

Detective Weber went to confer with the other officers, while Diane used a cell phone to call Jennifer’s mom.

The minutes passed painfully slow for Kevin as he sat in the living room. He stared at the telephone, willing it to ring. He didn’t know what to say to Diane. It was all his fault – she knew it, and so did he.

Detective Weber came into the living room. “Mr. Anderson, we’d like your consent to search your house. It’s standard procedure in these types of cases. There might be a scrap of paper or something that might help us find your daughter.”

“Go right ahead,” Kevin replied. He felt very comfortable with this detective. She showed him a consent form in Dutch and translated it to them in English. Kevin and then Diane signed and dated it.

Detective Weber put the form in her folder. Kevin heard other officers heading up the stairs. It occurred to him that twice in the last six months law enforcement officers had searched their home. Kevin didn’t care; he’d do anything to get Ellen back.

The detective pulled out another form. “We’d like to take a taped statement from you,” she said to Kevin. “This consent form advises you of your right to remain silent, to have an attorney, and informs you that anything you say can be used against you.”

Kevin knew the Miranda warnings by heart. As he signed the form, a signal of caution crept into his brain. “Am I a suspect?” he asked.

Detective Weber paused. “Everyone is a suspect until we eliminate him or her. We don’t want another Jon Benet Ramsey case here in The Netherlands.”

He shuddered at the mention of the little girl found murdered in her home. Her parents had become suspects mostly because they had refused to speak to the police.

But Kevin wasn’t concerned about himself. He wanted to do everything in his power to help Ellen. He signed the form.

Then, the phone rang.

Everyone froze again for an instant before quickly moving into position.

Detective Weber activated the tape player and gave Kevin the signal to pick up.

“Hello,” Kevin said, his voice sounding hopeful.

“Mr. Anderson, this is Reuter’s News Service. I’m sorry to bother you. I’ve a report that your daughter has been kidnapped.”

Kevin’s shoulders sagged. “Hold on one moment.” He covered the mouthpiece and said to the others “Reuter’s News Service.” He saw Diane’s face fall.

Kevin wanted to ask the officers what he should do. “Let me have your name and number and I’ll call you right back.”

“But can you confirm there’s been a kidnapping?”

“I can’t confirm anything. Give me your name and number.”

The reporter complied and Kevin hung up. “Now what?”

“Get ready for a media circus,” said Detective Weber, pulling the front curtains shut. “We’ll need some more people out here, and some crowd barriers.”

“Will this spook the kidnappers?”

“I don’t know. It was inevitable, though. You’d better prepare yourself for a lot of publicity.”

Kevin felt shaky. He didn’t want to say anything that might hurt Ellen. “I’ll just let your people talk to the press.”

A few minutes later, Kevin began answering Detective Weber’s questions on tape. During the interview, the phone rang three times with calls from reporters.

Kevin began to feel foolish as he played the tapes for Detective Weber of his conversations with William Evans and Pete Barnes. He was an idiot for playing games with the CIA. He should have left everything alone. Draga was a big boy. He’d known the risks of doing business with the CIA. Now, Kevin had put his own daughter in jeopardy.

“I got caught up fighting for my client. I never expected consequences like these.”

“Have you received any other threats?” asked the detective.

“Not really. The Serbs are upset with me because they don’t think I’m defending Draga aggressively enough. But I’ve received no direct threats from them.”

“After hearing those tapes, I would say that lack of aggressiveness is not one of your problems,” Detective Weber responded with a slight smile.

When the detective finished asking him questions, Kevin walked over to the front window. He peeked around the curtains. News crews were setting up their equipment, their lights illuminating the Andersons front door. It was 7:30, and there had been no word from the kidnappers.

“Where is my daughter?” he asked no one in particular as he looked past the camera crews into the dark night.

“Ellen, my sweet girl, where are you?”