Blood Loss

23

By nine thirty the extended team of investigators was crowded into the conference room.

‘Welcome, everyone,’ said Gary. ‘Updates: the tip line has been swamped, we’re going through the promising ones: they’re in the minority. We’ve got nothing so far on calls to the Whaleys, the Merritts or the Royces overnight. I spoke with Mark Whaley’s boss at MeesterBrandt Pharmaceuticals, he’s the CEO, Nolan Carr. He confirmed what Erica Whaley said — that Mark Whaley’s behavior has been a little strange for “at least” six months. He said “off-the-record” that he suspected Whaley of having an affair-’

‘So another affair theory …’ said Ren. ‘Well, they both agreed he was working late, but he said it was mostly at home.’

‘There’s always lunch break,’ said Colin.

Ren nodded.

‘This could all be a high drama way for Erica Whaley to force the husband to admit it,’ said Bob. ‘She’d know that if his child went missing, he’d have to tell the truth …’

‘That’s very drastic,’ said Ren. ‘I can’t see her doing that. If I was going to go to extremes, I’d start by hiring a private investigator.’

‘Maybe she did …’ said Bob.

‘If Whaley was having an affair,’ said Ren, ‘does that mean he’s an all-round dirtbag, the type to hit on a sixteen-year-old babysitter?’

‘He could have made some kind of move on her,’ said Paul, ‘and when she rejected him, he made her believe that it was her fault, that she was giving off the wrong signals …’

‘He’s an older man — he could easily manipulate a sixteen-year-old that way,’ said Ren. ‘Maybe afterwards Shelby could have thought of his wife and kids and decided, “I don’t want to rock the boat here, he didn’t really do anything, I won’t say anything, I don’t want to mess up the family that way-”’

‘And then she ran?’ said Gary.

Ren nodded. ‘Yes. Just to get away from the situation.’

‘And took Laurie with her?’ said Gary.

‘Maybe, maybe not,’ said Ren. ‘Maybe Laurie, if she walked in on something, could have been the one who was about to blow his cover, and he flipped. Or,’ said Ren, ‘he’s not unattractive. Maybe Shelby Royce came on to him.’

‘I’m glad you said that,’ said Colin.

‘Nothing is beyond the bounds,’ said Ren.

‘Well, Whaley’s boss certainly suspected him of having some personal issues,’ said Gary. ‘He said that he has never had a problem with him up until this year, and several times he said that Whaley’s alcohol problem was something that he had hopefully overcome. He labored that point, I didn’t bring that up. He gave me details of Whaley’s salary and expenses, and emailed me a PDF of his business calendar for the past twelve months.’

‘Where does Jonathan Meester fit into the company now?’ said Ren.

‘He set it up — he’s the chairman,’ said Gary. ‘He bought Lang Pharmaceuticals six years ago, hired Nolan Carr as VP Sales amp; Marketing, and basically lined him up to take over from him when he took early retirement, which he did last year.

‘OK — on to Shelby Royce,’ said Gary. ‘A lot of Shelby Royce’s friends have been interviewed and they’re not saying anything other than the fact that she’s a lovely girl, doesn’t have a bad word to say about anyone … Her parents check out, so do the neighbors so far. The one interesting thing is that, according to Jane Allen, her closest girlfriend, Shelby Royce was not friends with Jared Labati. In fact, she refused his friend request on Facebook … the ultimate teen trauma according to my fifteen-year-old daughter. Jared Labati has already lied to us, so … we’re not considering him a reliable witness. Jane Allen says that Shelby had been on Facebook talking about not having enough money for Lady Gaga tickets, and maybe to suck up to her, Labati offered her a way of earning money at the hotel. Yes, you can still read someone’s Facebook profile without being “friends” with them …’

Gary Dettling, you dorky dad.

‘So,’ said Gary, ‘Jared Labati could have been doing anything to get close to Shelby Royce. He certainly tipped the power balance in his favor on Saturday night. He may have seen her as “owing him one” after that.’

‘Maybe he went up to the room to collect,’ said one of the detectives. ‘And the little girl got in the way …’

‘That’s a possibility,’ said Gary.

‘It’s not really a break-in when the guy’s got a key …’ said Bob.

‘What about the stepfather?’ said Paul. He glanced at his notes. ‘Dale Merritt?’

‘Seems like a big friendly giant,’ said Ren. ‘I’m not getting evil stepfather vibes.’

‘There is one other person who was in the room …’ said Gary.

‘A very little person,’ said Ren.

Mark and Erica Whaley sat, holding hands, in Bob’s office. Leo was in a fold-away stroller beside them. His little arm was wrapped around a Spiderman action figure, his fist curled into a ball.

Adorable.

‘I am really uncomfortable with Leo being interviewed again,’ said Mark Whaley, glancing down at his son. ‘He’s been through too much. First off, he wakes up alone in a strange room, God knows what he’s witnessed, his parents come in and start shouting and screaming … then he’s taken away from us at the Sheriff’s Office, and he’s put in a room with a stranger and asked a bunch of questions …’

‘We’d like God not to be the only one who knows what he witnessed …’ said Bob.

Risky.

Mark looked at him. ‘He’s been through enough.’

‘He’s three, Mark,’ said Erica. ‘He’ll be able to get through this a lot quicker than he’d get over the loss of his big sister …’ She slid her hand from Mark’s.

No-one said a word.

Eventually, Mark spoke. ‘He probably saw nothing. And if he did, it’s unlikely he’d be able to vocalize it.’

Erica stared at him. ‘Last week, you were calling him “easily one of the smartest kids” in pre-school, and saying how wide his vocabulary is.’

‘Erica, this is completely different. What they’re asking for, ultimately, is for our three-year-old son to relive the most traumatic experience of his short life …’

‘Mr Whaley, Leo won’t be asked leading questions, so he won’t be exposed to any scenario that’s outside of his experience on that night,’ said Ren. ‘He won’t have scary images planted in his mind. Child forensic interviewing is a real skill, and we have one of the country’s leading interviewers here.’

‘Well, she didn’t find anything out the last time …’ said Mark.

‘This kind of interview usually takes place when the child is well rested, and has eaten. We couldn’t afford the time to wait for that the first time. The circumstances early Sunday morning were not very conducive to a successful outcome, but we wanted to try.’

Erica was nodding. ‘Mark — she’s right. Leo isn’t able to concentrate when he’s tired. He’s not himself when he hasn’t slept. You say so yourself. His Spidey senses are weak.’ She tried to smile.

‘When do you want to do this?’ said Mark.

‘This afternoon,’ said Gary. ‘Some time around four p.m.’

Erica turned to Mark.

He was staring at the ground. ‘Fine, then …’ he said. ‘Go ahead. But … ’

‘Thank you,’ said Erica. She nodded toward Ren.

God bless you.

Gary followed everyone back into the command center.

‘Ren and Colin,’ said Gary. ‘About our old Tinytoes Bandit case — there’s a discovery conference at the U.S. Attorney’s Office with the AUSA and the defense attorney at twelve today — I need you to go to that.’

‘What?’ said Ren. ‘But-’

‘Colin — you drive,’ said Gary.

‘Good,’ he said. ‘I get to hold on to my breakfast.’

Ren grabbed her purse. ‘OK. I think I can channel Miss Daisy.’

Colin and Ren spent the first ten minutes of the drive in silence.

I want to slam your foot onto the accelerator.

‘Why the hell do we have to go to Denver in the middle of all this?’ said Ren.

‘I think they can survive without us for a couple hours,’ said Colin.

No, they can’t.

‘Do you mind if we go to Safe Streets first?’ said Colin.

‘No,’ said Ren.

‘I just need to pick something up.’

Much like your girlfriend needs to pick things up. Here goes: ‘Naomi sure knows how to have a good time,’ said Ren.

Colin smiled. ‘She is a live wire,’ he said.

‘We had a blast that night we were out,’ said Ren.

Colin nodded. ‘Yes … I guess she doesn’t have a lot of female friends …’

Probably because she’s stolen their men. ‘Really?’ said Ren.

‘Well, she’s moved around a lot,’ said Colin.

Probably because she was being hunted down by her female friends for stealing their men. ‘That’s hard,’ said Ren.

‘So, did she out-drink you?’ said Colin, glancing at her.

‘Not a chance,’ said Ren. Just go for it. ‘She definitely out-chatted me, though …’

‘You two fighting for air time …’ said Colin.

‘More she was chatting with the people we met,’ said Ren. ‘This group of snowboarders …’ Male snowboarders. Men. Other men.

Colin nodded. ‘Tis the season …’

To be whoring. Fa-la-la-la-la …

Ren turned on the radio.

There was a package on Ren’s desk when she arrived at Safe Streets. It had a Spyder logo. She ripped it open.

It was a new ski jacket. Her heart soared. She had bought it on a second screen while she was buying Ethan’s gifts.

I had forgotten about you.

She was shaking off her jacket to try the new one on, when the phone rang. It was Glenn Buddy.

‘Did you listen to the Kennington tape?’ he said.

‘Yes,’ said Ren.

‘She’s still swearing she doesn’t know who organized the party,’ said Glenn. ‘Neither does the guy-friend or the boy from school she said she liked.’

‘We need to find out who was behind that party,’ said Ren. ‘And whether there’s any significance in the choice of venue.’

‘The significance is kids’ fascination with asylums,’ said Glenn. ‘There are websites devoted to this, there are asylum “fans” …’

‘I’m fascinated myself,’ said Ren. ‘But I wouldn’t go to a party in one … especially the condition it was in.’

‘Even when you were sixteen …’ said Glenn.

Colin stuck his head around the door. ‘Ren — that meeting with the AUSA’s canceled.’

Ren covered the phone. ‘Wait. I’m nearly done.’

Colin shrugged. ‘Gary just called.’

‘But, we’ve come all this way-’

‘Don’t look at me,’ said Colin.

WTF?

‘Sorry, Glenn, I’m back,’ said Ren. ‘Are you looking at the people running these asylum “fan” sites, or posting on them?’

‘Yup,’ said Glenn.

‘If you need any extra eyes on that, let me know,’ said Ren.

‘What do you make of the drawing?’ said Glenn.

‘That’s one freaky little monkey,’ said Ren.

‘Is it a see-no-evil hear-no-evil thing?’ said Glenn.

‘I don’t know,’ said Ren. ‘I’d like to think about it some more. My phone’s ringing, Glenn, I have to take this. It’s Gary.’

‘Sure, go ahead,’ said Glenn. ‘Thanks for all this, Ren.’

‘I’ll keep you posted.’ Ren switched calls.

‘How are you doing?’ said Gary.

‘I’m good, but …’

‘But?’ said Gary.

‘Colin just told me the meeting’s canceled-’

‘Yes,’ said Gary. ‘Nothing we can do about that. What time is it?’

‘Now?’ said Ren. ‘Twelve thirty.’

‘OK — you should be able to make that appointment,’ said Gary.

‘What appointment?’ Shit. Shit. Shit. The psychiatrist. ‘What appointment … time have you got there?’ Like that’s convincing.

‘Same as it always has been, Ren. One p.m. No change …’

‘Just checking,’ said Ren. She paused. ‘I’ve no car.’

‘Grab a cab.’

‘OK.’

Shit. Shit. Shit.

How did I fall for this?