The Survivors Club

Chapter 32

FITZ DROVE. GRIFFIN WORKED THE PHONE. HE DIALED Waters first.

“Here's the deal. David Price is claiming he knows who the real College Hill Rapist is, and he'll give us that information in return for a personal visit with his long-lost daughter, Molly Pesaturo. We have two hours to decide.”

“Huh?”

“No kidding. Look, are you still in Cranston?”

“Trolling the bars as we speak.”

“Perfect. Get a picture of Tawnya Clemente. Fuck Eddie Como. Start shopping her picture around.”

“Tawnya's picture? You think the loyal girlfriend is in on this?”

“Half of everything David says is a lie, but he's right about one thing: Eddie Como was innocent. The real College Hill Rapist set him up, used him as a patsy to commit the perfect serial crime. Now, to do that, the real rapist had to get Eddie's semen from somewhere. Tawnya's the logical place to start.”

“She conspired against the father of her child?”

“Fifty-million-dollar lawsuit, Mike. Think about it. All she has to do is sacrifice one guy. Then she-and Eddie, Jr.-never have to worry about anything, ever again.”

“Well, when you put it that way…” Waters said.

“Yeah. Now, remember, you got two hours. Have fun!”

Griffin hit end, then promptly dialed the next number. Thirty seconds later, he had Sergeant Napoleon on the phone.

“Sergeant! I'm calling on behalf of Detective Fitzpatrick. He'd like you to run a few tests.”

“Uh oh,” Napoleon said.

Griffin pretended he hadn't heard him. “Detective Fitzpatrick has brilliantly deduced the source of the Eddie Como DNA. He believes Como's semen was injected into the rape victims via the douche. What do you think?”

There was a moment of silence. Fitz was rolling his eyes at the thick praise. Then Napoleon said, “Well, shit on a stick. That makes some sense.”

“It could be done?”

“Sure. You inject the semen into the douche, give the douche a little shake, then expel the contents into the body cavities.The resulting linen stains, vaginal swabs, etc., would test the same as if the douche was being used to flush the semen out. Of course, that assumes the rapist did use a condom, otherwise we'd pick up a second DNA sample as well.”

“Yeah, I'm pretty sure he used a condom. You still have the douche bags in evidence?”

“Well, you know us Providence detectives. Every now and then we do practice proper evidence handling and storage.”

“Really? Huh. Well, so much for that rumor. Okay, so you could test the inside contents of the bag, right? If there's a DNA sample inside the douche, then definitely…”

“Oh yeah. I'll look into it. For Detective Fitz, of course.”

“One last question. You said the semen sample would have to be fresh for it to test positive for spermatozoa. What about if it had been frozen?”

“You mean frozen at time of ejaculation, then thawed at time of use?”

“Okay.”

“Sure,” Napoleon answered promptly. “As long as the semen sample was frozen within seventy-two hours, the spermatozoa would be preserved until thawed again. Sperm banks do it all the time.” Then Napoleon got the full implication. “Ooooh,” he said. “How interesting. And the dead come back to life.”

“And the dead come back to life,” Griffin agreed blackly. Then muttered, “Even from beyond the grave… Thanks, Sergeant. Fitz'll be in touch.”

He flipped shut his phone just in time for Fitz to say, “We're in Cranston. Meg or Tawnya? Who do you want to hit first?”

“Meg,” Griffin said immediately. “I want to give Detective Waters time to complete his inquiry into Tawnya's social life. With any luck, he'll provide the ammo, then we'll go in for the kill.”

Fitz glanced over at him somberly. “Have I told you lately that I love you?”

“No. But just for that, I'll let you go after her first.”

“Ah, I just love this job!”

“Come two hours, remember that, Fitz. Remember that.”

Griffin and Fitz pulled in front of the Pesaturo house shortly before ten-thirty. Already down to an hour and a half and they'd barely made progress. Why, then, Griffin thought, was he surprised to knock on the Pesaturos' door and have Jillian Hayes answer it.

“Sergeant,” she started.

He didn't give her time to finish. He shouldered past her and stormed down the tiny hall toward the back family room as Fitz followed suit. “I want to speak with Meg. Now!”

“She's not here,” Jillian called out behind them, scrambling to catch up.

“Where is she?”

Griffin burst into the family room. Meg's parents, Tom and Laurie, were sitting side by side on the sofa. Tom appeared sullen, Laurie had her arms wrapped protectively around Molly and had obviously been crying. Sitting opposite them were Toppi and Libby Hayes. One big happy family. Christ, just what he and Fitz needed.

He whirled on Jillian, who was apparently the only speaking member of the party. “Where is Meg?” he demanded again.

“We don't know.”

“You lost her?”

“She… We don't know.”

Griffin thought of a word, remembered that Molly was in the room, and bit it back. He homed in on the Pesaturos, jerking his head at their granddaughter. “Get her out of the room.”

“I don't really think-” Laurie started vaguely.

“Get her out of the room!”

“I'll do it.” Toppi stood, crossing over to take Molly's hand, but not before giving Griffin a reproachful look. He glared right back at her. No more friendly Sergeant Griffin. Friendly Sergeant Griffin had gotten royally screwed. Now it was time to put the fear of God into these folks.

“You,” he gestured at Jillian, who had her chin up and her feet planted for battle. “If you want to remain in this room-”

“I am a guest of the Pesaturos. They asked me to come here-”

“If you want to remain in this room-”

“Probably because they knew you were going to be pigheaded and hostile about this.”

“I will arrest you for obstruction of justice.”

She snorted. “Oh get over it. We're all worried about Meg.”

“Jillian, sit down and shut up. The Pesaturos have some talking to do, and unless you're their attorney, I don't want to hear a single peep out of you.”

Jillian gave him a look. But after another moment, she crossed stiffly to the wingback chair next to her mother. She sat down. She seemed to shut up. Just in time for Libby Hayes to stick out her tongue at him. Oh for heaven's sake…

“You.” Griffin stabbed his finger at Tom, because he couldn't keep yelling while looking at Laurie Pesaturo's tearstained face. “Start talking.”

“It was a long time ago. We didn't think it was relevant-”

“Your daughter had a relationship with a known pedophile, and you didn't think it was relevant?”

“The man's behind bars!”

“No thanks to you, and not in another few hours!”

Tom fell silent. All at once, his massive shoulders slumped. He appeared miserable. “I swear to God, Sergeant, we didn't know. We never dreamed of a connection until you called… Oh God, Meg…”

Griffin and Fitz gave him a moment. Griffin needed to count to ten anyway. So much ringing in his ears. He knew if he looked down now, his hands would be shaking. If he tried to sit, his knee would jog up and down with a mind of its own. Reel it in, reel it in. Whatever these people had done, they were suffering for it now. And he needed to play it cool a little longer.

“Maybe if you started from the beginning,” Jillian spoke up quietly. She had obviously been briefed on the situation, and she was gazing at Tom and Laurie compassionately. Griffin resented that. He didn't know why, but he did.

“Meg was only thirteen,” Laurie murmured. “We had no idea. None at all. Not until I found her one day, curled up weeping on the bathroom floor. She'd just taken a pregnancy test and it was positive. We didn't even know she was dating.”

“How did Meg meet Price?” Fitz asked. Griffin turned toward Tom, though he already knew the answer. His former next-door neighbor, the electrician…

“Work,” Tom said predictably. “We were on the same job, wiring a new CVS. He was such a nice kid. I remember thinking that. What a nice kid. Did good work, too. And he mentioned one day that he didn't have any family. Parents were dead, I don't remember why. And I felt kinda bad for him. He couldn't have been more than twenty-four, twenty-five. So I started inviting him over for dinner.”

“He was always so polite,” Laurie murmured. She couldn't seem to get over that. “Please, thank you, yes ma'am. Even helped with the dishes.” She finally looked up. “I knew Meg had a crush on him. He was a nice-looking young man and of course at thirteen, she was beginning to notice that sort of thing. But I thought of it as a schoolgirl's crush. The kind you have on your father's hired hand, or the bag boy at the grocery store. She was still so young. I never imagined…”

“You never saw them together?” Fitz again.

Both shook their heads. “Never,” Tom said. “She snuck out at night. I didn't even know she'd think of doing such a thing. I'm sure he must've suggested it to her. I'm telling you, she'd never been a problem. She was a good girl, got good grades. Oh Meg…”

“So you found out she was pregnant,” Griffin fast-forwarded. “She tell you he was the father?”

“She was upset,” Laurie said. “She told us everything.”

“Did you confront him?”

Tom made a small, uncomfortable motion that led Griffin to understand there had been a confrontation, but it hadn't involved much talking. Tom's fists and David's face, however, had spent some quality time together. Griffin understood completely.

“If Meg was only thirteen,” Fitz said, “that's statutory rape. Why didn't you file a report? Get the kid arrested?”

Tom and Laurie exchanged miserable glances. “We were embarrassed,” Laurie said softly. “Meg was humiliated-and frightened and confused and heartbroken. She seemed to think she really loved him. According to her, he'd even proposed marriage. We just…” She took a deep breath, got herself together. “It all seemed a horrible mistake. We hadn't been paying enough attention. Meg didn't show good judgment. Going to the police would just bring it all out in the open and make things worse. You have to understand, we didn't know David had done this kind of thing before, or have the wildest idea what he'd go on to do next. Seducing a thirteen-year-old girl isn't right, but still… We never would've guessed.” She looked at Griffin earnestly. “Please, you have to believe us. We never would've guessed.”

“You covered it up,” Griffin said bluntly, harshly. She wanted forgiveness from him? What about the ten other families David had victimized?

“I have relatives,” Laurie whispered. “Upstate New York. We sent her there for the duration. I started telling people I was pregnant. And then, when the time came, I, we, had a beautiful baby girl. We love her, Sergeant.” She looked up earnestly. “The circumstances were horrible, but Molly is perfect. I have been proud to have her as my daughter, and we've been saying that for so long, as far as I'm concerned, she is my daughter. And I will do anything in my power to protect her.”

“He wants to see her,” Griffin said.

“No!”

“Price has information on the College Hill Rapist. In fact, we're coming to believe that he helped create the College Hill Rapist, and set this whole thing in motion-”

“Eddie Como is dead,” Jillian said firmly from across the room.

Griffin pivoted and glared at her. “Yeah, but he's not who raped and murdered your sister.”

There was silence. Even Libby's hands were perfectly still on her picture book. How to absorb, what to say? Griffin and Fitz had had more time with the thought than the others, and they were still reeling themselves.

Fitz finally spoke up, “We, uh, we got DNA results back from Sylvia Blaire. They match Eddie's.”

“What?” Jillian again, her face still pale, her voice bewildered. “But that's impossible!”

“We're working on the assumption that Eddie's DNA was introduced as a red herring at the rape scenes. The douches were not being used to wash semen out, but to inject semen into the body cavity.” Fitz paused for a moment. He said out loud, without seeming to realize it, “Well, that would explain why Eddie was so willing to give a DNA sample. Poor bastard honestly thought he hadn't done it.”

“But the notes,” Jillian insisted. “All those phone calls and letters… He harassed us!”

“Claiming his innocence,” Griffin said. “Wouldn't you, if you were behind bars for a series of crimes you knew you didn't commit?”

Her mouth worked. “But that tape!” she said finally, firmly. “The tape he sent me on Friday. That was threatening. And the letter to Carol's house. All that, ‘I'll get you from beyond the grave.' What was that all about?”

“Do you know they came from Eddie?”

“I… well…” She frowned. “The tape that contained his picture.”

“A video file, right? Of a man whose image has been broadcast all over TV for nearly twelve months.” Griffin looked at her. She closed her eyes.

“It could be faked,” she whispered.

“Part of the setup. In the interesting-but-true department, the first time you mentioned the tape, I thought immediately of David Price. It sounded like something he would do.”

“Oh my God!” Jillian covered her mouth with her hand. “Poor Eddie Como. Oh that poor man…”

“I don't understand,” Tom Pesaturo spoke up. “You're saying this was all done by some other guy?”

“It's the theory of the day.”

“Well, who the hell is he?”

“If we knew that, Mr. Pesaturo, we wouldn't be here right now.”

“But David Price is helping this guy?”

“It would appear that way.”

“Why?”

“To get out of prison, Mr. Pesaturo. To return to the real world where he can rape and murder small children. Why do you think?”

“No!” Laurie's voice shot up. Her face was wild. “You can't let him. You can't let him out.”

Griffin just shrugged. “He says it's the only way. We have a sexual-sadist predator running around who for all intents and purposes is Eddie Como. We don't have prints, we don't have DNA, we don't even have a description. And according to David Price, the real College Hill Rapist will kill another girl by tonight unless we let David have a three-hour hardship leave to visit your granddaughter.”

Griffin turned abruptly on Tom. “For God's sake, Mr. Pesaturo, why didn't you and Vinnie kill the little prick when you had the chance? He impregnated your thirteen-year-old daughter. That wasn't enough for you?”

“We didn't know.” Tom was positively moaning. “And Meg was so confused, believing that she really loved him, I worried about what it would do to her if he suddenly disappeared. Then after his arrest… when we all learned what he was really like… Meg locked herself in her room and cried until she was sick. Couldn't eat, couldn't sleep, had horrible nightmares. We just wanted to get her through. So we vowed never to mention his name again. We would pretend it had never happened. David was going away after all. The papers said he'd never get out, never see the light of day…”

“We started lying,” Laurie murmured. “And in our lie, there was no David Price. There was just Molly, our new daughter. Everything was so nice that way. So much easier to believe.”

“Well, welcome back to the real world, Mrs. Pesaturo. Where there is a monster named David Price. And he probably is working hand in hand with a serial rapist. Why do you think Meg was the College Hill Rapist's first victim?”

Tom moaned again. “David wanted revenge. After what he did to Meg, he wanted revenge…”

“Yeah, Mr. Pesaturo. And knowing Price, he's just getting started.”