“Holy fuck.” Ray paused. “That was your silver bat? Are you sure?”
Mason knew Ray was recalling the sight of Josie’s abused corpse. Just as he had a few thousand times.
“Mine is missing and my prints are on the one at the scene. But Jake’s prints aren’t on it. That’s what’s weird. He should at least have some partials on it. I just talked to Morales. Told him what I’d discovered.”
“Shit. What was the note? You said it was under the dog dish? That’s fucked up.”
“Yeah, it said he doesn’t leave ransom notes.”
Ray snorted.
“And I can’t find the dog. He didn’t eat his dinner last night.”
“You think he took the dog?” Ray was incredulous. “It’s a stray, right? Maybe it went home.”
“I’ve got a bad feeling about it.” Mason had a gut-wrenching pain at the thought of the innocent animal being abused simply because it had been coming around his house.
“I doubt he took your dog. But the bat . . . that’s crazy. Does that mean . . .” Ray trailed off, and Mason could almost hear the gears grinding in his head. “He implies with the dog note that he took Henley? And before that, he took your bat and murdered Josie? There can’t be two different people who decided to pay your house a visit.”
“I know,” said Mason. “It’s linking Josie’s murder and me to Henley’s case.”
“That doesn’t make sense. There’s no common element between Josie and Henley.”
“Not yet.”
“What’s the FBI think?” Ray asked.
“They’re wondering what the connection is. Same as we are.” Mason swallowed hard. “What are they saying about me downtown, Ray?” He shouldn’t care. It shouldn’t matter what a bunch of cops were whispering behind his back.
But it did.
He’d spent nearly twenty-five years as a cop. He had the soul of a cop. He’d lost his wife and most of his relationship with his son because he’d put the job first. His integrity as a person and a detective was all he had left. If that was ripped away . . .
“Christ, I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do. What’s going around?”
Ray was silent for five seconds. “Everyone is stunned, but no one is believing it. Sure, there’s evidence that you were there, but it doesn’t prove that you did anything to hurt Josie. The guys are behind you, Mason.”
Mason exhaled, feeling mildly dizzy from holding his breath.
“I’m doing what I can, Mason. I’m pushing for every scrap of evidence to be reexamined. I’ve talked to the techs, making certain things were handled correctly. So far, everything seems on the up and up, but I’m fighting for you.”
“Thanks. That really means something.” It did.
“You talk to the union ?” Ray asked.
“Someone has called twice and left a message for me to call them back.”
“Call them back!”
“I don’t have time. I don’t want to deal with that right now. I’m trying to stay focused on Henley,” Mason argued. He didn’t want to talk to the union rep. He had no patience for bureaucracy.
“They’ll keep an eye on the investigation. You need to let them know you were placed on administrative leave.”
“I think they know,” Mason said dryly. The first voice mail from a union rep had come an hour after Schefte had taken his gun. He figured Schefte had informed them.
“This is your job, Mason.”
It’s my life. Without my job, I’ve got nothing. “Yeah, tell me something I don’t know.”
“They’ll be knocking on your door if you don’t call them back.”
“I’ll talk with them then. You see the newspaper this morning?”
“Yes, Jill showed it to me. At least your name isn’t in it.”
“But for how long? That article just screams for some deeper questions,” Mason said.
“No one downtown will give a reporter your name.”
Mason snorted. “Sure they will. I can think of at least three guys who’d love to see me miserable.”
“You need to learn to be nicer to people. No more burning your bridges when someone pisses you off.”
“I’m not very good at turning the other cheek,” Mason admitted.
“No shit. Don’t worry about it. If it happens, it happens. You’ll be cleared eventually.”
“After they call for my head to be mounted on a pole.” Mason rubbed his forehead. Maybe it was time to retire. A quiet little cabin at the coast or up on Mt. Hood. Somewhere there weren’t any people.
He’d be bored out of his brain in a month.
“What’s Schefte’s position?” Mason asked, not certain that he wanted to hear the answer.
“He’s walking the line. Doing everything by the book.”
“I know that. But what’s he saying?”
“Nothing.”
“Shit.”
“I know. I’d expect him to at least tell people not to jump to conclusions. He’s been strangely silent on the whole thing. I tried to ask him about it, and he told me it wasn’t any of my business and to get back to work.” Ray was angry. “If my partner isn’t my business, then what is?”
“Thanks, man.” Mason didn’t know what to think of Schefte’s reaction. Was there someone higher up that was pressuring him? Telling him to keep his mouth shut? “What about IA?” Internal Affairs hadn’t approached him yet, but it was inevitable.
“If they’re poking around, I haven’t heard or seen anything yet.”
“They will.”
“All they’ll find is that you didn’t kill anyone. We all know it, Mason.”
“Yeah, but why do I have to prove that I didn’t do it? That’s not how it’s supposed to work.” He exhaled. “This is sucking the life out of me. I don’t know what I’ll do if . . .”
“I know.”
Ray did know. Ray understood that Mason’s life was simple. Work and . . . not much else. And he knew that Mason’s integrity meant everything to him. If it was ripped away by the loss of his job, he’d be decimated.
“You need to stay strong for the Fairbankses,” Ray said. “I can’t imagine the hell they’re going through right now.”
“It’s horrible. They walk around like zombies. The waiting is the worst. The not knowing what’s happened to her.” Ray was right. His problems didn’t compare to losing a child. What would he do if it’d been Jake? And from the sound of the call from Sanford a few minutes ago, Jake may have just missed abduction himself. He told Ray Jake’s story of his encounter back at college.
“They think it was the same guy?” Ray asked. “On the other side of the country?”
“They have to consider it. The descriptions are really similar.”
“But why Jake? Henley’s age indicates that she might have been taken by a pedophile with a taste for young girls. Usually full-grown males aren’t compatible with their taste.”
“Damn it, Ray.” Mason gagged a little. He’d tried to avoid the thought of a pedophile involved in Henley’s case. Yes, there was a good chance she’d been snatched by someone like that, and the FBI was still looking hard at known pedophiles in the area.
“Sorry. It’s true, though. I don’t see how someone asking Jake a question relates to the abduction of an eleven-year-old girl on the opposite coast.”
“I know how unlikely it sounds. But you have to take into account that someone stole his suitcase, too. Something seems to be circling around him. The FBI isn’t going to ignore it,” said Mason. “Someone knows where Jake goes to school and when he was flying home. And this same person may have stolen a minivan and then kidnapped Henley? Someone knows a lot about my family.”
“The FBI profilers are going to go nuts with this information,” Ray added.
Mason needed Special Agent Euzent to update the profile on their kidnapper. What did it say about their kidnapper if he wanted a college-aged boy and a young girl? What kind of person spent time researching the minutia of someone’s daily movements?
“This is going to create a bunch of different angles on their opinion of Henley’s kidnapper,” said Ray. “But what are you going to do? Are you going to fight for your job, or are you going to sit back and let Josie’s investigation run its course?”
“There’s not a hell of a lot I can do. I maintain my innocence. I give them any evidence they want. And I try not to slit my wrists. I don’t know what you mean by fighting back. No, I’m not going to roll over and let them screw me like a drunken whore, but what steps can I take?”
“Get a lawyer,” Ray said firmly.
“I don’t like lawyers.”
“I don’t, either. But you need one. If your name turns up in the paper, you need someone to protect your interests.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Mason started to steam. “People say that all the time. I don’t have interests. I have a life. And it can’t be taken away from me. If they charge me with a crime, I’ll get a lawyer. But you and I know it won’t come to that. It can’t, because I never committed the crime.”