Philip Margolin - Gone ,but not forgotten

Stewart nodded because he could not think of a single thing to say.

"I'm afraid you've wasted your trip, if it was made solely to talk to my wife. We have tried our best to put the past behind us."

"I appreciate why Mrs. Escalante wouldn't want to talk to me, but this is literally a matter of life and death.

We have the death penalty in Oregon and there's no doubt that my client will receive it, if he's convicted."

Dr. Escalante's features hardened. "Mr. Stewart, if your client treated those women the way my wife was treated, the death penalty would be insufficient punishment."

"You knew my client as Peter lake, Dr. Escalante.

His wife and daughter were killed by Henry Waters. He suffered the same anguish you suffered. We're talking about a frame-up of the worst kind, and your wife may have information that can prove an innocent man is being prosecuted."

Escalante looked down at his desk. "Our position is firm, Mr. Stewart.

My wife will not discuss what happened to her with anyone. It has taken ten years to put the past behind her and we are going to keep it behind her. However, I may be of some help to you. There are answers to questions I may be able to give you."

"Any help will be appreciated."

"I don't want you to think her hard, Mr. Stewart. We did consider your request for an interview most seriously, but it would be too much for Gloria. She is very strong.

Very strong. Otherwise she would not have survived. But as strong as she is, it is only within the past few years that she has been anything like the woman she used to be.

Since your call, the nightmares have returned."

"Believe me, I would never subject your wife to Mod "No, no. I understand why you're here. I don't blame you. I just want you to understand why I can't permit her to relive what happened."

"Dr. Escalante, the main reason I wanted to talk to your wife was to find out if she saw the face of the man who kidnapped her."

"if that's why you came, I'm afraid I must disappoint you. She was taken from behind. Chloroform was used.

During her captivity, she was forced to wear a leather hood with no eyelets whenever… whenever her captor… when he came."

"She never saw his face?"

"Never."

"What about the other women? Did any of them see him?"

"I don't know."

"Do you know where I can find Ann Hazelton or Samantha Reardon?"

"Ann Hazelton committed suicide six months after she was freed. Reardon was in a mental hospital for some time. She had a complete breakdown.

Simon Reardon, Samantha's husband, divorced her," Escalante said with obvious distaste. "He moved away years ago. He's a neurosurgeon. You can probably locate him through the American Medical Association. He might know where Mrs. Reardon is living."

"That's very helpful," Stewart said as he wrote the information in his notebook.

"You could ask the other investigator. He may have located her."

"Pardon?"

"There was another investigator. I wouldn't let him speak to Gloria either. He came during the summer."

"The disappearances didn't start until August."

"No, this would have been May, early June. Somewhere in there."

"What did he look like?"

"He was a big man. I thought he might have played football or boxed, because he had a broken nose."

"That doesn't sound like anyone from the d.a's office. But they wouldn't have been involved that early. Do you remember his name or where he was from?"

"He was from Portland and I have his card." The doctor opened the top drawer of his desk and pulled out a white business card. "Samuel Oberhurst," he said, handing the card to Stewart. The card had Oberhurst's name and a phone number, but no address. The number was the one Betsy had given him.

"Dr. Escalante, what happened to your wife and the other women after they were kidnapped?"

Escalante took a deep breath. Stewart could see his pain even after — all these years.

"My wife told me that there were three women with her. They were kept in an old farmhouse. She isn't clear where the house was situated, because she was unconscious when he brought her there and she was in shock when she left. Almost dead from starvation. It was a miracle."

Escalante paused. He ran his tongue across his lips and breathed deeply, again.

"The women were kept naked in stalls. They were chained at the ankles.

Whenever he would come, he was masked and he would make them put on the hoods. Then he… would torture them." Escalante closed his eyes and shook his head, as if trying to clear it of images too painful to behold. "I have never asked her to tell me what he did, but I have seen my wife's medical records."

Escalante paused again.

"I don't need that information, Doctor. It's not necessary."

"Thank you."

"The important thing is the identification. If your wife can remember anything about her captor that would help us to prove he was not Peter Lake."

"I understand. I'll ask her, but I'm certain she won't be able to help you."

Dr. Escalante shook hands with Stewart and showed him out. Then he returned to his office and picked up the photograph of his wife and child.

Betsy had a trial scheduled to start Friday in a divorce case and she was putting the file in her attache case to bring home when Ann told her Reggie Stewart was on the line.

"How was your trip?" Betsy asked.

"Just fine, but I'm not accomplishing much. There's something weird about this business and it's getting weirder by the minute."

"Go on."

"I can't put my finger on what's wrong, but I know I'm getting the runaround about the case when no one should have any reason to lie to me."

"What are they lying about?"

"That's just it. I have no idea. But I know something's up."

"Tell me what you've learned so far," Betsy said, and Stewart recounted his conversations with Frank Grimsbo and Dr. Escalante.

"After I left Escalante, I spent some time at the public library going over newspaper accounts of the case. I figured there would be interviews with the victims, the cops. Nothing. John O'Malley, the chief of police, was the mayor's spokesman. He said Waters did it. Case closed.

The surviving women were hospitalized immediately.

Reardon was institutionalized. Escalante wouldn't talk to reporters.

Ditto Hazelton. A few weeks of this and interest fades. On to other stories. But you read the news reports and you read O'Malley's statements, and you still don't know what happened to those women.

"Then I talked to Roy Lenzer, a detective with Hunter's Point P.D. He's the guy who's trying to run down the case files for Page. He knows Gordon is missing. He searched her house for the files. No luck. Someone carted off all of the files in the case. I mean, we're talking a full shelf of case reports, photographs. But why?

Why take a shelf-load of paper in a ten year-old case?

What was in those files?"

"Reg, did Oberhurst visit the police?"

"I asked Lenzer about that. Gave Grimsbo a call, too. As far as I can tell, Oberhurst never talked to anyone after he talked to Dr. Escalante.

Which doesn't make sense. If he was investigating the case for Lisa Darius, the police would be his first stop."

"Not necessarily," Betsy said. Then she told her investigator about her meetings with Gary Telford.

"I have a very bad feeling about this, Reg. Let me run something by you.

Say you're an unscrupulous investigator. An ex-con who works on the edge. Someone who's not averse to a little blackmail. The wife of a prominent businessman hires you because she thinks her husband is having an affair. She gives you a scrapbook containing clippings about an old murder case.

"Let's suppose that this crooked p.i. flies to Hunter's Point and talks to Dr. Escalante. He's no help, but he does tell the investigator enough information so he can track down Samantha Reardon, the only other surviving victim. what if oberhurst found Reardon and she positively identified Peter Lake as the man who kidnapped and tortured her?"