Chevy Stevens - Still Missing

Once all that was out of the way, he said, “The officers who brought you in today read you your Charter of Rights and warning, but I want to state again that you’re entitled to legal counsel before you talk to us. You don’t have to say anything to me, but anything you do say can be used in court.”

Mom shook her head. “This is so silly—who am I supposed to have kidnapped?”

Gary raised an eyebrow. “Your daughter.”

“Annie wasn’t kidnapped. A man took her.”

Apparently deciding that explaining the legal definition of kidnapping to her was pointless, and I had to agree with him there, Gary moved on.

“We have a signed statement from Wayne setting out exactly what transpired and both your parts in it.” He opened a file on the table, laid out a statement, then pointed to an item on it. “We also have your Visa bill, which proves you rented a van from out of town the day before Annie was attacked. We have the invoice from the rental company for the white van with your signature. We have an eyewitness who can place you and Simon Rousseau at a motel in Eagle Glen. We’ve confirmed that an elastic hair band found amongst Simon Rousseau’s belongings matches hair bands currently in your possession. We know you did it.”

Mom’s eyes were enormous as she tensed in her chair, but a second later she relaxed her body and rearranged her skirt hem. She then turned her attention to a fingernail.

With both hands on the table, Gary leaned forward.

“See, my superiors—they think you didn’t just want Annie gone for a week. That’s what you told Wayne, but they think you hired Simon Rousseau to kill her—Annie had a life insurance policy with her company, which I’m sure you knew you were the sole beneficiary of. Your plan went wrong, all right—Annie was never supposed to come home alive.”

With every sentence Mom’s body flinched and her eyes grew bigger. She began to stammer, “No…no…of course not… kill her? No …I’d never in a million years…”

“I don’t think you understand me, Lorraine. They don’t just think you hired Simon Rousseau to kill her, they want you to have hired him to kill her, because that will make a big difference in time served.”

I watched Mom’s face as she licked her lips a couple of times. To Gary it would look like nerves, but I knew my mom, and licking her lips was a sure sign she was trying to get her vodka-addled mind to focus.

“They want me to have done it?”

“A lot of time and a lot of money, taxpayers’ money, went into this case. My superiors, well, they’re none too happy about that. And the public? The public who spent their weekends searching the woods and putting up flyers while you knew what had happened to Annie the whole time? Well, they’re crying out for blood. So they don’t just want someone to pay for this, they need someone to pay for this.”

“Well, it’s good they want someone to pay. The person who did this should pay.” Her eyes moistened. “When I think about what Annie went through…”

His voice gentle, Gary said, “Look, Lorraine, I’m on your side here. I’m trying to help you get out of this mess. They don’t just want to convict you, Lorraine—they want to nail you to the wall. So unless you give me something to work with, you’re going to go down for hiring someone to kill your own daughter, and I won’t be able to stop it.”

Both eyes drooped as she watched him warily. Not ready to walk into the trap and nibble the cheese, but sniffing the air. I watched the two of them—horrified, fascinated, yet somehow removed, as though this were someone else’s mother, some other cop.

“I was in that hospital with you, Lorraine—I saw how hard it was on you. I know you really love your daughter—you’d do anything for her.” She began to kick her feet in the air beneath the table. “But Annie, she can be pretty stubborn, I know, and no matter how good your advice is, she doesn’t listen, does she?” Not sure I liked where he was going with this.

“No one listens to you, do they? Not your daughter, not Wayne. It can’t be easy watching him blow chance after chance, nothing ever coming through for you.”

“That man couldn’t find his way out of a paper bag unless I was standing over him.” With a toss of her ponytail, she shifted gears. “Some men just need an extra push to realize their potential.”

Gary gave her a sad smile. “But you shouldn’t have had to push him, Lorraine. If he’d been a better husband, a better provider, well, you wouldn’t have had to do any of this, would you?” She started to shake her head in agreement but caught herself and became very still.

“And we both know Wayne should’ve straightened things out with the loan shark so you could save Annie. But he didn’t, did he? Nope, he left it to you to try to fix. And now he’s putting it all on you.”

He leaned toward her until their noses were almost touching. She sucked on her lip like she was trying to get the last traces of alcohol out of it. She wanted to say it, wanted to tell him—she just needed a little push.

In a voice dripping sympathy, Gary said, “Wayne let you down, no doubt about it, but we can help you, Lorraine. We can make sure you’re safe. It’s not your fault things got so out of hand.” And with that little nudge she tumbled over the edge, her face flushed and her eyes feverish.

“He was just supposed to keep her for a week. He told me the cabin was nice, he spent over a month getting it ready for her, but he wouldn’t tell me where it was because he said I’d be more believable if I truly didn’t know where to find her. He had a drug that would make her calm so she wouldn’t be scared or anything—she’d mostly just sleep—and it was totally safe. At the end of the week he was going to leave her in the trunk of a car on a street, then phone and tell me where it was so I could make an anonymous call to the cops. But he didn’t call , and the cell number he gave me didn’t work anymore. And I couldn’t do anything to save her. The loan shark said he’d cut my face. ” Her eyes wide, she touched both hands to her cheeks. “I sent Wayne to talk to him and he screwed it up so bad we owed more. ”

“Did you give this to Simon?” Gary slid the photo of me I’d found at the cabin across the table.

“It was the only decent photo I could find—she’s always frowning in the pictures I take.”

“So you thought it was important he find Annie attractive?”

“He’d seen photos of her in Dwight’s cell from when she was young, he wanted to see how she’d grown up.”

Gary, who had been taking a sip of coffee, choked and broke into a coughing fit. He took a few deep breaths and cleared his throat, but before he could say anything Mom launched into her closing argument.

“So, you see, it’s not my fault—if he’d kept to my plan, she’d have been fine. But now that I’ve told you everything you can talk to your bosses for me and straighten it all out.” She smiled prettily and reached over the table, placing her hand over his. “You always struck me as the kind of man who knew how to take care of a woman. I’d like to make you a nice dinner, show you my appreciation…?” She tilted her head and gave him another smile.

Gary sipped the coffee for at least a minute, then set the cup down and drew his other hand out from beneath Mom’s.

“Lorraine, you’re under arrest. You won’t be going anywhere for a very long time.” She actually looked surprised. Then confused. Then hurt.

“But I thought you understood.”

Gary straightened up. “I do understand, Lorraine. I understand that you committed a crime, you broke the law, several of them in fact, and did nothing to rectify the situation. I understand that you turned a killer loose on your daughter . I understand that the killer impregnated her, then killed her baby girl. That she was terrified, alone, beaten, raped, and brutalized—never knowing from one day to the next whether it was her last. Never knowing why this was happening to her. Now I can finally give her an answer, but I wish to hell it wasn’t this one.”