Alex Barclay - The Drowning Child

‘She went home,’ said Paul, ‘she could have dumped him somewhere that was familiar to her.’

‘We can call in video from the conference hotel,’ said Ren, ‘but I doubt she would be stupid enough to have done this where she could be seen.’

‘I don’t need to stress how carefully we need to tread here with Alice Veir,’ said Gary. ‘That woman is ready to pounce on anything she can use to justify her war against law enforcement. We can call in Paula Leon’s rental car, send it to the lab, no problem. Getting a search warrant for Alice Veir’s property is not going to happen. She is going to resist every move we make. We need more evidence.’

Ruddock walked into the office, just as Ren’s cell phone rang. ‘Oh, shit: that’s Alice Veir,’ she said. ‘What are the chances?’

‘Pretty high, after what Gary just did to her brother,’ said Paul.

Ren picked up.

‘Agent Bryce?’ said Alice. ‘I just got off the phone with my brother. It is scandalous what you’re doing to him. His son is missing, he’s heartbroken, and he has to be subjected to what you’ve just subjected him to? It’s despicable. He’s under incredible strain right now, as you can imagine. This does not give you and your colleagues an excuse to take him into a room and attack him the way you did. He’s made himself available to you at all times, he hasn’t called in a lawyer because he feels he has nothing to hide, and he trusts in the system, which, to be honest, amazes me.

‘What this entire investigation should be about is finding out facts that will help us find Caleb.’

‘That’s exactly what we’re trying to do,’ said Ren. ‘Is there anything else you can think of that might help us in that regard?’ Like your visit to Lister Creek, you lying-ass bitch!

Ren allowed a silence to open up. Alice Veir didn’t close it.

What the fuck are you two hiding?

Ren looked up at Gary and Paul, and mouthed. ‘Can I call her in?’

They nodded.

‘Alice – where are you right now?’ said Ren.

‘In Spokane – why?’

‘We’d like you to come in to Tate PD, please.’

‘What?’ said Alice. ‘Why?’

‘For a chat,’ said Ren.

Pause. ‘A chat?’ said Alice. ‘About what? I’m very busy. It’s going to be hard for me to travel. I can tell you anything you want to know right now.’

‘There are a couple of things we’d like you to take a look at,’ said Ren. ‘It won’t take too long. I know you’re very eager to do anything you can to help us find Caleb, and, clearly, to help your brother too.’ She smiled sweetly at Gary and Paul. Paul smiled back.

Ren ended the call. ‘She can’t not come in, because if she’s hiding anything, the last thing she’s going to want to do is come across as uncooperative.’

Ruddock’s cell phone rang. He picked up, listened.

‘It’s CVIP,’ said Ruddock to the others.

Child Victim Identification Program? What?

‘Let me put you on speaker,’ said Ruddock, punching the button, holding the phone out to the others. ‘I’m with SSA Gary Dettling, SA Paul Louderback, and SA Ren Bryce.’

‘Hello, everyone – Bob Freeborn here, CVIP. I’m calling to let you know we got a hit on that sleeping bag image that you guys released to the media from the Caleb Veir disappearance.’

What the fuck? ‘What kind of hit?’ said Ren.

‘There’s a distinctive black ink stain on it. We’ve picked it up across a series of over a thousand images and videos of abused children.’

Ren’s heart started to pound.

‘It was an unusual find,’ said Bob. ‘Boxes of photos and videos in a dumpster beside a strip mall toy store called the Toy Box in Redding, California on Friday. That’s just off I-5, which is obviously a route out of Salem. We’re still scanning them. By my estimates, so far, though, they look like they’re from the seventies/eighties/nineties.’

‘So, before Caleb Veir was born,’ said Gary.

‘Yes – so far,’ said Bob. ‘The kids look to be anywhere between four and eleven – boys and girls.’

‘What kind of abuse are you seeing?’ said Gary.

‘It’s almost exclusively near-drowning,’ said Bob.

Ren’s stomach lurched. ‘And is there sexual abuse?’

‘In some cases, yes,’ said Bob. ‘I’m aware of your drowning deaths in Tate. Is that the route you’re going down?’

‘Yes.’ The log flume to hell.

‘It looks like the same abuser throughout,’ said Bob. ‘You’re likely looking at someone who’s minimum mid-sixties now.’

‘Definitely?’ said Ren. ‘Could it be John Veir, the father? Have you seen a photo of him? He’s fifty-seven.’

‘Can I say definitely sixties?’ said Bob. ‘Well, no – but thereabouts. I can say, though, that it’s definitely not John Veir. I saw him on the news. This man has darker skin and very dark hair, lots of it. We can really only see an arm, a knee, and...’

We all know where the camera is aimed in those videos.

‘I’m presuming the sleeping bag wasn’t with the porn,’ said Ren.

‘No.’

‘How often is the garbage collected at the store?’ said Ren.

‘Those boxes could have been dumped there any time from the Thursday before,’ said Bob.

‘No CCTV, I presume...’

‘No,’ said Bob. ‘We’ll keep inputting the images, and I’ll send everything on as I get it.’

‘We can’t presume whoever dumped them shopped at the store,’ said Ren, ‘but what pedophile could resist a toy store?’

That was grim.

‘Yup,’ said Bob, ‘they go where their needs are met. And I’ve got one hundred and fifty-five million unique images to prove it.’

Jesus. Christ.

‘And these guys are getting more and more tech-savvy,’ said Bob. ‘They’re editing out anything identifiable that might be in the background, anything that we can pick up on our system.’

Imagine sitting at your desk, using editing software for that. It’s beyond depressing.

‘Well, thanks for the call,’ said Ruddock.

‘What the fuck?’ said Ren. She put a call into the Toy Box to email her their video files for the previous week, and a list of all the purchases made.

‘And we can at least get a list of men in that age group from around Tate,’ said Ruddock. ‘Not that the abuser necessarily has to be from the town, but it’s a start.’

‘Really looking forward to Bob’s email,’ said Ren. Ugh.

Like a juggernaut, the images and videos from the fetish sites moved in.

Ugh.

Jesus.

Ren’s heart rate accelerated.

‘People go where their needs are likely to be met.’

‘You won’t find a pedophile hanging around a retirement home.’

Oh my God... the suicide at the retirement home. Wasn’t that guy a swim coach? He taught kids for years. He killed himself last Friday. That was the day it got out that Aaron Fuller had been drowned.

She looked reflexively at Ruddock. This will crush him.

‘Ruddock, maybe you could check with the Veirs about that sleeping bag – find out where it came from and how long they had it,’ said Ren. ‘If there are images from the seventies, and it’s an older man... who could that be? A sibling? Uncle? Family friend?’

Ruddock nodded. ‘OK – I’ll do that.’

She waited for him to leave, then opened up a legacy.com page for Roger Lyle. ‘Pillar of the community alert,’ she said, pointing to the screen.

Gary and Paul looked at her.

‘Did you know that a local swim coach committed suicide last Friday at the retirement home?’ said Ren.