Fancy Gap (15 page)
Tim talked into his phone, “Sheriff, we are at church and will be there in ten minutes. Someone here at church will take us there.”
Tim hung up and looked at the priest. Father Tony looked at them and said, “You go with Quinn and Louisa. I will stay here and pray.”
Quinn looked at Tim. “Follow us. We’re in the black truck.”
They pulled out of the church parking lot and headed back toward Fancy Gap. Quinn gave Louisa a description of Devil’s Den and also told her he had met the sheriff at the deli a few days earlier.
“What do you know about the sheriff ?” she asked.
“Not much, actually. All I’ve read about him in the local press is fairly good. He’s in a bit of a pickle with this whole mess since he’s up for reelection in November. He also has to deal with the county supervisors and business leaders who don’t want any bad publicity to dampen people’s enthusiasm for the flea market and gun show on Labor Day weekend.”
Quinn then gave her a quick briefing on what the flea market and gun show meant to the local economy. “So all of this is one big headache for everyone in Carroll County who profits from the pot of gold that is delivered every Labor Day weekend. Now all of a sudden this is threatened by an abduction, and now one poor child is probably dead. That will certainly intensify the heat on the poor sheriff.”
Louisa looked out the window as they left the parkway and turned on to Highway 608. Quinn slowed to turn on to Cemetery Road.
“This is crazy. We’re headed to a place called the Devil’s Den located on Cemetery Road. Is this really happening Quinn?” she asked.
Quinn slowed again as they neared the entrance to the parking lot. A deputy was posted at the entrance. Quinn identified himself and explained that the Prestons were in the car behind him. The deputy pointed to a spot where he wanted them to park. He then called the sheriff on his handheld.
The Prestons jumped out of their car. Sheriff Pierce jogged toward them. Quinn and Louisa got out of the truck and stood off to the side. As the sheriff told the Prestons what had happened, they began to sob uncontrollably. They all sat on a bench while they tried to collect themselves. The sheriff walked toward Quinn in order to give the Prestons their privacy.
“Sheriff, I’m so sorry to get the terrible news. We were at church when you called them.”
The sheriff looked ashen. “Quinn, I’ve seen a lot of terrible crime scenes in my career. This one is horrific. I feel so bad for this poor family.”
Quinn looked at Louisa. “Sheriff, this is Louisa Hawke, my guest at the house.”
The sheriff extended his hand and looked at Louisa for a long moment. “Have we met? You look familiar. Wait a minute! I remember now. Didn’t you give the keynote address at the FBI National Academy in Quantico some years ago?”
The sheriff had attended the FBI National Academy where domestic and international law enforcement leaders gather in Quantico, Virginia. Attendees learn how to improve the administration of justice in police departments and agencies in the US and abroad.
“Sheriff, that certainly might have been the case. I’ve had the pleasure and honor of addressing many graduating classes. I’m retired from the Bureau now.”
“I knew I recognized you. Sorry that you’re visiting Carroll County while all of this is going on. This is the kind of crap that happens in big cities, not in Fancy Gap.”
“I assume the State of Virginia has its best and brightest working with you on this. Who’s running the office in Wytheville these days?” asked Louisa.
“Johnny Berry is in charge now. He’s been there for at least a year now. He’s been doing a good job. Do you know him?”
Louisa thought for a moment. “No, I don’t think so, but I’m not sure.”
“Sheriff, we’d better get out of your hair now. You have a lot to do, and it’s not going to be easy.”
“Thanks, Quinn, and it’s a pleasure and honor to meet you, Miss Hawke.”
“Pleasure is mine, sheriff. Good luck today. I feel so bad for the family.”
“Ain’t that the truth. See you later.” He turned and walked back to the Prestons. What happened next wouldn’t be easy for any of them. Louisa paused for a moment before she reached into her bag and took out a card. She walked over to Susan and pressed the card into her hand.
Susan glanced at the card as Louisa walked back to the truck. Susan slipped the card in her pocket.
Quinn and Louisa drove back to his house, both deep in thought. As he turned the truck in to the steep driveway, Quinn said, “So the two children are missing for a week, and the boy shows up dead. Not buried in some ditch or in some field. He’s right out in the open at some place called the Devil’s Den. Not only did the killer want this poor child to be found, he’s trying to give the world a message about what he wants to be known.”
“I agree. This is no garden-variety killer. This is the product of a very sick and demented mind, someone who really doesn’t care what happens to him down the line. More than likely, this animal lives with two distinct personalities. That will complicate the entire investigation.”
When they entered the kitchen, Louisa smiled and said, “My dearest Quinn, let’s not forget that we are both retired and through with all of that. All we need to worry about now is what we’re going to have for lunch and where we’ll go on our bikes this afternoon.”
“Sounds like a plan: You whip up a couple of sandwiches, and I’ll go get the bikes ready for the road.” He winked at her as he headed out to the shed.
“Oh, Quinn, please make sure that my tires are pumped up to one hundred and twenty pounds, just like yours are, sweetie.”
“You think I’d do that to you? No need to keep any air out of your tires, ’cause I can ride faster and longer than you anyplace, anytime.”
Louisa laughed. She would have her hands full with that competitive animal all afternoon. She already loved this new, wonderful life, yet she couldn’t help thinking about the plight of the Preston family.
* * *
It was some time before the state police
CSI
staff and the M.E. had finished with the crime scene. The Prestons had reached a decision: Tim would go with the sheriff to the cave, and Susan and Mary would wait in the parking lot. She was too weak and distraught to attempt the hike down the trail.
The sheriff and Tim hiked down in silence and arrived at the cave just before the body was ready to be taken down. Tim dropped to his knees when he saw his son’s body on the iron grate. He sobbed for a long time. He turned his back when the crime scene technicians gently removed the wires that held Pete’s arms and legs to the grate. When they put Pete’s body on the portable gurney and covered it with a sheet, Tim threw his arms across his son’s body. Tim lowered his head and prayed silently for several minutes. The only sound was that of birds chirping in the background. The technicians and the sheriff lowered their heads and prayed as well.
Tim helped them carry the gurney back up the trail to the parking lot. They set it down ever so gently in front of Susan and Mary. They knelt with Tim and cried hysterically as Susan kissed Pete’s disfigured hands.
When Tim and Susan backed away from the gurney, the technicians loaded it into the back of the ambulance. The Prestons sat on the bench and hugged as they cried on each other’s shoulder. The sheriff sat with them. His suit was soaking wet from the several trips he had taken from the cave to the parking lot. He could not choke back his tears.
“Sheriff,” Tim managed to say, “Our little baby, Katie, is still in the hands of a maniac. You have to do all you can possibly do to find her before she’s killed.”
“I just know my little girl is still alive,” cried Susan. “Please find her! Please!”
With tears in his eyes, Sheriff Pierce wrapped his arms around the Prestons and whispered, “I will gather every resource I can to help find your baby girl. I will ask every person in Carroll County to help us find her. You have my word on that.”
The sheriff walked away and saw Levi and Craig near his car. All of them were exhausted and emotionally spent. The day had taken its toll. No one spoke. Their silence was broken when Scott Cohen walked toward them, wearing a look of concern. “Sheriff, my editor just called me. There’s a picture you need to see.”
“Give it up, Scott! What the fuck are you talking about?” Levi spat.
They circled Cohen as he expanded the picture on his iPhone.
“Jesus Christ!” exclaimed the sheriff, who never took the Lord’s name in vain.
The picture was of Pete Preston tied to the iron grate. The detail was gruesome. Craig grabbed Cohen’s phone and looked at the picture as closely as he could. Cohen looked at the sheriff, whose face had turned from ashen to red with rage. “Sheriff, the folks at the paper found the picture posted on a number of sites. I hate to say this but I believe the picture has gone viral on the Internet.”
“Sheriff, does Sandra know about what’s happening today?” Craig asked. Sandra Sprinkle was the sheriff ’s administrative assistant.
“No, she doesn’t, Jim. I haven’t called her yet.”
“She’d better be prepared to answer questions from everyone and his brother,” Scott broke in. “You need to prepare yourself for more publicity than you ever thought the Carroll County Sheriff ’s Department would ever get. This is going to get ugly—very fast.”
Just as the sheriff began to dial Sandra’s number, his phone rang. The number was the land line in the dispatcher’s office.
“Sheriff, its Ruby. I just got a call from a reporter from WXII, the NBC affiliate in Winston-Salem, who wants to interview you concerning the Preston boy’s killing. I told him you were busy, but he said he’d be here in two hours with his crew. And there have been other calls.”
“Thanks, Ruby. Be ready for more calls. Someone posted a picture of that poor boy all over the Internet.” He clicked off the line. “Jesus, the tsunami of reporters has already started. A fella from WXII in Winston and his crew are already on their way to Fancy Gap. I can’t imagine who’ll be next,” he said to Levi and Craig.
He didn’t have to wait long to find out. Ruby received calls from the three major network TV affiliates in Winston-Salem, as well as the three affiliates in Roanoke. The Fox teams were already on their way to Fancy Gap. Reporters from the
Winston-Salem Journal, Roanoke Times, USA Today,
and
The Washington Post
had already been dispatched to Fancy Gap.
He looked at them and said, “I’m going back to my office. I need to meet with the county administrator and as many of the county supervisors as I can round up. I hope the county attorney is around today too. They need to get ready for the shit storm that’s about to come our way.
Levi, set up a command post here in the outer parking lot. Get every deputy you can to work overtime from now on. Jim, call your boss and get as much help as we can from the state police.”
They all nodded in agreement as Sheriff Pierce got into his car and drove off toward Hillsville.
“This is going to be bigger than the Carroll County Courthouse shootings way back in nineteen twelve. You just wait and see!” Levi said to Craig as he headed to talk to the deputies.
Craig shook his head in agreement.
Carroll County residents to that day talked about the famous March 14, 1912 gunfight that broke out in the Carroll County Courthouse in Hillsville during the trial of local businessman Floyd Allen. He was being charged with interfering with deputies and assault and battery following an altercation he had with the law while trying to free his nephews who were being arrested for disrupting a religious service and fighting.
He and his relatives exchanged over 50 shots with lawmen in a crowded courtroom; out of the 200 there that morning, five died and seven were wounded, including Allen. Many of his family members who had come to his aid managed to escape.
A massive manhunt soon followed the tragedy. For his role in the shooting, Allen received the death penalty, and was electrocuted in 1913. The only thing that took this story off of national newspaper headlines was the sinking of the Titanic.
They were both certain that this new modern day Carroll County headline would gather its own strength and spread virally across the land.
Because at the end of each day—
little Katie was still missing
.
He already missed Pete and his perfect, young body. Not one shred of body hair to spoil the perfection of his creamy, white skin. Why had he let his virulent anger get the best of him? Why had he struck out at Pete? How fucking stupid of him.
He should have learned from that time in the past. But time was his mortal enemy that failed to remind him of lessons long learned—but forgotten.
His little Katie was now his salvation. In this short moment in time, she started to love him like a father. Her purity allowed him to be
her
salvation. In her small and impressionable mind, it was easy to castrate thoughts of her imperfect and stupid parents. After all, they had given both of their children to him. Good parents would have never let them leave the room in the dark of a night deeply laden with fog, the foggy veil of justice that was his sign from God.
Or was it? Oh, no, these two were manna from hell who weren’t there by coincidence. Only the divine spirit of the Devil thrust him into this act of the spiritual and corporal salvation of these pure and unblemished young souls.
As these thoughts raged through his psyche, he felt he must be close to Katie. He shut the door behind him as he entered the inner sanctuary of her eventual salvation. She sat quietly on her bed, watching the SpongeBob SquarePants DVDs he had chosen for her. She was as every bit naked as he had left her. He felt the sudden rush of blood to his flaccid self as the devil of temptation took over his weak and useless soul.
“Hi, Daddy. Where have you been?” she asked in the softest voice.
“I’m here now, sweetie. Come give Daddy a big hug!”
“Where is Pete? I miss him.”
“He is still in the hospital, my little darling. He will be home with us in a few weeks.”
He wallowed in her warmth and nakedness.
She snuggled closer to him.