Of Guilt and Innocence (11 page)

As her meat sauce neared its completion, Louis stumbled his way into the kitchen, still groggy from his hibernation. He took a seat at the table without saying a word and watched Anne add a few final spices to her sauce. “I hope I didn't wake you,” she said as she turned to look at him.

“No, you didn't wake me,” he replied, rubbing his eyes.  The nap in the recliner was the first sleep he had gotten in almost twenty four hours, but he felt refreshed nonetheless. At some point this became a routine for Louis. When he was done, the wickedness that filled his soul subsided a bit and he would spend time with his mother. He felt like a different person after one of his acts was through. He felt like his heart had softened a bit and he longed to feel loved. He longed to be doted on and cared for. For a short time he was gentle and meek.     

Anne brought the pasta over to the table and made Louis a plate. The two ate and talked some more. Anne, for the first time, revealed to Louis the problems she had been having with her hip and the pain it caused her just to walk throughout the house. Louis didn't even look up, he just twirled spaghetti on to his fork and shoveled it in to his mouth. “Oh that's too bad,” he said mid-chew. Anne continued on about her meeting with Dr. Morris and Dr. Hernandez and how they felt she needed surgery to either replace her original hip replacement, or remove some scar tissue that had built up. Louis just watched as his own hand dipped a piece of garlic bread into the meat sauce on his plate, and didn't say a word. Anne, continuing her thought on her hip ailment, told Louis she had another consultation with Dr. Hernandez tomorrow and that she would probably take the car.

Louis stopped eating and finally looked up. Her statement had triggered a rage in him that quickly replaced any feelings of love and pacifism he had harbored. He didn't have to try to conceal his explosive temper or keep up his façade of being normal when he was around her. Although he never became violent with his mother, she had seen the same rage his victims had seen numerous times. “I have to have the car tomorrow! I have plans! You can't just assume you're taking it without talking to me first!” He shouted at her, glaring into her eyes with a look of hatred.

Anne just looked down at her plate and softly apologized and said she would take the bus. She had never been afraid of her son, but she never chose to challenge him on anything he did or the way he treated her either. Anne's husband had passed away when Louis was only five and since then he had been all she had in life. Left with very little money and no family to help her raise him, she always had a feeling of guilt she kept inside for the way his life had turned out. When Louis went into one of his fits of rage she just shrugged it off and tried to move on. She would just let him yell and curse and wait it out until he calmed down, which usually took some time.

“God I can't believe how stupid you are! And selfish! And what the hell is this meat sauce anyway? Is your hip affecting your ability to cook?”

He would carry on insulting her until his blood pressure lowered again, and then he would pretend it never happened. He had never apologized to Anne for anything. He knew she would never hold him accountable, so why should he?

Anne just ate her dinner never looking up at him as he ranted. Despite Louis's disparaging remarks about her homemade pasta dinner, he not only finished his plate, but spooned himself two more helpings.

After the meal ended and his anger had faded, Louis went back to the living room and plopped back down into the recliner. The television was still on and the local news was just beginning. The top story was about a daring police raid in Hollywood that ended in the rescue of a kidnapped girl and the arrest of her abductor. Louis sharpened his focus and turned the volume up. The broadcast detailed how officers from the Boca Raton Police Department had gotten a tip and had worked together with the Broward County Sheriff's Office to raid the house, where they found the little girl chained up in the garage. The attractive brunette reporting the story stood in front of a rundown house that was surrounded by a yellow tape barrier. The woman continued to report the details as pictures of a man and woman who had been arrested in the raid popped up on the screen.  

Louis followed the story in amazement. There were so many differences between him and the man who had been arrested, and yet the situation was very similar to what he had just done in so many ways. He couldn't believe it had occurred in the same county. Just a short distance from where he held a little girl captive another man was doing the same.

His mental notes were interrupted by the closing of the news report. “In a bizarre twist, the tip Boca Raton detectives received was not for the Texas abduction case at all,” the reporter stated as she looked into the camera. “The tip was believed to be in regards to the disappearance of another missing girl, Ashley Wooten, who was taken from outside her home in Boca Raton yesterday afternoon.” Louis's pulse quickened, his face became flush. “All of the officers involved in the raid were under the assumption that she was the little girl being held captive here, and were very surprised to find out that it was actually a different girl. Neither department was aware of the missing Texas girl until after she was located. As for Ashley, police are still very much in the dark as to her whereabouts and who may have taken her.”

The screen cut to an older man with gray hair and a gray mustache, dressed in a white shirt and red striped tie, and a subtitle under his picture read “Sgt. Chris Phillips, Boca Raton Police Department.”  

“At this point we have no real leads on Ashley's whereabouts or her kidnapper. We are asking for the public to help us. If you know anything that may help, please call. Even if you think it's nothing at all, call and let us know. This little girl was doing nothing but getting the mail from the front of her home in the middle of the day when she was taken from her family. We know someone saw something. Please, folks, do the right thing and call in.” A phone number flashed across the screen during Sergeant Phillips' impassioned plea. A still picture of Ashley covered the screen, replacing the image of Sergeant Phillips.

Louis, who had been leaning forward in the recliner during the news story, leaned back and propped the recliner's footrest upward. A look of satisfaction crossed his face.

 

 

CHAPTER 9

 

 

Evening was fast approaching and Jim had no desire to call it a day and go home to his family. Jill had expected as much, and she was fine with it. It very rarely happened, but her husband would occasionally involve himself so deeply in a case that he lost all sense of time. Everything around him became irrelevant except his assigned task, which in this case was finding Ashley.

Jim and Dan had been checking on the Wooten family background for a few hours. Everything seemed normal enough. Both came from good families they remained close to. Tom's brother, Mark, had had his troubles in the past with alcohol and drugs. He had been arrested once for driving drunk, but by all accounts had straightened out his life and now had a family of his own. Lisa had one older sister, Amanda, who lived close by and with whom she was very close, despite the vast difference in their ages. Lisa's sister had two children: a daughter who was in her mid-twenties and lived in North Carolina, and a son, Kurt, who worked for Tom. Tom had hired Kurt as a favor to Amanda seven years ago when he graduated high school. Kurt left his uncle's employ only once since that time, for his freshman semester of college. He returned, however, after learning he had failed out, and he never left home again. He was smart, despite his short lived college career, and he worked hard for Tom.  

As far as the immediate family went, alibis would still need to be obtained, but no one stood out as a possible suspect. With that in mind, Jim and Dan decided to speak with work associates first. Dan spoke with Lisa's coworkers at the dentist's office, a small practice, and everyone there had nothing but kind words to say about Lisa and Tom both. The four employees, as well as the dentist, gave no indication that they had any involvement in Ashley's disappearance or knew of anyone who might have. Many of them wept as they spoke with Dan. As for Lisa, they painted her as charismatic and funny, someone who made not only the patients enjoy being there but the staff as well. They all agreed that her family meant the world to her and that she and Tom seemed to have the perfect marriage.

While Dan was talking with Lisa's co-workers, Jim was sitting down with Tom's only other employee, Rick Tardo. Rick Tardo was, simply put, a computer nerd. He had dark black hair, which had always been kept short on the sides and a bit longer than it should have been on the top. His head was very large with his forehead accounting for the majority of it. His brown eyes were covered with large eyeglasses. They looked similar to aviator style sunglasses without the sunglass tint. Black beard stubble covered his ghostly white cheeks and chin despite the fact that he shaved every morning.

Rick admitted to Jim that he had heard of Ashley's disappearance on the news and had tried to get in touch with Tom but was unsuccessful. He was extremely nervous as Jim interviewed him, never once making eye contact, something Jim took note of. Rick explained to Jim the various aspects of his relationship with Tom, both personal and work related. He spoke very highly of Tom, both as a boss and a person. He told Jim that Lisa had always treated him very well and that Ashley always said hello to him when she would come visit her dad. He had even been invited to several barbecues at the Wooten home and the family always seemed very happy together.

Jim began pressing the pedal down. Based solely on body language at that point, he felt like there was a chance Rick could be involved. The fact that Rick was so nervous made an impression on Jim, though he felt confident Rick probably got that way when he spoke with anyone. When Jim finally asked the all-important question of what Rick's alibi was for the time Ashley was taken, Rick, still looking down at the table through his large glasses, seemed surprised.

“Wow, uh . . . I was home all day.” He said, raising his eyebrows and opening his eyes wide.

“Why ‘wow'? What is ‘wow' supposed to mean?” Jim asked in an agitated tone.

“Just surprised you're asking me that. Implying you think I may have been involved.”

“Were you?”

“No, and I take offense that you would even suggest it.” Rick had a hurt look on his face as he looked down.  

“Why won't you look at me, Rick? Are you hiding something?” Jim used a softer voice this time, as if he was trying to coax an admission out of Rick very gently.

“I'm certainly not hiding anything. I'm a non-confrontational person and you're very intimidating.” Rick seemed closer and closer to tears with every word.

“Look at me, Rick, look at me,” Jim said softly and was finally able to get Rick's eyelevel to rise to his own. “If you did something, now is the time to get in front of it before it's too late. Don't let things go too far to where you can't get out from under what you've done.” Rick began sobbing.

“I didn't do anything!” he shouted, his voice cracking as tears filled his eyes. “Tom is one of two friends I've ever had in this world!  I would never do that to him!” Rick sniffed hard and took a deep breath. “That little girl was his world. He loved her more than anything. He hated going on so many repair calls late at night because he missed spending time with her. She was a nice little girl, always said hello to me. Most people who see me dismiss me or laugh at me because of how I look or how I act. She was nice to me. They all were nice to me.” He began uncontrollably weeping. Jim looked down at his watch for the first time all day. He was genuinely surprised that it read seven-twenty p.m. He knew he was due home over two hours ago and there were still a few things he wanted to do before he left for the day.

“OK, Rick, before I go, would you mind allowing me to look through your room real quick?”

“Why?” Rick asked as the tears began to subside.

“Why?” Jim replied back, the soft, gentile tone was gone from his voice. “Why do you think? If you want me to exclude you as a suspect I need to make sure Ashley isn't here now and has never been here.” Rick paused as he again looked down at the table.  

“I just don't understa—” Rick's words were interrupted by Jim's cell phone ringing.  

“Hold that thought.” Jim said as he pulled the cell phone out of his pocket and answered it. Almost immediately his face turned ashen. His heart sank. He could barely muster enough of his voice to reply to the person on the other end that he would be right there. He slowly raised himself from the seat at the kitchen table, looking dazed. Rick looked up at him confused and scared. “We will have to continue this later,” Jim said in a tone that was barely recognizable to either of them. Jim exited the house the way he had come in.

Where he was headed wasn't a very long drive, but it seemed that way. Jim had the car am/fm radio turned off and just listened to his own inner monologue the entire way. He played out several different scenarios in his mind and what he would do if each one of them came up. Finally he arrived at the location Sergeant Phillips had described and parked on the side of the road behind an array of police cars, both marked and unmarked. He scaled a guardrail with relative ease and began his slow descent down the side of the hill toward the group of police personnel that were gathered on the side of a canal.

Florida was riddled with small canals and waterways throughout the state, and Palm Beach County was no different. This particular canal was rather large, roughly fifty yards across, and was right on the border of Palm Beach and Broward County. Roads paralleled it on either side, however, the Broward county side had virtually no houses near it and the road that ran beside it was much less traveled. The roads on either side of the canal were raised, with a rusted guardrail separating the blacktop, in some places dirt, from a twenty foot sloped decline to the canal.