Run For Your Life, page 14
“That’s fine, but where is Ben?”
“He hasn’t been told yet that you’ve been found.”
“Why on earth not? What aren’t you telling me, Mitch?”
I groaned. “Because the cops thought he was involved in your kidnapping.”
She let out a nervous laugh. “That’s ridiculous. I want to see my husband.”
I gave her a nod. “I’ll call him, but right now, just enjoy some time with Mom and Meg. Can you do that for me?”
She frowned. “Yes, of course.”
“Okay, I’ll go get them, and then we’ll be back this afternoon.”
Chapter 34
“That was awkward,” Royce said after we’d left the hospital.
“True, but it’s not my place to tell her that her husband is a cheating bag of shit. That’s his job.”
Royce jerked his chin toward the driver’s side of the cruiser. “You drive while I make the call to the county police office. I want the full-length crash scene report in my in-box by the time we get back to the precinct.”
“Good idea.”
I drove as Royce talked on his phone. I tried to picture the area along Johnny Mercer Boulevard. It was a mixed bag of wilderness and developed land. Knowing the exact location of the pileup and what had likely caused it was imperative in helping us find out where Marie came from.
After a five-minute phone call and when we were nearly back at the station, Royce hung up. “There. I hope the report will give us some insight as to Marie’s starting point. We need to print out a large map that includes all the existing structures in the vicinity.”
“So most likely a satellite view?”
“Yep, that’s what I’m thinking.”
“When we get the accident coordinates, I’ll work on that while you review the crash scene report.”
We headed to Royce’s office, where he took a seat and powered up his computer. “Good, the report is here.”
I pulled the guest chair around his desk and sat at his side. I pointed at the second paragraph on the first page then grabbed a slip of paper and a pen. “The accident took place just south of Turners Rock Road.”
“And that’s where the road turns into a true boulevard heading toward Savannah.”
“Got it.”
I took off down the hallway with the coordinates in hand. Our tech department would be able to print a satellite view map that was large enough for me to see the nearby buildings unless tree cover hid them. Once there, I spoke with Tom Branch, the lead in Tech. I explained exactly what I needed, and he said he could get that map to me in a half hour. He would call my cell as soon as it was ready. I returned to Royce’s office, and he said he’d just discovered something concerning in the report.
“What was it?”
“Take my seat and read it for yourself.”
Curious, I sat in Royce’s large leather chair, worried about the report I was preparing to read. After scooting in, I began with the eyewitness accounts of the pileup. Royce walked out, and as he left, he said something about checking with the hospital on the condition of the people who were considered critically injured. I continued on and quickly realized that the pileup had nothing to do with fog or inattentive driving.
“Holy shit.”
I pressed my temples as I read on. Eyewitnesses and people involved in the crash had said that a woman came out of nowhere and climbed over the metal barrier separating the lowland from the road. Many accounts put Marie on the paved side of the road, where she stumbled in front of oncoming traffic. Cars swerved and darted left and right to avoid hitting her. Crashes were unavoidable, and nine vehicles were involved in the carnage. The people in the first cars were most seriously injured from head-on collisions.
“Marie caused the crash?” I shook my head in disbelief. “She said she didn’t remember a thing, but I wonder if that’s actually possible without a head or brain injury.” While I sat at Royce’s computer, I looked up that question. Can a person lose time and completely forget their actions because of exhaustion or anxiety? Reading the answers gave me some relief. Apparently, psychotherapists and social workers who specialized in neuro-psycho education said a fight-or-flight reaction could actually cause a person to forget or never store information in their brain.
Maybe because Marie was so fearful for her life, she didn’t remember ever reaching the road. I wonder, then, if she’ll remember where she came from even when we show her the map.
Royce returned minutes later. “The worst-injured people are in intensive care. Doctors say it’s touch and go. Did you read all of the eyewitness accounts?”
“I did, and the paramedics said they found Marie disoriented on the road and assumed she was a passenger from one of the crashed cars. Guess the county police didn’t tell them otherwise. It’s possible when she said she didn’t remember anything after running from the house and then stopping to rest that it was a true statement. Specialist say that happens in extremely anxious times. She can’t be held responsible, can she?”
Royce rubbed his chin and let out a puff of air. “I can’t say for sure, but considering the horrific trauma she was put through, I doubt it.”
“But what if somebody dies?”
Royce shrugged. “Let’s get through today and see where we’re at.”
My phone rang. It was Tom Branch from Tech calling to tell me the map was ready. I needed to walk and think, so I said I would be right there to pick it up.
I told Royce, “I’ll meet you in the conference room, where we can spread the map out on the table and see what we have.”
“Good enough.”
After thanking Tom for the great job they’d done, I joined Royce. With the two-by-three-foot map on the table in front of us, I used a red pen to circle the site where the crash took place. I poked the map with my index finger. “Look here. Turners Rock Road only goes so far before you reach a gate with homes beyond that. On the other side of the boulevard is a side road that just seems to dead-end and lead into the lowland areas. The question is, how long was Marie actually walking?”
Royce pointed out several wide-open areas where Marie might have come from, and just because she climbed over the barricade near Turners Rock Road didn’t mean she’d walked in a straight line from the shanty where she was held. From the rooftops of the dwellings we saw, it was hard to determine if they were year-round homes or nearly abandoned or seldom-used shanties.
“There’s a lot of open lowland north of Bryan Woods Road, north and south of Turners Rock Road on both sides of Johnny Mercer Boulevard, and also along the branch of Turner Creek that passes under the boulevard.”
I disagreed with the area around the creek. “She would have come onto the road farther north, then. She didn’t swim across the creek.”
Royce scratched his head. “Right. Regardless, there’s a lot of properties along the waterways and lowlands that could be in question.”
“Marie mentioned something about how the man who kidnapped her said the shanty was overgrown and that nobody would ever find her there. That’s telling us it’s an abandoned dwelling. We can cancel out every home butting up to lowlands that gets an electric or trash pick-up bill. It’s going to take some time, but I know we can narrow it down. Let’s take this map to the hospital and let Marie have a look at it. What can it hurt?”
Royce agreed, and we left. We walked into the hospital at three thirty, and I didn’t see any family in the waiting room, so I assumed Mom and Meg were either still with Marie or had gone home. I had no idea whether Marie would be released that night or remain there until tomorrow, but I would make sure to ask the doctor when I saw him.
We were escorted back to her room by an emergency-wing nurse. Mom and Meg were still with Marie, but we’d only been gone for slightly over an hour, so that wasn’t unusual. I pulled Meg aside to have a word with her.
I kept my voice to a whisper. “Is Marie still asking about Ben?”
“Yeah, and I’m out of excuses. Do we need to let him know she’s been found?”
“I suppose so. He is her husband and has a right to know. Wait an hour and then call him. Royce and I have more things to go over with Marie.”
“So you’re booting us out?”
“Sorry, Sis, but the search isn’t over. Devon and Liza are still missing, and we need to find them ASAP.”
Meg patted my shoulder. “I understand, and I’m just so thankful she’s back. I’ll text you after I call Ben.”
“Thanks.” I waited for Meg and Mom to say their goodbyes, then Royce and I began. One way or another, we needed to jog Marie’s memory and find the shanty where the other two were being held.
Chapter 35
We spread out the map on the roller table that we’d positioned across Marie’s bed. I showed her where she was found—the crash scene location—and pointed out all the lowland areas in that vicinity. There were plenty. Asking her if she had gone north, south, east, or west out of the back of the shanty would likely prove useless since she had no idea where she was held, plus last night was dark and moonless, without anything to guide her.
“You said you walked a long way before you took a rest. Was it actually a long distance, or did it seem like a long time because of the grassy, uneven terrain?”
She seemed puzzled and frowned. “A long time or a long distance? Doesn’t that mean the same thing?”
“Not really. Think of it this way. Walking up a steep, rocky hill could take forty-five minutes, but you only covered a quarter mile because of the conditions. It’s the same thing if you were tripping over mounds and getting caught up in tangled grasses.”
“Right. Then I’d say it was more of a long time. I couldn’t judge anything by lights getting closer to me because there weren’t any.”
“Okay, so no lights that you saw, and how about road sounds, cars in the distance, that sort of thing?”
“It was dead silent other than my own panting and the sound of my heart racing.”
I looked at the map. “You didn’t cross any creeks, rivers, or roads?”
“Everything was wet and marshy, Mitch, but I wasn’t in any deep water. That much, I know.”
“So, we’re looking for the largest open area without anything like wide waterways or roads crossing your route. There would still have to be dwellings in the general area, though, yet far enough away that you couldn’t see lights.” The area that seemed to fit that description was along Turners Rock Road. Houses there were sparse, and if she had been anywhere between the road and Bradley Creek and ran in a northeast direction, she would eventually have ended up at Johnny Mercer Boulevard. It was a big if, since she could have been going in circles and unaware of it. That general grid of lowland still made the most sense because of the lack of lights. One reason she hadn’t seen lights might have been that she was running toward Johnny Mercer Boulevard, which had no homes lining the road.
“Do you need anything, Sis? We’re going to step out for a few minutes, but I can grab you some juice or a snack.”
“Apple juice would be good for now. I’m sure Ben and the kids will be along shortly to pick me up, and then we’ll order out from home.”
“Not too sure about that, Marie. I’ll ask the doctor about your release, and then we’ll be back in fifteen minutes or so.”
“Okay, don’t forget the juice.”
I turned back and smiled. “I won’t.”
Once in the hallway, I approached the nurses’ station while Royce said he would contact the county clerk to ask about the easiest way to track down the occupied and unoccupied dwellings in that general area as well as the owners’ names. Even if homes or shanties were abandoned, somebody still had to pay property tax on the land.
I addressed the first nurse who acknowledged me. “Is Dr. Reynolds around?”
“He’s somewhere in the wing. I’ll page him to the nurses’ station.”
I nodded a thanks and took a seat while I waited. I hadn’t been sitting long before I heard footsteps approaching. I looked to my right, and the doctor was heading my way. I stood, shook his hand, and asked if he could spare a few minutes.
“Sure. Let’s go down to the end of the hall. There’s a small grouping of chairs there.”
I walked alongside the doctor as I thought of the questions I needed to ask. I took a seat across from him, and he gave me his attention.
“What can I help you with, Detective Cannon?”
“Several things. Marie doesn’t have any head injuries, yet she’s lost a good amount of time between last night and today.”
“Hmm. That isn’t uncommon, and over time, certain moments may pop back into her mind. They could cause her a lot of anxiety too. Some people have the ability to block out unpleasant events, oftentimes considered a saving grace, and literally can’t remember them.”
“That’s unfortunate since, as a detective, I need to know where my sister was being held captive. Like I said earlier, one of our own and a civilian are also missing.”
“Understood. The only thing I could recommend, since time is of the essence, is to speak with a hypnotist. There’s a chance they could help Marie, but there aren’t any guarantees. A lot depends on whether Marie is open to the idea.”
“I see. Also, she’s assuming she’s going home later. Are you releasing her today?”
The doctor scratched his cheek. “Honestly, I’d rather keep her here until tomorrow. She needs more fluids and plenty of rest. It sounds like she’s been through a lot.”
If you only knew.
“Good, I think that’s for the best. About a hypnotist, do you have any recommendations?”
“I’ll write down a few names and leave them at the nurses’ station for you.”
“Appreciate it.”
As I watched the doctor continue on, I wondered whether Marie would be open to hypnosis. Those types of things were never discussed or even thought about in our household when we were growing up. If anything, we probably would have laughed it off as a carnival trick, but now I wasn’t so sure. If reputable doctors didn’t scoff at the idea, then that told me hypnosis might work. At the nurses’ station, I asked about the apple juice and was given two juice boxes, then I headed to Marie’s room and met up with Royce in the hallway.
“What did you find out from the county clerk?” I asked.
He huffed. “I had to do a lot of pleading, but they’re going to email us a list of the property tax bills that go out to residents on both sides of Johnny Mercer Boulevard between Cedar View Drive and Sea Island Drive. They’ll show the dwelling’s value if there’s a dwelling on the land. Otherwise, the bill will just be for property. It’s the best I can get from them. The rest will be up to us and SVU.”
“Okay, then we better get to work. I’ll give these juice boxes to Marie, tell her she needs to stay at the hospital tonight, and then we’ll leave. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but I have to stop at the nurses’ station to pick up something first.”
“What’s that?”
“I’ll explain it in the car.”
I told Marie I would be back first thing in the morning, and we said our goodbyes. In the car, I texted Meg and told her Marie had to stay the night and to go ahead and let Ben know where she was. Their life, their problem. As much as I wanted to give him a piece of my mind and fist, he was Marie’s husband, she was an adult, and she would have to decide how to handle Ben’s ongoing infidelity.
We were back at the precinct by quarter till five. I needed to call the four hypnotists the doctor had recommended before they closed for the day and find out who could see Marie the soonest. We didn’t have time to wait, and if I had to explain the urgency of the situation, I would. Royce wasn’t keen on using a hypnotist, and I wasn’t either, but we didn’t have other options. We would work the tax bills and get as many people as possible to help, but it would be time-consuming.
Royce went ahead and called everyone into our large joint conference room. Our night shift guys as well as the sergeant and detectives from SVU were present. They’d all heard about Marie’s lucky escape, but finding Devon and Liza was imperative, and since we didn’t know where they were, we needed everyone’s help in going through the names of the people who paid taxes on those properties.
I slipped away to my office, closed the door, and stared at Devon’s empty desk.
We’ll find you, buddy. Don’t give up hope.
Something had to work, and that something had to work right away. I squeezed my temples and cursed myself for forgetting to get Marie’s take on the hypnotist. Admittedly, my mind was scrambled. There was too much to do, and time wasn’t on our side. I didn’t even want to think about the consequences Devon faced once that Marlon character learned of Marie’s escape. I looked at the clock. I had to make my calls first, then I could do a quick database search for anyone named Marlon. Since I didn’t have a last name to go on, it would be impossible to find the right person, but at least I could see how many men named Marlon were in the Savannah criminal database.
After dialing the first hypnotist, I listened to a recording that said Dr. Hopkins would be out of the office until next Monday because she was attending a conference in Cleveland. I jotted that down and moved on to the next name. Dr. James Goering was the second one. His secretary answered—a good first step—and I explained who I was and what I needed. I told her it was an urgent matter and was promptly put on hold for three minutes. I tapped the pen against my desk as I waited.
“Hello, sir.”
“Yes, I’m still here.”
“Great. Dr. Goering can fit your sister in next Tuesday for a session.”
“Yeah, that won’t work. Thanks.” I hung up and moved on. There were only two more hypnotists on that slip of paper, and I needed a lucky break.
The next number I dialed was for Dr. Grace Evans. A receptionist picked up, I explained why I was calling, and she said that the doctor had just gotten a cancellation for tomorrow morning. I breathed in a sigh of relief, which I was sure she could hear through the phone line. I asked if the doctor could come to the hospital since Marie hadn’t been released yet. Since it was an unusual request, the receptionist said she would have the doctor reach out to me, and we could go over the situation and take it from there. I agreed wholeheartedly, gave her my cell number, and ended the call. I didn’t need to contact the last doctor, and I hoped I wouldn’t have to. I wasn’t sure whether Marie would be receptive to a hypnotist, but either way, she would likely be more willing to work with a female doctor than a male.
