All the Shiny Things: A Kate Reid Novel (Kate Reid Series Book 1) (14 page)

“All right, let’s go and see what happens.”

“Wait.” Katie unzipped her bag and pulled out a manila envelope. “I’ll need this.”

“What’s in there?”

“Press clippings from my abduction, some research I did back home, and contact information for Dr. Reyes.”

“I haven’t even seen that stuff,” Spencer said.

“I know. I should have shared this with you, but I was afraid you wouldn’t approve.”

“Whether I approve or not doesn’t matter. We don’t keep secrets from each other, okay?”

Katie nodded as she picked up her purse.

» » »

The police station was considerably smaller than the San Diego station. Almost no one was in there other than a few officers typing away at their desks.

“Can I help you two?” One of the officers asked.

“Yes. Hi. I’m Katie Reid and this is my fiancé, Spencer Harris.”

“Good evening. What can I do for you two folks on this lovely Saturday night?”

Katie pulled out her envelope and set it down on the raised front desk. She opened it up and pulled out the newspaper clippings about her abduction. The article on top read,
“Missing Girl Found on Side of Hwy 101.”
She pointed to the headline. “This was me and I was wondering if anyone here might be familiar with this case?”

The officer looked at her and then to another officer sitting at his desk. He motioned his colleague to take a look.

“You’re Katie Reid?” the second officer asked.

“Yes, sir.”

“Ms. Reid, I’m Sergeant Reynolds. I know your parents.”

“Hello Sergeant Reynolds, nice to meet you.” Katie shook his hand.

“Would the two of you like to come back with me and have a seat?”

“Yes, thank you,” Katie replied.

Sergeant Reynolds led them to a small room at the back of the station, next to a couple of empty holding cells. Inside was an old metal desk surrounded by folding chairs. A small round table with chairs in the corner was opposite the desk. The linoleum floor was well worn and covered in black scuffmarks; the place looked like it was in desperate need of updating.

“Please, sit down.” The sergeant motioned to the chairs. Upon taking his seat, he reached out. “Can I see that?”

“Yes, of course,” Katie replied.

“You know, I just saw your folks recently, actually. Your mother was handling a police charity event earlier this year; very nice people.”

“Thank you. She does a lot of good work for the community, always has. So, sergeant, are you familiar with my case?” Katie wasn’t up for small talk. It had already been a long day and she was anxious to discuss reopening her file.

“I’m familiar with it in the sense that we haven’t had many child abduction cases here in our small town in the last 30 or so years, so when something like that happens, it’s not easily forgotten. And yours was rare in that you returned home.”

“Do you know who worked on my case originally? Does he still work for the department?”

“Yes, Chief Wilson was the lead detective in charge of your case at the time.”

“Is he here? May I speak with him?”

“It’s Saturday night, Ms. Reid. I’m afraid the chief is at home. What is it that you’re inquiring about? I’m sure you didn’t come all this way just to show us some old newspaper clippings.”

“No, sergeant, I didn’t. I came here because I believe I may have some information that would give cause to reopen my case.”

The sergeant sat back in his chair and looked at Katie with great interest. “I see. Can you tell me what that might be?”

Katie looked at Spencer for reassurance. He nodded his permission. “Well, I don’t know how much you know of my case, but I was only six and had no memory of the event. My parents swept it under the rug and had a difficult time coming to terms with what happened; they still do.

“But the reason I’m here is that over the past few months, I’ve been recalling small, random memories, mostly dreams that I couldn’t make any sense of. I thought it was stress related. And so it wasn’t until I saw a therapist that more memories began to surface during my treatment and I was able to start connecting the dots.

“When I confronted my parents with this, they finally broke their silence and filled me in on the missing pieces.”

“Let me get this straight. You had dreams, or what you thought were memories that a doctor helped you to uncover? And your parents then told you the truth?”

Katie could see Sergeant Reynolds was trying to figure out if all this was legitimate. It came to her as no surprise; repressed memories had often been discredited and for good reason. But this was different. If not for her parents’ revelations, she would have believed the same.

“I understand your skepticism, but the nightmares happened. I don’t know how much of it was real, but I was kidnapped.”

“I don’t doubt the memories are real, Ms. Reid. Your case is well documented. What I doubt is what evidence you have to warrant reopening the investigation. Did you see your abductor in any of the dreams? Could you point him out if I showed you pictures?”

Katie resigned, feeling she was fighting a losing battle. “No. I don’t know what the person looks like. I haven’t been able to recollect that memory, if there ever was one.”

“So how can we reopen this case, Ms. Reid? What can you tell me that we don’t already know?”

She squeezed Spencer’s hand. “I have reason to believe that my case is related to the Arcata girl that went missing earlier that summer.”

Sergeant Reynolds leaned over the desk. “Well, now you’ve got my interest. But before we go any further, I’m going to have to get the chief involved.” He glanced at his watch. “How long are you in town for?”

“I’d like to head back tomorrow if I can.”

“Well, you may be in for the long haul, if this checks out, Ms. Reid. But why don’t we do this, it’s getting late, the two of you look like you’ve had a long day, and I’m not too keen on dragging the chief down here tonight. He doesn’t usually come in on the weekends, but I think I can convince him to hear you out. Can you two come back down here in the morning, say, around 9:00? I’ll get the chief in and we’ll go from there.”

“Yes, sir. Thank you. We would be happy to come back in the morning.”

“All right, then; I’ll show you both out.”

Sergeant Reynolds walked them back to the front of the station. “You go on and relax this evening. I’m sure it’s been a busy day for you. Say ‘hi’ to your parents.”

» » »

After a restful night, Katie was ready to face the chief. She was prepared for whatever might happen, whether he decided to reopen her case or not. If not, she knew she was on her own and would continue without the help of the police. But the question remained as to whether Spencer would follow down that same path. He was there for her for the time being.

At the station, the same officer from yesterday was posted at the front desk.

“Good morning, Ms. Reid and Mr. Harris, was it?”

“Yes,” Spencer said. “Good morning. We’re here to see Chief Wilson.”

“If you’ll have a seat, I’ll call the chief down.”

Katie and Spencer sat down in the lobby chairs and he took her hand to calm her.

A man who appeared to be in his mid to late fifties approached them from around the corner. His salt and pepper hair, mostly salt, was on the verge of being a comb-over; trying to disguise the fact that it was slightly receding. He had a medium build and stood probably 5 feet 10. Katie found him to be fairly handsome, for an older gentleman.

“Katie Reid?” the chief asked.

“Yes, I’m Katie and this is my fiancé, Spencer.”

“It’s very nice to see you again, Ms. Reid.”

Katie rose to meet the chief’s extended hand.

“I don’t believe I’ve seen you since you were about sixteen. I’m sure you don’t remember that. It was only briefly when your mother was organizing an event for the lodge. Anyway, I understand you’re here on a different matter?”

“Yes sir, I am.”

“Please, call me ‘Chief.’ Everyone else does. Why don’t you two follow me back to my office?”

They sat down in the chief’s office. Katie struggled to get comfortable in her chair. The seat cushion was worn and the metal arms were bowed out too far for her to rest on.

“Sorry about the accommodations around here. We’re a small town with an even smaller budget. We try to make do without asking the taxpayers to fork out more money for things like comfortable chairs.”

“It’s fine, sir. I don’t mean to make a fuss. I was just trying to get my files out.” Katie rifled around for the envelope.

“Of course, that’s why we’re here, isn’t it? Sergeant Reynolds filled me in on your meeting yesterday. First of all, I want to say how sorry I am that you’ve had the misfortune of recalling some of the events of your abduction. I was in charge of your case. I had just been transferred a month before from Sacramento PD. After learning of the other abduction cases around Eureka, I wanted to be involved and there happened to be an opening here. I thought I could help, but it proved to be a highly complex case, as I’m sure you’re now aware.”

“Yes. I am now,” Katie replied.

“Believe me, Ms. Reid. I worked day and night on your case. We thought for sure there was a connection to the other missing children, but we just couldn’t get any solid evidence. The other kids, well, they weren’t as lucky as you.

“When the family dropped you off in Trinidad, your parents were very protective of you, as you’d expect. I tried to press them on the importance of having the doctors work with you to help you recall what happened. Our only chance at making any real connection to the other cases was finding out what you knew. But I don’t blame them, not one bit. If it were my kid, I would have done the same thing. So, we did what we could to find the man that abducted you. DNA testing was fairly new back then and CODIS, our DNA database system, wasn’t around until the mid-1990s. We didn’t have much to go on back in those days. Search parties scoured the area near where you were found. We tracked footprints, but it was a well-traversed area of the park and many of the prints were untraceable.” The chief paused and looked Katie directly in the eyes. “I’m sorry, Katie. You probably don’t want to hear how I failed to capture the man who took you.”

“Chief, I’m sure you did everything you could. I’m not here to lay blame or imply you didn’t do the best job possible with the resources that you had. I’m here to find him. I want to reopen this case.”

So far, he seemed receptive, and she was grateful for that. It was a good sign, but would he remain so after the mention of the necklace? It wasn’t DNA evidence, it wasn’t much, but it was all she had.

“Okay, well, let’s start off by you telling me what you’ve got. Sergeant Reynolds mentioned something about you and the Arcata girl?” the Chief said.

“I know it isn’t much and may not even be useful at all,” Katie started, already doubting her confidence.

“Before you dismiss it, just give it to me straight.”

“Well, back home, I’ve been doing some research of my own. Since my parents told me that I wasn’t crazy and that my dreams were in fact memories of the abduction, I wanted to find out more.”

Chief Wilson nodded, casting occasional glances at Spencer.

“I looked up the other three missing children cases. I was able to pull up pictures of the kids who were taken. Now, it didn’t occur to me right away, but about a week ago, I had another one of my therapy sessions.”

“Hypnosis, right?” the chief asked.

“Yes; hypnotherapy was used to relieve what I believed at first to be stress. Anyway, I recalled being in a dark room, like a basement or something similar. I was blindfolded, but I removed it when I was alone. Across the room, I saw light reflecting off an object. When I walked over to see what it was, I found a heart-shaped pendant necklace.

“I was brought back out of the hypnotic state and didn’t realize the significance of the necklace at the time. In fact, it wasn’t until several days later when I was reading a book on cold cases that it hit me. The school picture I saw of the girl from Arcata showed her wearing a heart-shaped pendant necklace.”

No one spoke and the chief only stared out his office window in silence. Katie and Spencer exchanged looks, uncertain of how he would respond.

Finally, he spoke. “Mr. Harris, you’re an attorney, is that correct?”

“Yes sir, I am.”

“Would you consider what Katie has told me here to be admissible in court?”

“Repressed memories are generally not admissible as evidence in court, unless other physical evidence or other testimonies were concurrent. The difference here, I believe, is that her abduction was an active case. She escaped and was discovered by the side of the highway. That much is fact.

“What Katie is aiming to do here is discover, through her recalled memories, any new evidence that is relevant to solving the case. If she can establish a connection to the other cases, that may be enough to reopen the investigation. Whether or not it will result in the capture of her abductor remains to be seen. But the fact of the matter is, she is the only known surviving victim and if the victim can remember details not previously known, I’d say that would make for legitimate evidence.”