Call Of The Witch (6 page)

“
Hey, you know he’s trying
to think of a good name for the baby. He said he’d take
suggestions.”

“
Isn’t that something he
should keep between him and Ursula?”

“
No. Ursula is cool with
it. Said in her day the husband always picked the baby’s
name.”

“
We’re not in Ursula’s
day.”

“
I know. I suggested
Guinevere.”

“
From the King Arthur
legend. Nice. But what if it’s a boy?”

“
What if what’s a
boy?”

“
Ursula’s baby. What if
she has a boy instead of a girl?”

“
Man, do you not listen to
anyone but yourself. What’s it like up there with just your own
voice rolling around your head like wind through a
mailbox?”

“
What the hell are you
talking about?”

“
Were you or were you not
sitting at the table with us at the Olive Garden, the five of us;
you, me, Ursula, Dominic and Lilith, when Lilith told us that the
first born to a witch is always a girl?”

“
Last week?”

“
Yes.”

“
I was there, but I don’t
remember Lilith saying any such thing.”

“
Well she did.”

“
I must have gotten up to
go to the bathroom.”

“
No. You were sitting
right there, buttering your bread sticks and dipping them into your
bowl of marinara sauce. You remember now?”

“
No, and I think I’ve had
enough of this conversation, as well. Why don’t you turn the radio
back on?”

He did, and for the next twelve minutes we
listened to commercial-free classic rock at such absurdly high
decibels, I thought my ears would bleed. It was the best thing I’d
heard all day.

Carlos and I met up with Spinelli in the
media room at the Justice Center. He looked tired, and I guessed he
hadn’t been getting much sleep lately, what, with keeping Ursula
company at nights when she couldn’t sleep, and then staying up all
day at work. I offered to finish his shift for him so he could go
home and sleep, but he wouldn’t have it.

“
Besides,” he said.
“Ursula’s been feeling better and doesn’t really need me
now.”

“
Good,” I told him,
“because we really could use you here.”

After catching Dominic up on what we learned
at the Brewbaker’s, we had him catch us up on what he’d done so
far.

“
I got Kelly’s
pic-scrip-n-stats uploaded in the NCIC computers and––”

“
Whoa-whoa-whoa.” I held
my hand up to stop him. “Wait a second. What did you say you
uploaded on the NCIC?”

“
Her
pic-scrip-n-stats.”

“
What is that, like alien
talk?”

Carlos said, “Picture, description and
statistics.”

Dominic pointed at him and nodded.
“Yeah.”

I shook my head. “Continue.”

“
Like I said, I got her
pic-scrip-n-stats uploaded in the NCIC computer. I also furnished
that same information to the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children.” he checked his watch. “About fifteen minutes
ago the first Amber Alert went out over all the local radio and TV
stations from here to Boston. In another ten minutes, electronic
highway signs light up with Kelly’s name all along the I-95 and
I-94 corridors, as well as on Routes 1, 114, 128, and 129. By the
six o’clock news, everyone along the entire Eastern seaboard will
have been exposed to Kelly’s name and face.”

“
Nice,” I said. “Good
work. Now let’s hope someone out there actually pays attention to
those alerts.”

“
All we can do is try,”
Carlos remarked.

Dominic said, “I’ve been looking at that
picture of Kelly. She’s really a cute kid. Isn’t she?”

“
She is,” I
said.

He shook his head. “Why would anyone want to
do this to such an innocent little girl?”

“
Money,” said Carlos. It
came out sounding cruel. I don’t know why I thought that. I just
did.

“
Yeah but…” I could hear
Dominic’s voice begin to crack. “She’s just a kid.” His attention
began to drift.

“
Dominic?” I touched his
arm. “Dominic?”

He finally looked at me. “Yeah?”

“
You all
right?”

His answer came slowly. “Um…yeah, I’m
okay.”

“
Can we
continue?”

He took a deep breath and then focused his
attention and ours to a flip chart he had prepared in the corner.
On the top of the page, he wrote the words:

ANATOMY OF A KIDNAPPING.

Below that were pie charts and statistics he
had gathered for presentation.

“
There are generally six
phases to a typical kidnapping, albeit every kidnapping holds its
special blend of circumstances.” Carlos and I nodded as though we
knew that. “In any case, those six phases are Abduction, Captivity,
Proof of Life, Negotiation, Ransom Drop and then finally,
Release.

“
I think it’s safe to say
we’ve experienced the Abduction and now have to assume we’re in the
Captivity stage. I say assume because in a small percentage of
cases, the victim sometimes escapes her captors and makes her own
way to freedom. Unfortunately, that usually only happens within the
first hour or so after the initial abduction. That’s when the
kidnapper is most vulnerable to making mistakes. His adrenaline is
surging. He’s nervous, often acting hastily in dealing with a
victim who may not behave the way he expects. Once he gets his
victim to his hideout or holding area however, he then has time to
stop and think. He reassesses his plan, reevaluates his objectives
and regains control over the situation. At that point, we’re in his
ball park playing his game.”

“
Then it’s his game to
lose,” I said, “because we’re likely looking at an abduction that’s
eight or nine hours old.”

“
In that case we can only
hope we’re in the Captivity phase.”

He flipped the page on his oversized note
pad. “To understand the Captivity phase, we need to know who our
kidnapper or kidnappers are.”

Carlos said, “If we knew that, we’d be well
on our way to solving the case.”

“
True.” Spinelli pointed
to the next illustration on the page: a pie chart divided into
three unequal slices. “Identifying the Suspects,” he said. “In
virtually all kidnappings, we can identify the suspect as one of
three types: family member, acquaintance or stranger. Now, we know
occasionally kidnappers work in teams or groups, and sometimes in a
mob capacity, as with the 1976 Iran Hostage Crises, but ultimately
they all still fall into one of those three.” He pointed to the
largest slice of pie on the chart. “By far, the greatest number of
abductions is generally perpetrated by a family member at the rate
of seventy-seven abductions to one by non-family.”

“
Wow,” I said. “That’s
powerful.”

“
Yes it is. Therefore,
it’s no wonder best practices have us looking at family members
first. We start our investigation there and move outward to
friends, acquaintances, peripheral contacts, sex offenders and
finally strangers.”

“
So we need to look harder
at Lionel and Amanda Brewbaker.”

“
Not just them. Everyone
in the immediate circle. Brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, in-laws,
stepfamily. Anyone who’s had access to the child.”

Carlos said, “As far as we know, Kelly has no
siblings.”

“
But she probably has
close relatives, aunts, uncles and what have you.”

“
Put that on the list
then,” I said. I turned to Carlos. “See, this is why I wanted to
call the FBI. They have the man power to investigate all these
avenues.”

“
I know, Tony.” Carlos
shook his finger at me the way I often do to him. I must say, I
didn’t much like it. “But I’m telling you. I know Lionel Brewbaker.
He’s stubborn and pig-headed. He thinks he can reason with whoever
kidnapped his daughter. If we weren’t doing this his way, we’d be
doing it no way at all.”

I answered simply with a frustrated sigh.
“Dominic, continue. Please.”

“
Even though a family
member is responsible for the crime the majority of the time, we
may not have to look far to find our man, or woman as the case may
be.”

“
How’s that?”

“
Because typically the
perpetrator is female, and more times than not, it’s the
mother.”

“
I knew it!” said Carlos.
“See?” he pointed at me again. “I told you she was a
skank.”

“
Carlos.”

“
I’m telling you, Tony,
when we were upstairs looking through Kelly’s stuff; she didn’t so
much as lift a finger to help me. She just stood in the doorway to
the bedroom, smoking her cigarette and watching me do all the
work.”

“
That doesn’t prove
anything.”

“
It doesn’t not prove
anything.”

“
That’s poor grammar,
Carlos.”

“
Yeah? Well she’s a poor
mother. I say we bring her in and polygraph her ass.”

Dominic said, “We need to bring them both in.
At the very least then to get written statements.”

I agreed, suggesting we should call them
after our meeting and see if they would come in voluntarily,
adding, “They’ll probably want to consult with their respective
lawyers before submitting to polygraphs.”

“
Then we’ll have to remind
them that the sooner we can rule them out as suspects, the sooner
we can focus on other potentials.”

“
I don’t think we’ll have
to,” Carlos remarked. “She did it. I’ll just bet.”

“
Don’t bet the farm,” said
Dominic. “Before we break out the pitchforks and machetes, let me
add that even though the mother is responsible for the lion’s share
of child abductions, in such cases ransom is seldom involved.
Usually it’s a matter of last resort for the mother. Typically, the
child is at the center of a custody battle where the mother’s at a
financial disadvantage. Fearing losing the child to the father, she
absconds with the kid and goes into hiding.”

“
We know that didn’t
happen,” said Carlos. “We saw the mother.”

“
Yes,” I said. “And there
is a ransom demand, although we still don’t know how much it is
yet.”

Dominic cautioned, “That still doesn’t clear
her. You said the mother showed up at the house eight hours late to
pick Kelly up?”

“
Yes.”

“
Then she had plenty of
time to have gone to the house as scheduled, pick Kelly up and take
her to wherever she’s being held now.”

“
What about the ransom
demand?”

“
What of it? You said Mr.
and Mrs. Brewbaker are in the middle of divorce
proceedings.”

“
That’s right.”

“
So what better way to get
money from her husband now?”

“
Maybe.” I rocked back in
my chair, crossed my arms and kicked my feet up on the table. “If
that’s the case, then she most definitely has an accomplice. We
know she didn’t make those phone calls because she was there with
us when they came in.”

“
Agreed,” said Spinelli.
“Amanda Brewbaker may have had motive and means, but without an
accomplice, she couldn’t pull it off entirely. So if she’s guilty,
the question is…. who’s helping her?”

“
Someone from her theater
company,” Carlos suggested. “Probably a lover.”

“
We’ll need names.” I
looked to Spinelli. “When we’re done here, will you call Detective
Olson and ask her to talk to Lionel Brewbaker? We’ll need him to
tell us the name of the club where Amanda’s theater company
performs, but I don’t want Amanda knowing we’re asking. We don’t
want her making calls, tipping anyone off.”

“
Got it.”

I pointed to Spinelli’s flip chart. “What
else you got?”

“
Acquaintances and
strangers. These are two kidnapper profiles we need to worry about
most.”

“
Why’s that?”

“
Because, statistically
speaking, those two inflict the highest percentages of injuries on
their victims, and in cases where the victim is female, the highest
percentages of sexual assaults, as well. Unfortunately, even when a
ransom is part of the initial demands for release, after a sexual
assault takes place, the kidnapper often kills his victim anyway,
and then disposes the body.”

“
To destroy any DNA
evidence,” I said.

“
Yup.”

“
That’s awful.”

“
And the scary part
is––”

“
Don’t tell me. Because
the kidnapper still hasn’t named his price, you’re worried the
ransom is just a smoke screen. He doesn’t want the money at
all.”

Spinelli nodded faintly. “He may just be
milking it for the excitement, creating additional anxiety at arm’s
reach to heighten his perverted fetish. If that’s the case, it’s
our worst nightmare.”

“
Then we might as well
prepare for the worst. We should contact Kelly Brewbaker’s
physician, and her dentist. See about getting dentil records,
X-rays…anything that may help us identify her remains.”

“
No. Let’s not,” said
Dominic.