Redemption (52 page)

Jane instantly made the connection. It was Mary Bartosh who had frantically called Detective Charles Sawyer fourteen years ago. “You know for a fact that two girls got raped?”

“Yeah, and don’t ask me why I didn’t do somethin’ about it! I tried! God knows I tried! But I wasn’t ready to die for tellin’ what I knew!”

“Die?”

“Look, I’ve got a fresh start now. I’ve got $5,000. I’ve got Christina. And I’m going someplace where nobody knows me and where I’ll be safe.”

“Safe from your boyfriend?”

“Yeah....” Mary replied with an unresolved tone.

“Who else?”

Mary wrapped a hard wall around herself. “I’m not telling you any more!”

“Goddammit, Mary! You want me to stick you in jail!”

Mary let out a contemptuous laugh. “Oh, I get it! ‘Fuck you, Mary! Do my bidding or I’m gonna put your ass in jail on some trumped up car theft charge!’ Well, you know what?
Fuck you!
I’ve done everybody’s bidding but my own for my entire life. I swore when I left Seattle that I was startin’ fresh and livin’ life on my own terms. And I’m holding to it. I’m not making any deals with you!
My life is not a fucking deal anymore!
I’ve got a little girl to protect now!”

“Who are you afraid of, Mary?” Mary didn’t budge. Jane jabbed her index finger onto the photo. “Is that who you’re afraid of? Is that who’s got a hold of your head?”

Mary briefly looked at Lou’s smiling countenance. “No....”

Jane heard the lie reverberate across the tiny room. “You found out he’s free on bond, didn’t you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Mary said, skirting her eyes to the left.

“And you’re sure he’s gonna go free because assholes like him have better luck than you and me.” Jane sorted through her satchel. “You think that if you tell me something about what he did fourteen years ago to a little brunette, hazel-eyed girl named Ashlee....” Jane pushed the snapshot of Ashlee and Kit toward Mary, “something bad will happen to you or, maybe,
your
little hazel-eyed girl.”

Mary’s fear dissolved. “If he went anywhere near her, I’d kill him.” She glanced down at Ashlee’s photo and turned it over. Jane started to turn the photo upright when Mary laid her shaking hand on Jane’s arm. “Don’t...please.”

Jane sat back. “How long did you know Ashlee?”

Mary rocked Christina. “Not long.”

“How long did you know Lou?”

“Too long.” She turned away, a mournful sob gripping her throat. “I wanted to save her. But I was too scared.”

“You knew Lou had her?”

“Don’t hate me. I already hate myself enough for what I didn’t do.”

“Mary, listen to me,” Jane said gravely. “Lou kidnapped another little girl. She’s twelve. He’s still got her...somewhere. Every minute counts, because since he killed Ashlee on day fourteen, I’m assuming he’s gonna kill this little girl on day twelve. That’s tomorrow.”

“My God.... I don’t get it.... Why—”

“I’m sure you heard him talk about his ‘Power of Fourteen’ theory back then, right?”

Mary furrowed her brow. “What?”

“‘The Power of Fourteen’? When a girl or boy turns fourteen, it signifies a pivotal moment in his or her development. The kid is highly impressionable and can be easily—”

“Molded spiritually, mentally, physically, and emotionally,” Mary said, as if reciting an old proverb. “Whatever occurs in your fourteenth year defines who you will become as an adult.”

“How’d you know that?”

“Because I heard it almost every day of my life from my father. ‘The Power of Fourteen’ was
his
theory!” Jane sat back, speechless. “That’s so fuckin’ typical of Lou. He’s such a poser. If you can’t think for yourself, let somebody else fill your mouth with words.” Mary thought for a moment. “My dad was fond of a lot of sayings. ‘We need to ratchet up our ministry to a new level.’ God, I heard that one constantly! And then there was ‘Redemption only comes through intervention.’ That was a big one. He’d say, ‘Those who are evil need to experience a deep, one-on-one intervention that shows the evil one what he or she is setting themselves up for.’ It was just mindless words to me, but it jacked up his Congregation. It made them want to go out and force their narrow-minded views onto the world! Remember, Armageddon was starin’ us in the face! You had to save as many people as you could so they could be taken up by Jesus in the Rapture.” Mary stared at the photo from Pico Blanco. “We’d be at Pico Blanco, in the cabin, talkin’ about God in our little Christian circle. And Lou would start talkin’ about all this stuff that my dad had said during a sermon. But he always twisted it. He’s like a...what’s that word? Fanatic. Yeah.
Fanatic.
He always took what he heard
literally
. He memorized whole chapters. Isaiah and Matthew were his favorites. He’d recite the chapters to us like he’d written the words himself. It was fuckin’ weird. Then he’d make these connections that were just so out there.”

“Give me an example.”

“Apples.”

“Apples?”

“Because Eve ate the apple, Lou said God was telling us it was sinful. So, that meant that if you craved an apple, you were
purposely
allowing yourself to be tempted by the Devil. He’d get seriously pissed if somebody showed up at camp with an apple. I mean, he’d just flip out! One minute he’s fine, and the next he’s a fuckin’ crazy person.”

“Why didn’t his actions disturb other people?”

“Most of the girls were in love with him. He looked like a movie star. A lot of girls let shit slide that they shouldn’t let slide when they like a guy—”

“You said ‘most of the girls?’”

“Karen and Annette figured out real quick what kind of a guy he really was.”

“Are those the two girls he raped?”

Mary nodded and then realized the link. “They were fourteen when it happened!”

“How did you find out about them?”

“They told me. Maybe they figured I could do something because of who my dad was. But I told them my dad wouldn’t believe me if I told him because, as far as he was concerned, Lou was perfect. Lou lived with us off and on so I knew him real well. Got to watch how he and my dad interacted. My dad was so fuckin’ blind. He always defended Lou and protected him. Lou brings that out in people. They find out about his childhood and they want to help him.”

Jane thought how perfectly both Kit and Rachel fit that description. “You knew about his childhood?”

“All I know is his mother sat at the right hand of Lucifer,” Mary said, sarcastically repeating what she’d been told. “So I guess she was fucked up.” She arched an eyebrow. “I don’t know what happened to Lou, but I do know that he used whatever happened to make my dad feel for him. And it worked. Dad treated Lou better than anyone else in our household. He was the Golden Boy. ‘He came from hell but he preached about heaven.’ Lou did whatever my dad asked him to do. He was everything my dad
wanted in me but couldn’t get. Lou was sent from God and I was going to hell because I questioned everything.”

“Why didn’t Karen and Annette’s parents press charges?”

“The girls never told their parents what happened. They knew nobody would believe them. Especially members of The Brotherhood Council.”

“The girls’ fathers were in The Brotherhood Council?”

“Yeah.” Mary’s eyes drifted to the Pico Blanco photo.

Jane observed Mary. “Is that Karen and Annette?” Jane asked, pointing to the two sad girls in the front row. Mary nodded. “Which one’s the Kapp’s daughter?”

“Karen,” Mary replied with a wistful tone.

“Lou lived with the Kapp family, didn’t he?”

“Yeah. He stayed with Annette’s family too. He raped them when he lived with them. I don’t know what Annette did to make him do it. But all Karen did was eat one apple too many. She had to be taught a lesson, I guess.”

“Is there any way I can get in contact with these girls?”

“Annette moved away years ago. Karen killed herself. Overdosed on pills. I found her obituary when I was in the Seattle library and readin’ the hometown paper.”

Jane sat back. “How did you know Lou took Ashlee?”

Mary braced herself before allowing the memories to flood back. “I’d only met Ashlee a couple times. She was with her grandmother. I’d see them down by the beach collecting seashells. Ashlee would throw off her shoes and run into the water and laugh this great laugh. I remember thinkin’ how amazing it must be to feel that kind of freedom. She was
so innocent
, though. She was perfect prey for Lou. When I found out Lou was livin’ in their guesthouse, I got this real sick feelin’ in my stomach.”

“Why?”

“I knew he was plannin’ somethin’.”

“How?”

“My dad had been talkin’ a lot about sacrifice in his sermons. He’d say ‘You have to feel the power of sacrifice in order to get
closer to God.’ Then he’d talk about how we’re in the fight for our final redemption and if we lose the fight, the hammer of God will fall. He was always preachin’ about saving children from Lucifer. ‘Redemption only comes through a deep, one-on-one intervention.’ ‘We have to ratchet up our Ministry to a new level.’ Lou would hear all that and he’d repeat it to us over and over at Pico Blanco. I’d listen to him and I just felt like he was gettin’ ready to go on his own weird crusade. I think he wanted to put my dad’s words to the test. But in order to do that, he needed to find the perfect child who he thought needed deep, one-on-one intervention. Then Ashlee went missing, and I knew he took her. I didn’t know where he took her. For two weeks when she was gone, I wracked my brain tryin’ to figure out what to do. But it was hard to prove he did it when he was makin’ a point to hang around town and act normal the whole time.” Mary held Christina tighter to her chest. “So I figured if I can’t go to somebody and report it, I’d go to the source.”

“You went to
Lou
?”

Mary turned away, obviously battling the memory. “Yeah.”

Jane leaned forward. “What happened?” she asked cautiously.

“He’d come over to my parents’ house to pick up Bibles for the youth group. They weren’t home. I took him out to the garage where we kept the extra Bibles. Lou was real calm. I’d never seen him so relaxed. His hair was wet and he smelled clean; like he just took a long shower to clean off what he’d done. I said to him, ‘You took Ashlee, didn’t you?’ My voice was strong when I said it, too. And that was my first mistake, because he thinks strong women are dangerous. He turned around and his face was flushed with heat...rage...it was like something took him over...He grabbed me by the throat and said that he had to destroy me in order to save me. But I pried his fingers off of me and screamed, ‘Where is she?’ He slapped me across the face and started quoting scripture.” The blood drained out of Mary’s face. “Then he threw me on the garage floor and raped me...while reciting Isaiah verbatim, chapter and verse. When he was done, he reached over
and grabbed a hammer that was lying on the table. He held it over my head and said ‘The hammer of God will fall!’ He aimed that fuckin’ hammer at my head, but I moved just enough that it missed me. Somehow, I was able to get up and I kicked him in the balls. It hurt him enough that he let me go for a second and I was able to run like hell out of that house. I hid out all night down at the beach. Washed myself off in the water. The next morning, I went home and I found out that Ashlee’s body had been found at Pico Blanco. I can’t remember much after that except that I didn’t sleep through the night until the cops arrested Lou. But my dad went to bat for him, told the cops they had the wrong guy, and I was so afraid that my dad’s blindness was gonna set Lou free. I knew if Lou got out, he would find me and kill me, too.” Mary floated away from herself, disconnecting. “Then my period was late. And I knew I had to run.”

Jane felt her gut churn. “Jesus....”

“I packed a bag, got on a bus, and never looked back.”

“And the baby?”

Mary’s vacant eyes stared at Jane. “You think I would let something that spawned from evil grow inside me?” A tear drifted down Mary’s cheek. “I lost part of my soul back there. So I keep moving. I keep looking for that missing part of me. But it’s always in the next town.” Mary came back into herself. “Want to hear the strange part? I still believe in God. But he’s not a hateful God like the one I heard about growing up. My God is a loving God who gave me the courage to leave that hell, then and now. Dad always talked about being reborn. That’s what I want for myself. But not in the same way he talked about it. I want to be like a snake when it sheds its skin and becomes new again. So I got this to remind me.” Mary lifted her left sleeve to reveal a two-inch slithering snake running vertically up her arm. Jane stared in disbelief at the snake tattoo. It was a perfect match to her stone totem. “Dad always said that Jesus died at thirty-three, the same age he found God and was reborn.” Mary said, pulling down her sleeve. “As corny as it
sounds, I liked that idea. So, I got two years ‘til I’m thirty-three. Two years to shed my snakeskin and be reborn.”

Jane turned away to clear her thoughts. “Would you be willing to tell a jury what Lou did to you and what you know about Ashlee?”

Mary’s face turned pale. “I can’t do that.”

“I’ll make sure Lou can’t ever get to you.”

“What about my parents? You gonna keep them away from me?”

“You hate them that much?”

“I don’t hate them. How do you hate the ignorant?”

“Then why are you afraid to see them? Don’t you think they’d like to know about Christina?” Jane considered the situation. “You keep looking for the piece of your soul that you lost. Maybe you need to face the one person who scares you the most before you can find it.” Jane slid her chair away from the table and got up. “I’ll do whatever I can to make sure the charges against you are dropped.”

“Then I’m free?”

“Well, free to go....” Mary looked at Jane, understanding the irony of her statement. Jane placed her business card on the table. “If you’re ever in Colorado...for any reason at all...give me a call.” She picked up her satchel and headed for the door.