“First, they brought in tray after tray loaded with delicious-smelling foods and feasted right in front of me. I was so hungry that it was hard not to cry, but I tried my best, because I knew they’d only use any show of weakness against me.”
He trailed off, so Ellie risked a question. “They?”
Crawford’s mouth tightened. “They, as in Letitia Wiggins and Kingsley. My mind was fuzzy, but I’m pretty certain that was their first official meeting. She recruited him to witness my torture and humiliation.”
Beside her, Charli rustled in the chair, likely as caught off guard by the revelation as Ellie was. “He ate the food while you watched?”
“Yes, although ironically, the worst part came when they actually fed me. I’d like to claim that if I’d understood the twisted punishment they’d had in store, I would have refused the food when it was offered, but I’m not sure that’s true. I was so hungry, you see.”
The hairs on Ellie’s neck lifted in anticipation of the story’s ending. “What happened next?”
Crawford’s chapped lips cracked open in a smile that had nothing to do with humor. “They made me eat so much that I threw up, and then berated me for being wasteful and made me eat my own vomit too.”
Ellie’s own stomach turned at the punchline, and it took all her training and self-control not to shudder. She stared into her lap to give herself time to banish any signs of disgust from her expression. That poor man. What a monstrous thing to do to a child. To anyone. “I’m sorry, that’s terrible. That never should have happened to you.”
“Thanks. I’d like to say I’m over it, but…” He gestured around the room and shrugged. “You’ve probably already reached your own conclusions about that.”
That, and his unhealthy skinniness. What was that saying, something about the body keeping score?
Ellie shook her head. “But I still don’t understand. Why wasn’t any of this included in the reports?”
Crawford tapped ash into the ceramic circle. “That’s the part where the privilege and wealth comes in. Kingsley’s stepdad had both, and he paid heaps of money to keep his stepson out of the scandal. And like most abusers, Letitia Wiggins was also skilled at playing the victim card. Those deaths took place during a stretch of time when nothing at Far Ridge happened without the headmistress and her little pet being involved.”
“Kingsley being the pet in question,” Ellie guessed, and Crawford nodded. “And Walter Wiggins?”
“A horrible human being who inflicted more than his fair share of suffering and deserved punishment, but I’m not convinced that he took part in that particular crime. At the very least, Letitia and Kingsley shouldered most of the blame. But Kingsley got off scot-free, and Mrs. Wiggins was sentenced to four years for criminal neglect, served a little over half her sentence, and now lives out her days in a swanky retirement community.”
While Ellie digested that, Charli nodded. “Statistics show that women are more likely to be child abusers than men. About fifty-three percent of the perpetrators in cases of child abuse are women. I’ll never understand it.”
Crawford scoffed. “Me either. Man, woman, or alien, statistics don’t mean shit when you have to watch the evil bitch who forced you to eat your own vomit cruise around in a Lexus in front of her expensive house.”
The anger radiating off the podcaster made Ellie cringe, but Charli’s expression and posture remained unchanged. She regarded him with those piercing blue eyes. “I’m sorry you experienced all that, and I’m sorry the system failed you. I’m also sorry that Letitia Wiggins received nothing but a slap on the wrist.”
Crawford’s hand shook harder now as the anger faded to sadness. The glance he shot at Charli over his cigarette was enough to make even a strong person flinch.
Not Charli. The detective’s forehead remained smooth, her chin lifted. The only potential sign of the detective’s discomfort was the slender hands twisting together in her lap.
Had she experienced something similar? Ellie couldn’t help but wonder.
Since Crawford seemed ready to cry at any moment, Ellie made the executive decision to cut the interview short. She stood. “Well, I need to get back on the road, but thank you so much for your time, Mr. Crawford. You’ve been incredibly helpful. Come on, Detective Cross.”
Charli stood too and followed Ellie to the door. She paused on the threshold and craned her head toward Crawford, who hadn’t bothered standing to escort them out.
“Please, don’t hesitate to get in touch if you remember anything else.”
He nodded at Charlie without sparing her another glance, his gaze trained on the photo wall. “Yeah.”
Ellie and the other woman left the trailer and headed outside. Shane stood next to the Explorer, his head on a swivel as if he expected a monster to jump out at them at any time.
The thought made Ellie shiver.
As she climbed back into Charli’s vehicle, she looked back at the little trailer. The man inside had also known her monster when he was just a boy.
How many lives had Kingsley destroyed over the years?
Probably more than she could ever count.
15
Ellie let out a low whistle when Charli led her through the front doors of the Savannah Police Department. “Damn, this place is huge compared to the Charleston precinct.”
A good three times the size and with triple the number of police officers filling that extra space. All those additional bodies made the building much noisier than home base, but Ellie didn’t mind the increased volume. She was too busy plotting as Charli led her past the clusters of desks and cubicles.
All that manpower and none of them bogged down trying to locate Bethany. If she could recruit some of them to team up with her to help solve cases, no telling how much more efficient they’d be?
The extra hands on deck weren’t the only potential benefit, either. Ellie never underestimated the
