‘Well, it would have been a damn sight better than hearing this from a desk clerk a hundred miles away …’ said Cathy.
‘Right,’ said Mark. ‘You thought your daughter would disappear, so you …’ he looked at her, ‘“dress up” …?’
‘What the hell?’ said Cathy. ‘I put on a dress and stay home for dinner and that means I wasn’t worried? You bet your ass I was worried. And, clearly, I had every reason to be.’
11
Gary Dettling stepped forward and introduced himself to Cathy Merritt.
‘Your daughter’s missing, Mrs Merritt,’ he said. ‘We need to focus on that.’
‘I want my husband,’ she said, trying to walk by him. A man stepped out of the corner. No-one had noticed him come in, even though he was well over six feet tall, and far from slim. He had thick, graying hair and a full beard. He went to his wife and put an arm around her shoulder.
‘I’m Dale Merritt,’ he said, shaking Gary’s hand. ‘Cathy’s husband. I’m sorry about all this.’
He glanced toward Cathy. She looked up at him, a small flash of anger in her eyes.
Gary nodded. ‘Let’s just take you somewhere to sit down.’
He guided the Merritts to one side.
‘Would it be possible to make a call to my son to let him know what’s going on?’ said Dale.
Gary nodded. ‘That’s not a problem. How old is your son?’
‘He’s sixteen,’ said Dale. ‘Joshua.’
‘And who is the Jonathan you mentioned?’ said Gary, turning to Cathy.
‘Jonathan Meester,’ she said. ‘He’s a friend of ours.’
‘The Meester in MeesterBrandt?’ said Gary.
Cathy nodded. ‘Yes.’ She paused. ‘Jonathan and Mark are college friends, but Jonathan stayed close to both of us after the split. He’s Laurie’s godfather.’
‘Is he still at your house with Joshua?’ said Gary.
‘Yes,’ said Dale.
‘He was kind enough to stay,’ said Cathy.
Gary nodded. ‘Excuse me for one moment.’ He walked over to Bob and Ren.
‘Bob, how you doing?’ said Gary.
‘Good,’ said Bob, shaking his hand. ‘Good to see you again. How are-’
‘Can we get someone to take the Merritts to a room?’ said Gary.
Bob nodded.
‘I’ve called in a CARD team,’ said Gary. ‘Our Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Team. We’ve got four members en route from Denver right now. They’ll be here within the hour. They’ll coordinate the search. We expect to do that first thing in the morning.’
Bob nodded again.
‘Are we taking over the same room as the last time?’ said Gary.
‘Yes,’ said Bob.
‘That’s great, thank you,’ said Gary, already walking past, and down the familiar hallway to the room that they would all squeeze in to for as long as it took.
Ren leaned in to Bob. ‘Gary has a form of Tourette’s. It’s, like, the involuntary vocalization of what he is going to do in an investigation.’ She paused. ‘All anyone else needs to do is not to succumb to regular Tourette’s in response …’
‘I hear you,’ said Bob.
‘Consider this an apology on his behalf.’
‘No need,’ said Bob. ‘Gary is … well, he’s a Fed …’
‘Textbook,’ said Ren.
‘You’re more … Facebook.’
‘I don’t know where you’re going with that,’ said Ren.
‘Nowhere, it just sounded kind of catchy. What next?’
‘I’m going to read through more of the guests’ statements, and then I’d like to talk to the stepmother. We can all go to the hotel, then back here for the press conference.’
Bob raised an eyebrow. ‘That Tourette’s is catching …’
Ren followed Bob into the small interview room where Erica Whaley had been taken. The furniture was the result of checks in boxes on the order forms of an office supply catalog. A long fluorescent strip light glared down on the cheap glossy veneer of the oval table. There was a strong smell of alcohol in the air. A young female detective stood up and left the room when Bob gave her the nod.
Erica Whaley sat at the end of the table with a glass of water in front of her. She was dressed in a heavy silk silver halter-neck that crossed over just under the neck. Ren could see gray pants legs and silver sandals. Her blonde hair was pinned up, but had fallen loose around her face. Her cheeks were red, the foundation washed away with tears and rubbed away with Kleenex, her mascara smudged under her eyes.
She looked up, blinking with panic … then hope. Ren had seen the reaction a thousand times, when a door opening took on an unimaginable significance.
Ren reached out her hand. ‘I’m Ren Bryce, I’m with the FBI; the Rocky Mountain Safe Streets Task Force in Denver. We’ll be working alongside the Sheriff’s Department on this.’
‘Thank God,’ said Erica, standing up, shaking Ren’s hand. She glanced at Bob. ‘I didn’t mean that the Sheriff’s Office isn’t …’ She trailed off.
‘The Sheriff’s Office knows Breckenridge and the surrounding area inside out,’ said Ren. ‘As you know, their officers are already out there looking for your daughter. My colleagues from Denver will be processing the scene, seeing if we can get any information from that, interviewing staff members and guests, looking at CCTV footage, we’ll canvass the town, carry out road-side canvasses. And Sheriff Gage here has already emailed Laurie’s photo to every law enforcement agency in the country, and to the media.’
Erica nodded at almost every word.
‘OK … OK … thank you,’ she said.
‘Let’s sit down, Mrs Whaley. I’ve read through the statement you gave to Undersheriff Delaney. I’d just like you to go through everything with me again.’
‘I mean, it’s a regular thing to do, going to a hotel, getting a sitter, you just don’t think twice,’ said Erica. ‘It’s a four-star resort, you don’t question it, which seems ridiculous now. We were only downstairs, like my husband said. It’s kind of like being at home, isn’t it? You leave your kids upstairs when you’re at home, don’t you? It’s all the one building, a hotel at least has security, or should have had security. Now, of course, I’m thinking “how many people work at the hotel?”, sure I guess most of them are good people, but who
She didn’t draw breath. She didn’t pause. It was as if someone had popped the latch on the part of her brain that held her worst fears, and out jumped the demons …
12
Ren’s heart-rate shot up as she listened to Erica Whaley. She hadn’t taken a breath herself.
