THIRTY-EIGHT
When Kate parked illegally in front of Holy Trinity Church, Sean saw a lot of police activity but few police cars. Three dozen officers, some in uniform and some in street clothes, filled the vestibule. More were outside looking for signs of Lucy and what might have happened to her. They had all been in the church when Lucy went missing.
Dillon spotted them as they trudged up the stairs. A section had been cordoned off and Sean frowned. “We may have a witness,” Dillon told Sean and Kate as soon as they were within earshot.
“What happened?” Sean demanded. He hadn’t let himself think that Lucy had been abducted. But Mallory hadn’t sent Lucy the roses. He hadn’t killed Cody Lorenzo. And he hadn’t taken Lucy.
Yet she was gone.
“Cody’s partner, Officer April Dunnigan, noticed that Lucy was feeling poorly and walked her to the vestibule. Lucy said she needed some air and stepped outside. After a couple of minutes, April and another officer went to check on her but she wasn’t outside or anywhere in the church,” Dillon explained. “But a detective thinks he might have seen her getting into a car with a man.”
Dillon led them into the church where a detective was talking on the phone. When he spotted Dillon, he hung up. “I spoke to the chief of police. He’s notifying all state troopers in Maryland and Virginia. We have every cop in D.C. on alert.”
“Thank you. Detective John DeMarco, my wife, FBI Agent Kate Donovan, and Sean Rogan, with Rogan- Caruso-Kincaid.”
DeMarco said, “I saw a woman with long black hair wearing black slacks and a black and white sweater, walking as if intoxicated with a man toward a parked car right where that patrol car is now parked out front. I was coming up the stairs, and I thought if she wasn’t drunk she was extremely upset. It looked like she’d fallen-there was snow covering her clothing. And because she looked a bit Hispanic, I thought she might be one of Officer Lorenzo’s relatives. She didn’t show signs of being in distress, other than needing help to walk.”
“And the man with her?”
“Approximately five foot eight to five foot ten. Lean. He wore black as well-trench coat and hat. Caucasian. No distinguishing marks, but I only glanced at them as I was coming up the stairs.”
“And the car?”
“A late-model black sedan. He laid her down in the backseat. I didn’t register the license number, but I noted it was a current Virginia plate.”
Sean opened his laptop and showed the detective the picture from the florist’s security camera. “Is this the man you saw?”
The detective looked closely. “It could have been. I can’t say definitively, but it’s the same physical build.”
“Is that the stalker?” Dillon asked.
“Yes,” Kate said.
April came over. “Agent Donovan, I’m so sorry. If I had known Lucy was in any danger, I’d never have let her go outside alone. I thought you had Cody’s killer in custody.”
“So did we,” Kate said.
“Detective DeMarco!” An officer stepped in from outside and introduced himself as he approached the group.
Detective DeMarco said, “What did you find?”
The officer held up a string of pearls in a plastic evidence bag. “We found these in the snow at the bottom of the stairs,” he said.
Dillon’s voice was rough when he said, “Those are Lucy’s. They were our mother’s. She gave them to Lucy when she graduated from college.”
“It looks like the clasp broke,” DeMarco said on inspection. “Anything else?”
“Officers Craig Jackson and Lloyd Breck arrived in a taxi at approximately five thirty-five p.m. Both noted the black sedan out front and because it was illegally parked, considered talking to the owner, but a man exited the church and walked to the car. They let it go and came in.”
“Do they have a description?”
“White, five foot nine, wearing a black trench coat.”
“Hat?”
“No, sir. Not that they saw. Hair cut short, brown.”
Dillon said, “He was exiting the church. He would have taken it off inside, or it would have drawn attention.”
“What time did Lucy arrive?”
April said, “Just after the priest stepped behind the altar, when everyone was standing.”
“The processional?” Dillon asked.
“It was at the beginning. I’ve only been to a couple of these things.”
“The processional. So about the same time the man left,” Dillon said. “And Lucy stepped out before communion?”
“Everyone was saying the Lord’s Prayer and she looked sick. I walked her to the bathroom, but she wanted to go outside for fresh air. She seemed better when she opened the door, though she was a little green.”
Sean’s phone vibrated. It was Jayne. He stepped away from the group. “What’s his name?” Sean asked.
“I don’t know,” Jayne said. “I wanted to make sure you know I’m working on it. It would help if I could narrow it down to a state.”
“Start with D.C., then Virginia and Maryland, and work out from there.”
“Okay, give me some time and I’ll-”
“The guy has Lucy. We don’t have time.”
“I’m doing the best I can, Sean, I’m sorry.”
“I’m just worried. Keep me informed.” He dropped the call. “Kate-get Noah on the phone.
“Why? Do you have an ID?”
“No-but I have an idea. Mallory.”
“I don’t understand.”
“It’s too coincidental that Lucy is kidnapped at the same time the vigilante group is shut down. Cody’s murder, the stalking, Mallory-it has to be connected, and I think he has the answers.”
“Show him the picture,” Dillon interjected.
“Exactly. This guy has to be involved, otherwise why Lucy? Why now?”
Kate nodded and dialed Noah’s number.
Noah wasn’t sitting down when the guard brought Mick Mallory into the interrogation room at the D.C. jail. He slapped the photograph down on the table.
“This man kidnapped Lucy. Who is he?”
Mallory stared at the picture for a long minute. When he realized who it was, his face turned ashen.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“Yes, dammit! We have a witness. Who is it? One of your vigilante friends?”
“No. This is Peter Thomas Miller. He was a high school teacher arrested for statutory rape in 2002. He had sex with six of his female students, at least the ones we know about who came forward, but was only convicted for two of them because after making a statement, the other four recanted. He did a number on the girls- psychologically abusing them as well as seducing them. He only raped virgins, but it was never violent-only mentally sadistic.”
“Mentally sadistic?”
“He convinced them they were inferior, but he did it in such a way they didn’t feel threatened-he never yelled and initially didn’t hit, but instead reasoned out why they were weak and useless and how they should live their lives to serve their husband. He was training them for their future husbands, he’d told one of them. He was sentenced ten-to-twenty, and paroled last summer in Delaware. He registered as a sex offender, then
