Chapter 17

Nate stared at the clock. Was the whole day almost over? What had he even accomplished? Nothing. His search for Jonathan Gardner had turned up nothing. The press conference had gone as planned. Nate had been unable to stop it and Michael Fleming had not changed his mind no matter the strength of Nate’s arguments. A fact that was getting under Nate’s skin. That man had been in the legal field for at least ten years. He knew what it took to track down a suspect.
They had been unable to find Jonathan at his prior location and had been informed that the owners at the address they had had lived there for eleven years and they did not know a Jonathan Gardner and no, he had never lived with them. Nate wasn’t surprised that Jonathan would list a false address. What surprised him was the fact that he had used his real name to rent the house where they found Emma. Did he fail to cover his tracks that poorly? Was someone setting them all up and Jonathan wasn’t involved at all?
But Kyle had said the name Jonathan and it couldn’t be a coincidence.
“Any luck?” Eric asked Nate as Eric sat down at his desk. He had been in the restroom for a long time. Nate checked the clock. No, it had only been a few minutes, it just felt like a long time. How is it that some days feel like they fly by in a second and others drag on forever?
“Nothing. Where could this guy have gone?”
“Did you check Goodyear again?”
“Yes, they still haven’t heard from him. Short of searching the place myself with a search warrant I don’t think we stand a chance of finding anything about him there. No one seems to care one way or another,” Nate said.
“Five girls missing and no one there cares to help? How did we get so callous?”
“I don’t know but we have a conference in two minutes and we have nothing to share. We’re no closer to finding these girls alive then we were at the last meeting four days ago.”
Eric nodded and they headed to the conference room preparing to be eaten alive by Commander Walter Herndon. As Nate and Eric entered the conference room they noted that Herndon was already there along with their lieutenant, Annabeth Porter and two other officers Nate knew, Cole Easton and Jack Williams. Cole was a young officer, directly out of the police academy. He was a few inches higher than Nate’s six foot frame and his body looked as though he worked out three times a day. The girls would be all over him in dispatch. Jack Williams was much older in comparison which is why the two were paired as partners. Jack had a wife and at least three children that Nate knew of but if he remembered correctly they were trying for more. Jack and his family attended Nate’s church.
Randy Greenwood and Jin Yu-na entered a few minutes later and Commander Herndon drew everyone’s attention to the situation board that had been set up in the corner of the room. Nate looked at the board and was saddened to see so many pictures of such young girls taped up. Below Daisy and Emma were crime scene photos. Below the other three girls was the word “missing” and pictures of their immediate family. While it did appear that they had a serial kidnapper or killer on the loose no person could be ruled out as knowing something. It was Nate’s job to rule each of them out.
“Do we have anything new?” Commander Herndon’s eyes bore into Nate’s skull. Nate already felt the weight of the case and this wasn’t making it any better.
“We have an APB out on Jonathan Gardner but so far no one has seen or heard from him in days. He’s like a ghost since we found Emma’s body at his house. It’s possible he’s dumping these girls on his way out of town but it doesn’t explain why he would take another girl. I truly believe there are more people involved…”
“Do you have evidence of this?” Lieutenant Porter interrupted. Her cropped black hair swished as she wagged her finger at Nate. Her glasses slid further down her nose. Nate knew the Lieutenant’s detective skills were second to none but her fashion sense left much to be desired.
“Not yet…”
“We might,” now it was Randy Greenwood speaking. Last Nate had seen him was at Jonathan Gardner’s house the day before. They hadn’t spoken since.
“Let’s hear it,” Marybeth said.
“Jin and I did a background check on Jonathan and came up with some known associates. With a little legwork today we came up with another name, Todd Purcell. Todd was in prison with Jonathan for a few months and they got to know each other. Jonathan was released before Todd because Jonathan’s conviction was minor but the two kept in touch. Even visited Todd a few times. Todd was released about three months ago which is just before all of this started happening.” A smug look crossed Randy’s dark face. Where had that information come from? Nate shot a look to Eric that read, “how come you didn’t come up with that?” Eric just shrugged his response. Mr. Researcher comes up dry. Nate found that hard to believe. Randy probably paid off an informant for that piece of information. No way had Eric missed that in his computer search.
“Do we know anything about this Todd Purcell?” Marybeth again.
“He’s been in more trouble than Jonathan. Most recently he was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon. A young woman claimed he was trying to kill her for her money. He claims it was a misunderstanding but the police arrested him and found a 9mm on him. The jury saw it the woman’s way and he spent eight years in lock-up. Now he’s out on parole and I think he’s back to his old ways. This time he’s bringing Jonathan in on it,” Randy said.
“Is there any record in either of their pasts about child abuse or child pornography or any crime related to children?” Nate asked. While Jonathan and Todd together seemed like more likely suspects than Jonathan alone, Nate still wasn’t convinced this was all of it. He was missing something. He felt like the answer was right in front of him but he couldn’t see it. It was Ashley’s feeling that Kyle knew more than what he was saying.
“Todd has an older record of peeping in girl’s windows and harassing young girls,” Jin inserted himself into the conversation.
“How young?” Nate asked.
“Mostly teenagers but these girls aren’t far from that and they’d be easier to transport and manipulate,” Jin replied.
“I can see that,” Nate scratched his chin and tapped his foot. Energy to get to work was surging through him despite the late hour. “But it’s a huge stretch from peeping tom to murdering women and stealing their daughters.”
“Maybe not as big as you think. It’s also possible there are things in both their histories we don’t know enough about,” Randy said. His eyes once again bore into Nate as if challenging him to continue with the disagreement.
“I agree with Randy,” Marybeth said. “Let’s dig deeper into Todd and Jonathan’s background. Let’s find them both and when we do I have a lot of questions for them. This case is a very big deal. I have higher-ups breathing down my neck constantly.” She pointed to Commander Herndon who was sitting to her left at the table. “I want this case solved. I don’t want any more girls missing or any more dead bodies turning up on my watch, young or otherwise.”
With that the subject was closed and Marybeth turned her attention to Jack and Cole who were working on every other case the department had so that the rest of the agents could focus exclusively on the missing girls. While Nate knew the enormity of his case he would rather focus on just the one then take care of all the other departments’ daily work.
The meeting ended and Nate had no idea where to begin. They had scoured two crime scenes to come up with very little forensic evidence. All Nate knew for sure was that the same vehicle was involved in both crimes. There was a possibility of getting some DNA from Daisy’s body but that was still a few weeks away. Even with a rush DNA took time. And time was something they didn’t have.
How can a house have no fingerprints? No usable ones anyway. Everything they found matched either Jonathan Gardner or Emma Sykes. No prints of Daisy’s anywhere. Had she been in the house? Was she killed before she got there?
Nate sat down in his chair in front of his desk and rested his forehead on his palms. This case was now almost eight weeks old. No sign of the girls in weeks and now two bodies this week and two other girls missing. What was going on? Nate had heard of guys accelerating but this didn’t make sense. Why hold a girl for a while then kill her?
A prayer ran through Nate’s mind. He’d neglected to seek God in any of the previous weeks. He hadn’t been to church in at least two Sundays. Sure he had been busy but that was just his excuse. Truth was he wanted to solve this case himself. He wanted to impress Ashley. Now he had nothing left so he began to pray. “Just anything, Lord. We need something. These girls need to be found.”
As if in immediate answer to his prayer, Nate’s phone rang and he picked it up without looking, “Zimmerman.”
“Nate, you’re not going to believe this but we have another body,” Nate’s heart sunk as he listened to Jane Brumagim words on the other end of the line. Another girl?
“Who?” Nate groaned.
“It’s not what you think. It’s not a girl. Some joggers found a male with one gun shot wound to the head. We think it might be Jonathan Gardner.”
“How?”
“Matches his description. We also found some things in his trunk. Looks like our killer may have taken a little girl from him though. We found some hairs and scratches in the trunk. Whoever she was, she’s still alive.”
“What color are the hairs?” Nate made a mental run through of the girls. Kayla had dark brown hair like her brother and her father. Jessica had light brown hair and Julia had blond hair. Nate was thankful for the difference.
“They are blonde. We think its Julia.”
“Could mean she’s still alive.”
“There’s a very good possibility that Jonathan was transferring her to somebody. Must’ve been a misunderstanding or something,” Jane said.
“Or his name was too much all over the news,” Nate said. Anger shot through him. He knew Michael’s press conference was a bad idea. Now whatever lead Nate had could be gone. “Anything else?”
“We do have footprints. We’ll have the techs take a mold.”
“Sounds like you’ve got a great start. Eric and I will be there shortly.” Nate stood and grabbed his suit jacket which always hung at the ready on Nate’s chair. Despite the heat it was standard issue for detectives to wear sports jackets or a suit. Always look professional. Nate tried.
Nate relayed the information to Eric and the two of them headed for Nate’s cruiser. Nate couldn’t help but smile all the way to the scene. Even though they had found Jonathan Gardner in the least ideal way, Nate felt like they had made a breath through in the case. And for that he thanked God. Should’ve prayed sooner.