Maggie now stood before Kramer, blood racing, waiting.
“It’s not enough,” he said, eyebrows knitting. He tapped his pen on his desk blotter.
“I know it’s not enough, but if we could get a search warrant maybe we could find some hard evidence. Sienna Clarke said Ellie hid the knife. Sir.” She added at the end.
“Close the door, detective.”
Maggie shut the door behind her and stood before Kramer’s desks, hands clasped behind her back.
“Sienna Clarke said that Ellie did it in the same breath she claims some online fantasy character did it, too. You know that doesn’t make any fucking sense,” he said.
Maggie opened her mouth wide but nothing came out.
“Here’s the other thing,” Kramer continued. “This Shadow Man—from what she was saying it sounds like there’s some whack job out there manipulating kids online. And possibly sending them knives. Wonder if we need to bring in some online sex crime and trafficking experts.”
“Doesn’t appear to be anything sexual, at least not on first appearance,” Maggie said.
“I think whoever is behind that website is trying to incite violence.”
“I agree,” Maggie said. “I think he tried to get those girls to kill their friends. Do you think that’s possible, sir?”
Kramer breathed out loudly. “No. Maybe. I don’t know. The good news is that wherever he is, he’s going to have to start from scratch again before he tries a stunt like that again. Jordan got in touch this morning with Homeland Security and the DOJ. Both are looking into it, but the site is shut down. Disappeared completely. They were able to trace the IP to some abandoned shack in Vermont. Maybe somebody had been there. Maybe not. The place was wiped clean. Not a fucking fingerprint to be found.”
“I guess what I can’t figure out is why,” Maggie said. “Why would someone spend so much time and effort trying to get kids to hurt each other?”
“All I know is that people are fucked up, Bychowski.” He shook his head. “The other thing I know is that we’re going to have a hell of a time proving this case.”
“Sir?”
“Listen, Bychowski. I’ve got two years before I retire.”
Maggie swallowed. It was over. He wasn’t willing to go up against the powers that be. Not when his pension was at stake. As much as she didn’t want to, she understood. It was her job, but it was his life. Her shoulders slumped in defeat. She stared at the tile on the floor and exhaled slowly.
“Bychowski.” His voice was sharp. Her head shot up. “Relax. We’re going after them.”
“Are you sure?”
“Hell yes,” he said.
Maggie smiled.
“Search warrants.” Kramer picked up the phone. “We’re going to argue it is in connection with prosecuting our case. We don’t have to say the girls are suspects. The Earl family has a lot of control, scary ass control, but they don’t have complete control.” He held up his finger and then spoke into the phone. “Sara, is Judge Campbell in?”
Maggie stood in the hallway outside Sienna’s room watching as officers in the bedroom catalogued items, placing them in evidence bags and labeling them.
Jill Clarke sat huddled on the couch with three of her four daughters glaring at Maggie.
Sienna wouldn’t meet Maggie’s eyes.
“You are lucky my husband is out of town on business because if he was here, none of this would be happening,” Jill Clarke had said earlier when Maggie knocked.
An officer appeared in the living room.
“Detective Bychowski?” She followed him back to Sienna’s bedroom where another officer was on his knees in the doorway of the closet, going through a stack of boxes.
He looked up and held out a small book. “You’re going to want to see this.”
It was a diary with a small lock. Maggie popped open the lock and began paging through, reading quickly until she found what she was looking for:
“Unless we do it, Shadow Man is going to come and kill my family. He told Ellie. He requires a blood sacrifice. And now that she knows what we planned to do, now Charlie has to go. I don’t want to do it, but he said Charlie has to be eliminated. He’s going to kill my family if we don’t do it. I need them more than anything. Without them I would die. I’m so scared. I think I’m going crazy. I just wish this had never happened. I want it to all be over.”
And a few pages later:
“Ellie has a plan. She said it would be easy. Shadow Man will make sure nothing bad happens to us.”
By the time Judge Hatton got home from court in Apple Valley, the county seat, the officers had nearly finished their search of his house.
He tried to muscle his way into the house, but two police officers stood in the doorway, sticking their chests out, hands on their guns. His face was beet red.
“Goddamn Judge Campbell. She approves any goddamn search warrant the department asks for? I’m going to fight this tooth and nail. Nothing you find is going to hold up in court. This is a fucking outrage. In my own town. I am an officer of the court. You’d think as a common courtesy someone would’ve notified me that my own home was being torn apart. Serving a search warrant to a twelve-year-old girl is at the very least unethical.”
“Sir, she was the only one home at the time.” The officers guarding the front door were squirming under Hatton’s tirade. Maggie, standing inside the home a few feet, listening, was surprised he spoke up at all.
“I don’t give a rat’s ass. This is bullshit. Where is my wife?”
“Getting her hair done. Sir. That’s what your daughter told us.”
“Jesus Christ.”
There was a pause.
“Let me in. Right fucking now or I’ll have your jobs. I swear to God.”
Maggie held her breath. The officers didn’t budge. “I’m sorry sir I can’t do that, right now,” one of them said.
“What is your name, officer?’
Maggie decided it was time to make an appearance. She stepped into the doorway.
“Judge Hatton.”
He glared, but didn’t respond.
“This is my investigation, sir. I’ve issued explicit orders for nothing to be touched. We are almost wrapping up and I hope to return the home to you as soon as possible. I’ve also ordered the officers to be a neat as they can and to return everything to its place. You won’t even know we’ve been here. Sir.”
He gritted his teeth. “Where is my daughter?”
Maggie gestured toward one of the many squads lined up in the circle drive.
“She’s with a community service officer. I believe they are having a snack.”
His face turned purple, but he spun around and walked away.