OFFICER LYNCH OPENED the door for Susan, Danny, and Lenora, and they stepped out of the morgue. Susan was shell-shocked, whipsawing from the horror of seeing her dead daughter to feeling the power of this new fury raging through her.
A tall man in his early forties, in a blue suit, walked up the fluorescently lit hallway toward them. “Hello, you must be the Lentigo family,” he said, a little formally.
Lynch responded, “Yes, and I’m Officer Lynch. May I help you?”
“I’m Special Agent Robert Pappas,” the man said, shaking Lynch’s hand and then turning to Susan and the others. “I am so terribly sorry for your loss. I want you to know, we’ll be working day and night for as long as it takes until we catch the man who did this. Kidnapping across state lines is a federal crime. We have several more agents coming within the hour, and we’ll work closely with the local police”—he nodded toward Lynch—“as well.”
Susan belatedly realized special agent meant FBI. She looked into the man’s eyes to see if she could trust him and found herself getting hypnotized by his dark irises. She shook her head to clear it.
Standing beside her, Danny solemnly shook Agent Pappas’s hand and said, “Thank you.”
Lenora asked, “What did this fuckhead do to her? Did he rape her?”
Pappas said, “Why don’t we go to the conference room and have some coffee.”
Susan knew that meant the answer was yes.
Why? Why my daughter? Why little Amy?
Her fists tightened and she started punching the cement wall, just like she’d punched Frank yesterday. She couldn’t feel any pain in her hands, couldn’t feel anything except a rush of blood in her ears. It was like her soul had left her body and left behind nothing but rage.
Lenora shouted, “Susan!” and Danny yelled, “Honey, stop!” Pappas grabbed one of her fists and Lynch grabbed the other. She kept trying to throw punches at the wall, but finally she gave up. She heard her fast, shallow breathing growing more regular. She felt weak.
Danny put his arm around her as they walked upstairs to a conference room. She looked down at her knuckles. They were bleeding.
Pappas noticed them too. On their way up the hall, he asked a passing Albany cop to look for Band-Aids.
Inside the large conference room, a pot of coffee sat on a side table. Lynch poured for them all as Pappas began talking. Susan looked closely at his mouth. His bottom teeth were crooked, but they were white.
“Ms. Lentigo, I’m afraid there was a sexual assault,” Pappas said. “There was physical trauma in her vaginal area.”
Danny shook his head, appalled. “How could somebody even …? I mean, she was a kid.”
Pappas shifted in his seat. “We’ll run further tests to determine exactly what happened.”
Susan understood he was saying they’d look for semen. She had followed the O.J. trial a few years before, so she knew about DNA matching. She sat there with her mouth open in horror, unable to speak.
Lenora asked, “Do you think it was Frank?”
“Oh, good God,” Lenora said, agonized. Susan felt her now familiar urges: she wanted to both scream at her mom and comfort her.
Danny put his hands on top of his head like he was trying to keep it from exploding. “Why did somebody drive Amy all the way to Vermont, to that river? Why there?”
“That’s one of the things we’ll explore. It’s an important clue.”
Susan finally found her voice. “When did she die?”
“Nothing is official until the autopsy. But based on the state of rigor mortis and other factors, we’re safe in saying she’s been dead for quite a while. I believe she was killed on Friday evening, shortly after she was abducted.”
Susan gave a small sigh of relief. This was the first “good” news she’d heard since Danny called her that night at Molly’s Diner. At least Amy’s suffering had been relatively short.
But Danny wasn’t mollified. He said, once again, “Fucking motherfucker.” Then he wiped his eyes with his sleeve.
Pappas said, “I know the three of you have already talked to the Luzerne police, and some of what you said has been relayed to me. But I’d like to hear it again from you personally. There’s always the chance I’ll pick up on something another law enforcement agency missed.” He looked at Susan as he asked, “Do you feel able to talk?”
Susan, Lenora, and Danny all nodded. Susan found herself looking into this man’s eyes again. She decided she liked him. Nothing against Officer Lynch, who was solid, but this FBI agent seemed more caring.
Hopefully, he’d also be really good at his job. She wanted Frank or whoever thrown in prison today—and fried as soon as possible.
Pappas put his hand on the table. “Okay, I’d like to speak with you one at a time.”
Susan frowned, confused. Lynch hadn’t done that. “Why one at a time?”
“It’s the best way to get accurate memories. Otherwise, you might influence each other.”
“Whatever you say, Agent Pappas,” Danny said.
“Thank you. Who’d like to go first?”
Susan immediately said, “I want to get it over with.” What she really wanted, she realized, was a break from Lenora and Danny. She was sick of her mom and she couldn’t bear looking in Danny’s eyes. Now that they knew for sure Amy was dead, Susan’s discomfort at being with Danny had resurfaced. It had been their job to keep their daughter safe, and they’d failed.
Lynch stood up and told Danny and Lenora, “I’d be happy to take you down to the break room.”
But Lenora didn’t move. She clearly had something to get off her chest. “We’ll talk all you want,” she said, “but I think the killer was someone we don’t even know. A total stranger.”
“We told her not to talk to strangers,” Danny said, sounding pissed off. How can he be mad at Amy?! Susan wondered, then realized he was just being defensive. “We told her all the time.”
Lenora said, “But she was such a nice, polite girl. It would be hard for her to just ignore somebody.”
“You may be right,” Pappas said. “We’ll definitely investigate that possibility.”
Lenora nodded vigorously, glad that Pappas seemed to be agreeing with her. “He was probably some sicko waiting outside the school, stalking the kids. He saw Amy standing by herself too close to the street and he got the urge to grab her. He didn’t even know we weren’t coming to pick her up, he just got lucky.”
Susan knew her mom was desperate for it to be a stranger and not Frank. She’d feel a lot less guilty.
But even if it is a stranger, Susan thought bitterly, it’s still Mom’s fault. If she’d done the right thing, Susan would have been there two days ago outside the school. Amy would still be alive.
Pappas said to Lenora, “Again, what you’re suggesting is very possible. It’s far more common for kids to be abducted by someone they know, but of course there are plenty of exceptions. Now if you’d like to go downstairs with Officer Lynch, I’ll be with you soon.”
Finally Lenora let herself be led away by Lynch. At the door, she took one last look back at her daughter. Susan knew Lenora was hoping for forgiveness, kindness, at least the hint of a smile. She sighed, irritated, and looked away. She couldn’t deal with Lenora right now. She needed to do everything she could to help this FBI agent.
Danny nodded goodbye to Susan, avoiding her eyes the same way she was avoiding his, and left the room too. Susan took a deep breath and Pappas turned toward her.
“Let’s take this from the beginning,” he said.
She so did not want to relive this past week one more time, but she bit her lip and steeled herself. “Okay.”
Pappas seemed to know what she was feeling. “Anytime you want a break, just let me know. Would you like me to get you a sandwich?”
“No thanks. I’m not hungry.”
“You sure? How about a chocolate bar? You need to keep your energy up.”
She almost smiled at his solicitousness. “Okay, a chocolate bar.”
Pappas went out to a vending machine somewhere and came back with two Kit Kats. Susan discovered she was actually starved and ate them voraciously.
Then she told Pappas everything, from the beginning: how Frank creeped Amy out and Susan told Lenora that, and how Lenora left that phone message, and how Frank knew about picking locks. “I keep picturing in my mind the way Frank acted at the police station,” she said. “I can’t tell if he was acting guilty or not.”
Pappas nodded. “Is there anybody else you think we should look into besides Frank?”
Susan said bitterly, “My mom has an active social life. Frank isn’t the only guy I wasn’t wild about.”
“Who were the others?”
“Mark Lyman from Warrensburg and a guy named Ray Clarke from Lake George. We told Officer Lynch and he checked them out, but like you say, maybe he missed something.”
“Right. We’ll look at them again and also talk with your mom about any other men she might know.” Pappas shifted in his seat. “Now I hate to ask, but, what about you?”
Susan was confused. “What about me?”
Pappas’s eyes hardened for a moment. “Are you seeing any other men?”
She stared at him, embarrassed and annoyed. “Agent Pappas, I’m not seeing any men besides my husband.”
He put up his hands to placate her. “I’m sorry to offend you, but I have to ask.”
She shook her head and let out a breath. “Yeah, I guess you do. But the answer’s no.”
Pappas nodded, then said, “Also, let me review your situation on Friday. You were at Molly’s the whole afternoon?”
Oh my God, he’s thinking I could have hurt her? “Yes.”
“And she’ll verify that?”
“Yeah, of course.” Susan tried to remind herself these stupid questions were just part of the process. This guy with the caring eyes knew what he was doing.
“What about your husband?”
“Danny’s a real estate agent. He was in the office ’til around two thirty, then he went to a property that was having an open house the next day. He had to clean it up and get it ready.”
Pappas frowned, looking puzzled. “Isn’t that the homeowner’s job?”
“She’s in Florida, and Danny says she kind of has her head up her ass. There was a lot of mouse crap in the house, stuff like that.”
Pappas nodded. “So how long was he there?”
“’Til around seven thirty. Then he went to my mom’s house, looking for Amy.”
“Can anybody verify he was there that whole time?”
Susan could feel herself getting impatient again. “I’m sure his car was in the driveway, so if anyone went by, they saw it. But that house is at the top of the street, and it’s a little off in the woods, so …” She shrugged.
Pappas raised his eyebrows slightly. “So your husband was up there by himself that whole time?”
Susan had had enough. She put her hand on Pappas’s wrist. Immediately she felt funny, because it seemed like a very intimate gesture with just the two of them in the room. But still, she kept her hand there. “Officer, please don’t waste any more time. I promise you, my husband did not rape and kill our seven-year-old daughter. You need to find the man who did this.”
Pappas looked at Susan and his eyes softened. She removed her hand from his wrist.
“Ma’am,” he said, “my wife and I have two daughters. They’re six and eight years old.”
He covered Susan’s hand with his own. “I’ll find that piece of shit scumbag or die trying.”