“You leave my partner alone. He isn’t on the case,” Robert’s voice rose.
“Oh, sure, you sound convincing. Someone might even believe you, but I don’t. If you plan on finding any proof that point to one of the boys, I suggest you destroy it before it destroys you and anyone close to you.” Click.
The phone went dead. Robert sat for a long time, the noise of the dial tone in his ear. His knuckles were white where they gripped the receiver. He finally replaced it in the cradle and dropped his head in his folded arms.
After a few moments, he picked up the receiver and dialed Jake’s extension.
“Hey, what’s up?”
“Are you and Lorene free tonight?”
“Sure, what do you have in mind?”
“Seven o’clock at Barbara’s.”
There was a long pause, then Jake laughed. “You and Babs have some important news for us? Hot dog!” Robert could hear him through the wall.
“Shut up. Dammit!” The tone of his voice shut Jake up immediately.
“I’ll be right there.” Jake hung up.
Jake came through the door and shut it softly behind him. Before he could sit, Robert held his finger to his lips. “I was just going to get coffee, want a cup?” He crooked his finger at Jake, who nodded.
“Sure, I think I will get a cup myself.”
They both left the office and headed to the break room. It was empty. “What is going on?” Jake demanded, waiting for Robert to fill his cup.
“I think the station is bugged. I don’t know for sure, but it seems that someone is telling someone outside the office what is going on. I just got a call that was threatening. I don’t want to talk about it here. Come over to Barbara’s house tonight. No jokes, please, Jake. This is serious stuff, and we have to talk.”
“Bring Lorene?” Jake was a little unsure about having his wife involved.
“This is a decision that both of you have to make. I officially took you off the job, but everyone seems to know that isn’t the case.”
Robert opened Barbara’s door to greet Jake and Lorene. The mood was somber. Barbara greeted Lorene and showed her a spot she had set up for Elizabeth if the baby wasn’t asleep. The two women left for the kitchen to gather the refreshments that Barbara had prepared.
“What is all this about?” Jake planted his feet and stood in front of his friend.
“I don’t know what you mean. You always want to see Barbara and me together, what’s your beef now?” Robert joked, but he didn’t smile and started to turn away.
Jake stuck his hand out to stop him. “I know you too well; this has something to do with the Stevens’ case.”
The women came in and set the trays on the dining room table. “Come and sit down; we have coffee and some cake I made, then we will talk.”
The couples sat across from each other. They were silent as Barbara poured coffee and Lorene served the cake.
“Okay, we have cake and coffee; what is going on?” Jake asked Robert.
Robert took a drink of coffee and felt Barbara’s hand on his knee. It felt good, and he had her support.
“Jake, I got an anonymous call this afternoon. It wasn’t good. First, whoever called knew we had purchased the two pieces of furniture and the rooms they came from. Then I was threatened that if I did find anything incriminating, I would find my partner and his family missing also.”
Lorene gasped. “This was for real? No joking?”
Jake put his arm around his wife. He looked at Robert and then across the room to where Elizabeth was playing. “This was no joke. That is why you wanted us here, to tell us this?”
“Yes, and to ask you what you want me to do with the evidence. I read the rest of the cash book and Kelly’s diary. There were names and specific incidences, including the rape of Angie and Kelly being, well, let’s say seduced. There were multiple orgies described and the people involved. I can see why they don’t want any of this to come to light.”
“We could be killed for this, just like the Stevens,” Lorene whispered.
“Yes, just like the Stevens,” Barbara responded firmly. This time her fingers dug into Robert’s thigh, and he pried them up and curled his fingers around hers.
“No matter what a lawyer says, the evidence is clear. The judge can suppress it, and if that judge happens to be Judge Kaeding, we don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of getting that evidence in court.”
“You finished reading the cash book and the diary, so who is the main character in this little group?” Jake had pushed away the plate with what remained of the cake and drank his coffee.
“I am not going into detail. It seems that Judge Kaeding has a nice little house on the Columbia River, where the family can get away, and Royal uses it for his parties. It is not far from the aluminum plant, where we think the car went into the river. The last place the Stevens were seen was at the diner and the gas station. Kelly wrote that once she had sex with David, he wanted her to be with all the boys. She couldn’t stop because they had connections with the mob and would order her family killed. I think Kelly might have told that part to Angie. Because Angie was scared to death when I talked to her.”
Robert stopped and started to take another drink of coffee, only to find his cup empty. Barbara quickly refilled it, and the others waited for him to continue.
“What happened to cause them to follow through with the threat?” Jake queried. Lorene was resting her head on Jake’s shoulder; her eyes followed her daughter’s actions.
“Kelly found out she was pregnant. She didn’t know which of the boys she had been forced to have sex with was the father. She decided to pin it on Royal, eventually telling her parents about it, when she couldn’t hide it any longer. Karl was furious, not only did he punish Kelly; who couldn’t go to school because of the telltale marks, but Karl confronted the judge. Kelly wrote that she overheard Karl say he’d called Walter’s father, James’ father, and Michael’s father, threatening to press charges if they didn’t come through with a settlement. She didn’t write that Brody was involved, so he might not have been there or participated in any of this.
“Kelly wrote in her diary the night before they disappeared, that her father was going to meet with someone to get money for her to go away. She would have the baby and put it up for adoption. She heard her father tell her mother that these people knew doctors that would give her an abortion. She didn’t know what that meant. She looked it up in the dictionary and wrote the definition in the diary. Later she wrote that she heard her parents talking that there would be enough money for them to leave Portland, move to the country, and retire. Karl was quite excited about the result. We all know that was a trick to get them to go to the Kaeding house, as it was the only one out that direction.”
“That is it,” Barbara added. “We don’t know who ordered the hit. We know who carried it out, but we can’t find them.”
Jake continued. “We know that at least one of the boy’s parents have connections they used to order the hit. We don’t know who ordered it, so, in essence, we know nothing.” He slammed his fist on the table. The women jumped at the noise.
“What about James?” Barbara questioned. “He seemed to be the front runner at first. Where does he stand? Is he mentioned?”
Robert nodded. “It bothered me a bit that he seemed to take a back seat in all this. I think he was the go-between. He had access to Kelly, She may have not mentioned him specifically, but I’ll bet he was in on it. Wouldn’t she have written all that in her diary though?”
Barbara and Lorene both shook their heads. “Sometimes things that are common knowledge aren’t written down, You think you’ll always remember them. She must have been with James enough times so it was familiar.”