Unanswered Questions!

[Ghostwriter1983]

Unanswered Questions!

I was one of three police officers who investigated the disappearance of a little girl name Mary Baker in 2006. Like so many other cases, often times there is little evidence discovered, and few pieces of the puzzle. In the case of missing children, at times there is no crime, they simply ran away for a number of reasons. Other times, even a police officer can fall to his knees at the scene of a child's murder. On this Friday morning, I found myself and fellow officer's Dana Lambert and Sam Atwood, waiting outside the chief's office.

All we knew was that he wanted to see us about the Baker Case. Each of us had worked on the case individually and as a team and we had reached a dead-end after two long months of chasing down every known lead. Of the three officers, I was the oldest one, with nearly twenty years service. Dana was the first of two female officers our department had. Like all departments, male officers are reluctant to accept a female uniformed officer into the ranks. Whether they like it or not, there will always be resentment.

They must work twice as hard as a male officer newly hired to prove she too has earned the right to wear the badge. But Dana fit in surprisingly quick, using both her mental knowledge of human nature and police procedure to handle confrontations she faced day to day. Sam, now there was a fine young man. I haven't met such a personable cop as well mannered as he is. His personality couldn't help but affect others around him, be it a citizen or a suspect.

I have always believed that drawing my service revolver is a last resort, that most confrontations can be resolved without the use of deadly force. I felt thankful that in all my years of service to my community, that I had never once pulled my gun. Sure there were close calls of course and I know from my years on the force, once a gun is pulled, in those split seconds what you do next may haunt you forever.

About ten minutes after we had arrived and waited, the chief's secretary got a call and looked in our direction and nodded for us to go in. Alice Townsend was our states first female police chief, and that's why I think she took a more personal look at this particular missing person case. She was the mother of three girls, ages 10, 12, and 14. As hectic a case load as she had, she did her best to review important cases, to see if we had missed something in our investigation.

Her hands-on involvement wasn't resented. As we entered, she greeted each of us with a smile and motioned for us to take a chair. "I’ve followed the Baker case closely. I've read each of your reports and know you left no stone unturned, but we’re back to square one. Let me go over the main facts once more. On June 3, 2006, a child, age 7, named Mary Baker was in her back yard alone. She was playing on the swing set in a yard that had a six foot wooden fence.

The last time the mother saw her daughter alive was just after 10 am that morning. The mother was in the living room her statement says when she heard Mary scream, “Momma!" Her mother rushed to the back yard and couldn’t find Mary and called the police. There was no evidence of a struggle and a thorough search of the area turned up nothing. Nearby neighbors saw and heard nothing unusual. Hundreds of flyers posted for information and calls to Crime-Stopper's turned up nothing.

All the registered <deleted> offenders in this town were questioned and were cleared. At this point, we can't call this a murder case because we have no evidence to suggest that she has been killed, but there is enough evidence to imply abduction. The question I put to each of you is, “Where do we go from here?" she asked. There was a moment of silence as each of us looked at each other. When none of us spoke, it was the Chief, who did.

"I know that some of you may think that trying to solve a crime that isn't exactly by the book shouldn't be tried. But sometimes, they’re the only thing left.” she said. She could see the curiosity in our eyes as she reached over and pressed the intercom button and said, "Please send Ms. Garrett in." As the door began to open, each of us turned our heads and saw a tall, slender, woman in her 30's walk in.

She wore a blue chiffon dress and her long dark hair complimented her facial features. The chief rose from her chair, and they shook hands. Then she introduced each of us to Ms. Garrett and she too sat down. “Ms. Garrett is a psychic who’s assisted police agencies around the country over the past several years. She’s helped solve some pretty tough missing person cases. Before I go further, I want to make it clear that Ms. Garrett has volunteered to work on this case.

I want to emphasize, she’s agreed to help us for free. I want you to give her the fullest cooperation and I won't accept anything less. It’s a nightmare for every parent to have their child go missing and not know what happened to them. To not know if they’re alive or dead. If Ms. Garrett discovers nothing new, we’re no worse off than we were before she walked through the door.

I don't care what your personal beliefs are about psychics pro or con. What I do care about is that whatever Ms. Garrett asks of you regarding this case, you do." the chief said with firmness. Each of us nodded to the chief that we understood. "I need one of you to be my liaison with Ms. Garrett and to keep me informed of anything new that develops." she said. I raised my hand and volunteered. "Good. Then it's settled.

Dana and Sam can return to their duties, while the three of us talk a little bit more." she said. After they both had left, Alice looked me sternly in the eyes and asked, "You aren't going to have any problems with this assignment are you Bill?" I smiled and shook my head no and her stern expression turned into a soft smile. “Well, let's all three go to lunch and try to be a little less formal.

Oh Bill, I almost forgot. I’ve told Ms. Garrett nothing about the particulars of this case, just a generality. She’ll let you know what you need to do to help her, but you aren’t to reveal the exact facts of this case. If she can help us, I want what she discovers, if anything to be discovered entirely on her own, understood?" she asked. I nodded and said, "Understood.” The chief smiled at both of us before saying "Good.

I don't know about you but I’m hungry." she said and we all laughed as we left her office. Once we had eaten lunch, the Chief returned to the station and it was just me and Ms. Garrett. "Before we do anything, I hope we can be on a first name basis. Please call me Amanda." she said with a smile. I told her my name was Bill. As we sat in my unmarked car, I asked her where she wanted to go first. "Well, I'd like to look at the most recent photo of the child and go to backyard where she was last seen in if that can be arranged, Bill." Amanda said.

I felt myself smile as I picked up and opened the folder sitting between us. Paper clipped to the inside cover was an 8 x 10 color photo of Mary. "How recent is this photo?" Amanda asked. I turned the picture over and saw the date. "It's a month old, so it’s probably as new as we will get Amanda." I said. Before Amanda reached out to hold the photo, she took out her notepad and began making notes. When she had finished, she reached her hand over to me and took the picture and held it with both hands.

I don't know what I was expecting her to do next. I’ve never had much trust in so-called psychics. Personally, I think they just prey on the naive, gullible and impaired people. But on the other hand, I’ve heard of some amazing crimes that have been solved with the help of psychics. So, I reserved my judgment of Amanda for later. As she held the photograph in her hands she closed her eyes. "She’s a shy, soft spoken child.

An only child. Her favorite show is ‘The Muppets’ and her favorite color yellow. Her room is yellow, with white laced curtains. She misses her dad. He died four years ago in a car accident. I believe he had red hair. Mary has a small mole just above her right elbow. She loves to swing on their back yard swing." she said. When she opened her eyes and handed me the picture back, there was a look of amazement in my eyes and a tear forming in her eyes.

"I want to find this child Bill. I want to find her alive and brought back home. Can you arrange for me to visit the child's home so I can see her bedroom and the backyard?" she asked. "I'll have to make a phone call and hopefully the mother will agree to it. I’m sure there won’t be a problem." Bill told Amanda. He opened the folder once more and looked through several pages until he found the number and made the call.

Bill arranged for us to drive right over. When we arrived at 322 Larch Lane, we parked at the curb in front of an ordinary looking two story blue townhouse with white trim in a small sub-division of well manicured lawns. Mary's mother was waiting on her porch and I could see her anxiously wiping tears from her eyes. The same concerned and pleading look I have seen many times before in a parent’s eyes. I was the first to greet Mrs. Baker as we shook hands.

I introduced Amanda and we chatted small talk for just a moment before she motioned us to follow her inside. I hadn’t noticed it before but Mary’s mother’s eyes were very red from crying and it showed in her voice as well. “Please, call me Cynthia.” she told us. Mrs. Baker sounds so awkward and formal.” she said and we all laughed. As I looked around, I could see that she kept a spotless home. “Well, from your phone call detective, I know that you and Amanda would like to see Mary’s room.

Her room is upstairs, if you’ll follow me.” Cynthia said. We followed her upstairs and to the left, down a hallway until we came to a door that had a colored drawing taped to the door which read, “Mary’s Room.” Cynthia placed her fingers on the words and traced them as I saw a tear drop began to fall upon her cheek. Hurriedly, in an effort to not let us see the tear, she turned away and wiped the tear before opening the door. Mary’s room was typical of any other seven year old girl, cluttered with clothes and toys scattered everywhere.

It was clear to me that Cynthia hadn’t touched a thing since Mary disappeared. Cynthia stepped aside and let us walk in. Amanda was methodical in the way she looked at every object in the room. Nothing seemed to not catch her eye, if only for a moment. “Where is Mary’s white bear Cynthia? The one with the torn left ear?” Amanda asked. Cynthia’s face turned white as a ghost.

“How did you know that was her favorite stuffed animal Amanda?” Cynthia asked as she began to cry. Amanda told her that wasn’t important. It was just important that she hold it. It took a couple of minutes for all of us searching Mary’s room to find it buried under some dirty clothes. Bill was the one who found it and when he held it up and asked if this was what she was looking for and both women nodded. He walked over to Amanda and placed in both of her outstretched hands and she held it close to her and closed her eyes.

I would have given a million dollars to know what she was feeling, thinking or hearing at that moment. I’ve read that a true psychic can sense memories from an object, see things or even hear voices. I chose to work with Amanda because I knew I was the lesser skeptic then the other two detectives. Amanda held the bear close to her heart with her eyes closed and rocked to her left and right as if she was comforting a small child as she whispered, “Shhhhhhhhh, it’ll be alright.

Don’t be frightened, you must be strong little one.” Amanda whispered. Before Amanda could open her eyes, Cynthia cried out, “Where is Mary. Is she okay? What is she telling you, please, you must tell me?” she pleaded. When Amanda opened her eyes, tears were flowing freely from both eyes and as she hugged Cynthia she whispered in her ear, “You must be strong too.” She is alive. But, she is in a very dark and cold place.

Cynthia hugged Amanda even tighter and together they cried. “That’s all I can tell you right now.” she said. As they hugged each other, Amanda’s eyes were looking directly into Bill’s eyes as he saw the tears falling upon her cheeks. But he saw something else. He saw or sensed that Amanda wasn’t being completely truthful when she said “That’s all I can tell you right now.” Perhaps that was all she wanted to tell us, but my gut instincts told me she knew something more.

But what was she hiding from us and more importantly, why was she hiding it? When they had both composed themselves, Amanda asked if Cynthia could take us out to where Mary had been playing. We followed Cynthia back down stairs, through her kitchen and out the sliding glass door to the back yard. As Bill stepped out onto the porch it looked like a hundred other backyards he had seen during the course of my investigations.

The lawn needed mowing, but other than that, all he noticed was the swing set and a few dwarf fruit trees. Cynthia couldn’t tell us where in the yard Mary had been when she disappeared, so Amanda began to walk around the back yard. But she didn’t just wander. She was methodical in the way she walked thru that yard. First she walked the entire three sides of the wood slat fence.

She never touched the fence but rather, held her palm out to the fence as if to gently touch a stove burner to see how hot it was. Next she went to the swing and did the same thing. Then she began to walk from one side of the yard to the other in a straight line. She wasn’t looking for anything in particular it seemed. Rather, at least to me. It was as if she expected to ‘walk into something.’

Don’t ask me how I derived at that conclusion. Still, that was my perception. All this time Cynthia and I just stood there watching Amanda walk in the yard. Cynthia was no longer crying but her eyes shown the strain of a mother’s heart breaking. I had great empathy for her. I had done everything I could and had come to a dead end. The other detectives fared no better.

Now, oddly the chief had chosen to bring in a psychic. Regardless of how reputable Amanda seemed, I still could not fully accept her supposed gifts. I dealt in the concrete. Facts, witness statements, evidence, footprints, finger prints, DNA, hair samples and so on. What Amanda was adding was things only she could see, hear, feel, touch or taste. She was relying on the intangible.

Things that would never hold up in a court of law if a crime has been committed. It hadn’t been more than ten minutes of our watching Amanda that we saw her suddenly stop. Amanda’s back was to us so I couldn’t see the expression on her face or tell what she thinking. That was when I saw her drop to her knees. But in the way that she fell, it clearly appeared as if she had been struck her in the stomach.

She was doubled over with her arms wrapped around her stomach and I heard her gasp as Cynthia and I ran to help her. When I reached her side I knelt down by her side and placed my hands on her shoulder to support her and her body felt ice cold. Amanda’s face was almost white from coldness as were her cheeks and lips. Bill’s hands were getting colder by the second and Amanda fought to whisper, “Move me away from this spot, hurry!”

Both Cynthia and I helped Amanda back to the deck and I helped her sit down on the steps. Then Cynthia went inside and came back out with a blanket, wrapping it around Amanda as she shivered. In my 14 years as a police officer and detective, that was the strangest thing I’d ever seen. It was a clear blue sky day in June and the temperature had to be at least 75.

I had absolutely no explanation as to what would cause a patch of lawn in Amanda’s back yard to feel like it was 20 degrees. I waited a few minutes for Amanda to warm up because by the look on her face she wasn’t in any shape to be answering questions. As the color in Amanda’s cheeks came back, Cynthia asked her what had happened to make her fall. I could see Amanda’s eyes as she searched for the words to tell us what had happened.

Amanda looked first to Cynthia and then me before she tried to speak. At first, as she spoke, no words came out, so she tried harder to speak. As Amanda shakily pointed her finger to the spot where she had fallen, she said, “That’s where he grabbed Mary!” Cynthia put her hand to her mouth and began to sob. Bill asked Amanda if the person taking Mary had a name and she shook her head no.

Then he asked her if she could give him a description of the man and once more she shook her head no. He asked her if he carried her off on foot or drove her away in a vehicle. But all Amanda could tell me was, “He just came and took her!” Bill asked her why she had stopped at that particular spot and then fell to her knees? “Something struck me in the stomach Bill!” she said. As she said that, she pulled her shirt up and there on her stomach was a large red swelling area, rapidly turning black and blue.

It was the kind of bruise someone would have if they’d been struck violently in a fight. Something was clawing at the back of his mind at that moment. Based upon the impressions Amanda had gotten from holding Mary’s stuffed bear, the intense biting coldness of Amanda’s body on a hot day and the bruised swelling on her stomach that was turning into a black and blue area, there was only one conclusion.

What they were dealing with in this particular missing person case was not that of a typical child abductor. What they were dealing with was something supernatural. Amanda knew this but hadn’t said it out loud. Perhaps Amanda wouldn’t admit to all she sensed out of fear for what it would do to Cynthia. Perhaps she felt that he would never believe what she would tell him.

But whatever the reason, the events he had personally witnessed would make him believe anything she would tell him. The question was would she tell him? Cynthia suddenly blurted out in a weeping voice, “I want my baby back, I want her back safe in my arms!” Amanda awkwardly got to her feet and hugged Cynthia and whispered just barely loud enough for me to hear, “I’ll do my best to help and so will Bill, but you must be strong. Be strong for Mary and be strong for yourself.” she said.

All three of us went back inside and with none of us speaking, there was a deathly quietness. “Promise me one thing Cynthia, promise me. Promise me you’ll stay away from the area of the yard where I fell.” Amanda said. Amanda placed Cynthia’s hand on top of one of her hands and placed her other hand on top and once more pleaded, “Promise me!” As Cynthia’s tears fell from her eyes, she laid her head down onto Amanda’s hands and promised.

A few minutes later, Amanda turned to Bill and told him, “We should be going.” That’s when I saw Mary’s white stuffed bear on the floor where it had been dropped and Amanda asked Cynthia if she could take it with her and she agreed. Bill told her that he and Amanda would do all they could to get Mary back home safely. There wasn’t really anything else he could say. As they got back into Bill’s car, Amanda looked back at Cynthia’s front door and the look on her face told her she’d be crying after they drove away.

As Bill headed back to the station he said, “Amanda, I need you to level with me. I need you to tell me all that you know. The chief told me to do everything you asked and I have. But in return, I need your help me too. This case is as important for me to solve as it is to you.” he said. “I have been truthful with you Bill. Something from another world, an entity so to speak took Mary. Something very evil and powerful.

He was able to punch through into this world and grab Mary. I don’t know why he took her and I don’t know where she is or what he plans to do with her. I only know she is alive and scared. I can’t even tell you what he looks like. I can’t tell you how to fight him. But I can tell you this. He wants to keep her alive. He will do her no harm. I wish I could see or sense more, but I can’t.” she told Bill. At that moment he believed Amanda, but it left him in a very awkward position.

“When the Chief asks him for an update on this case, on what progress we’ve made if any, what was he to say? Was he to say something from another world just dropped by and snatched Mary away? If anyone else had told him that, would he believe them? He don’t think he would. Amanda had three things going for her in my mind. First, she described things about Mary that she couldn’t possibly have known. Second, making her body feel as if it had been in a freezer for an hour couldn’t have been faked.

Third, the red swelling on her stomach that quickly turned black and blue wasn’t self-inflicted. Bill asked Amanda if she wanted him to take her to the emergency room to be checked, and she touched his arm and smiled a painful smile and told him no. She told him she would drive herself back home, take some Alieve and get some rest. He asked her if she was going to need to meet with him tomorrow and she told him that she would call and set up another appointment.

It was in the evasiveness sound of Amanda’s voice in how she made that statement that made Bill believe that she was planning was to go out on her own, without him. The chief didn’t tell him to tail her or to work with her each and every day. She told him to cooperate with Amanda fully and he was bound to follow that order. So when they arrived back at the station, he let Amanda out beside her car. “Let me know when we can work together again Amanda.

If you need anything, anything at all, just call me. If I’m away from my desk, just leave me a message on my machine.” Bill said. As he handed her his business card, he reminded her that he had written his home phone number on the back for her also. She leaned down to take the card with the bear in one hand and he saw her face wince from pain as she thanked him. Bill waited as she got back into her car and drove away. Then he parked and went to his desk and made a detailed report of everything that had happened.

He did a few things in the office before he decided to go get something to eat. Little did he know the fate awaiting Amanda when she drove away. Just as he was about to walk out the door, the call came over the radio beside his desk. A 911 call came over the radio for police and aid units to respond to 6th & Main regarding an injury/accident involving a woman in a four door red Ford Fairmont. Bill knew instantly that the woman was Amanda.

He grabbed his keys off the desk and hurried to his car. He made his way to Main and as he approached from one direction, he saw a fire truck and patrol car approaching from the other direction. He saw Amanda’s car crushed against a telephone and he reached Amanda’s car first. She had a terrible head injury and was bleeding badly and the steering wheel was crushed against her chest. Even though the EMT’s were trying to stop the bleeding, she tried to push their hands away and motioned for Bill to come closer.

As she fought not to choke on her own blood, she was able to tell him one thing before her head slumped downward and died. “I should’ve known. I should’ve known that he’d never let me get the little girl back. I was willing to trade my soul for hers so that she could go back to her momma.” Though the medics tried to revive her, she was dead. So many questions were left unanswered.

©2006 Raymond Cook (All rights reserved)