Chapter 15
Noah found Ray in his office with his jacket off and his sleeves rolled, standing behind his desk with a map of the county tacked to the wall behind him. Red pins marked the bog, the farm, and three other locations that Noah assumed were connected to the investigation. Ray was studying them.
"The farm was used for all the erotic photos," Noah said from the doorway.
"We figure the Three Pillar Community has been a cover.
The deli offers jobs to draw people in. They connect them with the agency and things progress from there.
At some point they offer the girls a way to make more money.
The beds underground are part of some cam service. Nudes. Sex. You get the drift."
"And Garrett Finch?" Ray asked.
"You know how car dealerships have a loss leader?
His photography business is that. A way to bring girls in, feel them out, gauge their comfort level.
Their desperation for money. If they're willing to do boudoir, they might be open to erotic.
And the next step up from that is being a cam model or whatever else was happening on that farm.
Our officers are still going over the property, interviewing members. "
"And Tabitha is at the center of it?"
"We assume."
"A real David Koresh in the making."
"Not exactly. But a damn good cover. So far Tabitha says she knew nothing about it."
Ray snorted. "Of course not."
"And our tattooed friend?"
"So far no luck. And none of the community members are talking. We have officers bringing in Garrett Finch again as we speak. But we know for certain that Fiona Spence was at that barn the night she went missing. Whether it was before or after her car was abandoned, that part we don’t know.
She told Ruby she was heading to Finch's place, but Ruby didn't know about any of this. I guess Fiona didn't want to tell her."
"And has the Spence girl shown up among the bodies yet?"
"Not so far. The father, Mark Spence, still thinks we're blowing this out of proportion. But I don't think he knows about the photos."
"And any of those women from the bog in Garrett's files?"
"No."
"So just Fiona. And she was eighteen. Garrett's lawyer is going to claim she was old enough to do erotic photography." Ray ran a hand over his head. "Shit. See what you can get out of Tabitha."
"Callie is handling it," Noah said.
McKenzie was already in the observation room when Noah arrived, leaning back in a chair with a coffee balanced on his knee and his eyes on the glass.
On the other side, Tabitha Smith sat at the interview table with her hands folded, her headscarf slightly crooked, her face carrying the same composed calm she'd worn at the deli and at the compound and everywhere else Noah had seen her.
Callie sat across from her, a folder open on the table between them.
"Oh, come on, Tabitha. Stop giving us this. You knew damn well what was happening in that barn. Trapdoors. Hidden rooms underground."
"You have misunderstood." Tabitha's voice was even.
Patient. Rehearsed long before anyone thought to ask the questions.
"A lot of people come to the Three Pillar Community to escape bad situations.
Relationships gone wrong. Abusive families.
We give them a safe place to land. A place where their abusers can't find them. "
"In the slop of a barn?"
"From what I recall, it's not a crime to help people. Especially those eighteen and over."
"And all those condoms? Lubricant?"
Tabitha shrugged. "Those who have to hide can't exactly work at the deli, now can they? They have other ways to support themselves."
"But you approve of it."
"I don't oversee it."
"Then who does?"
Tabitha didn't answer. She sat perfectly still with her hands folded and her eyes on Callie and said nothing.
"You know eventually it's going to come out. And this whole show of yours about helping the lost is going to crumble. Now you can either speed up this process, fill in the details, and maybe they'll go easy on you. Or you can go down for a long stretch."
Silence.
Callie pulled a photograph from the folder and held it up. Fiona Spence. The wider shot with the tattooed arm visible in the frame. "Who is this person taking photos?"
"How should I know. Ask Finch."
"Oh, we intend to. But I'm asking you."
"I told you..."
"You don't know," Callie finished for her.
"I'm not saying another word until I get some breakfast. You have been peppering me all night and I've been very straightforward with you. We help people. And sometimes that means hiding them."
"Did you hide Kara Ellison?"
"Who?"
"What about Brooke Danvers?"
Tabitha sat back in her seat and stared at Callie with an expression that was somewhere between patience and contempt. "I want breakfast. Coffee. Food."
Later, McKenzie sipped his coffee as he leaned against the edge of a desk. Callie stood at the counter stirring sugar into hers. Noah sat in a chair with his legs stretched out, running on fumes and caffeine and the stubborn refusal to stop.
"I say we let her stew in her own misery for seventy-two hours and see if she changes her story," McKenzie offered. "Loyalty has a time limit on it. I'm sure hers will end soon."
"What if Fiona is still alive and being held somewhere?" Noah asked.
"Then Finch will show us."
"That's going to be hard since Ray decided to bring him back in. Can't keep him wandering around out there when he's in the photo." Noah paused and stared at the ceiling. "And of course this all brings up one glaring issue. What if none of them are the killers?"
McKenzie laughed. "Come on, Sutherland. You can't be that naive. It's clear they're running some shady operation."
"Not according to the Strutz Agency," Callie added. "They deny knowing anything about it. And until they show up in those photos, their only tie to the Three Pillar Community is a referral on a flyer."
McKenzie set his cup down. "This is simple two-plus-two stuff and you know it, Noah.
I'm not a betting man, but my money is on the theory we came up with earlier.
The deli draws in girls. Redirects them to the modeling agency, which is the hub for vetting who wants to make more money.
Samuel Bridger connects them with Finch.
Finch takes photos, finds out which ones are open to boudoir, feels them out a little.
Those that bite, he tells them they can make extra cash doing erotic shoots.
All of which funnels them into that Three Pillar farm to do cam modeling or whatever perverted show they were running.
Maybe a few get out of hand. And those are the ones that end up being dumped. "
"Maybe," Noah said.
"Sutherland, you are infuriating. The writing is on the wall."
"I just think there are a lot of unknowns here. Missing dots."
"There always are." McKenzie crossed his arms. "So we pull Finch back in. We apply pressure this time and get him talking now that we have some evidence on the guy."
Noah nodded and stood. "I'm going to see Fiona Spence's father again. See what he knows about this tattoo and if he noticed anything leading up to her disappearance."
McKenzie tossed his arms up. "You're wasting your time."
The garage was open and Mark Spence was loading equipment into the bed of his truck when Noah pulled up. Buckets, spray bottles, a portable shop vac, a roll of chamois cloths. The front door to the house stood open and country music drifted out from somewhere inside, tinny and distant.
"Mr. Spence. A moment of your time."
"No time today. Catch me later." Mark didn't stop moving, hoisting a five-gallon jug of cleaning solution into the truck bed.
"Where are you heading?"
"Some clients bring their vehicles here. Others, we go out to." He brushed past Noah and walked back toward the garage.
"Where is Fiona's mother?"
Mark stopped. He turned around slowly. "Your guess is as good as mine. She bailed on Fiona years ago. Went off with some other guy. Never stayed in contact." He resumed walking, grabbing a caddy of supplies from a shelf inside the garage.
"Do you even care where your daughter is?"
"If I cared about every time she goes off the grid, I wouldn't have a hair left on my head." He carried the caddy to the truck. "What's that saying? Pick your battles. I pick mine."
"Did you two have a fight the night she went missing?"
"I keep telling you she isn't missing."
"We found her vehicle."
"And?"
Noah decided to cut to the point. "Do you know your daughter was modeling erotic photos? Spending time with men on a farm not far from here?"
Mark set the caddy down in the truck bed and went still for the first time since Noah had arrived. He didn't turn around.
"Did she mention going to see Garrett Finch the night she vanished?"
"Nope." He resumed loading.
"Nothing about modeling?"
"I told you no. Now I need to get going."
"You're not going anywhere. Not until we talk."
“Are you detaining me?"
"For now."
Mark stopped. He leaned against the side of his truck and lit a cigarette. The smoke drifted across the driveway in the morning air.
Noah handed him the photographs. Mark took them and looked through them one by one. His eyes widened ever so slightly but his expression stayed controlled. He handed them back.
"What do you want me to say? Girls do all manner of things nowadays to make a buck. You ever heard of OnlyFans? Not like I can stop her."
"You ever seen that tattoo before?"
"No."
"Back to my question. Did you ever have a fight?"
"What if we did? People argue all the time."
"And money for college?"