Chapter 21
“The staff came back clean,” Rivers said.
“What about Luke?” Sean asked. “Any prior drug convictions?”
“Zilch,” Rivers answered. “The guests, however, are a different story.”
“You find something good?” Sean asked.
“Good is relative,” Rivers answered.
“What have you got?” Sean asked.
“So, it turns out you’ve got a man there who has been convicted of assault and child abuse,” Rivers answered. “It’s the one-two-punch.”
Sean already had an idea of who that might be, but he kept quiet until Rivers gave him the name.
“Guy’s name is Frank Maynard,” Rivers said. “You talk to him yet?”
“I have,” Sean answered, remembering the way Frank’s wife and son looked like they were scared of him.
“Sounds like you might have expected something like this,” Rivers replied.
“I had my suspicions,” Sean said. “Tell me more about what happened?”
“Well, to be fair, this was about twenty years ago,” Rivers said.
“The guy was working at a local summer camp for kids and teens. He was one of the counselors. Makes me glad my parents never forced me to go to camp. Anyway, another counselor saw him messing with a kid. The report didn’t go into too much detail, but what was described was quoted as ‘inappropriate.’”
“Charges were pressed?” Sean asked.
“Oh, yes, charges were pressed by two parties,” Rivers answered.
“The first was the parents of the child who was involved in the inappropriate behavior. The child, who was a boy, said Frank touched him and made him touch his privates as well. Frank denied it all, and a child psychologist ruled against the victim’s family.
That’s why he wasn’t on the register list.”
“Why’d the psychologist rule against the victim?” Sean asked.
“I don’t have all the information, save for what was in the police report, but I was able to Google some articles about the trial. I guess the kid had a history of fabricating stories against other adults that had been proven false,” Rivers answered. “The boy who cried wolf, so to speak.”
That was a shame. Sean had been a young boy once upon a time, and he had gotten into his fair share of mischief. Whatever the report had shown was only a small slice of who that boy really was, but his past mistakes had no doubt been brought front and center.
“What about the assault charge?” Sean asked.
“Ah, well, that was something that had more physical proof,” Rivers said. “The police report had some images. I just texted them to you.”
Sean’s phone pinged, and he glanced down at the photos. They were graphic, to say the least. The man Frank Maynard had beaten up had a pair of black eyes, busted lips, and a broken wrist. There was also bruising around the victim’s throat where he had been choked.
After Sean had a moment to go through each photo, he brought his phone back to his ear. “I’m assuming Frank attacked this man because he was the counselor who called the police?” Sean asked.
“That was what the report said,” Rivers answered. “Frank got ninety days in county and a year of probation. But since then, he’s been clean. No more allegations of inappropriate behavior and no assaults.”
“At least not from anyone who reported him,” Sean said.
“Another person popped up,” Rivers said. “A former journalist, Jonathan Travis.”
“Former?” Sean asked.
“I’d actually heard about this from some of my family back in Boston,” Rivers said.
“Turns out that Jonathan Travis was found guilty of forging evidence in one of his articles against a police officer. He was building an investigative piece for The Boston Globe, and he augmented police bodycam footage and audio to make it appear that the officer was acting aggressively, but that wasn’t the case.
The Boston PD took him to court, won, and got a nice settlement from The Globe. Needless to say, Jonathan was fired.”
“And I bet he was branded a leper by his colleagues,” Sean said.
“Yeah, that’s probably a safe bet,” Rivers replied.
“What about the victim’s parents?” Sean asked. “Roman and Judy Grayson?”
“Neither of them has a criminal background,” Rivers answered. “But I was going to do a financial audit on them, pending… This is a missing person case?”
“Yes, it’s officially entered that territory,” Sean answered, and then he recalled his conversation with Sheriff Johnson. “Let’s coordinate with the FBI, get them in on the loop, and start the paperwork.”
Rivers was silent. “Shouldn’t Sheriff Johnson be handling that?”
“Sheriff Johnson doesn’t want me poking around,” Sean answered.
“What? Why?” Rivers asked.
“Because I think I found the murder weapon in my room,” Sean answered.
Rivers fell silent.
“I didn’t do it, Leila,” Sean said.
“Yeah, of course not,” Rivers said. “But that’s going to taint whatever evidence you do find. The guilty party’s lawyer is going to have a field day with that information.”
“Johnson is at least three hours from getting to us, and that’s if everything goes smoothly, which it won’t,” Sean said. “I’m not going to sit by and do nothing while I’ve got two missing guests and a bloody knife. Every second counts.”
River sighed. “All right, yeah, I get it.”
“Did you find anything on the hotel staff?” Sean asked.
“Uh, no, they were all clean,” Rivers answered.
“Even Luke?” Sean asked.
“Uh, yeah, he is included in ‘everyone,’” Rivers answered.
A knock on the library door prompted Sean to turn around. Stephen, the butler, was standing in the doorway.
“All right, well, keep me updated on the Graysons’ financial audit,” Sean replied.
“Be careful, Sheriff,” Rivers said. “When people get cooped up, they tend to get a little nutty.”
“Thanks,” Sean said.
With the call ended, Sean approached Stephen.
“Can I help you, son?” Sean asked.
“Look, um, I know you wanted people to come forward if they knew something, but I want you to know that I didn’t come to you about this earlier because, well, I didn’t make the connection,” Stephen said.
“What is it?” Sean asked.
“I found something that might have belonged to the little girl,” Stephen said.