“She was reprimanded after several years of people complaining that she didn’t follow the channels of communication. I had a talk with her. I thought things had smoothed out, but she decided to leave. That’s certainly her prerogative.”
“And two weeks later Bertram Lanz is missing,” McAdams said. “It’s also a little coincidental.”
“Not really. I don’t see what one has to do with another despite the fact that the two of them got along.” A pause. “Bertram could have left anytime. He didn’t have to fake a disappearance.”
“But you said yourself he had to sign out,” Decker said. “I’m sure you would have made sure that his destination was a safe place.”
“Of course. I’m just saying he wasn’t a captive.”
“But in a way, he was.” When Lewis was silent, Decker said, “Bertram is mentally challenged and possibly easily swayed. Checking up on him is just common sense on your part. And if you would have found out he was going to a rendezvous with Elsie Schulung, you might have stopped it.”
“I would have stopped it,” Lewis said. “To tell you the truth, I was surprised that she quit. There aren’t a lot of professional jobs in a town this size.”
Decker said, “We’ll need Elsie’s address.”
“I’ll see what we have on file,” Lewis said.
Decker said, “I hate to do this, but at some point, we are going to need to talk to the residents one by one.”
“Can it wait? A lot of our residents are traumatized.”
“I’ll take that into consideration,” Decker said. “But Bertram is missing. I wouldn’t do it unless I thought it was urgent.”
“You’re right,” Lewis said. “I’ll arrange it.”
“Thank you. And we’d also like to take a look at Bertram’s room.”
“Maybe you can do that first while I ask the staff to prepare the residents.”
“That would work.”
“I’ll take you to his room.” Lewis opened his desk drawer and pulled out a ring of keys.
Decker said, “Have you notified Bertram’s parents? Even if he was emancipated, it’s the moral thing to do.”
“Of course,” Lewis said. “I was hoping it wouldn’t be necessary.”
“Maybe this will resolve today. But the longer you wait, the harder it will be to make the call. And the call is better coming from you than the police.”
Lewis said, “Have you checked in recently to see if there have been any developments?”
McAdams stood up and said, “I’ll call Captain Radar. It’s a dead zone here. I’ll have to go outside.”
“Thanks.” Decker got to his feet. “When Detective McAdams is done, we’ll take a look at Lanz’s room.”
“Of course.” Lewis got up to lead the way. He looked at his watch. “It’s late in the evening across the pond. If nothing new happens, I’ll call the Lanzes first thing in the morning.” He looked at Decker. “Nothing like this has ever happened before. In the main, we really are one big happy family.”
“I’m sure that’s true . . . in the main,” Decker said. “But as the saying goes, Dr. Lewis: you’re only as happy as your least happy kid.”
Chapter 4
Hands on hips, McAdams looked around Bertram Lanz’s personal sanctuary. Not large, not tiny—around 180 square feet of tidy space with an attached bathroom. “The guy is neat.”
“We have housekeeping service,” Lewis said.
Decker said, “What do they do?”
“Make the bed, sweep the floor, clean the sink, toilet, and tub in the bathroom, empty all the garbage, pick up the dirty laundry, and drop off the clean laundry.”
“How often?”
“Every day.”
“Then his garbage has been emptied recently.”
“The room was done yesterday—the day of the field trip.”
“Okay.” Decker was quiet. “If you’re busy, we can take this from here.”
“You are going through one of our residents’ rooms. Someone should be here supervising—for your protection as well as Bertram’s.”
“Stick around,” Decker said. “But I don’t know how long this will take.”
He turned to McAdams. “You take the bathroom, and I’ll go through his living area.”
Lewis’s phone rang. He listened and then sighed. “I have something that needs my immediate attention.”
“Do you want us to stop and wait for you to come back?”
A long pause. Then Lewis said, “Just leave the door open.”
“Thank you, Doctor,” Decker said. “I appreciate the cooperation.”
“We’ve all got the same goals: a safe outcome for Bertram.” Lewis jogged off.
When he left, Decker said, “Ready?”
McAdams hesitated. “We must spend half of our energy looking through people’s crap. And most of the time it gets you nowhere.”
“Sometimes it pays off.” Decker thought of their most recent case a year ago. “Like with the photos in Jaylene Boch’s wheelchair.”
“Margot Flint is still at large.”
Flint was responsible for the old woman’s death, although she was miles away when it happened. She was the prototype of the femme fatale and had masterminded several other homicides. She’d been a fugitive for years. “The noose is tightening. Authorities know that she’s in Mexico. She’s being watched while the paperwork is being filed. An arrest should come soon.”
“If you say so,” McAdams said. “Speaking of old times, have you heard recently from Lennie Baccus?”
Decker waited a few moments before he spoke about the young rookie cop, thinking about how naive she was when she had first been assigned under his watch. She had done a tough hostage negotiation, putting herself in the line of fire. Decker thought for sure that she would fold afterward, but she didn’t. She had proven herself, but at what cost? “She moved to Redlands, California. She’s a detective with the police department there.”
“How’d you find that out?”
“She asked me for a reference letter.”
“Ah.”
“It was a wise choice. The town is intermediate size, it has a small but good university, and there’s enough crime to keep her busy.”
“Do you talk to her often?”
“We exchange emails. She’ll call me if she has a question, and we’ll talk shop. I suppose that means she still trusts me. Anyway, let’s get going on the search.”
Just then a woman stopped in front of the open door. She appeared to be in her thirties, small in stature, which was often typical of Down syndrome. She had blue eyes, shoulder-length brown hair, and a pale complexion except for the blush on her cheeks. Her lipstick was pink and shiny. She had pearl studs in her ears. She said something, but Decker couldn’t understand her speech. McAdams, on the other hand, seemed fine with it. He said, “How do you know we won’t find anything?” When she answered, he replied, “Bertram had an iPad with him on the bus?”