Garage Sale Stalker (Garage Sale Mysteries) (30 page)

CHAPTER 70

T
he doorbell ran
g thirty
minutes later and Jennifer greeted the detective at the front door. “Hello, Adam, come on in. Glad you’re early. Hannah’s still in the shower so would you like to visit with me in the kitchen until she comes downstairs? Do you mind slicing tomatoes while I finish getting dinner ready?”

He agreed enthusiastically and they chatted as they worked. “Hannah tells me that you and your mother live in downtown McLean now?” Jennifer began.

“Yes. My dad died four years ago. Mom felt isolated in the country. I lived there too and helped out when I could. But you know police work… odd hours. She got lonely out there. Besides, builders bugged her daily to sell her property. Finally she agreed. She’s glad she did.”

“Where was the other house?”

“Out Old Dominion Drive, near Great Falls. That northern Virginia book map, the one you use for garage sales. If it’s handy, I could show you.”

“Great idea. Mine is still in my van, but I think you’ll find another one on the desk in the study.”

Putting the tomatoes he’d prepared aside, Adam wiped his hands on a dish towel, retrieved the map book and riffled the pages. “Here, this is where our four acres were and where the builder’s two new mega-mansions stand now,” he pointed and she put the salad aside to take a look.

“I see it. And you say she’s happier in town now?”

“Oh, yes. She found a beautiful house. It has what they call a mother- in-law suite added on. Now it ’s my bachelor apartment. Got my own entrance and kitchen. Mom likes to cook breakfast for me. So I eat there to keep her company most mornings. Unless my work schedule interferes. And I do handyman jobs around the house, mow the lawn and such. She loves the house and the neighborhood is friendly. Her life’s a lot quieter now that Dad’s gone.”

“She’s lucky to have you so near and involved.”

“I’m happy to do whatever I can for her.” Glancing at his watch, Adam fished through his pockets but came up empty-handed. “Hannah should be down in a minute. By any chance, do you have a comb I could borrow?”

“Why, yes. You should find five or six in the laundry room on top of the washing machine. I cleaned them just today.”

Alone in the kitchen, Jennifer’s mind wandered back to her earlier conversation that evening with Jason. Something bothered her… something just beyond her ability to draw it in.

Ten minutes later, when Jennifer used the bathroom herself, she noticed a comb on the edge of the sink. She stared at it a moment before tidying that area for company.

***

After dinner, the smaller Grands left the table to play elsewhere while the adults nibbled at dessert and sipped coffee.

“Well, Adam,” Jason began as those around the dining tables leaned closer, “You know we’re all curious about this case that put our family through such a scare. Anything more to tell us?”

All eyes focused on Adam, who sat beside Hannah. He put down his coffee cup and stood. “I know you want closure, but anything I say here tonight is off the record, not to be discussed elsewhere. Okay?” He looked around expectantly and all nodded agreement.

Adam recounted the general information he’d given his boss earlier that afternoon. Then he described the attorney who visited Wendey, sent Ruger to the military academy and sold the mother’s land to pay her bills. “Over time, this reduced the original 260-acre farm to the current 15.”

“And golden acres they are!” Mike said. “Given the chance, hungry developers will carve that prime property into big lots topped with McMansions.” Agreement rippled through the group.

“So this lawyer filled in a lot of gaps? What did you say his name is?” Becca asked.

“Greg Bromley. He’s a respected McLean attorney and heck of a nice guy. He’s very upset about the whole situation. We talked at length and he showed me his files on the Yates family. Then I visited Ruger’s military school. Fortunately, it’s still in business today. The earlier personnel were gone but the school kept good records. Their rules have changed a
lot
in the meantime. They wouldn’t admit a cadet now on the terms Ruger needed.

“So how did this guy become a serial killer?” Bethany wanted to know.

“I guess the bottom line is that cruelty has consequences,” Adam said. “The father terrorized his wife and children. When he was institutionalized, the mother was too damaged mentally to break the chain of abuse. Ruger was just the next link. Did you know three
million
cases of abuse or neglect are reported in America every year? Right here in Fairfax County last year we received 5,400 calls reporting child abuse. Of those, 2,700 were documentable cases. And we’re not talking low-income areas. Some happened right here in McLean. Yet for all that
are
reported, many are not. Like the nightmare at the Yate’s house. Those are the children we can’t protect.”

Murmurs of disbelief traveled around the table. No one realized the problem existed in McLean.

Hannah said, “Adam, you must be a very good detective to discover all this.”

Embarrassed, he nodded to her. “Part effort and part luck, like all cases. One person says a name or a place that leads to the next. And so on. Considering how many years back the clues led, the story came together pretty fast. One interesting fact is that detectives are often the first to pull a
whole
puzzle together. That’s because they try to interview
eve
ryone
involved in a case. Others just know isolated pieces of the total picture. Say, for instance, the academy commandant or the medical examiner or the toxicologist or the neighbors or the Army.”

“So after Ruger left home for the military school, did the mother change?” Bethany asked.

“Not for the better. Our investigation includes talking with neighbors. They said local kids occasionally sneaked onto her property. They called her ‘The Witch’ and described her with wild hair, a shrill voice and weird behavior. If she caught sight of them, she screamed at them to leave her property. In fairness, signs were posted along the outside of her property, so the kids
were
trespassing.”

Jennifer shook her head sadly. “Except for the dreadful way she treated her little boys, I feel sorry for her. I mean you told me she started out a normal, bright, healthy person; yet look at the miserable direction her life took. Makes us count our own blessings.”

The group chatted amiably a few minutes before Kaela interrupted. “Didn’t you say Ruger had a brother? What happened to him?”

“Good question, but we don’t know.” Adam kept to himself that the grave search at the farm included the tragic expectation of finding the boy’s remains.

CHAPTER 71

A
dam leaned down f
or
a sip of his coffee, grateful for Hannah’s encouraging smile shining up at him. “How am I doing?” he asked her quietly.

“Magnificently!” she answered back.

He stood again and asked the family, “Any other questions?”

“Given his awful childhood, how did Ruger adjust to school?” Kaela asked. “Hey, I’m a first grade teacher. I need to know these things.”

“No public school record exists for either brother, but they also had no birth certificates! The mother was a teacher and presumably home-schooled her sons. Academy files show Ruger could read and write when he arrived. He made good marks and excelled in military skills. Compared to his dysfunctional home life, the orderly academy routine had to be an improvement.”

Jennifer said, “Hard for you all to believe now, but thirty years ago obedient kids were the popular objective, and the majority thought tough discipline and physical punishment were the ways to make that happen. So even if those boys had attended public school in those days and someone noticed their abuse, there might not have been intervention. Public and parochial schools doled out physical punishment, with or without parents’ consent. So did some fundamentalist churches. And a child’s parents might punish him again when he got home for causing trouble at school. Spare- the-rod-and-spoil-the-child actually passed for wisdom then.”

“Mom’s right,” Hannah added. “I saw a TV documentary last week that said only in the last fifty years did mistreatment of children create enough public outcry for the federal government to pass protective laws. And guess how it originally began?”

“How?” Mike asked.

“Laws existed to protect animals way before they did children. So a family in New York City called their local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and asked them to investigate a neighbor who treated his daughter worse than any dog. The SPCA did, and from that incident gradually grew the child protection laws we have now in every state.”

Adam added, “And those laws now include missing and exploited kids, not just abused or neglected ones. No question, current law offers the best child protection ever. Still, staffing, funding and enforcing are always challenges. In Ruger’s case, their deliberately isolated family discouraged outsiders. Only Bromley was in a position to read the situation at the farm and help the boy. Law enforcement today holds as suspicious this same kind of isolation and secrecy that cults practice and often tries to investigate their treatment of children.”

Mumbles about cults animated the listeners.

“Anything else?” Adam asked.

Mike said, “My own six-year-old’s behavior still seems to be growing and forming, not set in stone. If Ruger left that environment at age six, couldn’t he still recover? What tipped him from abused kid over to psychopathic killer?”

Jennifer and Jason exchanged looks, listening for Adam’s answer. Perhaps he’d add information to their conversation earlier that evening.

“It’s easy enough to hate someone who tortures you. Our psychologist thinks Ruger subconsciously wanted his mother’s love but consciously hated her for withholding that love… and hurting him besides. Reaching puberty and adulthood complicated this situation. As a result, he didn’t trust women, although he wanted and needed the normal relationships any adult male would. When rejected, that latent anger against his mother spilled out on the nearest handy female victim. The hate-the-thing-you-love syndrome is explosive stuff. To compensate for his helplessness as a child, he reinvented himself with power and control.”

Thinking back to her curiosity about the remaining mysterious room at Ruger’s house, Jennifer asked, “So what was the ‘important work’ he did in his office?”

“The short answer is that we don’t know. The long answer is the Army confiscated Ruger’s computer. They promised to tell us facts found there relating to our case. So far, they’ve volunteered nothing, saying it’s classified. But we can make some guesses. His office had lots of books about the militia movement and covert operations. He owned an attention-getting arsenal of guns. And stacked in one corner were hundreds of copies of Playboy Magazines.”

Jennifer’s hand went up. “I know where he got those,” and she told her story.

“Any other questions?” Adam asked the group.

Jennifer raised her hand again, “Two quick ones: when do I get my stolen van back and are the things I bought at garage sales that day still inside?”

Above the chorus of patronizing groans from the other family members, Becca said, “Only our mom would think about that at a time like this!”

Smiling with amusement, Adam responded, “The police inventoried everything in the van and your vehicle comes back tomorrow. Let’s presume everything’s still inside.”

“If not,” Hannah joked, “she knows where to find you, Adam!” This gave everyone a very good laugh and seemed to end the evening on a high note.

Jason stood, clinked his fork against a glass for attention and when the room quieted said, “Adam, we
all
thank you again for your crucial role in solving this crime, for rescuing Jennifer and Tina from the farm and Hannah at the hospital. We are each and every one in your debt for your priceless gifts to our family.” Enthusiastic applause echoed through the dining room, together with “here-here” and “hurray, Adam!” Hannah snuggled her shoulder against him.

This was Adam’s cue to sit down, but he did not.

CHAPTER 72

A
s the tumult of
appreciation died down, Adam still stood before the group. “Just one more thing,” he began, “I know you’ve already absorbed many shocks the past few weeks, but I’m afraid there’s one more.” He paused, readying himself to lob another.

Jennifer reached nervously for her husband’s hand, murmuring her apprehension into his ear, “Jason, can our family handle more bad news right now?”

Adam looked at the group nervously. “A couple of things I say next may surprise you, but please listen anyway.” Looking uncomfortable, he drew a deep breath. Then, turning to the girl seated beside him, he said, “Hannah, I love you and I think we can share a wonderful life together. Please, will you marry me?”

Shocked silence filled the room as Hannah stared up at him in stunned surprise. Absorbing the impact of his words, her serious expression furrowed more as she rose to her feet beside Adam and looked at him as if for the first time.

Everyone at the table knew about the disastrous end of Hannah’s long relationship with Kevin. They remembered her months of gloom, distrusting both men and her own judgment. Jennifer’s fingers tightened anxiously on her husband’s hand.

The electrified silence hung in the hushed room and Hannah searched Adam’s eyes as if her answer lay somewhere within them. At last she spoke. “Detective Iverson,” she looked up at his hopeful face,
“Yes!”
she cried, beaming her dazzling smile up at him and then to the room full of family faces. “Yes, Adam, I
will
marry you!”

Immediate wild applause, whooping, foot stomping and whistles filled the room as the handsome young couple shared a kiss, their happiness radiating out to those gathered around them.

Slipping a ring onto Hannah’s finger, Adam kissed her to seal their bargain. Then, flushed with relief and success, he shifted his gaze from his new fiancé and turned to the others. His eyes moist and the corners of his mouth tight with emotion, he forced himself to continue.

“In my line of work, I see a lot of sad and scary family situations. Being adopted, I’m always amazed at my luck that such wonderful parents chose me. But growing up as an only child was a very different experience from yours. I missed the fun of a big family. So besides asking Hannah to accept me in her life, I guess I’m hoping the rest of you will let me be part of yours also.”

The room erupted into lively cheers. Everyone hugged the engaged couple. The men shook Adam’s hand, clapped him on the back and welcomed him into the family. Even the small children converged from their scattered play areas to get in on the loud, contagious excitement.

Standing by Jason, Jennifer clutched his hand, tears in her own eyes. “You’re taking this news too calmly. You rascal, did you know about this beforehand?” she asked suspiciously.

“Adam asked me for her hand yesterday. He said it was old-fashioned, but he wanted to show his respect for her and us that way. And he wanted to surprise everyone else, even you and Hannah. I didn’t know he’d ask the family to accept him also, but wasn’t that touching?”

“My eyes aren’t dry yet.” Jennifer sighed, “But Jay, what about their age difference? He’s
s
ixteen years
older than our Hannah!”

“If they don’t think that’s a problem, then I guess it isn’t.”

“And what about his dangerous job? Will she worry every time he goes to work?”

“It’s certainly riskier than a desk job, but other police families deal with it, much the way we did when I went to war in the Army, and somehow they will, too.”

“And, Jay, do you think she’s ready? I mean… remember what we talked about earlier?”

“I guess we’re going to find out.”

Looking over at her daughter, Jennifer said, “She… she just seems so young. Only twenty.”

“And how old were you?’

“Nineteen! And somehow we made it, didn’t we?”

“Well, some days the jury’s out...”

She slapped playfully at his arm.

“Adam told me he wants her to finish college as he did, so she’ll probably transfer to a local school now that they’re engaged,” Jason explained.

“That’s great news!”

Jason put an arm around his wife and she snuggled against him as he said, “I must say, I have to admire Adam. And now, it seems, he’s going to be our son-in-law.”

Jennifer again fought a strange uncertainty. The idea eluding her earlier this evening troubled her again, this time taking clearer shape and inviting further exploration. Where would it lead? She shivered.

“Hon, are you cold? Shall I get a sweater?” Jason asked with concern.

“No thanks, Jay. Just a bunch on my mind and with the proposal tonight… it’s a lot to process!”

She hugged him and they looked together out into the room, filled with their lively, beloved family. “What a fine man,” she said.

Jason’s eyes rested on Adam. “Yes, I believe he is.”

“No,” she whispered, “I meant you.”