Her Anchor (4 page)

“I know.”  Julie sighed heavily.  “But just….how do you?” 

“I know.”  Jason reassured.  “I know, I do.  I’ve been thinking about it myself.  Ever since Tim came out here last month, I’ve had a bad feeling about this story.” 

Julie looked up, suddenly curious. 

“Tim came out here without you?” 

“Yep, last month.  Right before they found that little boy dead.”  Jason looked at her for a moment. 

“Why do you ask?” 

“Did he see his sister?” 

“I….don’t really know.”  Jason admitted.  “I know that he came back fired up, that’s for sure.  That was how we got this assignment.  He pushed me to come out.” 

“Weird.”  Julie murmured, more to herself than to him.  Jason tapped her hand. 

“Julie, are you thinking something?” 

“Just that…”  Julie didn’t quite know how to say what she was thinking.  She paused for a moment, and then continued.  “Tim was just so aggressive when we went out there.  I know he was passionate and everything, but….” 

“What are you thinking?”  Jason pressed.  “Julie don’t be afraid to say it.”  Julie hesitated. 

“It was probably a bad idea to take him out there.” 

“Yeah, it probably was,” Jason agreed.  “But he wanted to see his sister.  I know that’s important to him.” 

“How important?”  Julie heard the words come out of her mouth.  She was thinking it, but she couldn’t say it.  Not yet, at least.  Jason blinked at her. 

“Extremely.  Why?” 

“Did he get out to Johns compound by himself?  Initially?” 

“I…guess…?”  Jason asked softly.  “I don’t think he ever got in.” 

“Of course not.”  Julie murmured.  “They wouldn’t let him in, not if he asked.  So if he wanted to see his sister, he’d have to get in some other way.  He’d have to bring light to everything that was going on in Christ’s Community.” 

“Julie?”  Jason was looking at her like she’d lost her mind.  Julie finally looked back at him.               

“Had you ever heard of Christ’s Community before that little boy was killed? “

“No,” Jason admitted, “Tim came to me with the story and told me that they’d killed that kid.  He told me that his sister was a member and he needed to get in to try and get her out.” 

“So Tim told you about the murder, and about the group in general?” 

“Yeah….” Jason stared at her.  “Julie, what are you trying to say?” 

“Just that….”  Julie took a deep breath.  “Jason, I don’t know Tim like you do.  But I do know that people will do anything to protect someone that they love.” 

“Even kill for them.”  Tim had apparently picked up on her train of thoughts.  Julie nodded. 

“Just suppose-suppose-that Tim came out here by himself.  He tried to get in to see his sister and was turned away.  So he had to find another way in….” 

“Tim isn’t a killer.”  Jason tried helplessly.  “He wouldn’t kill someone-especially not a child.” 

“I’m sure he wouldn’t in normal circumstances.  But he was desperate.  And desperate times….”  Julie trailed off.  “Did you ever see the little boy’s autopsy?” 

“No.”  Jason told her firmly.  “I never did.  But I suppose that…suppose that we could get it.” 

“Jason,” Julie reached out to squeeze his fingers, “I know this is a long shot.  I can’t believe it either.  But we have to look at this…just a little.  I can reschedule my flight until tomorrow.  We could…take a little time.” 

“We can’t tell anyone.  I can’t mention this to my network or to your paper.”  He looked at her cautiously.  “Julie, you know what you’re implying, right?” 

“Yes.  And I’m not happy about thinking that a man is a murderer.  But we have to know more.  How much research do you think you can dig up on Tim’s trip and the little boy by tonight?” 

“I’ll do my best.”  He sighed.  “After breakfast, I’ll call a few sources.  We’ll go through what I find.  I’ll call, ok?” 

“Ok.”  Julie was officially too nervous to eat.  She hoped that there was no connection under Tim’s trip, but they had to be sure.  And unfortunately there was only one way to find out. 

******

Jason texted at 6 that he had information.  Julie ordered a pizza and set up in her room waiting for him.  When Jason finally arrived, he looked grim. 

“Do I want to know?”  She stepped aside so that he could enter. 

“I called a couple of people.”  Jason sat down on the other side of the desk where she had laid out the pizza.  “It’s not really what I want to say.” 

“Do you think….”  Jason reached into his messenger bag.  He pulled up his iPad. 

“Tim did go out to the compound by himself to try and talk to his sister.  He was turned away by the guards.  But he didn’t leave.”

“Who did you hear this from?” 

“Police report.”  Jason pointed to his screen.  “Christ’s Community called the local police to report that they had a trespasser.  It is private property, so he was technically in the wrong.” 

Julie sighed. 

“So did they arrest him?” 

“No, but the police made him leave.  Or so they thought.”  Jason flipped to the next page. 

“Don’t tell me that he didn’t leave.”  Julie sighed. 

“Fine.  I won’t tell you.”  Jason gave her a faint smile.  “Actually,” he got serious, “he did leave.  But he came back.  There’s another police report.  This time the police did threaten to arrest him if he didn’t leave.  I guess it was a three strikes you’re out kind of deal.”  Julie frowned at the electronic document. 

“And the boy’s body was found the next morning?”  Jason pulled up another document. 

“Yep.  Well, about 4AM.  By Christ’s Community guards.” 

“And they did report?” 

“They did.  My guess is that they wanted to accuse someone from the outside of committing the crime.  Now they had a documented police report of it.” 

“But how would he have gotten the boy to leave with him?”  This part didn’t make sense.  Julie had tried to play it over her mind. “It’s not like a four-year-old was wandering around in the middle of the night.” 

“No.  So he would have had to have gotten him from the children’s quarters.” 

“Children’s quarters?”  Julie wasn’t so sure that she wanted to hear this.  Jason nodded. 

“Men, women, and children over three stayed separately.  I think it was John’s method of control.” 

“So no parents would have been missing him.”  Julie picked a piece of pepperoni from her slice of pizza. 

“In fairness,” Jason shut down his iPad, “it probably wouldn’t have been hard to convince a Christ’s Community child to go somewhere with you.  Offer him candy, offer to take him to his mom, super easy.” 

Julie hated that.  She hated Billy Johns for what he did. 

“What should we do?” 

“I was thinking about that.”  Jason attempted eating.  “Maybe we should go out there and try to talk to the police about that night.  Maybe that would tell us something.” 

Julie shuddered.  The idea of going out to a place where a hundred bodies had been laying only a few hours ago did not appeal to her. 

“Ok.”  She answered softly.  She needed to know.  She had a different type of passion.  This wasn’t about her anymore.  This wasn’t about her career.  She wanted to do it for all of these poor people who had died.  She hated thinking about their deaths.  They had to find answers for them.  It was the only way that she would sleep at night.

******

There were still a number of people out at the compound.  Julie recognized many reporters from TV that she couldn’t believe she was in the same crowd with.  She reminded herself that this wasn’t the time, or the place. 

Jason was more aggressive than she, which was good for their cause.  Julie knew that they needed to talk to the local police.  She also knew that she didn’t have the nerve to go running up to them. 

It didn’t much help.  Most of the officers had no comment, and the few that would talk didn’t know anything.  Julie had to figure that would have happened. 

One officer, however, had heard talk about some of the goings on at Christ Community. 

“Off the record?”  He looked from Julie to Jason.  Jason looked at Julie. 

“Neither of us is recording.  And we need this for some additional information anyway.” 

“Christ’s Community was a cult-there’s no denying that.  And Johns was weird, especially to his followers-but we never really got any reports of child abuse.  Johns usually let authorities go in to see the children.” 

“And they were ok?”  Julie pressed gently. 

“I mean they weren’t getting the medical treatments that kids out here get.”  The officer motioned around them.  “But he certainly wasn’t killing them.” 

“You think he snapped?”  Julie asked.  “Like do you think that he was disciplining one and-.” 

“And what?  Accidentally strangled the kid?”  The officer shook his head.  “No.  Sadly I think that Billy Johns was exactly right on this.  I think someone got in there and killed that kid.”

“But how would you get in?”  Jason tapped the chain link fence that they were standing beside.  “This surrounds it.” 

“Not all the way.”  The officer turned, looking down the dark line of trees.  “At the very back of the property, it switches over to a regularly wooden fence.  Absolutely anyone could jump that thing.”  

Julie felt a cold chill dragging along her spin. 

“So you think that there’s a child killer out there?” 

“Of course not.  If there was, we’d have bodies piling up.”  The officer shook his head.  “I think it was a parent who lost a kid to that cult.” 

“Wait, what?”  Julie paused.  She hadn’t been expecting that. 

“Lots of people left Christ’s Community, even if Johns didn’t want to admit it.  They were at three hundred now they were down to just one.” 

“Why’s that?”  Julie wanted to know not just for the story, but for herself.  Johns hadn’t acted like people leaving was an issue. 

“Cults are old fashioned.  Back in the Jonestown days, people got sucked in easier. But I don’t know…maybe we’re wiser after those events.”  The officer gave her a faint smile.  “These days you get your people who are tired of fighting for promotions and paying mortgages, so a few of them come out here.  Then after a while, they realize they’ve made a mistake.” 

“And they just get out?”  Jason looked at Julie.  Julie couldn’t really believe it either.  From what she’d heard, cult leaders didn’t want their people leaving.  Jim Jones had killed a group of his that were trying to leave. 

“We get calls from family members that they have people in there who want out.”  That was news. 

“So you get them out?”  That news made Julie feel slightly better.  So some people had been saved from Christ’s community.  

“Yep.  Johns can’t hold them there against their will.  Sure he’d always talk a big game once you got there about how they didn’t really want to leave, but at the end of the day if the person said they wanted to leave we got them out.  Problem came when one parent wanted to leave and the other didn’t.” 

“I guess that happened a lot.”  Julie found that to be particularly heartbreaking.  She couldn’t imagine dividing your family like that. 

“Women had a thing for Johns.  They thought he was some great piece of work.”  The officer rolled his eyes.  He clearly didn’t buy it.  “Men wanted out, so they usually got out.  I bet a father came in here, tried to get his kid out, and the kid died in the process.” 

“So a father killed his own son?”  Jason didn’t sound like he really bought it.  Frankly, Julie didn’t either.  “Why wouldn’t he just take the kid and leave?  Why kill him and dump the body?” 

“Fear of getting caught.  Panic.  Any of the above.”  The officer shrugged.  “We’ve already got parents coming to ask if their kids are among the dead because mom or dad was in there with him.  I’m sure we’ll find something out soon.” 

He walked off, leaving Julie and Jason standing alone.  Julie looked over at Jason. 

“Or it wasn’t his child and he didn’t care what happened to him.”  Julie muttered as they started the long trek back to the car. 

“Yep.”  Jason sighed.  “But how would Tim have gotten the boy to come with him with no fuss?” 

“We don’t know that there was no fuss.”  Julie pointed out.  “Anyone who might have heard it or spoken to it is just dead now.” 

“True.”  Jason shook his head.  “I can’t believe I’m talking like this.  Tim was at the studio longer than I.  I’ve known him forever.  And now we’re talking about him killing a kid.” 

“Killing a kid in hopes of saving his sister.”  Julie began to wonder why they’d parked so far away.  She knew that they’d had to due to the crowd and police barricades, but it was so dark and far. 

They walked in silence for a while.  Julie knew Jason was thinking. 

“I’m sorry I brought it up.”  She finally said. 

“I’m not.”  Jason replied.  He glanced over at her.  “It’s a good theory.  And unfortunately, it might be true.” 

“What might be true?”  Julie jumped at the voice.  Standing in front of her was Tim.  Beside her, Jason froze.