Unprotected (34 page)

Amanda walked back into her kitchen with overwhelming fatigue and a desperate desire to close her eyes for a few minutes, but she knew she could not. She needed to put this together into some type of report and bring it in to work immediately. She knew that the county attorney, probably Jake, would need the details in order to proceed with the case. Amanda shivered at the thought of what might come next. Sadness for Rachel combined with a tiny thrill of being able to make something as horrible as this finally come to an end. This was why she wanted to do this job.

Amanda pulled out her laptop and started writing.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

At 7:00 a.m Amanda finished her report, making extra sure that she saved the documents carefully. She closed her laptop, pushed away from the kitchen table where she was writing and went into the bathroom to take a shower. Looking out the bathroom window she could see that the rain had changed to heavy, wet snow. Most of the season’s snow had melted, but this storm had already covered the ground with four inches of new snowfall.

Even with the shower on, Amanda could hear the wind wailing outside. She dressed quickly and warmly. She had already emailed the report to herself, but she decided to bring her laptop with her in case email was slow or down. She needed to tell Max about all of it first, and then she assumed she would bring it to Jake for a CHIPS petition and criminal charges. She pictured Jake’s face as she told him the news, again feeling a rush of excitement and pride that she was going to help bring this horrible abuse to an end.

The girls were all still asleep in the living room when Amanda left for work. She arrived at her desk early, and was surprised to see so many of the offices empty.

“Dark over here,” Jeanne said as she walked by Amanda’s office. “Everyone left last night for that judge’s conference.” Amanda remembered that she and Jeanne were scheduled to be the only ones in the office most of the day.

“That’s right,” Amanda said absently. She was trying to decide if she should talk to Jeanne about Rachel and Jess. Jeanne had worked there forever, but she rarely handled child protection cases, and she wasn’t sure what kind of advice she would get. She decided against it for now.

“Have a nice day,” Jeanne said.

Amanda wondered what kind of day she would have as she called Jacob.

“Hey,” he answered on the first ring.

“Hey, Jake. You’re not gonna believe what I’m about to tell you.”

“Well, tell me quick,” he said distractedly. “I’m one of the only attorneys here and there was a drug bust this morning.”

“It’s about Chuck Thomas.”

“You have my attention.”

Amanda took a breath. “He’s been having sex with his fifteen-year-old daughter for years.”

Silence. Then he said,“Holy effing shit.”

Amanda told him that Brittany went to her first, and then Jess, and then Rachel came to try to get her to stop talking. But then Rachel started talking, and she told about the years of abuse.

“You interviewed her? Are you trained to do that?” Jake asked.

“I have attended training about interviewing,” Amanda said quickly. “She was ready to talk, and I thought I better let her talk when she was ready. She had been quiet for so long. I know sometimes Leah has to do more than one interview if there’s a lot and the kid needs a break. I know someone may have to talk to her again, but it just seemed like the right thing to do. I have a report ready to go …”

“A cop is going to need to do the complaint. You guys usually work with Kemper, right?””

Amanda thought that Investigator Pete Kemper did most of the child abuse investigations, but she had never met him. “Yeah, I think that’s who Leah usually works with. Everybody in my office is at that judge’s child abuse conference, so I can’t ask her.”

“Tell me about it. My office is cleared out too. Send me the write up, and I’ll get Kemper to review it and sign the complaint. He’s working on the drug bust, but he owes me big so he can help us out.”

“Okay, good,” Amanda said, relieved that someone else would take responsibility for the criminal part. “I’ll get my CHIPS letter ready. I’m sure we’ll need to pull all the kids.”

“Even after he gets arrested? Where’s the danger after Chuck’s gone?”

“The brothers were in on it too. Rachel’s terrified of all of them, and her mom knew at least part of what was going on.”

“We’re going to have to do complaints on all of them?”

“I … I guess so,” Amanda said. She hadn’t thought about all those boys getting arrested too.

“Send me the report and we’ll go from there.”

“Sounds good.” Amanda hung up and emailed her report to Jacob.

“So what are you working on today?” Jeanne was back in her doorway.

“I’m working on an investigation,” Amanda said. For some reason she didn’t want to tell her any more than that. “Do you have Max’s cell number, or maybe Leah’s?”

“You can try, but cell phones aren’t getting through very well because of the storm. There was a huge accident on 35W and it’s completely shut down. This whole part of the state is a mess, and it’s supposed to get worse as the day goes on.” Jeanne was like so many Minnesotans and got a little rush from a big storm.

Amanda took the phone numbers, and Jeanne looked a little disappointed that Amanda didn’t want to talk longer. Amanda tried to call both Leah and Max but couldn’t get through to either. The phones just beeped like they were busy. Amanda went back through her report and tried to review it critically, the way Max or one of her senior coworkers would. Had she covered her bases? Was she thorough in the interview? She thought about the girls and realized they would be awake by now. She tried to call her house but no one answered, and she didn’t have any of their cell phone numbers.

Amanda got to work writing her CHIPS letter, detailing the history with Chuck Thomas, beginning with the alleged assault of his youngest son, and culminating with the lifelong sexual abuse of his daughter. It took some time to find all the information she needed to include in the letter. She tried calling Max and Leah one more time, couldn’t get through to either, and decided to head over to Jake’s office.

The walk across the street was brutal, with a frigid wind and heavy snow swirling around her. There were few cars on the road as school was canceled, and some businesses were even closing because of the storm.

There were more police officers than attorneys in the county attorney’s office. She said hello to the receptionist, Bonnie, and went to Jake’s tiny office.

Jacob looked up with wide eyes. “Good God! I’m speechless.” He pointed at his computer where her letter was pulled up on the screen. “I mean, I knew this guy was a complete bastard. But, this …”

“I know. I still can’t even believe it.” Amanda squeezed into the chair across from him.

“I forwarded it to Kemper, and he’s on his way here to sign the complaint. I think we can pick him up today.”

“So you really are going to arrest him right away?”

“We’ll see what Kemper says, but I think there’s clearly enough for an arrest here.”

Amanda’s heart was thudding, and her overwhelming fatigue made it hard to think. On cue, Kemper stuck his head in Jake’s doorway. “Nice office, Mann,” he said with a smile. Pete Kemper was about forty-five, dark haired and balding, with a rich voice that reminded Amanda that he was a high school sports radio announcer on the weekends.

“Did you read it?” Jake asked.

“Can’t fucking believe it,” Kemper said. “The second oldest kid has been at my house. Friends with my Kelsey. She and I will be talking tonight.”

“Enough to arrest, wouldn’t you say?” Jake asked.

“Enough to string him up by his testicles. It would warm my heart to call him out from behind that filthy lunch counter and arrest him during the lunch rush and drag him by his hair to my squad.” Kemper’s face working as he was wondering if anything could have happened with his daughter.

“Julie’s got the complaint. I’ll let you know when the judge signs it.” Kemper turned around and left to sign the complaint.

“Thanks for introducing me,” Amanda said.

“You know I suck at that,” Jake said with a grin.

“God, I’m tired.”

* * *

Amanda stayed in Jake’s office editing the petition on his laptop while Jake was reviewing the complaints for the drug bust.

After forty-five minutes, Jake got a call from Kemper. He nodded a few times and gave Amanda the thumbs up. “Can’t wait to see that mug shot.”

Amanda gave a weary smile. Jake beamed. Her pride and her fatigue made it easy for her to ignore the nagging feeling she had in her gut. The feeling that should have told her that this situation was about to go terribly wrong.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

It was nearly 1:00 when they started talking about food and Amanda remembered she hadn’t eaten anything all day. The staff left in the County Attorney’s office was getting ready to order food so they didn’t all have to leave and fight the storm. Jake said that Amanda would probably like a Caesar salad and a diet coke. He raised his eyebrows at her in question that the order was correct. She nodded and smiled that he knew what she wanted, and felt confident enough to order for her.

She and Jake had spent another half-hour editing and waiting for Chuck Thomas’s mug shot to go online when Jake’s expression turned serious.

“Barb wants us in her office right now.” Jake was reading an email from Barb Cloud, who was the lead county attorney, an elected official who supervised the entire office. Something in Jake’s face made her afraid to ask why.

They walked down the hall to Barb’s large office, where she was on the phone. She motioned for them to sit down in the cushioned chairs in front of her. Barb’s office was incredibly neat, which fit with her well-coiffed appearance. She was a politician, but she was also a brilliant lawyer and expected to win a judgeship as soon as one became open. She pushed the speaker button on her phone and set down the receiver.

Amanda’s heart thumped hard as she recognized Skip Huseman’s voice. “The lawsuit is coming. Your only hope at this point is to minimize the horrific damage and possibly save your job by getting him released immediately and issue a statement accepting full responsibility for this egregious and outrageous atrocity that has been committed to my client.”

“We stand by our investigation. This is a solid arrest, Skip.”

“How can you stand by your investigation when your alleged ‘victims’ are in my office stating that your social worker coerced them into making a statement at her home and would not allow them to leave.”

They recanted. Oh god.

Barb and Jake turned to look at Amanda. Amanda tried to process all the implications of the girls recanting their statements, and internally she started to panic. Jake rolled his eyes and began to scoff, but his face dropped when he saw Amanda’s stricken look.

Barb’s eyes narrowed as she studied Amanda’s face and she allowed a momentary pause before responding. “We have statements, Skip.” But her voice was not as sure sounding as it was a moment ago. “Look, Skip, I’ve got bedlam here with the storm and a major drug bust, so we’re done for now. He’ll appear in front of a judge at eleven o’ clock Monday morning, and we’ll take it from there.” Barb pushed the disconnect button abruptly and pointed her pen at Amanda. “What the bloody hell is he talking about?”

Tears stung her eyes and the familiar, dangerous roar resumed in the back of her head. “I didn’t coerce anyone,” she said desperately. “They came to me.”

“Came to you?” Jake asked, his voice rising. “What does that mean, ‘came to you’?”

Anger and panic clouded his face. She gulped and tried to steady her voice. “Brittany wanted to talk to me in school, but I had to get to class.”

“Are you a teacher?” Barb frowned looking confused.

“She helps in a classroom for troubled kids.” Jake said quickly, motioning her to continue.

Amanda nodded. “I tried to find her after school but couldn’t. So I went home. I had fallen asleep on the couch and heard a knock on my door. It was Brittany and Jess. Brittany is a student in my room, and Jess is her cousin.” She tried to describe the way Jess looked, the haunted, vacant trauma, and she thought she saw Barb’s face soften. When she described Rachel’s arrival, Jake leaned forward.

“How does Rachel Thomas know where you live?” His anger was still brewing, but she could feel his concern too.

Amanda paused. “I don’t know. Brittany said she knew I lived by the middle school, and she recognized my car in front. Maybe Brittany told Rachel?” But Amanda knew that wasn’t right because they were all shocked when Rachel arrived. But regardless of how they found her house, she did not want them to doubt what had happened. “I know he did this. Rachel did not make this up.”

“It doesn’t matter what you know,” Jake said, his words clipped, his face darkening. “It matters what we can prove. If those girls recant their statements, we can’t prove anything, and then we have just arrested a prominent community leader for freaking first-degree criminal sexual conduct with no evidence.”

“What’s worse, this investigation is contaminated no matter what the girls say now.” Barb craned her face up at the ceiling shaking her head. “You just don’t do this. You don’t conduct interviews at your home. I can’t believe Kemper signed this complaint. He got screwed on a technicality a few years ago, so he’s always by the book.”

Jake turned to Amanda, the realization slowly coming to him. “We didn’t put it in the complaint.” He looked down as he said it, and Amanda could see the shame in his eyes. Fear washed over Amanda as she considered the implications for Jake and for herself.

Barb looked from Jake to Amanda, her expression hard. “You conducted interviews in your home, and then you withheld it like you had done something wrong. Which, now, you have.”

Amanda squeezed her eyes shut, her priority now to fix this for Jake. The girls recanted, and she wouldn’t be able to change that, but she could at least clean up this investigation. “I have taped statements,” she blurted. “Rachel spilled the whole thing. I’m sure she’s terrified. Kids recant. All the time.” Amanda recalled her training on sexual abuse and how the majority of sexual abuse victims recant all or part of their statements when they realize what they have said.