Chat - Archer Mayor [58]
JMAN: wow. Hot
Mandi144: U have a pic?
JMAN: no. Im 6-1, tho. 170
Mandi144: no pic? How cum?
JMAN: I can get 1. Id lik u 2 see me
Mandi144: me 2
JMAN: Id lik u 2 do mor than that
Mandi144: me 2
JMAN: how old r u again?
Mandi144: 14. problem?
JMAN: not a cop?
Mandi144: lol. I look lik a cop?
Chapter 14
Joe reluctantly turned away from the view outside. It had started snowing again, after too many dry days. He was of a mind that if you lived where snowfall was the norm, then it should come about regularly and heavily, satisfying everyone’s worst fears. People were going to complain about it anyway—they should, therefore, have good cause.
He surveyed the small VBI office. Sam, Willy, and Lester were all at their desks, each occupied according to character—Lester on the computer, Sam sorting through case files, and Willy harassing them both.
“What handle do you use when you’re chasing little girls online, Les?” he asked his colleague.
“Willy,” was Lester’s immediate response, to Sammie’s appreciative laughter.
“Anything yet?” Joe asked Lester, who was in fact checking the BOLs they’d issued on both unidentified bodies.
Spinney sat back in his chair and shook his head. “Nothing. Guess we still get to call ’em Bald Rocky and Hairy Fred.”
“It’ll take all the fun out of it when we can’t,” Willy agreed.
“All right,” Joe said, getting them back on track. “You all read my notes?”
There were a couple of nods and a muttered assent, none of them from Willy, of course.
“Well, in addition, I got a call this morning from Rob Barrows,” Joe continued. “No big surprise; his boss is as excited about the possible drug dealing by Dan Griffis as he is totally uninterested about the possibility that Les’s Bald Rocky is a sexual predator.”
“Typical,” Willy growled.
“I probably would’ve done the same,” Joe conceded. “Predator cases are a bitch to sell, and this one’s not even in his county. The drug case is a gimme. To be honest, I’m just as happy, given my personal connections to the Griffis family.”
“That mean you’re handing everything over to the sheriff?” Willy challenged him incredulously.
Joe tilted his head to one side noncommittally. “On the record? Sure. Off the record? I have Rob Barrows on speed dial. By the way, since we’re talking about it, there’s been no evidence yet connecting Steve’s Garage to my family’s accident. Regular service records only, and nothing about tie rods. Looks like they had several layers of books, though, so it’s still early.”
He looked at Sam. “In the interests of full disclosure, I should also mention that I asked Sam to look a little beyond that interview the two of you did with Dave Snyder at P and P.”
Willy let out a small bark of surprise as he stared at his girlfriend. “No shit? You didn’t tell me that.”
“Add it to the list,” she tossed back at him.
“Now that a part of what happened to my family has become a formal case,” Joe said, cutting off Willy’s response, “I’d just as soon have everything out in the open. So, Sam, why don’t you tell us what you found out.”
“Not too complicated,” she reported. “I chased down Beth Ann Agostini—we learned about her through Snyder—and she told me that Andy Griffis hanged himself because he’d been raped in prison. At least that’s what it boiled down to. Pretty good reason for his family to be pissed at you,” she added.
Joe considered that, not for the first time, and suggested, “If he told any of them.”
Sam had no comeback, not having considered the possibility.
“I’m guessing nobody in law enforcement knew about the rape at the time, much less who did it?” he asked.
She shook her head. “I checked six ways toward the middle on that. Nobody knows who should know, and nobody’s talking who might.”
Joe squared his shoulders abruptly, as if shaking off a weight. “Okay. Let’s put all that on the shelf for the time being. The other thing Rob Barrows gave me this morning was the name of a guy I’d like you, Lester, to contact directly.” He quickly consulted a note lying on his desk. “John Leppman. A psychologist and computer geek out