Point Hollow Ch. 01

"So when did they disappear?" asked Webster.

"Friday night or early Saturday morning." I said. "That's the last we can confirm they were here." I looked around. "They could've gone along those trails upriver any time during the weekend, though. I'm thinking of climbing that hill and seeing what I can see."

"Save yourself the trouble." said Muscone. "Clark, you guys have drones with cameras, don't you?"

"Sure do." Webster said. "I've got Ted setting that up now." I saw a couple of agents assembling a drone and testing its transmission signal to the receiving assembly.

"We'll record what the drone sees, correlate it to a GPS and map, and send you a copy, Commander." promised Webster. I thanked him.

"Don, why don't you and I look around inside the house." said Jack Muscone. I followed him inside. My Crime Lab team had scoured the place already. It felt like an old, unoccupied house, stale and devoid of energy... but certainly not like a place abandoned for years.

"Don, how do you think this place stays in such good shape?" Jack asked.

"I don't know." I said. "Ghostbusters Cleaning Service, I guess." Jack barked what was for him a laugh.

"Sooooo, Jack." I said as I continued to look around. "Why are you here?"

"Uh, you called in the FBI." said Jack.

"Yes, yes I did. Missing Persons." I said, turning to peer at Jack. "But why are you here?"

Jack's small black eyes looked back at me, then he relented. "Not much gets by you." he said. "And I'm sure you understand that when anything happens involving you, my boss wants to know what's going on."

"So now that Nash is no longer my FBI Guardian Angel," I said, "your boss just sends you. By the way, we're telling everyone Nash just accepted a new job with the FBI, so no one will be surprised to see him working with you guys."

Muscone nodded, then realized I was staring at him. He began to feel uncomfortable. "What?"

"Now the real reason you're here." I said. Jack rolled his eyes.

"Sheesh." he said. "Okay... as you've probably observed, a property like this right on a State Line, with foot trails leading to possible hiding places, is a pretty good place for smuggling drugs or other things. My boss wanted me to check this place out. He and I both fear these students came upon something they weren't supposed to see."

"Not a bad train of thought boarding at your station, there." I said. "Well, let's see if we can find some hiding places. My Crime Lab is going to come in with sonar to find passages in the walls and floors, so I won't waste our time with that."

"I'm looking for something more akin to a drug lab, or a large hiding place for contraband." said Jack. "I know your guys searched the attic and found nothing, unless they missed a secret hiding place."

"Would you want to lug contraband of any weight up and down several flights of stairs?" I asked. "Would you even want to bother climbing those stairs yourself? No... tell you what, let's go outside."

I went outside to the back yard, seeing the vine covered back fence that was also the State Line a distance back. Walking around the yard, I looked at the back of the house.

"What are you looking for?" asked Jack. "Seeing if the outside dimensions equal the inside?"

"No." I said, not telling Jack I'd done that earlier. "These old houses would have outside doors leading to basements or crawlspaces. I'm looking to see if there is anything."

"I'd think a basement would flood" said Jack. "With the River right by here, being fed by springs, and there being an artesian well and all, which shows there's an aquifer underground..."

"True." I said. "But the house itself is built on something of a knot, or knoll on the ground. It's the high point of the area, but it's hard to tell because the ground elevates gradually. So there could be a half basement... hmmmm, that's weird."

"What?" asked Jack.

"I see two screened-in back porches. One to our left here, which is closer to the River, and a door to what I think is the kitchen. The other, to the right, is near the end of the house... and with no door to the inside of the house. And note that the underside is solidly boarded and not left open for air circulation."

We went into the screen porch area, as the screen door wasn't locked. I looked closely at the boards of the floor, painted gray. Going to the right, I saw what looked like a crease between board panels."

"Okay, let's give the ol' red crowbar some legitimate work to do." I said, taking out the mentioned device and prying at the crease. A large section of the floor began coming up easily, as it was not fastened down.

"Oh wow." Jack said, helping me to move the panel. The one next to it also easily came up. We set them aside.

"Jackpot." I said looking down. Slanted doors were beneath. "Yep, it looks like someone built this porch to hide these doors. Okay, let's open it up." I reached down, jimmied open the lock hinge, then opened the doors. A blackish-brick-lined set of stairs went to a passage going under the house.

I called Cindy to come around back, so she could stand guard while Jack and I went below. I daresay my trenchcoat over my uniform protected me from the dirt and grime better than the 'nothing' that Jack had protecting his suit. Still, armed with a battery-powered lantern and my crowbar, I led the way down the passage.

It wasn't very long, turning left and ending at a metal door. A couple of blows with the crowbar were sufficient to knock open the Masterlock on the door. I had Jack stand back as I pushed open the door with the crowbar, expecting booby traps. Fortunately, there were none. We went inside.

"All right, drug lab." I said, seeing the tables with several chemical retorts and other apparatus. "I'll have Cindy call the Crime Lab. They might can even tell us what batches of confiscated drugs were made here."

"So you think those students found this?" asked Jack.

"No." I said. "It is more likely they ran into some drug perps..."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I watched the film that Special Agent Webster and his people showed me. The drone had flown higher than the top of the hills to our immediate east. Looking south, we could see the Lakeview Subdivision that had been the scene of one of my mother's cases, then the Town, the University, and I could even make out the Cabin in the far distance. In the northeast, the terrain was hilly, with some relatively steep climbs up to hilltops and into crevices and valleys. More straight north, along the River, were forested areas, and to their west was more farmlands.

"Do you need our help searching these areas?" I asked.

"Don," said Muscone before Webster could speak, "we're going to have a totally Federal operation to do that. I want to keep you and the locals back, and the various State agencies back, as well. You may cross a State line and not realize it, and there'd be legal issues."

I knew that was a crock of shit, but said nothing. With Jack Muscone himself here, and his obvious desire to keep me back, I knew something was going on.

Part 6 - Investigation

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" shouted the lovely redheaded reporterette at 7:00am, Wednesday, April 27th. "Channel Two News has learned that six University students have disappeared over the weekend. They were on a School-related field trip to areas in the northwest corner of the County, and were reported missing when they did not come back to classes on Tuesday."

"Police have been notified but have no leads on the case thus far. The Town & County Police called in the FBI due to the close proximity of the State Line, and the possibility the six students crossed the State Line before disappearing. The FBI is making no comments on the case so far, nor releasing the names of the six persons that are missing."

"In other news," said Bettina, "the Town & County Council meeting last night was the scene of a raucous and intense debate over a proposed County contract with a private ambulance service. Councilman John Colby and Councilwoman Dagmar Schoen cried foul at the proposed contract, saying that it had not been openly bid upon as required by County ordinance and State Law. Colby also showed financial connections to Northwest Properties Management, a company owned by Councilman Thomas P. Cook. Colby offered a resolution to formally call for the State Office of Ethics and Review to investigate the proposed deal and Mr. Cook's involvement. That resolution was defeated, but the Council tabled further consideration of the contract for the time being."

"The Council then went into Executive Session to consider promotions in the Police and Fire Departments. The Police and Fire promotions were ratified but will not be made public until May 2d. However, they did make the public announcement that Fire Engineer Roy Easley, who recently was awarded the Medal of Valor, will join the Fire Marshal's team as an Arson Investigator. Channel Two News has learned that Easley is also being strongly considered for assignment to what is considered the Fire Department's equivalent of Internal Affairs. And now for Sports..."

"That's good for Roy." Cindy said. "He's an upstanding guy. He came in and really kept things from getting out of hand when those FD jerks were going to attack Jimmy Lawson and his family, and go through me to do it."

"True." I said. "Though I think those bastards would not have made it through you to get to them. Anyway, I'm glad John Colby stood up to Thomas P. Cook. That's some real sleazy stuff going on there."

"I wonder how Mr. Colby got his information about that ambulance contract." Detective Joanne Cummings Warner wondered out loud. A little too loudly.

"M-I-C! See you real soon..." said Mary Mahoney as she came in the room.

"K-E-Y!" sang David Krueger, coming in behind her.

"Why? Because we like you!" replied everyone as if on cue.

"M-O-U-S-E!" sang Cindy Ross. Everyone clapped and cheered as I looked around in admittedly stunned amazement.

"Well, Joanne," I said, "I think you have your answer.

"I think it's the 'Iron Crowbar Fan Club' that we're all members of, sir." said Joanne brightly.

"Butter me up, butter me up." I said. "It will not affect the Monday awards. But nice try." Everyone laughed.

"And I do suspect," I said, "that Thomas P. Cook is not a member of the fan club right about now. Good work, guys."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

At 8:30am, Detective Teddy Parker said he was ready to give his preliminary report. The MCD Detectives filed into Classroom 'J', as did Lt. Teresa Croyle, Captain Cindy Ross, Chief Moynahan, myself, and Commander Della Harlow. Also invited and present were the FBI teams of Jack Muscone and Clark Webster.

Sitting down, I gave the floor to Detective Parker. He turned on the overhead projector, and a 3x2 image of students came up.

"These are the six missing students." said Parker. "At top left is Annemarie Reynolds. She is a Cinematic Arts major, and was minoring in Biology until she was granted a special program where her arts classes qualified for Biology major electives so that she could double major."

"All those looks and brains, too." said Cindy Ross. Those FBI agents not familiar with her looked at her is shock. "What?" she said, looking back. "This ain't the home of political correctness, people." I chuckled, breaking the tension.

Parker continued: "Her biological studies have been devoted to the study of cannabis. We are not a State where medical marijuana is legal, but the University has license to study all manner of drugs, and Annemarie also often goes to California."

"Next up is Sherry Kim." said Parker, pointing to a very pretty Asian girl. "She did not appear on any of the tapes we found earlier. As you can see, she is Asian, of a Japanese father and Chinese mother. She's a Genetics major under Professor Mickelson. Her dorm mates said she was very quiet, did not socialize much, and was extremely devoted to her studies; by that, I mean she apparently did nothing but her studies. She's in her third year, but is working on a program where she gets her Bachelors and Masters degrees together in four years or so. I'll talk about her boyfriend in a moment."

"The third girl is Natalie Jenkins." said Parker. "Biology major. Something of a political activist on Campus, but not one of the really rabid ones."

"At bottom left is Jason Stone, a.k.a. Jake Stone." said Parker. "He's a Sophomore, a radiochemistry major, and is well known by a lot of people on Campus. Attends all the right parties and events, and has a reputation with other students and some female professors of being a real Campus stud. He and Annemarie Reynolds often attend functions together, and some people we talked to thought they were a couple. But Annemarie's apartment mates said it was more like a 'friends with benefits' situation, and they both dated other people."

"Next is Jeff Slake." said Parker. "He and Natalie were considered to be dating. He was considered by some people that knew him to be a bit of a pervert; he liked watching porn and he liked watching others have sex. He's a chemistry major, which is how he knows Big Jake Stone, and he is often Stone's 'wingman' in social situations."

"Last is Danny Cantrell." said Parker. The picture at bottom right was of a nerdish character that reminded me of the inept prosecutor Dwayne Gregory. "Cantrell is a Genetics major and works with Sherry Kim a good bit. People that know them say that they look like they are dating, but while Cantrell has a huge crush on Sherry, she apparently doesn't have any more feelings for him than friendship or just collaboration on projects from their classes. He switched his major to Genetics just a few months ago, and some believe it was because of Sherry."

"Has she ever complained to anyone, Campus Police, teachers, etc.," asked Teresa Croyle "of being harassed by Danny?"

"No ma'am." said Parker. "The Campus Police has nothing on any of these six, except they occasionally catch Jason Stone having sex with a girl in the parking lot by the Track & Field area. And as an aside, Annemarie has never been caught with marijuana or illicit drugs anywhere except the authorized laboratories. And no one said that Sherry had a problem with Danny, and figure that he just has a puppy love crush on her."

"Had this group been out to this Point Hollow place before?" asked Special Agent Webster.

"Yes sir," said Parker, "but not as a full six-person group. They all knew each other to an extent, as Sherry knew Natalie and Annemarie fairly well and helped them with their biology studies from time to time. Jeff Slake was probably the least connected with this group."

"What did Dr. Mickelson say about the students?" I asked.

"He knew Sherry the best, sir." said Parker. "Said she was a straight-A, brilliant student. He said Danny was average at best, seemed to be doing just enough."

"What about the crime scene." said Jack Muscone. "Were their cellphone still there?"

"Yes sir." said Parker. "They all had cellphones, and they all were found in the tents. The tent on the right or east side, had Annemarie and Jake's cellphones. The one on the left, or west side, had Slake and Jenkins's cellphones. The tent in the middle had Sherry Kim's, but her sleeping bag had not been laid out, it was rolled up. Danny's was half undone, as if it was being unrolled but had not been slept in."

"We've broken into all six cellphones." said Parker. "Nothing out of the ordinary on any of them, no videos made while they were out there. None of them made nor received any phone calls. Stone received a text from a woman, asking if he was available that Friday evening, and he replied that he was on a field trip. Sherry Kim exchanged texts with a girlfriend, a Mai Ling, if I'm pronouncing that right, and she said she and her group were at the site and were fine. Our Mouseketeers downloaded all the information from all the phones into our evidence servers, and a copy has been sent to our FBI friends."

I nodded, feeling eyes on me. I said "I have one more question: Who took them out there? and who was supposed to pick them up?"

"The story I have, sir, "said Parker, "is that the Biology School has a couple of vans and a jeep. One van and the jeep took everyone out. The drivers were a Ron Estes, a Biology grad student; and Ben Ellman, a biochemistry teacher seeking professorial status. Estes has black hair, fairly well built, shorter than Jake Stone. Ellman has very light brown hair, almost bleached blonde, and full beard and mustache. Fairly tall and thin."

"After dropping off the six," said Parker, "Estes and Ellman went back and got another group of students, and they went down and camped by the River south of the nuclear power plant. They were collecting soil and water samples to see if the power plant was causing any radioactivity in the soil, and from what Professor Mickelson told me, the idea was to have a comparison between the two sets of samples."

"And before you ask, Commander," Parker said, "Estes said the Power Plant group came back Monday morning, but no one went to get the six at Point Hollow. There's been some back and forth about 'I thought so-and-so was going to get them.' and so-and-so would say 'I thought you were going to pick them up."

"And Professor Mickelson said about that?" I asked.

Parker's face fell. "Uh, I didn't really ask him about that, sir. I'd already interviewed him when I talked to these other people."

"No biggie, we can always go back and ask the Nutty Professor Mickelson." I said. "Good job getting all that, Parker. Make sure you forward everything you have to Special Agent Webster."

"And we appreciate what you've given us already." said Webster. "I wish we'd get this much cooperation from other law enforcement agencies, particularly at the State level." I smiled at Webster's blatant shot at the SBI.

I then stood up. "I'll wrap up with the physical evidence report of what we have so far: the blue panties are believed to belong to Annemarie Reynolds. The DNA tests will take a few days to get back. Ditto that for all the other samples we found around the tents, in the sleeping bags. The blood that was found types to Natalie Jenkins, and tests confirm it is menstrual blood. There were no illicit drugs found in the tents or the belongings of the students. The drug lab we found in the basement is being analyzed, but it appears it's the standard crystal meth lab, and maybe some refined heroin in small quantities..."

Part 7 - Activism

"This is Priya Ajmani, Five Alive News in the Morning!" shouted Priya at 8:00am, Thursday, April 28th. "We're bringing you coverage of the Student Group that is organizing a search party for the missing University students!"

There had been increasing Press coverage of the missing students. The FBI had had to ask for the TCPD's help to keep people off the Point Hollow property, and students and the Media took the opportunity to take cheap shots at the Police.

Priya was talking to a young woman of Southeastern Asian descent (that's India and neighboring countries, by the way) who was shouting like a protestor: "And we must organize and search for our fellow students who are missing, because the Town & County Police won't look for them!"

The day before, there had been a Press conference that had turned very ugly and rancorous, as Priya led the charge to attack the TCPD for inaction. I finally took the podium and asked Priya directly "Are you asking us to break the law and cross the State Line?... Are you saying we should cross the State Line, where we have no jurisdiction?..." Priya wouldn't let up, accusing me of wanting the students to die. At that point, I asked officers to escort all KSTD personnel out of the Press Room, and pulled KSTD's press credentials... denying them access to Police Headquarters, all Precincts, and any property that belonged to the Town & County Police Department.