Читать книгу Missing: The Oregon City Girls - Rick Watson - Страница 18

CHAPTER NINE

The Search Continues

On the afternoon of Saturday, April 13, Philip greets his daughter Maria, with a stack of home videos under her arm. He has agreed to create a program of edited video clips juxtaposed with still photos of Ashley. How the final production will be used is still unresolved, but there was a strong desire by all family members to have this project completed.

Linda joins them in the editing room so she can see what Ashley looks and sounds like on videotape. She turns to Maria, “Why didn’t Lori come along to see this?”

Maria smiles sheepishly. “Lori doesn’t go anywhere much lately. She won’t even answer her phone most of the time. She screens every call. She doesn’t even go over to Mom’s house any more. Her and Dave just sit around, like they’re waiting to be called. She keeps thinking that maybe Ashley is gonna show up and maybe all this will just go away. But I got her photo albums and she also dug up what few videotapes they had.”

Linda listens for a bit, but soon her mind is focusing on the unsettled issues in the missing girls’ case. She pulls the Harry Oakes letter from a file while gently opening the conversation. “Maria, I looked into this Harry Oakes dog handler situation, and frankly, he is not very well received by the sheriff’s department. It’s hard to know what to think about his concrete slab warning. It’s my guess that the FBI is not likely to act on his tip, mainly because their dogs have already scoured Weaver’s yard multiple times with negative results, but I’m going to try to look into it.”

Maria stares at her. “You aren’t going to let the FBI stop you.”

“I’m going to follow my own instincts, but you have to understand the rules and procedures that take precedence in situations like this. Every citizen has constitutional rights to privacy. It isn’t that easy to go to somebody’s house and dig up their yard or whatever. Search warrants are required and judges don’t issue them willy-nilly, like they do on TV crime shows. There has to be reasonable probable cause, and unfortunately, Oakes’ letter obviously hasn’t convinced any of the powers that be of anything.”

“But Linda, don’t you think Weaver could be involved?”

“Sometimes I do, other times, I’m not as sure. Monday I’m going to talk to the Department of Human Services people and see if I can unwind some facts that will shed a bit more light on all of this.”

Maria offers, “I had a long talk with my little sister, the other night and she told me Weaver was mixed up in Ashley’s life a lot more than people realize, Linda, especially last summer. Lori doesn’t admit it, but I think Ashley practically lived there and became like one of his kids or something.”

Linda quirks an eyebrow. “Can you give me an example?”

“Sure. Like, she told me about something from last July, a very hot Saturday, and she was over at my Mom’s picking up my kids to take them to the big amusement park in Sellwood. They had a special. All rides were only fifty cents. Anyway, Ashley was at Mom’s visiting, and she asked if she could go along. My sister said ‘Fine.’ So anyway, they were there for about an hour or less, and guess who shows up?”

Linda nods. “Weaver.”

“Exactly! When he and his daughter came to Mom’s to pick up Ashley and found she’d gone with her aunt, he flipped out and in no time, there they were. And for the rest of the afternoon they stuck like glue. Once he got there, she was like a different person. He bossed her around, wouldn’t even allow her to ride the bumper cars. She wanted to stick around longer, but he said they had to leave, and off they went, him, his daughter and Ashley. She didn’t even say goodbye, just said ‘I gotta go now, see ya later.’”

During all of this Philip has been playing some video clips on his monitor. He interrupts when the images of Ashley and Suzie suddenly appear. They are in bathing suits lying on their tummies at the front end of a cabin cruiser docked on the river. “Where was this shot taken, Maria?”

“On the boat. I think it was two summers ago. Suzie was barely fourteen then.”

For several minutes they all just watch the video screen as Philip repeatedly puts a tape in before pressing “play” on the VCR. The last one he displays turns out to be the most recent, having been recorded six weeks before Ashley disappeared. The tape is actually a video of her uncle’s community college graduation party, but in a brief segment near the very end, Ashley and her sister ascend the stage, mikes in hand and sing their hearts out to the karaoke soundtrack. As the young girl skips confidently back and forth, Linda feels she is seeing the real Ashley, happy, carefree and absorbed in her passion for Karaoke. The Ashley in the video seems momentarily to have forgotten the pain that infiltrated her first dozen years. While not even a teenager yet, her brief childhood had encompassed more sorrow than it ever should have. Linda stares at the spirited youngster on the TV screen. A true connection is established which prompts her realization that Ashley is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. She verbalizes her thoughts, “Ashley was such a vibrant girl. I’m still hoping that she had the confidence to run away rather than…I don’t want to believe that she was kidnapped. Or worse.”

Maria interrupts. “That reminds me of another time, also last summer. You’ll probably want to put this in your ‘not credible’ file too, but Ashley’s dad’s sister¹ called our mom to complain that she² tried to go see Ashley at Weaver’s house and he told her to ‘Get lost.’ He absolutely would not let her see Ashley even for five minutes.”

Linda nods her head. “And Lori allowed this?”

Maria shakes her head. “I think she had too many problems of her own to pay attention to what was going on with Ashley. That’s just my opinion, though.” Maria sighs heavily.

“Maria, we’re not giving up—not now, not ever.”

Maria flashes her a grateful look.

A few days later, Linda pays a visit to the Regional Office of the Oregon State Department of Human Services and is directed to Veronica Woodruff, a dark-haired woman in her fifties.

“Ma’am,” Linda says quietly, “I know that on August 31 of last year, the Assistant District Attorney notified your office of allegations made by a minor, Ashley Pond, of attempted rape that occurred a few weeks earlier. I also discovered from their office that Ward Weaver allegedly committed this assault. And what I need to know is, did your office conduct an investigation? And if so, what was the determination?” Linda leans toward the woman, giving her a business card. “Please, I’m just trying to help the family find out what happened to her, and there may be some clues here, can you help us?”