After the Fall
Chapter 10
Journal of James Beckett
Dearest Johanna,
Katie has a break in her cold case, and Rick came up with it. It didn't come from the registration files at Hudson University. Rick was scanning through the archived school newspapers and came across an article featuring all four of the students who were killed. They had planned out and helped to erect a playground in what had been an empty lot in a bad neighborhood. You wouldn't think anyone would have been angry with them about that, but Katie and Rick looked into what happened afterward.
About a year after the playground was built, a child died there, a little girl named Gemma Louden. The investigation showed that it was not due to any fault in the play equipment. It was a tragic freak accident. She had long cords to secure the hood of her jacket, but they were flying loose. Somehow, they got tangled in the climbing apparatus, and Gemma strangled.
The Loudens, especially Carl Louden, Gemma's father, never accepted the conclusion of the medical examiner. He wanted someone to blame, something I can understand. I think Rick can too. Carl decided it must have been the fault of the students who designed and constructed the playground. He wrote letters to the editor of The Ledger, which Rick found in the newspaper morgue. Katie's search of public records showed that he and his wife, Cynthia, divorced two years later. After that, he disappeared from the radar. There was no driver's license or credit history.
Katie had been wondering if he was living off the grid or under another name. She had no way to track him down, but she did find Cynthia Louden. Cynthia had saved some of Gemma's things including her hairbrush, a whimsical childhood treasure shaped like the Little Mermaid. It was the only thing Gemma would allow near her hair, and Cynthia couldn't bear to part with it. There were still some hairs with roots stuck in it, enough to pull DNA. With that, the lab could look for parental matches.
They found one, a man named Kirk Baines, who was working in the Registrar's Office of Hudson University. That institution is one of the first ones to require DNA samples from their employees when they do background checks, as a defense against campus rapes. The DNA indicated that there is an extremely high likelihood that Kirk Baines is Carl Louden.
Rick and Katie tied that down, even more, when Rick suggested that they visit Gemma Louden's grave. It is grim, but apparently, they'd gathered clues in cemeteries before. They didn't have to look far. A few feet from Gemma's grave was one of a Kirk Baines, an infant who had died within days of his birth. If the child had lived, he would have been about the same age as Carl Louden. There was an old obituary for the baby, from which Carl could have gathered enough information to obtain a birth certificate and assume a new identity as Kirk Baines.
He must have gained access to the students' records and tracked at least one of them. Then when he found all four together in an empty park shrouded in snow, he shot them and hauled the bodies away. He could have even hidden them in the fort and done it one by one. With the city so paralyzed by the storm, it was unlikely that anyone would have seen him.
Kirk Baines has disappeared. Katie thinks that when she and Rick started going through the records at Hudson, he was afraid he would be discovered. But he hasn't had time to build a new identity yet. If there's one thing I know about Katie's stubborn determination, she will find him.
There have been some more developments concerning Victor Baron. He was hiding some of his assets in shell corporations - no surprise there - but he was also making statements under a phony name. As you know, that's not a crime unless there is an intent to commit fraud, but it appears that fraud was precisely his intent. He made representations to a financial publication about his net worth and used his false persona to testify to them. On that basis, he managed to obtain millions and possibly billions of dollars in financing, without any real collateral. At a minimum, he's liable to charges of bank fraud, and there may be even more to it than that. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District, Elizabeth Weston, who is coincidentally Victoria Gates' sister, is licking her chops. Katie and Rick have been involved in a case with her before, so they are acquainted.
In more family news, Alexis and Gus have decided to move in together. Their relationship has gone very fast. Rick is very protective. Alexis lived with a young man once before, and it didn't work out. Rick hates the thought of watching her go through that again, but she has made the decision, and there is nothing he can do to stop her without completely alienating her.
Of course, in New York, finding an apartment that they can afford is easier said than done, particularly with Gus paying his way through school. Hayley is trying to help them out. She has eyes and ears all over the city that I am better off knowing nothing about, but if something becomes available for them, I get the impression that she will know about it before the moving van has pulled out.
Lucas is still doing well, as much as anyone does in the early stages of the program. It is always day by day and sometimes minute by minute. He had a close call. He had a six-pack of beer in his hand when he called me. He'd had a tough day at work. He'd been blamed for someone else's error and ended up with several extra hours of work and missed a meeting. I thank God that he called me. We talked it all through, and he realized that there was no reason he should punish himself for something beyond his control, which is what he would have been doing if he had given in and drunk those beers. We poured them out together, and he made sure the bottles went into a recycling bin. He hasn't shown me any more of his poetry, but there is no need. He did the hard thing, the most important thing, and he is stronger for it.
Katie and Rick were discussing children, at least indirectly. There is a detective at the 12th who is pregnant. I believe Kate referred to her as Roz. She's married to another detective. I didn't catch who. They've both been searching around for some decent childcare they can use after their maternity and paternity leaves are up. From the little Katie said, Roz' mother was going to care for the child when neither Roz nor her husband could do it. They are on different shifts, so that wouldn't have been too many hours a week. Unfortunately, Roz's mother had a stroke. She is recovering, but she may not ever have the strength again to care for an infant. Rick was noting how lucky he was that he was able to work from home during Alexis' early years and speculating that he could still do the same if he and Katie ever had a child. It wasn't much of a conversation. But it was a start.
Forever love,
J.B.