“The Tillman kid and Elizabeth went on a date and somehow ended up on this road. His family owns some land off that road…so that gives them a reason to be there…whatever they were doing…let’s not worry about that right now. We found the boy, who had been beaten severely. There was another truck, but it didn’t have a tag, and we confiscated the keys to it. Earlier, I’d been on a call to a hunting club located pretty close to all this. Some guy calls Mick Johnson from a cell phone, telling him there’s some kind of emergency, and when we get there, we can’t find him. The cell reception broke up, and we couldn’t reestablish contact. We find some blood and later we find a pistol, but we don’t know anything else.”
This was all news to Zach Beasley. He stood very still trying to process it. He was astonished.
“But get this: the guy who called Mick-his name’s Jake Crosby-he’s from West Point, Mississippi, and the woman they brought in tonight is his next-door neighbor.”
“You think this Crosby fellow is behind all this?” Zach asked.
“No…I mean I don’t know, but I don’t think so. Marlow’s deputy found the woman right after I had a phone conversation with Johnny Lee Grover. But he’s definitely a person of high interest right now.”
Marlow grunted when he heard Johnny Lee’s name. “He’s trouble with a capital T.”
“We-R.C. and me-were standing at the truck I was telling y’all about, and there’s a radiophone that beeps and we hear a voice ask about a girl,” Ollie continued, carefully choosing his words.
Zach’s knees were getting weak. He couldn’t believe all this.
“Well, we captured his name and number from Caller ID. It’s Johnny Lee Grover. I called him from that phone and said I wanted to meet with him and that we wanted the girl back. I’d hoped to bargain and that he might betray his location. Of course, he played ignorant. Twenty minutes later, Marlow’s deputy finds the woman from West Point at Johnny Lee’s trailer. It may have been a coincidence, but I doubt it. There really aren’t ever any coincidences.”
Zach Beasley sat down and stared at the ceiling.
“You did the right thing, son,” Marlow added, as much for Zach as for Ollie. “You’ve gotta push hunches to make things happen.”
That made Ollie feel a little better about his gamble. He continued, looking at Zach. “So the call we overheard could have been referring to the Mississippi woman instead of your daughter. We just don’t know.”
Marlow stood up, anxious to offer his insight and wisdom. “What do you know about Crosby?”
Ollie answered. “Mick vouched for him. Said he was a good guy. We all know Mick…he’s solid. I trust his judgment. Crosby’s down here turkey huntin’, and I think-I’m not sure-but now, I think he has a kid with him. At a camper where he was staying, there was a small sleeping bag and a stuffed animal and several books for young kids. I have an APB out on a vehicle that was seen at Johnny Lee’s trailer just moments before we found the girl. It’s a Tupelo registration.”
Ollie looked up and saw several more of his off-duty deputies come in and talk to Martha. Good, we need ‘em. Behind them, Ollie could see the newspaper editor and two TV camera crews gathering.
“Your entourage is here, Marlow,” Ollie said with a little attitude, referring to the media.
“They can help us, you know.” He leaned forward and checked out who they were. “I’ll handle the media for you. I have two more deputies who’ll be here shortly.”
“Mr. Beasley, I’m so sorry you had to hear all this, but you need to know what we’re up against…and it’s mostly confusion. It just takes some time to sort through all the information,” Ollie said compassionately.
Zach nodded, still deep in a trance, not taking his eyes off the ceiling.
“Zach, this is going to work out. You’ve got the best guys in west Alabama working on it, and the governor’s personal helicopter will be here at dawn to help us search,” Marlow added, trying to reassure him.
Pointing at a map, Ollie commented, “This is the largest wilderness area in the county…miles of pine plantations and swamp. That’s gonna make it tough to search…and we really don’t know if that’s where we need to be lookin’. But that’s where we’ll start. So, if y’all will excuse me, I need to call West Point to check out this Jake Crosby guy. Marlow, if you’ll start laying out a search plan…don’t forget your Tabasco.” Ollie handed Marlow the small red bottle.
With that, Zach and Marlow walked out and shut Ollie’s office door. Ollie stared at the chaos beginning in the outer room. He picked up the phone and dialed information.
Lindsay Littlepage, assisted by Sumter County’s only female deputy, Lakreshia Gibbons, tried to contact her husband, Scott. Lindsay called out his cell number to Lakreshia, who slowly dialed it. Once Lakreshia heard the first ring, she handed the phone to Lindsay.
Listening impatiently to the ringing, Lindsay started getting emotional. Finally, she heard her husband answer sleepily, “Uh”-he cleared his throat-“hello?”
“Scott!…Scott!” She immediately started sobbing.
“Lindsay? Lindsay! What’s the matter? Are you OK? Are the kids OK? Lindsay!” he said frantically. Scott had stayed out late gambling and drinking whiskey with several other pharmaceutical sales reps. His head was pounding.
When Lindsay heard her husband’s voice, she couldn’t speak. Lakreshia gently took the phone from her.
“Mr. Littlepage, I am Deputy Gibbons with the Sumter County Sheriff’s Department, and we have your wife here in the hospital in Livingston. She’s fine now. This is going to sound crazy, but we think she was kidnapped and somehow escaped.”
“Kidnapped? Livingston? Alabama?” Scott was trying to force the thoughts to make sense.
“Yes sir,” the deputy responded.
“Is…is she OK?” Scott asked, sitting up and running his left hand through his hair.
“Yes sir. I’m looking at her right now. She’s obviously tired and the doctors are checking her out.”
“Wait…say all that again. I’m lost,” Scott pleaded as he fumbled for the light on the nightstand.
“Sir, we don’t have all the details. We do think that she was kidnapped sometime during the night. She escaped and was found by one of our deputies. We have her in the hospital, and she is stable.”
“Stable? She’s OK?”
“Yes sir.”
“What about my kids?”
“Apparently they were spending the night with some friends. We have officers checking that out…hold on…I think she can talk to you now-hang on.”
“Scott, he said you killed somebody! Did you? What’s going on? Who’d you kill? Please tell me you haven’t killed somebody,” she begged, on the verge of hysterics.
Totally stunned by the head-on collision of events, Scott shook his head, trying to make sense of Lindsay’s babbling.
“Lindsay, I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about! I’m in Biloxi working. Who said that? I haven’t killed anybody. Are you OK? This is crazy!” Scott exclaimed.
“Scott, please come get me. I’m scared,” she pleaded.
“I will, honey. Don’t be scared. Are you all right? What about the-”
“Yeah…yes, and the kids are safe, I’m sure. They spent the night with the Johnsons.”
“Honey, I’m leaving right now, but it’ll take me at least three hours to get there from Biloxi.”
“Please hurry!”
“I’m on the way, baby,” he promised. “Let me speak to the deputy again. I love you.”
She handed the phone to Lakreshia and lay back down.
“Hello?” the officer said.