Page 45 of Bone Echo

Forensics entered to bag, tag, and photograph while they searched the rest of the upstairs. The children’s rooms were at the head of the stairs, connected by a bathroom. The little league trophy and small baseball glove was enough to crack their hearts in two. Small ballerina slippers and a child-size tutu in the adjoining room made them want to smash their fists into the wall.

The children were not there. The large, bloody footprints on the soot-stained beige carpeting of both rooms confirmed Dudley’s theory of the killer’s hunt through the house.

“Did he take them?” This, from Jack.

“Not alive. With the parents dead, who would feel the hammer of revenge by kidnapping the children?”

The homicide squad combed every inch of the house.

They found a blackened lighter at the back entrance that opened onto a patio backed by woods. Though there was nothingleft of the wooden door but cinders. The bent metal deadbolt and the dents in the metal surrounding it indicated the lock had been jimmied.

It appeared whoever murdered the Williams had entered and exited by the back door, tossing his lighter onto the gasoline saturated floor, thinking that nothing would be left of it but a blackened twisted piece of metal, indistinguishable among the rest of the debris from a completely burned-out house.

But even though they looked in every closet, underneath every piece of furniture, inside the showers and bathtubs, behind the canned goods in the pantry, and even in the giant wooden toy-box, the two children were nowhere to be found.

CHAPTER 14

Memphis Police Station

Back at the station, Jack followed protocol and immediately called in the FBI about the Williams children. Even without an interstate connection, the FBI’s jurisdiction superseded local authority in cases of missing children.

Then he and the homicide squad worked feverishly to establish any leads and assemble everything they could find about the victims—Brad Williams, his wife, and two children.

At first glance, Brad Williams appeared to be nothing more than a successful attorney, an ordinary husband and father, and a civic-minded citizen who supported several of Memphis’ charities. Further digging turned up evidence that some of his clients were not only sleazy, but out-right criminals.

Several known leaders of small-time robbery gangs were his clients, some still on the streets, some of them now doing prison time. Excitement grew when Williams’ frequent trips to the Bahamas turned up a connection to elusive gambling kingpin, Juvencio Ancira. Nickname, Bloody One.

Authorities had long suspected Ancira’s casinos in the U.S., Mexico, and Central and South America served as fronts for his illegal gambling operation. Charges of money laundering had been brought against both Ancira and Williams four years back, but dropped for insufficient evidence.

But the big tell was the string of gory murders attributed to Ancira. Politicians, businessmen, farmers, schoolboys, and even priests had all met horrible fates. And all the victims had been tied in some way to Ancira.

Standing at the front of his weary squad, their Commander pointed to a blown-up photo of Williams body. “The multiple bullet and knife wounds suggest revenge. Given his known connection with Ancira, we can extrapolate that his murder was revenge for double-crossing the man whose books he kept. The bad news is we’re looking for a professional killer. The good news is he got careless.”

While part of the team threw out a wide net to find motive for Ancira to hire a hitman for the Germantown killings, Dudley and Jack started tracking down the wife’s history.

There was a wealth of information in various society columns showing photos of Mr. and Mrs. Williams at charity fundraisers and glittering social events. They had first moved to Memphis five years earlier, living in a large apartment on the riverfront. Their next purchase had a been a home in a gentrified area near the Memphis Botanical Gardens. From there they had bought a house on the west side of Memphis in a quiet neighborhood by the river.

1310 Fawn Grove Road.

Dudley felt all the air leave him. His brother had been a sitting duck in the house previously owned by a target of the Bloody One.

“Look at this.” Jack started reading from an article in the society pages of the Memphis Courier, dated only three weeksago. “’The residents of Germantown threw a housewarming party welcoming philanthropist Brad Williams, attorney at law, and his wife and two children to their community.’”

An awful reality was taking hold of Dudley, and he had to sit down.

Jack continued reading. “’The children, ages eight and ten, will enroll in Germantown Elementary School, while Brad’s wife will continue her amazing charitable work in our community. Germantown is proud to welcome Brad, his children Anna Lisa and Patrick, and his wife Edna Sue.”

Edna Sue.

They both glanced at the name tacked onto their crime board. The same name Laura’s intruder had called her when he came back tofinish the job.

All the pieces fell into place. Ancira had sent his hitman to the wrong house to take out Brad Williams and his entire family. Dudley felt as if a bomb had been detonated as his feet and left every part of him in shreds.

“My brother didn’t have to die.”

CHAPTER 15

The sun had gone down and night was fast approaching when news came into MPD headquarters from FBI Special Agent Kent Wayne.

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