Page 6 of Diluted Truths
Oliver began to chuckle as he responded, “that the satanists had wiped his mind.”
“Damn. I need everyone to move on from the Satanic Panic, it’s getting annoying,” I groaned. “At this point everyone must be a Satanist from what they’re saying. How do you even wipe a mind? What does that even mean?”
“You know, I never learned how to do that in college. Maybe you learn in Satanist school,” he joked.
I rolled my eyes in response. It was a good joke, but I wouldn’t let him know that. “You’re annoying too, just like the Satanic Panic.”
“Trust me, Jackie, I agree,” said Oliver as he went to grab my hand to get me to stand up. “Let’s go, I don’t want to get stuck in traffic and end up late.”
“It’s a two hour drive and we have two hours and forty five minutes until we need to be there. We don't need to leave yet,” I groaned.
“I am going to be stressed out until we leave and thus stressing you out. Let’s just go now. Please?” Oliver begged as he dramatically clasped his hands together.
“Fine. Meet me at the car in ten minutes. I named her Shannon.”
Chapter 2O’Children by. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Jackie
Janice Reagers and her two children stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the crowd around them. Janice seemed to be around my age, but the stress of two young children had its effects.
Her brown hair was cut short, but it did not stop the young girl on her hip from trying to pull it.That must be Nancy, I thought to myself, who was present at the time of Joey’s disappearance. It was at the thought of the young boy that I finally saw him.
He had light sandy brown hair and glasses that were a bit too big for his face. He appeared like any other young eight year old boy, but his eyes told a different story. He had a thousand yard stare, one that I was told I often had myself, but it was the dark circles surrounding his eyes that showed his thoughts may not always be those of a typical eight year old.
“Are you Ophelia James and Oliver Bosede?” Janice asked as Oliver and I approached the table the small family was sitting at.
“Yes, but you can call me Jackie,” I responded as I sat down and took in my surroundings. The family was sat outside a cafe that lined one of the streets of Portland, Oregon. “We really appreciate you meeting with us to discuss the case at hand.”
“Can we get you anything to eat?” Oliver asked. “I can take the kids to get some hot chocolate from inside while you and Jackie begin.”
Janice looked to her young son sitting on the chair next to her as she thought about her reply. “Ummm… yeah, that would be great. Joey, do you want to go with Oliver to get a treat?”
Joey didn’t respond. He simply looked to his mother and then to Oliver as he stood up, ready to follow him inside.
“Here is Nancy. She can walk on her own, but she feels intimidated by the cobblestone streets,” Janice explained as she passed her daughter to Oliver.
Slowly the trio of Oliver, Joey and Nancy made their way into the cafe to give Janice a moment of reprieve. Almost immediately, I could see the tension dissipate from the woman in front of me.
This is why Oliver and I worked well together. While he was distracting the kids, I could speak with Janice candidly concerning the topic of her son's disappearance. Oliver could potentially get information out of Joey as well as he helped the children. He was always better with kids than I was.
“Like I was stating, Janice, we really appreciate you being willing to work with us,” I said as I eased into my line of questioning. “I know this cannot be easy for you to discuss.”
“Jackie, I was the one who contacted you. Well, I guess Goldie. The stories that are spreading about my son…they’re becoming unmanageable. He’s an eight year old boy and we’re receiving death threats saying he is the next son of Satan. I read some of your articles following the Ted Bundy trial. You wrote the truth about who he was, how he was pathetic and not a charmer. That’s how he lured in the women. You wrote the truth, while everyone else wrote a false narrative. That’s what I need, someone to write the truth about us,” Janice explained.
With each word I could see Janice’s fear rising in her chest. There was no denying that she would do anything for her kids.
“Well, then I’m really glad that you got in touch with us.” I reached across the table and took her hands into mine. She may be a part of a case, a story, but she was a scared mom first. “We want to help, we want to explain the truth of Joey’s disappearance. I do need to warn you that we’re not detectives, or private investigators, we’re journalists and academics that are here for the truth,” I continued as I looked at the woman in front of me, hoping she understood we couldn’t fix it all. “We will do what we can, but we may not solve his case.”
Janice sighed as she pleaded to the one person who may be able to help her, and that person just happened to be me. “Jackie, that’s really all I need. My biggest regret will be that I couldn’t keep Joey safe for those five days he was gone, but I’ll do anything and everything to keep him safe now.”
“You are an incredible mother, and we’re here to support you,” I began as I pulled my hands back and grabbed my notebook and pen out of my shoulder bag that was hooked over the arm of my chair. “Let’s get started. To begin, can you recount what occurred the day he went missing?”
“Oh, yes of course.” She took a deep breath to ready herself to explain what was probably the worst day of her life. “It was around four-thirty in the afternoon, on October twelfth. Nancy had just woken up from her nap and I had some meetings with my lawyer going over my recent divorce. I put Nancy and Joey in his room to play. After about an hour I went to check on them and Nancy was there and Joey… well, he just wasn’t. The only thing in the room that had changed was that Joey’s closet door was open,” Janice explained.
“Was that uncommon, for the door to be open, I mean?” I inquired.
“Extremely. There’s a lock on the top of the door to keep it closed. We used to store Carter’s, my ex-husband’s, military uniform and weapons in there. We keep the door closed out of habit, and it was locked when I left the room.”
