Sharpe raised his shoulders to indicate he didn't know what in the world she referred to. She then spoke into the phone. “Yes, that would be the case I am referring to, sir, and all evidence is pointing at a one Isaiah Purdy, who maintains some sort of farm outside Iowa City.”
“ Damn, you don't say. These parts are full of Purdys. Isaiah Purdy, huh?”
“ His son was recently executed in Huntsville, Texas, and DeCampe put him on death row.”
“ I see… so you suspect his father of abducting the judge?” The chief stated the obvious.
“ We have many leads pointing to him, yes.”
“ I see. So, how can we help you, Dr. Coran?”
“ I want you to get out to his place and execute a search and seizure warrant, ostensibly to locate Judge Maureen DeCampe. We fear he intends burying her alive-if he hasn't already done so.”
“ Christ… sure, we'll do everything within our power to cooperate, of course. Have you faxed a copy of the warrant to my people here?”
“ Not just yet, but it's on its way.”
“ On its way?”
“ She doesn't have a moment to lose, sir.”
“ Lost my last case in court for jumping the gun on a warrant, Doctor. It's not going to happen again. Best I can do is stay in radio contact while I get some units up there, waiting and poised to go in. But I won't order my men in without paper on the suspect”
“ It's on its way,” she lied.
“ Like I said, soon as we have it in hand.”
“ What about soon as I have it in hand, Chief Gorman?”
“ Don't know…”
“ You can trust me.”
He hesitated.
“ Minutes are like days on this case. Chief.”
“ I'll send 'em in on your say-so. I'll get them out there soon as I get off the phone. I can promise you that much.”
“ Keep in constant contact with us, sir.”
“ As much as earthly possible, I will.” Chief Virgil Gorman immediately telephoned Iowa City Sheriff Chester Dunkirk, who on learning the news, replied, “I'm going to step back, Virgil. You're entirely in charge here.”
Virgil Gorman understood. There were a lot of Purdys living in and around the area, and it was an election year. “Do you know Isaiah Purdy? Is he capable of this sort of thing?”
“ I've never made the man's acquaintance. Heard stories when his son was arrested in Texas. All I ever heard was he was devoted to his wife, his son, and his pig farm. But he never spent a night in my jail. You?”
“ Never heard of him before I got that call from the FBI.”
“ Well, since you called, I dug out the likeness the Feds put out on the old man, Virgil.”
“ And what about it?
“ According to a cousin, it doesn't look anything like him. The cousin works for us.”
“ A cousin of Purdy's? Could be useful at the scene. Can you get him out there?”
“ He's not too cooperative, Virgil.”
Gorman hated to hear this. “Anything? Did he give up anything?”
“ Said the old man's a hermit up there, and nobody has anything to do with him or his wife, and no one's seen either of them in months.”
“ I'll see you at the perimeter, Dunkirk.”
ELEVEN
Ruthless as the old devil gods of the worlds first darkness.
Houston, Texas
Inside Judge Raymond Parker's chambers in downtown Houston, Texas, Dr. Meredyth Sanger did not have to plead long for Parker's help. Parker told her a chilling story about how the old man, just after his son's execution, had shown up at the courthouse, ostensibly to talk to Judge DeCampe. He grew somewhat irascible when he learned that DeCampe no longer worked at the courthouse. The old man had then asked for Judge Parker, and so he was brought upstairs by one of the guards to see Parker.
“ And what did he want?”
“ He wanted to know how he might get in touch with Judge DeCampe, said something about closure, how he was glad it had all finally come to a conclusion.”
“ Did you tell him how he might get in touch with her?”
“ Absolutely not, no! I told him I would be most happy to convey that message on to her.”
“ Well, it would appear someone told him she was in D.C. He's suspected of abducting her there.”
“ He didn't learn of her whereabouts from me, but her move was reported in the newspapers, the Chronicle in particular. He could have easily accessed the information.”
“ Then he goes clear across the continent with his dead son in tow alongside an empty coffin meant for her. Amazing.”
The Honorable Judge Raymond Parker grabbed up a pen and a preprinted form to fill out. “I'll give you a warrant to search the old man's home in Iowa, but for an Iowa cop to serve it, I don't know. It's not always as simple as signing on the dotted line.”
“ I'll take any kind of paper I can get,” she finished.
While filling out the search and seizure warrant at Purdy's address in Iowa, Judge Parker gave Meredyth more insight into the motive behind DeCampe's abduction. Parker said, “Purdy sat stone-faced throughout his son's appeal months before. The man never said a word. Just came every day and statued himself behind Jimmy Lee.”
Parker finished the document with a swirl of the wrist and he said, “So what are you doing here, Dr. Sanger? Why aren't you on the horn to Iowa City, Iowa? Get the State Patrol out to Purdy's farm now!” Judge Parker's order came with his warrant as he pushed it into her hands.
She thanked him.
“ I'm not waiting for Sharon to have the papers triplicated. Once you call Iowa, I'll do all the busywork. Make the call. Use my phone.” He handed her the phone.
Not every cop, but very near every state trooper in Iowa, sat poised and ready for Jessica Coran's go directive, and she knew that every minute ticking by could be DeCampe's last-If the judge is indeed still alive somewhere in the world of Isaiah Purdy, she told herself. An hour and twenty minutes had passed since she'd talked to Chief Patrol Officer Virgil Gorman in Iowa. “Where the hell's that warrant?” she shouted to the ceiling. No one on the task force had an answer for her.
“ Get the guy in Iowa back on the line for me,” she told the civilian secretary.
Only a few seconds later, she was in contact again with Gorman. “Look,” she said firmly, “if he's already buried her out there someplace on his property, you guys could take hours, even days locating where the grave site is.”
“ Yeah, that's why we brought dogs, Dr. Coran. Once we hit the place, we'll find her and find her quick. Promise you that much.”
“ Can you? This old man is like some devilish fox. I need you to move in on him now.”
“ Then you have the warrant in hand?”
She hesitated.
“ We can't just go on a man's property and search without some kind of warrant,” replied Gorman. “Despite all your suppositions about Purdy, Doctor, this is still the U.S. of A., not Moscow.”
“ The warrant's a formality. It's in the works.”
“ I have to have it in my blessed hands or at least have a call from the governor. You think you can arrange that?”
“ If DeCampe's not already dead, she's still being mentally and physically tortured by him. She could lose her mind. Damn it, we've got to act.”
“ We've got to have the warrant in hand if we want to nail this bastard. No warrant, and he will in the end get off scot-free,” countered the Iowa lawman. “What's more, you people know that better'n we do out here in the sticks.”
“ I'll get your warrant. Just hold on to this line for a few minutes.” She looked across at the task force members in the operations room. Very near the entire team, including Lew Clemmens, had assembled. Clemmens, who'd brought over his laptop, awaited electronic confirmation from either Judge Parker's office in Texas, the U.S. Marshal's Office, or Judge Pauline Fitshue in D.C. Whoever got the paperwork completed first had custody of Purdy: the federal government, D.C., or Texas. Jessica wasn't particular.