“Then let him stew a bit longer before you question him. Be sure to take Dexter in with you. Sometimes I swear that dog can smell a lie.”
“Thank you. I’ll keep you updated,” Grant said. He figured the captain would watch the questioning either on the cameras or from the next room, but he didn’t want to think about that. It only added pressure, and he didn’t need that. He and Dexter left the office, and Grant went to his desk to prepare all the materials he needed to break any story Hansen Gunderson Senior might try to concoct.
HE OPENEDthe door and sat at that table in the small conference room. “I’m Officer Grant Webster, and this is Dexter,” he said before sitting down. “I want to let you know that you are not under arrest, but we have a number of questions. You can refuse to answer them, but that is not going to bode wellfor you.” He met the older man’s worried gaze. “This morning we exhumed the body that was in the grave marked as Bryant Gunderson, and we already know that Bryant’s body was not in that casket. The coroner has confirmed it. So who is it in that casket?” There was no need to beat around the bush. It was clear from the older man’s expression that he knew what had happened, and that it pained him.
“His older brother, Hansen Junior. He and his brother Bryant were on a road trip. Bryant was driving, and the car was hit on the passenger side. Hansen died almost instantly, and Bryant walked away. He simply switched identification with the body, and no one looked any closer. Hansen was always the good son. Bryant was a hellion, and when he came home, he told me what he’d done and said that he wanted to make a fresh start. Bryant was always in trouble, and he said that this way he could leave his past behind. I love my sons, and….” He lowered his head, shoulders shaking. “It was a way to give Bryant a chance to start over and let his past go.”
“But he didn’t, did he?” Grant asked.
Gunderson sighed “No. Things got worse after that. Bryant seemed to think that he was anonymous now, that he had some façade to hide behind, and his behavior became stranger. I had hoped that he would channel his brother and become more like him, but instead it was like Bryant became a worse version of himself.”
“You are confirming that your sons switched identities, and that Hansen Junior is the one in the casket?” Grant asked, and Gunderson nodded slowly.
“I know I should have come forward, but I thought Bryant would use this as a chance to make a better life.”
Grant wondered just how much he should push, but he figured they needed to know as much as possible. “Where is Bryant now? Has he been staying with you?”
“No. I kicked him out almost a year ago. He started behaving strangely, and he wasn’t coming home for days at a time, and when he did I thought he’d been on drugs. I told him that he needed to behave the way his brother would, and he packed up and left. I know he’s around town because I see him sometimes. Then, a few weeks ago, he said he had a good job and was going to be leaving for a while. I thought that he was finally going to get his life on track.”
“I’m afraid he hasn’t left town, and in fact he has been seen around here. We’ve been after him for almost a month or more.”
Gunderson blinked. “What has he done?” There was no question about what they thought he might have done or what he was accused of. He knew his son and had no issue believing that he had done something wrong.
Grant sidestepped the question. “Has Bryant wanted a family of his own?”
Gunderson groaned and looked down at the table. “His mother and I did the best we could for him, but we were never good enough. He always wanted more. When he was a child, he’d watch television shows and wonder why his family wasn’t like the people on TV. Why all of us couldn’t be like them, with perfect relationships, no arguments, and the kids somehow always got exactly what they wanted. That was what Bryant always thought he should have. He once told me that I was a bad father because I didn’t get him a new bike. Same thing when he turned sixteen and he didn’t get a new car. He always thought that his brother got more than he did.” A tear ran down his cheek. “I don’t know what more we could have done for him.” He wiped his eyes. “What has Bryant done?”
“We believe that he has taken three boys so far. All three of them have been found, and they are now safe. But we know that he’s been watching the schools, and we’re assuming that he’s looking to take another boy.”
“Oh god,” Gunderson whispered.
“Yes. He seems to take the boys until something happens and when he realizes they aren’t perfect, he hides them somewhere. Luckily we have been able to find them in time… at least, so far. But I need to know where Bryant might be. If you know, you need to tell us, because if he takes another little boy….” Grant had no trouble putting additional pressure on this man.
Grant opened the folder he’d brought in with him and slid pictures across the table. “These are the places where he dumped his victims once he was through with them. A cistern, this one behind a wall in a basement, and finally closed up in an old water tank. It seems that if they disappoint him, then he wants to hurt them deeply.” He pushed back the bile that threatened to rise. The thought of Cameron behind that wall made him angry. “He’s hurting six- and seven-year-old kids, scarring them for life. So where do you think he might have gone?”
“I don’t know,” Gunderson said, holding his head. “He doesn’t hang around his brother’s old friends, because they might figure out what he did. He found some new friends, but I don’t know who they are.”
“Okay. But he lives somewhere. Do you have a way to contact him?”
Gunderson wiped his eyes and sat a little straighter. “He calls me sometimes, and he’ll come to the house if he has mail and stuff. But….” He paused. “There was a house on East Louther that he spent a lot of time at. I used to see his car parked out in front of it.”
“Do you know the address?” Grant asked.
Gunderson shook his head. “No. But it was right in the middle of the block, and last I remember, it was painted a light yellow. I don’t think it will be hard to find. All the others are white or light gray. It kind of stood out.”
“Okay.” Grant purposely lightened his tone. “Thank you for your help.” He left the room, and the captain met him in the hallway. “What did you think?”
“This is a man still grieving for the son he lost,” Captain Robards opined. “I think in some way, going along with his younger son’s scheme was a way for him to still have his older son… in a way.”
“I get that, and this whole thing is really messed up. But we need to find this guy.”
“Get the father’s permission to search his son’s room at the house. Maybe there’s something there. We could get a warrant, but having his permission would be quicker. Then we need to keep an eye on this house on Louther, see if Bryant Gunderson shows up there. The guy is living somewhere.”
Grant nodded in understanding. He knew that Gunderson had to be going out of his mind. His obsession with talking these kids and trying to find his ideal family had to be pushing on his mind constantly. School had ended, so the kids were less clustered in certain predictable locations. Still, the longer that no reports came on, the more worried he was that the next kidnapping was going to happen at any time. “I’m on it.”
“Good. I’m going to assign Kip Rogers to watch the house on Louther. You stay on the father and his place.” The captain continued down the hall, and Grant went back in the interview room.
THE FIRSTthing Grant did was make a cursory inspection of the house. The furniture was old and worn, but it was clean and unfussy. Pictures hung on the wall of both boys and their mother. As he went up the stairs, an image of the four of them, all smiles, caught Grant’s eye. The happy family. “Come on, Dexter, let’s see what we can find,” he said after a minute andcontinued up to the bedrooms. He went to the one that Hansen Senior said had been Bryant’s. It was spare, with occasional remnants of childhood. He let Dexter loose to poke around while Grant set about looking for anything that might help him in the search.
