Ridge
Apparently, Devin and Wendy Nelson had had a long talk about her mother. He suddenly seemed very interested in Joann Chandler. I gave him just the basic details of the case, I felt like I could trust him not to talk about it. He also promised me that he wouldn’t include anything I told him in his book and that he would only include facts about the Slocum case.
Wendy Nelson thanked me for all the work I have done on her mother’s case.
I sighed, “Don’t thank me until I find her.”
She said, “Detective Ridgeway, I know you have done all you can. I honestly think that my mother does not want to be found, I don’t even believe she is still in Miami.”
I asked, “Where do you think she is?”
She said, “I have no idea. I think she met a man and she followed him somewhere to start a new life.”
As I thought about Wendy’s theory, I asked, “Would she do that without telling you?”
Wendy chuckled, “Mom and I weren’t really close. Oh, we got along just fine, but I have always been closer to my dad. Mom and dad did the right thing by getting divorced, they were just too different for their marriage to work. I know they both tried, but it was best for them to go their separate ways. Dad has moved on and is with a very nice lady now. Mom took the divorce as a personal failure; it wasn’t something that a good wife would accept. If she did meet another man, she would also think that was scandalous and try to hide it.”
I nodded, “Yes, you told me all of this during the initial investigation and I couldn’t find anyone that ever saw her with another man. In fact, the only people I could find that she interacted with was her coworkers and members of her church.”
She sighed, “I know Detective, she would have never told any of those people about it. Maybe someday she will contact me again, but until she does, I have accepted the fact that I may never speak to mother again.”
I said, “I’m sorry I couldn’t give you more concrete answers. If she just walked away, I really want to find that out for myself.”
Wendy smiled, “I’m sure you will never give up, but please don’t feel obligated to call me every month unless you do find her. I appreciate the calls and will gladly talk to you, but it isn’t necessary.”
I took a deep breath, “Very well Wendy, I hope you and your family enjoy your stay in Miami. I wish I could give you some closure.”
She shook my hand before she walked out the door. I guess I can reduce my call frequency to her, but I will keep looking for Joann Chandler.
Devin
I walked Wendy out the door of the police station after she finished her meeting with Ridge. I had seen a coffee shop just down the street and suggested we continue our conversation there. She called her husband, he was on his way to pick her up, so she had him meet us there.
Wendy and I had already ordered and sat at a table when Carl Nelson walked in. Wendy made the introductions of me to Carl and their two children. They were going to go eat lunch in an hour and then spend the afternoon at the beach.
I filled Carl in why I was in Miami and the conversation Wendy and I already had.
He laughed, “I still say Joann took off with her Pastor.”
I asked, “Why do you say that?”
He looked at his wife, “You remember when we came for out last visit, before she disappeared?”
Wendy nodded, “Yes, and the police talked to the Pastor, and he answered all their questions.”
Carl shrugged, “Yeah, but I still remember the way she looked at him when we went to church with her. It was not the way a regular woman looks at her Pastor. Not to mention, I still think there was something shady about that church, and I wouldn’t trust that Pastor any further than I could throw him.”
We talked for another half an hour, and I asked some more questions. I got the Pastor’s name as well as the name of the church. If I had some time, I may just pay the church a visit. I know this had nothing to do with my current book, but the more I learned about Drake Ridgeway, the more I wanted to find out. I was still thinking I could turn his cases into a series of books.
After my coffee with Wendy and Carl Nelson, I decided to stop by the church they had told me about. I only had two more victims of the Slocum sex ring to talk to. I had appointments set up for later this afternoon; I had a couple of hours to kill.
I entered the church office and was greeted by a pleasant woman.
I said, “Good morning, I was wondering if I could talk to Pastor Lyle Anderson.”
She said, “I’m sorry, we don’t have a Pastor by that name.”
I said, “Oh, I was told he was the Pastor here.”
She smiled, “Well, our current Pastor is Paul Harris.”
The Pastor walked into the office, “Did I hear my name?”
The woman said, “This gentleman was looking for Pastor Anderson, I told him I didn’t know him and that you are our current Pastor.”
He turned to me, “Yes, I actually replaced Pastor Anderson. He left the church about five years ago.”
I asked, “Do you mean he went to another church?”
He shrugged, “I don’t think so. From what I was told, he was going to pursue other options outside of the church.”
I asked, “Do either of you know Joann Chandler?”
The both shook their heads, the woman said, “I just joined the church when I moved here from Jacksonville last year.”
Pastor nodded, “I just graduated from the seminary when I accepted the position here. That name is not familiar to me either.”
I thanked them for their time as I went back out to my car. This was very interesting. The pastor left the church about the same time Joann Chandler disappeared. Maybe Wendy Nelson was right, her mother did run off with a man, and maybe that man was Pastor Lyle Anderson.
Ridge
I needed to put the Joann Chandler case out of my mind and get back to finding DJ, Noah and Wyatt. I sat back down at my desk and took a deep breath. Before I could figure out my next move, My phone signaled a call.
I answered, “Hey Blake, what’s up?”
He said, “We just finished talking to our witnesses. The guy asking about DJ and Wyatt was a Private Investigator. He wasn’t asking about Noah. We did a little more checking and found out his name is Hank Gorman. We are heading to his office right now to invite him to come down to the station for a little talk.”
I said, “Great work guys, make sure he accepts that invitation. I have a lot of questions for him.”
Blake said, “Thanks Ridge, Ollie already has his handcuffs out in case we need them. We should be back in less than half an hour.”
As soon as I ended the call, I immediately searched our database for Hank Gorman. As is the case with many PIs, Gorman was a former cop from our department. He resigned about 5 years ago just as he was being investigated for questionable interrogation techniques. We had to let a bad guy go because he failed to wait for the perpetrator’s lawyer to show up before he began asking questions.
I looks like he had some trouble finding a job after he left the department, so he opened his own PI firm. I doesn’t appear that he has had any run ins with the police, so maybe he was a better PI than he was a cop.
I went to prep an interview room, one chair on the side of the table that was against the back wall, three chairs on the other side. I went back to grab my notebook and refill my coffee cup and was in the room waiting when Blake, Ollie and Mr. Gorman walked in. I was glad that Gorman wasn’t wearing any handcuffs, I’m not sure, but Ollie looked a little disappointed.
Blake said, “Hank Gorman, the is Detective Ridgeway. Please have a seat over there.” He pointed to the chair I had set up.
Gorman said, “I know who Detective Ridgeway is, I’m sure he already knows I used to be on the department.”
I nodded, “Yes, I did a quick check on you. I’m sure Detectives Robbins and Hemple have told you that you are not under arrest, but we do have some questions for you.”
He sighed, “Yes, they were very persuasive when they asked to come here.” He glanced over at Ollie. I may have to ask about that later.
I asked, “Did they tell you why we wanted to talk to you?”
He nodded, “Yes, but as I told them, I run a legit agency.”
I said, “So you will have no issue in telling why you were looking for DJ Willers and Wyatt Tillman.”
Gorman smirked, “Because I was hired to do so.”
I asked, “Who hired you?”
He shrugged, “I think that is privileged information, Detective.”
I sighed, “Okay, if you want to play it that way. I should tell you that these men were kidnapped right after you found them. If you choose not to tell me who hired you to find them, I can only assume that you are involved in their disappearance.”
Gorman’s eyes went wide, he stuttered, “Wait… What? Kidnapped?”
I nodded, “Yep, within 24 hours of you asking about them. Do you care to share who hired you now?”
He said, “I had nothing to do with any kidnapping. I can’t tell who hired me, because I don’t know.”
I asked, “How could you not know who hired you? How did you get paid?”
He sighed, “Look, I know you guys think all PIs are scum, but most of us are just trying to make a living, like everyone else. I have a couple of workers comp insurance companies that I work for, making sure workers are really hurt. But I still need other jobs to pay the bills. I get a lot of calls to track cheating spouses and once in a while, I get a call like these two. Someone just wants to know where a person is, they don’t tell me why they want to find them. In these cases, I charge a bit more, don’t ask to many questions, and they send their payment to me via Venmo.”
I was sure that Gorman was telling the truth. I have dealt with enough PIs to know that a lot of their work is done anonymously. He was clearly shaken when I told them that DJ and Wyatt were kidnapped.
I said, “Okay, so what can you tell me your client?”
Gorman said, “Just that it was a male, he told me that he wanted to talk to these guys, he didn’t tell me why. He called me last Thursday on Willers and again on Friday for Tillman. He knew they were students at the University. My job was really easy; college students will tell you anything you want to know. I found them both by noon on Friday, and the money was in my account by Friday afternoon.”
I pulled out a picture of Noah Chang and asked, “What about this man? Do you know him?”
He shook his head, “No, I have never seen him before.”
I asked, “And you were only hired to find DJ Willers and Wyatt Tillman?”
He nodded, “Yes. Well, and Matt Harper.”
Blake jumped in, “Who is Matt Harper?”
Gorman said, “The next guy I’m supposed to find. I got that call this morning, I was just headed out to the college when you guys showed up at my office.”
I asked, “And was it the same guy that hired you to find DJ and Wyatt?”
He nodded, “Yes.”
Blake, Ollie and I all looked at each other, this just may be the break that we needed.
Before I could even speak, Ollie said, “Give me the phone number of your client.” I was so proud of Ollie, he really was becoming a good detective.
Gorman was fully cooperating now and I pulled out my phone and called Lindsey Carroll. I knew the college administration would help us, but I also knew it would be faster to go through Lindsey. I explained about needing to find Matt Harper.
I heard her typing on her computer and she said, “He has a History class right now.”
I said, “Have campus security go get him immediately. I will send a couple of our patrol officers to come pick him up.”
She said, “Have them come to the security office, we’ll have him waiting there.”
Blake was on the phone to dispatch; they were already sending a patrol car to the college.
Gorman just watched in awe as my team sprang into action. Once Blake ended his call, Gorman said, “Damn, everything I heard about you was right Detective Ridgeway.”
I nodded, “I have a very good team.”
Ollie returned to the room and said, “Just as I thought, it’s a burner phone.”
I sighed, “Yeah, not really a surprise.” I turned to Gorman, “How does it work now? Do you send a message when you find the guy?”
He nodded, “Yep, when I found out Willers was going to the club on Saturday, I told my client that. I found out Tillman was done with classes by three every day, I also passed along that information. What he did with that info, I don’t know.”
I said, “So, we were right about Noah, he was collateral damage. When they saw him and DJ together, they just grabbed both of them.”
Blake said, “Yeah, but who are they?”
I asked Gorman, “Your client never gave you any indication as to why he wanted to find these guys?”
He shook his head, “No, I’m sorry. Like I said, I don’t ask too many questions, most times, the less I know the better.”
Blake asked, “Are you going to use Matt Harper to try to lure our bad guy out?”
I sighed, “No, I can’t put him in any danger, but maybe we let our bad guy think that Matt is out there.”
Blake looked at me, “Are you thinking a decoy?”
I shrugged, “I don’t know yet, the thought did cross my mind.”
Gorman said, “I’ll message my client and tell him anything you want me to. Anything to help.”
I said, “Thank you Mr. Gorman, but we have to be very careful. Blake, Ollie and I need to go to have a long talk about this and we’ll bring in the captain to discuss our options. Will you please wait here and not tell anyone about what you know or have heard.”
He nodded, “Absolutely, you can even take my phone if you want to. I have to stay to see how this all plays out.”
I chuckled, “You can keep your phone for now, just don’t use it please.”
Ollie, Blake and I left the room as another officer came in to stay with Hank Gorman. We needed to make sure Matt Harper arrived at the station safely and explain the situation to him. We also needed to talk to the captain to get his input.
As we were talking to the captain, we were notified that Matt Harper was in my office, we went to talk to him.
We all stopped dead in our tracks when we got our first look at Matt Harper. We all looked at each other and moved our eyes to Ollie.
Ollie noticed us all looking at him and said, “Wow, he could be my brother.”
Blake chuckled, “Your twin brother.”
Captain said, “I’m not sure about this.”
Ollie said, “I’ll do it captain. If means getting DJ, Noah and Wyatt back, I’ll do whatever it takes.”
I said, “I appreciate you wanting to help Ollie, but these guys are quick and I’m not sure I want to risk them grabbing you and us being unable to stop them.”
Before we could discuss it any further, Mark and Kyle from the tech lab appeared at my door.
Mark said, “Sorry to interrupt, but I wanted to fill you in on what we found.”
I said, “No problem. What do you have?”
Mark replied, "We were right about it being a personalized plate, but wrong about the numbers. It wasn’t a 5, it was an S.”
I asked, “So, what does that mean?”
Mark continued, “We finally got a full view of the plate from the Walmart cam footage. The number on the plate is SOS3.”
Ollie immediately turned to leave the room, “I’m on it.”
Devin
After my coffee with Wendy Nelson and her husband, I went to my next meeting with two more guys from the Slocum case. They gave me mostly the same story that I had been hearing all week. They were kicked out of their homes when they told their family they were gay and were easily convinced to move into the house to put on web shows in return for meals and a place to stay. Since they were rescued, they seemed to have their lives back on track and were in college or working jobs so they could support themselves.
I left that meeting to go to my last interview of the week. Rob Wilcox welcomed me into the house that he shared with his husband, Cory Black. *
After some small talk, we got into my questions. Rob told me how he and Cory had a fight and he left to cool off. He ended up getting drugged and woke up in the house that broadcasted live sex shows.
I asked Cory how he felt about Rob doing those shows with other guys.
Cory said, “That is in the past, the fight was just as much my fault and Rob only did what he had to do to survive.”
I said, “So is your relationship is even stronger after all that happened?”
Rob nodded, “Yes it is. The day after I returned home, we decided to get married.”
Cory added, “I didn’t even have to think about it when Rob asked me. I already knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him.”
I noticed that Rob and Cory were a couple of years older than all the other victims that I had talked to.
I said, “The others have all told me that they were using the settlement from Slocum to go to college. Are you guys doing the same?”
Rob said, “No, we both had already graduated from college. We used the money to put a downpayment on this house and for our wedding. We were married about six months after I was rescued.”
Cory grinned, “We also had a nice honeymoon in Hawaii.”
I smiled, “Good for you guys.”
We talked for over an hour, and I felt like I had all the information I needed. I was still amazed at how all of the guys involved in sex ring were doing so well. Something like this can really mess with some people’s heads. I was glad to hear from more than one of the victims that the police provided a counselor for them to talk to. Rob and Cory both told me that talking to someone about everything that happened did help them a lot.
I thanked Rob and Cory again as I gathered my things to leave. I looked at the time and decided I still had a couple of hours before my nightly call with Mike. I quickly reviewed my notes from my talk with Wendy Nelson and decided to go talk to some of Joann Chandler’s coworkers. Wendy had told me where she worked so I entered the information into my GPS and drove downtown Miami.
I was relieved to see that it was a small office, that would mean a better chance of finding someone that knew her. As I walked in the front door, I noticed a reception desk up front and about 5 other desks scattered around the large room. There were ladies at all the desks, and they all turned to look when I entered.
The lady at the reception desk smiled and asked, “Can I help you?”
I returned her smile and said, “I’m just looking for a little information. Do you remember a former employee, Joann Chandler?”
My question got the attention of all the other ladies; their eyes were again, on me.
The receptionist said, “I was hired as her replacement, I have never met her. The rest of staff would have though.”
By the time she finished her sentence, the other five women were gathered around her desk.
I quickly introduced myself and told them that I had been talking with Joann’s daughter and that I was considering writing a book about the case. I learned that they had all been employed here for between 10 and 20 years, with the exception of the receptionist. They all told me the same thing; Joann didn’t share a lot of personal information and mostly just did her job.
One lady said, “Sarah, you were probably closer to her than the rest of us.”
Sarah said, “Yeah, I guess. We did have a few long talks when I went through my divorce, since she had also been through that. Like I told the police when she first disappeared, I had the feeling that she was hiding something. It just seemed that she had a secret she didn’t want to share.”
I asked, “Do you have any idea what that might have been?”
She shook her head, “No, I don’t. I know she was embarrassed to tell anyone that she was divorced. I kind of suspected that she had met a new man, but she said that was a sin. I told her that she no longer had to be faithful to her husband, because he had moved on, but she didn’t agree.”
I inquired further, “Do you think her religion was important to her.”
All the women nodded their heads, Sarah said, “Oh yes, she never missed a Sunday service or any bible classes.”
All this lined up with Wendy and Carl had told me. Did Joann run off with her Pastor?
To be Continued...
*Author’s note: Rob Wilcox was a victim of the Slocum sex ring in Missing in Miami. Cory Black was his boyfriend and is now his husband.
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