Chapter 78 Section IX

Two miles down a district road heading south in town, I came to a T-junction and I drove left.As the pastor described, the paved road turned into a gravel road.Dust from my tires floats in the rearview mirror.I stare nervously ahead, hoping that no cars or trucks are approaching.The roads in the suburbs are somewhat sloped. Every time I reach the top of the slope, I am worried that an approaching car will suddenly appear, and it happens to be him driving.Maybe he won't pay attention and just give the driver a quick glance, but it's also possible he's paying attention to everything, or maybe he doesn't recognize me because I have a beard, but if he does, or if he recognizes Kate's Volvo (God, why didn't I think of switching to another car), I'd lose my chance of surprising him, and I'd even lessen my chances of finding Kate and Jason.

Sweating, my shirt clings to my chest.I saw what the priest said were thickening trees and bushes stretching away to my left.I passed a mailbox, a closed gate, and a path leading into the forest.Mrs. Warren's house was just behind it, and the priest said she could see deer, raccoons, and all the other animals she called "God's children" roaming her property.I'm kind of relaxed, I don't see anyone, so no one sees me.I drove on, more dust kicking up behind me.Meanwhile, I couldn't help worrying that the reason I didn't see anyone was because Patty wasn't here anymore, he moved away.

Patty.That's right. Each x-ray showed a unique tooth with four roots pointing in the same direction.Children's teeth are noticeably smaller than adults', but it's not hard to see that one person's teeth have grown into another's.I wasn't so convinced of my opinion, I went to a dental office that was open to make sure before I went to those churches.With the cash I took from the local bank, I paid the dentist a hundred dollars to plug in his appointments and ask him to check the x-rays.He agrees with me: adult and child x-rays belong to the same person. So, the man who claimed to be my brother was telling the truth.The FBI got it wrong.Lester Dante did not pretend to be Patty, it was Patty who pretended to be Lester.But this disturbing discovery didn't solve much of the problem.The more overwhelming questions raised by the inversion would overwhelm my normal thinking.

It was clear that Patty had tricked the police into thinking he was heading west across Montana, after which he took Kate and Jason in the opposite direction—back to Woodford.Since he doesn't have to leave his hijacked car to mislead the police, it's easy to evade pursuit.All he had to do was hijack a car with plates from a distant state.The driver will go undetected for several days. By the time he or she is reported missing, Patty has arrived at Mrs. Warren's property and has hidden the car.At the same time, he changed the license plate several times and hid the owner's body somewhere along the Inter-Thirty Highway.

As for Mrs. Warren, Patty must have been confident he could frighten her, because he had done that a year earlier.At the church where I learned about Patty and Mrs. Warren, the pastor mentioned that Patty was Mrs. Warren's handyman, and that, except for one rare absence two years ago, Mrs. Warren never missed church.That was the year before Patty took Kate and Jason from me.Patty must have done something to frighten Mrs. Warren into thinking it was impossible to go to church on Sunday.The pastor called to make sure she didn't go because of something uncomfortable. She said she had a cold.The following Sunday she went to church again, and at the same time, she said, Patty had left the area.

The priest's call may have saved Mrs Warren's life.The pastor's concern for her must have made Patty think that the pastor was suspicious, which must have contributed to Patty's departure.But when Mrs. Warren felt safe, why didn't she confess the horrors that had happened there?The answer is not difficult to imagine, like Mrs. Garner in Logan Town, she is ashamed to let other church members know what Patty did to her.And, no doubt, Patty would threaten her to come back and punish her if she got him into trouble. Maybe she was starting to feel safe again, but then, to her horror, Patty came back a year later.He probably thought it best to hide Kate and Jason with her.Either way—her life of misery began all over again.He sternly threatens her to do what he wants.

"He was like a son to me," she was forced to tell her lawyer, trained to speak convincingly.Patty was probably in the lawyer's office when she signed the papers, standing by her side, warning her that if she betrayed him, she would be in pain for the rest of her life.Then he shut her up at home and went around the parish and spread word that she hadn't been feeling well lately, so people would be prepared when she died.After all, Mrs. Warren was old, as the vicar had said, and might die some night in her sleep—death caused by a pillow pressed to her face. I sped back into town and called FBI agent Gad on my phone, but his receptionist said he hadn't been in the office for a few days.I called Penny's office and it was recorded that he was off this week and out of the office.That means his wife's biopsies are not looking good.My chest felt empty.

All that was left was to contact the regional police station, but as I pulled up outside one (same brick building as it had been years ago), I was troubled to imagine a horde of cops crammed into their cars, calling Mrs. Warren rushed home.I was afraid they were too conspicuous, and if Patty was in the house he would notice them coming and run from behind.I'll probably never know what he did to Kate and Jason. Even if the police caught him, what if he refused to answer questions?What if he denied he knew where Kate and Jason were?Had they been alive, they would have starved or suffocated during his silence.I warned myself, think it through, I need more information, and I can't trust the police to get him until I know exactly what they're supposed to do.