Chapter 28: Tying Up

Friday Afternoon and Evening

The search warrants were served after the schools closed for the weekend. A team of police thoroughly searched the auto shop and the coaches' offices and locker rooms at Memorial High School and found nothing. But a second team searched the Bushman house and found plenty.

There was a computer set up in the living room, where officers found e-mails between Coach Bushman and Coach O'Chism which expressed his objections to the 'corporal punishment' being used on team members. There was something unsaid, and his complaints were ignored, but he could not pretend that he did not know about the beatings. No evidence appeared which tied the head coach to the rapes, so it was possible that he did not know about them, but he knew about the beatings and said nothing. Also, the search team took samples of metals and greases from the metalworking tools in the shop in his garage, and those samples matched the remains of the devices from Janelle's car. Some small amounts of epoxy were also found and matched. Finally, beneath a false drawer bottom in his tool chest, they found master keys for several makes of cars and a set of keys which would open Janelle's car.

It took a little more work, but the detectives interviewed people from the swim meet the week before, and several of the swim team members and coaches from other schools had noticed that Coach Bushman was missing for some time during the competition. There was no direct evidence yet, but it seemed that he had means and opportunity to rig Janelle's car. A closer inspection of the tools in his shop also turned up paint flakes which matched the special color of her car. He must have used the battery-powered drills and saws to cut into her car to place the epoxy and other traps, and the paint chips were evidence of his involvement in damaging her car. Now all Detective Dahl needed to make the case complete was a motive.

After work, Mike had gone to visit the girl with Cutie and Halee, and she spoke of her father's hopes that she might beat Janelle in a race and that would let him be hired as a full-time coach. If she won, he could prove to the school board that he deserved to be a coach and could stop teaching auto shop. If there was even enough of a raise in the position, Abigail said, that he might be able to stop working nights and weekends at the different auto repair places in town. Now Mike had a motive.

But arresting her father, especially while the girl was in the hospital recovering from a beating and savage rape, would be hard. What could Mike Dahl do to help this abused girl? On the way back to their home after talking with Abo, he asked Cutie what to do and her answer was, "Simple! Adopt her."

That made Mike laugh. "Adoption is a long, complicated process. She might not want to be adopted or her own Mom might want to keep her. Your Mom might not want another teenager in the house. I might go crazy with too many women taking up all the bathrooms. We need to talk to Mom before I do anything like that."

Cutie was laughing as well. "I'm sure Mom won't complain about having another daughter. Even if it is only for a little while, like until we get married. I have always wanted a sister. And Abo needs someone now. You could be strong for her and show her what a Dad is supposed to be like. I could help her the way I helped Halee. Mom could mother her, as it seems she misses that a lot. It would be good for all of us. And, for your complaint about not having enough bathrooms, you can always build another one onto our house."

When Mike asked Katie what she thought, he got a wet shirt for his troubles. She jumped into his arms and began crying so hard she could not speak, but she nodded her head until she looked like some bobble-head doll in a car on a bumpy road. Well, if Cutie wanted it, and Katie wanted it, Mike was outvoted. (But he wanted to help the girl, too.)

Later Friday night, after arresting her Dad and contacting her Mom, Mike, Katie, and Cutie went to visit Abo in the hospital. Abo was looking much better than the night before, and was sitting up in the hospital bed. She smiled when Cutie walked in.

"Hiya, Abo. How's it goin'?" Cutie greeted the girl as if they were long time friends.

"Goin' slowly, but still goin'. How's your life?" Abo was acting like a teenager again.

Mike and Katie were happy to see her looking better. Mike had decided that he needed to explain what was happening before someone else told her that he had arrested her Dad for murder and child abuse.

Cutie beat him to it. "Hey, girlfriend! How would you like to blow this joint and come stay with us for a while?"

No one had told Abo that her Dad was in jail. "I need to check with my Dad first, but it sounds like fun, Cutie. Can I get back to you?"

"Well, that might be a problem, Abo, because your Dad's in jail. He killed my best friend and my Dad arrested him."

Suddenly, Abigail was guarded. "Am I going to jail, too?"

This was Mike's cue. "Why would anyone want to put you in jail, Abie?"

Abigail laughed. "I haven't been Abie since I was three. My Dad calls me Abigail and the rest of the world calls me Abo." Her face went back to concerned. "But I suspected that Dad had done something. He spent most of this last week saying that Janelle had been in an accident and would not be able to swim. He was hoping that would let our team win and he could be a full time coach. But he never said what kind of accident it was."

"Janelle's car was rigged to stop on the train tracks and blow up. The express hit it and the car was smashed to small pieces by the train and the explosion." Mike Dahl looked very sorry when he told the girl about the murder. "We found proof that your Dad rigged the car. We have witnesses who can swear that he had time to do the job. We are sorry, Abigail, but he will be in prison for a long time."

Cutie hugged the girl, Mike took her hand. Abigail just sat and thought.

"Did you find the remote control?"

Now it was Mike's turn to be surprised. "What remote control?"

"Well, I know Dad was working in his spare time with some remote controlled stuff. One time I walked into the garage to tell him lunch was ready and he had a control box and some other parts on his workbench. I figure that if he wanted the car to stop in the right place and to explode when the train hit it, he needed to set it off with a remote control. Did you find it?"

"No, Abigail. We did look for one, but could not find it. We..."

Before he could say anything more, Abo interrupted. "Did you look inside the dryer?"

"There was nothing in the dryer but lint." Mike had supervised the search. He knew where the team had searched and what they found.

"No, I mean INSIDE the dryer. It hasn't worked in ages, and Dad took it apart last week, he said he was fixing it. After it was together again, it still didn't work. Take off the top and look inside."