in the room looked at me.
“Yes,” Backus said. “But we are still off the record. You can say what you were going to say. Right, Jack?”
I nodded and then realized they wouldn’t see this in all the other cities.
“That’s right,” I said. “We’re off the record.”
“Okay, well, this is mere speculation at this time and we’re not sure how it fits but we have this. On the autopsy of the first victim, the boy, Gabriel Ortiz, the coroner concluded, based on examination of the anal glands and muscles, that the boy was the victim of long-term molestation. If the boy’s killer was also his abuser over a period of time, then this does not fit with our pattern of random selection and acquisition of victims. So that seems unlikely to us.
“However, looking at it from Beltran’s point of view three years ago of not having the benefit of our knowledge, something here doesn’t fit. He had this one case, knew nothing about the others we know about now. When the autopsy came back concluding the boy was the victim of long-term molestation, it stands to reason that Beltran should have jumped all over that and looked for the abuser as suspect numero uno.”
“He didn’t?”
“No. He headed a team of three detectives and he directed almost all investigative work toward the park where the boy had been abducted after school. I got this off the record from one of the guys on the team. He said he suggested a wider focus looking into the boy’s background but Beltran turned him down.
“Now the good stuff. My source at the sheriff’s tells me Beltran specifically asked for the investigation. He wanted it. After he supposedly offed himself, my source did some checking and it turns out Beltran had known the kid through a local social services program called Best Pals, which puts fatherless boys with adults. Like a Big Brother program. Beltran was a cop, so he had no trouble going through the screening process. He was the boy’s Best Pal. I’m sure you can all take it from there.”
“You think perhaps Beltran was the boy’s molester?” Backus asked.
“It’s possible. I think that’s what my source was driving at but he won’t put it on the line. Everybody’s dead. It was written off. They’re not going to go public with a story like that. Not with one of their own and sheriff being an elective office.”
I watched Backus nod his head.
“That’s to be expected.”
There was silence for a few moments.
“Ted, Steve, this is all very interesting,” Backus said. “But how does it fit? Is it just an interesting offshoot or are you seeing something there?”
“We’re not sure ourselves. But if you say Beltran was a molester, a pedophile no less, and add that he was put down with a shotgun that somebody knew was on the top shelf of the closet because he knew Beltran, then we are getting into an area I think we should explore further.”
“I agree. Tell us, what else did your source know about Beltran and Best Pals?”
“He said he was told that Beltran had been with Best Pals for a long time. He’d been with a lot of boys, we assume.”
“And that is where you will pursue this, correct?”
“We’ll hit it hard in the morning. Nothing we can do with it tonight.”
Backus nodded and put a finger to his mouth in a contemplative gesture.
“Brass?” Backus said. “What do you think of all of this? How would that play with the psychopathology?”
“Children are a string all through this. So are homicide cops. We just don’t have a handle yet on what this guy is all about. I think this is something that should be pursued vigorously.”
“Ted, Steve, do you need more bodies?” Backus asked.
“I think we’re set. We’ve got everybody in the Tampa FO wanting in on this. So what we need, we can take from there.”
“Excellent. By the way, have you talked to the boy’s mother about her son’s relationship with Beltran?”
“We are still trying to track her as well as Beltran’s sister. Remember, it’s been three years. Hopefully, we’ll get to them tomorrow after Best Pals.”
“Okay, then, how about Baltimore? Sheila?”
“Yes, sir. We spent most of the day re-covering the ground of the locals. We talked to Bledsoe. The theory he had on the Polly Amherst case from the start was that they were looking for a molester. Amherst was a teacher. Bledsoe said he and McCafferty always thought that she might’ve stumbled onto a molester on