Silence.
When Mr. Reid didn’t respond, Bianca asked, “When was the last time you spoke to Garrett?”
“As I told the agent, it’s been years. Seven years, at least.”
“So you and your wife have had no contact with him? Not even on email or social media?”
“Not since...” His voice trailed off. “I don’t see how we can help you. As I told the agent, we haven’t talked to him, we don’t know what he’s doing, we have no responsibility for him. He’s a grown man who is responsible for his own decisions.”
Bianca glanced at Catherine, so she took over the questioning. “Mr. Reid,” she said in a calm, professional tone, “I’m Dr. Catherine Jones, a special agent with the FBI. Your son will be in court this afternoon for his arraignment and bail hearing. It’s important for us to understand his background, his familial ties, and whether he’s had previous encounters with the law. While we know he hasn’t had any federal arrests or arrests in Florida, we’re still looking at all jurisdictions where he lived. We also are interested in speaking with his friends from before he moved to Florida last year.”
“Again, Dr. Jones, I don’t see how I can help you. I have three sons. Vince is a doctor, has a wife and two daughters, a good career, a good man. Never gave us any trouble growing up. Frankie, he’s now a civil engineer, as I was. Frankie was a fun-loving child, athletic and happy. He had his fair share ofscrapes, but always owned up to his mistakes. He married his high school sweetheart and they have four children, the youngest only two months now. As far as my wife and I are concerned, Garrett is no longer our son.”
“You disowned him?”
“He dishonored us. He disowned us. We failed in some way. Believe me, I don’t know what we did or didn’t do. We didn’t raise him any differently than Vince or Frankie. And Garrett was a smart boy, an attractive boy. He excelled in everything he did, from school to sports to making friends. He had the Midas touch, some might say. Whatever he did, he succeeded at.”
“What happened?” Catherine said quietly.
“I—I don’t see how this is relevant. It was years ago.”
“We won’t know what’s relevant until we know,” she said.
“There were many things,” Mr. Reid said after a moment. “But it started when he was in college. We gave him money for tuition, room, and board. More than $30,000 a year for four years. We didn’t realize until six months after he graduated that he’d also taken out loans in our name, loans we’re still paying off.”
“That’s fraud, Mr. Reid.”
“He manipulated my wife into signing the papers. It would be next to impossible to prove fraud. But yes, he conned his own parents.” He sounded both bitter and embarrassed. “So we told him he had to pay the loans. Instead, he entered into an affair with my wife’s closest friend—a woman twice his age who had a large settlement from her divorce. And he hadherpayhisloans. We—we didn’t take the money. Garrett is charming, handsome, and smart. He works hard at not working. We haven’t spoken since he left California when he was twenty-three. And I don’t care to speak to him now. I am truly sorry for anyone he hurt. I never thought he would... he could...killanyone. Steal from them? Manipulate people? Yes. But murder... it’s going to break his mother’s heart.”
“But you believe it,” Bianca said. Catherine saw the worry and panic on her face, that if Garrett’s father was called to the stand, his testimony that he didn’t see his son as violent might sway a jury.
“If killing another human being gave Garrett something he wanted? Yes. Yes, I suppose I do believe it. I need to go.” He hung up before Catherine could ask another question.
Bianca asked Catherine, “What do you think?”
“Garrett Reid is a narcissistic con artist. I can’t give a specific psychiatric diagnosis without a personal interview, but if we take what Mr. Reid said as true, he’s a sociopath without empathy for other human beings. He wouldn’t understand or care if they were emotionally damaged because of his con. Take seducing an older woman. He would have no guilt for lying to her, manipulating her, or stealing from her. He wouldn’t care if she was an emotional mess when she realized what he had done—what she had let him do. More, he enjoyed it.”
Catherine paused, considered next steps. “I want to talk to his brothers, who may be more forthcoming than his father. Any woman who had a relationship with him, starting with the mother’s friend. Definitely his co-workers, both at the resort here and in other cities.”
“How is this going to help us keep him in jail?”
“It won’t, not today. But the more we learn about Garrett Reid, the greater chance we’ll find out where he took his victims and who his partner is.”
“Sonowyou think he has a partner.”
Catherine cringed at the tone, but answered professionally. “Yes. I don’t know their role or how they met, but someone working with Garrett Reid abducted Matt and Kara.”
9
While Michael worked with the Jacksonville FBI office to finish processing the room Matt and Kara shared, Ryder sat in the small Sapphire Shoals security office with Brian Valdez and reviewed the video Brian had compiled.
Video throughout the resort confirmed what Brian had told him over the phone, but Ryder was most interested in the clip of the person of interest spotted after Matt and Kara returned from racquetball.
It was his third time watching the segment of video where a maintenance worker was in view for only a few seconds pushing a laundry bin in front of him. He wore pants, which was part of the uniform, but also long sleeves, and was the only maintenance worker who seemed to be wearing long sleeves that Ryder could tell—Valdez confirmed that it was the correct uniform, but that most of the guys wore short sleeves. The suspect wore a hat low across the brow.
About five foot nine, with a slim build. Because of the ballcap, Ryder couldn’t see his hair, but the skin at the back of the neck suggested the guy was most likely white.
There was a brief profile angle that made Ryder think this person wasn’t a man; just for a split second, Ryder knew in his gut that this person was a woman.
