It’s daylight. Sleep has come in and out, as have I. There’s no helping it, short of bumming some meth off of some college kid. Coffee will do. Lights stay on. Laura is avoiding me, she hasn’t come home in a couple days.  

I’m still going through the new find, Anna’s journal, it’ll be a little bit before I have the posts written that pair with the goings-on of the case files. So, for the time being, back to the case.  

Mr. Cooper caged, not far from here actually. This next document is a hand-written transcript of the interrogation between Adam Cooper and Detectives Anna and Biron. Hastily written, it’s kind of a pain to read so, I’ve typed it here for you fine folks. Enjoy. 

He’s a broken man, swaying between steadfast zealotry and regret-borne depression. Why the kids? What are they doing with them? I don’t want to type my thoughts. I don’t even want to think them.  

 

Date: 10/7/54 (Thursday) 

Case: 26901 

Interrogation: Adam Cooper (suspect), suspected of kidnapping Shane Cooper 

Officers: (1) Clarence Biron, 82497  

(2) Anna Fionnbarra, 23764  

Suspect: Adam Cooper 

Location: Orono Barracks, Troop E 

Recorded by: Abigail Poynder 

Officer 2: “Mr. Cooper, do you remember us? We tried to talk about your missing son nearly two weeks ago.” 

Suspect: (nods in acknowledgment) 

Officer 1: “You can now see why running was a bad idea. I would have shot you, had it been us again. We’re done playing around, we need to find your son.” 

S: (no response) 

O1: “Wake up asshole or this is going to get a lot more…” 

S: “I don’t know where.” 

O1: “Keep going.”  

S: “He’s gone.” 

O1: “We are gonna need more than that.” 

O2: “Was he a difficult boy?” 

S: “What?” 

O2: “Troublesome. Costly. Always making things hard for you and Mary.” 

S: “Sure, he could be lively at times but, I wouldn’t call him ‘difficult.’” 

O2: “Maybe he did one little thing too many times and you disciplined him, just a little too hard. You panicked and hid him out back.” 

S: “What? I disciplined my boy, as any father should do but, not never like that.” 

O1: “I don’t think he’s getting it. We got you, an uncooperative and fleeing father of a missing child. One you and your lovely wife didn’t bother reporting as missing. Even without the body, who do you think the DA is going to point his finger at?” 

S: “If that is my part to play.” 

O1: “What? Jesus.” 

O2: “Are you a religious man, Adam?” 

S: “More than most ma’am. More than a woman wearing pants I imagine.” 

O2: “Baptist?” 

S: (grunts disgust) 

O2: “Really? We’ve heard of a certain congregation meeting in the woods, figured they’d be of the honest country type.” 

S: (uncomfortable in chair) 

O2: “Oh, so you do know about that? Do they have your son?” 

S: “My son?” 

O1: “Is ten years old. Did he Does he know what is going to happen to him? What you have set up for him.” 

S: “Our lives are too short, our powers too weak to effect any real change but through…” 

O2: “God?” 

S: “Ha! Yahweh! Ha! A powerless idol. His miracles only a small list of the Prime Mover’s abilities. Stolen titles and merits.” 

O1: “Are you a fucking Moslem or Hindu or some other bat shit crazy religion?” 

S: “All liars and thieves.” 

O2: “Your son. Is he alive?” 

S: “If I spoil it…” 

O2: “Spoil what?” 

S: “The ceremony. It’ll all be in vain.” 

O1: “It always was, where the fuck is he?” 

O2: (to O1) “Can you please.”  

O2: “Whatever your beliefs, whatever was supposed to happen, they do not need to use your son. Your only boy. Look at him. Look.” (gesturing to a photo of Shane Cooper) “You are his father, his protector. Let them have someone else. Let them have a non-believer’s child.” 

S: “My son. My boy. I thought I could. I thought myself strong enough. Can you get him back?” (sobbing) 

O2: “I need you to tell me everything you know about your congregation. Where they are meeting next, how many children they have taken, who is involved. How did this all start?” 

S: (sobbing) 

O2: “Adam?” 

S: “Chaos.” 

O2: “What about it?” 

S: “That is the start of everything. It’s coming for us all.” 

O1: “Let’s connect this noise with the questions. Where is the congregation meeting next?” 

S: “I don’t know where. They move.” 

O2: “Okay. Tell us something else. Who are they?” 

S: “Well, there is Reverend Toukosmos. He is the one leading our worship, our salvation. I don’t know his given name.” 

O1: “Any other members come to mind?” 

S: “We weren’t allowed to share our family names.” 

O1: “Given names then.” 

S: “There are many.” 

O2: “As many as you can give us, we will fill in the rest.” 

S: “The ones I know of, apart from myself, Mary and Justin. There’s Bill, Pierre, Florine, Kathy, Elizabeth, Thomas, Christopher, Tom, Danielle, Steven, Robert, Harvey, Nathan, Heather, Sophia, Jen, Mathew, Isabella, Alice, Shawn and Annabelle. There are many others but, those are all the ones I can remember.” 

O1: “Any other details? Ages? Professions?” 

S: “I guess average age.” 

O1: “What do you mean by that?” 

S: “I am not sure. Middle-aged, thirties, like me. A couple of them are younger, in their twenties but, most are in their thirties.” 

O1: “Any older than that?” 

S: “I do not know their names but, yes there are some.” 

O1: “How many in total?” 

S: “What?” 

O1: “How many are there, you and your wife, the Reverend and who else?” 

S: “I don’t know. Maybe fifty, maybe a hundred. It depends on what we needed to do.” 

O1: “Jesus. A hundred?” 

S: “Never all at once but, maybe that many, in total.” 

O2: “That’s good. How often did you all meet?” 

S: “It was every week, on Sunday but, after his visions we needed to move around. Once a month then.” 

O1: “How did you know when and where?” 

S: (no response) 

O2: “We can’t find your son without this.” 

S: “We would get a letter with the details. It would tell us when and where.” 

O2: “You are doing good Adam but we need more. You gave them your boy, forced by circumstance but how many other children have they taken?”  

S: “I don’t know.” 

O1: “You know nothing about the group’s involvement in kidnappings? Kidnappings that have been going on all around the State. We have five missing children just from your hometown of Winslow, this past month. You know how many go missing on average there? Annually, two. So, how did we go from two in a year to five in a month, in just this one shitty little town? Just Winslow?” 

S: (no response) 

O2: “There is also the other thirty-five missing kids from around the State. Also, taken just this last month.” 

O1: “And you know nothing? The man that willingly handed his own flesh and blood over to a group of pedophiles.” 

S: (no response) 

O2: “If you want your boy back, you need to give us something Adam. What have you seen?” 

S: “I’ve helped with four.” 

O1: “Helped do what?” 

S: “I drove.” 

O1: “You drove where?” 

S: “Around.” 

O1: “Listen shithead, who do you think we are? We are not playing around here. Give me real answers. You drove where, with who, to what end?” 

S: (no response) 

O1: “Alright, we’re done. We wish Shane the best as he fends for himself with the pack of wolves you’ve given him to.” 

O2: “Last chance.” 

S: “Around the towns. I drove with Justin and sometimes with my wife.” 

O1: “Justin Jackson, the same Justin you mentioned a minute ago, who also works at the mill?” 

S: “Yes.” 

O2: “And your wife, Mary Cooper?” 

S: “Yes.” 

O1: “Let’s go back to the act itself. You three drove around town nabbing kids?” 

S: “Yes.” 

O1: “Why those kids?” 

S: “I don’t know. We were told to grab them, told their names and ages.” 

O2: “Who gave you this information?” 

S: “The Reverend.” 

O2: “Toukosmos? Where did he get it?” 

S: “I don’t know.” 

O1: “How did you know where to look?” 

S: “What?” 

O1: “You were given a name and age by this Reverend of yours. How did you know where they lived or went to school?” 

S: “We were given their birth records?” 

O1: “What?” 

S: “Not the actual records but, the information from them.” 

O2: “Where did you get those from?” 

S: “From the Reverend.” 

O2: “You don’t know where he got them?” 

S: “No.” 

O1: “Never mind about that. Describe how the kidnappings worked.” 

S: “Excuse me?” 

O1: “How did you get the kids to go where you wanted them to go? Candies, puppies, threats?” 

S: “We didn’t threaten.” 

O2: “And we didn’t say you did Adam but, we do need to know how the children were taken.” 

S: (no response) 

O2: “You need to tell us now.” 

S: “We would show up at their address in the morning, getting a look at them, at the kids. Kind of doublechecking that they were the same as the records we had been given.” 

O1: “Did you take them then?” 

S: “No, we would leave them alone, go to work and come back in the afternoon.” 

O2: “After school had let out?” 

S: “Yes.” 

O1: “Why not just take them in the morning?” 

S: “Less time and more eyes.” 

O2: “What do you mean by that?” 

S: “More parents walk their children to school than walk them back home. Plus, if a child isn’t there for attendance, the parents will get a call, the police get involved more quickly that way.” 

O2: “That’s smart, you think of that?” 

S: “No. Reverend Toukosmos did.” 

O1: “So, in the afternoon, you drove back to their homes…” 

S: “Yes. We’d park a block away from them. One of us stays in the car, at the wheel.” 

O1: “That being you?” 

S: “Yes. I’d be at the wheel and the others would wait on the two corners. They would trail the child, till they were near the car. Someone would open the door and…” 

O2: “And…” 

S: “And the other would grab the child from behind and toss them in the car. We would drive away slowly, the Reverend had insisted.” 

O2: “What if they screamed?” 

S: “We had a cloth, to cover their mouth.” 

O1: “That’s fucking disgusting. You’re fucking disgusting.” 

O2: “It is an awful thing you have helped with Adam but, now you are setting it right. You are doing the right thing. Before we continue, let’s go over your statement thus far. You and your group, which has included both Justin Jackson and your wife Mary, was given a list of specific children to abduct by and for Reverend Toukosmos. Following his instructions and using the information he provided, you then kidnapped said children. That sound about right?” 

S: “Yes.” 

O1: “Then what did you do?” 

S: “After getting the children?” 

O1: “Yes, after you sick bastards threw them into your car.” 

S: “We brought them to the Reverend.” 

O2: “Okay, where was this?”  

S: “At the side of the road.” 

O2: “Damn it! A specific road?” 

S: “Specific?” 

O1: “Was it the same road every time? Asshole.” 

S: “No.” 

O2: “Fuck!” 

O1: “He’s playing with us.” (to O2) 

O2: “I don’t think so.” (to O1) 

O2: “What happened after that?” 

S: “The Reverend took them and put them in his car. I don’t know where he brought them after that.” 

O2: “What type of car does he have?” 

S: “It’s a Chevrolet. A De Luxe, I think.” 

O2: “Color?” 

S: “White but, with some rust showing through.” 

O2: “Any idea what year?” 

S: “No ma’am.” 

O1: “What the Hell is the Reverend doing with all of these kids?” 

S: “There is to be a ceremony.” 

O1: “They are gonna fucking kill the kids.” (to O2) 

O2: “Can you describe this ceremony in any detail?” 

S: “No, not really.” 

O2: “Describe it at all?” 

S: “We need those pure of blood. Those young enough to be without impure thoughts, before all of the hormones poison their flesh.” 

O2: “Okay but what for?” 

S: “I don’t know the details.” 

O1: “Don’t fuck around with us! What for?” 

S: “Only the Reverend knows.” 

O1: “If any of these kids are so much as thirsty, I will bury you. You fucking. I’ll end you.” 

O2: “Alright, enough. Do you have anything, else?” 

O1: “Not now, we can pull him out of the box later, need be.” 

O2: “Last thing, we need the names of those you had a part in abducting.” (shows handful of photos of missing children) “Recognize anyone?” 

S: (points at two photos, one boy and one girl) “Those two.” 

O2: “Do you know their names?” 

S: “Yes. That one is Justin LeRoux. And her, she’s Karen Williams.” 

O1: “No others? You said you and your group of perverts nabbed four kids. None of these others laid out here look familiar?” 

S: “Shane was the first, to prove myself worthy of bearing the weight of the cause.” 

O2: “Then Karen and Justin were second and third. Who was the fourth?” 

S: “You don’t have their photo here.” 

O1: “Name, asshole. Give us their name.” 

S: “It’s another girl, Lucy Longchamps. Down in Winthrop. She’s one.” 

O1: (tosses chair into wall)  

O2: (to O1) “No! Leave him! He needs to talk!” 

O1: “Talk then!” 

O2: “We’ve no reports of a missing one year old.” 

S: (no response) 

O2: “You need to tell us, right now, what happened.” 

S: “The mother was very loud.” 

O1: “No!” 

S: “She hit the ground too hard, with her head…we left her there.” 

O2: “Who struck her?” 

S: “I was driving.” 

O2: “Who struck her?” 

S: “Mary. Mary pushed her.” 

O2: “Your wife?” 

S: “I was driving.” 

O2: “When did this happen?” 

S: “Saturday.” 

O2: “This past Saturday? The third? You’ve seen your wife since you fled your home?” 

S: “The Reverend needed our help.” 

O2: “You mean he needed more children.” 

S: (no response) 

O2: “Adam, you did well to tell us this. We’re going to run through it, make some calls, check its validity. For right now, you are going into a cell for a few hours, before we transfer you back down to Augusta. That is unless you have anything else to share with us at the moment.” 

S: “There is nothing more to say.”