Chapter 15
Amy had been pursuing the schoolteacher’s murder in Waterloo, Iowa. In September of 1962, Zane had broken into the apartment of Sharon Weiss and Donna Meyers, both schoolteachers at a local elementary school. Only Donna was home at the time. When Sharon got home he was still there, having raped and killed Donna. He then raped and beat Sharon, leaving her for dead. She recovered and moved away immediately. Her whereabouts was unknown. Amy was trying to hunt her down to see if she’d be willing to discuss what had happened.
Initially, she hadn’t had any luck. Insisting this was a very important family matter, a school district clerk had called and told her about a retired teacher still living in town who had worked with both Sharon and Donna - Miss Carla Crosley. Amy found a phone number for her and called. An elderly and pleasant sounding voice answered.
“Hello?”
“Miss Crosley?”
“Yes, this is Miss Crosley, can I help you?”
Amy explained who she was and what she was trying to do. Miss Crosley told her she hadn’t heard from Sharon for over five years, but the last she knew she had moved to St. Louis, Missouri.
Amy asked her if she had gotten married and could possibly have a different last name now. Carla told her the last correspondence she had still had Weiss on it.
There was one other thing though, “I know she had a daughter. She sent me a couple of pictures and wrote about her a few times, then it just stopped. That was the last I heard from her.”
“Miss Crosley, have you tried to get in touch with her since?”
“Yes, but the letters are always returned…I guess she moved. I have no idea where she might be now, I’m sorry.”
“No, thank you. You’ve been a great help.”
“There’s something else Ms. Rogers.”
“Yes?”
“I think her daughter is mentally handicapped. At least it looked like that in the pictures.”
“Thanks again, Miss Crosley.”
It had been over a week and Jonathan had not heard back from Mike Hansen. He was torn, should he call or just keep waiting? He talked to Amy about it, and they decided waiting was probably the best choice. Jonathan would give him another week.
Amy was unable to find a Sharon Weiss in St. Louis. She’d apparently moved. At one of their earlier confabs, Jonathan had shown Amy how to follow up on finding people. As he said, “they always leave tracks, you just have to know where to look.”
She’d start with the St. Louis school system and hoped to hit pay dirt. It would take a few days and some persistent hounding, but eventually they came up with some helpful information. Sharon Weiss had, in fact, taught in the system, but had quit a little over five years ago. They didn’t know where she went in the main administration office, but someone did tell Amy, she’d taught at Washington Elementary. The principle at Washington was new, but told Amy there was one teacher who had worked with Sharon, that was still there, Gail Gordon. She found a listing for a Gail Gordon and called.
“Hello.”
“Yes is this the Gail Gordon who teaches at Washington Elementary?”
“Yes.”
Amy could tell by the response, she must have sounded like a telemarketer. She immediately clarified who she was and why she was calling. Gail told her Sharon had moved away about five years ago, to Joplin, Missouri to get away from the big city. She’d had a few problems with her daughter, and thought maybe a smaller town would be helpful. To her knowledge she was still living there.
Amy checked information and bingo, there she was. She hesitated to call, thought better of it and waited to talk to Jonathan. There was something here, and she felt it was better to discuss it with him first.
While waiting for Mike Hansen to call, Jonathan had actually found time to get back to his novel. It had been so long, he had to start reading from the beginning to find the story line. Once there, it began to flow. He’d missed it, all this sleuth work had taken him away from what he truly enjoyed – writing.
He was feeling it, the rhythm, the passion. The phone rang; it was Amy. She had good news, and a peculiar feeling. There was no turning her down, she was on her way. Oh well, he thought, I guess I can get back to this later…uh huh.
It felt like he’d just hung up the phone, when she rang the buzzer. She was excited, but cautiously so.
“What’s up?” he asked.
“I don’t know exactly. You know I’ve been trying to find Sharon Weiss…well I found her.”
“Great, what’s the problem?”
“That’s it, I don’t know. There’s just something strange about this, call it intuition. But I feel like there’s more here than meets the eye.”
“What? Why do you think that?”
“Well let’s start at the beginning. She’s raped and left for dead in Waterloo, then immediately vanishes and winds up in St. Louis. This is also the first time we know she has a daughter, who may be mentally challenged. She’s there a few years, has trouble with her daughter and moves to Joplin.”
“Yeah, so, maybe she was looking for that small town feeling again. After all, Joplin ain’t Nawlins,” he said, trying to add a little humor.
“Hey, I’m serious. There’s something weird here. I can’t put my finger on it, but something’s not kosher.”
Jonathan got up and went to the kitchen to make coffee. As he reached for the pot, a chill ran down his spine. My God, he thought, that’s Jack Zane’s daughter. He raped her, she became pregnant, then ran away and is still running today. Hurriedly he ran back to the living room, “Amy,” he stopped dead in his tracks. She was sitting on the couch with her head in her hands, sobbing…she knew.
She looked up tearfully and said, “The daughter’s his, isn’t she.” Jonathan sat down beside her, put his arm around her, “Yes, maybe…I don’t know.”
“The poor woman is running from something she can’t ever get away from,” Amy said, heartsick.
“Yeah, I guess so.” Jonathan got up to get her some tissue. “You know Amy, you and I have read about and talked to people who’ve encountered this man…but to bare his child…I can’t imagine.”
She wiped away the tears, “Well, what are we going to do? I mean here she is trying to run and hide, and now we’re going to… expose her? I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I can do that.”
He knew it would happen eventually, the moral dilemma, he just didn’t see it happening this way, with Zane’s child.
He sat down on the couch next to Amy, “You know we’re still guessing here. We don’t know for a fact that he fathered a child, we’re just supposing.”
She looked at him with fiery eyes, “Oh come on, you know damn well that’s his child. You’re just hoping it isn’t so it doesn’t put you between a rock and a hard place, having to make a moral decision.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I guess I wish there were some way to deal with this, you know, help her.”
“Oh, I think we can help her…let’s leave her alone.” Amy’s tone wasn’t quite as caustic.
Jonathan decided discretion was the better part of valor and left it alone. But in the back of his mind, he couldn’t help but wonder if there wasn’t some way to broach this. He’d let it percolate in his mind for a while.
The call finally came. It was early evening when the phone rang, “Hi, this is Jonathan.”
“Mr. Smyth, its Mike Hansen.”
Jonathan was stunned and hoped it would be good news.
“Yes, Mike, how are you? Thanks for calling me back.”
“I’m fine. Sorry, it took a little longer than I thought, but this is a pretty important decision for us.”
“Yes, it certainly is. Believe me I understand, and whatever you’ve decided is fine with me,” Jonathan said, still hoping for the best.
Mike sounded different, less apprehensive, resolute. “We’ve decided to go forward with this.”
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Jonathan could hardly believe it. He was dead sure they wouldn’t. It was hard to contain his excitement.
“Oh, wow, that’s good news. I was afraid you…can I ask why?”
“Of course, I would expect you to. We came at this from every conceivable angle. In the end we decided it was best to deal with it now. If you hadn’t come forward, someone else would have, it was just a matter of time. Katy’s ten, the same age I was when it happened, and right now we think the impact would be less damaging than later. She’s still in a fantasy world to a great extent, which is probably what helped me when it happened. At that age, you don’t know all the ramifications of something like that, so you don’t dwell on it.
“We also think it’s important to let people know how the victims deal with it, and continue to deal with it over time, because it might just help future victims. Don’t worry, we’re not kidding ourselves, we know they’ll be some garbage that goes along with this, the press, curiosity seekers and the like, but we just feel the end justifies the means.”
Jonathan was very impressed with the logic, and fortitude. There were probably a lot of people in Billings who had no idea what Mike had been through. With him coming forward, that would all change.
It’s one thing to be a hero for doing good deeds, it’s quite another to be looked at as a survivor of an unspeakable crime. People envy heroes; they usually feel pity for survivors. They can’t help it, they’re just glad it happened to somebody else. But, Mike was a survivor and a proud man with what seemed like a wonderful family. If anyone could handle it, he could.
They talked on for a few more minutes, Jonathan telling him he would make immediate arrangements to get to Billings. He would arrive on September 18th.
Jonathan had re-addressed the Sharon Weiss issue with Amy. Amy was adamant about leaving her alone. Jonathan, however, decided to call her and see what happened. He promised Amy, if Sharon was reluctant at all, he’d drop it. The next evening he made the call.
“Hello.”
“Yes, Sharon Weiss?” he asked apprehensively.
“Uh huh.”
He was hoping she’d hang on long enough to hear him out…she didn’t. As soon as he said he was a writer doing a book on Jack Zane, all he heard at the other end was a dial tone.
He didn’t blame her, she’d been trying to escape this all her adult life. And every day she had to look at her daughter and be reminded of what had happened. Maybe Amy was right, just let it be. But Jonathan thought, if this woman could vent all this pent up anger, hostility and resentment, she’d be all the better for it.
He’d give it one more try – he’d write her a letter. It had worked before so…maybe. He wrote it, explaining what he was doing, and how it might just help her, and mailed it before he left for Billings.