Leo's Chance(67)

When I touch down in San Diego, I head to the rental car counter and am quickly in a car, pulling out of the lot. I Googled the police station while I was waiting and so I dial the number now. After being switched around to several lines, I’m connected to a Detective Peterson.

"Detective, this is Jake Madsen. Lauren Madsen is my mother. I got a message from her that she’s been arrested–"

"Yes, Mr. Madsen," he says solemnly. "I’m the lead detective responsible for the sting operation that led to your mother’s arrest."

"Sting?" I ask incredulously, laughing a humorless laugh. "That sounds serious. I thought she might’ve had a few too many glasses of wine and got in her car."

"No, Mr. Madsen. I can’t really give you any more information over the phone, but if you’re close by, I’d be happy to meet with you now and explain the details of your mother’s case."

I pause. "Actually, I am. I don’t live in town anymore but I happen to be here today. I can head there now if that works for you." What is this about? Do I even care? No, not about Lauren. But curiosity has the best of me now. Plus, what if this somehow affects the court case she has against me?

"Right now is fine." He tells me he’s at police headquarters at the moment, and gives me directions and we hang up.

I call my office and tell them I’m going to be a little later than I thought and head to meet Detective Peterson. What the hell can this be about? A sting operation? The only sting operations I’ve ever heard of are drug related, or those ones I’ve seen on Dateline where the reporter surprises the guy who’s set up a date with the underage girl he met online – the steering wheel jerks in my hands and I veer a little too far over into the lane next to me, an angry horn blaring and jolting me back to myself. A cold dread settles over me. Oh, f*ck. No. No way. No f*cking way. It couldn’t be, could it? I blank my mind and drive the rest of the way to the police station.

When I get there, I ask for Detective Peterson at the front desk and after five minutes, a tall, middle aged man with thinning blond hair and tired looking eyes comes out and shakes my hand.

"Mr. Madsen. I’m sorry to be meeting you under these circumstances. Please, follow me. There’s an empty office back this way."

I nod and follow him through the station, thinking that I was lucky to avoid this place on many occasions during my teenage years, but not for lack of trying. All the underaged drinking, driving with way too many drinks in me, stupid, stupid f*ck up. I feel the shame spearing through me at the brief flashes of memory.

He shows me into a drab little office on the far side of the station, the bright blue California sky outside the one small window a startling contrast to the dull box we’re sitting in.

He sits down behind his desk and I take a seat on the brown vinyl chair in front of it. There’s the famous poster of the kitten with the "Hang in There" tagline. Something about it strikes me as funny and I almost laugh, but catch myself.

"Mr. Madsen, your mother was arrested yesterday in a sting operation that was set up to catch her arranging a sexual liaison with an underage boy. The charges against her are Enticing a Minor for Sex and Traveling to Meet a Minor for Sexual Purposes."

Everything around me seems to close in until the only thing I see is a bright point of light. I close my eyes very briefly, gathering myself, and attempting to bring my racing heartbeat under control.

I take a deep breath and open my eyes as Detective Peterson goes on, "Mr. Madsen, I'm very sorry to have to give you this news. I know this is your mother we're talking about." He pauses briefly before continuing. "This must come as a shock and I can imagine that it’s very, very upsetting. But you have to understand that this type of offender is very good at keeping their secret. And most often, women don’t only show interest in teenage boys. Often they’re married, have children of their own… It’s common that people who know them, even those who know them best of all, are still shocked when they find out what they’ve been doing."

I run my hand through my hair and Detective Peterson continues, "We work with a psychologist who helps us out on many of the personal crimes involving a sexual element. If you’re interested in talking to him about this, I can put you in touch. He’s an expert on the subject. He could shed some light. Sometimes that helps."

I nod, but only for show. I’m already educated on the subject. Unfortunately.

I remain quiet, Detective Peterson studying me as I gather my thoughts. "So she just happened upon this website where you had set up a sting?"

He studies me again for a minute. "No. Actually an anonymous tipster let us know that these conversations were occurring between an older woman and underage boys. We can only imagine that it’s someone who knows Mrs. Madsen as they were able to identify her by name, and they had specific information about her online activity. She was having sexually inappropriate conversations with up to five boys, ages thirteen to sixteen. We were lucky that this person knew precisely what information we’d need, to look into the conversations that were occurring. Once we verified the information, we contacted the boys involved and their parents, and then one of our officers posed online as one of the teens and arranged the meeting. Once she was arrested, we seized her phone and computer, and found all the evidence we need to prosecute, not only for the crimes she was arrested for, but for child pornography found on her hard drive as well."