Don’t Say a Thing by Leitner Tamara

Author:Leitner, Tamara
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Published: 2023-06-01T00:00:00+00:00

February 1999

Investigative leads can come in all shapes and sizes. They can lead detectives directly to a suspect or they can be a waste of time, like getting lost down a rabbit hole. Margo remembered that she had typed up a registered sex offender flyer at work the week of the attack. The suspect lived in her neighborhood, but she couldn’t remember his name. She mentioned this to detectives the same day as the attack, and that got them thinking that their suspect might be a registered sex offender who had a history of molesting children.

Detective John Bell spent hours pulling together a list of sex offenders in the area, weeding out ones who didn’t match the physical description that Maggie had given. One guy in particular stuck out: Ryan Decker.* His registered address was just seven houses away from Maggie. But he had failed to register his current address as of several months prior.

The next day, Bell canvassed the neighborhood, going door to door and speaking with dozens of neighbors. He asked each one if anyone had seen anything suspicious or a man following a child. The neighbors’ accounts of what they deemed suspicious ran the gamut:

A thin white man who had never been seen before in the neighborhood.

A Black man with dreadlocks and baggy clothes.

An increase in traffic and people hanging out on the street over the last two weeks.

A suspicious green Mustang.

A suspicious white van.

An empty pop can in one yard that might have been tossed from a moving car.

After Bell canvassed the neighborhood, he pulled the only photo he could find of Decker—a full-body shot of him when he was released from prison. Normal-looking guy in a turquoise flannel, jeans, and work boots. He compiled a photo lineup with Decker and five other men who looked like him. When Maggie went through the pictures that night at 11:15 p.m., she didn’t see her attacker’s face. Exhausted from the trauma of the day, Maggie was spent.

The day after the attack, Margo kept her daughter home from school. They made a trip to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription. That’s when Maggie panicked. The man ahead of them in line had a similar hairstyle to the creep who had broken into their home.

Turns out, it wasn’t the guy, but that little scare was enough to make Margo realize her daughter was traumatized, and it was going to take time for her to move past this.

Two days after the attack, Maggie went back to school. But it wasn’t the same. It would never be the same for her. She didn’t feel safe there anymore. She told her best friend Linda that she was scared the man might show up at school and take her.

Meanwhile, Maciver kept trying to pinpoint a suspect.

When Newcomer’s phone rang, he was not surprised to hear from Maciver. The detectives talked often and bounced theories off each other.

“I’ve got this really strange case I want to run by you,” Maciver told him. He went on to explain what had happened to Maggie.

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