Dear reader,
Invisible Prey written by John Sandford involves many characters that are all linked together in multiple murders made by Jane and Leslie Widdler; a married couple looking to get rich off stolen antiques. They started with the killing of Jacob Toms; an old man with a house full of very expensive antiques, and a few years later went after another elderly lady by the name of Claire Donaldson. They continued their great, invisible robbery by murdering Constance Bucher. The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension couldn’t put two and two together because of the unique way of how each victim didn’t relate in any way, other than being in a quilting club and donating rare and famous Armstrong quilts to museums to get a large amount of money from tax returns. Lucas Davenport; the investigator of this crime and who was also on the Burt Kline case of accusing this Republican man for raping a sixteen year old girl, Jesse Barth, started to figure things out.
As the Widdlers worked harder and harder to keep their secrets hidden, they ended up killing Marilyn and Gabriella Coombs to prevent them from knowing too much. All of these murders in a short period of time pressured Lucas to find the killer; causing him to look deeper into it and investigate Amity Anderson, a girl who was somehow linked to all of the murders. She used to work for Bucher before her death and she lived only a few miles away from Marilyn Coomb’s house. She was also involved with the quilting club and the Armstrong quilts. Jane was starting to get worried that Amity would tell all and her and her husband would be sent to jail, so she made a plan to distract the BCA. She got the information from Amity that Lucas was also working on that second case, giving her the idea to mess with the people involved with Burt Kline. Leslie and her followed Jesse Barth home one day, Leslie jumped out of the van they were in and attempted murder, but the dog that Jesse was walking with attacked him. This caused them to be even more precautious and made more complications, though it did get Lucas to worry more on the Kline case in some ways. He continued to speak with Amity Anderson and go through files and paper work until he connected the evidence with the Widdlers. Jane knew when Lucas had found out and acknowledged that she had to take action.
Jane met with Amity secretly, without Leslie knowing, and talked about the new plan that was set. She was going to give Amity the map to the place where all the expensive antiques were hidden and let her take whatever she may want; she could then continue with her dream and move to Italy with all that money. Amity was quite alright with this plan, except for the parts that she didn’t know about. Jane went home, manipulated Leslie into thinking it was necessary to kill Lucas to prevent him from telling the rest of the BCA and getting them put away. The two of them sat outside Davenport’s house one night with the idea that Leslie was going to shoot Lucas as soon as he stepped outside. Instead, Jane shot Leslie in the head and set up the scene to imply that Leslie committed suicide. Jane then led the BCA to believe that Amity was the murderer. Since a person cannot be arrested with reasonable doubt, shifts to watch Amity took place for the next few days until they followed her to the country house with all the antiques. Catching her in the act, Lucas and his friend were going to arrest her, but they still had reasonable doubt. Lucy Coombs, the mother of her now dead daughter, Gabriella, became a part of the investigation and made a “secret” appointment to meet with Jane for a business meeting about the Armstrong quilts. Surprisingly, Jane tried to shoot Lucy to get out of the trade they were going to make, and Lucy, in return, shoots her in the head out of pure revenge for her daughter.
The theme ties into the story with Jane and Leslie’s crimes being hidden in the beginning for a couple years with the first murder of Jacob Toms. They thought that the BCA wouldn’t catch on if they murdered and robbed another widowed elder, Amity Anderson and Marilyn Coombs started to suspect that something was going on, causing them to kill even more to keep their secret from being exposed. Thinking that they had this whole scheme under control and kept, it eventually unraveled and everybody found out the crimes they committed, no matter how tricky and complicated they made their crimes seem. They portrayed that nothing can be hidden forever.
(Dial tone)
Amity Anderson
Jane Widdler: Hey, Amity. It’s Jane. We need to talk about things.
Amity: Okay. Is this about that Lucas Davenport guy?
Jane: In a way. Just listen; you already know everything. I’ve got a plan though.
Amity: A plan for what? Oh, please Jane, don’t get me involved into this any more than I already am. I just want to move to Italy
Jane: Amity, we just need you to do one more, simple thing. All you have to do is take some of the antiques. We need them moved from my house to the country home. You’ll have to pick me up at that coffee shop that we met at before; I don’t want Leslie knowing anything. You know how he gets when he’s all worked up.
Amity: Uhmm… I don’t know Jane. Don’t you think that the BCA will get suspicious if they see us driving somewhere together? They already have the watch team keeping track of me. They follow me everywhere. I see them in their cars even though they are unmarked.
Jane: Well, you didn’t let me finish. We will be in the car together, and since they are watching you, they will think we are up to something and get all of their guys to follow us, leaving Leslie alone at home. He already knows we have to move the stuff so he’s taking the van and only moving the big paintings, since those are the stolen antiques that the BCA are concentrated on the most.
Amity: Okay; just as long as I get my share.
Jane: You’ll get it right after we get Lucas off our case.
Amity: I don’t understand how any of this is going to get them to stop pursuing.
Jane: They will see the white van that they have been trying to track and pull it over after they see the pictures inside the van. Then they will arrest Leslie for all of the crimes, seeing that he is the one with the antiques.
Amity: You’re going to frame your own husband?!
Jane: Some things are necessary.
Amity: What time?
Jane: About nine thirty, just when it’s getting dark.
Amity: I’ll be there.
Lucas Davenport: And so will I. Thank you ladies.
“If you reveal your secrets to the wind you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.” ~ Kahlil Gibran
Dear Burt,
I am sorry for lying to everyone. I never thought it would lead to what it did. I now know it was very wrong to tell everyone you raped me. My mom and I just thought it was a good way to blackmail you into giving us money to not tell the police these lies. I never would have imagined that it would go as far as being a court issue or even cost you your republican place in the government. I wish I had used my brain and realized that I couldn’t keep this a lie forever. If it makes you feel any better, it was completely humiliating to stand up to the jury and tell them that I lied, and that it was my entire fault that you were in this mess. I am ridiculously sorry. I don’t expect you to forgive me, just know I apologize.
Jesse .
“Secrets are made to be found out with time.” ~ Charles Sandford
(Gabriella Coombs)
Being so much more of a giver than a taker, my grandmother wouldn’t except these flowers and sentimental belongings we shower her in today. She was so caring and generous to everyone, even the random strangers she accompanied on the streets. One of her largest acts of sharing was when she donated an Armstrong quilt to the Walker museum for the whole community to see; but not just the population of Minnesota, but the entire world. The quilt was a rare, historical piece of evidence that was worth a bunch of money at the time. The fact that she donated it made the motion of pure kindness even greater.
This amazing woman did everything for anybody she could. I often think back to a few months ago when I was going through a really rough time in my life, and I just needed someone to help me get back on track. I was a complete wreck; I lost my job, my home, all my friends, I was struggling with money and I didn’t have anybody to turn to. I carried on like that for quite some time; it felt like I was finally able to get my head above the harsh waters when she rescued me. She probably saved my life. It is such a tragedy that I was not able to return the favor and save hers.
I think it would bring her great justice and peace to reveal what happened on that heartbreaking day of her death. A man by the name Leslie Widdler and his wife, Jane, were invited into her house to have cookies and talk over a number of subjects. No one really knows for sure of the reason why, but Jane and Leslie murdered my grandmother in her own house, and then set up the scene to make it look as if she just fell down the stairs in an unfortunate way. They kept this lie going on for weeks, lying straight to the police the whole time, but I had my suspicions. I can now say with pleasure that their secret it out for everyone to know, and they both got what they deserved in the end. My grandmother can now rest in peace, as so can I. She will be dearly missed.
“When a secret is revealed, it is the fault of the man who confided it” ~ French Proverb
reflection
The phone conversation:
The phone conversation was between Jane Widdler and Amity Anderson, with Lucas Davenport listening in. Jane called to tell Amity about another secret plan she came up with to get the attention from the police off of her. Lucas had the phone tapped so he could keep track of who she was contacting; he got lucky and heard her whole plan, along with all with some of the secrets she had been keeping. I chose this genre because it was a great way to resemble that things cannot always be hidden, because there are always ways for others to find out. I found this to be the easiest genre out of the other three; it wasn’t very challenging to make dialogue.
The eulogy:
Gabriella Coombs spoke about the death of her grandmother, Marilyn Coombs. She had been killed by Jane and Leslie and Gabriella knew about it. She told how her death happened in the end of the eulogy, describing every step that Jane and Leslie took to kill her. It was important because not everyone knew what really happened; some people only had suspicions. This genre was fairly easy to create because I have heard eulogies before and know the gist of what is said in them. It reveals my theme through Gabriella telling the secret of Jane and Leslie after their death, showing another way that secrets can escape. I had some difficulty with figuring out who was going to be speaking the eulogy because most people by the end of the book are dead, so this genre would have taken place sometime in the past.
The apology letter:
Written by Jesse Barth to Burt Kline, she apologized about putting him through a rough time with a lie she had told to blackmail him. She almost cost him his job and got him into a lot of political trouble, but Burt had never actually done anything. This genre does an excellent job at representing my theme because the girl lied and kept the truth hidden, but in the end, all of the secrets came out and she had to apologize for it all. It was another very easy genre to do. I didn’t have any difficulties with it.
The quilt collage:
The quilt goes along with a huge part of the book; the Armstrong quilts. They were mentioned often throughout the story and played a great part in the mystery of finding out the murderers. The quilt pattern doesn’t have any real meaning, but the hidden word in it resembles the theme. It was hidden pretty well, and is hard to find but it is still in there, visible and will not always be hidden, because someone could easily find it if they looked hard enough. I had a lot of trouble with putting the pictures together but it all worked out in the end.
Google. 3/26/11. <http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&biw=1040&bih=892&q=quilt+sqaures&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=>.
ThinkExist. 2010. 3/26/11. <http://thinkexist.com/quotations/secrets/>.
