Vanished. Elizabeth Heiter
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was sitting too close to her in the CARD command post, his wide shoulders invading her personal space as he read the notes from Walter Wiggins’s interview over her shoulder. Why he needed to read them again when he’d been part of the interview team, she didn’t understand. It was probably to piss her off.
Evelyn shifted subtly away. “Walter talks repeatedly in this interview about how people in town follow him around wherever he goes.”
“Can you blame them?” Jack asked. “Everyone knows what he did. No one wants him here. But if we can’t get rid of him, we’re going to watch his every move.”
Evelyn raised her eyebrows pointedly, but Jack just stared back at her until she sighed. “If people are constantly watching him, could he really have stalked and then abducted Brittany without being noticed?”
“It’s not like we have some kind of schedule. The Nelsons follow him around from two to six, then the Grants take over, then...”
“Yeah, I get it,” Evelyn broke in. “But if people tend to be aware of him, could he actually pull this off? Think about it, okay? I know you don’t like him and I don’t blame you, but let’s not waste time on him if he’s not a viable suspect.”
Jack scowled, but he was silent for a minute before admitting, “He’d have to be really sneaky. If people saw him on High Street, they would’ve taken notice, you’re right. It’s not like, I don’t know, say if T.J. was walking down the street. Most people wouldn’t remember it, because he belongs. But Wiggins? Yeah, people would chase him off with sticks. And they’d definitely remember if they saw him around Brittany’s house close to when she was grabbed.”
“Okay, so...”
“But I’m not counting him out. I’ve been a cop a long time and experience tells me that coincidences like this are rare. I mean, we have one sex offender who likes girls the same age as Brittany and one man abducting them. What are the chances it’s not the same person?”
“Experience must also tell you that if you check the database, you probably have a couple more registered sex offenders in the area who also fit.”
Jack nodded. “Yeah, well, I got partnered with the CARD agent interviewing those particular scumbags, so believe me, I know. There’s a guy one town over who’s nonpreferential—he’ll screw anyone or anything and he’s been arrested for all of it and keeps getting out. And there are two more in the town where the first girl was abducted eighteen years ago who could fit, too. But all three of those assholes have pretty solid alibis for Brittany’s abduction.”
“Are you sure? Because the ones from the town where the first girl was abducted...”
“I’m positive,” Jack interrupted. “The alibis are airtight. So, let’s focus on Wiggins. I see your point, but this guy is slimy.”
Evelyn held in a sigh. Walter Wiggins seemed like a dead end to her, but if she dismissed him and turned out to be wrong, she’d hate herself for it later. “Okay. What might Walter do with Brittany if he abducted her? You said he lives with his father?”
Jack tapped his thick knuckles against the table, his brow furrowed. “Yeah, he does. But hell, who knows if he kept her at all, right?” His anger suddenly seemed to deflate, leaving him looking older than he was, and very tired. “If he just...you know, raped the girl and then buried her...” His voice broke.
Evelyn nodded, staring down at the interview notes again. “I’ll talk to Tomas about putting an officer on him. We might try interviewing his father, but if Brittany is still alive, we can’t spook him. If Walter is the perp and he feels too much pressure, he could kill her out of fear.”
“It doesn’t matter what we do. Wiggins is feeling pressure right now. The whole town knows what he is. His dad’s house has already been vandalized. Someone spray painted the words child killer and pervert all over the front door. No one was outside when we went to talk to Wiggins, but I could see the curtains moving on the neighbors’ houses. They’re all watching him.”
Evelyn tried to think positive. “Well, in some ways, that’s good. If he does have Brittany, that makes it harder for him to move her.”
“I guess.” Jack looked around the room.
The CARD command post was empty except for the two of them. Even Carly had gone, to meet with Noreen Abbott, the Rose Bay PD administrative assistant coordinating the search parties.
In fact, most of the station was empty. The cops who’d come in to hear her profile had cleared out. Those who hadn’t been on shift had headed home. Most of the others had gone back to canvassing neighborhoods.
She’d never get a better chance to clear the air with Jack. “So, Jack, why the animosity? I haven’t seen you since I left for college.”
Jack’s gaze shifted back to her, anger flickering in his deep brown eyes. “I don’t care what you do for the FBI, Evelyn. You don’t belong here and you know it. You never did.”
Evelyn instinctively leaned away from him, then stiffened her spine. “This is a race thing? Is that why you questioned me so hard eighteen years ago? Were you trying to make me cry?”
“No, it’s not about race,” Jack snarled, but the expression in his eyes said otherwise. “I don’t give a shit whatever mix you are. I questioned you hard because you were one of the last people to see her alive. It wasn’t about your precious little feelings. It was about bringing that girl home.”
He got to his feet, jabbing a finger at her. “And it’s the same now. Can you really tell me you’re impartial? Can you honestly profile this case? Or are you so jammed up with hatred and anger that you’re going to overlook something? So focused on Cassie Byers that you’re going to miss seeing what’s going on with Brittany Douglas?”
A vein started throbbing in the center of his forehead. “You’re here for Cassie, but she’s been dead for eighteen years and you damn well know it. You feel guilty because you were supposed to be a victim, too. But we need someone impartial. We need a real profiler here, not an intended victim coming home to play hero.”
He pounded a fist down on the table. “We need to catch this asshole!”
She swallowed hard, unable to form a reply, and then just watched him as he shook his head in disgust, and strode from the room.
She wasn’t trying to play hero. Finding Cassie meant finding Brittany, too. But damn, as nasty as Jack’s words were, he was half right. She could try to use the original abductions to tell her about the perp, but her focus needed to be on the girl missing now, not Cassie.
And for her, it was always going to come back to Cassie.
She pressed a hand to her temple. Maybe Jack had a point. Maybe she didn’t belong here.
Eighteen years ago, she sure as hell hadn’t. Eighteen years ago, everyone had stared at her as though she were some kind of curiosity with her light brown skin in a world of white. At the time, she’d been the only one living in town who didn’t fit.
Some people—like Cassie—hadn’t cared. But a lot of them had. Most were too well-mannered to be rude to her face, but even at ten, she’d heard the whispers. She hadn’t always known what they meant, but she’d known they were about her.
It had been twenty years since she’d first set foot in Rose Bay. The town had changed. But maybe not as much as she’d thought.
She was trying to rein in her emotions when Tomas raced into the room. “Where’s Jack?”
“He left a few minutes ago. Why?”
Tomas’s eyes narrowed, as if he could tell something was off with her, then he said, “I need him to get over to the hospital and talk to his favorite suspect.”
Evelyn stood. “Walter is at the hospital? Why?”
“Brittany Douglas’s