Vanished. Elizabeth Heiter
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know. Darnell Conway would probably be noticed on High Street. But I need to check. And there’s only so much I can tell from a copy of a cold case file. I need to see Darnell’s face when I ask him about it.”
Jack gave her a pensive glance as he drove over the bridge separating Rose Bay from Treighton. Fifty feet below them, the water looked calm in the fading light. Peaceful.
That instantly transported her back to when she was ten and she’d first come to live in Rose Bay. Her grandpa’s car had been too warm as they drove over the bridge in the middle of the night. She’d kept quiet, knowing the heat was for her—wearing a pair of threadbare, tattered pajamas and no shoes. Her grandpa had tried so hard not to let her see his anger, his sadness, his guilt.
His weathered hand had folded around hers as they drove, as he’d promised her she’d never have to go back. She was going to live with him and Grandma from now on and they would take care of her. They would protect her.
She’d never been more sheltered than her first two years with her grandparents. But then Cassie had disappeared. And the world had seemed to slide out from under her again.
“...don’t you think?”
“What?”
Jack sent her a perturbed look and she saw that he was on his cell phone.
“Well, maybe you should try to get the dad to let you in the house now.” A pause. “He refused? You think he has something to hide?”
“What’s going on?” Evelyn asked.
“Okay. Fine. Bye.” When he hung up, Jack told her, “Wiggins woke up. He’s in pretty bad shape, though, so they’re keeping him in the hospital. Apparently he’s not too happy about it, but he doesn’t want to press charges against Brittany’s dad. Which is good. Shit like that—protecting the perverts and criminals—is not why I became a cop.”
“So Walter’s dad won’t let police search the house?”
“You got it. You think he knows the girl is there?”
Evelyn shook her head. “I doubt it. I know he wants to protect his son, but that’s taking it pretty far. I’ve seen the families of pedophiles do their best to deny what their kid is, even when the proof is staring them in the face. But to be complicit in the abduction? You know his dad better than I do, but that seems like a stretch.”
Jack nodded. “True. Though his dad’s in bad health these days. I doubt he can walk down those basement stairs anymore. Maybe in his heart he knows she’s there, but just doesn’t want to believe it?”
Evelyn felt her lips twist downward. “Unfortunately, that’s a real possibility.”
When Jack’s hands clutched the wheel so hard the muscles in his arms bunched, Evelyn added, “But honestly, I still have a real problem seeing Walter being able to stalk and abduct a girl here. He’s got motive, sure, but means and opportunity?”
“Well, he’s at the top of my list,” Jack said as he pulled onto a dark street. “And frankly, a black guy like Darnell Conway on High Street would get noticed, too, especially eighteen years ago. Isn’t that why you profiled the killer as white?”
Evelyn didn’t answer as she gazed out the window at Darnell’s neighborhood. The houses were small and close together, the yards overgrown; beware of dog signs were posted everywhere. Every house was in need of a coat of paint, most needed new roofs and every yard could have benefitted from an attempt to landscape. The sun was setting, making it hard to see, but Evelyn would bet there wasn’t a single flower on the entire street. From the broken plastic kid’s slide in the front yard of one house to the car without wheels up on cinder blocks in the next, the whole street was depressing.
The house Jack pulled up to was the best of the bunch by far. Darnell Conway might not have planted a garden, but he’d at least mowed his lawn. As they walked up to the front porch, they discovered he definitely believed in security. Next to Darnell’s beware of dog sign was a security company sign; the lock on the door meant business, and all the shades were blackout-style.
Jack raised his eyebrows. “Seems like he’s got something in here he wants to keep locked tight.”
Evelyn nodded, frowning. “I noticed that.”
“And judging by the lack of barking, I’m thinking most of those dog signs are for show.”
“It is pretty silent,” Evelyn agreed, glancing around. The kind of neighborhood where no one saw anything.
“Well, let’s see what he has to say.” Jack lifted his hand to knock on the door, but before he could, they heard bolts sliding back.
Three bolts slid free before the door swung open to reveal Darnell Conway. Evelyn knew he was in his late forties, but he looked younger, with smooth dark skin and close-cropped hair. It was only his deep brown eyes that showed his age. And something about the anger lurking in the depths of those eyes made the hair on the back of her neck stand straight up.
Was he the Nursery Rhyme Killer? Had he taken Cassie eighteen years ago? Had he stalked Evelyn, intending to grab her, too?
Did he recognize her now? It was hard to tell, because Jack reached in his pocket and held up his police shield, drawing Darnell’s instant attention.
It had been twenty years since Darnell had first been investigated by police, when he found the body of his girlfriend’s daughter. But as soon as he saw Jack’s badge, hatred and fury raced across his features, so fast that if she’d blinked at the wrong time, she would have missed it.
Judging by the way Jack’s eyes darted to hers, he hadn’t blinked, either. “Mr. Conway, I’m Jack Bullock, Rose Bay PD.”
“What are you doing in Treighton?” Darnell asked, his voice as smooth and even as his expression.
Jack motioned to her. “This is Evelyn Baine, FBI.”
Darnell’s eyebrows twitched, and then his lips did the same. “FBI, huh? Anything I can help you with?”
If her name meant anything to him, she couldn’t tell. Damn it.
“Can we come in?” Jack asked.
From what little Evelyn could see of the house behind Darnell, she realized the inside was a hell of a lot nicer than the outside. Not just clean and tidy, but expensive furnishings. So, why live in this neighborhood?
Darnell’s gaze flicked to Jack, then to her. “No.”
“We’re investigating the disappearance of Brittany Douglas,” Evelyn told him.
“Never heard of her.”
Jack scoffed. “Her abduction has been all over the news.”
“I drove up the coast for a few days. Got back yesterday.”
“She was abducted yesterday.”
Darnell’s eyes, hard and shuttered, settled on Jack. “Like I said, never heard of her.”
“She’s twelve years old,” Evelyn said.
Darnell didn’t blink, just stared at her.
“That’s only two years older than your girlfriend’s daughter was when she was killed.”
Darnell’s expression shifted into fury. “Are you implying something, agent?”
“You found her, didn’t you?”
“So what? I wasn’t arrested twenty years ago and there’s a damn good reason. I didn’t kill Kiki’s kid. Leave me alone and get the hell off my property!”
He slammed the door so hard Evelyn took an instinctive step back.
“That went well,” Jack said dryly. But as they got back into the car, he asked, “You think he did it?”
“I think we’d better