Someone who knew the area well enough to make a snap decision and get away with it. Confident. Quick. Maybe he’d gotten another child in the same area before. Evie felt a surge of interest at that idea… not the first time he’d grabbed a child, not the first time from a hotel along the Interstate. Maybe if they looked at those towns within driving distance of the hotel, going back a few years, they might find another footprint pointing to this same perp.
She wrote, Not the first abduction from a hotel along this Interstate for this guy. Where else? When? She underlined the idea so hard, her pen nearly went through the paper. Had someone pursued this possibility or was it a fresh idea? Maybe they had given it only a cursory glance, not gone far enough back in time. Forward in time would be worth checking too, she realized. He successfully snatches this girl and feels lucky, so then after a few years, why not take another one along the same stretch of freeway? Maybe the piece of the puzzle she was looking for was more in the present, in the years since the girl went missing.
Evie tuned back into the conversation. Gabriel was saying, “… a lot of calls came in. She’s a pretty child, there were numerous sightings on interstates all around the Midwest, but none panned out as Ashley Dayton. Without a lead on a vehicle, all the police activity on the roads couldn’t stop this guy from slipping through and away. To cover the bases we did a systematic search of every campground and state park in the county, to see if her abductor sat tight, waiting for the police and public interest to fade before he moved on, but we didn’t find any leads.
“What else?” Gabriel said, more to himself than the room. “This case was highlighted on the ‘help us solve this crime’ TV shows during the second and third years, and that generated more leads on blue-eyed blondes, but again, not this child. The parents still live in Florida. They have two other daughters now. They call every year on the anniversary of Ashley’s abduction to see if there’s anything new, but they mostly gave up hope after about three years.”
“In abduction cases,” Ann mentioned, her voice grim, “most often the child is dead within a day. An alarming number are dead within four hours.”
Evie had heard that stat before, but it always caused a pang to hear it again.
Gabriel studied the crime wall. “So how do we approach it, Ann? Go back to those we can place at the hotel, the gas station? One of them is most likely the abductor or saw who was. But we’ve focused there before without success.”
Evie was studying the photos on the wall. “Maybe it was someone eating at a restaurant nearby,” she said before Ann could reply. She pointed at a photo. “There’s a Denny’s and a Pizza Hut and what looks like an Italian restaurant. They would still be open that time of night. Someone eating at a restaurant or walking across a parking lot could have looked over at the station-it’s well-lit-and seen the girl.”
Gabriel slid forward in his chair. “An interesting idea,” he said, and Evie could tell by his tone that he liked it. “I know video was collected from any business in the area that had security cameras, but I don’t think receipts were pulled.”
“It’s going to be hard to track down names without credit-card receipts,” Evie agreed, “but some diners inevitably would go over to see what was going on at the hotel, check out the gathered cop cars. Locals would remember who else was in the restaurant that night. It’s the kind of excitement you remember even a dozen years later. You’ve talked about it with friends, speculated on the crime, followed the news. Locate a few spectators’ names from cop notebooks, and we can push out from there, see what people remember.”
Gabriel nodded. “Make a note, and let’s pursue it.”
Evie picked up her pen and did so.
A phone beeped a text alert, and Evie glanced at hers, not sure whose it was. Ann scanned hers, typed a quick reply, and pocketed her phone again. “Is the door locked?” she asked.
Evie glanced at the door, surprised by the question. “Yes.”
“It’s a good idea, Evie,” Ann said quietly. “But it won’t be necessary.” She opened her briefcase, removed a manila envelope, picked up a roll of tape and walked over to the crime wall. She visibly took a deep breath, let it out, then tore a piece of tape from the roll.
Ann taped a picture of Grace Arnett, age six, beside the photo of Ashley Dayton, also age six. “Any questions?”
The similarities were heart-stopping, though after a second look, clearly two different girls. Evie was so startled that for a moment she stopped breathing. She saw both Gabriel and Caleb go still. The silence in the room was palpable.
Ann wiped the heel of a hand across her eyes. She turned and held Gabriel’s gaze first, then looked at Caleb. Evie felt herself prepared when Ann looked at her. She understood now why Ann had arranged for Carin County to be the first county, why this case was one of those being worked, why Ann had made sure she was here for Grace.
Ann taped up another photo. “Grace’s uncle, Kevin Arnett, was an age-and-gender-specific pedophile who likely killed Grace’s parents to gain legal guardianship of her. Grace was a blue-eyed, blond two-year-old when he first saw her. Her parents disappeared three days later. Kevin molested Grace from age six to twelve. When she hit puberty and wasn’t as attractive to him anymore, he grabbed Ashley Dayton to recreate his six-year-old perfect princess. It’s probable he killed Ashley that same day. The child is likely buried on the uncle’s land.”
Evie agreed with the whispered word from Caleb. She looked over at Gabriel, his face now gray with shock. Grace would have been at school with the Thane brothers, likely attended the same church. This was a girl they all knew well.
“Ann,” Gabriel said softly, “when…?” He didn’t need to finish the question.
Ann was visibly in pain when she sighed and said, “Grace told me the specifics of the abuse two years ago. I knew as soon as she described what had happened to her that this Dayton case had its answer.
“Grace doesn’t know about this child, and it’s too soon for her to learn of this. She’s still coping with her own history. Knowing her uncle abducted, raped, and killed a child because he didn’t want Grace anymore-something she was relieved about at the time because her abuse was over-is going to devastate her all over again. She’s not ready to deal with this child’s death. She’ll blame herself.”
Evie had met Grace once at Ann’s, remembered a woman in her twenties with a quiet poise, knew the friendship with her went back years. The fine line Ann had been walking was the kind of thing any friend would struggle with, but an officer of the law more than most, with the needs of the living and the dead colliding. Ann could no longer help the child who was gone, couldn’t arrest the uncle who was dead, and so she’d done what she could to help the living victim.
Evie watched the silent communication between Gabriel and Ann, their attention locked in a rich conversation without words. She felt a faint envy at the many years and shared experiences underlying that friendship. Ann would need his support, and Gabriel was offering it.
“Why has Grace come back?” Gabriel asked Ann.
“She doesn’t know about this missing child, but Grace is trying to deal with what she does suspect. She just asked Josh to help her search her uncle’s property for human remains. She’s looking for her parents.”