Page 24 of Her Dying Secret

“How about girlfriends? A wife?” Josie asked. “Has he been able to maintain any relationships?”

Rebecca smiled weakly. “My mother always said, ‘there’s a lid for every pot,’ so who knows. He brought a woman to our wedding. That was decades ago. I think her name was Debbie or maybe Deirdre. I’m not sure how long they were together, but we never saw her again and he only talked about her once after that. He told Jon he didn’t think it would work out between them because she wanted children and he didn’t. I do remember that he accused her of cheating on him with someone at our wedding even though she never left his side except to use the ladies’ room. One of Jon’s friends made him leave the moment he started causing a scene. It could have been so much worse.”

Josie let her tea steep, stomach turning. “You’re absolutely sure that Seth had no children and no access to children?”

“As sure as I can be,” Rebecca said. “I haven’t seen him since we moved here and took over the business. He used to come by our apartment in Denton’s central district back when we lived there, and I had an office. He never gave any indication that he had had children or had any cause to be around them. Like I said, he didn’t want them. Maybe he had a girlfriend who had children of her own? But he never talked about having a girlfriend and he was always alone. That said, he didn’t engage much with me. Jon would probably know more.”

Gretchen tapped her pen against her notepad. “I asked him while we were outside. He said the same. No kids, no girlfriends. Do you think there is any possibility that Seth would abduct a child? One that is not known to him?”

A look of horror flashed across Rebecca’s face. “No, no. Despite all of his issues, I can’t see Seth ever doing something like that.”

Yet, if Seth was the one who had attacked Mira Summers and Jane Doe earlier in the day, that meant he was capable of murder. In that case, it wasn’t a stretch to think him capable of kidnapping.

Josie said, “We can run an address search on Seth, but given what you’ve told us about his lifestyle, I’m guessing he might not be found at his address of record. Do you have any idea where we might find him?”

“I’m sorry, but no. Jon might?—”

“He doesn’t,” Gretchen said.

“Right,” Rebecca said. “We’ve never known where to find him. We’ve always just waited for him to show up and wreak havoc.”

SEVENTEEN

Josie dropped the receiver of her desk phone back into its cradle. Her chair creaked as she stood and massaged the stiff, aching muscles of her lower back. Three empty Komorrah’s cups were lined up on her desk. Despite the mass quantities of caffeine she’d ingested upon their return from Tranquil Trails, she still felt exhausted. Immediately after speaking with Rebecca, Josie and Gretchen had pulled up a copy of Seth Lee’s driver’s license on one of the mobile data terminals and found his address listed in a small town in Bucks County, about two hours east of Denton. Josie had called the local PD there and asked them to make contact with Seth.

“That was Officer Renee Simmons of the Doylestown Police Department. Seth Lee is not at his last known address, and the landlord says he hasn’t lived there for over three years. He never forwarded his mail, so they’ve got three years’ worth of it. Doesn’t remember Seth that well—if he ever had kids with him or anything—but said he was the only person on the lease.”

Across the room, Gretchen affixed a copy of the child’s drawing they’d found clutched in Jane Doe’s hand to the huge rolling corkboard the Chief had purchased the year before. She turned toward Josie, brushing the remnants of two pecan croissants from her chest. “Why doesn’t that surprise me? How about the sedan registered in his name?”

“It wasn’t there either,” Josie answered. “And we can’t put out a BOLO for the car or for Seth Lee unless we can connect him to the crime scene. Just because he was at that produce stand last year doesn’t mean he was there today.”

“True.” Gretchen picked up a copy of the back of the drawing and hung it.

HELP

The letters were a taunt and a challenge, and eerily at odds with the cheery flower above them. Gretchen sifted through the documents on her desk and came up with another piece of paper which she pinned to the corkboard. This was an enlarged copy of Seth Lee’s driver’s license. It hadn’t been lost on either one of them that he had a commercial driver’s license, which meant that he could legally drive a box truck or any other commercial vehicle.

Piercing blue eyes stared at them from the photo, which, according to DMV records, was three years old. The resemblance to his brother was there but it was minimal. Seth had a stronger, sharper jawline. His dark hair was thick and wavy with fewer gray hairs than Jon. He was definitely more striking than his older brother. Except for the hint of menace in the flat line of his mouth, he was attractive. It wasn’t a stretch to think that as a younger man he might have caught the eye of many women. The question was whether or not those women had stuck around once his disorder became obvious to them—and had any of them had children? Or had he kidnapped a child who had no relation to him at all? Although they could check for any missing children in the state, without more information on the child with Seth, they wouldn’t be able to determine whether or not he’d abducted someone.

“We could try the hospital again,” Josie suggested.

They’d gone there once after leaving Tranquil Trails to ask Mira about Seth Lee, but she’d been sleeping and the medical staff were adamant about them leaving her alone until morning. Apparently, she had become hysterical after being admitted to the ward, and it had taken them hours to get her to calm down.

Instead, Josie and Gretchen returned to the stationhouse to finish their reports and prepare additional warrants; one for the geofence and two for Mira Summers’s phone. The first warrant was a ‘power up’ warrant that gave them permission to plug the phone into their GrayKey device in order to access its contents. Law enforcement used GrayKey to unlock cell phones even if they were password-protected or turned off. The second warrant allowed them to search the contents they downloaded. Since Summers had a concussion, Josie wasn’t comfortable getting her consent to search her phone. It would take longer to access it with warrants, but if it held critical information, there would be no questions about how that evidence was obtained.

Gretchen started hanging up printouts from Google Maps, slowly forming a picture of the area between the expansive Tranquil Trails property and the scene of the accident. “I know it’s after midnight, but I’m pretty sure when the nurse said tomorrow, she meant the part of the morning with daylight. Besides, it might be better to gather more information about this guy before we talk with Mira.”

Josie picked up the nearest coffee cup and took the lid off, hoping for some dregs. There was nothing. “Seth’s prints are in AFIS from his various felony trespassing arrests.” The charges from all of which had been dismissed. Josie wondered if Jon Lee had footed the bill for Seth to have good attorneys—and whether Rebecca was aware. “If Hummel can match any of the prints he pulls from the murder weapon to Seth, we won’t need confirmation from Mira that he was at the scene.”

“Exactly,” Gretchen agreed. “Although if Seth is our suspect, we’ll still need to figure out the connection between him and Mira and him and Jane Doe. For that, we’d have to start with Mira.”

“One thing at a time,” Josie murmured. She reached past the coffee cups and picked up a small sheaf of copy paper. “By the way, I ran both the Lees’ names. Rebecca’s got no priors and no warrants. Jon Lee was convicted of simple assault eleven years ago. He spent nine months in prison before being released for good behavior. He was on probation for two years after that. There were a slew of other misdemeanor charges, but they were dropped.”

“Really?” Gretchen turned away from the board to gawk at Josie. “Were you able to get any details?”

Josie edged around her desk, moving toward the corkboard. She was momentarily distracted by the drawing. What was the drawing supposed to be? Was it really an eye? Where was the child now?

“Josie?” Gretchen prompted.

---