Page 27 of Only Girl Alive

Eve left the team and walked to the front lobby of the hotel. An East Indian woman worked the desk with her husband. She spoke heavily accented English.

“Are you aware of the murders that happened two days ago?” Eve asked with the proper amount of curiosity and decorum.

“Yes, I heard they died. Very sad,” she said. “Very sad for the little girl who lost her family.” The woman appeared to be in her fifties, a few inches shorter than Eve. She wore a bright-colored gown that represented her heritage. Eve thought it beautiful. It could not be easy for them to live here. The fundamentalist church would consider them abominations sent by the devil simply because of their dark skin.

“I’m trying to find the young girl,” Eve told her. “Do you know where her aunt lives? She is taking care of the child.”

“You are investigating, yes?” the woman asked.

“I am. Any help you could give would be useful.” Eve smiled hopefully.

The woman made a phone call and spoke briefly to someone, asking about Hannah. She smiled after she disconnected.

“I’ll write it down,” she said. She handed a piece of paper to Eve when she was done.

If this hadn’t worked, Eve would have asked at the convenience store a few blocks away. The last resort would have been getting the address from Aaron. He was blocking their investigation and she couldn’t trust him at any juncture from here on out. She knew he was aware of the horrors that happened inside the Tanner home. The church had to be protected at all costs and Aaron was, at the very least, guilty of the silence that allowed the abuse to happen.

“Take Collin with you,” Clyde said after she returned to the room and shared the information.

He was right: Collin needed to accompany her. With his Mormon affiliation, he was their best bet for cooperation from Mr. Wall.

They’d discussed their chances of having Hannah removed from the home. Family Services would need to be called in. It would take all night and they might not take custody. This was a delicate situation with the church and the law was not clear-cut.

Hundreds of children had been forcibly removed from their parents in Texas when the atrocities of the fundamentalist prophet became clear. The removal was horrendous for the children and, like the rest of the nation, Eve watched it unfold on national television. Most of the children should never have been taken away, but at the time it was a tough call. The secrecy in the church meant federal officers had no idea the extent of the child molestations. Utah took note of what happened in Texas. They were unlikely to remove if Eve could not show a clear and present danger. Hannah was with family and the county attorney who would carry weight in Family Services’ decision was not on Eve’s side. They decided to try and make contact themselves.

The home was fifteen minutes from the hotel and a little over a mile from the crime scene. Collin parked the SUV in front of the block wall. The house was the largest in the immediate area, three times the size of the Tanners’ and even larger than the homes on quarter-acre lots around it.

It was after eight and there were no outside lights turned on. They used the headlamps from the SUV to see their way through the gate of the courtyard. Eve noticed a glow from two second-floor windows that she hadn’t been able to see from where they had parked behind the outer wall. Collin activated his flashlight. The front of the home was almost identical to the Tanners’ except this one had a separate garage to the right of the entry.

Eve knocked on the door. No one answered and after a full minute, she did it again. They waited. It required a third knock.

The man who finally answered was dressed in slacks and shirtsleeves. Howard Wall was unattractive, tall, and thin, much like their prophet. She didn’t know his age but he appeared to be in his late forties. She knew he was younger than Bart. His pitted face was stark and angular. As a middle-aged man of the fundamentalist church, his looks would not concern him. Wives were assigned based on what God told the prophet, which was dictated by the amount of money a man handed over each month.

“What do you want?” he demanded angrily.

For now, Eve put aside the fact Aaron had lied to her about Mr. Wall being out of town.

“Mr. Wall,” Collin began after Eve stepped back slightly. “I’m Detective Smith and this is Detective Bennet with the state’s special task force. We need to speak with Hannah,” Collin said with authority.

Eve was not someone the man before them would respect and she had to let Collin handle this. Mr. Wall stood straighter, his shoulders squaring. He quickly gazed at her, his expression reflecting exactly what he thought, and turned back to Collin.

“No one will be speaking to that child,” he ground out.

Eve took note of the words, that child. It was another oddity she would add to the list. Children belonged to God. After the prophet was in prison for a year, he gave the command to kill every family pet. The men of the church took their dogs and cats into the street and executed them. If the prophet said God wanted the children in heaven with him, the men would gather the children and do the exact same thing. That was how their sick minds worked.

“We have reason to believe she’s in danger. We’re not leaving without speaking to her,” Collin insisted.

“The child is sleeping.” He looked at Eve again and placed his right hand on the doorframe, blocking them completely.

Collin didn’t back down. “A visual would work.”

Eve watched Mr. Wall closely. Something about him made her skin crawl. It could have been the revulsion he showed when he looked at her. For a moment he seemed to be considering Collin’s request.

“No!” He forcefully slammed the door in their faces.

“I need to call Aaron,” Eve said after they returned to the vehicle.

Her phone chimed and she looked down. Speak of the devil. Call me, the text said.