Page 67 of Asher's Assignment

Esther sat up at the note of interest in Jo’s voice. “What? Did you find something?”

“I think so. I’ll send you this. It looks like her name is Lindy Nieman.” More typing ensued, then, “Hmm… That’s interesting.”

“What is?” Jo was killing her with all the vague lead-ins.

“Her parents were murdered almost eleven years ago. She disappeared, and the police assumed that whoever killed them killed her too.”

A deep frown pulled Esther’s eyebrows down. “Whoa. They didn’t suspect her of doing it?”

“No, it doesn’t look like it. Hang on. I’m reading news articles on it.”

Esther huffed. She could do that.

Annoyed at being out of the loop, she typed “Nieman murders Pennsylvania” into her web browser and clicked on the first article that came up.

“This says they found blood from a third person at the scene. Lindy’s. Enough of it for the cops to think she’d been gravely injured.”

“Hence the theory she was killed too.” Esther skimmed her article. It didn’t mention the blood, but it talked about how the mail carrier found the bodies the next day. Apparently, the front door had been left a jar and there was blood smeared on the doorjamb.

“So, maybe she witnessed the murders, was wounded herself, and then ran?” Jo surmised. “This article says they dredged the lake behind her parents’ property for her body, but didn’t find it. Doesn’t mean it’s not there, though. If she was disoriented from blood loss, she could have stumbled right into it.”

“Maybe.” But Esther couldn’t help but think about how Rob Tyler wasn’t Leah’s biological father. Who was? Did that person have something to do with Lindy’s parents’ deaths? News articles weren’t going to tell her any of that. Detective Stroud wouldn’t like it, but she needed to talk to Connie.

“I’ll keep digging into this girl. See what else I can turn up,” Jo said. “Is there anything else you want me to look into?”

“Um, not now, no.”

“Okay. If you need me, call me at this number or send me a quick email. I might not answer the phone if I’m busy with something, but I will let you know right away that I got your message.”

“All right. Thank you, Jo. I appreciate it.”

“Of course. Asher’s my friend too. I want to find him as much as anyone.”

Esther highly doubted that. What she felt for Asher went far beyond friendship. So, unless Jo and Asher had a similar relationship in the past, Jo’s concern didn’t hold a candle to Esther’s. Her heart was bruised and bleeding. Every moment without him was another chunk of it being lopped off.

Clearing her throat, Esther tried to make herself sound not so depressed. “He’s lucky to have so many friends who care. I’ll let you know—or Audra will—if we need anything else.”

“Sounds good. Please keep me updated on things?”

“Of course.”

“Cheers, thanks. Bye.”

“Bye.” Esther hung up. Taking a moment to process the conversation, she stared blankly at her computer screen. A smiling Lindy Nieman stared back at her. Dressed in a yellow cap and gown, she was sandwiched between her parents. They looked like a quintessential happy family. Esther couldn’t help but wonder what went wrong. How did the parents end up murdered? Why did Lindy run?

She sat back, bringing the computer with her and balancing it on her thighs. Jo wouldn’t be the only one doing some digging.

Twenty-Nine

“You look like hell.”

Esther rolled her eyes and stepped back to admit her sister and her friends into the house. “Thanks, Edie. It’s good to see you too. Love you.”

“You know what I mean.” Edie answered Esther’s snarkiness with an eye roll of her own, then hugged her tight. “Did you sleep at all?” she asked as she let go.

“After I talked to you? No. I did a little before that, but only a couple of hours.” She glanced past her sister at Audra. “Your contact called. We made some headway.”

“Brilliant. Let us dump our stuff and we’ll go over things and come up with a plan, yeah?”

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