Page 43 of Kept in the Dark

The shock of that revelation was soon followed by worry as he realized he didn’t know the first thing about teenagers or parenting. He had no idea how to talk to Trinity, how to discipline her, or even how to take care of her. About the only thing he knew how to do was love her. He just hoped that would be enough for now.

But somehow, none of that mattered. He had a daughter with the woman he loved. A daughter who was beautiful and sassy and full of life. A daughter he loved more than life itself despite having just met her.

He was still livid with Hailey for not telling him about Trinity. The fact that she had kept him from his daughter for thirteen years both pained and angered him. Though both emotions seemed to be fighting for center stage, it was pain that overtook him at the moment.

Even still, he wanted to understand where Hailey was coming from. If he didn’t, he feared he’d grow to resent her.

He tried to put himself in her shoes as an eighteen-year-old who just found out she was pregnant only to have the father of her child break things off, followed by the loss of her mother and the arrest of her sister. He couldn’t blame her for not initially telling him, but she should have told him after things calmed down. She owed it to him and Trinity.

And as much as he wanted to stew over past hurts and old scars, it wouldn't help them. It especially wouldn’t help Trinity. There was a lot that he and Hailey needed to discuss, but becoming a family was all that mattered, whether as a couple or as co-parents.

But for the moment, he needed to bring his focus back to Morgan’s case.

While at Genevieve’s, one of his deputies texted to tell him they’d tracked down the clerk who was at the corner store the night Morgan was killed. Apparently, the guy still worked there so Trey was heading over to interview him.

Trey walked into the store, welcoming the cool air. The Florida heat was brutal despite the rain clouds that were rolling in. He could hardly walk from the car to a building without soaking his t-shirt in sweat.

A woman was checking out at the counter, so he browsed the aisles until she was finished. Trey snagged a pack of sunflower seeds, some boiled peanuts, and a sweet tea and brought them up to the clerk.

“Are you Arthur Reed?” Trey asked.

“That’s me. You the police chief who’s ‘posed to talk to me?” He sounded as if he smoked ten packs of cigarettes a day. The man yanked a handkerchief from the pocket of his plaid button down and wiped his bald head, sunspots covering his wrinkled hands.

“Yes, sir. I need to ask you about something that occurred about thirteen years ago.”

The man scanned the items for Trey and placed them in a bag. “That's a long time ago. I can't promise I’ll be much help.” He glanced at the cash register. “$5.50.”

Trey pulled out his wallet and handed the man some cash. “Thirteen years ago, there was a group of teens who had been parked in your lot. There were four of them and they were pretty drunk.”

“Oh yeah, I ‘member them. I was getting ready to close and I didn’t want to get into no trouble if somethin’ happened, so I told ‘em to leave. One of ‘em girls, she was blonde, stuck her head out the window and threw up all over my parking lot.” The man shook his head, still irritated. Trey assumed he was talking about Sara as Donna had black hair.

Trey nodded, confirming they were talking about the same group of kids. “Do you remember what time that was?”

“It would have been around ten-thirty or so because that’s when I close.”

“Did they leave right away?”

The man shook his head. “Naw, they stayed about thirty more minutes before I told ‘em I'd call the cops. After that, they squealed outta here.”

So, Sara was innocent.

What the hell happened with this case?

Trey asked the man a few more standard questions before leaving the store. Then he walked back to his truck where he quickly blasted the air. Trey drove back to the station to catch up on paperwork and touch base with the crime scene techs investigating Nicole’s case.

The whole situation was curious now that there was a connection between Nicole House and Morgan Gallagher. It definitely could be a coincidence, but Trey wasn’t so sure.

It also opened up the possibility of Ryan being a suspect in one or both murders. Ryan always had it out for the Gallagher twins when they were younger, and at the time, Trey never understood why. But after finding out Ryan’s paternity, it made sense that Ryan would hate them if he knew David was his father. The twins were flaunted by the man while Ryan had been banished to the shadows.

The question was: had Ryan known David was his father and, if he did, how angry was he about it? Could it have caused him to lash out at Morgan? Or even Nicole?

At this point, Nicole could be a suspect. If she became tired of being the mistress, she could have killed Morgan in hopes that David would marry her, and her disappearance could have nothing to do with Morgan’s murder.

Could the two crimes be connected by more than just a tangled web of lies, deceit, and lust? Could the same person have killed both women? The timing was especially odd, with Sara getting out of prison.

It was all theories, but it opened up a lot of doors for both cases and added new players that weren't even a thought before. He wasn't sure what to make of it all.

Trey shook his head as he turned into his parking spot at the station. A few days ago, he was giving long talks to teenagers about graffitiing old buildings. Now he had a thirteen-year-old closed case that needed to be reopened and a missing woman who was loosely connected to that case.

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