Page 15 of Fragments of the Past

“Not the bottom. But not on top. I used the bathroom Pearl used. I hadn’t wanted her to find it.”

My curiosity is piqued. I know the Turners have a master bathroom. Who hadn’t Harvey wanted to find the towel with his jiz? Was it Pearl… or Susan?

“Thanks for your continued cooperation, Mr. Turner. If there is anything else, I’ll let you know.” I hang up the phone.

Aside from a crime going unsolved, something doesn’t feel right. There are pieces that don’t fit together, and I don’t know if pursuing Turner is a wild goose chase.

“Hey, you ready?” Chaim taps me on the shoulder.

“Yeah,uh, no. Rain check on me. I need to—” I flash a finger at my laptop.

“I get it.” Chaim backs away with a “been there” attitude. “Don’t stay too late.”

“I won’t. In the morning, I need your expertise on a search warrant.”

“You have probable cause?”

“Exigent circumstances. Destruction of Evidence.” Reasonable suspicion aside, I want the wording spot on so that I can be there when the town removes the wishing well.

“Type it up and send it over. Sure you don’t want a beer? I’m still buying.”

“I’m sure.”

I spend the next hour tracking down Ellen Wainstraw, Pearl Tatton’s best friend from middle school. She agrees to meet me.

“Did Pearl ever give you the impression that she was afraid of Mr. Turner?” I ask Ellen the following day.

Ellen’s lower jaw juts out, her teeth scraping her upper lip. I patiently wait for her to speak. “I don’t think I thought she was afraid of him, but she didn’t like that Susan was having a relationship with him.”

“Did Pearl tell her mother she didn’t want her mother dating him?”

“I guess her mom knew. Susan stopped seeing Harvey for a while.”

“How long?”

Ellen exhales. “Six months? Maybe more. It was a long time ago, but I don’t remember not knowing Pearl didn’t want Harvey around. She didn’t like him even before her dad died.”

“Was she afraid of him?” I rephrase the question, trying a second time. I hate to lead anyone to conclusions, but I suspect from Ellen’s first answer that she hadn’t realized her best friend might have had something to fear. “Can you recall a situation where Pearl expressed any apprehension about being left alone with Mr. Turner?”

“Not one situation. A lot of them.” Ellen looks to the sky. “You know all the Pinewood State news coverage, detective?”

“Of course.” If the station weren’t abuzz with my co-workers keeping abreast with the developments as the perp went to trial, the news reports would have been hard to miss.

“My sorority sister was one of the victims.” Ellen glances down, her cheek pulls in. The young woman tears up.

“I’m sorry to hear that. Is your friend getting the help she needs?” I have contacts I’m glad to offer.

“Yes, she is. Thank you. It’s been a rough road for her. I—ugh, I’ve never known anyone who was assaulted, raped, or… I don’t know, I thought I didn’t.”

“Now you aren’t sure.”

“We were twelve. Like when I got my first period and my mom had to have the talk with me... I was still trying to wrap my head around adults doingthat. That my parents would do that. A man doing those things to a kid? It just never crossed my mind. I never thought the reason Pearl had anything against her dad’s business partner was because he’d, you know, done those kinds of things to her.”

“But since the Pinewood State rape trial, you can’t stop thinking he could have.”

Ellen nods, her lips twist. She dabs her eyes with her sleeve. “It was so hard for my sorority sister and we weren’t kids. Her soul was crushed, and it affects everything she wants to do for the rest of her life.”

She covers her face, composing herself. “How could that happen to a little girl? What kind of monster would do that to his friend’s daughter? To the child of a woman he was dating? I feel like I have to be wrong about it, Detective Ames. That Pearl would have told me. Flat out told me why she hated Harvey. We were best friends. I would have kept her secret.”

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