Page 79 of Cold Vengeance

“No, actually just the opposite. If you weren’t already sitting down, I’d tell you to.”

River frowned at him. “Okay, I’m intrigued. Tell me.”

“A doctor named Marnet in Illinois contacted the police.He had quite a story to tell them. Seems that about a year ago, a man he knew offered him a lot of money to accept his daughter into his small, private hospital for patients deemed mentally disturbed in a small town near Terre Haute. Since he was almost bankrupt because of his gambling debts, he accepted the deal. His instructions were to keep the girl sedated, unable to leave. But then one of his nurses helped the girl escape. The police are certain she’s the one who sent Nathan the notes telling him April needed help. Another man, someone working with the father, found them hiding in a motel. The girl was returned to the hospital, although the man who brought her back wanted the doctor to kill her. Give her an overdose. The father wouldn’t allow it. But when the nurse who’d tried to help the girl was found dead, Dr. Marnet decided he’d had enough. He called the police. When they arrived, they arrested the doctor and moved the girl to a hospital in St. Louis where she’s being monitored.”

River tried to blink away the tears that filled her eyes. “Please tell me you’re talking about April.”

Tony nodded. “Arnie was alerted, and he called Nathan, who’s on his way to the hospital.”

“Wow. That’s ... that’s amazing.” She frowned. “But why didn’t the nurse just call the police?”

“Seems she was afraid of the man working with April’s father. Afraid he would kill her if he found out she’d told anyone. Something else—when the police went through Porter’s house, they found his laptop. A quick look revealed that he was Lamont Cranston. They also found a note they think Jeffrey Bailey wrote saying he knew April’s login information for her podcast and that he’d shut it down. Since he cleaned out her apartment, my guess is he found it in that planner Nathan told us about.”

“Well, that makes sense,” River said.

“Porter was trying to shut April down from the beginning, afraid that she’d uncover his secret. Like you thought, he’s the one who struck and killed Cheryl Armitage. He hid the damage to his car by saying he’d hit a deer. No one followed up on him because he was a respected police detective. Seems he was drunk the night it happened and didn’t notice her. Cheryl must have seen him though. That’s why she whispered ‘three little piggies’ while she was dying. Porter and a couple of his cronies had encountered her before. I guess they weren’t very nice about it. That was her nickname for them. Once they found out Porter was dead, one of his old police buddies came forward with that information. Guess he was too afraid of Porter to say anything before.”

“You know, I just realized something else,” River said. “When I talked to Porter, he told me that Cheryl’s husband couldn’t have taken April because he was deadwhen April went missing.But I didn’t tell him when April disappeared. He knew because he was involved in her kidnapping. Another thing I missed.”

“Don’t beat yourself up about it,” Tony said. “I didn’t catch it either. We both assumed a respected detective wouldn’t be involved in something like that.” He shook his head. “Seems Porter was walking on the edge of a cliff, and he was afraid April was the one who would finally push him over.

“Something else about Jeffrey Bailey. Now that the police realize he was working with Vincent Porter, they’re going to look into April’s mother’s death again. The dream April had as a child about seeing a woman dead under a tree? They’re wondering if Porter actually killed her and then staged her death somewhere else. You remember that Jeffrey was cleared of her murder because he had an alibi?”

River nodded.

“If they can find something that connects Porter to her death, it could mean that Jeffrey really was behind it. I hate thinking thatApril may have to deal with something like that, but I believe she needs to know the truth.”

“I do too,” River said. “You said there were two things you needed to tell me. Was that the second thing?”

Tony chuckled. “It’s another story about someone in law enforcement. However, I can guarantee you’ll like this one a lot more. Not long ago, a woman who was having car trouble pulled over to the side of a road that wasn’t very well traveled out near Kimmswick. A man stopped and asked if he could help. Then he attacked her. Turns out the woman was an off-duty police officer. She took him down. Guy never stood a chance. When other officers arrived, they found a bag with silk dogwood flowers in his car.”

“Are you telling me that they caught the guy who killed Shelly Evans and Ted Piper?”

“Yeah, and because you noticed those flowers, they believe they’ll be able to tie him not only to their deaths, but also the others Arnie told us about,” Tony said.

“That’s incredible.”

“Doesn’t that mean that all of April’s cold cases are closed?” Tony asked.

“Yeah, except for the man whose body was found next to the railroad tracks. I wish we could have done something with that.”

“I do too, River, but to be honest, not all crimes are solved. This is one we’ll just have to walk away from.”

“I guess so.” She shrugged. “I can’t complain, I guess. I would like to know what happened to Jeffrey Bailey. It’s obvious he and Porter were connected and keeping each other’s secrets.”

“I’m convinced he’s dead, River. I think Porter killed him. Even though the police haven’t found his body yet, I’m sure they will.”

“Yeah, maybe,” River said. “But isn’t it possible he might have just taken off? Decided to run away?”

“Anything’s possible, I guess. Arnie said that in his own way, he cared about his daughter. He spent a lot of the money from April’s trust fund trying to keep her alive.”

River snorted. “Yeah, sure. Who keeps their daughter drugged up for months? Sorry, but Jeffrey Bailey deserves whatever he gets ... or got. I know I’m supposed to be compassionate toward people—remember that God loves them as much as He loves us. But sometimes it’s really hard.”

“Yes, it is.” Tony sighed.

“You okay?”

Tony shook his head. “No, I was thinking about Watson. Wondering if I should have brought him with us today. He’s been sticking close to me ever since the fire. I know he was traumatized by it.”

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