Page 132 of We Are All Guilty Here

Emmy said, “Dale never mentioned a trip out of town.”

“Walton went out of town,” Jude said.

Emmy was already shaking her head. “Bridgeport, West Virginia, is a 1,400-mile round-trip from North Falls. Virgil matched the odometer on the rental car receipt. Then, just to be sure, I had Homeland Security check all the flight manifests around the country on those dates to see if Walton Hubert Huntsinger’s name was on any of them. It wasn’t. Then, there’s this—”

Jude turned back to the monitor. Emmy used Google Earth to find the American Legion building in Bridgeport, West Virginia. She clicked to expand the street view.

Emmy said, “This is the same building as the one behind Walton in the selfie on his phone. And the metadata from the jpeg gives the same location. He was definitely in West Virginia.”

“Okay.” Jude took off her glasses, asking Emmy, “What’s your gut saying?”

“That Dale and Adam were working together.”

“What’s your reasoning?”

Emmy held up her hand and counted off the points. “We know that Adam had contact with both girls. He was seen smoking weed with Madison. He admitted to you this morning that he got oral off Cheyenne. We know that someone was producing child pornography. We know that Cheyenne had child porn of herself in her locker. We know that Dale collected child pornography. We know that he looked at the illicit photo of Cheyenne and didn’t blink. We know that he did a psychopathic deep clean of his wife’s Audi at five thirty in the morning.”

“That’s persuasive, but not definitive,” Jude said. “We need to figure out where Dale went in the Audi.”

“Esther’s dead, so we can’t ask her, and the sister in Carrolton refuses to talk to us. Wants to keep the past in the past, she says.” Emmy was looking at the mileage calculations on the whiteboard. “That’s about ten hours of driving round-trip.Madison was kept somewhere for at least twelve hours. But why would Dale drive her that far away, then bring her back and chain her body to Cheyenne’s, then leave them both in Millie’s pond?”

Jude’s earlier bad feeling came roaring back. “He could’ve taken her to someone. A customer, maybe.”

“Like, sold her?” Cole asked.

“Maybe,” Jude said. “That could explain the photos in Cheyenne’s locker. The girls were both probably tricked into posing for them. They would have no idea they were being offered for trafficking.”

Emmy covered her mouth with her hands. She was clearly thinking about the last twelve hours of Madison’s life. She disappeared into the kitchenette before Cole could see the tears streaming down her face.

Jude knew better than to go after her. She asked Cole, “Do you know how to plot out travel distance from a center point?”

“You mean can I tell you all the towns that are within 345 miles of North Falls? Yes, ma’am.” Cole sat down at the laptop. “Maps and mistakes, right?”

“Maybe.” It was hard for Jude not to pick up on his enthusiasm. It was also hard for her not to remember the many times she’d been in this situation before. “One step at a time, sweetheart. We’re still in a marathon, not a sprint.”

Emmy’s phone vibrated on the table.

Jude watched the Caller ID scroll across the screen—

CLIFTON CO SHERIFF DISPATCH

Emmy came back into the conference room. She was dry-eyed as she tapped the phone to answer. “Marla, you’re on speaker.”

“Chief.” Anxiety infused the word. “Adam Huntsinger called into nine-one-one. He’s demanding to speak to you.”

Emmy’s brow furrowed. “Is Brett still tailing him?”

“Yes, ma’am. Brett’s last check-in was outside the Huntsinger house five minutes ago. I’ve got his cruiser on GPS set up fifty yards down from their driveway.”

“Check on Brett and put Adam through to my phone.”

“Transferring now, chief.”

A series of low tones played through the phone’s speaker, then there was the phlegmy sound of heavy breathing.

Emmy’s chest rose and fell as she took a quick breath. “Mr. Huntsinger, this is Chief Clifton. What can I do for you?”

“You can go fuck yourself,” Adam hissed. His words were slurred. He’d clearly helped himself to more in the hours since Jude had left the bar. “What the fuck, lady? What’d I ever do to you?”

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