Page 47 of Secrets Along the Shore
“What?” Reuben frowned.
“You said it has to be someone who knows me. Or at leastofme.But really, the only people Iknow” —it was almost traumatizing to admit it— “are the people I work with. And Livia. The pool of people around me is small, Reuben. And . . . there’s a chance they’ve figured out I’m looking for them.”
Don’t letit be Toby, don’t let it be Toby.
Reuben had turned my phone in to see if the text message could be traced. In the meantime, I knew he was humoring me. He pulled up what records he could on my coworkers and while he did, I sat beside him on a swivel chair tapping my foot.
“You said Archer’s didn’t service the three homes?”
“No, but we did service Lilian and Rosalie’s.”
Reuben sniffed. “So your theory is someone you work with serviced their homes, cased them, abducted them, and somehow did the same with Sophia.”
I nodded.
“You should write fiction,” he mumbled.
It wasn’t a bad idea. But then, the truth was stranger than fiction, they always said. So why not now too?
“Toby Jackson.” Reuben paused as Toby’s image flashed on his screen.
“He’s been arrested before?” My voice ended in a squeak.
“Two DUI’s.”
“That fits.” I hated to say it, but I knew Toby was no sweet tea drinker.
“Family background . . . I guess there’s a little bit in here on his file.” Reuben let his words hang as he searched. “Parents divorced. Three sisters and a brother. Nothing of importance to note.”
“He doesn’t fit the profile,” I said, relief mixing with my words. “And,” I held up my finger, “I remember now. He doesn’t even like snakes. There was one outside under his truck a year or two ago and he came running in like a little kid on his tiptoes.”
It was the first time I’d truly laughed in weeks.
Reuben assessed me. “You and he have a thing or something?”
“Toby and I?” I laughed again, but it was one of those nervous laughs that almost sounded contrived. I don’t know why I felt guilty under Reuben’s stare, but I did. “No. He’s almost old enough to be my dad.” I didn’t expound on it. The fact that I had any affection for Toby sort of surprised me. I was relieved he was able to drop off my personal suspect list before he ever made it on.
Reuben gave a short nod.
For the next half an hour we went through the employees that I could think of. Most of them didn’t have records outside of a speeding ticket, so there wasn’t much to go on. That is, except for Elsie. I was quite impressed that her rap sheet included a high-speed chase from police in 1972. I had a feeling she’d been a wild thing back in the day. A lot of this info I could have searched on my own. Wisconsin had a circuit court database that was public and with a little ingenuity, you could essentially do your own generalized background checks.
“Here’s another employee in the system.” Reuben tapped the eraser end of a pencil against his monitor. “Jesse Layson.”
“Jesse?”
He worked on the chimney sweep crew. He gave off the essential Mary Poppins chimney sweep vibes with his lanky form and knobby knees. I was hard pressed to see him as an offender.
“He might fit the profile. He has a few speeding tickets, a juvenile record for vandalism.”
“What about his family situation?” I prodded.
Reuben glanced at me. “We’d have to investigate further.”
“So aside from Elsie, who’s an obvious no, our only potential suspect from Archer’s would be Jesse.” My conclusion left me relieved.
“You know we’re looking at this backward,” Reuben stated. “If you wanted to do this right, we’d need to know who was on the crew who serviced Lilian and Rosalie’s homes.”
“I can look when I get to work tomorrow.”
