Page 97 of Everything She Feared

“You okay with that, Carl?”

Benton looked up from scrolling on his phone.

“I’m okay with it.”

“Good. Stay the course, hang in there,” Acker said.

At their desk, Pierce searched her computer for contact information and called Gilbert Croft. She gave him a brief explanation on the investigation into the death at Sparrow Song Park and set up a time to visit him at his home in Issaquah. Then she called Marilyn Hamilton and arranged to meet her later.

Upon ending the call, she noticed Benton sitting across from her, leaning forward, elbows on his knees, talking softly into his phone.

Allowing him privacy, Pierce got her bag and the new frame she’d purchased at Walmart. She opened her drawer to the glass-framed photo of Webb and Ethan she’d broken earlier in the week. The new frame was a plastic rounded poster frame. It held a paper stock photo of a little girl in a bright yellow raincoat holding a rainbow-colored umbrella and splashing in puddles with her blue rubber boots.

Pierce smiled at it, then removed the stock photo and tossed it in her drawer, intending to put it in recycling later. When she inserted the photo of Webb and Ethan, a pang of guilt shuddered through Pierce. She’d been working longer hours than usual, and she missed them. Softly she touched the restored picture, then placed it on her desk.

Benton ended his call, stared at his feet and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Ensuring no one was near, Pierce said: “Bad news?”

“No news. Still waiting on the latest test results.”

“Carl, did you tell Art about Elizabeth?”

“No, no one outside our family knows, except you.”

“It might help if you let Art know.”

“I’ll think about it.”

Pierce nodded with a warm smile. Before she could say anything more, Benton said: “Right, let’s get busy.”

44

Seattle, Washington

Finishing his take-outfish and chips on a bench at Alki Beach Park, Ryan took in the view as gulls glided in the salt air.

Puget Sound, the Olympic Mountains, freighters, ferries, Seattle’s skyline and the Space Needle.

Nothing had panned out yet. Not the coffee shop in Redmond, the drugstore in Tacoma or the diner. For now it had come down to a waiting game.

He sought a measure of optimism in the fact he’d sent off another DNA sample. He hadn’t received the results of the others. These things took time. His heart sank a little. Could he realistically expect different results after so many years of strikeouts? After all these years, and all the cities he’d searched, would he find the answers here?

Or am I chasing ghosts in the wind?

Back at his apartment, Ryan made coffee and settled in to work, doing what he always did to recover from a setback.

He reviewed his research material.

Deciding this time to study Magda and her husband’s downfall, he opened a folder on his laptop labeledMAGDA ARRESTED.

It had the videos that had been recorded in the FBI’s office in Billings, Montana. He’d obtained them with the help of court clerks.

The first started with Magda in a barren room with cinderblock walls. She was wearing orange jail clothes, sitting in handcuffs at a table across from a man and woman in business attire, FBI Special Agents Joe Avelar and Erin West.

They informed Magda everything was being recorded.

“You don’t have to answer our questions,” West said. “Anything you say can be used against you. And you’re entitled to have a lawyer at any time. But first, we’d like to talk. Is that okay? Do you agree to talk to us first?”

Magda remained silent.

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