Page 40 of The Girl in the River

He jerked his head back with a stunned look. “Hell no. I told you he loved her more than anything. He even helped her launch her boutique.”

“Were there any issues with the business?” Derrick asked.

Kincaid tapped the paper clip on his desk. “Nah, Jesse was excited, got some write-ups in the local paper and Kevin said she was starting to sell well online through her website.” His chair squeaked as he leaned back in it. “After a few days we assumed she was dead. Then six weeks later a body washed up down near Byrne Hollow. At first we thought it was Jesse. Kevin was there holding his breath. The body was burned badly and already deteriorating from the elements. But she was wearing the wedding ring Kevin gave her.”

“But it wasn’t Jesse?”

“Nope. ME did an autopsy and said it was a woman named Stella Carnes. She died in a house fire but her body was donated to the Body Farm in Knoxville, Tennessee where students train in crime scene investigation.”

“Then what did you do?” Derrick asked.

“Decided she was either kidnapped or ran off. Kept the missing persons file active. But… it’s been five years, so again we assumed she was probably dead.”

Jesse could have been abducted five years ago, then escaped her kidnapper and gone into hiding. But who put her ring on the cadaver’s finger? If her abductor had and Jesse escaped, why wouldn’t she have gone to the police or come back to Kevin?

Unless she was running fromhim…

FIFTY

“Sheriff, we need to talk to Kevin Moon,” Ellie said. “Where can we find him?”

The big guy cut his eyes over Ellie. “Probably at the real estate agency he and his father own. Kev takes care of the sales, listing and mortgage side while his dad oversees the other businesses they support.”

“Then we’ll stop by there,” Ellie said.

Sheriff Kincaid’s ruddy cheeks flamed. “Now, I helped you. You gonna share what you think you know?”

Ellie and Derrick traded a look, then Ellie spoke. “Like I said, we think Jesse may have been living under an assumed name.”

His brows climbed his forehead. “Are you talking about that missing woman on the news, Mia Norman?”

“We are,” Ellie said.

“That woman didn’t look nothing like Jesse.”

Ellie couldn’t argue with that. But DNA didn’t lie. “She could have easily altered her appearance.”

“That still don’t make sense,” the sheriff said. “Jesse had a good life, a great job and Kevin. Why would she disappear and take on a new name? You think she was in trouble before she came to Red River Rock?”

“Good question,” Ellie said. “Did you look into that theory?”

The chair squeaked again as he shifted. “I did but didn’t find anything.” He leaned forward, eyes boring into Ellie. “Except Kevin’s dad told me she skimmed money from the boutique before she left. Maybe that was her plan all along. Then she set up a new identity so we wouldn’t find her and arrest her.”

Ellie pressed her lips together, shocked by the accusation. He painted Jesse as a calculating, cold-hearted thief. But stealing money didn’t fit with the Mia she knew. Then again, Ellie was finding out all kinds of things she didn’t know about her friend.

“We’ll definitely explore that angle,” Derrick said.

Ellie stood. “Thank you for your help, Sheriff.” Now she really wanted to talk to Kevin.

He clicked his teeth. “Sure enough. You let me know if you learn anything,” he said. “That family suffered a lot when Jesse disappeared. I’ll do whatever I have to do to bring them closure and protect them.”

Something about the way he worded that statement made the hair on the back of Ellie’s neck prickle. He definitely sounded loyal to the Moons. “What would you have to protect them from?” she asked.

He made a low sound of disgust. “Gossip. Accusations. Poor Kev was put through the ringer. You know how small towns are.”

She did indeed.

Gossip. Rumors. Secrets. Lies. Alliances.

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