Page 56 of The Girl in the River

Ellie was surprised he hadn’t seen it. He usually basked in the media attention. “Short. Can’t report too much at this time. How’s Mandy doing?”

“Better,” he said with a small smile. “She’s starting to see her friends again. And she calls me sometimes.”

“Good,” Ellie said. “Even if she doesn’t act like it, she needs you, Bryce. Every girl needs her father.” She saw Pixie’s face in her mind and hesitated. Pixie loved Mark like a father. But if Kevin Moon was her birth father, would she live with him? And how would that affect the little girl?

A sheepish look crossed Bryce’s face, and Ellie smiled. Bryce had come a long way from his drinking days.

Ellie laid the folder containing the photos they’d assembled on the table. Her boss tapped his watch to indicate they should start and Ellie crossed the room. First, she tacked Mia Norman’s picture on the whiteboard and wrote her name below it. Everyone in the room knew what had happened but sometimes laying it all out triggered something to click in their minds.

“Our case started with the disappearance of Mia Norman on her wedding day. There were signs of a struggle in the brides’ dressing room.” She added the crime scene images. “I found her four-year-old daughter Pixie locked in the bathroom, leaving us to believe that either Mia locked her inside to keep her safe, or if Mia was abducted, that her kidnapper did.”

“Did Pixie see anything?” Shondra asked.

“No,” Ellie said. “She was pretty upset and heard a man’s voice but didn’t recognize it.” Next, she added pictures of Mia’s house. “When Special Agent Fox and I went to Mia’s house, it had been ransacked. Most interestingly, photographs of Mia and Mark had been destroyed.”

Bryce lifted a finger. “Do you think Mark destroyed them out of rage because she left him at the altar?”

Ellie breathed out. “That is a possibility, I suppose. But I was with him when he saw the place and he seemed stunned. He’s also a model citizen and teacher in the community. At this point, he’s not high on the suspect list.”

She paused, then added a photo of Tori James. “While we searched the resort for Mia, Ranger McCord found the body of Mia’s maid of honor in the river.” Crime photos of the scene and Tori’s bloody body went up next. “She was shot in the back, suggesting she was running from her attacker. We questioned Mia’s fiancé, Mark Wade, and Tori’s husband, Liam James, who both appeared devastated. They were together all day so we’ve eliminated them as persons of interest.”

She tensed, another thought striking her. Mark may have seemed genuinely shocked at the possibility that Mia had lied about Pixie’s father, but what if he’d discovered that fact prior to the wedding? That would have been motive for him to call off the wedding or to hurt Mia.

But no… not to kill Tori. And she still couldn’t imagine Mark as a killer…

“Do you haveanysuspects?” Captain Hale asked.

Ellie shrugged. “Nothing definite. There’s a new development though. Mia left instructions that if anything happened to her to contact a couple named Jo-Jo and Seth Pennington. Agent Fox and I searched for them and learned they were murdered four years ago.” She placed a picture of the crime scene at their house. “At first, the detective who investigated thought it was a home invasion but there were signs that the couple were tortured. Their house was ransacked, just like Mia’s. Somehow they’re connected but we don’t know how yet.”

Derrick looked up from his computer. “I’m working on that.”

“Who is this woman?” Bryce asked with an eyebrow raise.

“That’s what we’re going to figure out,” Ellie said.

Next, she tacked a picture of Jesse Habersham beside Mia’s. “Now meet Jesse Habersham. She owned a small clothing boutique in Red River Rock.”

A rumble of recognition echoed through the room. “They’re the same,” Shondra muttered.

“They are.” Ellie gave them a moment to let that sink in. “It gets even stranger – five years ago Jesse Habersham disappeared from her own wedding to a man named Kevin Moon. We spoke to him and he also appeared shocked that she was alive and using the name Mia Norman. He talked about how much he loved Jesse and claimed to know nothing about where his wife was or why she left.”

“She enjoys leading men on then jilting them,” Bryce said.

Shondra let out a sound that sounded like disgust. “Or she’s running from something or someone.”

SEVENTY-THREE

Questions nagged at Derrick about what they’d uncovered so far. He pulled the copy of Detective Mathis’ notes on the Pennington case and thumbed through it, studying the pictures of the crime scene at the Pennington’s house. It was so violent. Brutal.

Either a psycho intending to inflict pain or someone wanting answers. Had they gotten what they’d wanted before they killed the couple?

They’d been murdered four years ago. If it was about Mia and they’d learned her whereabouts, why hadn’t they come for her before now? Unless the couple hadn’t folded…

The second question needling him was why Mia would want to turn her child over to complete strangers? There had to be a reason. She trusted them for some reason.

Mathis had mentioned that Seth Pennington had a brother. He shuffled the papers and found the man’s number then stepped from the room and called it. The phone rang five times then rolled over to voicemail. “This is Steven Pennington. I’m currently unavailable. Please leave a message and I’ll get back with you as soon as possible.”

“This is Special Agent Derrick Fox. Please call me when you have a minute.” He left a number and asked him to return his call.

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