Page 70 of The Girl in the River

“You mean was he a cheater?” The deputy chuckled. “Hell if I know. I’m just hired help.” He twirled the toothpick with his teeth. “But if he did, he’d expect her to put up with it. He watched that girl like a dog guarding his bone.”

His comment stirred questions in Ellie’s head. If Kevin had cheated, perhaps Jesse threatened to leave him and he got angry. But why go through with the wedding?

Good question. “Did you know a woman named Patty Lasso?” she asked.

Just then, the door opened and Sheriff Kincaid entered, a hiss escaping him as he spotted her. “I’ll take it from here, Jimmy.”

“Sheriff,” Ellie said, watching as the deputy shut down.

Kincaid ignored her and motioned to the deputy. “Need you to make some phone calls for me. You can use the back office.”

Annoyance flickered in Jimmy’s look, but he took his phone with him to the back.

Ellie crossed her arms. “Did you get my message?”

“Yes, but I still have a town to run. You wanted to know about Patty Lasso?”

Ellie nodded. “She worked with Jesse, but I heard she left town two days day before Jesse went missing.”

He worked his mouth from side to side. “She did. Her boyfriend got worried so I went out to her apartment, but she’d packed and gone. Landlord said she left a note saying she was moving but didn’t say goodbye.”

“Did you try to find out where she went?” Ellie asked.

“Didn’t see no reason to,” Kincaid said. “It’s not a crime to move, Detective.”

“No, but since Jesse disappeared two days later, didn’t you think it was too much of a coincidence?”

“Not really,” he replied. “I can’t keep up with everyone who comes in town and leaves. Heard she wanted more say in the business so figured she got a job somewhere else.”

“Maybe so. Although I haven’t been able to find anything on her the last five years.”

Kincaid ran his finger over his belt. “I don’t know what to tell you then. Maybe she got married and changed her name.”

That was also possible. But Ellie still didn’t like the timing. Her phone vibrated and she glanced at the number. Laney.

“This is the ME,” Ellie said. “I need to take it.” She turned her back to him, her pulse racing as she answered.

“Dr. Chatterman received the medical records we requested,” Laney said. “The remains in the barrel are not Mia, Ellie. They’re a woman named Patty—”

“Lasso,” Ellie finished.

NINETY-THREE

FOGGY MOUNTAIN REAL ESTATE

Flexing his hands to alleviate tension, Kevin gazed through the giant floor-to-ceiling window in his office, crafted to give an expansive view of the widest part of Foggy Mountain and the river flowing behind the property.

Pride puffed up his chest. He and his father owned this town – and the people. If they crossed them, they knew what would happen.

Jesse had definitely crossed him. She’d humiliated him and made a fool out of him by abandoning him and starting another life.

A life with a different man. Even more despicable, if the child was his, by denying him his daughter.

She would pay for that.

He found a photo of Mark Wade on his computer. Damn man was nothing but a high school teacher and coach. Kevin made more on one sale than the bastard did in an entire year. Photos of him and his winning soccer team occupied the front page of the paper from when they won the county championship. Another article showed him accepting an award for Coach of the Year.

Jesse – Mia – was not in any of the photos. Disgust rolled through him in waves. He knew the reason. She didn’t want anyone to find her.

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