Page 12 of The Sleeping Girls

“Did he mention his family to you?”

“No, we weren’t friends, Detective. I simply handled his registration.”

“Thank you, Carl. If you think of anything that might be helpful, please give me a call.”

He agreed and she ended the call, then phoned the woman Tiller claimed to have spent the night with. She answered on the third ring.

“Valerie Bowman. How can I help you?”

“Ms. Bowman, this is Detective Ellie Reeves with the Crooked Creek Police Department,” Ellie said. “I’m calling regarding a missing persons investigation. Can you tell me your whereabouts last night and early this morning?”

A long awkward pause. “What are you talking about? Who’s missing?”

Ellie spoke firmly, “Just please answer the question.”

“In Atlanta at a business meeting. Now—”

“With a man named Tim Tiller?”

“Well… yes. We had dinner to discuss a new drug about to enter the market. Why? Did something happen to Tim?”

“Did you spend the night with him in his hotel room?”

Ellie heard a noise and realized the woman had closed a door, probably to keep whoever she was with from overhearingher conversation. “Yes, but I don’t want that to get out. It’s only happened a couple of times. I… was going to call it off.”

“Did he leave the room during the night?”

“No. I left about six this morning and returned to my room. Some of my colleagues were there and we didn’t want them to see us together.”

“Was he alone when you left?”

“He was getting in the shower,” she said, her tone impatient. “Now tell me, did something happen to him?”

Ellie’s fingers tightened around the phone. If Valerie was telling the truth, she’d just given Kelsey’s father an alibi.

“Is Tim okay?” Valerie’s voice grew shrill.

“Yes, Mr. Tiller is fine. But his fifteen-year-old daughter disappeared sometime in the night.”

She gasped. “Oh, my goodness. Poor Tim…”

Poor Kelsey, Ellie thought. “How would you describe his relationship with his daughter?”

Valerie’s voice trembled, “Fine as far as I know. He said she was a sweet girl and she played piano. But… truthfully we didn’t talk about family much, except he said his wife was drinking a lot lately, and that he thought she was having an affair with their accountant.”

Jean had failed to mention that. What other secrets were this family keeping?

ELEVEN

Ellie contemplated that revelation as she returned to the living room. “Jean, may I speak to you in the kitchen?”

Kelsey’s mother looked up with red swollen eyes then stood on wobbly legs and crossed to the kitchen. She sank into one of the wooden chairs at the round table. “What’s going on? Did someone take my little girl?”

“I don’t know yet,” Ellie said. “But you mentioned your husband was sleeping around. Were you also having an affair?”

Jean twisted the tissue in her hand. “Why do you ask that?”

“As I mentioned, I need to know everything about your family. Were you seeing someone else?”

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