Page 62 of The Vanishing Wife
“No canceling,” she said. “I promise.”
She ended the call but framed her phone with her uninjured hand.
Ava’s head had slumped against the seat while she’d been on the phone, her eyes closed, and Leigh couldn’t blame her one bit. The past week had taken a lot out of her. Out of them both. And she’d let Ava take all the time she needed. Even if they missed their flight.
Her phone vibrated with an incoming call. She glanced at the name scrolling across the screen and answered. “Aren’t you supposed to be resting?”
“How many times am I expected to watch Everybody Loves Raymond before they let me out of here?” Detective Moore asked. “I just keep imagining I’m slapping the mother-in-law over and over. Is that normal?”
“At least you got a comedy. I got stuck with old horror movies. I think I might’ve hallucinated one of the doctors as Michael Myers at one point. I may have freaked a few people out. That’s the fun of the good drugs, Detective. Enjoy it while it lasts. Because going back into the real world wounded sucks.” But, still, Leigh could empathize. She chanced a quick glance at Ava. “But I have a feeling that’s not why you’re calling.”
“The geofence warrant came back. The one we requested around the time and location of Samuel Thornton’s murder,” the detective said.
Leigh leaned forward in her seat and lowered her voice. “What did you find?”
“There were three cell phones in the vicinity of that house around time of death.” Detective Moore shuffled something indistinguishable over the line. Though Leigh couldn’t imagine what. The woman was still recovering from two holes in her midsection. “One belonged to Thornton. A search of the house allowed us to recover the device in his home. It’s a burner. No official registration. That’s why I couldn’t get any cell phone records back for him. Turns out it’s also the same number Elyse called you from. She must’ve used it to contact you just after she killed him. Though she’s not talking anymore to give us a reason why. We were able to access the device and found all the evidence we needed to connect him to Poppy Slater, Ruby, and Ava. Messages, photos. It was quite a trophy collection.”
“Too bad we can’t use any of it to put him behind bars,” Leigh said. “Abusers don’t do well in prison. He would’ve suffered.”
“Would’ve made me feel better too.” The detective went on. “The second was registered to Saige Fuentes, which makes sense. Saige’s GPS doesn’t last long because I’m assuming Samuel Thornton turned it off and got rid of the device, but we know she was there according to her and Elyse Portman’s statements.”
“All right.” Leigh wasn’t really interested in either of those. “And the third?”
Detective Moore waited a beat. “Belongs to Ava Portman.”
*