Page 25 of Three Girls Gone (Detective Amanda Steele #14)

“This is an open murder investigation. We check up on everything.” Amanda handed Stephanie’s phone back to her.

“So because of this phone call, you never saw who picked Hailey up?” Trent asked.

“That’s right,” Stephanie said, working her phone back into her pocket.

“And she was the only one waiting for a ride that night?” One of the other parents or students could have seen something worth following up.

“Hailey was the last one left. I just can’t believe that…” A rogue tear splashed Stephanie’s cheek, and she swiped it away. “I’ll never forgive myself. ”

Amanda was lost for words. Nothing she could say would offer the young woman solace.

Would the person who took Hailey have been identified before they killed her?

They’d never know. She just couldn’t imagine that McGee had dropped things and never asked Stephanie what they just had.

“Did you see anything that stood out to you?”

Stephanie bit her bottom lip and shook her head.

“On another note, did you ever notice anyone lurking around the studio? Not just this past Friday? Anytime in the last several months?” Amanda asked.

“No one that stood out. But why are you interested in that far back?”

“It’s possible the person who killed Hailey was stalking her for a while,” Amanda said, setting that out gently. Stephanie already held herself to blame for slipping up on Friday night.

“Well, I never saw anyone,” Stephanie repeated.

“Thank you, Stephanie.” Amanda handed over her card. “Call me if you think of something after we’ve left.”

“Will do.”

Amanda and Trent made their way out of the studio, and she was listening to McGee’s line ringing before she hit the sidewalk.

“McGee here.”

“Detective Steele. Did you speak with Stephanie from Tiptoe Studio about last Friday?”

Trent was watching her as she spoke.

“Of course I did.”

“What did she tell you?”

“She said she never saw who picked Hailey up.”

“It seems she made it sound to you like she was watching Hailey the entire time she waited for her ride.”

“That’s how I remember our conversation.”

“Well, the truth we just got out of her was she was distracted for a moment or two, and when she next looked Hailey was gone. So Hailey could have walked off with her would-be killer, even transported in a vehicle that was parked down the street.”

“Which is news to me. Hell.”

“Why wasn’t Stephanie Welch in your report?” Grilling him about not returning her call was pointless, but he wasn’t off the hook twice.

“Oh, she’s there, but not by name. She’s included in the summary that staff at the studio didn’t see anyone.”

Amanda looked at Trent and shook her head. “You said you checked for security cameras in the area. How far down the street did you check?”

“The neighboring businesses two up and down.”

“But not past that?” she asked.

“Not about cameras. The units across the street are apartments. Officers canvassed with no success. They also asked everyone they came across if they saw Hailey that day. Oh, and there’s no municipal CCTV in that area.”

“Okay, thank you, Detective.” Amanda hung up and tapped her phone against her leg as she briefed Trent on the conversation.

“A summary,” Trent mumbled.

“That’s what he said, but we can likely agree on one thing. The person who took Hailey has their own transportation.”

“Which would make sense. How could you abduct a kid or dispose of a body using public transportation? With that said, Hailey must have trusted this person to go along with them. Otherwise, she would have raised a fuss and made a scene, which would have drawn attention.”

“Which leads my mind right to Wilson M-Something. She had met him before. If this is Wilson, he could have collected Hailey using a lie that Mara was going to pick her up from his place. ”

“True. Not that we’re closer to his identity. And I’m not seeing how that links to the woman Katherine flagged.”

“Who knows if it does? And we still don’t know if she is the killer. Did you ever receive the camera footage from the park?” There was the possibility it captured the killer’s face. Though it might be a pipe dream to invest hope in netting an ID through facial recognition.

“Not yet, but I expect it should come through sometime today.”

“Follow up if you don’t have it by noon.”

“Sure. But there’s something else we might want to consider. Not saying he, or she, doesn’t have a vehicle, but do they live nearby?”

Amanda looked at the buildings across the street, the ones that McGee just said contained apartments, but that was a little too close to ground zero.

A chill laced down her spine though, and she had the sensation she was being watched.

When she looked around, she didn’t spot anyone.

She glanced up at the apartment windows but couldn’t see any shadows behind them either.

She dismissed her feelings as her imagination.

“The only thing with that theory is we have no way of narrowing that down unless…”

“Oh, I know that face. You have an idea.”

“McGee checked on the neighboring businesses to see if they had cameras but hit a dead end. He only went a few doors down on each side though.”

“Ah, so you’re thinking if he walked with Hailey a bit, then ones farther down the street might prove useful.”

“If they have them, yes.” While Amanda was hoping for some lead to break this case open, she didn’t expect it would be so easy.