Page 34 of Three Girls Gone (Detective Amanda Steele #14)

TWENTY-NINE

Amanda was grappling with frustration at how she went from waking up that morning with a prime suspect in custody to no one.

At least no one tangible. The closest they had for a lead was Wilson M-Something, the nanny’s onetime date, but that might be a stretch at this point.

There was more digging left for the Tanner case, but the clock was ticking on this new one. And they had a chance to save Eloise.

“Did you notice anyone lingering around, watching the party?” Trent asked, beating Amanda to a similar question.

Krista shook her head. “I was paying attention to Ellie, making sure my baby was happy.”

Damon took his arm from around his wife and took her hand into his instead. “Krista’s a good mom.”

“No one is saying otherwise,” Amanda assured him. “We just need to ask these questions. Do you remember any other customers who dined inside?”

“A few, but their faces…” She flung her hand. “They’re all a blur.”

“Men and women?” Amanda asked.

“Both.”

“And the server who tended to the party?” Trent looked up from his tablet, where he’d been tapping a moment prior.

“There were two. Well, a woman at first, then a man helped too.”

Amanda perked up at that, even though there could be an innocent explanation. She still resonated more with a man behind the murders and Eloise’s kidnapping. “Do you know why?”

Krista shook her head. “I just assumed the woman needed help to serve our party.”

Goosebumps trailed down Amanda’s arms. What better place for a sexual deviant to gain employment than an ice cream shop?

They’d have their pick of children. But acknowledging this grim truth, thinking like these deviants, made her sick.

Though, if Eloise was the victim of circumstance, and he was working, how could he have followed the family home? “Do you remember their names?”

“No.” Krista squeezed her husband’s hand. “I don’t think they had name tags on their aprons.”

Amanda nodded. They’d visit the Scoop and find out who served the party, get some names, question them. “Did you notice if anyone followed you home?”

“No, but it’s not the type of thing I look for.”

“That’s understandable.” For the average person, it wouldn’t be something they’d need to consider. “Can you describe the servers?”

“You think one of them took Ellie?” Damon asked.

“We’re just trying to get some details,” Trent stepped in and assured the man. He gestured toward Krista to answer Amanda’s question.

“The woman was blond, in her twenties, pretty, I guess. The man had dark hair, brown eyes, an almond-shaped face, lean, late thirties. He had a cut or a scar on his top lip.”

Damon searched his wife’s profile with his lips pursed and his brow pressed.

He was curious about the amount of detail his wife recalled about the man.

It struck Amanda too as Krista just confessed to not paying much attention to people around them.

But Amanda was reeling for another reason.

The scar on the top lip… She might be grasping.

Most of the attributes were vague, but the package sounded a lot like the nanny’s Wilson M.

After all, how many people had an obvious scar on their lip? “You ever see either of them before?”

“The servers?” Krista asked, and when Amanda nodded, she said, “The woman, yes, but I think the man was new.”

Amanda glanced at Trent, who met her gaze. “Going back to last night, did either of you hear anything?”

“Nothing,” Damon said. “Making all this even more shocking. But there was the matter of the front door.” He glanced at Krista.

Amanda angled her head. “What about it?”

“It was unlocked.”

“But you lock it at night?” Amanda’s own parents didn’t always lock theirs despite her father being the former police chief. It was a soft spot in rural and small-town living. Some people were too trusting. Some had a shotgun at the ready.

“Always.”

Yet no sign of forced entry. Picking a lock could still leave marks, unless they were skilled.

But it’s possible the killer accessed the home another way, such as a window, and walked out the front door with Eloise.

How brazen, though. Even if they took Eloise during the witching hours when everyone in the neighborhood was asleep, doorbell cameras didn’t sleep.

They’d need to check with the neighbors across the street.

They might get lucky. “What was Eloise wearing?”

“Her pink and teal unicorn pajamas,” Krista told them.

It would be rather cool at night for that alone. “Any other articles of her clothing missing? Toys?”

“Her stuffed unicorn,” Damon said.

“It was her favorite,” Krista added.

“Any coats? Shoes? Was she wearing socks?” Amanda asked the probing questions, hungry for more information.

“No socks when she went to bed. I never checked on the other.” Krista left the couch and padded down the hall. A few moments later, she called out. “Her coat and shoes are here.” She returned and nestled back on the couch and into her husband’s side. He wrapped his arm around her again.

Eloise was out there with only PJs to keep her warm. “Does Eloise have any medical conditions?”

“No, thankfully,” Damon said.

“You’ve done very well,” Amanda told the Maynards.

In fact, she was very impressed by their overall composure during the interview.

Hope was doing its job and holding them together.

“Detective Stenson and I have enough to start our search for Eloise, but before we leave, we’re just going to pop upstairs and look at her room, if that’s all right? ”

“Yes, of course,” Damon told them.

“Please just send the list of people who attended the birthday party to the email noted on my card.” She gave one to Damon, who passed it along to Krista.

Amanda left the room with Trent, and McGee returned. She overheard him asking the Maynards if he could call anyone to come be with them, as she started up the stairs.

The sound of CSIs Blair and Donnelly moving around helped direct Amanda where to go.

She found Donnelly bent over a section of floor with a sheet of mylar laid down.

Amanda had seen this process before and knew that she’d be electro-charging it with a special apparatus to lift shoeprints unseen to the naked eye.

Amanda wondered if CSI Stuart, for all her supposed thoroughness, had done this.

If she had, she hadn’t said anything about it.

Blair stepped over to the doorway, a camera strapped around her neck. “Two in a matter of days. What’s going on? ”

“We’re trying to find out,” Amanda replied, turning to Trent. “Whoever is behind this is escalating. They acted impulsively by taking Eloise. So much so their MO has changed. He’s breaking into homes now. CSI Stuart wouldn’t commit to that being the case at the Tanner home.”

“CSI Stuart doesn’t commit to much. She’s very black and white. Too much so, if you ask me,” Blair said.

“A person has to know their mind and stand their ground.” Amanda took in the room. The bed was slept in. The sheets were disturbed, and the blanket was on the floor.

“Emma?” Donnelly called for CSI Blair’s attention. “There’s something under the bed here. Hand me a marker, and photograph it, please.”

Blair grabbed a yellow evidence marker from a kit and walked around to where Donnelly was pointing.

Hairs were standing up on Amanda’s arms, as she walked to where the CSIs were bunched together. “What is it?”

“Could be socks, a bunched-up shirt… Fabric anyhow.” Donnelly’s voice was strained and then petered out as Blair took a few pictures, the flash widening out.

Then Blair reached under the bed and pulled out Donnelly’s find.

“Way to steal a woman’s thunder,” Donnelly mumbled.

“You’ll get over it,” Blair said drily and came out holding a microfiber cloth in her hand.

“Dropped there by someone who was cleaning?” Trent said.

Blair’s response was to sniff it. “Chloroform.”

Donnelly came to her with an evidence bag, and Blair dropped the cloth in and sealed it up.

“I guess we know how he got the girl to stay quiet.” Though Amanda’s mind tried to fill in the rest of the blanks. Had he taken her limp body out the front door in his arms?

“You said he for a second time.” Trent squinted, peering at her face .

“Because I think we’re after a male here. Not going at this with a closed mind or anything, but I’m reverting to statistics and a gut feeling. We also can’t ignore the mystery man we have with the Tanner case we haven’t yet tracked down.”

“There’s always one.” Donnelly smiled at Amanda.

At least the investigator found it amusing. “Job hazard, but a look at our track record also tells us they don’t stay a mystery for long.”

“That’s right.” Blair smiled. “Now, I will tell you we processed the note and found one print. We ran it through a new mobile device we have.”

“New tech? I guess we’re moving up in the world,” Trent said.

“Yeah, yeah,” Blair said.

Amanda just wanted to get on with the result. “And what did you find out?”

“No hits in the system. But I understand we think this abduction and Tanner’s murder are both connected to Julie Gilbert. I know about Tanner, but any prints on Gilbert?”

Amanda shook her head. “Whoever we’re after has covered their tracks well. Or did.” There could be light in that latter point.

“Not that the print is getting us anywhere. He doesn’t have a record,” Blair said.

“Anything else before we go?” Amanda asked.

“All we’ve got for now,” Blair confirmed.

“Trent and I are going to speak with some neighbors across the street, see if we can find anyone home,” Amanda said.

Trent turned to her. “We are?”

“Yes. It seems like this guy may have taken Eloise right out the front door. I’d like to see if any of the houses across the street have doorbell cams. If they do, one of them might have picked up movement at the Maynards’ house and caught this guy.”

“Well, good luck to you,” Blair told them .

“Actually, we still don’t know how this guy got in,” Amanda began. “If you and Isabelle could do a quick look around all ingress points to see if there’s any sign of forced entry, that would be great.”

“Was part of the plan,” Donnelly chimed in.

“Just let me know what you find out,” Amanda said on the way out of the room with Trent. They told McGee and the Maynards they were leaving and headed across the street.

“Doorbell cams may pan out,” Trent told her. “It also reminded me to tell you we have other videos to watch. One from the park and the one from Hailey’s school came in.”

“Good to know. But since we’re here, we’ll stick to the immediate plan.”

The house across the street didn’t have a doorbell cam. Neither did a few others. They walked farther along and found one three houses down did.

Its recording light switched on when she pressed the button. A standard ding dong sounded but otherwise nothing.

“I don’t think anyone’s home,” Trent said.

“We’ll need to look up who lives here and call them.”

They headed to the car, and Trent did a search, found a number associated with the homeowner and had to leave a message.

“Okay, well, there’s that. Even if it caught something, there’s nothing to say that it will be what we’re after.

The Maynards’ house is there.” He pointed at it as if to make his point.

It would mean the perp walked down the sidewalk for a bit with Eloise in his arms. This reminded her of another earlier thought she’d had.

“Actually…” She turned away from the car, shutting the passenger door again, and walked toward the pass-through next to the Maynards’ house.

“He might have parked in the subdivision backing this street and slipped with Eloise down here.” She looked up as she walked along the path.

“Only one light post al ong this stretch. It would be shadowed, more discreet than walking along the street.”

“Though as you pointed out before, if he took her during the witching hours most people are sleeping.”

“We should have officers canvassing anyhow, seeing if anyone saw a stranger or an unknown vehicle lurking in the neighborhood earlier in the day. I’m going to get that going.

” She pulled her phone and placed a call to the on-duty sergeant of the uniformed officers.

A moment later she was hanging up. “It’s in the works. More officers should be out soon.”

Trent pointed at the Maynards’ fenced backyard. “He could have accessed the home through an entry point in the rear, but going out with Eloise through the front makes sense. There isn’t any gate in the fence.”

“Right. Which I figured would be the case.” She still had her phone out and keyed a quick text to Blair, then filled Trent in. “I just asked CSI Blair to put focus on the entry points at the back of the house. We’ve got to find this girl alive and well, Trent.”

“We’re going to do our best.”

“Let’s hope that’s enough.”