Page 37 of Three Girls Gone (Detective Amanda Steele #14)

THIRTY-TWO

On the way to speak to the Scoop employee, Amanda kept replaying the name they were provided with in her head. Tammy Welland. Would she give them something to break this case open? “This guy is bold. Putting himself in plain sight. And serving a table of twelve.”

“I wonder if he wants to get caught. It wouldn’t be the first time some sick freak wanted intervention.”

“I don’t know if I’d go quite that far, but I don’t see him stopping unless someone makes him.” And she planned on being that person.

“All of this is so unsettling. He could have chosen Eloise from a distance, but he didn’t. He served the girl and her mother.”

“Definitely a game for him. It also goes back to what Katherine said on Monday. This is about power and control. By besting us so far, he’s showing us he has the reins. He has the power, and we can’t stop him.”

“Only we will. We’ll save Eloise too.”

Amanda nodded, squeezing out thoughts about what Eloise might be enduring right now. Her focus needed to stay on saving the girl.

They reached Tammy’s apartment building and went up to her floor. She answered after they knocked once.

Amanda held up her badge, as did Trent beside her. “Are you Tammy Welland?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

Amanda tucked her badge away and introduced herself and Trent. “Do you have a minute? We have some questions for you.”

“Why not? Come in.” Tammy was in her twenties, and her energy was laid-back and casual. Her house smelled of sage, and she had a figurine of a beagle posed in meditation on the entry floor.

“That’s Rex,” Tammy offered, when she must have noticed Amanda looking at it. “I have a habit of naming everything. So what is it?”

The conversation should be brief, so Amanda didn’t request a place to sit. “You worked a birthday party yesterday at the Scoop. Is that right?”

“Uh-huh. Good bunch of kids too, but hyper. Though when are they not when they’re consuming sugar?” She shrugged and smiled. “What about the party?”

“You worked it with Alec?” Amanda asked.

“No. He went home not feeling well just before, but he sent a friend to help.”

The back of Amanda’s neck tightened. “A friend?”

“Yeah, that’s what he told me anyhow.”

“Alec told you this?” Trent asked.

“His friend did. He had an apron, and I assumed Alec gave it to him.”

Probably the one sitting in an evidence bag in the trunk. “What was this friend’s name?”

“He didn’t offer. I didn’t ask. I thought about calling Greg to check it was okay, but I didn’t want to land Alec in trouble and I needed the help. The place was busy. It was just nice to have an extra set of hands, though he bailed after the party was over. I couldn’t find him anywhere.”

Amanda resisted the urge to look at Trent. Whoever had worn that apron was the guy they were after. “Is there anything else you can tell us about him? Does he speak with an accent? Did he share anything personal about himself with you?”

“Nothing I noticed, and he wasn’t the talkative type. I was just wanting to get my shift over with so I could curl up on the couch and read a book.”

“Did you notice if he paid close attention to the girls at the party?” Trent asked.

“Ick. Do you mean it the way I think you do?”

Trent nodded. “Specifically the birthday girl.”

Tammy curled her lips in disgust. “I didn’t pick up on that, but he had a dark aura. That I picked up on.”

“Okay. Thank you for your time.” Amanda gave her a business card and said that if she remembered anything distinctive about him to call, whether it was day or night.

“No problem. Would you be able to tell me what all this is about?”

“The birthday girl was taken from her bedroom last night,” Trent told her.

“Oh.”

“You wouldn’t have a number for Alec, would you?” Amanda asked.

“I’ll do you one better. He lives down the hall. Apartment three-oh-seven. The second he feels better I’m going to lay into him about how his friend bailed on me too. Though…” She studied their faces. “You don’t think that guy was his friend, do you?”

Amanda shook her head and left Tammy’s. Trent knocked on the door for 307 .

After a few more tries, the door was opened, and a man in his twenties was standing there. His hair was sticking up in the front. “Who are— Police? Is everyone all right?”

“Not exactly,” Amanda told him. “We need to talk to you about your friend who stepped in for you last night after you went home sick.” She ran with the story as they were told it.

“Huh?”

“He helped Tammy at the ice cream parlor,” she elaborated.

“Listen, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Then you never sent a friend to help Tammy at the Scoop last night?”

“No.”

“Okay. Thanks. That’s all.” She bobbed her head at him as if to say he could return to his life. It took a few seconds for it to penetrate.

“Okay,” he dragged out and closed his door.

Amanda and Trent regrouped in the car.

“So our killer impersonates a server, when he could have just as easily posed as a customer,” Trent said.

“He wanted to get as close as possible, and like we talked about, this is a game to him. He must have seen Eloise celebrating with her friends, ducked inside, and seized an opportunity to get close. We need to revisit Mara Bennett and press her more on this Wilson M. So far, he’s our strongest lead. ”

“Only I got the feeling she told us all she knew.”

“Are you willing to take the chance she missed something? Because I’m not.”

“All right.”

Trent got them headed to the apartment being shared by the sisters, and Amanda pulled out her phone. She debated whether she should call Katherine again and decided in favor of. She answered after the second ring. “There she is,” Amanda said. “It’s me.”

“I see that. It’s a fancy new technology called Caller ID. ”

At least she was holding on to her sense of humor. “Not so new , but that aside, how are you doing?”

“Please don’t even ask that. There are no words.”

If Amanda could reverse time, she wouldn’t have asked. “I know Malone sent you home.”

“And the chief. But I’m not alone. I’ve got twenty-four-hour security detail in case this guy comes for me.”

“I don’t think you should take any chances. Let’s just say nothing would surprise me at this point.”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s getting brazen, making himself more visible, almost like he’s taunting us, challenging us to find and stop him.”

“I just hope you find that little girl alive. Though…”

Amanda’s mind slipped where Katherine’s might have gone. Even if they saved Eloise’s life, they might be too late to preserve her innocence. “I know what you’re thinking, but we can’t go down that road. We do what we can.”

“If I hadn’t wasted your time with Harrington, then maybe…”

“There’s no benefit to thinking that way. Everyone understood what you saw there.”

“Well, you’re more forgiving of me than I am.”

“We’re always harder on ourselves.”

“But hold up, you said he . Do you know that for sure now?”

Amanda thought back to the size of the silhouette in the park’s restroom. “We do.”

“Well, I left the lists of names behind. I put them in the top drawer of your desk. The ones connected with the pageant and the NYC venue. They are clearly marked.”

“Okay, thanks. Did you hear any more from Briggs about the sender of the online form?”

“He was able to track it back to New York, but that’s it.”

“Which doesn’t come as a surprise. ”

“Nope, but I just can’t seem to get anything to click. I’m out of touch or too close. Maybe in too deep.”

Amanda sympathized with her friend, and she didn’t say as much but stepping back might be the best thing. “Just take care of you.”

“Thanks. Talk soon, and please let me know when you find Eloise.”

“Will do.”

During her conversation with Katherine, Trent had already parked in the lot at the apartment building. It was midafternoon, so there was a chance that Kendra wasn’t around to hover and play protector of her sister.

Mara Bennett answered the door and let them in. “Kendra’s at work. It’s just us, but I’ve said everything I can think of. I don’t know who took Hailey.”

“There’s another little girl who has been taken,” Amanda said, laying it right out there.

Mara lowered onto the couch. Amanda and Trent sat in other chairs in the living room.

“I never heard about that on the news.”

“It probably hasn’t hit yet. She was taken from her home last night,” Trent said.

“That’s horrible, but I don’t know what I’m supposed to do about it.”

“To start, does the name Eloise Maynard sound familiar to you?” Amanda asked.

“No. Is that the girl’s name?”

“It is. As I’m sure you can appreciate, we are doing everything possible to save her. You said that you had a single date with a man you met at Hailey’s school, the night of the Nutcracker performance.”

“Just the one. I told you everything I know.” Her voice trembled.

“I don’t mean to upset you, Mara, and even if this man is behind all of this, none of it’s on you. You understand that, right?”

Mara nodded.

“Good. Now, you said his name was Wilson and his last name started with M. Do you remember what that is now?”

“No. I’m sorry.”

“That’s fine. Would you know the date when you went out with him?” Trent asked.

“Actually, yes. I keep everything in my Google calendar.” She picked up her phone from the side table and worked her finger across the screen.

“It was sometime near the end of February. One second…” Mara tapped away on her phone.

“Here it is. February twenty-second. Right, I should have remembered. He said that’s a lucky number.

Two, two, two. I thought it was strange, but I know some people are into numerology.

I wrote it off as him being quirky and charming. ”

Having this snapshot of the dating world, Amanda wasn’t in any hurry to go back in. So many people were into playing games, and she had enough drama with the job. “Where did you go on this date?”

“Out for dinner at Flanigan’s. It’s an Irish pub with traditional Irish fare.”

Trent had his tablet out and was working on it.