Page 38 of Three Girls Gone (Detective Amanda Steele #14)

“And did he share anything at all about his life with you?” Amanda was certain that he would have lied about most things, but some gem of truth could have made its way in there.

“Hmm. Come to think of it, he flipped any question I asked back on me. He also doled out a lot of flattery.”

“Who paid for the meal?” Trent asked, likely considering tracking a credit card, if he’d used one.

“I did. He acted all embarrassed saying he forgot his wallet. No cards in his phone case or stored on his phone either, he said. Which was weird, because who relies on an actual wallet these days? But he said he’d cover the check next time. I made a joke of that in a text he never replied to.”

Amanda agreed that relying solely on a wallet was increasingly unusual. But Wilson clearly had a ready excuse, and Mara had said he was charming. “Did he pick you up for your date?”

“Uh-huh. He was driving a gray Kia K5. It was a few years old.”

It was an unlikely coincidence that Susan Butters saw a gray car near the park. “Is there anything else you can remember?”

Mara shook her head and stopped. “We went for a walk after dinner and passed by a house in the throes of a party. He grabbed my hand and said it looked like fun, and we should crash it. But that’s not who I am.

He tried to convince me to go, saying he’d done it a million times and that it was fun to pretend to be someone else sometimes.

I didn’t think much of it. Maybe I should have.

” Tears fell, and she pressed her palms to her cheeks.

Grief messed with a person’s mind, but what Mara had just said clung like a burr.

It’s fun to pretend… If this was the man they were after, he’d pretended to be a server at the Scoop, but what other roles had he played?

Mara had described him as quirky yet charming, which didn’t align with their killer’s profile of someone who was socially awkward.

He must be able to put on an act. But all this sparked a theory, and she needed to talk it out with Trent.

She stood. “Detective Stenson, we should go.” She was at the door when she called back a “Thank you” to Mara.

She started talking while she and Trent headed for the parking lot. “There was something that Mara said in there that got me thinking. We know the killer is someone who can be charming and manipulative. Learning that he likes to play different roles or put on personas isn’t much of a stretch.”

“Okay, I’m following so far.”

“Well, Mara said this guy wanted to crash a party. The Gilberts held a party the night that Julie was assaulted and killed.”

“Right, but Katherine reached out to everyone she knew attended and cleared them.”

“Everyone she knew about. It was an open-invite kind of deal, though.”

“Shit, so you’re thinking the killer wasn’t a guest, but an outlier, a party crasher?”

“That’s exactly what I’m thinking.”

“All right, but even if that’s the case, how would we go about finding him?”

“I don’t have all the answers, but maybe if we revisited the people we know about, someone will remember this guy.”

“A man with brown hair, brown eyes, dimples, and a scar on his lip? Even that seems a stretch.”

Her enthusiasm dampened. “You’re right. It’s not reasonable, but this might be a new angle that Katherine hasn’t considered.”

“Though it’s possible, there won’t be a trail for us to follow.”

“I disagree. The only reason he’s resurfaced, even calling Katherine out, is he must have been aware she was poking around in the fall. Either directly or he’s still in touch with someone who was backstage. We reach out to those people again and see if they remember a person of his description.”

“If we don’t talk directly to him. On another note, I’m pretty sure this guy’s real name isn’t Wilson.”

They got into the car, and Trent keyed into the onboard computer. A few seconds later, he confirmed. “No gray Kia K5s registered to any Wilsons.”

“Not much of a surprise. I’m calling Katherine.”

“I thought Malone wants her off this now.”

Amanda shook her head. “He said he told her to go home. I doubt he stated explicitly she’s not to touch this anymore. ”

“I feel that was the implication.”

“Fine, I’ll run this past Malone.” Amanda got into the car and shared what had transpired in their conversation with Mara Bennett.

“Let me get this straight. You think the killer crashed the Gilberts’ party twelve years ago?” Malone asked when she’d finished looping him in.

“That’s right. We need Katherine to reach out to everyone there that night that she knows about.”

“Including the potential of talking to the killer himself again.”

“But that’s the thing… I’m starting to think this person was on the periphery, which means Katherine’s calls since she’s been helping us didn’t trigger this guy to take Eloise,” Amanda explained.

“Yet, you’ve hinged everything on this guy getting spooked in the fall. He’s in touch with someone. And you do realize that Katherine was sent home? We can’t take the chance this guy will take another child,” Malone said.

“We need to focus on saving Eloise. Having Katherine helping us again can make that happen faster. And when time is…”

“Of the essence, I know.” Malone’s side of the line fell silent for a bit. “Fine. Rope Katherine in again. I’ll speak to the chief and let him know the latest development.”

“Thanks, Sarge.”

“You might be getting ahead of yourself.” With that, he was gone.

Next, Amanda called Katherine on hands-free. After explaining the situation, Katherine said, “And you cleared this past the chief?”

“Past Malone. He’s handling Buchanan.”

“Well, that’s just one aspect of the nightmare. How do you expect me to track an invisible man who turned up at a party twelve years ago? It would be easier to pull a rabbit from my hat.”

“And you can do that, Kat.” She didn’t say it, but thought, For Julie, Hailey, and Eloise… “We’re likely looking for someone linked to a guest, who also had backstage access at the NYC venue for Julie’s last pageant.”

“Based on me spooking this guy in the fall.”

“Correct. He’s got brown eyes, brown hair, dimples, and a scar through his top lip. This person…” Amanda was going to say outgoing , but had another thought.

“Amanda?” Katherine prompted her.

“The profile noted the killer is likely socially awkward, likely quiet and reserved. I was thinking how he might want to play at being someone else. Say, the life of the party. Now I’m rethinking that.

If he was there with people who knew him, he wouldn’t have been that way.

He would have been a wallflower who disappeared. ”

“Making my life harder. It’s hard to find someone who is invisible.”

“A little girl’s life is on the line. We need to ID this guy and find him fast.”

“I’ll do what I can. You know I will.”

“Good luck.”

“I’ll need it.”

Katherine clicked off, and Amanda turned to Trent. “Let’s get the apron to the lab, then head to Flanigan’s. Let’s see if we can get this guy’s face from security cameras.”

“You got it.”

As he drove, Amanda hoped they were on the right track with this. If they weren’t, she didn’t even want to think about all the lost time and what that might mean for Eloise.