Page 45 of Three Girls Gone (Detective Amanda Steele #14)

THIRTY-NINE

Amanda found it hard to believe the creep they were after ever had a girlfriend. She rang the bell, and footsteps pounded toward the door. It swung open.

“What are you doing here?” Anne Harrington stood there, her nose bandaged and her face black and blue.

“We need to talk to you for a moment,” Amanda told her. “So if we could come inside?”

“The last time you wanted to talk to me I ended up with a concussion and a broken nose.” She lifted her hand but stopped short of touching it.

Her injury was technically on her for running away, but Amanda was about picking her battles. She needed Anne in a cooperative mood not an argumentative one. “We shouldn’t take much of your time.”

Anne narrowed her eyes but stepped back. “Keep it down though. Grandma’s having her after-dinner tea and watching the news.”

Amanda could hear the TV from the door. “It might be best we talk outside.”

“Sure, out back. I don’t want all the neighbors gawking. They’re already gossiping about me enough.” Anne hustled through the house and out the back like the last time. Amanda was prepared to catch the screen door.

They stepped on the deck into the warm early-evening air.

Anne leaned against the railing and crossed her arms. “What do you want? I just took another dose of pain pills, and I’m about to nod off.”

“Does the name Marshall Wilcox mean anything to you?” It was a throwaway question to set up the conversation. They were here because one of Katherine’s phone calls had paid off.

“So what if it does?”

“We’ve learned that you dated Marshall back when you were working in NYC at the venue where they hosted pageants,” Trent said. “Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“What happened to that relationship?” Amanda asked.

“ Relationship is a little much. And for the record, I dumped him. I had to ghost him for months before he got the message I wasn’t interested.”

“You’re sure it wasn’t the other way around?” Before coming, Amanda reviewed the names on the restraining orders filed against Anne, and Wilcox wasn’t among them.

“Yeah, I’m sure. The guy’s a loon.”

“Why do you say he’s a loon?” Trent chimed in.

Anne rubbed her arms. “It was just an energy he gave off, and he was never really with me when he was with me. Ya know? And he was very aggressive and domineering in the bedroom. A little I’m okay with, but not to where he took things.”

Amanda had no interest in probing this any further, but she had little choice. “And where was that?”

Anne’s cheeks flushed. “He liked me to dress up in a baby-doll dress and put my hair in pigtails. He’d spank me and say, ‘You’ve been a very bad girl.’ ”

Amanda was sorry that she’d asked. Now she felt like throwing up. They were certain that Wilcox was the man they were after and knew what he did to little girls. Hearing this made the picture too vivid. “When was the last time you talked to him or saw him?”

“It’s been years.”

Amanda believed her. “When you were seeing each other, did he ever talk about his childhood?”

“No.”

“Did he mention friends or family?”

“No, and I’d be surprised if he had any friends. The guy was a loner. I took pity on him and look where that got me.”

“Okay. Thank you.” Amanda headed for the stairs off the deck, deciding to walk around the house to the car.

“Wait.” Anne pushed off the railing. “Is that all? Why are you asking about— Oh? You think that he, that he did what you thought I did?” She put a hand over her stomach. “Huh. Yeah, I can see that he’d do something like…” Anne turned and vomited over the railing.

That was Amanda’s cue to get out of there. She pivoted and hurried to the car. Being so close to emptying her stomach, catching one whiff would do her in.

After doing up her seatbelt, she turned to Trent. “What made Marshall into a monster?”

“Well, you remember the profile. Sexual abuse as a child is likely.”

“There is that. Now Katherine told us he was uncomfortable around his boss, but what if it wasn’t so much that she was in charge, but that she was a woman ?”

“He may have suffered at his mother’s hand, and now he takes it out on innocent girls.”

“Just might be the case. Yet he was domineering with Anne. ”

“In the bedroom, with her already in a vulnerable state. And them both playing a role.”

“True.”

Her phone rang, and he pulled away from the curb and got them on the way back to Central.

“It’s Katherine,” she told him before answering on speaker.

“I heard from Fitz,” Katherine said.

The fast response lined up with the detective that Amanda had dealt with when Katherine was taken. He never wasted time getting things done. “What did he find out?”

“Marshall’s illegally subletting his place to someone. Has been since December.”

“Since he found out about your renewed interest in venue employees,” Trent interjected. “And after he was fired. That can’t be a coincidence.”

“Unlikely,” Katherine said. “I guess Wilcox flapped his jaw and told these people that he was going away for a few months. For, as he put it, ‘peace and quiet in the country.’ He didn’t tell them where he was heading or how long he’d be gone.”

Woodbridge would count as country next to New York City. Though many places could be seen that way. “Where do they send the rent?” It felt like too much to hope they mailed a check these days, but it might be a transfer to an account at a local bank.

“They paid cash upfront for six months.”

Couldn’t be that easy… But six months, including December, would put them through May. This month. “And if he was staying away longer?”

“He told them, he’d reach out. And before you ask, they haven’t heard from him.”

“But they have a phone number for him?” If so, they could track the phone.

“Nope. He just has theirs, and he’s never called.”

“We can’t say the guy’s a complete idiot,” Trent said. “And that rent money could be how Wilcox is funding this little venture. How much are we talking about?”

“Twenty-one thousand dollars.”

Trent whistled. “Tidy sum.”

“I told you. Rent in NYC isn’t cheap, but he’s probably making a healthy profit. Housing is scarce.”

Amanda was disheartened by one fact. “Cash doesn’t leave a trail for us to follow.”

“Well, Malone’s requesting his financials. Wilcox could have slipped up. But I don’t see him updating his address with any institution when his move was temporary,” Amanda said. “NYPD should watch his place.”

“All arranged. Fitz went to his sergeant, and there will be a uniform posted at Wilcox’s apartment until we apprehend him.

Fitz spoke to the building manager and found out the guy provided references, but they all turned out to be bogus.

So no luck tracking down any of Wilcox’s friends.

The next of kin on file is his mother, but she’s been deceased for years. ”

“Well, we just finished speaking with Anne Harrington, and she provided us with some valuable insights.” Amanda shared what they’d learned.

“He had her dress up like a…? Sick freak,” Katherine muttered across the line, and Amanda was impressed she went with the PG-version.

“I think he’s a victim of childhood sexual assault.

Possibly at the hands of his own mother.

” Since there was a chance of her theory being right, Amanda felt no remorse at casting a stone at a dead woman.

“And I say this because he wanted to assume a dominant sexual role with Harrington. Then, there was the whole ‘you’ve been a bad girl’ thing. ”

Katherine’s end of the line went silent.

“You still there?” Amanda prompted.

“Oh, I’m here, and I don’t think you’re far off the mark.

When I was talking to Wilcox’s former boss, she said that he fell quiet upon seeing her in the interview room.

Before that he was chatting away loudly with an intern.

I don’t know the intern’s gender, but as you know, the boss’s name is Leslie. A unisex name.”

“Maybe he was expecting to be interviewed by a man, not a woman,” Trent said.

“Holy shit. I think we’re on to something here. And sexual abuse at his mother’s hand could explain his dysfunctional relationships with women,” Katherine said. “His boss and Harrington, just two that we know of.”

“And his only way of coping with his feelings of inadequacy is to take it out on little girls,” Trent said.

“We’ve got to save Eloise.” Katherine’s voice sliced across the line. “I’ll make some more calls, see if I can get anywhere else.”

“And press Briggs about that online form too,” Amanda said.

“It’s still feasible that Wilcox identified that janitor to keep the spotlight off himself.

And, yes, I realize this is before you started pushing more about venue employees, but this guy is anxious, in my opinion.

He’s likely been keeping tabs on the investigation and you from day one. ”

“Nothing creepy about that thought,” Katherine said.

“Well… it makes sense he’d be watching you and your website,” Amanda said.

“He’d want to know if you were getting close to finding him,” Trent added.

“Even if that’s the case, we’re getting close to stopping this guy now. I must believe that.”

“I think we all do,” Amanda put in.

With that, the call ended, and Trent was pulling into the parking lot of Petey’s Patties.

“I think you took a wrong turn.” She pointed from the restaurant to the road.

“Nope. I’m starving, and there might not be another time to eat.

And before you say, how can I eat at a time like this, let me tell you.

I’m with Katherine. I feel it in my gut that we’re narrowing in on this guy.

We’re going to save Eloise, and to do that I need my strength.

So you can eat or not. That’s up to you, but I am.

” Trent parked, turned the car off, and got out.

She followed a few seconds later, and he was waiting by the car. “I’m with you. Just don’t tell Zoe we ate here without her.”

Trent smiled. “I promise.”

Amanda’s phone rang with Malone’s name on the screen. She answered.