Page 7 of Three Girls Gone (Detective Amanda Steele #14)

SIX

Talking with those at the school about the event was necessary. For now, Amanda would change direction. “Do either of you know Susan Butters?”

The couple looked at each other and shook their heads in unison.

“Who is that?” Vincent asked.

“She’s the woman who found Hailey this morning,” Amanda told them.

“We don’t know her.”

Trent stepped in and showed them Butters’s license photo. Both Tanners said she didn’t look familiar.

Amanda still wasn’t convinced that Butters was innocent. She may have lingered on the periphery. Her claim she never went to the park a complete fabrication. Again, the similar tutu didn’t mean it came from Hailey’s closet. “Did either of you take Hailey to Heroes Memorial Park before?”

“No, but Mara might have,” Jean said.

“That’s the nanny,” McGee said as a reminder.

There had to be some link between the killer and the park. Otherwise, why was Hailey placed in the playground there? Had the killer watched Hailey playing there in the past? Possibly on the carousel itself? “We’ll ask her about that,” Amanda told the Tanners.

“Why though?” Jean spat. “Hasn’t she been put through enough?

” She shot a look at McGee. “There is no way Mara has anything to do with this. She’s been here since the day Hailey was born.

Our little miracle baby,” she added in a softer tone and glanced at her husband. “How are we supposed to move on?”

“We tried several things to conceive, and it took us a few years to become pregnant,” Vincent explained.

“Then the in vitro took. She was such a little princess right from the start. I swear she was born with a tiara on her head.” Tears fell, and Jean wiped her cheeks.

“Pardon me for asking, but where did you go for the in vitro?” Another woman or couple not as lucky as Jean may have taken Hailey. But why wait six years? And how did that explain murder?

“It was a place in Washington called New Beginnings,” Vincent said. “Jean’s right, though. Mara was a terrific nanny. I saw her with Hailey. There’s no way she’s involved.”

Jean snatched a tissue off a side table and blew her nose. “Mara loved Hailey as if she were her own child. Vince, we’ll need to let her go now Hailey’s gone.”

Amanda, Trent, and McGee held the silence for a few beats. She was the first to speak.

“We understand Mara lives with you,” Amanda said.

“She does, but she’s gone to stay with her sister in town for a while.”

“When was this?” Trent asked.

“Saturday,” Jean said. “She said she wanted to give us some space.”

That struck Amanda as odd considering Mara was being painted as one of the family. One would think she’d want to stay and support the Tanners. Unless another reason had sent her packing. “We’ll need her sister’s information. Did she leave that with you?”

Jean nodded. “Her name is Kendra Bennett.” She gave them the address.

“I’m just finding it hard to accept all this,” Vincent said. “We would have done anything to get Hailey back.”

“Like pay a ransom?” Money as a motive wasn’t ruled out. Something could have prevented the request from being made. Then from bad to worse, Hailey was killed.

“ Anything ,” Vincent emphasized.

“We discussed posting a reward for her safe return but were cautioned not to do that.” Jean looked at McGee.

“It’s never advisable in abduction cases,” McGee said.

“Hmph,” Jean huffed. “Maybe things would have been different.”

Amanda understood Jean’s need to grasp an alternative, but she wasn’t getting roped into that.

Hypotheticals were a waste of time and energy without the power to change reality.

But since the Tanners had money, they may have discussed their daughter being kidnapped.

Rich people needed to take precautions the rest of the world didn’t.

“Did you and your husband ever discuss how you’d handle things if Hailey was taken? ”

“What? Absolutely not,” Jean said and calmed down when Vincent put his hand on her arm.

“Some people in your position do this. Unfortunately, there’s a certain risk when a person has a lot of money.” She put this as delicately as possible but was having a hard time. It was challenging to paint financial success as a liability.

“We never did that,” Vincent confirmed. “Maybe if we were billionaires.”

This conversation didn’t eliminate Mara Bennett in Amanda’s mind.

Mara would know what lengths the Tanners would go to for Hailey’s safe return.

The plan could have turned from ransom, to presenting herself as a hero for a reward.

Though it still didn’t explain Hailey’s murder.

Amanda didn’t see any advantage in laying this out to Hailey’s parents.

“Would it be possible for me and Detective Stenson to look in Mara’s and Hailey’s rooms?

” She buried Mara’s name because of how defensive the couple had gotten about her a moment ago.

“Ah, sure,” Vincent said.

“I can take them up, if you’d like,” McGee offered.

Vincent nodded. Jean was staring into space.

McGee led Amanda and Trent upstairs, leaving the Tanners alone with their grief.

They took a quick look inside Mara’s room, rooting in drawers and the closet. No scarves or anything else that was blatantly incriminating.

“I told you I searched this room,” McGee said.

“When Hailey was missing,” Amanda responded. “Now that she’s been murdered, we need to revisit everything.”

“There’s no way the nanny’s behind this,” McGee stated with confidence.

“Yet she volunteers to leave the Tanners’ home the day after Hailey is taken. That didn’t flag as suspicious with you?” Amanda served back.

“I think you’re making too much out of her leaving. There was no reason for her to stick around. Her job was looking after the child. She was doing a kindness and giving the Tanners some space.”

Amanda wasn’t as trusting as McGee seemed to be.

“I’m with Amanda,” Trent said. “Her leaving needs to be questioned. She could be caught up in this.”

Amanda nodded and shared her earlier thinking. “She’d know how important Hailey was to her parents. That they’d have done anything and paid anything to get her back.”

“Except one key thing. Hailey is dead,” McGee said coolly .

“Sure, something went wrong.” Even as she said that she hated how it sounded like she’d downplayed the situation.

“Okay, but the medical examiner said Hailey died just last night. If this was about a ransom, statistically the demand would have been made sooner,” McGee kicked back. “Probably sometime on Saturday, but that didn’t happen.”

Yet they still never escalated Hailey’s case to Homicide… “No answer on that, but was Mara around for that conversation about a financial reward?” Amanda asked.

McGee’s cheeks flushed, and his nostrils flared. “She was, but?—”

“ But ,” Amanda cut in, “it is possible then.”

“If Mara took the girl, where was Hailey while Mara was here Friday night?”

“Mara might be working with someone,” Trent suggested.

“I don’t know.” McGee groaned.

“Let’s agree to disagree for now.” She led the way next door.

Hailey’s room was pink, pink, pink from the cushion on the window seat to the walls and the canopy over her bed with its gold stars. They likely glowed in the dark. The dresser, nightstand, bookshelf, and overflowing toy chest were white.

Amanda crossed to the window, and noted a wooden trellis beneath it, but took in the view it offered of a spacious backyard.

It was surrounded by a six-foot-tall privacy fence made of cedar.

An expensive choice, which again gave the message that the Tanners were financially comfortable.

The playset, also cedar, offered a slide, climbing apparatus, small fort, and swings.

A mirror hung over a small makeup table and was bedazzled with stickers and drawings, likely made by Hailey.

Amanda refused to dwell on that and opened the closet doors.

It housed an organizational unit, but her interest was in the three tutus suspended from hangers.

“They match the style of the one Hailey was found in. ”

A startled outcry came from the landing. Amanda shot out the door to find Jean standing there, wide-eyed.

“Mrs.Tanner, it might be best if you go downstairs with your husband,” Amanda said softly. “We’ll join you soon.”

Jean shook her head. “I heard what you just said in there”—her eyes flicked toward Hailey’s room—“about the tutu. She was found in one?”

This wasn’t how she’d wanted to share this news with the Tanners. “She was. I see she must have loved one particular style. How many does she have?”

“Five. One was kept in her locker at the studio, then four here.”

Amanda glanced at Trent, trying to do so without Jean noticing.

But she rushed into the room and reached the closet before Amanda could stop her.

She shuffled the hangers with the tutus along the rod, and then stood back, flailing her arm.

“No, no, this doesn’t make sense. There should be four. There’s only…”

“Three,” Amanda finished. “How many pairs of ballet slippers does she have?”

“Three. Two should be in here.” Jean reached for a tote at the base of the closet, and Trent wedged in front of her.

“Please, Mrs.Tanner, let me.” Trent stuck his gloved hands into the tote. He came out holding one pair of pink satin slippers.

“No, this can’t be.” Jean started quaking.

“Is there any way Mara has the tutu and slippers out getting cleaned?”

“I don’t think so. They were all done two weeks ago.”

Amanda met Trent’s eyes. She thought of one explanation. The killer had been inside the Tanners’ home. But was it a family friend or an intruder?