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CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Emmy was practically vibrating with exhaustion by the time they made it back to the station. Her brain couldn’t handle the sound of phones ringing and agents running around and the furious tapping on keyboards, all signifying nothing that would return Paisley Walker home.

Virgil silently offered Emmy his chair, but she leaned against the desk as Seth Alexander listened to Jude run down the latest on the case.

“The sheriff managed to get an ID on the woman on Elijah’s phone. Her name is Belinda Pfeiffer. Twenty-two years old. Works at a chef supply store in the local outlet mall. No priors.” Jude glanced at Emmy before turning her attention back toward Seth. “What did you find out?”

“Elijah’s secretary, Misty Norris, said she definitely noticed something was going on last year.

Elijah had a standing appointment the last Friday of every month where he blocked out a few hours in his calendar and disappeared.

Norris said this always coincided with around 600 dollars missing from petty cash.

Walker never brought back a receipt, but he’s the boss, so she didn’t question it. ”

Jude glanced at Emmy again, then asked, “What about the motel? Did anyone recognize Elijah’s photo?”

“No, ma’am. Night clerk said she’s never seen him. Obviously, she denies that there’s anything untoward going on at the place, but it’s a real dive. Lots of gang activity, several motorcycles parked outside. Looks like it’s a hotspot for the drug trade.”

“It is,” Virgil confirmed. “A lot of my PI work has me setting up across the street photographing cheating spouses. There’s a dealer named Wesley Woodrow who’s set up shop outta room nineteen in the back. Goes by the name Woody. He controls most of the fentanyl and heroin in and out of the county.”

“What about the day clerk?” Jude’s gaze landed on Emmy yet again before she looked back at Seth. “You said you showed the night clerk Elijah’s photo. What about the day clerk?”

“Uh—” Seth seemed thrown. “I don’t know if Damien followed up on that.”

“Damien reports to you,” Jude said. “You need to find that clerk.”

Seth smoothed down his tie. “Yes ma’am.”

“What about the tip line?”

“The usual,” Seth said. “Lots of women turning in their boyfriends and ex-husbands. Lots of reports of white vans, which isn’t surprising because white vans are everywhere. We’re following all the leads. Knocking on all the doors. Trying not to turn into clue clowns.”

“What about bloodhounds?”

“The assumption is he took her away in a vehicle.”

“Don’t make assumptions about Paisley Walker’s abduction. Get the dogs on the backroads. Let me know as soon as you speak to the day clerk at the motel. Show them a photo of Belinda Pfeiffer, too.” Jude dismissed him, turning toward Virgil. “Anything else on your end?”

“Verona PD just picked up Belinda Pfeiffer. She lives in those new apartments your uncle Penley built. They’re bringing her here.

” Virgil ripped out a sheet of paper from his notebook.

“Meanwhile, I’ve been looking at Paisley’s Snap and Instagram accounts.

She interacts with a handful of girls from school.

I’ve written down their names to follow up on.

Most of the videos are what you’d expect.

She likes cats, loves to read, enjoys science classes, loves Taylor and K-pop. Typical fourteen-year-old girl stuff.”

Jude said, “I’ll follow up on her electronic devices with IT. She might have a sock puppet account. Sheriff, can I have a minute?”

Emmy opened her mouth to respond, but Brett came out of nowhere.

“Emmy?” He was holding a stack of papers in his hands. “I got the list of landscapers who work in the Walkers’ neighborhood. You sure you want me to go through this? Maybe you didn’t hear the FBI found the guy who spread the pine straw?”

Emmy felt her teeth set. She probably wouldn’t have noticed except for Jude constantly banging on about it, but Brett had stopped calling Emmy by her first name ten years ago when she’d been appointed chief deputy. And now that Gerald was gone, he was back to using her first name again.

She pushed away from the desk. Tried to put some steel in her spine. “Yes, Deputy. I want you to call every single one. Get their schedules and the names of all their crew members. You can do this while you’re doing covert surveillance on Adam Huntsinger.”

“Adam?” Brett questioned. “I mean, shit, Emmy. Do you really think—”

“I think my father got murdered yesterday morning and I don’t want another vigilante mob doing something stupid with both of Adam’s elderly parents inside their home.

” Emmy wasn’t finished, “Brett, I want to make this clear: you need to have eyes on Adam at all times. If you have to take a piss, use a bottle. If you’ve gotta take a shit, then you call someone to watch Adam before you go. Understood?”

His nod was curt. “Yes, chief.”

She told Virgil, “Let me know when Belinda gets here.”

Virgil nodded, too. “Yes, chief.”

Emmy spotted Cole sitting at his desk. He was bent over his keyboard again. She motioned him over, telling Jude, “Let’s go to the back.”

They were barely out of earshot of the squad room when Jude started talking.

“Well done.”

“I told you I’m not looking for your approval. Somebody has to be in charge of this place. It’s what Dad wanted.”

“Hey.” Jude stopped her outside the door to the monitoring room. “What you said before. I’m not here for a victory lap. I’m here for you.”

Emmy couldn’t keep juggling back and forth between work and whatever this was.

She turned on the lights. The two monitors glowed on the desk with the Bluetooth speaker between them.

The left-hand monitor showed Elijah sitting at the table in the interrogation room.

The sensitive microphones in the ceiling picked up the sound of his labored breathing.

Emmy looked at the other monitor, which showed the empty chair across from Elijah.

Her vision doubled. She closed her eyes for a moment.

She was so tired she literally couldn’t see straight.

“Emmy,” Jude said. “You’re right that I don’t know you, but this is what I’m good at, and if you could just look at the last forty years as me preparing myself to help you with this case, you’d be doing both of us a favor.”

“Fine.” Emmy saw Cole making his way down the hall. He looked distracted. She asked him, “What’s going on?”

“There’s a lot more chatter online. People are saying that Adam Huntsinger abducted Paisley, and that we’re too stupid to figure it out.”

Emmy felt the familiar knot twisting in her stomach. “Anybody sounding like they want to do something about it?”

“It’s hard to tell who’s blowing smoke and who means it, but the temperature’s definitely up.” Cole sounded genuinely worried. “There’s a citizen detective group tossing around theories. None of them are saying anything new. Most people think it’s Adam.”

Jude said, “It’s smart to monitor these groups. Some take the work seriously. Others are just bored and want to stir up shit. What are your thoughts on Adam Huntsinger?”

Emmy wasn’t sure about her thoughts. “I trust Brett to keep an eye on him. Whether Adam’s the one who took Paisley or not, I don’t know.”

Jude asked, “What’s your gut telling you?”

Emmy’s gut wanted to throw up from lack of sleep. “I can’t get a read.”

“Neither can I,” Jude said. “What do you know about Belinda Pfeiffer?”

Emmy was startled to realize she hadn’t let herself think beyond the name.

“I’m in a book club with her mother, Daphne, who puts raisins in her potato salad.

I don’t know much about the family beyond that.

Belinda’s not on our radar for being a sex worker.

I doubt her mother knows what she’s up to. Cole, did you find anything?”

He supplied, “Belinda’s not on any patrol field notes. Nobody’s got her on their radar. She’s never been arrested. Never gotten a speeding ticket. Her TikTok is mostly about The Bachelor and all the Housewives .”

Jude asked, “Does she go to the Catholic church?”

“She follows the New Holiness Church, but there’s nothing religious that I found on her social.”

“That’s the Pentecostals,” Emmy told Jude, but then she realized Jude probably already knew. “So, maybe Elijah actually met Belinda on a dating site? Like an Ashley Madison sort of thing?”

Jude said, “I doubt he stopped at one affair. There have to be more women in his background. Cole, did you find Viagra when you searched Elijah and Carol’s bedroom?”

Cole looked surprised by the question, but he said, “Yeah, but not in the medicine cabinet. It was in a shoe box inside his closet.”

“He was hiding it from Carol,” Jude said. “Men like Elijah use Viagra for their mistresses. They don’t waste it on their wives.”

“Elijah told me Carol wasn’t adventurous enough.” Emmy was hit by a wave of dizziness. She looked down at the floor, took a deep breath. Between Myrna’s night terrors and staying up for over twenty-four hours straight, she felt like her brain was swimming inside of an aquarium.

Jude asked, “You okay?”

“Yep.” She looked back up, determined to push through it. “Virgil said that Belinda lives in Penley’s apartments over in Verona. It’s got a lot of single, young adults with money in their pockets. Jonah’s bar is down the street. It might not mean anything, but Woody runs drugs out of the back.”

Jude asked, “The same Woody who works out of room nineteen at the Dew Drop Inn?”

“The same,” Emmy said. “Woody is clever. Keeps his hands clean. But his name came up on the Broken Angels case. He was a teenager then. Cheyenne had a lot of hard drugs hidden in the ceiling of her bedroom closet, along with sixteen grand in cash. We never found out where she was getting them.”

“Adam wasn’t her supplier?”

“No, he only ever dealt pot as far as we could tell.” Emmy saw Virgil at the end of the hall. He lifted his chin. She told Jude, “Belinda’s here. What do you want to do with her?”