11
“Evan got a license plate number of a bright-blue Jeep from a neighbor’s video. It’s got to be the guy her neighbor believes is Sydney’s boyfriend. We’ve got his name and address,” Noelle said, enthusiasm making her words rush out.
“Let’s go.” Max beat her to the front door.
Ten minutes later they arrived at the address.
“There it is,” Noelle said under her breath as she spotted the blue Jeep in the apartment complex parking lot. She parked two spaces away, and Max’s vehicle pulled in beside hers.
Hayden Hall was thirty-seven and worked for a local plumbing company.
According to Max, Merritt was right about the plumbing part.
Noelle wondered if a repair job was how Sydney and Hayden had met.
Her interview with Shawn Nickerson hadn’t provided much new information.
He’d admitted up front that he and Merritt were living together.
Shawn had told her that Merritt wanted to keep it a secret, but he was ready to tell the world.
“Maybe this fall she’ll be ready,” he’d said with forced optimism.
Noelle wondered how long he’d put up with the secrecy.
In the parking lot, she and Max got out of their SUVs, and Noelle spotted Hayden Hall’s apartment number on a first-floor door of a three-story building. “There it is.”
“Did you get any more information on this guy?” asked Max.
“No criminal record,” said Noelle. “Two old speeding tickets.”
She led the way up the concrete walk. An apartment window faced their way, but the blinds were drawn.
Noelle rang the bell and stepped to one side, and Max did the same.
A few seconds later the door opened, and Noelle recognized Hayden from his driver’s license photo.
He was as Sydney’s neighbor had described.
Tall, average build. And still wearing a cap over his brown hair.
“Can I help you?” He frowned, looking from Noelle to Max.
They presented their IDs. “We’d like to talk to you about Sydney Beason,” said Max. “Can we come in?”
Surprise and then concern flared in the man’s eyes. “Is she okay? Did something happen to her?”
Reaction seems genuine.
“I’m sorry to tell you, but Sydney has passed away,” Noelle said gently, watching him closely.
Shock drained the color from his face as he blinked rapidly, his mouth opening and closing the smallest bit. He took a half step back and grabbed the doorframe. “She’s dead? What happened? A car accident?”
“Can we come in?” repeated Max.
Still blinking, Hayden woodenly moved out of the way and then shut the door behind them.
The apartment was bright, the living area facing the west and catching the sun.
The air-conditioning was set to an arctic chill, and Noelle was glad of her suit jacket.
Hayden wore cargo shorts and a Britney Spears concert T-shirt with the sleeves cut off.
He crossed his arms over his chest and dug his fingers into his biceps. He didn’t offer them a seat.
“What happened?” he asked again.
“Her body was found yesterday in the national forest,” said Noelle. “I’m very sorry.”
How many more times will I have to tell people?
It was emotionally exhausting.
Confusion lit his gaze. “Like . . . suicide?”
“No. Someone killed her and then buried her,” said Max.
“Jesus.” Hayden abruptly dropped into a seat on the sofa. “What the fuck? Are you sure?” His gaze pleaded with Noelle.
“Yes. She’s been positively identified.” Noelle continued to analyze his reactions. Nothing was setting off alerts in her brain. Yet.
“But who . . . who did that? Why would anyone kill her?” He lifted his cap and ran a hand through his hair. “This isn’t happening.”
“When did you last see her?” asked Max.
“Me? Umm . . . God, I think it’s been about two weeks.” He repeated the cap and hair grooming gestures. “It was on a Friday. What’s today?” He looked at both of them, waiting for an answer, his gaze rather blank.
“Monday,” supplied Max. “When did you last speak with her?”
“I said Friday.” His forehead wrinkled. “I did say Friday out loud, right?”
“Why so long?” asked Noelle.
He’s distraught. Can’t think clearly.
“She dumped me.” Hayden took a deep breath. “Trust me, I remember that Friday night. Shocked the hell out of me. I didn’t see it coming. She told me not to call her, and I’ve mostly respected that. It’s been as hard as hell, but it was what she wanted.” He wiped his eyes.
Noelle exchanged a quick look with Max. “Why did she break up with you? How long had you been together?”
Hayden pressed a knuckle to his eye. “Four months. She said she needed to focus on Belle.” He abruptly straightened, his eyes wide. “Did anything happen to Belle? Is she okay?” His gaze was frantic as it darted between them.
“We don’t know,” Noelle said calmly. “We haven’t been able to locate—”
“What?” Hayden shot to his feet, his hands in fists. “How can you not know—what the hell!” He paced across the room and back. He stopped in front of Noelle. “Is she dead too?” he whispered.
“Please sit back down.” She didn’t like the way his arms twitched as if he needed to hit something. “We are looking hard for Belle. We have law enforcement from every agency searching for that little girl right now. Do you know of anyone who’d hurt her or Sydney?”
“Hurt Belle?” He looked away. “Makes me sick to think of it. That little girl,” he said softly.
“She’s as precious as they come. I called her Blue Belle or Baby Belle sometimes.
Even Jingle Belle. She loved that.” He lifted his shirt hem to blot his eyes.
“She’d giggle when I’d pretend her name was Doorbell or Taco Bell.
I didn’t realize how much I’d become attached until I couldn’t see her anymore.
” He sniffled. “Don’t know who would hurt Sydney either. ”
“Did she speak about having a problem with anyone?” asked Max. “Maybe something happened at work? Or with a neighbor?”
Hayden leaned forward, then shot to his feet again and ran from the room. “Gonna be sick . . .”
A moment later they heard him vomiting into a toilet.
“Thoughts?” whispered Noelle.
“Feels authentic.” Max shook his head. “But I’m reserving judgment. Seems convenient that they just broke up.”
“Yes.” The same thought had gone through Noelle’s mind. And the vomiting could be a stress reaction to being questioned by a detective and FBI agent. Guilt did that to people.
The toilet flushed, and then water ran in the sink for a long time. Hayden finally returned, his cap now gone. He gripped a blue hand towel, which he occasionally wiped his forehead with. “Sorry.”
“No apologies necessary,” said Noelle. “You’ve had a big shock.”
He sat heavily on the couch. “Yeah. I don’t like the shit I’m seeing in my head now. Maybe if we hadn’t broken up, I could have—”
“Don’t play that game with yourself,” said Noelle. “You’ll only drive yourself nuts thinking about how some small action on your part could have changed it.”
He nodded and slumped back on the sofa, his gaze on the floor again. “I did call a few days after the breakup. Just once. It went straight to voicemail, so I figured she didn’t want to talk to me.”
“What day was that?”
Hayden looked around the room as if lost. Then leaned to one side to grab his phone off an end table. “Let me look.” He scrolled on his phone. “Tuesday. Not last week, the Tuesday before that.” He stared at his screen. “I can’t believe it’s been that long,” he mumbled to himself.
“You don’t know of anyone who’d do this?” asked Noelle, trying to get him back on track.
“No.” It was a whisper. Then he raised his head, a touch of hope in his eyes. “Have you talked to her ex-husband? Maybe he has Belle.”
“We’ve talked with Trey,” said Max. “He hasn’t seen Belle or Sydney since the weekend before last.”
Hayden blew out a breath. “I know their relationship isn’t great, but I don’t think he’d hurt Syd. I assume you’ll investigate him thoroughly since the ex-husband is always looked at . . .” His words trailed off and he blinked.
He’s figured it out.
“Oh, shit.” He looked at Noelle. “I’m the ex-boyfriend.
Your focus is on me too.” He buried his face in his hands but then sat up and used the towel on his face.
“Dig as hard as you can. Clear my name ASAP. I don’t want to be harassed by the media or keyboard warriors hiding in their moms’ basements.
That shit can be brutal and ruin someone’s life. ”
His self-centered response rubbed Noelle the wrong way. “Our focus is on finding Sydney’s killer and finding Belle. This is about them.”
“I know, I know. I’ll do whatever I can to help.” He struggled to look Noelle in the eye. “Ask me anything.”
“Do you know Sydney’s roommate?” asked Max.
“Elise? Sorta. We met a few times. She moved in about a month before Syd dumped me.”
A name!
“What’s her last name?” asked Max.
Confusion filled Hayden’s gaze. “Wait. You haven’t talked to her? Did she move out?”
“Her things are still there, but we’ve been unable to locate her. A last name would help,” said Noelle.
“Can’t help you there,” said Hayden after a moment’s thought. “Syd never told me, and I never asked. She seemed nice enough. She was moving to the area from California and was staying with Syd until she found a job and got on her feet. She’s also missing?”
“So far,” said Max. “We’re hoping she’s out and will return to the house soon.”
“How do they know each other?” asked Noelle.
“Ummm. They’re old friends somehow?” He wrinkled his forehead. “I can’t remember exactly what Sydney told me.”
“Did she have a car?” asked Noelle.
“White Toyota Corolla,” Hayden answered promptly. “Not sure of the year. Definitely not new. Has California plates.”
Noelle texted Evan with the car information so he could have the local videos reviewed.
It worked to find Hayden.
Her fingers were crossed.
“Elise hadn’t found a job as far as you knew?” asked Noelle.
“I think Syd was trying to find her something with the school district. As far as I know, nothing had happened yet. God, I hope she’s okay.
” His gaze went distant. “And Belle too.” He pressed the towel against his eyes, his chest shaking.
“Such a great kid.” He sniffed, dropped the towel, and opened his phone again, holding it out to Noelle and Max. “Look.”
A photo of him and Belle. Her Jeep was in front of his, and she stood in the seat with her arms in the air. He mimicked the pose beside her. Joy filled their faces.
“You’re broken up and you kept photos of Belle?” asked Max.
“And Syd.” He swiped. The next photo was of him and Syd with the snowy Cascades behind them.
Noelle recognized the setting as the top of Pilot Butte; she had one of herself and Max in the same spot.
The couple had their arms around each other, Sydney’s head against his chest as she smiled at the photographer.
“I’d hoped to get back together,” said Hayden.
“I wasn’t ready to delete anything.” He stared at the photo of him and Sydney.
“Now what do I do with these?” he asked softly, his question rhetorical.
“What can you tell us about her friends? Her coworkers? Family?” asked Noelle. “How did she speak of them? Who did you meet?”
Hayden closed his phone after a long study. “Let’s see. She’s an only child, so I didn’t meet any siblings. Never met her parents. Neither of us were ready for that.” His brows came together. “She talked about the woman she taught class with. Merritt. But I never met her.”
“They good friends?” asked Max.
He shrugged. “She never mentioned doing anything outside of school with her. They’d been teaching together for several years. Syd said she was ready to have her own class again.”
“Why?” Noelle asked the open question, knowing it’d bring more information than a specific one.
“Said she wanted something different. Never said anything bad about Merritt. Just that it was time to move on.”
“She mention anyone else from school?” asked Max.
He thought and then shook his head.
“How about other friends? I heard she met with a moms group.”
His face cleared. “Yeah. She did that. Said she liked being with moms who struggled with the same things she encountered.”
“Struggled?”
“You know. Bedtime. Meals. Reliable babysitters. She said she was a bit older than most of them. She had Belle at thirty-six, and most of the others were in their twenties or early thirties. Said she felt like they had more energy than her. She mentioned a few times that Belle would probably be her only child.” His gaze returned to the floor.
He didn’t like that.
“You have any kids?” asked Noelle.
“Nah. I was married in my twenties for seven years, but we never did the kid thing, which was one good thing when the divorce happened.” He looked around his stark apartment.
I wonder how he feels about that now.
“What’s your ex’s name?” asked Max.
Hayden shared her name and address.
“Do you mind if I look around your apartment?” asked Max.
Hayden waved a hand. “Go for it. Open any drawer or closet you want.”
Max wandered down the hall, leaving Noelle alone with Hayden. The man didn’t watch Max leave, his focus on the carpet, his hands gripped tight in his lap. Noelle waited in silence, hoping Hayden would feel a need to fill it. He didn’t.
She let her gaze wander and spotted three brightly colored books on the lower shelf of the coffee table. Clifford the Big Red Dog. She pointed at them. “Belle’s?”
Hayden stared at the books for a long time. “Yeah. I bought them so she’d have something to do here,” he said quietly. “She can have them.”
If she’s still alive.
Neither of them said it out loud.