Chapter 3
THREE
Amanda’s first call was to her mother. Jules agreed to come over and stay with Zoe all night if it was necessary.
She contacted Malone next, braced for a powerful reaction since he wasn’t a fan of working at night.
Her only advantage was Malone was a longtime family friend.
He’d gone through the police academy and built his career alongside Amanda’s father.
This gave him a soft spot for her, but she still got to the point as soon as he answered.
A few beats after she laid everything out, he said, “Okay, but you realize you’re not on call tonight? Neither am I. Why don’t you just leave this with those who are?”
She considered telling him about the personal link. Though, it was more a byproduct of living in a smaller community. Everyone crossed each other’s path at some point. “Paul Archer is supposed to be Zoe’s teacher this year.”
“Huh. All right, I get why you’d want to be on this. Go ahead, and keep me posted if this balloons into something definitive.”
She could say it already was. There were enough anomalies to flag for her. The abandoned car, purse, and phone, not being able to reach any of the family, neighbors not seeing any of them for days… But she’d let Malone hold on to his reserved optimism. “Will do.”
Soon after hanging up with Malone, her mother arrived. Amanda left and made her third call on the way out the door.
Trent answered during the third ring. “Hey, Amanda? Everything all right?”
Her mother had greeted her the same way. In all fairness, risk was bred into her unpredictable job. “I don’t think so.” She was about to expand on that when Kelsey, Trent’s girlfriend and roommate, spoke up in the background.
“What movie— Oh, sorry, I didn’t know you were on the phone.”
“It’s Amanda,” he told her.
“Oh, hey, Amanda,” Kelsey called out.
“Hi.” They had met at the end of a harrowing investigation six months ago. Kelsey struck her as a kind person, but Amanda didn’t really know her. As long as she treated Trent well and made him happy, that’s what mattered.
“Amanda says hi,” Trent passed along to Kelsey. “I’ll be with you in a few minutes, okay?”
“Sure. It takes what it takes.”
Amanda smiled at Kelsey’s laidback attitude.
“So, what’s going on?” Trent asked Amanda.
“Here’s the thing. I received a call from Officer Cochran. There’s a potential high-risk situation I’m going to check out. It might be something, and it might be nothing.”
“Sounds mysterious. Count me in.”
She hadn’t even asked him outright. He’d just read between the lines, like he so often did with her. “Only if you’re sure. After I grab a department car, I can swing by and pick you up if you’d like.”
“Works for me.”
“Give me about fifteen. I’ll fill you in when I see you.”
“See you soon.” With that, Trent was gone.
She didn’t miss that he hadn’t required details. He was just willing to help her. No questions asked.
Amanda smiled as she pressed the gas harder.
Amanda pulled into the mall’s parking lot at 8:20 PM. The mall closed at eight, though the Cheesecake Factory was open later, along with some other restaurants in the vicinity. All the patrons parked in the same lot, though at this time of day, it was less congested than it would have been earlier.
“I see Cochran.” Trent pointed in the officer’s direction, though Amanda had already spotted her.
It wasn’t hard since she was standing next to a bright-orange vehicle. Whoever this Valerie Archer was, Amanda imagined she had a bold personality.
Amanda parked the car, and she and Trent got out. There was no sign of a tow truck around, and Traci looked relieved to have company.
“Good evening.” Traci swept her gaze over to Trent, and Amanda took in the neon-pink polish on her nails. It was as hard to miss as the car’s paint job.
“I take it you haven’t gotten into the car yet?” Trent nudged his head toward the Charger.
Cochran shook her head. “I don’t have a lockout kit. You don’t have one, do you?”
Trent pulled a lockpick kit from his pocket, one meant for house doors and padlocks. “All I have is this, so unless the car has tumblers…”
Amanda knew it might work on some older vehicles, but not on this new Charger. This one would need an air wedge tool. “We’ll need to wait on the tow truck driver.”
As if on cue, one pulled up and parked in front of the Charger. Kyle hopped out of the cab, and Amanda smiled and shook her head.
“Mandy Monkey, to what do I owe the pleasure?” he razzed her.
Amanda shoved her brother’s shoulder and gave him a glare that urged him to ditch the family nickname.
Her four sisters rarely gave her any grief, but the eldest Steele lived for teasing her.
She was the next in line before their younger siblings, but it wasn’t like they had spent a long time together alone.
Their sister followed her only two years later.
“Nothing pleasurable about it, Kyle. I’m here on police business. ”
“Come on, you can’t deny it’s a beautiful evening.” Kyle swung with his arms out.
“Just get us in the car,” she told him.
Kyle put his gaze on Trent. “You too, eh? You go everywhere my sister does?”
Not that the men didn’t get along, but Trent was intimidated by her brother.
She’d tried to tell him before that the teasing he’d received was just Kyle being Kyle, but she didn’t think Trent knew how to accept that.
There was also a history there that time had softened.
“Kyle.” Amanda kept her tone firm and level, and Kyle smirked and grabbed the back of Trent’s neck and squeezed.
“Relax, little sis. I’m just messing with both of ya.”
“Get us in the car. Please,” she stressed.
“You sure you’re allowed to do that?”
She narrowed her eyes at him, not about to explain the law to her brother.
Even though he saw fit to educate her on anything with an engine whenever he got the chance.
But they were legally authorized without a warrant under what was termed a community caretaking protocol since they suspected the registered owner may have come to harm.
“Yes, ma’am.” Kyle gave her a mock salute and set off to the cab of his rig and returned a moment later. “You want to do the honors or…?”
“You can do it.” Amanda stepped back, and Kyle approached the driver’s door, worked the air wedge, and was moving out of the way a few minutes later.
“It’s all yours,” he said.
“Thank you.” Amanda snapped on a pair of gloves and ducked inside the car to look.
It was just as Cochran had told her. The purse on the passenger seat and the cell phone in the console.
Amanda snapped some pictures. “We’ll seize these personal items as evidence,” she said as she backed out of the vehicle with them.
She turned around to pass them to Trent, and as she expected, he was standing there with two evidence bags.
And so the chain of custody begins…
The thought roiled in her stomach. Hearing that Cochran couldn’t reach any of the Archers was one thing, but somehow being here, Amanda felt a foreboding in the air. “Thanks.” She dropped the phone into a bag but held on to the purse.
It was an over-the-shoulder, inexpensive one from a department store or .
The first thing she pulled out was a small wallet.
Inside, she found all the usual things such as identification cards, medical insurance, and credit cards.
A few receipts were wedged in there. One from Caffeine Café from a week ago, a parking receipt from the hospital in Woodbridge for Saturday morning, and one for a McDonald’s meal from the same day around noon.
All paid with credit card. “Valerie Archer is organized and meticulous.” She filled him in on the receipts.
“That’s someone dedicated to tracking their spending.”
“You could say that again.” The best she did was scan her statement for anything that stood out.
Amanda returned to the purse and fished out a nail file, a compact, and a hairbrush.
In a small pocket was a key fob and a gemstone in a small red satchel pinched closed with a drawstring.
“That’s it for the purse,” she said. Since they didn’t know Valerie Archer’s fate, they had no legal right to go digging around in her phone without a warrant.
Considering the circumstances, the request would be granted.
They’d just need to wait until it was. Though this didn’t stop her from grabbing the phone again and pushing the button to wake the screen.
She shared her observations with Trent. “It has little battery life left, just enough to light the screen. There’s notice of unheard voicemails and a text message is visible on the screen.
It’s from her son, Landon, sent yesterday, asking where she is. ”
“Then he doesn’t know. Yet, he didn’t file a missing person report.” Trent’s lips pressed in a firm line. “No follow-up text…”
The implication was the text had been to cover himself, that a teenage boy had hurt his family. It was sickening. But they needed to consider Landon a person of interest. “Well, we’re not going to find any answers hanging around here.”
Trent nodded. “We’ll get Valerie’s phone over to Digital Crimes and ping the phones belonging to the rest of the family.”
“Hate to interrupt this thing you have going,” Kyle began. “But am I good to hook this up or not?”
This thing…? She’d try not to read more into that than just two partners in sync while talking out a case. “Have at it.”
Kyle returned to the rig and moved it into position.
Officer Cochran turned to Amanda and Trent. “I’m going to stick around until he’s gone and then join the other officer over at the Archer residence.”
“Let me know if any of them turn up.” Amanda figured she and Trent would be catching up with her there soon enough.
“You know it.”
As Amanda walked away with Trent, she was breathing easier just from leaving her brother’s bouncy energy behind.
Whatever had him so wired she didn’t know, but he was in rare form tonight.
Unfortunately, she had something far more serious to concern herself with.
For one, a deep, bone-chilling dread this family’s story wasn’t going to have a happy ending.