Chapter 13 #3
“Abernathy?” Evie’s blue eyes widened. “She’s married to Kyle Abernathy?”
“It would be quite the coincidence that there would be two cops on the force with the same last name.” He tried to dig into her profile but couldn’t. “She has the privacy settings enabled, so I can’t see any of her photos or posts.”
“But you can do a background search on her, right?” Evie leaned forward eagerly. “Her marriage would be on file.”
“True.” He quickly entered the information into the database. “Okay, I can confirm she’s married to Kyle Abernathy for the past eight years. Interestingly, it looks like they filed for a legal separation two years ago.” He frowned at Evie. “She made it sound like they were still married, right?”
“Right. Could be they didn’t follow through with a divorce.” Evie stared at the photo on the screen. “Maybe she sensed something was off about Kyle but then decided not to follow through with breaking up their family. She sounded content when we spoke to her earlier.”
“That’s true.” He thought again about Dan Johnson.
The domestic abuse angle gave him an idea.
“Let’s try a general search on our buddy Dan.
We might get a hit off his domestic abuse incident that will tell us more.
Like where he lives.” He wouldn’t mind driving past Dan’s residence to check the place out.
“He might live with his dad,” Evie pointed out as he typed Dan Johnson, domestic violence, and Grand Haven into a popular search engine.
“That’s entirely possible since he would have had to pay a divorce lawyer big bucks. And if they had a house, he’d have to split the proceeds with Loretta.” The top hit was indeed a newspaper article about Dan Johnson’s arrest.
He was disappointed that the short article only mentioned the few details they already knew.
That Dan’s wife, Loretta, had called the police because her husband, Dan, had struck out at her in anger.
Reading the words made his blood boil as he recalled how Dan had forcibly dragged Tammy into the lake.
“Look, it gives an address.” Evie’s soft hair brushed against his arm as she leaned closer. “Maybe Dan still lives there?”
He typed the address into a new search engine to bring up the map.
The house was nothing fancy but nice enough for a family.
He opened another window to look at a popular real estate site.
“According to this, the house was sold three years ago.” He shook his head and sighed.
“I am sure Dan sold the place as part of the divorce decree.”
“Well, it was worth a shot.” Evie sat back in her chair. “Do you remember where Dan’s family lived when we were in high school?”
He frowned. “We were never friends. I never spent any time at his house. I don’t recall him having any parties either.”
“Me either.” She looked glum. “I guess there’s nothing else we can do to find him.”
He went back to the original search command and eliminated the domestic violence terminology and hit enter.
To his surprise, another article popped up on the screen about recent promotions at the Grand Haven Medical Center.
“What is this about?” He clicked on the link and nearly fell off his chair at the information that appeared on the screen.
“I can’t believe it,” he said. “Evie, check this out. Dan Johnson was recently promoted to manager of the security services department at Grand Haven Medical Center.”
“Are you serious?” Evie stared at him in shock. “He’s basically Rick Thomas’s boss.”
“And since he works at the medical center, he’d have likely crossed paths with Jasmine Kramer.” He sat back, his thoughts whirling. “Evie, this changes everything. Not only does Dan Johnson have a history of violence, he knew both victims.”
“You’re absolutely right,” Evie agreed, her expression turning grim. “I hate to admit it, but I can see a guy like Dan doing something evil like killing innocent women. Maybe even because they rejected his advances.”
He could imagine it too. Then a flash of anger hit hard. “Why in the world is Rueger so focused on me? I haven’t been inside the medical center since my mother died of alcohol poisoning.” He jabbed his finger against the screen. “While Dan has been working there practically alongside Jasmine.”
Evie grasped his arm. “Maybe Rueger doesn’t really suspect you, Cam. He could be using the past as an excuse to keep you from leaving town as he pursues other suspects too.”
“Maybe.” He had to take several deep breaths to control his anger and frustration. “Or maybe he’s just as inept as we’ve been thinking all along.”
“Don’t take his comments so personally.” Evie tightened her grip on his arm. “The truth will prevail.”
He forced a nod, although the resentment toward Rueger still burned in his gut. As he covered Evie’s hand with his, he silently vowed that if Dan Johnson so much as harmed a hair on Evie’s head, he’d make sure Rueger lost his job for being blind and stupid as to the truth staring him in the face.
He’d take the detective down without an ounce of remorse.