Chapter 39
THIRTY-NINE
Crooked Creek
Ellie grabbed coffee then headed to her office and phoned the local law in Mystic.
Deputy Rouse was the intermittent sheriff as the former sheriff hadn’t officially been replaced.
After their first meeting at the ridge, she dreaded having to speak to him, but if he had information that could help, she had to ignore her dislike of him.
“The town looks quiet today,” Ellie commented as she surveyed his office.
“Nobody seems to want to work in this town,” Deputy Rouse said. “We’ve gotten a bad rep from all the suicides this year.”
Ellie understood, although there were other reasons people weren’t flocking to the area.
The town looked like something set back in time, a defunct little area many had abandoned due to lack of progression, especially technology.
Outdated storefronts and restaurants along with a lack of jobs and activities sent young people running to more modern, appealing cities.
“I need information about the two previous suicides at the ridge,” Ellie said. “Can you tell me about them?”
“Sure. Let me pull up the files.”
She heard a file drawer opening then papers rustling.
“Okay, the first one—sixteen-year-old Nina Gillis. According to her parents, at one time she had a drinking problem, but she’d recently been clean.”
“Did she have a child?” Ellie asked.
A hesitation. “No, but she was almost six months pregnant at the time she jumped. Her folks claimed she’d been depressed for months and believe that was the reason she took her own life.”
And her baby’s. Ellie drummed her fingers on her desk. “What about the baby’s father?”
“Parents didn’t know his name, said she never told them. Insisted he wasn’t in the picture.”
Hmm. Same with Minnie. A drug problem, depression and father to her baby unknown.
“Did you find evidence suggesting she might have been pushed instead of jumping?” Ellie asked.
“Not really. No witnesses. She left a suicide note.”
So had Minnie. But Ellie knew suicide wasn’t the cause of death.
“What about the other girl?”
“Seventeen-year-old Jordan Orwell. Her father is deceased, but according to her mother, Jordan wanted to get married and have a family and had dreams of college. But something changed when she was sixteen. She started drinking and ended up pregnant. She gave the baby up for adoption when the child was born.”
Ellie’s breath caught. Another girl with an addiction problem. Another child. “Was the father in the picture?”
“Not that I know of. The mother claimed Jordan refused to reveal his name.”
Ellie drummed her fingers again. “This may sound like an odd question, but were feathers on the ground near the girls’ bodies?”
Papers shuffled again. “As a matter of fact, there were crow feathers. But birds and crows are prevalent in the area. Birdwatchers go to the ridge all the time, and we’ve had a few hunters shooting the crows, too.”
“I thought crows were protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act,” Ellie said.
“They are,” Deputy Rouse replied. “Although states vary. If the crows are deemed dangerous or cause property damage, some states allow it. The town and mountains are more isolated and off the grid, so there’s not much control.”
“Will you send me a copy of your files along with photographs of the scenes and the suicide notes?”
“What do you want with them?” he asked. “If you think we did something wrong, we didn’t. We went by the book, lady.”
Ellie stiffened at his defensive tone. “It’s Detective, Deputy Rouse. Just send them over.”
She didn’t wait for a response. Sometimes small-town law enforcement were overly sensitive. Sometimes they missed or overlooked things. Sometimes they just didn’t want anyone in their business or they simply wanted to tie up a case too quickly.
She glanced at Iris’s photo and swallowed hard. To hell with his pride.
All that mattered was finding Iris and the person who killed her mother.