Chapter 45
Jennie excused herself so Sean and Margaret Maynard could talk. She didn’t want to make the woman uncomfortable, and she certainly didn’t want to jeopardize the investigation.
Once Sean and the mother were alone, she fidgeted from nerves. But while Sean was eager to learn what she had to say, he didn’t rush her.
“I am really sorry about the miscarriage,” Margaret finally said.
“I appreciate that,” Sean replied.
“It must be hard, going through all of that while trying to do this job on what should have been your vacation,” Margaret said.
“It was definitely a curveball,” Sean replied, and then he tilted his head to the side. “How are you doing?”
“Oh, um…” Margaret tapped her foot quickly, her leg bouncing like a jackhammer. “Not great?” She laughed nervously. “It’s just… All this stuff is bringing up some things that I had hoped to forget, you know? Things that I thought were over, but… I’m not sure they are.”
Sean nodded, staying silent and listening as Margaret finally worked up the courage to say what she wanted.
“My husband isn’t a perfect man,” she said. “I knew that when I married him. In fact, on our first date, Ray was honest with me about his past. It kind of…shocked me. I mean, that’s a hell of a bomb to drop on a first date, you know?”
“Sure,” Sean answered.
“But there was also something refreshing about it, something that I didn’t think I had experienced from anyone else,” she said.
“I had been lied to a lot in my life. Mostly by men. My father was the worst of them all, and I think he kind of…tainted my ability to find a good man.” She shut her eyes, shook her head, took a deep breath, and then sighed. “I’m sorry. I know I’m rambling.”
“It’s okay,” Sean replied.
“Anyway, um, I just kept thinking about you losing your child,” Margaret said.
“And then it made me think of me losing Stuart, and what the other parents must be feeling now with their little girl missing, and… and…” She shut her eyes, calling upon a strength she had thought long been lost. “I’m not so sure Ray’s past is really behind him. ”
“Why do you say that?” Sean asked.
“He doesn’t know this, but a few years ago, I went through his phone, and I found…pictures,” she said. “Nothing scandalous, but definitely…strange.”
“What were the pictures of?” Sean asked.
“Children,” she answered, almost sounding as if she were choking on the word.
“They were all clothed, but they were taken of kids at the playground. Pictures that didn’t have our child in them.
It was only a few, but… It made me think of his past, and whether he still has those horrible…
urges.” She shivered, on the verge of tears again.
“This was a few years ago?” Sean asked.
“Yes,” she answered, then quickly added, “I didn’t speak to him about it.
I didn’t report it because…I didn’t want it to ruin my family.
But after listening to you, after seeing what those other parents are going through, what if my being quiet is ruining someone else’s family? I don’t think I can live with that.”
Sean nodded. “I appreciate you telling me this.”
“You’re not going to let anyone know I told you, right?” She asked. “This can just remain anonymous, right?”
“For now,” Sean answered. “If it turns into something, you might have to give an official statement, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
Margaret nodded, but she looked more nervous than she did before. “I just don’t want my son to get hurt. He’s a good boy. He’s nothing like his father, thank God. He’s just…quiet and shy and a little different is all.”
Sean thought back to the pair of underwear that her son had said he found and wondered if it was the beginning of something worse. Or perhaps that worse had already occurred.
“Did you ever hear your husband leave the room last night?” Sean asked.
“No,” she answered quickly. “And I’m a very light sleeper, which is bad because he snores. Loudly. Like, really loudly. My son is a heavy sleeper, though. That might be the one good thing he inherited from his father.”
Sean nodded and then thanked Margaret again for coming forward. She repeated that she didn’t want to get anyone in trouble, but she was “compelled” to tell him what she had learned about her husband a few years ago.
Sean assured her that if she ever did have to make a statement, arrangements would be made to keep her and her son safe. “And I meant what I told you when we first spoke,” Sean said. “If you ever feel like you’re not safe, or if you learn something new, come tell me.”
“Thank you, Sheriff,” Margaret said, and then she walked away.
Sean weighed this new information against the case he had already built. He had never believed that Frank Maynard was a good guy, but aside from the underwear and his past, Sean didn’t have anything concrete to connect him to the missing child or the bride’s murder.
The photos from a few years ago wouldn’t help either, but they did make Sean wonder if he needed to take a closer look at Frank and see what he was missing.
But before he had a chance, Rivers reached out to him with a surprising find.
“I have the hotel’s blueprints,” Rivers said. “People might have their conspiracy theories about the FBI, but I will say the Feds know how to get shit done.”
“Find anything useful?” Sean asked.
“Oh, yeah,” Rivers answered. “Turns out, The Bonnie is a little bit bigger than you thought.”