Chapter 55
Monday morning
JP worked at Sabre’s desk in her office until she got there.
He had spent most of the morning chasing a car he already suspected he’d never find.
That was part of investigations too. Sometimes you followed leads because they mattered.
Sometimes you followed them so you could stop wondering about them.
He sat at the desk with coffee gone cold and Marcus Caldwell’s statement in front of him. Yellow 1965 or ‘66 Mustang. Oceanside. Two to three weeks after Hannah disappeared.
It wouldn’t mean much if Nigel Gates hadn’t also reported seeing a 1966 yellow Mustang following Hayes the day of the abduction. He had been complaining about Victor Hayes and insisting everybody focused on the wrong details. Maybe he was right.
JP wrote it down. School pickup → Hayes→ yellow Mustang, weeks later → Oceanside → yellow Mustang
One sighting could be nothing. Two separated by weeks meant the car mattered, and the clerk at the 7-11 saw a yellow car. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to identify anyone.
JP made four calls before ten o’clock, one to a retired DMV contact who occasionally helped narrow vehicle searches, one to a PI who specialized in vehicle tracing, one to a classic-car insurance adjuster he’d worked with years earlier,
and the other to Detective Nelson to let him know about the Mustang.
“Do you have plate digits?” the DMV contact asked.
“No.”
“VIN?”
“No.”
“Unique identifiers?”
“Nothing besides yellow, sixty-six Mustang, maybe a sixty-five.”
A laugh crackled through the speaker. “Do you know how many restored Mustangs are in Southern California?”
JP rubbed his jaw. “What if I narrow it to San Diego County?”
“Still too many.” Papers shuffled. “And that assumes it stayed registered here. Cars move. They get repainted, go non-op, get sold privately.”
JP wrote notes anyway. “No realistic path?”
“Not from this.”
The insurance adjuster was worse. “Classic Mustangs are everywhere down here,” he said. “Especially sixty-five and sixty-sixes.”
“How many are yellow?”
“No clue.” A short laugh. “Enough to ruin your day.”
The PI didn’t pretend to be optimistic. “No plate means a dead end,” he said flatly. “Eight years later? Forget it.”
JP sat quietly. Three independent answers. Impossible, or close enough to it. The truth was that he wasn’t surprised, but he had hoped.
He looked back down at the notes. Nigel Gates had seen the Mustang near the school the day Hannah disappeared.
It was seen at the 7-11 around the same time as Hannah and Hayes were there.
Marcus saw it weeks later in Oceanside with a girl who looked like Hannah in the passenger seat.
That meant the car traveled with her. Which meant whoever drove it wasn’t panicking.
That was the part JP couldn’t shake. The first weeks after a kidnapping should’ve looked desperate and secretive or not look like anything because the person went into hiding.
But instead, someone was driving around Oceanside in a bright yellow collector car with Hannah sitting beside him calmly enough for Marcus to remember it nearly a decade later.
JP walked to the window overlooking downtown. If you were hiding a kidnapped child, you didn’t drive a bright-yellow, classic Mustang unless you believed nobody was looking for you anymore. Or unless you never thought of yourself as a kidnapper to begin with. That thought settled heavily.
The car appeared before Hannah vanished, then afterward in Oceanside. Which meant Victor Hayes may never have been alone in this.
JP was about to move on to something else when Sabre returned from court. He told her about his morning, then moved to the small conference table. Sabre sat down at her desk.
He spread the homicide discovery in organized stacks around him. He had police reports, witness statements, digital extraction summaries, and a preliminary autopsy report.
As JP worked, Sabre reviewed dependency files, but JP knew she was listening to every page turn.
He opened the main report again.
Victim: Todd Maddox
Lead Detective: Greg Nelson
JP skimmed past the scene narrative. Victim located in his duplex in El Cajon. Female suspect detained nearby. Witnesses placed suspect and victim together earlier in evening.
He knew all that. He read through his own notes again. He needed to find the parts where people accidentally told the truth.
He picked up the witness Interview from the Lantern Room bartender. Victim had become “fixated” on a brunette female later believed to be Bay Mercer and “her blonde friend/sister.” Victim repeatedly commented: “Something’s off with those girls.”
It wasn’t identification, just a suspicion. He continued reading.
Victim believed older male associated with females was “not really their dad.” Victim stated females appeared nervous when discussing residence, employment, or school.
Sabre looked up. “He saw the control,” she said.
“Or enough odd behavior to keep digging.”
JP turned the page. He stopped at another comment by the bartender. The victim stated: “I think those girls are hiding from somebody.”
Maddox had started constructing a theory. Not a good one, but enough to push.
JP opened the digital extraction summary next.
That was where things shifted.
Cell Phone Extraction—Todd Maddox Browser Searches (Previous 10 Days)
missing girl California found years later
can someone use fake birth certificate?
how to tell if someone is being controlled
long term kidnapping victims
San Diego missing child cases
Sabre stood and walked over. JP slid the report toward her. She read silently.
“No names,” she said. “But he was circling something.”
“Yeah.” He turned to another report.
Saved Images
Recovered images included:
screenshot of California missing-child article
screenshot of age-progression composite from unidentified cold case
blurry photograph of unidentified blonde female exiting laundromat
Sabre narrowed her eyes. “He was comparing.”
JP nodded. “He knew something was wrong, but he didn’t know exactly what was going on. He was pattern matching.”
The report continued: Image quality insufficient for identification.
JP moved on to the Recovered Notes Fragment. It contained the following deleted notes recovered from the device:
not sisters maybe
older guy watches everything
blonde acts scared
something wrong there
JP took a deep breath. Todd had discovered enough to become dangerous.
Sabre folded her arms. “He thought she was trapped.”
“It looks like it.”
JP flipped to the autopsy summary and read slower.
“What is it?”
Without answering, JP handed her the Medical Examiner Preliminary Findings report.
Sabre read aloud. “Victim sustained multiple stab wounds, several superficial penetrating injuries, and severe blunt-force trauma to posterior skull. Preliminary finding: Fatal injury most consistent with blunt-force cranial trauma occurring near or after stabbing event.”
Sabre sucked in a breath. “Bay didn’t say anything about a blow to the head.”
“Maybe he fell when she stabbed him.”
“That’s not what she said, but she still hasn’t told the whole story.”
JP continued to read. “Knife injuries alone would not have been immediately fatal.” JP stared at the notation. “He must’ve fallen when she stabbed him.”
“Which would still mean she’s the one who killed him.”
“Unless she had some help.”
“What are you thinking?” Sabre asked.
“Maybe the other girl didn’t leave, or she came back.”
“And Bay is covering for her.”
“Or it’s possible Bay doesn’t know she returned.”
Silence settled over the office. JP flipped back to witness timeline. “Bay was seen leaving the area, looking upset. No witness actually saw Maddox die. They heard an argument, noise, saw some movement. Then later the body was found.”
JP returned to the evidence inventory. “No murder weapon matching blunt-force injury was recovered. And there are no scuffs, bloodstains, or indications that he hit his head on anything in the room.”
“So, you think he was alive after Bay left?”
“I think it’s a good possibility,” JP said. “Someone else could’ve come in afterward. Someone who felt that Todd Maddox had become a threat.”
“That could mean the other girl or the guardian.”
JP looked again at Maddox’s browser searches—including, how to tell if someone is being controlled—then at the blurry blonde photo, then at the missing-child article screenshot.
“I think Maddox was on to more than he knew. He had found enough to start pulling threads, enough for Bay to panic, and enough for somebody else to finish the job.”
Sabre glanced at the search history printout. “So, he may not have known who she was, but he was getting close enough to scare the right people.”
She looked at JP. “Do you think the blonde is Hannah?”
“Whoever sent you the text mentioning her wants us to believe she is.”
“Or wants us to believe Bay is.”