Chapter 11 #2
His expression and the warmth in his blue eyes were magnetic.
She leaned toward him. Her heart fluttered as her cheeks flushed.
She turned sideways and stared out the windshield.
What was she doing? A second longer looking into those blue eyes and they would have kissed.
Clearing her throat, she tugged on the front of her shirt.
“How long do you suppose we’ll have to sit here? ”
He checked his mirrors again. “Guess it’s okay to leave.”
His phone rang. “Eva.” He pressed the connect button. “You should hear this if it has to do with what she found about Sheryl and Norm’s alibi.” He placed the phone on the console. “Hey, Eva. Lydia’s here with me. You got something for us?”
Lydia liked that River saw them as working together to find her daughter. Being sidelined and confined to a house was the most helpless feeling in the world.
Eva’s crisp voice came through the line. “Just a little info, but I wanted to give it to you anyway. I haven’t had much time to devote to this. I’m still doing a deep dive on trying to infiltrate these dark web adoption places. It’s a bit of a challenge.”
“But you found something related to Elsie’s case?”
“Yes. I have a law enforcement friend in Grand Junction, so I was able to speed things up on that end. He was able to grab the CC footage close to the exit the grandparents would have used to get to the daughter’s house directly the day they said they went there.
No car matching either one of the two they own went by that camera on Sunday.
It could be that they took a different exit.
For whatever reason, they wanted to take the scenic route. ”
Lydia massaged the back of her neck where her muscles had tensed. Not the smoking gun that broke their alibi, but it didn’t look good.
“Thanks for checking that out,” said River.
“Anyway, when I get another free moment, I’ll work their alibi from a different angle.”
“Thanks, Eva. Maybe there’s a way we can figure out when and if they ever left Ridge.”
“That would be good, if you could be feet on the ground. I’ll give it as much time as I can. We’ve got two missing girls we need to bring home. Take care, River, and you, too, Lydia,” said Eva.
“Thank you.” A lump had formed in Lydia’s throat.
He started the engine and pulled out of the parking space, still looking around. “I’m not totally comfortable heading to the house just yet. Far as we know, my place is still safe for you, but we might be followed again.”
Always in the back of her mind, Lydia heard a ticking clock where Elsie was concerned. She knew the same was true for Mia. Eva was probably working extreme overtime already. Just driving around or even being confined at River’s house made her feel like she wasn’t doing enough.
“You know, Norm and Sheryl live about five miles outside of Ridge. Why don’t we just go by and talk to them and settle this once and for all?
” Everything her in-laws had done since Elsie’s disappearance showed they were supportive grandparents.
“You said to Eva that we should work to break their alibi from here in town. I can just say I wanted to talk to them in person about Elsie, and we can get around to asking about their visit with Debbie. You can probably tell when someone is lying.” Had Norm’s visit and the phone calls all been a way of cementing the ruse that they cared about her well-being? It just didn’t seem possible.
River’s jaw hardened. It was clear he didn’t like the idea.
She didn’t like just sitting on her hands while her daughter was still missing. What if they were totally off base about Norm and Sheryl? All this work could be wasted time they could have spent finding who had really kidnapped her little girl.
“They won’t try anything if you and Frankie are with me.” She took in a sharp breath. “Maybe they have Elsie there.”
River didn’t answer right away. He cranked the steering wheel and drove through the parking lot. He didn’t talk until he’d pulled out onto the street. “We’re not going there alone. Let me find out if someone from the task force is close.”
He must have felt as desperate as she did.
He parked the car and picked up his phone. It took only two phone calls before he got a positive response. Eli Blackwood was close by and could provide backup. River explained to Eli, “I’ll text you the address. I’ll have Lydia with me. The place is a short ways out of town.”
After Lydia recited the address, River followed the directions his GPS gave him.
Lydia spoke up when they were about to turn into the subdivision where her in-laws lived. “We’re about three minutes from where their house is.”
“Good. We’ll wait for Eli to get here. Wrangler is trained in suspect apprehension and protection. I hope we don’t have to utilize that training.”
Her stomach tied into knots. “Me, too.”
Once Eli pulled up behind them in his patrol car, they headed the short distance to her in-laws’ house. Lydia tensed as the house she’d been to hundreds of times before came into view.
* * *
River wasn’t so sure about this plan. Yes, they needed to follow every lead and having Lydia along, under the ruse of updating Norm and Sheryl, would mean that they wouldn’t know that they were possible suspects. But what if the plan put Lydia in danger?
The houses in the subdivision were large, each situated on what looked to be lots that were at least half an acre. He could see a golf course in the distance. Norm and Sheryl must be pretty well off.
“There.” Lydia pointed to a brown-and-white house that looked way too big for two people. Rosebushes bordered the edge of the yard. There were no cars in the driveway, and the house looked dark.
“It doesn’t look like they’re home unless their cars are in the garage.” She pushed open the car door. “I’m going to knock on the door anyway.”
“I assume Elsie comes here quite a bit?” If the dogs alerted to her scent, it would not be a surprise.
“We try to have a Sunday dinner every week. They canceled last Sunday because they were headed out to Debbie’s. Or at least that’s what they told me.”
Elsie had been taken on a Monday.
Eli parked behind River. Both officers deployed their dogs.
“Why don’t I check out the back of the house?” said Eli.
With Frankie by his side, River walked with Lydia to the front door. In light of all the attacks on Lydia, he found himself on high alert.
She rang the bell several times. The window by the door revealed no activity.
The triple garage had a window. He wandered over and peered inside. Only one car. The red compact.
An older man walking his poodle went by on the road. “Lydia?”
Lydia turned and walked toward him. “Pete?”
River moved in so he could hear the conversation.
“I’m so sorry about Elsie. I saw the story on the news.”
So, the neighbor hadn’t heard the story directly from the in-laws.
“Yes, I came by to update Sheryl and Norm,” said Lydia.
“I haven’t seen them since it happened.” The man’s gaze went from River to Eli, who had just come around the corner of the house with his K-9.
He probably wondered why she needed such a strong police presence to keep her in-laws in the loop.
River picked up on a degree of coldness from Pete toward Lydia.
The neighbor had probably only heard the former in-laws’ side of the story as to why she’d divorced their son.
“Are the police any closer to finding Elsie?”
River took a step nearer to Lydia. Pete studied him and Frankie for a long moment.
Lydia didn’t skip a beat in giving a believable answer. “They’re following some different leads. I just thought I should see Norm and Sheryl in person to talk to them about all that the police have been doing to find her.”
Pete shifted his weight as the poodle did a half circle around him. “I don’t think they’ve been home much. I might have seen their gray car pull up once. I just assumed they were visiting their daughter in Grand Junction. Her little guy has had some problems since he was born.”
With the neighbors watching, it didn’t seem like Norm and Sheryl would bring Elsie back here if they were the ones who had her. Everything so far was circumstantial at best.
“Hope you find her soon.” Pete said his goodbye and continued on down the road.
Lydia placed her hands on her hips and stared up the street. “Pete’s house is right next door, and he’s outside a lot, working in his yard.”
“So his report that he only saw them once is probably accurate,” said River.
“Like Pete said, maybe they’re visiting Debbie again.”
“It would be easy enough to get the Grand Junction police to put eyes on her house for a twenty-four-hour period to see if they show up or if their vehicle is parked there already. What we do know is they haven’t been home.”
“Why don’t I just call them, saying I want to give them an update. I can work in asking them where they are. If they say they’re at their home, we’ll know they’re lying.”
It was clear that Lydia was having a hard time believing that Elsie’s grandparents could be involved in something like this. “Okay, give them a call.”
Lydia pulled her phone out and pressed buttons. Her face drained of color as it rang several times and then went to voice mail. She disconnected without leaving a message.
Eli stepped toward them. “Nothing in the backyard. No surprise that the girl’s scent is all over the place. There’s a bunch of trees back there, but Wrangler didn’t pick up on any trail leading away from the property.”
“Thanks, Eli.”
They got into their respective patrol vehicles. As they pulled away, the quiet, dark house was disconcerting.
“I guess I’ll just go back to your house and wait.” Lydia sounded deflated.
“At least we have food to eat now.” He tried to sound upbeat.
She laughed. “Really, River, it’s not that hard to swing by a grocery store and grab a few things now and then.”
He was glad his comment had elevated her mood. Anything to get her mind off the heaviness of what she was going through.
“I just get busy, and it’s easier to go through a drive-through or grab a pizza.”
“You need a wife. She would take care of that for you.”
“Yeah, you think so.” The joviality of the conversation seemed to have shifted. Why was she thinking about him being married? As much as he liked Lydia, he didn’t even want to entertain the thought. His focus needed to be on finding Elsie.
When he pulled onto the road that led back to town, he paid more attention to the cars around him.
“Isn’t there something else we could do here in town to confirm their alibi?”
River thought for a moment. They had to do something to either eliminate Sheryl and Norm as suspects or to home in on them.
Once they had probable cause, they could secure warrants to examine credit card use and search the house and any other place they might have kept Elsie.
“Why don’t we grab a bite to eat at home and figure it out from there? ”
Still looking for any suspicious vehicles, River pulled up in front of his house. After letting Lydia in and making sure it was safe, he took Frankie for a patrol around the outside of the house. The back of his house connected with a park where children played on the swings and a slide.
As he watched the children play, a sense of despair invaded his mind.
This felt like Noah all over again. Maybe they should have looked at the grandparents sooner.
Had he made the right choices, asked the right questions, understood the dynamics of the relationships of the people connected to Elsie?
It was clear Lydia couldn’t see Norm and Sheryl as being involved with something as bad as this. Maybe she was right. Then where else could they look?
Frankie whimpered, pulling him out of his tangled thoughts. “Let’s go get something to eat, huh?”
As he stepped inside, the image of Elsie from Lydia’s phone was burned into his mind. He had to find her alive.