“I thought so when I spoke with him this morning,” Quinn agreed. “Mr. Cranston, I’m glad you agreed to meet with me. And I want to do justice to representing your side of the story in the press. I just have a few questions if you and Anna don’t mind my asking them. I know today has been difficult reliving the day Sandy went missing. Anna has already given me some good information without meaning to when we spoke this morning about how you had issues with the university for not sharing that Sandy wasn’t attending class. If they had reached out, you might have known she was missing much sooner than Thanksgiving weekend when she didn’t show up for the holiday. Also, her dorm roommate not noticing she wasn’t sleeping in their room because she was always with her boyfriend could have been a big help as well.
All of these details lead to negligence. A residence assistant should have been aware that Sandy wasn’t in the dorm on a regular basis. I know when I was in college, my RA was always butting in where she wasn’t wanted. Of course, different colleges, and different policies on how things are run, but not to have at least notified you when she was missing from class. It makes you wonder didn’t her instructors wonder where she was? Didn’t they reach out to her academic advisor at least? The Dean of Students should have reached out to you instead of you having to reach out to the university.”
Mr. Cranston nodded. “We consulted an attorney back then to see what our options were, but he advised us that we had little ground to take action. He said the university had no way of knowing that our daughter was missing. She could have dropped out without going through the property channels as a freshman. It didn’t matter that she was a straight-A student. We decided not to pursue matters. Were we wrong?”
“I believe you were given advice to prevent you from taking action,” Quinn said. “I’m not sure if it was to benefit the university, the person responsible for Sandy’s disappearance, or both.”
“Oh Lee,” Anna said. “It’s all my fault. I persuaded you against pursuing matters.”
“That doesn’t matter now,” Grimm said. “What does is finding what happened to Sandy. The authorities dropped the ball. Agent Street and his task force are going to do what they can to rectify it.”
“Do you have a photo of Sandy that can be used with my next article? That might be good to jar people’s memory of who she was. One that was taken close to the time before she went missing is best.”
Anna nodded and went over to a desk in the room where a photo album was stored on the shelf. “She was always photogenic, and we took several pictures of her before she started at Pittman.”
She returned with a few and laid them on the coffee table in front of Quinn and Grimm to look at. “Will any of this work?”
“Yes.” Quinn picked up a close-up of a smiling Sandy in front of her loaded car. She held a sign that said U of Pittman bound.
“What about this one?” Grimm asked. He held a close-up of Sandy with her held tilted to the side smiling, wearing the locket that was the trophy taken.
“Yes,” Quinn said. “We’ll take these two and I’ll send them back once we are finished. Our photo editor will scan them for use so no damage will come to them.”
“We will be coming to Altoona next week to visit friends we haven’t seen in a while. We can stop by the newspaper and pick them up then,” Anna said.
“I’ll leave them at reception for you then,” Quinn said. “I have just a few more questions if you don’t mind.”
“Okay,” Lee said.
“Why did you move from Altoona? Was it for a new job?”
“My company expanded, and I was promoted to the Pittsburgh office,” Lee said.
“I’d assumed that had to be the reason, but Mr. Burrows didn’t specify in his initial report. I’d hate to think it had to do with a falling out between Sandy and Cliff.”
“Oh no. They were in love back then,” Anna said. “It was so hard for them to say goodbye when we moved. But Sandy decided since she was moving away, and they were both going to college at the end of the summer, they should break up and be free to see other people if they wanted. Although neither really wanted it, I think they did it for each other. I know that was Sandy’s reasoning.”
“They talked on the phone once or twice a week after we moved,” Lee said. “I could tell that the breakup wasn’t really working for them by the way she acted after his calls, and then Cliff came to visit at the end of July. Things changed after that. The phone calls were less and less frequent. If they’d had a spat, Sandy didn’t say, and we didn’t pry. Maybe we should have. I’ve always wondered if she had gone away regretting her decision. Was she depressed and did she leave college because of it? I never said anything until now.”
“Oh Lee,” Anna went to him, wrapping her arms around him. “I don’t think that is what happened at all.”
“I guess we’ll never know for sure,” he said.
When she pulled away, she looked at Quinn. “What I do know is that when she went away, she really didn’t talk about having phone calls from Cliff either, so I don’t believe they saw one another again after July.”
“Is there a reason he went to Pembroke State and she went to the University of Pittman if they were so in love?” Quinn asked.
“He wanted to go to the law school at Pembroke State. That is all he talked about when they were talking about colleges. He loved Pembroke State,” Lee said. “Is there a reason you are so interested in Cliff?”
“Just background. I probably won’t even need to go there with my story, but it’s good to have if I do. Just a few more things I have jotted down here that I covered with the Creswell’s about Barbie Martin that I thought would be good to go over with you as well. If you don’t mind?”
They talked for about another hour before saying goodbye to the Cranston and then headed back to Altoona. They stopped midway on the drive back and grabbed a quick bite to eat, and it was pushing eight when they arrived at the carriage house. The sun had already dipped low in the sky and was growing dim, casting elongated shadows from the porch into the yard.
Grimm turned off the engine and lights and they headed up the walk. Quinn stopped as they neared the front door and looked closely from one end of the porch to the other. Something felt off to her. She wasn’t sure what it was, but something didn’t feel right.
Pulling out her key, she unlocked the door and opened it, flipping on the light switch so they could see inside as soon as possible. She expected to see a blur of white run past as Bathsheba headed to the kitchen to get her dinner since it was way past her feeding time, but she didn’t. She wondered where her cat could be hiding this time of night.
“Here kitty, kitty,” she called, going to the kitchen, shaking her keys to draw the cat closer. She turned on the light in there, stopping in her tracks when she saw the patio sheers blowing gently away from the door revealing her patio furniture had been trashed, turned over like a mad person had been out there, and the broken glass glittered over her kitchen floor.
