Gracie appeared seconds later, ransacking the piles to find the paperwork in question. “Aha! Here we go. Sonni…. Englehorn.”
Dread hit my chest.
“Engelhorn,” I told Tatiana.
“As in Echo Engelhorn?” Her voice went up an octave.
“The very one. But, I’m guessing you’re not going to find much on her.”
Tatiana clicked away, then grunted. “How’d you know that? You’re right. But how’d you know?”
“She hid her tracks pretty well. No one knew where she went,” I explained. “Why she was hiding out in Dorsey, Mississippi is beyond me.”
“This is where she grew up,” Gracie said at my elbow.
I looked down. “Grew up?”
“That’s what she told us,” Gracie shrugged. “Said her Mama and Daddy died when she was in high school. They were her only family in the world. Left her the family farm. Now, if you boys don’t need anything else, the First Baptist Church Women’s League just came in. Those ladies gethangryafter discussing the Disciples of Christ!”
Gracie’s shoes squeaked down the hallway, back into the dining room.
“T - what do we know about Allyson Flannery?”
“If what Gracie just told you is correct, her parents died when she was young. She made friends with Echo in college. She accidentally - on purpose - killed Echo’s first husband. And maybe - just maybe - she was in on it with Echo to kill her second husband.”
“So, why wasn’t Allyson with her at the hideout?” I shook my head. “You know what? It doesn’t matter. All that matters is we have to find Celia. T - I want you to run all of the known aliases through the system. Sonni. Like a nickname for Allyson. See if there are any correlations and nearby locations that we can check.”
I looked down at Sonni’s paperwork. There wasn’t anything under a home address or a car license plate because that would be too fucking easy.
“If her parents died while she was in high school, that gives me a window to search for deaths. I’ll search all of north Mississippi to be sure,” Tatiana clicked and clacked. “Got it! Al and Flannery Zenker died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Only survivor was an 18-year-old daughter named Ali Zenker, who inherited the family farm. Flint - it’s not that far from your location. Sending to your phone. Also sending EMTs that way, just in case.”
The phone vibrated, but my body was already in motion, headed toward the dining room and Lafayette County’s finest. “Thanks, T. I’m grabbing reinforcements and headed there now.”
I hung up but couldn’t move fast enough. It was like my legs were stuck in molasses. And all I could do was pray that Celia hadn’t been hurt.
