When Lainie arrived at her folks’ house, Owen and Evan bounded out the front door to greet her.
“Aunt Lainie! We’re going to the movies. Do you want to come?” Owen said. He reached her first, and she grabbed him in a tight hug. She didn’t know exactly what the boys had been told, but she was glad they were amenable to distraction.
Archie followed them out of the house. “We’re going to see a Marvel movie. You want to join us?”
Lainie released Owen and hugged Evan. “I’d love to, but I have a lot of things to do. You guys have a good time.”
“Missing out on good popcorn.” The expression on Archie’s face told her he was doing his best to keep the boys’ spirits up.
“Tempting.” She gave Archie a hug, so very glad he was there to help. “You know that popcorn is my favorite.”
“You might wish to change your mind.” He nodded toward the house. “Long article in the paper this morning.”
“Oh no.”
Archie winked and then shepherded the boys to his car.
“I don’t think they’re ready to go back to school yet.” Mom greeted Lainie at the front door. She handed Lainie thePress-Telegram, the expression on her face disapproving. “Stan made the front page.”
Callen West had written the story about Stan and the warrant service at the car wash. He detailed the murder of Taylor Abbott in Stan’s office and noted that police were trying to locate Stan as a possible witness, not a suspect.
Lainie was certain Shea had told West that so whatever was written did not spook Stan. There was nothing in the piece about Crystal Benton in San Bernardino or about the shooting at the tow yard.
Lainie saw no point in telling her parents about the shooting. It would just give them something else to worry about. The only new information she had to impart was about the jewelry found in Benton’s property.
“Do you have Evie’s jewelry with you?” Mom asked.
“No, it’s in evidence. We won’t get it back until everything is adjudicated.”
Mom rubbed her face with both hands and then sat at the table. “This entire situation is so unbelievable. When I think of how many times I sat next to Stan at church. How did I not see that he was a monster?”
“Evie lived with him and didn’t see it,” Dad said.
“Evie always saw the best in people.” Speaking of her in the past tense made Lainie suck in a breath as if she’d been punched. Was she on the road to acceptance? Before she could answer herself, her phone rang. It was Shea.
Lainie answered.
“We found Stan.”
CHAPTER 32
Lainie hung up from the call, not sure if she should feel satisfied, bewildered, or both. Slowly she explained to her parents what she knew about Stan’s arrest.
“A Ventura County sheriff arrested him at a beach parking lot in Ventura. He was sleeping in his car. Shea and Collins are on their way up there to get him and bring him back.”
“He said a lot more, Lainie,” her dad said.
“I know that he did. I’m trying to process everything. Apparently, there was evidence discovered in his car about human trafficking, the disappearance of an FBI agent, and even the murder of Mr. Straight, remember him? He was killed a couple of months ago.”
“Stan was responsible for that?”
“All the evidence they found in his car has to be sorted through carefully,” she said. “From what they’ve found so far, it’s possible Stan was involved.” Though she barely believed it.
Back at home later that day, Lainie got a text from Collins saying that Dr. Hardin would continue to lower Benton’s coma drugs. Hopefully she would wake up in the next couple of days.
They now had Stan. Did they even need Benton?
The next day, Lainie checked the calendar and reflected on the number of days it had been since she took Stan’s phone call and was told that Evie was gone. A week later and she still had no idea what had happened to her sister.
