“I have four more days now. It’s all the ISP will give me to make this work. After that…I’m done. It’s over. I’ll have done all that I can possibly do.”
Chapter 34
Bryan parked outside the sheriff's office and went in. A woman sat behind the front desk. She looked up when the door shut behind him.
"Can I help you?"
"I'm looking for Pierce Asher."
"Is he expecting you?"
"No." Hell, he’d just stopped by because he had been at the utility company across the road, and he’d wanted to talk to Asher about…the Gibsons. What was left.
It didn’t feel right to just load it all up in a dumpster and toss everything that was left. It just didn’t. He was half thinking maybe Asher would put him in contact with the remaining Gibson girl. She might want some of her dad’s old things or something.
His phone buzzed, with his daughter’s ring-tone. It was only noon now. She shouldn’t be calling. It was a school day. Unless the school was letting out early because of the incoming weather. Which was a possibility—which meant he’d need to do a kid-pickup run to three different schools.
"Daddy?”
"Yeah." He stilled. She sounded like she’d been crying. And that meant something was definitely wrong. Asa Cassidy Stenson did not cry. His baby girl thought she was too tough for that.
"Can you come get me?"
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing. I just need you to come get me. Please, Daddy. I don't want to talk about it on the phone. Please. Just come get me.” This wasn’t like his little girl at all. Something was definitely wrong. But…her tone. No. He didn’t think she was sick. But something was bothering her. Asa had never asked to come home from school before. That kid had had perfect attendance for the last three years. She loved school.
"I’ll be there as soon as I can. I’m on my way, baby. I promise.” Bryan put the phone away. The woman behind the desk was watching him. “I was going to wait but…the school. Thank you.”
He’d just call Asher later, or…he had the woman’s card. He’d just call her and tell her what concerned him. But for now…his baby girl needed him.
Chapter 35
They were on to something. Miranda knew it. Now, they just had to connect the dots and find the man who fit the profile—and then see if he was the man they were after, all along. She had a list of the top one hundred potential suspects—Pierce had narrowed them down years ago, and she’d found his work still fit their new parameters. They were just in the phase of narrowing it all down. Somehow. If they could get one hundred names down to ten or twenty, that was a start.
Military records cross-referenced resulted in forty men who had in some way crossed paths with the Gibsons. Their church was the largest in the area—twenty of the forty attended church with them. Four were fathers of teammates or classmates of Cruz. Six were fathers of kids Terra had come across. Three were contacts of Hailey in some way. Of the one hundred in the general list, eight were dead. That did not rule them out, but she sat them aside. They would have to be traced in a different way, if needed.
Original evidence had resulted in inconclusive on the DNA profile; but Dani had texted earlier that Kelly Compton thought she could isolate enough of a sample now. It would be compared to known suspects—once they identified some. And PAVAD had recently hired a genetic genealogist who specialized in using DNA results and ancestry to identify possible suspects in homicides and sexual assaults. She was supposed to transfer to PAVAD next week. Seventy percent of her time would be assigned to Cold Case.
Miranda couldn’t wait to see what that woman could do.
But in the meantime, they had potentials to go through.
Dani was going to get started on the death records once Miranda and Knight got her a slightly shorter list to work from. All of the one hundred names Pierce had amassed through the years would be cross-checked, but…Miranda knew.
The profile was not wrong now. They were looking for a connection of the Gibsons who had been in the military several years before the murders, who had been divorced or was divorcing at the time, and who had lost a daughter in some way. Most likely…death.
They just had to keep narrowing. She finally felt like they were getting closer to answers.
She was going over that list when her phone rang. “Hello?”
“Dr. Talley. This is Bryan Stenson. Owner of the Gibson house.”
“Hello, Mr. Stenson, how can I help you today?”
“I am thinking of selling that house. Putting the money back. I got four college educations to pay for. Sooner than I want to think about it. And…well…I need to know what to do with the rest of it?”
“I’m sorry. The rest of what?”
