A medic approached Pierce and handed him fresh gauze. Pierce replaced the soaked pad on his arm and secured it himself. He’d just been grazed by the discharge.
They weren’t done with the bastard yet. Not yet.
Not until they had all the answers.
Number one—what did he do with that little girl so long ago?
Chapter 46
Miranda sat down next to Bryan Stenson’s wife. Pierce was finally in the back getting treated, but he should be okay. He’d taken his sweet time getting there. It was just a flesh wound, he’d said. Enough to piss him off after what had happened to him a few days ago.
But this woman, Cassidy Stenson, was panicking. Asa was curled up on a two-seater generic loveseat right there in the waiting room, in clean, blood-free clothes. Where her mom could touch her at any moment. Make sure she was real and safe. The little girl’s sweatshirt had been ruined with her father’s blood. Her younger brother and two older brothers were just sitting there quietly around her.
Miranda would never forget the kid faces she encountered in this job. They always stayed with her. It was one reason she had the utmost respect for anyone who worked CHILDS or REY long-term. Working with hurting kids would damned near destroy Miranda if that was what she always did.
“Any word?” Miranda asked. The woman just looked up at her, a bewildered look on her face.
“Not yet. I’m sitting here, panicking.” Mrs. Stenson had tears in her voice. “I just don’t understand why this happened. Why…did John do this? To anyone? Did he really hurt Aimee and Derek and those kids? I don’t understand. Bryan…Bryan was always the one who took up for him, tried to help him.”
“Bryan is successful, and connected. Grounded in his business success, but most importantly in his family, his roles as husband and father. I noticed that about your husband immediately. He takes great pride in being a dad. He has what John felt the world took from him. It’s anger and resentment.”
“I have never liked him. Never. It just got worse…eighteen years ago. When…Kora. So soon after Jack… John…he just…he could be so cruel. But I never thought…those kids…that little boy. He wasn’t much older than Jack. Tristen, my youngest.” She looked at the little boy maybe a year or so older than Miranda’s own Bentley, but with pale curly blond hair. There were tear streaks on the little man’s face that broke her heart to see. “Bryan named him Tristen Cruz. He and Derek…they were friends. Or becoming so. They gravitated to each other, at church events, that kind of thing. Respected each other. And…John knew the Gibsons well. Even before we did. Hailey and his Kora, they were good friends all through elementary school.”
“Can you tell me what exactly happened to Kora? Asa told me a little.”
“It was just one of those things that a mother fears can happen, I think. A freak accident. You see them all the time when you have kids—things that could hurt them, but probably never would. A thousand times an hour. Kora was being difficult that morning. Her mother told me they’d been arguing—Kora and John. Something about schoolwork, I think. Just…one of those things you deal with a thousand times a day when you have children. Do you have kids?”
“One. I adopted him recently. He’ll be seven soon. He’s my…entire world.”
“Then you understand. They can be the most exasperating creatures on the planet, but…they become everything. Well, they should be.” She paused a moment. “I never told Bryan…but Crystal—that’s John’s ex-wife—she told me once that John resented having kids. Especially little Jack. He had Spina Bifida, and it was a moderate case. They managed it well, but…he caught an infection after his last surgery and just never could fight it off. They lost him to complications from his final surgery when he was eight. John was so angry after. I think he directed a lot of that anger at Crystal and Kora. Until…she was on the verge of leaving him, and just taking Kora to another state. Starting all over again. I think they were working up to that. And Kora knew what was going on. John…was so hateful with Crystal, and Kora didn’t like that. He was hateful and controlling with her, too. She and John, they were arguing constantly back then.”
“I understand.” And that would have contributed to his feelings of anger and resentment. He had one healthy, living child. Who was defying him, probably just as he was starting to tighten the control he had. It was all about control. Or losing it. “She was fourteen at the time?”
“Thirteen. Same as Asa. That daredevil kind of spirit. Asa really reminds me of that girl sometimes. Bryan and I waited before we had kids—at least, around here, we were older than most. I was twenty-seven, he was thirty. We did spend a lot of time with Kora back then. Sometimes, Kora would stay the night with us. I think it was too get away from her dad. I miss her every day.”
“How exactly did she die?”
“As far as we know…she just slipped on the dock. Hit her head and went under. Her mother found her shortly after. The food was ready and no one knew where she was, so her mom went looking for her. John had refused—they were bickering before. I heard them. I will never forget how Crystal screamed that day.”
As far as we know…that was rather telling. “Is there any other possibility? I mean…I don’t want to imply…but considering the circumstances…”
Mrs. Stenson hesitated. Then deflated. “No secrets now, right? Crystal told me once a few years ago…John…he said…he shouldn’t have left her at the dock alone that day. That he should have protected her, then he yelled at Crystal and said she never should have let Kora by the water alone. But…Crystal said he told the police he had been up by the shelter house all day. Kora wasn’t at the dock until shortly before she died. I saw that myself. I don’t know why he lied. Or…I cannot honestly say I haven’t wondered before, if they were arguing at the dock and something happened. If he knew more about what happened to her that day than he told everyone. More than he told Crystal…too.”
“What happened to Crystal? I mean, where is she now?” That was all information that would have to be verified. But Pierce’s people would do that, not the Cold Case Unit. John Stenson had asked for an attorney, but…they would track his movements back then. Miranda suspected everything would line up a bit too perfectly for them to be wrong now.
As soon as ballistics got back to them about the gun taken from John Stenson, and a few other things were looked at…it was just a matter of time. What happened next was up to the Indiana State Police. And…Illinois. Dani had found two properties in John Stenson’s name that would have to be searched fully. The profile she and Knight had come up with said their killer would have kept souvenirs. To remind himself of what he had done and why.
“She lives in Terre Haute. She remarried about ten years ago. She has three kids under eight, and a stepson who is twelve. She’s happy. But John has hated me ever since for not…despising her. It was why Bryan told him to stay away. But John just never listened. I wish…I wish he would have just moved to that damned cabin of his in Kentucky and just stayed there. I wish I had never had to see him ever again. If he had just stayed away from Bryan like he did his other brothers, this never would have happened today. And Bryan would be okay.”
“Where…in Kentucky? We have properties for him in Illinois and here in Indiana, in Bedford.”
“He…his great-aunt has over one hundred acres, down near Brandenburg. He built a cabin there, after…Jack and Kora. His aunt probably still lives in the house on the other side. It…she’s John’s great-aunt, on his mother’s side. But Bryan and their three brothers…they have a different mother than John. John’s mother left the family when he was three. Or…she just disappeared, no one really knows. I…just know…John spent a lot of time there after…his kids. He said…he takes care of his aunt, now that she’s older, I think. Says she is why he can’t work a full-time job any longer. And would just do odd jobs for Bryan when Bryan needed help. She has to be nearly ninety.”
Miranda thanked her, and excused herself. That was information they hadn’t found yet. Ten minutes later, Dani was on it. Dani and Ian would coordinate with Kentucky. They’d have their warrant in the morning.
Terra Gibson was somewhere. A hundred acres in Kentucky would be a logical place to start.
Miranda stayed at her side, until the physician came out to give the Stensons an update. Bryan was going to make an almost full recovery. With some physical therapy and time to really heal, he was going to be just fine. As long as he didn’t overdo it right away, which was something his wife said was likely to happen. But she and the kids would take care of him, whether he liked it or not.
