"Do you have a moment?"
"Of course," Noah said, pocketing the phone. He made a mental note to call Ethan after. They stepped into an empty office down the hall. Noah closed the door.
"I understand High Peaks believes they have their man," Spence said. "That Hollis is responsible."
"The evidence is being processed."
"But you never found Fiona. Or her college ID."
"No. Hailey Benton hasn't been located either."
Spence shifted his weight. He looked at the floor, then at Noah. "As much as I know that people will lie to protect themselves. And maybe I'm completely wrong here. But..."
"What is it?"
"It's just that I've known Derek for many years. Sure, he's a bit of a womanizer, but I never saw him be anything but respectful toward my daughter. And I never saw Fiona act strange around him."
"What are you trying to say?"
"What if he wasn't responsible for Fiona? What if it was Samuel Bridger? Or what if Fiona is still out there? Or she stepped off the trail and got lost in the forest?"
"Search parties were sent out."
"But they're known to not always be accurate. In the case of Kara Ellison, they never found her either."
Noah exhaled. He didn't want to go there. There was enough muddying the water with Carter Lyle saying he hadn't killed Kara. But he couldn't dismiss Spence either. The man was standing in front of him asking the same question Noah couldn't stop asking himself. Sure, there was a chance Bridger had beenbehind the disappearance of Hailey and Fiona. But as a man with nothing left to lose, standing on a bridge with a gun, Noah had a sense that Samuel had been telling the truth about the other girls. Just not about Hailey.
"I mean, when I went through that whole thing with Fiona's mother leaving," Spence continued, "Derek came back early from his work trip to help out."
"His work trip?"
"He was overseas. In Europe. Doing WWOOFing."
"WWOOFing?"
"World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. You live on people's properties and do work for them. Farms, vineyards, that sort of thing. I think that's what attracted him to the Three Pillar Community in the first place. He's always been a bit of a vagabond. Holding down multiple jobs."
Noah felt something shift. The same feeling he got when a thread he hadn't noticed caught the light. "How long was he away? And when?"
"I don't know exactly. Maybe a year? About five years ago."
"So he wasn't here five years ago?"
"No."
Noah's mind was already spinning. The ME had said the bodies in the bog had been killed over a span of four to six years. If what Spence was saying was true, if they could verify it, that would place Derek Hollis out of the country during the period when at least some of those women were being taken and killed.
"Mr. Spence, do you have any documentation of that? Emails, postcards, anything that shows when he left and when he came back?"
"I might have something at home. He sent me a few photos from over there. I could check."
"I'd appreciate that."
Spence nodded and left. Noah stood in the empty office listening to the muffled sound of the press conference still running down the hall. Ray was in there telling the town they could sleep safely tonight. And Noah was standing in a side room with a piece of information that might blow the whole thing apart.
Callie's apartmentwas on the fourth floor of a new build on the west side of town. Noah climbed the stairs and knocked. No answer. He knocked again.
"Callie. Hey. It's Noah. I know you're in there. Your car is outside."
