“If you’re ordering breakfast, get the crepes,” Annette told Josie and Noah. “Or bacon and eggs. Pretty hard to screw those up. You don’t want the home fries. They’re like crud someone dug out of the treads of their boots, except boot-tread crud would probably taste better. Oh, and the pancakes are runny in the middle, especially this time of night.”
“Good lord, Annette,” muttered the waitress. “Why do you keep coming in if you hate the food so much?”
“It’s for the sparkling company, you know that. I’ll have a cheeseburger with everything on it.”
Josie ordered the crepes, Noah the bacon and eggs. Once the waitress left the table, Annette said, “So he did tell you about Zara.”
“He called her,” Josie said. “While I was there. If the person who took Dani and Cassidy is targeting mothers and daughters associated with Turner, I wanted to make sure Zara and her daughter were safe.”
For a moment, Annette’s expression morphed into real concern and Josie knew instantly that no matter what kind of relationship Turner and Zara had had, she would never wish ill on the woman or her child. “Are they safe?”
“Yes,” said Josie.
“Good, that’s good.”
Noah said, “We were wondering if you could think of anyone who might have it out for Turner badly enough to go after Dani and Cassidy. Other than Dustin Emmer.”
“No. Speaking of, you talk to Professor Library Card yet?”
Josie nearly choked on her water in her effort not to laugh.
“Not yet,” Noah answered.
“He’s got a prior for criminal trespass. Had a little dalliance with an impressionable student and when she rejected him, he decided he wasn’t leaving.”
“He still has a job at the university?” Noah said.
Annette shrugged. “Hey, I’m not in HR. The rules are probably different for universities. It’s not like he’s around minor children. Everyone there is an adult.”
“Have you met him?” asked Josie.
“Once,” she said. “During the Ferguson investigation. With that prior, he was a person of interest. Real creepy, too, in a he-shouldn’t-seem-creepy-but-he-does sort of way. You know what I mean?”
“Actually,” Josie said, “I do.”
“He was hard to get a read on,” Annette continued. “Looks kind of dorky. Really leaned into that professor look, even when he was just a TA. He’s an associate professor now. Victorian literature. Social skills need work. He’s one of those guys who got caught when he was still in the ramp-up stage. When he was arrested, it was only criminal trespass, but those kinds of criminals have a tendency to escalate.”
“Don’t we know it,” Noah sighed.
Sex crimes were like that sometimes. The perpetrator started with smaller transgressions like watching women through windows or stalking their social media accounts. There was a myriad of crimes that didn’t involve physical contact but were equally violating. Sometimes, the sick high they got from those things stopped being enough to keep their deviant desires sated and they moved on to more serious crimes.
“You think he’s been escalating all this time, and he just hasn’t gotten caught yet?” Noah asked.
“Can’t say but it wouldn’t surprise me,” Annette answered. “The obsession with the escort has gone on an awful long time. Too long. You’d think he’d move on, but he’s been harassing Shitbird all these years. Can’t say I don’t get some satisfaction out of that but it’s a red flag for sure. I assume you’re going to speak with him?”
“After we leave here,” said Josie.
“Let me know if you need anything.” Annette went silent. Her nails clicked against the side of her mug. “You think this is really connected to Kyle?”
The use of his real name was surprising. Some of Annette’s bravado fell away. She looked tired and worried.
“We may be grasping at straws here,” Noah said. “But Turner seems to be the only connection between his family and Maxine and Haven Barnes.”
“I thought Dani would be safer if she went with him,” Annette said quietly. “Even though I thought it was a mistake for her to go. The whole point of him finding a new job was to start untangling their lives.”
“You mean he wanted to stop working with you since you were his wife’s aunt,” Noah said.
“Well, yeah, but that marriage was over long before that. Him finding a new department in another town was the two of them finally accepting they were well and truly done. Dani had hired a divorce attorney and everything. She told me Shitbird signed all the paperwork she asked him to sign. Then he got the offer from Denton and next thing I know, she’s packing up her whole life and taking off after him like a scalded cat.” Annette snapped her fingers. “Just like that.”
