“Looks like it’s girl’s furniture, at that,” Archer noted.“And I already checked, the kitchen’s empty.No dishes.There’s some toilet paper under the sink in the bathroom and a set of towels—new with tags—hanging on a bar.Other than that, nothing.No soap or toiletries.”
Why would Decker keep this?And why would he furnish only one room?
“Do you think this was his room when he was a kid?”he asked Archer.
“Could’ve been.If his dad was on the road all the time, maybe he got the big room.”
Atticus could see that.But it didn’t explain the furniture.He doubted this was the style Decker had when he was a kid, so he likely wasn’t trying to recreate memories.
Archer went to the nightstand, opened the top drawer.Atticus watched as he reached in and pulled out a picture frame.After glancing at it, Archer passed it his way.
“That looks like Meredith,” Atticus said, studying the image of a woman holding a baby.“Why does he have a picture of her holdin’ a kid?”
“Only one she had?”Archer mused.
Yeah, maybe.When Kylie or Jessie were babies?Maybe Decker wanted a picture of her, and that was what she opted to give him?Seemed odd, but so did a lot of other things about this case.
And this room.
“Check the back of the picture,” Archer suggested.“See if there’s a note on it.”
It took only a second to pry the photo from the frame.He flipped it over.“Someone noted the year as 2006.And there’s a name.Cicily Rose.Three months,” he read.
“Definitely not Kylie or Jessie.”Atticus looked up at Archer.“Is that…?”
“Decker and Meredith’s kid?”
“Yeah.”Could it be?
“2006 would’ve been the year after she left,” Archer stated.“And that would make the kid about sixteen now.”
Atticus looked back at the photo.“Decker would’ve been what?Twenty-one, twenty-two when the kid was born?”
“Something like that,” Archer confirmed.“But we didn’t find anything about a kid.”
No, they hadn’t.And they’d done a reasonably thorough investigation on Decker and Meredith.At least he thought they had.
Atticus looked at the room.“Surely he isn’t keepin’ this house for her.”
“I’ll send the information to Evan and Becs,” Archer stated.“See if they can talk to them about the girl.”
Nodding, Atticus took a quick picture with his phone before putting the photo back in the frame and into the drawer before closing it.He texted the image to Becs so she would have it.
“If he has a kid, do you think he’s been in her life?”Atticus mused, not expecting a response.“Did Meredith raise her?While on the run?”
“Maybe she wasn’t on the run,” Archer said, following him as they made their way to the front door.
“You think she ran away to have the kid?”
“A question we should probably ask her.”
Yeah.At least with the photo, maybe Evan would have some leverage to make the woman talk.
“Come on, girl,” Archer said to Tesha as he pushed open the front screen door.“Let’s see if anyone in the neighborhood’ll talk to us.”
“I’ll go across the street,” Atticus told him.“You take this side.”
They went their separate ways, but their attempt to talk to people proved futile.Either no one was home, or they simply didn’t want to be bothered.Atticus tried four houses before giving up.When he returned to the truck, Archer was giving Tesha water.
