“Thanks again,” Harri said.
She had a name and another connection to Milbourne High School. Dan had fought with this man the day before he disappeared. The teacher showed an authoritarian streak to his students and had a temper. That combination spelled trouble.
Harri attempted to speak to several more students, but the class was beginning, and everyone rushed by her to get to their seats. Harri had the information she wanted anyway. She didn't think anyone else would speak to her.
She walked down the hall with her fingers tingling. They sometimes did that when her adrenaline overflowed in her system. After taking in the pain of Tim and Alan’s mother she wanted concrete, actionable steps to find Dan. Those girls had given her that.
Harri decided to snoop around Milbourne High School to see what other dirt she could collect on Robert Payton. She pulled out her phone to call Jake but stopped herself. The lead was a good one, albeit still a little flimsy.
Harri clutched her phone as she left Mills Hall. She’d call Jake after visiting Milbourne. He might take issue with her going there because of the Atticus case. They’d agreed to keep out of that case. Even if Harri was following a Dan lead, that wouldn’t matter much to Eugene PD. Better to fly under the radar until she had something more concrete.
It did make her wonder why the school kept coming up in the investigation. It couldn’t be the only high school in the area, yet there had to be another connection. She walked faster as the wind whipped through her hair. The wind had a bite to it, and she relished its freshness. So much nicer than Los Angeles, she thought as she got back into her car.
Milbourne High looked like a traditional school out of a movie. It had a red-brick exterior with decorative carved windows on all three floors. It looked like a building from the 1930s. School was already long out, and the sports teams must have finished up because the visitor’s parking lot was relatively empty. Harri hoped she’d be able to catch someone there to talk to. Even a janitor. She parked nearest the entrance and was happily surprised to find the front door still open.
Harri followed the signs to the principal’s office and smiled when she saw the woman inside. She pushed the door open, her smile widening.
“Hi, I’m looking for Robert Payton. He’s a teacher here,” Harri asked the young plus-sized woman wearing a Hawaiian graphic wrap-around dress who was sitting at the front desk.
“What do you need with Bobby?” the secretary asked.
“What’s your name?” Harri asked.
“What’s yours?” the secretary shot back.
Harri smiled again to help with the tension in the room. She leaned over conspiratorially.
“I'm trying to serve him papers,” Harri lied. “School looks like it’s out. Have I missed him?”
“School ended about an hour ago,” the secretary said softening up a tinge.
“I went to his class at Eugene Community College, but he wasn't there, either.”
“Have you tried his house?”
“That information wasn’t on file. You wouldn’t by any chance have it?” Harri asked sweetly. “I’ve been tracking him all afternoon and I just want to deliver these papers.”
She hoped that Robert “Bobby” Payton had rubbed the secretary the wrong way and maybe she would divulge some information she shouldn't.
The secretary scrunched up her nose as if she was smelling something bad. So, Bobby Payton wasn’t the most beloved of characters.
“What did he do this time?” the secretary asked in a low voice.
“I can't really say, but it’s not good,” Harri said. “Do you know if he lives somewhere around here?”
“He must. He walks to school every day. Don’t ask me for his address again, though. I can’t give it to you.”
“I understand,” Harri said. “Would you by any chance be willing to tell me if he was at school this past Wednesday?” she asked.
Might as well see if he had an alibi for the day of Dan’s disappearance.
“Can't really tell you that, either,” the secretary said.
“How about this. Did you see him that day?” Harri asked.
“That was three days ago?” the secretary wondered.
Harri nodded.
“I don't really recall seeing him, but that doesn't mean anything. If he didn't come in the office for anything, then I wouldn't have seen him. I have my lunch break, of course, but it’s at a different time than the teachers.”
Harri nodded and thanked the woman.
She’d inadvertently slipped and told her Robert Payton lived in the neighborhood. That should be enough to run another person's search for his address. Harri headed for her car to get some privacy. Once inside, she would start her search for his address. She was in the neighborhood. She should definitely pay him a visit.
26
Day 6 - Afternoon
Harri’s pulse raced as she hurried to the rental car parked in the visitor’s lot. Her excitement fought a growing apprehension as she zeroed in on Robert Payton as the man who’d kidnapped Dan. He was the first real lead she’d come across in Dan’s disappearance. There were too many coincidences in the timeline for him not to be a suspect. Judging from the way both the students and the secretary spoke of him, he was a complex man who inspired fear in people.
And he’d likely done suspect things before.
But if she was mistaken, she’d be wasting precious time in zeroing on the wrong man as the time ticked away for Dan. Something in her gut told her he didn’t have much time left. The short time span between when Alan Prentiss was taken and when he turned up dead was alarming. She had no access to the particulars in the case, but she wondered if there were differences in the way that Atticus and Alan had died.
She knew that Dan had to have been taken by the same man who killed Atticus and probably Alan. Obviously, she couldn’t prove it yet, but all her years on the force stood behind her gut feeling.
First though, was to find Robert Payton’s address.
She opened the car door and sat in the driver’s seat. She pulled up the people search website she’d been using while she was in Eugene and typed in his name and the zip code of the school. She filled out her credit card details and hit send.
Harri waited for the site to process her card and pull up his information.
The amount of information you could discover on people for a fee was shocking and she’d promised herself that she’d scrub the internet of her info as soon as she got back to Los Angeles. But for now, she was thankful for the help since she didn’t have the contacts up here to help her find the people she needed. Not while the Eugene PD and the local FBI office wanted her gone. The insistence from both agencies for her and Jake to leave town still bothered her, but she didn’t have time to delve deeper into that.
Dan was still out there, and they were running out of time.
Nausea coiled through her body as she remembered the sight of Atticus Menlo lying in the woods. Dan would not end up that way.
The information on Robert Payton finally came up and Harri mapped the address. It was only two blocks away. She could leave the car and walk there.
Harri scrunched up her nose. Would that be a good idea, though? What if she needed a fast getaway?
If she drove there, she could lose the element of surprise. It’s harder to see someone coming up the walk quietly versus a car pulling up and parking on the street. Also, the neighbors. She didn’t want to telegraph her presence there, especially if she was wrong. She would walk.
Harri grabbed her purse and got out of the car. She clicked the locks closed and checked her phone for the map. The directions led her across the parking lot and to the left. She clicked the car doors locked one last time and headed for Robert Payton’s house.
She’d arrived on his street when a message from Jake made her phone buzz.
Jake: They leaked Alan's crime scene photo to the press.
Harri stopped walking.
Oh, his poor parents, she
thought.
She typed back.
Harri: You have a link?
Jake: Here it is.
A link to a local news website popped up.
Harri clicked on it.
Shivers ran up and down her body and she stumbled over a piece of broken sidewalk.
The red cable-knit sweater.
The khaki pants with the pleats in front.
The exact outfit the man in the mall asked her opinion on.
Every hair on Harri’s skin stood on end. She stood frozen as shivers ran up and down her spine. She choked on her spit and gasped out a breath.
He was following her.
The man who’d killed those boys had been in her room. He’d dared to talk to her, and she hadn’t noticed.
That was the worst part of it. Before the first intrusion into her room, Harri had no idea she was being watched.
Harri forced her head to move.
She scanned her surroundings. The bright sunny afternoon hadn’t brought the citizens of this neighborhood out. There was no one on the street as far as she could see. Most likely they were still at work.
She placed her hand on the holster of her gun. She unclipped the strap that held the gun in place but didn’t pull it out. Yet.
Harri let out a deep breath and turned towards the direction she’d just come from. The safety of her car called to her, but her brain kept stuttering on the same thought.
She stopped walking and frowned.
The timing didn’t fit.
Alan had already been found by the time she’d seen the man in the mall. So, the man couldn’t have dressed him in the clothes he’d shown her. But he wanted to show off that he knew what Alan Prentiss was wearing anyway.
To let her know that he’d been right under her nose and she hadn’t known it was him.
Why else would he have shown her the outfit a dead boy wore?
Or was this just a bizarre coincidence?
No, Harri thought. The outfit was too weird for it to be just a coincidence. Harri recalled the man’s features as nondescript but pleasant. A perfect mask to hide behind.
She speed-dialed Jake.
He didn’t answer.
“Jake,” Harri said. “The outfit that Alan Prentiss was wearing. A man came up to me at the mall asking about an outfit for his nephew. He showed me that exact red cable-knit sweater and the front-pleated khaki pants. He was in his 50s. Medium build. Round face. Brown eyes, blonde hair. Around six foot two maybe. I didn’t hear an accent…”
Before she could finish, his voicemail cut her off with a message his mailbox was full. Harri hung up and tried dialing again. This time the phone was busy.
Damn, she thought.
She checked the map she’d been following, the blue dot flashing at her. Robert Payton’s house was right there. If he was the man in the mall, she’d recognize him immediately.
She opened her contacts and found Detective Gavin French’s number. Her finger hovered over the button. This was his case. He’d want her to call him. If she was in his shoes, she’d want the call. But they’d told her to stay away from the case. They’d called her lieutenant to discredit her. To force her home.
She needed more evidence than a hunch and a coincidence. Instead of dialing the number, she typed in Robert Payton and clicked on the images tab. She scanned the men’s faces that came up with the search. None of them was the man from the mall. That didn’t mean much. Maybe he didn’t have an online presence.
Her heart thumped in her chest.
She had no backup.
Jake didn’t know where she was.
She texted him the address to Robert Payton’s house as well as his name. Just in case.
Feeling better about her decision to keep Jake appraised of her location, she crossed the street and sauntered up Robert Payton’s walk.
27
Day 6 - Afternoon
Jake Tepesky checked the time. He was fifteen minutes late for his meeting with Dr. Jasmine Brand. He sped up and hoped she’d still be there.
First, there had been a long line at the rental car office. Then, when he finally sat in the car, he’d been so concerned over Harri’s not telling him immediately about the hair and ornament she’d found in her bathtub, he’d lost his way on the drive over to the coffeeshop. And, of course, now he couldn’t find a place to park. He’d driven around the block twice before finally finding a metered spot. He pulled in, his mind still on Harri.
She was a decorated cop and could take care of herself, as she so readily reminded him. At the same time, this was the most personal of cases and there was a reason law enforcement frowned on cops investigating cases involving family members. He found he’d done his best work when he had distance, however small, on a case. Harri had no distance.
If he was honest with himself, he didn’t have much distance, either. Lauren had been his best friend. He’d loved her like a sister. She was his family. That was a problem, too. He was too close, just like Harri.
Jake didn’t feel good about where the direction of their investigation was going. The deeper they delved, the murkier this case became. He didn’t like the feeling of being so lost and in the dark, cut off from resources, out on their own. It didn’t bode well for them.
He and Harri had reconnected only recently, but he felt as if they’d never lost contact. And what he knew of her made him more concerned about how far she would go to discover what happened to Lauren. He’d done something similar when he first joined the FBI. Every case was THE case. It hadn’t worked out well for him.
These thoughts followed him all the way into the coffeeshop. Dr. Jasmine Brand stood up when she saw him and waved.
“Where’s Detective Harper? I thought she’d be joining us?” she asked.
Dr. Brand gestured to the empty seat next to her and Jake sat down. Dr. Brand seemed nervous, he thought. She kept picking at her jeans and fiddling with her hair. Jake didn’t think her nervousness had anything to do with him. He knew she wouldn’t like what he was about to tell her.
“Is everything all right, Dr. Brand?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said too quickly. “Yeah, of course. Why?”
“If you don’t mind my saying so, you seem nervous.”
Dr. Brand straightened and her hands stilled. “I’m not.”
Jake nodded. She wasn’t going to like what he was about to say.
“I want to be honest with you,” he began.
“Eugene PD doesn’t want you around here anymore?” she asked.
“How did you know?” Jake asked with a laugh.
“It wasn’t hard to see that at the crime scene. When we found that boy…”
“How are you doing after that? It’s hard to come across a body, even more when the victim is so young.”
Her fingers fidgeted again. “I’ve seen bones that young before,” she stated flatly.
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Me, too.”
“Going back to all the people that don’t want me and Detective Harper helping here. This includes the local FBI office who warned us off, too,” Jake said with a grimace.
“Why the FBI?” Dr. Brand asked as she sipped her coffee.
Jake checked the people sitting around them. A couple was at a far table and a guy with a laptop sat two tables over. Beyond that, the cafe was empty. He leaned in anyway, to make sure he wasn’t heard.
“You didn’t hear this from me,” he said.
Dr. Brand nodded.
“The man who was found shot, the one with the photo of that camp and Detective Harper’s sister?”
“Yes,” she prompted.
“Certain images were uncovered on his computer. These images prompted his case to be taken over by the FBI. They warned us off, too,” he said.
“Okay,” Dr. Brand nodded. “Okay, I’ve done a lot of research about the camps that were granted permission to use federal land. Will this research be directly connected to the case that was taken over by the FB
I?”
“We don’t know. We have no idea if the photo has anything to do with what the FBI found on Chris Becker’s computer. We aren’t concerned about the Becker case as it stands. We’re trying to uncover the exact location of the camp.”
“I see,” Dr. Brand said.
She shifted uncomfortably in her seat.
“We don’t want to drag you into anything that makes you uncomfortable. If you want to share the information you’ve uncovered with us, we can go to the locations on our own,” he said.
“You won’t know where you’d be going,” she said. “This specific camp I’m looking at is difficult to get to. It’s unique since the site is on an island in the middle of the forest. There’s only one path I could find going to the lake which is kind of odd. It’s a ride out to the mouth of the trail. The lake isn’t huge, but we’ll need a boat to get out there.”
“I don’t want any trouble coming your way,” Jake said.
“You said this camp doesn’t have anything to do with the present case?”
“I haven’t found a connection yet, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one.” He wanted to be as honest with her as he possibly could.
“So, there is a possibility of there being a connection then?”
“Anything is possible at this point,” Jake admitted.
Dr. Brand sighed. After several moments she spoke again.
“The Willamette State Park is federal land. We have every right to go searching in it. It’s in a different part of the park than where the first boy was found.”
“I wanted to be as forthright with you as possible. Whatever may have happened back at this camp has consequences now.”
“Is the camp connected with the Atticus Menlo case? Or the other boy they found today?” Dr. Brand asked.
“I don’t know how it connects to the Atticus Menlo case or the Chris Becker case, or even Alan Prentiss. Lauren Harper being photographed with those boys is a crime since she was abducted. We haven’t been able to identify any of the boys yet. There could be several cases connected to that photograph.”
The Hidden Grave (Harriet Harper Thriller Book 2) Page 15
