“How am I supposed to act?” Eric asked. “This is all very shocking to me.”
David nodded. “Angela’s disappearance certainly is troubling. But it should be pretty obvious why we’d want to speak to you.”
Eric’s nose scrunched. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Eric, we know you had feelings for her,” David said.
“Very strong feelings,” I added.
Eric tried to reply.
David didn’t let him get a word out. “We also know that she was in a serious relationship with Gavin Zeller, which probably did not sit well with you.”
Eric tensed up. “I have a feeling where you’re going with this, and I want to stop you right there.”
David folded his arms. “What’s the matter? Are we making you uncomfortable?”
“As a matter of fact, you are,” Eric said. “I don’t like wild speculation.”
“Have we said anything that isn’t true? Are you going to tell us you weren’t attracted to Angela?”
“You can keep digging around all you want, or you can just listen to me when I tell you that I didn’t have anything to do with Angela’s disappearance,” Eric said.
“I’d love to believe you.”
“All right. I guess that’s settled then.” He took a few steps back. “I’ll leave you two to your investigation.”
“Not so fast,” David replied. “I said that I’d love to believe you. That’s different than taking your word at face value.”
Eric exhaled. “I’m getting awfully tired of this conversation. Why don’t you go hassle Ryan Knapp? There’s a guy who had a reason to want Angela out of the picture.”
“We already spoke with Ryan,” David said.
“And?”
“And now we’re talking to you.”
Eric shook his head. “I still don’t understand what you’re wasting your time with me for.”
“Mr. Hollingsworth, you’re the only one here wasting time. Now if you just let us get back to our questions—”
“Haven’t you already asked me enough?”
“There’s still something else we need to know.”
“What’s that?”
“Where were you this morning?” David asked.
Eric scoffed. “Where do you think?”
“I’m not sure you want us to guess,” David said. “How about you just answer the question?”
“I was at home, getting ready for work.”
“Do you live with anyone?”
“I’m not sure why that matters.”
“Mr. Hollingsworth, it’s a yes or no question,” David said.
Eric took a deep breath. “I live alone.”
“In that case, I guess it means you don’t have anyone who can verify that you really were at home this morning.”
“This is ridiculous. I just told you. I was at home.”
“Of course you would say that. If you were involved in Angela’s disappearance, would you really come out and admit it?”
“That’s not relevant.”
“Sure it is.”
“Detective, I would never do anything to hurt her.”
“You didn’t answer my question so I will fill in the blanks for you. If you were the one responsible for her disappearance, of course you would fabricate some cover story.”
“Don’t you think I would have come up with a better story than that?” Eric asked.
“Not necessarily. Sometimes the most mundane answers draw the least attention,” David said.
“And other times, you find yourself wrongfully accused.” Eric turned around to walk away.
“Where do you think you’re going?” David asked.
“Back to work,” Eric said.
David shook his head. “We’re not done here.”
“What more could you possibly want from me?” Eric asked.
“I can think of a few things,” David said. “Now, let’s get back to the questions.”
Chapter Seventeen
Unfortunately, our additional questions didn’t produce any useful answers. So after a few minutes of getting nowhere, David and I moved on. Or at least we attempted to. At that stage in the investigation, we had spoken with all of the obvious suspects except for one. And until we could figure out where Angela’s creepy neighbor was, David and I were forced to play the waiting game.
Thankfully, we didn’t have to wait long. Shortly after arriving back at the police station, David received a call on his police radio. It was from Joe Kelton, the police deputy who had been assigned to watch over Angela’s street. According to the deputy, Angela’s creepy neighbor had just arrived home.
David and I left the station and bolted over to Birch Drive, where Griffin Coolidge’s ranch-style home was located.
When we pulled onto the street, we saw the deputy’s car out front.
After a brief conversation with the deputy, David and I approached Griffin’s front door.
It took a few knocks, but Griffin Coolidge finally opened up. Or rather, he poked his head out. He didn’t want to come outside. Nor was he interested in inviting us inside his place.
The skinny twenty-five-year-old had blue eyes, long black hair, a goatee, and a sleeve of tattoos running up and down his arms.
“What do you want?” Griffin snapped.
“We need to ask you some questions,” David said.
“How about you just go away?” Griffin asked.
“That’s not going to happen,” David said.
“This is private property,” Griffin said. “You’re not welcome here. Now beat it.”
David pulled out his police badge. “Not until you answer our questions.”
Griffin’s eyebrows rose. “Wait a minute. You’re a cop?”
David nodded. “We’d like to speak with you about your neighbor.”
“Someone called the cops on me?” He groaned and shook his head. “Unbelievable. People in this neighborhood need to learn to mind their own business.”
David held his hand up. “You have it all wrong. None of your neighbors called to report a complaint.”
A confused look came to Griffin’s face. “Then why are you here?”
“Because your neighbor has gone missing and we’re wondering if you’ve seen her.”
He shook his head. “I haven’t seen anything.”
“I haven’t even told you which neighbor has disappeared—”
Griffin cut David off. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It does to us. We’re determined to do everything we can to find Angela Hummel.”
“I hope your efforts pay off.”
“We’re hoping you can help us with that.”
“I don’t see how,” Griffin said. “Unlike some people on this street, I try to keep to myself.”
“It sounds like you have some problems with your neighbors.”
“I wouldn’t call them problems.”
“Then how would you characterize them—?”
Griffin interrupted David. “It’s less serious of an issue than you’re making it out to be. I just don’t like it when people give me the stink eye just because I happen to have a couple of tattoos.”
To me, that was a gross understatement. He had more than a couple tattoos. Both of his arms were covered in them. He also didn’t help his case by wearing a tank top, which made his tattoos stand out even more.
Even so, his disdain level seemed to be pretty high for a man whose biggest complaint was getting the stink eye. There was much more to this story. The question became, would he volunteer more details, or would we have to put some pressure on him?
“Aside from getting the stink eye from your neighbors, have you been having any other problems?” David asked.
Griffin narrowed his eyes. “What have you heard?”
“Mr. Coolidge. I’m the one asking the questions here.”
“I don’t know who badmouthed me, but you need to take whatever they said with a grain of salt.�
��
“Griffin, you’re awfully defensive.”
“I’m a really private person and I don’t like people getting up in my business.”
“You know what? Based on the nature of this conversation, I have a feeling we should finish this inside your house. Would you mind letting us in?”
“Yes. I would mind.”
David stared Griffin down. “Why don’t you want us inside your place?”
“Because I like my privacy,” Griffin said.
“So it’s not because you’re hiding something?”
Griffin glared. “No.”
“I hope you’re telling the truth. If I had to, I could always get a search warrant.”
The threat of obtaining a warrant was usually enough to get a suspect to open up their door. Instead, he held his ground.
Griffin folded his arms. “Go ahead. I’m not afraid of you.”
“If that’s true then why don’t you let us in right now?” David asked. “Unless you’re worried about what we’ll find in there.”
Griffin got quiet.
“So, do you want to do this the easy way or the hard way?” David asked.
A few seconds later, Griffin swung his door open briefly, but he continued to block the doorway with his body. “See. My place is just messy. I’m not hiding anything.” He shut the door only to a crack again in a hurry. “Are you satisfied?”
David looked long and hard at him. “You still seem awfully tense.”
“I’m just annoyed. I mean, you showed up at my house out of the blue and started asking me a bunch of questions. How do you expect me to react?” Griffin asked.
“In my line of work, I have found that if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about.”
“I don’t have anything to hide.”
“Then you shouldn’t have any trouble answering this question. Where were you this morning?”
“I’ve been here most of the day,” Griffin said.
David scoffed. “How do you expect us to believe that when you just returned home a few minutes ago?”
“I was only out about an hour. Other than that, I’ve been home all morning.”
“When you were out, where did you go?”
“To Zelda’s Diner,” Griffin said. “With a quick stop on the way back to buy some lotto tickets.”
“How about the rest of the morning? Was anyone here with you?”
“Wait a minute. You didn’t really come here because you wanted help with your investigation,” Griffin said. “You came here because you’re investigating me. Aren’t you?”
“Will you just answer my question?” David asked.
“I didn’t have anything to do with Angela going missing. Nor do I have any information about her disappearance,” Griffin said.
Griffin began to close his door.
“We’re not done yet,” David said.
“I don’t have anything else to say to you,” Griffin replied.
“I decide when we’re done,” David said.
“Are you going to arrest me?”
David stared him down. “Not at the moment.”
“Then this conversation is over,” Griffin said.
Chapter Eighteen
As much as David hated having a door shut in his face, he couldn’t force Griffin to talk to him. In addition to making David frustrated, the door-slamming marked a dubious moment in the case. With our questioning of Griffin now over, we were suddenly fresh out of leads.
David wasn’t usually lacking for words, but he remained dead quiet as we walked back to his car.
His silence came to an abrupt end when he plopped down in the driver’s seat of his sedan and let out a big groan.
I looked over at him with sympathetic eyes. “That sums up my mood too.”
“What a mess this investigation is.”
“I can think of a more colorful way to describe how things have been going.”
“I’ll bet,” he said. “The question is, do you have any ideas about where to take this investigation next?”
I shook my head. “I’m afraid I can’t help you there.”
He winced. “I was afraid you were going to say that.”
“How about you? Do you have any ideas?”
He exhaled. “Not at the moment. Currently, all I have is an extreme amount of frustration.”
“I hear you. Those weren’t the easiest suspect interviews we have ever conducted.”
He laughed. “You really do have a flair for understatement.”
“You might be right. At the same time, it would be hard to overstate just how difficult this case has been.”
“Don’t remind me.”
“Frankly, I’m not even sure what to make of all this. I want to believe that Angela is still alive, but I have no evidence to support that. On the flip side, if she’s dead, then where is her body?”
“I wish I had answers for you.”
“Unfortunately, no one we spoke with today seemed to have any answers.”
“Honestly, if anything, now I just have more questions. For example, if Angela is still alive, what does her captor want with her? Is she being held for ransom?”
“I doubt it. She doesn’t have a lot of money. And neither does anyone close to her.”
“Exactly.”
“Besides, wouldn’t a ransom demand have been made by now?”
“You’d think.” David rubbed his forehead. “Say this isn’t about a ransom. Then what does her captor want with her?”
“Every answer I can think of is depressing,” I said.
“What’s even more distressing is the possibility that she’s already dead. And that the person responsible for her disappearance has disposed of her body somewhere. If that’s the case then her body could be anywhere right now.”
“All the more reason to keep a close eye on the suspects.”
“That brings up another problem. We have spoken with everyone who was at odds with Angela. But what if some random psycho is behind this? Just some stranger who has a screw loose.”
My eyes bulged. “That’s terrifying to think about.”
“It sure is. And unlike with other cases, I can’t outright dismiss that possibility.” David began staring out into the distance.
I took his hand. “Look. As frustrating as this afternoon was, tomorrow is another day. Who knows? We might catch a lucky break.”
“That’s awfully optimistic of you to say.”
“It’s either that or give into my frustration. Faced with those two choices, I think it’s important to pray for the best.”
Chapter Nineteen
I did a lot of praying that night. Whether any of my prayers would be answered was still yet to be determined. But one thing was certain. Sleep wasn’t going to come easily to me that evening.
I was filled with nervous energy, which made it difficult for me to quiet my mind. So instead of getting some much-needed rest, my thoughts raced as I tossed and turned in bed.
Angela wasn’t the only person on my mind. I kept thinking about my sister as well. With good reason. When Jess disappeared all those years ago, it took over a decade to find her body. The quest to discover the truth was agonizing. And the answers to my questions were utterly heartbreaking.
I desperately wanted things to be different with Angela. But was that just wishful thinking? As doubt crept into my mind, I took a number of deep breaths, hoping that would calm me down.
Instead, it just drew David’s attention. “You can’t sleep either, huh?”
I looked over at my husband. “Have you been awake this entire time too?”
He nodded. “Unfortunately. I can’t stop thinking about this case.”
I took a deep breath. “There’s a lot I can’t stop thinking about.”
“Is your sister one of those things?” he asked.
I nodded.
He snuggled up to me. “This case must hit you so close to home.”
I grimaced. “Dangerously
close. I mean, if this is a repeat of what happened with Jess…” I had trouble finishing my sentence.
“What ever happened to being optimistic?”
“I tried my best to stay positive. But then I started thinking about my sister and everything that happened to her.”
“And from there, negativity crept in?”
“Exactly. The longer I think about my sister’s case, the harder it is to believe things will turn out differently with Angela.”
“Let me stop you right there. The two cases aren’t related. Just because things ended tragically with your sister doesn’t mean the same thing will occur with Angela. You said it yourself earlier today. Angela might still be alive.”
“Yes, she might be. But there’s also a possibility that she’s already dead. And that maybe we’ll never find her body.”
“Don’t you think it’s a little early in the case to be thinking that way?”
“David, you said the very same thing yourself a number of hours ago.”
“True. And then you encouraged me to stay positive. Now I’m trying to do the same thing for you.”
“Thank you for trying.”
“Is it succeeding?”
“Not really.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“Even so, I wish there was something I could say to assure you.”
“Unfortunately, there isn’t.”
David didn’t give up. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“I just remembered something very timely.”
“Which is?”
“It’s an old quote that you once read to me,” David said. “About how hope can take you a lot farther than doubt.”
I looked off into the distance. “Right. Of course.”
“That quote is a hundred percent true,” David said. “Hope can carry you through the darkest of times.”
I gazed into my husband’s eyes. “Thank you for reminding me of that.”
He leaned in and gave me a kiss. “Of course. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
“Now let’s get some sleep,” he said.
Chapter Twenty
Mysteries of Treasure Cove Cozy Mystery Boxed Set Page 42
