Wednesday, September 9 at 9:18 a.m.
Jo was not looking forward to paying the Finneys a visit, but they needed Laura’s parents to know they had a possible suspect. Jo regretted being assigned to this task while Pete went to show the sketch around at Ryder’s restaurant. They agreed that to cover as much ground as possible, they needed to split up.
Senator Finney examined the sketch and then passed it to his wife. He stated, “I’ve never seen him before. Was he someone who went to Duke with Laura?”
Jo had tossed the idea around to Pete earlier since they had not reached out to any of Laura’s Duke classmates. All the sightings of the man with Laura had been during the summer while she was home. They both agreed this man had to live here in Charlotte.
Dressed in the same robe as the first time Jo came to the house, Mrs. Finney examined the sketch for a full minute. She practically shoved the sketch back at Jo. “I don’t think I know him either. Who is he?”
Jo observed Mrs. Finney’s face. Something about the sketch had disturbed her, but she was putting on a good face for her husband. “We’re still tracking down leads to find this person. Are you sure you’ve never seen him before?”
Senator Finney frowned. “We just said we’ve never seen the man before. I don’t understand why you’re showing him to us. Is he a suspect? How would Laura know him?”
Jo caught Mrs. Finney’s eyes. They were the eyes of a woman in pain, but she also saw something else. The woman stared back at her as though to warn her not to say a word. Laura was probably a daddy’s girl and Mrs. Finney had become accustomed to protecting Laura’s image.
Senator Finney continued his tirade, “Are you posting this where others can report sightings of this man? Shouldn’t you be setting up a manhunt?”
“Whoa, sir! We don’t want to waste the department resources dragging any old poor soul in for questioning. We also don’t want to risk our possible suspect fleeing the area. We’re gathering evidence so we can make an arrest.”
Senator Finney crossed his arms. “I hope you know what you’re doing. Is it Detective Reed, you say? You seem to have wasted quite a bit of time with Matt. Matt’s family didn’t deserve to be pulled through the mud by the media.”
“That was unfortunate. The media took that to another level by themselves. Look, we will find this man. I’ll keep you updated.”
Jo turned to leave the room. The senator was a grieving father, but she’d had enough of being in his presence.
Mrs. Finney followed behind her. “Let me walk you out, Detective.”
“I think I can find my way out, Mrs. Finney.”
“I insist. Besides, I need some fresh air.”
Jo looked at the woman and then nodded. She sensed Mrs. Finney had something else on her mind. Most mothers knew more about their children’s habits than they often let on. After they stepped outside, Mrs. Finney clawed at her throat as though she had something choking her that she wanted to get out.
Jo nudged gently, “Are you okay?”
Mrs. Finney clasped her hands together. She didn’t look directly at Jo, but off in the distance towards a garden on the left. “Laura and I argued before she left that night. I brought her some new wedding magazines and she snapped at me. It was like she suddenly didn’t want to talk about the wedding anymore. I thought maybe her and Matt had an argument.”
The woman looked at Jo. “When you questioned Matt, I was hoping he hadn’t hurt my Laura. I believed he loved her. Then poor Sarah.” Mrs. Finney placed her hands on the sides of her face. “Sarah was so loyal to Laura. I just don’t understand why this has all happened.”
Jo wanted the woman to focus. “Mrs. Finney, the man in the sketch, did the face remind you of someone? Maybe you saw Laura with him?”
Mrs. Finney looked directly at Jo. “I do feel like I’ve seen that face before. I could be wrong, but I think the man you showed me was Matt’s friend.”
Jo’s heart pounded in her chest. “Wait, you think you saw this guy with Matt?”
“Matt proposed here at our home last Christmas. We insisted Laura and Matt celebrate their engagement on New Year’s. They both invited friends. I don’t remember this man’s name, but I remember he stood in a corner most of the time.”
Jo added, “Like he felt out of place?”
Mrs. Finney nodded. “Yes. I thought it was also odd and it could’ve just been me, but he couldn’t take his eyes off Laura. I remembering thinking to myself, where did Matt find such a strange friend? I’m sorry, I don’t know why I never thought about this before.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Finney. That’s really very helpful. I will stay in touch with you.”
Jo climbed into her car and watched as Mrs. Finney went back inside. Her eyes moved up the side of the house where something twinkled in the sunlight. She leaned further towards the passenger side of the car so she could see. There was a camera pointing towards the driveway. She scolded herself for not noticing it before. They needed to get access to that camera’s footage.
She drove like a madwoman from the Finneys’ house back to the station. On her way back to her desk, Sgt. Wu met her in the hallway. “Hey, Detective Reed. I have something you might want to see.”
“Good. I may need your help with something else on the Finney case.”
Jo followed Wu to the room where other techs were working on various computers. A lot of cybercrime activities were monitored in this area. Jo recognized Laura’s laptop on Wu’s desk.
Wu pulled out a chair for Jo to sit. “This took longer than expected because some of Laura’s accounts were not accessible. We finally got into her Facebook account and I think I found some interesting correspondence.”
“Really? So she communicated with this guy via Facebook?”
“Yes, in fact the Facebook Messenger app seemed to be the main way she communicated with him. There were no emails and I couldn’t find any text messages. From what I can tell Laura started communicating in early June with this guy.”
Jo observed the profile Wu pulled up. The dark haired man had vivid blue eyes. “Daniel Lewis? Well, he matches the sketch and previous descriptions.” As Jo stared at the photo she had that strange feeling again that she’d seen this man before. He did remind her of Maddock. Now why was that?
Wu continued, “The last message between this guy and Laura coincides with the night Laura died. It appears she was going out to dinner with him.”
“Did they mention a restaurant?”
Wu shook his head, “Nope. The guy is either a romantic or he wanted to keep the details a secret. Also, he does not have many friends and he rarely posts. It’s like he just logs in to chat with Laura. Anyway, we’re running his name through our databases to see if we can get any matches. We’re assuming Daniel Lewis is his real name, but you never know.”
Jo mentioned, “Wu, I know how we might be able to get some more info on this guy. The first time I talked to Mrs. Finney she said someone picked Laura up from the house that night. At the time, I assumed it was one of the friends, but they didn’t go out together. The Finneys have at least one camera on the property pointed towards the driveway. Can we get access to that camera from the security company, in particular, for any activity on August 18th? Maybe we can get this guy’s license plate.”
Based on her talk with Mrs. Finney, it was time to pay Matt Vaynor a visit again. They needed to know which one of Matt’s friends were not what they appeared to be.