Trent respected why he had to sit in the car while Amanda went inside Brighter Horizons, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. He was a cop, and he had vowed to serve and protect.
He was in his cubicle with Amanda, and they were watching the video from Dumfries Elementary. He forwarded to the timeframe in which the teacher had mentioned seeing Jill Archer speaking with the mystery man and found them on the edge of the school’s property rather quickly. “Her body language reads like she knows the guy,” he said.
“Agreed.”
“She’s relaxed and smiling. So is he.” The man certainly didn’t strike Trent as the type to kill mothers and daughters, but what exactly did the type look like? Trent strained to look closer, as if something telling for the case would magically appear.
“Can you zoom in?”
“Let me give it a go.” He wasn’t a techie, but he could get by. It didn’t hurt that one of his sisters was savvy with computers and shared some of her knowledge with him. He tried something—and it worked.
“Just as Ms. Brewer said. Good-looking, dark hair, average build.”
“An average Joe Schmo all around.” Even his clothing appeared to be of department store quality. He wore a stylish fall jacket, the zipper undone, exposing a white shirt with a rounded collar, pressed jeans, and boots. Trent pointed out the latter.
“Not taking a leap into the rabbit hole because the guy’s wearing boots.”
Trent held up his hands. “I know, but we are interested in finding out more about this mystery man. I was just sayin’…”
“Search for a clear image of his face.”
He nodded and let the video move forward in slow motion. “There, just for a second, he turns his body.” He reversed the footage, and they were looking at him face on. The man had his hands in his pockets and wore a silver-chain necklace.
“No one I’ve seen before,” Amanda said. “But send a copy to our phones so we can take it with us. Also forward it to the CSIs to run through facial recognition databases.”
“You got it.” Trent did as she’d asked.
“Steele?” It was Graves coming toward them. “And Stenson,” she added once she reached the doorway to Trent’s cubicle. “Where are we with things?”
Amanda told her about the shelter and Abigail and Mia.
Graves let out an enormous sigh. “Follow that up yesterday. The last thing we need is more deaths.”
“You got it,” Trent replied, reading grief off the sergeant. She’d likely taken the lack of additional shallow graves in Prince Park to mean no more victims. But for Trent, it had been a tentative acceptance. He’d been proven wrong before.
Graves left, and Trent brought up a report on Abigail Cohen. “Abigail is thirty-three. Married to Jeremy Cohen. Address is in Woodbridge.”
“Let’s hit the road.”
Trent pushed on the gas a little harder than normal, but he wasn’t good with suspense. He was hoping desperately that they would find Abigail and Mia alive and well, though well was debatable if they’d returned to an abusive household. Then again, the mother and daughter could have left that sorry excuse for a man. With that came other worries. Were they out there doing well or dead somewhere? It was crazy how the mind worked, daisy-chaining one thought to the next and then the next.
He pulled to a stop in front of the Cohen residence, a brick bungalow, in record time.
Trent knocked, and a burly man answered the door.
“What is it?” He traced his beady eyes over Trent and Amanda. “I have no interest in finding religion.”
Trent held up a hand to stop him from closing the door. “Are you Jeremy Cohen?”
“What’s it to you?”
Charmer all around… Trent held up his badge. “We’re Detectives Stenson and Steele with the Prince William County PD.”
“Hey, congratulations.”
Trent took a few seconds to shake his temper. “We’d like to speak with your wife, Abigail.” Somehow he delivered the request coolly and calmly.
“Good luck. She ain’t here.”
“When will she be back?”
“Now, ain’t that a good question.” Jeremy leaned against the doorframe and ogled Amanda.
“You don’t know where your wife is?” His question was designed to insult him, the implication being he was less a man if he were in the dark.
“Oh, I’d know if I wanted to, but ya see, I don’t.”
“She left you.” Just stating that brought a smile of satisfaction to Trent’s face.
“Yep. Turns out I’m better off without her.”
“And your daughter?”
“Who even knows if she was my kid?”
Trent stepped forward but eased back again with one side-glance from Amanda. “When did you last see her?”
“Four months ago.”
Just after you gave her a black eye and had her fleeing to the shelter…
“Do you have a phone number for her?” Amanda asked.
“Nope. She left me, and I had her number disconnected.”
If thoughts of his aunt’s well-being weren’t haunting him before, just the mention of a disconnected line had him tail-spinning again. “Did your daughter have a favorite stuffed toy, Mr. Cohen?” They still didn’t know where the killer was getting the dolls. It was possible if he got to Abigail and Mia before the Riggs, the rabbit and/or the elephant was Mia’s toy.
“No idea. She had a bunch of stuffies.” He shrugged. “That’s what the girl called them.”
“Any rabbits or elephants, about this big?” Trent mimed the size.
“Don’t think so.”
Trent handed Jeremy his business card. “Take this. If she comes back around, have her call me.” He turned toward the road.
“I won’t be needing this.”
Trent looked over a shoulder and saw Jeremy flick his card into the hedges near the door.
Amanda leaned into Trent’s ear. “Just ignore him.”
“Easier said than done.” He took a deep, heaving breath. “And what if Abigail and Mia didn’t leave of their own free will? What if somewhere between the shelter and plans to return here, our killer got to them?”
“What if…? You’ll go crazy fast thinking that way.”
“I know. I just hate not having the answers.” He slid behind the wheel, becoming paralyzed by his dark thoughts.
She got into the vehicle and closed the door. “Makes two of us. Like where the toys came from. That one’s eating away at me.”
“Me too. Did they come from other little girls we don’t know about?”
“Well, we’re not doing any good sitting here, spinning. Let’s go talk with Nurse Freeman. She helped Abigail and Mia once. It’s possible that Abigail returned to her. She might know where they are or have a way to reach them.”
“That’s a glimmer of hope.” He put the car into gear and got them on the road.