“Lover of mine, how great is your arrival,
Joy of my heart, how pleasant your smile,
Come and fill my heart, meet my every need,
Only with you, Beloved,
am I fully alive.”
The voice behind the number-one song in the country soared up to the high ceiling. Evie noticed even the waitstaff stopping to listen. Having never been that near a performer before, it was a revelation as Maggie captured every guest in the ballroom with the power of her words and the charm of the music. By the end of the second song, the guests were transformed from interested onlookers to an involved audience. Increasingly enthusiastic applause broke out after each song.
The curtain closed on the final piece following Maggie’s wave, and the mayor returned to the podium while the waitstaff hurried in with dessert.
“Very nice,” Rob’s mother said, looking specifically at David, and he smiled his thanks.
The mayor had been trying for some time to get the crowd’s attention, and after they finally quieted down, he said, “And now a final surprise guest for the evening.” The room quieted further. “Please help me welcome”—the curtain behind him began to part once again—“our new governor, Governor Bliss!”
Applause filled the room to greet the man now striding toward the podium.
“Good evening, my friends. Wasn’t that spectacular? I had to watch on a screen in the back, but Maggie of the Triple M band spoke to my head and to my heart tonight, folks. Let’s give her another round of applause she’ll be able to hear in the dressing room.” The crowd cheered in response.
“I asked your gracious mayor here,” he continued, “if I could add a few words tonight to underscore the enormous place charity has in our state and the work these wonderful organizations have accomplished for our citizens.” He went on to list the impact felt across the state among children, families, schools, law enforcement, and others.
Movement at a side door caught Evie’s attention. Maggie slipped into the ballroom wearing a simple blue dress, and not everyone immediately recognized her as she made her way between the tables. David stood and pulled out a seat for her. Rob slid his chair closer to Evie’s to make room. The mayor went to the podium to thank the governor for coming, and again applause filled the room.
Maggie glanced around the table, read the situation, and before she sat she hugged Evie. “I’m so glad you were able to come tonight, Evie.” Photographers working the room had spotted Maggie, their flashes going off in response. “Introductions, please?”
“Of course. Maggie,” Evie said, “I’d like you to meet Senator Scott Mitchell and his wife, Martha. Also Mr. and Mrs. Joshua Turney, their son, Robert. David you obviously know well. May I introduce our guest singer for tonight, Margaret May McDonald, of the band Triple M.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you all.” Maggie smiled around the circle as she sat down by David, leaned her head on his shoulder. “I do know you pretty well,” she said, and he chuckled. She leaned forward and added, “I’ve heard the name Rob Turney recently. Evie is smitten.”
Rob grinned. “I’m glad to hear it, as it’s mutual.”
Evie didn’t dare look at Elizabeth, but she was in awe of Maggie’s understanding of the dynamics here.
Maggie nodded her approval, turned to David. “How was it, range of one to ten?”
“Wonderful, as always,” he replied, offering a fork to share his dessert. “At least a solid eight, because the room acoustics could only go so far.”
“I’ll take it. Because I’m about to be outperformed.” Maggie nodded to a children’s choir now taking the stage. “Their soloist is an eight-year-old, and she’s magnificent.”
The mayor introduced the choir from one of the charities they had been highlighting. The children sang with all the energy they had, obviously having worked hard to memorize the words, clapping in rhythm at the same time. And the little girl, holding the mic like she’d done it all her life, brought the house down. Evie mostly watched Maggie, who was enjoying every bit of the performance.
When it was over, the socializing began. Many came to greet Rob and his parents. Politician types stopped by to speak with the senator and his wife. Maggie hurried to the stage to visit with the children before getting swarmed with autograph and selfie requests.
Evie had come to realize from past experience that it was the personal connections made before and after the program that was the real reason guests attended these events. It would be another hour before Rob was free to leave. She smiled a hello to those Rob introduced her to, stood quietly by his side listening to the conversations, offered a quiet remark to Rob in free moments between guests, until gestured over by his mother to be introduced to someone else. My star must have risen with that hug from Maggie, she thought, shaking hands with another woman Elizabeth thought she should know but likely would never remember.
The head of hotel security let her know the video surveillance would run until midnight and they could pick up copies in the morning for review. After nearly an hour, Evie sank into a chair, drank some water, and picked up a chocolate from a dish on the table.
Maggie joined her. “That’s an absolutely beautiful necklace, Evie.”
“Rob has very good taste . . . and the income to match it.” They shared a laugh together.
“No more autographs?” Evie asked.
“It’s a generational thing. The rest of the crowd doesn’t realize their grandkids are going to be crushed tomorrow when they find out they left without an autograph or photo. Have any plans with Rob for this weekend?”
“David and I have security footage to review tomorrow morning, but then I imagine Rob and I will spend most of it together.”
“Dinner and a movie Saturday evening, church on Sunday, lunch with friends,” Rob suggested from behind, kneading her shoulders. “We’re going to make up for the last few weeks while our jobs are cooperating.”
Evie thought it sounded wonderful, and leaned her head back to smile at him. “Perfect. Your parents get away okay?”
“They’re going out for drinks with the city council president. Maggie, would you and David like to join us for a nightcap at my place?”
“Sure.”
It couldn’t have been scripted for a more memorable way to end a Friday night. Evie leaned into Rob as they said good-night beside her car. “Thanks for this, Rob. You had a very nice idea.”
“You’ve got interesting friends, Evie. And I feel like David and Maggie are on the way to becoming my friends too.”
She smiled. “Welcome to the worlds of music and security.” Maggie had taken them on a tour of her last few months via pictures on her phone, added stories from New York that only Maggie could have lived, David adding color by talking a bit about the complexities of keeping overly ardent fans from hounding her.
“I needed this non-work evening. We both did, right?”
He held her close and gently kissed her. “What do you say I pick you up around six tomorrow evening at your hotel, assuming your case hasn’t moved to a solution before then? We’ll have dinner, and you can choose the movie. I don’t suppose I could get you to wear that red dress again?”
She laughed, lightly punched his arm. “Not a chance. But the rest of it is a deal.”
She so wanted to find the courage to say yes to this man. His world wasn’t hers, but he was. She thought she could learn to manage the occasional party and charity event because they were part of his life. He had already shown her he was comfortable with her friends, and seeing him with David and Maggie was reinforcing that. Tonight she felt the kind of peace she wanted for her life. God was showing her what a good thing felt like, and it seemed as though it was here.
She slipped into her car and buckled the seat belt, waved goodbye.
Twenty-Two
Evie mentally rearranged her work board as she drove to their ad hoc office early Saturday morning. Jim Ulin. Lynne Benoit. An unnamed concert traveler. One of those three h
eld the probable answer to Jenna Greenhill’s disappearance.
Today would be marked by interviews with people who knew Jim, finding those in the neighborhood who might be able to corroborate his story about walking Jenna home. He’d admitted to a fistfight with someone named Rick. She would chase that lead down, find out what had triggered the fight, understand when and how Jim reverted to violence. She would speak with adults who had watched Jim grow up, his friends, see if frustration with being stuck in the neighborhood, unable to attend college, had been gnawing at him. Jenna might have pushed Jim’s buttons there if it was a sensitive point.
She wanted David with her when she sat down with Jim once more. If any part of his story was fabricated to protect himself, to protect Lynne, they should be able to find the weak spots. She couldn’t help but like Jim, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t have killed Jenna or been involved in covering up what happened to help Lynne.
Focusing on the unnamed traveler mostly meant sifting through those on the rope line last night—isolate faces in the right age range, get the FBI to run facial recognition against DMV records, run those names against their multitude of other lists. It would mean hours of work on the video, though the task itself was straightforward. Looking at faces, coming up with names, running background checks, and then hoping somebody surfaced as a person of interest.
Satisfied with the plan for the day, she headed into the office, whistling under her breath. She had dinner and a movie with Rob to look forward to. Until then, she had a case to push to a conclusion.
“Hey, Evie. You’re in early after a late night.”
She nearly bobbled the box of muffins in her hands, not expecting to find David already here. “I didn’t see your car.”
David approached from the break room, coffee mug in hand. “I caught a cab over at four a.m. I didn’t trust myself to drive. Had a crazy thought—or maybe dream—I wanted to run down.”
“How crazy?” She opened the lid on the muffins and offered him breakfast.
He selected the blueberry one, nodded his thanks. “Do you think our traveler would select a new victim from that rope line? Consider it to be a Maggie event of significance, mark out his victim, pickpocket her driver’s license?”
A dagger hit her heart as she winced. “It hadn’t even crossed my mind that he might think that way. It’s hard to lift a license when people are bundled up in coats and gloves . . . but yeah, to lift a wallet from a purse, that could happen.”
“The thought hit me hard enough it wouldn’t let me sleep. I’ve been looking at the security video.” He motioned to the conference room.
“You should have called me. I would have come in and helped.”
“No use both of us losing sleep if the idea didn’t go anywhere. It was just crucial enough I wanted to check it quickly.” He gestured to the projection screen, where tiled photos were on pause. “We’ve got four camera angles from five p.m. to midnight. I ran one view at speed just to get a sense of how many people come and go, and most are there at the rope line for upwards of an hour. So I’m estimating the number of people is going to be around fifteen hundred. I’ve run it at three times speed, looking for a pickpocket, and come up empty—that dropped my stress level considerably. I’m in synchronized mode now, running all four camera angles together. I’m saving faces in the crowd, those who might be the right age—anyone mid-twenties to mid-thirties.”
“Let’s hope our traveler was there,” Evie said. It would eliminate Jim or Lynne. She couldn’t help but wish for that.
“I’m optimistic, if only because that’s the only way to face hours of staring at video,” David replied with a short laugh. “After this, there’s the film from the back of the hotel. I scanned it, maybe a hundred fifty people, mostly dedicated fans who worked their way back there and stayed put for the whole evening. I’ve got Lynne moving between the two locations.”
Evie unwrapped a muffin. “You want to swap places for a while—I watch the video, you dig into Jim’s life?”
“Thanks for the offer, but I’ll stay on it. Once you start, it’s like running a marathon. You don’t want to let it beat you or stop until it’s done. I’m sending the faces in batches to the FBI for those recognition checks with DMV. Some images aren’t at a good angle, some people won’t have Illinois drivers’ licenses—could have been issued in Indiana or Wisconsin—but it’ll make a solid start. As they feed names back, I’ll send them to researchers for background checks.”
“I appreciate this, David.”
“The concert traveler I can handle. Put your focus on Jim.”
“I’ll be heading out for a long list of interviews once it’s a reasonable hour to knock on doors.”
“If I’m not here when you get back, I’ll be at the hotel catching a few hours’ sleep. Call if you get any leads and want me to join you.”
“That I can promise.” She settled at a desk to begin digging deeper into the life of Jim Ulin.
A day of productive interviews always put Evie in a good mood. It was coming up on two p.m. when she stopped in once more at the Benoit home, accepted Lynne’s mother’s offer of coffee. David was having a productive day as well, going by the number of messages she’d received. The FBI was having better success identifying people from the rope line photos than she’d expected.
Evie’s phone dinged, and she looked at another face, now with a name, but didn’t recognize the individual.
“Need to answer that?” Lynne’s mother asked as she led the way to the kitchen.
Evie shook her head and pocketed the phone. “It can wait an hour.” David would call if a background check said they had likely found the right guy. She accepted the coffee Nancy offered.
“Lynne should be getting home soon. I can text her for you, ask her whereabouts.”
“No need, Nancy, but thanks. I just want to confirm something Jim said, but I can ask her another time. So Lynne had a good time at the concert last night?”
“She had a wonderful night. And before you ask, I can make a safe assumption she’s probably with Jim right now, telling him all the details of the evening. They may not be dating anymore, but he’s still important to her.” Nancy hesitated. “Jim stopped by here last night while Lynne was at the concert. He shared with me his account of that night he told you.”
Evie simply nodded and drank her coffee. She wasn’t sure why she was sitting here with Lynne’s mom, but maybe it was simply this—to get Nancy’s read on what Jim had told her. “Did it surprise you?”
“That Jenna had caused him some problems, no. That he hadn’t told the police the details back then—that did. I had no idea Jim had seen Jenna that night until he sat at this kitchen table and told me about that midnight coffee-shop visit.” She twisted a napkin in her hands as she talked. “I’m concerned about what it’s going to mean for Jim. He’s the one you have to look at now, right?”
“Yes.”
“Is there anything else I might be able to answer, Evie?”
“How did Jim change after Jenna went missing?”
“He was very worried about Lynne. She was searching the neighborhood and campus all hours of the day, looking for Jenna. In true Lynne fashion, she’d fixated on the possibility that if she looked hard enough, she could find her friend. Jim wasn’t getting much sleep. He had good people working the music store and coffee shop, but he handled all the inventory, made up the work schedules, helped his dad run both places—and he was needed. Within a week I was thinking this guy’s going to make himself very ill if he keeps this up. I predicted that correctly. He spent close to a month fighting off a serious cough and bad bout of the flu. It’s actually what got Lynne off her obsession with Jenna, the fact Jim was so sick. Lynne can be a pretty good ‘mother’ when it comes to fussing over someone who’s ill. It probably embarrassed Jim to no end once he was feeling better, but Lynne doesn’t offer much slack with her get-better rules. I suppose she learned that from me.”
Evie smiled at Nancy’s a
dmission. “Have you had any concerns about Jim over the years? I’ve heard variations of the story about his fight with Rick.”
“The one I heard from Rick’s mother was they had a disagreement over Rick being back on marijuana. He’d made the mistake of handing off a joint to a friend at the coffee shop. Jim wasn’t having the stuff anywhere around the place, insisted that Rick give up the habit.”
Evie lifted an eyebrow. The variation she’d heard was of Rick insisting on driving after he’d been drinking. He refused to give his girlfriend the keys to let her drive. Jim had laid down the law, said he’d drive her home himself. And the sparks flew.
Nancy got up and arranged a plate of cookies. “Jim’s had a few fights,” she conceded as she brought the cookies over. “He tends to stand up for the people who are having difficulties taking care of themselves. It goes all the way back to fourth grade when he took on the playground bully and won that fight. And that characteristic doesn’t play well when wondering how Jim would have handled Jenna. Not because of himself, but because of Lynne.” She sighed, picked up a cookie, put it down again.
“But, honest truth,” she said, looking straight at Evie, “the one thing I heard last night that I was most relieved about is this—Jim hadn’t decided how to deal with the problem yet. He’d simply seen it clearly that night. Maybe he would have sought Steve’s help, or he might have asked for mine. Maybe he would have had a talk with Lynne and found a way to break the news that Jenna wasn’t being a true friend. But the one thing that seemed obvious to me as I listened was that he hadn’t decided yet what to do. Jenna disappeared before Jim could figure out how to deal with it. I know how awkward that sounds, the timing of it, but for my part I’m sure of it. Whatever happened, Jim wasn’t involved in Jenna’s disappearance.”
Evie nodded, said nothing.
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