“Get going now,” he shouted. “This is private property. Whatever you’re selling I don’t want it.”
She remained behind the door. “I’m not selling anything.”
“Don’t care. Don’t want you here.”
“My name is Toni Long. My father was murdered a year ago, and I’m trying to find his killer.”
“And you think I had something to do with that? Don’t even know him.”
“No, no.” She started to wave a hand, but realized he might think she was going for her gun and stopped.
He nodded at Clay. “And who’s this guy?”
“My friend, Clay Byrd. He’s helping me find my father’s killer.”
“Again. What does this have to do with me?”
“While investigating my father’s death, I learned I have a sister. Lisa. She went missing from my grandparents’ house when she was twelve. Do you remember her?”
“Of course I do,” he said, but his tone had softened. “Everyone in town knew about that. Your grandparents attended my church. We prayed for Lisa and them for months.”
“My grandparents mentioned that you visited before Lisa went missing.”
His gun jerked back up. “So they finally told someone. Suppose you’ll be thinking I had something to do with it.”
“No,” she said in her most believable tone. “I just want to ask you a few questions. Mind if we come in?”
His eyes narrowed for a moment, deepening his many wrinkles, then he stepped back from the door. “I’ll give you five minutes. I’m not putting my gun away, so don’t think you can pull one over on me.”
“Thank you.” Toni stepped around her open door.
“Hands up where I can see them,” he demanded.
She lifted her arms and started up the dirt driveway and into the small clearing. His bare feet were planted on the porch, his eyes pinned on her. How had a former youth leader changed to this suspicious man standing before them? Was he even a believer anymore?
Maybe he knew who abducted Lisa. Maybe someone he trusted. That could account for his change. She would ask, but that would put him on the defensive right off the bat.
She reached the rickety steps, and he backed off even more. She smiled at him, but he kept glowering at them as they climbed the creaking wooden stairs. Inside the dark cabin where an overhead light struggled to illuminate the single room that contained the kitchen and small dining area, she caught a fishy smell and spotted a large bass half cleaned on the kitchen counter.
She strolled across the pine floors to the worn plaid couch by a stone fireplace spitting out oppressive heat. No wonder the guy wore the sleeveless shirt and no shoes. She removed her jacket, as did Clay. He didn’t sit but leaned against the wall nearby. Thankfully, she had on a blazer to cover her gun, and Clay’s was hidden under his overshirt.
Wilshire stopped nearby, his rifle pointed their way. “Ask your questions.”
Toni smoothed her hands over her jacket. “Why did you visit my grandparents when Lisa was visiting?”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I was going through a divorce. Got me down, and your grandparents were great supporters, so I went to talk to them. Was surprised to see Andrew there, but he was great too.”
“And while you were there, you met Lisa?” Toni asked.
He nodded, but his gaze remained wary.
She smiled to try to relax him. “Tell me what she was like.”
“Cute kid. Funny. Seemed real happy. And seemed to have a strong love for the Lord. I remember thinking it would be great if all my youth were like her.” His expression softened for a moment.
“So you were taken with her,” Clay stated.
Wilshire jerked the rifle in Clay’s direction. “Not in the creepy, dirty way your tone is suggesting. And that’s exactly why the Longs didn’t tell the police about my visit. I was fighting for shared custody of my children, and that would’ve put an end to it.”
“Why the fight?” Toni tried to sound casual about the question.
“My wife claims I was having an affair and was an unfit father.”
“Were you?”
He didn’t answer right away. “She thought I was sleeping with a woman named Carla Meadows. But I wasn’t. She chaperoned one of our youth sleepovers, and one of the kids took a few pictures of us together. Like in one, we were sitting by the campfire. Just the two of us. Close together. I was holding her hands because I was praying with her. It was totally innocent. At least on my part. But here’s the thing. I later learned she was into me, and she said we were having an affair. She lied because she figured if I left my wife, we could be together.”
“Did she know what her claims were doing to your custody situation?” Clay asked.
“Yeah, but she thought her kids would be enough for me.”
“I’m so sorry that happened to you,” Toni said sincerely. “Sometimes our courts don’t get it right.”
“Sometimes? Ha! Way too often.” He gritted his teeth. “I couldn’t take all the hypocrisy and self-serving nature of the world anymore, so I moved out here. Been alone ever since.”
“Did you ever get to see your kids?” Clay asked.
“Once a month until they turned eighteen. Once a month! I saw kids in my youth group more than that, so what good did that do? They’re all grown now, and they don’t know me, and I don’t know them. I keep in touch through email, but they never invite me to their family events and always find an excuse not to accept any of my invitations.”
The anguish in his tone broke Toni’s heart. If he was telling the truth and he’d been cheated out of his children’s childhood, he’d lost such a precious gift. She felt the same way about Lisa, and she’d never even met her sister. She couldn’t comprehend Wilshire’s pain.
“I’m sorry,” she said, trying to convey her sympathy in her expression.
“Sorry doesn’t do me any good.”
“Tell us about the Rader family,” Clay said.
Wilshire didn’t answer right away. “Not sure who they are.”
“Their son Jason was in your youth group.”
He shook his head. “Don’t remember them.”
“Fritz and Ursula Rader,” Clay clarified. “Ursula left Fritz and Jason.”
“Sorry. Doesn’t ring a bell.” He looked at a clock over the fireplace. “Your time is almost up.”
“Did you tell anyone about Lisa?” Toni asked before they were thrown out.
His eyes flashed an emotion Toni couldn’t pinpoint, but it didn’t look good. “Not that I remember.”
“Are you sure?” Clay asked. “Because very few people knew Lisa was staying with her grandparents, and if you told someone, they could be responsible for taking her.”
Wilshire firmed his stance. “Doesn’t matter. Not really. Anyone I might’ve told wouldn’t have abducted a child. I know that for certain.”
“We don’t always know people as well as we think,” Toni said. “They keep secrets and lie. Like Carla did.”
“You’re heading down a dead-end path. Like I said. I don’t remember telling anyone.” He jerked his rifle up. “Time’s up, and you need to go.”
Toni didn’t want to leave before pushing him more on this question, but with his rifle pointed in her direction, she had no choice but to comply.
She started for the door, and Wilshire backed up to let her pass. Once outside and on solid ground, she turned. Wilshire stood in the doorway, his rifle still raised.
“Thank you, Mr. Wilshire. I appreciate your time. Might I leave a business card in case you think of anything to help?”
“Don’t bother. I won’t think about this again.”
Disappointed at his attitude, she headed for the car. Once the doors were closed, she turned to Clay. “Do you believe his story?”
“He’s hiding something. He knows something about the Raders and maybe more.”
18
Clay ended his call to Trent and grabbed his laptop from th
e beach house bedroom. He and Toni had decided on the drive back that they would share their latest information with Trent. Hopefully if Trent brought Toni’s grandparents and Wilshire in for questioning, the unease of being called into the sheriff’s office would encourage them to reveal whatever they were withholding.
Clay headed down the hallway and met Aiden and Sierra as they entered. Sierra’s chin was smudged with dirt, and her eyes were droopy.
“This one needs a nap,” Aiden said.
“I can keep going.” Sierra stifled a yawn. “The car ride made me a little sleepy, is all.”
“Kelsey’s napping,” Clay told his sister, hoping she would feel better about resting.
“With her due date fast approaching, she needs to rest.” She gave Aiden a pointed look. “But I’m fine.”
He held up his hands. “Don’t bite my head off.”
“I’m not…okay, fine. I did snap at you. I just don’t want you guys to look at me like I’m an invalid.”
“Not doing that,” Aiden said. “Just concerned for my big sister.”
She snorted. “You all never think of me as older. You treat me like a kid.”
“Only because we love you.” Clay circled an arm around her shoulders. “And to prove I’m not giving you special consideration, how about fixing me a cup of hot chocolate?”
She laughed and slipped from under his arm. “I’ll get cleaned up for dinner. Who’s making it anyway?”
“Erik,” Clay said.
“Guess that means tacos.”
“Yep,” Clay said. “And if we’re still here tomorrow night, Brendan has KP duty.”
“I don’t want this investigation to drag out, but I’d be happy for one of his omelets.” She gave a tired smile and headed down the hallway.
Clay looked at Aiden. “Did you pick up on anything at the beach house?”
Aiden shook his head. “Trent’s deputy made sure I stayed at my vehicle.”
Clay felt like punching the wall, but he continued into the family room instead. The sun had set long ago, and blackness stared back at him from the big picture windows overlooking the beach. The cold feel deepened Clay’s frustration, and he lowered the blinds. Someone had started a fire and a pleasant aroma of browning taco meat mixed with wood smoke filled the air. If life were normal it would be an idyllic time to sit down, kick up his feet, and take a break, but they weren’t there to relax. They could always come back later for that.
Except for Toni.
Clay turned to where she sat near the fire, her cheeks rosy from the heat. She was staring at her computer, the white light highlighting the frown on her face. Maybe she was thinking about their talk with Wilshire. Clay sure had been. For the entire drive home. Both their law enforcement sixth senses told them the guy had been lying or withholding information, and Clay hoped to find out what.
He took his laptop along with the list of missing girls and the photos for the girls found at Rader’s house and went to the dining table where he could spread out. Maybe these girls would connect to Wilshire’s youth group.
Clay looked at Erik, who was shredding cheese in the kitchen. “Your algorithm finish on the girls yet?”
“For ten of them. Emailed the report to you. And I matched their info to the pictures from Rader’s house.”
Clay found the report on his computer and sent it to the printer. “Give me a summary.”
Erik stilled the block of cheese midair. “The pictures I matched are for missing or runaway girls. I had five more possible matches. As I predicted, the older photos returned nothing.”
“So a potential fifteen of the fifty-five girls are identified,” Toni said, joining them with the report from the printer.
Erik nodded. “We can’t rule out the ones without a match. We’ll need to manually review them.”
“Then we best get to it.” Clay took the report from Toni.
“Dinner’s in thirty minutes.” Erik resumed shredding. “You’ll have to clear the table.”
“No worries.” Clay opened his laptop.
Toni sat next to him. He suspected she was still wondering if Wilshire had told someone about Lisa. After all, Clay couldn’t let that thought go. Nor could he quit wondering if Lisa was one of the bodies Kelsey had unearthed today. Not that she’d said she’d done any digging, but she’d returned to the cabin far dirtier than Sierra.
Since Trent told them there were six bodies found at Rader’s place, Kelsey’s disheveled state could only mean one thing. She’d begun excavating and would probably have recovered DNA. With the evidence likely on its way to the lab and Trent’s promise to inform Toni of the results, in twenty-four hours or so, she would know if her sister was buried on Rader’s property.
Dinner so far had been a somber meal. The brothers weren’t their usual joking selves, and the mood change worried Toni. Did they think Lisa was dead? She was beginning to think so. And Blake and Kelsey seemed to take a clue from the atmosphere and quietly ate their meals.
“I’m finished with the beach house,” Sierra announced as if she couldn’t stand the quiet. “So I’ll be heading home in the morning.”
Kelsey set down her taco. “Would it be too much if I asked you to stay and take photos for me?”
“I have to move a few things around on my calendar, but I should be able to arrange it. Means I can keep these guys in line.” Sierra laughed, but the others kept eating, raising Toni’s concern even more.
“You need Sierra’s help tomorrow only or for longer?” Clay asked.
Kelsey shifted her attention to Clay. “We’ll take things one day at a time.”
“Nice way to sidestep the fact that you likely unearthed more than one body today,” Drake said.
Kelsey wrinkled her nose then looked at Sierra. “Of course, anything you learn on-site will be confidential.”
Sierra frowned. “I’ve never had to keep so many secrets from my brothers. At least not since high school.”
Aiden arched a brow. “You kept things from us?”
She forked a bite of the tangy Spanish rice and giggled like a young girl.
“We might know more than you think,” Drake said wryly. “We all read your diaries.”
“You what?” Sierra’s fork clattered to her plate. “Those were private.”
“Then you shouldn’t have forgotten your box in the treehouse. We had some fun with them.”
She ran her gaze over her brothers. “You didn’t?”
“Sorry,” Brendan said. “But they were too hard to resist.”
Sierra crossed her arms. “I am so mad at you.”
“If it helps, we swore each other to secrecy,” Clay said. “Didn’t tell Mom and Dad or anyone else. At least I didn’t.”
The rest of the brothers quickly assured her of the same.
Blake shook his head. “You guys have stepped in it now.”
“That’s all in the past, and we can leave it there.” Clay knuckled Sierra’s arm.
“I’m still mad, so don’t touch me.” Sierra’s words said one thing but her arms had relaxed, and she leaned closer to Clay, her mouth starting to quirk up at the corners.
Toni wasn’t surprised to see the inconsistency between her words and body language. Years of interviewing suspects told Toni people could usually manage to withhold their thoughts, but they couldn’t control their body’s responses. Like Wilshire. When she’d asked about telling anyone about Lisa. He’d said one thing, but the flash in his eyes gave him away, and she needed to know what he was hiding.
The moment she’d returned from his place, she’d started an internet search on him. She’d found the legal recording of his divorce but zero details on the proceedings and nothing about the custody disposition. Those records were likely sealed to protect the children. Meant she couldn’t see if he ever tried to contest the custody decision or if there was any hint of his wife lying.
Clay’s gaze remained on Sierra. “So does this mean that after dinner you won’t help us review fil
es?”
Sierra pushed her empty plate away. “What are you reviewing?”
“Sheriff Ziegler’s old case files, the church directory from Toni’s grandparents, and the photos found at Rader’s house.”
Sierra’s expression softened. “I’ll help. For these poor girls.”
“I can help too,” Kelsey said.
“Count me in as well,” Blake said.
“Then let’s have dessert and get to work.” Erik stood. “Whose turn to clear the table?”
Toni hopped up. “I can do it.”
“I’ll help,” Clay offered.
“Was my turn, but I’ll just have to sit here and suffer.” Brendan grinned as he leaned back and put his hands behind his head.
“You can have my turn tomorrow instead,” Aiden offered.
Brendan laughed and socked his brother in the arm.
If Toni and Clay never got together, she wondered if this family would adopt her. She liked their joking and the love permeating everything they did. And their Christian values. She had to admit that her faith had suffered after her dad died—the last person she truly knew on this earth. Sure, her grandpa was alive, but they weren’t close. But now she had a set of grandparents to get to know. If she wanted to. And Lisa? Could she be alive?
“You’re deep in thought.” Clay passed her with a stack of plates.
“Thinking about when this investigation is over. If my grandparents are cleared of any wrongdoing, I don’t know if I’ll want to get to know them.”
“Not that I have ever experienced this, but why wouldn’t you?”
She set down the serving platter. “I guess they remind me of my parents, and if Lisa is dead, of that too. I don’t know if I can take it.”
“Maybe as time passes it’ll be easier.”
She started dropping silverware into the dishwasher basket. “They’ve got to be in their eighties. Seems like I don’t have the luxury of letting time pass.”
“They both appeared pretty healthy, though.”
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