by Ty Patterson
‘Great location,’ Meghan complimented him.
‘Having the bar downstairs is handy,’ Reeves agreed. ‘We just stamp our feet on the floor when we’re hungry, and they deliver food.’
He clasped his hands behind his head and leaned back in his chair when pleasantries had been exchanged.
‘Why the sudden interest in Josh Kittrell? That was a long time back. Not many people remember him.’
‘What did the NYPD tell you, sir?’ Meghan deflected him.
‘That his daughter has gone missing. They didn’t reveal anymore.’
Meghan nodded. ‘She was kidnapped three days back when she was visiting us. We’re looking into motives, various threads.’
‘The family left our town five years back, ma’am. I’m not sure there’s any connection to this town.’
His gray eyes rested unwaveringly on them, conveying a clear message. I might be a small town editor, however I am not dumb.
‘Mr. Reeves, can you keep something confidential?’
‘No, ma’am. I’m a newspaper editor. We print secrets. We don’t keep them.’
He smiled at the astonishment on their faces. ‘There’s something larger behind the kidnapping, isn’t there?’
Meghan nodded.
‘Can I get the story direct from you ladies if I help you and the child is found? I know the NYPD won’t be of much help.’
‘Of course, sir.’
He told them everything that he knew, which again, wasn’t new to the twins.
He confirmed that Josh Kittrell was an only child. He also confirmed that the Kittrell family line was scattered all over the country. They weren’t especially close.
He gave them the reporter’s details, the one who had covered the accident, and had interviewed the witnesses.
‘Doug’s traveling in Southeast Asia. I’ve left several messages for him.’
He broke off suddenly and looked away, a far-away expression on his face.
‘I should have thought of her,’ he said to himself.
‘Who, sir?’
‘Why, Julie Peltier of course. She taught in the local school.’
He smiled at the blank looks on their faces.
‘She was their long time neighbor.’
Chapter Fifteen
‘Let’s go to his old office, first.’ Beth suggested when they left Reeves.
It was a bright sunny day, blue skies smiled down at them and normally the twins would have wandered on Main Street. They loved small towns and browsed through antique stores and boutiques in such towns whenever they got the opportunity.
Maddie, and the sense that they might find some answers, chased away any inclination to dawdle.
Mayo and Kane’s Baybush office was less than a mile away from the newspaper’s. Meghan had called ahead and when they reached it, a man in a blue suit was waiting for them.
‘Zach Quam,’ he introduced himself. ‘I am the partner for the southwest region. Josh Kittrell, the New York one, said you were looking into the other Kittrell’s death.’
The Baybush office was small; most of their work came from the two contractors in town.
‘Those two firms came to Baybush about eight years back and changed the face of the town,’ he explained. ‘They set up their facilities, and brought jobs into the local economy. Along with their arrival came a heck of lot of outsiders.’
‘Yeah,’ he smiled ruefully as he gestured at a couple of seats. ‘I’m an outsider myself, originally from California. Several of the permanent residents of the town benefited from the influx. Some of them sold their homes to the newcomers; many of them rented their houses.’
‘We lived in Jackson, Wyoming,’ Meghan explained in reply.
‘You know how it is then.’
The twins did. Jackson’s population swelled and ebbed with the influx and outflow of tourists. Its economy and its residents benefited from the visitors.
‘Did anyone here know Josh Kittrell?’ Beth ended the pleasantries.
Quam frowned and stood up to survey the few people in the office outside his cabin.
‘We have ten staff here, and all of them arrived after Kittrell. I myself took on this role after he died.’
He stuck his head out and called out to a co-worker, ‘Jerry, anyone knew Josh Kittrell?’
She heard an indistinct reply.
‘No, the Kittrell who died.’
Quam thanked the man, shut the door, and shook his head regretfully. ‘Nope, no one here who knows him. There was one lawyer, but he retired earlier this year and left the state.’
‘Can we have his details?’
‘Sure. Give me a second.’ He went out and returned with a name and a number scrawled on it.
‘Ken Pellot. He was our senior litigation lawyer, and now lives in Chicago. I will email him and tell him you might call.’
They thanked him and left after another half hour of learning nothing new.
They were climbing inside their Escalade when a shout stopped them.
Quam came running and thrust another piece of paper in Beth’s hand.
‘Kittrell’s manager, the one who retired. He lives in Birmingham. He knew Kittrell and his family well. He’s your best bet.’
Kittrell’s manager, Chuck Keyser, wasn’t at home when Meghan called. She left a message and set out for the Kittrell’s old home.
The old home was behind a church and had a For Sale sign on it. Meghan stopped in front of the sign for Beth to note the realtor’s number.
‘Didn’t Althof say the house was now owned by another family?’
‘He did. Looks like they’re selling.’
Meghan drove two hundred yards away and parked on the street, just outside the driveway of the neighboring house. It was nearly identical to the previous house and looked equally uninhabited.
She walked up the drive, pressed a buzzer and waited.
Beth pointed at the stack of newspapers and flyers lying on the entrance porch and mouthed silently, ‘Peltier isn’t here?’
‘Maybe she’s at school,’ Meghan whispered back.
‘Nope. Reeves said she’s retired and lives alone.’
They waited for a few more minutes and when the door remained stubbornly shut, circled the house.
Meghan tried to peer through a couple of windows but they were too high. They were grimy and looked like they hadn’t been washed in a while.
Beth went to the rear of the house which had a glass fronted door that opened into a garden. The garden turned into lawns at each side; lawns that were shared with the neighbors.
A thicket separated the neighboring house on the left, a hedge from the one on its right.
She climbed a couple of steps and was preparing to knock, when a dog barked.
They turned at the patter of feet and presently a small dog trotted into view. It was white with black splotches on its face and was trailing a leash.
It stopped a few feet away and cocked its head at Meghan and then at Beth.
Its tail wagged and when they didn’t move, it barked.
‘Does she have a dog?’ Meghan wondered aloud.
‘What part of she lives alone, didn’t you get?’ Beth snorted.
‘Bruno?’ a female voice called out before Meghan could reply.
Bruno turned his head, barked once, and turned back to the twins.
A woman came round the thicket, spotted Bruno, and chided him. ‘There you are, you naughty boy.’
She spotted the twins, came to a stop and planted her hands on her hips.
‘Who the heck are you?
‘We came looking for Julie Peltier, ma’am,’ Meghan replied calmly, aware that Bruno had picked up on the woman’s voice and was growling softly.
‘Julie doesn’t live here anymore.’
Chapter Sixteen
Meghan’s heart sank when she heard the woman’s words. Nonetheless, she put on a smile and introduced herself and her sister.
‘We wished to talk to her abou
t her neighbors, the Kittrells.’
‘They’ve been gone a long time,’ the woman answered. ‘Get back, Bruno.’
Bruno reluctantly turned back from sniffing their shoes and wagged his tail and looked up at her.
‘Don’t make those eyes at me. You have been very naughty. I am very angry with you.’
The tail wagged harder, at which the woman melted, picked him up, kissed him, and set him down.
The dog barked happily, and darted away in search of new distractions.
‘Sorry, Bruno can be a handful. He is not fully trained yet.’ She was friendlier now and her brown eyes beneath dark hair, sized them up.
‘What happened to the Kittrells?’
‘Their daughter has been kidnapped.’
There was stunned silence for a second and then the woman’s eyes widened.
‘Bruno,’ she yelled, ‘get back, NOW!’
She caught Bruno’s leash when he returned and beckoned to the twins. ‘Let’s go to my house.’
Heidi Cote, Julie Peltier’s neighbor, listened to them without interruption as she moved in her kitchen and poured them tall glasses of lemonade.
Her refrigerator was adorned with pictures of her family; husband, a daughter and herself, in various poses.
‘Jake’s an engineer in a defense firm,’ she mentioned the company’s name as she followed Meghan’s eyes. ‘Milly is at school. She’s the same age as Maddie. We’re from Little Rock, came here three years back when Jake was offered a job here.’
‘We moved in after the Kittrells had already left. Never knew them.’
Heidi Cote was never still; she bustled about her kitchen, setting plates right, wiping mugs, making sure everything was in its right place.
She talked as she moved, told the twins their backstory, never once commenting on the Kittrell story she had just heard.
Avoiding it, probably because her daughter is the same age, Meghan thought.
‘Where’s Julie Peltier, ma’am?’ she asked when they had heard enough of the Cote story.
‘Heidi,’ Heidi Cote smiled brightly.
‘Where’s your neighbor, Heidi? We would like to talk to her.’
‘Julie’s in Peru. She is working with some aid organization there, building villages, providing sanitation. That kind of work.’
No one from that time seems to be around.
Meghan ran a nail around the rim of her glass and voiced her thought.
‘I can see why you got that idea,’ Heidi laughed. ‘Julie had a larger home several years back. She sold it for a nice sum when the defense companies arrived, and bought the neighboring one, which was smaller.’
‘She was left with a large pot of money. It gave her freedom, and off she went to Peru. Her husband had died a long time back; her daughter was married and had moved away. There was nothing left to hold her back.’
That’s pretty much what Quam told us about many other residents.
‘She never returns, Heidi? We would love to talk to her.’
Heidi Cote slapped her forehead dramatically. ‘There’s a number for her. I forgot about it completely.’
She went to her refrigerator door, scanned it, and with a triumphant snap of her fingers, removed a sticky note.
‘Go ahead, call her,’ she urged Meghan.
Beth whipped out her phone before Meghan could, punched in the number and turned on the speaker.
The phone rang once the connection was made, with the distinctive sound of an overseas call.
It rang twice, and four times before it was answered.
‘Hello?’ a female voice came over the static in the line.
‘Julie, this is Heidi,’ Heidi Cote answered before the twins could.
‘Hello?’
‘Julie, can you hear me?’
‘Hello, who is this?’
‘JULIE, CAN YOU HEAR ME?’ Bruno came running at hearing the yell and barked loudly.
Heidi Cote shushed him and tried again, but it was clear Julie Peltier couldn’t hear them.
‘We’ll keep trying, Heidi. Thank you for your help.’ Meghan rose, her twin followed, and they headed to the door.
Bruno barked once in parting and then they were back in their Escalade, disappointment weighing heavily on them.
Beth tried Julie Peltier’s number a few more times. Peltier didn’t pick up.
She called Chuck Keyser and got his voicemail. She left a message and watched Baybush disappear and the airport appear.
Meghan returned the rental vehicle and it was when they were heading to the Gulfstream, that Beth’s phone buzzed.
She brought it out quickly and looked at it.
‘It’s a text from Chang.’
She turned the display for Meghan to see.
Any luck?
No. Got some names, but not able to speak to them, Beth texted back.
‘Ask him what’s happening at his end,’ Meghan prompted.
Your end? Beth texted back.
The reply came back immediately.
Amy Kittrell has collapsed. She’s in the hospital.
Chapter Seventeen
Five days after Maddie’s disappearance, the twins were with Pizaka and Chang, at One PP, in New York.
Pizaka was leaning against a window, his shades looking out at the city below. Beth had her arms crossed and was watching Pizaka.
Chang and Meghan were seated, opposite each other, across a white topped desk that was scratched and worn.
Chang was narrating the events. The rest of them were listening.
‘We went to interview her again, yesterday, to get a handle on this dude, who was identical in looks to Josh Kittrell.’
‘Death certificate. Benefit money. No real friends. No employment record. No driver’s license. Disappearance of belongings,’ Pizaka spoke over his partner.
‘To ask her about all that too,’ Chang said comfortably. He was used to Pizaka’s interruptions.
‘We went along with a female officer who works on child abuse cases. You know, to follow up on Maddie’s comments.’
‘Get to it, Chang,’ Beth snapped. ‘What happened?’
He sighed and rubbed his temples. ‘She was shocked obviously. She didn’t believe anything.’
‘She said we were treating her like a suspect, instead of finding her daughter.’
Beth moved suddenly at that, pushed away from the wall she was leaning against and paced.
‘She started yelling, threatened to sue the NYPD, and then she fell. One moment she was standing, shouting. The next, she was on the floor.’
‘We called an ambulance. She’s now in New York City Hospital.’
Beth stopped her pacing and came closer to the table. ‘How’s she?’
‘She is stable. The hospital said she was undernourished, sleep deprived, and has hypertension. They said she’s heading for a heart attack. They have asked us to back off for a while.’
‘Do you think she was lying all along?’
‘Possibly.’
No one broke the silence for a long while and then Chang stirred.
‘What happened in Baybush?’
Beth told him while Chang took notes.
‘We’ll check property records in that town, see who owns their house,’ he said when she finished.
‘Nothing will turn up in Baybush,’ Pizaka’s shades seemed to glow as they caught the sun when he turned towards Chang and Meghan.
‘We managed to speak to two of the dead man’s cousins. One is in Chicago, in city politics. Another is in Seattle, working for a tech company.’
He paused a beat. ‘No one looks like Josh Kittrell. No family member looks like the other.’
Meghan nodded unconsciously. I was expecting something like that. Nothing about this case is straightforward.
‘There are people who look like others. You have folks who make a living out of being doubles.’
‘That’s our theory,’ Pizaka agreed. ‘She probably dated men who looked like her for
mer husband.’
‘Our computers ran a comparison on the two men,’ Chang broke in. ‘They weren’t conclusive. Facial recognition isn’t an exact science.’
He rose to lead the twins out. ‘Bottom line, John Doe is not her husband. And he’s got Maddie. Lord knows why.’
The man who had lived with Amy Kittrell, woke suddenly. He lay still on his bed for a while, listening, and then realized what had woken him.
It was the distant wail of a police cruiser, rising, falling, as it sped toward an emergency.
The man looked at his watch. It was close to midday, on the fifth day since he had run away with the girl.
He looked at the other bed and made out her shape under her blanket. A leg stuck out from underneath and twitched occasionally in response to her dreams.
They had stayed awake late, the previous night, watching movies on TV, and when she had fallen asleep, he had carried her and laid her on the bed.
The man rose and padded to the bathroom silently. He washed his face and studied himself.
Brown eyes, reddened from lack of sleep. Brown hair, thinning with age. Wrinkles around his eyes and mouth. He shaved, showered, and finished dressing in a clean Tee and a pair of jeans.
He sat at the window of their hotel room and watched the city hustle, below.
This isn’t how I wanted it to happen.
He knew things were coming to a head, but he had thought he had time.
He had started making plans several months before; he had stashed cash and had new credit cards in different names. He wasn’t mentally prepared though; he was thinking the time to act was further away.
The phone call from a friend had alerted him that things were progressing faster than anticipated.
Blind panic had set in.
He had rushed to the house and had collected all his belongings. The sanitization of the house took longer; he was experienced, however, and had done it several times before.
He had taken his stuff and stowed it in a locker he had rented a long time back. Insurance for a time such as this.
He had then wandered aimlessly, subduing the sudden surges of anger. He had gone to the park and yelled in rage, when he was far enough from others.