Page 68 of Protecting his Heart

“I’ll call Acton to ask him for the footage,” Brett said, dialling already.

“I’d hate to think he was involved,” Evan said. “He seemed too distraught to be part of it.”

“Maybe he’s a good actor,” Felix said. “Or maybe he’s not involved at all. Whatever it is, we’ll figure it out.”

“And get his daughter back. Regardless of the outcome,” Owen said.

Evan’s heart broke all over again, and he rested his hand on Owen’s nape, squeezing gently.

“Acton said Wallis has given them access to the door cam footage. Cameras are on the front and back door, and on the back gate to the garden and garage door. No footage is showing on any of them. There’s either nothing to see or it’s been deleted.”

“If she was taken from the house, the footage would’ve been there undoubtedly. I’m going with it being deleted. Which means it was either deleted by the parents or hacked and deleted by whoever took the girl,” Felix said.

“And can we get them back?”

Felix was already shaking his head before Evan finished asking the question. “Unless the footage was automatically downloaded to local storage, the files are impossible to recover once they’re deleted.”

“That’s a dead end, then,” Brett said.

Felix held up a finger. “What about other door cam footage? Surely they’re not the only ones with door cams on that street?”

Brett dialled his phone again. “Acton, you might want to ask the neighbours if any have door cams. Maybe they caught what happened.” He paused, listening. “Okay, thanks.”

“He’s going to get some officers to visit the neighbours and see what they can find. I’ll keep you updated.”

“I need to do something,” Owen said.

“You need some sleep,” Brett said. “Go home and come back in at least four hours. I doubt we’ll have any information before then.”

“I can’t,” Owen said, his voice breaking completely.

Brett sighed. “Okay. Help Felix with tracing the last steps of them both. I want it on a map so I can see everything.”

It wasn’t much, but at least it would keep Owen busy, which was what he needed.

****

Chapter 21

Owen

Owen knew it was busy work he’d been given, but as long as hewasbusy, he could deal with it. It couldn’t be happening again. He couldn’t let another child disappear and be murdered while he might be able to do something to stop it.

He could still remember the worry and uncertainty he’d felt when Amy went missing. It was an almost tangible memory that would be with him for the rest of his life. And the gaping hole in his chest when he’d been told Amy wasn’t coming home would never be filled. It grew smaller with each passing day, but it would never close completely. He was glad the guy who’d taken her was dead—suicide by a police officer was the coward’s way out, but the result didn’t bother Owen one bit. He deserved it after what he did.

Spending an hour mapping out the Wallises movements the previous day helped to visualise where they’d been. But once they’d arrived home, they hadn’t exited again. So it only helped up to a point. He took it a little further and got the blueprints to the house itself and the maps of the property line and then mapped their movements within the house, too.

Once he was done, he stepped back, crossed his arms over his chest and studied the scattering of pins and lines. He focused on the stairs, which showed several lines, meaning they’d used the stairs several times during the evening.

“Can someone find out if the stairs in the house creak in certain spots?” he called to no one in particular.

“On it,” someone called back.

Evan came up beside him. “What are you thinking?”

“Well, most stairs have certain spots that creak, don’t they?” Evan nodded. “So, if Anika left by herself, she would’ve probably avoided the creaks because she knew where they were, right?” Evan nodded again. “And if someone took her, they probably wouldn’t know where the creaks were.”

“And therefore, maybe Edward heard something but didn’t know he did?”

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