Page 16 of Homecoming

“Say no more, my friend. I totally understand, and you’re safe with me.”

“I’ll text you in a bit.”

“I’ll be close by. Good luck.”

“Thanks.” Dan had a feeling he’d need all the luck he could get.

Chapter

Five

Inside the police station,he was greeted by an admin with a nameplate on the desk that identified her as Linda. He asked her if he could see Chief White. He put his business card on the counter. “I’m here for Keith and Kirby Ballard.”

“Detective Cosgrove is the lead investigator on that case.”

“I was told to ask for the chief.”

Linda lowered her voice. “You should know… Cosgrove is the type that’d be put out by you going over his head. It’d get you off on the wrong foot with him.”

“Thank you for that advice. Is the detective available?”

“Let me get him for you.” She started to walk away but turned back. “I want you to know that I greatly admire your work. My brother was falsely accused. It took a long time to exonerate him, but his reputation never recovered. What you do matters greatly.”

“Thank you very much. I’m sorry about your brother.”

“It wasn’t the only trouble in his life, unfortunately, but it about broke him.”

“As these things do.”

Linda nodded and then went to get Cosgrove.

Dan had known his reputation would precede him, but he hadn’t expected to be confronted with it at reception.

She returned a few minutes later with a man who Dan figured was about thirty-five, with close-cropped brown hair, a muscular physique and cool blue eyes. He wore a striped dress shirt with a navy blue tie and a gold badge clipped to his belt.

“Detective James Cosgrove, this is Daniel Torrington, here for the Ballards.”

Cosgrove shook Dan’s outstretched hand. “Good to meet you. Come in.”

He was led into a conference room where Cosgrove had set up shop. “I only caught the case this morning, so I’m still getting up to speed with assistance from the Maine State Police, which responded to the scene and made the arrests over the weekend.”

“What do you know so far?”

“Tanya Sorenson, age twenty-one, was in town for a bachelorette party for her future sister-in-law. They were staying at Tanya’s parents’ home here in Bar Harbor. The women went out for the evening and visited a number of bars. It was an unusually busy September Friday in town as the effects of Hurricane Ethel had passed by us, and people were eager to get out again. The bars were packed. The party Tanya was part of was one of about six or seven bachelorette parties moving through town Friday night.”

Dan took notes on everything Cosgrove told him.

“According to statements taken from her friends by state police, Tanya was seen dancing with Keith Ballard throughout the latter part of the night at the Barnacle Lounge. They said he more or less joined their party around ten and hung out for the rest of the night. The bride-to-be, Jessa Kaul, who’s engaged to Tanya’s older brother, August Sorenson, expressed discomfort with Tanya hanging out with a guy who was clearly quite a bit older than her. We were told they argued about it.

“Tanya told Jessa she wasn’t her sister or even her sister-in-law yet, and she needed to mind her own business. The bride backed off, and Tanya was last seen walking down Main Street, holding hands with Keith. We have video that shows them together. Tanya failed to return to the house where they were staying. The other women notified us yesterday morning that she hadn’t come home or checked in with them, which they said is way out of character. They described the man she’d been last seen with, and from the video, we identified him as Keith Ballard. Tanya’s body was found late Saturday morning on a remote beach by a fisherman who spotted her as he was motoring along the shore. She’d been beaten and strangled.”

“How does Kirby Ballard figure into it?”

“We have an eyewitness that put Kirby on the scene with Keith and Tanya about half a mile from where the body was found.”

“Your witness is credible?”

“He is.”

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