Page 61 of Her Final Hours
Callie scoffed. “Or that Eduardo had the money to pay for his services. From what I hear, the Grayson firm doesn’t come cheap.”
“No. It doesn’t. And where does a man who has spent his time in lockup for the better of eight years come up with that kind of cash?”
Noah recalled conversations with his ex-wife Lena and the first time he met Doug, on a golf course. He’d wanted a private conversation with him. Throughout 19 holes, he’d interrogated Noah harder than most detectives would a criminal, all to find out his intentions with Lena. “Do you have any sexual diseases? Do you have any debt?” The questions went on before he talked about how he expected his daughter to be proposed to — at least it was hinted at — do it in a nice place, make it memorable. He was very protective or, as Lena would have said at the time — controlling.
“Yeah, I figured the court would appoint one,” Callie said.
The courts were required to provide one if someone couldn’t afford a criminal defense attorney.
“We need to dig a little deeper into Eduardo’s background and also see what we can find out about his connection to the Fish and Game Hunting Club.”
“You think the club is involved?”
“In possession of stolen property can’t be overlooked. Eduardo must have some ties to them. Also, we still need to look into taxi driver Caleb Mitchell.”
“All right. McKenzie is in bright and early tomorrow. We’ll have him in our shadow. You with the girl right now?”
“Just dropped her off. Heading home now.”
“Gotcha. See you tomorrow.”
He hung up and turned back toward the girl. Something dawned on him as he held his phone and looked at the photo of Payton again. Although Dr. Blake had advised him strongly against showing her any additional images, and although he had asked her if she knew someone called Payton Scott, he hadn’t yet shown her a photo because they assumed the two weren’t connected at the time. Of course, with the girl being sixteen, Payton would have aged a lot in that time. Still, there was a possibility that if Payton was alive, her captor might have kept newspapers with her photo in them. Had Payton shown these to her daughter? Could she tell them if Payton was alive? There were several cases where captors showed their victims the news just to taunt them; for others, they were given access to TV as a reward for their behavior.
“What is it, Noah?” Alicia asked, noticing him staring.
He made his way over and took a seat beside the girl. “Do you remember me asking if you knew someone called Payton Scott?” The girl nodded. “I want to show you a photo of her.” He turned his phone and held it out. Inside, his stomach churned. Her reaction last time to the deceased man had been abrupt andtraumatizing. This time, the girl squinted and took the phone from him.
“You recognize her?” Noah asked, leaning forward, eager to know. While the hospital had flushed her system, there was no telling when she could regain her memory of people, places, or events. However, the doctor told him familiar stimuli might trigger a memory.
Seconds passed, then minutes.
She nodded and then broke down in tears.
Alicia glanced at Noah. Shock set in. As much as he wanted to press her for more details, he knew they would be better served to wait until the following day when Dr. Blake could work with her to draw out more information.
“Thank you,” he said, rising and reaching the door.
Alicia followed. “I gather that was a substantial breakthrough?”
Noah nodded. “Through genetic genealogy, we’ve established that she’s Esther Scott’s granddaughter.”
Alicia shifted from one foot to the next, her eyes wide with wonder, before glancing over her shoulder at the girl. “Holy crap,” she muttered. “Which means…”
“Payton could still be alive,” he said before releasing a tired breath. “Listen, I’ll be back in the morning to take her to Dr. Blake’s farm. Thanks again.” As he went to leave, he looked back. “Alicia. Earlier. What were you going to ask?”
She waved him off, pursing her lips. “It’s nothing. See you tomorrow.”
He had known her long enough to see that she was holding back something, but with all that had occurred over the past twenty-four hours, he wanted to get home and get some hours of sleep in before he started again the next day.
Exiting her home, Noah’s mind raced with relief and concern as he glanced at the two plainclothes troopers onsentinel duty outside in an idling SUV. They were dedicated professionals, but their presence couldn’t dispel the unease lingering in the air. He approached the window and knocked. “The storm is supposed to be brutal tonight. You might want to head in. Alicia has chairs for the two of you.”
His breath was visible in the frigid air.
“Can’t see people coming from there,” one state trooper said.
Noah pointed to his windshield. “By the looks of it, you might not see much from in there. Besides, you can’t have someone coming up on you.”
“Legacy wants us out here.”
