Page 72 of Twice Missing
"Jacob," Jessica said softly, a note of warning in her voice.
"No," Jacob insisted. "They won't help. They can't."
"Give us a chance," Noah pleaded.
Jacob's voice rose, his frustration palpable. "Why? Why would you care? To you, Kayla is just another missing native."
Noah took a deep breath, choosing his words carefully. "No, she's an important person I think is linked to a murder case off the reservation."
"They are all important," Jacob said, leaning forward aggressively. "No. You just want to help because maybe it will give closure on a dead white woman. Am I right?"
Noah glanced at a nearby chair. "May I?" he asked, gesturing towards it.
Jacob protested, but Jessica intervened. "I want to hear them out," she said firmly.
McKenzie closed the door to give them privacy, and Noah pulled up the chair, sitting at the end of the bed.Jacob perched himself on the side of the bed beside his sister, his body language still defensive.
Noah proceeded to lay out the situation with Emily Carter. He showed a photo to Jessica and Jacob, asking if they recognized her or if she had ever shown her face on the reservation. Neither of them had seen her. Noah felt the familiar frustration of hitting another wall, but he pressed on.
"Maybe I'm going about this the wrong way," he said, changing tack. "Tell me about Kayla. What was she like? How did she respond to her aunt's death? What was her connection to you both? And her involvement with Marcus and a guy here in Massena?"
Sometimes the only way to connect the dots was to let others reveal them. Not every case had a trail of breadcrumbs.
From behind bruised eyes and lips, Jessica spoke up, her voice strained but determined. "Kayla was devastated by her aunt's disappearance, even more so when they found her body. Initially, she was convinced that it was tied to Marcus and her drug use."
"That's why she was dating him?" Noah asked.
"No," Jessica corrected. "She wasn't dating Marcus. She was repulsed by him, but she felt the only way to get answers was to get close. Run in his circle."
"That led her into drug use?"
"Unfortunately, yes," Jessica confirmed. "Anyway, after helping her aunt at the annual Pow Wow, she noticed every year that Selena would speak with this one man, often retreating from the booth that they ran. She thoughthe was a boyfriend. When Kayla asked her aunt, she would always say that it was just a friend. Ten years ago at a Pow Wow back in April, Selena got into a heated discussion with this individual and he slapped her. In response to this Selena's cousin intervened. The whole thing escalated pretty fast and the Lawrence County Sheriff's Office who were policing the event got involved and one thing led to another and they gave Selena's cousin one hell of a beating. He was arrested and released the next day. Selena's family filed a complaint. We came to find out later that the sheriff's office never made a report and there was no record of a complaint. No official charge was made against Selena's cousin or the deputies involved."
"So it appeared as if it didn't happen."
"Yeah, but it did. Unbeknownst to all of them, Kayla had recorded it on her phone. She ended up releasing it on social media eight months ago."
Noah's brow furrowed. "But that was ten years after the fact."
"I know. Fear I think kept her from doing it and the fact that she believed Marcus was behind Selena's death. That consumed her time. She was busy making connections with him. Eventually she started to think that maybe there were more people involved. Anyway, it created a firestorm. Kayla went missing a week after that. Do the math."
Noah chewed it over. He didn't recall there being any mention of Lawrence County, the fight at the Pow Wow.
"Did you ever find out who this guy was that Selena was speaking with?"
"Abel Davis. He's the owner of Sunrise Power Systems."
Noah turned to Jacob. "Why did you break up with Kayla?"
"Because we had an argument."
"About what?"
Jacob sighed, looking down at the floor. "I was scared for her. She was getting in too deep with the drugs and looking into her aunt's murder," he said, looking at his sister for a moment. "I told her that if she continued, I would break up with her. I didn't think she would. I thought she would call it a day but, that wasn't Kayla. You have to understand she'd already lost one of her grandparents and then her aunt. It tipped her over the edge."
"So do you know who she started seeing in Massena?"
Jacob looked away for a moment. "Just tell him," Jessica said.
