Page 47 of Three Girls Gone
“Ah, yeah?”
“You’re in my office.”
“Nothing’s slippingpast you.”
“Hilarious.” When she didn’t join in his amusement, he became serious. “What is it?”
“We have the results from Briggs, Rideout, and Blair.”
“Sounds like the morning’s off to a good start.”
“Not entirely. We have another mystery.” She ran through the findings with him. By the time she’d finished, he was leaning on the edge of his desk, facing her.
“I’m having a hard time dismissing that Wilson M’s phone ties back to Universal Mobile too. But they are a large company.” The phone on Trent’s desk rang, and he answered. A few seconds later, he was saying, “We’ll be right there.” When she cocked her head, he filled her in. “That was Malone from the conference room. I guess he’s there with Katherine and the police chief already. Time to go get briefed on the Gilbert case.”
She got up, thinking she must have sunk into her work. She never noticed Katherine leave her cubicle.
NINETEEN
Katherine watched Amanda and Trent enter the conference room. Amanda’s posture became a touch more rigid when she saw the chief, and she gave him a tight smile in response to him dipping his head in greeting.
“If we could get this meeting started, I have another appointment in thirty minutes.” Buchanan made a show of looking at his watch by flinging his arm out. His sleeve shimmied up his arm and exposed some fancy timepiece.
“Yes, of course.” Malone gestured for Amanda and Trent to sit down.
They sat across from Malone and Buchanan, while Katherine was at the head of the table.
“Considering my familiarity with the Gilbert case, selecting key points was challenging, but I think it’s best to establish the basics of the investigation. Julie was found the morning after the Gilberts held a party at their home in NYC. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled. She was only six years old.”
“Was the party for any specific reason?” Trent asked.
“Not really. More or less to blow off steam. The pageant had wrapped up that day. Julie didn’t win, butthe Gilberts wanted to connect with the parents and guardians of the contestants, also the judges.”
“A political move,” Buchanan said.
“That’s right. Somewhere along the lines of keep your enemies close.”
“The way you put that, it sounds like the Gilberts didn’t get along with others in the competition,” Amanda said.
“They got along to get along, but that said, there were no deep animosities between them either. Relatives and friends were investigated with scrutiny.”
“Help me understand how the parents lost track of their child?” Buchanan asked.
“There was a lot of drinking and Julie was left to entertain herself,” Katherine said.
“Were there other children at this party?” Malone asked.
“Just adults, except for Julie. Later that night, Dawn Gilbert, Julie’s mother, told Julie she could sleep in the treehouse in the backyard. After the guests left, the Gilberts stumbled to their bed.” After finding out Julie was her biological daughter, it took years for Katherine to forgive the Gilberts for that negligence.
“Not exactly parents of the year,” Trent put in. “Unbelievable. You invested time looking into friends and family, but did you question the party guests? I’m just thinking it would make sense considering when Julie was murdered.”
“I did my best, but it was a rather open invite extended to everyone with the pageant. Many of the people who we got names for are from other parts of the country. Of course they were pursued as much as possible, but it only led to dead ends.”
“I can see how something like this could go cold. Just so many places to look.” The chief crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. His earlier desire to rush out of there must have left.
“Yes, and with an open invite, it was impossible to trackdown everyone who was there,” Katherine said. “But it’s important to focus on what we think triggered this person back into action. The consensus seems that it’s related to inquiries I made last fall. I was interested in those with backstage access at the NYC venue for Julie’s last pageant, stemming from this photograph.” Katherine turned her laptop to face those in the room. It showed a man in his late forties looking over his shoulder at Julie, who was mid-twirl.
“He doesn’t look like he’s up to any good,” Buchanan said.
