Page 74 of Three Girls Gone
“No hits in the system. But I understand we think this abduction and Tanner’s murder are both connected to Julie Gilbert. I know about Tanner, but any prints on Gilbert?”
Amanda shook her head. “Whoever we’re after has covered their tracks well. Or did.” There could be light in that latter point.
“Not that the print is getting us anywhere. He doesn’t have a record,” Blair said.
“Anything else before we go?” Amanda asked.
“All we’ve got for now,” Blair confirmed.
“Trent and I are going to speak with some neighbors across the street, see if we can find anyone home,” Amanda said.
Trent turned to her. “We are?”
“Yes. It seems like this guy may have taken Eloise right out the front door. I’d like to see if any of the houses across the street have doorbell cams. If they do, one of them might have picked up movement at the Maynards’ house and caught this guy.”
“Well, good luck to you,” Blair told them.
“Actually, we still don’t know how this guy got in,” Amanda began. “If you and Isabelle could do a quick look around all ingress points to see if there’s any sign of forced entry, that would be great.”
“Was part of the plan,” Donnelly chimed in.
“Just let me know what you find out,” Amanda said on the way out of the room with Trent. They told McGee and the Maynards they were leaving and headed across the street.
“Doorbell cams may pan out,” Trent told her. “It also reminded me to tell you we have other videos to watch. One from the park and the one from Hailey’s school came in.”
“Good to know. But since we’re here, we’ll stick to the immediate plan.”
The house across the street didn’t have a doorbell cam. Neither did a few others. They walked farther along and found one three houses down did.
Its recording light switched on when she pressed the button. A standardding dongsounded but otherwise nothing.
“I don’t think anyone’s home,” Trent said.
“We’ll need to look up who lives here and call them.”
They headed to the car, and Trent did a search, found a number associated with the homeowner and had to leave a message. “Okay, well, there’s that. Even if it caught something, there’s nothing to say that it will be what we’re after. The Maynards’ house is there.” He pointed at it as if to make his point. It would mean the perp walked down the sidewalk for a bit with Eloise in his arms. This reminded her of another earlier thought she’d had.
“Actually…” She turned away from the car, shutting the passenger door again, and walked toward the pass-through next to the Maynards’ house. “He might have parked in the subdivision backing this street and slipped with Eloise down here.” She looked up as she walked along the path. “Only one light post along this stretch. It would be shadowed, more discreet than walking along the street.”
“Though as you pointed out before, if he took her during the witching hours most people are sleeping.”
“We should have officers canvassing anyhow, seeing if anyone saw a stranger or an unknown vehicle lurking in the neighborhood earlier in the day. I’m going to get that going.” She pulled her phone and placed a call to the on-duty sergeant of the uniformed officers. A moment later she was hanging up. “It’s in the works. More officers should be out soon.”
Trent pointed at the Maynards’ fenced backyard. “He could have accessed the home through an entry point in the rear, but going out with Eloise through the front makes sense. There isn’t any gate in the fence.”
“Right. Which I figured would be the case.” She still had her phone out and keyed a quick text to Blair, then filled Trent in. “I just asked CSI Blair to put focus on the entry points at the back of the house. We’ve got to find this girl alive and well, Trent.”
“We’re going to do our best.”
“Let’s hope that’s enough.”
THIRTY
Amanda and Trent scoured the houses on the rear street, but no one had a doorbell cam or any other video setup. By the time they left the Maynards’ neighborhood for Central, uniformed officers were canvassing the street and the rear subdivision. CSI Blair confirmed scrape marks had been found on a basement window where someone might have worked the edge with a pry bar. When she spoke to the Maynards they confirmed they never got around to replacing the screen in that window after it got a tear in it last summer. Unfortunately, the frame and latch didn’t offer up any prints or touch DNA.
“So what? This guy wore gloves to enter the home but didn’t when he handled the note?” Trent said.
Amanda considered it for a moment. “Or wore them the entire time except for when he loaded the paper into the printer.”
