An Eye for an Eye Read online

  I glanced at Hunter. “We’re going to have to cut this short. Family emergency.”

  He had read the room and was already packing up and heading for the door. “Family first. I totally understand. Thanks for talking with me.”

  Once he was gone, I kneeled down in front of Rachel’s chair, worried by her demeanor. My levelheaded little sister wasn’t one to jump to conclusions and think the worst. If she was worried about Jenna, it was well warranted.

  “Okay, Rach. Talk to me.”

  She raised her head, her eyes red-rimmed. “Jenna didn’t come back to campus last night like she’d said she would. She missed all of her classes today, and she won’t answer her phone.”

  “Are you worried something’s happened to her?”

  Shrugging helplessly, she said, “It’s not like she hasn’t cut class before. We all do it. But today was the presentation we’d been working on in our study group. She would never miss this—it’s fifty percent of our final grade. Even if she’d been sick with her head in the toilet, she would have called. Miranda said she hasn’t been back to their dorm yet. We haven’t heard a word from her since Saturday afternoon. Something’s wrong. I can feel it.”

  I felt it, too. Jenna was too responsible—at least when it came to her schoolwork—to not show up for a major presentation. I began to worry she was lying in a hospital somewhere, unable to get word to her friends.

  “Let’s call Jayne. She may know where Jenna is.”

  I dialed Jayne’s cell, and her tired voice answered, “Hello, Ellie.”

  “Hi, Jayne. Case going okay?”

  “No, not at all.”

  Rachel made a “hurry up” gesture at me.

  I said, “Sorry to hear that. Um, do you know where Jenna is?”

  “I assume at school. Why?”

  “No one’s been able to get in touch with her since her weekend trip. I’m going to put you on speaker with Rachel.” I did so and placed my phone on my desk.

  Trying her best to keep her voice even, Rachel said, “Hey, Jayne. Um…Jenna missed our big presentation today, and she hasn’t come back to campus yet. She hasn’t been picking up her phone, either. Have you or her parents spoken to her lately?”

  There was a pause. Jayne’s voice sounded tight. “Not lately. I’ll make some calls. Thanks for letting me know.” The call ended.

  Rachel’s face crumpled. “That’s it?”

  I squeezed her shoulder. “Jayne is in sheriff mode, which means she’s turned off her emotions. I’m sure she’s having Jenna’s cell signal located as we speak. She’ll find her.”

  “What do we do in the meantime? I can’t just sit here and do nothing.”

  I looked my sister straight in the eye. “Jayne will find her. I’m sure of it. It won’t be long before we know something. Why don’t we pick up Nate and go home?”

  She wiped her eyes. “I don’t want him to see me like this.”

  “Well, where’s Miranda? Could you wait for Jenna in their dorm room?”

  Hauling herself out of the chair, she nodded. “Yeah, that would probably be best.”

  I pulled her into a tight hug. “She’s fine, Rach. I’m sure this is only a misunderstanding.”

  After she left, I straightened up my desk and got ready to leave for the day. On my way out of my office, I got a call from Jayne.

  “Did you find her?” I asked.

  Sounding confused and slightly put out, Jayne replied, “She’s on campus. Or at least her phone is.”

  I put on my coat and headed out of the science building. “Where? I’m here. I’ll go find her.”

  “Her phone’s GPS location is showing she’s in the courtyard between the library and Fenton Hall.”

  I took off at a jog, as fast as I dared in my high-heeled boots. After going the distance of about one city block, I slowed as I reached the courtyard. I didn’t see Jenna anywhere. “Can you narrow it down any for me?”

  “She should be just east of the library. Closer to the library than to Fenton.”

  I walked in that direction, still not seeing Jenna. I looked at each student carefully, thinking she may have been wearing a hat or a hood and I’d missed her. She wasn’t here.

  I said to Jayne, “Can you call her cell? I’m not seeing her.”

  After a pause, she replied, “It’s ringing.”

  I heard a faint ringtone, but I saw none of the girls in the area reach for their phones. Heading toward the noise, I noticed a tiny glow of light by the east wall of the library, under some leafless bushes. I hurried toward it and crouched down. There was a new iPhone lying there ringing, and the caller on the screen was named “Aunt Jayne.”

  My breath caught in my throat. “Jayne…”

  “What is it?” she asked, her tone sharp.

  “I…found the phone. It’s been thrown in the bushes. Jayne, I—”

  “Don’t. I’m sending a deputy out there now. Do what you can to secure the area. I’ll be there soon.”

  “Okay,” I replied, hoping my voice wasn’t shaking as much as the rest of me.

  I hadn’t ever secured an area before, but since it was later in the afternoon and chilly, there weren’t many students milling around the courtyard. I created my own imaginary bubble around Jenna’s cellphone, and luckily for me no one tried to enter it. Within minutes, I spotted two Hamilton County sheriff’s deputies striding toward me.

  One of them said, “I’m Deputy Chris Lester. Are you Ellie Matthews?”

  “Yes,” I replied. I pointed to the phone. “Jenna Walsh’s phone is right there.”

  “Thank you, ma’am. Come with me, please.” While the other deputy took over my post securing the area around the phone, Lester pulled me aside. “You found the phone after the Sheriff gave you the location of it?”

  “Yes. I’d called Sheriff Walsh when I found out her niece Jenna hadn’t returned from a weekend trip. Jenna’s friends were worried about her, so the Sheriff located her cellphone. Since I was already on campus, she had me run over here to find Jenna. When I got here, I didn’t see Jenna, so I had the Sheriff call her phone so it would ring. I found the phone over in the bushes.”

  “And you’re positive you didn’t see Jenna Walsh anywhere in the area?”

  “No. I haven’t seen her since Saturday afternoon.”

  Lester nodded. “Thank you, ma’am. Sheriff should be here shortly. You’re to wait for her.”

  “No problem.”

  I wandered over to a nearby bench and sat down, turning my back against the blustering wind. My mind was racing, knowing from experience that it was never a good sign to find someone’s cellphone tossed aside, especially in a location where it had little chance of being found by passersby. It wasn’t like the phone had been forgotten on a table in the library. It clearly hadn’t been stolen to be used or sold. I knew I needed to tell Rachel about this at some point, but made the decision to protect her until I knew more.

  After a long fifteen minutes, Jayne came hurrying across the courtyard, Detective Nick Baxter in tow. I was surprised (and not entirely happy) she’d brought him with her. According to the news, Baxter was busy working on Amy Donovan’s unsolved homicide, so I wouldn’t have thought she would have pulled him from that to work a missing persons case. On a personal note, I hadn’t spoken to him since the argument we’d had a few months ago.

  Jayne and Baxter conferred with Lester and the other deputy. They took turns studying the area around the phone, careful to stay a few feet away to preserve what part—if any—of the scene hadn’t already been ruined by students and staff walking by. There was no way to pinpoint how long that phone had been there.

  I stood as Jayne and Baxter approached me. Based on our earlier conversation and the set of her jaw, I knew better than to try to offer Jayne a hug or any words of consolation over her missing niece.

  “You’re sure you didn’t see Jenna out here anywhere?” Jayne asked me, her voice strained.

  “No, Jayne. I was careful to tak
e a look at every girl in the courtyard. I’m sor—”

  She cut me off. “I want you and Detective Baxter on this scene. Scour it and find me something.”

  My eyes flicked to Baxter’s grim face and then back to Jayne’s. “You want…what?”

  “You heard me. Detective, get her set up.” She turned on her heel and marched back toward the area around the cellphone, now cordoned off by yellow crime scene tape.

  I stared after her, blinking and slack-jawed, still unsure of what had just happened here.

  “Well, that’s one way to hire somebody for a job,” Baxter said. “Let’s get you suited up.”

  I followed him across the courtyard to the adjacent parking lot, still dumbfounded.

  “How’ve you been, Ellie?” he finally asked.

  “Fine,” I replied, not feeling ready to be chummy with him after the way we’d left things.

  My phone rang, so I didn’t have to say more. I stopped walking to answer it. My heart sank when I saw the caller ID.

  “Hey, Rach,” I said, trying not to give anything away with my tone of voice.

  “Have you heard anything?”

  “Um…” Omission was one thing. Lying was another. “Sort of. Jenna’s phone has been found in the library courtyard.”

  “Her phone? Is she there?” she cried.

  “No.”

  “Are you there?”

  “Yes.”

  After a pause, she said, “I’m coming over.”

  “No,” I said louder than I intended, causing Baxter turn around. He watched me as I added, “There’s no need. Jayne is here along with some of the department. There’s nothing for you to do.”

  She let out a sob. “I can’t just sit here. Jenna is one of my best friends.”

  “I know. Look, can you get Nate at daycare and find someone to watch him tonight? You’re in no shape to do it, and I’m going to be…tied up for a while.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I have to go. I’ll call you soon.” I ended the call before she could ask me any more questions, then I approached Baxter.

  “I hear Jenna is one of your sister’s friends.”

  I nodded. “We’ve all known each other for years.”

  “Right. Which is why we need to make sure our heads are in the game. Are you okay to do this?”

  Who was he to ask me that question? “I’m fine.”

  “Yes, you’ve mentioned that.”

  Trying to control the anger bubbling up, I clenched my jaw and walked with him to the back of his SUV. We put on jumpsuits over our clothing, along with hats, gloves, and booties. He shouldered a field kit and led the way back to the scene. Deputy Lester held the crime scene tape up for us so we could approach the phone. Baxter laid the field kit down and got out a camera. I backed away so he could take a few wide-angle shots.

  As he walked around the area where the phone was, shooting mid-range and close-up photos, I began thinking how unlikely it was that we would find any evidence of value. The phone lay in a flowerbed next to the library under some bushes. The flowerbed was five or six feet deep. Its back edge was the library itself, and its front edge butted up against a sidewalk. A sidewalk used day in and day out by hundreds of people. Even if we found a shoeprint or a personal item during our search, what were the odds it belonged to whoever disposed of Jenna’s phone? Unless there were fingerprints on the phone, I felt like this was an exercise in futility.

  Baxter handed me a stack of evidence markers and a ruler. “See anything besides the phone?”

  I could tell he’d drawn the same conclusion I had. “No, but maybe we will when we get up close and personal.”

  I pulled a magnifying glass and a flashlight out of the field kit and went over to the flowerbed. Down on my hands and knees, I shined the light around, but there was nothing to see. I sifted through the mulch, only finding fallen leaves from the bare bushes and a few bugs. I set an evidence marker next to the phone and stepped back to let Baxter take a couple pictures of it, then put the scale next to the phone and had him shoot a few more.

  When he straightened up, he came close to me and murmured, “I think this was a case of someone simply walking down the sidewalk and tossing the phone. We’re not going to find anything here to tell us who did it.”

  “I agree. I say we bag and tag the phone and get it to the lab ASAP. It’s our best and only shot at getting some prints.”

  “And our best shot at finding out where Jenna could be. That is, if we can get into the phone.”

  I handed him a paper bag and a new pair of gloves. He changed his gloves and headed over to the bushes, reaching in and carefully picking up the phone. He tapped the home button and frowned, then placed the phone in the bag and folded the top. He handed the bag to me to seal with evidence tape while he filled out a stick-on evidence tag. I retrieved the evidence marker and scale.

  Noticing that we were packing up, Jayne marched over to us. “Well? What did you find?”

  Baxter said, “Only the phone, Sheriff. Password or fingerprint protected, so I can’t get into it here.”

  She stared us down. “That’s it?”

  I cleared my throat. “There was nothing else. We’re hoping there are fingerprints we can lift from the phone.”

  “Get to the lab and find them. And get into that phone.” Over her shoulder she yelled, “Deputy Lester, drive Ms. Matthews to the station.” To Baxter, she said, “We need to meet with campus security now.”

  We’d gotten our orders, so Baxter and I hurried back to the SUV to strip off our protective coverings.

  “Good to see you again, Ellie.” He sounded like he meant it.

  “Yeah, you too.” I sounded like I didn’t.

  He sighed. “Look, I’m sorry about—”

  “Nick…while I appreciate your apology, we don’t have the time to get into it right now. I have to go.” I picked up the evidence bag with the phone and headed over to Deputy Lester’s cruiser, leaving Baxter frowning as we drove away.

  CHAPTER THREE

  The drive from Ashmore College in Carmel to the sheriff’s station in Noblesville was long and aggravating in near rush hour traffic, even with Deputy Lester using his siren and lights. It had been a long time since I’d ridden along in a cruiser, but I hadn’t forgotten how much I hated it. People around here couldn’t be bothered get out of the way of an emergency vehicle, and I lost count of how many times we had to stop for traffic and bumbling drivers.

  While we drove, I texted my sister. Did you find someone to watch Nate?

  She replied, David, our stepdad. I’m going back to campus. We’re going to search for Jenna. You should be here to help. Where the hell are you?

  I didn’t feel right lying to her, especially with how upset she was. Jayne sent me to the station to examine the phone we found. Sorry I was cryptic earlier. I didn’t know how much I was allowed to tell you.

  After a pause, she replied, Exactly how worried should I be right now?

  I rubbed my forehead, not knowing what to say. I didn’t want to assume the worst, and I didn’t want my baby sister to, either. Please don’t worry yet. Jayne and Baxter are working on finding her. Start your search, and I’ll join you when I’m done.

  Lester dropped me at the station, my nerves worse for wear. I’d tried not to dwell on what Jenna’s missing phone meant for her situation, but dark thoughts kept swirling in my mind. I’d tried to convince myself that she and her guy had done something selfish and stupid. Maybe they’d run away together and gotten married, or decided to extend their romantic weekend without bothering to tell anyone. But in the back of my mind, I didn’t believe any of that.

  I checked the phone in with the evidence clerk and then took it to the lab, hesitating for a moment before pushing open the door. If I was on bad terms with Baxter, I was on worse terms with Beck Durant, the head criminalist. I used to be his boss, but now he was the boss. When I had come back to consult, he was less than gracious about me being in his lab.r />
  When I entered the room, Beck popped his head up and sneered at me, right on cue. “What are you doing here?”

  I held up my bag. “I have evidence Sheriff Walsh asked me to process.”

  “Nobody told me.”

  That was no surprise. Beck didn’t get much respect around here. Mostly because he did nothing to earn it.

  “You can call Baxter and ask him.”

  Amanda Carmack, Beck’s assistant and a new friend of mine, heard us and came out of the adjacent office smiling. “Hey, Ellie. Are you consulting again?”

  “Hi, Amanda. It happened kind of fast…but I guess I am.” I shrugged into a lab coat and twisted my long, dark hair into a messy bun.

  “Great. What can we do to help?”

  Beck threw me a glare and stalked away, likely going to take one of his infamous “smoke breaks,” even though I didn’t think he did any actual smoking during them. It was my opinion that he exploited a legitimate addiction to get out of as much work as he could.

  “I need to pull some fingerprints off this phone and find a way into it. It belongs to Jenna Walsh.”

  Amanda’s face fell. “Oh, I heard about her disappearance.” She beckoned me over to a workstation and helped me get out some fingerprint powder and brushes. “I’m sure you want to get this done quickly. As you lift the prints, I’ll input them into AFIS. Speed things up a bit. If we can get a good print of Jenna’s, I can run it through our 3D printer and get her phone unlocked. If she’s got Touch ID set up, that is. It’s worth a shot.”

  “Thanks,” I replied, impressed that the lab had gotten some new equipment since I’d been gone. I put on some gloves and took the phone out of the evidence bag. As I examined the phone under the bench magnifier, I said, “Am I taking you away from Amy Donovan’s homicide investigation, though? I assume you guys are knee deep in it.”

  “We are, but…” She trailed off uncertainly.

  I got out a camera and snapped a few photos of the phone under the bright light. “But what?”

  “This case has the priority right now.”

  I put the phone back down again and set out the black fingerprint dust, a brush, and some DNA swabs. “I get it. Sheriff’s niece.”