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“How long would it take Bill to get to your hometown?”
“Jackson Hill is only about two hours from here. Right outside Gatlinburg.”
Owen’s body tensed.
Marie slid from his embrace and narrowed her teary eyes, sniffing back any more moisture. She needed a level head to find her sister. She’d given herself a minute, but now she needed to pull herself together. “What is it?”
“Patricia Teller did her student teaching at a school in Gatlinburg.”
“How long ago was that?” A heaviness settled into the pit of her stomach.
“Close to a decade ago. She worked at a school in the inner city. Did Bill spend time in Gatlinburg? Would he have dealt drugs there, or even had a supplier in the city?”
Marie pinched the bridge of her nose. “I don’t know. I mean, it’s possible. It takes no more than twenty minutes to get downtown.”
“This definitely bumps Patricia Teller up on our suspect list. I want to talk to her again, but first I want to call and fill the police in on Bill and Renee.” Owen hesitated and shifted his gaze to the side of her face, tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear. “Is there anywhere else she might be? Friends your mom doesn’t know about? A boyfriend she may have kept secret? Certain…activities you may not be aware of?”
Marie straightened and clenched her jaw. “What are you implying?”
Owen held his palms in the air. “Nothing, and I don’t want to upset you. But we need to cover all the bases. If there’s even a suspicion that she could be somewhere—even if it’s hard to accept the possibility—now’s the time to spill all.”
His words were like a punch in the gut. Is that what he thought of her? If her mother was addicted to drugs, she and her sister would be, too? Did he assume Nora would end up with the same fate?
She ran her tongue over the top row of teeth. “My sister is a good kid. A hard worker and great student. She spends her time at school, work, and home. She’s taken on way too much responsibility at a young age, and if she didn’t go home right after school, there is a reason. If she isn’t answering her phone and hasn’t touched base with my mom, someone is stopping her from doing so.”
Owen winced and reached for her hand, but she pulled away, no longer yearning for his touch. “I didn’t mean to upset you. I had to ask, had to make sure I’m not leaving anything out when I make the call to the station.”
She nodded, keeping her lips pressed together to stop the ugly words she wanted to yell. “I understand.”
He dipped his chin toward his laptop. “Why don’t you keep looking into Patricia? I focused my search more on the present and recent past. Maybe if we go back a little further, we can find the connection we’ve been looking for. Meanwhile, I’ll also call my dad. I want to update him, and maybe he can figure out a way to get us a warrant for Patricia’s house.”
Marie stretched toward the laptop on the other side of Owen’s lap, and he stopped her by wrapping his strong arms around her and tucking her against his side. He lifted her chin, and she couldn’t stop the tickle of awareness his close lips brought.
“Don’t be mad. Please. I want to find your sister, and to do that I have to ask the tough questions. If your sister is anything like you, she’s a remarkable young woman, and I can’t wait to meet her.” He pressed a quick kiss to her lips then punched in some numbers on his phone.
A small bit of tension slipped from her shoulders.
Owen was a good guy. Her emotions were on high alert, and she’d overreacted to his question. He’d move mountains to help find Renee. She just hoped they found her before the worst happened.
Owen pushed himself off the couch and paced across the worn rug that took up most of the living room floor. He needed distance from Marie to keep his brain working. The hurt in her eyes when he asked about her sister flashed in his mind, and he shook his head as he waited for his dad to answer the phone to get it out of his head.
He glanced over his shoulder. She sat straight with a rigid set to her shoulders he’d never witnessed. The clanking of keys floated from the computer as if she pounded her frustration on his keyboard. She might have understood why he asked what he had, but she definitely wasn’t happy about it.
“Hey, Owen. What’s going on?” His dad’s words were thick, as if he spoke around a yawn.
Owen tore his gaze from Marie and continued his long strides. “There’ve been a few developments. Is Tommy with you?”
Mike snorted. “Yeah, and he’s not happy about it. I wanted to keep an eye on him tonight, so I guilted him into staying at my place.”
“Well put him to work. It’ll take his mind off of being annoyed.”
“What do you need?” All hints of exhaustion fled from Mike’s voice.
Owen bit back a chuckle at his dad’s new alertness. Mike Wells was all cop. “I need you two to dig up as much as you can about Patricia Teller.”
“The high school principal?”
“Yes. Marie and I stopped by her place tonight and spotted a primitive bow in her garage. If we can tie her to the feather in the woods, we could have enough probable cause to search her house. She claims the bow belonged to her ex, who moved out, but I haven’t found any information about men she’s dated. Look into her past, go back to her college years and directly after graduation.”
