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“No need. It’s got to be good. Let’s hear it.”
“It might not be anything, but it is a new path to follow. The picture in Katherine’s locket, I’m pretty sure that was her mother. I mean, who else would she wear around her neck?”
She brought up an internet search window and searched Tori Hurst, the name of Katherine’s mother. The first result rewarded her with a photograph of the same woman in Katherine’s locket. By this time, Trent had moved into her cubicle.
“Let me explain what I’m thinking. Could all this have something to do with her stepfather’s incarceration? And, if so, what?”
“Along the lines of personal motives, someone who holds Katherine responsible for his prison sentence? The stepfather himself? He could have reach from behind bars, or a friend or relative may be acting on their own accord?”
“Let’s limit the questions to one at a time.” She massaged her forehead. “But remember that Lieutenant Catherwood told us Katherine left New York in a hurry? That it wasn’t long after her stepfather’s trial ended?”
“That sounds like two questions.”
“One. Continued.” She smiled at him.
“Well, maybe Katherine brought those threats that we found in her drawer from New York, after all. But if this is about the stepfather going to prison, what was Katherine’s role in that? Did she testify during the trial?”
She’d let the double question pass. “Let’s see if we can find out.” She clicked on some articles that came up with her current search for Tori Hurst. They covered her murder and the trial of Katherine’s stepfather, Rick Stokes. At least one of them should give them the answer they were after. Another option was calling Natasha Bauer. As a close friend she’d know whether Katherine was called upon to testify or if she handed over anything incriminating to the police.
They scanned several news pieces. Katherine, cited only as the victim’s daughter, had indeed testified to the stepfather’s ongoing abuse of her mother. One piece credited her testimony as “sealing the deal” against a master manipulator and violent offender.
Amanda sat back, speechless for a moment. “This was sitting here all this time, and we never even saw it.”
“We couldn’t have known Katherine’s abduction tied back to this. We still don’t.”
But a burning in her gut told her otherwise. She clicked on another article. This one had a photograph taken from outside the courtroom. The main focus was a man and woman in the forefront, but there was another man lingering in the background. The caption told them the ones in the front were Rick’s brother and sister. The third person wasn’t named, but the woman was looking over her shoulder at him.
A hunch told her there was something to that. Amanda looked closely at the unidentified man. There was something very familiar about him, and it didn’t take long to figure out why.
He was of a smaller physique then, but there, on his left wrist, was a snake tattoo.
SIXTY-FOUR
“I’d say he’s with Rick Stokes’s brother and sister.” Amanda pointed out how the woman was looking back at him.
“All right, so someone related to Stokes. Someone who held Katherine responsible for him going to prison.”
“But, if so, why now, two years later?”
“They could have been imprisoned themselves. Or ill. They might not have known where to catch up with Katherine until more recently,” Trent said, his voice rising in volume with each proposition.
“Once that article hit. But, still, that was a year and a half ago.” She pulled backgrounds on Rick’s siblings. Neither had children, but there must be some relation they were missing. She put a call in to ADA Bauer but couldn’t reach her, but she got right through to Detective Fitz. He said he’d get back as soon as possible.
When her phone finally rang two hours later, she jumped. Fitz showed on the caller ID. She put the call on speaker and told him Trent was joining them. “Tell me you have his name.”
“Rodney Mitchell, fifty-three. He’s Rick Stokes’s son, from before he got together with Kat’s mother. Rodney was twelve at the time. Kat would have been six. Now Stokes isn’t on record as the father, but his sister confirmed she raised him after the boy’s mother took off around the same time the dad moved in with Kat’s mother. Apparently, he didn’t want to bring the kid into the mix.”
“He must have felt rejected. As the new child, Katherine got all his father’s attention,” Trent reasoned. “But he’s not a kid anymore. You said he’s fifty-three. Why now? There has to be more to this.”
“It’s only where it started, and I’ll get to everything in a minute.”
“Just one second,” Amanda inserted. “Did Katherine know about him?”
“I don’t see how she would have.”
“But he was at her stepfather’s trial,” Trent put in. “There’s that picture.”
“Sure, but that doesn’t mean Katherine knew him. You should know this Rodney is bad news. He’s been in brushes with the law all his life, but it’s only more recently he got himself a criminal record. In fact, he was released from prison only six months ago, having gone away not long after his father did. I believe that’s the reason Rodney went after Katherine. See, the father might not have wanted to bring his son in under his roof, but he didn’t completely abandon him. Even when Rodney became an adult, Stokes did what he could to keep Rodney out of jail.”
