“Who just left here.”
“Who?” Grimm asked.
“Candace Beamer. That was her Lincoln. I’ve seen it driving around Altoona enough to recognize it without seeing that license plate.”
“H-m-m.”
“I wonder what she was doing here?”
“There is only one way to find out and that is to go inside.” Grimm parked and turned off the motor.
They walked up the curved walk to the brick front porch, and Quinn rang the doorbell. Mrs. Cranston answered a few moments later. She looked as if she had been crying.
“Is this still a good time for us to visit?” Quinn asked.
“Yes.” She dabbed the corner of her eye with a wadded-up tissue, motioning them to come inside. “It isn’t you. Today has been very emotional since we spoke this morning. People who didn’t even know that Sandy had gone missing have been reaching out all day sending flowers, calling with condolences after they read your article. That was Candace and Cliff Beamer who just left. He had no idea what had happened to Sandy until today. He was devastated. They were high school sweethearts before we moved away from Altoona.”
“I’m sure it must have come as a shock to him, then,” Quinn replied, noticing the beautiful bouquet of late summer and early fall flowers sitting on the foyer table. “These are lovely.”
“The Beamers sent them. Then they showed up…Lee was overwhelmed. He’d already had to leave work early because of the commotion going on today. He had to take a walk in the backyard. I better go check on him. Make yourself comfortable. I’ll be right back,” she said.
“Should we come back another time?” Quinn asked.
“No. We discussed it, and he said he wanted to talk to you today. Funny how he’d been so against opening up about Sandy, and then when he found out the FBI was starting a task force to search for them, he embraced the idea,” Anna said.
“I’m glad,” Quinn said.
Grimm sat down beside her on the sofa and they waited. “What do you make of the Beamers coming to visit? Do you buy Cliff not knowing anything about Sandy being missing all this time?”
She shrugged. “It does make you wonder. Was his devastation real or an act? Mrs. Cranston sure believed him. And she knows him best from dating her daughter.”
“True.”
“The only thing that connected him to Sandy and Barbie was the fact that he attended Pembroke State and could have very well had a Pembroke State hat. We know that he was in a fraternity, so he could have been at the football game and the party that Barbie was at, but other than that it’s all conjecture.”
“No one could identify the guy Barbie Martin was with that night at the party?” Grimm asked.
“Not according to the police reports or what Logan Burrows was able to get out of the people he did follow-up interviews with later.”
“That is strange. Even if a guy was wearing a baseball hat at a frat party and there were drinking and recreational drugs going on like the reports said, someone there should have recognized him or realized he didn’t belong. I bet you someone either paid the police to wipe that info from their reports or paid those at the frat party not to give that info to the police,” Grimm said. “It’s the only explanation.”
“What makes you believe that?” Lee Cranston asked, coming into the living room with his wife on his heels. “Who are you anyway?”
Grimm stood and extended his hand to the man. “I’m Xavier Stallings from the Lone Wolf Agency out of Leesburg, Virginia. We provide protective services to civilians. I’ve been hired to protect Ms. Moynahan because she’s been receiving death threats since reporting on the Barbie Martin case. I’m retired Navy if you’re interested in my service record.”
“That doesn’t answer my first question.”
“I’ve been to those types of parties, organized a few, and we always knew who was in attendance even when we were drinking,” Grimm explained.
“Oh Quinn, you continued to write the articles after you received those threats?” Anna said.
“I’m determined to see this through. To find who is responsible for each disappearance, even if they are not connected. I don’t care how many threats or how many times someone tries to run me over,” Quinn said.
“No. No. You have to be careful,” Anna said. “Promise us that if you find the danger becomes too high you will stop writing the articles. Leave it to the FBI now that this Agent Street has started a task force.”
“Did he reach out?” Quinn asked.
“Yes, this afternoon, before the Beamers came by. He’s a very nice man,” Anna said.
