“I did.” Ellie’s heart tugged. “But the best way to help her is to find out what happened to Minnie and to find Iris.” She just prayed the little girl was alive.
“Right. Call me if you need anything.”
“I will.” She ended the call, straightened her ponytail then headed to the press room.
“I see you caught a new case,” Angelica said.
Ellie nodded. “Afraid so. And I need your help.”
“You have the autopsy report?”
“Not yet but I’m hoping to any minute. The family has been notified though.”
“You two ready?” Tom asked.
“Let’s get it over with,” Ellie muttered. She detested being in front of the camera, unlike Sheriff Bryce Waters. But she needed to inform the public in case someone offered a lead.
Ellie and Angelica faced the camera and Angelica began, “This is Angelica Gomez coming to you live with this breaking story. We’re with Detective Ellie Reeves at Crooked Creek Police Station.” Angelica tilted the mic toward Ellie. “Detective?”
Ellie cleared her throat. “I’m sorry to report that the body of seventeen-year-old Minnie Benton was found deceased at the bottom of Midnight Ridge. At this point, the medical examiner has not released the autopsy results but ruled her death as suspicious.” Ellie chose not to reveal the details of their reasoning until she had that report in hand. “We also have reason to believe that Ms. Benton had a small child, a little girl named Iris, but she was not found at the scene or in the woods nearby.” She wished she had the exact age and a photograph and would keep digging until she did. Thanks to Minnie’s sister, Beth Ann, now they had a decent photo of Minnie. “If anyone has any information regarding Ms. Benton’s death or her child’swhereabouts, please contact the police at the tip line number displayed following this briefing.” She offered a tentative smile. “We will offer updates as more information becomes available. Thank you.”
She stepped away from Angelica, leaving her to close with photos and contact numbers, then headed to speak to Deputy Landrum. She found him at his desk. “Heath, I need you to run the name Marty Burgess. He was a little older than Minnie, so probably eighteen or nineteen now, and he attended Mystic High School.”
“What am I looking for?”
“His address, if he’s in school or working, and if he has a record.” She shifted. “He may have known Minnie just before she went missing.” She handed him the slip of paper with the friend’s name. “Also, do the same for Janet Rodgers. I want an address, phone number, whatever you can find.”
“Copy that.”
Ellie left him to work then went to Deputy Eastwood’s desk. “Call churches, hospitals and other safely deemed places where a mother might drop off a child if they were in trouble or leaving the child. Then I need you to visit Mystic High and interview the teachers and counselor. See if they had any insight into Minnie and what was going on with her. If she was pregnant before she ran away, it’s possible she confided in one of them about her pregnancy and told them the name of the baby’s father.”
Although if she’d gotten pregnant after she left home, the child could be an infant or only a few months old. Hopefully someone who’d known Minnie recently would come forward with information.
Ellie returned to her office and opened her laptop. Seconds later, she pulled up birth records and searched for one for Iris Benton. That would give her the little girl’s exact age. Although Minnie might have given the baby the father’s last name. Shealso didn’t know the county or state where Minnie had given birth.
Still, she began to search.
TWENTY
Sanctuary House
Seventy-year-oldHazel Samson paced the kitchen, her nerves on edge as she dried the dishes and put them away.
“Minnie still hasn’t come home?” another one of her tenants, Clara Jessup, asked from the kitchen table where she’d been studying. Despite the girl’s pregnancy Hazel had managed to persuade her to complete her high school degree. Clara was smart and had set goals to attend a tech school.
“No,” Hazel said worriedly. “It’s not like her to be gone overnight and not to even call.”
Clara frowned, her dark eyes crinkling with fear. Eight and a half months pregnant herself, the petite blond’s belly looked as if it might pop any second. She and Minnie had become fast friends when Clara moved into Sanctuary House, both coming from homes where parents had thrown them out when they’d discovered they intended to have their babies and raise them themselves.
Hazel had been a troubled teen herself and devoted her life now to offering support and guidance to teens with problems, whether it was an unwanted pregnancy, or escape from anabusive family or boyfriend or addiction. God put the plan in her heart a long time ago and she promised him she’d accept the calling. In exchange for room and board, she required the girls to seek therapy with her friend and counselor Mabel Putnam who volunteered for Sanctuary House, and to earn their high school diplomas. She was determined they have tools to build a life for themselves, and for their child if they decided to keep the baby and raise it themselves. Although there was no judgment if they chose the adoption route.
Hazel peeked out the window at the drive, praying Minnie would show up with her daughter Iris any second. That maybe she’d reconciled with her family. “I don’t know what to do,” Hazel said, her voice on edge. “When she left late yesterday, she said she was taking Iris to the park.”
Clara closed her laptop. “You don’t think Minnie’s started drinking again, do you?”
That was always a concern. Hazel sighed and fanned her face with a dishcloth. “No, at least I don’t think so. Do you?”
Clara twisted her mouth in thought. “I haven’t seen her with liquor or smelled alcohol on her breath.”
