Mrs. Rodgers answered the door in jeans and a T-shirt bearing the name Mystic High. “Hi, I’m Charlotte,” she said, a note of wariness in her voice. “My husband had an early appointment and had to leave, but Janet’s upstairs.”
Ellie followed her inside, where Charlotte poured them both coffee, then she went to the stairs and called her daughter to come down. A minute later, Janet appeared. She was a petite brunette with brown eyes that held a hint of fear and sadness.
“I honestly don’t know how we can help you,” Mrs. Rodgers said as her daughter shuffled over to the table and sank into a wooden chair.
Janet twisted her hands together. “Am I in trouble or something?”
“No, not at all,” Ellie assured her. “I’m just gathering information about Minnie Benton.”
Tears filled the girl’s eyes, and her mother squeezed her hand, then handed her a tissue from the box on the counter. “I know it’s hard, honey. But if you can help find who killed Minnie, you need to talk to the detective.”
Ellie gave the woman a thankful look. “I’m sorry about your friend, Janet,” she said softly. “You obviously cared about her deeply.”
Janet wiped her tears with a napkin. “We were best friends growing up. But… we hadn’t hung out the last few months before she left.” She blew her nose. “Do you really think someone murdered her?”
Ellie didn’t want to share details, although with the crow feathers being left at her house, she knew it was murder and that the killer had left his calling card. “There are reasons to suspect that. Tell me about Minnie’s mindset before she ran away.”
Janet wadded the tissue in her hand. “She was depressed those last few months. Almost withdrawn and angry at everyone.”
“Do you know why she was so upset?”
“Not really, but… one day she fell apart in class and ran to the bathroom.” Janet sniffled. “I found her in a stall and asked her what was wrong, but she refused to tell me.” Janet glanced at her mother, and her mother gave her an encouraging nod.
"Go on,” Ellie said.
“Well, I heard her throwing up in the bathroom that day and a couple of other times. When I asked her if she was sick, she said she had a stomach bug.”
“Did you believe her?” Ellie asked, thinking about the pregnancy.
Janet shrugged. “At first. But it happened a few more times, so I… thought she might be anorexic,” Janet admitted. “So many girls these days are. She started losing weight and not eating but when I tried to talk to her about it, she blew up at me then stopped talking to me.”
“Did you know she was pregnant?”
Janet glanced down at her hands. “No, I had no idea,” Janet murmured. “Like I said, she wouldn’t tell me what was wrong.”
“I believe she might have been pregnant then,” Ellie said.
Janet wiped at her eyes. “They said on the news that she had a little girl.”
“Have you found her?” Mrs. Rodgers asked.
“I’m afraid not yet.” Ellie swallowed hard. “Janet, do you know anyone who’d want to hurt Minnie?”
“No,” Janet cried. “This doesn’t make sense at all.”
It was starting to make sense to Ellie. The depression, withdrawal from her friends and sister, her lack of dating. If Minnie had been sexually assaulted, she might have run away to escape her attacker. If the father knew and refused to support her, she might have been running from him. Or if her parents really hadn’t known, she ran away to keep them from learning her secret.
Unless… Mr. Benton was the abuser?
A shudder rippled through her. If he was and the mother was unaware, he wouldn’t want her to find out. That could explain the reason he hadn’t wanted Minnie to stick around and that he didn’t want anything to do with his grandchild now.
Dear God, Ellie didn’t want to believe it. But she couldn’t discount the possibility either. She needed a deeper dive into the father.
She also needed Iris’s DNA to determine the father’s ID.
THIRTY-SIX
Crooked Creek Police Station
