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The Montana-only search for a blond pregnant woman between the ages of twenty-six and thirty, who’d disappeared twenty years ago, came up empty.
“What if she had bleached her hair?” Drake suggested.
Cassie removed the filter of blond hair.
Five women came up.
Of the five, one was blond.
“I want to expand the search to a two-hundred-fifty-mile radius and add back the blond hair color. The medical examiner said she was blond. Surely, if she were a bleach blond, he would’ve seen the roots and noted it.”
“That will take you into Idaho,” Drake said
Cassie nodded, switched to the national missing persons database, entered the filters and waited for the results.
The search brought up twenty women.
While picking at the club sandwich Drake had brought for her, Cassie read through the information on each female.
One woman from Cody, Wyoming, had been the mother of three small children. She’d been four months pregnant when she’d disappeared twenty years ago. The notes on her file indicated she’d been the victim of domestic violence, having called 911 on multiple occasions. Her husband had been arrested for beating her. When it came time to press charges, she’d refused to do it.
“Sounds like he either killed her,” Drake said, “or she left to save her own life.”
“Our victim wore a maternity dress, but there was no sign of a baby inside her,” Cassie reminded him and herself. “She had to have been far enough along to deliver the baby before she died. And if she’d delivered it months before, she wouldn’t have been wearing the maternity dress anymore.”
“So, we’re looking for a woman who was far enough along to wear a full-on maternity dress and who could’ve delivered shortly before she died.”
Cassie nodded. “It’s a lot of guessing, but it makes more sense.”
They read through five more files. Each woman had been pregnant but not very far along. One had just found out she was pregnant, disappearing less than a week later.
They’d gone through seven of the women on the list of twenty.
“Am I being too restrictive?” Cassie asked.
“Let’s get through the entire list before we answer that question.” He gave her a teasing grin. “Focus, deputy,” he said in his best bad-ass, military tone.
Cassie nodded and brought up the next woman.
“Who do we have this time,” Drake asked.
Cassie read aloud. “Beth Anderson from Idaho Falls, Idaho. Twenty-seven years old. Not married. Eight and a half months pregnant when she disappeared. She left home in her car the morning she disappeared. Neither she nor her car were ever found.”
Cassie stared into the compelling young face of a pretty blonde with blue eyes. Something about the woman tugged at Cassie.
“This one has potential,” she said, writing Beth’s name on her pad before moving on.
They went through the rest of the files. Most of the women weren’t far along in their pregnancies.
After she closed the last file, she brought up the one that had been the closest to the data provided by the medical examiner.
Again, the face and eyes tugged at Cassie in a way none of the rest had. She picked up the telephone on the desktop.
“It’s after normal work hours,” Drake pointed out. “If you’re calling the sheriff or police department, you should do it tomorrow morning when the people who handle files and cold cases are available.”
Cassie frowned. “You’re right. They’d have to dig out old case files. I’m certain the people in charge of those won’t be there this late.” She stared at the screen, frustrated that she’d have to wait until the morning to contact anyone.
“Can I?” Drake pulled the keyboard closer to him, brought up another screen and keyed in the names Scott and Amy Anderson Idaho Falls, Idaho.
