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Ellie had seen the plump gray-haired woman in town and always thought she looked a little sad. When she opened the door, she wore a purple sweatsuit and cat-shaped earrings. A long-haired orange cat curled around her legs, meowing.
Dottie scooped up the cat and nuzzled it to her cheek, and Ellie introduced herself and Derrick.
Dottie’s eyes crinkled in confusion. “I already told that deputy everything I know.”
“Can we come in for a few minutes?” Ellie asked. “I’m talking to the neighbors again to make certain we didn’t miss anything.”
The wind picked up, shaking residual raindrops from the trees and splattering the window, but the wood fire added warmth to the house. Although it was so quiet it seemed lonely. Ellie shivered and Dottie stepped aside and motioned for her to enter.
“Do you want some coffee?” Dottie asked.
They both declined, then Dottie led them through a small living room with a chair and couch, and a bookshelf that held kids’ toys and games. “You have grandchildren?” Ellie asked.
The woman cut her eyes toward the bookshelf, her knees cracking as she showed them to the kitchen. “One. A granddaughter. But she’s not coming this year. That’s why I haven’t decorated.” Sadness flickered in her gray-green eyes. “Don’t seem worth it.”
Dottie poured herself a cup of coffee then set the cat in her lap where it purred loudly. Two more loped into the room and curled at her feet.
Ellie joined Dottie at the chrome table with orange vinyl chairs. It was the kind of retro style young professionals in Atlanta swooned over, but this set looked as it had been here forty years.
“Dottie, I heard you organized a neighborhood watch. We know that Nolan Grueler watched Ava, but we’ve cleared him of wrongdoing.” Not that it would do him any good now he was dead, but it might bring his mother comfort. “He told me he saw a woman in a white van near the bus stop and by Ava’s house. Did you ever notice her or the van?”
Dottie dumped two teaspoons of sugar in her coffee then so much creamer that it looked almost white. As she stirred vigorously, Ellie wondered if she could taste the coffee at all.
“Hmm, now that you mention it, I did. A few times. I figured it was another mother, maybe dropping or picking up kids for a carpool. Sometimes moms sit in their cars near the bus stop until the kids get on.”
Derrick walked to the living room window and looked out into the street, before returning to the kitchen. Ellie knew he was judging the view Dottie’s front yard offered to the bus stop and the Trumans’ house.
“What did this woman look like?” Ellie asked.
Dottie pinched the bridge of her nose. “I just saw her through the window of the van. I think she had straight dark hair, cut to her chin. Didn’t see her eyes. She wore a ball cap. I waved to her one time, but she started the car and left in a hurry.”
“Did you think that was odd?” Ellie asked.
The woman sipped her coffee. “Didn’t think so at the time. Figured she was just in a rush to get somewhere. Everyone’s always racing around these days. Don’t have time for us old people.”
Ellie squeezed the woman’s hand. “Do you remember anything else? Did you see the license plate of the van?”
The lines around her mouth bunched. “No, I’m afraid I didn’t notice it. But come to think of it, I did see her get out one day, and she was taking pictures of the kids. I didn’t think much of it at the time—what with assuming one of them was hers. Do you think that means something?”
Ellie stiffened. She definitely thought it meant something—that the woman was stalking Ava.
She started to shift the pieces in her mind. The woman on the beach with Renee and Kaylee that day had disappeared. What if it was the same woman who’d stalked Ava?
One Hundred Twenty-Five
Crooked Creek Police Station
Slivers of sunlight wormed their way through storm clouds as Derrick parked at the police station. The wind had picked up, catching Ellie’s ponytail and tearing it from its rubber band as they hustled inside. They grabbed coffee then went to the conference room.
She added Kaylee and Becky’s names to the whiteboard.
“I want to look at Renee’s statement again,” she said, then pulled the print-out of the file Forrester had emailed.
Derrick took the chair opposite her, opening his laptop on the table.
“So we have a woman driving a van who may have stalked Ava and attacked Priscilla Wilkinson,” Ellie said. “Renee’s sister insists she would not have committed suicide.” She ticked off what they knew so far, trying to weave the threads together. “And the woman who claimed that Renee was intoxicated is nowhere to be found.”
“We should question the warden at the prison. I want to know more about Renee’s alleged suicide,” Derrick said.
