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“I was hoping to get your attention,” Jan said.
Ellie’s interest was piqued. “Go on.”
“My daughter Becky was abducted six months ago in Chattanooga,” Jan continued. “And Priscilla’s niece Kaylee disappeared a year ago.”
“I’m so sorry,” Ellie said, her heart starting to thunder. “Did the police investigate?”
Jan ran her finger around the edge of her coffee cup. “Yes, but neither Kaylee or Becky have been found. The cop who investigated Kaylee’s case arrested her mother and she died in prison.”
Angelica pressed a hand to Jan’s shoulder. “Tell her the rest. You can trust Detective Reeves. She’ll help you.”
“Yes, please talk to me,” Ellie said softly.
Jan relaxed slightly. “Priscilla was told her sister Renee committed suicide, but she didn’t believe it, only nobody would listen.”
The hair on the nape of Ellie’s neck prickled. “And you think her daughter’s disappearance is connected to Ava’s kidnapping?”
“Yes. We were both following the story about Ava Truman,” she said. “Then Priscilla realized that Kaylee was abducted on the same day last year as Ava disappeared this year.”
Ellie’s blood ran cold. “Exactly a year apart?”
Jan nodded, her eyes bright with alarm. “We both thought that might mean something and I persuaded her to call the police tip line.”
The tip line Bryce was monitoring. “And did she?”
“She did, but the sheriff blew her off.”
Anger made Ellie grind her teeth. That was the call Bryce had told her about. “Then what happened?” she asked.
“Priscilla was upset and frustrated, so we decided to call Ms.Gomez. We thought she might take us seriously. I tried to contact Priscilla again and again, but suddenly she wasn’t responding. That’s not like her. We’ve gotten pretty close the last three months.”
Ellie gave her a sympathetic smile. Their shared pain had obviously brought them together.
“Anyway, then I saw the news that Priscilla was in an accident.”
“A suspicious one,” Angelica said with a flicker of intrigue in her eyes.
“Yes, the ranger who found her said that there might have been a struggle,” Ellie said.
“Don’t you see?” Jan said, her tone shrill, desperate. “Whoever took Kaylee and maybe Becky could have found out Priscilla was going to the media and tried to kill her.”
Ellie’s mind raced to keep up. “I suppose that’s possible,” she said. “But how would that person know?”
“I don’t have the answer to that,” Jan said. “But it doesn’t feel right.”
“No, it certainly seems concerning,” Ellie agreed.
“There’s more,” Angelica interjected. “Tell her more about Priscilla’s sister.”
“Renee, Kaylee’s mother, was accused of criminal negligence the day Kaylee was taken,” replied Jan. “According to the police, they thought she’d been drinking and passed out and Kaylee wandered off and drowned. But Priscilla swore that Renee didn’t drink, that her sister had been in AA for two years.” A fine sheen of perspiration covered Jan’s forehead and neck and she dabbed at it with a tissue she pulled from the box on the table.
Ellie waited silently, giving her time to tell the story in her own time. “You mentioned she died in prison?”
Jan nodded. “Just a couple of weeks after the arrest. The police said it was suicide, but Priscilla insisted her sister wouldn’t take her own life. That she was determined to find out what happened to her daughter.”
Ellie and Angelica traded looks.
Red flags waved frantically in Ellie’s mind. A possible murder and attempted murder of two family members related to a child abduction could not be a coincidence. And Jan was right—the fact that Kaylee and Ava disappeared exactly a year apart had to be significant.
