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Beverly and Janie traded nervous looks. “We did,” Beverly said.
“How did you know that?” Janie asked warily.
“I spoke with the officer who investigated her disappearance. Were you friends?” Ellie asked.
“Not really,” Janie admitted. “I saw her around with her little girl. But she didn’t hang out with anyone, especially the sorority girls.”
“Why did you think she was missing?” Ellie asked.
Beverly bit her nail again. “I… My apartment was near hers. I… thought I heard screaming in the night. The next morning, I went to check on her but the door to her apartment was wide open and she and her little girl were gone.”
The hairs on Ellie’s arms bristled. “Did you see signs of foul play?”
“I was too freaked to look,” Beverly said. “I got the apartment manager to check on her, but he said I must have imagined the screaming.”
Back to Coolidge.
“But I didn’t imagine it,” Beverly insisted.
Janie spoke up, “Amy was in my Psychology class and never showed that day. She was a straight A student. Never missed class.Never.”
“I assume you heard we found a body in a car in Widow Lake,” Ellie continued.
Beverly gasped and clenched her friend’s hand. “Was that Amy?”
“No, but the car belonged to her,” Ellie answered.
“Good heavens,” Janie murmured.
Ellie had a hunch. She grabbed her phone where she’d downloaded a photograph of Reuben Waycross. She hadn’t yet notified Waycross’s father so had to tread carefully. But so far Beverly and Janie had been a wealth of information.
“One more question,” Ellie said as she showed them a photo of Waycross. “Do either of you recognize this guy?”
Beverly wrapped her arms around herself again and Janie inhaled sharply. “He was one of the creeps,” Beverly said. “The one who liked to cut himself.”
FORTY-EIGHT
Derrick left the ERT to do their jobs and addressed the local police officers, “Rope off the area as a crime scene. We’ll need someone to surveil the property overnight in case this perpetrator returns.” He doubted the guy was dumb enough to come back to Beverly’s building, but sometimes criminals returned to the scene of the crime. Some even hid in the shadows to watch the police chase their tails.
Scanning the property, he found no doorbell camera or security system. He went inside and informed Ellie.
“Looks like the intruder picked the lock on the back door.”
Fear flitted across Beverly’s face.
“You should install a security system,” Derrick advised.
“I will,” Beverly said. “Although, I don’t know when I’ll be able to sleep in that house again.”
“You can stay with me as long as you need to,” her friend assured her.
“That’s probably a good idea. Try to get some rest,” Ellie told Beverly. “And if you think of anything else, maybe a detail about the intruder or Amy, please call me.”
Beverly took Ellie’s card.
“Before you leave, Beverly, we need to photograph your hair,” Ellie said. “We have to document every detail. Then we’ll have an officer make sure you and Janie get to her place safely.”
Beverly reluctantly nodded. The ERT arrived so Ellie filled them in, then asked Dale Harvey, the photographer, to document Beverly’s appearance along with the bedroom and dresser mirror.
