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“Someone tell me what the fuck is going on!” TJ shouted.
The officer walked over to me, holding out the phone with a look of surprise on his face. “He wants to talk to you.”
I took the phone. “Chief Larson?”
“This better be important,” he grunted.
Turning my back to TJ and the officer, I walked over to the ribbon and squatted. “There’s a red ribbon tied to the railing on the porch outside of Ava Peterman’s bedroom.”
He was silent for several seconds. “They left a doll at your sister’s kidnapping.”
“The doll was wearing a red ribbon. And a red ribbon was tied in Andi’s hair when she was found.”
“Could be a coincidence.”
“It’s the same width,” I said. “A half inch and grosgrain. It’s the same.” I’d seen the China doll with dark human hair and a white ruffled dress. I’d taken note of the red ribbon tied around her head like a headband. Just like the ribbon that had been tied around Andi’s head when she was found.
“A copycat?” But he said it more to himself than to me.
“You need to send a CSI team right away. And get the family out of the house.”
“You might be from the big city, little girl,” he spat, “but don’t you try to tell me how to run my investigation. Besides, last time I checked, you were fired for murdering someone on the job.”
“My apologies,” I said as I stood, trying to sound contrite but seething with anger. “And I wasn’t fired, I quit.”
“Semantics. You’re lucky you’re not in prison for killing that boy and tarnishing the image of good cops everywhere.”
I nearly laughed because I was pretty sure he placed himself squarely in the good cop category. “That’s a discussion for another day. Right now, we need to worry about a little girl who might have been kidnapped.”
“Get the hell out of that house, Adams. And I want to question you myself in two hours. Meet me at the station at ten-thirty.” He went silent after that, so I handed the phone back to the officer.
“He said to make you leave after he talked to you,” Officer Stillman said with a look of disgust. “He doesn’t want you messing with the crime scene.”
Vanessa let out a fresh sound of anguish. She was too distraught to make eye contact with me, so I headed to the window and climbed back inside, moving to the side and out of sight. No one else had come upstairs, which I found shocking given Vanessa’s scream. Then again, maybe they’d attributed her scream to being an over-emotional woman. But Officer Stillman and TJ seemed too busy having a muffled conversation to notice what I was doing in Ava’s room. I quickly started taking photos on my phone, hoping to get what I needed before someone realized what I was doing and had me bodily removed. As I covered the room, my frustration grew. I hadn’t gotten nearly enough information to conduct a thorough investigation, not to mention I wouldn’t have access to all the tools I needed—like an evidence collection team and search warrants. But I’d have to make do with what I had, which at this moment was my iPhone and my hangover-addled brain.
Still, I wasn’t totally hamstrung. I could talk to the neighbors and see if they’d noticed anything or, even better, had surveillance footage. I especially wanted to talk to the neighbor to the Petermans’ right, where the ladder had likely been used.
I snapped multiple photos of the corkboard, then got daring and grabbed the bottom of a photo of Ava and her mother. Pulling it free from the tack, I then shoved it into my jacket pocket.
I could hear footsteps in the hall outside the room, so I headed for the door, bumping into the older officer—Officer Weinberg, according to his name tag.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he asked in a snide tone.
“Apparently your job,” I said with raised brows. Not a smart move. “Did anyone look outside the window?”
“She’s a runaway,” he said with a sneer. “Why would we waste our time?”
“Don’t be so sure,” I said. “In fact, I have reason to believe Chief Larson is sending an evidence team, so you might consider setting up a perimeter and starting a log sheet.” Then I walked away before he could come back with a not-so-witty retort.
I walked slowly until I was out in the main hallway, then I hurried down the back stairs, stopping halfway down to make sure no one was in the kitchen. Once I’d determined the coast was clear, I finished the rest of my descent and headed through a door at the back of the house and found myself in the mudroom. Where Vanessa had said she kept the school directory.
Thank God.
Partially closing the door behind me, I ran over to the small built-in desk and started rummaging through the neat stacks of bills and pamphlets. I was about to give up, when I found a thin white booklet with the title Jackson Creek Elementary School Directory, Home of the Bear Cubs. I stuffed it into my jacket and headed out the back door.
I suspected no one was watching to make sure I’d left, so I started snooping around the backyard, looking to see if any ladders had been left out. It would have been a lot easier for the perpetrator if he could have used one already on the property, but unless he’d staked out the place, he would have been relying on pure luck.
If they hadn’t brought their own ladder, I was betting they’d been on the property before. Especially if they knew which room was Ava’s.
