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“Don’t worry about Mr. Sutter. Leave him to me,” Lucien said.
Brogan began to tuck away the clean dishes and pans into their slots beneath the island. “You’ll find clean sheets already on the bed, extra blankets in the closet, and a bathroom with a shower. Get some sleep. Or call your girlfriend. Or take a walk on the beach if you need to clear your head. The point is to spend the rest of the evening relaxing. The morning will come soon enough, and you’ll be back behind the wheel headed for home.”
“Come on, I’ll show you to the guest room but don’t expect me to tuck you in,” Lucien cracked as he led the way down the hall.
Five minutes later, Lucien returned to the kitchen to find Brogan on her laptop. “You look like you’re hard at work.”
“Answering work emails. Then I’m reaching out to the police chief in Coyote Wells. Lando Bonner. I found his name on the city’s website. I know you’re skeptical about Daniel Cardiff. But I’m not. I figure we should go right to the source of the investigation into the Lyssa Mayfield case. And that means asking Chief of Police Bonner where the case stands from his perspective.”
Lucien slid onto a barstool and peered over at his wife. “Maybe we shouldn’t have taken Daniel’s money.”
“Why?”
“Because the Dolworth case is taking on a life of its own. It’s more twisted than I imagined. I’m not sure we can devote the time and effort into the missing Lyssa.”
Brogan bristled at that statement. “Since when? Lyssa is just as important as little Elliott Dolworth and Trey Rescher. Maybe Lyssa was kidnapped.”
“Or maybe she ran off with a guy she’d had on the side,” Lucien charged. “
“Well, we won’t know until we dig into it. And after touching base with this Bonner guy, we take it from there. If he tells us that there’s been no activity on her social security card, then we know where we stand immediately. If we get his take on her disappearance, it’s a place to start. I don’t get it. What’s gotten into you? Why don’t you like Daniel Cardiff?”
“I like him fine. I’m just not sure how much energy should go into finding a girlfriend who willingly met up with a man driving a sporty green car.”
“It just so happens classic Camaros were manufactured in green, too. So was a Dodge Charger. Where it gets iffy is that Daniel specifically mentioned a Dodge Challenger. And that type of car wasn’t manufactured until 1970.”
Getting pulled into the mystery that was Lyssa, Lucien pursed his lips. “Ah. Sometimes I forget how good you are at this. Whatever the classic green sports car was, it should be easy enough to track, especially with Oregon plates.”
“Bingo. We search DMV records for green Camaros, Chargers, and Challengers with Oregon plates, circa ten years back. With the help of the police chief, maybe we get a better handle on Lyssa. What did her phone records reveal? What was her mindset at the time? What was going on in her life at the time she disappeared?”
“Another case?” Beckett asked from the doorway, standing next to Kelly.
Brogan gave the couple a detailed update. “We’re just getting started with it.”
Kelly shook her head. “Before I met Beckett, I never thought much about how many people go missing every year. The numbers are astonishing. And not in a good way.”
“What’s astonishing is the lack of activity on most of the cases,” Brogan lamented. “Many are filed away in the dead zone of whatever jurisdiction they occurred in, gathering dust in a box or a police officer’s notebook.”
“Did you find what you needed in the Dolworth case?” Lucien asked.
“For now,” Beckett stated. “The next step is to delve into the families. Mack’s seems the most mysterious. We couldn’t find much on the Dolworths in the files.”
“Now, Anna’s is a different ballgame,” Kelly revealed. “Anna’s parents—Frank and Freida—were social butterflies back in their day. Not in the beginning, but after Frank Pollock moved the family from Alhambra to Bel-Air, hoping to up their standing in the community, their names and sometimes photographs regularly appear splashed on the society pages of the L.A. papers. Charity events, celebrity parties, and any other event that might get them noticed.”
Brogan looked up from her laptop. “I don’t remember that in the police report.”
Kelly grinned. “I started to research the Pollocks while we were upstairs. I’ll send you a complete analysis tomorrow after I’ve had a chance to finish their genealogy. But it’s fascinating to see how Frank and Freida sought acceptance within their circle of friends, especially after they came into some money.”
“Really? How did that happen?”
Kelly shrugged. “Maybe they won the lottery. Who knows? Inheritance maybe?”
Brogan rested her fist on her chin. “Maybe that’s why Anna didn’t mind living in the valley. Maybe she hooked up with Mack to achieve a different lifestyle.”
“Could be. I don’t think the Pollocks were pleased with her choice of life partners,” Kelly noted. “I couldn’t find any information about Anna and Mack’s wedding, which is odd given the Pollocks’ infatuation with social climbing. The wedding should’ve been splattered all over the society pages. I’ll keep looking, though.”
“I’ll dig into Mack’s background,” Beckett volunteered. “If need be, I’ll enlist Birk to help.”
“Do you think Mack could’ve changed his name?” Lucien pressed. “Maybe he wasn’t born Malcolm Dolworth. You don’t suppose this could be a witness protection sort of thing, do you?”
