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“You can let me take a look at your archives. I’m looking for something about an incident that happened in Angel’s Rise a couple of years after I joined the Navy. A kid fell. It was classified as an accident…”
“But you have your doubts?” Slade nodded. “Are you interested because you think it’s connected to Daniel Monkton’s murder? Do you think the girl you arrested…”
“I didn’t arrest her.”
“She was in handcuffs.”
“I took her into custody, and she was being difficult.”
“So, you tried to intimidate her. How’d that work out for you?” Ryker asked, laughing.
“You know her?”
“Fiona Fowler? You bet. She’s a renowned mystery writer. Was doing great, married the wrong guy, pretty much lost everything but her new book is climbing the charts. You should make her buy you dinner. The publicity from being taken into custody and then released hasn’t hurt her sales.”
“Well, Fiona is helping me out and we both believe that the old incident and Daniel’s murder are linked. I just want to keep my research quiet.”
“Say no more. Diane Bettis is a bitch on wheels with delusions of being Sally Busbee.”
“Who?”
“Editor of theWashington Post. I was in a couple of classes with her at Columbia. The woman has a couple of screws loose, if you ask me.”
“That was my feeling as well.”
“What are you looking for?”
“Not sure. Any chance you or the library have yearbooks from the high school?”
“Doubtful, as it’s Angel’s Rise. But as I recall, most of the State’s high schools put their yearbooks online. Let’s see if Angel’s Rise is one of them.” Ryker pulled up the site. “Yep. Here they are. Why don’t you sit at my desk and research to your heart’s content?”
“Thanks, Ryker.”
“No problem. Any chance I can get an exclusive?”
“You’ll be my first call.”
“Thanks, Slade.”
Ryker left him alone in his office, and Slade set up his own laptop with copies of the photos and began to compare them to pictures in the yearbooks. It was difficult for him to match any of the photos in the yearbooks to the pictures they found in the police files or at the Gazette. Both source photos were far too blurry.
After several hours, Slade was going through one of the yearbooks when he came to a full stop. It took him by surprise. There on the page devoted to a prom was an image of Daniel decked out in his tux. That alone was enough of a shock, but his date was downright astonishing. He checked the names just to be sure, but Slade had recognized the stylish blonde in an instant. It was none other than Diane Bettis, Angel’s Rise’ newspaper editor. It was too coincidental to not be significant, and Slade didn’t much believe in coincidences.
Looking at the date of the prom and knowing the date of the party, Daniel and Diane would have had to have been dating at the time of the infamous party, or at least right around that time. Diane Bettis had to have known what had happened and more than that, would have to have known what Daniel saw or believed. What if she had been a part of whatever Daniel had seen, and because he’d once had feelings for her, he had remained silent?
Slade printed a picture from the yearbook, thanked Ryker for his help and headed back for Angel’s Rise. He glanced at his phone and realized he had a voicemail message. It had been left earlier and somehow, he’d missed it. He listened to the message and smiled. He was willing to bet that if they put their heads together, they’d figure out the answer. He texted her a simple message “Got your message. Headed home. I love you, too.”
He waited for some kind of response and received none. At first, he wasn’t concerned, but when there was no response either via phone or text, he became worried. He called the Gazette and got the paper’s answering service.
“I need to speak to the editor. I’m Slade Rafferty with MCU.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Rafferty, Ms. Bettis isn’t here.”
“Do you know where I can reach her or when she’ll be back?”
“Not really. She said she’d be out of cell coverage and would be back in tomorrow.”
“I can’t stress to you the importance of my reaching her.”
