CHAPTER 4

“I just feel we didn’t get enough headway with the case,’ Angie complained to John as they got dinner ready.

“Come on, Ange, we got plenty done. We realised that Greg didn’t go to drinks with his boss, and we made a time to question Reagan and her boss tomorrow. We got a lot done.” John, tired of hearing Angie complaints, decided to turn their attention to all the positive things they got done. While Angie may have been an introverted realist (Some thought pessimist, but John knew better), her husband was certainly a sociable optimist.

“Now, we have two options: heat the lasagna we had last week or reheat the pasta we had yesterday. Either is a good choice, so it is up to you to decide.” Angie let a small smile escape. John was always pretending to be indecisive, but she knew he had a favourite.

As they prepared the lasagna, Angie was having trouble figuring out why Greg would lie about having drinks with his boss. He hadn’t been anywhere near a pub or a bar; he had been at the pharmacy. Why would someone lie to a detective about being at a pharmacy? Especially when they were a suspect. Even though he lied about his location, Angie knew he couldn’t be directly linked to the case. Yet.

They had also questioned Robert Gelding that afternoon, but he also had an alibi. While they all had an alibi, one of them had to be linked to the murder and abduction of the twins.

As John and Angie were getting ready for bed, they got a call from the office. They had found a headless body in the forest behind the Gelding’s Lake House. They needed to see if it was Avery.

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The drive to the Lake House was silent, Angie could tell John was nervous. His leg bounced up and down non-stop. She decided not to say anything for she too was lost in thought. John looked over at his wife and realised, he wasn’t the only one who was nervous. Someone looking in from the outside wouldn’t be able to tell, but he could. She would never let anything slip, her face was carefully neutral, however he could see it in her eyes. They were wary, almost like she was reliving something.

Angie had never talked about what happened to her, but John knew something had. The nightmares, the panic attacks, and the breakdowns all happened behind closed doors, John was the only one who knew about these, but Angie had never confided in him, she just pretended it was work stress. She was too scared to tell him what happened. She was worried he would see her as damaged goods. She couldn’t turn another person away.

They slowed to a stop once again at the Lake House. It looked different at night, more ominous. Crime scenes always looked different at night. The house was taped off and there were still multiple police cars surrounding the house. Avery and Ava’s parents were already at the scene. It was Angie and John’s job to look at the body first and take pictures of what might identify Avery, this way if it wasn’t her, they wouldn’t have to see something they didn’t need to be subjected to.

As they were about to trek down to where the body was another car pulled up beside the house. Another set of parents arrived with a detective. The detective introduced himself as Detective McMullen, an 18-year-old girl went missing after going for a walk around this area and the body could be her as well. Angie realised immediately that these cases where most likely connected and noted that they would have to interview this other girls’ parents to find out more.

All three detectives walked down the path in silence and took photos of her tattoos. She had multiple, unless Avery got more tattoos between last seeing her parents and going to the lake house this was not Avery Gelding. Seeing the body made Angie’s chest tighten, she needed to get out of there as soon as possible.