Josie and Gretchen waited in the parking lot while Lydia Norris filled out the paperwork required by Dr. Feist. Gretchen sat at the wheel of the car while Josie used the Mobile Data Terminal to look up Eden Watts’ personal information. Eden was twenty-six and had lived in a number of apartments in Southeastern Pennsylvania, most of them in Philadelphia. Just as Lydia said, her current driver’s license listed her as a resident there which meant that she was two hours from home when she turned up at Russell Haven Dam at five in the morning. She had one vehicle registered in her name: a red 2016 Mini Cooper. That hadn’t been found anywhere near the dam, but then that was to be expected if she had been held against her will and then taken to the dam. Was the vehicle in Philadelphia? Or had Eden driven to Denton and then been taken? They’d need to get in touch with the Philadelphia Police Department to get many of their questions answered. Until then, Josie snapped a photo of Eden’s license and texted it to Noah, instructing him to show it at local hotels to see if she had checked in anywhere in Denton recently.
Josie kept searching. Unlike Amber, Eden had known associates listed in the TLO database which included Gabriel and Hugo Watts. Both lived in Pennsylvania—Hugo in the Williamsport area of the state and Gabriel in a small town only a half hour from Denton called Woodling Grove. Josie pulled up both of their driver’s licenses and saw that Eden and Amber had gotten their thick auburn locks and striking looks from their father. Gabriel, with his dark brown hair and broader face, resembled Lydia. Josie snapped photos of father and son and texted them to Sawyer, asking if either of them was the man he’d seen shoving Amber in the street a few weeks earlier.
His text came back seconds later. The younger guy, maybe. Can’t say for sure. They were too far away.
Josie tapped out a thank you and showed Gretchen the text exchange.
“Great,” Gretchen sighed. “Her brother may or may not have been here in Denton in the last couple of weeks and had contact with her.”
“We could track him down,” Josie suggested. “Ask him ourselves.”
“We should,” Gretchen agreed. “Does Woodling Grove have its own police department?”
“No,” said Josie. “The county sheriff handles minor matters, and the state police handle major crimes. For now, I can ask someone in the county sheriff’s office to drive over there and see if they can get him to go with them to their station in the county seat. We could head over there at that point. At least until we’re finished here.”
“Do that,” said Gretchen. She leaned over and snapped a photo of Eden Watts’ driver’s license. “In the meantime, I’m going to send this to my old partner in the Philly PD and see if he can turn anything up on Eden while we’re working the case here.”
“Good idea,” Josie said as Gretchen’s fingers flew across the screen of her phone. “Make sure he looks for her car. If it’s not there, I’ll put out a BOLO.”
“You got it,” said Gretchen.
Josie called her contact at the Alcott County Sheriff’s office, Judy Tiercar, and explained the situation. Judy promised to call back if and when she made contact with Gabriel Watts. After hanging up, Josie used her phone to search for Eden Watts’ social media accounts. She didn’t have Facebook, but she had Twitter and Instagram accounts. Her posts were mostly about different types of coffee and various places around Philadelphia—clubs, a yoga studio, a pottery place. A couple of posts from the summer showed her feet, toes painted blue, on the sand in front of the ocean. The hashtags read #jerseyshore, #getaway, and #oceanvibes. Other than that, there was nothing personal. With a sigh, Josie closed the apps on her phone.
Gretchen watched the doors to the hospital lobby, waiting for Lydia Norris to emerge. “What is it about this entire scenario that stinks to high heaven?” she muttered.
Josie tapped Lydia’s name into the TLO database next. “Everything,” she said. “All of it. Amber told Grace Power, her oldest friend, that her family was toxic and dysfunctional, and she hadn’t spoken with any of them since high school—the same thing she told Mett—but her mother has a key to her house?”
The results for Lydia Norris were almost as thin as the ones Josie had found on Amber. There had been a single address in Danville for her for the past twelve years, but that was it. She kept her driver’s license up to date and paid her utilities on time.
Gretchen said, “Do you think she really has a key or is she bluffing?”
Josie thought about the look on Lydia’s face when she’d asked if they could look around Amber’s home. “She didn’t seem as though she was lying, but why would she tell us to come over there with her if she really didn’t have a key?”
“You think Amber didn’t give Mett a key because she had given one to Lydia and didn’t want the two of them ever running into one another by accident?” Gretchen asked.
“I don’t know.” Josie tapped in the name “Nadine Watts” but got nothing. It was likely that the woman was or had been married. Josie made a mental note to ask Lydia about Nadine’s last name.
Gretchen said, “She seemed very surprised to see her other daughter in that body bag.”
“I think anyone would be shocked to find their child in a body bag,” Josie mumbled.
“You know what I mean,” Gretchen groused. “Also, did you see her rings? I think one of them was a Harry Winston and one was Blue Nile. Expensive. I’m talking tens of thousands of dollars per ring, maybe more.”
Josie looked over at her. “I didn’t peg you for a diamond expert.”
Gretchen shrugged. “I had a big home invasion murder case in Philly before I came here. Wealthy couple. Mansion. The wife had a pretty large collection of extremely expensive jewelry. I got a crash course.”
“You’re saying Lydia is wealthy.”
“I’m saying one of us could retire on just what she’s wearing on her fingers. Here she is!”
Josie looked up to see Lydia Norris striding out of the hospital entrance, adjusting the straps of her purse on her shoulder. Gretchen gave her a beep and she waved to them. She had agreed that they would follow her back to Amber’s house so they could have a cursory look around. She got into a black Mercedes-Benz and pulled away. Josie logged back into the MDT to see that she did, in fact, have a black Mercedes-Benz S-class sedan registered to her at the same rural address on her driver’s license. “You were right about her being wealthy,” said Josie. “She’s driving a car that costs over a hundred thousand dollars.”
Gretchen followed Lydia as she weaved through Denton’s streets, occasionally having to turn around and switch directions.
“She doesn’t know where it is,” Josie said. “She doesn’t even know where Amber lives!”
But after twenty minutes, Lydia turned down Amber’s street. She pulled up behind Amber’s car and parked. Gretchen came to a stop right behind her. As they all got out, Lydia circled to the front of Amber’s car. She stared at the windshield.
Gretchen and Josie walked over.
Lydia leaned closer to the glass. “Are those streaks, or does that spell something?”
Gretchen answered, “Russell Haven, five a.m. But it wasn’t Amber who was there at five a.m., it was Eden.”
Josie asked, “Does Russell Haven mean anything to you?”
Lydia shook her head.
“It doesn’t have any significance to Amber or Eden or anyone in your family?” Gretchen prodded.
“No, not at all,” Lydia said. She drew in a shaky breath and gave them a pained smile. “Shall we?”