Lance said, “I can’t see Dwayne approving playdates, and I definitely think Dwayne has to approve everything that happens on that farm.”
“Yes.” Morgan frowned. “Those two girls were clearly scared. I don’t like it, but I still can’t figure out how that might connect to Tessa’s murder.”
“Me either. I’ll get my mom to do some deeper digging into the Barone family. What did you think of the way Robby practically spat out Jacob’s name?”
“He doesn’t love Jacob, that’s for sure,” Morgan said.
Lance scrubbed a frustrated hand down his face. “You know this whole investigation would be easier if everyone wasn’t lying.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
As Lance drove away from the Barone farm, Morgan set down her phone. It was four p.m. Where had the day gone? They’d made so little progress. She needed to regroup, to go back to the beginning and look at the crime anew.
“Let’s visit the crime scene before it gets dark,” she said. “Do you have a camera?”
“In the console.” Lance lifted his arm.
Morgan retrieved the camera. Though the police had already photographed the scene, they were viewing the case from an entirely different angle. When she’d worked on homicide cases for the Albany County DA, she’d always visited the crime scenes to make sure she had an in-person perspective. Photos and diagrams weren’t enough to visualize how the crime played out. She’d caught more than one criminal in a lie because he’d gotten slight details wrong.
Lance pulled onto the road and made the next left.
Morgan reviewed her notes on the crime scene during the drive out to the lake. Lance turned down the same dirt lane they’d used the night they’d found Tessa’s body. He parked short of the clearing.
As she climbed out of the car, Morgan’s stomach curled. Every sense—the crunch of dead leaves underfoot, the scents of pine and lake water, the sound of the breeze ruffling the branches overhead—brought back the memory of finding Tessa’s body.
In person, she’d seen the girl at night, with the darkness concealing many of the details. But the police and autopsy photos had highlighted every bloodstain, every smudge of dirt, every deep wound and small scratch on Tessa’s body. Now, Morgan’s mind superimposed those new details onto her memory.
A hard shiver rattled her bones, and Morgan could feel eyes on the center of her back. Was it her imagination? She scanned the surrounding forest. The trees were dense, and even in the broad daylight of late afternoon, the woods provided plenty of shadows.
“Are you all right?” Lance stepped up to her side.
“Yes.” Morgan shook off her fear. “Hold on.” She opened her tote and took out her pair of emergency flats. After changing her shoes, she left her heels in the Jeep.
“Is there anything you don’t keep in that bag?” Lance pressed the button on the fob. With a beep, the vehicle’s doors locked.
“I like to be prepared.” Morgan fell into step beside him.
The overwhelming sense of being watched closed over her again. The hairs lifted on the back of her neck, her instincts practically screaming for her attention. She stopped to survey the woods.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” Lance asked.
She lowered her voice. “I feel like we’re not alone.”
“This place is giving me the creeps too.” His gaze followed hers.
“It’s probably just knowing what happened here that’s making us nervous.” She forged ahead. “I could be paranoid. When I was ten, we took a family camping trip to the Catskills. I spotted a couple of deer and wandered away from camp. Before I knew it, I was lost. They didn’t find me until morning.”
“You spent the night out in the woods alone?”
“Yes.” Morgan set off toward the clearing. “I’ve never had much love for the woods or the dark since.”
“And I’m sure finding Tessa’s body didn’t improve your opinion of either.”
They walked up the dirt tract and paused at the edge of the clearing. In the daylight, the spot should have been pretty. But instead of seeing the play of sunlight on coppery foliage, Morgan’s eyes focused only on the shadows.
Except for the charred wood in the bonfire pit, the clearing was bare. The forensic team had collected the litter as evidence.
Lance moved closer, and the tension in his body told her he felt it too. As much as she hated to admit it, his presence was the only reason she could stand to be in the clearing.
“I’ll start at the clearing, and we’ll work our way to the place where we found the body.” Lance began to shoot photos.
Morgan took a notepad out of her bag and started drawing a sketch. She studied the clearing and surrounding forest. “Her car was parked over there.”
The Accord now sat in the police impound garage. Tessa’s purse had been found on the passenger seat.
She added details to her sketch. “Nick said when he left, Tessa was sitting in her car.”
Morgan went to the spot where the Honda had been parked. A sense of dread slithered through her belly, leaving it cold and empty, as she envisioned Tessa’s last moments. “She’s sitting in her car, crying. She sends the text to Felicity, telling her BFF about her breakup with Nick. Then she calls the Emerson house to talk with Jacob.”
“But Mr. Emerson answered the call.” Lance lowered the camera.
“That’s what he says. What if he didn’t? What if Jacob answered?”
“What if Tessa told Jacob she was pregnant?” Lance said. “And he drove out to the clearing.”
“The police didn’t ask for a DNA sample from Jacob. They were focused on Nick from the very beginning. When the police interviewed Jacob, they didn’t know Nick wasn’t the father of Tessa’s baby. They assumed it was Nick. They didn’t know they were looking for two different men. Plus, Jacob’s father is an attorney. He would never have allowed it. He would have known the implications and demanded a warrant.”
“What are the chances of forcing Jacob to submit to DNA testing?” Lance asked.
“Without new evidence? Slim. Mr. Emerson would fight it for sure. Plus, Jacob and Tessa dated five months ago. She was only eight weeks pregnant. There’s no basis.”
“I watched that fight between Jacob and Nick,” Lance said. “Jacob was angry to see Tessa with Nick. Who’s to say they didn’t have a brief reconciliation over the summer?”
Morgan hated to think of Tessa going out with Nick and cheating on him with Jacob, but Lance’s theory was possible. She couldn’t let her personal relationship with Tessa or Nick get in the way of her investigation. Tessa had cheated on Nick. But with whom?
“We won’t get a court order based on a hunch. We’d have to get some evidence that Jacob and Tessa had had contact . . .” Morgan counted backward. “Mid to end of July.”
“Or evidence she was seeing someone else back in July,” Lance added.