From a Single Seed: A Novel Page 5
“Did you go looking for her?”
“Not really. I figured if I ran into her, I’d talk to her.”
“Who did you go to the party with, your roommate?”
“Nah, he wanted to watch the rest of the game. I went by myself.”
“Are you friends with the people who threw the party?”
“Not really, but I knew a lot of people were going.”
“How did you get to the party?”
“I walked.”
“How far was it?”
“I don’t know. It took about fifteen minutes.”
“Okay, what happened when you got to the party?”
“I ran into Shannon.”
“Who was she with?”
“When I saw her, she was with two girls.”
“Who were they?”
“I’m really not sure.”
“Did you talk to Shannon?”
“Only for a minute.”
“Did you find out what she wanted to tell you?”
“Nope, she seemed like she wasn’t in the mood for anything serious.”
“Was she drinking?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Was she drunk?”
“I thought so.”
“Were you drinking?”
“No, sir.”
“Did you leave the party together?”
“Huh?”
Dustin recognized the stalling tactic. “I asked, ‘Did you leave the party together?’”
“No, sir.”
“Did you see her again after that?”
“No, sir.”
“Do you have any idea what happened to Shannon after you talked to her at the party?”
“No, I do not.” The redundant answer was a red flag for deception.
“How long have you known Shannon?”
“We met in October, when they first started making ice.”
“How did you meet?”
“She used to practice until three thirty. We had ice time starting at four.”
“‘We’ means?”
“The hockey team. She was an awesome skater. I used to watch her practice until I had to get dressed.”
“And you started dating?”
“Something like that.”
“Were you intimate with her?”
Keenan first looked toward his mother, then back at the officer. “I don’t see how it’s any of your business.”
“We have a missing eighteen-year-old girl. There’s a chance this is going to become a murder investigation. Everything about her is my business.”
Greg stood up. “Officer, I think Keenan here has tried to be helpful. We all have, despite your timing.” Dustin winced involuntarily, but Greg didn’t seem to notice. “We want you to find this missing girl, but I resent the implication that my son might somehow be involved in her disappearance. Do we need a lawyer?”
“I’m just conducting an investigation here.” Dustin remained seated. “The only reason Keenan would need a lawyer is if he has something to hide. Of course, you’re always welcome to hire an attorney.”
“I have nothing to hide,” Keenan said. “I don’t know what happened to Shannon.”
“Anything else you want to tell me about Shannon?”
“I think we’re done here, officer,” Greg said.
“I really don’t know what happened to her,” Keenan said.
“For your sake, I hope not,” Dustin said. He didn’t turn off the digital recorder until he was outside.
Chapter 8
Saturday, October 19, 2013
KEENAN FELT the warmth of Shannon’s body snuggled against him in his twin bed. He breathed the smell of her citrus shampoo and rubbed his cheek against her silky blond hair. He liked that she was wearing his T-shirt.
It was almost too good to be true. He’d worked hard to make their first few dates memorable, even sat through a film with subtitles last night, but he still couldn’t believe his luck. The sparkly girl had spent the night. Thank God his roommate had gone away for the weekend.
SHANNON OPENED her eyes to find Keenan staring into them. It took a second before she remembered where she was. It was the first time she had ever woken up next to a boy. It wasn’t the first time she had ever had sex. She’d been intimate with Jake during senior year of high school. But that was different because she had always had a curfew. There was something even more intimate about the act of sleeping side by side. It was liberating and frightening at the same time.
“Good morning, Sparkly,” he said.
“Sparkly?”
“That’s what I used to call you before I knew your name.”
“Huh?”
“Because of your sparkly skating tights.”
“Well, now that you know me, maybe you can call me Shannon.”
“Oh, is that your name?”
“Very funny.”
He kissed her deeply and she felt her body respond. She should get up and go before this turned into something she wasn’t ready for. He pulled away first.
“I’m really glad you’re here. I mean, it was really nice to spend the night with you, and I want to spend the day with you.” He sounded so sincere it was scary.
“I have homework.”
“Perfect. We can study together. After we have breakfast together.”
“Don’t you have practice today?”
“Not until late afternoon.”
“I was planning to go skate for a while this morning,” she said.
“I’ll go watch you.”
“Are you always this intense?”
“Nope. I’ve just never met anybody like you before.”
Chapter 9
Tuesday, December 25, 2013
DUSTIN HAD spent Christmas Eve at the Colonnade Inn in Lyndonville. He’d chosen it because it was the first motel he came to after he left the Brody house. The snow had still been coming down hard and he was not up for another epic drive across the state. Once was enough in those conditions.
He’d pulled into the motel at around eight o’clock, a little surprised to see several large SUVs with out-of-state plates and roof racks full of skis and snowboards. The Colonnade didn’t seem the sort of place anyone would go for a Christmas getaway, even if it was only a few miles up the road from Burke Mountain ski area. But then, he’d never understood the fascination with skiing. As far as he was concerned, it was a sport for rich people and flatlanders. Real Vermonters preferred ice fishing.
At least the trip had been worth the effort. That Brody kid knew a lot more than he was letting on. He probably even knew where Shannon Dawson was. Or rather, where her body was. Dustin was having a hard time putting his finger on it, but there was something “off” about the kid. He admitted that he knew she was dead, but there was more to it. It was probably time to take a harder look at him. Besides, it wasn’t like they had any other suspects.
Dustin drove back to Middleton Falls on Christmas morning. He was planning to spend the afternoon and evening with his kids and first thing the next morning start going back through Shannon’s laptop with a fine-toothed comb. Maybe if he did a search for Keenan’s name in the emails, he would find out what was really up with those two.
Dustin was finishing wrapping the last of the drugstore toys when Quinn and Sienna bounced into his apartment. Joanne stood just inside the door holding two backpacks. She looked around with obvious distaste.
“You can just set those on the floor,” Dustin said.
Sienna did a cartwheel across the nearly empty living room. “Daddy! Daddy! Santa got us a Wii. And the Toy Story game. And the Cars game. And the Lego Harry Potter game.”
“I’m a really good driver,” Quinn said, “and I beat Lightning.”
“Wow. That’s great,” Dustin said, trying to show more enthusiasm than he felt. He looked at his pile of gifts. He should have gotten a tree. Hell, even a second color of wrapping paper and some bows would have made it seem more festive.
“When are you goi
ng to get some furniture? It’s been a few months.” Joanne was still standing in the doorway.
“When I have time.” And money.
“I like it this way,” Sienna said “There’s more room for cartwheels.”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” Dustin said.
“Sure you were,” Joanne said. She called the kids over for hugs before she left.
“You want to open presents?” Dustin said as soon as she was gone.
“Yeah!”
It took two minutes for the kids to tear the paper off the presents. When they each had a small pile in front of them, they both sat on their knees and looked at him.
“Don’t you want to play with your toys?” he said.
“Can we watch TV?” Sienna said. Quinn nodded.
“Sure,” Dustin said. “But first let’s go pick out something for dinner.”
The kids followed him into the kitchen, and he opened the fridge. There was milk, a brick of cheddar, and some condiments. He should have planned something for Christmas dinner. He would have if he hadn’t been so wrapped up in the Shannon Dawson case. He tried the freezer.
“How about frozen pizza?” Dustin said.
“I like it better cooked,” Quinn said. Both kids were looking at him with big eyes and serious expressions.
“You know what? Let’s do something special. After all, it’s Christmas.” The kids nodded, eyes widening with anticipation. “How hungry are you?”
“Not very,” Sienna said. “We ate ham at home already.”
“Then, let’s have a snack night. I can make popcorn and nachos and we’ll eat in front of the TV. How’s that sound?” Quinn was bouncing with excitement.
“I call the chair,” Sienna said, referring to the stuffed chair he’d found on the side of the road the week after he’d gotten his apartment.
“I was thinking we could have a camp-out tonight. Why don’t you grab the covers from your beds and set them up in front of the TV.”
“Yeah!”
“And we can have gummy bears for dessert,” Dustin said, remembering the package he’d picked up at the gas station on his way home that morning.
Dustin was studying the printouts from the laptop at eight o’clock that evening when the chief knocked on the conference room door.
“I hope you didn’t cancel Christmas with your kids so you could work on this case,” the chief said.
“No, we had dinner and opened presents, but they really wanted to go back to their mother’s house for the night. Apparently, they got a ton of new toys from ‘Santa’ this year that they wanted to go play with. I hate that Joanne’s dating a rich guy. I can’t compete with that.”
“Don’t try. Eventually, they’ll see through it.”
“Yeah. In another decade or so. I just hope she doesn’t marry him.”
“There’s nothing you can do about it either way, so you might as well let it go.”
“I know, but it’s easier said than done.” Dustin shook his head and exhaled loudly.
“Where are you at with the laptop” the chief said.
“It’s more where I’m at with Keenan Brody.”
“What’s up?”
“Well, I told you last night I thought he was less than honest with me.”
“Yep. Did you find anything more?”
“Sure did. I looked for Keenan’s name in all of Shannon’s Facebook chat messages.”
“And?”
“Apparently, Shannon realized she still had feelings for her high school sweetheart. Sounds like maybe she and Jake got it on when they saw each other at Thanksgiving.”
“I can see it happening.”
“Here’s where it gets interesting. Shannon polled her friends by a private group message a few days before she disappeared. The overwhelming majority said she should tell Keenan about Jake.”
“Whatever happened to don’t kiss and tell.”
“Or in this case, don’t screw and tell.”
“Are we sure this guy Jake isn’t a suspect?”
“Yup. He was already back in California when Shannon disappeared. I confirmed it with his plane ticket and his parents.”
“Okay, so what did the Brody kid say about it?”
“That’s just it. Nothing. He claims Shannon said she had something important to talk to him about, but she never told him what it was.”
“Wasn’t there a long call between them right before she disappeared?”
“Exactly. He claims they never talked about whatever it was.”
“But you don’t believe him.”
“Nope. They were on the phone for eight minutes. And the kid was sweating bullets when I questioned him.”
“What else do we have on him?”
“At this point, it’s more instinct than evidence. Except the part of the interview when he admitted that she was dead.”
“Yeah, you mentioned that in your email last night.”
“It was definitely odd. He said it with such certainty. I think we should search his dorm room.”
“You think he’d give us permission?”
“Maybe, maybe not. I was hoping we could get a warrant.”
“With what? We need to be able to articulate what crime was committed and what evidence we think we’ll find.”
“It’s either an abduction or a murder.”
“Okay, but how do we link it to the kid’s dorm?”
“I don’t know. Yet.”
“Keep looking.”
“Will do. There’s one other thing that’s odd. According to Shannon’s friends, Greta and Jenna, Shannon drove them to the party. When she met up with Keenan, they found another ride home. But he says he didn’t see her after the party.”
“Public Safety found her car back in a lot near her dorm, so she must have gone back there,” the chief said.
“But her roommate didn’t see her that night, assumed she spent the night with Keenan.”
“So, there’s two possibilities. One, she got abducted by a total stranger somewhere between the parking lot and the dorm. Two, the boyfriend’s lying.”
“My money’s on the boyfriend,” Dustin said.
“Has Steve finished going through the car?”
“He’s still working on it.”
“Find anything yet?”
“Nothing obvious. He took a bunch of prints. We’ll find out if there’s been anyone with a record in that car. Hey, chief?”
“Yeah?”
“Why are you here on Christmas?”
“I was going over the case notes again. We’ve got to find that girl.”
Chapter 10
Thursday, December 26, 2013
OLIVIA DAWSON didn’t bother with formalities, so the chief didn’t bother to offer coffee.
“What did you learn from that boy?” Olivia was standing in the middle of the chief’s office, a puddle growing around her from the snow melting off her boots. The chief motioned her into a chair, but she remained standing. Her husband took a seat, leaving behind his own puddle on the chief’s floor. Apparently, Californians didn’t know how to wipe their feet on the way in. Dustin seemed happy to remain leaning against the wall in the corner of the room.
“He says he doesn’t know anything,” the chief said.
“And you believe him?” Olivia said.
“We’re still taking a hard look at him.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means a few things came up during the interview and after that don’t make sense. We’re continuing our investigation.”
Olivia finally sank into a chair. “My daughter has been missing for more than five days.”
“I know, I’m sorry.”
“What are you doing to find her?”
“Public Safety at the college has been combing the campus.”
“I asked what you’ve been doing.”
The chief tried to ignore Olivia’s tone. “We’ve been working the phones and picking apart this laptop.”
<
br /> “What about the cell phone trace?”
“It looks like the last time her phone was used, she was still on campus. It’s another dead end.”
“Her car. What about her car?”
“There was nothing obviously amiss. We took a bunch of prints. We ran them through NCIC, but got no hits.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means nobody with prints on file left a print in that car. At least not one we could lift.”
There was silence as everyone seemed to ponder the import of the dead end.
Finally, Olivia spoke. “Where is she?” The dark circles around her eyes were starting to resemble the zombies in The Walking Dead.
Jack Dawson looked no better. “Is our daughter alive?” he asked.
“I don’t want to give you false hope,” the chief said.
“Is there any hope?” Olivia said. “Have you found any clue to where she might be?”
The chief shook his head. “I’d like to issue a press release. On the off chance that someone in the community saw something or knows anything.”
“Do it,” Jack Dawson said.
The chief nodded. “I’ll do it right away. It might not be too late for tomorrow’s paper. Have you hired a private investigator?”
“We’re meeting with one this afternoon.”
“Good. Maybe they can turn up something we missed. If she’s alive, that’s your best bet.”
“You don’t think she’s alive.”
“I hope she is, but in all honesty, every day it gets less likely.”
As soon as the Dawsons were gone, the chief started drafting a press release. It should have been a simple thing, but it wasn’t, because like everything else about his job, it involved politics. It seemed like he was always walking a tightrope between the town and the college. There was a chance this case involved a drunk college student engaging in risky behavior, but if he painted it that way, he’d get in trouble with the college. Masterson College had a big endowment because the administration was always mindful of public relations. Not to mention he’d piss off the Dawsons. On the other hand, the police budget for the town was woefully inadequate. If the townspeople thought he was wasting valuable resources on a matter that really fell under the college’s jurisdiction, he’d draw public criticism. He needed to garner sympathy for the family of the missing girl without lying about the situation. Getting caught in public lies was the fastest way to end a public service career.