FORTY
After calling Marcus Hubbard in Woodland and leaving a message asking him to call her, Jessie drove to the police station where they were holding Arlo Gatley. He’d waived his right to be booked into the station in Yolo County.
She signed in at the front desk, asked to speak with Colin Grayson, and then took a seat and waited. A few minutes later Colin appeared. “What are you doing here?”
“I want to speak to my client Arlo Gatley about his missing daughter.”
“Jessie, that’s not a good idea.”
“I need to see him, Colin. I need to figure out what I’m going to do next. She suffers from schizophrenia. Without her father to look for her, she has no one.” She sighed. “This is important to me.”
He shifted his weight.
“Did you find something in Arlo’s house? Is that why he was arrested?”
“We found the necklace. The father of the twins came to the station last night and confirmed that it belonged to their daughter.”
Jessie anchored her hair behind her ear. She felt strangely betrayed by Arlo Gatley, an awkward man whom she’d been quick to defend against a world filled with bullies.
“Wait here,” Colin said. “I’ll see what I can do.”
It wasn’t long before he returned. She could talk to Arlo, but the meeting would be recorded. After she agreed, she was stripped of her belongings. She knew the drill. Instead of being led to the window area, she was taken to a small room with a table and two chairs. She sat quietly and waited. Colin had disappeared.
A good thirty minutes passed before Arlo was escorted into the room, his hands cuffed in front of him. He took the chair at the table across from her. His eyes were puffy and bloodshot.
He frowned. “They told me that the necklace they found in my house belonged to one of the twin girls found dead recently. Is that true?”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t do it,” Arlo told her.
“Didn’t do what?”
“Didn’t do any of the things they’re suggesting I might have done. I never saw those girls in my life. And I have no idea where my daughter is. I would never hurt anyone.”
“I trusted you,” Jessie said. “I fell for your stories about being bullied throughout your life. How does one person manage to be disliked by an entire neighborhood? You sit in your driveway for hours at a time staring at nothing. What is that about?”
“I miss my wife. There are days I can’t be myself around Zee, so I wait for the emotions to pass.”
Jessie stiffened. She was falling for it again. The sad face, along with the melancholy tone of his voice, made her the ultimate sucker. “You wouldn’t allow me to see the rest of your house.”
“I’m uncomfortable with other people in my space. I have nothing to hide. I just like my privacy—that’s all there is to it.”
“What about the screaming in the middle of the night? Mrs. Dixon said she used to be awakened by loud shrieks.”
“Zee has suffered from hallucinations all of her life. It’s taken years to get her on the right medication.”
The man had an answer for everything. “You’ve been secretive with me from the start, refusing to let me take a look through your house and then acting disinterested when I showed you the picture of your daughter that revealed a young man taking her photo.” She angled her head as she kept her gaze on his. “But you have an answer for everything—don’t you, Arlo?” She glanced at the two-way mirror and then back to Arlo and said, “I’ve got to go.”
His eyes watered. “What about Zee?”
She wondered if the tears were all part of the act. “I haven’t found her yet,” Jessie told him, “but I’m not going to give up.”
His shoulders relaxed.
She looked him in the eyes. “I need to know if you ever heard Zee mention a boy by the name of Forrest Bloom.”
Much too quickly he shook his head as if he couldn’t possibly fathom his daughter with a boy.
She let out a drawn-out sigh.
“They can’t keep me here—can they? I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Jessie exhaled. “I don’t know what’s going on, Arlo. My advice to you is to come clean and tell them everything you know.” She stood and gestured toward the officer, letting him know she was ready to go.
“Find Zee,” Arlo pleaded as she walked away.
Colin caught up to her at the front of the building as she collected her things. “If you have a minute, we’d like to ask you a few questions about your time spent with Arlo Gatley prior to today.”
“There’s nothing to tell.”
“Humor me.”
She regretted coming at all. Seeing Arlo made her question herself all over again. Innocent or guilty? She had no idea. “Which way?”
Colin led her past a maze of cubicles and down a narrow hallway.
“Talk is being thrown around that Arlo may have killed his daughter.”
She didn’t know what to think about that.
“You do realize, don’t you, that your tendency to always root for the underdog could blind you to the truth?”
She stopped in her tracks. “And I hope you realize that your team tends to lean too quickly toward closing a case instead of actually solving it.”
Clearly annoyed, he kept walking.
She followed.
“After receiving tips from the neighbors,” Colin told her, “police have been stationed at the house. They’ll start digging up the backyard in a few hours.”
“Those neighbors have it out for the guy.”
“Why is that?”
“Because he’s different, quirky, and he has big ears.”
“Come on,” Colin said, disbelieving.
She snorted. “He’s been bullied his entire life. His daughter has schizophrenia. People don’t like people who aren’t like them.” And yet even as she said it, she knew she needed to get real. If Arlo had been bullied all his life, it would make even more sense that he would want revenge on mankind.
The conversation stopped when Colin opened the door to the conference room. She looked at the men in suits sitting at the table.
From the looks of it, the FBI had been invited, too.
Fuck.
Jessie’s interview, which turned out to be more of an interrogation, lasted nearly two hours. She had just arrived back home and was about to return Ben Morrison’s call when her phone rang. It was Marcus Hubbard.
“Yes, this is Jessie Cole,” she confirmed when he asked. “Thanks for returning my call.”
“You said it was important.” His voice leaned toward unfriendly.
“I’m looking for a young man named Forrest Bloom,” Jessie said. “According to public records, Brody Bloom sold his property to you. I was hoping you might be able to tell me where I might be able to find Brody’s son, Forrest.”
“Did something happen to Brody?”
“I don’t know anything about his family,” Jessie said. “I just have a few questions for Forrest Bloom.”
“Is it about the farmhouse?” he asked.
“The farmhouse?” Jessie asked. “According to the appraisal report, he sold the property to you.”
“Brody Bloom sold me fifty acres of farmland. They kept everything else: the house, the barn, and approximately ten acres of surrounding property.”
“Forrest Bloom still lives there?” she asked.
“I have no idea. I only know his father owns everything but the fifty acres. I’m a busy man. If this doesn’t concern me or my property, then we’re done here.”
“Yes,” she said, her adrenaline racing. “Thanks for calling ba—”
The line was disconnected before she could finish.
Jessie looked at the time. It was a little past noon. If she took off right now, she could get to Woodland in twenty-five minutes, hopefully get a chance to talk to Forrest Bloom. If he wasn’t home, she would leave a note to have him contact her, and still return home before Bella’s mom dropped Olivia off after school.
She looked through the window over the kitchen sink and saw Higgins sleeping beneath the tree in the backyard. She’d left him with a bowl of fresh water, and the weather wasn’t too hot today. Seeing the cast on his leg reminded her that she needed to take him back to the vet and see when he could get it removed.
“Focus,” she reprimanded herself. She’d deal with Higgins tomorrow.
She took a breath. Today she needed to talk to Forrest Bloom. He might be the only person who could tell her where Zee might have gone. She looked at the notepad by the phone, where she’d written down Hubbard’s phone number. Using her laptop, she used a mapping device to locate the farmhouse where the Blooms might still live. After writing down the address, she logged the street and city into her map app on her cell and left the house.