“Aimee rocks,” Claire had declared.
They had all been smiling. They had all been so happy.
Erik looked out the windshield, back toward his car, back toward Lorraine Wolf. Their eyes met. He had known Lorraine for two years now, since Aimee had first started dating her son. He liked her. Truth be told, he had even semi-fantasized about her. Not that he would have ever done anything about it. Not like that. Just a harmless fantasy for an attractive woman. Normal stuff.
He looked in the backseat now. There was sheet music, handwritten. He froze. His hand moved slowly. He saw the handwriting and realized that it was Aimee’s. He picked it up, brought it closer, holding it as if it were strands of porcelain.
Aimee had written this.
Something caught in his throat. His fingertips touched down on the words, the notes. His daughter had held this paper. She had scrunched up her face the way she always did and delved into her life experiences and produced this. It was a simple thought, really, but suddenly it meant the world to him. His anger was gone. It would be back. He knew that. But at that moment, his heart just felt heavy. There was no anger. Just pain.
That was when Erik decided to pop the trunk.
He looked back over at Lorraine Wolf. Something crossed her face. He didn’t know what. He opened the car door and stepped back into the night. He moved toward the trunk, took hold of the hatch with one hand, began to lift it. He heard rustling from the field. He turned and saw Myron come flying into view.
“Erik, wait….”
Erik opened the trunk then.
The black tarp. That was what he saw first. Something wrapped in black tarp. His knees buckled, but he held on. Myron started toward him, but Erik held up a hand as if telling him to stay back. He tried to rip the tarp. It wouldn’t give. He pulled and tugged. The tarp held in place. Erik started to panic now. His chest heaved. His breath caught.
He took out his key chain and dug the end of a key into the plastic. It made a hole. There was blood. He slit the tarp and reached his hands in. They grew wet and sticky. Erik desperately pulled at the tarp, ripping at it as if he were trapped inside, running out of air.
He saw the dead face and fell back.
Myron was next to him now.
“Oh my God,” Erik said. He collapsed. “Oh thank you….”
It wasn’t his daughter in the trunk. It was Drew Van Dyne.
CHAPTER 53
Lorraine Wolf said, “I shot him in self-defense.”
In the distance Myron could hear the police sirens. Myron stood next to the trunk with Erik Biel and Lorraine Wolf. He had called the police. They’d be here soon. He looked across the field. He could see distant silhouettes of Win and Jake Wolf. Myron had run ahead. Win had taken care of securing their suspect.
“Drew Van Dyne was in the house,” she went on. “He pulled a gun on Jake. I saw it. He was yelling all kinds of crazy stuff about Aimee—”
“What stuff?”
“He said that Jake didn’t care about her. That she was just some dumb slut to him. That she was pregnant. He was ranting.”
“So what did you do?”
“We keep guns in the house. Jake likes to hunt. So I got a rifle. I pointed it at Drew Van Dyne. I told him to put down the gun. He wouldn’t. I could see that. So…”
“No!” It was Wolf who had said that. They were close enough to hear. “I shot Van Dyne!”
Everyone stared at him. The police sirens sounded.
“I shot him in self-defense,” Jake Wolf insisted. “He pulled a gun on me.”
“So why did you stick the body in the trunk?” Myron asked.
“I was afraid no one would believe that. I was going to bring him home, dump him in his own house. Then I realized that would be stupid.”
“When did you realize that?” Myron said. “When you saw us?”
“I want a lawyer,” Jake Wolf said. “Lorraine, don’t say anything else.”
Erik Biel stepped forward. “I don’t care about any of this. My daughter. Where the hell is my daughter?”
No one moved. No one spoke. The night stayed silent except for the scream of sirens.
Lance Banner was the first cop out of his car, but dozens of squad cars descended on the Roosevelt Mall parking lot. They kept the flashing lights on. Everyone’s face went from blue to red. The effect was dizzying.
“Aimee,” Erik said softly. “Where is she?”
Myron tried to keep calm, tried to concentrate. He stepped to the side with Win. Win’s face, as ever, remained unruffled.
“So,” Win said, “where are we?”
“It’s not Davis,” Myron said. “We checked him out. It doesn’t look like it was Van Dyne. He pulled a gun on Jake Wolf because he thought that he’d done it. And the Wolfs claim, somewhat convincingly, that it wasn’t them.”
“Any other suspects?”
“Not that I can think of.”
Win said, “Then we need to look at them again.”
“Erik thinks she’s dead.”
Win nodded. “That’s what I mean,” he said. “When I say we need to look at them again.”
“You think one of them killed her and got rid of the body?”
Win did not bother replying.
“My God,” Myron said. He looked back over at Erik. “Have we been looking at this wrong from the beginning?”
“I can’t see how.”
Myron’s cell phone chirped. He looked down at the caller ID and saw the number was blocked.
“Hello?”
“It’s Investigator Loren Muse. Do you remember me?”
“Of course.”
“I just got an anonymous call,” she said. “Someone claimed they spotted Aimee Biel yesterday.”
“Where?”
“On Livingston Avenue. Aimee was in the passenger seat of a Toyota Corolla. The driver pretty much fits the description of Drew Van Dyne.”
Myron frowned. “Are you sure?”
“That’s what she said.”
“He’s dead, Muse.”
“Who?”
“Drew Van Dyne.”
Erik came over and stood next to Myron.
And that was when it happened.
Erik’s cell phone rang.
He brought the phone up. When he saw the number on the caller ID, Erik nearly screamed.
“Oh my God….”
Erik snapped the phone to his ear. His eyes were wet. His hand shook so badly he hit the wrong button to answer. He tried again and brought the phone back up. His voice was a panicked scream. “Hello?”
Myron leaned in close enough to hear. There was a moment of static. And then a voice, a teary voice, a familiar voice said, “Daddy?”
Myron’s heart stopped.
Erik’s face collapsed, but his voice was all father. “Where are you, honey? Are you all right?”
“I don’t… I’m fine, I think. Daddy?”
“It’s okay, honey. I’m here. Just tell me where you are.”
And she did.
CHAPTER 54
Myron drove. Erik stayed in the passenger seat.
The ride was not a long one.
Aimee had said that she was behind the Little Park near the high school — that same park that Claire had taken her to when she was only three. Erik would not let her off the line. “It’s okay,” he kept saying. “Daddy’s on his way.”