“And that’s exactly what the poem states: Edie took his left. She took his left leg. He was missing his left leg, right?”
Theo sat forward. “He was. He told everyone that he fell at work and the wound in his leg became infected. Eventually it had to be amputated. But if he was trying to hide the reason, he wouldn’t give anyone the correct answer.”
The search kept them awake all night. Theo knew Sophia was aware of the approaching dawn from her repeated clock checking and glances out the window. She must have felt as tired as he. But if the search was as fascinating for her as it was for him, she couldn’t leave.
“Imagine if we solve this,” he said. “We could bring closure to so many families.”
“After so many years . . .”
She trailed off when she caught sight of Dorland entering the incident room.
“Well good morning,” said Dorland. “What have you two been up to? I’m not interrupting, am I?”
“Morning, Inspector Dorland,” replied Sophia cheerfully, perhaps too tired to notice the interrogation.
“Dorland.” Theo wasn’t sure how much he should disclose about the previous night’s work. He still had an important case to solve.
“Boss, I may not have had as busy a night as you but you won’t believe what I found when I re-watched some of the CCTV footage,” Dorland replied. He threw a photo down on Theo’s desk. “Look who I caught a glimpse of on the CCTV footage?”
Theo lifted the photo and squinted at it. His eyes were so tired.
“Who is it?” asked Theo. “She looks familiar. Who is she?”
“The nurse from our last case. We questioned her about the Tipring murder because she used to work for him. However, she had an alibi. Well, right at the time of the Yoder’s murder, look who’s entering the car park. The nurse we interviewed for the Tipring case—Ms. Dorie Armes. Can that be a coincidence?”
“The Tipring case?” asked Sophia.
“It’s funny you brought up Tipring,” Theo said. “We just spent the night looking into the Tipring case. He may not have been the innocent man we had suspected him to be. He may have murdered two if not more girls.”
“What?”
“The man hid coded messages about girls in his artwork. Sophia decoded them.”
“I knew those pieces of tile art couldn’t just be art,” said Dorland. “It was ridiculous. How did you know to look at them like they were code?”
“It’s a long story,” said Sophia. “But it’s not important. What’s important is what we found. Look here, these poems.”
Theo pulled out the poems from Doc’s file and watched as Dorland carefully read through them. Theo explained what they had found.
“These are incredibly strange. If it’s true what you say, it gives us a motive into his murder. Someone must have found out who he was. But how? Why would they not come forward? We could have questioned him, found out information about the missing women.”
“I don’t know, but I think we’re going to have to find a connection. We should see if anyone who worked with him—and we will start with Ms. Dorie Armes—could have been related to any missing woman’s case. It may be a perfect coincidence that the nurse was at our new crime scene but I want to make sure. Let’s pull up her statement. What was her alibi for the Tipring murder? She may have only worked for Mr. Tipring for three days, but it may have been enough to concoct a plan.”
“What about Sharon?” asked Dorland.
“There must have been a reason she died as well. That’s why we need to ask more questions, like why she was at the building at the time in question. Please bring me a copy of Dorie’s statement.”
Theo and Sophia spent the next hour searching for the tie between Dorie and Doc. No girls with the last name Armes appeared anywhere in the missing person’s database.
“Tipring may not have murdered a family member, but a friend,” said Theo. “In which case, finding a connection would be nearly impossible unless Dorie Armes disclosed one.”
When Dorland brought Dorie’s statement, the answer came. Dorie had a different last name than the rest of her family for she had been married for a short while. Her mother’s last name was Standford. When they did a search for that name, a Charlotta Standford appeared as missing from the London area. He pulled up the file and read it carefully. They were sisters. Maddock Tipring might have murdered her sister.
But how did she find out?
Theo had invited Sophia to join him on his interview of Dorie, but she refused. Sophia needed to go to work and so left soon afterward. She promised to check in with him later. He decided to go home and shower.
When he returned home, he saw the light on in his wife’s room and thought she must be awake. But when he knocked softly, no one answered. He opened her door and saw her laying on her bed, a textbook lay on her chest—English for Dummies. He went over to her and took her glasses from her face.
“Morning, dear,” he said to her, and switched the light off on the way to his bedroom. He was glad no one in his family knew about the cases he worked on. How many of Tipring’s neighbors knew they lived beside a murderer, perhaps a serial killer? He went to the front door to make sure it was locked before taking a shower and falling into bed.
A knock at the door woke him up.
“Who is it?” he asked.
The door slowly opened and Agneta poked her head around it. She didn’t look tired in her pink star pajamas and fuzzy bathrobe.
“Did I wake you up?” he asked her in Greek.
“No, not at all. You look tired.”
“I am a bit, but I have time for you. What is it?”
“I have been thinking of this for a long time. I feel like I’m just wasting more and more years of my life because nothing is coming back.” She tapped her head with her finger. “I don’t want to wait any more. I want to move on.”
“You want a divorce?”
“A divorce? No, nothing like that. I want to go back to school. I want to learn English, I want to get a job, a career. If my memory returns, that’s wonderful. However, if it doesn’t, at least I haven’t wasted more time.”
He nodded. What she said made perfect sense.
“What do you want of me?” he asked.
She rubbed her hands together in a nervous fashion. “It will take some money to go to school. And I totally understand if you say we have to wait. Maybe we don’t have the money right now. I can wait. I just wanted to ask . . .”
“I think it’s a wonderful idea,” he said finally. He did have some money saved up. It wasn’t for schooling, but what else did he have to spend it on? If she wanted to go to school, what right did he have to stop her?
He put his hand on her arm and rubbed up and down softly. She didn’t want a divorce, but she wanted to move on, live life again. He wanted to jump for joy, but the trepidation of what moving on implied made him hesitate. What if she wanted to move on without him?
He knew he didn’t have a choice. And she deserved it. Although she did not remember loving him, he still loved her and would do anything to make her happy.
Chapter Fifty-Two
The next morning, Theo and Dorland knocked at the home of Dorie Armes. Dorie opened the door and led them back into the sitting room without a word. She didn’t even ask why they were there. She just watched them quietly.
“We wanted to ask you a few questions about your movements on Saturday, three days ago.”
“You want to ask me about Saturday? Is this about Doc Tipring? Do you have news?”
“No, we’re looking into a completely different case.”
She didn’t reply at first but looked to her hands instead.
“Saturday, three days ago,” Theo repeated.
“Well, let’s see. Saturday. I took my mother and sister for breakfast and then we brought my mother to the shops—she likes to see the shops. At three? Oh yes, I had to drop an envelope off at my cousin’s flat. Why are you asking me these questions?”