The Girl and the Unlucky 13 (Emma Griffin™ FBI Mystery) A.J. Rivers (historical books to read TXT) 📖

biggest factors that influenced his life until we were drawn into a years-old mystery that brought us to an abandoned campground and face-to-face with his past. It gave me significant insight into him, but also made me worry about him more than I ever had.

“I’m doing okay,” he tells me.

“Really?”

He meets my eyes and holds them. “I’ll get there.”

“That’s good enough,” I say.

We go back to eating for a few seconds before he speaks again.

“That’s actually what I want to talk to you about,” he says.

“What is?” I ask.

“I can’t stop thinking about everything that happened at the campground,” he says.

“I know,” I nod. “It was a lot and it couldn’t have been easy for you.”

“It wasn’t,” he says. “It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to go through. But I can’t get it out of my mind. All those people. Ones we still don’t know. And they’re just the beginning.”

“I know,” I nod again. “The investigation is still going. That’s why I’m going up there in a couple of days. The Bureau sent in a task force I’m heading up. We’re working to piece together who the unidentified victims are, where they came from and when they died. We’re also focusing our efforts on trying to locate the remains of the ones we know were victims but haven’t been found yet.”

Dean nods. “I know. And I am totally available to be as big of a part of that investigation as you want me to be. But that’s actually not what I was thinking about.”

“Oh? What is it, then?”

“We know there are still victims who are out there. Ones whose names we know, and we know when they were probably killed. And others whose bodies we have but who we are still trying to connect with missing persons cases. Bodies that don’t have anything to do with Aaron or his family,” he says.

“There are,” I acknowledge. “Unfortunately, there’s never a shortage of missing persons cases.”

“One of them is really sticking with me, though,” Dean says.

“Which one?” I ask, leaning over sideways to pick up my drink and take a sip so I don’t have to look away from Dean.

“Ashley Stevenson.”

“The girl whose family came forward when the media started talking about the additional victims,” I say.

“Yes,” Dean confirms. “The details of her disappearance seemed to line up with what we knew about the murders in and around the campground at the time. Her last-known location was in the park near that campground. She hasn’t been seen or heard from in five years. But then we figured out she couldn’t have been a victim.”

“Her age ruled her out. She was only thirteen when she disappeared five years ago, which was too young for Laura or Rodney Mitchell to have gone after her. Which means if that area really was the last place she was alive, something else happened to her there,” I say. “Yeah. She’s been on my mind, too. She was so young. I hate to think what might have happened to her, but her family deserves to know.”

“Well, that’s why I’m here. I’ve been thinking maybe we should look into it together. Not as part of the FBI investigation, but in a private investigation capacity,” he offers.

“Are you going to let me call myself a private investigator?” I raise an eyebrow.

“Do you have a license?”

“No.”

“Then you know the answer,” he says.

“Alright.”

“Alright, you’ll stop trying to call yourself a PI,’ or alright you’re in for the investigation?” he asks.

“I’m in. The Bureau is focusing specifically on Laura’s and Rodney’s victims, so no attention is being given to Ashley or the other missing persons who don’t align with the methodology of those murders. Doing a private investigation is probably the family’s best bet at getting any answers,” I say.

“That’s what I was thinking, too. Which is why I’ve been in contact with the family,” Dean says.

“You have?” I ask.

“Yes. After not being able to stop thinking about it for more than a week, I decided I needed to know as much as I could. She was thirteen, Emma. It sounds so young, but it’s also the age I was when I was starting to get into trouble and was then accused of murder. I got wrapped up in finding out about her and her case, so I started doing some research.”

“What did you find out?” I ask.

“Not much. There isn’t much media coverage of it. A few brief articles from when she first went missing. They all give basically the same information. She went out with friends and didn’t come back. There are a couple of interviews with her mother. I was able to find her last yearbook and a couple of mentions of her in school publications. But it didn’t seem as if there was a lot of attention given to it. The general consensus was that she must have been a runaway,” Dean tells me.

“What do you think?” I ask.

“That a thirteen-year-old runaway isn’t going to get very far in the days of ID verification for everything, social media, and security everywhere. There would be no way for her to start a life of her own. Whatever happened after she was last seen, there was someone else involved,” Dean says.

“I agree. So, what’s next? How does the family feel about our investigating?” I ask.

“They want to meet with us,” he says. “They’re ready to talk and actually have people listen.”

Seven

Dean and Xavier stay the night, as they usually do when visiting either my father’s house or Sherwood. The next morning, as Dean gets in touch with Ashley’s family to arrange our meeting, I check in on Bellamy and Eric.

As much as I’ve wanted to visit with her and do everything I can to help in these last couple of weeks of her pregnancy, I’ve been trying to step back a bit. In a lot of ways, I’m still used to its being Bellamy and me, and Eric and me.

My friendships with both of them developed separately, and