Cold Death Mary Stone (most read books TXT) 📖

Rumors were everywhere, speculating that a problem had come up with the adoption or that she’d been sent to a residential program for eating disorders, or drug addiction, or any number of mental illnesses. But locals whispered that her disappearance at fifteen was related to something else altogether.”

Ellie’s pulse kicked up. “They think she was pregnant?”

She hazarded a glance at Katarina to gauge her reaction, but the other woman’s expression was inscrutable.

Jillian nodded. “Yup. When fifteen-year-olds from wealthy families disappear for nine months, it tends to set tongues wagging.” Her smile faded. “Except, she wasn’t pregnant anymore when the newspaper delivery boy stumbled upon her body. She was dead, though. Stabbed so many times that whoever documented the crime scene used the word ‘overkill’ to describe what they found.”

The gears in Ellie’s head started spinning faster. “They never found who did it?”

“Nope. No one was ever even arrested, much less convicted. The police were stumped for suspects.”

Ellie chewed on her cheek. A brutal crime scene. Stumped for suspects. Potential ties to Kingsley. This was all adding up in a horrible way. “So, Morrigan Rhett could have been Letitia and Kingsley’s daughter.”

Katarina smacked the arm of the chair. “Or she could have been the daughter of about five million other people. This is so stupid. How is speculating on them helping to find my daughter? I doubt this Morrigan person was related to Kingsley, anyway.”

Jillian studied a paper and shook her head. “I don’t know. I think it’s a real possibility. The timing of the adoption is perfect, plus, the nature of the murder later?”

“I’m with Jillian. This feels right.”

Katarina scowled at Ellie. “Is that what the Charleston PD is teaching their officers these days?”

Ellie rubbed her temples. “Look, I know this probably sucks for you, but try to remember that we’re not doing this for funsies, and we’re not doing this to try to upset you more than you already are. We’re discussing theories that might be useful in finding your daughter.”

Katarina’s eyes flashed, but she snapped her mouth shut.

Good. Ellie turned back to Jillian. “So, if Morrigan was pregnant and then murdered, what happened to her baby?”

In unison, Ellie and Jillian’s heads swiveled to Katarina. Her nostrils flared, and angry red splotches climbed up her neck. She sprang up from the chair, shaking her head. “No. No way. I told you before, this is all bullshit. Christ.”

She turned her back and began pacing up and down the length of Ellie’s living room, hugging her arms around her waist and muttering under her breath.

Ellie locked eyes with Jillian again, the two of them coming to a nonverbal agreement. They’d give Katarina a little time to come to terms with the notion that the reason Kingsley had kidnapped Bethany wasn’t simply to seek revenge on Katarina but because he was Bethany’s flesh and blood.

Bethany’s great-grandfather.

Which made Katarina his granddaughter.

Ellie’s phone rang while Katarina was still wearing a path in her carpet. When she glanced at the screen and saw her dad’s number, her gaze flew to the clock. It was after four. Crap, crap, crap, she’d completely spaced on that one o’clock lunch with her mom earlier. Her dad was probably calling to tell her to quit acting like such a terrible daughter and ditching her mom all the time, only in much nicer words.

“Hi, Dad, I already know what you’re going to say, and I’m so sor—”

“Is your mother there with you?” Her dad’s voice was clipped and anxious.

Ellie sat up straight, her nerves firing off in rapid succession. “No, I haven’t seen her all day.”

A strangled noise reached her ear, and Ellie’s hands turned to ice. Her dad was a rock, so if he was acting scared, something was really wrong. “What is it? What’s happened?”

“Your mother went out for a meeting this morning, and I haven’t seen or heard from her since.”

28

The security command center housed inside a small room at the Gibbes Museum was as streamlined and clean as the rest of the building, but the lack of colorful art gave the room a sterile vibe. That was fine with Ellie because sterile meant fewer distractions. Katarina tagging along with her was almost more distraction than she could handle already. Especially considering the fried state of Ellie’s nerves.

Ellie had already called the restaurant where she was supposed to have met her mother, but she hadn’t arrived for the reservation, either. Helen’s car was still parked in the museum’s lot and her phone had been powered off. With little else to go on, reviewing video might give her their only clue.

A long desk held three monitors, arranged in a slight curve. Behind the desk was a wall of even more monitors, all displaying video feeds from various sections of the museum.

A soft-spoken security guard with a thin white scar that slashed through his left eyebrow and a timid smile hovered near the desk as he explained the setup. “We upgraded our security around three years ago by implementing a custom integration to work with the existing Bosch system. We’re digital and wireless now and have multiple cameras in every gallery, plus additional cameras near admissions, the gift shop, and along the building outside.”

Ellie held up a hand. She didn’t care about the history of the museum’s security systems, only the information relevant to her search. She motioned to the video files on the closest monitor. “So, I just click on the correct date and search through the files until I find something?”

“Pretty much. The files are arranged by date and individual camera. I pulled up this morning’s footage for you already, so you should be good to go. You can scroll through and double check every bit of footage we recorded.”

“Great, thanks.” Ellie dropped into the open chair behind the monitor, clicked on the first file, and began scrolling through the feed, searching for a glimpse of peach. Bless her dad’s heart for paying attention to what her mother wore. Not all men would have noticed, and