The Overnight Guest(56)

“Okay. What else do we have?” Santos asked.

A deputy named Foster spoke up. “Backgrounds on Kevin and Margo Allen came up clean. Mom said she was home with her two younger kids during the murders, and the dad said he was at his house with his girlfriend. The girlfriend confirmed this.”

“No custody dispute in the divorce?” Randolph asked.

Foster shook her head.

“Both parents did seem genuinely distraught,” Santos agreed. “And they are being fully cooperative. What else?”

“We’ve run a list of local sex offenders, and two deputies are running them down,” Randolph said. “We also have several officers going door-to-door in the vicinity of the Doyle home and interviewing the residents to see if they heard or saw anything.”

“How about you, Sheriff?” Santos asked.

Sheriff Butler described his conversation with June Henley and Jackson’s curious behavior. “I think it’s worth a follow-up, but Jackson Henley is just a messy drunk. I don’t see him getting violent, and to my knowledge, he hasn’t had any kind of conflict with the Doyles.”

“That brings us back to the two missing teens,” Santos said. “What do we know about Ethan Doyle? What was his relationship like with his parents?”

“We’ve never had any domestic calls out to their home,” Butler said, “but Ethan did get questioned by the police concerning a fight he got into with some other teens.”

“And there was that call from Kurt Turner about Ethan stalking his daughter,” Foster added.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Butler said. “Dad was mad because Ethan wouldn’t stay away from his daughter. He kept showing up at the house, calling. A deputy was sent over to talk to Ethan about keeping his distance. No charges were ever filed.”

Santos shared what she found in Becky Allen’s bedroom. “It could just be a schoolgirl crush, but Becky did have some kind of feelings for Ethan. Could they have run off together?”

“Josie Doyle hasn’t said much yet,” Sheriff Butler relayed. “She’s still at the hospital getting checked out. But from what she told us at the scene—Becky Allen was just as frightened as she was. They were both running toward the cornfield when they were separated.”

The group heard footsteps and turned to see Deputy Levi Robbins walking toward them. “Sorry I’m late,” he murmured, taking a seat.

“So maybe Ethan Doyle and his parents fought,” Randolph suggested. “He killed them, shot his sister, and then either killed the Allen girl, or took her with him.”

“I’d hate for that to be true, but it sounds plausible,” the sheriff said. “What did you find out from the Cutter boy?” he asked Levi.

Levi shook his head. “We need to bring him in and conduct a formal interview.” Levi explained how he had pulled Brock over not far from the Doyle home around 1:00 a.m.

“He said he was at a movie with his cousin,” Levi said. “I tracked down the cousin, and at first, his story matched Brock’s, but when I pressed him for details, it all fell apart. He didn’t see Brock at all last night. The kid lied.”

“Could be he’s protecting his friend,” Sheriff Butler said, rubbing his eyes wearily.

“I don’t want to get tunnel vision here,” Santos said, pushing her chair away from the table. “But it’s looking like Ethan Doyle is at the top of our suspect list. Levi, keep an eye on Brock Cutter, see if he leads us to anything.”

She turned to Sheriff Butler. “We need to follow up on Jackson Henley but in the meantime you can introduce me to Josie Doyle. See if she has anything new to add.”

The door opened, and Dr. Lopez stepped into the room with Sheriff Butler and two strangers.

“Josie,” Dr. Lopez said, “how are you doing?”

“Okay,” Josie said, looking uncertainly at the man and the woman with Sheriff Butler.

“Your arm will be sore for a while. We’ll give you some pain medication and you should be sure to keep the wound dry. But the good news is that you don’t have to spend the night here. You can go home with your grandmother in just a little while.”

Josie looked at her grandmother, startled. They were going back to the house? She didn’t know if she could ever go back there. Josie thought of her bedroom and all her prized possessions. Her Discman and CDs. Her 4-H medals and collection of glass animal figurines that sat on the windowsill. An image of her father lying on her bedroom floor, face gone, flashed behind her eyes. Miserably, she looked to her grandmother.

Caroline patted Josie’s hand as if reading her mind. “You’re going to our house,” she said.

Josie nodded, taking this in. Of course, she wouldn’t be going back to the house. Her parents were dead. She and Ethan couldn’t live in their home by themselves—they were orphans.

The sheriff cleared his throat and removed his stiff brown hat. He looked at Josie over his hawkish nose. “Josie, glad to see you are doing okay,” he said. “This is Agent Santos and Agent Randolph from the DCI in Des Moines. They’re investigating the...what happened at your house last night. They’d like to talk to you for a few minutes.”

To Josie, they didn’t look like police officers. They weren’t wearing uniforms. The woman wore black pants and a matching jacket.