Pretty Girls Dancing(64)
“Nothing earth-shaking.” She looked up then, and her fingers paused on the keyboard. It occurred to him for the first time that she must have been writing her report for the day, something he still had to do. “According to the nine members of Shelley Starkey Koen’s extended family that I spoke to, Dane Starkey was telling the truth about the incident twenty-two years ago. The DeVrieses had lived in the neighborhood only for a few months, but Brian DeVries spent some time at the Starkey house visiting Lewis, who was his age. Shelley was Lewis’s sister. The alleged sexual assault took place in a bathroom in the basement. Shelley kept quiet for a couple of days until she finally spilled the whole sordid story to her mother. I take it her father went over to the DeVries house, out for blood. From the sounds of things, Brian’s mother paid them not to report it to the police, in return for putting Brian in counseling and moving out of the neighborhood.” She pushed back a strand of blonde hair that had escaped from the intricate knot at her nape. “A couple of months later, Brian and his mother relocated to Saxon Falls.”
“I still can’t believe none of this would have shown up in a background check.”
She lifted a shoulder. “The DeVries family didn’t live at that Columbus address long. Brian probably fudged the dates on his application. The years at his former Columbus address would have matched up even if the exact months didn’t. It’d be easy to overlook, even if someone was paying attention.”
“You pulled property records for each of the Starkey family members on the list?” Technically, Sloane was now the senior member on the case. She had four years’ more experience than Mark. But he had the most time on this particular case, so for now, she was following his lead.
“I didn’t find any more than you had.”
“Damn it.” He finished wolfing down the sandwich and wadded up the wrapper in one fist. Dane Starkey’s alibi had been unshakeable. He’d been in a poker game with three other people in Westerville, a half hour from Columbus. Even if Mark had been able to poke holes in any of the three men’s stories, footage from traffic cameras had solidified Starkey’s claim. He’d been nowhere near Saxon Falls the night Whitney DeVries had been taken.
But his large extended family had even more reason to hate Brian DeVries than Dane did. They were still running down the alibis of each of them, including Shelley’s husband. So far, nothing was panning out. And if no one in the family owned any property outside of their family homes, where would they have taken Whitney DeVries if one of them had snatched her?
“Aw.” Sloane made a faux purr of sympathy. “I recognize that expression. Your prime suspect isn’t looking especially shiny anymore. Don’t get discouraged. I still have to check out all their alibis for October 30.”
“I’m not ready to pull the other investigators off him yet.” But she was right. He’d taken the man apart, figuratively at least. Starkey might have the motive for kidnapping Whitney, but given his alibi, he would have needed help. The man’s bank records showed that he hadn’t shared any of the money DeVries had paid him. And while making DeVries suffer by kidnapping his daughter might have appealed to him, it also would have interfered with the man’s willingness to pay the final installment of the blackmail. Starkey should have immediately come to mind once Whitney went missing. But Brian hadn’t given his name to BCI. Mark considered that omission damning.
“Have you faced DeVries with all this yet?”
He shook his head, picking up the files and crossing to the table to pull out a seat next to hers. “I wanted to see where the Starkey thing went first. I’m betting he was the first one DeVries suspected, too. He’d have to. What kind of father doesn’t share that kind of detail with the cops when his kid goes missing?”
“One with something to hide. We have to wonder if he ever outgrew his taste for teenage or near-teen girls.”
He exchanged a look with her. They were often on the same wavelength. On the last case they’d worked together, he’d thought that quality made them good teammates. Which showed how far off base his impressions could be.
“Today I found out he omitted something else.” Briefly, he told her about the man’s connection to the church. “We need to discover what year he was doing the mowing and if it was anywhere around where the camp was held.” He held up the papers. “These might tell us.” He spread the pages out on the table in front of him.
“Did you get anything else from the pastor about the girls? He knew Kelsey Willard, too, right?” Mark had to give Sloane credit; she’d caught up on the case remarkably fast since her arrival.
“He knew her but provided no details that weren’t in the report. But our meeting did take a turn for weird before I left.” Briefly he told her about his final conversation with the pastor. She didn’t appear as shocked as he’d been by it.
“Sounds like one of the radical religious types who blames natural disasters on any social agenda they happen to disagree with. Believe me, they’re far more common than you might think.”
“Laura Mikkelsen said Brian DeVries had helped out ten or eleven years ago.” He flipped through the pages Laura had given him until he found the ones detailing the youth-camp participants by year. Skimmed until Willard’s name jumped out at him. “Kelsey would have been . . .” He did some quick figuring in his head. “Ten the last time she went to the camp.”