Gone (Deadly Secrets #2)(56)

A tingle ran down Raegan’s spine. “Maybe.” She popped her door and climbed out. “Let’s find out.”

She rounded the hood and joined Alec on the street. They crossed and reached the blue Ford Taurus at the same time as the woman.

“Hi, there,” Raegan said, putting on her journalist smile. “Sorry to bother you. We’re looking for Conner Murray. We were told by DHS that he had an appointment here today.”

A nervous look passed over the brunette’s face. “Someone told you he’d be here today?”

“Yeah,” Alec said. “Yesterday. He agreed to answer a few questions for a story we’re researching.” It wasn’t a total lie, Raegan figured, as Alec pulled out his Associated Press badge and held it up. Just a little white one. To get the answers they needed, she didn’t even care if he flirted.

“Oh.” The brunette’s face sobered. “Then you didn’t hear the news.”

That tingle down Raegan’s back intensified. “What news?”

“Conner was killed yesterday.”

Shock rippled through Raegan. “How?”

“Car accident in the hills outside Sherwood. The police still aren’t sure what happened, but his car went off the road and tumbled down a hillside.”

Raegan glanced toward Alec, catching the holy hell look in his eyes.

“Are you managing his caseload now?” he asked.

“Just until someone else can be brought on. It was too late to cancel his appointments for today. What story did you two say you were working on?”

“Missing children.” Raegan handed the photos of the three children they’d identified as being Murray’s cases to the brunette. “Do you recognize any of these kids, Ms. . . .”

“Johnson.” The woman took the pictures and flipped through them. “The first two, no. But the third one . . .” She held up the photo of David Ramirez. “He has an older brother, doesn’t he?”

“He does,” Alec answered. “Miguel. He’s almost eleven now.”

“Right.” The woman nodded. “I remember because I was trying to get his parents enrolled in the Family Support and Connections program when their younger son went missing. That’s where I normally work. Only they didn’t qualify because they weren’t US citizens. Do you know what happened to them?”

“They’re doing well. Both got their citizenship, and good jobs.”

“Oh, I’m so happy to hear that. It was so sad when David went missing. Losing a child like that can rip a family apart.”

Raegan’s heart pinched, and she couldn’t stop herself from glancing toward Alec. “Yeah. We’ve heard that.”

“You don’t recognize the other two children?” Alec asked.

“No, I’m sorry.” She handed the photos back to Raegan. “I have to be going. I have a couple other families I need to visit today.”

“Sure.” Alec stepped back so the woman could open her car door. “Thanks for speaking with us.”

The woman nodded and climbed into her car. As they watched her drive away, Raegan had another funny feeling. “What are you thinking?”

Alec looked down at her. “I’m thinking we might have missed a link. If the Ramirezes and the Willigs both had older children close to the same age . . .”

Raegan’s breath caught. “Then we should check the other families and see if they had older kids as well.”

“Right. And check to see what programs those older kids were enrolled in, if any.”

“It’s also interesting that Murray turned up dead the day after we questioned him about those missing kids, don’t you think?”

Alec nodded. “Yeah. Very.” He pulled out his cell phone as they crossed the street back to his truck. “I’m gonna call Hunt and see if he can tell us anything about the accident.”

Hunt agreed to look into the accident for Alec, but as they drove into the Gorge to find the Coleman property, all Raegan could think about was the fact that two of the three families they were looking into had older children. And the fact that Emma had been an only child.

“I think this is it,” Alec said, pulling off the highway and onto a long gravel drive. The drive wound at least a mile up into the hills before a run-down home, overgrown with brush and weeds, appeared in the distance.

Raegan turned to look back the way they’d come. Through the trees she could just make out the Columbia River far below. “How long ago did you say they moved out here?”

“About four years ago.” Alec pulled the truck to a stop next to a beat-up Chevy 1500 and shifted into park. “Pretty sure this is where Brent Coleman grew up.”

The house looked like something out of The Silence of the Lambs, and Raegan couldn’t help but wonder if Brent Coleman’s ancestors had lived here too. She reached for her door handle. “You called him and told him we were coming out, right?”

“Yeah.” Alec pushed his door open. “Not exactly friendly, but he agreed to see us.”

Raegan joined him at the hood. A dog barked inside the house seconds before the screen door creaked open and a thin man with graying hair who looked to be in his fifties stepped out onto the porch. “Can I help you folks?”