Rain in Dark Woods by R.H. Johnson

Author:R.H. Johnson [Johnson, R.H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hampton, Westbrook Publishing
Published: 2022-01-18T00:00:00+00:00

23.

Nazareth was at the high school waiting for the principal, Kristin Elmore, to finish meeting with a faculty committee when the text from Gimble came through. Call ASAP is all it said. He phoned her immediately, and she told him what had just gone down at the Denning home. No, she didn’t need him to leave the high school. She just wanted to let him know that Amanda’s mother was dead, almost certainly killed by her husband.

“I’m sorry about this, Tara,” he said, his voice heavy with guilt. “I shouldn’t have asked you to come here.”

“Wrong, you should have, and I’m glad you did. Denning was easy to handle. I just wanted you to have the details while you’re meeting with the principal.”

“I’m sitting outside her office at the moment, but I should see her in a few minutes.”

As if on cue, the office door swung open, and five young faculty members exited. Elmore walked over to Nazareth and put her hand out.

“I’m sorry to keep you waiting, Detective. My secretary said you want to talk about Amanda Denning. I hope you have some good news.”

“None yet, I’m afraid. I just have some questions.”

She led him into her office and closed the door. As soon as they sat down at her small conference table, she reminded him that she had already met at length with one of the local officers.

“Yes, I read his report, and your comments were extremely helpful. But the situation has gotten a bit more complicated since that interview.”

Elmore’s jaw dropped when he named the three other missing Carterville teens and noted that six more girls from neighboring towns had most likely also been abducted. When he added that Irene Denning had just been found dead under suspicious circumstances, she put her elbows on the table and lowered her face into her hands. This sort of thing definitely wasn’t in her job description.

“Did Floyd Denning kill his wife?” she asked after a long pause. Nazareth noticed that tears had formed in the corners of her eyes. “And is he a suspect in the abductions?”

“The answer to your first question is possibly. The answer to the second is yes, he’s a suspect, but not a strong one.”

“Why not?”

Nazareth offered his theory that the girls had been taken by someone they knew and trusted, and in his view this ruled out Floyd Denning.

“Girls in Carterville may have known him,” he explained, “but based on what I’ve read and heard, I doubt they would have trusted him. I also doubt that six girls from other towns would have jumped in his car if offered a ride.”

“I met him only once,” Elmore said, “and he’s definitely not someone I would accept a ride from.” She stared at Nazareth. “This is on me, Detective. I knew he had been hitting Amanda’s older brothers, but at the time I didn’t feel the situation warranted an official report. Obviously I was wrong.”

“Don’t blame yourself. You had no reason to believe he was a danger to the community.

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