Page 66 of Lost Lake
Talia gasped and stared wide-eyed. She started sobbing and tears flowed freely. She took a cleansing breath. “Tell me it’s not true.”
“I’m sorry, but it is,” El said to this woman whose life she’d changed by this visit. “Fingerprints confirm his ID.”
Talia swiped at her tears with the back of her hand. “I can hardly believe this happened now when he’d retired. I’d prepared to hear this while he was on the job but not now. No, not now. My father murdered.”
“I’m very sorry, Mrs. Vogel.” El got out a clean tissue from her pocket and handed it to her. “Do you have any idea who would want to harm him?”
“Call me Talia.” She sniffled hard and gave her nose a thorough wipe with the tissue and seemed to find some internal strength and raised her shoulders. “He was a police officer for twenty-five years. I would imagine there are any number of people who might want to harm him.”
“How about since he retired?” Gabe asked. “How long has that been, and is there anyone who he wasn’t getting along with?”
“He quit working about a year ago. He wasn’t Mr. Personality with an easy-going, fun-loving demeanor, and I suspect he’s had altercations with people since then. No offense, but he had that sharp, observant, assessing personality cops have. Not one to trust easily.”
“No offense taken.” How could El be offended when many law enforcement officers fit that profile? Herself and Gabe included.
“We’ve discovered he’d taken photos of a black van outside of Little Pines Daycare,” Gabe said, thankfully moving them forward. “Do you have any idea why he might be taking pictures there?”
“Yes, but…” Her gaze suddenly went wild, roaming the room as she shook her head. “You don’t think this has to do with what happened to him, do you?”
“We don’t know,” El said. “But it’s a line of inquiry.”
Talia clasped her hands together in her lap and took several deep breaths, seeming to find that internal strength again. Strength El suspected came from being the daughter of a police officer who could die in the line of duty at any time. “His death might be my fault. My daughter, Natalie, attends the Little Pines Daycare.”
The connection between Mason and Kenna, but…
Gabe slid forward on the sofa and locked his focus on Talia. “Please tell us how you think her attendance there could be related to your father’s death.”
“About two weeks ago, a black van was parked across the road. A man inside was watching the daycare.” Talia shivered. “I brought it to the director’s attention. She agreed it was suspicious, but she said there was nothing she could do about it because the guy wasn’t doing anything illegal and wasn’t on their property.”
“What did you do?” El asked.
“Two days later, when I arrived at the daycare, he was still there. So I turned around and went home with Natalie. Then I called Dad and asked him if he would keep an eye on the guy to see what was going on.” She twisted her hands in her lap. “I vowed to keep my sweet little girl home until that van wasno longer there. I mean, Natalie might’ve loved Kenna as her teacher so much that she begged to go to school every morning, but I wouldn’t risk Natalie’s life.”
The second connection. Maybe they were finally getting somewhere.
Eyes alive with interest, Gabe shifted even closer. “Kenna James was Natalie’s teacher?”
“Yes, and her daughter Lucy’s in Natalie’s daycare class. They’re great friends.”
Not ready to break the news of Kenna’s murder yet, El asked, “What did your father find?”
“Not much. The first day, he got the van’s plate number and tried to get his former partner to run it for him. But he was on vacation, and none of the other officers were willing to stick their necks out for him. So he approached the driver to ask what he was doing. The guy went off on him. Told him to mind his own business and leave him alone or else. My dad said he thought the guy was carrying so he backed off and returned to his truck but stayed that day until the man left. He tailed him for a short time but lost him in traffic.”
“Did it sound like he might’ve been mad enough to kill your dad?” El asked.
Talia’s eyes widened. “I suppose he could’ve been, especially with the way he went off on my dad.”
“What happened the next day?”
“Dad took a bunch of pictures of the van that he would develop in his darkroom. He also said when the director arrived that morning, the guy jumped out and confronted her. They were far enough away that he couldn’t hear the whole conversation, but he did hear him say at the end, ‘We need her to come through for us, and you’re gonna make sure that happens.’”
El shared a look with Gabe. His expression said the same thing she was thinking. What in the world did that mean?
No way to tell at the moment, so El turned her attention back to Talia. “What happened after that?”
“Dad went back the next day. The van wasn’t there. He stayed all day, and the van never showed up. Then he checked on and off for the next few days. Still didn’t see the guy. So we figured it was safe for Natalie to go there and Dad stopped watching the place.”
“Did he ever get his former partner to run the plates for him?”
