Page 62 of Sworn to Silence
He’s still staring at me. A stare so intense I grow uncomfortable beneath it. “I’m a pretty good cop,” he says. “I’m here. You may as well use me. I might even be able to help.”
He’s right, of course. But the thought of this man poking around in this case sends a shiver through me. My ensuing silence is all the answer he needs.
Giving me a final look, Tomasetti turns and starts toward a black Tahoe parked near the road. I watch him walk away, his words echoing in my ears.I’m a pretty good cop. I find myself wondering if he’s good enough to crack a sixteen-year-old case and all the secrets buried beneath it.
CHAPTER 15
It’s nearly threeP.M. when I leave the Huffman place. I feel like I’ve spent the morning in hell. Three hours at the scene have wrung me out until there’s nothing left. On the outskirts of Millersburg, I call Lois. I can tell by her voice she’s stressed. “We got media here, Chief. I swear to God these people are curling my hair.”
I don’t tell her there are probably more on the way. “I need you to set up a press conference.”
“You’re going to invitemoreof them?”
“You know what they say about keeping your enemies close.”
“You are a glutton for punishment.”
“Let’s do it at the high school auditorium. Six o’clock.”
“You got it.”
“Call all of my officers and tell them we’re meeting at four o’clock. The room you set up. That’s going to be our command center.” I name each member of my small force, including Mona. “Notify Detrick and Tomasetti, too.”
“Tomasetti that Mafia-looking guy?”
Her description elicits a smile. “And check to see if there have been any missing persons reports filed. White female. Twenty to thirty years old. Blonde. Start with the five-county area. If you don’t find anything there, go to Columbus, Wheeling, Massillon, Canton, Newark, Zanesville—”
“Slow down.”
“Steubenville. Check with county and city agencies.”
“Okay, I got it.”
“Patch me through to T.J., will you?”
The line clicks. T.J. picks up an instant later. “Hey, Chief.”
“Did you get the statements from the teenagers?”
“Lois is typing them now.”
“Anything on Patrick Ewell?” Ewell was the man who paid cash for a box of condoms at the Super Value Grocery.
“I ran a background.” Paper rattles. “Ewell, Patrick Henry. Thirty-six years old. Lives on Parkersburg Road with his wife, Marsha, and two teenage kids. No record. No arrests. Not even a frickin’ speeding ticket.” The pitch of T.J.’s voice changes. “Get this, Chief. He works at the slaughterhouse.”
It’s a tenuous connection, but I’m just desperate enough to follow up. “Find out what he does there. And find out if he was at the Brass Rail on Saturday.”
“You got it.”
I’d rather talk to Ewell myself, but I need to get the second victim identified first. “See if there’s a connection between Ewell and Amanda Horner.”
“Okay.”
I consider everything we know about Ewell. “Why would a married man with two grown kids buy a box of condoms?”
“Uh, birth control?”
“You’d think for a couple married that long, they’d have a better method.”
