Evie thought that rang true. David would have seen it—a guy loving Maggie the way he did wasn’t one to be careless about details. She took the conversation another direction. “Any chance there are photos of the crowd that night, anything left around from that evening?”
“Maggie was working with a publicist by then, so there would be photos for marketing purposes that might still be in the archives. And Maggie keeps a scrapbook for herself, adds to it from every concert. She likely has a few images.”
“I think the concert was the opportunity,” Evie suggested. “Jenna was away from her place until late, she was out and about, in a good mood, not cocooned in studying. She made herself accessible that night. Any concert would have been the trigger. It just happened to be Triple M playing that night.”
David gave a small nod, accepted her attempt to lighten the connection, but then blew out a long breath. “I don’t take prayer lightly, Evie, and I said more than one before I made my decision to join this task force. It’s probably not chance that this is the county I selected or the case you picked. I’ll think back on that time, see if I can come up with anything that might be useful. But let’s not tell Maggie about it when you meet her. I’d rather not give her this kind of news to think about—not yet.”
“Agreed.” His perspective about God’s influence intrigued her. Evie thought God was often involved in the details of her work, but David had an assumption that seemed much more certain. She hoped he was right, for it implied her case could be solved after all.
Her phone alarm dinged and she silenced it. “My interview with Jenna’s biology class TA is in ten minutes.”
“I’ll let you get your questions organized,” David said, standing. “That ticket stub, Evie, it’s significant in at least one other way. It tells me your Jenna liked good music.”
“Very true,” Evie said, appreciating the lighthearted point. David walked back to the conference room. She picked up her notepad and added another fact to her list.
18. Jenna attended a Triple M concert the night she disappeared
“Evie, when’s your next interview?” David asked later, stepping out of the conference room and sliding a stack of folders into a carry-on bag.
“I’m meeting Jenna’s best friend in”—she checked the time—“thirty-six minutes.”
“Mind if I tag along? I need a brief break from Saul before I start in on these conversations. I’ll be switching from family who loved him to some people who at least have a motive to wish him dead.”
Evie understood that whiplash. “I’d welcome a second opinion on what Robin has to say.” She packed files in her backpack, not sure what she might actually need. “Why don’t you drive? I’m meeting Ann at noon. You can drop me off with her and then go talk with your favorite person of interest.”
“That would be Everett Gibson,” David told her as they exited the office space. “He did six years for aggravated assault after beating a neighbor into a near coma. Cops strongly suspected Everett at the time, as he and the victim had past history, but they just couldn’t break the man’s alibi. Everett said he was settling a minor traffic fender bender with a judge’s wife—for cash, untraceable, wouldn’t you know—on the other side of town when the neighbor was attacked. An easy alibi to dismiss except the judge’s wife backed him up. The case stalled. Saul got hired to look at that alibi. He managed to prove the judge’s wife bought prescription painkillers off Everett on occasion, but that she hadn’t seen him on the day in question. Once Everett’s alibi was proven false, the case came together quickly. The man took a plea deal for the six years.”
“When did he get released from jail?”
“Two months before Saul disappeared. He continues to have a spotty record with the law. Everett’s now in the county lockup for trying to steal a truck off a used-car lot.”
“At least you know where to find him.”
David smiled. “There is that. Getting him to confess to Saul’s murder will be a challenge, given I don’t know that he did it and there’s zero evidence to suggest he did. For now, I just want to see how he reacts to Saul’s name. The guy has a temper. That can be useful.”
Evie nodded. “It should be a revealing couple of hours for both of us.”
Evie met Jenna’s best friend, Robin Landis, at a coffee shop across from the fashion design firm where she worked. David perched on a stool off to the left of their table, in comfortable hearing distance, but not in Robin’s line of sight. Robin was willing to help, yet she was so emotional about her missing friend that Evie wondered how many details were being lost because of her eagerness to be useful. Evie found herself deliberately slowing the pace to try to settle the woman. She circled the interview back through less overt topics, taking notes in longhand rather than shorthand just to slow down the process further.