Funny how a house with toys strewn everywhere could look lonely.
He’d just raised his fist to knock when the door opened.
Lee, dressed for work, blocked the door. “Sheriff.”
Used to be, Lee had called him Rafe. But often his job became an entity, defining him, separating him like armor from the man he really was, the friend he could be.
“Got a minute?”
Lee stepped aside so Rafe could enter. Sandy was already standing in the doorway of the kitchen, a dish towel in one hand and a plate in the other. Resignation had thinned her lips. Dark circles had made a home under her eyes.
She reminded him of Derek’s mother.
“Can I get you something to drink?” Lee offered. “We’ve got sun tea or bottled water.”
Sandy didn’t wait for an answer. She disappeared into the kitchen and returned with the bottled water. Rafe took a long drink, suddenly wishing he’d brought Janie with him. She’d been good with Judy Chaney, praising Derek’s art ability. Maybe here she could have been some help, offered a woman’s perspective.
“I’ve got some photos I’d like you to look at.” Rafe opened his iPad and quickly went to PhotoFinder. “But first, what size shoe did Brittney wear?”
“Seven,” said Sandy, settling down beside him and scrutinizing the iPad screen before Rafe had a chance to scroll to the pictures he wanted them to see. “That’s Tommy Skinley,” she identified the boy in the first photo. “He sometimes drove Brittney to college, as you’ll recall. His little sister was always along, too. Amanda.”
“Tommy wouldn’t do anything to Brittney,” Lee said. “They’ve known each other forever. He’s not an easy kid, but...” Lee’s words tapered off.
“Did Brittney own a pair of green tennis shoes, high-tops?”
Sandy made a face. “No.”
The shoe they’d found under Derek’s bed was a size six, but even Rafe knew that size could depend on brand and width and such.
“Do you mind if I look in her room, at her shoes?”
“Go right ahead.” Lee stood, leading Rafe into his oldest daughter’s room. It was neat, but untouched since Brittney disappeared. A layer of dust was on the dresser. A math book was open and turned upside-down on a desk in the corner. All Brittney’s shoes were lined up on the floor of her closet. She had five pairs, but none of the shoes were missing a mate.
Rafe checked under the bed to be sure: nothing.
“We have a new lead,” Rafe shared with the Travises when he joined them in the living room. Sandy still held the dish towel and a plate in her hand. Rafe spoke quickly so he wouldn’t give them hope only to have to extinguish it. “A teacher at Adobe Hills Community College read something in a student’s art book that might be related to Brittney’s disappearance. All I’m doing now is trying to follow a trail. Tommy has been identified as a person of interest. It could be that Tommy knows something and isn’t even aware he knows it.”
“You questioned him back in December,” Lee reminded Rafe.
As one of Brittney’s car-pool buddies, Tommy had been interrogated early and often. After all of that, Rafe concluded that Tommy was hiding something but not about her disappearance.