Page 11 of Shadow of Justice
“You don’t think she knows?” Caro said. “You don’t think she suspects?”
“Hayden doesn’t think so. She says her parents never talk about her aunt. It’s a taboo subject.”
“I’ll just bet it is,” Hojo muttered. While we talked, Caro fired her computer back up.
“Simmons, huh?” she said. “How long after Ellie’s murder did the sister marry this guy?”
“Well, if Ellie was murdered twenty-two years ago, Hayden’s nineteen.”
“Yikes,” Hojo said. “That is just creepy as hell. So theoretically, Jamie Simmons stalks his classmate. Something happens. He kills her. Maybe raped her before that. We don’t know.”
“We’ll probably never know,” I said.
“So then what, Simmons worms his way into Ellie Luke’s family? Knocks her little sister up? Mara, this is going to make national news.”
“Let’s try to prevent that for as long as possible.”
“Creepy is right,” Caro said. The glow of her computer screen made her face look blue. I could see the reflection of a social media page in her glasses. “My God, Mara, you have to take a look at this.”
I slid off the desk and walked up behind Caro. Hojo came up on her other side. Caro had a news article pulled up from when Ellie Luke disappeared. It was the same story I found with Ellie’s picture. Those ice-blue eyes just drew you in.
“That’s the girl I remember,” Caro said. “That smile. Those eyes.”
She closed the tab and pulled up another page. It was another picture of what I thought was Ellie Luke but she looked much older.
“Wait,” Hojo said. “Did they do an age progression? Why would …”
I felt the blood drain from my head. In our lengthy interview with Hayden Simmons, I’d never thought to ask for a picture of her mother. It never occurred to me to wonder what she looked like. But Caro had pulled up a recent picture of Erin Luke Simmons, Ellie’s younger sister. Hayden’s mother. She and Ellie Luke could have been identical twins.
“My God,” I said, feeling lightheaded. “He …”
“Jamie Simmons had a type,” Caro whispered. “Good lord, Mara. Did he kill that poor girl and then marry her lookalike sister? Like she’s some sort of trophy, too?”
I pulled out my phone. I did a quick browser search until I had the same picture of Erin Luke Simmons pulled up. I shot a text link to Sam then punched in his number. He answered on the second ring.
“Sam,” I said. “I need you to look at the photo I just sent you.”
“Hang on,” he said. I heard him fumble with his phone. “What am I looking at? Wait. That’s Ellie Luke. Is that …”
“It’s Erin Luke,” I said. “Jamie Simmons’s wife. Hayden’s mother. Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”
“Christ,” he muttered.
“Exactly.”
“This thing’s going to get messy, quick,” he said.
“We can’t let it. What’s the word on Gus’s warrants?”
“All signed,” he said. “We’re locked and loaded for first thing in the morning. I’ve got eyes on Jamie Simmons’s house. I’ve got more eyes on Hayden. She just got to her friend’s house. I don’t want her making any calls or texts to anyone in her family tonight. She understands.”
“I hope so,” I said. “That poor girl.”
“I know,” he said. “We’re gonna bring Simmons in for questioning, then head over to serve the warrants. I assume you’ll want to be in the observation room.”
“Definitely,” I said. We clicked off. It felt like my legs were encased in cement. Hojo and Caro were statues, too. None of us could take our eyes off Caro’s computer screen. There was no need to imagine what Ellie Luke would look like today. In her sister Erin, we could see her face.
5
