Page 4 of Shadow of Justice
“Right,” she repeated. “So … nobody in my family ever wants to talk about my Aunt Ellie. My whole life, she was just this … mythic figure. I didn’t even know my mom wasn’t an only child until I was maybe ten or eleven. That’s how much they don’t talk about it. My grandparents are the same. There was this picture in the hallway. Like a senior picture. I just thought it was my mom. I never asked. Then one day, my grandpa was in the hallway staring at it. And he was crying. Like I said, I was maybe ten. I went up to him and asked him why that picture of my mom was making him sad. He looked at me and all the blood drained from his face. He told me that wasn’t my mom. That was my Aunt Ellie. And he walked away like that explained everything.”
Hayden grabbed the bottle of water and unscrewed the cap. With shaking hands, she took a sip. It seemed to settle her a little.
“I finally asked my mom about it. Maybe a day or two later. We were all staying at Grandma’s that weekend because Mom was having the whole house painted. My mom said she had a sister, Ellie. But she died a long time ago and it made everyone too sad so I shouldn’t ask any more questions. Well, I was young enough to be satisfied by that. Well, not satisfied. But young enough, I knew not to upset her anymore.”
“Who was she?” I asked.
“Ellie Luke,” Hayden repeated. “It was the next day. I was out in the yard playing with this girl who used to live next door to my grandparents. She was a year younger than me but we got along. Her mom, April, was baking cookies and we went inside to sample the batter. I don’t know what made me do it, but I brought up what my grandpa said. I asked her if she knew I had an Aunt Ellie. Did she used to live next door? Well, April got real quiet. And she started to cry. But she talked about it. She told me somebody hurt Ellie very badly and then she died. I was old enough to know what murder was, for God’s sake. So I said that. I asked April if Ellie was murdered. She said yes, but that it was something I needed to talk to my mom about.”
“What happened to her?” I asked.
“I looked it up online. Like immediately after I came home that weekend. I found all these articles in the local papers about her. Aunt Ellie just disappeared one day after work. She worked overnight doing home health care for this older lady in Pine Ridge. There were interviews with my grandparents. Their pictures were in the paper. Grandma said Ellie just didn’t come home. And she was pleading for somebody to come forward and say what happened to her.”
“They didn’t find her,” Sam said. “I know of the case. It was in the spring. There were search parties. Nobody knew anything. But they found her, what, six months later?”
“Something like that,” Hayden said. “Some hunter found her deep in the woods not far from Pine Ridge. Her bones anyway.”
“It’s a cold case,” Sam said. His tone shifted. He’d grown serious. His posture went rigid. “Hayden, I need to make sure I’m understanding what you’re saying. Do you believe you have information about what happened to Ellie Luke?”
“Yes,” she said. She’d stopped trembling. As the minutes passed, Hayden became more self-assured and purposeful.
“Hayden,” he said. “Would you mind waiting here for a couple of minutes? There’s someone else I’d like to come and listen to what you have to say. Is that all right with you?”
She took another sip of water. “It’s okay. I’m here. I have to get this out.”
“Just give us a minute,” Sam said. He nudged me under the table. I gave Hayden a reassuring smile, then followed Sam out into the hallway.
“Gus needs to be here,” Sam said.
Gus Ritter was the most senior detective with the Maumee County Sheriff’s Department. He’d been working homicides for decades.
“Was this his case?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Ellie Luke’s murder predates me.”
I pulled out my phone and opened a browser. Ten seconds later, I found some of the articles a ten-year-old Hayden Simmons must have.
“She was only twenty-one years old,” I said.
“Don’t let her leave,” Sam said. “Keep her talking. I’m going to go find Gus.”
“Got it.”
I went back into the room with Hayden. She’d picked up her satchel and held it on her lap. The water bottle in front of her was empty now.
“Are you sure you don’t want anything else? More water? I’m sure I could scrounge up a sandwich or something.”
“No,” she said. “I can’t even think about food.”
“That’s understandable. Sheriff Cruz wants one of the detectives to be part of this conversation. If you have information about an unsolved murder, we need to do this the right way.”
She let out a huff. “The right way. Ms. Brent, I’ve been trying to figure out what that is for a long time.”
“Do you still live with your parents?” I asked.
“Yes. My mom and my dad.”
“And your mom is …”
