Once Gone (a Riley Paige Mystery--Book #1)

Chapter 18

He shook his head mutely.

Bill put in, "This is a difficult question, but we have to ask. Do either you or your wife have any enemies, anybody who might wish you harm?"

The husband seemed to have trouble understanding the question.

"No, no," he stammered. "Look, there are sometimes little feuds in my line of work. But it's all just stupid little things, squabbles among artists, not people who would do something like ..."

He stopped in mid-sentence.

"And everybody ... loves Cindy," he said.

Riley detected his anxiety and uncertainty about using the present tense. She sensed that questioning this man was probably futile and possibly insensitive. She and Bill should probably cut things short and leave the situation in Beverly's capable hands.

Meanwhile, though, Riley looked around the apartment, trying to pick up the slightest trace of a clue.

She didn't need to be told that Cindy and Nathaniel MacKinnon didn't have children. The apartment wasn't big enough, and besides, the surrounding artworks were anything but childproof.

She suspected, though, that the situation was not the same as with Margaret and Roy Geraty. Riley's gut told her that Cindy and Nathaniel were childless by choice, and only temporarily. They were waiting for the right time, more money, a bigger home, a more settled lifestyle.

They thought they had all kinds of time, Riley thought.

She thought back to her early assumption that the killer targeted mothers. She wondered yet again how she could have gotten it so wrong.

Something else about the apartment was starting to dawn on her. She saw no photographs anywhere of Nathaniel or Cindy. This wasn't especially surprising. As a couple, they were more interested in the creativity of others than in pictures of themselves. They were anything but narcissistic.

Even so, Riley felt the need to get a clearer image of Cindy.

"Mr. MacKinnon," she asked cautiously, "do you have any recent photographs of your wife?"

He looked at her blankly for a moment. Then his expression brightened.

"Why, yes," he said. "I've got a new one right here on my cell phone."

He brought up the photograph on his phone and passed it along to Riley.

Riley's heart jumped up in her throat when she saw it. Cindy MacKinnon was sitting with a three-year-old girl on her lap. Both she and the child were glowing with delight as they held a beautifully dressed doll between them.

It took Riley a moment to start breathing again. The kidnapped woman, a child, and a doll. She hadn't been wrong. At least not completely. There had to be a connection between this killer and dolls.

"Mr. MacKinnon, who is the child in this picture?" Riley asked, as calmly as she could manage.

"That's Cindy's niece, Gale," Nathaniel MacKinnon replied. "Her mother is Cindy's sister, Becky."

"When was this photograph taken?" Riley asked.

The man stopped to think. "I think Cindy sent it to me on Friday," he said. "Yes, I'm sure that's when she sent it. It was at Gale's birthday party. Cindy helped her sister with the party. She left work early to help out."

Riley struggled with her thoughts, unsure for a moment just what to ask next.

"Was the doll a gift for Cindy's niece?" she asked.