Never Tell (Detective D.D. Warren #10) - Lisa Gardner Page 0,106

LaPage had no alibi either, so he hasn’t been ruled out as a person of interest in the Conners’ murders.”

“What happened to LaPage?” D.D. asked.

“He violated the restraining order two weeks after Detective Conner’s death. Shot his wife in the face. She lived. Barely. LaPage is now a long-term resident of the state. Still a smug bastard, though. According to Detective Ange, LaPage spends his days filing appeal after appeal. Ange believes it’s only a matter of time before LaPage finds the loophole or uncovers the technicality necessary to overturn his conviction. LaPage has got unlimited time and resources. Not like the JSO can say the same.”

“What happened to the wife?” Because Detective Ange was right, anyone with enough determination and money could often beat the system. If Jules LaPage had been angry and arrogant enough to take out the cop standing in his way, there was no telling what he might do upon discovering the detective’s son was still investigating the case all these years later. Which also made her more and more curious about what exactly Conrad Carter had been doing in his free time.

“Courtesy of the gunshot to her left jaw, Monica LaPage had to undergo several rounds of reconstructive surgery. She testified with the bandages still on, then took her new face and fled the state. General consensus is, the moment LaPage gets out of prison he’ll come after her again.”

D.D. made several notes. “Is anyone from the sheriff’s office still in contact with her?”

Neil shook his head. “No, but according to Detective Ange, if she’d stayed in touch with anyone, it would’ve been Detective Conner.”

“Does Ange know where she is?”

Neil shook his head again. “No, and Ange was pretty blunt that it was in Monica’s own best interest to keep it that way. A man with LaPage’s money can buy a lot of information, including from underpaid public servants.”

“Meaning the sheriff’s office itself could become the weak link. Has Ange heard from Conrad about the case?”

“According to Ange, immediately after his parents’ death, Conrad spent a lot of time at the JSO, talking to various detectives who’d worked with his father. He asked about all his father’s active cases. Basically, like we just did.”

“And presumably got the same answers?”

Neil cleared his throat. “Detective to detective, Ange let it slip they may have made some copies of … pertinent details … for Conrad. Bill Conner was the kid’s dad after all.”

D.D. arched a brow. In other words, the detectives at the JSO had duplicated case files for their friend’s son. A definite procedural no-no and yet … Detectives were people, too. And sometimes, particularly after a hard loss, the rules mattered less than justice. Detective Conner’s fellow investigators wanted it, and by the sound of it, his son, too. “So Conrad was actively investigating his parents’ deaths?”

“Definitely.”

“To the extent he took on an alias and ran away to Massachusetts?” D.D. murmured, then corrected herself. “Or discovered something dangerous enough, he had no choice but to get out of town?”

“Detective Ange had no idea Conrad was living under an assumed name in Massachusetts,” Carol reported. “He says he heard from Conrad often in the beginning, but it’s now been years. He assumed Conrad had moved on with his life. Ange also thought that was healthy and exactly what his parents would’ve wanted.”

“So if Conrad was still investigating his parents’ deaths, he was doing it on his own?” D.D. frowned. “But how did that bring him to a bar with Jacob Ness?”

“Second case of note.” Carol spoke up.

“Two missing persons cases. Both female, white. One eighteen, in Florida visiting friends when she never made it home from the local bar. That girl, Tina Maracle, liked to party, so some debate whether she was truly missing or had just chosen to move on. Maracle had family in Georgia, however, and none of them had heard from her. While they may not have been the closest family in the world, three months without contact was unusual and they firmly believed something bad had happened.”

“And the second girl?” D.D. asked because this was interesting. Keith Edgar might have been on to something yesterday when he’d asked if Conrad’s father had crossed paths with Jacob Ness. As Flora had pointed out, just because Ness hadn’t made the FBI’s radar screen didn’t mean he was on good behavior. He probably had been actively abducting and raping young women. As someone who grew up in Florida, he would’ve been familiar with Jacksonville, and many