Kayla, and their father. Lesley would be joining them from the county jail shortly. Pauline, on advice of her attorney, had refused to say anything else. Luther’s younger child, a girl named Megan, was in school for the day. She hadn’t even been born, so they didn’t need to speak with her. She was only thirteen.
Miranda had two priorities—confirm that Pauline was in the barn with her mother and find Monica. Monica had been home before Lesley that day. Luke had been hiding beneath his bed, but Monica had been in the center of the action. And had been old enough to be a credible witness. If they could get her to talk.
Monica could hold the key to everything.
It was her mother they wanted her to roll over on. That probably wouldn’t go over well.
They were banking on the people in the room not knowing what had happened to Pauline yet.
“Thank you for coming here today,” Miranda started softly. She’d known all of these people since she had been nine years old. Kayla had been just a baby when she’d first met her.
“What is this about?” Luther asked, quietly. He looked at Knight for clarification. Miranda had gotten the impression he was drawn to Knight’s scar. To the obvious similarity between them. Luther just came across as far more vulnerable to Miranda than he had when she’d been a girl. No doubt it was due to the traumatic brain injury, and the changes it had caused. “I have a kid at home I need to see.”
“Dad, we’re going to listen, ok? We’ll take a pizza home after this,” Olivia said. Miranda studied her, looking for hints of the girl she’d once been. Her biggest memories of the Beise kids had been timidity. She was used to her own family, where, for the most part, everyone spoke what they felt and went after what they wanted. Some of them were quieter—Dusty and Daisy were all quieter on the scale than the rest of them—but all of them were confident women at heart. It hadn’t been that way for Monica and her sisters. There had been so much self-doubt in Monica.
Now Miranda suspected she knew why.
But Monica had stayed with her mother and Lesley when Luther had taken the five younger children and moved across state lines. She wanted an explanation for that.
“What’s this about?” Luke asked. He had an infant in his arms and had already apologized profusely for not being able to leave his youngest at home, as his wife was working, and her family had the older two children. The infant was far too young, Luke had said, to leave with a sitter.
He held his daughter lovingly and seemed like a very competent father. The baby fussed lightly, he soothed her, then held her out to his sister. Olivia took the little baby expertly. She’d held her brother’s child before. Kayla was tending to her father, reassuring him that they’d take him for pizza after the meeting was over. Marnie was making faces at her niece.
They were a family. A close one. There wasn’t any tension between the four of them that she could sense at all. Luke pulled a small bottle from his bag and took his daughter back.
Miranda took it as the signal to begin.
Lesley would be there shortly. He’d been processed and arraigned and would be brought upstairs for this meeting before being released on his own reconnaissance.
Pauline was in a cell in the basement. In case Miranda had to ask her a question quickly. Dr. Appell waited with the deputy assigned to guard Pauline, cell phone at the ready for those questions.
“Thank you all for coming in today. We know you have questions. First, has anyone been able to get ahold of Mon—Diane? I’m sorry. I remember you all by your previous names. It may take me a minute or two to remember. If I call you by the wrong name, just remind me, ok?”
“Of course,” Olivia said. She and Luke were the obvious spokesmen for the family. The protectors. Kayla rarely spoke at all. “We just want answers, too. I don’t remember much about my grandmother, but to be honest, what I do remember isn’t pleasant. But if something happened to her, we all want to know. No matter what the answers are.”
Before Miranda could respond, a knock came at the door.
Knight tensed at the knock, though he suspected it was Lesley Beise. The tightness in his shoulders increased when his supposition was confirmed.