Chapter 13

The next morning Daphne woke up alone in bed, the sheets covered her.

She sat up in the bed and saw that Fred's pyjamas were not on on the floor where they had been kicked to last night. She reached for her pyjamas and pulled them on.

She remembered waking up sometime in the middle of the night after she and Fred had been intimate, he also woke too and they stayed up for a little bit just talking about silly things and she remembered Fred telling her how much he loved her.

When she climbed out of the bed she hoped that things weren't going to be awkward between them, especially after their breakthrough in the case.

She walked into the kitchen where she saw Fred pouring hot water into two mugs and stirring until the coffee was mixed.

'Morning.' She said

Fred smiled at her, 'Morning, beautiful.'

Daphne chuckled a little, 'Thanks.' She said when he gave her a mug of black coffee.

'When did you get up?' She asked.

'About half an hour ago, I didn't want to wake you.' Fred replied, they sat at the table together and drank their coffees.

There was no awkwardness between them, just the usual silence there sometimes was in the mornings.

'I think we need to get to the police station, Freddie.' Daphne spoke up, 'We need to dig deeper into the whereabouts of Luca Pablo, and what happened the day his brother died.'

Fred nodded, 'I don't know where we're going to start looking for Luca.'

Daphne shrugged, 'We'll find him.'

They drained their mugs before they went to get dressed. Fred went into the shower whilst Daphne went into the bedroom to get her clothes ready for the day. She grabbed her phone and saw a message from her sister who had replied to Daphne's message with a smirking emoji. Daphne rolled her eyes, but she smiled when the recalled the events of last night.

She heard the shower being turned off, so she grabbed her clothes and waited for Fred to return to the bedroom so she could shower quickly.

Fred returned to the bedroom, he had gotten dressed in the bathroom and Daphne could smell his body wash on him.

He winked at Daphne when he walked in and she blushed heavily, before quickly heading to the bathroom.

When she caught a glimpse of herself in the bathroom mirror, her eyes widened and she looked closer at the hickey Fred left on her neck, 'Fred.' She grunted. Rolling her eyes, she climbed into the shower.

Daphne and Fred waiting up in the operations room for Wheeler.

Daphne was tapping her pen on her notepad, hoping that Wheeler would turn up soon because she just wanted him to know their theory.

'He'll be here soon Daphne.' Fred spoke as he watched Daphne tapping impatiently.

She dropped her pen and sat back in her chair. And a few minutes the door opened and Wheeler walked into the room.

'Sorry guys, my daughter was sick this morning.' Wheeler explained as he sat at the table, 'So, what have you found?'

'We wanted to explain to you…our theory before Fischer arrives.' Daphne began.

'Theory?' Wheeler asked, looking between the two detectives.

'Milo's sister told us her side of the story. And when we went to the park where Milo disappeared from after we visited her. And there is no way that Luca Pablo could not have seen someone take his brother. It just doesn't make any sense.' Daphne explained.

'Go on.' Wheeler said, intrigued by this new information.

'Willa Pablo said that Luca and Milo were gone for roughly 4 hours before Luca came running home saying that Milo was gone. And everyone went to search for him and a few hours later a man and his dogs found Milo's body. We found out from Willa that neither she nor Luca was spoken to by the police. And a statement was only taken by her mother Rosie because they thought the children were already disturbed the crime.'

Wheeler's brow furrowed, 'What? I interviewed Tudor's kid, and the Harleson's kid Ronnie was interviewed too.'

'When we went to the park, we realised that there is no way someone could have taken Milo without Luca seeing someone or hearing someone. Luca said that he was tying up his shoes and when he looked back, Milo was gone. And when his mother gave a statement, she said that Milo told her that he had gotten distracted by something but didn't say what it was and the police never questioned it.' Fred explained.

'Fuck.' Wheeler muttered realising the lack of effort from the police, and maybe that was why he thought someone was hiding something, but he still wasn't sure.

Daphne took a deep breath, 'Our theory is that…we think that Luca Pablo had something to do with what happened to his brother.'

Wheeler studied her, 'Huh.' Was all he said, and Daphne and Fred exchanged looks, 'I have been thinking for quite some time, that someone was trying to cover something up.' Wheeler spoke.

'Do you think Luca could have killed Milo?' Wheeler asked after a brief pause.

Fred didn't say anything he simply sighed. Daphne cleared her throat before saying, 'I think that's the way it looks.'

'Hmm…' Wheeler hummed, 'I think we should talk to Fischer about this. We need to come up with a plan of action for finding Luca Pablo.'

'Do you know what?' Daphne began, 'I think Willa may have an idea.'

Fred and Wheeler realised that her eyes were focussed on the door but when they turned around they saw nothing.

'What is it?' Fred asked. Daphne shook her head and brought her finger to her lips notifying him to stay quiet.

Fred was confused and he looked back to the door again, but there was still nothing there. Wheeler looked at Fred, then at Daphne and then to the door before looking back at the two detectives again.

He then noticed the hickey on Daphne's neck and quickly looked between the two and said, 'I thought you two weren't a couple.'

Daphne slapped her hand over the hickey, her cheeks turning pink and Wheeler looked at Fred. Before he could say anything, the door opened and Fischer walked in.

'Ah, Officer Quinny said I would find you here.' She smiled, 'How is it going, detectives?'

'We may have a breakthrough…ish.' Wheeler said.

Daphne took her hand away from her neck and she grabbed her pen, 'Are you ok, detective?' Fischer asked. Wheeler chuckled at this, thinking that the commissioner was commenting on the hickey, but Daphne quickly scribbled something onto her notepad, then she told Fischer she was fine.

Fischer sat in the chair, bringing her hands together and resting her chin on her knuckles, 'There has been some new evidence in the case from my finds too.'

'What have you found?' Wheeler asked.

'Andrew Harleson contacted me last night and informed me that he and his wife believe their son's disappeared from a different location to where they were found. True, its clear that some of the victims had moved from different locations. The Tudor Twins were taken from their home and found by the river. But others were found only a few feet from where they supposedly went missing from. But the Harleson's think their sons were taken from the other side town to where they were found.'

'What did they say?' Fred asked.

'The Harleson's have another son, Ronnie and he's 13. The boys went missing a week after Christmas. But Hannah Harleson says that Alfie and Liam had ordered online a good quality skateboard for Ronnie's birthday present. Ronnie is very much into skateboards, Liam was too when was Ronnie's age, but he fell off a few years ago and sprained his ankle and decided that he didn't want to skate again so he gave his skateboard to Ronnie. But he and Alfie decided to buy him a proper one. Unfortunately, due to the Christmas rush, the skateboard never arrived for Christmas and Alfie received an email from the online store saying that his parcel had been sent to the local post office so the twins went to collect it.'

'Let me guess, they never arrived?' Wheeler asked.

'Wrong.' Fischer said, 'They arrived at the post office, but they were told that no package under the names of Alfie Harleson or Liam Harleson had arrived.'

'No package?' Fred asked, and Fischer shook her head, 'No package.' She repeated.

'Then where did the e-mail come from?' Daphne asked.

'This is it.' Fischer paused, 'The package arrived at the Harleson's yesterday evening.'

'So someone lured the boys out, kidnapped them and killed them?' Fred asked.

'That's the way it looks. We have Liam and Alfie's phone's in evidence and we will be examining them today and try to find out where this email came from. Hopefully, it'll lead us to our killer.' Fischer replied.

'We found something too.' Daphne said, 'The victims are all twins, we know that. But in each of the family, there is one surviving sibling. Ages 9 and 13. The same ages as Milo Pablo's surviving siblings.'

'You think these are related?' Fischer asked.

'I'll admit that it is weird, but we believe there is something else linking the cases together. I don't know what it is, but we're looking into it.' Daphne spoke.

Fischer nodded once, 'Ok, then.' She said, 'I trust you know what it is you're doing, and hopefully we can soon find this killer.'

Fischer stood up from the table and made her way to the door, 'I'll be in the evidence room for a few minutes before I take the cell phones to the technicians.' And with that, she left.

'I thought you were going to tell her everything then.' Wheeler said, and Daphne shook her head. She looked down at her notepad staring at what she had written when Fischer had walked in.

Tapping her pen again, she thought for a minute.

'Do you have a sign-in sheet, or a log showing who comes in and at what times?' Daphne asked.

'Witnesses?' Wheeler asked.

Daphne shook her head, 'Officers.'

'Daph?' Fred asked.

Wheeler nodded, though he was a little suspicious. He looked at Daphne and wondered if she was perhaps assuming that someone at the station was hiding something.

'How long do you keep copies for?' Daphne asked.

Wheeler shrugged, 'About two weeks. Why?'

'Can I have a copy of the last two weeks?' Daphne asked.

'Sure, I'll get it.' Wheeler said and he stood up from his chair and went to make a copy of the sign-in sheet.

'What is it?' Fred asked.

'Something.' Daphne said, 'I just want to look at something.'

Fred nodded, he leant back in his chair watching Daphne.

Fred recognised the look on her face and he knew that she was thinking about everything that had happened since they had arrived in Sandpoint like her brain was putting together a jigsaw but all the pieces were blank and she was just looking at the shapes to put the puzzle together.

Wheeler soon returned with a few sheets of paper and gave them to Daphne.

'Hello, Tom.' Fischer smiled as she entered the technician's lab.

'Oh, hello commissioner.' Tom smiled.

Tom Ridgeman had worked at the police station for many years, specialising in technology and focussed on getting information from all confiscated gadgets such as phones, laptops, computers, cameras and other technological gadgets.

He also tapped into telephone lines to listen to conversations between suspects, well that was what he was trained to do, he hadn't actually needed to do that yet.

'I have a job for you.' Fischer said and she put two evidence bags on his desk in front of him.

Tom smiled, 'Oh how can I be at your service?'

'These are the cell phones belonging to Alfie and Liam Harleson, our recent victims. I believe there is an email on Alfie's phone sent from our killer. The boys' mother thinks the email Alfie received was from an online skateboard store, but I think someone sent a false email to Alfie, luring him and his brother outside.'

Tom pulled on a pair of latex gloves and opened the evidence bag containing one of the phones, he carefully took it out and looked it over.

'No outer damage, it shouldn't be hard to get into.' Tom smiled, 'Give two hours and I'll contact you if I find anything.'

Fischer smiled back to him, 'Thank you, Tom.'

And she left the lab, leaving Tom to his work.

When she left, Tom locked the door to his lab. He always did this in case anyone would come in and disturb his work and avoid his work being tampered with.

Back up in the operations room, Daphne was on her phone looking at the database she had used to search for Willa Pablo and her mother Rosie Pablo.

Wheeler's daughter had been sick all morning and through to the afternoon, his wife called and said she was taking her to the doctor and Wheeler said he was coming home to be with her, which Fischer allowed. Wheeler was going regardless of Fischer allowing it or not.

Daphne and Fred were alone in the operations room.

'Have you found anything yet?' Fred asked, and Daphne nodded, a look of triumph on her face, 'Well tell me.'

'I searched Michael Quinny in the database,' Daphne began, 'And I found something.'

'What?' Fred asked, he leaned closer to Daphne so he could see her phone, 'There is no documented birth certificate for him, but in 1998 a Michael Quinny applied for a drivers licence in Sacramento, California.'

Fred's face dropped, 'Sacramento?' He asked, 'Where Luca Pablo was last seen?'

Daphne nodded, 'Then in 1999 a Volkswagen station wagon was purchased under the name Michael Quinny from a dealership in Sacramento. A few weeks later Michael Quinny purchased a house in Sandpoint, moving in months later. In 2000, Quinny started working at a local mechanics and studied crime at Sandhurst College, graduating in 2003 before training at Sandhurst Police Academy in 2004. He started work at Sandpoint Police Station in 2008.'

Fred sighed, 'Is there a chance that it could be a coincidence that Michael Quinny came from Sacramento?'

'Without a birth certificate or reported life before 1999?'

'I know, I just want to be sure that you're positive you're on the right tracks.'

'I am.' Daphne replied.