Just Take My Heart

"Of course I was upset when Ava started to date David, but I couldn't blame anybody but myself," Danielle Campbell Castillo told Lilly and Scotty a few hours later after they had hauled her off to the police department.

"What do you mean," Lilly asked.

Dani rolled her eyes. "I had never told Ava that I had feelings for David. Trust me, if I had she never would have gone for him."

Scotty suddenly had a glint in his eyes and he looked at Lilly to silently tell her what he was about to do.

"Well if you ask me, I'd say that we have the perfect motive for Dani here to kill Mavis. She was pissed that her tall, gawky, redheaded sister landed the guy that she, the petite, blonde haired, blue eyed sister, couldn't get."

"No!" Dani yelled, punching her fists against the table. "That wasn't the case. I knew that it wasn't going to last much longer between Ava and David, so I just decided to wait for it to be over"

"What makes you say that they wouldn't have lasted," Lilly asked.

"About three weeks before Ava went missing, I saw something."

17 February 1992

Dani was out walking the family dog Jackson. She needed to get some fresh air. Earlier that afternoon she had gotten into a fight with her parents. She was walking past a park when she saw Ava standing, talking with that kid Ryan Kennedy.

Dani noticed that neither of them had seen her, so she decided to stay hidden but she stayed close enough so that she could hear their conversation.

"Thank you so much, Ryan. I really do appreciate it," Ava said and gave Ryan a huge hug. "But please don't tell my parents what we did."

Dani saw Ava kiss Ryan on the cheek and the two left. After it was all clear, Dani kept on walking, trying to process the entire scene. Ava had told her that Ryan Kennedy partially scared her. What was going on?

Once again, Ryan Kennedy sat in the cold, dark interview room. He didn't know what else the detectives had discovered, but he was sure that he was still the prime suspect.

Lilly and Jeffries recalled Dani's story of what she had seen between Ava and Ryan. After she had finished, Ryan started to laugh.

"What Dani saw was Ava thanking me for helping her out."

"What exactly did you do?" Jeffries asked.

"I helped her get Mr. and Mrs. Campbell to sign a consent form without the two knowing what they were consenting to."

"A consent form for what?" Lilly asked roughly.

Ryan smiled lightly. "For a marriage where one of the parties is underage; Ava and Jack got married about a month before she went missing.

"So, why didn't you tell us that you and Mavis had gotten married a month before she went missing?" Lilly asked an unsuspecting Jack Lindsay.

"I didn't say anything because when we got married I had sworn to her that I'd never tell no matter what. I didn't think anyone knew about our marriage except Ryan, and I didn't want to tell people until Mavis was ready," Jack told, his voice becoming slightly choked up.

Jack looked down at his hands, and Lilly saw something that she hadn't noticed during her and Scotty's last visit with him. He wore a silver wedding band on his ring finger. He lifted up his left hand for a better view.

"This is the ring that Mavis gave me on February 2nd, 16 years ago. Mavis wasn't just some girl that I thought would be a good one to screw around with; she was the love of my life. I've never even considered dating another woman since I met her," Jack said. He lifted his head and looked straight at Lilly.

"You know, I always knew that, had she lived, it would have only been a matter of time before she went to college and meet some guy who she just thought was the most interesting person she'd ever met, someone who made her realize what true love was. And how could I stop her when she told me she didn't want to be married to me anymore because she had found a true love," Jack somberly said.

At that moment, Lilly realized that Jack Lindsay had fallen in love once and only once in his entire lifetime. He had fallen completely in love with Mavis Campbell. She gently grabbed Jack's hand. "Mavis died with her hear belonging to you, and therefore it will always be yours."

Hannah Larson stepped into the police department. She had gotten a call from Lilly Rush and was asked if she could stop by and speak to them.

"I'm here," she announced as she saw Lilly.

"Good," Lilly smiled. "Follow me," she said and led Hannah into the interview room. "Did you know about Ava and Jack Lindsay?"

"Yeah, Ryan told me that they were together but he made it out to be like they were just two dumb kids who thought they were invincible. I didn't really give it a second thought until after Ava had been missing for a few days."

"And why is that?"

15 March 1992

Hannah was in the Campbells' kitchen helping Carolyn make dinner for the family. Ava had been missing for five days or so and Hannah had decided to that it would be helpful for her to come over and help out, for the family was a wreck.

Lately she had been thinking about what Ryan had told her about Ava and Jack. The thought had crossed her mind that maybe they had run away together. After all, both Hannah and Ava knew that Eddie Campbell had gone to high school with Jack for about a year and Eddie didn't like Jack; they had never gotten into a fight, it was just that Eddie didn't like Jack. He was a lowlife.

Hannah went into the living room and saw Eddie, staring blankly at the television. He had definitely taken Ava's disappearance the hardest. She sat beside Eddie.

"Hey, Eddie, can I talk to you for a second?"

"Sure," he grunted.

"Well, a friend of mine told me that Ava and Jack Lindsay have been having a relationship. So maybe she wasn't kidnapped after all and they just ran away together."

This statement caught Eddie's attention. He jerked his head towards Hannah. "My sister knows better than to hang around with a bum like Lindsay."

"He was pretty upset about the idea. He even threatened to go out and find them so he could bring Ava back home," Hannah concluded.

"Did he," Lilly asked.

"Yeah, he just left the house in search of them and told me that he was going to 'fix this'. I doubt he found them, though. But he put his letterman jacket on and everything – he only did that when he wanted to intimidate someone."

This clicked in Lilly's head. "When was that?"

"The night before they found her body on the football field."