Stynes didn’t know what to think. He had come to the Manning home to investigate a loose end from twenty-five years ago. Why had there been a contradiction between the account of Manning’s whereabouts given by his wife and the account given by Manning himself? Was Bill Manning home that morning or not?
It had come up twenty-five years earlier, as he and Reynolds investigated the case. They had talked about it at length. In the end, Reynolds had told Stynes to let it go, to not worry about a small and understandable contradiction in one person’s story when there was enough evidence to convict someone else, someone much more likely to have committed the crime. Someone the wrong color, Stynes realized…
But there Stynes sat, still inside the Manning house, and Ashleigh Manning, a fifteen-year-old girl, had revealed what might just be the smoking gun.
Was Justin Manning still alive?
Stynes looked around the room and saw Bill Manning turn and leave. He disappeared down a hallway, probably toward a bedroom or bathroom. Overwhelmed? By guilt, or something else?
First things first, Stynes thought. Easiest thing first. He pulled out his phone and called in the assault on Ashleigh Manning committed by the apartment manager.
“You don’t know the creep’s name, do you?” Stynes asked Ashleigh.
“Nick something,” she said, then went on to give a solid description all the way down to the scent of his breath. Stynes also requested a crime scene unit be sent to the apartment formerly occupied by Steven Kollman/Justin Manning. He asked for prints to be taken and any evidence that remained to be tagged and inventoried. When asked if a warrant was in order, Stynes said, “The guy didn’t pay his rent and vacated the premises. We don’t need a warrant. Tell them I’ll meet them there in a little bit. And I need you to run two names for me.” He gave them the names of the two men he was-might be-pursuing. The two ghosts who were now permanent residents of his brain. Steven Kollman and Justin Manning. “Anything that pops, let me know.”
He put the phone away and sat in the chair Bill Manning had occupied earlier, back when Stynes believed in his gut the man was involved with the death of his own son.
And now?
He couldn’t believe that Justin Manning was still alive after all these years. He’d watched them remove the kid’s body from the woods, saw the skeletal remains and the wisps of blond hair still attached to the skull.
“Janet, can you tell me anything else this man said to you? Anything at all?”
He watched Janet think, her hand still clutching her daughter’s. “He told me that he lived in Dove Point, and he didn’t like it,” she said. “He said he was taken away from his family-he definitely said that. That’s one of the things that made me think he was Justin. Somebody took him away from his family.” She lifted her free hand to her chest. “My God, where has he been all these years? Has he been lost or homeless? I asked him if he needed help when I saw him on campus. He looked a little…ragged or dirty, I guess. Not dirty like he didn’t have a place to live, but just like he’s had a rough time. If it was Justin…he was there, right there in front of me.”
“But he didn’t tell you he was your brother?” Stynes asked.
Color rose in Janet’s cheeks. “I did something weird,” she said. “I called him ‘Justin.’ When he started to leave, I called out that name to see how he would respond.”
“And?” Stynes asked.
“He said something like, ‘Not yet.’ Whatever that means.”
Ashleigh looked at her mom and said, “So maybe he’s going to tell you soon. Maybe he can’t right now.”
“Why would he not be able to?” Janet asked. “Does someone want to hurt him?”
“Was there anything else, Janet?” Yes, Stynes was more involved with this case than any other. He could admit that to himself. Then all the more reason to remain sharp, to not let the emotion of the Mannings possess him and interfere with finding out what he needed to learn. “Anything he said or did that might be pertinent?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did he talk about anything from your childhood? Did he ask about your parents or other family members?”
Janet swallowed. She lowered her voice. “He said his mother was dead. And that his father didn’t care about him.”
Even Stynes felt a chill on his neck when he heard that. The room grew quiet. Someone needed to break the tension, and to his credit, the kid, Kevin, did.
“Detective?” he said.
Stynes looked up.
“Didn’t you do a DNA test on the body you found in the woods back then? Or something?”
“We didn’t do DNA testing back then. I know it’s hard for you kids to understand, but it just didn’t exist.”
Ashleigh said, “I always hear about bodies being checked with dental X-rays.”
“Your uncle was so young when he died that he’d never had dental X-rays taken.”
“Then how did you know it was him?” Ashleigh asked.
Stynes resisted the urge to tell the two teenagers to keep their mouths shut and quit bothering the grown-ups. But they were right. People were going to be asking the same types of questions once the news broke. And it would break. Yes, it would.
“Justin disappeared from that park,” he said. “We found the body of a child in the woods near that park. The remains were the same approximate age and size as Justin Manning. We had a suspect. We had witnesses, including Janet here. That’s how we make a case.”
But the words didn’t ring true as they came out of Stynes’s mouth. He felt like an actor reading from a script he thought was terribly written. None of it made sense. None of it at all, unless Stynes believed that this Kollman/Manning guy was just a nutjob who wanted to harass the family of a crime victim.
But Stynes had never heard of such elaborate manipulation. If the guy was just a nut, he was so far out there the scale would need to be recalibrated.
Stynes stood up. “I have to go. We’re going to head over to this Kollman guy’s apartment, see if there’s anything else we can use to help establish his real identity. I suspect he doesn’t mean to do any of you any harm. If he wanted to, he would have done so already. But I’m going to ask the officers who patrol around here to keep a special eye on this house. You never know. At the very least, he’s probably guilty of harassment and identity theft. If he comes around, call us.”
Janet looked at Stynes. “What if he needs our help?” she asked. “Are you saying I should not have contact with the man who might be my brother?”
“I’m asking you to be careful, Janet. Just be careful.”
“Detective?” Janet said.
“Yes?”
“The other day with the reporter and then tonight-I was right, wasn’t I?”
“About what?”
“You don’t think Dante did it.”
Stynes couldn’t lie. But he wasn’t ready to admit anything because too many things were coming at him at once.
“Let’s just say, things appear to be in a state of flux right now. And do me a favor? Keep the doors locked. And if anything happens after I’m gone, make sure you share it with me this time.”