“Well, it sure matters now.”

“I will ring his sister. What would you like me to ask her?”

“Did he hunt? Did he like irises? Are there irises on their property? Has his sister ever seen him with a woman? Did he ever bring a woman to the house?”

“He did hunt,” Theo said. “We didn’t write it down but his sister told us he did. In fact, she showed us photographs of him with a rifle.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me if there were flowers where he buried the bodies.”

Theo picked up the phone just as Sophia’s mobile vibrated. Crystal had sent her some information.

In the incident room, Sophia picked up Doc’s file and flipped through. She came across the earrings and went through one by one.

“Why do you have pictures of these?” Sophia asked Dorland.

“We found a box of earrings in Doc’s house and these are photos of each set from his solicitor. Doc really felt those earrings were special. We believe they belonged to his mother.”

“His mother?” Sophia asked. “According to his file he didn’t get on with his mother. How many earrings were there?”

“I don’t know exactly. A lot.”

Sophia counted the photos. “Thirty-two pairs of earrings. That can’t be a coincidence.”

“Well, actually thirty-one. One pair was missing. We believed it had been stolen.”

She looked at him. “And you didn’t find that odd?”

“Well, we did. However, the earrings were not worth anything and even though there was huge issue with the missing set, none of the witnesses had any information to point us in any direction. It was another dead end.”

“So, there is no way to trace why those particular earrings are missing or to whom they belonged?” she asked.

Dorland raised his arms in disgust. “And just how would you go about doing that? If you’re suggesting the killer took the earrings, and we did assume that at the time, the killer is not going to freely admit it, now are they?”

“Can I see what the missing set of earrings looks like?”

Dorland handed her the photo. The missing earrings were long dangling silver with emerald teardrops. Sophia placed that photo on top of all the others and returned to Theo’s office.

She asked Theo, “You said you found records of missing women that may be connected with Tipring. Do you still have them?”

Theo was still on the phone and he pointed to the corner of his desk. About ten file folders sat precariously. Sophia grabbed them all and sat down at a table outside Theo’s office.

The first victim was Abigail Arnold. Sophia went through her file slowly, hoping to pick up any mention of jewelry or a connection to Tipring. She found none.

The next file belonged to Charlotta Standford. She went missing a year and a half before Abigail, in 1985, and the only description of jewelry the missing girl was wearing was a heart pendant.

Sophia went through the last set of files but only found one mention of earrings, on a missing woman named Janine Fur. It matched a photo in the pile. Dorland came and sat down at the table next to her.

There was no mention of any silver and emerald earrings. How frustrating. When Doc Tipring stole them, he stole them as a keepsake, another reminder of what he had done, not because they were worth anything.

“Now that we have the patellas of each of the missing girls,” said Sophia, “hopefully we can match the DNA from them to the missing girl. We do know what set of earrings belongs to Charlotta Standford. We can make a reasonable assumption.”

“How?”

“Well, Dorie Armes worked for Doc Tipring. I’m sure when she saw the earrings that belonged to her sister, she knew that Doc Tipring was the murderer. She must have been the one who stole the earrings. But, what I find hard to fathom is how she recognized the earrings. I mean, 1985 is a long time ago. I can’t remember earrings I’ve lost that long ago. How could she know those exact earrings belonged to her sister? It’s one thing to be sure, it’s another to murder someone based on a flimsy assumption such as that.”

“We don’t have a choice,” replied Dorland. “We have to ask Dorie about the earrings. Will you come with us?”

“No I need to leave. I’m dealing with an issue at work.”

Chapter Fifty-Five

According to Sophia’s mobile, Liam wasn’t where he was supposed to be. She had asked Crystal to create an application to record all locations related to Stewart and his organization and then track Liam’s whereabouts. If the paths crossed, she would be alerted. Crystal had sent her a text message while she was at the station informing her that Liam was at one of Stewart’s known hangouts and his mobile hadn’t left the location for an hour and forty minutes. But ten minutes before she arrived, the mobile shut off. She sped up so as not to lose him but when she arrived at the location, she couldn’t spot Liam’s car anywhere.

She sent a text to Crystal for more information and Crystal replied almost immediately. One of Stewart’s known mistresses lived at that location—flat four. Crystal must have been alerted by the application as well.

When Sophia knocked, no one answered. There was a part of her that was glad because she had no idea what she was going to say. Why couldn’t she just let go?

As she turned to go, she could hear a noise coming from the flat—a shuffling noise. Could it be Liam? She placed her ear as close to the door without touching it. The noise sounded like a shuffling or perhaps it was a whimper. A dog? Maybe Liam was tied up inside. Her immediate thought was to try the door handle but she just as quickly stopped herself. Liam might be tied up, but that didn’t mean he was alone.

If she went in, what would she face? Was it worth it? She had some weapons and defence training but she would be useless against any of Stewart’s men even if she had a gun—all of Stewart’s men would have weapons.

Sadly, she knew that unless she had eyes in the flat, she couldn’t go in without putting herself in danger. Even if Liam was in there and was in danger, she couldn’t save him.

She backed down the hall and returned to her car. She tried Liam’s number again but it only went to voicemail. Why was he being so stupid? Then she remembered the pen set; unless he looked under the passenger seat and found it, it would still be there. Quickly she sent another text to Crystal. She had to locate which device he had given her and then she had to turn it on.

It seemed like forever and not the four and a half minutes it took Crystal to reply.

According to tech, fifty pens were made but only one had your name engraved into the side. The device was never turned on but they will do so now. I will send you a way to track the device on your mobile.

Sophia received an email and opened the tracking application, but nothing appeared on screen. She was about to text Crystal again when a blip appeared. The yellow dot was moving and she was at least twenty minutes behind. It became incredibly hard to track him while driving and she thought about waiting until he stopped before she continued but what if he went out of range? What if he was in trouble? Why didn’t he just turn on his mobile phone?

After following him for a half hour, she knew where the car was headed. Shit. Now she sped up. He still had a fifteen minute lead on her and really, it didn’t matter whoever had control, Liam or Stewart, if she didn’t catch up to them, it wouldn’t turn out well either way. Hell, she knew it may not turn out well even if she did catch up.

Although the crime scene tape leading out to the mass grave site was still attached to trees and fence posts, no officers were around. Liam had clearly broken through because the tape cutting off the path had been torn in two. She didn’t know how many speeding tickets she had collected on the way up but she was only five minutes behind him.