North Country(59)

“The camera on that side is intact. The footage gives a clear view of all the doors. Holly never appeared anywhere near there,” Mike confirms. “Justin’s reviewing the footage inside the bar. So far it doesn’t look like she came inside again.”

Schmidt purses his lips in thought. “All right. Assuming there aren’t any big discoveries inside the dumpsters, I think we can turn over the scene by tomorrow morning.”

“I’ll let him know.” Matt’s not going to like it, but he’ll eat his complaints because a fifteen-year-old girl went missing from his property and she hasn’t been found.

“Okay, we need to talk to everyone who came to the bar that night,” Schmidt says.

“That’s gonna be tough. We get a lot of out-of-towners through here, especially on Thanksgiving weekend,” Mike warns.

“You said both of you were there, and you saw Holly?” Terry’s eyes are on me.

“Yes. She was there until about 8:45 p.m., when Mike escorted her and her friends out,” I confirm. “Under-agers sometimes come in early and hope to go unnoticed once the place switches over to nineteen-plus.” It’s a silly plan, considering the town is small and you’ll always run into someone who recognizes you, but the Bale House gets crazy enough that sometimes these kids get away with it.

“How late were you there?” Terry asks.

“Until a little after nine? The footage can confirm.”

“Sounds right,” Mike pipes in. “And I left with Breanne just before midnight. We stayed to keep an eye on the Murphys.”

“The Murphys?” Terry’s eyebrows arch. “And they are …”

Mike snorts. “Where to begin with that question.”

“Probably with their rap sheets,” I muse. “They have quite the collection among them.” Though only one has proved capable of murder so far and he’s long gone.

“Got it. One of those families. Every town’s got one, don’t they? Keeps things interesting.” Terry flips to a fresh page, scribbles Murphy at the top. “Were these Murphys still there when you went home?”

“A couple of them were, yeah. I took off after Hank left.” Mike frowns. “Now that I think about it, when I was walking Holly and her friends out, she said something to Hank’s youngest. What’s his name?” Mike looks to me for confirmation.

“You mean Kyle?”

“Yeah. She said, ‘See you later.’ I took it as a casual goodbye, you know, but maybe it was literal.”

“She told her friends that the guy she was meeting was older and she’d be in a lot of trouble if her parents found out. Kyle’s what, twenty-one or twenty-two? And a Murphy.” I need to push Isla to divulge what she knows. As much as I hate involving her in any of this, there’s no way she doesn’t know something.

“Kyle sounds like a person I wanna talk to.” Terry scribbles the name on his notebook and marks a star.

I can already see how that will go. “They’re a lot smarter than they look.”

Terry smirks. “Can’t be too smart if they keep getting caught.”

“I’m just saying, assume whatever you get out of them is a lie, even if they had nothing to do with Holly’s disappearance.” They’re bred to not cooperate. Hank’s father, aptly named Big Hank, and his brother Teddy are believed to have loose ties to a biker gang, which might have been how Ian and Jay got caught up in all that. We’ve never been able to confirm it. Big Hank and Teddy have fallen off our radar in recent years, thanks to time spent behind bars and health issues linked to their age and a life of bad habits. “We’re better off seeing what else we can piece together before you go barking up that tree. And I’d like to be there for that conversation. I know how to handle them.”

Terry and Schmidt share a glance but say nothing.

This might be their investigation, but it’s my detachment.

And my town.

“You should probably have a chat with Logan Landry too.” Mike juts his chin toward me. “There was that thing between him and Holly outside the washrooms, right? ”

Mention of Logan strikes my pulse. “There was no thing between them. And that has nothing to do with Holly going missing.”

“Still, it’s worth mentioning. Older guy who she shouldn’t be around?” Mike prods. “The guy went to jail for killing her cousin.”

I struggle to keep my expression calm as the two CIB investigators watch intently, waiting for an explanation. I’m usually a master of compartmentalizing. I’ve had to become that way to get through life with this job and all that I’ve been through.

With Holly’s disappearance, I’ve been able to box up all feelings and thoughts about my night with Logan to deal with later. But it seems later is becoming now, as Mike aims to shine a spotlight on him.

“Logan Landry was given statutory release after serving time for double manslaughter. He returned home a week ago.” Stick to the facts, Emery. “One of those victims was Officer Eric Whitley, who happened to be a cousin of Holly.” Gone before she was even born.

“I remember this story now.” Schmidt scratches his chin. “Routine stop. They were moving guns and drugs. Two cops died.”

“As well as Logan’s brother Jay and Ian Murphy,” I say.