Jeez. That was a trek.
“Thanks, Aria,” he said, closing the folder. He would read it more thoroughly later when he was alone. And if his gut said it was worthwhile, maybe he’d pay the guy a visit. If the FBI hadn’t made headway with Evan’s case, he wasn’t likely to, either, especially almost a decade later. But trying, at the very least, was a burning need inside him. And so he wouldn’t give up.
“One other thing,” Aria said, removing another folder. “You asked me to dig up anything not in public databases about Noelle’s father.”
“Did you find something?” The FBI had looked into their fathers’ connection, including the two men’s personal and legal history, but hadn’t found that it led anywhere as far as Evan and Noelle’s abduction. That part was still odd and unsolved, but Evan still believed that that was no coincidence. If not, though, how did it factor in? If he could figure that out, he had a feeling it would lead to more. Much more.
“There wasn’t anything else regarding their legal case than what you’d already told me. The shooting of Megan Meyer was rehashed in court. And you have those records.”
Evan nodded. He’d already been somewhat familiar with the case, as he’d been living with his father when it’d been litigated. Still, he’d read through every word and learned all the details of exactly what had happened that fateful day his father shot the scorned woman he’d been having an affair with.
A mistake. A tragedy. One his father was deemed not guilty for by a jury of his peers.
“If it’s not relating to the court case, what is it?”
Aria pulled a folded piece of paper from her purse and handed it to him, speaking as he opened it. “He filed a police report on behalf of a friend right before Noelle was reported missing.”
Evan frowned. “Really?”
Aria nodded. “It might not be related to Noelle’s abduction in any way, but I thought it was a bit coincidental that his daughter went missing within a couple days of a friend of his going missing too.”
He scanned the document. Had the FBI discovered this? If they did, he didn’t know about it. Either they’d missed it or investigated and found it to be unrelated. Maybe the FBI didn’t even know about it, because the person who filed the police report on Noelle was her friend Paula Hathaway. Apparently, according to Paula, she was the one who’d first felt an internal alarm after days of not hearing back from Noelle. She’d called Noelle’s father, who had informed her he hadn’t seen her in person either. He’d hung up after telling Paula he was going to check her room and other areas of the house to determine if she’d been home. When Paula didn’t immediately hear back from him, she called the police. What she hadn’t known was sometime between that phone call and the police arriving at his home to take his statement regarding Noelle, he had died of a heart attack. “Dow Maginn,” he muttered, bringing himself back to what Aria had just said about Mr. Meyer’s missing friend. “Was he found?”
“He was.” She pulled yet another file from her magic purse of information and handed it over. “He was the victim of a mugging, apparently. His body was found at the back of an alley, behind a dumpster. Mr. Meyer found out about his friend, and then was informed his daughter was missing two days later.”
Tough week. Evan flipped open the file, scanning it. Yes, Mr. Meyer had had a tough week. But all his hardships ended with a major heart attack that killed him almost instantly. For his daughter, however, things were about to turn a corner into the realm of nightmares. “A mugging,” he repeated. “They didn’t catch the perp, huh?”
“No, but the guy was known to be a drinker and a fighter, and he’d gotten into scuffles before in that same area. He owned a computer repair shop nearby and would go drinking after work. Or sometimes during work, from the few statements the investigators got at the time. It’s a high-crime area. Muggings are not unusual. His wallet and his watch were missing, so the police didn’t have much reason to believe it was more than what it looked like.”
Evan closed the folder, setting it with the other things Aria had given him. “Hmm.”
“Yeah, it set my bells off too,” Aria said. “Anyway, I hope there’s something more for you to dig in to from all that.”
“There definitely is.” He held up his beer, smiling as he clinked it to Aria’s wineglass. “To the possibility of a break. And to you for finding it. I can’t thank you enough for this, Aria.”