The Nobody Girls (Kendra Dillon Cold Case Thriller Book 3), Rebecca Rane [best book club books of all time txt] 📗

“Why didn’t anyone inform Wilma Kay Ellis?”

“I can’t answer that, other than to point out, we have very few next of kin contacts for any of those women in the files you’re going to read. In fact, two we were never able to identify, so they’re listed as Jane Doe One and Jane Doe Two. It’s tragic in more ways than one.”

Kendra thought of Ophelia and Wilma Kay. They were hard to find, maybe more so forty years ago before Facebook or chat rooms. But she had found them.

“I’m going to retrace the investigation.”

“Good. You’re a formidable investigator, I’ve heard.”

“Did you do any additional digging after we made the request?”

“No one had much information on this case. It is, for all intents and purposes, closed. And it wasn’t my case, or anyone’s, really. You have to understand, this isn’t the only thing on my desk. And Ewald isn’t hurting anyone anymore. I have active bad guys to track. A hundred of those accordion files like the one in your hand are in my office. All hot.”

Kendra understood that. She liked Agent Price’s direct style of communication.

“I appreciate you helping tell this story.”

“Look, any extra eyes on this stuff, it’s a good thing.”

Agent Price walked out to her car.

Kendra’s Nobody Girls story had gone from four to eight and from unsolved to solved. She joined Shoop back in the office.

“Wow, I mean, they got the guy!”

“Yeah, it’s comforting in a way.”

“Yeah, except where do we go from here, with The Cold Trail? It appeared it just sort of ended?” Shoop asked.

“We now have four more women to learn about, to make real, instead of nothings or nobodies. And I mean, this guy, this Ewald, I’m calling the prison next thing. Let’s hear him.”

“Okay, good, so I know what I’m doing too. I’m going to double-check everything in here to be sure it matches.”

Kendra had no doubt if someone missed dotting an “i” in this investigation, Shoop would find it.

Kendra opened the file and pulled out the copies of the case files. “You take a look at the victims we already identified; I want to read the reports of the new names we have.”

“Sounds good. What about writing the next episode? After Ophelia’s interview?”

“That at least will be easy. It’s going to be all Agent Price, all the time.”

“She was good. I liked her serious vibe,” Shoop said.

“Agree, and this isn’t her case. It never was. This is a case that was put to bed, like she said, decades before Price or anyone who works there now ever stepped foot in Quantico.”

“So, let’s just check the dearly departed Agent Branson’s work?” Shoop rapped a manila folder against the conference table.

“Yep, that’s the plan.”

“I’ll order lunch.”

It was going to take days to comb through the amount of information they’d just acquired from the FBI.

Chapter 16

The smart board was filled with dates, pictures, names, and details they hadn’t had access to before. Kendra had more leads now, more than she knew what to do with. So, they prioritized. First up, they requested the interview with Ned Wayne Ewald. That would take a bit of time to process, she feared, so they couldn’t wait to move forward with the podcast.

After packaging the interview with Agent Price into a full episode, they had leeway again to find the next episode.

They decided to interview the original witnesses that the FBI had tracked down. The ones they could find, anyway.

“You know, you get a gold star. That Eugene guy, he was interviewed back in the day.”

“Yeah, I saw, just as helpful then as he is today.” Kendra thought back to the near-miss she’d experienced after her attempt to talk to Eugene. She had been just as vulnerable as the victims, decades had passed, but the same risk existed.

After combing through the names of witnesses, Kendra was able to line up two interviews. She looked at a Venn Diagram Shoop had created of three circles:

A. Still alive. B. Still in the area. C. Relevant.

It was a small number of potential interview subjects. But it had been so many years. Maybe they were lucky to even have that.

“You stay on trying to find family and friends. I really want an episode devoted to each victim,” Kendra told Shoop.

But that, too, might be impossible. They’d only been able to find friends or family for Sincere and Linda. The rest of the women, five more, who’d been killed by Ewald, were like ghosts. They didn’t know anything more about the new victims. And it ate at Kendra’s gut that truly, right now, they were the Nobody Girls.

Shoop was going to keep digging while Kendra went out to interview the two witnesses they could find that had been interviewed back in the day.

The first was a man named Kevin Bunce.

He provided vending machine services and represented specialty snack foods for several rest stops and gas stations along the I-75 corridor.

He agreed to meet Kendra at the Ohio Turnpike travel plaza. Port Lawrence had easy access to I-75 and the Ohio Turnpike, which was one reason it offered competitive bids for industries.

It was a bit of a drive for Kendra, but she was eager to have a plan, thanks to the new files provided by the FBI.

Cars and activity were just picking up when Kendra parked her Jeep. The Travel Plaza was the opposite of the truck stops or sketchy-feeling service stations she’d been visiting since starting this story. It catered to families driving to various vacations, business travelers in company cars, and soccer moms hauling vans full of kids to tournaments. There was a truck service area around the side, Kendra saw, but it felt so much less scary here. Kendra was relieved.

On the phone, Kevin Bunce had mentioned this as a good place to meet and let her know that if it was a nice day, the plaza had picnic tables where they could sit and talk.

Kendra arrived and scanned the tables. A family with young children occupied one. A