“Evidence of the Nursery Rhyme Killer.”
She sighed. “Don’t tell me you're falling for Luke Sleigh’s stories.”
“I'm not sure they are stories,” he contradicted. “I think he might be right.”
“He’s just trying to throw suspicion off himself.”
“No, I don’t think so.”
Allina was concerned that Jonathon only thought that because of the family connection. She knew that them suspecting Luke had caused a division between Jonathon and Clara, and Aggie and Nick. But just because it would make things easier for his family it didn’t make it true.
“We like Chance for the kidnapping, right?” Jonathon asked.
“Yes,” she agreed a little reluctantly. Not because she disagreed but because she knew where this was headed.
“Then why not as the Nursery Rhyme Killer? Why would that be such a big leap?”
“We have no proof that Chance did anything at this point,” she reminded him. “A couple of circumstantial things and that’s it.”
“That’s all we have on Luke,” Jonathon countered. “And Luke isn’t the only one we have connecting with the victims. The Doves were foster parents, Zoe Kitter recently lost and then regained custody of her daughter. Chance could have met them, or at least known of them, through his work as a social worker. We know Chance was here at the house yesterday. We know that his was the only mug with no traces of drugs in it. We know that no one can get a hold of him. And we know that his car is missing.”
“I'm not saying I don’t think he abducted Hope and Summer, but to be the Nursery Rhyme Killer, that just seems like such a jump.”
“Then let’s find something that doesn’t make it such a big jump.”
Jonathon got out of the car and headed inside. Allina sighed but followed. In the end, she didn’t want Luke Sleigh to be the Nursery Rhyme Killer, she just wanted the killer off the street, and if it turned out that Chance Zieglar was the killer then he needed to be stopped.
“Don’t forget Luke is still wanted for the crimes, and he’s on the run,” she said as they entered the house.
“I know. I wish he hadn’t run off, but I understand why he did. If it were Clara in danger, I would have done the same thing.”
“Yeah, me too,” she said quietly. If her husband or anyone in her family was in trouble, there wasn't anything she wouldn’t do. She hoped that when he was found, Luke didn’t do anything stupid that wound up getting him hurt. Or worse. “All right, well let’s say that Chanceisthe Nursery Rhyme Killer. Why are we looking here? He only just bought this place. He and Hope are still only moving in. If he was going to have something incriminating then why leave it here? Wouldn’t he hide it at his old place, where he’s been living?”
“I checked, Chance actually bought this place a couple of months ago, but he only just told Hope about it. So, if he was going to have anything that he kept from his victims, this would be the perfect place to hide it away.”
“It shouldn’t be too hard to search this place, they haven't moved in much of their stuff yet, and most of it’s in boxes. And I guess we can skip anything that looks like it belongs to Hope.”
“Most of the stuff down here is Hope’s,” Jonathon said. “I think they started with kitchen things and there are some boxes of books and knickknack stuff in the living room. I think Chance started setting up his office. That should be a good place to start.”
Allina agreed, it was at least as good a place as any, and although she didn’t really expect to find anything, she followed her partner into the office. There was a desk and a filing cabinet, that was it.
“Only two of the drawers have things in them, the other two are empty,” Jonathon said as he opened the drawers one by one.
“I’ll take one you take the other,” she said.
“Lucky he’s an organized guy, he has everything labeled.”
“This is mostly old stuff, from his childhood, family photos, and certificates, and report cards and things,” she quickly rifled through the drawer. Allina was about to set it aside and help Jonathon go through the other one when something caught her attention.
A stack of photos.
In them was a much younger Chance, probably around six or seven, with a group of his friends. They were dressed in costumes. Nursery Rhyme costumes.
“Jonathon, how old was Chance when he went into the foster care system?”
“Almost seven, why?”
“I might have found something.”