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“What do you remember about Marsha Prince?” Zoe asked.
“I’ve done my best to forget about it all.” He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. “She was a great kid. Hardworking, and all the customers loved her. Broke her father’s heart when she vanished.”
“Hadley also worked in the shop?” Vaughan asked.
“Not as much, but she was gearing up to run the register full time. But when her sister went missing, she got married and left town. I tried to keep up with Hadley and even sent her a Christmas card that first year she was out west, but she never wrote back. I figured it was just as well. Larry and Edith weren’t exactly the best of parents.”
“Why do you say that?” Vaughan asked.
“Larry was super controlling with his girls. Didn’t like boys looking at them at all. If Mark hadn’t been working here, I’m not sure Larry would ever have let him date Hadley. But Mark was a hardworking guy, and Larry liked him. Why are you asking about Marsha now?”
“Marsha Prince’s remains were found eight weeks ago. It’s taken this long to identify them.”
“Shit. Where?” Slater asked.
“About five miles from here in a storage unit,” Zoe said.
“I remember a reporter doing a story a couple months ago,” Slater said. “She found bones in a box.”
Unfortunately for them, the public videotape of the discovery had revealed many key details. Law enforcement normally held back facts they believed were known only to the killer, but in this case, there were few secrets they could now keep.
“The remains belonged to Marsha Prince,” Zoe said.
Slater rubbed his hand over his jaw. “How did she die?”
Nikki McDonald still didn’t know the answer to this question, and Zoe wanted to keep it under wraps for now. “We haven’t determined that yet.”
“Jesus.” Slater rubbed the back of his neck as he shook his head. “The bones on the video were all black.”
“They had been burned.”
“Why?”
“Either someone didn’t want her found, or they were sending a message.”
“What kind of message?” he asked.
“You tell us,” Vaughan countered.
“If you’re suggesting that Larry Prince was into anything shady, you are wrong.”
“I’m not suggesting anything. You bought the business a year after Marsha vanished,” Vaughan said. “If anyone knew what was in the books or if Larry had owed anyone a lot of money, you would. Did he make anyone angry?”
“He got on well enough with the clients. He wasn’t the warm and fuzzy type, but he was professional. And no, there wasn’t anything funny about the books. I was able to keep the crews working and the business open because he had given me signature power on the accounts soon after Marsha vanished. He was a total wreck, and so was Edith. You can go back and check all the statements. I never did anything funny or off color with them.”
“How did you afford the company?” Vaughan asked.
“It was a matter of meeting the banks and accepting the existing loans on the business. I had a track record, and I put my home up as collateral. The bank didn’t want a default on their hands. I called Hadley and offered to send her money each month, but she said her husband made enough and for me to keep it.”
Zoe pulled out the last picture taken of the Prince family and handed it to Slater. “Hadley said her father took the family out for a big splurge. Why was he in such a good mood?” Zoe asked.
Slater stared at the picture a long moment before handing it back to Zoe. “The cops asked me that question a dozen times back in the day. He had won a lucrative state contract. We knew we would have to buy more trucks and hire more men, but it also meant the bank was willing to give us the loan. The loan had come through that day, and he figured, why not do something nice for himself and his family. Only a month before, he had had to tell Hadley he couldn’t send her to college. He was planning to tell her she could now go.”
“How did Hadley react about not going to college?” Zoe asked.
“She was really upset, as you can imagine. She had worked harder than her sister and made better grades but was still facing a few years of working behind the counter here.”
“Did Larry Prince have a girlfriend?” Vaughan asked.
Slater hesitated. “That’s out of the blue. Why do you ask?”
“Trying to get a full picture,” Vaughan said. “There’s always more than meets the eye.”
“There was a woman who worked the front desk.” Slater’s tone was reluctant. “They messed around a couple of times, but it wasn’t serious.”
“Did you tell the cops this?” Zoe asked.
“No. It didn’t seem to have anything to do with Marsha.”
“What was the woman’s name?” Vaughan asked.
“Becky Mahoney. After the murders and all the media attention, she moved to Fredericksburg, Virginia. I haven’t seen her in years.”
“Who was Marsha dating?” Vaughan asked.
“There were a few upwardly mobile guys, but she never went out with any of them more than once.”
“What about the ones that weren’t upwardly mobile?” Zoe asked.
“There were a few who worked in this shop. One guy in particular caught her eye. Good-looking kid. Jason Dalton. He could charm anyone, and Marsha was no exception. But Jason was smart enough to know to stay away from the boss’s daughters. And he was more interested in getting enough money together so he could move south.”
“Was Marsha interested in any guys?” Zoe said.
“There were several, but it’s been so long I don’t remember the names. They all liked Marsha, too. Most of them had drug problems or had done time.”
“Do you know where Jason Dalton is now?” Vaughan asked.
“Jason moved south a few months before Marsha vanished. I never saw him again. I haven’t kept up with the other guys.”
“You suspect Jason?”
“No. He was guilty of being poor and maybe stupid like most teenage boys are, but I never saw him as a killer.”
“Was Hadley seeing anyone other than Mark?” Zoe asked.
“How would I know something like that?” Slater countered.
“You’re one of the few people who knew the family well at the time,” Vaughan pointed out.
“Hadley was crazy about Mark,” Slater said.
“That’s not exactly an answer,” Zoe said.
“No, she wasn’t dating anyone else,” Slater said.
Forty-five minutes later, Zoe and Vaughan arrived at Nikki McDonald’s apartment building. Vaughan parked, and they made their way into the lobby. They showed identification to the doorman, who called up to Nikki.
“I hope she saved her pennies,” Vaughan said. “The rent here is not cheap.”
“She’s been out of work four months,” Zoe said. “Her website has had a reasonable amount of hits but not enough to generate advertising to cover this.”
The elevator doors opened, and Nikki stepped off. She wore dark cotton pants, a gray top, and sandals. Her hair was freshly brushed, and her lipstick looked as if it had just been applied.
