“Yes, but I’m really not Detective Porter anymore,” he said. “Most people just call me Vincent. Maureen from the station said you have information about a case from a few years back.”

“Yes, sir,” River said. “I’m a private investigator in St. Louis. My partner and I were hired to find someone. A woman with a cold case podcast.”

“April Bailey?” he said. “Yeah, she contacted me a while back. Wanted to see if she could help us find the person who ran down and killed a woman. I haven’t heard from her for quite some time, though. I don’t believe she was ever able to uncover anything we hadn’t already investigated.”

“Unfortunately, she’s missing, sir.”

“Vincent, please. And that’s terrible. She was a sweet gal. If I can do anything to help you, I’m happy to do it.”

“Thank you, Vincent,” River said. “We’re just going through her cold cases, trying to find out if anyone connected to one of them might have had something to do with her disappearance.”

“You mean, maybe she got a little too close to the truth?”

“Yes. I was told this case she was working on is important to you. I know it’s been a long time, but do you mind if I ask you a few questions?”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know you, ma’am. If you’d like to meet me for a cup of coffee, I’d be happy to talk to you in person. I worked for the police department for a long time. I can tell a lot about people when we’re face-to-face. A lot less so on the phone.”

Since Tony wouldn’t let her out of his sight, River only had one option. “Would you be willing to come to our office?”

“I can do that. Give me your address.”

Once River had given him their location, he told her he’d be there shortly. She hung up and waited for Tony to get off the phone. When he finally hung up, she told him that the retired detective was on his way to see them.

“I just got off the phone with Ted’s mother. She invited me to visit her. She doesn’t get out much. I think she’s disabled. I’ll tell her I can’t come today. I’ll wait until we can go together.”

River sighed. “Tony, I’ll be fine. I’ll keep the office locked except when I’m with Detective Porter.”

Tony hesitated a moment before saying, “I guess that would be all right. Mrs. Piper lives near Imperial, so I won’t be gone long.”

“Sounds good. I hope we learn something helpful from these people.”

Tony stood up and grabbed his coat. “Call me if you need me.” He smiled at her. “And by the way, I’m asking the security guard to check on you every thirty minutes.”

She frowned at him. “I told you I’ll be all right.”

“I know. But I’m overprotective. Just deal with it.”

River shook her head. “You’re a dork.”

“I know.”

After he left, River made additional notes about April’s various cases, trying to find something that made sense to her. Many times, writing things out helped her to think. She was so focused that she didn’t notice anyone had opened the office door until she heard someone call her name. She realized she’d forgotten to lock the door. Standing in the office was an older man, tall with salt and pepper hair in what used to be called a butch cut. He had steel gray eyes that showed intelligence. He wasn’t what she was expecting.

“You’re Vincent?” she asked.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“If I’m going to call you Vincent, you need to call me River,” she said.

Vincent grinned. “You gotta deal. Mind if I sit?”

River nodded, and Vincent took a seat in one of the chairs in front of her desk.

“Coffee?” River asked.

“Thanks, but no. My blood pressure is a little high. Caffeine doesn’t help.” He leaned back in the chair. “So, Miss Bailey is missing? I hated to hear that. I couldn’t help her, but I appreciated her commitment to finding out what happened to Cheryl Armitage. That was a terrible situation. I sure didn’t like retiring before we found out who killed her.”

“You think she was hit on purpose?” River asked.

“I don’t know. It could have been an accident, but even if it were, the person who hit her should have fessed up. And she certainly shouldn’t have been left alone in the road to die. If someone had called 911, she might have lived.” He sighed. “I really don’t know any more than I did back then. We looked everywhere for the car that hit her. Found some with damage, but none of them were the right one. Either the driver had an alibi, or the blood didn’t match hers. Unfortunately, most of the cars around here with blood and hair come from cars that ran into deer. I even hit one that night, on the way to the scene. It’s a sad fact in Missouri. A lot of wildlife and too many vehicles.”

“So, you never got a tip that made you wonder?” River asked.

“Well, there was one. A woman phoned the station about six months ago—I was already retired—but they called me about it. Said she believed Cheryl’s ex-husband was the one who killed her. He was dating this woman when the accident happened, and he came home with damage to his front end. She also said he got it fixed right away and then paid someone to give him an alibi.”

“My partner and I were wondering about the ex-husband, but according to my notes, he had an alibi.”

“Yeah, he did,” Vincent said. “But he was the only one with any motive. And his alibi was only backed up by one person.”

“Can you tell me how to find him?”

“I could, but you’d have to go to the cemetery. He died about ten months ago. Cancer.”

Well, so much for that idea. “So do you believe he did it?”

“That’s just the thing. I don’t know. I’d love to see this case solved, but I could never prove that his alibi was false. Or that the second wife, the woman who called, wasn’t saying what she did because she was angry with him. Seems their marriage was breaking up too. But even after Tom died, his boss stuck to his claim that he was working out of town at the time Cheryl was killed.”

“Where did he work?” River asked.

“He worked for a building maintenance company. Cleaned offices at night.”

“Kind of hard to be certain he was at work then, right?”

“True,” Vincent said. “Most of the buildings he cleaned had security systems. It’s not impossible to leave a building if the alarm is turned off and come back in later, but here’s the reason we couldn’t make a case. Why would he leave work, drive twenty miles away, run down his ex-wife who he had no way of knowing would be drunk and out on the road that night, and then hightail it back to work and enter a building, just hoping no one would see him? And then keep his messed-up truck with him until he drove home the next morning . . . in daylight when everyone could see the damage? It’s not entirely impossible, but the idea has too many holes in it. We just couldn’t prove anything.”

“I understand.”

“I wish I could help you,” Vincent said, “but Tom couldn’t have taken April. He was dead when she went missing. I’m not saying he didn’t kill Cheryl, but unless you find new evidence, this case is pretty much a dead end.”

“Just two more quick questions?”

“Sure,” Vincent said. “Like I said, I’m retired. I have all the time in the world.”

“I read that before she died, Cheryl whispered the phrase three little piggies to the EMT who was with her. Do you have any idea why she would say that?”

“No, we couldn’t connect that to anything. In the end, we decided she was probably hallucinating. She had three times the legal limit of alcohol in her system.”

“This may sound really odd, but does the dogwood flower have anything to do with this case? I ask because it might be connected to two other deaths, both victims found near the side of the road.”