Stolen Daughters (Detective Amanda Steele)

“Again, I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thank you.” Amanda was about to turn and leave, but she was drawn to say something else. Maybe if she took a stab at showing an interest in the CSI’s personal life, it would improve their working relationship. She smiled and said, “I just met Spencer yesterday. I didn’t know you had a son.”

Emma’s face hardened to granite. Even the light that had been in her eyes flickered off. Her posture stiffened. “Well, it’s not really like we socialize, Detective, so why would you know?”

Amanda stood frozen for a few seconds, trying to make sense of the CSI’s harsh response. Eventually, when she could get her mouth to open, she said, “Suppose that’s true.” With that, she left, now chewing on another mystery but with a little insight. Given the shut-off body language, she’d wager whatever the CSI had against her was personal, but Amanda had no idea what that could be.

Sixteen

The woman at the front counter of Woodbridge Bank directed Amanda and Trent to a grouping of chairs in the middle of the lobby. Amanda sat in one that put her back to the line of tellers and had her facing the front doors.

Offices lined each side of the room. Aiden Adkins had his to Amanda’s left. Currently his door was shut, but she could see through a window that a fifty-something man was in there on the phone— Oh, he was just hanging up.

The door opened, and he exited, scanned the space, and settled his gaze on Amanda and Trent. She was already to her feet when he reached them.

Aiden held out his hand to her. “Detective…?”

She took his hand. “Detectives Steele and Stenson. You’re Aiden Adkins?”

“That’s me.” He shook Trent’s hand, too, then said, “Come, let’s talk in private.” He took them to his office and closed the door behind them.

Amanda and Trent sat in chairs facing his desk.

“Looks like you’re a busy man.” She gestured to a heap of paperwork in a tray.

“Even more now with the fire.” Aiden sighed deeply and raked a hand through his hair.

“Insurance claims?” Trent queried.

Aiden clasped his hands on his desk and leaned toward them. “The bank insured it, so really it’s just out of one pot and into another. Any external insurance companies wouldn’t touch the property.”

Amanda angled her head. “Why’s that? People had been living in it…”

“Sure, but at the time they insured it, the structure had been sound.”

“That changed?”

He nodded. “It wasn’t up to code. Mr. Burke, that’s the man who we reclaimed the property from, had added a bathroom under the stairs without a permit—not that he would have gotten one.”

“Is that why the house isn’t for sale?” Trent asked.

“Uh-huh. County Services reserves the right to request that the house be returned to its previous state. They can even levy a fine, but thankfully, I was able to negotiate that away. I got the contractor in about two months ago to do the work, but I’m still waiting for a county inspector to give us the all-clear. Then I’ll get the real estate agent back on it and insure the property with an outside firm.”

When she and Kevin had renovated their house, he’d handled everything. Hopefully, he got the necessary permits, and it wouldn’t come back to haunt her. “Could you run us through what happens when the bank reclaims a property? I’m mostly interested in how many people would have been involved and may have known it was sitting empty.”

“The bank always tries to help the homeowner retain their property, but once efforts to secure credit have been exhausted, legal notices are served. Upon foreclosure, we commission a third-party inspector and an estimator to go in. We also line up a real estate agent.”

The list of people was growing. “We won’t take up much more of your time, Mr. Adkins, but we do have one other question about the property: why were the windows boarded?”

“The neighborhood’s not the best, and we wanted to discourage squatters.”

“Yet there were,” she said with some empathy for the spot the banker found himself in.

Aiden frowned and rubbed his jaw. “Yeah, I read that there was a girl who died in the fire.” His gaze made his statement a question.

“The body of a young woman was found,” Amanda confirmed.

“Murdered?”