“It’s where they used to play when they were kids. They grew up in Orchard Park, not far from Chestnut Ridge Park. They kind of built this fort out of tree branches just off from one of the hiking trails. Samantha told me they used to hang out there all of the time. Francine and her had it bad growing up and it was kind of like a safe place for them to be.”

“Could you tell me just where in the park this fort was?”

Eddie explained and then said something far more interesting.

27

“Well,” Gwen blurted before she even had her jacket off, “what happened?”

She’d arrived at Val’s house only seconds behind Jack, who was already looking at the picture that Val had taken from Samantha’s apartment.

“She just looks so much like Julia,” Val said of the person in the photo.

“How can you tell? You can’t really see her face. Plus, this person is pretty young. A lot happens in thirty years,” Jack stated plainly.

“I can’t explain it. It’s the way she’s standing. To me, it’s just Julia.” Val felt a need to defend her opinion, but really couldn’t. Neither Jack nor Gwen had ever met her. They didn’t know her. Though Val’s own interaction with Julia was short-lived, what they confided in each other was not trivial.

“Unfortunately, this doesn’t prove anything,” Jack said. And it didn’t. No matter how hard Val tried, there was nothing more she could really say to be convincing.

Gwen took the picture from Jack. She turned it over and said, “These girls were best friends. Val, wouldn’t Julia have said something if she once had known Francine Donohue and Samantha Ritcher?”

“I know. It’s a long shot and if that’s Julia, if she was keeping this secret, it changes a lot with this case,” Val said.

“Secret is an understatement. To hide a piece of information this big? Why not tell Detective Gavin?” Gwen said.

“Maybe she was afraid to do so,” Val replied.

“I agree with you, this is a long shot,” Jack said. “But, let’s take it into consideration for now. We have to because Julia and Francine have been the focal points of this crime. DNA evidence ties Colin as the suspect in their deaths. He’s set up to take the fall for both of them. Also, circumstantial evidence links him to Samantha through phone records. The killer knows Colin. This killer also knows, at least, Francine, Samantha and Julia. They have to be connected some way. Why not like this? It’s odd that there’s nothing to tie him to Jeanne’s death yet, so we don’t know how she fits in with all of this.”