There was a pause on the other end of the line. “Look, I’ll be honest with you,” Ellie finally said. “Your call, bringing up William Summer, and everything that happened with my father? I was probably a little too quick to jump at the possibility your friend’s disappearance might be connected to that case. But taking a step back? There’s nothing there, Lindsay. There’s not a shred of evidence that the College Hill killings were committed by more than one man. Plus, Summer made it clear after he was caught that he was terrified of being executed. As it turned out, none of his crimes were committed when Kansas had capital punishment as a sentencing option, but he didn’t know that when he was first interrogated. If he had an accomplice, he would have offered him up in exchange for leniency. I don’t want you focusing only on William Summer to the detriment of other possibilities about what’s going on with your friend.”

“I guess that’s good to hear. The blood belonging to a killer would probably be the worst explanation.” She still hadn’t told anyone other than Scott about the messages she had received from someone claiming to be Hope. “It would just be nice to have a definite account for that DNA match. I saw that Janice Beale lived next to a park with a rec center, and she became a kind of den mother to the whole crew. Maybe one of the kids skinned a knee or something, and is now one of the people who did work on the Stansfields’ house.”

There was another pause, and Lindsay wondered if perhaps Ellie was distracted now that she had decided she had no personal connection to Hope’s case. “It’s possible, but in any event, I’d leave the William Summer thing alone. The fewer heads that man lives in, the better. And best of luck to you and your friend.”

Lindsay had a gut feeling that the detective was holding something back, but she couldn’t imagine what it might be, so she thanked her once again for trying to help.

She slid her laptop from her briefcase and pulled up the article that mentioned Beale’s connection to the summer camp. She then searched for “COP camp Edgemoor Park Wichita Kansas.” In her fourth page of search results, she found a series of Facebook pages dedicated to “alumni” groups, arranged by five-year spans of summer “classes.” Enrollment in the groups was sparse, drawing low double digits of members and no ongoing activity.

She clicked on the group that covered the years immediately before Janice Beale was murdered. Only fourteen members of the group. The few posts were typically vacuous social media fare.

Wow. Blast from the past. Such great memories!

Shout-out to my former kickball homies. We ruled!!

Anyone know whatever happened to Officer Simpson? Man, I had such a crush.