Pretty Little Killers (29 page)

“I'm ‘tap-tap-tap,'” Gaskins said. “I'm slow because I don't want to miss something. Then I see this car and the rims stick out to me. It's like a silver car, and I'm thinking, ‘Okay, well, I know a silver car picked up Skylar.'”

The time was after midnight, and the car was headed toward town. The two men kept watching the video, and with each tap the timestamp moved toward 12:30.

“Tap-tap-tap,” Gaskins said, “and at 12:39, I see this same car go toward the interstate.”

The times lined up perfectly. They'd found more footage of the car that picked up Skylar, and it was definitely headed north, toward the interstate or Blacksville. They thanked the manager and put in a request for a copy of the footage.

“You guys are lucky,” the manager said. “After fifty-four days, they permanently delete those files. That footage would have been gone in two days.”

twenty-five

About a Boy

Skylar disappeared because of
a boy. That's what everyone said. What no one seemed to know, though, was whether it was a teen boy or a random adult pedophile.

Rumors like these are easy to believe when romance is at the heart of so many teenage upheavals and males commit most crimes. In addition, people still believe the biggest threat to children comes from a strange man lurking in a trench coat, so-called stranger danger. The truth is, most missing children who aren't runaways are snatched by people they know—including their own family members. If Skylar's disappearance had to do with a boy, it was likely someone she knew.

The problem was, Skylar couldn't be linked to very many boys, and none of the anecdotal reports had romantic overtones. So while rumor had it a boy was involved, the facts showed otherwise.

The only known story about Skylar and a boy illustrated how little experience Skylar had with the opposite sex. Amorette Hughes remembered Tommy,
²⁵
the “really cute” boy in dance class all the girls fawned over.

“He was kinda, like, skaterish,” Amorette said, referring to a look modeled after skateboarder subculture. “He wore T-shirts, and liked skinny jeans. We would never talk to him. We were scared.”

When Skylar did talk to Tommy, she became so nervous she stammered. The most she could do was watch him from afar and giggle with Amorette.

Not so with one of Skylar's friends. That girl chatted easily with Skater Boy.

“Shelia,” Amorette said. “I think they might have gone out on a couple of dates. I remember Skylar telling me about it. I know Shelia said Tommy was awkward.”

Skylar couldn't have been happier for her friend. “She was like, ‘I'm living my life vicariously through Shelia! I'm not there, but it feels like I am!'” Amorette said.

Accounts connecting Skylar to romance with boys were nonexistent, suggesting only that she wasn't ready for dating. In fact, Skylar's lack of interest in boys may have been part of what drove some teenagers to speculate Skylar was a lesbian. (
I heard she doesn't like boys . . . and those other two girls she always hung around with, weren't they seen kissing at some party
?)

Gaskins and Berry had also heard Skylar's disappearance was connected to a boy, although in those versions it wasn't necessarily a romantic relationship. One name they kept coming across was Eric Finch, a sophomore at Clay-Battelle. Eric, who looks like he could pass for a teenage Dave Neese, lived on a farm ten miles south of Blacksville.

Because Skylar was a Daddy's girl, and because of Eric's dark hair and stocky looks, people might have thought he was Skylar's type. But that wasn't true, either. Eric and Skylar met through Shelia years earlier. They went to the same parties and also attended a Snoop Dogg concert at the WVU Coliseum with Shelia and Shania. Skylar had even been to one of Eric's birthday parties. Since becoming teens their friendship existed primarily through text messages. In fact, they were texting right before Skylar snuck out for the final time.

Police found out Eric was the last person who received a text message from Skylar. His final text to Skylar was at 12:11
A.M
.; she
replied one minute later. At 12:12 Eric said Skylar simply texted,
Goodnight
.

While Eric denied having had a crush on Skylar, other people say he did. His tweets on March 13, 2013, when Skylar's remains were conclusively identified, seem to suggest sincere feelings:
Easy, the hardest day of my life. Its something that only few understand. Pure brightness turned into darkness. Rest in peace, love you babe
and
Lord, I ask for strength! You, above all, know I need it
. Of course, it's also possible Eric was another in a long line of teens who saw in Skylar the perfect confidante—and nothing more. In any event, the police never considered him a likely suspect.

Shelia was Eric's first girlfriend, something he said came about largely because their last names, Eddy and Finch, meant they stood next to each other in the hot-lunch line in middle school. Eric was also a friend of—or at least acquainted with—Dylan Conaway.

The parties at the Conaway house were rumored to get a little wild; some people claim alcohol and drugs flowed freely. Gaskins and Berry learned Shelia had taken Rachel to parties there. In addition, it was common knowledge around Blacksville that Dylan Conaway once had a sexual relationship with Shelia—and she and Skylar went to Blacksville a lot.

The more closely Skylar was connected to the Conaway brothers, State Police thought, the more likely her disappearance was linked to the bank robberies. They were equally convinced Darek Conaway was somehow connected to those felonies.

Before they made any more moves on Darek, the two troopers decided to ride out to the western end of the county. They wanted to have a little chat with Eric Finch before they paid another visit to the Conaway house.

Just talk. It's easy.

After typing the text into his phone, Daniel hit
send
. Then he leaned back in his chair and tried to listen to Mr. Snyder. It wasn't
easy. This year Daniel had two math classes—precalculus and trigonometry. Usually math came easily to Daniel, but the way Mr. Snyder went over and over points in trig class made it almost impossible for Daniel to tune in. The fact Daniel thought the teacher was cocky didn't help. Daniel believed the only way he could handle his boredom was to go to class stoned.

Daniel imagined Rachel receiving his last text. He'd sent her texts regularly in the two weeks they'd been back to school and he knew he was annoying her. Personally, he thought Rachel was beautiful, had an incredible voice, and was a great person—even if she was a little over the top. After all, Daniel knew he was, too. Plus, they'd spent hours and hours together, in and out of class, working under Mr. Kyer's direction or driving around town getting high with Skylar and Shelia.

This school year wasn't turning out to be as much fun as Daniel thought it would be. Of course after Skylar disappeared, everything had changed. Lately Daniel was having trouble remembering the things he liked about Rachel. He kept thinking it wasn't fair, the way Rachel and Shelia were being all quiet and sneaky. They seemed to be keeping to themselves a lot more than they used to.

As if that wasn't enough, Rachel's attitude was really beginning to annoy him. Daniel had seen the pair several times—in the cafeteria, at Shelia's locker, even just walking down the hallway. Their heads were always close, they were always whispering. There was something so secretive about them now.

If he could get Rachel to talk about it—whatever it was—she could tell him and it wouldn't go any further. He was going to keep pressuring her until she did. He didn't even try bugging Shelia; once that girl had her mind made up, she didn't change it. Instead, Daniel completely ignored her.

He keyed his phone again:

Hey Rachel. We really need to talk in 4th period. You know what about too
.

Daniel hit
send
.

Dave's aunt, Joanne Nagy, and her daughter Rikki talked every day. They were very close, so it was only natural much of their conversation centered on Joanne's missing niece and Rikki's missing cousin, Skylar. Where she could be, why she had left, what they could do to help find her.

Joanne had never met the brunette teen, since she and Dave's uncle had parted ways years earlier. It was a contentious divorce, and Joanne cut herself off from her ex-husband's family. She only saw Dave for the first time in more than twenty years when his mom died, and they reconnected at the funeral home. Joanne was so happy to see Dave and his brother, Mike, again, and looked forward to catching up on their lost years.

One year later Joanne was devastated when she learned Dave's daughter was missing. So Joanne did what she does best: she went into action, taking charge like an efficient military commander. She had MISSING Skylar posters made, organized search teams, and then sent those teams of complete strangers out to various areas of the region. She also scheduled people to take food to Dave and Mary, and she even scoped out various locations around the region where Skylar had supposedly been sighted.

Along the way, Joanne joined TeamSkylar<3, the Facebook group created by Dave's cousin, Jennifer Hunt-Woodall. So did Rikki, who was also Jennifer's cousin and her closest friend.

After dissension broke out, Joanne left TeamSkylar<3, totally breaking away from it. Rikki stayed on, and a few months later tensions were so high Joanne issued an edict: “We're not going to talk about Skylar. That topic is off limits.” She hated telling Rikki that, but mother and daughter had taken sides—and the result was not pretty. Joanne loved her daughter and she knew Rikki loved her, but when it came to Skylar they couldn't see eye to eye.

So when Rikki called her mom one night, and told her to stop looking for Skylar, Joanne was at a loss. Why on earth should she stop looking? Then Rikki told her mom Jennifer had learned through
someone at the FBI where Skylar was, and Mary even knew about it, so Joanne should stop wasting her fuel and her time.

“Where is she?” Joanne asked.

“She's in a home for unwed mothers up in Bobtown,” Rikki said.

Joanne didn't realize the small Pennsylvania town had a home for unwed mothers, so she Googled the place—and was surprised to find not one, but two such homes. The next day, instead of taking Rikki's advice, Joanne loaded up her team and they crossed the state line, making a beeline directly for Bobtown. Once there, they did a reconnaissance mission, parking across the street at each location and watching anyone who came or went. Finally, they decided to take a poster into the homes and simply ask the receptionist: “Have you seen this girl?”

Of course, neither place had.

twenty-six