“I know, but I don’t have to like it.”
Josh stood behind Winston, peering over his shoulder. “Pull up a map of Sammamish and then give me the location of the burned-out Audi. Something’s been bugging me. He had to leave the Range Rover on that dead-end street before he stole the Audi at the industrial complex. The question is, how did he get across town to the industrial complex? Are we looking at two killers?”
“Good point, But I don’t think so,” Skye said. “Although I don’t think our guy takes the bus, he could’ve called for a Lyft or an Uber. Times might have changed in that regard, but serial offenders still need to get from Point A to Point B using the most efficient way possible.”
Josh frowned. “But who does that? The distance from there to Woodbridge must be ten miles at the very least.”
Winston pulled up the driving directions and enlarged the map. “I know. It doesn’t make much sense. But Skye is right. These days if you’re looking to get from one place to another fast, you call an Uber.”
“It’s a lead we could check,” Skye said as she studied both locations and the distances. “What bugs me is if his ultimate destination was Ames Lake, why didn’t he just take Emelia there to begin with directly from Woodbridge. Why ditch the Audi and set it on fire? A nice car but certainly one that might fly under the radar better than a flashy, stolen Range Rover. Why the detour in another stolen SUV, especially one that sticks out like a sore thumb?”
Zoe leaned in and pointed to Ames Lake. “That’s north of Taylor Mountain on the other side of 90. Maybe you guys have the wrong man, wrong car. Maybe you’re tracking a car thief and not the man who abducted Emelia.”
“I might agree with you except for one little detail,” Skye said. “Look hard at the image in the backseat of the traffic cam shot. That’s image number…what number is that, Brayden, the one where you can look down into the backseat of the car?”
Brayden switched browsers, brought up another view from another angle. “Uh, this is image fourteen, a still, taken from the ramp as he whizzes by doing probably eighty. You can see there’s a lump that looks female in the backseat.”
Skye took a step closer. “That’s it. Blow it up as much as you can because I don’t think that lump is his laundry. I see a head that has black hair and what looks like a motionless pair of legs.”
After Brayden got the image as large as he could without losing too much detail, Josh could make out the female form. “The timestamp indicates nine-thirty last night. That’s twelve hours ago.”
Skye blew out a breath. “As I see it, we have two options. One, we quietly get together a search party or two, we announce to the public that we need volunteers. If we ask for help from the public and we’re wrong, we risk tipping our hand to ‘Mr. I like fancy cars.’”
“You’re planning to search where?” Zoe charged. “That doesn’t make sense, either. Even if this is the right guy, he could’ve taken Emelia anywhere along I-90. In fact, he could be in Montana by now. Maybe that’s where his dumping ground is.”
Skye’s lips curved up, delighted to have a challenge. “I don’t think so. Where was the only victim out of nine found? Answer, in the woods around Ames Lake. That’s an area he obviously favors for a reason. Nope, our guy is a local boy. He wouldn’t go all that way out of state when he could use what’s most familiar to him right here in Washington.”
Knowing Skye had a sixth sense about these things, Judy put in her two cents. “We could get a dozen people right now to head out there. Scour the countryside around Ames Lake. Just a small group, like the people in this room, shouldn’t attract too much media attention.”
“Let’s do it,” Josh decided. “What could it hurt?”
“Other than wasting a day looking in the wrong place?” Skye tossed back. “After all, I might be wrong.”
Brayden got to his feet and reached for his backpack. “Maybe. But what if you’re right? I’m willing to risk it.”
“You’re not fooling anyone. You just want to impress Dani,” Zoe charged, poking a finger into Brayden’s chest.
“Sure. Let’s forget about finding Emelia, and I’ll rack up major points with Dani if Skye’s right. And let’s just put aside Ames Lake where Cassie’s body was dumped. What’s the matter with you, anyway?”
Before Zoe could fire off an answer to that, Winston pushed away from the table, ready to step up. “Who are we kidding? Skye and Josh are rarely ever wrong about anything. Plus, Ames Lake could be our starting point. If nothing else, we could eliminate the area for future theories. We wouldn’t need to announce it to anyone unless we’re right.” His phone dinged with a text. After reading the message, he held up his phone. “And Jenny’s schedule opened up. Even she’s willing to help us out in a pinch.”
Harry grinned at that. “Give me time to call Deb, and you’ve got your dozen or so volunteers right here.”
Reggie had been leaning against the wall, listening to the back and forth. He shoved off and looked at Judy. “With traffic, it’s a forty-minute trip outside the city. Good thing I know a shortcut that’ll get us there in less than half an hour.”
They spent the next few minutes figuring out who would ride with whom. Zoe watched as everyone trailed out into the entryway. “Wait a minute. I should get to go, too.”
“Why?” Brayden snapped. “You think we’re looking in the wrong place anyway.”
“I should still get to tag along. I’m part of this team, remember? You didn’t even show up in Idaho. I was there.”
“I was starting the summer semester,” Brayden fired back. “It was either help you guys out there or not go to class and delay getting my degree.”
“Kids,” Josh began, tapping Zoe on the shoulder. “Uh, go to your neutral corners. Now. And Zoe, aren’t you forgetting something? Or, in this case, someone? You were hired to watch Sierra through Sunday, not to go in search of a kidnapped victim. We need you here. Sierra needs you here.”
Zoe’s brown eyes glared past Josh, her focus lasered on Brayden. She crossed her arms over her chest in one last defiant show of stubbornness no matter how misplaced it was. “Fine. But what’s the likelihood you’ll find Emelia out at Ames Lake?”
“We won’t know until we try,” Brayden reasoned and followed Reggie out of the dining room, leaving her standing there gaping and feeling like a fool. Left out of the action, she whirled on the next person, which happened to be her boss.
Josh narrowed his silver-gray eyes on the teen and pointed a finger. “Don’t you dare start with me. And don’t pout. You’re too old to pout. Do your job and take care of Sierra. We’re counting on you.”
“Fine,” Zoe spit out.
“Why are you so mad, anyway?”
Zoe crossed her arms over her chest. “Just like a man. You wouldn’t understand a thing about it.”
Four
Situated east of Redmond, tiny Ames Lake sat among nature preserves and forests of towering evergreens. The body of water was surrounded by a small town that bore the same name. Even though some of its fifteen hundred residents lived in affluent homes on large lots that backed up to a golf course or two, the place had a rural bent, rural if housing prices averaged a whooping six-hundred grand and private schools were your cup of tea. It explained why most estates had their own spectacular views and private boat launches.
Trendy and upscale, this bedroom community in King County some forty minutes out of Seattle boasted hiking trails and land set aside for parks. The woodsy, unincorporated Ames Lake with its winding, curvy roads stretched for miles through fertile farmland where berries grew ripe in summer, U-pick vegetable farms flourished, and pumpkin patches offered hayrides for kids in the fall. The area even set up its own medieval village with a petting zoo for the kids.
As Josh drove through the countryside, Skye shifted in the passenger seat, craning her neck to check out the scenery. “Look at this place. It occurs to me that his picking this beautiful, serene area to dump a body, it’s almost like he
’s making a statement.”
“Yeah, well, Taylor Mountain was scenic, too. Bundy made sure he picked a location that offered him…privacy…for a reason.”
“But that’s just it. There are houses everywhere. Where’s the privacy here? We passed one of those large estates two hundred yards back. That’s risky, leaving a body so close to where people live, greater chances of being seen by…somebody out walking their dog.”
“Granted, he had to pass quite a few houses. And technically the police report should’ve read Ames Lake Forest, which is on the northeast side of the lake. We’re still two klicks away from the site where he left Cassie.”
“Klicks.” Skye shook her head. “War-game language.” She adjusted the GPS to zoom out so she could better follow the track of the curvy road. She also checked the official map she’d downloaded from the King County Parks website. “Ames Lake Forest is between Ames Lake to the west and the Snoqualmie River to the east. Apparently, somebody’s still logging up here. There are quite a few felled trees waiting for transport to the lumber yards.”
“Maybe that’s why Ames Lake Forest is privately owned and not accessible to the public. Law enforcement made that distinction in the report. They noted Cassie wasn’t killed here, probably somewhere else.”
“But is that accurate? We can’t be sure of anything until we see the area for ourselves.”
“We’re coming in from the west, the Ames Lake side, where our guy must’ve known in advance that’s the only way to access the forest.”
About that time, a mountain bike zoomed out of the woods and crossed in front of the van, skidding on the dirt road. Josh hit the brake fast to avoid colliding with the biker. “I’m glad I wasn’t speeding. That’s another thing Ames Lake is known for, mountain biking is big here.”
“I see that.”
They came to a sharp bend in the road, the lake on one side, the access road into the forest on the other side.
“Cassie’s body was left just this side of that entrance,” Josh stated, pulling over to let it sink in.
It was a sobering, serene spot with lovely tree branches hanging across the roadway. Skye took a picture of it with her phone.
“I still don’t see how he found this place in the dark or by accident. How? Unless he knew exactly where he was going. The police report estimated the body had only been here for about six hours. The off-duty cop found her at seven-forty in the morning. That means he dumped her here around midnight or thereabouts.”
“Yeah. I’m beginning to see what you mean,” Josh said, studying the topography. One glance at the side mirror told him the others were pulling up behind the van. “There’s Harry and Deb now. It looks like all the programmers rode together with Reggie and Judy.”
“They were supposed to stop and pick up Jenny. Please tell me she’s with them.”
“Yeah, she’s back there talking to her mom.”
Skye hopped out to greet the others, waving in the direction of Deborah and Jenny Mack. She leaned toward Josh and whispered, “It says something about her recovery that she’s willing to come out here like this.”
Josh nodded. “I think it’s because Harry and Deb have been encouraging her to help with the Foundation even if it’s just administrative filing. But let’s not forget Winston’s part. He claims she’s stronger than ever. And he should know since the two of them have gotten so close that Jenny’s letting him move in before fall classes start.”
“Really? That’d be great. I wouldn’t mind seeing Jenny regroup enough to volunteer. I can see the confidence building in each of them. They’re good for each other. By the way, what was that whole scene back at the house between Zoe and Brayden? I never paid much attention to how they don’t seem to get along. What happened?”
“Sexual tension, maybe?” Josh proffered.
“You’re kidding? I didn’t see that coming.” When Skye spotted Harry, she waved him over. “Are you certain this is where the body was found?”
“Positive. See that ridge thirty yards up ahead. There’s a ravine behind it. That’s where she was dumped. Detectives theorized that the killer left her here because something spooked him, or he got interrupted. Either way, he must’ve taken her body out of a vehicle and dragged it slightly uphill to get rid of it fast. There were photographs of drag marks in the file.”
“Yeah. I remember.” But Skye was far from convinced that was the reason. Dumping Cassie here and leaving her was his one big mistake. She just had to figure out why he did it.
Tucking her map under her arm, she began the ordeal of walking toward the ravine. Using a muddy path forged by mountain bikes, she could see the multitude of tire tracks left in the dirt. But a lot had happened to the land in the two years since Cassie’s body had been here.
In single file, the group marched up the hillside. The trail was rough and sandwiched on either side by underbrush made thicker by the summer rain. But there were signs of active logging. She could see mud-clogged roads in places where heavy equipment had ripped out the earth. Along the path to the ridge, someone had planted baby Douglas firs to replace the ones cut down. But it would take decades to replace the towering ones cut down.
“Someone’s clearing this out for development,” Josh noted behind her.
“Clearing or not, it would still be plenty spooky up here at night.”
The hill turned out to be more of an overlook. As Skye stood on the little summit, it provided her with a perfect view of the town of Carnation in the distance. Josh stood next to her, shoulder to shoulder.
From some distance away, she could hear the faint lapping of lake water where someone had paddled out in their rubber raft or canoe. On the other side of the shore, a boy reeled in a fish. Two kids jumped off a wooden pier into the water for a swim. A blue heron circled overhead. A pair of mourning doves cooed to each other from a nest in one of the younger fir trees.
A haze began to form. In front of Skye, the white wolf stepped out of the mist, standing tall, regal. Her tail high, her violet-blue eyes glistening, Kiya took off west toward the lake, sniffing the trail before deciding to head in the opposite direction.
Skye had expected Kiya to stick to the area around the lake, but the wolf surprised her, heading due east, through the park and toward the Snoqualmie River.
Skye stood with hands on her hips and met Josh’s eyes. Before angling back toward the others, she cleared her throat. “Are we all in agreement that this guy had to be familiar with the area to get Cassie this far?”
Heads bobbed in understanding. But it was Brayden who had a point to make. “With all the activity up here, an active neighborhood like this, a state park, maybe Zoe’s right. Maybe there are too many people around to make this his dumping ground. I did some research on the way out here, and it seems they’ve been logging this area for almost two years. And if the guy’s been active for five, you have to ask the question. If his dumping ground is here, then where is it? Where would it be safe from the general public? A hiker or a biker could easily stumble on remains. Someone would’ve done that by now, right?”
Willing to debate the idea, Skye reached for her map. “We have almost six-hundred acres of woods around the lake and almost that many acres that make up the park, which makes this area highly trafficked. You’re right to think it would be difficult to do. But consider this. East of here provides cover for a killer because those woods are more remote. There are eight girls still missing, nine if you count Emelia. Ask yourself why he brought one here and not any of the others?”
Jenny took a step toward Skye, in a voice barely above a whisper, Jenny added, “I get it. You think he might’ve been headed someplace else that night, right? And if he did get interrupted, what exactly was going on with him?”
Skye gave Jenny a warm smile. “Putting yourself in the killer’s head is never easy.” Her eyes tracked west to Ames Lake. “One might assume he used the water. But weighing down a body and tossing it into the lake that night would hardly buy him the kind
of time he needed. Whatever spooked him, he had to move fast, think fast. He didn’t have a lot of time to decide or make it very far, certainly not to the lake and back to his car. He didn’t count on anyone finding Cassie’s body that quickly, either. It was his bad luck they did. But I think he panicked, pure and simple, and then dragged Cassie here to this ravine with every intention of…”
Brayden didn’t let her finish. “Because the guy had every intention of coming back for her at a later, more convenient time and moving her. Somewhere. Around here. And he didn’t get the chance to do that because the cop found her early the next morning.”
Skye grinned. “Bingo. He was probably upset about that. I suggest we take a shortcut through the park, then begin our search in those woods along the banks of the Snoqualmie River.”
“But we’re not crossing over the footbridge,” Josh added for clarity. “It wouldn’t be practical for him to use the bridge to move a body. Instead, he’s picked a spot somewhere along the riverbank that means something to him.”
“I get it,” Jenny said again. “That’s what he would do. He would want to keep the victims together, just like Elias Pope did.”
“That’s right. I mean, who would think to go looking for victims out here in a well-traveled area like this unless you were putting them somewhere back in those woods, far enough back to conceal the bodies.”
Embolden now. Jenny cleared her throat. “Killers like Elias Pope and Ted Bundy would find that one special place. This guy might even return again and again like Bundy did.”
Skye let that sobering fact hang in the air while she used the map as a guide. With her finger, she traced the area in question. “The plan is to walk along the river’s edge, do a grid search straight back into those woods. If nothing else, we’ll all get our exercise and a nice hike outside in the sunshine.”
Reggie studied the plot of land. “The area looks large on the map. The fact is, it’s not that big. Unless…the issue is how far back do you suppose those woods go? That’s the question.”
Down Among The Bones Page 6