Down Among The Bones

by Vickie McKeehan

  “Thanks. That’s a lot better.”

  “Still nervous?”

  “Not so much. Wait. Shh. Brayden’s knocking on the door now.”

  The moment Brayden stepped inside the apartment Dani had shared with Emelia, he knew something was off. For one thing, Dani acted agitated, even tense that he’d come to call. She’d been less than enthusiastic on their earlier phone call about him dropping by. It might’ve been because the place was a disaster area. Clothes were strewn from one end to the other. The stench of garbage wafted from somewhere, maybe the kitchen or maybe the bathroom. Foul smells aside, it was clear to Brayden, Dani had not been crying. She didn’t appear upset over the sudden loss of her cousin and didn’t seem to show any signs of grieving. Not only that, Brayden’s classmate was not spending her time alone.

  Tittering with laughter, Dani introduced him to a stocky man named Tony Ferretti, whose arms, legs, and neck bore colorful tattoos. A muscle-bound guy who had obviously spent some quality time at the gym, Tony sat at the kitchen table, surrounded by dirty dishes, stuffing the last slice of pizza in his mouth.

  As Brayden caught a lingering whiff of pepperoni, onions, and red sauce, he decided to return the favor and introduce his colleague. “This is Winston. He’s part of the team that helped us find Emelia’s remains yesterday. I thought you’d want to meet him, thank him in person for all he did.”

  Winston reached out his hand.

  Dani hesitated for the briefest of moments before responding, slipping her hand lightly into Winston’s. A few seconds later, she pulled it back, and that same hand flew to her throat in a jittery gesture. “The family appreciates all that you guys did. And so fast, too. I knew getting Brayden involved was the right call. From the moment Emelia disappeared, he jumped into action and got all the right people together.”

  Although Dani didn’t invite them to sit, Brayden marched past her into the living room and plopped down in the middle of the couch. “Looks like we interrupted supper. Sorry about that.”

  Wearing a baggy pair of black shorts and a gray muscle tee, Tony had yet to say a word. But now he shoved the empty pizza box to the only clean corner of the table and leaned back in his chair. “That’s okay. But actually, we were just heading out the door. Family thing with Emelia’s mom.”

  While Winston continued to stand just inside the doorway, Brayden stretched his arms out on the back of the sofa and got comfortable. He gazed over at Tony. “Did you know Emelia?”

  “Oh, sure. I met her this past Valentine’s Day. Been dating ever since until the day she went missing.”

  “Really?” Brayden said, staring at Dani then looked back at Tony. “So you’re Emelia’s boyfriend? Funny, Dani never said a word about you Thursday night. Dating what? Six months?”

  “Yeah. That’s about right.”

  “I can see you’re both broken up,” Winston muttered.

  “What was that?” Tony asked, getting to his feet.

  Winston refused to flinch. But he did alter his words. “You must be broken up. Both of you. Such a terrible thing to happen to Emelia. It makes you think, you know. You never know where danger lurks, who exactly you should fear.”

  “Oh. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. We are. Broken up. Dani’s been a real comfort to me.”

  “When’s the funeral?” Brayden asked. “The team would like to be there for you.”

  Dani’s face paled. “Really? Why?”

  “We like to get involved and usually stay involved with the families,” Brayden explained. “The Artemis Foundation has a long history of helping families get through this kind of loss. Skye likes to promote the feeling that we’re part of the community, that people are welcome to call on us anytime, during, or after the trauma of dealing with a missing child or a murdered loved one.”

  “That sounds nice, but Emelia’s family doesn’t need that. I know I don’t need it. We’re all doing fine. Tony’s doing fine.”

  “Do you live here, Tony?”

  Tony stuck his hands in his pockets. “We were just starting to live together, Emelia and me. I gave up my apartment in Mill Valley to move in here two weeks ago and commute to work. Now I really think Dani and I should get moving. We don’t want to be late. Now that you guys found the body, Emelia’s mother and her brothers are expecting us over to figure out funeral stuff.”

  “That’s right,” Dani agreed, her face brightening. “You don’t know when they might be releasing Emelia’s body to the family, do you?”

  “No idea. From what I heard from the medical examiner’s office, he’s still confounded about certain things left with the body.”

  “Like what?” Dani wanted to know. Her curiosity front and center.

  Winston made a point of clearing his throat. “Oh, we’re forbidden to divulge those kinds of details. Suffice to say, though, there’s enough there to point to the killer. They’ll probably make an arrest within the week.”

  Dani swallowed hard. Her hand flew to her throat again. Uncomfortable and skittish, she glanced at Tony then narrowed her eyes on Brayden. “You know, now that I think about it, maybe we should make a point of getting together before the funeral.”

  Brayden clucked his tongue. “Gee, I don’t know, Dani. I’m pretty busy, what with trying to solve a murder and all. We’re working on catching an overly confident killer, albeit sloppy when it comes to leaving behind a trail to follow. I’ll have to get back to you on that.”

  Pushing off the sofa, Brayden stood up. “I guess we’ll be leaving. We just wanted you to know, in person, how sorry we were that we couldn’t find Emelia alive.”

  “The family knows all of you gave it your best shot,” Dani said. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  “You do that. In the meantime, I’ll let the detectives know that you guys are available for an interview tomorrow.”

  “What? Why?”

  “I’m sure it’s routine. Those guys always want to talk to family members. And boyfriends. They’re funny like that. And since you both shared an apartment with the victim, they’ll want to know if you had anything to do with her murder.” Brayden slapped the gym rat on the back. “Good to meet you, Tony. I’m sure you guys have nothing to worry about.”

  Outside on the same sidewalk where Emelia had been grabbed and forced into the black Audi, Brayden turned to Winston and compared their reactions. “Do you think they’re sleeping together?”

  “Oh, yeah,” Winston said. “No doubt about it. Probably for a while, long before Thursday night.”

  “That would mean Dani slept with her cousin’s boyfriend. That’s betrayal. If you toss in jealousy, and the fact that maybe Dani fell for the guy, that’d be a reason to hire a hitman to get Emelia out of the picture. Any of those constitute motive.”

  “Yeah, over Tony. I didn’t like him. And I don’t get it. The guy’s about as attractive as a…”

  “Gym rat,” Brayden finished.

  “I like how you tossed that out. What bugs me is, how did an ordinary person like Dani get in touch with a hitman?”

  Both men looked at each other at the same time and uttered one word, “Tony.”

  “He was part of it,” Brayden concluded. “We need to deep background this guy. Do you copy that, Josh, Harry?”

  “We copy,” Josh stated. “I’ll get Leo on it now.”

  The moment they turned the corner of the building, Brayden spotted Zoe getting out of the minivan. “What are you doing here?”

  “Harry let us listen in. I thought you did a great job.” Bouncing on her toes, Zoe looked at Winston. “You too, Winn.”

  Winston shook his head. “We need to get out of here before Tony and Dani round that corner and hit the road. We might even need to get someone to follow them, put them under surveillance.”

  “We can’t put them under surveillance,” Harry began in a loud voice. “Until you get out of there and get in the damn car!”

  Fast as they could, the trio climbed into the SUV since it was closest.

  “W
hat’s our next move?” Brayden asked from the backseat, still wearing his wire.

  Josh opened his door and hopped out. “Get them out of here, Harry. Skye and I will follow Dani and Tony and see where they go. My guess is it won’t be to Emelia’s mother’s.”

  After Josh joined Skye in the minivan, Harry stepped on the gas and barreled out of the complex.

  Left behind to follow Dani and Tony, Josh turned to Skye. “What’s your overall reaction to what you heard?”

  “For one, I could tell Dani was uncomfortable, even nervous about having them there. Two, she backtracked about spending time with Brayden when she thought there was evidence left behind, maybe an arrest imminent. Three, Dani wanted access to Brayden so she could weasel information out of him. Not that it would do any good because she’s definitely hiding something. We just need to find out what it is. Did you call Foley?”

  “Yeah. He’s in the loop. I sent him Tony’s name. We’ll do our deep dive and let Foley do his.”

  About that time, Skye pointed to a silver, late-model Nissan sports coupe with Dani sitting behind the wheel and Tony in the passenger seat, speeding toward the exit. “Didn’t Brayden mention that Dani rode the bus? That’s a nice car for a struggling college student who works part-time at a garden center in her spare time. Let’s see where they’re going.”

  “We shouldn’t be too obvious in a minivan.”

  “As jumpy as she sounded, I doubt Dani will notice much of anything. I hate to pick this apart, but how exactly is a poor student able to afford a sports car worth about thirty grand?”

  “That’s a valid question. But I don’t think we’ll get the truth out of her any time soon.”

  Skye followed the car to a storage unit a few blocks north of the apartment complex. While Dani used a key card to get inside the gate, Skye continued up the street, doing her best to keep out of sight. “This is a waste of time. We need to access that gate and see what they’re up to.”

  “Leave it to me. I’ll jump the fence. It’s not that high, especially at the main entrance.”

  “I’d argue, but I know it wouldn’t do any good. Plus, it’s the only way we’ll know why they felt the need to make this stop.”

  Josh opened the door and got out. “Keep the engine running. I’ll be right back.”

  Darting up to the orange and white building, he hooked his leg over the metal fence, boosted into position, and vaulted to the other side. He jogged toward the aisle where he heard raised voices. After spotting the Nissan, he huddled near a corner unit to eavesdrop on their conversation.

  “I told you we shouldn’t have stuck Emelia’s things in here so quick,” Tony argued. “You better find that diary and get rid of it. You knew she wrote everything down, everything that happened between the two of you. Why didn’t you toss it out, like I suggested instead of boxing it up and toting it over here? Makes no sense.”

  “Just shut up and help me find Emelia’s cell phone. There’s stuff in it I don’t want anyone finding out about.”

  Tony did as he was told and began to dig into the cartons. “What am I looking for again?”

  Dani slammed her fist into one of the boxes. “Emelia’s cell phone. Her diary. Her laptop. And the pictures she took.”

  “Why didn’t you just get rid of all this stuff, throw it in the nearest Dumpster? Why keep it around?”

  “Stop asking me that,” Dani shouted. “At the time, I wasn’t thinking clearly. I just wanted it out of the apartment.”

  Josh continued to poke his head around the corner to listen. But when Tony began to load boxes up in the trunk of the car, he ducked down to ground level.

  Tony pointed to a Dumpster located at the end of the aisle. “Let’s dump the stuff in there.”

  Dani looked around to see if they were alone. “I guess it’d be okay. The city will probably pick it up sometime this week. I don’t want to get caught with this stuff in my car.”

  Josh watched as the two locked the unit down, got back into the car, and then drove thirty yards or so to the Dumpster.

  He watched Dani get out, pop open the trunk, and toss the items into the large metal trash container, each item disappearing into the garbage. All Josh could think about was getting to Emelia’s diary and her laptop. They signaled they’d finished when Tony slammed the trunk shut, slid back in the passenger seat, and Dani drove away.

  Josh stayed hidden for another five minutes before approaching the Dumpster. When he did, he peered inside, only to find a treasure trove of Emelia’s personal items. The only problem he could see was how to get the stuff back to the minivan in one trip.

  Twelve

  It took three.

  By the time Josh and Skye got back to the house, they not only had the contents from the Dumpster but had also obtained the CCTV cameras from the storage facility.

  “How did you get hold of these so fast?” Reggie wanted to know.

  “Josh stole the cameras from both ends of the aisle. Don’t worry. We’ll sneak back in there tonight and put them back in place before the owners know they’re gone. Right now, we need to find out exactly when Dani cleaned out Emelia’s things from the apartment and hid them in the unit.”

  “I’ll do it,” Brayden volunteered.

  “No way,” Leo said. “CCTV is my area of expertise.”

  Skye massaged her temples. “Please, guys, don’t fight. There’s plenty of footage for both of you to wade through. Share. What I want now is cooperation, not arguing. It’s already been a long day, and I’d like to get to bed before midnight tonight. That’s including re-installing the cameras. So we have a lot of work ahead of us if we’re going to catch Dani in a lie and find out who she hired to get rid of Emelia. Are we clear on the goal?”

  Before anyone could protest, she turned to Reggie. “Josh retrieved Emelia’s laptop and cell phone from the trash. So go through those items right away. Try to find any reason Dani would want her cousin dead.”

  Brayden stood up. “Wait just a sec. I’m confused about something. How did Dani get hold of Emelia’s cell phone? If she hired a hitman slash serial killer to grab and kill Emelia, how the hell did she get hold of her cousin’s phone?”

  Zoe twisted in her chair. “That’s a good point. But as devious as Dani is, she could’ve stolen or hidden Emelia’s phone from her that Thursday morning?”

  “Why would she do that?” Brayden queried.

  Zoe rolled her eyes. “Brayden, you have no idea how mean girls can be. I bet Dani took it so Emelia wouldn’t have it on her in case she got kidnapped. Dani must not have known exactly how the killer would pull it off, but she wasn’t taking any chances on Emelia getting to her phone to make an SOS call.”

  Leo snapped his fingers. “I bet that’s why the ping on Emelia’s phone said it was back across town at the apartment complex. When the data updated on Friday, the phone had been tossed into a storage unit.”

  Skye sat back and watched her team in action. “You guys make me proud. I think you’re right. It didn’t occur to us why Dani had Emelia’s phone in her possession. Now, it’s clear we have our work cut out for us.” She angled toward Judy and handed off Emelia’s diary. “You and Zoe make copies of this, then start reading it from cover to cover. It should be another goldmine of information.”

  “You got it.”

  Harry lumbered in with a cup of coffee. “You were right about Anne Harding. Bayliss just called. Those were her remains at the Ames Lake dumpsite. She still had signs of ligature marks around both wrists.”

  “Was the right thumb missing?”

  “Yep. Just like Cassie’s.”

  “How many sets of remains have Bayliss identified so far?” Josh asked.

  “One other. But the name’s not familiar to me, and she’s not up there on the board. A woman by the name of Ivy Kettering, forty-five. Ivy went missing in fall 2019 right before Thanksgiving.”

  “This case just gets stranger,” Skye noted as she watched Harry go to the whiteboard and put a ch
eckmark by Anne’s name and add Ivy Kettering.

  “Something else noteworthy. Bayliss has called in a forensic anthropology team from San Francisco to help him with this mess. They’re due in town this afternoon. He wanted us to know, though, that just because we found the Ames Lake dumpsite first doesn’t mean it’s the oldest. And frankly, it doesn’t seem to matter in the bigger picture. Since six of the victims are male, and none of us have a clue who they might be, Bayliss switched his team to focus on the victims of the second dumpsite, using the names we provided. But around midday, he concluded that it doesn’t look like the names we gave him are matching up with that site either.”

  “You’re kidding,” Josh stated. “Good lord, you don’t think he’s got another site, do you?”

  Harry flopped down in a chair. “At this point, anything’s possible.”

  Skye drummed her fingers on the table. “We do know he ran out of space at Ames Lake.”

  “True. That was tight space, anyway,” Josh said. “Logistics. I suppose the same thing happened at the clearing we found yesterday. Maybe he simply dumps bodies where he’s closest.”

  Skye rubbed the back of her neck, doing her best to dissolve the knot of tension there. “But both sites were active. That’s indisputable. Anne Harding left at Ames Lake in or around March, Emelia sometime after Thursday evening. So whatever we make of it, both sites were active up until yesterday. I suppose it doesn’t matter though, because he won’t return to either of those two sites now. The story’s been all over the airwaves. That’s all anyone’s talking about.”

  “He’s probably none too happy about that. If I were you guys, I’d layer the security around here.”

  “I plan on it,” Josh agreed. “But right now, are we saying we might find more dumpsites? What are the odds he’d favor one location over the other?”

  “Who knows what his methodology is? We haven’t figured this guy out yet. And look, Harry, I know things are crazy, but I can’t emphasize enough that we need to put pressure on Foley to get us those photo IDs and contracts from that mailbox company. Get those, and we could start going through facial recognition looking for a match. Harry, are you listening?”