Down Among The Bones

by Vickie McKeehan

  “Mrs. Ferretti said all that?” Skye asked as she set the table.

  “Oh yeah. But the biggest thing we got out of her is that Tony went to juvie for running with the wrong crowd. This crowd liked to boost cars.”

  “Could the killer be someone in Tony’s inner circle then, someone from his past?” Josh prompted. “Could Dani have used Tony just to get to this guy?”

  “And use him to get rid of Emelia?” Skye added. “It’s a possibility.”

  Brayden came into the room with Leo and Reggie trailing after him. “Okay, here’s the deal. Judy just heard Dani talking to a man by the name of Saxon. He showed up around an hour ago at the apartment. The two went to bed together, jumped in the sack almost without a hello. It was a steamy scene. I think Judy’s taking a cold shower now.”

  “I am not,” Judy chided as she took a seat at the table. “But sexual overtones aside, it’s obvious Dani is cheating on Tony. So just like you suggested this morning, Dani’s motive is money, pure and simple greed. She didn’t get rid of Emelia because of Tony. She got rid of her cousin because there was a half a million-dollar life insurance policy at stake. I heard Dani and this Saxon guy making plans about how to spend the money. Dani even called the claims department while Saxon was there. I heard her end of the conversation.”

  “So Tony’s just the stupid patsy,” Brayden provided.

  “Looks like,” Reggie said. “The thing is if Josh is right and Dani used Tony to make contact with the killer, we could use her cheating to get Tony to talk, maybe turn on Dani for good, tell us who this guy is that kills for money.”

  “Maybe it’s Saxon,” Leo suggested with a shrug. “We should background him anyway.”

  “Do it,” Josh stated. “Saxon could be Tony’s best friend. Best friends who sleep with their girlfriend.”

  “Some bestie,” Judy said. “I think Saxon is another fireman, though.”

  Skye plopped into a chair. “What makes you think that?”

  “Because he mentioned something about the fire station. We can rerun the conversation to get the reference. But I’m warning you guys you have to sit through their lovemaking to hear it.”

  “Wait a minute,” Zoe said. “This guy mentions the fire station in the middle of having sex? What a dip wad.”

  “That’s what I thought,” Judy agreed with a snicker. “What kind of guy does that?”

  “What kind of guy is named Saxon?” Leo commented. “If I intend to run a check on this guy, I need a last name to go with it. Unless Saxon is his last name.”

  “I think I’ll start with Tony’s fire station in Mill Valley and find out,” Judy offered, taking out her cell phone. She handed off the headphones to Reggie. “What’s the harm in trying the old-fashioned way?”

  Reggie grinned. “Not a thing. But why can’t I be the one to eavesdrop on the roll in the hay?”

  “The afternoon delight?” Jenny teased from the stove. “I wouldn’t mind listening in on that myself.”

  Winston nudged her in the ribs. “We should put the shagging on speakerphone so we can all hear it. Come on, Reg, give us a listen. Judy shouldn’t be the only one privy to a romp in the hay.”

  The quips kept coming until Judy spun around with a broad smile on her face. “Bingo. Spears. His name is Saxon Spears. And he’s a firefighter in Mill Valley working different shifts than Tony.”

  “So Dani gets to double-dip in the man pool,” Brayden cracked.

  “You know what they say about firemen?” Zoe tossed out. “Big hoses.”

  They told every fireman joke they could think of through dinner. It was a LaughFest filled with mostly old standup routines and one-liners. They cracked up through the meal, one trying to outdo the other.

  They were in the middle of cleaning up when the wall phone rang.

  Josh picked it up. A few seconds ticked by before his face began to pale. Everyone traded glances. The minute he hung up, he saw that everybody in the room was staring at him, waiting for an explanation—everyone except Skye, who’d turned on the faucet to rinse the supper dishes.

  “That was Harry. It seems Dr. Giles identified another one of the men buried at the Ames Lake site. The man’s name is Thurlow Cannady. Was.”

  “Add him to the board,” Skye directed as she washed another plate, added it to the dishwasher.

  Josh took a step toward her. “No, you don’t understand. I knew him. Thurlow Cannady. He was Gil’s business partner for twenty years or more. Thurlow went missing several years back, maybe four or five, I forget which.”

  Skye had just started rinsing the silverware and stopped. A violent chill went through her even though hot water poured over her hands. The food she’d just eaten churned in her belly. “I bet that’s why you had such a violent reaction at the Monahan home that day. Gil must’ve hired the guy we’re looking for as a hitman to take out this Thurlow. That’s why he didn’t want to face you or talk to you.”

  “Yeah. Or Gil is our killer.” Josh thought back to all the times he’d seen Gil at social events, all the times they had talked about the work at the Artemis Foundation. “Gil has always been interested in your work, always asking detailed questions at events and parties about your cases. Maybe a little too curious. Now we know why.”

  Skye turned off the water. “And did you share details?”

  “I might’ve boasted a little too much, too often in the early days. I was proud of the work you were doing. But, uh, Gil also knows where Travis lives in Everett.”

  “Okay, we have a number one suspect,” Skye decided, drying her hands on a towel. “If it’s Gil, how do we prove it? Did Harry happen to mention Thurlow’s cause of death?”

  “Ligature strangulation. Part of the rope was still visible around the neck bone.”

  “Mercenary. Professional soldier. Hitman. Assassin,” Skye said, ticking off the familiar names used to describe that kind of person. “I’m not sure I see Gil as any of those. But there is one thing we simply can’t ignore. The Ames Lake site is so close to Gil’s house you could see it from the windows.”

  “So all this time, Gil’s business partner was right there, lying mere yards from Gil’s house,” Josh concluded. “Giles also says he’s been there right next to Barbara Holder. But get this, Thurlow wasn’t put there first. Barbara was down deeper, at least six inches deeper, in the same hole.”

  Skye traded looks with Josh. “I wonder if there’s a connection between the two. Leo?”

  “I’m on it. I’ll run both names and see what I get,” Leo promised as he lumbered off down the hall and into the study.

  Reggie and Judy had been huddled together on the other side of the room. Judy snapped her fingers to get everyone’s attention and pointed to her headphones, whispered, “You gotta hear this. Dani’s making all kinds of threats.”

  Judy put the conversation on speaker so everyone could listen.

  They crowded closer, fascinated to hear Dani admit that she’d hired a man to kill Emelia.

  Listening to Dani’s voice, Zoe laughed out loud. “She’s losing it. She can’t stand the pressure.”

  Judy switched off the speakerphone. “What do we do now?”

  Reggie shifted his weight, crossed his arms over his chest. “Do we call Foley, tell him what we’ve got, or do we keep hoping she’ll make contact with the killer, and we nail them both at the same time?”

  “I know this is disturbing stuff,” Skye began. “But if Foley pulls her in now, we lose the opportunity to catch this guy.” She angled back to where Brayden sat with Zoe. “Sorry. But I don’t see any other way.”

  “That’s okay. I understand,” Brayden said, squeezing Zoe’s hand. “We both do, right?’

  “I don’t like it,” Zoe admitted. “But, I get it.”

  Josh turned to Brayden. “That’s why if I were you, I’d try harder to find her burner phone. Tell me again how much life insurance Dani took out on Emelia?”

  “Half a million,” Judy answered. “That’s the figure Da
ni and Saxon tossed out when they were planning what they’d do with the money.”

  Josh shook his head. “Yeah? But I have a sneaky suspicion that Dani’s not the kind of woman who likes to share with anyone.”

  Zoe’s eyes misted over with the terrifying knowledge that Brayden could be next. “What you’re saying is you think Dani will try to hire this guy, this mercenary, to kill both Brayden and Tony whenever she makes contact. That’s what you’re saying, right?”

  Josh nodded. “And this Saxon person isn’t out of the woods yet, either. Something tells me Dani won’t want to share that much money.”

  “Which means she’s backed herself into a corner,” Skye provided. “She’ll take whatever steps are necessary to see this warped idea of hers through to the end. She has to or risk Tony talking, maybe even Saxon. She’s already figured out that Brayden might know too much and has to go.”

  Brayden itched at the stubble on his chin. “Okay, I get it. But what about you guys? You know as much as I do. Why me?”

  Zoe got up to pace. “Harry did bring up the topic of revenge murders. Dani just doesn’t like Brayden. Even if he did get her an A in class, she’s out to get you.”

  “What if she keeps the burner phone in the glove box of her car? We just need to know what kind it is, right? Find out the carrier? If I could get into her car…”

  “Why do you think it’s not in the apartment?” Skye asked. “The day I placed the bugs, I didn’t go through drawers or cabinets. For all you know, it could be in her purse. Why take the risk of breaking into her car? Why do that when it could just as easily be with her right now within reach?”

  “What about we get Dani and Saxon out of the apartment?” Zoe submitted. “Then, one of us could get back into the apartment?”

  “You’re not listening,” Skye snapped. “That phone is Dani’s lifeline at the moment. She’d have it with her at all times so she wouldn’t miss the call. Everything hinges on her contact with the killer. The fact is, we just need the phone number to capture her calls, probably to another burner.”

  “Then what do we do?”

  Reggie shuffled over to take a seat next to Brayden. “We either monitor the hell out of that chatroom, or we get our hands on that phone. All I need is twenty minutes tops to clone the SIM card. The good news is Saxon just told Dani he has to go into work. That leaves Dani in the apartment by herself.”

  Tired of pacing, Zoe plopped into a chair. “We could wait until she falls asleep and get into the apartment. Creating a diversion won’t work because she might just grab the phone and take it with her.”

  Leo trudged back into the kitchen with a smile on his face. “It seems Saxon Spears and Anthony Ferretti were in juvie at the same time for car theft. They were both picked up together after boosting the same car.” He handed off his iPad to Skye so she could read it for herself.

  Skye stared at the information on the screen. “Part of the same wrong crowd, according to the mother. Was the name Saxon Spears on the list you vetted over the weekend?”

  “Nope. I don’t believe it was. But both Tony and Saxon have a military background. Saxon served in the Marines from the age of eighteen to twenty-two. Honorably discharged but had several minor infractions for breaking curfew and several more for disorderly conduct. Once he mustered out, he became a firefighter, seems to be a regular guy living life before meeting Dani through Tony.”

  “A regular guy who’s in on the plan to bump off Emelia then plans several more murders. all for financial gain,” Skye corrected. “Don’t tell me that’s all Dani’s doing.”

  “Point taken,” Leo grunted, turning to the refrigerator to get a cold soda. “But the woman is persuasive.”

  “Not exactly earth-shattering information, though, is it?” Josh noted.

  “Sorry,” Leo said. “That’s all I could find. What are we talking about anyway? Did I hear something about a burner phone?”

  “Dani’s. We need a way in so Reggie can clone the SIM card.”

  “Sure. It’s better than sitting around waiting for the chatroom to come alive. That place is dead. Hasn’t been a single new post all day. I checked before I came in here.”

  Zoe shook her head. “I guess that’s good. There’s not a lot of people who want to hire a professional mercenary tonight. Look, somebody has to go into Dani’s apartment and get that phone. That’s all there is to it.”

  “We’ll do it,” Josh stated, looking at Skye. “We’re the fastest on our feet. And the most logical to get in and out without waking her up. We’ve done it before.”

  Skye bobbed her head in agreement. “We’ll take over the monitoring, wait for Dani to stop flapping her gums, and go to bed. When the place goes dark, we’ll go in.”

  ****

  Their meticulous planning came down to timing.

  They reached Dani’s apartment complex a little after midnight and sat in the van looking up at the woman’s second-story unit, waiting, watching.

  The lights had gone out two hours earlier. They’d heard nothing out of her for more than two hours.

  At two-thirty on the dot, dressed in all black, they got out of the car and tip-toed up the concrete stairway. As the adrenaline began to pump, Skye adjusted the backpack she wore and pulled a ski mask down over her face. She used the lock pick like she had before and had the door unlocked in under three minutes. She took one step inside to test the waters. When no alarms went off, she went in further. This time though, when she advanced, she took great care not to make any unnecessary noises.

  She left Josh behind on the landing to act as lookout, left a crack in the front door to give her a few streams of light. Knowing the layout helped, but she still had to watch her step, make sure she didn’t trip over the crap Dani had left out littering the floor. Piles of clothes were still there, strewn about, magazines tossed here and there, as well as other articles of mail, dropped like a minefield all over the carpeting. Stale cigarette smoke hung in the air, mingled with the odor of trash and garbage.

  She let her eyes adjust to the darkness and looked around, hoping to spot Dani’s purse. When she zoomed in on the handbag, she saw it had been left on an end table. But after rummaging through the bag, there were no phones. That meant only one place. Dani’s bedside table.

  Dani had left the bedroom door ajar. From the doorway, Skye could tell the woman slept on her right side, her dark hair fanned out on the pillow, her back to the door.

  Skye sucked in a breath and approached the nightstand. After spotting two phones, one android, and one TracFone, Skye picked up the prepaid burner and headed back out to the living room.

  Using what little light she had, she sat down on the sofa and pulled a twelve-inch laptop from her backpack. While the computer booted up, she removed the SIM card from the phone, then slid it into the laptop’s side slot. As quietly as she could, she tapped the keys to bring up the software app, hit the button to clone the data, and waited.

  When the copying was complete, she ejected the SIM card, closed the laptop lid, and as noise-free as possible, put the phone back together. She stuck the laptop into the bag, retraced her steps to the bedroom, and placed the phone back where she’d found it. Backing out of the room, she headed for the front door. Nudging Josh aside, she locked it behind her.

  The whole process from start to finish had taken just under twenty minutes.

  On the landing, she held onto Josh’s back as he led the way down the dark stairway.

  They darted to the minivan. Josh slid into the driver’s seat and drove out of the parking lot. They were on the road within sixty seconds.

  “How’d it go?”

  “No problems. I can’t wait until morning to see what we got. Let’s pop it open as soon as we get back home.”

  “Skye, that’ll be four o’clock. Are you sure you don’t want to wait until morning?”

  “We are talking about stopping a guy who’s killed twenty people, maybe more. Brayden’s life could hinge on whether Dani’s ta
lked to this guy today.”

  “You win,” Josh said, his voice hoarse from exhaustion.

  But after a few minutes, Skye slumped in the passenger seat. “No, you’re right. My adrenaline is wearing off. We both need some sleep. Better to wait until morning, so we don’t make mistakes and miss anything.”

  Eighteen

  He knew the people at the Artemis Foundation were not lucky enough to find all his hiding places. They could try, but it wasn’t feasible. The problem as he saw it was Skye Cree. He felt confident the woman would never give up the hunt.

  Although he didn’t have time to dwell on Skye Cree at the moment, some issues needed attention now. His work came first. Always work. He loved the freedom of being self-employed. His gun-for-hire was always in high demand somewhere in the world. He’d lived in other places, but he liked it here in the Pacific Northwest. He’d found his perfect spot in the countryside and loved it for its remoteness. He’d settled here because it reminded him so much of his homeland, the tall evergreens, the foggy, misty mornings, the wintery cold rain.

  Sometimes he just missed Europe.

  There wasn’t time to get maudlin tonight. There was no time for mushy sentiment when he had work to do, loose ends to tie up.

  Right now, it was time to cover his tracks before moving on. A couple of people had popped up on the Foundation’s radar. That wouldn’t do. Silencing those who might blab too much was a priority. Then he’d move on to the next person on his list. That was the way things worked. No one was ever immune. Not ever. It was time to settle up, time to revisit previous clients.

  He hoped they had their affairs in order. Wasn’t that the saying when someone was about to meet their maker?

  Tonight the bill would come due for real.

  Nineteen

  “My God, I’m not a miracle worker,” Leo grumbled, examining the massive amounts of data from Dani’s phone. “It’ll take me a week to go through this stuff. At least. I thought you guys said the phone was new. She’s been using this burner for more than two and a half years. There must be a thousand or more text messages here, about that many emails, and well over two thousand phone calls to hundreds of different numbers.”