The Bone Harvest

by Stacy M Jones

  Cooper laughed and put a hand on Luke’s shoulder. “You’ve got nothing to worry about. He dragged me to lunch a few days ago to try to get me back at the police department. He said because of all the attention I’ve been getting for saving Riley, he’d been getting some pressure to get me back on the force.”

  Luke wasn’t surprised to hear that. Captain Meadows had asked Luke if he thought Cooper would. Luke was adamant that there’s no way Cooper would say yes, but was curious nonetheless. “What’d you say?”

  “No way no how,” Cooper chuckled. “There’s not enough money in the world to go back to all those rules, regulations and paperwork.”

  “I didn’t think so.”

  CHAPTER 40

  Late on Sunday evening Luke and I lay in bed together, my head resting on his chest and his fingers drawing circles on my naked back. He kissed me on the top of my head and asked, “Do you think he’s going to go into hiding until next year this time when he’s ready to kill again?”

  Luke’s question was a mood killer for sure. We had been lying in the peaceful moments after some pretty terrific sex. My mind had been a million miles away from murder, but I understood why he was asking. Luke felt this was his one chance and was worried he blew it. He was worried the guy was going to go back underground again.

  “I could be wrong, but I don’t think that’s what he’ll do. He started this game, and it’s a challenge. It’s a chase. He’s not just going to put it on hold for a year.”

  “Do you think that means he’ll kill again sooner?” Luke asked, stress apparent in his voice.

  “I would hope not. If he did kill again, it would be a change in pattern for him that’s for sure. That is if his only murders are university-age girls once a year. We have no reason to suspect it’s more, but we have no reason to rule it out either.”

  “I’m worried because as you said earlier, he seems to be enjoying the thrill of getting away with this. He’s taking more risks. Sometimes with serial killers, the cooling-off period becomes shorter and shorter as time goes on because they need to up their excitement to be satisfied with the kill in the same way.” Luke shifted and rolled to his side to face me. We were eye to eye now and his hand lightly rubbed my arm.

  Luke was right. That’s what some serial killers did. Not all but some shortened the time between killings as time went on. Some just got more proficient in how they went out picking a victim, some had more time on their hands at certain points in their lives, and others needed more and more excitement.

  “We should figure out why he’s killing in the fall. He references harvest time so I’m wondering if that has particular meaning to him. Does it just fit into his schedule then or has he selected the time because of its meaning?”

  “Most of the language he uses would suggest that’s his preference,” Luke speculated. “It’s also when I’d think freshmen are at their most vulnerable in the first few months away from home for the first time.”

  “That’s true,” I agreed. I looked over Luke’s face. He had started to get little lines around his eyes. I wasn’t sure if it was stress or just natural aging. I searched his face as he searched mine. We always had kind of an unspoken language between us.

  “Are you going to be okay in New York? It’s been a while since you handled a case alone.”

  I kissed him sweetly on the lips. “My mom will be there. My sister, too. It’s probably time I went home for a visit. I’m going to be staying at the house. I have support there if I need it.”

  “Yeah, but your mom and sister aren’t investigating the case with you. It’s not the same,” Luke protested.

  “I won’t be alone,” I countered. “Jack Malone, the Troy detective, will be there helping me. My mom has known him forever. He will watch out for me.”

  “Tell me more about the case. I was so distracted up in Fayetteville, I never really got a chance to hear about this one. I think it’s both strange and a very lucky break it’s in your hometown.”

  I agreed with Luke. It had felt strange since the moment I saw the details. Too much coincidence, but it happened so long before I even visited Little Rock there was no way there was a connection or anything to do with me personally.

  As we lay there cuddling, I detailed some of the case to him. Luke had only been to my hometown once when he and Cooper had gone up the year before to clean out my house and move me permanently to Little Rock. He didn’t have much frame of reference. I got to the part of the story where the victim’s body had been found in the cemetery and Luke shivered.

  “What?” I asked.

  “That’s creepy. Cemeteries don’t usually freak me out, but that place sounds awful.”

  “Well, the lore is that it’s one of the gateways to hell,” I countered.

  Luke grimaced. “That doesn’t help. I think these are the details we need to understand about this guy. How would he ever know about that cemetery, or the terrain within it, unless he’d been there before? The bodies aren’t just left near rivers or random woods. They are in very specific places that the killer must have scouted out beforehand. I’m wondering if that has any meaning, too.”

  “Do you think he purposefully left certain bodies to be found?”

  “Cristina Sawyer here definitely,” Luke explained. “That was all shock value. He wanted me to know how easily he could get to my parents. The others I can’t be sure. Leaving my sister in the woods near the school always felt like he was trying to taunt us, like look how close she is and yet still out of sight.”

  “Maybe that’s a metaphor about him. Maybe he’s someone that blends in so well that nobody would ever know what lurks just out of sight.”

  “I think to get away with it for so long, he’d have to be, which is why he’s going to be so hard to catch.” Luke looked at me with concern. “Just be careful. Don’t trust anyone too easily.”

  “I’m more worried about you than I am about me. I’ll be fine.” Then I cautioned him, “Don’t try to go this alone. Depend on your team here. Let them help you.”

  “I think I’m just going to miss you. What am I going to do without you butting into my case?” Luke asked with a straight face. Then the corners of his mouth turned up in a smile.

  “You’ll survive without me, but I’m only a call away,” I reminded him. “Listen though, do you really think you’re going to be able to fully separate this case from the others in the past? I know you said you wanted to, but what does that mean exactly? There’s already evidence in common.”

  Luke sat up and rubbed his forehead. “I want to try. This would be easier if it wasn’t connected to Lily. With each bit of new evidence, I keep imagining what Lily went through. While there are commonalities among the cases, I want to try to see this case through a clean lens, just the facts for this case only.”

  I understood, but it seemed impossible to do. I sat up and rubbed Luke’s back.

  He turned his head to look at me and added, “That doesn’t mean that I’m going to just ignore any evidence you and Cooper might find. If things connect, they connect, and we can use it to bolster our search for him. I just can’t make assumptions based on what he did in the past. I need to focus on the now.”

  “I get it. Hopefully, we can end this quickly and get back to normal for us. We had such a good time at the lake.”

  Luke gently pulled me back on the bed with him. He snuggled into me. “We really did. When you get back from New York, whether this case is still going on or not, we need to get back to spending more time together. We both get too wrapped up in work.”

  “Agreed.” As I watched his face, I felt it in my stomach. That knowing, the feeling that this is who I want to spend the rest of my life with. I always put up too much resistance, too many walls. I kissed him. When we pulled apart, I said simply, “I love you.”

  CHAPTER 41

  When Luke arrived at his desk the next morning, another letter waited for him. It had come in Saturday’s mail. The unit secretary saw it first thing on
Monday morning. It was addressed to Luke like the others. It was handwritten and postmarked from the Hillcrest post office near Luke’s parents’ house.

  The killer had been in the neighborhood at least a day before the murder. He had to have mailed it before the murder even took place. Luke picked up the letter again. It was short but said all it needed to say.

  Ready. Set. Go. You’ve got your clues. Now find me.

  Luke bit his lip reading it over and over again. The killer was taunting him. Riley had been right. It was just a game to him. He didn’t go back underground. Luke had no idea where the guy was. He had no idea if he was going to kill again. For all Luke knew, he was stalking another university campus right at that moment.

  “I heard we got another letter,” Det. Tyler said, sitting down on the corner of Luke’s desk.

  Luke looked up, thankful for the distraction from the disturbing thoughts that ran through a loop in his mind. Luke handed him the letter.

  Det. Tyler read the letter over. When he was done, he asked, “How do we change the status quo and get in front of this? It’s been a long time since a perp pissed me off this much.”

  “We know he stole the Jeep on Friday, but if he was in Hillcrest before that, then he was driving something else. Do you think he went into any of the stores or shops? I don’t want to fully release his photo to the public but we have enough of a sketch and side profile we can go to some of the stores and see if he was there by any chance.”

  “I can’t think of a better idea until we get some more concrete evidence to run with.”

  The two left the police station and drove out of downtown Little Rock up into the Hillcrest neighborhood. Luke parked at the curb and the two started their search. They walked in and out of shops that lined the street, talking to shop owners, employees, and even customers. The man didn’t look familiar to anyone. A stop by the post office didn’t yield anything either. The photo of the killer didn’t look familiar to anyone, but there were a lot of people in and out, and the killer simply could have dropped the letter in the mailbox outside.

  Luke felt defeated. He tried to be realistic, but he had hoped for a break. He walked back towards his car with Det. Tyler. A woman yelled Luke’s name. He turned just in time to catch the paws of an excited golden retriever who jumped up on him. Luke was knocked back by the force, but he smiled and rubbed the dog’s ears in the exact spot Luke knew she liked.

  “Bailey, what are you doing?” Luke cooed at her.

  In response, the dog licked at his hand and nuzzled her head into him. Luke saw Bailey’s poor frazzled owner running towards him. Amy and Bailey had been Luke’s neighbors before he had moved in with Riley. Luke would give Bailey treats through the fence, and throw a ball occasionally for her. There were a few times when Amy was out of town that Luke had even watched Bailey at his place.

  Amy finally caught up with them. “Luke, I’m so sorry. We turned the corner and Bailey must have caught sight of you. She took off. Pulled the leash right out of my hands.”

  Luke pet Bailey, who had her paws firmly planted on his thighs. “No worries at all. I feel bad for not stopping in more to check on you both since I moved. I miss the old neighborhood.”

  Luke introduced Det. Tyler and Amy.

  Getting Bailey back under her control, Amy looked up the street at the turn from Kavanaugh to Beechwood. She brushed the hair out of her eyes. “I heard what happened near your parents. I can’t believe a guy would leave a body there. Are you investigating?”

  “Yeah, we think the guy was here in the days before he killed the girl.”

  “That’s terrible. Have you found anything?”

  “Not yet, but while you’re here why don’t you take a look. You know the neighborhood well. Maybe you saw him.”

  Tyler handed Amy the photos. “This is a sketch from a witness, and this is a side profile of him from a surveillance camera.”

  Amy handed the leash to Luke and took each of the photos from Tyler. She studied each carefully. She said hesitantly, “I can’t be one-hundred percent sure, but this might be the guy that Bailey growled at last week.”

  “I’ve never heard Bailey growl,” Luke said surprised.

  “You’re right, she doesn’t ever. She’s friendly to everyone – kids, other dogs, cats. Nothing bugs her. I’ve been working from home a bit. Last Thursday I took a mid-afternoon walk. It was nice out. I walked down here to get coffee at Mylo’s and left Bailey outside by one of the chairs on the sidewalk. You know her, you tell her to stay, she stays. I was inside when all of a sudden, I heard her growling, then barking. I immediately ran out to see what the commotion was. Actually, a few of us ran out. Everyone knows Bailey.”

  “What did you see?” Luke asked, completely intrigued by the story. He lived next door to Amy since Bailey was a puppy, and he never once heard the dog act afraid or vicious around anyone.

  “There was a guy walking down the sidewalk, probably twenty feet past us by the time I got outside. I yelled for Bailey to stop, but she was up on all fours and barking at him even as he walked away. I called out to the guy thinking he must have done something to her. He turned around and angrily shouted that I needed to have the dog locked up. It was an ugly exchange.”

  Amy held out the sketch. “This looks like the guy. He had the same kind of hat pulled low and a similar face. I’ve also never seen him in the neighborhood before, and you know how small it is. If you don’t know them personally, you at least have seen them. No one at Mylo’s knew him.”

  “What else can you tell me about him?” Luke asked. He thought there was really a chance it could be him.

  “He was taller than you, Luke. Not by much but a little. He had a heavier build, not fat, just maybe like he still worked out a bit. What I remember the most was the scowl on his face. He was a handsome guy in some regard but that face – he looked mean.”

  “What happened after that?”

  “Nothing,” Amy explained. “He kept walking down the road. I bent down to make sure Bailey was okay. She seemed fine, and eventually stopped barking when he got in his car and left.”

  “Did you see what he was driving?”

  Amy shook her head. “I didn’t get a good look. I was focused on Bailey.”

  “What do you think, Luke?” Det. Tyler asked. He took the photos back from Amy’s outstretched hand.

  Luke crouched down and petted Bailey. He looked up at Tyler and Amy. “I think I trust a dog’s instinct.”

  CHAPTER 42

  I stood on the sidewalk looking up at my mother’s house. It was a large center hall Colonial that had four bedrooms, a massive eat-in kitchen, a living room, and a formal dining room that no one ever used except for homework when we were kids and the holidays. I don’t know why I just stood there with my bags in hand on the sidewalk. I looked back at my rental parked in the driveway. No one was home. My mother had texted me that she had run to the market to pick up some groceries.

  My sister, Liv, was living with my ex-husband, Jeff. The two had started a relationship last year.

  It was a weird relationship, but if it worked for them who was I to stop them. Jeff was out of town though so I probably wouldn’t see him on this trip, which was fine by me. My sister said she was going to crash at my mom’s house while I was there. Liv had been my assistant when I ran my investigative firm in New York prior to moving back to Little Rock. She was supposed to answer the phone, help write reports, and handle billing. She did very little of anything, but I still paid her. Now, she didn’t work. She offered once again to help me with my case. I wasn’t sure what that would amount to, but if she insisted, I’d figure it out.

  I picked up my bags and made my way up the front porch steps. These were the same wide steps I sat on as a kid reading a book and waiting for my friends. It was a relaxed neighborhood. The kind where neighbors not only knew each other but looked out for each other, too.

  Once inside, I carried my bags to the second floor to my old bedroom. My mother ha
d kept it fairly similar since the last time I lived at home full-time, which was college. Walking past my sister’s room, it seemed my mother had kept her bedroom the same as well.

  I put my suitcases on the floor and dove headfirst into the comfortable queen size bed. There was a certain comfort to being back in my mother’s house. I had an easy childhood for the most part. My parents divorced when I was very young. My father came back long enough to get my mother pregnant with my sister, and he left again. He went back to Ireland, and we were raised by my mother and her extended family of siblings. My cousins were like brothers and sisters. I had close friends both in the neighborhood and school. There were a lot of happy memories.

  That’s why the stark contrast of a homicide right down the street was so jarring. It didn’t fit. Not that I thought we were immune from crime, but something like a homicide of a university-aged girl mere blocks from the house seemed incomprehensible to me.

  A flood of memories from childhood, sleepovers, fights with my sister, and spending days staring at this ceiling pining over some boy or another filled my head. I snuggled more into my pillow and was just starting to drift off to sleep when I heard my mother’s car in the driveway.

  Groaning, I pulled myself out of bed to help bring in the groceries. I got to the middle of the stairs and was met with my very excited and energetic yellow lab, Dusty. He had been staying with my mom since my move to Little Rock. The two of them had been quite attached. Dusty was good company for her. She took him everywhere.

  He practically knocked me over in his excitement. It had been more than a year since I’d seen him – if Skype didn’t count. When I Skype with my mother, I Skype with the dog, too. He likes it. He’s even happier to see me in person. I rubbed his head and ears as I tried to navigate past him down the stairs. I wound my way around the banister into the hall that runs straight back to the kitchen. My mother carried two bags and kicked a third with her foot.