The Bone Harvest

by Stacy M Jones

  After arriving at the university campus, Tyler and Luke walked to the freshman dorm. They showed their badges to the kid at the front desk and asked for specific students by name. The kid called several numbers and only reached one person. The young woman, Katie, said she’d meet Luke in the lounge on the second floor. Luke and Tyler headed upstairs.

  Luke navigated down the bland hallway. There were doors on each side and the walls were painted a neutral tan. Overall the environment seemed sterile. Luke followed the directions the kid on the first floor had given him and soon found the lounge. It was a large open space with a television, pool table and couches. It was empty.

  Tyler and Luke took a seat on the couch and waited. Luke pulled out his phone and started to send Riley a text when a voice at the doorway interrupted him.

  The young woman, who looked significantly older than eighteen, said, “Are you here to arrest me?”

  CHAPTER 48

  After leaving the cemetery, we made our way back to Jack’s truck. Navigating back out through the woods, I had the distinct feeling we were being watched, but I couldn’t figure out from where. There was no one else out there that I could see anyway. I thought once I left the cemetery and crossed the threshold back onto country club property, I’d feel better. I didn’t. There was a heavy presence with us that I was having trouble shaking. It seemed I wasn’t the only one.

  “Either of you feel weird?” Frank asked. His eyes were trained on the trees. “I felt like something was behind us the whole time we were walking out.”

  Jack raised his eyebrows. “Me, too. It’s just the place. I hate going in there, but today felt particularly heavy.”

  Jack watched the trees along with Frank who still hadn’t looked away. I turned to watch, too, but there was nothing.

  “What do you think about the murder? Learn anything you didn’t know before?” Jack asked, leaning up against his truck.

  “I think I can say with near certainty the cases are related at least to the one that just happened in Little Rock. All the details are nearly the same even how he left the body. Did you have any witnesses to anything?”

  Jack reached into his truck and pulled out a crate that contained files. “I have copies of everything. I’m not supposed to, but this case got hold of me and didn’t let go.”

  Frank, who still looked shaken, asked, “Can we do this someplace other than here? I can’t concentrate like this.”

  Jack and I both agreed. We got in Jack’s truck and headed back out to the front gates. We decided to meet back at my mother’s house. We gave Frank the address. Jack said he was going to pick up lunch for us. I texted my mother to see if anyone was there.

  She let me know we’d have the place to ourselves for a while at least.

  When I arrived home and got settled in the kitchen, I texted Luke to ask how everything was going. I didn’t hear back so I called Cooper. After quickly catching him up to speed about my day so far, he told me about his trip to the library.

  “He could have easily gotten her out that back entrance,” Cooper detailed.

  “Any cameras in there?” I pulled out some plates and silverware to set the table. I wasn’t sure what Jack was bringing back for lunch, but I wanted to be prepared.

  “I can ask, but I doubt it. Today there are, but that was 1993. I don’t remember cameras being as prevalent as they are today.”

  “That’s true. Do you think he lured her down to the basement and out the backdoor?”

  “I don’t know,” Cooper said seriously. “I was curious how he could have gotten her out of the library without anyone seeing, and that’s one way at least for now. I’m hoping to learn more this afternoon when I speak with Adele. I’m heading back to the library to talk to Jordan’s friend Hope tonight. She was clear she doesn’t believe the university’s story that Jordon simply ran away.”

  “Has Hope told her story before?” I asked, trying to remember if I heard her on the podcast.

  “No,” Cooper confirmed. “Adele told me that Hope has never spoken about it publicly. She hasn’t even been able to get Hope’s story out of her. She said the woman seemed afraid. Because Hope works at the university, she’s been trying to keep a low profile. But from what Adele said, she’s never agreed with how the university or the cops handled this case.”

  “She’s willing to talk to you?”

  “That’s what Adele tells me. Adele explained to Hope that Jordan’s disappearance might be connected to more murders. Adele said that she convinced Hope to speak with me. I didn’t know who she was when I first went into the library, but when I was leaving, she told me who she was and that she’d speak with me later this evening. I took that as a good sign.”

  Cooper and I ended our call just as someone knocked on the front door. It was Frank.

  As he came in, he inquired, “Jack said that the fraternity house the victim was last seen at is right around here. Can you show me?”

  I led Frank to the corner of Locust and made a right onto Pawling. The sidewalks were wide enough for us to walk side by side. He took in the large homes and manicured lawns. “It’s hard to imagine a girl going missing from this neighborhood.”

  “My sister said she was coming home that night and walked right by the fraternity party. She was in high school and snuck out. Our mother still doesn’t know, but it’s terrifying that it could have been her. But that’s how safe we considered this neighborhood. She was walking alone at night.”

  “Your mom doesn’t know she went out?” Frank asked. We crossed the next side street and were about a block away from the fraternity.

  “My mom is a nurse and back then she had to work an evening shift. She’d get home by midnight, but sometimes my sister would go out and be back by then.”

  Frank nodded. “She didn’t happen to see anything did she?”

  “Not that she can remember. She said some guys yelled for her to come to the party but that was it. I thought about asking her again though to see if anything can jog her memory.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Frank looked at the fraternity house. “This it?”

  “Yeah, this is where Amanda was last seen according to the reports that I was able to gather.”

  I turned back toward where we had just walked from. “If you turn around and head back towards my mom’s house, but instead of turning on her street you kept going, you’d be walking in the direction Amanda supposedly went that night. Russell Sage College is a little more than two miles into downtown Troy. The victim could have easily walked back.”

  Frank looked down the road and back at me. “But is that really the direction she went that night?”

  CHAPTER 49

  Back at my mom’s house, we found Jack in the kitchen. He had arranged the plates and silverware that I had left on the table. Jack had already dug into the pizza he brought. He held up a large slice and said between bites, “I figured you might miss the real thing.”

  I smiled. “I certainly do.”

  Frank and I both helped ourselves to the pizza and wings. Jack had outdone himself for a mid-day lunch, but I wasn’t complaining. I couldn’t remember the last time I had allowed myself to eat either.

  Frank asked Jack the question he had posed to me outside. “Did the victim really head in the direction of school? I ask because you found her body in the opposite direction.”

  Jack wiped his mouth with a napkin. “That’s one of those lingering unanswered questions. All the witness statements we have said Amanda walked back toward her dorm. She had gotten into an argument with her boyfriend and wanted to go back. She didn’t want to wait for her friends so she started walking at a little before eleven.”

  “No one went with her?” Frank asked.

  “Not that we know of or anyone would admit,” Jack said.

  “What about Shawn Westin? He was an initial suspect, right?” I asked.

  “He was. We interviewed every guy at that frat house. We initially thought maybe we were looking at a date rape
case that got out of hand or some junior psychopath. Westin had a prior rape case thrown out. He had been charged as an adult so it wasn’t sealed. But the case was dropped. Everyone else had a clean record and nothing suspicious popped up on any of them. Westin also had a car. He was arguing with the victim before she left. He was a primary suspect for a while, but there was barely any case on him.”

  “Did anyone see him after Amanda left?” I asked what I felt was an obvious question, but it hadn’t been answered.

  “Yeah, of course. That’s why we had to clear him,” Jack indicated, but then his voice got low. “I will say though, there was a window of about an hour, maybe less after Amanda left that nobody can account for him, but Westin swears he was there.”

  “I want to see if I have this correct. I feel like I have a million pieces and want to make sure I’m connecting the dots right,” Frank said. “Amanda goes to a fraternity party with friends. She’s there for a few hours, but some time a little before eleven she had an argument with her boyfriend, Shawn Westin, and left. By all accounts, she walks off alone. There’s no confirmation she ever made it back to her dorm. A few days later, a dog walker finds her body propped up against that monument in the cemetery. She had been stabbed with what looks like an ice pick and has three fingers missing.”

  “That’s it exactly,” Jack confirmed.

  Frank slapped the table. “That’s my case. Nearly all of it from start to finish, minus a fight with a boyfriend.”

  Turning to me, he asked, “All right, Riley, you said we’ve got a serial killer on our hands. How are we going to catch him?”

  I picked up their plates and put them in the sink. I washed them, talking over my shoulder. “That’s kind of the million-dollar question. I think we know for sure he does some recon of the area and maybe even the girls before he takes them. He kills them the same way, at least in the cases where bodies have been found, and there are missing fingers. I think we need to work up some sort of profile on him. Not an exact science, but a start. We know the commonalities in the cases. We have info from his letters. Luke has a photo he’s going to be sending me, too. Let’s start with those witness statements, Jack. Maybe there’s something in there that will jump out for me and Frank.”

  Jack excused himself from the table and went outside. He came back in with the large crate of files. He put it down on the table. “Let’s start digging in.”

  Over the next two hours, we each read through every statement, looked at some crime scene photos, and dug through Jack’s old case notes. Frank finished reading and then would hand it off to me. I took notes of my own. Nothing jumped out at me until I hit on one particular statement.

  “I think I have something,” I said seriously, silently rereading the statement again. I lifted my eyes from the statement and looked right at Jack. “You interviewed a girl who lived down the hall from Amanda and was also at the party. She indicated that Amanda had been seen several times talking off campus with one of her professors. The girl was concerned about his intentions towards Amanda. That is familiar to Lily’s case. A professor was seen talking to her on the night she disappeared. He’s one of the people, if not the very last, to have seen her alive. Our killer also calls himself The Professor.”

  Jack took the statement from my hands and reread it. “I remember this vaguely, but it didn’t amount to much that I recall.” Jack leaned over and dug through the crate. He didn’t find what he was searching for so he took the pile next to Frank and dug through that.

  Jack handed me the file he had been looking for and explained, “His name is Michael Bauer. He was a history professor. Amanda hadn’t declared a major yet, but she had indicated an interest in American history. Bauer admitted that he had met with her a few times to talk coursework.”

  I took the statement from Jack. “Had Bauer been at the university long? Was he a tenured professor?”

  “I don’t think so,” Jack recalled. “He had been giving some sort of lecture series. I don’t think he taught regular classes, but he was around enough he got to know some of the students. I had talked to other professors who had done the same with students. There didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary.”

  Frank watched us, interest growing in his eyes. “The witness said she had seen them off campus together? That doesn’t sound like academics to me. Is that normal here?”

  “It could be, maybe,” I speculated. “It really depends on where they were seen off-campus. The university sits in downtown Troy. There are many coffee shops, bars, and restaurants around it. I think context is important. It may be nothing, but a friend of hers was concerned enough to have brought it up to the police. Was he cleared for the night of her disappearance?”

  Jack ran a hand through his hair. His face turned a crimson red. “We never asked. He was never considered a suspect or even a person of interest. His story checked out. We heard nothing about anything inappropriate. Do you think we made a mistake?”

  “I have no idea,” I said softly, not quite sure if he did or not.

  CHAPTER 50

  Sitting in the lounge in the dorm at the University of Little Rock, Luke was taken aback. He looked at the young girl. “Why would we be here to arrest you?”

  Katie didn’t respond. She came into the room and sat across from Luke and Tyler. She was thin, had long blonde hair and was attractive. Luke took in her clothes. He didn’t know one designer from the next but she looked like she came from a family with some money.

  Katie folded her hands in her lap and cast her eyes downward not looking at Luke. He wasn’t really sure what to think, but clearly, she had something to hide.

  “Katie, it’s really important that no matter what it is, you tell us,” Luke started. More sympathetically he added, “We are so sorry your friend was murdered, but we need to find out who abducted and killed her. If you know anything, you have to tell us.”

  “I called my parents this morning. I didn’t tell them anything, but my father said I should call his lawyer if I needed to.” Katie lifted her gaze from her hands and looked Luke dead in the eyes. “Do I need to call a lawyer?”

  Luke looked at Tyler, who shrugged. Luke tried to find a way to put the girl at ease but not compromise the investigation. He felt like he was walking a tightrope. Luke chewed on his bottom lip. Finally, he appealed, “Katie, I’m only here because I think you were a witness. You were one of the last people to see Cristina alive. If you know something, you need to tell us.”

  “How about immunity?” Katie challenged. She lost her demure demeanor and crossed one leg over the other. She leaned back in the chair and stared defiantly at Luke.

  “I can’t offer you that,” Luke responded, frustrated. “That’s not for me to decide. Immunity would come from the prosecutor’s office in exchange for your testimony. I’m just here trying to have a conversation and find out more information about what happened that night.”

  Det. Tyler interrupted. “Katie, I’m not sure what’s going on, but your friend is dead, and who knows who’s next. Luke lost his sister potentially to this same killer. All we want is to catch the guy. We don’t care what else you might have done.”

  Katie looked at Luke. “Is that true, about your sister?”

  “Yeah,” Luke said sadly. “She was your age. Just a freshman like you and your friends. One night, she went to a party and never came home. It took a long time to find her body. All I want is to catch this guy.”

  When she didn’t respond, Luke lost his temper. “If you lie to us or hold back information that impedes the investigation you could be in even more trouble than for whatever it is you’re avoiding telling us.”

  Katie frowned, a slight crack in her staunch posture. She looked unsure of what she should say.

  “I’ll tell you what I know, but I don’t want to get in trouble,” Katie finally said, stressed.

  Luke couldn’t make her any promises so he just sat back and waited. Tyler did the same.

  Katie watched them close
ly. Her body relaxed and she relented, “That night we all just wanted to have a good time. I didn’t think it would do any harm. Cristina had said she had done it before and so had the rest of the girls. I guess Cristina couldn’t handle herself.”

  Luke had a suspicion Katie meant drugs, but he needed more. “You didn’t think what specifically would do any harm?”

  “I got some ecstasy from someone I know, and we all took some,” Katie said flippantly. “This isn’t my fault. All the girls took some. Cristina said she had done it before, but she couldn’t handle herself.”

  Det. Tyler interjected, “You’ve said that twice now, that the victim couldn’t handle herself. What exactly does that mean? Did she behave differently from the rest of you?”

  “Not at first, but then she got paranoid,” Katie said, an edge of annoyance in her voice. “We were dancing and enjoying the band, and she started killing our high. Cristina went to the bathroom at the bar, then came back out and said she was scared. She said someone was watching her. Cristina was always a baby if you know what I mean.”

  “I don’t know what you mean at all,” Luke barked. “This is someone who was supposed to be your friend. Obviously given what happened to her, she had every reason to be afraid that night.”

  Katie tried to defend herself, but Luke cut her off. “What happened next?”

  “She left. I told her if she wasn’t having a good time, she should leave.” Katie looked down her nose at Luke.

  “Where did she go?”

  “I don’t know. I didn’t pay attention to her. She was being a pain. She kept asking one of us to go back to the dorm with her, but we were all having a good time. When no one would leave with her, she left.”

  Luke shot Tyler a look. It took everything Luke had not to throttle her. She wasn’t any kind of friend he’d want to have. Frustrated, Luke asked, “Do you know how she got home?”