The Bone Harvest

by Stacy M Jones

  “Tell me about that night. Everything you can remember.”

  Amelia did just that. Luke had been right, once she got talking, Amelia told him everything. She had taken part in being mean to Cristina to get her to leave. Although as Amelia said, she had been a little wasted and didn’t remember exactly what she had said. She admitted that Katie was the ring leader. Much to Luke’s dismay, she did not remember the man that Megan saw. To be fair, Megan seemed to have been the only sober one so far.

  “Do you have any idea why Katie would want Cristina to leave that night?” Luke pressed.

  “Katie never really liked Cristina but the rest of us did so that’s why Cristina still hung around.”

  “Any idea why Katie didn’t like her?”

  “No idea. It doesn’t take much for Katie not to like people. They wear the wrong clothes, have the wrong hair, don’t have enough money. Katie can come up with anything.”

  “Is there anything else you think I should know?” Luke asked. He could tell that Amelia was growing tired. He didn’t want to push too hard in case he needed to speak to her again.

  Amelia hesitated. She chewed on her lip and confided, “I think Katie has some secrets she doesn’t want anyone else to know. She made a comment once that her parents had to bribe the school to let her in. There’s other stuff, too. Katie said recently that someone found out some of her secrets and she was going to do everything she could to keep him quiet. I have no idea what that means, but it sounded bad and scared the rest of us.”

  CHAPTER 59

  After wrapping up three more interviews that were similar to Amelia’s, Luke met Tyler back at the car. Luke had garnered the information he was hoping and then some. The three girls Luke interviewed after Amelia had readily given up information, especially information on Katie. They cracked faster and easier than Amelia. All seemed pretty fed up with taking orders from Katie.

  All of the information Luke had gathered fully supported what Megan had told them. One girl had even disclosed that Katie’s secrets had more to do with her father and how he made money than it did with anything Katie was doing. It seemed her father was into some illegal business, which Katie knew all about. The girl suggested that someone was blackmailing Katie with the information.

  Tyler relayed a similar experience with the girls he had interviewed. “They were more than ready to give Katie up. They backed up Megan’s story and two of them indicated that Katie had stopped Megan from leaving the bar by dumping water down her back. Katie set up Cristina.”

  “I think I might have a motive for that.” Luke filled Tyler in on what Amelia had told him about the blackmail. Luke was sure if the killer had gotten to Katie, that’s what he could have used.

  “That’s a pretty strong motive for setting up your friend,” Tyler commented. He ran a hand down his face and wondered, “Do you think Katie knew Cristina was being set up for murder?”

  “I’d like to think she was being played much the way those two guys were in Fayetteville.” Luke sat behind the wheel trying to focus his thoughts. “Where do we go from here? If we call Katie into the station she might lawyer up. I think we should head back to her dorm and talk to her again. Really confront her this time.”

  “I agree.” Tyler looked at his watch. It was before noon. “Did we get her class schedule, too?”

  “Right here,” Luke said, holding up the page. “She should be heading to lunch at the dining hall near her dorm. I asked Amelia what Katie did for lunch, just in case we had to go back and talk to her.”

  Luke and Tyler exited the vehicle and walked back in the direction of Katie’s dorm and the dining hall, which was right next to it. Luke hoped Katie would talk to them, but he had a feeling she would resist. The only ace Luke had was that he knew enough to pretend he knew about Katie’s father, and it seemed she’d protect him at any cost.

  They caught up with Katie as she was leaving her dorm, headed towards the dining hall. Luke called her name.

  She turned to look at him, an angry expression plastered on her face. “Why are you still bothering me, Detective?”

  Luke walked right up to her so close in fact that he had to look down to see her. He towered over her. “Your friend was murdered. We would think that you’d want to do everything you can to make sure her killer is brought to justice.”

  “I’m not going to pretend to care,” Katie huffed. “I already talked to you and told you everything I know. This is harassment.”

  Neither Luke or Tyler said a word. Luke would throw her in the squad car if needed. His anger at her self-righteousness grew.

  Katie shoved past Luke and walked towards the dining hall. Luke and Tyler were right on her heels. She turned back to them. “You can’t follow me. I’m going to call my father.”

  “That might be a good idea. Sounds like your father might warrant his own police investigation,” Luke taunted.

  Katie’s eyes grew wide. Luke could tell she was afraid. She stammered, “What do you mean? What do you know about my father?”

  “I hear things,” Luke said. He shoved his hands in his pockets and rocked on the balls of his feet.

  “What did you hear?” Katie asked nervously, looking around.

  “We heard that not all of his business dealings are legal,” Luke said matter-of-factly.

  “But that’s not why we are here, Katie,” Tyler offered. “We just need your help. It sounds like you’re under a good deal of stress. Maybe you should tell us. We can help you.”

  “You can’t help me,” Katie said, sounding defeated.

  “I don’t think she wants our help,” Luke said sarcastically. “Actually, maybe you’re just like your father, Katie. You’d do anything to get ahead, even if it’s illegal.”

  Katie didn’t say anything, but she also didn’t walk away.

  Luke turned to his partner and pressed harder. “I think Katie set Cristina up for murder.” Turning back to Katie, he asked accusingly, “How much did he pay you to sacrifice your friend? No, I’m sorry, not your friend, some girl you didn’t like very much.”

  “I didn’t get paid.” Katie looked down at her feet. Her eyes snapped back up.

  Luke knew, at that moment, that Katie realized she had just admitted her guilt.

  Katie pleaded, “I didn’t know he was going to kill her. You have to believe me. This just all got so out of hand.”

  Luke looked at Tyler and unspoken words passed between them. Luke stood defiant but Tyler put his hand on Katie’s shoulder. “Let’s go down to the station and have a talk. We believe you didn’t know, but you can help us now.”

  Katie locked eyes with Luke, but he didn’t budge. His anger grew and he struggled to get a hold of it. Luke knew before they spoke Katie had done it, but to hear her admit it was a punch in the gut. Luke hoped no one like Katie had set up his sister. He was afraid of what he’d do to them if he knew. “This is your one and only chance to redeem yourself, Katie. Don’t cooperate and I’m perfectly okay throwing you in jail.”

  Katie looked to Tyler who had been going easy on her. Not that they had planned to play good cop, bad cop, but they had been partners for so long, they balanced each other.

  “He’s serious, Katie,” Tyler stressed. “Luke wants to catch this killer. You know far more than you’re telling us. You have a chance to cooperate or you can go to jail. It’s really up to you at this point.”

  “Let’s head to the police station,” Katie said defeated.

  CHAPTER 60

  Cooper met Adele at a coffee shop down the road from his hotel. After Hope’s revelations the night before, Adele had taken the day off and asked Cooper to meet with her. Cooper was more than happy to oblige.

  Before they had wrapped with Hope, Adele had her run through the day her sister went missing again. She asked a series of really solid questions, which impressed Cooper. Hope had given them a tour, even showing them where she was standing when she said Michael Hayes approached Jordan. Hope had been correct, she had a clean
line of sight, but had been standing far enough back she remained unseen. They tested it a few times.

  Cooper met Adele around lunchtime. After ordering their coffee, they took a table in the back. Before they were even seated and comfortable, Adele asked, “What did you think about what Hope had to say?”

  “I’m not sure what to think. It makes logical sense that someone lured your sister out of the library. That’s really the only thing that makes sense if you think about it. I wish someone would have taken Hope’s reports seriously at the time because her information will be nearly impossible to verify now.”

  “Do you think she was telling the truth?” Adele sipped her coffee.

  “She seemed credible to me. I didn’t get any red flags about what she was saying. You cross-examine witnesses for a living. Did you believe her?”

  “I do,” Adele said thoughtfully. “It also makes sense to me why she dropped it and hasn’t brought it up again. The police wouldn’t take a missing person’s report, the university either. Who was she going to tell? If the university threatened her and said Michael Hayes had been cleared, why would she believe any different?”

  “It doesn’t look like she really believed that though.” Cooper took a bite of his bagel. It was better than he thought it would be for a chain shop.

  “I think it’s probably been bothering her all these years, especially since she can’t find any record of him even being at the school.”

  “I’ll need to spend more time on Michael Hayes and see if I can find anything. Do you know what kind of information these lecturers have out there?”

  “I occasionally teach a law lecture series. Whatever university I’m holding the lectures for usually has my bio, my background, sometimes even law articles available that I’ve written. Today, there would be information on the university’s website. Back in 1993, you’re dealing with a different scenario. It wasn’t digital like it is today.”

  “You’d think though if this guy is still teaching, he’d have something online now though, right? Do you have your own website or something like that to promote you as an expert?”

  “I do,” Adele explained. “There is a bio page on my firm’s website, but I also have social media accounts and my own website, which highlights my work.”

  “There should be a trace of him.”

  “I would think so.”

  Cooper frowned and shook his head. “That’s the problem. When I searched, I didn’t find anything. No website, no social media. There are so many people named Michael Hayes, though, that it’s too broad of a search for my database. I need some narrowing fields.”

  Adele rubbed her brow. “We are going to have to see if someone from the history department was here back then and if they remember him. We can’t go into my sister’s case, but maybe we can come up with a good story and see if they have any information.”

  “Any ideas?”

  Adele thought for several minutes. Cooper sipped his coffee and watched her. He also took in the shop, which was filling up with university students.

  Finally, Adele suggested, “What about if I just say I’m doing some research for a case and his name came up and we had some info that he had been a lecturer here. That’s fairly straightforward. We just need to go to the history department and not call. Calling gives them a chance to say no.”

  Cooper liked the way Adele thought. He pulled up his phone and typed in the university’s address. Once on the site, Cooper searched the history department and looked at photos and bios of professors. There were two that had been at the university back in 1993. One of them was the head of the department. Cooper handed his phone over to Adele. She took it and scanned the page.

  “Seems like Professor Marlow might be the guy,” Adele agreed. Handing Cooper’s phone back to him, she pointed to a few lines on the screen. “He was here back in 1993 and his bio says he has a focus on the Civil War.”

  The two cleaned off their table and left the coffee shop. They walked the few blocks back to the university and used the map provided on the website to locate the history building. It was two buildings down from the library.

  They found Professor Marlow sitting behind his desk in a small cluttered office. It was a smaller space than Cooper would have thought for the head of a department. There was a desk and a small table off to the side, which was piled high with books, stacks of papers, and magazines.

  They stood in his doorway, but the man didn’t look up from his desk. Cooper wasn’t sure if he realized they were standing there. He rapped once on the door. Finally, the man looked up.

  Adele walked in and extended her hand. “Professor Marlow, my name is Adele Baker, a local attorney. I was looking for some information I thought you might have.”

  Professor Marlow smiled at them and waved them in. “Sorry, my office is a mess. I’m retiring at the end of this semester and clearing out a few things. What can I help you with?”

  Adele stood at the edge of his desk while Cooper stood back a few steps. Adele asked, “I’m wondering if you remember a Michael Hayes who gave a lecture here years ago. I’m trying to track him down for some information on some of his research, but I’m having trouble locating him.”

  Professor Marlow rubbed his chin seemingly lost in thought. He went to a cluttered bookcase and pulled out a binder. He flipped through page after page. Professor Marlow unsnapped the binding and pulled out a page.

  He handed it to Adele. “I don’t remember much about him, but this is all I have. Over the years, I’ve kept notes on every lecturer that I’ve brought to the school. My memory fails me sometimes, so I keep their information on hand. I didn’t have much on Michael Hayes, but it was a good lecture series from what I can recall.”

  Adele read over the sheet. Cooper peered over her shoulder. There was no photo, but it listed his graduate degree from the University of Virginia and a concentration in military history and the Reconstruction era after the Civil War. There was little else to identify him.

  Cooper looked up at Professor Marlow. “Do you remember him at all?”

  “Not really. He was recommended by a professor here at the time. I can’t remember his name. Hayes showed up, gave a few good lectures and left.” Professor Marlow stared at them blankly.

  Cooper couldn’t read much on the man’s face.

  “Was he ever invited back?” Adele handed the paper back to Professor Marlow.

  “No,” he said curtly.

  “Was there a reason?”

  The professor sat down in his chair and looked up at them. “He was too flirty with some female students so we felt it better he was not invited back.”

  “Any student in particular?” Adele pressed.

  “What did you say your last name was?”

  “Baker.”

  Professor Marlow looked back at Cooper. He folded his arms across his chest and stared right back at the man.

  Professor Marlow stood. “I need to get back to work. Have a good day.”

  Adele stood staring at the man, but he had gone back to rifling through papers on his desk. Cooper tugged her arm to go. As they crossed the threshold of the doorway in retreat, Professor Marlow called out to them. “I really am sorry about your sister.”

  CHAPTER 61

  Luke wasn’t in the habit of buying potential suspects lunch, but he wanted Katie to remain open to talking. He had been rough on Katie on purpose, and he knew there was a chance he was going to be rough on her again back at the station. In order to win himself some good favor with her, Luke had offered to stop for lunch. They had swung through the drive-through of a local place and each of them grabbed something to go.

  Katie sat in an interrogation room eating her salad while Luke and Tyler polished off lunch at their desks and discussed strategy. Tyler would spend time digging into Katie’s father’s background while Luke would interview Katie formally.

  Tyler popped a few fries in his mouth and washed it down with a soda. “You think you’ll get what we need?”
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br />   “If not, I’m going to give you a crack at her. I don’t want to be as firm as I was at the university because I really don’t believe she knew she was setting Cristina up for murder, but I’ll use it if I have to.”

  Luke finished the rest of his lunch and threw his trash in the garbage. He heard his phone chime. He pulled it from his hip and saw a text from Cooper, who indicated they had a name and some potential leads. Michael Hayes. Luke tried to remember why the name sounded familiar, but he couldn’t place it.

  He walked down the hall towards the interrogation room. Just before he entered, Luke remembered the conversation with Riley the night before. He pulled out his phone and sent Cooper a quick text, letting him know that Riley had something suspicious on a Michael Bauer. He suggested the two should probably compare notes.

  Luke turned his phone on silent and entered the room. He found Katie sitting quietly with the remnants of her lunch wrapped up in the bag at the side of the table.

  Katie looked up at Luke. “I’d really like to get this over with as quickly as we can.”

  “That’s going to be entirely up to you.” Luke took a seat across from her and put his notepad and pen down on the table. He didn’t think he’d need to take notes though; the entire interview would be recorded both video and audio.

  “Where do you want me to start?” Katie shifted in her seat and brushed the hair away from her face.

  “When was the first time this man,” Luke paused, realizing he was assuming. “Was it a man?”

  “I only corresponded with him via text so I can’t say for sure, but he came across like a man. The first time was near the middle of September.”

  “You said you only corresponded via text? I assume you have his number then.” Luke leaned his forearms on the table.