“You know that woman whose daughter left her a note? The one who came to the office the other day?”
He scoffed, “Of course. Michelle. She’s been sending me dozens of messages. What about her?”
“Can you send me a picture of her daughter?”
There was a beat of silence. “Why? Did you find something?”
“I don’t know. I’ll update you later.”
She hung up. Seconds later, Finn texted her the picture Michelle had provided. At first glance, the young woman looked a lot like the woman in the latest ad. But more so than the other women? Probably? Maybe? It all felt too speculative.
Nick turned to her. “Preston’s at a café. He’s asked us to meet him there.”
The café was situated inside an old industrial building. When Mackenzie saw the ugly concrete building with smoky skies behind it, she never expected to find a quaint, artful café inside. Wooden tables were placed either side of a koi pond. The walls were adorned with pictures showing Lakemore’s history from the early 1800s to the present.
They spotted Rees Preston seated in a corner, reading the newspaper with a cup of tea or coffee. Seeing them, he put the paper away and waved good-naturedly.
Mackenzie was once again caught off guard by his handsome face and dazzling smile.
“Interesting place,” Nick commented.
“I accidentally discovered it a few years ago. Reminds me how you can find beauty in places you least expect.” He glanced at Mackenzie. “Wouldn’t you agree, Detective Price?”
‘Oh, I… Yes, I suppose.” Mackenzie didn’t know what else to say. Preston’s charm had rendered her uncharacteristically tongue-tied, much to her frustration. She saw Nick swallow a grin.
“We were hoping you could help us, Dr. Preston.” Nick showed him the pictures on his phone. “These are three women who have been reported missing in Lakemore in the past six months.” He took out a printout of the woman who was featured in the latest ad. “We narrowed them down based on their similarity to this woman.”
Preston looked at her picture and then at the phone. “I see…”
“We want to know if you think any of these missing women could be surgically made to look even more like this woman.”
“There’s another one?”
Nick nodded mutely.
Preston spent a minute zooming in on each picture and then studying the photo in his hand. “None of them.”
“Really?”
He returned the photo and phone to Nick. “Their basic features might be similar, but not similar enough that cosmetic procedures could match their faces as closely as in the other case you showed me. The first woman has a very large forehead. The second one’s eyes are too far apart. And the last one’s too old—Botox would only enhance the difference.”
Mackenzie pulled out her own phone. “What about this one, Dr. Preston? Could she be the one?”
Preston looked at the picture and nodded vehemently. “That’s the one. She has the same pupillary distance and a slightly cleft chin. Her jaw is wider but that can be easily fixed with jaw reduction surgery.”
Alison Gable. A Lakemore local whose mother had sat every single day at the station demanding her voice be heard. Another woman who had been lured into a trap much like Bella had been. Mackenzie’s blood ran cold. Going by what they knew, it could only be a matter of time before they had another body on their hands.
Thirty-Seven
Alison Gable’s mother, Michelle, had become a familiar face around the Lakemore PD station. She was short, round-faced, and dressed in bright clothes. Gold costume jewelry hung low from her neck. “Please, come on in. I’m glad someone’s finally taking me seriously.”
Michelle led Mackenzie and Nick inside her cramped one-bedroom apartment. The hardwood floor was partly covered by a stained rug with a flowery pattern and a leather couch with tears in it. The walls were a dirty yellow, black curtains pulled back to allow light from one tiny window. Mackenzie was overcome with claustrophobia. But she focused her attention on the young woman standing in front of her, smacking gum and twirling her purple-streaked hair around her fingers nervously.
“This is Lila.” Michelle gestured to the girl. “She’s a friend of Alison’s. When you called me, I convinced her to talk to the cops.”
Lila rolled her eyes and looked away, making it clear she didn’t want to be there.
“Can you confirm the last time you spoke to Alison?” Nick looked at Michelle.
“November first,” Michelle said firmly, like she’d been through the answers multiple times, which she probably had. “She seemed to be in a good mood and mentioned nothing out of the blue, which is why when she left me the letter the next day, I was surprised.”
“Do you have it to hand?”
She raced to the kitchen counter and picked up a piece of paper. “The other detective returned it to me after he verified that it was Alison’s handwriting.”
Mackenzie stood on her toes to peek over Nick’s shoulders at the letter.
I’m leaving for a while. But I promise I’ll be back and get in touch in two weeks. Please take care of Oliver and yourself. I love you both. Talk to you soon.
Mackenzie noted Michelle’s heaving chest, damp hands rubbing each other, and worry lines deepening on her forehead.
“Did she often handwrite notes, rather than texting or calling?” Nick inquired.
“No, but like I told your colleague, she broke her phone a while back and didn’t have money to buy a new one.”
Nick turned to Lila. “Do you have any idea where she went?”
Lila let out a long exhale and crossed her arms. “I don’t want to get in trouble.”
“Lila, how do you and Alison know each other?” Mackenzie asked.
“We’re…” Lila blushed. “We’re sex workers.”
“Oh God,” Michelle groaned and looked away, shaking her head.
“Who do you work for?”
“Nobody. We’re… freelancers. We both look pretty similar. People often think we’re sisters. Some customers want… both of us together. Like a twin fantasy.”
Mackenzie surveyed Lila’s legs and arms—both covered even though it was swelteringly hot inside. She kept scratching her arms. Her young face was caked in makeup, but Mackenzie could see the pallor underneath.
“Was Alison doing drugs?”
“Yes,” Lila admitted reluctantly. “It’s easy to fall into them in our line of work. But she never sold. It’s a disease, you know. No one wants to be on drugs. It eats away at your body.”
Nick looked at Mackenzie, both of them thinking the same thing. “Do you know anyone by the name of Bella Fox, or Isabella Fabio?”
Lila shook her head.
“Lila, I think you want to help us. It’s clear you care about Alison, otherwise you wouldn’t be here,” Nick said.
Her eyes fluttered to keep the tears away. “She’s a good person. She had tried so hard over the last few years to get off drugs. And it’s not like people like us can afford nice rehab with fancy doctors to help us. She really wanted a fresh start. But with our work, it’s not easy. It’s not just the drugs, but in a small town like Lakemore you run into customers all the time. It’s easy to get into trouble with the cops and once you’re in the system or on their radar it follows you forever.”
“She went somewhere to get that fresh start?” Nick echoed the tagline from the ad. The ad that had lured prostitutes addicted to drugs into a sense of security.
“There was this ad on the dark web.” Lila sniffled. “She went on there all the time to buy drugs. The ad had a picture of some woman and was looking for someone who looked like her. We figured it was someone with a fetish who wanted a keep, you know? Those jobs can pay real well, so Alison suggested we both respond. We sent a picture of us together, but the guy responded saying that he was only interested in Alison. He said she’d be more appropriate. They talked some more, and she said that he’d convinced her that he would help h
er get off drugs and give her a new identity. Then she left.”
“Do you know where she went to meet him?”
“It was somewhere in Woodburn Park, around that broken bridge, but she didn’t tell me where exactly.” Lila shrugged. “She said she’d get in touch in a few days and would be back. That’s the last time I heard from her.”
Mackenzie recalled how Robbie had dropped Bella by Crescent Lake in Woodburn Park. Different location. Something was there, but the harsh winter and snowstorms had created a dent in the effort to search the woods thoroughly. And it didn’t help that the park was so gigantic to begin with.
“Did this person want anything in exchange for helping?” Nick asked.
“Alison told me that he didn’t say anything, but she assumed that he’d probably want sex. Isn’t that what all men want?”
“Are you sure that they were male?” Mackenzie asked.
Lila’s eyebrows furrowed. “Why wouldn’t he be? His username was Steven, but that’ll be fake.”
Another tribute to Steven Boyle? It couldn’t be a coincidence.
A cry disrupted Mackenzie’s thoughts. Michelle went briskly into another room and emerged with a baby in her arms. Dressed in a yellow onesie, he was easily under a year old.
“This is Oliver,” Michelle said. Behind her there was a framed picture of Alison cradling Oliver when he was a newborn. Her pinkie finger touched his mouth. He was asleep, but her eyes were full of wonderment. Like she couldn’t believe that she could love someone that much.
This was what Sterling wanted. A child. For the first time in her life, Mackenzie wondered why she didn’t feel that way. Why she didn’t want to love another person to the point that her heart felt like it was bursting at the seams.
“There’s no way that Alison wouldn’t contact me in so long.” Michelle’s eyes brimmed with tears. “She had issues, but she loves Oliver more than anything. Whatever she was trying to do, it was for him. And I’m not his mom. He misses her. Alison would never do this. Please. Please find her.”
Thirty-Eight
December 5
It was a bustling morning at the station. With the holidays right around the corner, there was renewed ambition to wrap up cases and get all the paperwork in place. Mackenzie was one of the few people who were planning on working through the holidays as she usually did, despite the drunk Santas she would be forced to deal with.
Mackenzie and Nick had spent the last day going over the statements of Alison’s friends and acquaintances and confirming them. No one seemed to know anything. They had tracked her last movements before she disappeared based on her credit card activity, but there was nothing there that could lead them to her.
In the conference room, Nick drummed his jittery fingers on the table and stared at his laptop. Mackenzie waltzed in and presented him with a cup of coffee.
His eyes lit up. “Bless you. Where did you find this?”
“Downstairs. I bribed Officer Fields.”
“Their cappuccino machine is much better than ours.” He took a sip and grinned. “When I retire, I’ll have my own coffee farm.”
Mackenzie raised an eyebrow at the house Nick was making with cigarettes. “And I thought you were concentrating on something important.”
“I was.” He showed her his screen. “Alison was last seen by Lila, right before the latter left for work. There was no surveillance in her dingy apartment building, but there’s this convenience store across the street with a camera that could give a view of the apartment building. But the camera isn’t set to record, only to view.”
“That’s a bummer.” She sat next to him and drummed her fingers on the table. “I believe she planned to stay in touch. Which means she’s being prevented from doing so.”
Nick nodded. “What about Bella? Any more on her?”
“Becky should have the DNA results soon,” Mackenzie said.
While they were waiting to get confirmation on whether their Jane Doe Two was actually Bella or not, Clint had finished his analysis on Katy’s phone. They already had her call log and texts, but her phone had no suspicious pictures or files. However, her email, which was logged in, revealed an interesting correspondence that had caught their attention. Katy had been arguing with a “Derek Lee” for the last few weeks. The vague emails went from Katy asking him to reconsider his stance, to warning him about his actions being unethical.
Nick checked the time. “Derek Lee should be here any minute now.”
“Why was she talking to a hotelier?” Mackenzie wondered.
“We’re going to find out.” Nick tipped his chin toward the door. A uniformed officer escorted Derek Lee to the conference room. His white hair fell like a sheet to his shoulders. His leathery skin sagged around his eyes and jawline, making him look a bit like a basset hound. Despite his old age, he had the physique of a lumberjack.
“Thank you for meeting us, Mr. Lee,” Mackenzie said as Derek slid onto the chair across from them.
“Why am I here? I’m a busy man.” He checked his phone before putting it back in his pocket.
“Do you know Katy Becker?”
Derek rolled his eyes. “That pain in the ass. What about her?”
“She’s missing,” Nick said.
He raised his eyebrows and sat back, making an undecipherable sound.
“Our team accessed her email, and we came across your correspondence with her.”
“I see.” He rubbed his fingertips together.
Mackenzie leaned forward. “Can you elaborate on that?”
“Am I a suspect?”
“You’re not in an interrogation room.”
He nodded and placed his elbows on the table. “I’m a hotelier. I’m looking to expand in Lakemore. The town has untapped potential. Plenty of people from across Washington flock here to watch a game and end up staying a weekend. It’s a good time for me to invest. With the riots, the prices have never been lower.”
Lakemore suffered a setback, and the vultures descended to make their profits.
“How does Katy factor into this?” Nick frowned.
He sighed. “I wanted to build in Woodburn Park. I’ve been lobbying, and have a few supporters in the city council. That park is wasted today. But Katy wanted to build a homeless shelter there.”
“But Woodburn Park is massive. Both of you could use it.”
“The woods are dense, and the soil is hard. Only a fraction of it would allow construction without removing too many trees and requiring too much equipment. There are regulations. And even if that leaves enough space for both, no one is going to want to stay at my hotel when there’s a homeless shelter that close!”
Mackenzie understood Derek’s concerns. He was a businessman. He was doing his job. But she couldn’t help but feel drawn to Katy’s actions. There were so people few in this world whose actions were dictated by selflessness.
“When was the last time you met Katy?” she asked.
He hesitated, thinking it through. “November sixteenth. It was a Friday night. She showed up unannounced on my doorstep.”
“What did she say?”
“We discussed work, and then she said that she would leave Woodburn Park alone but needed money in cash.”
Mackenzie glanced at Nick. Why would Katy need money suddenly? And why would she try to leverage it from Lee?
“What exactly happened?” Nick urged him to continue.
“Look, she wasn’t happy to be there. I can tell you that.” His eyebrows drew together. “I almost felt bad for her. I had offered her money before—funding, for another project that would keep her away from Woodburn, but she’d rejected it. I was happy that she had come to her senses, but she looked very conflicted. It was obvious that she didn’t want to take the money like this—and I was uncomfortable about being asked for cash, too. I’m no crook. I asked her if she was being blackmailed or something, but all she said was that there was some emergency.”
“Did you give her the money?”
/> “I had offered her fifty grand, previously. But she said she only needed thirty-five, which made me worry the money wasn’t intended for one of her projects.”
Mackenzie had to suppress a snort. She had no doubt Lee was dressing up the exchange to make himself look better, but she believed the basic structure was accurate.
“Her reputation preceded her, though. I said I didn’t have that much cash lying around the house, so I told her to meet me the next morning, and we’d take care of the paperwork in good time.”
Thirty-five thousand dollars. Mackenzie chewed her lip, deep in thought. They had come across no evidence that Katy was being blackmailed or was in any situation that would require a huge chunk of money.
“Where did you meet her?” she asked.
Derek looked around and stroked his chin. “I have a cabin in Woodburn Park. It’s something of an office for the project. I keep some money there, so I told her to meet me in the morning. I waited, but she never showed up.”
What other secrets did Woodburn Park hide? Why hadn’t Katy shown up?
Mackenzie pulled out a map of the park and asked him to locate his cabin. It was situated away from the shore but downstream of where the bodies had been recovered.
After asking more routine questions, they dismissed him.
“What the hell did Katy need thirty-five grand for?” Nick flicked the end of a cigarette.
But another thought was simmering inside Mackenzie’s mind. “We don’t know when exactly Kim took Katy’s place.”
“Maybe Kim went to Derek, posing as Katy, because she wanted money?”
“Or Katy went to Derek because Kim was threatening her?”
Nick took out his cigarette case and placed the unlit tube back inside. “Could be either. Thirty-five grand’s a lot of money. Plenty have killed for less.”
Thirty-Nine
It was Mackenzie’s first time in Rivera’s office. The new lieutenant liked to keep her office crisp, minimalistic, and scented. The only splash of color was a cactus sitting on the windowsill. Rivera didn’t keep anything personal in her office—not even a picture of her family, just like Mackenzie’s cubicle. While Troy had a picture of his fiancée, Ella, pinned to his desk, and Nick had a framed drawing Luna had made of them, Mackenzie’s desk had no signs of Sterling. One of her instructors at the academy had told her that women had to make an extra effort to project their toughness, especially in a field like police work.
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