“I’m really sorry to interrupt your movie,” Harry began.
“That’s okay,” Luna stated, a bit downhearted about having to talk about Laurel.
“You see, I just need to clear up some things about the day she went missing and then I’ll be on my way and you guys can get back to the movie. That Saturday morning, did she talk to anyone on the phone? Did she leave the house for any reason before going into town?”
On the sofa, Lara fiddled with the string on her pink hoodie and cleared her throat. “After Mom and Levi left the house to go to work, Laurel was on the phone. I don’t know who she talked to, but she planned to meet someone that afternoon.”
Stunned at the revelation, Barbara stared at Lara. “And this is the first time you say anything? Why would you do that?”
Harry watched the girl cringe from her mother’s accusation. “Barb, that’s not helping. Just let Lara say what she has to say without judgment.”
Barb let out a sigh and reached for Lara’s hand. “I’m sorry. Just tell Mr. Drummond what happened.”
Lara swallowed hard. “It was about Luna’s present. Laurel said it was a surprise for Luna. She said she’d found a doll that wouldn’t cost thirty-five dollars.”
Barb’s hand flew to her mouth. “I feel sick. I think I might throw up. Lara, are you saying that someone offered to sell Laurel a doll that wasn’t from Pasqual’s?”
Lara nodded. “It was only gonna cost us twenty bucks. And with the money left over we planned to get you something nice for Christmas from the four of us. It was a good idea. But Laurel never came back from wherever she went. And it ruined Christmas! Okay? Laurel’s stupid idea ruined Christmas!”
Harry watched as Lara jumped up and sprinted out of the room. Barb went after her. Left alone with Levi he turned to the older brother. “Was Laurel the type of person to seek out advice from an adult, say maybe a man?”
“Seek out advice? Not really.”
“Did she ever mention being scared of one, a man?”
“Well, there was this one time she mentioned this guy who always seemed to be there after school. But she didn’t give me a whole lot of details.”
Harry let out a sigh. “No idea at all who was always there after school?”
“Sorry. No.”
“Do you know who she planned to buy the doll from?”
Levi shook his head. “Don’t you think we’ve kicked ourselves now for the last six months because of it? I wish I’d asked. A hundred times I’ve wished that. It was just a busy time of year for all of us. Me? I spent most of December working at the tree lot. There was school and homework to deal with. And with Mom taking on extra work, Laurel was left to see that Christmas turned out okay for Lara and Luna. She felt like it was her responsibility.” Huge tears formed in Levi’s eyes. “I let her down. I let them all down. I wasn’t paying attention to what was going on.”
Harry patted the kid’s knee. “No. Don’t do that. The only person to blame is the son of a bitch who tricked her into thinking she’d get a brand-new Barbie doll for twenty bucks. It’s not your fault. Don’t spend the rest of your life beating yourself up. Promise me. Okay?”
Levi nodded, wiping his face on his shirtsleeves. “I’ll try.”
Eleven
He never had to do much coaxing to get the girls into his car. They always responded well to whatever story he spun to get his way. Teenage girls were so gullible. They never ran. Well, a couple of times maybe but that didn’t count. He’d been able to secure the scene and take care of any screamers.
They’d usually climb in, wait patiently for him to start the car. Some didn’t even panic until they realized they were headed down a dead-end road, in the opposite direction of where he’d promised to take them.
Stupid, silly, squealing girls.
Dumping Rosa in the Slough had been necessary. Risky, but vital if he wanted to lead these so-called investigators to another conclusion and make them think there was another killer on the loose. Serve them right for sticking their nose where it didn’t belong.
But he had to admit the outsiders were pretty good. They must be. It hadn’t taken them long to determine that Denise Littletree hadn’t been his. Same with Teresa Sokoloff. Nor was Chyna Eastwood. Those three had been officially removed from the Wall of Shame.
The Seattle outsiders weren’t exactly the dream team. They hadn’t figured out there were more, a lot more.
Yes, he had access to inside information. No doubt that would prove useful down the stretch. He’d make sure to keep his urges in check until they took off back to where they belonged, make sure they’d have no reason to hang around longer than necessary. When this lot ran into the same brick wall as the FBI, they’d surely give up and go back to Seattle.
He had to believe that with the whole of his heart.
If need be, he’d make life miserable for them during their stay, scare the bejesus out of the young women they’d brought along. He might even scare the little girl.
And after they left, when their visit was finally at an end, and it was all over, he’d go home to his wife and kids.
And he’d wait. He’d wait for the next round, the next opportunity to strike. When everything had calmed down, and the townsfolk had returned to their usual, indifferent attitude, he’d still be here, patiently waiting for his next victim to pop on his radar.
Twelve
Three dogs.
One tiny bungalow.
And one of the pooches couldn’t walk anywhere without hobbling and bumping into everything, furniture, walls, doors.
Cody did his best to run after Atka and Bella. But he couldn’t, not with a cast on his hind leg. They’d been instructed to keep him as immobile as possible during the healing process. But with two other active canines wriggling and bounding wherever they went, that was almost impossible. So poor Cody limped trailing along behind. He was still on medication, taking NSAIDS for the pain and swelling and inflammation. He’d been poked and prodded and microchipped. Who knew how long the injured little guy had been lying in that same spot waiting for someone to stop and rescue him?
Skye didn’t like to think about it. She knew Josh wasn’t entirely happy about them bringing Cody home. The vet bill had been astronomical. The pup had kept them up whining most of the night. But a father wasn’t about to deny his little girl the joy of having a dog, even if it meant having three. At least not this father.
“Cody seems good-natured enough,” Josh remarked, looking out over the chaos.
“In case you haven’t noticed, your daughter is over the moon to have him,” Skye pointed out again as she watched Cody’s tail wipe out an entire section of papers she’d just sorted. The energetic pup couldn’t seem to help himself. Wherever the Lab went, Cody bumped into stuff. “You can’t blame him for knocking things over. This place is way too crowded for all of us.”
“Are you trying to convince yourself or me?”
“Mostly myself. I heard him howling this morning when the sun came up, just like Atka and Bella do sometimes. Maybe instead of a nanny, we should hire a competent dog sitter.”
“Or a nanny who’s fond of dogs. Each day I have to remind Emmadine that it’s okay to pet them.”
“She does seem distant. Maybe she’s overwhelmed.”
“Inexperienced,” Josh huffed out. “Next time we have a meeting, we’ll need to have it somewhere else,” he noted, glancing around the room. “I’m still trying to figure out how in the world Sierra spotted that dog from the car. On the way back, I tried to do it. I couldn’t. I couldn’t even see the rock that marked the spot.”
“On the way back, it was dark. Maybe that afternoon, she used her X-ray vision,” Skye snorted with a giggle. “It was weird, Josh. It was almost like she knew he’d be there, waiting for her, hurt and needing attention. And Cody seemed to be lying there doing the same, expecting her to show up and get him out of there.”
“She is your daughter. The Kiya force runs deep in that one.”
>
She smiled at the Star Wars reference. It wasn’t the first time they’d used it to describe Kiya’s influence on all of them. “Stronger than it did in me at that age. I’ll text Judy and see if she and Reggie will let us use their room for the next briefing. Harry’s busting at the seams to tell us what he found out from the Smith girls.”
A rap at the front door interrupted her train of thought. “Are you expecting anyone?”
“Nope. Leo and Reggie were working on Internet searches last night, but I haven’t heard from them yet this morning.” Josh checked his watch. “It’s early yet. They’re probably still sacked out.”
Surrounded by dogs, Josh opened the door to see Quade standing on the stoop.
The man barged into the room without an invitation. “I stewed on this all night. I need to clear up a misconception. First of all, I didn’t know the CCTV hadn’t been checked out at Pasqual’s. I should have had that information, but I didn’t. In Rosa’s case, she went missing within a very tight timeline after school let out during the last week of classes. She was due to meet up with friends at the ice cream parlor to celebrate and somewhere along her route, she got grabbed. You know the rest. Three days later, she was found in the water, dumped like garbage, strangled. I’m ready to lay all my cards on the table. No more holding back. Whatever it is you want to know, just ask.”
“Any CCTV on Rosa after she left school?”
“None. Unfortunately.”
Harry stood in the open doorway. “I have a few questions of my own, several in fact. But first, let me tell you what I found out from Lara Smith. Got any coffee? That machine in our cabin doesn’t work half the time, just dribbles out colored water. I need caffeine.”
“Hello to you, too,” Skye said with a grin. “Both of you. Sit down. I’ll get the coffee going.”
“I’ll get you a waffle,” Sierra called out, following her mother into the kitchen. “All you do is put ’em in the toaster.”
Josh motioned for the two men to sit down. “As you can see, we’re a little cramped for space. Just move those files out of the way and find a spot.”
Another knock on the door had Leo and Reggie crowding into the room. “Judy’s on her way. Zoe and Emmadine are still eating breakfast.”
Skye walked out of the kitchen area, toting a tray with coffee and cups. “Fix it however you take it. We found some cinnamon rolls instead of waffles.”
“I took ’em out of the package and put ’em on the plate,” Sierra boasted. “Only one got dropped to the floor, but Bella already ate it.”
For the first time since arriving, Quade looked down at the girl and smiled. “I’ll take one of those that didn’t fall on the floor.”
The girl watched him with an eagle eye pick out the one with the most icing. “That one didn’t end up on the floor,” Sierra assured him.
Harry nabbed another one. “How about this guy?”
Sierra grinned and shook her head. “Bella gots the only one that dropped.”
Emmadine arrived and scooped Sierra up. “Let’s get you and the dogs over to my cottage. How does that sound?”
“I’ll bring my dollies, too,” Sierra shouted, running off to her bedroom to gather them up.
“Thanks,” Skye said. “Your timing is perfect. I don’t want her listening to this stuff.”
Emmadine leaned closer. “Leo texted me to get myself over here on the double.”
“Who says nothing much happens in Idaho?” Judy said, coming through the door carrying a laptop. She stopped when she looked around the room at so many people. “Wow. You guys need to store some of this stuff in the RV.”
“We like keeping the files close to us,” Josh explained. “Better to have it handy in the middle of the night when we have a question and go looking for the answer.”
“Ah. Well, if you change your mind and need help moving stuff into the RV just holler.” Judy took a seat at the table and pointed to her laptop screen. “While Reggie searched online for other victims, I stumbled on another serial killer in the area by the name of Lyda Southard. She’s one of the first verified female serial killers in the world. Locals called her Lady Bluebeard. She killed something like five husbands and her own little daughter. And those are the murders they know about.”
Skye peered over Judy’s shoulder and stared at the monitor. “Jeez, Judy. This was back in 1915. Isn’t there something more useful you could be doing with your time instead of Binging serial killers in Idaho? If you’re that bored…”
“No, I’m just trying to make a point. Everywhere this woman lived, people died. There are probably more victims in our guy’s background that we haven’t discovered yet.”
“That’s what I was trying to say earlier,” Leo started. “Of the seventy names I came up with, Harry and I checked out social security numbers. There are about fifteen on that list definitely unaccounted for, no activity in the system at all, no paper trail anywhere. These are teenage girls who’ve been missing for years.”
“That’s one of the things I wanted to talk about,” Harry said between bites of cinnamon roll. “The other is about Laurel. Someone had offered to sell her a Holiday Barbie that morning for twenty bucks. Lara never mentioned it because in all the excitement that day looking for Laurel, she forgot. And when the days turned into months, she thought if she came forward with the information at that late date, she would likely get yelled at. And let’s just say, Barb Smith was not happy about Lara holding back information. You know kids. They seemed to know when it’s a touchy subject and they should keep their mouths shut. That was Lara last night.”
Quade studied Skye, then Josh. “How did you know Laurel had talked to her killer?”
“Well, I didn’t with any certainty. But it seems to me all these girls were tricked in some way into getting in the car with their killer. In Laurel’s case, what was the main thing on her mind four days before Christmas—getting her shopping done. Her mother was busy. Her brother was working. As the next in line older sibling, she felt like it was her responsibility to get Luna that doll.”
“And this lowlife tricks her into believing he’s got the answer to her problem with money left over that she can spend on other gifts,” Harry provided. “Bait. He somehow knew she wanted a doll and used it as bait. We are talking about kids here. Think back to 2018 and Farrow Sandoval. Farrow goes missing, headed to a convenience store to buy a bag of ice. Our guy pulls up. It’s hot. He offers to help her out and give her a ride to the store. But she never makes it there just like Laurel never made it to Pasqual’s.”
“Yeah, well, without the CCTV, we have to speculate that she didn’t make it there,” Skye corrected. “The clerk admitted the store was crowded with shoppers, and obviously the clerk had more on her plate than she could handle.”
“I checked the evidence locker and the chain of booking. That CCTV disk was logged in on December twenty-second but disappeared sometime during the holidays.”
Leo traded looks with the cop. “You’re suggesting we’re looking for one of your own.”
Skye narrowed her eyes, set on bolstering that argument. “Simone Silver is adamant that her daughter would not have left the powwow unless she’d been told to by an authority figure. Another ruse, perhaps. But she also told me that Lucy wanted a terrier-type puppy so bad that she’d been looking for months for the right dog. Did the killer know that? If so, how? I know you don’t want to think this guy is a member of law enforcement, but you should at least keep an open mind. Unless you have another plausible explanation how evidence could go missing, then it’s time to consider the possibility.”
Quade glanced around the room, going from face to face. All eyes were on him as if he’d been part of the cover-up.
“Doesn’t it make sense that that’s how he gets them to let down their guard?” Reggie prompted. “These girls see a uniform, a cop, someone they trust.”
“But that’s not what happened in Sara’s case,” Quade stated. “She was grabbed off her bicycl
e. There was damage to it. I know because it was brand new.”
“Maybe he hadn’t perfected his pitch back then,” Skye suggested. “And in Sara’s case, Sara wouldn’t budge off her bike. Maybe she told him to get lost. That she had a brother on the force, and she was headed to her grandmother’s house. She’d call her brother from there and check out this guy’s badge.”
“How do you know this stuff?” Quade wanted to know. “That sounds exactly like something Sara would’ve done.”
“We read the file,” Josh stated. “Skye is the one who pointed it out to me. The afternoon Sara went missing you gave a statement to the police that said your sister called you before she left her own house. Sara begged you to pick her up and take her shopping instead of her having to go to her grandmother’s house. The report says you couldn’t do it because you had to take a domestic violence call on the other side of the Reservation.”
“If I’d have let Tanoose take the call instead and gone to pick up Sara that day, she might still be alive,” Quade said barely above a whisper. “Now, it makes me wonder if it was all a setup, making sure I wasn’t around to look after her.”
“Don’t overthink it,” Josh advised. “A conspiracy like that would’ve taken a tremendous amount of planning. How could the killer have possibly known your mother would need to stay after school?”
“I don’t know. He could’ve arranged it,” Quade snapped. “He seems to have arranged everything else.”
“That’s not such a ridiculous theory,” Skye said and got a look of disbelief from Josh. “No, really, think about it. We should probably ask Wren the name of the kid who got into trouble that day and kept her at the parent-teacher meeting.”
“The boy’s name is Scott Jaynes. His parents are longtime residents here,” Quade added.
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