Forgotten Bones

by Vickie McKeehan

  Their next stop was the potato farm belonging to Gavin and Susan Jaynes. Without trespassing onto the Jaynes’s property, they got out of the minivan, using the shoulder of the road to walk around the perimeter of the farm.

  Skye noticed something she’d missed the first time. There were several potato sheds all over the property used to store the crop until shipping it to market. The buildings popped up here and there, dotting the landscape. She scanned the little mounds of freshly plowed dirt again just as she had the first time, looking for any place bodies might be buried. But all she saw were rows and rows of green plants beginning to grow to their fullest height

  They walked along the shoulder of the roadway, inspecting what they could of the area nearby. At some point, they set off a motion-triggered camera.

  Skye could tell because she heard it click and whir and focus on their location. “There. It’s rigged to that utility pole.”

  “Why would anyone have a camera pointed here?”

  “So, they’d be able to see anyone coming from this direction.”

  “What’s so special about this direction?”

  “There’s another potato shed about ten yards from where we’re standing. Maybe he doesn’t want anyone to find out what’s inside.”

  The camera must have alerted Jaynes. She got her first look at the thirty-something deputy sheriff when he stepped out the front door of the shed.

  A cold chill went through her. Even from this distance, the recognition sent her reeling. This was hoodie guy, the man she’d seen on the CCTV footage at the lodge. Jaynes stood close to six feet. He had brown hair, blue eyes, and pasty white skin. He didn’t seem the least bit concerned that she’d made the connection.

  At that exact moment, Kiya began to growl. Standing in the middle of a row of potatoes, the silver wolf alerted them to a presence. But Kiya kept moving toward the line of trees.

  “Josh, look over there beyond the shed. Do you see her?”

  Sara Grayhawk stood in the unused part of the field at the back, dressed as she’d looked ten years earlier, wearing a pair of blue shorts and a peasant blouse, her long black hair flapping in the breeze. The thirteen-year-old mouthed the words, “I’m here. Find me.”

  “I see her,” Josh said, his voice hoarse with the shock. “She’s not alive, though, is she?”

  Skye swallowed hard. “No, she’s not alive. But I think she’s trying to tell us something.”

  Part of the field that backed up to a line of birch was empty of crop, unused and barren. Skye saw Kiya approach the girl and then paw at the dirt.

  She glanced over at Jaynes, who still stood staring at them next to his shed. The longer they stood there, Jaynes became more agitated. And his face had already turned a crimson color.

  “Get out of here. Get off my land,” Jaynes demanded. He reached for something back inside the shed and brought out a twenty-gauge shotgun, leveled the barrel at both of them. “I said, get off my land. What is it you city folks don’t seem to understand about trespassing?”

  “We’re not on your land, Mr. Jaynes,” Josh pointed out, his voice rising over the farrow earth. “We’re on the shoulder of the road, a public right of way.”

  “The name is Deputy Sheriff Jaynes to the likes of you.”

  “Doesn’t matter what we call you,” Skye shouted. “If you’re in doubt about whether we’re trespassing, why don’t you call the cops.” Her eyes drifted over to where Sara still stood with Kiya. “Maybe your colleagues would like to see it all, everything you’ve put in the ground over the years.”

  “Don’t get smart with me, missy. I could easily shoot you down like a dog right now and drag you both onto my land. Now for the last time, leave.”

  “You got it,” Josh yelled with a friendly wave, nudging Skye toward the van. “We’ll see you later.”

  Jaynes lifted the gun and fired skyward into the air. The buckshot rained down on the turf, falling a few inches away from the edge of the roadway. “Don’t come nosing around here again. I’ll file charges if you do.”

  Twenty

  “Let me get this straight,” Judy clarified, her face filled with concern. “A deputy sheriff who happens to be one of our main suspects, actually fired buckshot at you?”

  “Yep, with Sara Grayhawk standing in his field not thirty feet from the road and Kiya pawing at the dirt near those birch trees. I’m glad we left the dogs here; otherwise, this crazy nut might’ve shot one of them right then and there just to make a point.”

  “You need actual evidence,” Harry declared, munching on a cookie Zoe had baked. “Something more than ghostly manifestations and a guide from the spirit world.”

  Josh nodded in agreement. “We know we do. But if those bodies are buried back near the birch trees on private property, how do we prove it? How do we nail Deputy Sheriff Gavin Jaynes to the wall?”

  Harry took a seat on the sofa. “Find out everything about him. What do we know so far?”

  Skye shuffled through the reports she’d asked for days earlier. “Married. Two kids, a boy, and a girl. Just turned thirty-two. Tax records show the land’s been in his family for about fifty years. He’s employed as a cop at the sheriff’s department, a job he’s held for ten years. His sister, Sharon, owns a florist shop in town. His brother, Roman, owns a car detailing business. I agree with Harry. Before we start doing high-fives all around that we’ve found our man, we need to go back and check the dates Jaynes was on duty, check to see where he was in the County, check to see if he was off-duty the day Gabby Knight went missing down at Sawtooth Lake. With so many victims, we need to start connecting the dots.”

  “That means going back a decade of work records,” Leo stated, pivoting toward his laptop. “That means I’ll need to pop open the County database and get busy.”

  “How long will it take?”

  “Depends on the firewall. I’ll let you know. But I should have something for you by tonight. Question, though. If this Jaynes has been in law enforcement for ten years, doesn’t that mean he’s been driving around in a police car that long?”

  “Yeah. It does. So focus on timelines, compare databases if need be. Just find something that links him to any of the victims. Did he show up at school for career day? Did he connect to any of the victims at the rec center. We already know Lily was the family babysitter. Did he volunteer at any of the searches? Did he insert himself into any of the investigations in a weird way that wasn’t considered part of his job? Stuff like that.”

  Josh took out his cell phone. “I’ll contact Grayhawk and let him know Jaynes has moved to the top of the list.”

  “Will he help us, though?” Reggie wanted to know. “Because if he becomes a wall, then he’s simply part of the problem.”

  “Skye?” Josh prompted. “It’s your call.”

  “What do we have solid to show him right now?”

  “Besides a gut feeling and a shotgun incident, not much,” Harry offered.

  “Odd behavior,” Judy tossed back. “And Skye recognized him as hoodie guy.”

  Skye chewed her lip. “Let’s wait another day and see if we get something concrete before we go off the rails and make fools of ourselves. I want to be able to take something real to Grayhawk and say this is our guy.”

  “Sad day when almost getting shot isn’t good enough to get Grayhawk interested,” Judy grumbled. “What do we need to do, sit around and wait until he kills again?”

  Harry nodded. “I hear you. But we’re dealing with a cop, a deputy sheriff with an impeccable record.”

  “We don’t know for sure his record is that impeccable yet,” Skye returned. “As far as him taking another girl, I say we map his cell phone data.”

  Josh spoke up, “I’ll do it. While Leo is slogging through his employment records, and Reggie is digging through background stuff, I’ll take care of monitoring his movements.”

  They went their separate ways to get to work.

  But several hours later, Judy hurried into the bun
galow with news. “Reggie stumbled on a juvenile record belonging to Gavin Jaynes that was still in the database. It stems from an incident from when he was fifteen. A twelve-year-old girl told her parents that Gavin pulled her into his car, drove her to a secluded spot, and tried to take her clothes off. According to the report, the girl kicked and screamed and somehow managed to fight him off. She got away. She ran all the way home half-dressed and told her parents. They filed a police report.”

  “Now we’re getting somewhere,” Skye muttered.

  “There’s more. That incident happened in March. Fast forward four months into July. That summer, Jaynes’s sister told their pastor that her brother had raped her. Not tried to rape her but raped her.”

  Skye sat up straighter. “There’s an incident report on that?”

  “You bet there is. This time the pastor is the one who filed a police report. But when the authorities went to talk to Sharon, she denied that it ever happened and retracted the story. She’d just turned thirteen at the time.”

  Skye got to her feet and went over to her laptop on the kitchen table. “What’s the address for that florist shop?”

  “You’re going there to ask her about it? She’ll obviously just lie like she did before.”

  “Maybe. Maybe not. But face to face, watching her eyes and body language, I’ll be able to tell if she’s scared or just plain lying.”

  “Not three hours ago, Jaynes warned us to stop pestering people around him,” Josh reminded her. “He is a deputy sheriff. He does have the power to arrest all of us on trumped-up charges.”

  “And there lies the problem. This sister is probably afraid of her own brother. Because let’s face it, he’s probably spent years intimidating her. It’s time she knew someone’s here, on her side, someone willing to take him on, take him down. Who’s going with me?”

  “I will,” Judy volunteered. “I think two women will have a better chance of getting her to talk than a guy. Sorry, Josh.”

  “Fine by me. But if I tell you to get out of there, then get out of there without arguing. So far, Jaynes hasn’t moved off his property. Or if he has, he didn’t take his cell phone with him. But that could change. If I text you that he’s on the move, I want you out of that shop. It would take him about fifteen minutes from his house depending on traffic to get to Sharon’s place. Are we clear?”

  “No problem.”

  Josh took her by the shoulders and placed a kiss on her forehead. “I don’t want you fucking with this guy. You hear me? He’s a loose cannon, and he hates women. Judy, I’m counting on you to pull her out of there no matter how much it looks like this sister is getting ready to spill her guts.”

  “I will. Don’t worry. We’ll be fine.”

  But despite Judy’s assurance she was worried. “I’m not sure this is such a good idea.”

  Behind the wheel, Skye took her eyes off the road for a brief second to glance at her friend. “What choice do we have? We need Sharon to admit the rape and take it to Grayhawk. With her statement plus the juvenile record, it’s what we need to pour it on, stuff Grayhawk will act on. Especially since he doesn’t want to believe it’s a cop. We have to show him something from Jaynes’s past to get his attention.”

  “I get that. But what if Jaynes shows up like Josh fears he will.”

  “Then I’ll do like I promised Josh. We’ll get the hell out of there.”

  The floral shop was more like a boutique. Along with fresh flowers, it sold knickknacks such as birdhouses to the tourists, baubles like homemade jewelry to the locals, and macramé wall hangings to plant lovers.

  An attractive brunette stood behind the counter, who looked nothing like her brother. She had her brown hair swirled into a sophisticated updo with tendrils falling around her neck. She had warm blue eyes and a ready smile. “May I help you?”

  “I don’t know. Are you Sharon Jaynes?”

  “I am. I own this place.”

  “Is Gavin Jaynes your older brother?”

  The ready smile faded. “By two years. Why do you want to know?”

  “Because this morning I had the unfortunate luck to be walking on the side of the road near his property, too close to some shack he needed to protect when he threatened me with a shotgun. Fired it, too, up into the air. My name’s Skye Cree. This is Judy Howe. And your brother wasn’t friendly at all, not in the least, not even for a deputy sheriff.”

  “There must’ve been a reason. You obviously got too close to his precious shed, that one that sits on the north side of the land near the birch trees.”

  “That’s the one.”

  “What do you want me to do about it?”

  “I want you to tell us if it’s true.”

  “If what’s true?”

  “If he raped you when you were thirteen?”

  “Oh, my God. How’d you find that out?”

  “Juvenile records. The funny thing about police records most people don’t understand is that incidents like shoplifting and minor offenses may get expunged, but the arrests and reports are still in the system. When the incident is serious, like felony rape, the files sit there, clogging up the works until someone happens on the information. Is it true, Sharon?”

  “I can’t talk about this. My brother is not normal. Okay? He’s…he’s got anger issues. And he’s volatile.”

  “You’re afraid of him,” Judy said. It wasn’t a question.

  “Afraid? I’m terrified of him, have been for years. Gavin was my mother’s favorite. She doted on him. Even back then, he was a bully, always mean. I think he’s unhinged.”

  “But it did happen? The rape? You didn’t make it up?”

  “No, I didn’t. It was one of the worst times of my life. Instead of my mother sending him away, she sent me away to live with my aunt in town. I lived here, went to school here. I never spent another night in that stupid farmhouse my mother left to Gavin. She left everything to him, including the farm. He can choke on it for all I care. My aunt was good to me. She was more of a mother than my own mother ever was. She ended up leaving me this shop when she died. And it’s the reason I haven’t moved off. I love what I do. But Gavin hasn’t made it easy. Occasionally he’ll drive by and just stop out by the curb and sit there, watching me. He never gets out and comes in, just parks there to let me know. Remind me. I get the message, loud and clear. Look, I don’t bother Gavin, and he doesn’t bother me. Not anymore. Not for years. But he made it clear a long time ago that I was to keep my mouth shut about what happened. And then you come in here, bringing it all up again.”

  “We think he’s a serial killer. We think he’s the one responsible for all these girls going missing.”

  Sharon put one hand on her stomach and one in front of her mouth. “I think I might be sick. I feel sick all of a sudden.”

  “But you know he’s capable of it, right?” Skye prodded.

  The woman nodded, fear making its way to her eyes. “Does he know you’re here now?”

  “No. We parked down the street.”

  To ease the woman’s mind, Judy added, “We’ll go out the back way if you want us to.”

  “Yes. That would be good. Who do you plan to tell about this?”

  “No one. We just needed to verify what was in the file.” Skye handed off her business card. “Call me if he pesters you. Let someone know he’s harassing you and…”

  “It won’t do any good. That badge he wears entitles Gavin to do whatever he wants. Please go. Please. Leave. I don’t want him to see me talking to you.”

  Once they’d headed out into the alleyway and back to the minivan, Skye turned to Judy. “Let’s start building a file for Grayhawk, one that includes that conversation. Did you get it all down?”

  Judy checked the recorder she’d brought. “Yeah. I’ll download it to an audio file when we get back.”

  Skye peered around the corner to make sure they hadn’t been spotted. When she saw a patrol car cruising down Sherman Avenue, she hugged the brick wall of the buildin
g and threw out an arm to make sure Judy did the same. The women stayed there like that without moving a muscle until the car had passed. “We’re okay. The officer behind the wheel wasn’t Jaynes.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure.”

  “I feel sorry for Sharon.”

  “Me, too. But the best thing we can do for her is to get Jaynes behind bars where he belongs. Come on, let’s get out of here. I’m starting to believe he’s around here somewhere, watching us.”

  Skye made sure no one followed them back to the lodge. But even then, the women were on edge. And when they played the tape for everyone to hear, the entire conversation even made the men in the room cringe.

  “You should’ve seen Sharon’s face. There’s no way she was lying about what happened,” Judy said. “Tell them, Skye.”

  “All you need to do is listen to the fear in her voice. And you can tell she understands that Gavin is certainly capable of making those girls disappear.”

  “Now we’re getting somewhere,” Harry concluded after Josh shut off the tape. “This is powerful and shows a pattern. Maybe even shows when the trigger began along with this guy’s violent behavior toward girls.”

  “Look, I could’ve pushed her into giving us more details,” Skye noted. “But I really didn’t think we needed that. It’s enough to know it happened. I got the impression from the look on her face her brother’s attack on her was violent, but that’s just my take on it. I believe the audio speaks for itself. It’s Sharon’s statement that verifies what’s in the report.”

  “We don’t need those kinds of gritty details,” Josh decided. “It’s enough that she confirmed the assault. I just hope Jaynes doesn’t find out she talked.”

  “That’s my concern as well,” Skye stated. “But if we act fast, maybe he won’t have time to threaten her again. Or do worse.”

  Josh twisted in his seat to view his laptop screen. “It’s odd, but after our encounter this morning, Susan Jaynes took the family car and left in it with the kids, heading south.”