“What is it, maybe twelve miles to campus on the bus from here?”
“That sounds about right.”
Skye looked around the tidy one-bedroom unit. Jennifer had furnished it with thrift store finds and secondhand treasures along with a few knockoffs. “I think your daughter and I have similar tastes in furniture.”
“Really? Well, Jennifer loved a bargain. Plus, she was forever on a budget. Out-of-state tuition isn’t cheap.”
Skye wandered into the bedroom. She noticed Sierra immediately wrinkle up her nose. “It stinks in here.”
“Chloroform,” Skye muttered to herself. “Mrs. Mack, do you see anything at all out of place in here?”
Deborah followed her into the room, sniffing the air. “There’s definitely an odd odor hanging around.”
Skye chewed her lip. “I don’t want to freak you out or anything, but I think what you’re smelling is chloroform.”
Deborah’s face fell. “Holy crap. Really? That’s how he got her out of here without having to deal with a hysterical woman.” She stuck her head in the bathroom, checking the sink and tub. “This place is as tidy as I’ve ever seen it. Other than the lingering odor, if I didn’t know better, I’d say Jennifer just went out to go to the market. Being here, does this tell you anything at all?”
Skye took out her cell phone. One-handed, she began snapping pictures of the bed and the rest of the room. “It tells me a lot.”
Josh and Harry poked their heads in.
“Find anything out of the ordinary yet?” Josh asked.
“Daddy!” Sierra yelled, holding out her arms. “The bad man took the woman who lived here.”
Josh eyed Sierra and lifted her out of her mom’s arms. “Why do you say that?”
“Because Kiya says so.”
“What else does Kiya see?”
“The woman was sleeping.”
“And what else?”
“The man took her. He had a furry face.”
“Furry? You mean like a beard?”
“Not like you. The man was furry,” Sierra insisted. “Like Atka.”
Skye sent her daughter a broad smile. “That’s great, Sierra. You saw his face.”
“Was his eyes blue or brown?” Josh went on, eager to get information out of her.
Skye shook her head. “At her age, I doubt she knows the difference.”
But Josh refused to give up. “Mommy’s eyes are blue. Were they that color?”
Sierra stuck her finger in her mouth and shook her head.
Josh noticed Deborah standing across the small room staring at all of them in awe.
Looking on in wonder, Jennifer’s mother finally found her voice. “How does she know that? How does your daughter know what the man looks like who took Jennifer?”
Skye smiled widely. “It’s like this, Mrs. Mack. I hope you believe in the metaphysical or maybe the paranormal.”
“My daughter’s missing. I’d dig up Jeane Dixon right now myself if I thought she could help me find Jennifer.”
Skye went into a brief explanation of spirit guides. “I know it sounds crazy and unusual, but in this case, Sierra’s spirit guide used to be mine. And I can vouch for how it works because I escaped from a pedophile when I was younger. Kiya, my spirit guide was there to help me do it.”
“I know your bio. I read all about the Artemis Foundation on the plane. What happened to you was awful. I’m convinced something extraordinary must have taken place for you to get out of there like you did. I don’t mess with other people’s beliefs. Whatever gets them through the night is fine by me.”
“Where are you staying?” Harry asked from the other side of the room just to change the subject.
“I thought about staying here in Jennifer’s place,” Deborah answered, looking over at Harry. “As a former cop, what do you think about me staying here?”
“You should probably spend the night at a hotel…for now. The Crown Woods is just down the street. I’ll get a technician in here tomorrow to dust for fingerprints, someone from my old unit who is retired like me and freelances now. Then you can stay here.”
“Good. Because I’m staying put until I hear something definitive about Jennifer. I’ve already told my bosses at the hospital I’m here for the duration of the search.”
“Feel free to hang out at the Foundation during the day,” Skye offered. “We’ll need to get flyers posted. Judy Howe will help you with that. Just know that you may hear us throw around some disturbing facts and figures at times. They aren’t meant to…”
“I work in an ER,” Deborah blurted out, her patience waning. “I’ve seen disturbing things many times before. I’ve treated rape victims. I’ve seen people shot and killed for no good reason. I know what kind of monsters are out there. You just focus on finding my girl. Because I’ll be at the Foundation nine a.m. sharp tomorrow morning ready to work on those flyers.” She closed her eyes and slumped against Jennifer’s little bar, the one that separated the kitchen from the living room. “Right now, I’m just exhausted and terribly afraid my Jennifer’s gone for good.”
Skye exchanged looks with Harry, hoping he’d take the hint.
Letting out a sigh, the former detective moved toward Deborah and took hold of her arm. “Come on. I’ll get you to the hotel, see you to your room. What you need is a good night’s sleep.”
****
On the way back to Bainbridge, Josh couldn’t help himself. “So…Harry and Deborah, huh?”
“Are you serious?” Skye began. “Harry’s not ready to move on from Elizabeth. He’s too…he’s…in the middle of grieving.”
“I don’t know, something tells me he wants more than her DNA.”
Skye cackled with laughter. “Please, stop right there. I don’t even want to picture that. I’d rather text the team and check in with Leo and Reggie.”
Keying in the information, her phone rang a few minutes later. “What’s up?”
“Give us twelve hours, and we should be able to identify every website that flashed by before that computer went up in flames along with the warehouse.”
“You can do that?”
Over the phone, she heard Leo scoff at the question. “Sure we can, but it’ll take some rewinding through the video you guys took. A lot of rewinding and figuring out what we’re seeing. Is it symbolism or is he simply trying to show off?”
“Maybe he’s trying to tell us something.”
“If he is, we’ll figure it out.”
“Okay. Well, don’t work all night.”
“Why?”
“Because…” She was beginning to sound like Leo’s mom. “I don’t know. I’m trying to be nice here. We feel a little guilty for heading home while you guys are hard at work.”
“No need. It’s what we do. Take care of the munchkin. We’ll be fine.”
She laughed. “Of course, you will. Call with any updates. Or if you need us for anything. And don’t forget to eat.”
“Trust me. We never forget to order in. Before morning, we’ll figure out what this weirdo is trying to tell us.”
On that note, she ended the call and looked over at Josh. “While we get tucked in for the night, they’re still trying to figure out everything that’s on the video we shot, every frame, every angle.”
“Hey, they love this stuff.”
“You don’t feel guilty for heading home?”
“A little. But what do we do, stare at them while they work? They’re better at this tech stuff than we are. Even Brayden is beginning to take on the programmer mindset. Besides, while they’re busy doing their thing, we’ll need to nail down what kind of a sicko this is. You’re as good at profiling as Emmett Cannavale ever was.”
“Thanks. But I think the FBI might disagree. I could use a long soak in the tub though and a hot meal afterward.”
“See? Right there shows we have different ways we work and settle in for the night.”
****
While the Ander family settled in at their
farmhouse for the night, eleven-year-old Phillip Trainor had other ideas. In his Phinney Ridge neighborhood, he waited until his parents were asleep to crawl out his bedroom window to meet up with his best bud, Bobby Hilliard. The two boys planned to do a little late-night mischief, egging and TPing the house of a girl Bobby liked.
By the time Phillip had sprinted to the corner, Bobby was already there waiting for him holding a bag full of items they needed for greatest impact. “What took so long?”
“I texted you that I had to wait for my dad to get my little brother to sleep. He was making such a racket—”
“I don’t care,” Bobby snapped. “Tomorrow is Sofia’s birthday. It’s gotta be tonight. It’s gotta be now. That'll teach her to break up with me.”
“Why are you even doing this? Just move on,” Phillip advised his friend since kindergarten. “You’re acting like an ass, which is why she broke up with you.”
“I didn’t just spend eight bucks on cheap eggs and toilet paper to let it go to waste. Either you’re with me, or you’re not.”
“Okay. But she’s gonna know it was you who did this. And when she tells her dad, he’ll likely kill you as soon as he wakes up in the morning.”
“Hey, Sofia’s parents don’t even have a camera installed on their back porch. I checked. The plan is to totally trash her backyard and ruin her party.”
The boys dashed off down the street toward Sofia’s. Before reaching her house though, they first had to cross through a thicket of spruce trees, the shortest route to the backyard.
They approached the tree line and caught sight of something moving through the dwarf cypress. Thinking it was an animal, Bobby picked up a rock and let it fly to scare it off. But to his surprise, a man came out of his crouch and stood up to his full height.
“What the hell are you boys doing out here this time of night?”
Phillip noticed the man’s beard and menacing eyes and the fact that he was dressed in all black. “Come on, Bobby. Let’s get out of here.”
“Listen to your friend,” the man said in a gravelly voice. “Get out of here! Now! Don’t come back! If you tell anyone you saw me, I’ll find out where you live. I’ll wipe out your entire family in one night. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” Phillip whispered, grabbing Bobby’s arm and pulling him away from the bushes. “Do like he says.”
Up to this point, Bobby hadn’t said a word. He was so scared, he’d dropped the bag with the toilet paper and eggs. He couldn’t get his feet to move. But Phillip took care of that by dragging him away from the woods toward the street. The boys started to run back the way they’d come. They raced all the way back to the corner.
“Did he follow us?” Phillip asked, bent over, hands on his knees, and out of breath.
“I don’t see him,” Bobby puffed out. “Who was that guy?”
“What do you think? He was there to rob Sofia’s family. Or maybe kill them.”
“We should call the cops.”
“And say what?” Phillip looked up to see his mother standing on the front porch. “Shit. I’m in trouble.” The look on her face said he needed to think fast. “I gotta go.”
“Stick to our cover story. We just wanted to take a birthday present to Sofia,” Bobby reminded him.
“Yeah. Right. Like my mom’s gonna believe that.” Phillip hurried toward his mother. “Look, I know you’re mad…but…I saw this man dressed in all black. He was lurking near the woods, standing in the bushes. I think he was a burglar or something. He…he said he’d kill us if we said anything.”
Eleanor Trainor, hands on her hips, glared at her son. “Phillip James Trainor stop making stuff up! I don’t care what you saw. You’re grounded…for a month! Now get in the house this minute and get to bed. It’s a school night for God’s sake. Don’t you ever sneak out like this again.” When she saw that his attention was mainly over his shoulder, she yelled louder. “Hey, young man, are you even listening to me?”
“Don’t you care about the creepy man we saw? He was dressed all in black and up to no good.”
“No. Now get upstairs. Now! And if you wake up your brother, I’ll take away your Xbox. Listening now?”
“But mom, that man…he shouldn’t have been out there in the woods.”
“Yeah? Well, neither should you. Now get upstairs. If you aren’t asleep in ten minutes, I’m taking away your TV privileges.”
Ten
While Judy and Deborah worked in the outer office on posters for Jennifer, the team began the morning gathered around the conference table.
In less than twenty-four hours, Leo and Reggie had taken the video and dissected each frame. They’d identified the websites, tagging each one to show Skye and Josh.
“In comparing the sites, they all have one thing in common,” Leo began. “Every one was sites maintained by family members about a missing person or persons. From the couple who went camping at Carmel River State Beach in California to the American couple who went missing on the British Columbia side of Vancouver Island. These websites are all asking the public for help, begging for information. Each of the sites allows visitors to leave a comment.”
“But why would our guy be monitoring all these sites about the missing?” Josh asked aloud and then answered his own question. “Unless he’s keeping tabs on the updates because he’s the one who caused these people to go missing.”
“And posting comments so the families will read them,” Reggie added. “Stuff like pointing the finger at someone else, blaming the victim, blaming the family, or just being a general smartass like he knows more than anyone else about the case.”
“I’m surprised the webmaster lets those kinds of remarks stay up,” Skye muttered.
“Sometimes they are deleted whenever they’re noticed.”
Brayden turned his laptop around so everyone could see. “Vancouver Island is where those feet keep washing up. Just plain creepy if you ask me. Maybe there’s a connection to our case.”
Leo absently drummed his fingers on the table, his mind running through all the different scenarios. “Our next step is to access the visitor logs from each site and then get a list of all the IP addresses and the number of times they’ve viewed or monitored the site. If it’s a lot, you have someone who’s obsessed with that particular case.”
Leo whipped his chair around in a single motion, followed by the rapid clicking of his keyboard, the sound swiftly echoed through the room as Reggie began tapping the keys on his own laptop.
“You take the first four sites, and I’ll do the next four,” Leo shouted over his shoulder.
“What do you want me to do?” Winston asked.
“And me?” Brayden offered. “We can help.”
Leo barely glanced up. “Okay, then each of you takes the next four on the list until we’re done.”
Skye leaned over to where Josh could hear. “I think we should get out there and retrieve that camera above Copalis Beach before he knows we’ve discovered it.”
He cocked a brow. “We assured Lakin we’d stay away from there.”
“So? What’s your point?”
“None, I suppose.” Getting to his feet, he grabbed her hand. “Let’s just hope Lakin hasn’t discovered the camera by now.”
“Are you kidding me? His entire team got out of there without ever going near the thing. He didn’t once glance up one time to where it was located. He’s oblivious to its existence or its significance.”
Josh hoped that was true as they raced back to where the Audi had been abandoned. A sharp reality greeted them once they arrived.
“I wished you’d suggested we grab a ladder first. How the hell do we get up there? That’s a good fifteen feet off the ground,” he pointed out, circling underneath the thirty-foot pine. “I haven’t climbed a tree since I was ten and fell halfway up. Broke my arm in two places, too.”
Skye put her hands on her hips and gave him a puzzled look. “So that sob story is supposed to make me offer to do it instead
?”
“Not really. Just giving you fair warning so you could be ready to catch me when I fall.”
“As if,” she said huffing out a breath. She watched him grab the lowest limb to hoist himself up.
He started to slowly and carefully climb, slipping a couple of times before a squirrel appeared on a nearby limb to glower at him.
“Careful,” Skye warned in a teasing tone. “That squirrel looks pissed off for disturbing his peace and quiet. I’d keep an eye on him.”
“Maybe you could distract him or something.”
She patted her pockets. “Sorry, I’m all outta nuts. Do you realize our perp could be watching this entire scene play out as we speak?”
Josh teetered on a branch above her. “That’s comforting. Not. Did I mention how much I hate heights?”
“You’ve been on roofs before, scaled tall buildings, what’s the big deal about a tree?”
“The wolf does not climb a tree. And did I not tell you the story where I fell and broke my arm?”
“Okay, okay, I get it. I see you’re not that fond of giant squirrels, either. Don’t look now but that furry creature looks like it might attack at any moment.” She spotted another one crawl out on the same branch to join his buddy. “I think he brought a cousin to protect their territory.”
“Great. Just what I need, an angry pack.”
“I think it’s a colony. Anyway, try to avoid that branch,” she shouted.
“No way. See if you can scare them off.”
Skye looked around for a rock and found a flat stone that wouldn’t do too much damage if it made contact. Taking aim, she let it fly toward the rodents and watched as the furry things scattered. “There. How’s that?”
“Nice shot. You didn’t hit anything but you got them to move.”
With the squirrels no longer blocking the way up, Josh finally managed to reach the camera. Taking a firm hold on the limb, he pulled out his Swiss Army knife, fumbling with the thing as he tried to open the right blade for cutting the wire holding the camera in place. He decided on the saw blade. “Are you ready below?”
Sea of Bones Page 12