Sea of Bones

by Vickie McKeehan

  “It’s a scratch.”

  “Yeah, well, you’re bleeding.”

  “I’ll get him settled in my office,” Skye began as she led Josh into the other room. But when she looked up, the entire team had their heads stuck in the door.

  Harry shooed them back. “Give the guy some air. He’ll live, but he needs peroxide on that hole.”

  “The bullet passed right through,” Skye explained as Judy thrust a First Aid kit into her hands.

  “Everything you need is in there.”

  Skye grinned at her friend. “I forget you’re prepared for anything.”

  “You bet I am. I take those tsunami drills and earthquake preparedness classes seriously.”

  “I’m grateful,” Josh stated, right before Skye poured a generous one-third of the bottle over the wound, causing him to hiss. “What’s this about the bug? Is there another one?”

  Reggie shook his head. “Here’s the deal. You remember that message we got on the new release from the reviewer? It was fake. I mean there was a real bug, but the message from the reviewer was sent from a ghosted account. Not only that but when it was opened by the testers, it uploaded some type of spyware into our system.”

  That got Josh’s attention. He sat up and swung his legs around. “What’s the damage, Reggie? Tell me all of it, don’t hold back.”

  Reggie looked down at his feet before sucking in a breath. “It’s all my fault, I missed it. Up until about an hour ago, this guy’s known everything we know about him. He’s been able to track every search we’ve done up to this point. I isolated his virus, and I think that I’ve turned it to our advantage. We can feed him anything and run him in circles.”

  Josh got to his feet and laid a hand on Reggie’s shoulder. “Don’t beat yourself up. You did good. Now it’s our turn to stay two steps ahead of him and herd him the way we want him to go. From now on we work in shifts, twenty-four-seven until we take this guy down.”

  He turned back to Skye. “After all, this little raid tonight provided us with his DNA.”

  Judy all but jumped for joy. “Really? How’d you manage that?”

  “It’s a long story or maybe short, whichever you prefer.” She took the bloody Kleenex out of her pocket. “I wouldn’t claim it’s the most pristine sample, or it might even be deteriorated by now, but it’s all his. I’ll call that lab we talked about who uses DNA for facial reconstruction.”

  She pivoted toward the group. “With this little smidgen of blood, we’ll try a three-pronged approach. Number one, get the DNA entered into CODIS to see if it’s a match to a known predator. Harry, that’s your part. If that fails, we get this new lab to see if they can come up with facial reconstruction using his DNA.”

  Brayden’s eyes widened with interest. “DNA phenotyping? That’s wicked.”

  Skye frowned over at the teenager. “I hope wicked means cool. Anyway, it could go a long way to predicting skin tone, the shape of his eyes, their color, whether or not he has freckles, which after tonight, I don’t think he does. It’ll even tell us hair color, maybe provide us the shape of his face.”

  “And where his ancestry came from,” Judy provided. “Which might lead us to a name.”

  “That too. It’ll show us all that from this single DNA sample.”

  “I know a forensic artist,” Harry tossed out. “She’s good at making a reconstruction snapshot of victims and criminals alike. She could use that sample on this guy.”

  “The sooner you contact her, the better,” Skye said. “First thing in the morning I’m contacting the people from GEDmatch and uploading the guy’s DNA as soon as we get the results back from the lab.”

  “Gedmatch is just one way to go,” Winston suggested. “Other sites can do the same thing. They all offer open-access to all kinds of family tree forensic files, the same way authorities caught the Original Night Stalker.”

  “Golden State Killer,” Judy corrected. “That’s what he’s known as now.”

  “Whatever,” Winston returned. “I’d love to start that type of long-range familial search on this guy, like the kind that’s been used to solve all these cold cases you hear about in the news recently. Since I’ve been looking for my birth mother, I know firsthand that there’s a sixty percent chance of matching a third cousin or even closer to our suspect. It could tell us if he’s of European descent or whatever his family tree happens to be. From there, you just keep narrowing the pool down to fifteen or so individuals who are worth checking out.”

  “That’s great,” Skye began. “But I think they also have to do some type of extraction procedure on the DNA. That sounds like it’ll take time and time is in short supply around here.”

  “None of us mind putting in the extra work,” Leo offered. “We all want to find Jennifer Mack.”

  From the doorway, Judy reappeared and pushed her way past the others. “Uh, guys. We just got another email via the website. It’s from our phantom creep.” She held out the piece of paper she’d printed out with what it said.

  So you want to play for real? Then let’s play. There are victims you don’t even know about and never will. You think it started with Dave and Lindsey, you’re all incredibly stupid. So if you genuinely wanna play, then let’s do it like the pros. Take a look outside your building. I left a surprise for you.

  “I don’t get this,” Brayden said as he read the note. “Why contact us now and take credit after all these years? After all this time?”

  Exhaustion earlier had caused Skye to run out of gas, but suddenly, reading the guy’s taunting words, she felt invigorated. “Serials are strange people. On the one hand, they want to slide under the radar. They don’t want to get caught. On the other, they want to see some decent coverage of their events. They sit at their laptops and Google every single day in hopes of finding some nugget about the unidentified bodies they left behind. They crave updates. They want to relive what happened. Without it, they fear they’ll fade into the woodwork. This guy doesn’t want to go away without a fight or fanfare of his own making.”

  She glanced around the room. “So who wants to go with me to check out this surprise?”

  “I’m not sitting here while you go out there alone,” Josh said as he moved toward the door.

  Harry followed. “He’s certainly got my attention.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Brayden offered.

  Skye had gotten her second wind but wasn’t sure about Brayden tagging along. “You sure you’re ready for this?”

  “I’m fine. I’m a lot stronger than I was two years ago.”

  “Then let’s go.”

  Josh led the way out through the front entrance, past the security guard named Joe Faulkner.

  “What’s up with you guys working this late?” Joe asked. “Working on another game update?”

  “Not yet,” Josh said as he walked toward the revolving door. Approaching the two o’clock hour, the night had turned chilly. He could smell the rain on the light breeze that wafted in from Puget Sound.

  The four looked up and down 1st Avenue and saw nothing out of the ordinary.

  “Maybe he’s punked us again,” Brayden offered, walking a few steps to the north.

  Harry turned in the opposite direction.

  But when Skye glanced across the street at the bus stop right in front of the building, her eyes had a hard time bringing the grotesque image into focus.

  There on the concrete bus stop bench, sitting propped up, embracing like two lovers, were the nude bodies of Margie and Paul Dolan.

  While Skye caught the whiff of decomposition and took off across the street, Brayden made a mad dash for the nearest trash can.

  Josh and Harry raced across the street, but it was Harry who reached into his coat pocket and removed his cell phone to snap photos of the remains. After several shots, he dialed 911.

  Waiting for the police to arrive, Skye rattled off what she knew about the Dolans. “Missing five years. Vancouver natives. But have family in the Seattle area.
Last seen spending the night near Copalis Beach. Drove a Jeep like Dave’s. Their sailboat was found abandoned near Cannon Beach, off the coast of Oregon.”

  Josh traded looks with Skye. “I’m no forensic whiz, but I’d say those bodies have been frozen. They’re too well preserved not to have been.”

  “Agreed. He kept the bodies close to him all these years.” Skye glanced up and studied the buildings that made up the skyline along 1st Avenue. “I’d say he’s watching us right about now. In fact, shouldn’t there be CCTV all up and down this street?”

  “I’ll get Leo on it. What do you say, Harry?”

  “Let’s jump on it before Seattle PD confiscates the video. Tell Leo to make us a copy. I will add one thing, though. This guy is a dangerous predator, unpredictable. From here on out, none of us should take anything for granted.”

  “And?”

  “I’m thinking of getting Deborah to a safer location.”

  Josh slapped him on the back. “I’m way ahead of you. Maybe putting the people we care about in one centralized location for the duration of this thing isn’t such a bad idea. Somewhere with decent security. I don’t want him being able to get to Sierra or anybody else.”

  Intrigued, Harry rocked back on his heels. “You have such a place in mind?”

  “I do. And everyone’s welcome to stay there until we nail this perverted son of a bitch.”

  “If you’re serious, I’d like to make sure there’s room for Deborah.”

  “There’s plenty of room. Maybe you should think about staying there with them.”

  Harry scowled. “My aim is still pretty good.”

  “That’s why I’m counting on you, Travis, and my dad to look out for everyone else.”

  Fourteen

  The pre-dawn hours were spent with Lakin, convincing him that there was a serial killer at work for a decade or more. They also managed to make headway about who it wasn’t. Much to Harry’s delight Clayton Spencer dropped down several slots on the suspect list.

  After sharing everything they had with Lakin, the detective agreed to put them back on the job as consultants, allowing them access to autopsy reports and crime scene photos.

  The frozen bodies led to wild speculation among team members. Leo stood in front of the whiteboard writing down all the new theories. “If he froze two bodies, what size freezer would he need to have at his disposal? Is there some guy out there with a commercial freezer, someone who owns a restaurant who’s freezing bodies there and leaving them for five years?”

  “So he must use the chloroform to sneak up on them in their sleep. That’s how he could handle two victims versus one. Load them into his vehicle and then transport them to their final destination.”

  “I vote for a walk-in freezer. It’s gotta be big enough to hold at least two bodies.”

  “A regular chest freezer would work, too. You could easily get two people in there. It wouldn’t have to be a commercial job either,” Winston argued. “Some stores sell ones with at least twenty-five cubic feet of space available. That’s actually enough room for four bodies. They even come with casters allowing you to move the unit around if you needed to from one spot to another.”

  “You convinced me,” Brayden said. “So it could be an oversized freezer you buy at a big box store.”

  “We don’t even know for sure how many victims this guy has.”

  Skye had overheard most of the chatter and remained out of it until now. She took a seat at the conference table and waited until everyone had turned their eyes on her. “We’re making arrangements for anyone who wants to leave and go to an undisclosed location until this is over. All of you are welcome.”

  Leo looked around the room. “We already decided. We’re not letting this asshole chase us off. We’re staying put.”

  “You’re not telling us where that location is, are you?” Winston remarked.

  “Nope. If you’re staying put, there’s no need for you to know. I’d caution all of you to take extra care about your personal safety, coming and going, making the commute from downtown to home and vice versa. As we see it, your safety depends on this circle remaining as tight as we can make it. Until this guy is either dead or in custody, we let each other know where we are at all times, especially if you break from the herd. And since it’s impossible for us to get a good night’s sleep here…”

  “We’ve done it a time or two,” Leo noted. “Just this summer we spent more time in this building than we did at home.”

  Skye smiled. “And that’s just crazy. And unnecessary. Since Sierra and our parents are tucked away in what we hope is a safe spot, Josh and I decided to stay on the mainland.”

  Judy’s mouth dropped open. “You got Travis to leave his horses? How’d that happen?”

  “It wasn’t easy. But he has Lena and Zoe to think about these days. I used that as leverage. He finally caved.”

  “So what’s the plan?” Leo wanted to know.

  Her job was to convince them to see things her way. “We’re borrowing a house from a friend. You’re all welcome to join us. In fact, I think it’s a good idea to maintain a unit, twenty-four-seven until we find this guy. There’s plenty of room so we won’t be stepping on each other’s toes or sleeping on top of each other.” She snuck a look at Judy and Reggie. “That is unless you want to.”

  Reggie stopped what he was doing long enough to glance up from his keyboard. “Wait. You’re saying you want us to move in with you guys. Is that really necessary? Why can’t we just stay put here?”

  “It’s up to you. But consider this. This guy already knows a lot about us. Each of us. He knew enough to contact Ander-All Games and the Foundation. He already knows the location of the farmhouse. He’s probably followed us onto the ferry at some point. We need an advantage until we run him to ground. Keeping this location secret might be our only chance at surprise.” Skye paused before going on. “And there’s more, a lot more. In fairness, you need to know what type of person you’re up against. We learned this morning from Lakin that the torso that washed up in Lincoln Park had also been frozen. Years. It belongs to a woman named Ellen Cho who went missing six years ago from a coffee shop near the UDub campus. She’d gone on a blind date with a guy she met online. Something I don’t recommend, by the way for any of you.”

  “Online dating?” Judy scoffed with an exaggerated skewed-up face. “Meeting up with a stranger scares the crap out of me. I always tell the kids that show up to my speeches, don’t do it.”

  “I’m sure Ellen Cho would agree with you. Ellen was a grad student, due to receive her Ph.D. in systems engineering the next spring. She went missing in the fall of her last year. Which means there’s a definite connection to the campus. Last night this guy claims that Dave and Lindsey were not his first victims. That means I want you guys to go back ten years and search for male students enrolled at the same time as Dave and Lindsey.”

  When Win started to object, she held up a hand. “I know the odds are huge. No need to cite the needle-in-a-haystack scenario. I get it. But their mothers assure me that the only way their kids would’ve allowed this guy to get close to them, was if they knew him, maybe had classes with him. So keep narrowing down the list. I don’t care how long it takes as long as you can give me something by this afternoon.”

  Reggie snickered. “As long as you’re giving us that long.”

  “I know you’re busy scanning the CCTV, but…”

  “It was wiped.”

  She sat up straighter. “What?”

  “Yeah. Every camera up and down 1st Avenue malfunctioned at the same time. It was a virus uploaded to the system.”

  “Damn. Why am I not surprised?”

  “What about the DNA from the Kleenex? We still have that,” Brayden pointed out. He narrowed his eyes on Skye. “You had to give it to Lakin, didn’t you?”

  “We offered it up in exchange for the information on the torso. But it doesn’t matter who has it. We’re still on track to use GEDmatch for our ow
n genealogy purposes. The cops will take care of uploading it into CODIS. We all want to catch this guy. It doesn’t matter if it’s a uniform cop on routine patrol or us who gets the job done. The goal is to get him off the streets.”

  From the doorway, Josh cleared his throat. “Now that everyone’s up to speed, I just got off the phone with Griff Gibbons. He’s finished going over Dave’s Jeep. He pretty much took the thing apart. The good news is, he found DNA that doesn’t belong to either Dave or Julie. He even swabbed Brian’s mouth, and it’s not a match to the brother, either. Gibbons asked Dave’s parents, and neither has gone near that car in a decade.”

  Skye stood up and added that to the whiteboard. “Foreign DNA? Where was it found?”

  “On the knob used to turn on the heater. Then on the windshield wiper button. I checked the weather the night Dave and Lindsey went missing. It turned bad, started raining around nine that evening, and the temperature dropped into the forties. Stands to reason that when the killer got cold while moving Dave’s car out to Copalis Beach, he turned the heater on to get warm. And when the rain began to spatter, he didn’t have much choice but to turn on the wipers. Gibbons said the skin cells stuck like glue to those two places.”

  “He made mistakes by not wearing gloves,” Skye mused. “So we’ll know if it’s our night phantom if the DNA comes back to what’s on the Kleenex.”

  Josh nodded. “I asked the lab to send a copy to Gibbons when they get a profile. Did you tell them about the house?”

  “I did, but there wasn’t much enthusiasm for the idea.”

  “Reggie and I are in,” Judy said quickly, cutting her eyes to Reggie. “Sorry. But it’s the best way to keep everyone under one roof.”

  “Think of it as working from home,” Skye prodded.

  “If I’m going to this house, then so is Leo,” Reggie groused.

  “I never said I wasn’t,” Leo charged.

  “I’m in,” Brayden added. “Where is this place?”