Sea of Bones

by Vickie McKeehan

  Josh handed his phone off to Brayden with directions and a map. “Northwest of Seattle there’s the Magnolia neighborhood, overlooking Elliott Bay.”

  Brayden whistled through his teeth when he keyed in the address and the image popped up. “This is where we’ll be for the next week or so? Ripping.”

  “Maybe not that long. But think of it as a reward for all the hard work everyone put in on Desolation Zone.”

  “It has an indoor pool and a jacuzzi,” Brayden drooled. “And a game room.”

  Doing her own gushing, Judy chimed in, “Steps away from lakefront access and a beautiful garden with pathways all around for long walks. And look at that kitchen.”

  “They’ll be a cook there to fix whatever you want to eat,” Skye said, adding an enticement to the offer. “No ordering pizza from delivery, though. The only catch to this is, no one must know your location. So stay off social media, no posting pictures of the place. And above all, no cell phone use. Cell phones can be traced.”

  “Why all the secrecy?” Leo asked. “I mean, I know this guy is dangerous and sick, the severed head and all, cutting up bodies, freezing corpses. But we’ve dealt with that kind of demented mind before and never had to resort to hiding in a bunker. What gives? Level with us about what spooked you.”

  Skye exchanged looks with Josh. “Okay. You’re right. Josh’s parents were sitting overnight with Sierra at the farmhouse. This morning at six-thirty, someone rang the doorbell. Doug answered it and found a package sitting on the porch.”

  “I’m getting a sick feeling in my stomach,” Judy shared. “I’m not sure I want to hear what was in the box.”

  Skye sent her a sympathetic look, but it was Josh who finished the story. “A severed head. Female. Frozen. Needless to say, until this guy is caught, none of us are immune to that kind of delivery. And it could be something worse. Unless we huddle together in a bunker, as you say, hunker down in the same place where we can control the comings and goings, we’ll be ripe for this kind of thing to happen again. Shock factor, anything to distract from the big picture. So, if you have another option in mind that you think would work better, now would be the time to speak up and suggest something else. I’m all ears.”

  The room went quiet until Winston had his say. “I think it’s a good idea. He probably already knows where we live, all of us. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t want another head showing up on my doorstep.”

  Skye breathed out a sigh of relief. “If you’re all on board, then there’s a van service downstairs to take you back to your homes. They’ll wait while you pack a bag. They’ll collect all of you and take you over to the house at the same time.”

  “The Second Safe House, right?” Reggie asked. “You put Sierra somewhere else, right?”

  “There are two, yes,” Josh confirmed. “And there’s no point in discussing that we might be overreacting. We don’t feel we are.”

  Leo began packing up his laptop and other gear. “How do we know we won’t be followed to ours?”

  “The driver’s been instructed to take precautions. Bring anything you might need for a week because you won’t be going back to your own place until we catch this guy.”

  After everyone had scattered, Skye gathered up her own belongings and all her notes on the case and stuffed them into a briefcase. Using her phone, she took a picture of the whiteboard before erasing what was written on it. “Just in case he breaks in here. I hope this works and we can keep our people safe.”

  “Are you certain Travis didn’t leak where they’re going to Judd Cawood?”

  “He assured me he didn’t. Lena said Zoe pitched a fit about missing her classes, though.”

  “Better miss a few than miss all of them for the rest of her life.”

  “That’s a chilling thought.”

  “So is becoming a severed head. I don’t want it to be Zoe’s.”

  “Point for you.”

  “Just because we do this for a living doesn’t mean our families have to be caught in the ghoulish middle of it.”

  She looped her arm through his. “I just hope Sierra is okay through all this.”

  “She’s with the people who love her. We can’t ask for more than that. Plus, we have to trust them to keep her safe.”

  “Then come on, we need to pick up a few things to last a week.”

  He made a face. “You’re taking me shopping?”

  “Oh, stop it. You’ll thank me when the chef sets something delicious in front of you made from the tasty morsels I intend to buy. Can you believe it? A chef is making our supper.”

  “I bet he doesn’t cook half as good as you do.”

  “Aww. That’s sweet and will get you major points down the road. For now, though, we have to make sure Safe House Number Two has everything we need.”

  “We need to work fast.”

  Skye knew he wasn’t talking about picking up groceries. “We will. Incentive. I don’t want to spend a week away from Sierra.”

  “She’ll be fine. At least that’s what I keep telling myself. I’m not sure my parents will want to visit the farm anytime soon.”

  “Who could blame them? I want the asshole who did that. Bad. I picture in my head what he must look like.”

  “He doesn’t have horns, does he?”

  “Nope. Just a smirk on his stupid face. Otherwise, he looks fairly ordinary. That’s the thing about serial killers. They look and act like the guy next door.”

  Fifteen

  A quick stop at the grocery store had them strolling down the aisle placing items in their cart and joking about everyone’s taste in snacks.

  “Grab a couple of bags of those chili-flavored Fritos, will you? Those are Brayden’s go-to thing for a late-night snack. I don’t know how he eats that stuff.”

  “Teenagers. Remember Zoe slathering mustard all over her French fries?”

  “Yuck. That’s not as bad as watching Winston cram a box of Mallomars® in his mouth because he didn’t want to share them with Reggie.”

  “Jeez, our kids are growing up. Remember the food fight with pizza.”

  “Don’t remind me. It took a professional to get that red sauce off the wall in the dining room.”

  As they walked down the beverage aisle, Josh’s phone dinged with a text. “The nerve of these kids. It’s Leo. He wants us to pick up frozen Jamba Juice packets.”

  “Those smoothie mixes? Sure. But those are in the freezer section.”

  After loading up on soft drinks, Skye headed the cart toward the freezer aisle but stopped. “Those smoothies need apple juice to blend together right. Better get several gallons to tide him over.”

  They bought every flavor packet of frozen mix the store had on hand. “If that doesn’t keep him happy, he’ll have to settle for plain old milk.”

  “Are we done yet?” Josh asked.

  “You’re worse than Sierra. Just let me grab some gummy bears for Judy and a bag of those awful-tasting mustard pretzels for Reggie, and we’re done.” She leaned over to where only Josh could hear. “Don’t laugh, but I have this creepy feeling something isn’t right.”

  “Like we’re being watched? I feel it, too. In fact, a few times I’ve caught someone in my peripheral vision. But every time I start to turn my head, they head around the corner of the aisle.”

  “Weird.” To prove the notion was more than mere speculation, she glanced back over her shoulder to check, only to find no one there. Skye scanned her grocery list. “Just a few more items left, and I think we’ve about got everybody covered.”

  “Good. Let’s get out of here.”

  Picking up their pace, they finished up by tossing the rest of the items in the cart as fast as a TV supermarket game show.

  But the uneasy feeling stuck with them through checkout, prompting them to skip the small talk with the checker and quickly swipe their debit card.

  Wheeling the shopping cart out past the double doors, that deep in-your-gut feeling remained. On the way
to the car, they looked up and down the lot for anything suspicious or out of the ordinary.

  They loaded up the groceries in record time. While Josh returned the cart, Skye slid into the driver’s seat. As soon as Josh got buckled in, she started to head out of the parking lot.

  “Why don’t you circle the parking lot once or twice just to make sure we didn’t pick up anyone?” Josh suggested.

  On the second go around, Josh noticed a black sedan that looked out of place, idling in one corner of the lot. “What’s that guy up to?”

  “Okay, I’m all for checking people out, but I don’t want to go straight over the edge paranoid.”

  When he started to climb into the back of the van, Skye gave him an odd look. “What the heck are you doing?”

  “I’m making sure that black sedan doesn’t follow us.”

  “Oh, for Pete’s sake.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s pulling out and falling in behind us.”

  She glanced in the rearview mirror. “It’s two cars back. It could be going anywhere.”

  “Maybe. Still, turn left at the next intersection and then head back to the store like we forgot something.”

  “I thought you were in a hurry to get to the safe house,” Skye groused but did as she was told.

  The black sedan sped past them heading the other way, but in a few minutes, it was several cars behind them again.

  “Stop in front of the store, I’ll get out and go in. We don’t want him to know we’re on to him.”

  From inside the store, Josh watched the black car drive past the minivan and park at a discreet distance but where he could still see the van. Standing in front of the market’s bank of windows, Josh texted Leo with instructions.

  After a few minutes, he came back out and hopped into the van. “Head south on 32nd Avenue and then take a right on Magnolia. At some point along Magnolia Boulevard, Leo and the others will fall in behind the black sedan.”

  Skye turned left out of the store parking lot onto 32nd Avenue. The black sedan followed a few cars back. “What’s the plan once the guys show up?”

  Josh took his attention off the black car for a second. “We’re going to box him in near Discovery Park, away from any other cars.”

  “I hope this works,” Skye mumbled, using her signal to make the right turn onto Magnolia. “Is he still back there?”

  “Still there. Leo and the guys should be waiting for us at the Viewpoint parking area.”

  “They’re in a bus,” Skye reminded him.

  “Passenger van,” Josh corrected.

  “I’m sure the car service driver isn’t likely to willingly participate in a car chase. Let’s all try to remember this is a whacked out dangerous man who happens to be following us.”

  “There they are now,” Josh pointed out as they passed the parking lot on Magnolia and the passenger van pulled out to follow behind the black sedan.

  “See? Leo’s driving.”

  “How did he pull that off?”

  “No idea. But I did text him earlier.”

  After about two blocks, the black sedan suddenly accelerated and whipped out into the other lane, racing past their minivan. It almost sideswiped the driver’s side and forced Skye to run up on the curb.

  “Damn it! What’s he doing?” Skye blurted out, trying to regain control of the van.

  “He spotted the tail and doesn’t like the odds.”

  The three vehicles were bunched together on the twisted and winding narrow streets running along Magnolia. But suddenly, the sedan changed course and shot U heading south.

  “That means he’s heading for the bridge. I better let Leo know.”

  “He’s driving,” Skye pointed out.

  “So I’ll talk to Reggie.”

  Josh punched in the number and relayed the information.

  A couple of curves later, Magnolia Boulevard turned into West Galer Street, a slightly wider two-lane roadway dotted with larger homes. The change in direction indicated they were heading toward the Magnolia Bridge and the Port of Seattle.

  Traffic picked up the closer they got to the Bridge, which forced the driver of the black car to reduce his speed. Skye saw brake lights come on the black sedan and watched as it fishtailed, swerving to one side of the road and then the other. When it got about even with a place to turn around, the vehicle shot a tire-squealing, tire-smoking U-turn and headed down the exit ramp towards the Port of Seattle.

  Like a professional stunt driver, Skye handled the maneuver, but not without Josh white-knuckling it in next to her, clinging to anything he could latch onto as the minivan tilted right before leveling out.

  Leo didn’t shoot the U quite as well. He fishtailed several times before regaining control of the heavier passenger van. But that was all the time the driver of the black sedan needed as he took a left and disappeared down 23rd Avenue.

  “We got him cornered now,” Josh yelled. “The only place this road leads is to the marina.”

  Skye hoped that was true and hit the gas. She slowed down to swing through the marina parking lot, spotting the black sedan parked at the very end of the lot.

  As they got closer, they could see someone sitting in the car.

  “Block him in, and I’ll call Mark Lakin,” Josh directed.

  But as they inched in for a better view, there was something not quite right. There was no movement at all from the driver.

  Skye and Josh exited the van, waving Leo and the rest of the guys to stay back behind their vehicle for cover in case shots were fired like before.

  With weapons drawn, Josh and Skye each took a different side of the car, approaching it while intently studying the movement or lack of movement of the driver.

  Skye was the first one to notice that the man appeared shirtless. She noted he already looked dead because his head was tilted back and leaning up against the headrest.

  She motioned Josh back to the rear of the car. “We shouldn’t touch anything until Lakin gets his ass here and tells us to back off.”

  They waited several long minutes before Lakin pulled up with police cars rolling in behind him. Contrary to what they thought, Lakin was not happy to see them. “How the hell are you always mixed up with this guy?”

  Josh moved a little closer to Lakin and got within inches of his face. “We think this is your killer. He followed us out of the grocery store.”

  Lakin pulled out his weapon. “Just stay over there and out of the way. Let me do my job.”

  They watched the police approach the car from all angles in a tactical manner. Lakin got to the driver’s door and pulled it open, holding his gun to the man’s head. But even from where Skye stood twenty feet away, she could tell by the smell that the guy sitting behind the wheel had been dead for a very long time.

  Lakin looked inside the vehicle to make sure there were no trip wires attached anywhere before moving in to touch the body. The corpse tumbled out of the seat and fell face down on the pavement, stark naked. The detective finally holstered his firearm before pulling on a pair of blue latex gloves to get closer to the body. It was stone cold like he’d been frozen for a long time.

  Lakin stood up and walked over to Skye and Josh and the members of their team. “Is this a joke? Because if it is, I’m not laughing. Anyone want to tell me how a dead followed you out of the store?”

  Leo had a dislike for cops and shifted his feet. But his voice was clear and concise. “Run the plates. That car’s stolen.”

  “What? You’re clairvoyant now?” Lakin shouted with a snarl.

  “Just do it,” Skye demanded. “You said this morning you wanted our help. That’s not what I’m hearing now less than five hours after our meeting. Screw you if you don’t believe us. But there was a live driver in that car not ten minutes ago. Want to see the video?”

  She held up her hand. “Oops. You don’t cooperate. We don’t cooperate.”

  “Are you threatening a police officer? If you have evidence, you’re bound by law to turn it over.”


  “Let me recheck my phone. Yep. That’s what I thought. Didn’t record. Damn. I’ll have to be more careful next time.”

  Lakin shook his head in exasperation. “Clear out of here. Now. I want you all gone. This is now a crime scene, and I don’t want any of you here.”

  “Fine.”

  “Don’t leave Seattle. I may want to talk to you again about this little incident.”

  On the way back to their vans, Reggie pulled everyone aside. “We should pull into the first gas station we see or an oil change business that has a lift.”

  “Why? What are you saying?” Josh asked.

  “He’s thinking tracker,” Leo provided.

  “How’d that happen?”

  “Don’t know, but it’s a scary thought,” Skye admitted. “And worth finding out.”

  They pulled into a highly-rated oil change station and talked to the manager about looking at both vans on the lift for tracking devices.

  Brayden went down into the hole with Reggie.

  “See that,” Reggie said, pointing to a small box before removing it. “Better check anyone here who has a vehicle. Judy’s, mine, Leo’s. And you’d better call Harry and do the same with anyone that had a car parked at the farmhouse or the Foundation.”

  Skye angled toward Leo. “How did you know that black sedan had been stolen?”

  He sent her a wry grin. “Because I had Win run the plates as soon as we pulled behind it.”

  Win took out his tablet. “2012 Nissan. Reported stolen in 2013 by the owner, Sam Baker. Here’s Sam’s DMV photo. Six weeks later Sam Baker went missing after leaving classes at UDub and hasn’t been heard from since.”

  Skye’s eyes scanned the group. “I’m not sure I need the coroner to tell us we just found Sam Baker.”

  “Let’s get to the safe house and hash this out,” Josh suggested. “This guy is seriously pissing me off.”

  Sixteen

  Safe House Number Two was a modern work of art that sat on a hill overlooking Elliott Bay. It belonged to an architect friend of Josh’s by the name of Malcomb Endicott, who’d met and fallen in love with a Canadian woman from Montreal and now spent most of his time there instead of Seattle.