Investigate With Me: A With Me In Seattle Universe Novel

by Jen Talty

  “Jesus, that’s fast.”

  “No shit, and he’s about to enter a school zone. Find out where Jenna is. If he doesn’t slow down, I’m taking his license on the spot.”

  “She’s right here. Want me to send her out?”

  “Yeah. I’m right by the elementary school.” He hit his sirens so anyone near the school would hear him. Unfortunately, he felt the need to slow down since he was approaching ninety miles an hour. He sure as hell didn’t want to cause harm to anyone, but he had to stop this asshole. “He flew by it, and I’m about to. She might be able to cut him off if she comes at it from the other side.”

  “She’s already out the door.”

  The blue car disappeared around a sharp bend. Jag considered himself an excellent driver, but he wasn’t a race car driver, so he slowed a little more as he took the curve as tight as he could.

  “Fuck.” He hit the brake and swerved, trying to avoid the vehicle he’d been chasing sitting right in the middle of the damn street. “Oh shit.” As he turned hard right, his left tires lifted off the pavement. Before he knew it, his patrol car did a full three-sixty in the air, landing on its wheels before flipping one more time to the side.

  His body jerked left and right. The airbag smashed into his face, snapping his neck back. He groaned as the car slowly came to a halt. He hung sideways, the seatbelt keeping him still. Carefully, he undid the strap and climbed out of his car, then fell to his knees with every muscle in his body aching. His face felt like it had been used as a punching bag. The sun chose that precise moment to peek out from behind a cloud, forcing him to squint. A silhouette approached him carrying some kind of long stick or maybe a bat. He covered his eyes with his hand. “Kara?”

  “Hello, Jag,” Kara said, taking the bat and smacking it against her hand. “Sorry to have to do this.” She raised the object high over her head.

  Jag blinked as he tried to stand, but before he could catch his balance, a sharp pain vibrated against his head. He slumped to the ground, landing face-first on the pavement. His vision blurred. All he could hear was a loud ringing between his ears before a vast darkness overtook him.

  Callie paced in front of the seafood diner on the docks in the center of downtown Langley. She’d left two messages on Tina’s phone, but Tina would only text.

  That was weird, but when pressed, Tina said it was because she didn’t want her husband to know she was meeting with Callie.

  Fine.

  But why not call her now that she should be disembarking from the ferry?

  Callie sat on the bench and glanced down the street. No sign of a police vehicle, but that didn’t mean Jag didn’t have eyes on her.

  Callie: Where are you? Tina should be here in twenty.

  Jag: I’m ten minutes out. Don’t worry.

  Right. Easier said than done. Only, she had no idea why she was so frazzled. It was just an interview. It wasn’t like she was having lunch with Kara and confronting her about her identity.

  But something felt off.

  The sound of someone scuffing their feet behind her and the smell of fresh fried clams caught her attention. She stiffened her spine and slowly turned her head.

  “Hi, Callie girl.”

  “Kara? What are you doing here?” Callie asked, trying to act all casual as if she wasn’t terrified for her life.

  At least Jag was on his way.

  “I thought you and Ivy were in Oregon.” Callie took the clam roll Kara offered. “Where’s Ivy?”

  “She’s not here,” Kara said. “Why don’t we go for a walk? I think we have a lot to talk about.”

  “I can’t. I’m meeting someone. An interview for the book. It’s coming along really well. I think you’d like it.” Callie said the words so fast she thought she might trip over them.

  “We both know who you’re meeting,” Kara said. “And I’m here to tell you that Tina won’t be showing up.”

  “Excuse me?” Callie swallowed.

  Hard.

  Her pulse raced. Her palms turned sweaty as she fumbled with her cell, trying to call Jag. She managed to hit the right button.

  It rang.

  And so did Kara.

  Kara pulled out Jag’s phone. “He’s not coming either.”

  Callie dropped the clam roll to the ground. She slumped over. “Where is he? What did you do to him?”

  “If you’re asking if I killed him, the answer is no. Not yet. Now pick up the mess you made, and let’s get out of here.”

  “I’m not going anywhere with you. I know who you are.”

  Kara laughed. “So, you think you have it all figured out, don’t you?”

  Callie didn’t have a fucking clue, other than Kara and Carol were one in the same and her life as well as Jag’s were hanging in the balance. “Why don’t you fill in the blanks for me.”

  “I plan on it. But not here. I want Jag to hear this too.”

  “Why?”

  Kara shrugged. “Because the only way I’m going to get away with this is if the two of you die together.”

  Jag blinked open his eyes. His head felt like someone hit him with a baseball bat.

  Oh, wait. Kara had done just that.

  He waited a few moments while his vision came into focus before trying to move off the cold, hard floor. His hands were bound behind his back, and his ankles were held together with duct tape. He managed to push himself to a sitting position using the wall. There were two boarded-up windows on the opposite side.

  Someone groaned.

  He glanced to his left, his heartbeat raging out of control. He let out a sigh of relief when he realized it wasn’t Callie.

  But it didn’t last very long knowing she was out there, all alone, waiting for Tina, who was lying on the ground with a nasty head wound.

  Hopefully, Jenna had done exactly what he’d instructed, and the cavalry would be arriving shortly.

  He scooted across the floor. “Are you okay?” he whispered.

  Tina opened her eyes. “Who are you?”

  “I’m Jagar Bowie, the chief of police for the city of Langley.”

  “You’re the man who stopped by my house,” she said.

  He did his best to help her to a sitting position. She was bound the same as he was, but since Kara neglected to tie them to anything, he should be able to get them both out. He just had to do that before Kara came back.

  And before she got ahold of Callie.

  “I am, and my girlfriend, Callie Dixon, was going to try to set up a meeting with you today to discuss your stepdaughter.” Jag pushed his back up against Tina’s and started fiddling with the tape that bound her wrists. He had to be patient and methodical.

  The latter he could handle.

  The former still took a lot of practice.

  “I know. I got her message. I was about to call her back when Kara showed up.”

  Jag paused. “You know her by that name. How is that possible?”

  Tina let out a long breath. “When she moved back here with Renee, I ran into her.”

  “And you didn’t tell your husband?”

  “No.” Tina slumped. “This is all my fault,” she said with a tremor in her voice. She sniffled.

  “Why do you say that?” He managed to fold back a piece of tape from her binding. His pulse increased. He should be able to have her hands freed in a few minutes. Hopefully that would give them enough time. Of course, he had no idea where they were. Or how long he’d been knocked unconscious.

  “My husband is going to kill me,” Tina mumbled.

  Jag twisted his body, tugging at the tape, trying to unravel it. “I’m sure all he’s going to care about is that you’re safe. And I just want to help both of us get out of here. But I suspect Kara is going to go after my girlfriend, and I need to stop her. I think you might have some information that can help me.”

  “I first met Kara when I was an RA in her dorm. She was a freshman, and I was getting my master’s degree. We had a short affair right before I met
her father. When I broke it off and told her about her dad, she didn’t seem to care. I married her dad and had the twins and Kara went nuts. I couldn’t tell her dad about the affair nor could I tell him that I thought she might have killed her roommate, but she was cleared. I always wondered, but I figured the police knew what they were doing.”

  “We do, but sometimes we get it wrong,” Jag said. “And Kara had some help from her mother.”

  “That poor woman,” Tina said between sobs. Her shoulders shook up and down, making it harder for Jag to deal with releasing her hands, but he wasn’t going to say anything.

  The woman needed to cry.

  “What happened when you saw her and Renee?” Jag asked.

  “At first, she tried to pretend she didn’t know who I was. I let it go. I figured it was for the best. But then she reached out to me. I wanted to talk to her. I wanted to see if she was willing to talk to her father. He missed her so much and felt so guilty.”

  Finally, he’d pulled off the last piece of tape from her wrists. He held out his hands in front of her, and she immediately went to work.

  “I take it she wasn’t willing to reconcile,” he said.

  “Not with her father, no. But I made a huge mistake, and I had an affair with her for three months. I called it off about two weeks before her wife was murdered.”

  “Jesus,” Jag muttered as he shook out his hands and went about releasing his legs as well as Tina’s. “Did you ever think she might have killed her wife?”

  “Honestly, the thought crossed my mind, but I was selfish. I wanted her out of my life and was willing to do whatever it took, but she let me go. Just told me to go back to her father and forget all about her. She told me she was fine. When Renee was murdered, I thought about reaching out, but I never did, and she never contacted me, so I went on with my life.”

  “Did you ever follow the Trinket Killer murders?” Jag asked.

  “Not really. But a couple of the murders, my husband made the comment that the victims looked like me. He worried about me wandering around the city by myself, so I didn’t.”

  Jag managed to push to his shaky feet. His head throbbed. His stomach churned. He outstretched his arm, helping Tina.

  “She’s the killer, isn’t she?”

  “I believe so,” Jag admitted.

  “What have I done?” Tina cupped her face and shook her head. “I was so scared she’d hurt me or my boys or ruin my marriage. She can be so intoxicating, and I let that control me even though I knew deep down what I was doing was wrong.”

  “Don’t beat yourself up over this. Kara worked with my girlfriend for years. I was one of the officers who ruled her out as a suspect. She had everyone snowed. None of this is your fault.”

  “I wish I could believe that, but I think deep down I’ve always known Kara wasn’t quite right in the head, but she can be so charismatic.”

  Jag would have to agree. Kara was intelligent and carried herself with a sense of humble confidence. She never got in your face, but she always spoke her mind, and she always had facts to back it up. She had a way of making everyone around her feel comfortable.

  But she also had an edge. One he’d seen a few times but ignored because she was, well, Kara.

  “I understand,” he said. “But for now, we need to focus on how to get out of here. Do you have any idea where we are?”

  Tina shook her head.

  He made his way to the door. He twisted the handle. Locked. Of course. He padded his pants. No phone. No gun. No mic to call dispatch. He literally had no lifeline.

  But he trusted his team.

  He took a step back and kicked the door.

  Nothing.

  He did it again.

  Still nothing.

  He went over to the boarded-up window and kicked at that, and he made more headway as the wood cracked. He kept kicking, and Tina joined in until the wood splintered, opening a hole and letting the sun seep in.

  “Well, it’s still daytime,” he said.

  “Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

  “Actually, yes,” he said as he stepped through the open space. He took her hand and helped her. Scanning the area, he got his bearings. “Okay. It looks like we’re not far from Pen Cove Park. You were supposed to meet with Callie at three, right?”

  “Correct,” Tina said.

  He glanced to the sky. “It’s just after three. I bet that…” The sound of a vehicle approaching caught his attention.

  “Oh, my God. That’s her car.”

  He recognized the light-blue vehicle that raced by him earlier. “Come on.” He took her by the hand and raced toward the back of the house. “You don’t have a phone on you, do you?”

  “No,” Tina said.

  Fucking wonderful. He was going to have to find a perfect stranger to help, but first, he needed to find a way to get Tina out of harm’s way. “I want you to run to the park. Don’t look back. Just keep on running until you find someone and call 9-1-1. Tell them that the Langley Chief of Police and Callie Dixon have been taken hostage by the Trinket Killer. Go.” He shoved her. Hard.

  She fumbled forward. Glancing over her shoulder she stared at him with wide eyes.

  “Just do it. She can only go after one of us, and she’s going to try to take me out first. Go.”

  Tina nodded and took off running.

  Now all he had to do was stall and hope to fucking God he and Callie didn’t end up dead.

  Chapter 17

  Callie did her best to control her breathing and her panic. She pushed aside all negative thoughts about how she should have seen that Kara was the killer. It ripped her heart into a million pieces that she not only hadn’t a clue, but that she’d spent the last year crying on her shoulder over Jag and over her sister.

  “Stephanie,” she whispered as she stared out the window, her hands bound together with duct tape. “Why did you have to kill my sister?”

  “Such a complicated question.” Kara took a turn down a side road heading toward one of the parks on the north end of the island.

  “She knew you were the Trinket Killer?”

  “No. She hadn’t quite figured that out yet. But she would have considering she had found out I was really Carol Armstrong.”

  “How’d that happen?” Callie took a slow breath, expanding her chest slowly. All she had to do was treat this like any other conversation. Kara liked to talk. She liked to express her opinion, and she always had one.

  “Remember when Stephanie came to you and said she was seeing someone?”

  Callie nodded.

  “I was that someone. And I want you to know that I really cared about your sister. I really did. I never wanted to hurt her.”

  “Is that why you smashed her face in?” Bile smacked the back of Callie’s throat. Her stomach churned.

  Kara reached out, smacking Callie across the cheek.

  Callie’s head snapped, crash-landing against the window with a thud. She groaned. Probably not a good idea to fire back with sarcasm. Duly noted.

  “Don’t make me do that again,” Kara said.

  Callie lifted her bound hands and rubbed the side of her face. “Okay. So how did my sister find out your identity?” she asked as calmly as possible.

  “She found an old picture that I kept. And in true Stephanie form, she confronted me on it, and she didn’t let up. Nope. She had to turn into a little Nancy Fucking Drew like you. If she told you who I was, you and that idiot boyfriend of yours would have figured it out.” Kara glanced in Callie’s direction. “Why the fuck did we have to come back here? Why did you make me do this all over again? It’s your fault. Just like it was Renee’s. If I had never come back to this godforsaken place, I could have tamed the beast.”

  That circled Callie back to an onslaught of other questions she needed answered. She clutched her chest. Images of her and her sister bombarded her mind. But it was her sister’s voice tickling her ear, telling her to find out everything so that no victim would
die in vain.

  “What does that mean?” Callie asked.

  “Wow. You really are a dumb fuck.” Kara pulled into a side street that looped toward the water. She stopped in front of a boarded-up small house. Or maybe a shed. “It’s amazing you and Jag got anywhere without me.”

  Callie glanced to the left. “That’s funny because looking back, once you entered the picture, you directed my reporting. It was subtle, but I can see how as soon as I started opening up, you just twisted it, and I let you, and I, in turn, used it on Jag. You even went as far as to use your own mother to plant evidence and change the DNA samples so that Jag would catch Adam. Why’d you do that?”

  Kara rammed the gearshift into park. “Because I planned on leaving Seattle with Stephanie. If we had a killer wrapped up nice and neat, it would be easy to leave, especially for her since she worried so much about you. But no, she had to go find my secret and then my stupid bitch mother had to gain a conscience and mislabel one of the samples on purpose. She wanted to get caught, but before she could confess what she’d done and rat me out, I—”

  “You killed her.”

  “Well, would you look at that, Callie girl grew a fucking brain.”

  Callie let out a dry laugh. “And you killed Adam Wanton.”

  “Of course I did. I needed him to disappear so people might still believe he was the killer even if my mom fucked all that up and your stupid boyfriend jumped the gun on the arrest.” Kara reached over and opened the vehicle door. “Get out.”

  On wobbly legs, Callie stepped from the car. She scanned the area but wasn’t exactly sure where she was. She and Jag had spent some time on the island when they’d been dating, but they always liked Fort Casey over any other place. “Why’d you kill your college roommate?” She needed to focus on the patterns and motives of the murders. The psychology behind it. She had to understand more about how Kara thought and felt about her actions if she was going to figure out how to get out of this situation alive.