Down Among The Bones

by Vickie McKeehan

  Josh shook his head. “That might not be the way to go just yet.”

  Brayden lifted a shoulder. “We don’t have an update yet anyway.”

  “As I see it,” Skye began. “Our next step is picking up where we left off earlier, scanning the CCTV within a five-mile radius of where the Audi turned up. I know it’s time-consuming, monotonous work, and probably won’t yield much, but we have to try. The Audi’s location is the only lead we have.”

  “We didn’t tell Foley that it was a waste of time searching the woods around the car,” Josh added. “This guy wouldn’t have been that sloppy.”

  “Telling him would’ve meant detailing how we knew that for certain, and it just wasn’t worth the back and forth,” Skye explained. “Especially at midnight when we were already running on fumes.”

  “I hear ya,” Leo agreed. “Sometime after that is when Josh and I used a grid search, going back over most of the main roads before we called it quits around two-thirty. Brayden plans to take over later and scour the sections that remain, which are mostly neighborhoods. But so far, we haven’t pinpointed a single sighting of a vehicle that shows anyone who resembles our assailant sitting behind the wheel, let alone any sign of Emelia Navarro inside. And we got zip from facial recognition.”

  “And it’s not that easy using the cameras because we have no idea what type of vehicle the guy drove away in when he switched cars out of range,” Brayden supplied. “Remember, this was during rush-hour. On top of that, some of these traffic cams are so outdated the quality of the image is terrible. It makes facial recognition worthless.”

  Known for cracking informational databases and analyzing the data, Winston adjusted his glasses. “Hence the reason facial recognition isn’t always the answer. We need a starting point if we plan to find this guy. And so far, we’ve got nothing to go on.”

  In recent months, Winston had matured. The young man had become less broody and more of a team player. He no longer complained about every little thing and instead tried harder to contribute more. Maybe having a steady girlfriend had something to do with the difference in his attitude. After waiting months for Jenny Mack to overcome her ordeal at the hands of Elias Pope, Winston’s patience had paid off. The two had forged a relationship. Several weeks earlier, the friends had become a lot more.

  Winston’s transformation had not gone unnoticed. Skye especially appreciated his change of heart. She’d been there for him while he searched for his birth mother, a mystery still yet to be fully resolved. With renewed enthusiasm came responsibility. Skye went over and stood by the window, looking out into the backyard.

  “Maybe not,” Skye murmured as she chewed the inside of her jaw. “What if this guy was in that parking lot near the bus stop, waiting for Emelia to come home. What time did you say he stole the car?”

  “We don’t know the exact time, but it was reported to the police when the owner went outside to go home at five-thirty. And he says it was there at lunchtime.”

  “Okay. Hear me out. What if this guy steals the Audi at around three-thirty? He then drives the four miles to that shopping center across from the apartment complex and waits for Emelia to get off the bus at four-thirty? Leo, see if that Audi is spotted anywhere near the shops.”

  “You got it.”

  “It sounds like you’re saying you don’t think this was all that random,” Brayden pointed out.

  “I’m getting there.” Skye studied the board. “Okay. Let’s back up a minute and go with what we do know. This guy has access to chloroform or some type of disabling drug. Which means he could work around a hospital, maybe even work as a nurse or a doctor or at a veterinarian clinic, maybe even a nursing home. He knows how to steal a car, maybe was picked up on car theft at one time or another in his youth. Which means he might’ve already served time. His name might be sitting there in the system, waiting for us to pluck it out of the vault. He’s definitely a local because he knows Seattle like the back of his hand, knows how to get around the streets, knows how to avoid the areas under construction. He’s a methodical planner. Maybe we could link missing persons and burning cars that occurred on the same day.”

  “I’ll take that and run with it,” Reggie volunteered. “I’ll do a deep dive into law enforcement records and see if anything pops.”

  “Since we believe this guy has done this before, make sure you look for any similar abductions that might signal a pattern, even if it doesn’t include setting a car on fire,” Josh stated as he capped the black marker and stood back to read what the team had accumulated. “Granted, it’s not much. But it’s more than we had last night.”

  “Logistics question. Want us to work from here today?” Winston asked. “Or do we need to head to the office?”

  “You’re all here now,” Josh reasoned. “No sense losing valuable time traveling downtown. Let’s do what we can from here. Feel free to set up your own workstation in the study or the dining room or any other place if you need more space to spread out.”

  They not only spread out, but each member of the team staked out their personal space throughout the downstairs area. Winston and Brayden took the dining room, unpacking laptops, unrolling cords, hooking up oversized monitors, and other computer equipment like it was an office.

  Leo got comfortable in the study alongside Reggie. The two men made a note of every surveillance camera in the shopping plaza and then accessed the video, backtracking from two o’clock yesterday afternoon through four-thirty. They’d only been at it for half an hour when Leo let out a whoop when he spotted the Audi sitting at the edge of the parking lot. “Look at that. Look how calm. He’s just sitting there waiting for Emelia to get off that bus. Look how he starts the engine the minute he sees the bus pulling up to a stop. He has to act fast.”

  “Not really,” Reggie pointed out. “He’s not in any hurry at all because he already seems to know Emelia will get held up waiting to cross at the light. She’s on foot. He has the advantage. Watch as the Audi waits at the light until it changes. He’s in no hurry then, just makes a left turn and then makes his move through traffic, follows her around to the apartment entrance like it’s all so normal.”

  Back in the kitchen, Skye and Josh had taken over the table to use as their desk where they caught up on emails. From this spot, they could keep an eye on Sierra as she crawled in and out of a tipi set up in the den.

  “I’m playing camping,” Sierra informed them as the dogs sprawled nearby.

  “She really needs a playmate her own age,” Skye whispered. “She’s around too many adults and spends too much time alone.”

  “Don’t start that,” Josh disputed. “Look at her. She’s happy. She has an active imagination, and it shows. She’s articulate for a four-year-old because she is around adults all day.”

  “He’s right,” Zoe tendered as she refreshed their coffee mugs. “Sierra is a happy, well-adjusted kid. Plus, she’s kind. And she’s the smartest four-year-old in the room.”

  Skye exchanged satisfied looks with Josh. “There is that.”

  When their cell phones dinged at the same time with a text message, Skye shook her head. “Those guys are next door in the study. Why couldn’t one of them have walked to the door, stuck their head out, and yelled down the hallway?” she mused as she got to her feet and headed into the other room.

  “And leave their monitors? No way,” Josh said, trailing behind. “No self-respecting gamer leaves his station. Sending a text is the only way to go.”

  “Bathroom breaks are taken very seriously,” Zoe chimed in. “Especially during tournament play. I’ve met gamers who would rather pee into a bottle rather than take a break.”

  Skye sent Zoe a strange look. “Does Dad know his money for college is keeping you supplied with your choice of gamers?”

  “Oh, lighten up,” Zoe said with a shoulder bump. “I’ve lived in a coed dorm with a bunch of guys devoted to games as much as this team is to creating them. And when word gets out that I know the programmers
who put together Desolation Zone, I’m treated like royalty. Besides, the guys in my dorm are just as great as Reggie and Winston and Leo.”

  Skye gave Zoe a poke in the ribs in return. “Point taken. But no one’s as great as those three. And you left out Brayden.”

  Zoe couldn’t help it—she blushed at the mention of Brayden’s name. She wasn’t about to reveal her crush on the guy who seemed oblivious to the notion that she even existed. It would never amount to anything anyway. She wouldn’t allow herself to step over that line ever again. Look how her attraction to Winston had become such an embarrassment. She chalked that humiliation up to nothing more than immaturity. Because at sixteen, the entire experience had left her disillusioned. Her bitterness meant she wasn’t about to go through that again. No, this time, she’d keep her feelings to herself. Why else did she go out of her way to ignore Brayden every time he came into the room?

  Skye tugged on Zoe’s hair. “Where were you just now? Leo has something he wants to show us. Are you in?”

  “Of course,” Zoe muttered as she made her way into the study.

  As the trio moved to peer over Leo’s shoulder, Josh asked, “What’s so urgent?”

  “Just the footage of the guy in the Audi waiting for Emelia. It’s just like Skye thought.” Leo tapped the keypad and showed off the Audi, making the turn toward Woodbridge Terrace.

  “So, it wasn’t completely random at all?” Skye decided. “Interesting. He already knew she’d get off that bus when she did.”

  On the other side of the study, Reggie cleared his throat. “Emelia’s cell phone data updated about an hour ago, which means the phone still had a charge at that time. The last ping was at seven-fifty last night heading east on I-90.”

  “That correlates with what Winston and I found,” Brayden said, leaning against the door jamb. “Sorry to interrupt. But I think we might have hit pay dirt with what we found.”

  Skye’s brows knitted together as she left the study and headed for the dining room. “Bring it on. We could use some good news.”

  Everyone trailed after Skye to hear the latest, including Leo and Reggie.

  Brayden took his seat across from Winston and pointed to the monitor. “This. We found a black SUV with the windows blacked out that entered the I-5 freeway a little more than three miles from the burned-out Audi. It’s clear to us that this vehicle gets out ahead of the herd. Watch as it picks up speed against traffic and heads north again. This is where we pick up the same model SUV traveling back through the same corridor against traffic. Then we pick him up again when the vehicle enters the ramp to 90 East, where it continues until he’s completely out of camera range near Issaquah. The bad news is that there’s no way to get a license plate from any of the angles.”

  Winston leaned over to point at the monitor. “But you can make out that distinctive-looking grill. The SUV looks like a Range Rover to me,” Winston noted. “The big HSE model at that.”

  “We’re talking about a vehicle that easily costs a hundred grand or more,” Brayden added.

  Winston shifted in his chair. “I’m searching Range Rover HSE registrations now. Since we know the color, we could get lucky by narrowing down the list.”

  “Exactly. How many late-model, black Range Rovers are out there with a six-figure price tag heading from the same area where you guys found the Audi?” Brayden pointed out. “Seems to me he might be heading to a second home, maybe a cabin up there near Taylor Mountain.”

  At that pronouncement, Zoe noted Skye’s face had gone deathly pale, and she hadn’t said anything else. “What’s the big deal about Issaquah and Taylor Mountain?”

  Josh rubbed the back of his neck and started to pace. “You reach a certain point off 90 where there’s nothing out there but woods, a lot of woods. It’s very remote and secluded.”

  Skye finally swallowed the bile that wanted to rise from breakfast and found her speech. “Part of those woods are the foothills of Taylor Mountain. It’s Bundy’s old dumping ground. I doubt this guy is taking Emelia to a nice, rustic cabin for the weekend. Let’s cover our bases and check to see if he stole that Range Rover. Maybe our guy just has a penchant for stealing expensive cars he uses for kidnapping petite girls, girls he can easily overpower and dominate.”

  Brayden looked confused. “Emelia was five-two. But how did you know that?”

  Skye put an arm around his shoulder. “You are tired. Did you get any sleep at all before you got here? I sent the pertinent info found on Emelia’s driver’s license to Judy to round out the missing person flyer. And just to be clear, we did a background check on Emelia. That’s standard procedure for an adult who goes missing.”

  Embarrassed, Brayden thumped his head. “It seems like it’s already been a long day.”

  “If you need to go home and get some sleep—” Skye offered.

  Brayden shook his head and didn’t let her finish. “Thanks, but no. I told Dani I’d do whatever I could to find Emelia, so sleeping isn’t an option. Somewhere east of Seattle, Emelia is in trouble, and I won’t leave early to take a nap.”

  Winston slapped his co-worker on the back. “Don’t worry, if I have to, I’ll keep pouring triple shots of espresso down him until he’s climbing the walls.”

  “We do have empty guestrooms here if you get sleepy,” Josh reminded both men. “And several comfy couches.”

  “I know that, but I’m okay,” Brayden insisted. “There’s work to do.”

  “There’s always work to do around here,” Harry Drummond’s booming voice announced as he walked into the room. The retired Seattle detective tossed a stack of manila file folders in the middle of the dining table before looking around at all the familiar faces. “Good. The gang’s all here. You wanted similar cases, right? There are nine with the same MO that go back five years.”

  “I’m impressed,” Leo stated. “I haven’t even had time to crack into the database yet.”

  “Next time,” Harry returned. “Deb and I spent the morning collating that information we got from an active King County sheriff’s detective—who I might add has made zero headway. He’s got no leads and nothing to work with, not a single suspect. What you’re looking at is our own set of folders taken directly from my source in homicide and copied.”

  Skye took a seat at the table. “So let me get this straight, nine missing person cases in King County have morphed into murder investigations?”

  “Nitpicking, but yeah, still missing and presumed deceased,” Harry corrected. “Although one case stands out from the rest. Dig in, and you’ll see for yourself.”

  Skye picked up the top file and began to read. Josh did the same. After finishing the perusal of one, they would exchange folders and go on to the next until they’d read through all nine.

  Skye closed the last folder. “They’ve recovered only one body in five years, a twenty-four-year-old flight attendant named Cassie Arnett, who went missing on a Friday morning in February 2018 from Sea-Tac Airport after arriving on a flight from New York.”

  “And was found the next day,” Josh added. “Two years earlier.”

  “Yeah, on the north side of Ames Lake. Cassie Arnett, strangled and dumped,” Harry added, coming out of the kitchen, holding a coffee cup in his hand. “Let’s face it, the only reason she was found that fast was because of an off-duty, sharp-eyed patrol officer. Dan Jenkins decided to take his kid on a hike that Saturday morning, despite the nasty weather, and went to investigate a foul odor coming from a nearby ravine. Otherwise, Ms. Arnett probably would’ve been left out there to rot until spring. It’s all there in the report.”

  The wheels were turning in Skye’s head. “Cassie. One out of nine. And she’s the one found. Odd, don’t you think? What was different about her abduction? The notes say that it was raining hard the day Cassie’s flight landed at eleven a.m. They found her car still in the parking lot with a flat tire. Hmm. For our killer, Cassie could’ve been a spur of the moment thing. And maybe it didn’t go down quite the way he thou
ght it would.”

  Mulling over the enormity of what he’d just read, Josh set his jaw. “Do you realize that Cassie’s the oldest victim at twenty-four? The others vary in age from sixteen to twenty-two, and they’re still out there somewhere…unrecovered.”

  Skye turned to Josh. “Isn’t Ames Lake where those friends of yours, Diane and Gil, built their lakeside retreat, that big sucker they call Cherry Wood Hill?”

  “Blossom Hill Lodge,” Josh returned mildly. “And yeah. The Monahans. Both corporate attorneys. Real estate law is their specialty. I hear prices out in that area have skyrocketed. Maybe you were right, Brayden. Maybe we are dealing with a rich, fat-cat serial killer who steals the kind of expensive cars he prefers to drive and has a second home outside the city.”

  “He wouldn’t be the first serial killer who looked like the guy next door, tons of money in the bank, a nice 401K, and a couple of offshore accounts stashed away in the Caymans,” Brayden replied.

  Everyone within earshot knew the person he’d just described was Michael Smith, the cunning psychopath who had murdered Brayden’s entire family.

  There was a moment when the memories came rushing back like a flood, but as he’d done so many times since getting away, he blocked it all out and went on with his job. After a long pause to get himself under control, he turned to Winston and choked out in a hoarse voice, “Any luck with that Rover yet?”

  Oblivious to the moment, Winston pumped a fist in the air. “You guys won’t believe this. But there was a report yesterday morning at eight-thirty a.m. from a doctor in Sammamish by the name of Alex Piermont, who called police to say his brand new, black Range Rover HSE, went missing from his girlfriend’s driveway where he’d left it parked the night before.”

  Skye glared out into the backyard. “You know it always pisses me off when a stolen car gets more attention than a stolen eighteen-year-old girl.”

  “You’re never gonna change the culture,” Harry groused. “Eighteen is considered an adult. Adults can go missing if they want. It’s just the way it is.”