Elusive Identities: Cowboy Justice Association (Serials and Stalkers Book 1)

by Olivia Jaymes

  Ignorance is bliss.

  Her strong curiosity wouldn't let her just shrug her shoulders and move on with her life. She couldn't do that. Even if Jane Doe wasn't any blood relation, Ella already felt a responsibility to help Chris find the truth.

  "You were just doing your job. If you hadn't contacted me, you would have been ignoring a clue. If there's one thing I've learned about you these last few days is that you leave no stone unturned."

  Which was why they were in the car driving together in the first place. They were headed to interview their first tip.

  Sheri Martindale. A seamstress that had called the tip line saying that the picture looked just like her best friend from thirty years ago.

  "I just want you to know that I'm here for you."

  After last night she didn't have any doubt that Chris would be there no matter what. He was an old-fashioned type of guy. Ella had assumed his kind had all disappeared like the woolly mammoth but here he was sitting next to her, worrying about her and wanting to protect her. For the first time in a damn long time, she'd felt cared for and cherished by a man. Her last few relationships hadn't really included comfort or sensitivity.

  "You get the good guy badge today."

  Chris just laughed as he pulled into a parking space. "I'm no Boy Scout. I just recognize a person in pain. I've had my share as well."

  She wanted to ask but they had arrived at their destination and there was work to do.

  "I'd kind of like to forget all about this for an hour or two. I just want to concentrate on the job at hand."

  He pushed open his car door. "Then let's go ask some questions."

  The condo community was large and there were several streets of identical buildings. Chris had driven almost all the way to the back - building J108. This place hadn't been here thirty years ago. The trees were too small and the exteriors far too new. Ella rang the bell and waited, taking in the flowered wreath on the door and the rabbit statue near the bushes. When it opened a smiling middle-aged woman stood on the other side.

  "Sheri Martindale?" Ella asked, extending her hand. "I'm Ella Scott and this is Chris Marks."

  "I'm Sheri. Come in, come in," the woman replied, stepping back so they could enter. "Can I get you some coffee or tea?"

  With a murmur of thanks, they both shook their heads and followed her into the living room, settling onto the flowered sofa. The room was bright and airy with lots of light coming in the big picture window that looked out onto the small front yard. Sheri sat down on a chair opposite them, her hands folded into her lap.

  In a way, she reminded Ella of her own mother. Around the same age and height. Both women had a few shots of silver in their hair and some lines around their eyes. Ella would place Sheri around fifty-five or six.

  "Thank you for coming to see me," Sheri began, her hands wrung together until the knuckles were white. "I'm sure you must have received lots of calls."

  Chris immediately took control of the interview, pulling the drawing from his messenger bag and placing it on the coffee table. "I'd like you to take a much closer look at the picture, Ms. Martindale. Do you still think it looks like your friend?"

  "Call me Sheri." She picked it up and stared at it for a long time, one finger tracing the outline of Jane's face. "Yes, that's Kelly. It looks just like her. She was my best friend."

  Sheri's expression had gone from fairly happy to unutterably sad just that quickly.

  "Kelly...?" Chris prompted, scribbling in a notebook. Ella preferred technology.

  "Perkins," Sheri said. "Her full name was Kelly Elizabeth Perkins.”

  Ella placed her cell phone on the table between them. "Do you mind if I record this? It makes it easier later."

  "No, go right ahead. It's fine."

  Now that Ella had Sheri's attention she had all of it. The older woman's gaze was riveted to Ella's face.

  Ella waited for Sheri to remark on the resemblance but she didn't, simply shaking her head and turning back to Chris. "Do you think your Jane Doe is Kelly?"

  "I don't really know yet. We'll need to do much more investigation before I can say for sure. Can you tell me a little bit about your friend, Sheri?"

  Licking her lips nervously, the woman nodded. "Kelly and I met at a job I had right out of high school. We were both waitresses at one of those chain restaurants out by the highway. She was just a year older than me and I guess we sort of bonded. We worked the same shifts and Kelly had a car so she often gave me rides to and from work. Eventually I saved up enough money to buy my own but we still spent a lot of time with each other. We went shopping together and we spent most of our off time together."

  Sheri's hand flew to her mouth and she jumped up from the couch. "I have photos. I pulled them out yesterday. They're on the kitchen counter. Let me get them."

  She sped out of the living room and almost as quickly was back, holding several photos in her hand. "I thought I had more but these were all I could find."

  With a shaking hand, Ella accepted them from Sheri. This was a big deal. It was one thing to look at an artist's rendering but these were real photos of a person that might or might not be related. They also might be photos of a person who had been murdered.

  Bless Chris, he sat patiently while Ella looked at them. He had to want to see them as much as she did but he didn't so much as peer over her shoulder.

  She'd say thank you later.

  One was the two women sitting on the hood of a car, each holding a can of soda. It was sunny and they were dressed for a warm summer day. The second was the two women all dressed up for an evening out. Big hair, big shoulder pads, and lots of eye makeup up and blush.

  Yes, Ella had a strong resemblance to Kelly Perkins. The photos weren't great and the colors had faded over the years but she could see it. It was there and unmistakable.

  But it was the last picture that shook up Ella the most. Her breath caught in her throat when she the photo of Kelly standing sideways...showing off her pregnant belly.

  "Kelly had a baby?" Ella asked, her voice shaky. Her throat was tight and her stomach clenched in her gut.

  "She did," Sheri replied. The older woman was studying Ella again, this time quite openly. "A daughter named Krystle Elise. You know...like the character on Dynasty. She would be thirty-two now, I think."

  Krystle. That might be my real name.

  "So let's get back to your story, Sheri." Chris was putting the conversation back on track. Good thing too, because Ella wasn't capable of doing it at the moment. "You met Kelly Perkins right out of high school at a job. What happened after that?"

  Sheri briefly glanced at Ella again but then turned back to Chris. "We became best friends over the next few years. We were practically sisters."

  "So you knew if she was dating anyone? If she had any enemies? Things like that?"

  Shifting on the chair, Sheri appeared uncomfortable. "I loved Kelly, and I don't want to speak ill of the dead. She had her issues but she had a big heart."

  Ella's attention was instantly snagged by the word issues. "What kind of issues?"

  Clearly Sheri didn't want to tell them, wringing her hands together again. Chris tried to give her a reassuring smile. "You can't hurt your friend now, Sheri. But you can help her by being completely honest with us. If our Jane Doe does turn out to be Kelly Perkins then we're going to need to know a bunch of personal information to be able to finally find out who did this and bring them to justice."

  The older woman seemed to collect herself, her lips firming into a line. "Kelly had some...problems. She liked to drink and party. She liked to have fun."

  Fun. That one word could mean a whole lot of different things. From Sheri's reluctance to speak ill of the dead, it looked like Kelly might not be the most fine and upstanding citizen Seattle had ever known.

  Just what had Kelly Perkins been into?

  15

  Chris had leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. Ella had placed the photos on the table, now more inter
ested in hearing about Kelly than seeing still pictures of the past.

  "What kind of partying did she do?"

  "The usual kind," Sheri replied quickly, her tone insistent. "Parties, bars, dancing. She loved to go out and have a good time."

  Slipping his hand between him and Ella, Chris placed it over Ella's, lacing their fingers together. He was about to start asking some tough questions.

  "Were there men there?"

  "There were always men there. Buying drinks and asking her to dance."

  "Was one of those men the father of Krystle?"

  Ella hand gripped his tightly, her nails digging into the skin.

  "Oh no," Sheri exclaimed. "That was Tim Wagner, Kelly's sometimes boyfriend. They met in high school and they sort of dated in between her other boyfriends. He was a good dad. Krystle spent most of her time with him and his mother."

  "Because Kelly liked to party and drink?" Chris asked, glancing at Ella at his side. Her face was paler than normal but outwardly she appeared calm.

  More awkward shifting on the cushion from Sheri. She didn't want to answer this one either.

  "Kelly loved Krystle. She really did...but she...I guess you could say she didn't take to motherhood all that well. She wasn't ready to settle down. She used to talk about Krystle all the time, though. She just wasn't very good taking care of someone."

  "But Tim was? Did he resent having to take care of Krystle?"

  "No, he adored Krystle and he was a great dad. His mother adored her, too. She watched Krystle during the day while Tim was at work. He was a mechanic. He took over his dad's shop." Sheri sighed. "Kelly never appreciated him. He was too nice. She liked the bad boys."

  Bad boys? Was that a euphemism for criminal element?

  "Do you know any of those bad boys' names? Especially any that Kelly might have been dating when she disappeared?"

  "I don't remember. Kelly didn't talk about them much when she was with me. The last year before she disappeared I didn't see her much, though."

  Chris's gaze was drawn back to the photos. The smiling woman with long dark hair stared back but couldn't speak, couldn't tell her own story. She could only be described through another's eyes. The killer had taken away her voice. He wanted to give it back.

  "Can you tell me about the day that she disappeared?"

  Sheri's gaze dropped to the floor, her fingers absently rubbing her cheek. "By then I was working the cosmetic counter at a department store. Better pay and much better clientele. I really liked it. I got off work about six and Kelly was waiting for me outside the store. It was a surprise because as I said I didn't see her much then. We didn't have plans but she convinced me to go grab some dinner with her. I called my boyfriend and let him know that I was going to be later than I thought. I told him the store had asked me to work late."

  Her cheeks had gone pink. "He wasn't the biggest fan of Kelly. He said she was a troublemaker and that I should stay away from her."

  "So you didn't want him to know that you were spending the evening with her?"

  "Yes, he would have been mad." Sheri's gaze moved from the floor over to the mantle where several framed photos resided. "I told him later and he was mad but he got over it. In all the years we've been married, I've never lied to him again. I made a promise that day."

  Chris's gaze followed hers to a portrait of a much younger Sheri in a white dress and veil with a handsome young man.

  "That's your husband?"

  Smiling, Sheri nodded. "Ned. He's at work right now. He's a stockbroker. That's our wedding day. Those other pictures are our kids and that last one is my two grandchildren. I think they look like my husband."

  "You have a lovely family." Chris scribbled a few more notes. "Can we go back to that night? What did Kelly talk about that night?"

  "She hated her job. She was still waitressing," Sheri explained. "Not at the same place, though. She said the tips were better at this sports bar downtown. I don't even remember the name. Gilley's? Gilligan's? It was something like that. She was complaining about her job. She said her boss was handsy and that he grossed her out. She said the customers were nice, though."

  "Her boss? What was his name?"

  Chewing on her lip, Sheri shrugged. "I really don't remember. I think it started with a 'B'...maybe? She hadn't talked about him all that much. She hardly ever talked about work actually."

  That was code for Kelly got fired a lot. Chris would lay money on that if he was the betting kind, which he wasn't.

  "So you had dinner and she complained about her boss. Where did you eat?"

  "Gianni's on Fifth. They had the best lasagna."

  "Then what happened after you ate?"

  "I needed to get over to Ned's place and Kelly said she had a late date."

  "Did she say with whom?"

  Sheri shook her head again. "No, she didn't mention it and I didn't think to ask. She had so many boyfriends. They came and went so I never got to know them or anything."

  "So you walked out of the restaurant with her?"

  "Yes, we got in the car and she drove me back to the store so I could pick up my car."

  "Then what?"

  Sheri frowned. "I got in my car and drove away."

  "Did Kelly drive away?"

  "I'm sure she did. She had a date."

  "But did you see her drive away?" Chris wanted it specifically laid out. No vagaries. "Which way was she going?"

  Sheri blinked in confusion a few times. "Well...I...no. No, I didn't see her drive away. I pulled out ahead of her. When I looked back she was still sitting in the empty parking lot. I assumed she was putting on lipstick or touching up her hair before she left."

  An empty parking lot after dark. Not the safest place in the world.

  "And that was the last time you saw or talked to her, correct?"

  Sheri's eyes filled with tears. "Yes, I kept calling her but she never answered. She didn't have an answering machine so it just rang and rang. Eventually, Tim called me looking for her. He couldn't get ahold of her, either. That's when we both were really worried. He went to her apartment but she wasn't there. Her car was gone, too. So he went to the police."

  "Did he file a missing person's report?"

  "I think so. But nothing ever came of it. Eventually I lost touch with Tim. It was harder to keep in contact back then. No email or texting. No internet."

  Sheri swiped at a stray tear making its way down her cheek. Her hands trembled visibly and she looked quite distraught. Genuinely so. Chris could be a cynical bastard at times. The closest people to the victim were often the ones he ended up arresting.

  Mental note. I need to talk to Tim Wagner.

  "Sheri, what was Kelly wearing that night that you saw her last?"

  The older woman paused before answering, her brows drawn together. "Stone washed jeans. A striped blouse."

  "What about jewelry?"

  "The usual. She had a plain gold chain that she wore around her neck and birthstone studs in her ears, and of course the long chain earring from the second hole."

  "Second hole?"

  Chris didn't know what that was.

  Ella pointed to her ear. "Some women have a second hole put in their ears. See? I have one. I rarely use it, though."

  Sheri was nodding. "Yes, that's it. Kelly had this one long earring that she liked to wear all the time. She's wearing it in these photos."

  Taking a close look at the pictures, Chris could see for himself that Kelly was wearing what appeared to be a long chain with gold balls that reached almost to her shoulder.

  It must be an 80s thing.

  Thinking back to the inventory of Jane's belongings he didn't remember seeing any sort of earring documented. She had been wearing jeans and a striped blouse, though. He was actually sort of excited about this interview. Kelly and Jane could very well be the same person, but it was way too early to celebrate. They had many more people to talk to.

  "Is there anything else you can tell us about Kelly? Anyt
hing that we should know?"

  Sheri dashed away another tear. "Yes, there is. Kelly was a fighter. She would have fought to live, and she would have fought hard. If she's your Jane Doe, then whomever did this probably got the ass kicking of his life because she there is no way she would have gone quietly."

  That was assuming that Jane had seen her killer coming and wasn't taken by surprise. Or that Kelly was Jane.

  He had a hell of a lot more work to do before he could say they were the same. There were more secrets to uncover but they had a place to start.

  Tim Wagner. The most dangerous person in a female's life was the man she loved.

  Had Kelly's sometime boyfriend finally become tired of her wicked ways?

  Chris was tapping out a text to his office while Ella sat in the passenger seat of his car, her mind replaying their conversation with Sheri Martindale over and over again as she stared at the photos in her hand.

  "Don't, Ella."

  Looking up, she could see the concern in his expression but right now she didn't want it. She needed to feel all of these emotions even if they weren't good for her in the long run. The strangest emotion was that she didn't feel any connection to Kelly Perkins. None at all.

  "Don't do this to yourself." He placed his hand over hers, his flesh warm where hers was cold, before gently tugging the photos from her nerveless fingers and tucking them into a side pocket on his messenger bag. "We don't know that Kelly was Jane. This is only the first person we've talked to. I have to tell you that we're going to talk to a hell of a lot more people and if you get like this after every one then I'm not sure you should be accompanying me when I do this. You're going to destroy yourself if you wonder every single time if this was a relative. It's not healthy."

  "I know," Ella admitted. "But those photos look just like me, don't they? Now I see what you saw."

  "You didn't before?"

  She tried to shrug as if she didn't care. "I just thought I resembled a drawing. It was the pictures that made it all so real. Kelly Perkins could be a blood relative. She could even be my mother."