Trailing after her, he felt the need to give her the same spill he’d given his patrol officer. “When we get to the scene I want you to stay back and out of the way. Is that understood? Because I’ve already got a rattled bunch of twelve-year-olds on their way to church. They thought they were doing a good deed and now....”
Gemma didn’t let him finish. “Yeah, but their good deed just may have blown your case wide open.”
He considered that on the ride out to the scene, enduring the fact that she was full of so many questions. “Which one do you think it is, Collette or Marnie?”
He gave her an annoyed sidelong glance. “How would I know that unless I’m the one who put her out there?”
“I forgot how cranky you are in the morning,” Gemma muttered, sipping java from her travel mug.
“I’m going on less than five hours’ shuteye because you couldn’t keep your hands off me last night. It cut in to my beauty sleep.”
“Me? You were the one all over me.”
“Are you kidding? It reminded me of our honeymoon when you wouldn’t let me sleep then either.”
“Some honeymoon. A cheap motel room out on the highway.”
“Sorry it wasn’t the Ritz, but it’s all I could afford at the time.”
“I wasn’t complaining. I’ll forever love looking back at two kids thinking they had the world figured out.” She twisted in her seat to change the subject. “Look at that view from the peninsula. Hard to believe this is our home, the place we grew up,” Gemma pointed out. “I’d forgotten living here is almost like paradise.”
“You mean that?”
“Absolutely.” She angled in her seat again to watch the water lap up against the shore. The sea was as blue as she’d ever seen it. The water shimmered in golden waves that met up with the sky in a bridge of contrasting sapphire bursts. A group of gulls swooped down low over the bay, skimming the white caps for breakfast. The birds were especially noisy, making their presence known in loud obnoxious bursts, squawking their way toward combat over a fat surf perch.
She lost sight of the cape as Lando made the turn onto old Coyote Highway. The two-lane crumbling bit of asphalt announced itself amid a sea of spring weeds. Thistle, milkweed, and mallow had taken over what used to be the main road in and out of town during its logging days. There were redwood saplings trying to make a comeback along the shoulder where a forest fire several years earlier had wiped out a swath of two hundred acres. The scorched earth still showed tinges of black, a reminder that things could change in a heartbeat.
“It’s hard to believe that a stranger would know this location,” Gemma pointed out as she stared out the window. “I can’t remember the last time I was out here. This is the back way into Coyote Wells. Only locals ever use it now because everything swings off the 101-exit ramp to Water Street.”
The look on Lando’s face said he’d already thought of that.
He spotted Payce’s patrol car first and then a white church van with writing on the side that said, “There’s hope in Jesus,” probably the transportation bus that had brought the troop on their good deed. Both vehicles were sitting on the shoulder of the road, a crush of caliche and gravel that acted as pavement.
Lando’s eyes were drawn to the yellow police tape Payce had already strung between two Douglas firs, designating the exact spot where the skull had been found.
Lando looked over at Gemma. “You promised to stay put, remember?”
“Now that I see this up close, I don’t think that’ll be much of a problem.”
“Good,” Lando said and leaned over to place a chaste kiss on her cheek before opening the cruiser door.
He was immediately met by an overly excited Payce Davis, a nerdy guy who was devoted to his career but didn’t have a lot of on-the-job experience.
“I thought you took Sundays off,” Lando noted. “Why isn’t Jimmy or Dale here?”
“I do. But that’s the deacon over there from my church. When he found the uh…head…he naturally called me. I thought it was a joke at first until I got here.”
The two men headed toward the copse of trees and straight for the roped off area with Payce giving him the lowdown and the whole picture in succinct summation.
“The skull’s over there near those jutting rocks. It’s human, Chief. All the way human, no mistake. I already called the coroner’s office. They’re sending out their number two. On a Sunday, we’ll probably be lucky if he gets here by noon.”
“Good thinking, Payce. Now get those kids back on that little bus, will you? Tell them it’s okay if they want to head home and get ready for church.”
“Sure thing. I wasn’t sure if you needed to talk to them or not.”
“You took their statements, right? That’s good enough for me.” Lando slapped Payce on the back and moved closer, peering over the series of small boulders covered in deep green moss. It was easy to spot the skull---the light color of bone contrasted with all the emerald undergrowth. It was lying in a patch of yarrow blooming with pink blossoms---an irony either Collette or Marnie had ended up surrounded by something that looked so spring-like and so feminine.
Lando could see the skull was missing a piece of bone from the back of the cranium as if it had been crushed by some blunt force. He edged around the perimeter trying to give their only piece of evidence thus far, a wide enough berth so as not to disturb the surrounding area too much.
Knee-deep in wildflowers, he walked further out, looking for any other sign of bones. Several yards away he found a femur and several more feet from that were a few pieces of rib bones.
Lando glanced up and saw Zeb Longhorn striding toward him. “What are you doing here, Chief?”
Zeb tightened his jaw. “I have a police scanner. Besides, I saw all the cars pulling up from my back deck. Shadow Canyon is just up that hill over there.”
“I’m glad you’re here,” Lando said and meant it. “I could use your input. Looks like we found one of the missing women. And my guess would be this is Collette. The remains seemed to have been here a long time---every one of those ninety-plus days she was gone. The coyotes and a few other animals got to her before we did. There are pieces of chewed up blue plastic all over here.”
“Probably what her body was wrapped in before disposal,” Zeb stated.
“Yeah. Since her car was found down the road on the Rez, this could still fall in your jurisdiction---not saying it does---just that it might.”
“I won’t fight you over it, if that’s what you’re worried about. I’m fine with working together. I just want to catch the guy who did this.”
“Same here. Might as well start now. Let’s spread out before the crime scene techs arrive and with any luck maybe we’ll find the rest of her.”
Lando called Payce over and with his help, the three men sectioned off the woods like a grid search, fanning out farther and farther away from the skull.
They found tattered pieces of fabric strewn about, some caught in the prickly scrub. “I’m sure that matches part of the dress Collette was last seen wearing, but I didn’t bring the police report with me,” Lando uttered as he moved on. Under a patch of wildflowers, he found a few more rib bones and one of the upper arm bones.
It took twenty minutes before Payce called out, “Over here, closer to the road! Looks like loose dirt piled into a mound. Someone used scrub to cover up something they buried.”
Lando plodded through knee-high weeds to reach the pile of dirt. “Twenty feet closer to the road, but hidden from view by that hedge. Someone knew what they were doing. This one looks like they were in a hurry though to get the body in the ground. Anyone want to bet me that we’ll find Marnie’s remains right here?”
Payce responded by running toward the road to throw up.
Zeb shook his head. “No bets. Unless of course there’s a third victim we know nothing about.”
“Don’t even think like that,” Lando warned. But Marissa’s face popped into his brain. Remembering her
crumpled on cold concrete didn’t help his mood.
“Two bodies in the same vicinity pretty much rules out two different killers,” Zeb noted. “Let’s face it, we have us a guy working his way to serial killer status.”
“Maybe he’s already there,” Lando offered, retelling the theory about Marissa.
Back in the police cruiser, Gemma fidgeted, fast becoming bored with the wait time. She’d turned to playing Candy Crush on her phone. Tired of sitting so long in one place, she kept glancing up every now and again with a feeling that someone was watching her. The eerie feeling made her skin crawl and her flesh tingle.
Convinced it was the spooky crime scene giving her the heebie-jeebies, she tried to focus on the game, but for some reason her attention kept being drawn back toward the road. Hoping the creepy feeling would subside, she clutched at the amulet she wore for comfort and inspiration.
Nightfall came fast as darkness surrounded her.
Something shiny glinted off the windshield. She caught movement---a car slowly making its way down the old highway approaching from the south like it was coming from town. It held her attention long enough that she sat up straighter and tried to make out what it was, a pickup, a small SUV maybe. No, it was a midnight blue sedan, slowly making its way along the old road with its headlights on.
To get a better look, she opened the car door and stepped outside, standing for a minute, shading her eyes from the headlights, so bright they were hard to miss. She took a step closer to get a glimpse of the driver but it was too shadowy. She started walking toward the roadway and the moving car, but just as she got within a few feet, the sedan stopped. And then as if it hadn’t happened the vehicle dissolved into thin air.
Puzzled, she stood there for a minute wondering if she’d hallucinated. Looking back at how far she’d come from the cruiser, she began to walk back down Lone Coyote Highway on the shoulder, in the darkness. She tried to make her way back to where Lando and Zeb were still going over the crime scene. But she didn’t see them anywhere as she headed back toward town.
She noticed crickets chirping, night crawlers moving, as the darkness dwindled down to a narrow slit. The full collapse into midnight came on her like a time-lapsed video. By the time she reached the copse of redwood saplings where Lando had been pawing at the ground, there was an eerie blackness. Without streetlights, this stretch of road became pitch black.
Gemma wasn’t sure what was happening, but she knew enough to look around for Lando. When she couldn’t find him, a dose of panic began to tighten that area under her breastbone. Her breathing quickened. Her leg muscles felt the sharp pangs of exertion.
She stopped to stare into the forest where she was sure Lando had been digging. But nothing was where it should be. The crime scene had turned into another night, another time, three months earlier.
She noted the differences. Spring had fallen back to winter. The early March chill hung in the air. Clouds drifted past the crescent moon overhead. She shuddered as the wind picked up and blew the leaves into a whirlwind, rustling through the trees.
She heard a noise and tried to follow the sound. Surely it must be Lando playing some sort of practical joke on her. But what she saw was partly hidden by the trees gently swaying in the breeze. She stepped closer. A lone figure shoveled cleated mud out of the ground, the metal digging out the wet earth in a ghoulish prelude to what lay a few feet away.
Gemma spotted the rolled-up piece of tarp and saw a hand sticking out of the end of the plastic. The fingers were so white they looked like they belonged to an alabaster angel.
The crunching of leaves drew her eyes to where another figure stood, farther back still and waiting in the shadows. Now there were two of them left to bury whoever was in the rolled-up plastic. Together the two figures picked up a tarp, struggling to get it into the hole until they finally dropped it unceremoniously into the shallow ground.
Gemma heard voices. They got louder as the darkness lifted, layer by layer. She recognized the sound of Lando’s voice, even though it sounded distant and muffled.
“Gemma! What are you doing over there? You promised me you’d stay in the car.”
She heard him but couldn’t yet make out his form. Everything was fuzzy, blurry. She heard buzzing like bees swarming around her.
“Gemma,” Lando repeated, as he closed the distance between them. Something seemed off with the way she acted. She looked dazed, confused, lost. His hands went around her arms as he pulled her back toward the road. “Baby, you’re standing in the middle of vine maple and clover in bloom. What gives? It looks like you’ve walked into a swarm of honey bees collecting the day’s pollen. Are you okay?”
“I’m…I don’t know. I just saw a car.”
Lando frowned and looked around. “There are three squad cars and you’re supposed to be sitting in one. Let’s get you away from these bees.” He led her back to the shoulder of the road and saw her point back toward town.
“No, this one was dark blue, a sedan. It came from Coyote Wells. And I saw them bury a body. They had it wrapped up in a blue painter’s tarp. I saw her fingers sticking out. I think it was Collette they were putting in the ground first. And then Marnie later…nearest the roadway.”
Lando’s eyebrows went up in dubious fashion. “You imagined it, Gemma. That’s why I wanted you to stay at home and not get anywhere near this kind of thing. It’s hard to take and something you never get used to seeing. Knowing there’s a body buried out here starts playing with the mind.”
“But I followed the car to where it stopped, right here where we’re standing. Did you find Collette?”
“Yeah. And Marnie.”
Gemma’s dark eyes met his. “Back in the hole near the road, right? That was Marnie. Collette was further down the tree line. Marnie was still intact. Collette wasn’t.”
Lando could only come up with the most obvious explanation for knowing that---Gemma had overheard his conversation with Zeb. “Looks like we’re going to be here all day. I’ll get Payce to take you back home. How does that sound?”
“Someone has to go tell Lianne we found her sister,” Gemma pointed out.
“That’s my job. Don’t worry about it.”
“I’ll do it,” Gemma volunteered. “I’m no good here anyway. And I figure you don’t want to leave until the techs have completely finished walking this scene and processing what they find.”
“Thanks. I appreciate that. I’ll send Payce to tell Marnie’s family.” He dug in his pocket for his car keys. “Go. Take my cruiser. I’ll hitch a ride with Zeb.”
On automatic, she gave him a quick smack on the lips for a kiss and walked away, wondering if she’d dreamed what just happened. It wasn’t until she sat behind the wheel of Lando’s cruiser that she began to feel like her old self.
She touched the stone around her neck, held it tight for a few seconds. As she turned the car around, she wondered if Lando would be as chummy toward Zeb if he knew about his friend’s affair with Leia. She bet not.
But more than that she had to get away from this place, at least for a couple of hours. She needed to analyze what she’d seen and how it played into what happened out here---if not for her own sanity, then for the victims.
14
On the drive to Collette’s house, a million things flitted through Gemma’s head. Mostly, she replayed the scene out on the highway from the beginning. Like an obsessed fan binge-watching their favorite TV show, she kept hitting rewind, going over the episode in detail, trying to catch a glimpse of a clue, or the hidden meaning to a key plot point.
She’d seen a car---the killer’s car---a midnight blue sedan. If she could just find out who drove that kind of car she’d know who’d murdered Collette and Marnie.
Lando, of course, considered what she’d seen nonsense as if she’d been a child making it up. Little wonder he ever solved anything on his own.
What had she been thinking last night sleeping with him? Her ex was a complicated kind of man. Plus, the
y’d barely scratched the surface putting the old resentments behind them. If they planned to continue doing the “friends with benefits” thing, they’d need to set some boundaries.
“Lots of luck getting Lando Bonner to respect boundaries,” Gemma muttered as she pulled up in front of Collette’s house and parked.
She’d never done this sort of thing before---tell someone their family member had been found dead, buried in a shallow grave on the side of the road. Sure, Lianne already knew the odds were against finding Collette alive, but still it was difficult to hear those odds had turned into a grim reality.
Lianne opened the door before Gemma had a chance to knock, and stood back to let her inside. “Has something happened? Is she dead? Did you find Collette?”
“I’m sorry,” was all Gemma managed to get out before Lianne buckled. Gemma caught the woman right before she hit the floor, then guided her toward the sofa. “It’ll be okay. I’ll stay here with you as long as you need me to. Would you like me to make the call to your parents?”
Lianne shook her head. “No, they’re waiting to hear from me, they’ve been waiting all this time. I’ll do it. Where? Where was she all this time?”
“It’s called Lone Coyote Highway or used to be. It’s an old part of the spur to the east no longer used much. You wouldn’t know it. When the state built the newer 101 Freeway, the plan bypassed that part of the county completely. That’s where they put her, near the old logging road as it veers off on the way to Shadow Canyon. Collette wasn’t alone. Marnie was buried nearby.”
Through her grief, Lianne managed to think of a dozen questions. But Gemma didn’t know the answers. “You’ll need to give Lando time to do his thing. I know it’s hard. Remember, my grandmother has only been gone a few weeks. And…I don’t know if I should be telling you this, but…I think she was a victim, too.”
“Of this same man? Oh, my God, what’s happening in this town? It’s such a quaint little place, so picturesque, so peaceful, so many things to do here. Collette loved this town. I don’t understand any of this.”
Mystic Falls (A Coyote Wells Mystery Book 1) Page 14
