Red Red Rose

by Stephanie Hoffman McManus

  “Hey,” he breathed softly, gently tipping my chin up with his forefinger. “Head up. Believing the worst right now doesn’t do anyone any good. Not you, not her parents or her brother. And the FBI coming in can only be a good thing.”

  “You’re right,” I breathed out and then drew in a fortifying breath reaching for my brave face. “I need to stay strong.”

  A soft smile touched his lips, but didn’t quite reach his eyes. “It’s okay to be afraid. You don’t have to pretend for anyone. Just don’t let go of hope. That’s true strength.”

  Whatever words I might have said, caught in my throat, and before I could force them out, James was finished with his phone call.

  Shaw lightly traced his thumb just under my bottom lip, tempting my lips to part. They did and he slowly drew his hand back. My tongue darted out to wet my bottom lip and my teeth scraped over it. James was oblivious to the moment, but he quickly picked up that something was passing between us when he reappeared at my side.

  Having thoroughly muddled my brain, Shaw took the opportunity to make his exit. Casting the weight of his gaze over me a final time, he shifted on his feet. “I better get going. I’ll see you later, Nora.” He spared James a brief glance before making his way out of the shop. I don’t think he was comfortable having James’ scrutiny on him or the two of us together.

  “Tell me again there’s nothing there,” James tried to goad me once Shaw was gone.

  I ignored him and pressed about the phone call to his parents. He hadn’t learned anything significant except that they weren’t contacted by Parker today. A bit of relief came from that. If something truly bad or consequential had happened, they would be the first ones the police would contact.

  James hung around the shop until three and then drove us over to Grand Avenue and pulled his father’s truck into a visitor’s spot outside the station. When we went in, we were met by Detective Parker and another man in an even fancier suit.

  “Miss Scott, we appreciate you coming down here. This is Agent Monroe with the FBI. I’m sure you’ve heard, as it’s been all over today’s news, that Seattle brought the Bureau in on this strangler case.” I hadn’t watched the news today, but Nathan had provided my heads up.

  “We’d like to ask you a few questions, if you’ll just follow us.”

  “Is this about my sister?” James cut in and both men took in his presence at my side.

  “This is Emily’s older brother, James. He’s home on leave while you guys look for Emily,” I explained.

  “Well, if you’ll both just follow us, like I said we have some questions and we can better explain what’s going on,” Parker assured us.

  We had no choice but to follow them back to a quiet room that looked a lot like every interrogation room I’d ever seen on TV, complete with what had to be one-way glass. James and I were directed to take seats at the small table. Agent Monroe sat across from us, setting a file folder in front of him, and Detective Parker stood at the door after closing it behind us.

  “I’ll let you take it from here, Agent,” Parker spoke, and I gave my attention to the man from the FBI, whose eyes were on me.

  “Is it safe to assume you’re familiar with the strangler case?”

  “Isn’t everyone in the state? I mean, I’ve only seen what’s on the news, but I don’t see how anyone could not know what’s been going on.”

  He nodded. “And you’re aware that the most recent victim was found on Whatcom Lake?”

  “I heard that.” Whatcom Lake wasn’t far from Bellingham at all.

  “We’ve confirmed that it was Laney Benson, the fourth girl we know of to have been taken.”

  “Okay . . .” I said, still not seeing how any of this was relevant or pertained to Emily yet.

  “Did you know or had you ever met Laney?”

  “No,” I answered, even more confused.

  “As I’m sure you’re aware from the media, Laney was slightly older than the previous victims.” The first three were freshman and sophomores in college, but if I was remembering facts right, Laney was closer to my age which put her a couple years past college. She’d been living in Oregon, but was taken near Seattle Pacific University, where she’d been visiting her younger sister. Similar to each of the girls before her, who’d been in party environments, she’d last been seen leaving a club. You’d think girls would be smarter than to walk alone at night, but they’d all been out in public and close enough to their campuses, they probably had a false sense of security.

  “What you may not be aware of is that Laney attended Western at the same time you and Miss Raynes were students there.”

  That I had not known. “I didn’t know that.”

  He pulled a picture from his file, the same one that had been flashed on the news several times while authorities were still searching for Laney. It was a close-up of the pretty red head, taken somewhere outdoors. In it she had a bright smile on her face.

  “Are you sure you never met her before?”

  I stared harder at the picture, trying to rack my memory. “I’m sorry. There are thousands of students at the university. If I ever met her, I don’t remember it. The only place I recognize her from is the news.”

  “Is it possible Miss Raynes knew her?”

  “Emily and I were roommates our freshman year and we became close. I would have known if they were friends, but I can’t say whether or not Emily knew her. They might have had a class together. I might have even had a class with her and don’t remember. I just don’t know for sure.”

  “That’s alright. We’ll be getting her files from the school and that will tell us if there is a connection to you or Emily.”

  “Why does it matter, though? Why do you want to know if Emily or I knew her?”

  He pulled a small clear bag from the file and slid it across the table to me. Both James and I leaned in to take a closer look. I recognized what was in it immediately.

  “Where did this come from?” My eyes lowered again to the business card from Urban Grind.

  “It was in Laney’s hand when her body was discovered.”

  “What?” My eyebrows shot up.

  “Now you see why we’re trying to find a connection between Laney and Emily. The card being left in her hand is too much of a coincidence with Emily’s disappearance.”

  “What do you think it means?” James voiced the same question that was on my mind.

  “We have several theories and are exploring each possibility, which is why I wanted to speak to you,” he directed to me. “We’re trying to establish a connection between Laney, your friend and the killer. If this does have anything to do with Emily’s disappearance, which at this point we can’t say, considering she does not fit the profile of the victims–”

  “But you think the same guy might have my sister?” James interrupted.

  “Like I said, as far as your sister’s link to this case, what we’re going off of is theory and speculation until we know more. It’s possible that Emily was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and saw or knew something she shouldn’t have.”

  “Emily colored her hair red a few times during college,” I spoke up, the thought just coming to me. “If Emily knew Laney, and Western is the connection, then maybe the killer knew Emily when she had read hair?” It seemed a stretch. Emily had been back to her natural color now since before we graduated, but it was the only thing I could think of.

  “That’s certainly a possibility. I don’t think we had that noted in her file. We’ll continue to see if we can find a connection in their school records. Can you think of anyone back then, a boyfriend, classmate or someone who might have pursued Emily, that would have had a hard time letting go or accepting rejection.”

  I shook my head. “No. I mean Em liked to have fun, and she dated a lot of guys,” I swallowed guiltily, knowing she wouldn’t want James to hear this, but I’d already had to give him the rundown on some of her dating history. This wasn’t any worse. “She wasn’t always
the most selective and went out with a few jerks. She also broke a few hearts and had a lot of admirers, but no one was ever that hostile with her after being rejected. She never complained of having any stalkers or anything like that. The only one who really worried me was her ex, Jason Reeves.”

  Parker, recognizing the name, jumped in. “We spoke to Mr. Reeves following the missing persons report being filed. He was along for the ski trip Emily was on with her friends. The two of them had several verbal altercations before Emily left the trip a couple days early. The rest of their friends vouch for the fact that Jason remained through the weekend, and his credit card statements show purchases made at the resort to back it up.”

  Monroe nodded at Parker, satisfied, and then looked back at me. “Is there anyone else? We suspect this guy to be in his mid-twenties to early thirties, likely good-looking and non-threatening as it appears he gets the girls to go with him willingly. At the very least, he’s able to get close enough to subdue them without setting off any internal alarms as we’ve seen no signs of fight on the girls. He’s intelligent and has a high attention to detail. Meticulous almost. Has a need to be in control and probably doesn’t do well with authority figures.”

  “I’m sorry. I can’t think of anyone, and I’ve already spent the last two weeks racking my brain to come up with who and why someone would have had a reason to hurt her, and I just don’t know.”

  “If either of you do think of anything, even if it seems small, don’t hesitate to call Detective Parker or myself.” He pulled two business cards from his jacket and handed them to us. Then he started gathering everything back into his file, including the notes he made while we talked.

  There was just one more thing I wanted to ask that was bugging me, but I didn’t know if I could bring myself to ask the question. We all stood from our seats and I tried to steel myself.

  “Agent Monroe?”

  “Yes?” He looked up from the file he was gathering into his hands.

  “If it’s the same guy who took those other girls, why hasn’t . . .” I couldn’t bring myself to voice it, but he knew what I was asking and he gave me a sympathetic look.

  “I wish I could give you a definite answer, but the truth is, until we know more, I can’t say. The fact that she hasn’t turned up like the others could mean several things.” He was reluctant to elaborate, but it wasn’t good enough for me.

  “Like what? That you just haven’t found her body yet?” I croaked angrily, surprised at how quickly my emotions were coming up. I couldn’t help it though. I’d been wondering it for days. There were lakes all over western Washington. Each girl had been dumped at a different spot along one of them. Who was to say Emily wasn’t already out there, waiting to be found? Most of the girls had gone undiscovered for several days or longer before someone came across them. Even though I knew state troopers, park rangers and game and wildlife officers had been put on alert to be patrolling all the lakes in the area, they couldn’t cover every inch.

  “Like I said, Miss Scott, there are several possibilities. We have just as much reason to believe she’s alive and will continue to look for her as if she is. We also can’t ignore the possibility that these two cases might be unrelated and Emily’s disappearance is being used as a convenient move to throw off our investigation into this serial case. These types of predators are usually tracked through their victims. The profiles we establish, based off not only the evidence and MO, but the victims chosen, tell us a lot about the perpetrators. Taking false credit for another victim that doesn’t fit in the already established victimology, changes things. But we still have every confidence we will track this guy down.”

  His confidence did very little to boost mine. “So what happens now?”

  “Now, you both go home and let us do our jobs. We’ll be in touch if we have any more questions, and remember, if either of you think of anything, or you see or hear anything that gives you pause or even just a bad feeling, don’t hesitate to call. Nora, you especially need to be vigilant. If Emily knew her abductor, it is likely you’ve had contact with this person as well. He disposed of her purse behind your business, which means he was there.”

  The entire ride back to the shop to get my car and then the drive home, I couldn’t stop thinking about what Agent Monroe said. It was unsettling enough to think that whoever was responsible might be watching, but that it could be someone I knew . . . there was just no way. But the seeds of doubt and suspicion had been planted.

  I hoped they figured it out soon. I didn’t want to look up every time the door to my shop opened and wonder if the person walking in the door could have had anything to do with Em or the other girls.

  Seven

  “Damn gremlins,” I grumbled, as I rifled through Emily’s suitcase, the one she hadn’t gotten the chance to unpack. I found it just inside the door when I came home that night. I’d lugged it back to her room where it sat unpacked since.

  “What’s up?” I jumped at the voice, spinning around to see James in the doorway.

  I set my hand over my racing heart. “You startled me. I didn’t hear you come in.”

  “Just got back. Heard you in here muttering about gremlins.” He crossed his arms in front of his chest and leaned against the doorframe. “You have a pest problem? I’m not sure if the Ghostbusters handle gremlins, but you might be able to give them a call.”

  I chuckled and stood. “You have their number? I’ve got gremlins or ghosts or some sort of thieving creature.”

  “Lose something?”

  “Maybe,” I let out a resigned breath. “I thought I’d find them in here. Emily and I are always borrowing each other’s stuff, but no luck finding what I’m looking for.” I’d misplaced several things over the past couple weeks.

  “I think maybe my dryer is eating my laundry, but instead of sticking to the usual socks, mine has developed a taste for everything, including my underwear.” I brushed past him into the hall and sent an evil glare at the pantry where said dryer was. The dryer didn’t explain my missing jewelry though, which is why I’d decided to search Em’s stuff. We’d been living together so long it was sometimes easy to forget whose stuff was whose.

  “This is the first time I’ve heard of a dryer devouring underwear,” he gave me a teasing grin.

  I sighed, “I suppose it all might turn up if I cleaned my room.” I pushed open the door directly across from Em’s. It wasn’t exactly messy, but with the hours I worked, it was known to get a little cluttered, usually with stacks of folded laundry I didn’t bother to put away, and occasionally piles of dirty laundry that had yet to find their way to the washer. Currently, it looked as if every dresser drawer and hanger in my closet was probably empty, because my clothes were all over the place. The piles were made worse by the digging I did through them earlier trying to locate the missing goods.

  “I guess I know what I’ll be spending the evening doing. If you have any laundry you want done, you can toss it in the bin by the washer and I’ll throw it in with mine,” I offered. “And if you give me a little bit of time to get a load started, I can probably throw together something for dinner.”

  He unfolded his arms and stepped out of the doorway into mine, gripping the top of the doorjamb. “Throw in a backrub and I might just ask you to marry me.”

  I rolled my eyes and gave him a shove, forcing him out of the doorway. “Right. I’ll believe you’re ready to settle down when I see the ring.”

  He slipped away with a quiet chuckle and I began gathering up dirty clothes. I took them out to the laundry room and started stuffing the washer. James appeared with a few things of his own that I shoved in with mine. I tossed in some soap and slammed the lid down, hitting the button to start the cycle. “Now let’s go see what I can rustle up in the kitchen.”

  I hadn’t been shopping in almost two weeks, so options were limited, but I found chicken breasts in the freezer and some pasta and a jar of sauce in the cupboard. “Chicken alfredo it is,” I declared, and looked
over at James.

  “You won’t hear me complain about anything you want to make. You cook it, I’ll eat it.”

  He moved into the living room and claimed the TV while I whipped up our dinner. The rest of the night was pretty quiet. We ate and watched sitcoms while I worked my way through the mountain of laundry, even getting it folded and some of it put away.

  James ducked his head inside my open door when I was putting away socks. “So, what’s the verdict? Do you have gremlins or a possessed dryer, or did you find your things?”

  “Don’t know yet. Haven’t found what I was looking for, but I’ve still got another load or two to sort through, and I need to put those piles away.” I waved my hand at the stacks of clothing that covered the chair and small desk in my room from the last time I did laundry. “My money’s on gremlins though.”

  “Well, I’m going to turn in. I didn’t make it to a gym today, so I’m going to try to hit one first thing in the morning. Then my dad needs help around the property, so I’ll be out there most of the day.”

  “Okay. There’s a gym just a couple blocks from the shop. My friend Will is a trainer there. I’ve never been in, because me and gyms don’t get along, what with all that sweating, but I think it’s a good place. You should check it out. I’m sure they do weekly passes or something for while you’re in town.”

  “Okay, I might hit it up. Thanks.”

  His head disappeared and I heard him shut himself inside the bathroom. I finished putting away the stack in my arms, disappointed that my favorite shirt, one of the many missing items, hadn’t turned up. I got it at the Ashes and Embers concert Emily took me to a couple years ago. We got to meet the band and I had them sign it with one of those fancy fabric Sharpies. I was going to be pissed if it didn’t turn up eventually.

  The bathroom door opened and James popped his head in one more time to say goodnight. I grabbed my pajamas and headed for the shower. By the time I dragged myself back out and took a few extra minutes to blow-dry my hair so I wouldn’t wake up looking like something from an eighties hair band, the house was dark and quiet.