Truth is in the Darkness (Paynes Creek Thriller Book 2)

by Heather Sunseri

  “It has. We should catch up soon.”

  She smiled. “Last we spoke, I got the impression you were hoping to reconnect with someone from your past. Any news on that front?”

  I looked down at a spot on the floor, then back at her. She and I had met for drinks one night at the urging of my mother and the sheriff. We were both hesitant, but she and I had developed a nice friendship, so we agreed. But nothing came of it. More my doing than hers.

  “There is news.” Her smile grew. “It’s written all over your face.” She leaned back on her heels. “I can’t lie—a tiny part of me was hoping you had gotten tired of waiting around and would give me a call.”

  “If something changes, you’ll be the first person I call.” That wasn’t exactly a lie. Corinne was a beautiful and intriguing woman.

  “Well, she’s a lucky woman.”

  I decided to let the subject die since it was just too complicated to get into. “So, what did our victim have to say during the autopsy?” I asked.

  She considered me a moment more. “You know, Coop, not every cop shows the same level of respect for victims of crimes the way you do. Many like to detach themselves from the victim of a violent crime as quickly as possible. Especially the ones who didn’t make it. But you care.”

  She turned and pulled out the drawer holding Tricia Hood. A white sheet covered her—clean, free from wrinkles or stains.

  “I could say the same of you, Doc. You run a professional and compassionate operation here.”

  I’d seen how she handled families when they lost loved ones in car accidents. She always protected the rights of the deceased. I could predict with near-absolute certainty that she would protect a murder victim’s rights and their story until their body was buried or cremated. That was why I didn’t even bother to try to come down here until I had the proper signed paperwork.

  “To answer your question,” she began, “our victim bled out slowly over several hours. One knife wound was close to her heart; the second one was in the middle of her abdomen. Because the knives were left inserted in the body, bleeding was reduced. I also predict our victim was a recreational drug user—found evidence of recent cocaine use. I’ve sent fluid and tissue samples to the lab for testing. She’d had sexual intercourse recently, probably last night. And there were signs of an abortion not long ago.”

  As always, Corinne was thorough. “Any signs of a struggle?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “Her fingernails were clean, and there were no signs of trauma other than the stab wounds.”

  “So maybe she knew the killer.”

  “Hey, I just report the facts. You draw the conclusions.” She lifted a section of the sheet to verify an identifying tag, then nodded at the bag I was holding. “That the phone?”

  “Oh, yeah.” I pulled the phone from the evidence bag, and Corinne positioned one of Tricia’s fingers on the home button. The phone woke up, proving that it did in fact belong to her. I brought up the settings menu and disabled the password protection features, then slipped the phone back inside the plastic bag. As much as I wanted to start scrolling through her phone right then and there, it would have to wait until I was back at the sheriff’s station.

  “Thanks, Corinne.”

  “Of course. I’ll send over the full autopsy report as soon as it’s complete, the i’s are dotted, and the t’s are crossed.”

  “Sounds good.”

  “And Coop?” she said as I headed for the exit. “If anything changes with the girl, call me.”

  I nodded and let my lips lift in a lazy smile. “Will do, Corinne.”

  “Are you serious? You fell asleep?”

  Standing just outside Sheriff Daniels’s office, I listened for exactly five more seconds before I hung up on the officer that was supposed to be keeping a close eye on Lily. The man was a total incompetent. If Bryn hadn’t called to ask if Lil and I wanted to join her and Jake for dinner at the Tap House, I never even would have known Lil had left Barb’s. And neither would the officer, who was still sitting in his car outside Barb’s, completely unaware that his charge was somewhere else entirely.

  I was a bit irritated with Bryn too for not telling me the moment Lil disappeared, but she had apparently assumed Lil had snuck off to be with me and so I already knew. With a little more questioning, I discovered that Bryn and Barb had both been drunk at the time. Bryn wasn’t even sure how long Lil had been gone.

  This was a disaster. And why hadn’t Lil herself called me?

  I dialed her number and got voicemail. “What the hell, Lil?” I said harshly. “Call me.”

  I immediately received a text from Lil: I’m fine. No thanks to the officer who fell asleep on the job. I’ll talk to you later.

  Relieved she was okay, but irritated she hadn’t picked up my call, I texted back: Where are you?

  Nothing. Was she ignoring me or busy?

  With a sigh of frustration, I stepped back into Sheriff Daniels’s office and waited for him to return.

  A large corkboard hung on one wall, featuring everything to do with the case. Photographs of evidence and persons of interest were accumulating, and multi-colored strings were stretched from one photograph to another, or to handwritten notes. I’d just now added photographs of the pages of Lil’s children’s book. I’d sent the original pages to the forensics lab in Frankfort for further analysis. No telling how long that would take.

  Lil had said the fox represented me. And twice now it had shown up with missing eyes. I couldn’t help but wonder: What am I not seeing?

  I looked over the photographs of every person who might have known that Lil had left New York and come home to Paynes Creek: Barb, Bryn, Drew, Winn Garrison, and Lily’s agent Rachelle. That was it. A very, very short list of people who knew of Lil’s itinerary.

  I had double-checked her social media. There was no mention of leaving New York. No photos or posts that might be hiding location metadata. And I had spoken to Rachelle over the phone. She was positive that she hadn’t mentioned Lil’s travel plans to anyone. There had been no reason to.

  I didn’t even bother with the “none of these people are capable of murder” mentality. I’d seen enough crime in my adult life to know that nearly anyone was capable of murder under the right circumstances. But there was no motive for any of the people on display before me.

  I moved to the section of the corkboard that covered all of the potentially related incidents. The threats to Lily in New York. The defaced suitcase. The rabbit blood on Barb’s back door. The stuffed rabbit stabbed with a knife. The eyeless fox hung in Lil’s childhood bedroom. The vandalized pages from one of Lil’s books. And now a waitress’s murder.

  Sheriff Daniels entered behind me. “Come up with anything?” He was holding a Styrofoam cup of coffee.

  “Is that fresh?” I asked, nodding at the coffee.

  “No.”

  I crinkled my nose. “Any update on forensics?”

  “Not so far. No fingerprints. The blood is most likely from the victim. And I got nothing but a heavy sigh when I asked them to rush the tests. It’ll be a while. For now”—he gestured to the board—“this is what we’ve got.”

  I turned back to the board. “I’d have to say the most unusual piece of evidence is the knives.” I pointed to the close-ups of the unique knives used to stab both the rabbit and Tricia. “Someone wanted us to have them.”

  “Does seem rather easy, doesn’t it? Most killers would prefer we didn’t have the murder weapon.”

  “Exactly. Especially a rare weapon that might be traceable. I talked to the woman at the antique store—Sharon. She said the handles of the knives are made of Mennecy porcelain. It dates back to France in the late 1700s.”

  “Wow. So those knives are really old.”

  “And quite valuable, too, according to Sharon,” I said.

  The sheriff took another drink, then cocked his head and studied one of the photographs of the knives. “And had the antiques lady ever seen knives like t
hese before?”

  “As a matter of fact, she had. She’s never sold a set of knives like this, but she thought she remembered someone coming in with a set similar to this, many, many years ago. The customer wanted an appraisal, so she put them in touch with a Lexington appraiser. She’s hoping she wrote down the details of the appraisal since it was such a rare find. She said she would search her records as soon as she returns from an antique show.”

  “Well now why didn’t you lead off with that? When will that be?”

  “Early next week.”

  “Next week? Did you stress to her that this was a murder investigation?”

  “I did. And she said that was why she planned to search her records the first moment she was able to.”

  Sheriff Daniels just shook his head. “Anything from the phone?”

  “Tricia made a few calls yesterday. One to her mom. One to Bryn’s shortly before her shift started, which Bryn confirmed. And a third to a number that is no longer active.”

  I didn’t mention the two additional numbers I discovered on Tricia’s phone. I had turned those over to an analyst at the FBI for tracing. Because if and when I confirmed my hunch, I’d have a lot more to explain to the sheriff.

  “Now that’s interesting,” the sheriff said. “A burner phone, maybe?”

  “Most likely. It’ll take time to trace.”

  “Everything takes too much time. Forensics, this antiques lady. I bet people hopped to it a lot quicker when you were with the FBI.”

  I chuckled. “You’d be wrong. Delays are a part of the job everywhere.”

  “Yeah, I suppose. By the way, did I overhear you yelling profanities at one of your patrol officers a few minutes ago?”

  I frowned. “Yes. I put Officer Briscoe on Lily, and he managed to let her sneak off. He says he fell asleep. Didn’t even know she had left Barb’s.”

  “You’re kidding me. Did you fire his ass?”

  “Not my place,” I said. “But if you can do without me for a while, I’d like to go track down Lil and get her back under my protection. I won’t be sleeping on the job.”

  “But you do need to sleep at some point, Coop. We can’t work the case twenty-four hours a day. Go find Lil, make sure she’s okay, then go home and get some sleep. I need your mind sharp.”

  As I left the sheriff’s office, I called Lil again. No answer. Before I had the chance to leave another message, Bryn called.

  “Did you find her?” I asked by way of greeting.

  “She’s at Boone’s. I’m pulling up now.” She slurred slightly.

  “Are you driving?”

  “What do you take me for? I’m in a Lyft.”

  I hung up and quickly turned my SUV toward Boone’s.

  Boone’s Tap House was busy most nights. The parking lot was particularly packed tonight. But I didn’t see Barb’s vehicle—the car Lil had borrowed off and on this week.

  My phone rang just before I entered the building.

  “Adams,” I said.

  “Agent Adams, this is Katy Anderly at Quantico. I have the information you requested about the two phone numbers you gave me.”

  “Go ahead.” I turned back to my truck to grab a pen and notepad.

  “I called the numbers you gave me using our caller ID spoofing software. I got no answer to the number attached to RR. But when I called the number attached to BW, a woman answered. When I said, ‘It’s me. I’m in trouble,’ like you suggested, she replied, ‘Tell me where you are.’”

  Gotcha! “And did you give her the address and the time that I told you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Perfect. Thank you, Katy.”

  “Sure thing. Let me know if you need anything else.”

  I hung up and walked into Boone’s. Live music had started up in one corner, making the atmosphere more like a drinking hole than a restaurant, but as a server passed by with a tray of burgers, sandwiches, and French fries, my stomach growled. I hadn’t managed to eat more than a granola bar and a package of peanut butter crackers all day.

  I spotted Jake and Bryn in a booth. Sitting across from them were Lil and Winn. I felt like someone had just twisted one of those antique knives in my gut when I saw her laughing with a hand on Winn’s arm. He smiled at her, but didn’t appear to be as happy as she was.

  Jake motioned to one of the servers, signaling for her to bring them another round.

  I approached the table. “Good evening,” I said in the most pleasant tone I could manage.

  Lil snapped to attention. She looked up at me with those smoldering green eyes, then smiled. “Coop! You’re here!” She reached a hand across Winn, who looked slightly annoyed. “Pull up a chair and join us.” She was clearly drunk. And she spoke to me like we were old friends getting together for a high school reunion.

  Jake looked at me and shrugged. “I’m sorry. We’ve had a few. But we were just getting ready to order dinner. And this one”—he jerked a thumb at Bryn—“was already halfway to drunk before she even arrived. Said Barb got her that way.”

  I eyed Lil. “I guess it’s no use asking you why you ditched your police protection today.”

  Lil waved a hand and blew out a breath. “Like that kid was going to protect me. When I left, he had his eyes closed and a line of drool trailing down his chin.” She laughed as she traced a line down her chin to demonstrate.

  “Incoming,” the server said behind me. She placed a martini in front of Lil, bourbon on the rocks in front of Bryn, and a soft drink in front of Winn.

  The soft drink was a pleasant surprise. At least someone was keeping their wits about them.

  “Pull up a chair, man,” Jake said.

  “Yeah, belly on up,” Lil said, a little loudly. I wasn’t aware that she had become a drinker.

  “I’ll be back.” I thumbed over my shoulder as I looked from Jake to Winn to Lil. “I’m just gonna… Yeah.” I turned away. I felt like having a few drinks in me myself right then, but I considered myself on duty until I got Lil somewhere safe, and there was no way in hell I was going to allow Winn to be the only one with a clear head.

  I slid onto a stool at the bar.

  “Hey, Coop,” said Caine, the owner of Boone’s. He slid a cardboard coaster in front of me. “What’ll it be?”

  “Hi, Caine. I’ll just stick with a Diet Coke tonight.”

  “You got it.” He scooped ice into a glass and filled it with Diet Coke. “Any leads in the murder case?”

  I gave my head a shake. “Not much to share at this point.”

  “We’re all sure sorry to hear about it. Tricia was a real nice girl.”

  “She come in here much?”

  “Not too often. She kept an apartment just inside Lexington. Always said she liked working in Paynes Creek, but she wanted to live someplace a little bigger.” Caine tapped a knuckle on the bar. “Well, y’all let me know if you need anything else.” He nodded to Winn, approaching behind me.

  “Thanks, Caine.”

  Winn slid onto a stool beside me, holding his soft drink. “She was about to pack up and return to New York this afternoon.” He tilted his head in Lil’s direction.

  I took a drink of the Diet Coke. “Oh yeah? What stopped her?” I asked without looking at him.

  “Look, man. I don’t know what’s going on between you and Lil. She clearly doesn’t know, and by the looks of you, I think you haven’t a clue either. But I do know this: someone’s been watching her every move for many months now, and the NYPD brushed her off. If you’re willing to take her seriously, then we’re on the same side here.”

  “I’ve got a couple of dead animals and now a dead girl. So yes, I’d say I’m taking this seriously.” I turned to him. The look in his eye told me everything I needed to know. “You’re in love with her.”

  He didn’t bother to deny it. “Yeah, well, we don’t always get what we want.”

  I kept my eyes trained on his. There was no jealousy or anger there. Was I looking at a man who simply wanted what was
best for Lil?

  “You’re giving up that easy?” I asked.

  “Oh, I’m not giving up. After all, I’m what’s best for her.”

  And there it was—the arrogance I’d seen yesterday when he stood in my kitchen and accused Lil of sleeping with me just so that I would protect her.

  “I was willing to give up everything for her,” he continued. “Hell, I’m here. And I’m seeing firsthand what she tried to tell me months ago.”

  I turned back to my Diet Coke and took a drink, wishing again that it was bourbon. “And what did Lil tell you months ago?”

  “That she couldn’t marry me because her heart would always belong to another man.”

  The knife I had felt in my gut when I entered Boone’s seemed to go a little deeper, this time angling toward my heart. I should be delighted with Winn’s words, but all I could think was that I had been sitting here, a jealous fool, brooding over a stupid Diet Coke because I didn’t think I would ever be what Lil needed.

  “Why are you here, Winn?”

  “Because as pathetic as this sounds, I will do whatever I can to help Lil get everything she deserves in life. Hell, man, I would marry her tomorrow, even knowing she was in love with you, and I would spend my life making her feel special. So like I said, we both want to protect her. We both want her to be happy. At least on this one thing, we need to work together.”

  I turned to Winn again. “Why didn’t she take this seriously in New York?” Hell, why hadn’t she called me? I would have helped her.

  “She’s always taken it seriously. She invested in a fancy security system for her apartment, and twice a week she takes Krav Maga classes at her gym. She can flatten a man nearly twice her size if he’s not expecting it.”

  I turned toward the table again just in time to see Lil and Bryn lick their hands, throw back a shot of what I assumed was tequila, and suck on a lime. The amused look on Jake’s face surprised me. Why didn’t he put a stop to their ridiculous behavior?

  “I’ll admit that I don’t know a lot about Lil these days,” I said to Winn, nodding toward Lil. “But I’m surprised she would get like this.”