Skye Cree Boxed Set Books 1 - 3

by Vickie McKeehan

  A layer of guilt moved in at the question. She wasn’t proud of the way she’d stormed out of the loft. She’d have to deal with her temper later. First things first though, she decided. “I’ll fix things with Josh. I promise. Right now, I need to know more about the time Daniel spent working at Fort Lewis.”

  Travis narrowed his eyes to slits. “Why’s that?”

  She told him about the meeting with Harry, about Ellen Schreiber, about the DNA on the scarf linking back to Daniel.

  “What? That’s impossible. They made a mistake, that’s all,” Travis insisted after hearing it pour out of her.

  “No, it seems they took DNA when I went missing. They found a young girl about my age and needed to make sure it wasn’t me. They entered Daniel’s DNA into CODIS, where it’s been sitting all this time. I’m not even sure why he’d bother with providing a sample knowing it wouldn’t match to me.”

  “That’s just it, Skye. I’m telling you they made a mistake.”

  She focused on his dark brown eyes, beginning to pick up the implication. “Why are you so certain of that?”

  “Because the DNA belongs to me. The day they collected the swab, Daniel and I did a switcheroo.”

  She stared at him with her mouth gaped open. Letting the words sink in, she finally got her brain to work. “That’s impossible. How?”

  “They weren’t as particular about it then as they are now, standing over you with a long Q-tip every single second, watching your every move the entire time. When the tech handed Daniel the stick, he distracted her long enough that I was able to snatch it out of his hand then swab my own mouth, handed it back to Daniel. It took maybe an extra four seconds.”

  Skye shook her head. “You’re kidding? While the tech did what exactly? Harry was so sure you two couldn’t have pulled it off.”

  “So you put it on the table, huh? Thanks for thinking the worst of us, kiddo,” Travis teased.

  “Turns out, I wasn’t that far off the mark. So if the DNA belongs to you instead of Daniel, who actually knew Ellen intimately, if you get my drift, then what the hell is going on with the evidence?”

  “It could mean her killer had access.”

  “That’s crazy. I don’t even believe that.”

  He paced away from her and then turned to head back, covering the same band of space. “I knew Ellen.”

  “What?” Skye’s shoulders slumped. “How?”

  “Not well, of course, but Ellen came into your mother’s ceramics shop a couple of times when I was there. I watched the place while she and Jodie went to lunch at a little cafe two doors down.”

  Skye huffed out a breath. “I don’t understand how it is that the four of you could be so civilized during what had to be a very awkward encounter. If Josh cheated on me I’d want to scratch out the other woman’s eyes. You’re saying my mother and Ellen sat down, broke bread together, and then had a conversation. Unbelievable.”

  “Civilized? I guess we were. Jodie had a tremendous chunk of guilt over our affair. She struggled with it for some time. The three of us had to maintain a certain amount of civility because of you. Try to remember, in the end, Jodie chose Daniel over me. Besides that, I’m pretty sure Ellen wasn’t that serious about Daniel in the first place. She had a boyfriend or rather an ex-boyfriend she couldn’t seem to shake. At least that’s what Daniel told me. She continued to see the guy the whole time she was with Daniel.”

  “I need to find out his name. It’s odd but Harry never mentioned anything about Ellen having an ex-lover. Do you happen to know who it was?”

  “No idea. Probably some guy on base. But it has to be somewhere in her file if they did a thorough enough investigation. Harry couldn’t possibly believe Daniel had anything to do with Ellen’s death.”

  “No, Harry didn’t give me that impression. But there are people sitting in prison who were convicted on a lot less. DNA of any kind is a powerful piece of evidence to overcome in court.”

  “But it’s my DNA found on the scarf, not Daniel’s. And you can’t take a dead man to trial,” Travis argued. Scratching his chin, he leaned up against one of the stalls. “What if you’re dealing with a cop who had access to the evidence room?”

  “Wow, where did that come from? That might explain a few things though.”

  “Like access?”

  “More like, the ability to evade arrest for all this time. But before we start down that path, let’s back up a minute. How exactly did this DNA switch work?”

  “That day we were both very nervous and anxious about you still being—out there somewhere. When the tech showed up, we were in the garage changing the oil in Daniel’s car just for something to do and to keep our minds from thinking the worst.”

  “After everything, the two of you still managed to remain friends. It’s still hard to digest.”

  “Why? We were friends, brothers really, neither one of us was a monster.”

  “No, you weren’t monsters, just two guys who got caught up in something that got out of control. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to take a detour into that again. Go on with what happened.”

  “When the tech asked for the swab, Daniel and I traded looks. We both knew full well what we had to do. Daniel picked up a quart of oil and there were several others lined up on the fender of the car. Luckily, the cans had been opened. Anyway, he knocked one of them over and it ended up all over the tech’s pants leg. She was pretty pissed about it. While she was busy doing an ‘ick, look at this, black-stuff-all-over-me-type dance,’ Daniel handed me the swab. I ran it around my mouth, handed it back to Daniel. Once she stopped dancing around the mess and stopped worrying about her shoes, the tech was none the wiser.”

  It was too simple, thought Skye. But this time she kept her opinion to herself. “What if you’d gotten caught?”

  “In that case, we were prepared to disclose everything to the cops, anything to get you back, to get answers. Keep in mind, Drummond had a dead thirteen-year-old across town. We found out her age much later when she was identified as Brenda Bradbury. And then days later you found a way out of that rathole of an apartment and came back to us.

  “They took you to the hospital and the next thing I knew the phone rang. It was Daniel calling to tell me you were alive. I’d never dropped to my knees before, but I did that day. I’ve never been so relieved in my life. That day when I walked into your room and saw you were headed into surgery, I…I wanted to go to you, to tell you...right then that I was your father. Everyone had to give blood that day. Not sure they used it on you, but all our mutual friends showed up for a donation to the blood bank. I kept thinking the doctor would come out any minute and set everyone in the room straight.”

  Stepping to him, she laid her head on his shoulder and then a hand to his cheek. “I understand you couldn’t disclose anything. You were there for me later when they died. I needed you then, too. I just wish I could have grown up here.”

  “I do, too. But it wasn’t our path, Skye. That’s changed now. Nothing can keep us apart.”

  After finishing up grooming one of the horses, regret had already taken its toll. She felt petty for shutting Josh out like she had. And she wanted him here with her. There were times a person had to admit they’d been a horse’s ass and deal with it.

  For that reason, she took out her cell phone, punched in his number and was relieved when he picked up. “I’m sorry,” she said quickly. “I can be such an idiot at times.”

  “Where are you? Are you okay?”

  “I’m better. I’m at Travis’s place. Come out for dinner. There’s a lot you need to know.”

  Darkness fell, as she waited at the gate for him to drive up. At the first sign of his little car coming up the lane, her heart lurched.

  As soon as he crawled out of the car, Skye rushed to him, locking her arms around his waist.

  “I thought you’d never get here.”

  “That’s what I like to hear.” He snatched her up off her feet, held her up off the ground. “
Traffic was awful. Are we staying the night?”

  “I missed you.”

  “I missed you, too. Does your bad mood qualify for having makeup sex?”

  She chortled with laughter as they headed up to the house. “We definitely should explore that once Travis heads to bed. You do qualify for grilled steak fajitas. I know you like those.”

  After dinner she caught Josh up on the conversation with Travis as they took a walk in the rain down to the narrow cove of rocky coastline below the house. They passed through rolling pastureland, ambled under magnificent nobles and western hemlock. The tops of the giant trees looked as if the branches could reach the heavens.

  On their way to the little strip of rock-strewn beach, Skye breathed in the moist breeze. “The air always smells fresher up here even with the horse dung hanging on the fringes.”

  Josh laughed. “Get used to it. Once we close on the farmhouse, we’ll have access to this smell every day.”

  They stood there taking in the waves crashing up against the rocks. As squawky seagulls dive-bombed the water looking for a meal, Josh asked, “What’s troubling you the most?”

  “I’m still a little raw each time I’m reminded that my parents were so flawed. I suppose we all want to believe our moms and dads are perfect role models.”

  “Sure we do, but the bottom line is that isn’t realistic. Our parents make mistakes.”

  “Yours seem perfect.”

  “They’re far from that. My father was a workaholic. My mother had an addiction to pain pills during my high school years.”

  “Really?” That was news to her. “But they seem so…normal now.”

  Josh stuck his hands in his pockets. “Looks are deceiving. You should know that.”

  “I guess I do. I’m prepared to put their past behind me, stop my immature reaction to it every time it comes up. But it’s easier said than done.”

  “All you can do is work on the way you feel and keep trying. What else is bothering you?”

  “At the time Ellen Schreiber dated Daniel, she had an on-again-off-again relationship with another guy. We need to find out who it was and where he was the night Ellen went missing.”

  “The thing I don’t understand is how Travis’s DNA got on the woman’s scarf.”

  “Travis said he met Ellen a couple of times when she had lunch with my mother. Maybe...somehow…”

  “Okay. So what did Travis do, grab her by the scarf before she headed out the door to eat?”

  “I know. It’s bizarre. Travis mentioned we might be looking at a member of law enforcement. Think about it, Josh. Who else would have had access to the evidence? Do you think he could’ve somehow managed to put Travis’s DNA there on that scarf?”

  Josh considered that, shook his head. “How? It was Seattle’s jurisdiction. They’re the ones who kept what was found at the crime scene. The scarf was at the grave site, buried with the body. It was Harry who sent it for testing. No one knew the DNA wasn’t Daniel’s, except Travis.”

  “A link to Seattle PD then? I can’t help but think there has to be a flaw in the handling of this whole thing, in the course of the investigation, somewhere they missed a step.”

  “There’s no way it could’ve played out that way, Skye. It’s a coincidence, nothing more. Travis must’ve touched the woman’s scarf at some point.”

  “I suppose you’re right.”

  “What about Daniel’s fingerprints? Were they found on anything else with the remains? That might indicate more than the DNA on the scarf. Since he went through a detailed background check in order to get the civilian contractor’s job, his fingerprints have to be a matter of old military records.”

  Her brow creased into fine lines. “But that would mean Daniel might’ve had something to do with her death. Harry didn’t say a word about anything else in the evidence box pointing to Daniel as her killer. It was the DNA on the scarf he assumed matched Daniel’s.”

  “Like you said earlier, I’m grasping at straws. Nothing makes any sense.”

  “Unless it’s as you said, a coincidence. One thing I’m sure of is that Daniel did not kill Ellen. He was a kind man, Josh, a truly lovely soul who thought of other people before he ever did himself. I can’t imagine the man I knew and loved taking anyone’s life.” Her shoulders dropped. “I’m suddenly tired of talking about all this. I’m exhausted and ready for bed.”

  “Not going out tonight?”

  “Are you kidding? I doubt I’d do anyone much good. My brain refuses to engage. My body refuses to cooperate. Besides, I’m ready for that makeup sex now along with a good night’s sleep thrown in.”

  “Good thing I can take care of both,” he vowed, as he pulled her along back to the house.

  Chapter 17 Book 3

  The next morning as Travis cracked eggs into a bowl for scrambling he was still trying to figure out how his DNA got on that damn scarf. He’d spent the better part of the night brooding about it but all his theories had giant holes in them. Nothing made any sense.

  Skye wandered into the room, looking for coffee. He watched his daughter fill up a generous mug and then lean back on the counter to enjoy that first taste.

  “Good morning,” she finally uttered.

  “Feel better than you did yesterday?”

  “I do. Good night’s sleep, fresh air, what could be better?” She looked at him over the rim of her coffee. “Something’s on your mind.”

  “I’ve been thinking,” Travis began. “About one of the times Ellen came to the shop.”

  “Okay.”

  “One of those times, she and Jodie came back from lunch and Ellen’s car wouldn’t start. Jodie and I had to give her a ride home. That means Ellen was in my car for almost an hour. There was traffic on the 5 that day. It took some time to get her back to the base. I could have… I don’t know, touched her scarf or handed it off to her maybe. There has to be a logical explanation how my DNA got on part of her clothing.”

  “But you can’t think of even one. Was she wearing a scarf on one of the days she came into the shop?” She noted the disbelieving look on his face. “Okay, it’s been far too long for that kind of memory to stick,” Skye answered for him.

  Travis sent her a grateful look. “Hell if I remember what the woman was wearing. I barely remember what she looked like. But I can tell you this. She was driving a sporty little Honda Prelude that shouldn’t have had mechanical problems that day. It couldn’t have had more than a year’s worth of wear and tear on it, if that.”

  “What was wrong with her car?”

  “Someone had tampered with her distributor cap. As I recall, she later had to have it towed back to the dealership.”

  “Interesting. Maybe someone was stalking her. I keep coming back to the ex.”

  “Isn’t it always the husband or boyfriend, ex or otherwise?”

  “Generally speaking,” Josh said from the doorway. “We’ve kicked this around quite a bit.” Josh nodded at Travis. “How long after you saw her that day, did she go missing?”

  “Good question,” Travis said in response, rubbing the back of his neck. “Maybe a week. But that’s a guess on my part.”

  “Could be the boyfriend, who wasn’t Daniel, followed Ellen to Jodie’s shop that day thinking she was seeing you, too. Wanted to get a good look at you,” Josh suggested.

  “Daniel and Travis did look alike. But these questions just tell me I need to find Ellen’s sister, approach her about this ex, or not so ex, and see if she remembers his name, what he looks like.”

  “Even if you could find her, Harry says her family still lives in the Los Angeles area. With things the way they are around here, we can’t go down there to talk to her in person,” Josh pointed out. “It isn’t practical right now for either one of us to leave.”

  “I agree we have way too much going on to take a road trip. And Leo’s too busy for a thorough search on the Internet. That’s why I’ll take care of finding Ellen’s sister myself.”

  “I ca
n spare Leo, Skye. It isn’t that. You have access to any of my staff you think will help. But I still believe our best lead is the Judy Howe composite.”

  “I haven’t forgotten. I’m not without computer skills when it comes to doing searches, locating what I need, especially finding out last known addresses and phone numbers on someone. That’s fairly simple stuff.”

  Having said that, though, it turned out Harry had an old address for the Schreiber family. It took her most of the morning to locate the right relative, one who fit the age for Ellen’s sister. She got comfortable in Travis’s study, dialed the six-two-six area code for Pasadena and waited.

  She introduced herself when someone picked up. “Hi, my name’s Skye Cree. Are you Tracy Schreiber?”

  “I go by my married name now, Tracy Sands, even though I’ve been divorced for five years. Why?”

  “I tracked you down through an alumni association from your high school. I was wondering by any chance if you might be the sister or a relative of a murder victim we had some time back here in the Seattle area by the name of Ellen Schreiber.”

  Skye heard an intake of breath on the other end of the phone and the woman began to sob. “I’m sorry. I take it you knew Ellen?”

  “She was my sister. One of the sweetest girls you’d ever want to be around. No one in the family could believe it when Ellen wanted to join the army. She was the least likely person to follow rules and regulations back then. But she changed after basic training, got into the rhythm of the service. We supported her decision, of course. We had no way of knowing she’d end up murdered. She was only twenty-five. They’ve never even found who did it. Is this about her cold case?”

  “It is, yes. What can you tell me about the men she dated? Do you remember any names? Anything at all about them might help.”

  “Oh my God, you think it might’ve been someone she knew? That’s horrible.”

  “It’s a possibility.”

  “Well, let’s see. Once Ellen got to Tacoma, she had quite a social life. I mean, she always loved music and used to go out to clubs and concerts all the time. She did have one steady guy who seemed to always pop up or hang around whenever I talked to her. They’d break up and then get back together.”