Scraps of Evidence: Quilts of Love Series

by Barbara Cameron

  She gently pushed Maria down to sit on the porch swing and sat beside her. It wasn’t the first time she’d had to do a death notification; it wouldn’t be the last.

  “I’m so sorry, Maria. She’s dead.”

  “No,” Maria said, shaking her head. “I was just with her last night. She can’t be. I want to see her.”

  Tess hesitated. There was no one solution, no one right way to handle this. It had been the worst day of her life when she’d seen Sam carried out in a body bag.

  “I want to see her,” Maria insisted. She burst into tears, sobbing hysterically in Tess’s arms. She let her cry until Phil came to the door.

  Tess tried not to tense up, but Maria must have felt it. She sat back and found a tissue in her pocket to wipe at her tears. “What is it?” She looked over at the door and saw Phil.

  “Hi.”

  “I’m so sorry, Maria. Do you want to see Toni before we leave?”

  Tess could feel Maria trembling just sitting next to her. Maria nodded. “Thank you.”

  He came forward and took her hand and when Maria stood, she reached back for Tess’s hand.

  Together they walked inside and Tess watched Maria make the formal identification of the body. Maria let out a keening wail when she saw her sister and for a moment she sagged, and Phil and Tess had to hold her up. And then she nodded and turned to Tess.

  “Get me out of here,” she told Tess. “I want out of here.”

  Just as Tess turned to do as she asked, Logan stepped forward. “Maria, I’m sorry for your loss, but can you stay here for a few minutes? Help us?”

  Tess rounded on him. “How can you ask her that now?”

  Logan looked at Tess. He saw the pain and sorrow of today. But there was more in those stormy gray eyes flashing at him. In them, he could read remembered horror from her friend Samantha’s death.

  “We need to do this,” he said quietly. “You more than anyone know that.”

  He watched her close her eyes, then open them. She sighed. “I know.”

  “Can you think of anyone—anyone at all who might have wanted to hurt Toni?” he asked. “Did she have a boyfriend? Was there any trouble at work that she mentioned?”

  Maria shook her head. “Everyone loved Toni, and she didn’t have boyfriend trouble. He’s overseas, doing his last tour in Afghanistan. They were hoping to get—” she stopped, fought for control. “They were hoping to get married.”

  Logan stepped closer and waited until she lifted her eyes to meet his. “Maria, do you think you can look at Toni and tell me if there’s anything that looks different about her. Something that doesn’t look right. Anything missing? I know I’m asking a lot.”

  Maria glanced at Tess when she moved to slip her arm around her waist. “I can do this. It’s okay. Really. I want the monster who killed my Toni caught.”

  Logan watched her take a deep breath and seem to steel herself to look at her sister.

  “Take your time. Don’t force anything.”

  He glanced at Tess, and she nodded. They both knew why he asked Maria to do this. Sometimes the killer took something as a trophy. Rearranged her hair or altered her clothing. Posed her in a way meant to send a message—often obscene. He was grateful at least this time, the perp hadn’t done that. Snuffing out the life of a beautiful young woman with her life ahead of her had been bad enough.

  “One of her rings is missing,” Maria said finally. “It was just a little birthstone ring I gave her. A little sapphire. Not worth much. I couldn’t afford much of a stone. I gave it to her for her quinceañera.”

  “Good,” Logan told her quietly. “This is very helpful Maria. Can you see anything else? You know her better than anyone else.”

  “Except our mother,” Maria said and tears began running down her cheeks again. “Oh, I’m glad our mother isn’t here to see this.”

  Tess gave her a reassuring squeeze. “She’s welcoming Toni into heaven,” she murmured.

  Maria nodded and wiped away her tears. She frowned. “Toni loved wearing her jewelry. We didn’t have money for it years ago, so when she started working she’d treat herself to a piece every so often. Maybe we should look in her jewelry box.”

  “Good idea. And keep looking around as we walk to it.” Tess kept her arm around her waist.

  A single glass sat on the counter next to the sink. A crime scene tech looked up from his examination of the floor. “I dusted that for prints. I doubt the perp was stupid enough to drink from it and leave his DNA, but you never know.”

  Logan nodded and gave the room another visual sweep.

  “Nothing’s off in here,” Maria said. “Toni was such a good housekeeper, kept everything so clean.”

  They moved on to the master bedroom where Maria put on a pair of gloves Logan handed her and went through her sister’s jewelry box. “I don’t think anything’s missing.”

  “Excuse me for a moment,” Tess said.

  Logan let Maria move from room to room without prompting her. She looked shell-shocked, moving on auto-pilot, but appeared determined to help them. But he knew he would need to draw this to a close very soon before she simply crashed.

  The medical examiner appeared in the doorway, signaled Logan that he was leaving. Logan nodded and was glad that Maria didn’t notice their nonverbal communication. The last thing she needed was to see her sister being zipped into a body bag and carried out.

  Tess had witnessed it, though. Logan could tell how it had affected her and wished he could have spared her. When she saw him watching her, she met his gaze, lifted her chin, and almost seemed to draw herself up, all business.

  “Maria, I was just wondering. Where’s Paco?”

  The woman clapped her hand to her mouth. “Oh my! That’s what’s wrong. Where’s Paco?”

  “A dog?” Logan asked.

  “Chihuahua.” Maria began calling its name as she went to the back yard. Logan and Tess followed.

  The dog was nowhere to be found.

  Tess dialed Animal Control, but no Chihuahua had been brought in by their staff or the public. She relayed a description of the dog and left Maria’s phone number in case anyone saw Paco.

  Logan made a note to ask that the officers doing a neighborhood canvas find out if anyone had seen the dog or heard it barking around the time of the murder.

  An officer appeared in the doorway, and Tess walked over to him. They talked briefly, and then Tess returned to Maria’s side. “Your husband is here to take you home, Maria. I called him. Father Angelo is on his way to meet both of you at your house.”

  She led Maria to the front door, walking her quickly past the place where Toni had lain.

  Logan watched the man who wrapped his arms around Maria and led her to a car.

  “Husband?”

  Tess nodded. She turned to him. “What are you thinking?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Something’s on your mind.”

  “The dog,” he said. “Chihuahuas are fiercely protective of their owners. My mother got one after I went off to college, and I got bitten more than once when I went home for the holidays. I don’t know how someone got in with Paco here.”

  He watched her rub her forehead. “When’s the last time you ate?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “I’m sure you are,” he said. “But that’s not what I asked. All I’ve had today is a chicken sandwich on my way to the vet early this morning. I say we take a break, get some food, and compare notes.” He closed his notebook, shoved it in the back pocket of his jeans, and strode out of the room.

  She caught up with him at the car and tossed him the keys. “You drive. I want to look something up.”

  He slid into the driver’s seat and had to adjust the seat only a little—she was nearly as tall as he was. She got in the passenger side, buckled up, then immediately became engrossed surfing the Internet on her cell phone.

  “Where do you want to eat?” he asked.

  “You pick.”

 
; “How’s that Greek place near the station? Good?”

  She nodded.

  He drove there, parked, and waited. It took her several minutes before she looked up and around.

  “Let’s get inside and order,” he said. “Then you can tell me about your friend’s case.”

  5

  Her name was Samantha Marshall,” she began. “She was eighteen and the first victim of a serial killer who has since murdered four more young women about the same age.”

  He stopped her by touching her hand lying on top of the table. “I’m sorry. I didn’t say that well. Tell me about your friend, Tess.”

  Tess stared at his hand covering hers and then lifted her gaze to his. She saw compassion, not pity in his eyes.

  “I called her Sam,” she said. “We grew up together, in the same neighborhood. Went to the same school. Double-dated. She was a tomboy, and there wasn’t a sport she couldn’t play. She won a scholarship to U of F—University of Florida. We were going to go off to college, be roommates—until she got killed.”

  She stared off into the distance. “It was the night of the prom. We’d gone to dinner before with the Johnson boys—we were seeing twin brothers. She thought that was funny—we were so alike we could have been twins, and we were dating them. Sometimes life is stranger than fiction.”

  The waitress brought their meals, but she let hers sit as she remembered. “I left the dance because Jimmy couldn’t seem to keep his hands to himself. He kept saying he hoped he’d get lucky that night.” She blushed. “I asked myself what I’d seen in him. He was cute, but he was so crude, so selfish.”

  “He was a teenaged guy,” Logan said. His mouth quirked in a grin. “I’m not sure I was way more mature at that age.”

  “I’m sure you were a lot more mature than Jimmy. Anyway, I stomped out of the place they were having the prom and then realized I should have told Sam I was catching a cab home. But I couldn’t find her. Turned out she’d gone looking for me after she heard the brothers talking, and Jimmy admitted he’d been a jerk.

  “The three of us went looking for her. We spent hours going every place we could think of. Mrs. Ramsey went with us. You know, the cat lady who couldn’t find her necklace the other day? She was a chaperone at the prom. So she and her husband joined the search. It was so not like Sam to go off without saying something.”

  She took a sip of her sweet tea. Her throat suddenly felt so dry. “Finally, we all went home. They found Sam the next day in the park near the lighthouse.”

  Tess looked at him. “It was so ironic. She loved that lighthouse, even worked part-time in the gift shop.”

  “You and Phil said Toni had the same mark today as Sam.”

  “Yeah.” She pulled out her cell phone and called up the image. “See, it’s the same as Toni’s.”

  “Could it be a copycat?”

  “I don’t think so. We’ve never released that detail to the public.”

  He studied it. “Any speculation on what it means?”

  She shook her head. “Everyone just thinks it’s a letter M. But of course it means more than that to the killer.”

  The waitress stopped by their table. “Something wrong with the food?”

  “No, Kim, I’m sure it’s fine.” Tess picked up her fork and began eating. “I was just telling Logan here about Sam.”

  “The two of them used to come in here after school with some friends,” Kim told Logan. “I was just out of high school and starting waitressing.”

  Tess smiled. “We used to order cherry Cokes and French fries.”

  “One of the other girls got jealous,” Kim said. “She was this little rich girl, daddy was a doctor. Wanted to know why Tess and Sam used to get a bigger plate of French fries than she did. I told her it was because they shared.”

  She sighed. “Gotta go see what old man Roberts wants now. Let me know if you need anything.”

  “We shared because we were like sisters,” Tess explained. “But we also shared because our families didn’t have much money. My mom was a single parent, and Sam’s dad was out of work a lot. We even shared prom dresses.”

  Logan’s eyes narrowed. “She was wearing one you’d worn before?”

  “Yes. And don’t think I didn’t feel guilty over that later. What if the killer had been targeting me? We know they often know their victims or they stalk them for a while.”

  He took a sip of his sweet tea. “Anything stick out about that night? Anyone leave the prom?”

  She grinned. “Have you forgotten your prom night? It’s all about the couples sneaking outside to make out.”

  “True. What I mean is, was there anything about the night that bothered you? Made you suspicious of anyone?”

  Tess stirred her mashed potatoes. “Well, I remember that Gordon gave Wendell a lot of grief over where he was when Sam went missing. Gordon was working security. Anyway, Wendell had an alibi. He’d gotten into trouble for adding the contents of a flask he’d sneaked in and put into the punch bowl. The coach saw him and was going to send him home, but then I walked up to them and asked where Sam was.”

  “Finish eating and we’ll go make a report to the shift supervisor, then pull the files on the previous vics and start looking at them.”

  She wasn’t really in the mood to eat but who knew when they’d take time again to eat. And she hadn’t been able to shop earlier today, as she’d intended.

  Kim came to refill their tea and then returned to offer Logan dessert. He chose the apple pie she said was fresh baked.

  When Kim turned to leave, he stopped her. “Tess, aren’t you having anything?”

  “Oh, I know what she’s having,” the waitress told him breezily. “She can’t resist our baklava.”

  Tess made a face at the woman’s back, then laughed, and shook her head. “She thinks she knows me so well.”

  “I guess that’s the blessing—and the curse of small towns, eh?”

  “You’re right,” she said. “You’re so right.” Then she frowned.

  “What?”

  “Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? The killer is one of us. He’s lived here all this time, walked among us. Maybe gone to the same schools, the same beach, eaten at the same restaurants.”

  She smiled as Kim placed the Greek pastry in front of her. “Knows us well.”

  “Huh?” said Kim.

  “Nothing. Just thinking out loud.”

  Kim grinned and made a circular motion with her head near her temple before she walked away.

  “I’m not crazy,” she said as she dug into the baklava, savoring the bite of the flaky pastry, honey, and almonds.

  “No, you’re not,” he told her. “That’s why he’s been hard to catch. He’s been able to blend right in and not call attention to himself. But the thing about serial killers is that they think they’re smarter than everyone else. Sometimes they get arrogant and slip up.”

  He smiled, an almost . . . feral smile. “We’re going to get him, Tess. Count on it.”

  Tess had learned to count on herself and no one else. She didn’t know Logan McMillan well yet. But she had the feeling she could count on what he said.

  Talk about a challenge.

  Logan liked one although he sure hadn’t wanted it to come about this way. So, this seemingly quaint historic city with the people he’d found so friendly—harbored a serial killer . . .

  Well, no one should have been surprised, he guessed. The city had a violent past—five countries had sent soldiers great distances to kill for it and claim it for the crown. Five countries had flown their flag. Five countries had spilled blood to grasp a city and state that was an entrance to the continent and untold riches.

  When Tess had shown him around the first day, he’d started to tell her that he’d visited it for vacations several times. Then he’d decided to stay silent so he could see the city through her eyes. And see something of who and what she was in the showing him around.

  So far they’d worked well even with their d
iffering styles—how did the woman think of so many questions when she was talking to the M.E.? Granted, asking questions showed a quick and agile mind, and there was a steep learning curve to being a detective. He’d been on the job longer than she had, but not so long that he didn’t remember being just like her when he started.

  And since he was the new guy in town and didn’t have the advantage of knowing the details of the past murders, he was going to be the one asking a lot of questions.

  He looked over and was sorry he did. Tess seemed to be deriving a great deal of pleasure in licking the honey from her fork. She set it down and sighed.

  Kim slapped the check down on the table and shook her head. “You’ll just hate yourself if you have a second piece.”

  “I know.”

  Logan reached for the check. “My treat,” he said when she asked what her share was. “I have a feeling I’m going to be very glad that you introduced me to this place.”

  “Yeah, well, you might not thank me if you get as addicted to that apple pie as I have to their baklava.”

  “True.”

  She grinned. It was nice to see her face light up after the stress and sadness earlier.

  Logan got his change, left a tip for Kim on the table, and followed Tess out to the car. The heat hadn’t let up. He was afraid to ask just when it started getting cooler in these parts.

  “Chief wants to see the two of you,” his assistant said when they walked into the station.

  They exchanged a glance and changed direction to head to his office. Jeremy Wallace was talking on the phone, but gestured for them to enter. Tess closed the door behind them and took the chair closest to Wallace’s desk.

  He hung up and looked at them. “Phil says our friend is back.”

  “Perp left his mark in the usual place,” Tess said.

  “Is it possible we have a copycat?” Wallace leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers.

  “Anything’s possible, but no, I don’t think so. The mark he left has never been revealed to the press.”

  “Both of you be back here at 0800 for a briefing.” He flicked a glance at Logan, then studied Tess. “Big case your first week as a detective.”