by Kathi Daley
“We should be able to come,” I said. “I’ll need to check with Cody, and we should invite Mr. Parsons.”
“Everyone is invited. Mom was going to call Aunt Maggie and invite her and Michael, and I’m sure Danny will invite Tara. I think Mom was going to mention it to Marley and Sister Mary as well.”
“Sounds like fun. I’ll talk to Cody, but you should go ahead and count us in.”
By the time I got to the choir room, Cody had everyone ready to make the procession into the church. He took the front of the line while I fell into the back to keep an eye on things. Most of the kids who signed up for choir were fairly well behaved, but it seemed that we had a couple of pranksters every year who we really needed to keep an eye on.
Once mass was over, I mentioned the Easter event to Cody, then after confirming with Siobhan that Cody and I would attend the Easter gathering, we headed toward the ferry terminal. There wasn’t time to waste if we were going to make the next ferry heading to Lopez Island, so we went straight there and got into line.
“The ferry should be here in about ten minutes,” Cody said.
“I wish we would have had time to eat after church. All I had this morning was coffee.”
“We can eat once we get to Lopez Island. They have that cute restaurant you like with the fish sandwich.”
“That does sound good. I hope this trip doesn’t turn out to be for nothing. It’s such a nice day, it feels wrong not to be lounging around on the beach.”
“The spring weather is just getting started. There will be plenty of sunny days to enjoy. By the way, speaking of sunny days, I spoke to Mr. Parsons, and he’s fine with us building a cottage close to the water.”
“He told me. He really has gone out of his way to make us comfortable since we moved in full-time.”
“He wants us to be happy. I spoke to a friend of mine who works in construction, and he said that if we are looking to build something small and are willing to start right away, he might be able to fit it in before he’s due to start work on the office building that’s going in west of Pelican Bay later this summer.”
“I’m game to do it right away if you are,” I said to Cody. “I know exactly where I want to put it. There’s that flat spot close the water yet off to the side. I think I’m going to have just a single story so it won’t interfere with the view from any of the windows in the big house. We’ll need to put a walkway between the drive and the cottage, but that should be easy. I’m thinking one bedroom, a bathroom, a small living area, a small kitchen, and a large deck for entertaining.”
“That sounds perfect. I’ll have it drawn up this week, and maybe we can start the week after Easter.”
The ferry docked, and the line of cars began to drive forward. We were shown which level to park on and then asked to turn off our engine for the ride over to the island. Once everyone was aboard, the ferry pulled away from the dock. It was a short ride, but it was such a nice day that Cody and I decided to go up to the passenger deck so we could enjoy the water and the sunshine.
Once Lopez Island came into sight, we headed back down to the car deck, where we would follow the line of cars onto the island after we docked.
The restaurant Cody and I had decided on was right on the water. It was Sunday, and therefore busy, but we still managed to find a table on the outdoor deck. I ordered my favorite fish sandwich, and Cody ordered roast beef and macaroni salad. I hadn’t worn sunscreen, nor had I worn a hat, so I hoped the sun would move on around so a nearby tree would shade us before too much more time went by.
“So, what exactly is the plan?” I asked Cody after we’d ordered.
“I guess we’ll ask around and see if anyone knows Fairchild or where we can find him. If we can get a location, we’ll head over to where his boat is docked and see if he’ll speak to us. There’s a chance he’s not around, and there is an equal chance that even if we find him, he won’t speak to us, but we both decided it was worth the time it took to make the trip to find out.”
“I agree. It is.”
The waiter set my plate in front of me. The roll was baked on-site, and the tartar sauce was homemade. The breaded fish fillet was usually made from the catch of the day, so it was fresh as well.
“This is delicious,” I said after taking my first bite.
“This roast beef is excellent as well. I think it’s the fresh rolls that really make the difference.” He took a sip of his wine. “By the way, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something.”
“Uh, oh. That doesn’t sound good.”
“It’s not bad. Exactly. More like unexpected.”
I felt the knot in my gut I’d been struggling with beginning to tighten. “Unexpected?”
“My mom called yesterday. She wanted to let me know that she’s planning to visit us this summer.”
I really tried to force a smile. “I see. That’s great — really — really — great.”
“I know my mom can be a challenge, but she is my mother,” Cody reminded me. I suspected he was expecting an argument from me, but I’d already decided a long time ago that no matter how crazy Mrs. West made me, she was my mother-in-law, and I would love her to the best of my ability.
“Yes. I am aware that she’s your mother. It’s right there on your birth certificate and everything.”
“And she hasn’t been to Madrona Island since the wedding. I know we’ve been to Florida a couple of times since then, but she did point out that she hasn’t been here.”
“It has been a while,” I agreed. “Did she happen to say when she might come?”
“She mentioned July.”
“July is a lovely month here on the island. Did she mention how long she might stay?” Please, please say she only has time for a short visit.
“A month. Maybe up to five or six weeks.”
I really tried not to groan, but I’m pretty sure I heard a tiny groan slip out.
“That’s wonderful.” I smiled so hard my face felt like it might shatter. “Really, really, wonderful.” I took a gulp of wine. “I suppose we might want to see if that hotel she stayed in the last time has any rooms. She did seem to enjoy her stay there, but they fill up fast.”
“Actually,” Cody said, visibly pulling away, “she thought that since we’ve moved into that nice big house with all the extra bedrooms, she might just stay with us.”
I grabbed the wine bottle and topped off my glass. I drank it down in one long swallow. “With us.” I took a deep breath. “That’s really — wow — that really is unexpected.” I glanced at Cody, who was looking at me with an apology written all over his face. I knew he wasn’t any happier about this than I was, so once again, I forced a smile. “But great,” I added. “Just so great.”
He put a hand over mine. “I’m sorry. I tried to talk to her about a hotel, but she seemed adamant. I suppose I could tell her that Mr. Parsons is uncomfortable with that, but we both know he won’t mind a bit. In fact, I suspect that he and mom will get along just fine.”
Actually, I suspected Cody was right about that. “It’s fine. Really. She is your mother, and she has every right to visit her son any time she wants. If I feel like I need a break, I’ll just stay with Cassie for a couple of days.”
He tucked a lock of hair behind my ear. “Thanks for not freaking out. I know having her here is going to be challenging, but I think together we can get through it.”
“We will,” I agreed, knowing even as I said it that five to six weeks in close proximity to the woman who seemed to want to change everything about me was probably going to land me in the loony bin.
After we ate, we headed toward the closest marina, hoping to find someone who knew where we might find Fairchild. As it turned out, Fairchild wasn’t all that hard to find. As we’d been told yesterday, his boat was docked at a huge estate that served as a vacation home for a tech millionaire who lived in Seattle.
“Permission to come aboard?” Cody called out after we arrived at the boat.
A man with a scraggly gray beard and equally gray hair poked his head out from the cabin below. “And who might you be?” he asked.
“My name is Cody West, and this is my wife, Cait. Orson Cobalter was a friend. In fact, I bought the Madrona Island News from him when he decided to retire.”
“Retire? The guy is dead.”
“Yes, I know Orson is dead,” Cody said. “But he retired before he died, and that’s when I decided to buy the newspaper. Anyway, the reason I’m here is because I hoped to speak to you about some information you provided to Orson back in the nineties.”
“I provided a lot of information to Orson over the years. What information are you specifically asking about?”
“The women who went missing between nineteen ninety-six and nineteen ninety-seven.”
“Ah.” The man walked more fully onto the deck. “I heard there have been some new cases that seem eerily similar.”
“So, do you know anything about these women?” Cody asked.
The man spit into the water. “I know something about everything.”
Cody looked at me. I shrugged.
“We were hoping to pick your brain in regards to these missing women if you’re willing,” Cody said.
“You have cash?”
“Cash?” Cody asked.
“I’m an informant, not a freaking charity. If you want to know what I know, you’re going to need cash.”
“How much?” Cody asked, pulling his wallet out.
“A hundred bucks will get you invited aboard. We’ll have some whiskey and talk a bit. Depending on how that goes, we can work things out from there.”
Cody pulled five twenties out of his wallet and handed them to the man.
“Okay. Come on aboard. I’ll grab the whiskey and some glasses, and you can ask me your questions.”
I had to admit that the man was an interesting sort.
“So, what do you want to know?” the man asked after throwing back what I suspected would be the first shot of many.
“Back in nineteen ninety-six, a woman was found floating in the sea by some fishermen,” Cody began. “Her leg had been severed beneath the knee, and most everyone figured she was the victim of a shark attack and left it at that. The woman didn’t have an ID on her, of course, and her body had been pretty mutilated after being in the sea, so she was listed as a Jane Doe. There was an attempt to figure out who the woman actually was, but after a bit of a search, nothing popped, so law enforcement personnel in the area moved on to other things. Orson, however, was like a dog with a bone. He became really invested in figuring out who this Jane Doe actually was, so he began to dig deeper. At some point, he came across what he was sure was a pattern involving women missing from bars along the Interstate 5 corridor. It took him a while to put everything together, but he eventually settled on a theory that these women were being taken from bars by a man with brown hair and then brought to the islands where they were killed and disposed of. He tried to get Tripp on board,” he referred to the resident deputy at the time, “but Orson didn’t have proof that the women had even been on the islands, and he certainly didn’t have a single stick of evidence that they had been killed here and then dumped in the sea. He was able to eventually find a missing woman from amongst those he scraped together from several law enforcement jurisdictions who he was certain was Jane Doe. It took him a while, but eventually, they were able to prove this as being so.”
“Sounds like you already know quite a bit,” Fairchild said.
“We have initiated our own investigation. I guess what I’d like to know at this point is where you fit into this whole scenario. How exactly did you help Orson, and what might you know that we haven’t stumbled across yet?”
Fairchild cleared his throat, then spit onto the floor next to him. I wanted to vomit but somehow managed to hold onto my lunch. Eventually, he began to speak. “After Orson matched the Jane Doe who’d been found with one of the missing women, he became determined to figure out what had happened to the other missing women that fit the profile he’d come up with, so he asked me to help. I get around. I know a lot of people, and I hear things. Plus, I’m not a cop, so people who won’t talk to cops will talk to me. Orson and I had been working together for a while, and we had a payment system in place, so when he asked for my help, I took the photos of the missing women he provided me and began scouring all the bars on all the islands, looking for someone who had seen any of the missing women.”
“And did you find anything?” I asked.
“Not at first, but after a bit of time, I was able to find a single bartender on San Juan Island who admitted to me that he had seen one of the women. He told me that the woman came in with a man with dark hair who she referred to as Jack. He also said she was obviously on something since she was totally out of it the entire time they were together in the bar. The bartender swore he had never seen either the girl or the guy before, nor had he seen them since. Of course, even though this tip told us very little, it was something, and Orson became even more resolved to find the others. It took us at least a month, but we eventually found witnesses who indicated that three of the women Orson was looking for had ‘probably’ been on one of the islands with a man with brown hair at some point.”
“Do you remember which islands?” I asked.
“San Juan and Orcas, but keep in mind these are unconfirmed sightings. For all we know, none of the women had actually been seen on any of the islands. Orson and I discussed the fact that if this man named Jack had kidnapped these women with the intent of killing them, it was unlikely he would take them to a public bar.”
I supposed Fairchild had a point. It did seem unlikely the women the bartenders identified were actually the same women Jack had kidnapped and killed, assuming, of course, the kidnapper’s name was even Jack, which we certainly didn’t know for a fact at this point.
“Did Orson ever come up with anything else?” Cody asked. “Did any of the other bartenders on any of the other islands recognize Jack?”
“Not really. In fact, I’m pretty sure that it was Orson’s belief that the women the bartenders had identified weren’t actually the women he was looking for. Still, he did suspect the women had been brought to the islands. Orson was able to track down friends and family members of the missing women he’d identified, and was eventually able to find three people who shared with him that before they’d gone missing, the woman in question had either called or texted them to let them know they were going to the islands for a romantic getaway with some guy they’d just met.”
“At this point, was he getting the local law enforcement team to take his theory seriously?” I asked.
“Yes and no. Tripp seemed to give Orson the attention he felt his theory deserved, but he really didn’t know how to help. Even though Orson had found three bartenders to say that they thought they recognized one of the women in the missing persons photos, I don’t think any of them were really all that certain of who they’d seen. I kind of felt bad for the guy. He met with obstacle after obstacle, but he wasn’t giving up even though he really hadn’t come up with anything concrete.”
“But he did give up,” I pointed out. “He seemed to be hot on the trail of this man he was certain was a serial killer and then poof, the commentaries came to an end as abruptly as they began. Do you have any idea why?”
“Honestly, I’m not sure. There was a point near the end of May in nineteen ninety-seven, when he seemed to have figured something out. He never did tell me what he’d figured out, but I could see the gleam in his eyes that he always got when he’d managed to solve a mystery. I was really expecting him to come out with the big reveal in that newspaper of his, then the next thing I knew, he was dropping the whole thing. I asked him why he was dropping his investigation when it seemed like he was so close, but he never really explained. My suspicion at that time was that this Jack guy found out what Orson was doing and threatened someone Orson loved. I can’t imagine any other reason he’d simply
walk away from the whole thing. The interesting thing is that after Orson stopped looking for the guy, women stopped going missing. At least women who fit the pattern Orson had established. I sometimes wonder if Orson didn’t cut some sort of a deal with the guy. Guess with Orson dead, we’ll never know what really happened.”
“It looks like there is a whole new set of missing women fitting the same MO. Any idea why this guy might have started up again?” Cody asked.
Fairchild shrugged. “I guess if Orson and this Jack did have a deal that prevented Jack from continuing to do whatever it was he was doing, he might have found out that Orson was dead and decided the deal he cut had died along with the man.”
“Do you know anything else that might help us to figure out both what went on back then, and what is going on now?” Cody asked.
Fairchild downed a shot. “Perhaps.”
“Would you mind sharing what you know?”
“For another hundred bucks.”
Cody opened his wallet. “All I have left is forty.”
He reached out his hand. “Forty will get you a clue or two.” He put the two bills in his pocket. “Back when the women were going missing in the nineties, Tripp, as well as pretty much all the other law enforcement officers, were certain this man who they suspected had been picking these women up and bringing them to the islands, lived in Seattle, but had a vacation home on one of the islands. Orson told me that he thought it was the other way around. He thought the guy lived here on one of the San Juan Islands but used Seattle and the other towns he’d identified as a hunting ground. It was his opinion that this man was probably someone known to others living on the same island as he did. Orson felt certain he lived a somewhat normal life with the exception of his little hobby, and that during those times he wasn’t picking up women and killing them, he probably seemed like a totally normal guy.”
“Well, that’s frightening,” I said.
“Did Orson have a theory as to which island this guy might have lived on?” Cody asked.
“Actually, he was fairly certain the man he was looking for lived on Madrona Island.”
