Chapter 14
I pulled into the driveway at home just as the last bit of the evening’s light faded behind the pines. The sky over Cambria was gorgeous tonight, sweeping bands of orange, pink, and deep gold across the horizon. I stepped out of the car and saw a beaming Luka, ears perked up, happy I was home.
I stepped inside the house and was met with the aroma of garlic and tomatoes drifting from the kitchen.
Giovanni whistled, and Luka barreled past, skidding across the kitchen tile and bumped his head against Giovanni’s leg.
Giovanni bent down, giving him a quick scratch behind the ear before going back to stirring a pot of sauce on the stove.
He glanced over at me and smiled. “How was your day?”
“Long, but productive.”
I set my bag on the table and slipped off my coat, a vintage wool A-line with faux fur trim.
Tonight, Giovanni was dressed in fitted charcoal slacks and a pressed black button-up beneath an apron. His dark hair was slicked back, and not a single strand was out of place, as usual. He looked tired, but his eyes were warm as they took me in.
Turning his attention to the sauce, he lifted out a spoonful, blew on it, and gave it a taste test. He then nodded in satisfaction and turned off the burner, saying, “Sit, and tell me everything that’s happened since we were at the cabin earlier today.”
I sank into a chair at the table, and Luka settled at my feet with a soft huff. Giovanni set two bowls on the table, filled them with pasta and sauce, and then he took a seat across from me.
“At the cabin, we were still piecing together what we knew,” I said.
“Things like Audrey being murdered in those woods, Logan going missing, and the mysterious locket in his sketchbook. After the day I’ve had, all those discoveries feel like a lifetime ago.
Since then, I’ve met with Colton and Sadie, two of Audrey’s classmates. ”
“Why them?”
“Colton hasn’t lived here long. When he first started at the school, Audrey caught his attention. He found out she was in a relationship, but it didn’t stop him from pursuing her.”
Giovanni raised a brow, his tone turning dry. “Sounds like a stand-up guy.”
“He’s full of himself, that much is clear. He told me Audrey turned him down, and not long after, he started hanging out with Talia, her best friend. Audrey wasn’t happy about it, but they kept seeing each other, and today I found out they’re dating, but they’ve been keeping it quiet.”
“Did he say why?”
“He doesn’t feel like it’s the right time to make it public, given Audrey was just murdered. He also told me he was at a party, and he overheard Audrey telling Logan she didn’t feel safe, and that she was worried he wasn’t either.”
Giovanni’s expression turned serious. “Now she’s dead, and Logan is nowhere to be found. It seems Audrey may have predicted what was to come.”
I nodded. “I keep thinking back to Logan’s drawing of the locket with the name Anne on it. I just wish I knew its relevance, and if it’s related to the case somehow.”
“I have no doubt you’ll figure it out. You always do. How was your visit with Sadie?”
“Sadie and Audrey had a falling out over 200 hundred dollars that went missing from Sadie’s purse after she left it at a party.
Audrey had found the purse and took it home with her.
When Sadie picked it up the next day, she noticed the cash was gone.
Audrey denied taking the money, and whether she took it or not, the accusation damaged their relationship. ”
“Why did Sadie make such an accusation? I imagine there were plenty of other people at that party who could have taken it.”
“I had the same argument. Sadie said Audrey bought a new backpack right after she got her purse back. When Sadie asked her about it, Audrey claimed she paid for the backpack with money she received from an online store she’d started.”
Giovanni ate while he listened, his focus steady.
“Sadie also said she saw Audrey at a fast-food place a few days before the murder,” I said. “They didn’t speak, but she noticed Audrey watching her phone, looking tense.”
“And does Sadie have an alibi during the time of the murder?” he asked.
“A thin one at best. She said she was at home, but she was alone, so no one can confirm whether she’s telling the truth or not. Colton’s alibi isn’t solid either. He thinks he was at the arcade that night.”
Giovanni finished his pasta, pushed the bowl to the side, and crossed his arms.
“Where does that leave you in your investigation?” he asked.
“It leaves me with more questions than answers.”
“Which question would you like to be answered first?”
“I want to know who Anne is, and if she is or was a real person. I asked Sadie if they had a classmate named Anne, and she didn’t think they did.”
“Maybe Anne’s not a classmate,” Giovanni said. “Maybe he drew the sketch with the intention of giving it to someone, a relative perhaps.”
“Or maybe it isn’t a relative, and she’s tied to the case somehow.”
I took a few more bites of pasta, grabbed my bowl and his, and carried them to the sink, rinsing them while Giovanni moved to the small desk tucked beside the kitchen window. His laptop waited there, still open from the project he was working on, a hotel his family was renovating in New York City.
I dried my hands and joined him, pulling up a chair.
“I’m not even close to as good as you are with your sleuthing, but we don’t have anything else to do tonight,” he said. “What do you say we do a little searching and see what we can find?”
“I think it’s a great idea.”
Giovanni tapped a finger on of the keys, and the screen lit up, its soft glow washing over his face.
“All right,” he said. “What do we search first?”
“Start simple,” I said. “Try typing in the words ‘Anne Cambria woods.’”
He typed in what I’d said, hit enter, and a list of search results filled the screen.
“Not much information here,” he said. “We have an Anne who runs a gift shop, an Anne who writes poems about tide pools, and an article about a woman named Ann without an E who leads some of the birdwatching tours in town.”
“Nothing stands out about any of them,” I said. “Try searching ‘Anne locket California.’”
He cleared the search bar and typed again.
“Still nothing,” he said.
I stared at the screen, my frustration building.
Given the bone fragment we’d found, I wondered if there was more to Anne, and my thoughts turned to more sinister events.
“Maybe we need to cast a wider net,” I suggested. “Let’s say Anne does exist. She may not live in Cambria.”
“Good point.”
“Try ‘unsolved cases San Luis Obispo County’ and add a time frame, let’s say in the past thirty years.”
He typed in what I’d suggested, added dates, and the results were different this time. As we read down the page, I pointed to one entry in particular. “There, click on that one, ‘local teen still missing after twenty-five years.’”
Giovanni clicked on the link.
The article opened with a grainy photo of a girl with shoulder-length dark hair and a wide, hopeful smile. Her name was Anne Fontaine. Anne had grown up in Morro Bay, and at the age of seventeen she’d vanished while spending the summer with her aunt in Cambria.
No body, no witnesses, and no arrests.
But now I was certain Anne Fontaine and the locket Logan sketched were connected to Audrey somehow.
As I read further, the article went on to explain that Anne’s aunt, Glinda Potts, lived in the Harvest Creek subdivision at the time, a fact that made my skin prickle.
“Anne stayed with her aunt the summer she went missing,” I said. “And her aunt just so happened to live in the same subdivision Audrey’s parents live in now. It’s a big coincidence, isn’t it? What are the odds Audrey and Anne both hiked in the same forest?”
“I’d say the odds are high.”
I stood, pacing the room, thinking.
A few minutes later, a theory came to light.
“I believe Audrey visited the cabin at least once, but I’d guess it was more often than that.
When she was there, she carved Logan’s initials into the wood.
She also tidied up, maybe thinking she’d turned the old cabin into her own private sanctuary.
While cleaning, she found a locket inscribed with Anne’s name, and I bet she also found the initials AF carved into the wood. ”
“Seems plausible to me.”
“What if, while Audrey was cleaning, she started digging around in the hole beneath the bed and she discovered what we did—a bone, or multiple bones even. She tells Logan about the bone and the locket, which is why he sketched it. Maybe the two of them started doing some investigating, and they figured out the locket belonged to Anne Fontaine, the girl who went missing.”
“If you’re right, and I’d say you are, I understand why Logan left when he did.”
“I need to locate him. The sooner the better. But first, let’s see if we can find information on Anne’s aunt and her parents, and see if they still live in the county.”
Giovanni nodded, turning back to the computer and entered a new search for Violet and Eugene Fontaine.
Another article popped up, one written by a local reporter on the twentieth anniversary of Anne’s disappearance.
The reporter had interviewed Violet outside the small house where she and Eugene still lived.
The caption under the photo named the street.
“I wonder if they still live in the same house,” I said.
Giovanni clicked on the article. It repeated some of the facts we’d already read and then described a small display of photos and candles that Violet kept near the front window. In one candlelit picture, I spotted a faint glint near Anne’s throat.
“Can you zoom in on this photo of Anne?” I asked.
He nodded. The bigger the photo got, the more blurred it was, but even so, it held enough detail for us to see what appeared to be a silver locket hanging from a chain around Anne’s neck.
“That seals it for me,” I said. “Audrey and Logan knew about the locket, and they must have tied it to the cold case.”
“It would explain why Audrey was worried that they weren’t safe. Someone must have found out she had the locket.”
I sat back down, and Luka sauntered over, laying his head on my lap. “It’s been twenty-five years. I’d say Anne isn’t just missing; I’d say she’s dead, and no one has found her body yet.”
“I need to speak to Whitlock, and to Foley,” I said. “But Foley’s out with my sister tonight. It’s their anniversary. I’ll start with Whitlock and get him to dig up everything they have on the cold case.”
Giovanni gave a small nod. “He will love that.”
“He will,” I said. “Solving two cases instead of one, and a cold case to boot. I must admit, the idea is exciting.”
I reached for my phone and made the call. Whitlock picked up on the second ring.
“Georgiana,” he said. “Is everything all right?”
“I have a theory.”
“I’ve been waiting for you to say as much. What is it?”
“Twenty-five years ago, a girl named Anne Fontaine was visiting Cambria over the summer, and she went missing,” I said.
“I remember. I was one of the detectives who worked on the case. What does Anne have to do with the reason you called?”
“I think her locket turned up in our woods, and I think Audrey found it. Now Audrey is dead and Logan is missing. If you’re not too busy, head over, and I’ll explain everything to you in person.”
He went quiet for a moment and then said, “I’ll swing by the station, grab the old files if I can find them, and be right over.”