Chapter 7 Mina
Mina
“Careful. You might give away you like this guy.”
A flush colored my cheeks as I let the curtain flutter back into place over the front window, where I’d been watching for Luke. Doing my best to will the red out of my cheeks, I turned to give Claire my best glare. “I do not. I’m just eager to start researching our dead person.”
Claire hummed, the grin on her face telling me she didn’t believe a word coming out of my mouth. “Sure you are.”
I huffed, not ready to admit she might be right. “You’re impossible.”
She chuckled. “No. I’m just right.”
My eye roll was epic and made her laugh. “Please explain how you think you’re right.” I didn’t like Luke Decker. Not like that. I mean, he was handsome, sure. But he was my contractor and practically a baby.
“The entire time we were in the coffeeshop, you kept casting furtive glances his way. I don’t think he noticed, because he was watching the street, but I did. Whether you did it consciously or not, you kept studying him.”
I did? “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Maybe I was just trying to figure out what he could know about our little town and its people.”
Claire raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms.
I pressed my lips together and stared her down. There wasn’t a chance I would admit to liking the man. Because I didn’t.
So what if he looked good in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt?
And had hair a girl dreamed of running her fingers through?
My jaw worked, and I put a lid on that train of thought. That was enough of that.
The thud of a car door closing broke our stare-down. Claire’s face broke into a wide smile. “I guess we’re about to test the theory that you can’t keep your eyes off him.” She walked around me to answer the door.
A low growl escaped my throat. She could be so frustrating sometimes.
Pebbles, Claire’s Yorkie, barked when she noticed her mistress heading for the door. That brought Betty’s head up from her nap on the dog bed by the fireplace. I chuckled as the puppy flopped like a fish in her attempt to get up from the plush pad.
“Grab her, would you?” Claire pointed at Pebbles.
“Yep.” I scooped the Yorkie off the floor. She vibrated in my arms as she barked. “Oh, hush. He’s nice.”
Betty made a break for the door, but I was faster than the little fluffball. As she ran past my feet, I put a hand down on her back. With a quick shimmy of my fingers, I wrapped them around her plump belly and lifted her off the floor.
Immediately, she licked my chin. “Oh, mmm. Thank you, Betty.” My nose wrinkled as dog slobber coated the lower right side of my face.
Claire laughed and pulled the door open.
The smile froze on my face at the sight of Luke standing there with a hand raised, poised to knock.
Once more, I wondered how it was legal for a man to look so good in a pair of jeans. The worn denim looked buttery soft and clung to trim hips and muscular thighs. I knew if he turned around, I’d get a glimpse of a firm tush.
“Well, hi.” A crooked smile appeared on his face, and he lowered his hand. “I take it you saw me coming?”
Claire nodded. “Come in, please.”
Luke stepped inside. His flint-colored eyes roved over the space, taking a quick inventory.
“Thanks for coming.” Claire shut the door. “Having a local’s insight for this search will be quite useful.”
“I’m ready to get started.”
Betty squirmed in my grasp and yipped, wanting to greet the newcomer.
The polite smile on Luke’s face grew into something more affable and genuine. “Oh, you’re cute.” He strode closer, reaching out to pet the puppy. Betty instantly went floppy as he scratched her ears.
Pebbles whined and sniffed him, wanting attention as well. Under my arm, her little tail wagged fiercely.
“So are you.” He switched his attention to the Yorkie. “I like your bow.” With one finger, he nudged the hot-pink bow holding Pebbles’ bangs out of her face.
“Are they yours?” His gray eyes met mine.
“Mine?” I blinked, attempting to make my brain work. It had been too busy watching him fawn over a couple of cute animals. Could he be more adorable?
One golden brown eyebrow quirked, and I realized I was staring.
Heat climbed my neck. “Um, no. They’re Claire’s. I’m just playing gatekeeper. I have a cat.”
He tipped his head, still scratching Pebbles by her ears. “That fits.”
It was my turn to raise an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“Coffeeshop owner. Now the owner of a potentially haunted former antique store.” He shrugged. “People like that own cats, don’t they?”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “I guess so. Never thought about it, really. But thank you for planting the idea there’s now a ghost in my building.
” The paranormal wasn’t really my “thing,” but I didn’t discount the idea there could be an astral plane lurking between here and the afterlife.
I just hoped that if that person’s spirit was indeed loitering in the store, it was friendly.
“Sorry.” Luke offered me a sheepish smile.
“It’s fine.” Needing to regain my equilibrium, and to put some space between us because he smelled delectable, I took a step back and set the dogs on the floor. “Let’s get down to business, shall we? So I know what to call this ghost when he or she makes their presence known.”
Claire rolled her eyes. “You’re so melodramatic.”
“And you aren’t?”
She chuckled, glancing over her shoulder as she led us to the dining area. “Touché.”
“So, has Detective Quartermaine shared any information with you since this morning?” Luke pulled out a chair but didn’t sit, instead, waiting on Claire and me to get settled.
Cute, and a gentleman?
Another tally mark went on the “Pros” side of the scorecard in my mind. Before long, that side would outweigh the two “Cons” I had: his age and our professional relationship.
“No.” Claire’s expression soured. “He was rather tight-lipped.” She picked up Pebbles and settled her on her lap. Betty, not to be outdone, put her feet up on Luke’s thigh and barked.
Grinning, he picked her up, only to have her put her gigantic paws on his chest and attack his face with puppy kisses. He didn’t seem to mind, though, as he gently pushed her down.
“Do we have anything to go on?” I asked, doing my best to keep my gaze on Claire. Watching Luke with Betty did funny things to my insides.
“Well, I did overhear one of the forensic techs say they think it’s a woman.” Claire opened her laptop. “So, I guess we can start there with missing persons.”
“What about a time of death? Did you overhear anything about how long the woman’s been there?” Luke asked.
“No. I don’t know how old they think she was, either.” She held up a finger. “I do know they’re sending her body off to a forensic anthropologist for analysis. Hopefully, they’ll get something from that, but it’ll probably take some time.”
His mouth pulled. “A lot of time. Those people don’t work too fast, do they?”
She shrugged. “I have no idea.” A devilish smile crossed her face. “But we’re going to move things along with the help of our friend, the internet.” Stretching her fingers, she opened her web browser.
“What are you searching first?” I leaned to the side so I could see the screen better.
“Missing persons in Alaska.” She talked as she typed and quickly had a page of results.
“This looks good.” She clicked on a link for the Alaska Department of Public Safety.
When she scrolled down, a list of names appeared alongside columns for their sex, race, case number, the date they went missing, and the investigating agency.
“Click that.” Luke pointed at the screen. “Let’s see how far back the list goes.”
Claire clicked on the date tab, reversing the order of names.
He let out a low whistle. “Nineteen fifty-two. That’s a lot of names.”
“Yeah.” I blew out a breath, my shoulders deflating as a bit of hopelessness set in.
“Without more to go on, I don’t know how we’ll narrow it down.
I mean, there’s also the possibility the woman isn’t even from Alaska.
What if she was reported missing in the lower forty-eight?
Or in Canada?” I slumped back in my chair and crossed my arms. So much for helping the search along.
“Let’s at least narrow it down to women and see how many people we get.” Claire’s hands moved over the keyboard again.
Since there was no way to search by gender alone, she set the number of results to one hundred, then clicked on the tab to sort by male and female.
“Looks like just shy of two hundred.” She glanced up.
“That’s still a lot.”
“Yeah, but there are over a dozen, from the looks of it, that were reported in the Juneau area.” Luke gestured to the screen, which showed the investigating agency.
Claire stood, walking over to her tote bag, which sat on a barstool at the island, and removed a legal pad and a pen. “Let’s write down those names, then search them. Maybe one of them will pop up in a news article with local ties.”
I sat up, feeling some hope returning. But only a little.
It was such a long shot. Sitting around doing nothing, though, wasn’t an option.
We needed to find the woman’s identity so I could get my renovation back on track.
Logically, I knew Ozzie was all over this case.
Not just because of my relationship to his girlfriend, Claire, but because that’s just the type of person he was.
He wanted answers as much as I did and wouldn’t rest until he got them.
But more eyes were always better.
I took the notepad and pen from Claire. “All right, start reading.”
Settling back into her seat, Claire scrolled, and we soon had a list of seventeen names.
“How long does it take a body to fully skeletonize?” Luke asked.
A quick frown formed on my face, and I shot him a look. “Why?”
“I was just thinking that we might be able to take some of the more recent names off the list. The body didn’t have any flesh left on it, remember?”
“Oh. Right.” I glanced at the notepad in front of me, then at Claire. “Can you—”
“Already on it,” she said, reading my mind. With a few taps on the keyboard, she’d run another search on decay.
“Hmm…” She leaned forward and propped her chin on her hand. “This says it varies widely. A few weeks to a few years, depending on conditions. But…” she scrolled, “I would say in controlled conditions, like in the wall, we could knock a year or so off the list.”
My nose wrinkled. “That’s not as much as I was hoping for.”
“Me, either,” Claire replied.
I glanced at the list. Only one name fit the bill. I crossed her off.
“I would say cross off any within five years,” Luke said.
With a curious frown, I looked his way. “Why?”
“The state of the wall. The paint wasn’t pristine where it was patched, and there was dust everywhere that didn’t look like it had been disturbed recently.
All the fluid from the body had dried up too.
That all takes time.” He lifted a shoulder.
“I’ve been through a lot of buildings for renovations.
Whoever she is, I would wager she’s been in that wall for at least five years.
Plus, The Cozy Cup has been in business about that long.
” He turned to me. “You or one of your regulars would have noticed the store being closed to let the place air out as she decayed.”
“Unless it happened after he closed the store down,” I said. “That was a year or so ago.”
Luke tipped his head. “I still think it’s likely been longer than a year, just based on the way the wall looks.”
Claire nodded once. “Good enough for me.” She looked my way. “So, how many does that take off our list, then, Mina?” She nodded toward the notepad.
I ran a finger down the sheet. “Four more.”
“Now we’re down to a dozen. That’s manageable.” Claire opened a new browser window. “Give me the first name.”
One by one, we went through the list, but no one came up in any local news, except for the articles about their disappearances.
Clicking the pen, I tossed it down on the table. “Well, that was a waste of time.”
“Not really,” Luke said.
Tossing a glare his way at his optimism, I crossed my arms. “How was it not a waste of time? We learned nothing about any of them.”
“That’s not true. We learned none of them has a criminal record. They would have shown up in those police blotter articles the newspaper always puts out, but literally the only news articles we found were about their disappearances.”
“So, they were upstanding citizens.” Claire sat up. “That’s strange.” Her brows knit together. “You’d think some of them would have a least a DUI or a drug arrest.” She opened a new tab. “Mina, read me the names you crossed off.”
My glare softened and my frown turned confused. “What for?”
“Let’s see if they have records too.”
Still frowning, I read her the first name. “What are you thinking?”
“That I spend too much time with my detective boyfriend,” she muttered.
“No, you don’t,” Luke said. “Because I think we’re thinking the same thing.”
I waved a hand. “Then can you enlighten me? Because I’m not the true crime enthusiast of the bunch. What are you getting at?”
Claire and Luke shared a look before Luke turned to me, one side of that sculpted mouth tilted up.
“Serial killer.”