Chapter 8 Luke
Luke
It wasn’t hard to read the disbelief on Mina’s pretty face. She went from a curious and slightly exasperated frown to rounded eyes and a gaping mouth in a split second.
“What? That’s insane. We’re talking a sixty-year span. Even if the guy was, like, twenty, when he started killing, he’d be eighty now.”
“So maybe only some of them are attributable to a serial killer.” Claire shrugged.
Mina pressed her lips together and cocked an eyebrow. “Then the rest with no criminal record are just what? Coincidence?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
When Mina rolled her eyes, I held up a hand. “It’s plausible.”
“But not very likely.”
“It’s still worth thinking about.”
“Mina, give me another name,” Claire interrupted. “That new one has a drug conviction.”
“I still think you two are chasing ghosts, but whatever.” She read off another name.
One after the other, all but two of the new names revealed a criminal past.
“Now, that’s weird.” Mina turned suspicious eyes on me. “How did you know where to cut it off?”
It was my turn to give her the incredulous look. “Are you suggesting I’m the killer? You remember how old I am, right?”
“Maybe you’re a killer reincarnate.”
“Then that would mean the killings would have stopped when I was born, and they clearly didn’t.” I pointed to her list, which contained several names of women who’d gone missing after I was born.
Claire waved a quick hand. “We’re getting off track here.
The serial killer angle is just one theory.
For some of the older disappearances, we’ll need to check records.
Stuff like that may not have been reported in the news way back then.
It’s still worth turning the list over to Ozzie.
He can get much more detail about these women and their lives than we can. ”
“So, what did we really learn, then?” Mina uncrossed her arms long enough to gesture at the list.
A soft frown flitted over Claire’s face as she thought about that.
I had an answer, however. “We learned that if the missing woman is from this area, she’s on that list.” I jabbed a finger into the notepad.
“We also have a list we can cross-check against news articles and police records,” Claire argued. “We can take that to the library and look for information in old newspapers stored on microfiche.”
“I can look in Juneau as well,” I added. “The bigger papers might have more info.”
Mina let out a soft groan and sat forward, propping her elbows on the table and putting her face in her hands.
The urge to run a reassuring hand down her back blasted me out of nowhere. How had this woman gotten under my skin so quickly?
I dug my fingers into Betty’s fur, helping to control the urge to touch the dark-haired beauty beside me.
“I really hope some search we do turns up something useful. Or that Ozzie gets a lead from her body. The sooner the renovations get back on track, the better.”
Claire reached over and laid a hand on Mina’s arm. “Have some faith. It’ll all get figured out.”
Mina offered her a soft smile. “Yeah.”
While I admired Claire’s optimism and had tried to project my own to buoy Mina’s spirits, I had my doubts. There was very little left of the body. Just bones and the tattered scraps of her clothing. I hadn’t noticed anything else in the wall with her.
But I also hadn’t looked that closely. Not much turned my stomach. I grew up in the Alaskan wilderness, where it wasn’t an uncommon occurrence to come across a half-rotted animal carcass in the woods or to see a large predator ripping into a meal.
Those sightless eyes, though…
I suppressed a shudder.
All I could hope was that the three of us and Ozzie could work a miracle and figure out how a body ended up in the wall of the old antique store.
Claire’s phone buzzed from her tote bag. She put Pebbles on the floor and got up to dig it out. Her nose scrunched as she looked at the screen. “It’s Ozzie.”
Mina chuckled. “You’re in trouble.”
“Probably.” She answered it. “Hi, honey.” As she listened, she rolled her lips in, her eyes dancing with mirth. “I’m at home,” she said after a moment.
I glanced at Mina, who watched her friend with amusement. I liked their relationship. They were very much at ease with one another. Claire seemed to have the same happy, carefree attitude with her boyfriend, if the continued smile on her face was any indication.
Finally, she sighed, then glanced at Mina with a quick, exasperated eye roll, still amused. “Yes, she’s here.” Another short pause, then, “Fine.” After one last, quick pause, she said, “Love you too,” then hung up.
“He figured out what you’re up to, didn’t he?” Mina said.
Claire nodded, stuffing her phone back in her bag.
“Yep. He told me to keep my nose out of it, then that he’s on his way home with dinner, and if I wanted to eat it, I needed to kick you out.
” She grinned, softening her words, then snorted.
“He ought to know better than to think that I won’t get involved.
But I’ll let him think he’s won for now. ”
Mina chuckled. “You’re terrible. Be nice to the man. He loves you.”
The wattage on Claire’s smile turned up. “I know. And I will be. I’ll promise not to do anything dangerous. I learned that lesson the last time.” Her amusement dimmed softly, and I couldn’t help but wonder what she was talking about.
“Anyway, we should probably end our little investigative session for now.” She walked over to the table and shut her laptop.
I knew that was the cue to leave, but I was still reluctant to get up.
My gaze dropped to Betty, who was curled up in my lap, half-asleep.
I scooped the dog into my arms and stood. “I’m tempted to distract you and make a run for it. She’s sweet.” Despite my words, I passed the sleepy puppy to her owner.
“Then you’d end up with Ozzie at your door. He’s as much in love with her as you are.”
Understandable. The little fluffball had me seriously considering getting a dog. I wasn’t sure how I’d work out letting a puppy outside to potty during the day, but I could probably make something work. Maybe I could just bring it with me on jobsites. Lots of people had work dogs.
The sound of paper tearing snapped me out of my thoughts. Mina had ripped the page containing the list of names off the notepad.
“I’ll just take this with me.” A secretive smile flitted over Mina’s face. “He can’t accuse you of meddling if there’s no evidence.”
Claire laughed. “He still will, but he won’t be able to prove it. Can you email me that list?”
“Sure.” Mina pushed away from the table and got up.
Together, the three of us crossed to the front door. Claire had her hands full of dogs, so I opened the door, letting Mina pass through first. With a smile, I turned to Claire. “Thank you for including me in your fact-finding mission.”
“Of course. You’re as much a part of this as Mina. It affects you both.”
True. I gave a short nod. “Still, I appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome.”
Mina tugged on my sleeve. “Come on. Just because she kicked us out doesn’t mean I’m ready to give up searching yet.” She waved the sheet of yellow paper. “The Juneau library is open until eight.”
For a split second, I debated telling her no.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to.
I did.
But I wanted more so to spend time with her than to solve the mystery, and that was a disaster waiting to happen.
She was my client. Dad’s first rule of business had always been not to mix business with pleasure.
None of his workers were allowed to date our clients, and when it came to doing business with friends, he drafted detailed contracts and made sure the other party understood the terms.
Despite that, though, I couldn’t stop the words that came out of my mouth: “Okay, sounds good.”
When she turned that wide smile on me that made her blue eyes shine, I knew I was in trouble, and that Dad’s rule was toast.