Chapter 2
Noelle stood with her arms crossed over her chest, clearly embroiled in a disagreement with an older couple whose backs were to him.
“My adoption made me her family. The law recognizes me as her sister, and that makes me next of kin!” Noelle said, her shoulders squared and her jaw rigid.
“Well, I don’t recognize you as anything but trouble,” the gray-haired woman retorted. “You’re not our blood, and you shouldn’t have a say in anything regarding my niece.”
His hackles raised on Noelle’s behalf, Eli moved closer, blatantly eavesdropping. His approach caught Noelle’s attention, and she visibly shuddered when she spotted him. Her distraction lasted only seconds before she raised her chin a notch, and fire blazed from her dark brown eyes.
Her hair was shorter than it had been in college, he noted. Her thick black hair hung in a straight curtain to her shoulders, parted on the side and tucked behind her ears.
The older woman had aimed a finger at Noelle and was still railing at her in caustic tones. “If you think you’re going to get your grubby paws on my sister’s inheritance or anything else that belongs to my family, you can think again!”
“Is there a problem here, ladies?” Eli said as he stepped into the ring Noelle and the older couple made.
The gray-haired woman pursed her mouth. “It’s personal business and none of yours.”
Eli reached in the inner pocket of his heavy winter coat and pulled out the bifold wallet where he kept his badge.
He flashed it at the older couple. “It’s my business if I feel you’re disturbing the peace with your shouting.
Besides, I’m a friend of Noelle’s, and I don’t like to see her being publicly berated. ”
The woman narrowed her gaze on him and flicked a glance to the badge. “Colton? You’re the one in charge of the case. You’re the ABI agent investigating Allison’s murder.”
“I am. The same,” he answered, even though it hadn’t been phrased as a question.
Noelle gave him a hard look. “I’m fine, Eli. I don’t need you to defend me.”
“Agent Colton, you can help us!” the woman said, angling her body to face him.
“And you are?” he asked, although he already had a hunch.
The older man finally spoke, extending his hand for Eli to shake. “Clyde and Jean Gates. Jean is Allison Harris’s maternal aunt. We’ve come in from Anchorage to claim the body from the medical examiner.”
When Eli dropped the man’s hand, he stuck it in his coat pocket and divided a glance among the three parties. “I see. From what I overheard as I came in just now, you have some issue with Noelle’s claim as next of kin. Is that right?”
“Eli,” Noelle said in a dark tone under her breath. “I said I don’t need your—”
“Darn right!” Jean interrupted. “She should have no say in what happens with Allison or my family’s estate! We’re Allison’s blood relatives. She was just…adopted!” The bitter woman spit the word out with a timbre to her voice that said she considered Noelle no better than trash.
Noelle’s mouth tightened, and she turned her head away. But not before Eli saw the sparkle of tears that puddled in her eyes.
His heart wrenched in sympathy for her while, in his pockets, his hands fisted in outrage for how her aunt was denigrating her.
“I understand that Allison’s death is upsetting for you,” he said with more composure than he felt.
Years of serving the public and dealing with all manner of human emotion and irrationality served him well in that moment.
“However, the law is clearly on Noelle’s side.
Because of her legal adoption, she is Allison’s sister, and therefore her next of kin. ”
Jean Gates took a staggering step back as if pushed. She knitted her gray eyebrows in consternation. “What? You can’t be serious! Blood always comes first!”
Eli shook his head. “No, ma’am. Noelle is legally—”
“Now see here, young man!” Clyde puffed out his chest as he faced off with Eli. “My wife is entitled to the money and heirlooms her family has collected over the years, and we’re prepared to take the matter to court!”
Noelle pushed in between Clyde and Eli. She scowled at Eli first. “I said, I don’t need your help!
” Then facing her uncle, she growled, “I don’t want any money or any of the family’s dusty old furniture and ugly tchotchkes.
But I will see that my sister receives a decent burial and not some gaudy display meant only to earn you sympathy and attention from your stuffy old friends. ”
“Gaudy?” Jean said, her lips pursed in offense. “And I suppose you intend to just throw her in a pine box and be done with it? You couldn’t be bothered with the family for the last seventeen years, and suddenly you know what’s best for Allison?”
“And how many times since I left for college has anyone in the family other than Allison bothered to reach out to me? I had maybe three calls and one letter in seventeen years. That’s it!
That’s all the communication from my family I had.
That’s all anyone cared about me.” Noelle’s voice broke, and she slammed her eyes shut before drawing a deep breath and cutting an embarrassed glance at Eli.
Eli’s gut twisted. He could remember how little Noelle had mentioned her family when they’d dated, but he was seeing a new side of the situation now.
Had she been rejected by her parents? Clearly there was no love lost with her aunt and uncle.
This vulnerable side of Noelle, whom he’d always known to be a pillar of strength, courage and capability, shook him.
Jean gave a haughty sniff. “Why should we be in touch? You’re the one who left, and I say good riddance. You were nothing but trouble for your mother and father as a teenager.”
Noelle raised a trembling hand. “Stop. I have no desire to rehash ancient history with you. I’m only in town to claim Allison’s body and see her properly buried in the family plot outside town.
You may come to the funeral, but beyond that I don’t want to hear from you or see you again.
” She turned to walk away, but Jean Gates pursued and snatched at Noelle’s arm.
“Just a minute, you! Allison is coming with us to be buried with my parents and the babies my sister lost before Allison was born. She should be with her real siblings for eternity!”
Noelle’s back stiffened, hurt blazing in her eyes.
Eli had had enough. Noelle wouldn’t thank him for interfering, but the argument was becoming a sideshow in the medical examiner’s public lobby.
He wedged himself between Noelle and her aunt and took the older woman by the arm.
“That’s enough. You need to leave now. You’re disturbing the peace and blocking traffic in a public facility. ”
Jean shook his hand off her elbow. “Unhand me! I have business here. I’m not leaving without claiming my niece for burial!”
“I’m afraid not,” Eli said, his tone brooking no resistance.
“Noelle will be given custody of the body, but only when the medical examiner and police investigators are finished gathering needed evidence. Which will not be today. Now please leave the premises before I arrest you for harassment and disturbing the peace.”
“What?” Jean shrieked, her voice a full octave higher. “Arrest me?”
Clyde Gates, clearly not wanting to press the issue, shuffled up to his wife and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Let’s go, Jean. We’ll let the lawyers handle it.”
“No! I—” Jean met the uncompromising glare from her husband and snapped her mouth shut. With a disgruntled huff, she shot Noelle a narrow look. “This matter is not closed.” Turning on her heel, the woman tromped outside into the icy November day.
After the door swished closed behind the older couple, Eli faced Noelle. “Are you all right?”
She rolled her eyes at him. “I’m fine. But maybe you should get your hearing checked. I said I didn’t want your help.”
“I heard you.” He took a step closer to her, wanting to draw her into his arms and hug her, hold her, kiss her again after so many years apart.
Instead, he curled his fingers into his palms, squelching the desire to reach for her.
Her body language—arms folded over her chest, her jaw clamped tight, her eyebrows lowered—said she wanted no part of this reunion.
He sighed. As if her ghosting you for the past thirteen years hasn’t sent that message already.
“Maybe I didn’t like the way they were treating you, not listening to the legal facts. ”
She grunted. “Nothing I haven’t dealt with most of my life.” She blinked rapidly and angled her head away, but not before he saw the bloom of her tears.
Compassion and longing shoved aside restraint, and he laid a hand near her shoulder. “I’m sorry, Noelle. I never knew you—”
“Of course you didn’t know. I never told you. On purpose.”
“If you want to go somewhere more private, maybe get lunch, we could talk about it. You could vent to me.”
She started toward the coroner’s office, effectively removing his hand from her upper back.
“I never said anything to you because I wanted to leave it behind. So why would I talk about it now?” With one final glance at Eli, she strode briskly toward the inner sanctum of the medical examiner’s office.
“Because you’re upset, and sometimes it helps to let off steam?” he said, keeping pace with her. “Can we not be friends, even if you don’t want a deeper relationship?”
“Can I help you?” the receptionist in the medical examiner’s office asked as Noelle stepped up to her desk.
“Yes. I’m Noelle Harris. I’m Allison Harris’s sister, and I’m here to—” Noelle fell silent.
Eli angled his head toward her, and his chest squeezed, seeing her face crumple and tears break free from her eyelashes. He edged closer to her, his voice low and sympathetic. “Noelle…”
She raised a hand, holding him off as she sniffed. “I’m here to c-claim her body.”
The receptionist yanked a facial tissue from the box on her desk and handed it to Noelle.
“Of course, dear. Let me gather the paperwork. I’ll need to see two forms of identification, please.
” The woman turned to Eli. “Are you here with Ms. Harris, Agent Colton, or was there something I can do for you?”
“I, uh, originally came to speak to Scott Montgomery about the Fiancée Killer case, but I ran into Noelle—Ms. Harris—in the lobby. Is Scott around?”
Noelle blew her nose on the tissue and wiped her cheeks with her sleeve. “Fiancée Killer? Is that what you’re calling the case? Is that who killed Allison?”
Eli took another tissue from the receptionist’s box and handed it to her. “Well, that’s what we’re calling the case now. The local media coined the term, because all the victims so far are wearing a diamond ring. Or a fake diamond anyway, clearly meant to look like an engagement solitaire.”
Something in Noelle’s expression shifted. “Even Allison? She was wearing one of these rings?”
Eli hesitated. He could understand why Noelle had questions.
Having been living in Seattle, she’d have only recently heard of the serial killer he and the rest of local law enforcement had been tracking.
She’d have not been privy to the media coverage as each body had been found and the links in the case pieced together.
As Eli debated what and how much to tell Noelle, the receptionist said, “Let me just go get the forms for Ms. Harris, and I’ll see if the ME is available to speak to you, Agent Colton.”
Eli nodded his thanks to the woman then pivoted back to Noelle. “I can’t go into many of the details, but…yes. Allison was wearing a ring. That and…” he cleared his throat “…the way her body was posed when the searchers found her are why we consider her one of the Fiancée Killer’s victims.”
Noelle pressed a hand to her mouth, shaking her head. “Geez, that’s…sick. Does that mean she…had a relationship with this creep? That she dated him or—” Her nose crinkled as if she couldn’t stand to voice the other possibilities.
“We really don’t know that yet. And even as a family member, you’re not allowed to—” Eli stopped short, seeing the shift in her expression.
“Not allowed? Are you saying you won’t tell me what’s happening in the investigation to find my sister’s murderer?”
“I’m sorry, Noelle. But there are rules and restrictions about how much information we can reveal to the public, including family members. Policies regarding how an investigation is handled are put in place to ensure the case isn’t tainted or suspects tipped off or evidence jeopardized.”
She opened her mouth as if to argue the point, but the receptionist returned at that moment. “Here we are. I’ll need you to fill out all of these forms, sign and date them. May I see your two forms of ID now?”
Noelle dug in her purse and produced her driver’s license and some other small card Eli couldn’t read from where he stood.
The receptionist glanced to Eli then. “Mr. Montgomery is in the middle of an autopsy at the moment, but if you’d like to schedule an appointment to meet with him tomorrow, I can see what time is available. ”
Eli sighed. He hated delays, especially now that the Fiancée Killer case was finally beginning to develop. “All right.”
While Noelle carried a clipboard with forms to a chair in a corner of the reception area, Eli left a message for the forensic expert, Scott Montgomery, to come up to his office as soon as he was available.
His business finished, he had no real reason to hang around the medical examiner’s office.
But neither was he ready to leave when he had this chance to talk to Noelle.
She was still dabbing at her eyes and blowing her nose with the crumpled tissue as she completed the documentation for the release of Allison’s body.
She could deny it all she wanted, but she needed support today and an opportunity to blow off steam.
Knowing Noelle was not from Shelby and hadn’t been back to Anchorage in years, he doubted she still knew anyone in Alaska, other than her aunt and uncle.
They obviously would not be a source of comfort and strength during Noelle’s time of shock and grief.
Squaring his shoulders, Eli decided he’d wait in the lobby for Noelle.
Whether she wanted his help or not, he would stand by her and give her all the support and friendship she would need for the coming days—because he knew burying her sister and hearing details about how Allison died would take its toll on Noelle.