Chapter 19
Under warm morning sunshine, Burke walked up to Dr. Melanie Shore’s front door, Abby by his side.
In his friend’s boat as they’d traveled to the mainland and again on the car ride to the doctor’s house, they’d both been self-conscious and somewhat high-strung.
No doubt it was because of the kiss last night, but neither expressed regret over letting it happen.
He wished another person had been with them to ease the tension, but Kelsey wouldn’t arrive for another two hours. Thankfully, the botanist needed to be interviewed, providing a neutral third person.
She wasn’t hard to find. She’d retired ten years ago, and for forty-five years she’d been living in the same small bungalow near a local forest reserve in Seaview Hollow.
Burke pounded on her door and stepped back.
“Cute cottage,” Abby said. “And she couldn’t live any closer to the reserve. Probably a great location for a botanist.”
The lock snicked open, and a thin, almost frail-looking woman stood in the doorway. She had long gray hair and wore a Leave Me Alone T-shirt. Hopefully, her shirt didn’t indicate how the questioning would go.
“Dr. Shore?” Burke asked.
One of her thick eyebrows shot up. “Who are you?”
Ah, the suspicious type. He got out his shield and introduced himself and Abby. “We have a few questions for you regarding your visits to the Lemoine Estate.”
“Victor and I are friends. What questions could you have about that?”
Abby smiled widely. “Could we come in and explain it?”
She took a few deep breaths, then nodded. “But only for a few minutes. I have an appointment soon.”
She led them into a cozy kitchen that opened to a combined dining and living area. Sunlight poured through the windows, flooding the space in warmth and highlighting the lush greenery filling nearly every surface.
As if used to being obeyed, she pointed at a floral sofa. “Sit.”
Burke waited while Abby took a seat, then settled next to her. “We were told you first visited Victor for professional reasons.”
“And if it was?” The same eyebrow went up again. “Is informing someone on the local flora a crime?”
Burke hadn’t expected this much hostility from their innocent questions. “What exactly was Victor interested in learning about?”
The doctor crossed her arms. “That’s between me and him.”
Burke wouldn’t be put off and back down until he got a straight answer. “When did you first meet with him?”
She shrugged. “I don’t remember the exact date.”
“Give us an approximate one.”
She raised her eyes to the ceiling. “I’m not sure on the year, but it was a few months before Estelle went missing.”
A few months before? Could she be connected to Estelle? He schooled his expression to hide his interest. “Did you meet Estelle back then?”
She shook her head. “He said she was a naturalist and the one driving his questions, but she wouldn’t be interested in any details.”
“And what questions and details are those?” Abby asked, as her phone chimed, indicating a text. Thankfully, she ignored it and didn’t break their rhythm.
The woman sighed. “You people don’t give up, do you?”
“You seem like you don’t want to answer our questions,” Abby said. “We’re not here to accuse you of anything, we’re just gathering background information on Victor.”
“But why?” She leaned forward. “What’s this all about?”
“All we can tell you is a crime was committed on his estate,” Burke said. “We’re trying to find the perpetrator.”
The doctor’s mouth fell open. “You don’t think it’s me?”
“We’re too early in our investigation to know who it could possibly be.” Abby smiled at the woman. “So if you’d please answer our questions, you’d be helping Victor.”
Her anger melted like a chocolate bar on a hot dashboard, but she quickly squared her shoulders.
“He wanted to re-create the garden his wife left in France. His gardener told him some of those plants wouldn’t grow on the Oregon coast, so he wanted information about landscaping on a coastal property. ”
“But after his wife disappeared, you continued to visit him,” Burke said.
She held Burke’s gaze for a long moment without speaking.
“I lost my husband to a freak car accident, so I knew the pain he was going through. True, Victor hadn’t actually lost his wife, she was just missing, but the grief’s the same.
So I stopped by to see if he wanted to talk about it.
Our time together helped him, and we met weekly after that. Eventually, we became friends.”
Her explanations seemed logical, but her underlying tension and argumentative behavior said she was hiding something or giving them half-truths.
“When’s the last time you visited him?” Burke paused for a moment, keeping his gaze on her. “And before you answer, please know we have the ferry logs with dates and times people arrived on the island.”
“It was last Friday. In the afternoon.”
“Can you be more specific on the time?”
“I arrived on the one o’clock ferry and left on the six.”
“Did Victor seem upset about anything at this visit?” Abby asked.
“Upset? No. Nothing unusual.” Her words were relaxed, but her posture remained stiff. “We had tea and spent most of the time comparing the aches, pains, and trials of aging.”
“You mentioned a gardener,” Burke said. “Do you know where we might find him?”
“All I know is Victor fired Juan, and he took off in a huff. I’m not sure where he went.
He once mentioned moving here from California, but that was, what?
Forty or so years ago, and he was in his fifties at the time.
That would put him in his late nineties now.
Or even over a hundred. He likely wouldn’t still be living. ”
Unfortunately, Burke agreed with her. Still, they would try to find him, though his common name would make it harder. Hopefully, Abby would ask Hayden to look into him.
“Are you familiar with Cladonia arbuscula lichen?” he asked and watched carefully for her reaction.
Her face screwed up in a puzzled expression. “I am, but what does that have to do with coastal gardening?”
“I just wondered if you’re familiar with it.” Burke tried to look as innocent as he could.
She scowled. “Of course I am. I’m a botanist.”
“Does it grow on Victor’s property?”
“It does.”
“Can it be found all over the property or just in specific places?” Abby asked.
“Not everywhere,” she said. “You’ll find it only in sunny open areas with well-drained soil.”
Abby crossed her legs, but her gaze was intense. “From what I’ve seen, his land is predominantly wooded.”
“It’s sunny near the coastline.”
Just what Burke needed to hear, and he was done here. He stood. “Thank you. Your information is most helpful.”
Abby offered one of her comforting smiles she’d given to so many people during the investigation. “Thank you so much for your time, Doctor.”
He’d spent months with her on the prior murder investigation, and he’d learned about her kindness. Or at least he thought he had, but this investigation was really revealing the depth of not only her kindness but her faith too. Made her even more attractive to him, if that was possible.
Burke cleared his brain of such thoughts and motioned for Abby to precede him to the doorway.
As soon as they were in the car and Abby closed her door, she took out her phone. “I got a text from Kelsey. She didn’t want to waste the day driving to the island. She had Coop fly her, and they’ll land in thirty minutes.”
“Perfect. It’ll take us about that long to get out to the island.” Burke fired up the engine and pointed his department vehicle toward the marina.
Abby swiveled on her seat to face him. “Do you think Dr. Shore has anything to do with the theft of the crown?”
“I don’t know. She seemed to be hiding something. I just don’t know what. She did visit Victor last Friday, which would be within the theft timeframe.”
“When she said she was there all afternoon, I kept thinking how Victor said he napped every afternoon, no matter what.”
“You think she might’ve swiped the crown while he was sleeping? Maybe put it outside until he woke up, so when she left he wouldn’t see her take it?”
“It’s a possibility we should consider. She could even be the one who tracked in the lichen.”
“We could try for a warrant to search her house so Sam can process her footwear. Could be tough to get one before we actually have a body though.”
Abby nodded. “If there is a body on the island, Kelsey will find it. You can be sure of that.”
Burke had read articles about the anthropologist on the internet last night and everyone spoke highly of her, but could anyone be so good? He was about to find out.
After weaving through heavy traffic, they finally boarded his friend’s boat.
He started to push it full throttle, but the sunshiny day had brought people flooding to the bay.
He had to take it easy to maneuver through the other boats.
The typically thirty-minute trip took an hour.
Abby notified Kelsey of their delay, who said she would start an initial search on the sunny, coastal area mentioned by Dr. Shore.
When they arrived, she was exactly where she said she would be, controlling a drone. Abby had said it was how Kelsey would likely locate the body. Burke could hardly believe it. Using a drone to find a body? Science fiction as far as he was concerned, and he couldn’t wait to find out how it worked.
Kelsey had brought along a skinny guy with thinning hair and an average-height woman with reddish brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, looking more like a teenager than a forensic scientist. All three of them wore protective white suits, but a camera hung around the other woman’s neck.
He and Abby approached the trio. No recognition of their arrival from Kelsey. Her focus stayed on the controller in her hand.
“Hey, Kelsey.” Abby stopped next to her.
“Oh, good. You’re here. I’ll take a quick break so we can talk, then re-launch the drone.” She maneuvered the controls until her drone landed, then she turned to them.
She didn’t look anything like Burke expected a hardcore forensic anthropologist might look. A sparkly clip held back her curly dark hair, and her Tyvek suit, open above her waist, revealed a frilly floral blouse. Her fingernails were coated in a pastel pink, matching her lipstick. A girly girl.
She shoved out her hand to Burke. “Kelsey Dunbar, forensic anthropologist, Veritas Center.”
“Detective Burke Ulrich.” He took her soft hand, surprised at her strong grip.
She shifted her attention to Abby. “Good to see you again, Sheriff—I mean, Abby.” She shook her head, her curls bouncing. “I didn’t think you’d ever leave law enforcement, but I’ve heard wonderful things about your new team.”
“I am most blessed to be on it.”
Kelsey gestured at her team members. “This is Shawn Fortune, my assistant, and Ainslie Houston, one of the center’s forensic photographers.
” She returned her attention to Abby. “Thank you for texting the information from the botanist. I’m concentrating on the area she suggested, and it should move things along faster. ”
“So I assume you haven’t located anything so far,” Burke said.
“Nothing, but I just got started.”
“I don’t want to delay you or question your methods, but this is all new to me, and I’m dying to find out how you locate graves with a drone?”
“No worries. I’ve explained this to any number of law-enforcement officers since I started employing it.
” She gave a quick smile. “The drone uses infrared imaging. Works both above and below the ground. If for some reason the body has been moved, the infrared technology can also find both locations for up to two years after the removal.”
“No offense.” He squinted at her. “But that almost sounds unbelievable.”
“Doesn’t it?” Kelsey chuckled. “But I assure you the drone works. If I didn’t have it, I could pass by a clandestine body and not realize it’s there. In fact, the drone doubles my chance of finding one.”
He wanted to know more. “So would an explanation of how it technically works be above my head?”
“I don’t know you well enough to say that.” She grinned.
He laughed as did Abby. It impressed him that a person who found and unearthed victims for a living could have a positive attitude on anything.
“But seriously,” she said. “When bodies decay, they release carbon and nitrogen that first kill plants, then fertilize the soil. The change alters light reflection, which near-infrared drones detect, and I confirm with ground-penetrating radar.”
“Wow!” Burke had to work hard not to shake his head. “Impressive.”
“I agree,” she said. “Not because it’s something I do, but because researchers figured it all out for me. I can process not only this whole area today, but if we don’t find anything here, I can complete other areas of the property before the day is out.”
“Then we’ll step back and let you get to it.” For the first time in this investigation, Burke was filled with a solid hope. This one based on forensic science, which rarely let them down.