Chapter 33 Annie
The station was empty when Annie unlocked the door and stepped inside.
She didn’t bother flipping on the lights as she rounded the desk, her eyes on the landline where a blinking red number announced two unheard messages.
On the drive over from the pool, she’d run the timeline in her head, and it fit.
It actually fit. Jamie had run up to the lake just before midnight.
It had probably taken her a few minutes to strip down and get in the water, and not long after that, Daniel had stepped out onto the dock and asked her to leave.
Twelve fifteen. Twelve twenty, maybe. With a time of death between one and three in the morning, that left plenty of time for Jamie to make her way down to the pool with Ian or someone else, and plenty of time for the drive up to the ridge afterward, where Jamie’s killer had dumped her body in the hopes of blaming it on Justin Grimes.
In fact, it made more sense that Jamie’s drowning had taken place in town, rather than up in the briars. If Jamie had been drowned in Lake Lumin, the easiest thing for the killer to do would be to leave her body there and let Daniel take the blame for it.
The more she thought about it, the more convinced Annie became that the lab results would prove Jamie had drowned in the pool, and that’s what had brought her back to the station, the hope that Doc Porter had called with results from the lab in Seattle.
Breath held, Annie pressed the play button for the first recorded message.
“Hi, this is Paula Rizzo for Annie Heston. I’m with the Northwest Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Portland, and I wanted to let you know that the cougar you brought in has been treated and released back into his territory with a new radio collar at the coordinates you gave us.
The wound wasn’t as deep as we first thought, but he does have a few stitches that will dissolve on their own within the next week or two, and a light bandage to keep them clean in the meantime.
Thank you again for bringing him in, and please don’t hesitate to call us if you have any questions or need anything in the future. Thank you.”
Impatiently, Annie clicked the arrow for the next message.
“Annie, are you there? It’s Jake, pick up…
pick up… guess not. So, listen, good news and bad news.
The good news is I know why the Jeep’s been stuttering on the freeway, but the bad news is you need a new head gasket.
It blew out on me when I was heading back from the courthouse.
I called a tow truck, and I’m at a garage in some tiny town called Hockinson, about twenty minutes from Vancouver.
I told the mechanic I’m on police business so he bumped me up to first in line, but it’s still half a day’s job.
No idea when I’ll be back, but probably way later tonight or early tomorrow morning.
I don’t wanna spend the night down here with Daniel being such a flight risk and all, so I’ll be back up as soon as I can to get him into custody.
If you need me in the meantime, here’s the number for the garage… ”
Annie grabbed a pen and took down the phone number he rattled off, shoulders sagging with relief. It wasn’t much, only a few extra hours, half a day at the most, but one bad gasket had bought Daniel a little more time before his arrest.
Placing the pen down, Annie reached for the Rolodex on Jake’s side of the desk and flipped it open. When she found the number she was hunting for, she punched it into the handset and lifted the phone to her ear, listening as it rang once, twice.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Doctor Porter, this is Annie Heston. I’m sorry to bother you in the middle of the workday, but I’m calling to see if the results have come back from the lab yet… results from the water in Jamie Boyd’s lungs, I mean.”
The doctor chuckled. “Your timing is impeccable, Annie. As a matter of fact, I was just about to give the station a call. The results came in a few minutes ago. Is Jake around to hear this?”
A wave of blood surged past Annie’s ears, making her lightheaded.
“No, he’s out for the day, but I’m happy to relay the message.”
Annie heard the rustling of paper as an envelope was peeled open and pages pulled out.
“One second here, let me find my glasses…”
Come on! she wanted to shout as her fingers tightened around the phone. Come on!
The phone was set down, then lifted again, and paper rustled once more as a page was turned.
“Well?” Annie asked, breathless.
“Ah, here we are… Goodness, it’s uh… it’s remarkable, really. You’ll never guess what they found in the sample of water, still living, still swimming around in there.”
Annie’s face went slack. She knew.
She knew what they’d found. And she forced herself to say the words out loud.
“Bioluminescent plankton.”
“That’s right. Seems there’s no question about it; Jamie was drowned in Lake Lumin.”