Chapter Nineteen
Nineteen
Fort Bragg, California
“You didn’t need to walk us to our room,” Elle said as she, Ronan, and Alexis cleared the top of the stairs at the inn. “But thank you.”
“I’m worried,” Ronan confessed. “I think you’re right, that you’ll be his next target.”
They paused outside her and Alexis’s room. “How will tomorrow work?” Elle asked. “You and Detective Simpson said you’d ‘watch over’ me, but what does that mean?”
“Let’s go in to discuss it.” Ronan gestured to the door. “After you.”
Elle unlocked the door, cocking her head to listen to the loud voices coming from their room, accompanied by a laugh track. “That’s weird,” she said. “We never turned on the TV. I hope—” She pushed open the door, but went no farther as shocked horror claimed her yet again. “Oh my God.”
“What?” Alexis demanded, leaning sideways to see around Elle. “Oh shit. Who is that?”
Because a woman lay on the floor, a puddle of blood around her head.
Ronan gently pushed Elle to one side then sighed. “That’s Olive Lavery, the staff member who lost her key card. Or said she did. Stay here.” He went into the room, pulling on a pair of gloves. He crouched next to the woman and touched her neck, his shoulders sagging. “She’s dead. Dammit.”
“Eleven bodies,” Elle whispered. She recognized the woman now. She was young, barely out of high school. Elle had met Olive a week ago when she and Sara had requested fresh towels. She was so damn young.
And now she was so damn dead.
Elle leaned against the wall outside the room. She was numb. Again.
“He trashed the room,” Alexis said grimly, standing in the doorway while Ronan made a phone call to the coroner.
Shit. Elle’s knees wobbled and for a moment she thought she might slide down the wall, but she remained upright. “I left my laptop in the safe.”
“I hope you had it backed up.” Alexis mirrored her pose, leaning beside her. “The whole safe is gone. Just torn out of the wall.”
Elle’s knees did fail at those words. She landed on her ass, wincing as the hard floor met her tailbone. “It was backed up to the cloud.” As was the external drive she never left home without. It had also been in the safe. “So I can get to my records.”
Records she’d intended to spend the evening poring over. She kept the downloads from her body cam on the hard drive. She’d last backed it up the day she’d found the Millers in that tent in Willits.
Which was just yesterday.
How could that be?
“Did he get your laptop, too?” she asked Alexis.
“No. I’m carrying it in my satchel.” She patted her cross-body bag.
“I need to get another laptop ASAP. I need to check my body cam downloads.”
“To know if Mystery Guy approached you while you were on any of your other cases?”
“Yes.”
“I thought you would. Are you going to tell Detective Clarke?”
“Yes.”
“I thought you would. Are you going to tell Sara that you’re giving the cops the recordings?”
Elle hesitated. “I’m not sure. She’d make me get a warrant, but we don’t have time for stuff like that now.”
“Legal stuff,” Alexis said. “Why would he kill her?” She pointed over her shoulder to the newest body.
“Maybe she didn’t lose her key card. Maybe she let the guy use it. Maybe he bribed her.”
“Or extorted her.”
Like we did to Steve Garfield. Elle rubbed at her temples.
“This is a nightmare.”
“Yeah, it is.” Alexis squeezed her knee. “Your detective is wrapping up his call with the coroner. I don’t imagine he’s going to want us to stay here.”
“I don’t imagine the innkeeper is going to want us to stay here, either,” Elle said glumly. “I wouldn’t blame any of the innkeepers in a hundred-mile radius for turning us away.”
Elle’s cell phone buzzed in her pocket and, feeling like a robot, she hit accept, not checking the caller ID until after the call had connected.
“It’s Sara,” she told Alexis, putting the phone to her ear. “Hey.”
“Hey yourself,” Sara said, sounding giddily happy. “What’s up?”
Elle nearly laughed. “It would take too long to tell you. I hope this is a good-news call. I need some of that right now.”
“It’s a girl! She was born about an hour ago. She’s Josephine Hazel Lambert-Flaherty, named after both of our grandmothers. She’s got all ten fingers and toes. Weighs eight pounds, three ounces. Screams like a champion. Felicia is doing great.”
Elle managed a smile. “I am so happy for you.” But she didn’t sound happy. She sounded pathetically sad and weak.
“Wait,” Sara said sharply. There was some murmuring in the background and then Sara was back. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m not sure how much to tell you. You’re busy welcoming your new child and I don’t want to rain on that. To be succinct, there were at least four victims killed by our perpetrator before we arrived in Fort Bragg two and a half weeks ago.”
“Shit,” Sara swore. “Who and where?”
“All connected to fugitives I recovered, people who’d threatened me in some way. The cities were San Francisco, Portland, Spokane, and Bakersfield. In that order.”
“Elle.”
“There’ve been more murders here, too. I’m telling you so that you can be careful.” She didn’t think their guy would go after Sara, but Elle had to prepare her, just in case.
“I know about Dianne Foster, Kasey Arnold, Steve Garfield, and the two growers. Alexis called me last night to bring me up to speed.”
Elle met Alexis’s gaze. “Where did you leave off with Sara’s briefing?”
“Last I talked to her was before we went to Detective Clarke’s house.”
“Okay.” Elle forced herself to think clearly. “So four people connected to recovered fugitives over the last two years. Then six more in Mendocino County.”
“Seven,” Alexis corrected, pointing to the newest body on their bedroom floor.
“Seven more,” Elle revised. “The newest victims are the innkeeper Judith and now one of the housekeeping staff.”
“Jesus,” Sara breathed. “Elle, get out of there. You and Alexis get in her fancy German car and come back. I’ll send someone for the Tahoe later. You are not to be alone.”
“I’ve got protection here. I’m safe.”
As safe as she could be, anyway.
Sara was quiet for a moment. “Detective Clarke?”
“Yes. Alexis is driving back to the city tomorrow to go to court, and she’ll have a police escort with her.
Like, driving her, not following behind her.
We know what the guy looks like, so she knows who to avoid.
The sheriff’s department put out a BOLO on the guy, but I’ll get a photo from Ronan so that you can take precautions.
Also to find out if you’ve seen him, too. ”
Sara gasped. “Too? You’ve seen him? Giselle Esmeralda Randolph. Why didn’t you lead with that?”
“Because I’m tired,” Elle said, trying not to whine. “And overwhelmed. I’m sorry. We just saw his face an hour ago. He asked me for an autograph two years ago.”
“Which guy? Did I know about him?”
“He was the one that cornered me at the café down the block from my house.”
“I remember you telling me about him. So you have a face but no name. Send me the photo ASAP. We’ll get working on facial recognition.”
“I don’t have the photo, at least not yet.” The lieutenant had refused to give it to her when she’d asked. “Besides, the police here are already doing that.”
Sara scoffed. “I can do things they aren’t allowed to do.”
“I don’t think you are allowed to, either, Sara.”
“I don’t care. I’ll get into trouble before I let some asshole hurt you.”
Warmth bloomed in Elle’s chest, despite everything bad that had happened that day. “Felicia just gave birth an hour ago. We’re not asking her to do stuff like that now.”
Facial recognition, she mouthed to Alexis, who nodded.
“Let Felicia do it,” Alexis said, ever practical. “She and Sara can get away with things the cops can’t.”
“See?” Sara demanded. “I heard that, and Alexis and I are right. Felicia can walk me through the process. How hard can it be? And don’t tell Felicia I said that. I’ll call you a liar.”
Elle couldn’t stop the chuckle that rose from her throat. “I love you, too.”
And she did. She might not be able to work for Sara going forward, but she loved her like a sister. She loved all of them, Felicia and Alexis, too, like sisters.
Sisters. Shit. “I have to tell my family. In case he goes after them.”
“That might be a stretch,” Sara said cautiously. “Warn them, of course, but it’s highly unlikely that he’s going to get on a plane to Florida to hurt your family.”
“Especially since the police will put out a bulletin saying not to let him fly. And it would take a minimum of five days to drive. Three if he’s got an accomplice who’ll take turns driving.” Elle felt less panicked now. More in control. “Thank you, Sara. I feel better.”
“Good. What can I do for you?”
Elle hesitated, then figured she might as well put it all out there.
“I’m going to review my body cam footage.
See if this guy has come close to me in the past. It might help us ID him faster.
If I find him on my external hard drive—Oh, wait.
” She suddenly remembered why she and Alexis were sitting on the floor outside their room. “That’s gone. Shit.”
“What do you mean it’s gone?”
“Our room was ransacked and the safe was pulled right out of the wall. My laptop and hard drive were in it. My files are backed up to the cloud, but my electronics are still gone.”
“Don’t worry. I can track both items. I’ll wipe the external drive and the laptop, too. As soon as he opens the laptop or tries to use the hard drive, they’ll instantly wipe clean.”
Elle sagged in relief. “Oh, good. I’ve backed up my files to the cloud. Like I was saying, I was going to view my body cam footage from there. If I find him, I’m planning to make a clip and send it to Ronan.”
Sara was silent once again. “Okay,” she finally said.
Elle was stunned. “Okay?”
“Okay,” Sara repeated. “I don’t like giving the cops anything, but your safety is the most important thing. Alexis says this guy tried to frame you yesterday by planting evidence in your room. Wait, is this the same room?”
“No. Different room, same inn. Although I don’t think we’ll stay here much longer.”