Chapter 38
“That’s a beautiful blouse,” Anna said as a heavyset woman hurried back from the restroom to her seat at the front desk. She flushed happily at the compliment, beaming a warm, friendly smile that almost made Anna mean what she’d said about the garishly colored polyester shirt.
“Why, thank you. The sheriff says he needs to wear sunglasses indoors around me, but I ignore him. The world needs more color in it. Color makes me smile. Sorry I wasn’t here.” She leaned forward. “UTI. Can’t shake it. I’m Roz. How can I help you?”
“Oh, I hate those. I get them a lot too.” Anna had never had a UTI in her life, but she loved that Roz had shared so quickly.
Behind the desk, through a wall with a clear upper half, Anna could see a couple of locked rooms with key-code punch pads, no doubt the armory and records rooms, and she could hear some laughter from down the corridor to the right.
It sounded like Sheriff Adams. “I’m Anna Maybourne. ”
Roz’s face furrowed into care and concern. “Oh, you’re the poor girl who found Jamie Carlson? His poor mother is devastated.” She leaned forward. “Although they could have cared more when he was alive, if you ask me, because that boy deserved better.”
“I agree.” She hadn’t known Jamie for more than a couple of conversations, but she felt a lingering closeness to him after her dream, and after finding his body, it was like they were bound together now.
She was sure the last message he had typed out was for her, and that carried a weight of responsibility she couldn’t—and didn’t want to—shake off.
“Do you think I could talk to the sheriff? If he’s not too busy? ”
“Sure. Let me check.” She stayed in her chair, used the intercom, and within a moment she was nodding Anna down the corridor.
“Sheriff’s office at the end. There’s only four rooms down there, so you can’t miss it. Nice to meet you, Anna.”
“You too, Roz.”
The corridor was short, and as she passed the deputies’ office she saw Todd and the other deputy, Pete, in his thirties with a smugly satisfied belly that was starting to hang over his belt, both at their computers.
Todd looked up to see Anna going by, his expression suddenly curious, and half lifted a hand to wave, but she ignored him, focusing ahead to where Sheriff Adams was in the doorway to his office, waiting for her.
“Come on in, Anna.”
She stepped inside, surprised at how neat the room was; for some reason she saw him as an organized-chaos type. She stopped him as he went to close the door. “Can you leave it open, please?”
He paused, thoughtful. “Sure.” He waved her to a seat and took his own behind the desk. “So what can I do for you?”
“I was thinking about Jamie and what he said to me. He was so adamant that if anything happened to him, then I’d know the killer was still in Harper’s Creek.
What if he was right? I mean, something has happened to him.
It made me wonder. What if Michael Cairns wasn’t the right guy, just the easiest? ”
Sheriff Adams stared at her for a long time before he spoke, his voice calm and even.
“After Lila was murdered, you think we sat back doing nothing? Men were turning up for DNA tests voluntarily even though there was no DNA found to match it against. Her clothes were never recovered. We didn’t even know why she was out of her house.
She’d been watching movies with Jamie, he walked her home, and then she must have snuck back out of her window for some reason.
She’d left her phone in her bedroom, and there were no clues on that.
As you know, this is neither a big town nor a rich one, and generally speaking we don’t get a lot of crime, so most folks don’t even have a Ring doorbell, let alone security cameras, and the only place with CCTV is The Shamrock, and that just covers their parking lot.
Lila’s mom said she’d heard her and Jamie arguing that night, so yes, of course he was our prime suspect.
It’s nearly always the boyfriend or husband. ”
“But it wasn’t him, was it?” she countered. “Surely you found that out fast.”
“He didn’t tell you, did he?” Sheriff Adams laced his fingers.
“How he fled town scared for two days after her body was found? Hid out in an empty barn five miles away. So the first forty-eight hours—the crucial time—was spent looking for him. Even his folks didn’t know where he was.
Eventually he came back, told us about his shoulder; we checked it over and he was ruled out.
But time was lost. And did we question other people?
Hell yes. Of course we did. But when Jamie came with tall tales of clowns shooting him up with heroin, did we also take that with a grain of salt? Again, hell yes.”
He wasn’t angry; if anything, he sounded tired.
“And as for Bonnie, well, she was working late and then must’ve left to go home, and she too vanished until she was found up at the Laverne place.
Michael Cairns had been seen out drunk that night, and he fled town the next morning with no notice to his employer, and even the state police concluded that he was committing that robbery for cash to get as far away from here as he could.
Turned out he’d already been in trouble for groping young girls in Ohio.
Do I wish those officers had left him alive so we could question him?
Of course I do, but if I always got what I wanted, my life would probably be very different from the one I have, and my waist would surely be thinner. ”
If he thought that was going to make Anna leave, he was wrong. “Did you know Bonnie had a secret boyfriend?” she asked.
The sheriff stared at her, no tiredness now. “What?”
She opened her phone and showed him the photos. “I found these cards hidden in her room.”
“You were in her bedroom? Where were these?”
“I was interviewing her mom for the piece I’m writing. Bonnie had taped them behind her mirror.”
He flicked through the images. “They could have been old. Teenagers keep stuff, right?”
“No. The images on the cards are from a Netflix show that only came out the year she died.”
The sheriff handed her back the phone. “But even if she had a boyfriend, why would he have harmed Lila three years earlier? Wouldn’t fit the MO.
Either he dates the girls before killing them or he doesn’t.
” He sighed and reached for a toothpick from his desk, pushing it between his white teeth, digging for something.
“I’ve got to ask, Anna,” he said after he pulled it out.
“How come you care so much? You didn’t even know them. ”
“Because the anniversary is rolling around and if there is a killer still out there and he’s on some weird three-year cycle, then I have a vested interest in the next victim not being me.
Or Suzy. Or Melissa. Or any of the women in this town.
And also because Jamie is dead and I don’t believe in coincidences.
And because I know how men can be. And because I have so many unanswered questions.
” She was getting heated and took a shaky breath to level out.
“And if you think I’m the only person in this town who thinks those girls haven’t had justice yet, then you’re deluded.
” She sat up straighter. “I’m going to write this piece.
I’m going to enter it for a competition in The New York Times.
And if I don’t win, then maybe I’ll turn it into a podcast. Either way, I feel I owe it to Jamie to dig around.
And don’t you want to be sure? That’s all I’m asking.
Would hate to have to write about police complacency.
I mean, how come you’re so convinced Lila and Bonnie were killed by the same person? ”
“Okay, I’ll give you this, but it has to be off the record.
” He leaned forward, elbows on the desk, waiting for her nod.
“Both girls’ bodies were washed with the same coal tar soap, Sailor’s Choice.
Michael Cairns had some in his motel room when it was searched.
We never released that detail prior, so…
” He shrugged. “Given the exact matching of injuries on both bodies—the skull damage and squares of missing skin were identical, the latter cut away after death occurred in both cases, and both were strangled—and how they were washed and prepared before being left in the fields, we’re pretty certain the same person was responsible for both murders. ”
Anna let the information sink in. Maybe the police hadn’t been as incompetent as she thought, but it would still have been easy to reach for Cairns as the guilty party, especially as he couldn’t answer back. “Did you question a lot of other people?” She paused. “Lucas, for example. The handyman?”
“Why do you ask?” He frowned, curious rather than irritated, and flicked the toothpick into the trash can.
“He’s a single man, and he worked in the school for a while as a janitor.
” She took out one of Bonnie’s yearbooks, opening it to show a photo of Lucas up a ladder in the background, Lila smiling in the foreground.
“He was around the kids. I bet the girls flirted with him for fun. Teased him. Kind of shit we would do back in high school. Girls can be stupid.”
The sheriff studied the photo but didn’t shut her down.
“Melissa also told me he’s a ladies’ man. Makes me wonder if something got out of hand. Maybe he got a no he wasn’t used to. And he’s strong. He could carry a body.”
“You think he murdered Lila and Bonnie?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know him. I just asked if you questioned him. Or any of the other single—or married—men who might have been around them. I’m trying to understand the path of the investigation.”
“If I’m honest, I don’t recall. I’ll have to check the files at some point.”
“This town can’t be that busy with crime. You must have the time.”
“There’s more to this job than Harper’s Creek, Anna. Borne County is small, but we’re kept busy enough, trust me.”
“If you didn’t speak to him then, maybe you should now.
I also heard that the high school kids used to party in our house when it was empty.
Did anyone ever check it out as a potential murder site?
I found an old bloodstain in the basement.
It could be anyone’s, but it would be interesting to get it tested.
And Lucas did the repairs on the place, right? How long has he had keys?”
“Maybe you should quit thinking about writing and sign up to be a deputy.” He gave her a wry smile. “Look, I’ll get Todd to come out to you this afternoon and check out that blood.”
“Around two would be good.” That would be the sweet spot when Anna and Grandma were home alone and Mom hadn’t yet picked Callie up from school on her way back from work.
“I’ll tell him. And I have to go into Kearney to pick up my wife’s anniversary gift, and I’ll talk to Lucas on the way back.”
“You won’t say I sent you?”
“You’re not sending me, young lady, so no.” His smile was warm.
“Thank you.” She was relieved. They say a girl died here. It would be good to rule that possibility out and put it down to Grandma’s crazy brain.
“Never hurts to go over things.” He got to his feet to see her out.
“Even if you don’t believe me, I do care about my job.
” As they got closer to the door, he picked up an asthma inhaler from the top of a filing cabinet.
Anna moved swiftly past the deputies’ office as Sheriff Adams called out, “Todd! If you’re looking for your inhaler, you left it in my office again! ”