Nearly Found (19 page)

I
SLEPT,
but it was a fitful and restless three hours of mostly terrible dreams. Images of TJ woke me through the night, bits and pieces of our conversation in the prison coming back to me and the feel of his arms squeezing the air from my lungs. Only in the dreams, he was wearing his father’s face.

My eyes burned with fatigue. I stepped off the bus, blinking against the early morning sun. High tide had come and gone before sunup. At my transfer stop, I found a pay phone behind a gas station, and dialed the police tip line to report Emily’s body. I talked quickly, distorting my voice. Then hung up just as my next bus pulled into view, and climbed on.

“Whoa, totally didn’t expect to see you here,” Raj said when I opened the break room door at the lab.

I froze. “You too.”

He dumped sugar into his coffee and stirred it with a finger. “Are you kidding? All kinds of crazy stuff goes down on Saturday nights. Drive-bys. Burglaries. Muggings. Sunday mornings in the crime lab are where we see the most action. What about you? Aren’t you supposed to be sleeping or something? I read somewhere that teenagers need more sleep than the average human.”

“Whatever.” I plucked on the sleeve of his LEGO Batman T-shirt and pushed past him toward the coffeepot, struggling to act normal. “You should zip your fly. I think your Mutant Ninja Turtles are showing.”

Raj dared a quick look at his crotch. “That’s funny, Boswell. You know what’s not funny? That huge stack of cards in the Latent Prints lab.” Raj’s face was stone-cold serious.

Coffee splashed over the side of my mug and I scrambled to clean it up. “What do you mean?” My breath held. Had they found Lonny’s phone?

“There were about fifty new cards in my in-box on Friday.” He sipped his coffee, raising an eyebrow over the brim of his mug.

“So what are you suggesting?”

He looked around conspiratorially. “It’s Sunday morning. Which means the place will be quiet for another few hours. Things won’t start hopping until noon. What do you say I log you in to the Latent Prints lab and you can feed The Monster for a couple hours. Might as well make yourself useful since you’re here. And there might be a few performance-based donut holes in it for you.”

I let out my breath. This couldn’t be more perfect. My hands shook ever so slightly as I lifted the mug to my lips, and I hoped Raj wouldn’t notice. “Fine. As long as you promise to come get me if anything exciting happens.” By now, police would be swarming Dyke Marsh Trail. Emily’s body would be here in a few hours, hopefully in time to shed light on the progress of the investigation before my meeting with the others.

Raj dropped me off in the Latent Prints lab and logged me in to AFIS. When I was sure he was gone, I dug my fingers into the box and felt around for Lonny’s phone. Still there. I sat down in front of The Monster and typed a name in the search field.

Reece’s fingerprints appeared on the screen, and I studied the records tied to them. All of them dated before his brother died. My finger twitched over the
DELETE
key. I clicked it.

“Are you sure you want to delete this record?” the computer prompted. But the flashing cursor felt like it was asking more.

“I’m sure.” I closed my eyes. Clicked it again.

Reece’s records were gone.

I scanned the rest of the cards as quickly as I could, feeding The Monster fifty new names to make up for the one I’d just taken. Then I kept going. Through the older stacks in the box.

Until I reached the bottom of the stack and my fingers found Lonny’s phone.

Bad people don’t stop doing bad things.

It was one thing to delete Reece’s fingerprints, it was another thing to steal evidence. I unzipped my backpack and stuffed the phone inside. I’d return Lonny’s phone to the evidence room on my way out of the lab.

The door opened and I jumped when Raj rushed in. He headed straight for the supply cabinet and began rummaging inside. His face was flushed, like he’d just run up the stairs.

“What’s going on?” Raj never moved this fast, unless it involved a body.

He didn’t answer as he withdrew containers of fingerprint powder and gloves. The hair on my neck stood on end. It was too early. There was no way Emily’s body could be here so soon. Unless it had been discovered by someone else. Before I’d made the call. Before the tide came up and washed over the tracks on the shoreline. I turned off the monitor, my stomach in knots.

He drew on a lab coat, stuffing the supplies into the pockets. Then he grabbed a field test kit with a layer of dust on it, and pushed past me to the door.

“Where are you going?” Lab techs didn’t go into the field. They weren’t allowed.

“A dismembered body was called in this morning. And since I’m not on the clock, and Doc isn’t here, there’s no one to tell me I have to stick around and wait for the meat wagon to bring it in.”

I followed after him. “Wait! I want to go too. It’ll be like a field trip.”

“No way,” he said. “You can stay here and feed The Monster.”

“But I finished the entire stack of cards!”

“Then you can wash dishes.”

“I’ll stay out of the way. I promise.”

“Sorry, kid.”

I couldn’t let him leave without me. If he left me behind, it would be hours before I knew what they’d found at the crime scene, or if Reece was being considered a suspect.

“If you let me come, I’ll tell you what Veronica said about you.” I felt sick the moment the words were out of my mouth. This was exactly the kind of thing my father would do.

Raj almost tripped. He stopped at the end of the hall to look at me. “Veronica said something about me?”

I nodded.

“What did she say?” I didn’t have to touch Raj to know how he felt about her. But Veronica had been good about hiding her emotions. And here I was, ready to leverage them to get what I wanted.

“I’ll tell you everything, if you take me with you.”

Raj stomped back into the lab, grumbling under his breath. He reached into a cabinet.

“I’m going to get in so much trouble if Doc finds out about this. Here, put this on.” He handed me a lanyard, similar to the one I already wore around my neck. But this one said “Crime Scene Investigator.” He tossed me a lab coat and I stuffed my arms into the sleeves while I chased him down the back stairs. As soon as he unlocked the door of his car, I jumped in and snapped on my seat belt. A Yoda bobblehead nodded at me from the dashboard.

“We shouldn’t be doing this,” he said. “I’m only taking you along because I’m your internship supervisor and I am responsible for . . . you know . . . supervising you, or whatever. So spill. What did Veronica say about me?”

“She told me she likes you.”

“Like how?”

“Like, she really likes you. You should ask her out.”

“What if she says no?”

“She won’t say no.”

“How do you know that? Did she tell you?”

I looked away, out the window. “In a manner of speaking. Can we please go?”

Raj’s eyes lit, and I wasn’t sure what he was more excited about—the possibility of a date with Veronica or the crime scene we were about to sneak into. He started the car and programmed his Garman. “Where are we headed?” I asked, even though I already knew.

“Belle Green. The body was found on the island off Dyke Marsh Trail. And get this . . . she’s missing a foot.” Raj peeled out of the lot.

“So why are we going to Belle Green?” I asked cautiously. I’d have to be careful. I knew things that Raj hadn’t had time to figure out yet. Her identity, exactly where she’d been found, how the crime had been reported. And that her foot was in Eric Miller’s basement freezer.

“Police reported a teenage girl missing early this morning. She was on house arrest in her home in Belle Green. Apparently, her parents found her ankle bracelet in her bed, and her window was wide open. She fits the description of our Jane Doe. Doc’s on his way to the island, and there’s a small CSI team at the house already. Nobody we know. I already checked.”

“Do you know who the girl is?”

“All I have is an address.”

“What are we going to do there?” Raj had stuffed his pockets full of fingerprinting supplies. My heart skipped. My mind raced through every surface of Emily’s bedroom, the trellis, the fence . . .

“Nothing,” he said. “We’re going to watch.”

“Then what’s all that stuff in your pockets for?”

“To make us look official, in case anyone asks questions.”

I hadn’t thought about that when I jumped into Raj’s car. “What if someone sees us? What if they know we shouldn’t be there?” I wasn’t exactly a stranger in Belle Green, and Emily’s parents were sure to recognize me.

“Most of the CSI teams are at Dyke Marsh. And the girl’s parents were taken to the station to talk with investigators so police could secure the scene. They probably have one or two newbs in blue guarding the door. Maybe a couple of investigators.” Raj smoothed the collar of his lab coat. “We look official enough to pass for the real deal. We’ll get in, watch the crime scene photographers do their thing, practice pulling a few prints . . . Maybe we’ll get lucky and be the ones to find the missing foot.”

A nervous giggle escaped my throat.

Raj turned off the interstate and headed south on Route 1. We passed the burnt shell of the Buis’ store and the road to my trailer. Then, a few miles farther, the site of Reece’s bike accident. Sun glinted off scraps of metal that had been brushed to the side of the road. There was a note at every site. A message. Ink on my mirror. A number in bone. A formula on the helmet. A bread crumb drawing us further in. The night before, in the dark on the island, we’d all been too freaked out to look. But that didn’t mean a message wasn’t there, waiting for daylight to be discovered.

The club will illuminate its secrets.

I shifted in my seat.

Raj drove through the wrought iron gates into Belle Green and we wound through manicured streets of stately brick colonials. My phone buzzed and I pulled it from my pocket. Jeremy. Probably wanting to know if I’d heard anything about the investigation yet. I silenced it as the yellow tape perimeter around the Reinnerts’ lawn came into view. We parked along the curb behind a police car.

“Stay close and follow me. Act like you belong here.”

Raj got out of the car with his stolen field kit. He nodded once at the young-looking officer by the door and walked right past him into the house, while I stared at his heels and tried not to look guilty. A few photographers in CSI shirts descended the winding center stair, carrying armfuls of gear.

“We’re all wrapped up in there. Scene’s all yours.” We stepped aside with our heads down to let them pass. Then we crept up the stairs. When we got to the top, Raj paused.

“Second door on the left,” I said, remembering the placement of Emily’s window from where I’d sat outside her fence.

“How do you know that?”

Stupid!
I bit my lip and thought fast.

“I have a friend who lives on this street. Same floor plan,” I said, trying to sound confident. “Lucky guess.”

“Impressive.” Raj poked his head into Emily’s room. “You’ve got good instincts. You’d make a good investigator.”

Or a great conman. I dug my nails into my palms. Clamped my mouth shut.

Inside the room, an investigator bent over Emily’s wastebasket under her desk, picking through its contents with gloved fingers. We stood, silently watching.

My phone buzzed in my pocket. The investigator started. Raj jabbed me with an elbow and I rushed to shut it off.

“It’s about time,” the CSI guy said into the can without looking behind him. “You all were supposed to be here twenty minutes ago.”

Raj coughed. “Sorry we’re late. We got held up with the team at the marsh.”

“There are booties by the door. Don’t track any marsh crap on the carpets.”

Raj and I exchanged what-the-hell-do-we-do-now looks. Then he handed me a set of blue booties and we slipped them over our shoes. A box of latex gloves sat on the edge of the bed, and we each took a pair.

At the sound of the snap of the gloves on our wrists, the CSI guy reached backward and held something out to Raj. “Bag this, will you?”

My breath caught. Pinched in his fingers was a pair of tweezers, and pinched inside those was a used condom, stretched out like a worn sock, opaque against the light of Emily’s window.

Raj faltered a moment, then reached for a paper evidence bag from the collection kit.

“Use a cup. This one’s still juicy,” said CSI guy.

Raj made a face. He unscrewed a specimen cup and CSI guy dropped the condom in.

“You must be new.” The guy rose to his feet. He pulled a marker from his pocket and yanked off the cap with his teeth, never once looking at us as he took the cup and labeled it. “Looks like this little scavenger hunt is just about over. The murder weapon was found in the trees behind her house—”

“What was it? A butcher knife? A saw?” Raj was entirely too eager, and I stepped hard on his toe.

“A rope. We can’t sign off on it until Doc Benoit gives his two cents. But the guys at the marsh say it looks like strangulation was the cause of death. The amputation was probably done post-mortem. The only thing missing now is the girl’s foot.” His phone rang. “Make sure this makes it to the freezer,” he said, handing the cup to Raj and stepping out of the room to take the call.

Raj stared at the cup with a look of complete fascination. “Do you have any idea what this is? This is probably a DNA sample from the last person to see the victim alive. Probably the same person who killed her. Aside from the murder weapon, this is the single most damning piece of evidence in this case.”

Raj crossed the room and examined the window. “No sign of forced entry. Nothing looks out of place. The murder didn’t happen in her room. Which means she was alive when she climbed out that window. She probably knew her attacker. Maybe even trusted him.” Raj stuck his head out and pointed toward the golf course. “She was probably killed where they found the weapon, in the trees right behind the house. Which is why the ankle bracelet never alerted police to the fact that she’d been missing. The killer must have climbed back in, to put it in her room. Then he moved her to the island to get rid of the body before anyone knew she was gone.”