Page 68 of Fire Harbor

“He’s dangerous,” Linus muttered, his eyes never leaving Riggs as the man stumbled along the beach, leaving a trail of what looked like blood in the sand.

“But he’s injured,” Lake noted. “He won’t get very far. We need to get out of here,” she added, her voice barely above a whisper. She could sense the storm brewing, not on the horizon but within the depths of Crab Shack Cove.

Before they could act, a sudden movement caught Linus’s attention. He pointed to a shadowy figure that emerged from the cliffs above, the man’s silhouette stark against the moonlight. Soon, the unmistakable shapes of others lined the ridge and stood alongside him.

“Look at that,” Linus said. “If I’m not mistaken, Brent Cody just showed up in force with an entire squad of officers.”

“They must’ve been waiting for Riggs at the top. How did they know he’d blow up his own boat?”

“Riggs is a very stupid man,” Tanaka pointed out. “Cody let Coast Guard tangle with him on the water while he waits for him to sneak off into the night.”

Lake grinned. “It's not a bad tactic. Grab him on the beach after he thinks he got away.”

“They’re taking him into custody now,” Linus said, keeping tabs on the arrest through the binoculars. “I think the worst is over.”

Once word got out that Riggs was in custody, folks breathed a sigh of relief.

Having witnessed the arrest, Lake and Linus went back to her house, convinced that everything would go back to normal.

But as they got ready for bed, Linus still had questions. “Why would a guy with a yacht, a house in Los Gatos, and a good-paying job become a serial killer?”

“An arsonist and kidnapper for sure,” Lake said as she sat on the bed, applying moisturizer to her face and neck.

“Maybe he wasn’t satisfied with his life, despite all those things,” Linus pondered aloud, joining Lake on the edge of the bed. “Sometimes people have everything on the outside, but something dark lurking within them.”

“It’s hard to say what drives someone to do such terrible things. Maybe he had a troubled past that led him down this dark path,” she mused, rubbing more cream along her arms and legs. Her expression serious, she turned to screw the cap back on the lotion. “Or maybe there’s something more sinister at play here—something the cops haven’t uncovered yet,” she said, her eyes narrowing in thought.

“It just doesn't add up for me. There must be more to this that we’re missing,” he muttered, more to himself than to Lake. “Does it add up for you?”

Her gaze hardened. “I want to believe Callum Riggs is the guy. But do you think someone else might be involved in the murders? At one time, we did think there might be two serial killers. One who began in 2014 and one who is more recent.”

“I don’t know, but there’s something weird about the way Riggs picked Pelican Pointe. Don’t you think? Why here, of all places? There are more people in Santa Cruz and more victims to choose from. Why not stick to that area?”

“But the victims were from Santa Cruz,” Lake pointed out. “All except Gabby. And Riggs only lives fifty minutes away. He makes sense from a logistical standpoint.”

“Okay, but was he watching their movements? Did he know they’d be going over that bridge late at night? If so, how did he know that? I mean, why did Riggs choose those specific victims?” Linus stood up abruptly, pacing back and forth in the dimly lit bedroom. “And what about changing his pattern? Why, all of a sudden, did he take Alice in the middle of the day?”

The room fell into a contemplative silence as they both mulled over the possibilities. Outside, the night was eerily quiet, the neighborhood had already gone to bed. Even the dogs seemed content to sleep.

Lake put away the moisturizer in her nightstand drawer before looking up at Linus with a furrowed brow. “Why are you still so focused on this?” she asked, sensing the gears turning in his mind. “Law enforcement arrested the man who took Alice and is suspected of blowing up the boats in the harbor. End of story.”

“That’s just it. Where’s the connection to the serial murders? Show me the link to Riggs and I’ll shut up about it. Did he know any of the victims? Did he have a connection to any of them?”

“We could pick a victim from the older missing person cases, let’s say Keri Davis from 2021, and check her social media accounts for any connection to Riggs.”

“Good idea. I’ll get my laptop. It’s downstairs.”

She let out a sigh. “I’ll get my bathrobe and meet you in the kitchen.”

The unresolved theory took flight as the clock ticked away. Silence followed while they both checked Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Using two laptops, they researched all the other names they knew—Joanna Hawkins, Amanda Jenner, Gail Pinter, Cillia French, Maggie Dover, Susan Crawford, and Britney Parks. It was clear that despite Riggs being in custody, the serial cases were far from closed. The mystery surrounding the murders deepened.

“Joanna Hawkins had a Facebook account that’s now inactive,” Lake muttered. “The Same with Amanda and Gail. By the time TikTok came along in 2016, those three were missing, so if they were victims of a serial killer, they wouldn’t have had a TikTok account. But according to their Facebook posts, friends they follow, or comments on photos they posted, there’s nothing that connects those three women to Riggs, unless he used a different profile name. You know what we could use right now?”

“What?”

“Confirmation that those eight missing cases match up to the eight victims.”

“Tomorrow, I’ll ask Eastlyn if they’ve heard back from the lab.”

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