Page 66 of Water's Edge

“Mindy Newsom is our best crime tech,” Ronnie says. “She’s great.”

“We could have used her,” Larry says. “What’s she look like?”

“What?”

“I mean, I might know her,” Larry says. “Doesn’t she own a flower shop?”

“Yes,” I say quickly before moving on.

I am beginning to think Larry is not only lazy, he is a pig. Clay is the real deal. I decide to tell him part of what I suspect about Truitt. But not that I think he’s the father of his daughter’s baby.

Larry doesn’t seem like he can keep that to himself.

I say, “Bohleber said he didn’t know Jim Truitt even though Truitt was co-signer for Leann’s cabin rental. Joe told me he and his twin brother, Steve, both own the fishing cabin business together, but Steve has nothing to do with it. I talked to Truitt. I thought it was strange that when he found out his daughter had been murdered, he didn’t ask any questions about how, when, or where it happened. He didn’t ask to see the body. He said he hadn’t seen his daughter for two years. But he admitted to paying his daughter’s rent since she came home from law school over a year ago. He and Leann had argued about her getting pregnant by Steve Bohleber. Truitt didn’t think his daughter should have a baby and ruin her life, but he wanted to make sure the baby got a good home. She wanted to keep the baby. Bohleber, the baby’s father, wanted money to convince Leann to give the child up for adoption. If she kept the child, that would mean Truitt would have to put up with Bohleber as family, and as you know, Truitt is very prideful and the Bohlebers are very greedy. He paid Steve Bohleber what he wanted, and the baby was put up for adoption a year ago. He didn’t know how to find Steve now because he’d taken off to parts unknown. When we got Jim Truitt’s name from Joe Bohleber, Joe called him and said we might be coming to see him.”

“I see where you’re going with this,” Larry says. “You think Jim is the real father of the baby but said it was Steve because he knows the truth. Bank fraud, money laundering. Now blackmail. That’s why you got DNA from Jim. Jim may have paid Steve to skip town. He might be paying Joe to keep it all quiet. You think Jim might be the killer?”

Clay says nothing, and I don’t want to confirm what Larry has guessed at. Never show your whole hand. I’ve said too much already.

“I’ve got four suspects and no witnesses,” I say. “No one at the bar where Leann worked could tell me much. They didn’t know who she was dating but knew she was seeing guys. Plural. All three of these women had babies. Do you think that means something?”

Ido. But I want to see what they suspect.

Clay speaks first. “The baby angle may or may not be important. Unless they all got pregnant by the same killer, I don’t see how it would be connected. Only Larry’s victim was pregnant when she was murdered.”

Larry says what I expect: “You two aren’t mothers, but women have babies. It’s just a fact of life. All three of them having babies don’t mean squat. You’re guessing.”

Clay and Larry had interviewed policemen who frequented the bars where the victims worked. Margie was found three weeks after she’d been seen last. Dina was missing two weeks before her body was found. Leann was missing a short time, maybe a week or less, according to Cass at the Nordland General Store. She didn’t come in for groceries this past Sunday. It fit with the coroner and autopsy report.

“All three of the victims worked at bars,” Clay says. “Dina worked at Doc’s Marina Grill.”

“That’s in Port Townsend. I know the place,” I say. “My victim worked at the Old Whiskey Mill.”

“Not far from where Dina worked,” Clay adds. “Bars would be good places for a killer to target victims.”

“Margie lived in Crane,” Larry says. “But she worked at Front Street Alibi when she worked at something besides on her back.”

Clay frowns at him.

“What?” Larry says. “She was a hooker or my name’s Father Christmas.”

“The Alibi is in Port Angeles,” I say.

“Yeah. Sorry for my language, missy.”

Missy? That’s the second time. I guess I’m counting.

Clay hurries along. “That’s only about twenty-five minutes from Port Townsend, where the other two worked. The killer likes them to be found.”

Larry takes it from there. “He leaves them naked, or nearly, to humiliate them. Margie was cut open. She had marks around her neck, wrists, and ankles that looked like what your girl had. She had sex recently, but like I said, she was a hooker, so who knows? She’d been missing for at least three weeks.”

The pathologist said she’d been dead for less than twenty-four hours.

“Dina had some bruising around the vagina,” Clay says, dropping his voice a little. For Ronnie’s sake, I think. “It was attributed to a rape, but it could have been abuse. She was promiscuous, so even the rape isn’t a given. She had the same injuries as the others. She’d been missing two weeks, more or less. She’d been dead around twenty-four hours when she was found, according to our coroner.”

The pattern seems clear, strikingly so. Three weeks missing, two weeks missing, less than a week missing. The killer is on a roll. Speeding up. If he is on a schedule, the next victim is already kidnapped or will be soon.

“Leann was found in a cove near Marrowstone State Park. You know who found her and how. Where were yours found?”

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