Page 88 of Water's Edge

Clay has come up silently behind me. I hate that.

“At least we found both of the Boyds,” I say.

“What do you think is going on, Megan?”

“You tell me.”

“I don’t want to jump to conclusions.”

“Me neither.”

It was a stalemate.

“You first,” I say. “Anything you say can’t and won’t be held against you in a poll of public opinion.”

Clay grins. “Okay. I’ll go first. Here’s what it looks like. The key words here are ‘looks like.’ An alleged fourth victim of the killer is found on the rocks on Skunk Island. She’s got a broken neck and is laid out in a cross, like this guy in here. Not far away the Robbie Boyd you were looking for is found hanging in a tree. He has a piece of cloth in his hand with ‘Sorry Megan’ or something like that written on it. Some clothes and a purse are found nearby with the victim’s driver’s license.”

I remain quiet and don’t give anything away as his eyes search mine.

“So it looks like the white Boyd broke the black Boyd’s neck and posed him on the floor. He then took the latest victim, Karynn, to Skunk Island. Her neck may have been broken before she was taken there. White Boyd feels like the jig is up and decides to off himself. He writes you a confession note, throws a rope over a limb, and hangs himself.”

Hearing Clay say it out loud convinces me the killer had set this all up. Four women sexually assaulted, murdered, dumped. And now two guys, criminals, die to clean up after him.

I have another question. But I hold my tongue. How did Boyd get Karynn’s body to Skunk Island? We’ve never found Boyd’s junk car. There is no way to get to Skunk Island except by boat. There was no boat found abandoned on the island.

“That’s it?” Clay asks.

“I guess so.”

“You’re going to keep digging, aren’t you?”

“Aren’tyou?”

He looks at his feet. “Who’s going to tell Larry Gray about all this?”

I meant to call Larry. I forgot.

“He’s your friend and you already have a working relationship,” I say.

Clay pushes back. “He’s related to your boss.”

Another stalemate. Clay just doesn’t want to listen to Larry whine about how he wasn’t brought in on finding Boyd’s body. He’ll want to wrap his case up and get back to important things like eating or making sexist remarks. He is a stark contrast to Sheriff Gray, his second cousin twice removed on his mother’s side. Whatever. I told the sheriff about Larry being one of the detectives on the cases and he just frowned.

“I’ll call Larry,” I finally say. “I was going to anyway, but this came up.”

Clay goes back inside the apartment and I return to my car. It’s still where I parked it. No parking ticket. I get in and start driving back to Port Hadlock and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. A lot of things are running around in my skull, always ending withHow did Clay hear about Boyd’s body being found?

Probable answer: the police grapevine.

A cop talked to a dispatcher and that information was passed on to NASA and broadcast from a satellite. Another possibility: there is a collective intelligence, like an ant colony.

I have an ulterior motive for contacting Larry. The DNA of my initial suspects, Jim Truitt and Steve Bohleber, didn’t match anything including the unknown matched samples collected from Dina Knowles and Leann Truitt. Margie Benton’s DNA sample was contaminated and couldn’t be matched to anything. None of the DNA was in the database kept by the FBI.

I have four female victims and DNA has been collected from all four. This person has killed at least four people—maybe more if the Boyds are victims. A killer that prolific should have a record of some kind. Yet there is nothing in the DNA database. So, whose DNA wouldn’t be in the FBI’s database, which is the most comprehensive on the planet? There are a couple of possibilities. People who never committed a felony offense. People who are exempt, like government workers, politicians, law enforcement…

I feel a chill. Shades of Alex Rader cross my mind. He was a cop. He was a kidnapper. A torturer. A murderer. And, of course, he’s dead. Yet, even when he was alive, his DNA would not have been in the FBI database.

Forty-Three

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