Page 89 of Water's Edge

I get the coroner’s phone number for Kitsap County. Dr. Wilson has come to the campus dorm and had the body taken to the morgue in Bremerton, where he will perform the autopsy. He promised to call me with the results. I decide not to bother driving back to the Sheriff’s Office in Port Hadlock. The sheriff and Ronnie would already be gone by the time I arrived.

As I drive home, I call our own pathologist, Dr. Andrade. His assistant answers. They received the two bodies from Skunk Island, but the doctor hasn’t given her a time for the autopsies. She asks me not to bring them more work.Very funny.She advises me that she will contact me when a time and date has been set. I remind her this is now a serial killer investigation and ask that she please pass that on to Dr. Andrade. Time is important. The call goes dead in my hand. I call her back. When she answers, I tell her to call Dr. Andrade and have him call me or I will find the doctor and make him available. I tell her it’s not up to her to screen emergency calls and then I hang up on her.

That felt good.

I park in front of my house. It isn’t reallymine, but I’ve come to think of it that way. I’ve been here longer than I’ve lived anywhere. That’s the opposite of my life growing up. We never stayed in one place very long. My mom would have me or Hayden pick a city name out of a bowl at random and that was where we would move to next. Randomness would make us safe. If we didn’t know where we were going, no one else would, either.

Even with the threatening emails from “Wallace,” I see no reason to move. This is home. Let him come. Yes, I’m afraid. Sometimes fear makes you brave.

I put my purse and keys on the table, go to the bedroom, and flop across the mattress. My brain is tired. I can’t keep all of this straight. I get up, find a notepad and a pencil, and begin a chart. Victims, witnesses, evidence, counties involved, hospitals, DNA, locations the bodies were dumped, places of employment, where they resided, what they drove, and on and on.

I tear that sheet off and try again.

The locations of the dump sites are similar in that they are all near the water. The victims also lived near the water. The women worked in bars. Two of the women had given children up for adoption and one was pregnant. Did this have to do with the children? What were the odds that all of them would have had babies? The only one who doesn’t fit the profile is Karynn Eades, but I haven’t run down much information yet. I was sure that Boyd’s roommate would be my best lead. I was fairly sure Boyd wasn’t the killer. I feel he was involved somehow. Now Boyd’s roomie is dead.Murdered.His neck was broken just like Karynn Eades and the other victims.

I need more. Marley can get the DNA done in a few hours, but he needs the samples to run and I need to convince him to do it. I pick the phone up to call Dr. Andrade and see it’s late. He hasn’t returned my call. I call Dispatch, get his home phone number, and call it. A woman answers.

“Is this Mrs. Andrade?”

“Yes,” she says. “Who’s calling?”

“Megan Carpenter, Mrs. Andrade. I’m a detective with Jefferson County.”

“Oh,thatMegan?”

“I guess so, Mrs. Andrade. Is your husband there?”

“Detective, he is having his dinner. Late as usual. Can you call him at work tomorrow?”

I hear a gruff voice in the background and then Dr. Andrade is on the phone.

“Megan, I was going to call you, but I heard you were over in Kitsap finding more dead bodies. You’re like the angel of death.”

“I was trying to find a witness and—”

“You want to know if I sent the Eades rape kit to the crime lab. The answer is yes. I knew you’d want it rushed through. I also had buccal swabbings done on the male, Boyd. All of that is with the lab. Good luck.”

He hangs up.

I’m putting the phone down when it rings in my hand.

“I thought you’d want to know that I’ll do the autopsies in the morning,” he says. “Eight o’clock.”

“I’m sorry for calling you at home—”

The line goes dead again.

I have what I want. I don’t really need to attend the autopsies to know what he’ll find. I just needed the samples sent to the lab. Now I have to get Marley to work his magic again. If the DNA from Boyd matches Leann’s and Dina’s unknown sperm donor, I will have my killer. If it doesn’t, I have proof the killer is still out there.

I make another call.

“Ronnie Marsh,” she answers. She sounds distracted. I hope she’s not on a date, because I need her to do something.

“Are you busy?” I ask.

“I’m going over the records from that thumb drive you gave me.”

“You’re still at work?” I look at the time.

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