Page 21 of Nightshade

From Moss’s employment application, Crane gave the deputy her age and address. He also offered a description. He said that Leigh-Anne Moss had dark, shoulder-length hair with a purple streak along the left side.

9

STILWELL PULLED LEIGH-ANNEMoss’s DMV records up on his computer. He studied the photo that was on her driver’s license. There was no purple streak in her hair, but the license had been issued two years earlier. Because of the decomposition of the body recovered from the harbor, it was impossible for Stilwell to make a visual identification. Still, his gut told him he was looking at the woman from the water. He picked up the desk phone and called the general number for the sheriff’s homicide squad. He asked the clerk who answered to connect him with Frank Sampedro. He waited a half minute before the call was connected.

“Detective Ahearn, how can I help?”

Stilwell almost hung up but decided he should not delay sharing the new information.

“I asked for Sampedro.”

“He’s not avail—wait, Stillborn, is that you?”

“Have you made an ID on the woman from the water?”

“It’s not your case, man, why do you care?”

“Because if you haven’t ID’d her, I’ve got a solid lead for you.”

“Stillborn, I told you to stand down on this. Am I going to have to go to—”

“It came across my desk in an unrelated case, Ahearn. Do you want what I’ve got or do you want to keep fighting your little war? I can wait till Sampedro calls me back. You decide.”

There was silence until Ahearn came back in a falsely cheery voice.

“Okay, give it to me. Let’s see what you came up with.”

“Check out Leigh-Anne Moss. I think she’s your victim.”

He spelled the first and last names and then gave Ahearn the birth date and address from the DMV records, which matched what was on her work application for the BMC.

“Her name came up Saturday in a report about a theft from the Black Marlin Club,” Stilwell said. “She was named as a suspect and described as having a dyed purple streak in her hair.”

“I got news for you, bright guy. Our vic was dead by Saturday.”

“I didn’t say she made the theft Saturday. I said the report came in Saturday. She was fired the week before that, and that’s when the theft could have occurred. So the timing could still match up.”

“What did she supposedly steal?”

“A small sculpture of a marlin. It was made of black jade, was ten inches high, and weighed about four pounds. I’ll send you the report.”

“Black jade for a black marlin.”

“Has there been an autopsy yet?”

“You know I’m not going to talk to you about the case, Stillborn. Why even ask?”

“Happened on my turf, Ahearn. If you’re doing this right, I should be kept in the loop. I can also—”

“No, you should just fuck off.”

Ahearn disconnected.

Stilwell sat quiet and unmoving until the anger passed.

He finally broke free of thoughts about Ahearn, called the coroner’s office, and asked for an investigator named Monty West.He and West had worked together on many homicides before Stilwell’s transfer out to the island.

“Still the man,” West said—his usual greeting.

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